Library card redesign

jamesatzephyr wrote: If I have to adjust the aspect ratio, it might push something off the side. Do I have to tell them to design to a certain minimum size, and that everything outside that might or might not appear?

I would inform them of potential run off and leave it up to them if they want to populate it or not. So in effect advise of the primary content area (which is a definite) and the run off which may be covered. This would typically be populated by a background colour or similar — so it is not particularly taxing and again optional.



Filling this area with content sourced from the artwork it not the only option. Earlier versions used a mirrored effect as shown below — however the fill proved most effective and more subtle overall.



It's probably worth pointing out that I had to search for cards affected by this. So without reviewing exactly what percentage of library cards are affected by this; it may be a lot of noise about not much.

Also; as shown previously the logic can be adjusted to be more aggressive in terms of hitting a precise area for the artwork — so it may be a case of just tweaking this until it has a near 99% hit rate. For example Archon Investigation above could probably cope with more padding without issues.

Here is Archon Investigation after the revised logic has been applied:

Ke. wrote:

jamesatzephyr wrote: If I have to adjust the aspect ratio, it might push something off the side. Do I have to tell them to design to a certain minimum size, and that everything outside that might or might not appear?

I would inform them of potential run off and leave it up to them if they want to populate it or not. So in effect advise of the primary content area (which is a definite) and the run off which may be covered. This would typically be populated by a background colour or similar — so it is not particularly taxing and again optional.

So, if the outcome of the exercise is that we get:

- picture
- variable-sized bland background colour
- variable-sized text box

Why not just have a uniform size textbox instead of a bland background colour? That seems far easier to discuss with potential artists, rather than "Please fill in this area with grey or green or something, but we might cover it up."

jamesatzephyr wrote: Why not just have a uniform size textbox instead of a bland background colour? That seems far easier to discuss with potential artists, rather than "Please fill in this area with grey or green or something, but we might cover it up."

As stated previously artists can work to the current specification without issue — the system can adapt accordingly. If they want to go a step further they can.

In terms of why not just have a fixed size box for the text area; that's pretty much because it simply looks better with more artwork. On the left "fixed" sized text area, on the right dynamic; randomly picked cards:





I know which I prefer.

No artwork has been cropped in the above examples.

Ascendence is probably the most extreme example — and it copes fine.

Ke. wrote: No artwork has been cropped in the above examples.

Uh, what do you call it when the trigger is covered up by the textbox on Saturday Night Special, making everything behind more than a little tricky to see behind the textbox? It is entirely possible to see the metal below the 'white V' at the front of the trigger on the artwork as printed, when you've covered it up in your left-hand example, for some reason.

Nor is it at all clear why Blur's design is in any way enhanced by a metric shit-ton of black between the actual art and the textbox.

jamesatzephyr wrote: Uh, what do you call it when the trigger is covered up by the textbox on Saturday Night Special, making everything behind more than a little tricky to see behind the textbox?

This comes down to the quality of the scan. When it's a low quality scan; the system does the best it can. If you'd like to help out; you can provide a higher quality scan / photo of Saturday night special.

I stand by my assertion that it does not crop the original artwork — see below when the original (newly sourced) scan is used as the background:



As you can see the original border remains intact throughout the process. Again, like Ascendence this is one of the more extreme examples — deliberately sought. Based on an initial scan the number of cards like this is fairly low; you will be able to review all of them soon enough.