Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with graphics

Please help me remember a website containing digitized old illustrations and woodcuts.

odinsdream — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:29:13 -0800

Please help me find an online collection of old woodcuts and other decorative elements available as vector drawings. I've lost my bookmark to it. Example images inside. This website was a wonderful collection of old artwork that had been digitized and was mostly available free, or for minimal cost. The collection was organized into categories and included stylized capital letters, art deco, nature imagery, religious and ceremonial, etc.

I used the resources for our wedding invitations and programs, so I have a folder of a few of the files that I know came from this site. I've tried to research the filenames without success.

Here are the few that I have, in case someone recognizes one of them. I've converted them to PNG format for display in a browser, but they were all originally EPS:
alfredj.png
bradle1yorn.png
ornamentalm.png
orndaisy.png
platinm.png
stationers.png
vintage.png

Thanks!

Recommend a graphics card for my new TV

muckster — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:59:50 -0800

Do I need a new video card to hook my PC up to my new HDTV? I have a Dell PC with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card. It has two connections, one DVI and one S-Video.

I used to convert the DVI to RGB and connect that to my Dell monitor at the max resolution of 1680 x 1050. The S-Video was connected to my tube TV, which worked just fine.

The new TV is a Toshiba 40" 1080p, so of course I'd like to feed it something better than S-Video. I tried connecting the RGB, which gives me a max resolution of 1360x768 -- but it leaves me with S-Video for the monitor, which is pretty freakin' ugly.

Here's the question: is there a way I can use a splitter or similar to feed the DVI (or RGB) into both the monitor and the TV at a resolution both will be happy with? Or do I have to get a new HDMI-ready graphics card? If I do, can you recommend one that might last me little while without breaking the bank? Under $100 would be great. I play the occasional game of TF2 but media is going to be the main use. Blu-Ray might be nice one day. I don't need to expand to a second monitor and would be just as happy cloning the same image on both screens. Thanks much.

T-shirt graphic search

lou — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:49:51 -0800

Where can I find some high-quality images of models (male and female) wearing blank colored t-shirts? Basically, so I can use them to mockup t-shirt designs on actual people wearing actual shirts. Different colors are key-- I'm looking for navy blue and red/maroon at the moment-- and relatively high quality, you know, larger than a 400x300 gallery thumbnail. Google image search doesn't help much.

Of course, I'd prefer anything freely available/accessible, so don't refer me to stock image sites-- I know about them, not willing to pay for them right now.

Move this, word!

fantasticninety — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:17:42 -0800

Is there a website that allows you to create moveable font type vids? I'd like to know if there's a free site which allows people to type in text and then choose options to create a rough and ready version of this kind of thing.

Saving a large photoshop file

cairnish — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:32:10 -0800

Photoshop CS3 for the graphically impaired. I'm struggling to create a banner print file. Two-by-eight foot banner. 200-300 dpi (ppi?). Somehow I'd like to end up with a file I can take to Lazerquick and have them print me a vinyl banner to hang from an outdoor pop-up canopy (and occasionally from a banquet table). I'm guessing 2x8 feet would work. Tartan background with our club name reversed out in white text. (I'm a design dullard.)

I started with a snippet from a tartan wallpaper sample. I've tried to clone that to approximately the right aspect ratio and then resample it up to 24 x 96 inches at 300 dpi (there's a little box at the top of PS that says either dpi or ppi - also tried 200), which is what Lazerquick and FedEx/Kink's tell me they want. After grinding the hard disk for A Very Long Time, and watching the iStat graphic chip temperature climb :-) I think I might have a usable file. If I save it as psd - no go, fails with file too big. I tried saving it in Large Document Format instead, and my poor iMac ground for another eternity and then gave up with a "Can't save - not enough disk space." Oh dear, I thought maybe a spare 100GB would be sufficient. Humph. I googled reports that PS7 had problems recognizing disk space, but from what I can see, I should be successful using PSB format.

So, uh, how do people print giant colorful banners? Is my problem that I'm trying to scale up a bitmapped wallpaper graphic? Do I need to hire someone to replicate the tartan in vector format to get the file size under control?

Help me understand homogenous coordinates

tickingclock — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:37:11 -0800

Help me understand homogenous coordinates! I encountered homogenous coordinates in computer graphics, where I understand that they let us translate vertices. But this is a rather shallow level of understanding, and I don't really get why, for instance, the position of the light source in OpenGL is necessarily specified with (x, y, z, w). Is it kind of like how there is an infinite number of points that can correspond to a single point on a 2D image at (x, y), but by specifying a third dimension, we can disambiguate between the different points?

