fiction - Killing off a character: deciding if, when and how

Killing off a character is a serious issue. Secondary characters or even extras can pass away without too much negative response from the readers but main characters are a whole different matter.

It saddens readers but sometimes it's unavoidable... But how do we know that? I've searched around and the advice can be summarized as follows:

1. Kill the character if it helps/affects the plot or is important for it;


2. The character did something that would grant his death (e.g. he was a bad guy in the past)

Are these good motivations and are there other reasons a write should consider killing a character? I thought it'd be important to go more in depth and analyze this issue because certainly we don't want writers to kill characters "just because that's what happens in other novels/movies, so I have to do it".

website design - Automatic agreement to terms of service

Is it acceptable (or even legal) to have "I agree to the terms and service" checkbox automatically checked when a new user signs up with our website? I'm trying to convince the person in charge to not have the developers implement that feature. What are the best arguments for leaving the checkbox unchecked on page load?

Answer

It is legal to do that, but you will gain no legal protection if the default state is to agree.

Unless a user explicitly agrees (which means actively doing something rather than not doing something), any legal agreement that you have will be unenforceable in court. This has been tried and tested legally, so it is one of the few areas that are crystal clear.

gui design - Save/Cancel/Close button behavior question

The attached image shows a dialog with a save/cancel button bank and a "x" icon to close the dialog. The question I have is this. Should the cancel button even be on the modal if it does not clear/cancel any of the values? I have it in now as a redundant way to close the dialog. Should I just use the "Save" button and rely on the "x" to close, or is the use of the "Cancel" as a redundant close acceptable? My thought was that having a positive action "Save" without a corresponding negative action "Cancel" is a pattern breaker.

Thanks for the feedback.

Responsive design for sidemenus

I have a website that was designed to have a side menu running along left side of the screen from top to bottom. Works great, looks great, but I'm having some issues when it comes to making it responsive.

The way the side menu was designed, when open it "pushes" the web content to the side a bit so the menu has enough space to exist. Obviously, this creates a bit of an issue on mobiles as it eventually pushes the main content into a space far too small to exist in.

My original idea for solving this problem was to remove/hide the menu when browsing from a small device, however it seems like a really bad idea to remove navigation.

The new/current running idea would be to modify the side menu so that on mobiles, instead of pushing content to the side, rather it appears over the content. However, I have been told that it seems like bad design to have a menu appear over content on a page, hiding said content from the user.

I've created a basic mock-up of the situation here: http://jsfiddle.net/dv64q6xf/1/

Would it be bad design to allow this side menu to embark on top of the main content? Alternatively, would there be a better way to handle this?

print design - Software for Calendar Designing

Which is the best software of making a calendar. Coreldraw or Illustrator? What is the standard size of calendar? And is there any inbuilt format or template fro making calendar in both Corel or Illustrator? Also, even though Photoshop is a rasterised software but still wanted to ask can it be designed in Photoshop also?

Answer

I know you asked between Coreldraw and Illustrator but I would recommend laying out the calendar with a publishing program like quarkxpress or Indesign. You can always use Photoshop or another program to create elements of the calendar.

Coreldraw or Illustrator: Whichever one you feel comfortable using.

Calendar Size: A calendar can be any size but 8.5x11 and 11x14 are pretty common sizes.

Pre-made templates:

You can find templates by searching something like "illustrator 2015 calendar template"

Sandee Cohen has written a detailed article which goes over how to create a calendar in Indesign. He uses the Adobe InDesign Calendar Wizard to make the template.

Can you use Photoshop: Yes you could, but you should not be using Photoshop (heck, you can make a calendar in Powerpoint if you really wanted to). It would be a lot more work to design a calendar in Photoshop rather than using a publishing program like quarkxpress or Indesign.

adobe photoshop - How do I convert a black/white image so that the it has a transparency gradient (White=opaque/Black=transparent/Grey=Everything in between.)

I have a logo image which I need to make transparent for my web page. I need the black parts of the image to be transparent while the white is opaque and the greys are of various levels of transparency depending on each pixel's luminosity.

resolution - Scaling images down in InDesign and ppi

If I place a 10" X 6.7" 72 ppi .jpg into InDesign and scale the image down to about 3" X 2", does the ppi change for that image?

And how can I tell?

gimp - Where Can I Find Blend Mode Math Accurate to Photoshop?

Most results from Google offer equations/formulas for blend modes that aren't reproducible in Photoshop, especially those that involve division such as Color Burn and Color Dodge. For example, RGB(255,0,0) with Color Burn over RGB (0,0,255) is supposed to yield RGB(0,0,0) according to this website, but in fact it yields RGB(0,0,255). The only place where I've found accurate formulas is this Gimp website, but it lacks a lot of blend modes.

Where can I find blend mode formulas that are accurate for Photoshop?

android - What image file format is used by Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile?

I have been using Sketchbook Mobile on an android phone a little bit and, being an android (me and the device), I have located the single save file the program allows and make backups of that file on my external sd card so that I can revisit the drawing should I desire.

Does anyone know what file storage format this program uses? (named "sketch" with no extension; supports layers)

Answer

I copied the file to my server, viewed the hex data for the first 512 bytes and noted that the first two bytes are ascii II which I recognized from previous experience as the intel byte-order flag for TIFF.

I gave it a TIFF extension and my desktop OS created a preview thumbnail automatically which matched the contents of the sketch.

So: it is a TIFF file with layer support.

I altered the canvas size and it opened just fine within the Sketchbook program (when placed in the proper directory and named appropriately).

I did not test compression methods (LZW RLE JPG etc) nor did I probe the size and memory limitations on the android device.

Note that this means you can easily "back of the envelope" something on the train etc and then bring it into your desktop environment without having to export and lose layer compositing.

fiction - How important is being well read for a writer

Back in the mists of time, I would put a lot of time into reading, and would read pretty much anything I could lay my hands on.

Then I started writing, and it is very very rare that I read any fiction now.

Yet whenever I look at any forum, writing advice etc, it always suggests that you read lots.

The problem, for me, is that if I read a piece of writing that I particularly like, I will unconsciously allow the style, grammar, flow of that piece to seep into whatever I'm writing.

Being well read makes me more likely to write in facsimiles of other's and I'd rather create my own style

Is this something that other's tend to experience also?

So, how important is being well read, for a writer...

Edit to clarify

In all aspects of life I enjoy figuring problems out, without relying too much on what has gone before. Often I find I have reinvented the wheel, I enjoy exploring the reasoning behind a problem, and the nuances of why it is a problem in the first place.

To my mind, if I am struggling with some mechanism in a story, I could read other authors' work, and use their methods to solve the problem I've got, or I can explore the problem for myself and build my own mechanism to achieve the goal.

I am reasonably content in my approach to my own writing, and can't imagine that changing any time soon, but I saw another question and thought this would make an interesting question for anyone else who might have a similar approach.

Answer

I may have a very unpopular view on the subject but would say that I find myself more able to write in my preferred style by not reading a bunch of other people's work. I'd say that it's more important to be a good researcher, planner, and editor. The most important skills I practice to write at a level that I enjoy are:

1. Self Editing


2. Automatic Writing - this one is hard because it means I have to turn off the internal censor when I write but this is a practice in doing just that. This helps my words flow directly from thought to keyboard though, with little if any intervention.

To me, writing is about doing. The best way to get better is to keep doing it, and then reflect on your work at intervals while you create it, and after you've finished.

EDIT - I can't reasonably answer the part of your question about how important is it to be well read for an author because I'm not a known or paid author. I do write and other people enjoy what I write but I am not an author by vocation. 2nd - I prefer to write instead of read because, and in addition to the reasons stated above, reading takes time, and I don't always like what another author writes. So, I choose to spend the time writing - or researching for writing - instead of reading. -- my thanks to commenters noting that I had not specifically answered OPs question. I hope this does do with satisfaction.

