Sunday, December 17, 2017

tools - Photoshop. How to remove all white space, background + unenclosed space



enter image description here


Hi everyone here a problem I have, basically I want to remove all white from this image so I can paint beneath the illustration.


When I remove the white using magic eraser or the magic wand I'm still left with loads of 'white enclosed spaces'


enter image description here< this is my problem. It seems like I'll have to go into the image and use the magic wand individually for each white space?.



Is there an easier way to remove all of the white automatically?




pseudonym - Should I use a pen name so I don't get confused with other authors with similar names?


I have a common(ish) name, with at least one other writer out there with my exact name, although he writes in a different genre than I'm interested in, and another with a similar name that DOES write in my field of interest.


But I like my name.



Would it make more sense to pick a different name so I don't get confused with the other authors, or go ahead an use it and enjoy the accidental popularity that might come from people's confusion?



Answer



That would be an excellent question for an agent or publisher. If you're remotely ambivalent, use their suggestion. You can also use a middle initial.


I use pseudonyms for personal and professional reasons, but my long-term experience for fiction is about 3:1 in favor of authors using their actual name and more like 10:1 for nonfiction. If you have journal articles or other academic works, you should continue to use your actual name because reputation is such a key. With fiction, class shows, regardless of reputation. Even John Grisham has a few books well below the radar screen only to come back with a bestseller. Of course, one must get on the radar screen ...


input - Is there any research into the cost of switching between using a keyboard and a mouse?


My intuition and own experience tells me keyboard shortcut keys can be faster than using the mouse. However, some tasks like browsing the internet or a folder hierarchy truly benefit from using a mouse pointer. As is often the case, I believe there is no 'one solution', e.g. using a keyboard exclusively. I would like to argue it's important to offer both keyboard and mouse access for common operations. Depending on which input device you are holding using one or the other could be faster.


Considering the 'optimal' way to use a computer is a combination of keyboard and mouse, I'm wondering: has any research been done relating to the cost of switching between them?




ios - Best way to select quantity of items for an eCommerce mobile application?


I'm designing an e-commerce app, and I'm looking for some options for the best way to select the quantity of an item before adding to the cart



The first (on the left) is when the user selects the Quantity, and the iOS drop-down selection is be triggered and the user can update that way.


Or on the right, the user can increment by pressing + or -


What are your thoughts?


enter image description here




Saturday, December 16, 2017

fixed income - Calculating historical Bond returns


How would you calculate historical bond returns using bond prices? Would you treat bonds just like shares ?


Thanks




Best practices for no search results


When no search results are returned, it's often useful to provide users with a productive next instead of a dead end in their journey. It's all very context driven, but here's a few of mine...



  • If filtering (e.g. through a faceted search), have a link to clear filters


  • Recommend spelling alternatives

  • Add personality. What if no results are a good thing (e.g. no things for the user to do, so tell them to grab a beer or something!)

  • If there's no results because they haven't done something yet (e.g. entered their product information into the system), explain what they should do.


What about others? Would be great if you could share on visual examples as well :)




Make border radius for photos in Photoshop


I have a list of photos, different sizes and shapes, and I want to give them 10px border radius for everyone.


This is very helpful in every UI, when there are photos with different sizes.


How to perform this?





technique - How credible is wikipedia?

I understand that this question relates more to wikipedia than it does writing but... If I was going to use wikipedia for a source for a res...