T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Monday, February 20, 2006
Further Toward Letter Perfect.
There's a line in the last few Rip & Teri strips about "accomplishing the impossible" which sure seemed appropriate this weekend as delay after delay struck my attempts to polish off the lettering. The copy of QuarkXPress that I've been using to letter comics since... goodness, since the first Fans lettering job, back in 1998... is finally glitching itself into non-functionality.
This last Rip & Teri lettering is also my last lettering for a while, which means I have time to step back and assess what tools to use in the future. I know a lot of my friends use Adobe Illustrator, and I've been looking with interest at the nascent lettering program Balloonist. (Still trying to find out exactly how "nascent" it is...)
Of course, folks like Ryan North and R. Stevens have their own solutions specific to the nature of their comics, but I wonder what the best system might be for the rest of us.
Still musing that, right now. No hard answers yet. Might be one for a roundtable, might be one for interviews, might require trial and error. Your thoughts are always appreciated.
Meantime, here's a page as I lettered it, prior to David Willis' colors. (I never said I was a GREAT letterer, by the way. In fact I see about three flaws now, and I'm wondering if a more advanced tool might help with those. Font is CCAstroCity, by Starkings and Comicraft.)
This last Rip & Teri lettering is also my last lettering for a while, which means I have time to step back and assess what tools to use in the future. I know a lot of my friends use Adobe Illustrator, and I've been looking with interest at the nascent lettering program Balloonist. (Still trying to find out exactly how "nascent" it is...)
Of course, folks like Ryan North and R. Stevens have their own solutions specific to the nature of their comics, but I wonder what the best system might be for the rest of us.
Still musing that, right now. No hard answers yet. Might be one for a roundtable, might be one for interviews, might require trial and error. Your thoughts are always appreciated.
Meantime, here's a page as I lettered it, prior to David Willis' colors. (I never said I was a GREAT letterer, by the way. In fact I see about three flaws now, and I'm wondering if a more advanced tool might help with those. Font is CCAstroCity, by Starkings and Comicraft.)
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You ever consider getting a cheap computer and installing Linux?
Linux has come a long way from being just a geek OS. You can run it on a cheap barebones computer.
Tiger Direct and New Egg have great deals on barebones machines.
There's an easy to install version of Linux called Ubuntu. Very nice and user friendly.
http://www.ubuntu.com
There is an open source desktop publish program called Scribus that runs on Linux.
http://www.scribus.org.uk
There's an open source vector program, similar to Illustrator, called Inkscape.
http://www.inkscape.org
There's an open source editor called the GIMP.
http://www.gimp.org
And if you're put off by the GIMP interface, you can make it look closer to Photoshop.
http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294
Here's an article on one publisher embracing the idea of using open source.
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/06/07/2044240.shtml
Linux has come a long way from being just a geek OS. You can run it on a cheap barebones computer.
Tiger Direct and New Egg have great deals on barebones machines.
There's an easy to install version of Linux called Ubuntu. Very nice and user friendly.
http://www.ubuntu.com
There is an open source desktop publish program called Scribus that runs on Linux.
http://www.scribus.org.uk
There's an open source vector program, similar to Illustrator, called Inkscape.
http://www.inkscape.org
There's an open source editor called the GIMP.
http://www.gimp.org
And if you're put off by the GIMP interface, you can make it look closer to Photoshop.
http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294
Here's an article on one publisher embracing the idea of using open source.
http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/06/07/2044240.shtml
Ack! So will GIMP!
http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/
Be careful on installing any new software. Some of this open source stuff can be a bit tricky.
http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/
Be careful on installing any new software. Some of this open source stuff can be a bit tricky.
My experiences with the GIMP on OSX have been really rather negative. Aside from the issues in getting Wacom tablet pressure support working (I never did manage), I found it too resource-intensive (more memory than anything) for even basic tasks when working on pages 300dpi and up. Flat colouring shouldn't go to swap within two layers and ten minutes on a 1.25Ghz G4 with a gig of memory lying around and very little else running.
Inkscape, in my experience, runs so unstably on OSX that I can't even count on it to not crash on start.
I wouldn't like to advocate a move to cheap PC hardware; what Linux can run on and what's appropriate for production work are two very different things. Desktop publishing doesn't carry the same requirements as, say, file or network services.
Inkscape, in my experience, runs so unstably on OSX that I can't even count on it to not crash on start.
I wouldn't like to advocate a move to cheap PC hardware; what Linux can run on and what's appropriate for production work are two very different things. Desktop publishing doesn't carry the same requirements as, say, file or network services.
Wow! That's weird. My Linux software/open source experiences have been overwhelming positive. I have Mepis Linux running on a modest machine and I have no problems with it.
I'm getting ready to build a dedicated Ubuntu machine to give all those programs a try in the battlefield. I'll keep you posted.
Inkscape crashing? I've run it on a Windows machine for a while and have had no problems. Who would have thought it would crash on a Mac?
If you don't want to go the free software route, I would suggest getting a FULL version of the Adobe CS suite. The standard version of the CS2 suite runs around $879.00 bucks over at atomicpark.com.
There is CS2 deluxe suite, but that comes with Acrobat and Go Live. I don't think you need all those.
$879 is a chunk of change, but you do get Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which would all cost much more seperate.
InDesign is getting high marks from many former Quark users because it is easy to use and some people feel alienated from Quark's current versions. For more details, read the reviews of both on Amazon.com.
BTW, a full version of Quark alone will run you almost that much.
The new versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are worth the money alone. I would just buy the full CS2 suite and be done with it.
I'm getting ready to build a dedicated Ubuntu machine to give all those programs a try in the battlefield. I'll keep you posted.
Inkscape crashing? I've run it on a Windows machine for a while and have had no problems. Who would have thought it would crash on a Mac?
If you don't want to go the free software route, I would suggest getting a FULL version of the Adobe CS suite. The standard version of the CS2 suite runs around $879.00 bucks over at atomicpark.com.
There is CS2 deluxe suite, but that comes with Acrobat and Go Live. I don't think you need all those.
$879 is a chunk of change, but you do get Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which would all cost much more seperate.
InDesign is getting high marks from many former Quark users because it is easy to use and some people feel alienated from Quark's current versions. For more details, read the reviews of both on Amazon.com.
BTW, a full version of Quark alone will run you almost that much.
The new versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are worth the money alone. I would just buy the full CS2 suite and be done with it.
Wow, that screenshot on their website makes the "Balloonist" software look terrible. Doesn't help that the lettering is bad as well.
Looks like in this case "nascent" equates to primordial stage.
Looks like in this case "nascent" equates to primordial stage.
If you're intrested, go to the Ubuntu site and look around. That seems to be the easiest distro to use now.
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