[scribus] Question on editing fonts

[DeAnna Knippling]

Greg, comments below.

On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 9:23 AM, Gregory Pittman <gregp_ky at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On 07/24/2011 10:28 AM, a.l.e wrote:
>>
>> hi deanna,
>>
>>> Now, I'm trying to rebuild the cover in Scribus (for fun, I guess).  I
>>> can import the old ebook cover at 300 dpi, but the fonts are not as
>>> crisp as they are when generated by Scribus.
>>>
>>> How can I manually tweak the fonts in Scribus to selectively fade
>>> out/erase parts of the font?
>>>
>>> A picture of the ebook cover is here:
>>> http://wonderlandpress.com/?p=199
>>
>> to  get it crispier:
>>
>> a/ for a cover 600 dpi may be better
>> b/ use png / tif instead of jpg
>> c/ in scribus, set the preview settings to "full resolution" (context menu
>> on the image...)
>>
>> finally, gimp is not that bad for that work, inkscape could be not that
>> bad either (if you want to do it vector based), but scribus is probably not
>> the best tool for such an effect (mum told me, that i shall prepare my
>> sources before starting working with scribus... :-)
>>
> a.l.e is probably right, but here is some additional commentary I would
> have:
>
> 1. you can consider incorporating Scribus in a workflow for this font.
> Example: make a custom page only big enough for the word(s) you wish to edit
> graphically, then export the page as a PNG (File > Export > Save as Image),
> minding that you give it a sizable DPI (like maybe 300), then import that to
> Gimp, where you will find a great many tools to achieve what you want,
> including using a transparent background. Then take it back to Scribus as an
> image for your cover.

I was editing the cover in GIMP with 300 DPI/JPG, then importing it as
an image in Scribus so I could do the rest of the spine and back cover
layout in Scribus, so already doing that.  Now trying the same thing,
using 600 DPI/PNG.  It looks much better, although I'll have to wait
for the proofs to come back.

>
> 2. Inkscape may work depending on what you do, but some of the very nice
> features of Inkscape may not be importable as an SVG (blur for one thing).

I will check that out if the proofs look ooky or if I have a craving
to learn a new program, which I often do.

> 3. I have a bit of a hard time from your cover understanding what effect you
> are trying to achieve (i.e., what it is you wish to visually suggest to the
> reader that is happening to these letters). The fire below might suggest
> they could be "melting", yet some look like water is running over them, so
> they are dripping white ink/paint. Other parts of letters are punched
> out/flaked off (to simulate aging?), yet again, how does this connect with
> the fire?

The font is "Bleeding Cowboys"
http://www.dafont.com/bleeding-cowboys.font (if you're curious), and
it looks that way already - I just wanted to slightly reduce the
number of bells and whistles so you could read the title easier.
Incidentally, I keep seeing the font around places.  We drove through
Custer State Park in South Dakota, and either that font or a similar
one was all over the guide book.

The general ideas:
1) Weird West subgenre of horror.  Font to indicate that.
2) Plot of the book features bison-like demons who cross over into
"our" dimension.  So - "Hell" on the bottom and skull on the top.

> What I hate to feel is the sense that someone has spent quite a bit of time
> producing something that in the end looks amateurish.

I don't know.  I've asked a number of professional writers and a
couple of professional graphic designers to look at it (for the ebook
version), and the reponse has been positive.  Maybe the book just fits
the genre of readers; again, I don't know.  I'm more worried about the
resolution on the front cover looking amiss against the text on the
spine/back.

>
> Greg
>
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-- 
DeAnna Knippling
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