Thanks for asking this question!

painting - How to I make this more realistic/add more depth

I realize i need to add more value to it, however, I'm not sure where to add it, and in which direction to work in. How do I bring this to the "Next level"?

Ok, after taking the advice given to me I made an Updated version, it still needs some lighting tweaks, and is not yet finished;

resource recommendations - Best Way To Find Independent Designers?

What is the best way to find an independent designer for a particular field? For example, one that has a portfolio and designs book-covers/print/packaging, ...? It is a requirement for me to draw inspiration from in my project. (I'm a student)

It's slightly difficult nowadays. (For example, a designer for book-covers would be Peter Mendelsund.)

Do I need a commercial font license for small clients and derivative works?

I am a bit confused on what a commercial font license is for.

Do I need commercial license under these circumstances?

1. 
   

   Designing a banner for a client.

   
   


2. 
   

   Using a font and then altering its shapes into a logo for client.

   
   

Also, after I purchase the license does that mean I may need to purchase it for my client as well? (even just a small job like designing a banner.)

Answer

Yes. To both instances.

Commercial licenses allow you to use the font commercially. In other words, you are allowed to make money off of designs which use commercially licensed fonts. If you are charging anyone anything for the items you are creating with the fonts, you need a commercial license.

The license is granted to the individual or company purchasing the license. You are allowed to use that font as often as you want in any project you want without repurchasing, provided you remain with in any "seat" restrictions (1 computer = 1 seat some licenses have seat limitations). However, You are not allowed to share or give the font away for any reason.

If your client wants the font - as in they want to be able to create their own items in that typeface - they need to purchase it as well (or you purchase it on their behalf). The client does not need to purchase a font simply because you sent them a .png image which uses the font in it. Or because their vector logo has outlined characters from the font that have been modified. They only need a license if they want the font in a font file format.

It may be beneficial to actually read the license you get from each foundry you purchase from. Yes they are boring and tough to get through. But it may educate you considerably.

forms - Should there be a difference in the relative sizes of the buttons in a confirmation dialog?

I understand the idea behind having the more likely to be used action on a page slightly larger or in a different style in order to guide the user to it (for example having a button for save but a small text link for cancel).

When say an administrator hits delete I have a confirmation dialog appearing asking if they are sure they want to do that and presenting them with two options, 'Yes, Delete this' and 'No, Keep this'. At the moment these are the same size and style and therefore the same weight on the page.

I was wondering if that should be the case or should I assume that the administrator is not an idiot and that if they have hit delete confirming this action is the most important part of his next step and therefore should be given a greater weighting on the page?

Answer

Luke Wroblewski wrote an article called Primary & Secondary actions on web forms that talks specifically about this problem. His data is based on research from eye-tracking studies.

The conclusion is basically that there should be differences in visual weight between the two so that you can interpret, at a glance, which call to action is more significant. He also talks a bit about positioning and order.

As for which button should have more weight, it's up to you to determine the situation. It's usually good practice to be very conservative about buttons when dealing with CRUD operations like deleting something, but you probably know best (or you should test) which situation is more likely to occur. If deletion happens more frequently, then perhaps it should be the primary action.

See Michael's answer below for some good references to platform guidelines which specify how you should decide which should be the primary action.

For more discussion on similar issues with buttons, see these questions:

usability - Hamburger menu icons - should they be on the left or right?

Hamburger menus (the three small horizontal bars: the new menu icon). Should they be on the right or left?

I'm only thinking of mobile and tablet applications.

The pattern I see the most is on the left side: Youtube app, Evernote app, and many more. However, I've seen the argument of the right being more user-friendly because when you're grabbing the phone with your right hand, it's easier to reach the menu.

What do you guys think? Should I go with the flow and implement the menu on the left side?

Answer

This menu got "famous" because Facebook and Path implemented it for the first time. Personally I'm not really attracted to this menu but if I need to choose a side I would choose the right side.

That's because aprox. 67% of users use the right thumb (so that means the right hand) and in several studies have proved that the screen area is more difficult to reach with this hand posture is the top-left one. Something that you can see properly in this image from the LukeW's book Web Form Design

The navigation of an application of mobile website it should easily reachable and accessible. In this way the experience is more comfortable (at least for that 67% of right hand users).

Here you can find a really interesting article about how users hold mobile devices: How Do Users Really Hold Mobile Devices?

modal dialog - Taxonomy Hierarchy Management UI Pattern

Overview

I have a custom lightweight web CMS I am developing. It has a feature that allows business users to define hierarchical taxonomies, add/edit/delete nodes, change their sort order relative to sibling nodes, and change their parent node within a taxonomy.

Taxonomies could be n levels deep (the application doesn't force any limits) though in practice a great majority of them will be 1-3 levels deep.

Problem Statement

Previously in the admin UI a tree represented the node hierarchy with client-side drag-and-drop for rearranging nodes within the hierarchy. This was poorly received by users due to the mouse dexterity required to drag a node and place it next to or under another node. This created a negative experience which turned users off to dragging and dropping entirely. As a result using a different mechanism for managing the node hierarchy is required.

Requirements

The user must be able to:

• Add new nodes to the hierarchy (create the title and description)


• Edit exsiting nodes (update the title and description)


• Reorder nodes (change sort order relative to sibling nodes or change parent node)


• Delete nodes

Research

I have been researching alternatives and have found several good questions on ux.se however they are either different use cases or the answers supplied do not address my specific problem statement:

• 
  
  

  What is the most user friendly way to allow users to insert data into a hierarchy?

  
  

  This is a very similar question however I don't need to just allow for insertion, I need to support editing, deleting, and re-ordering. The best answer in that thread suggests using a miller table that adds a new column for each level of the hierarchy.

  
  

  The problem with this approach is to address all CRUD requirements could make for a lot of buttons. Plus the possibility of horizontal scrolling exists in edge cases where hierarchy depth exceeds 3-4 levels.

  
  


• 
  

  For large hierarchies - checkbox tree or 'guided tree construction'

  
  

  Another similar yet not quite the same use case. The best answer suggests a flattened list-builder pattern. The issue with this approach is that the user does not have a full view of the hierarchy, and making simple changes will require multiple post backs reloading the entire screen which could get old pretty quickly.

  
  

Solution A: Two Panel Selector

One approach I have considered is a two panel selector pattern:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

It's similar to the flattened list builder except it maintains visibility of the hierarchy and provides instant feedback after an action is taken without taking the user to a different page (reducing pogo-sticking).

The possible drawback would be for shallow hierarchies with many siblings at each level. This could create some scrolling or would require the right panel to be "sticky".

Solution B: Tree Table w/ Modal Window

Another option is to use a tree table pattern combined with a modal window:

^{download bmml source}

Higher fidelity version of Solution B tree table:

This is a little more structured and less cluttered (selecting and editing are more distinctly separated). I'm leaning toward this approach.

Which option do you think is better (and why), or what third option do you think would be better (and why)?

What are the pros and cons of using Lab color?

I often see suggestions of converting an image to the Lab color model when editing images in, for example, Photoshop. What are the pros and cons of doing this?

Are there specific functions or tasks that Lab color will help me with, and are there any specific cases when I shouldn't use Lab color? I understand that the Lab color model has a wider gamut than both CMYK and RGB. Does that cause problems with using out-of-gamut colors?

Is there any benefit to using Lab colors in vector images? Illustrator, for example, doesn't allow you to work in Lab color at the document level, but you can create spot colors or use the Recolor Artwork function using Lab values—is there any benefit in doing that?

---

Bonus question: Is it "LAB", "Lab" or "L*a*b*"? I regularly see all used.

