Subsector Graphics

[IanBruntlett]

@IanBruntlett - the tutorials can be found under the Help menu in Inkscape.

Cool! Thanks.

 

[middenface]

I'm thinking the font isn't that good too. Optima as nice as it is, isn't as clear as Arial.

 

[BP]

Optima is better for title fonts and such, not as good for smaller, more information dense stuffs.

IIRC, Inkscape has a feature (though maybe a plug-in) that makes global font changes pretty easy...

I've tried lots of fonts over the years, but usually come back to Optima and Helvetica (especially if print is desired). GDW didn't come up with that combo on their own - it was a well developed industry staple back in the day when Lino dominated the font/press market.

On screen, I like a few humanist fonts and lighter weight, but crisp body fonts, esp. for PDFs.

 

[FreeTrav]

Optima is better for title fonts and such, not as good for smaller, more information dense stuffs.

IIRC, Inkscape has a feature (though maybe a plug-in) that makes global font changes pretty easy...

I've tried lots of fonts over the years, but usually come back to Optima and Helvetica (especially if print is desired). GDW didn't come up with that combo on their own - it was a well developed industry staple back in the day when Lino dominated the font/press market.

On screen, I like a few humanist fonts and lighter weight, but crisp body fonts, esp. for PDFs.

I find that for body text, it's generally easier to read a serif font than a sans-serif. That's why I went with Times New Roman for the body text of Freelance Traveller, while sticking with Optima/ZapfHumanist for titles. I am, however, thinking of looking at switching to Palatino, which is also a Hermann Zapf creation, for the body text.

Of the sans-serifs, I think that Helvetica/Arial is the best for body text (and that's damning with faint praise, per previous paragraph); FF Scala Sans, which Mongoose used for the earliest printings of the earliest books, is a particularly egregiously lousy font for body text.

 

[middenface]

Sweet!

RE: the prior images (lost a post)

Actually liked the original red zone disks over the circles (transparency (i.e. darker) and a radial gradient might look slick). The trick is to keep the starport code visible (3D offset)

The zone circles also look like an orbit path for the gas giant symbol and sort of wash it out.

Also, preferred the original thinner route lines (I've used glows with them as well). Makes them stand out less - though I've also used thickness and brightness (with glow) to indicate the J-x nature.

.

Great for full colour - but will need a different version (ala MGT) for B&W

Edit: Cos I can't spell and rushing 'cos I was about to watch OldBoy..

 

[Mithras]

Very nice! Just to let everyone know, though. All you need to create nice subsector maps like this is a blank map from the internet (Zhodani Base?) and Microsoft Paint (not just fancy graphics packjages) ....also a steady hand! You too can have wonderful maps!

Not to take anything away from middenface's work here, but I made this with plain old MS Paint:

http://zozer.weebly.com/uploads/3/4/3/3/3433372/1322077.jpg?548

 

[BP]

Wow middenface - excellent - especially like the 3D shadow on the planets! (Forgot to mention that - though mine have never looked as good - and love the black border effect too.)

The font change works, though the orange is a little strong, IMHO.

P.S. should that be Cartography? :wink:

I find that for body text, it's generally easier to read a serif font than a sans-serif. That's why I went with Times New Roman for the body text of Freelance Traveller, while sticking with Optima/ZapfHumanist for titles. I am, however, thinking of looking at switching to Palatino, which is also a Hermann Zapf creation, for the body text.

Appreciate the work and generosity you put into Freelance Traveller, but, please, please do!

Zapf's creations are renown - you generally can't go wrong with using such. However, Zapf designed Palatino for more of a headline/display look - you might want to check out Aldus. It is more of a 'book' design, i.e. made for body text, being lighter and more free flowing.

Another good compromise - for screen and print - is to use a humanist sans serif typeface. Some personal favorites are Frutiger (light, condensed) and Gisha. The later can be found free from MS downloads - MS Segoe, btw, is a lot (too much legally, perhaps) like Frutiger, but is optimized for display.

(The strong serifs of Times worked great over the centuries - in print. For displays, especially lower than 300ppi ones, it really doesn't - hence all the work on sans serif fonts. It is also important to get the white space right when using such a font - and that really should be different between screen and print due to the way the eye perceives emitted vs. reflected light - much more so than with a sans serif typeface.)

Mithras - nice job! Many folks can't get into vector art programs as easily as pixel - so great examples. Though it's a bit disconcerting being with the others in the same thread - no reason you couldn't start a new one. Also, Paint.NET compliments MS Paint very nicely.

 

[middenface]

Wow middenface - excellent - especially like the 3D shadow on the planets! (Forgot to mention that - though mine have never looked as good - and love the black border effect too.)

The font change works, though the orange is a little strong, IMHO.

P.S. should that be Cartography? :wink:

Doh! Well spotted... good thing the stuff I do in the day job gets proofread... well sometimes...

So easy to tweak and edit this...

 

[AndrewW]

Very nice! Just to let everyone know, though. All you need to create nice subsector maps like this is a blank map from the internet (Zhodani Base?) and Microsoft Paint (not just fancy graphics packjages) ....also a steady hand! You too can have wonderful maps!

