Basic Fantasy Field Guide Volume 1

[SmootRK]

Of particular frustration right now is that if I work with an image to have words wrap to contours... it looks great in the ODT, but the PDF does not work and the image white space overlaps the text. I would like to do more interesting stuff with the text/art flow, but this is really starting to piss me off.

The pdf creation stuff just seems to lack the ability to do this properly, despite giving the impression that it will work while in the odt file. Perhaps I need to update LibreOffice? seems I have not done that in some time and the icon shows an update.

if you'd like help... i can recut and save all the images with a gif and make the surrounding white transparent, so when you do contour the art with text, the text wouldn't be hidden.

it should work. want to test it with a gif with transparent background?

Well, I just started downloading the newest version of LibreOffice, so I am hoping this is a bug that is known and being fixed (fingers crossed)... but your idea sounds like a winner if this does not fix itself.

[jackel]

Sounds like a headache. I hope it just a software bug. Would you like me to proof it for you? That's about th good I could do.

[Solomoriah]

I personally never wrap to contours, because I find it annoying to read text written that way.

[SmootRK]

I personally never wrap to contours, because I find it annoying to read text written that way.

Work in progress, and in general I feel the same way. I have just a few spots where it seems like it would work well... over time I may have to scrap the ideas for such in order to err on the side of safe version compatibility (being very conservative about such features).

[SmootRK]

OK, so I decided this morning that since we have Shonuff on board with illustrating efforts in a more-or-less official capacity as Art Director [time for everyone to show the appreciation to him]... that I am going to re-organize the contents of the Field Guide with substantially more 'white space' and room for the graphic interpretations and generally making the document less about being a compressed tome of monster after monster. I will work on it a bit more over next few days, often greatly increasing the size of the graphics used and otherwise trying to make the visual aspects a bit more eye-catching (with Shonuff's help). I hope that the additional space gives him (or others) room to visualize images that can fill those areas.

[Shonuff]

awesome. sounds good to me. if you need fillers, or smal graphics that fill smpty spaces at bottom of columns, let me know i can crank out a few of those too, don't even need to be the above, just a small graphic that pops the page.

but i'll get working on the remaining monsters too so i can help fill it out more.
I know Andy has been itching to do an action shot or twelve. he wants to do a action shot, guy fighting frogman, or party tackling hydra... something to that effect.

i'll see what he's up to.

[SmootRK]

updated first post with a new draft... gives an idea of the expanded spacing I have in mind so far. However, the pages/flow breaks down after a while. Out of time for today to do much.

Shonuff... we could even insert full page artwork here and there.

[Shonuff]

NOW you're talkin!

i'll hit up Andy for doing a nice action piece, maybe for the gorilla monsters (the page is empty)
maybe have a group of adventurers in a jungle getting encountered by one of the gorilla types.


i'll throw together a nice full pager and see what I come up with.

i'll give ya two to play with, one from each off us.!!!!

[Solomoriah]

Just FYI, Shonuff's position isn't "more or less" official, it's official.

This doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't accept art without notifying him first, or any such silliness as that. What it does mean is, should you need some art, you know who to ask.

(I'm looking forward to it, myself...)

[dymondy2k]

I would also add that he does have a life so don't inundate the poor guy with requests and be patient!