Answer

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. (Yeats)

Lab, which I often read as Lab but is properly said L-a-b, is amazing. It makes the world a more colorful place. If you've ever taken magic mushrooms, its kinda like that. With Magic Mushrooms subtle color differences can become far more apparent because they shut down the part of our brain that restricts those things based on our human experience. Basically, we've evolved to largely see what we need to see thanks to our brains. Magic Mushrooms turn off that part of the brain. (For ref: Magic Mushrooms Expand the Mind By Dampening Brain Activity)

Similarly, we're accustomed to working on RGB displays and viewing print in CMYK. Often on monitors that don't even begin to cover the spectrum of what our eyes can perceive. Lab is a much closer approximation to those colors. Using Lab is turning off the restrictions faced by current reproductive processes and allowing us to really bring out subtle differences based more on how humans perceive the world.

RGB is how displays perceive the world. CMYK is how printers perceive the world. Lab is how humans perceive the world.

Goethe, Pink Floyd, and The Dark Side of the Cones

CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12784636

To really understand Lab we should at least kinda understand how humans perceive the world. Lab, unlike CMYK or RGB, is an Opponent Process.

Stare at this for 10–20 seconds then look away, preferably at something white. You'll experience an After Image.

In this case the After Image will be a Magenta rectangle with the text in Cyan. Without getting too much into Rods and Cones they each view different parts of the spectrum, and they each get tired. After Images occur because your Rods and Cones get fatigued so then compensate.

In Lab you have two color channels. Blue towards Yellow (Opponents) and Green towards Red (Opponents), which is a much closer approximation of how us humans perceive things. Rods, Cones and all that jazz.

Then Black and White are also opposed in the way we perceive the world. This is where contrast and depth perception really exist. Colors are perceived only to aid this and exist only in our minds. Now in RGB how do we make black? We empty out the Red Light, Green Light, and Blue Light. In CMYK how do we make black? We flood enough color into a spot until it becomes a dark messy thing resembling black (What kind of black should I use when designing for CMYK print?). In Lab we solve this by giving Black and White its own channel: the Lightness channel. You want black, Lightness is 0 and the A,B should be zero because Black has no color (in fact Black absorbs color).

Tripping on Lab (aka The Pros)

So to recap the pros thus far: Closer resemblance to human perception, wider gamut, treats Black and White as their own opponent channel (more commonly people will just say "Separates contrast from color"). But in practice what does this mean?

In the next set of Images RGB is on the Left — LAB is on the right.

To start with, we can make much greater shifts because color shifts don't affect contrast and contrast shifts in turn don't affect color. Here I've crushed the contrast of both by reducing the black point to 50% (RGB 128 / LAB 50).

In RGB, because the black point is actually a composite of RGB, adjusting it flattens all of our colors quite a bit. You're probably thinking, but can't I just switch the Curve to Luminosity? Well, yes and that will certainly help but still not as good as Lab is without such extra steps:

Alright, next I got rid of that and in this one I inverted the color channels from each of our samples. I did not invert the L channel because as you'll see I can get to similar (actually better) colors without touching the L channel. Where in RGB I had to invert all 3. As a result we can see how the RGB no longer looks "real".

Moving right along let's say we want to do some sharpening. Sharpening is predominately a function of contrast. I'll use the same Unsharp Mask on the RGB and on the Lightness. I'm using the settings Amount: 127, Radius 7.9, Threshold 1. While the contrast is pretty equal in both, you can see how the colors on the RGB side shifted slightly. While this may not seem like much and you might even like it, its not what we wanted. We were trying to sharpen the picture not change the colors. Lab has better control over this.

Now one of the most basic moves in Lab is giving a color boost. You do this by bringing in the A and B channels an equal amount. Some think, why do this when I can just bump the saturation in RGB? But compare the differences. Notice in the kind of top middle on the RGB side how the petal has some saturation issues already, and I did a very gentle push. The Lab side had no problems at all.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. (Lennon)

As said, Lab provides us with a fuller gamut. In fact when converting from one color space to another it generally uses Lab as the go-between because of how much larger it is. But how does this benefit us?

Depending on your own display you can hopefully tell these 3 magentas are not quite the same. CMYK's strongest Magenta is 0, 100, 0, 0. That's what is in the first and second columns, although I listed it in RGB in the second column. Depending on the RGB available this can easily go out of Gamut. Meanwhile in the third one I started with that same 0, 100, 0, 0 and then increased the L.

Let's see the specs on that third one to help clarify, and I'll push it even further:

Both sides are CMYK 0, 100, 0, 0 but clearly different. How!? Because I then pushed the color past that in Lab. Now its more like a Pantone Neon, something we can imagine exists but is outside both RGB and CMYK. Is this very useful? Maybe not, but tools are just that — tools. There when you need them.

When is this helpful though? Enter Laserbeams.

Okay, not really laserbeams, sorry, but really bright areas as in blown out areas. RGB after a point would just go white and fixing it is quite hard. Little things, sure you can clone stamp and find solutions for. But larger areas can get tricky. Enter Lab. The only difference between the left and right is the right is in Lab. No other changes made. Lab can push colors in ultra bright areas where RGB and CMYK can't reach with ease.

Coming Down (aka The Cons)

Lab is a tool. I don't view any tool really as having cons, only pros. Lab just happens to have more pros than CMYK or RGB. If I had to try and find a con it would be that you have to take into account final output. But is that really a con? If I work on a photo in RGB I also have to take into account final output to print. If I work in CMYK I might have to print in Grayscale. These aren't really cons though. Always design and work to the best you're wanting and then decide how low of a quality you need to be prepared to deliver it in. Never design to the lowest common denominator and capabilities.

Really the only downside is that your standards will increase. Most don't want to come down from a great mushroom trip, you don't want to go from a wide gamut display to a low gamut display, or for those that have never experienced that perhaps going from a 5k Display back to a 1080 display, and you won't want to look at photos people deem as good because they have no idea how much better they could be. That's the biggest con there is.

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. (Alice in Wonderland)

Down the Rabbit Hole

If you don't already know about Channels then I'd encourage you to do two things:

1. Play with Channels.


2. Acquire the book Photoshop Channel Chops, a used copy is dirt cheap.

Assuming you've got that covered it's time to take the Blue Pill:

1. Book: The Canyon Conundrum by Margulis is the de facto standard on Lab


2. YouTube Video with Margulis: Photoshop World: Lab Color with Dan Margulis


3. And in my own YouTube Videos I often go to Lab


4. One area I find Lab really shines is when used with Photoshop's Blend-if (If you hadn't noticed until now I did my best to avoid benefits that may or may not exist in other applications) which you can find here: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/75654/2611


5. Brain Games on Netflix (at least in the US) has some excellent episodes on the subject of illusions, colors, and human perception. I think they're also available on YouTube for a nominal fee

TL;DR

If you had read the answer, you'd know I'm not writing this for the lowest common denominator.

r - Forecasting using rugarch package

I want to do one step ahead in-sample forecasts. My data can be found here. This is just a data frame with the date as the rownames.

I specify my model and do the fit and show the plots with

library(rugarch)
model<-ugarchspec(variance.model = list(model = "sGARCH", garchOrder = c(1, 1)), 
mean.model = list(armaOrder = c(0, 0), include.mean = FALSE), 
distribution.model = "norm")

modelfit<-ugarchfit(spec=model,data=mydata)

plot(modelfit)

Now I want to do one-step-ahead in sample forecasts of my cond. mean and cond. volatility.

I therefore use the ugarchfit command:

ugarchforecast(modelfit,n.ahead=1,data=mydata)

But this is only one value for the last date. So I want to have this for every data starting from the beginning and up to my final values. These should be 1-step-ahead forecasts which use the specified model parameters and my data. How can I get this?