Don't really need a blank map, not that hard to create one.

 

[FreeTrav]

I find that for body text, it's generally easier to read a serif font than a sans-serif. That's why I went with Times New Roman for the body text of Freelance Traveller, while sticking with Optima/ZapfHumanist for titles. I am, however, thinking of looking at switching to Palatino, which is also a Hermann Zapf creation, for the body text.

Appreciate the work and generosity you put into Freelance Traveller, but, please, please do!

Zapf's creations are renown - you generally can't go wrong with using such. However, Zapf designed Palatino for more of a headline/display look - you might want to check out Aldus. It is more of a 'book' design, i.e. made for body text, being lighter and more free flowing.

Another good compromise - for screen and print - is to use a humanist sans serif typeface. Some personal favorites are Frutiger (light, condensed) and Gisha. The later can be found free from MS downloads - MS Segoe, btw, is a lot (too much legally, perhaps) like Frutiger, but is optimized for display.

Actually, Optima is one such face already. The problem with most sans-serif fonts - and this has been tested by people who know a hell of a lot more about the subject than I do - is that the lack of serifs actually makes it harder to recognize some of the letterforms and words when set in body text. Additionally, many sans-serif faces tend to make the default word space a little too narrow for comfortable reading in body text - but a wider word space looks poor in headings.

(I should note that I'm actually using Zapf Humanist rather than Optima; Optima was designed as a 'hot lead' type, and when digital typography became widespread, Hermann Zapf said, point blank, that Optima-as-designed wasn't a good digital typography face, and redid it as a digital face.)

As far as the legalities of Segoe... Copyright on fonts and font files is a somewhat fuzzy issue. Apparently, it's not possible to copyright or trademark the actual letter form, but the name can be trademarked, and the code that makes up the font files can be copyrighted.

(To me, "Aldus" is a now-defunct company whose assets have been borged by Adobe. For the font, were you perhaps thinking of "Aldine"?)

My reason for switching from Times to Palatino is because Times is a heavier font, and makes large blocks of text look too dark. It's OK when there's more to break up the text, but Freelance Traveller's articles tend not to have appropriate additional material. Palatino is not as dark for a given font weight, and if I could find a serif font that is both light enough for print and clear enough for the low resolution of computer displays, I'd jump on it - but the only really good computer-display serif font I've encountered so far - Georgia - is even darker than Times when in print. If I have to choose, I'll end up optimizing font choices for the PDF for print, and twiddling the style sheets on the website copies of the articles to optimize for display (though I'll probably use the same fonts in the print style sheet as I do in the PDF).

(The strong serifs of Times worked great over the centuries - in print. For displays, especially lower than 300ppi ones, it really doesn't - hence all the work on sans serif fonts. It is also important to get the white space right when using such a font - and that really should be different between screen and print due to the way the eye perceives emitted vs. reflected light - much more so than with a sans serif typeface.)

Exactly. The needs of screen and print are very different, and there will likely not be a good choice for both-at-the-same-time. I grant that the majority of the Freelance Traveller readers probably don't print out the PDF issues, but the entire idea of going to PDF at all - and also specifically supporting both US and ISO paper sizes in the PDF - was to set Freelance Traveller apart by presenting it as an actual magazine, as though it were print (but without the costs to me of actually printing and distributing it). Given that, when I look at the PDF, I'm looking at it in terms of "How will this look on paper?". If I were looking at it with the screen in mind, I'd use different fonts entirely -- and I'd have done it in landscape orientation, since the incredibly vast majority of users have screens that are wider than tall (and that, of course, leads to the question of what aspect ratio to work to - 4:3, that older computers use, or 16:10 or 16:9 that more recent computers use).

I could go on and on about fonts, typography, et cetera - but it's very much off-topic for not only the thread, but the entire forum. E-mail or someplace like Random Static on CotI would be a better choice...

 

[BP]

(To me, "Aldus" is a now-defunct company whose assets have been borged by Adobe. For the font, were you perhaps thinking of "Aldine"?)

Nope - was referring to Aldus the typeface, named, no doubt, after the same notable Italian renaissance humanist that inspired Aldus Corp's name (used PageMaker extensively from '88-'94). Zapf referred to it as 'Palanito Book', IIRC.

 

[Joebeast]

Wow awesome work. I love the colour, shading, really the whole thing. Just one request, could you had hyperlinks that bring up maps, drawing and stats for each planet

 

[middenface]

Wow awesome work. I love the colour, shading, really the whole thing. Just one request, could you had hyperlinks that bring up maps, drawing and stats for each planet

No idea how, but sure I can find out.. IF I do my OWN sector I might just do that.... could be an interesting project..

 

[BFalcon]

Midden: if you're doing a webpage for it, simple way would be an imagemap - where you can designate part of an image as being linked to a specific link... so when you click on it, it'll take you to that page. If you make up a standard map for a given sized hex-map, you'll have most of the work already done for you... you'd just need to edit the links.

I just wish I could remember the details...