I've tried reading Googling and I've tried reading Wikipedia -- but to no avail. I'm really hoping that somebody in the hive mind can explain it at a level that I can understand, and also why homogenous coordinates are important on a more broad level. Thanks!

edit detection

yegga — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:41:10 -0800

I'm interested in detecting edits in a given video stream. Is there any literature out there on edit detection? The idea is to take in an arbitrary video stream as input, and detect 'edits', 'scenes' or 'cuts' in the stream. Further, to try and cluster similar kinds of edits/scenes/cuts.

How would you go about researching this?

Some examples:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1579591

Graphic Choices

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:55:58 -0800

Academics, Researchers, and Writers: What software do you use for creating the graphics that accompany your journal (or mainstream) article submissions? I know this will be different depending on the topic, field, and journal. I'm trying to get a feel for the full range of choices.

These Photos Suck

effugas — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:41:32 -0800

I need an automated method for measuring the quality of an image. Specifically, I'm trying to measure how blurry an image is -- both in gaussian terms, and along a motion-blur -- and how noisy an image is. I understand how to do this if I have an original, high quality image to compare against, but in this scenario all I have is the degraded image. What should I use, and are there any existing codebases to build from?

How graphic is too graphic?

wabbittwax — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:14:01 -0800

I'm back on the job market and considering applying to a few graphic design firms, help me decide how fancy to make my resume. I've been working in print shops for the last 6 years, doing pre-press and some graphic design as necessary. I've done a few other little graphic design projects on the side as well but haven't amassed a very large portfolio.

In applying to graphic design firms, should I get really design-y with my resume and cover letter? I've always believed that simplicity is best in resumes so I go to great lengths to lay out my resume very cleanly and simply. But looking at these firms' websites makes me feel that this approach might be inadequate and that I need to supply something with more flair and colour.

So what I really want to know is, does a full colour resume package with a logo and other graphics sell me better or does it get dismissed as noise? More generally, should I include samples of my work at this stage or wait to be asked for them?

Computer graphics resources?

yegga — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:10:29 -0800

Computer Graphics resources? What books, blogs and websites do you recommend for someone interested in the theory and programming of computer graphics?

Another Help Me pick a Graphics Card for a fear Commitment

token-ring — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:04:06 -0800

My roommate is trying to build a computer on the cheap, giving me the perfect opportunity to sell him my BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT and purchase a nicer graphics card. I don’t know squat about buying a graphics card, and I have just spent an hour on newegg.com looking at cards and I can’t bring my self to commit to any one particular card. I was hoping the hive mind and its infinite wisdom can point me in the direction of a particular card that is compatible with my computer. My Requirements:
*Play Crysis and Crysis Wars on either high, or the setting below high @1680x1050. (I think it’s called something like ‘enthusiast’ and ‘gamer’)
*Play nicely with my current setup
*Either 2 DVI’s or a DVI and an HDMI (If I ever want to do dual monitors)
*Price range: I would like between $100 and $150, but I am willing to go a little higher if I need to.

My Current Computer:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz “Yorkfield”
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB GDDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Power Supply: LOGISYS 550W power supply
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Business Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Direct X: DX10
Monitor: Samsung ToC SynchMaster T240HD

Here is a full CPU-Z report on my system and its detail specs, the Graphics card information is at the bottom.

I found a bunch of cards on newegg.com that seemed reasonable, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that wont work or will not give me a performance boost. One card that has been already recommended to me is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849

Can the hivemind help me pick a card that will fit my current setup and not break the bank?

Need Illustrator reference recommendations

karmaville — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:51:44 -0800

I can competently use Illustrator CS3 and do so daily for my job but want to increase my knowledge base and skills. I currently would call myself a mid-range user but typically use illustrator for simple designs--usually integrated with photos from Photoshop--and signs, cards, posters, etc. I'd like to expand my knowledge into custom shapes, vectors, and some other upper level stuff as I am mainly self-taught on an as needed basis.

Any recommendations on tutorials, web sites, people to follow, essential books, etc.? I use the Visual Quickstart Guide for CS3 as my basic reference but want more. Step by step tutorials either web or video are my preferred option but anything else would be great too.

Web graphics and ads filter?

jpg15 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:53:11 -0800

Web filter filter: I seem to remember a link to an NYT article that just contained the full text of the article in nice big letters, with no graphics, banners, or ads. It was fully attributed, with links to the original, but it was much more pleasant to read, especially for a long article. Is there a website that will filter out the clutter and provide links that can be forwarded?