Answer

You want to set the parameter n.roll to the number of n.ahead, n.roll rolling forecasts you want. (The n.ahead parameter controls how many steps ahead you want to forecast for each roll date.) Thus by setting n.roll to a number almost equal to your sample size, and critically setting the out.sample parameter almost equal to your sample size, you're telling the method to take a specified fit and treat the in sample data as out of sample data, and thereby roll the forecast n.roll times, n.ahead times forward each time.

This will do it:

spec = getspec(modelfit);
setfixed(spec) <- as.list(coef(modelfit));
forecast = ugarchforecast(spec, n.ahead = 1, n.roll = 2579, data = mydata[1:2580, ,drop=FALSE], out.sample = 2579);
sigma(forecast);
fitted(forecast)

editing - Rewriting a scifi story to fit with actual science, should I do it as I go?

Rewriting a scifi story to fit with actual science, should I do it as I go, or just write first and make the needed changes while editing?

My world exists in my mind, clear and palpable. but I am somewhat...

Let's just say that when I read something I find annoying I usually don't finish the book, no matter how interesting everyone tells me it is.

I want my world to be as realistic as possible. It's a fantasy scifi world, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't follow the laws of physics.

So, as I come across a situation that causes me to doubt the reality of it, should I just keep on writing and worry about that when editing (maybe mark the place I need to work at), or research and deal with the needed changes now?

Thanks.

Answer

The reason why some people like hard science in their science fiction (as opposed to the "science fantasy" you see in TV shows like Star Trek) is because in clever hard science fiction, the plot is derived from the science elements. The hard science is not just scenario dressing, it's what drives the plot. So when you write the story first and then insert the science later, you are wasting a lot of interesting plotpoints which can be derived from the constraints, possibilities and quirks of real-world science. But in a soft sci-fi story which focuses more on character interaction than on the science, this is just a secondary concern.

But there is also another risk: You might write a critical plotpoint and then after you wrote the whole story you realize that it simply can not be reconciled with the laws of physics. Then you have three options, and neither is really good:

• Change that plotpoint, which means you are potentially throwing away half of your story.


• Keep it in, knowing fully that it's a plothole. A reader might forgive it when your whole story is rather soft sci-fi, because in that case they wouldn't assume anything to follow the laws of physics. The reader might also forgive it when it would be a very minor detail you got wrong. But a critical plotpoint which is scientifically implausible in an otherwise scientifically accurate story? That will make it hard to suspend disbelieve.



• Hang a lampshade on it. Acknowledge the break from reality by having characters attribute the plotpoint to some unknown sci-fi phenomenon they don't fully understand either. This, of course, might in some cases raise further question, like why the phenomenon and its implications aren't even more interesting to the characters than the actual plot it is trying to make work or if it wouldn't also affect other plotpoints.

To avoid these situations, do the reality check first, then write it down.

website design - How to make a site attractive?

What are the basics of an attractive web design? What should I be looking for and what sources should I use to educate myself on the matter?

Answer

Well, the subject is quite vast, and it would take a book to cover it, but we may be able to give some advice. Ill try to give only a few bullet points for a short answer, but Ill also try to recommend a few readings that might explain some concepts and principles.

• Keep it simple - your readers want to find what they are looking for effectively, at first sight.



• Use progressive disclosure - do not overwhelm your readers with too many decisions and options. This is a part of keeping it simple


• Use the Single Responsibility Principle - each element of your site should have a single, clear purpose that it fufills well. Its usage and functions should be obvious.


• Optimize loading time, avoid flash - your readers will give your site an attention span that lasts a few seconds. Dont waste those precious seconds on loading too big images, fancy graphics or flash animations. The first few sub-pages/elements the user visits are crucial.


• Dont require registration to access the basic functions of your site - almost nothing else matches this one in the "turn-down for users" category.


• Dont put too much stress on the visual side of the page - the content is what your users are after. If you do an over the top, overwhelming design, it will only serve to distract your readers. A good design is one that you dont know even exists - its invisible. You only can see its lack.


• Try to be up to date with current trends and usability studies - some solutions that worked in the past are now being replaced by new, better ones. This is a continous process, so keep this in mind.


• Pay attention to the details - its where your professionalism shows.


• Stay focused - your design should have a small list of things it tries to accomplish, and you should think about your design decisions in terms of "hwo does this add to achievieng my goals?". Mercilessly remove everything that doesnt contribute properly. I know it may seem cool, but mostly it just clutters up the design.


• Learn from the best - check out the sites of the best players in the market and analyse them. Why are they pleasant to the eye? Why are they easy to use? Why is finding what you need so easy on those sites?


• Be consistent - if a thing works or looks in a certain way on yoru site, similar concepts and features should be expressed in a similar way. Not many things can be as confusing as an inconsisten design.

Thats just to get you started. But actually there are thousands of sites, books and blogs on the subject. There are quite a few questions on this very site. Ill list some links that I have found useful or educational:

Tips and resources for beginning designers - very good and popular question. Since its applciable to almost any design situation, its also applciable for web design. (Actually, your question might well be duplicating it)

What is the single most influential book every designer should read? - a lot of inspirational material and really great books. I personally recommend "Dont make me think".

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/ - a few more thoughts that I didnt yet point out.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/10/judging-websites.html - a great blogpost by Jeff Atwood (you should recall the name ;) that any web developer should read.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lidwell/dp/1592530079 - a great book. Ive learned a lot from it, and I think you might learn a lot too.

But all in all, good design is a vast subject, and you'll have to work and learn a lot to get good at it. Good luck!

fiction - Is it okay to attempt to write in the style of another person, and how is that done well?

I want to write like Neal Stephenson- I read Snow Crash and absolutely fell in love with the style. I'm trying to write a cyberpunk style book myself, and I have a good plot (I think), but I want to make it humorous. Stephenson's style works extraordinarily well, so I figured that I might as well piggyback on his signal, so to speak.

Answer

I can appreciate the feeling, since I started out that way myself, but it's not an adult way to write. The short answer is "No, find your own voice."

The longer answer, and explanation: You're suffering from Red Shorts Syndrome.

What does that mean? Well, let's say you watch a race, and the guy who won the race wore red shorts. If you want to win a race, do you go out and buy red shorts and assume that wearing them will make you win? No, you look at what the winner did to train himself so that he could win. Did he run half-marathons every day? Eat minimal carbs? Drink seaweed tea? What techniques did he use to make his skill set better? That's the idea you want to copy. Not even the actions: the mindset. This guy knew that carbs made him sluggish, so he ate as little carbs as possible. Maybe your albatross is dairy, so you cut out dairy instead.

In writing terms: what do you love about this book? You say you love the genre (cyberpunk). Do you like his prose style? Do you like how he plots? Are there other cyberpunk books you also love? Other Stephenson books? What do they have in common?

Make a list of the goals you want to accomplish: a book written in X style, which is funny, which has Y kind of character, set in Z setting, and so on. Then throw away Snow Crash and focus on your own story. Don't mimic someone else. Write the best funny cyberpunk you can write. Stephenson, one imagines, was not copying some other writer when creating Snow Crash. He was doing something unique to himself.

Copy the work ethic, not the end result.

research - Is 10 search results per page the best?

When there are a lot of search results they often are paginated. Most search engines I know show 10 results per page. I guess this was born out of an easy technical solution or habit. But I don't know if it is still valid or usable.

Why not 8, or 11? Is 10 an especially easy to remember amount? Or do 10 results fit nicely in two views (one times PageDown) of a page?

For example, I know Google changed the way Google Images work to continue to load new pages when scrolling instead of clicking to a next page. As far as I remember they did this because they noticed people checked far more results (say up to 15) as opposed to the normal/web search (1 to 3) before they were satisfied. Thus it would be good if you could easily see more than 10 results.

