RE: It is easy to predict the past.

From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Jun 16 2005 - 14:32:28 CDT

  • Next message: Asmus Freytag: "Re: Hexatridecimal"

    At 09:16 PM 6/15/2005, Peter Constable wrote:
    > > From: Asmus Freytag [mailto:asmusf@ix.netcom.com]
    >
    >
    > > > But for a case like this, it is not at all difficult to convert
    > > > the Tamil string into a bitmap, colour the parts that you want,
    > > > and insert that into a slide.
    > >
    > > It may not be 'difficult', but it does involve paying attention to
    > > background transparency issues. If your slides don't use white
    > > background, and if your fonts are 'smoothed', you can pick up annoying
    > > white outlines around your letters, unless you know precisely how to
    > > capture them without these artifacts.
    >
    >Elementary, my dear Watson! Create the text you want in a textbox on the
    >slide, and make a second copy -- one in each foreground colour you want
    >to use. Take a screenshot of that, and use the two to create your
    >graphic. The colour transitions at the edges of the text in the bitmaps
    >will be precisely what is needed for the slide background.

    Yes, that's a way to do that - as I wrote, it's not 'difficult', but does
    involve paying attention. You have to think more as a graphic artist,
    and less like a person editing a text.

    > > It can also be amazingly non-portable.
    >
    >True. To increase the portability, turn off font smoothing (not that
    >hard), and create the text samples larger than you need (scale down
    >later). With font smoothing turned off, there will be no colour
    >transitions at the edges.

    Correct as far as it goes. I had used monochrome bitmaps for years.
    They are a good fit for text, as un-smoothed text has only two color
    values to begin with (background and foreground), and PowerPoint
    allows any arbitrary foreground color. However, the support
    for them in PowerPoint changed between versions to the point of making
    them completely unusable and instantly obsoleting hundreds of carefully
    designed slides.

    In other words, the portability of illustrations is only as good as
    the support for whatever format you pick.

    A./



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