Card Text Project

[drathe]

Perhaps using an excel file is best. The google doc has already lost data due to public edits. Perhaps the best idea is to have the google docs just to harvest the content. If people want fan cards too, they can fill in the google doc and that data could be copied to a secure excel file.

Have you finished filling in all you need in an excel file? If not, send me the file and I'll fill in what I can during my spare time.

[Patroclus]

Thanks drathe, but I am not sure for the final format and the data that the excel should have, and that’s why I can’t tell you right know. But I will, soon.

For now I have some questions:

I want to ask if anyone knows about the printable area and the margins of printers. I’ve heard that those characteristics are determined by the printer's mechanical limitations but is there any ISO that I could put in the program? For example, how much is the margin of HP printers? Or at least I will let the user select which margin he wants or his printer could print.

About the fonts, I’ve noticed that there are differences between languages. For example, Greek titles and texts are “times new roman” while British texts are something else from the Heroquest’s fonts. That’s why I have put another row in excel below “Languages”, called “Fonts”.

The “Fonts” should have two font families delimited with the comma character. The first font family is for the title and subtitle (=the scroll spell label) while the second is for the texts. For example “Arial, Arial”, etc etc… if you want to use a custom font family, as the Heroquest fonts, you should give the file extension (the suffix “.ttf”), for example “ZapfChancery_MediumItalyc.ttf,ITCClearface.ttf” and put the ttf files in the “Fonts” folder inside the application folder of the program. Also you can put the keys “-bold” and “-italic”, for example “Times New Roman -Bold -Italic, Times New Roman”.

The question is, which fonts are the original fonts of Heroquest for titles and texts? I have tried some but I am not sure that I am right. If anyone is sure about the original HQ fonts of his language, please fill the “Fonts” row of the excel.

About the google docs, for now I have make it read the google docs and I will let it as it is until I have finished it. Maybe it is fine if I leave it as an option or a default value.

[Patroclus]

About the font sizes, I have placed a mechanism to reduce the font size of the specific card when the text cannot fit in the position, so it is not a problem if one of the titles is longer than the others. But try to not use very long texts. In the following image it is hard to notice the difference between the two sizes (it is about 1 or 2 points), but if you use longer texts you will see a great difference.

Also, I have put the same mechanism on the main text of the cards, but try to not use more words than the originals.

[Patroclus]

About the margins of the document and the printing area of the printers, because each printer has its own characteristics the solution is to do a check on your printer each time you do a print from inside the program and after that I draw the cards in the best printable position for your printer. I’ve found that some printers can print from the one corner to the other! Of course if you try to share your cards as exported images you will notice that an image that for someone can be printed normally for other can not, because you have printers with different printable areas.

The program is in a very good stage. Soon I will give details, how to fill the excel file, and in 1-2 weeks I will share it and wait for your error reports.

[Patroclus]

This is the first part of the manual, and says about how to modify the excel and do the data entry. This is not a work for one person. One person per expansion could be nice.

Fell free to ask questions or maybe correct my grammatical errors if you like.
https://rapidshare.com/files/1003855333/HQ_Card_Maker_Manual.rar

[Patroclus]

The program is almost done but I have a problem with the fonts. I can’t find the right ones.

[drathe]

Regular Cards

American
Title = Romic 12pt Italic
Subtitle = Romic 10pt Italic
Text = Aldine721 8pt
Card Back = Romic 14pt Bold Italic

European
Title = Gaze 12.5pt
Text = Aldine721 8pt


Monster Cards

American
Title = Romic 12pt Italic
Stat Titles = Aldine721 5pt Bold (spacing between letters varies to fit column width)
Stats Numbers = Aldine721 12pt Bold
Abilities/Cost = Aldine721 6pt Bold

European
Title = Gaze 14pt Bold
Stats = Aldine721 8pt Bold


Character Cards

American
Title = Romic 30pt Bold Italic
Description Text = Aldine721 11pt Bold
Stat Titles = Aldine721 10pt Bold
Stat Numbers = Aldine721 18pt Bold
Starting Equipment = Aldine721 11pt Bold

European
Title = Gaze 32pt Bold
Description Text = Gaze 12.3pt Bold
Stat Titles = Gaze 13.2 Bold
Stat Dice = Gaze 12pt Bold
Starting Stats = Gaze 13.2pt Bold



I don't know the font types, sizes or characteristics for the copyrights, or European Card Backs.

[Patroclus]

Wow! Thanks drathe… now it is alright… only the caption has a small difference but when I will share the program I am sure someone will find it too.

About the monster cards and the character sheets I will do an add-on later. Now it works only for treasures, artifacts, spells, etc

[Patroclus]

About the sizes I put them manually, and as I do it, it changes the ini file with the “default” settings for each dpi analysis. For example, the 300 dpi needs texts with size of 24pt while the 100 dpi has 10pt. Maybe someone wants to change the default settings and it is highly recommended to share his ini file with us after the changes because it is very possible that I have done some mistakes with the sizes.

Bellow it is the example with the text sizes of the 300 dpi (at the right I have put the pdf format to see how bad it looks when it is zoomed while the program looks very clean)

[Maike05]

Hello Patroclus ! I'm glad you're almost done with this program, it's very good!

About the margin settings, why don't you just narrow the space between card so that there is no space at all ! This is particularly useful when cutting the paper after printing because it reduces the number of cuts. Then you won't have any problem of margins.