Another example. Some search results show a lot more. For example ticket systems, CRMs, email's inboxes, etc. The results fit on one line so it makes sense to make more use of the available space. Results can go from 20 to 50 to 100.

Currently I'm working on a website where you can search for photographers^[1]. So we show of their photos. Each search result is quite high in pixel height. Meaning you have to scroll a lot more to get to the bottom of page 1 as opposed to Google. Would it be worth to have less results just because of this?

To sum it up:

• Is there a reason why search results are often split by 10?


• Are there rules for when to show more or less? (i.e. type of media, height, etc.)


• Is there any research done on this topic?

I'm not specifically looking for only research references, I love educated guesses and smart thinking.

Answer

No.

The amount of results per page should depend on:

1. 
   

   The display size of each result - the smaller the result the more you should show per page e.g. from small to large: thumbnail, one line, multi line, large image, ...

   
   


2. 
   

   The window size - the larger the user's window is (or device's screen if in fullscreen mode) the more results you should show. Showing 10 results and leaving half the window unused is a very bad practice (which I regret I have seen).

   
   


3. 
   

   The ease of scrolling up/down vs. clicking on next/prev - it is usually easier to scroll up and down then to click on prev/next over and over. Scrolling up and down only requires clicking on the keyboard page up/down keys or up/down keys for small changes. Or, using a mouse - scrolling with the wheel. Clicking on prev/next, requires scrolling to the bottom, moving the pointer to the arrow, clicking on it and then repeating the entire process over and over.
   
   Both processes can be optimized:
   

   
   
   
   
   • Scrolling by adding a next/prev button between every N results (that jumps within page).
   
   
   • Prev/Next by adding accelerators (e.g. making page up/down keys turn page). Accelerators must be known to users and page must not go beyond window, otherwise user will need to scroll down and then user accelerator.
     
   
   
   
   


4. 
   

   Response time - if fetching results takes a noticeable amount of time regardless of number of results, bringing more results per page will save the user time. If fetching results takes a noticeable amount of time per result, but there is no constant time per page, then the less results per page, the faster it will seem to user.
   Ideally, both should take as little as possible and this shouldn't be a factor.

   
   

A good example of the ease of scrolling vs. paging is Google Images, where you can now see more results by scrolling down and clicking on "Show more results".

dialogue - avoiding making all your characters sound the same

We surely all have little quirks to our speech. Like my daughter once criticized my writing for using the word "surely" too much. (See, I used it on this post.)

So how do you keep all your characters from sounding the same in dialog? That is, how do you keep them all from sounding just like the writer? It's easy to say, "Pay attention and be careful", but ... pay attention to what? Okay, in my case I've got my eye out for the word "surely". But what else?

There are some obvious extremes. You can make the scientist use a lot of technical language. A 5-year-old should normally talk like a 5-year-old and not like a college professor. In the story I'm working on right now I have a character who lives in another country and who would likely not use English much, so I put some grammar errors into his speech. Etc. Maybe you could give a character some stock phrases that he always uses: "Elementary, my dear Watson", "To the Bat Cave, Robin", etc. But I'd think there are limits to how far you can go with such things without it sounding too gimicky.

Any tips?

Answer

On top of what others gave as excellent advices on getting "in the mind of a character" let me add a few crutchy "dialects" you can give your characters.

• The speaker is using Learner's English. The language is correct, but simple. The sentences are short. Correct sentence structure is used, where native speakers use clauses. The speaker avoids complex constructs. Their list of words is limited. Sometimes the speaker uses words that marginally apply and look awkward.



• Archaic. The person has learnt English from KJV Bible foremost, and is currently striving with proper, modern English.


• Rapid fire speaker speaks in rapid sentences, and abuses conjunctions, like when the message is completed, the person must digress and keep talking about something barely related but this is how one builds the character, isn't it? And the digressions contain random weirdness, and hidden plot clues, or non-sequiturs, which may be funny, or just weird and the style is annoying at times but memorable and energetic, and some love it...


• Laid back. Speaking is a tiring activity. So... Sparsely. Only essentials. Frequent pauses... no? Well... Pauses are good. Sit back and enjoy. It will be fine.


• Concrete. Military style, sir. No redundancies, no ambiguities and only regular amount of courtesy, sir. Reporting facts, staying on topic and hiding emotions. Respectful, but firm.


• Uh... a recluse? Forgetful? Not used to all that... communication. All harder words are there... but building sentences takes... um, effort? Time? These... whatdyacallem... interjections happen often.


• Slangs. I'll skip examples.


• A classy language. You should not use crude contractions. Choosing fabulous flourishes of the language will give aura of elegance, but it is a clear sign of an uncouth upstart to abuse some verbiage where cultured but common words suffice.

You should develop more original and closer to "generic" styles for the main cast, but these are very nice to give some secondary characters some depth and character at low cost.

background - How to randomly distribute a group of icons / graphics in a canvas?

I want to design something like this:

It has been established in previous answers that these are doodle graphics.

Some ways to make them manually are seen on here and here.

How can I make one or more doodles, select the group and randomly spray them on a canvas with a few skewed orientations?

Answer

I have a solution that works very well for one icon at a time. Create a Photoshop brush preset.

Start with one doodled icon. Turn it into a Photoshop brush and set the brush options to scatter (spacing) and rotate (orientation) the icon to taste.

Click and drag across the screen to leave a trail of scattered 'graphics'. If you need a second set of doodle icons feel free to create and brush with as many custom brushes as you want.

This technique can be used to create things like snowflake trees by creating a path with the pen tool, turning on pressure (tapers the ends of the brush strokes), and tracing the path.

This tutorial explains EVERY technique required to do this.

usability - One column logistration form OR two columns?

Don't look at me like that, I actually like the way to call both login and registration forms together a logistration form, well it's convenient.
I've designed a logistration form, but the problem is that I want to know which approach do you think you're more comfortable with, a single column or two column approach?
By the way I've read this article about Two column vs Single column
I'd actually like to know your own opinion, which one is better?

Two column approach?

And one column approach:

Answer

When you have a single form, it's best to use a single column, because the path to completion is less confusing. However, here you have two forms on the same screen, and the user will never switch between the two - either he fills out one, or the other. So that's a very different scenario.

In this case the one column approach is problematic because the bottom form is hidden from view. For instance, if you put the log in at the top, then users might not discover the registration hidden below the fold. They will see the page as a log in form and will try to find the registration page elsewhere. If you do this in two columns, you prevent that problem and you should only make sure you have a clear visual separation between the two forms.

How can I easily create a shape with a specific pixel width and height in Photoshop?

So this may sound like an easy question, but it is not.

In webdesign we often use rectangular or square shapes to represent backgrounds for sidebars etc. These need to be pixel perfect so that when it goes into HTML cut up the correct dimensions are preserved.

When drawing a rectangular shape it will often snap/move one or two pixels when the mouse is let go. I can see in the inspector pane that the dimensions are correct when I let go of the mouse, but I then witness Photoshop redistribute the dimensions as it sees fit.

Is there a way I can just enter a pixel height and width as numbers for shapes like with the rectangular marquee tool? Alternatively is there some way to stop this movement occurring?

Answer

This is very easy

For Marquee selection :

For shapes (all kind of) :

money - How Much Can You Make From Writing a Book?

Obviously this question has a lot of different answers. I'm interested in the typical total profit that a writer might expect to see from:

1. A NYT Bestseller


2. A diet or self-help book that sells 100,000 copies


3. A romance novel that sells 10,000 copies


4. A self-published novel that sells 5,000 copies

What are the typical rev shares for new authors? How are the deals structured? Do you always get royalties, or is flat fee more typical?

