+OLD CS1 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) I have been obsessing over the whole label and manual measurements and coloring and have found that, holy carp, TI was not very consistent. Some manuals have a pretty much navy blue top stripe (Sneggit) while others (Star Trek) are purple-ish. As well, these respectively have an outline and solid TI logo. But it does not stop there. In the 30 new-style manuals I have, no two were exactly alike in color and measurement.Now, the labels. Again, TI seemed fairly consistent in its inconsistency. Of the four labels I measured I found two to be 3 5/8 x 9/16 inch, one 3 9/16 x 1/2, and one 3 19/32 x 17/32. The ratio was pretty consistent there, though. TI was very consistent about the logo placement and the dividing line, the latter being 9/16 from the left edge, the logo being 9/32 square. On a 9/16 tall label, the logo sits 4/32 from the top and left edge of the label, and 5/32 from the dividing line and bottom edge of the label. Text is roughly centered on the logo, with the top of text at 5/32 from the top, bottom sitting 10/32 (5/16) from the top and about 3/16 from the bottom, and sitting 1/8 from the dividing line.All that said, I am certainly not trying to insist that labels follow any particular standard, just that comparing mine against TI's started me down a trail which I had to follow to the end. Edited October 1, 2014 by OLD CS1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 My standards are pretty simple. "Does it look good?" And I 'm partial to the TI orange and white on black labels. As long as they fit fairly well and are pleasing to the eye, I'm happy. The vinyl labels I've gotten from stickeryou.com look quite good. I ordered a page each of all the 512k cart (6 of them) labels and another page of the XB v2.7 Suite labels. They just shipped, so I'll have them in a few days. Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) My standards are pretty simple. "Does it look good?" And I 'm partial to the TI orange and white on black labels. As long as they fit fairly well and are pleasing to the eye, I'm happy. Word, dawg. I am trying to get my labels to resize properly in Sticker You's interface. I will probably order a batch of what I think looks right to see how they actually come out. Really wish I could do this myself and save me money and time. I feel like I am sending a stack of punch cards out to be batched that look right, but in two days the high priests will return them and a print-out to tell me that I screwed it all up with some mundane detail. Thank $_DIETY I missed out on those days. Edited October 7, 2014 by OLD CS1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 The two things I learned the hard way were to make the image brighter than you want the label to come out, and to make sure your border overlaps the black dotted line. My first batch was too dark and my 2nd batch had a white strip around the edges. $26 down the tubes. Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 (edited) TI Old-style Manual Template v1.2by "OLD CS1" at AtariAgeThis is a cover template for the old-style cartridge manual for the TI-99/4 and4A Home Computers. In its current format this template is not appropriate forspecialized manuals like the Mini Memory or TI Extended BASIC, though it couldbe modified. I hope you will find this template useful in making your ownor re-creating an older one.To change the background color, simply make the appropriate layer visible. Ibelieve I captured all of the possible colors: light blue, dark blue, green,purple, pink, amber, orange, and peach. If I find more I will update thetemplate.Customizeable sections below are important to the manual.Game title line 1, optionally 2:Franklin Gothic Heavy, 130px, italicizedThe title is right-aligned with the "COMMAND MODULE" text.If two lines are used, the longer line is right-aligned, andthe shorter line is left-aligned with the other line.SOLID STATE SOFTWARE/COMMAND MODULE:This layer is separated from the black stripe so you may use different texthere if desired.Game play synopsis:Franklin Gothic Demi, 36px, -4.0 line spacingThe game play synosis text is left-aligned with, and should not exceedthe right side of, the game screen cartoon. It should not be more thanfour lines long.Game screen cartoon:This area is a drawn representation of the game and is containedwithin the black border.Examples of these old-style manuals are found all over the Internet. Specialthanks to everyone at the AtariAge TI-99/4A Programming forum(http://ti99.atariage.com), and dphirschler and Lee Stewart for ponying upthe TI logo in GIMP and vector format when requested.A few noteables:0) This requires The GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program. It's a great programand available at http://gimp.org (or you can use the Ninite installer.)1) Yes, I purposefully left out the trademark symbol in the SOLID STATE SOFTWARElayer.2) I flattened out the layers which should not be modified to help prevent the textfrom being modified.3) I am not certain if the fonts will be included in the XCF. If not, the ones Iused here are available on the Internet for free (not all of the Franklin Gothicstyles are free, though, so choose wisely.)4) I am working on manual backs separately, and I do have a template for the new-stylemanuals. The problem with the new-style, however, is they varied widely, so a singletemplate may not always be appropriate.5) I am aware that the stripes are not all uniform in size. Neither were any of theoriginals (probably due to printing irregularities, but I do not see it necessary tomake a recreation perfect.)6) I would rather not have modified copies of this template distributed. If you thinksomething should be changed, let me know and I will try to accomodate. If you think youcan do better, you are welcome to use this as a foundation and distribute your own.v1.1: Neglected to crop the game screen cartoon layer, making it impossible to properlyalign stuff. Fixed. v1.2: Fixed the game play synopsis so it is actually editable, fixed the box size. Added the optional lower synopsis. old_style_manual_cover_template_v1.2.zip Edited November 1, 2014 by OLD CS1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 (edited) Had to make a quick update to the template. Also, I noticed when I made the thumbnail that this does not seem to resize well (one of the shaded stripes moves.) I will probably not fix this as the template is meant for printing, and in its current format at 300dpi it prints well. Edited October 7, 2014 by OLD CS1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Thanks, this is a very useful template! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Updated my manual cover template to fix a problem with the game play synopsis box so it can be edited and add the optional lower game play synopsis text box. The 30k jump in size is because I used Windows' compressed folders rather than 7-Zip to create the archive. Meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 (edited) I was playing around with a suggestion regarding cart labels made by an unnamed person at the Faire and came up with this. I can't decide whether it's ugly or cool. I'm leaning towards ugly. If it's decided that it's cool, I'll give credit to the suggester. Gazoo Edited November 23, 2014 by Gazoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I like it--but in following the update on an older theme, wouldn't it be more appropriate as a blue square on the left? Red was for the games. Once I get the finished labels back, I'll have a bunch of additional files to add to this thread as well (I want to make sure they come out right before uploading them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I was playing around with a suggestion regarding cart labels made by an unnamed person at the Faire and came up with this. I can't decide whether it's ugly or cool. I'm leaning towards ugly. If it's decided that it's cool, I'll give credit to the suggester. Gazoo Possibly change the red background to orange so that it matches the text, the red looks a little disjointed from the rest of the label (I actually think it would look better with a continuous black background complete with the ti logo that you have used), regardless-what you have already done still looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Well, I think this is just a little less ugly, but that's me. Gazoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 If I had to use alternate colors, I think this is the least offensive. Gazoo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I actually like the mutant orange one a lot, Gazoo. Switch to a solid black version of the solid white TI Emblem you had on the red label and it would be outstanding. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 I actually like the mutant orange one a lot, Gazoo. Switch to a solid black version of the solid white TI Emblem you had on the red label and it would be outstanding. . . If I had something easier to work with other than Paint, it might be a little easier. That last one was real labor intensive. Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 I don't like the different solid color on the left side (behind the TI logo), no matter the color. Looks weird to me. Darryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 But it is beautiful--the muted orange is a perfect counterpoint to the TI black. Thank you for doing it--I may have to make a page of these just to see what they end up looking like! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 An idea that just came to my mind: What about designing a new logo? It's not because I'd be concerned about the logo being a property of TI; I guess TI just won't care whether we continue to use their logo. But this seems to me like a new era. Maybe there could be a kind of modernized, stylized symbol, to represent the new generation. Just a thought. I'm not so good at designing anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 If I had something easier to work with other than Paint, it might be a little easier. That last one was real labor intensive. GIMP. Seriously. I can make a color change on your graphic in literally no time. But, really, using a better program it would be easier to eliminate, or at least mitigate, the anti-aliasing artifacts, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 GIMP. Seriously. I can make a color change on your graphic in literally no time. gazoo_xb27_green.png gazoo_xb27_purple.png But, really, using a better program it would be easier to eliminate, or at least mitigate, the anti-aliasing artifacts, too. Can you turn the red in this one to the orange as in the text? Thanks for the tip, I'll look for GIMP. Gee, you're super! Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I like the purplish one too. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Can you turn the red in this one to the orange as in the text? Thanks for the tip, I'll look for GIMP. Gee, you're super! Gazoo Best quickie I can do with the anti-aliasing of the original. I might be able to do better with a BMP as it seems to save the JPG in pretty low quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 That is one beautiful label there--many thanks for taking it on, OLD CS1!!! I will definitely make some of these. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildstar Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I like what is done so far. I will look into the labels set up for my own TI software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 That is one beautiful label there--many thanks for taking it on, OLD CS1!!! I will definitely make some of these. . . Use this one, instead. Problem with the select-by-color and the anti-aliasing. This should be the fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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