Answer

A NYT Bestseller

Probably you'll make a good bit here, but generally, if you make it this far, it's not going to be your first book, and you're going to have worked it out contractually before hand. Mind you, you can be on the list for selling ~5000(hardcover) copies a week. If you write something that makes the list, you'll probably bring down $50,000+, but the numbers vary wildly depending on what rights you sold the publisher, what your contract stipulates, etc, etc.

A diet or self-help book that sells 100,000 copies

In what time period, in how many printings, etc, etc? Is it hardcover or paperback? This is pretty hard to judge. For books that aren't pegged on religion, fad diets, or new age mysticism, 10,000 copies would be considered a great run for this kind of book. 100,000 is pretty rare.

A romance novel that sells 10,000 copies

Chances are, you'll make the same for selling 1 copy as for 1 million copies. Romance novels are almost all commissioned. The company sends you the exact outline, and you write it to their spec, for a flat fee. You probably don't get to put your name on it, but why would you want to? Now, if you're writing your own novel, it'll make the same as any other type of book, depending on your contract.

A self-published novel that sells 5,000 copies

Well, you'll make like 10 bucks a book, but on the other hand, you'll have to spend your life wandering from bookstore to bookstore trying to get them to buy 5 copies at a time. So in terms of hourly wage, eh.

apa - Using expletives in an essay

Good day everyone!

Just a background, I am writing an essay that is formatted with APA styling.

In my paper, I have the word "shit" in it; essentially in this part of the essay, I am discussing that human beings must fulfill their lower needs before dabbling into the philosophy.

I am discussing an enviro NGO's development strategies in Post-2008 Greece. I discuss the Greek economy, the poverty, the humanitarian crisis, etc. I then explain that the environmental NGO's strategies of ad campaigns are not effective because when people are struggling day to day trying to make ends meet, they couldn't care less about the future because they are so distracted by the present, myopic, if you will. I then give a personal story at the dinner table with an elder explaining "You must eat before you shit." I then explain this quote and relate it to myopia.

My question to you guys is this:

Is using expletives appropriate? Even if I am quoting an individual and the quotation itself fits within the purview of my argument.

Edit: I also forgot, my professor read my essay about a week ago and she did not say anything about that expletive. Maybe that was because my essay was still in the editing phases and she thought I would edit it out, or she did not notice it, or lastly she did not care. Sorry for forgetting that detail.

Answer

The question is not whether or not you may use expletives in academic writing, but whether or not that quote is essential for your argument.

Academic writing must not be filled with what that older fellow in your life would have called "shit". Academic writing must be clear, concise and to the point. Don't meander.

But this also means that if you need to express a certain thought, or if illustrating your argument with an example will make it easier to understand, you should not talk around this but say it directly. You are among adults and you don't need to censor your language for the sake of propriety.

For example, in an essay on expletives, it would be completely inappropriate not to give examples. Expletives are a valid field of research and many academic publications not only study but quote them extensively.

On the other hand you must be aware how pushing at the limits of propriety can make you feel edgy and cool and reflect whether you don't actually want to use that quote for its shock value.

Certainly vulgar terms should not be part of your own writing, but if they are part of a source you cite, there is nothing you need to worry about. If – and that is what you need to worry about with each source you cite – that source is citable¹ and the citation furthers your argument.

If you feel that the meaning of the citation is necessary but that its wording is problematic, you can paraphrase that sentence. You might even want to try that just to see if the citation is actually necessary: if a paraphrased version no longer feels informative, then probably the citation itself is only interesting to you because it contains that one vulgar word, and you should drop it.

It would strongly advise against replacing words in a citation.

---

¹ A word on citability: I do not know what kind of essay you write, and the APA style is applied to all kinds of writing that is not academic in the strictest sense, but nevertheless you must consider the following criteria before you include a citation in your writing (from Wikipedia):

• Credentials / Authority — Is the author(s) qualified? Why can we beleive this source?


• Accuracy — How accurate is the information? Can the information be verified in other respected sources?


• Currency — Is the information’s publishing date current enough for the topic of the research paper?


• Point of View / Objectivity — Does the author or publisher express an opinion? Does bias affect the information’s accuracy?



• Relevance — Does the information help answer your research question?


• Who is the information written for? Is the audience focus appropriate for a research paper?

In academic writing, only peer reviewed sources are citable. You probably don't have to go that far, but taking a minute to understand how the peer review process works and what purpose it serves will give you an insight that will help you more critically consider your own sources. And if you don't have time to do this before you have to hand in this essay, make sure you educate yourself in time for your next assignment.

Good luck, and let us know what your professor answered.

If I write a word with a letter that isn't used, will I confuse my reader?

Background

So I recently had my first ever issue with the spelling of places in my novel. Someone pronounced a rather illustrious city, Ethil, incorrectly. Ethil is not pronounced with a 'f' sound as in 'fill', it is pronounced with a 'th' sound as in 'the' or 'þorn'.

To be honest, removing þ from the alphabet was a total mistake. It is an absolutely necessary letter and I am deeply upset that such a useful letter fell out of use. 'Th' has about 500 pronunciations anyway, so þ would be a good letter to help differentiate between them.

Question

Should I write Ethil or Eþil?

If I campaign hard enough or start using þ in my everyday life, will þ - the most useful letter - once again become a letter?

I used my own story as an example, however, this encompasses anybody's story where they might want to use weird letters, like æ for example.

So:

Will the average reader know how to pronounce these letters? How can you help a reader know which sound a combination of letters or letter makes if it has a lot of pronunciations, like 'th'?

metrics - How much time do you spend writing one page on average?

I'm writing a technical book about one programming technology and would like to compare how much time other authors spend on one page (on average). I rarely write a page and am done with it, quite usually there is a lot of restructuring, refining and formatting going on after that.

I'd say I spend about 1.5 - 2 hours on every page, that time being roughly divided this way:

• ~1 hour writing (creating the original rough content)


• ~0.5h refining and improving style


• ~0.25h formatting (applying styles, creating screenshots etc.)

What are your usual times?

EDIT: I feel that the question has been misunderstood or possibly not very well written so I'm adding these points:

• I'm interested in your experience, not estimates.


• I'm interested in the average time - a single number, hopefully with some insights into how that time is split. You've written a book with 300 pages and it took you e.g. 1000 hours - that's what I'm after.


• Where I live, the page is defined as 1800 characters with spaces but it doesn't matter. See the point above.

Thanks for all who answered so far, although this question has quite a few downvotes I am still interested in your experience.

Creating snap node from intersections in Inkscape

I created a straight line using the freehand line tool, and then from the end of the line, using the snap-to-node feature, I created a circle using the ellipsis tool. This means the center of the circle is exactly the end of the line.

I now want to create a node at the intersection of the line and the circle, so that I can start drawing more lines starting exactly from that intersection point.

Is it possible to dynamically create a node through intersected lines? This doesn't need to be specific to circles and lines. I'm also wondering if I have two intersecting lines drawn by the freehand line tool, how can I break them apart so that each intersection point becomes a node?

how to create this type text effect in adobe photoshop?

I saw this on the Facebook, and was wondering if someone know that how to do it! It might be a very helpful for me if anyone help me.

terminology - What is modal about a modal dialog?

I'm reading a lot about modal dialogs.

I know(?) what modal means, having read Raskin's "The Humane Interface". I can understand what's modal about a toolbar in a drawing program (select mode, draw mode...), VI modes, caps lock... but in what way a modal dialog is modal?

I get that their intended use is for exceptional cases (errors, warnings), or when there's an unpostponable choice to make (ex: a sequence of actions as when we save an image and choose parameters and format). It seems that they force a single way of interaction (by negating all others), they're not changing the way input is interpreted. Is this to be intended as a mode?

Answer

I think your confusion here is based on homonyms (with similar meaning); you're taking "modal" to mean something related directly to "modality" which is a term in Human Computer interaciton:

In less formal terms, a modality is a path of communication between the human and the computer.

A modal window is called such because it has a distinct Mode or state of interaction, as the modal window capture all input rather than leaving the user in the "main" interface.

In user interface design, a mode is a distinct setting within a computer program or any physical machine interface, in which the same user input will produce perceived different results than it would in other settings.

Your modality or form of interaction is generally the same in and out of the modal window of a program, but in a modal window are in a distinct mode why which all interaction is captured.

Microstructure effects for a market maker?

When building a market maker that rests limits orders on both sides of the book, what microstructure effects should we be looking at to price those orders? I’m targeting liquid futures markets, and expecting to trade 1-3% of the daily volume.

Current effects that we find useful include the book imbalance (the ratio of volume on the best bid vs the volume on the best offer), and recent trades (someone removing liquidity on the bid is bearish).

What else might impact pricing, and related issues such as portfolio valuation?

daycounting - Which day count conventions are there and where do they apply?

I am looking for

• a list of day count conventions. Is the list on Wikipedia complete or do you know others?


• Which rules of thumb are there to choose day count conventions when none is specified, depending for example on product, country or underlying?


• Are there special cases which can provoke software bugs?

---

Edit: results and rules-of-thumb DCC so far:

• 1/1 - ?


• 30/360 US - US for corporate, US municipal, and some US Agency bonds


• 30E/360 - money market Switzerland


• 30E+/360 - ?


• 30E/360 ISDA - ?


• 30/360 - for corporate bonds, agency and municipal bonds, mortgage backed securities, Eurobonds, US corporate bonds


• ACT/360 - for US T-bills, US commercial paper; US and Euro & Switzerland money markets, mortgages


• ACT/364 - Kenya, Zimbabwe


• ACT/365 - US Treasury bonds, US treasury notes, UK gilts; German bunds, South Africa (all markets)


• ACT/365L - ?



• ACT/365 Fixed - ?


• ACT/ACT - New Euro bonds, LIFFE UK bond futures, LIFFE German bund futures


• ACT/ACT ISDA - ?


• ACT/ACT ISMA - ?


• ACT/ACT ICMA - ?


• ACT/ACT AFB - ?


• NL/365 - ?


• BUS/252 - Brazil

Refs:

Wikipedia: day_count_convention
Foreign Exchange Derivatives, by Kotze, 2011
Interest Rate Instruments and Market Conventions Guide, by OpenGamma, 2013
Implementing BUS/252 Daycount Convention, by Kennedy 2012
ESI: Day Count Conventions, by Eclipse Software Inc.
Day Count Conventions and Accrual Factors, by Fincad Corp.

Answer

There are lots, decide which ones you actually need for your project - follow the coding maxim You Ain't Gonna Need It.

Be aware that those rules have variants: Actual/365 has 2 varieties, fixed and actual, 30/360 has at least 3 varieties (see that Wikipedia article). Then there is Brazillian Bus/252, etc etc.

Consider using a library (like Fincad or Quantlib) which has this stuff set up already and save your time and effort for more interesting things.

creative writing - how can I showcase the internal struggles between a man and his demons?

The character in this story is a human-demon hybrid. He is good natured on a normal day, but because of the demon genes and blood coursing through him, as struggled with certain urges his entire life. Demons are chaotic creatures that revel in destruction and enjoy causing pain simply for the sake of it. He has desires that are difficult to control, and must constantly battle them lest they take over. Thoughts of committing murder, torture, and other evil acts are whispered into his mind by this demonic side, which manifests as an alter ego that seeks to take control over him. The two beings in one body maintain a dialogue, with the demon wanting to be let out and pushing him toward evil. This human sometimes obliges the demon in order to gain use of its powers. However, it finds it increasingly difficult to gain back control and lock the demon back up.

I want to showcase the struggle of these two beings with each other who reside in the same body. How can I do this realistically while the human tries to go on with his life as normal and have regular relationships with people?

adobe photoshop - Add Transparent pattern/effects to png image on saving

I need to export a png file with pattern or light effects. I have a tshirt shape with shadow effects on tshirt. The shadow effects has 75% fill and Multiply. If i add a background like color on back layer, it will show me the color of tshirt with shadow effects correctly. After save it in png, and import in new file, when i try to add a background layer on back, the color not is the same ( more lighter ).

How i can export the image with multiply effects or like this ? because i need to use it online on website but with same effects on photoshop.

Answer

Here's a fairly simple method to create a transparent PNG which you could use to place over a colour background, without using any blending modes.

1. Desaturate an image of a light coloured t-shirt on a white background


2. Select the T-shirt with the Quick Selection tool


3. Use the Background Eraser tool to remove the white from the t-shirt

Test it by filling the background with a colour. Then delete (or hide) the background layer, and export your transparent PNG.

Example

Illustrator: Auto-sized Text box with shaded background?

I frequently create labels that follow the same format: white text on a 75% opaque black background, with 10px of margin around the text. Currently, I have to manually build these labels, which takes a lot of work.

In one method, I write the text, figure out its height and width, then create a separate rectangle and place it behind it. This takes a lot of clicking around for every label.

In the other method, I draw out a text box, select it directly, give it the correct background and margins, and then insert the text. However, I must then resize the box manually, meaning more clicking around and greater imprecision. There doesn't seem to be a way to directly select a text box once it has text inside it.

I tried using the script contained in a related answer to resize the text box to the content, but it only resizes the box vertically, and removes my color and margins.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to resolve these problems, or for a better method? I'm using CS3.

Answer

You really don't need any scripting for this.

• Select text object with Selection Tool (Black arrow)


• Add a new fill via Appearance Panel


• Move the new fill below the item in the Appearance Panel


• Highlight the new fill and choose Effect > Convert to Shape > Rectangle


• Enter relative amount of points/pixels/inches etc. you want the rectangle to be offset from the text


• Click OK


• Drag the text object to Graphic Styles Panel

The background rectangle is relative to the size of the text object. Should the text object change in size the rectangle adjusts to match.

When you need to reapply the appearance, select the text object and click the Graphic Style.

If you find you are having difficulty with text colors being incorrect after applying the Graphic Style, please see @BANG's solution HERE.

adobe photoshop - RGB Vs CMYK : Deciphering gradient transitions in different colour modes

This issue may be related to Photoshop or to colour modes in general but this is what I am trying to figure out.

• The image below is from a CMYK file with two layers.


• It has two duo colour gradients.


• 
  

  Both gradients start and end with exactly the same hex value colours.

  
  
  
  
  1. 
     

     The top gradient is one generated from in the open file using the gradient swatch shown in the image.

     
     
  
  
  
  2. 
     

     The bottom gradient is copied from an RGB file and pasted into the CMYK file displayed in the image.

     
     
  
  
  
  

PROBLEM

The CMYK gradient clearly does not match the expected output indicted on the colour swatch.

QUESTION

1. 
   

   Why does the CMYK gradient appear to have an orange transition and not match either the output expected or that of the RGB gradient?

   
   


2. 
   

   How can the true gradient be created in photoshop from within a CMYK file?

   
   

NOTES

Its interesting to note that this does not appear to be a colour palette issue as the same thing occurs when a black to white alpha channel is created on top of a pure red layer.

The hex values used for this gradient are: #de1f26 to #ffffff

---

RECREATE THIS ISSUE

These steps create the issue.

1. Create new file in CMYK mode.


2. Draw a gradient on on the left side of the image. (gradient appears orange in middle as top gradient in image above.)


3. Convert to RGB mode.


4. Draw the same gradient on the right of the image. (There is a clear difference in the gradient transition.)

Answer

This was confusing at first but the striving for information has led me to a clearer understanding.

RGB vs CMYK

There is clear discrepency between gradients in RGB and CMYK this becomes clearer when you realise the palettes used by each colour mode are drasitcally different.

Colour consists of HUE, SATURATION and BRIGHNESS

RGB

RGB uses a single HUE pallete that transitions through BRIGHTNESS (y-axis in this image) and SATURATION (x-axis in this image)

CMYK

CMYK uses a single BRIGHTNESS palette that transitions through HUE and SATURATION

RESULT

As a result of the transition through the different palettes indicated by the blue arrows create a completely different gradient even though it is still a linear one for the palette that is in use.

Sketch: Object moves relative to another object/text in symbol

How do I make an object automatically move when I change the text preceeding/"attached to" it?

I'm trying to figure out how this default symbol works (gif included below) and replicate it.

When I type " " into the override, the wifi symbol moves next to the reception dots. When I type a longer string in (see gif), the wifi symbol automatically moves accordingly to after the text.

It's as if the wifi symbol is anchored to the END of the "Carrrier" text box (which doesn't have a fixed width), and moves according to how long the text box is. How is this done in Sketch?

The actual artboard doesn't have any special on it:

Any solutions? Please & thanks!

Answer

Many thanks to twitter user @kieranpblack !

You must have at least 1px between the text layer and the second layer for it to work. Works on any resizing option, including default stretch!

(Can't even remember if I trialled this before the Sketch 41 update or not? Seems so simple looking at it now.)

How to export MagicaVoxel to vector?

MagicaVoxel is “a free lightweight 8-bit voxel editor and interactive path tracing renderer”.

It exports to .vox, .slab, .xraw, .qb, .cbj, .ply, .mc, .2d, .iso

I’m not that familiar with these filetypes but I would like to be able to export my MagicaVoxel creations into Illustrator or similar. What workflow would I need for this?

Answer

There is probably an easier way than this, but I have done this and it makes an acceptable vector model:

1. MagicaVoxel —-> Export to .obj


2. Blender —-> Export to .dae


3. SketchUp —-> Export to .pdf

adobe photoshop - Extracting layers from psd

I am a developer and working on an application whose designs I have received as a PSD file. But I am totally noob in designing. I have installed photoshop in my computer but have no idea about how to save a layer out of that. There are buttons in the PSD which I want and I have hidden all other layers except the one I need. Now I want to save it but I am just not able to do it. I have searched on google but could not find any solution. Can someone please help me?

Thanks Pankaj

typography - Definition of font weight

Wikipedia says this about font weight:

The weight of a particular font is the thickness of the character outlines relative to their height.

Seeing this from the point of a mathematician, the outline is by definition a zero-width closed path. It also does not specify whose character's outline(s) is/are meant. If one looks at the stem of the ‘H’ in the example graphic, its ratio is ~0.30 (for weight 9), and ~0.04 for weight 2. Considering the entire glyph, its ratio is ~0.91 and ~0.77, respectively.

Given any glyph in such an image, how does one determine the thickness values 2…9? (or 100…900 in TrueType dimensions)

adobe photoshop - Making living room scenes with rugs

I want to showcase my rugs for customers on my website and looking for a tool to create a scene like this:

I can't do photography in real room or studio and I was told that there might be an app to make these kinds of decorations.

Answer

Sure, it can be done in Photoshop.

Find a nice image on a stock photography site of a room with tables and chairs, preferably on a plain wooden floor - obviously one without a rug! Pay for a licence to use the image so you won't be sued.

Something like this perhaps

Then with the Pen Tool, make a vector clipping mask around the table and chair legs. Apply the vector mask to a copy of the image layer.

Paste an image of a rug under the masked layer, turn it into a Smart Object. Use Edit > Transform > Distort and move the corners to match the perspective of the room.

Tah dah!

If you double click the Smart Object to edit it, you can just paste in another rug, resize it as required, quit and save the Smart Object, and you'll have a new carpet on the floor.

And here's the result when you save and close the Smart Object - a new rug!

style - How to create space

Recently, a few snippets of my fiction have received critiques along the lines of 'Does not give a sense of space'. Or 'needs more description, sights and sounds'.

I think where I am going wrong is that in any given scene I am focusing too hard on the characters, the dialogue or the progression of events and not creating a world which the reader can feel around him/her. So would you guys have any tips on how I can get better at creating space? Any good reading material on it?

Answer

A common mistake when people first try to work on setting or "space" is simply to add more description. This is usually the wrong thing to do, since lots of unfocused description is just clutter. What you need to do add descriptive notes that also contribute to other elements of the story. Having a small number of details that contribute to the overall weight of the story is much more effective than adding a large number of disconnected details.

To take Lauren Ipsum's example above, let's work with John entering a room and saying something to Mary. We can bring in description to add to any of the following:

• Character: What kind of person is John, and what does he notice? There was new wood flooring in her apartment, straight out of last year's home show. Cheap Picasso reproductions on the walls. Paperback copies of trendy, pretentious novels were stacked on the Ikea end-table. She'd probably never even read them. Ah, but at least she had a nice leather couch, tucked there beneath her half-exposed thighs, just waiting for the two of them to screw on.



• Plot: What's the situation, and how does the setting affect it? The metal door bangs shut behind him, and he immediately notices there's no other way out. Mary's sitting behind a card table, and in the shadows behind her a strange man leans against a filing cabinet and smokes a cigarette. The air stinks of gunpowder and garlic.


• Theme: What is the atmosphere and tone of the story, and how does the environment reflect it? Sunlight creaks in through the ancient blinds, lighting up a dusty, cluttered coffee table. Unwashed dishes are piled up in the sink. Water dripping from the faucet makes a pinging sound in an old bowl, counting down the seconds until their inevitable breakup.

Obviously, your situations are different from these. But in any scene, you create atmosphere and setting not by describing everything, but by picking out those few details that will build up the rest of what's going on.

How to use the duplicate brush in Krita

How do you use the duplicate brush in Krita. I've got an X but can't seem to get further. The manual is not very comprehensive.

Font licensing warning when saving in Illustrator

I want to use a basic typewriter font for t-shirts to be sold. The font I'm using is "typewriter-serial-regular" that is available in Illustrator. Yet when I go to save it, it says I can't keep the font because of licensing. I know how to get around the output, but don't want to be in trouble for using it later. Any ideas?

Interaction with a tooltip on a line chart

I am designing a line chart which displays a tooltip when the user hovers over the chart to show extra information. A working example of what I am currently using can be seen here.

I am interested in the patterns that should best be followed when interacting with the tooltip. Especially I am interested in following design choices:

• Should the user be able to hover with his mouse over the tooltip.


• The vertical position of the tooltip. Currently I use a fixed position in the top half of the chart.


• Should there be a mechanism to keep the tooltip visible after the user leaves the chart area with the mouse, for e.g. when the user still wants to see the data.

Any other interaction paradigms for this are also welcome.

A screenshot of the chart with tooltip:

Answer

Answers to most of your questions here will probably depend on what you are charting, who is using your chart, and how they use it (device).

However, the first question has a logical answer. The user should definitely be able to hover over the tooltip when the tooltip contains actionable content. For example, the user should be allowed to bring their mouse over the tooltip when it contains a link they can click.

Fixed positions for tooltips will also depend on your specific use-case. Most charting libraries attach their tooltips to where your cursor is. This is especially helpful when you are charting data with small differences between data points. Movement in the tooltip can help make those slight differences appear more obvious to users.

When it comes to keeping the tooltip visible after the user leaves the chart area, it will also depend on your chart. However, if a tooltip stays forever, isn't it more of a label at that point? If you want them to stay temporarily, you can consider sticky tooltips. Here is a demo of what those work like (and you can typically set a timeout on them).

http://www.zingchart.com/playground/run/540e3ad9a9fae

I'm on the ZingChart team so if you have any questions about how we made this demo, please feel free to reach out.