What to charge for graphics?

Rykey — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:06:12 -0800

Designed a logo/mascot for a friend's online business with the understanding that we'd "work something out" when he started to make some money. Now his business has taken off, and I'm not sure what to ask for. I'm not a professional graphic designer, but I'm handy enough with graphics that a friend asked me to design a logo for his new online business. Since neither of us knew how well his company would do, we agreed that I'd design the logo, we'd see how his startup did, and worry about the money then (we're close enough that this wasn't an idiotic arrangement).

His company has taken off pretty well, so we're trying to figure out how to best approach a fee structure for my work. My design includes the "mascot" for his brand, so it'll likely be reincarnated many times over as he introduces new products.

I'd like to ask for a percentage of his sales as long as my design is used (as opposed to asking for a straight one-time fee for each design), but I have no idea how much to ask for, or whether this is a good idea. In searching previous questions to AskMe, I saw an interesting suggestion here regarding the licensing of graphics work, so maybe that's more what I should be after.

This isn't a "I did some work on a handshake, and now I'm afraid of getting screwed" question. My friend is more than willing to pay me for my work, and anticipates keeping me on as his company's graphic designer as his business grows. We're just not sure what a fair price for my work would be.

Why in modern video games are all the enemies still clones?

straight — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:49:00 -0800

Why, in video games, am I moving through an endless variety of environments but killing the same enemies over and over? I think this may be changing in the current generation of games, but if you go back just a few years to something like Half-Life 2, you have these games with enormous amounts of work put into creating level after level of unique environments, but then you have just a handful of models and skins for enemies and NPCs. You never see the same place twice, but you see the same characters over and over.

Why the disparity? Does it really take more work to make a single enemy than to make an entire level? Is this just an accepted convention carried over from the days when computers and consoles only had a tiny amount of room for character sprites?

I'd think that even if making functionally distinct enemies was too hard, they could at least create some (random?) variation in the size/shape of the models or in the skins to make the characters as unique as the environments.

And then there's games like Oblivion and Assassin's Creed where they do have lots of unique individual people but they keep saying the same handful of dialogue over and over. Wouldn't hiring a writer to make more dialogue cost about 1% of what they paid the artists to make all the different people? AC is particularly weird because you have different actors reading the same dialogue (when you save a woman from the guards, she'll give you one of three speeches, read by one of a dozen actors) so it's not like they were working within limits on disk space for the audio.

What graphics card do I need?

drjimmy11 — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:35:18 -0800

What graphics card do I need? I am doing some fairly advanced video editing on my Intel Mac Pro tower (about 2 years old). i thought I had the setup I needed- quad core, 8gb RAM, eSATA external drives.

But I'm getting an error message, specifically calling out my graphics card as not being able to render certain effects with the "size and depth of video" I'm using. In addition, I would like to be able to use my Oleva flatscreen tv as an external monitor, and cannot currently do so due to lack of compatible outputs from the computer.

Is there a card i can buy that will solve both these problems? Also, do I replace the current card, or just add a new one in an empty slot? I know a fair bit about computers, but my ignorance of graphics cards is almost total.

thanks!

Under Construction

wcfields — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:10:33 -0800

Where are some repositories of Web 1.0 style graphics and icons? I can only recall Graphic Station from its old Geocities days but was wondering if there are anymore like it?

I want to put a web site on my Kindle.

grumblebee — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:20:06 -0800

Is there a simple way to convert a multi-page website to a mobi-format book for reading on a Kindle? The site contains html-text plus graphics, but no interactivity. It's an online computer manual. It has a home page, which is a table of contents. Each item in the contents links to a different web page.

The individual pages are composed of text and screenshots of the application.

I want to be able to read this manual on my Kindle, rather than on my laptop. I don't want to read it on the crappy Kindle web-browser, because I won't always be able to be online. (My apartment is in a Sprint dead zone.)

I assume that I'd have to make one big web page out of all the site pages and then convert from html to mobi.

Is there a way to turn a site into a single page?

Is there a way to then turn that page into a mobi document (or something else the Kindle reads) that still contains images?

Help me find good interactive maps

janet lynn — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:16:53 -0800

What interactive maps have you seen that do a particularly good job illustrating an issue? I'm thinking about trying to put one together to illustrate a project I've been working on, which is loosely about policy changes, and I can't believe no one's done this before. This, from Newsweek, kinda gets it ... but I'm looking for other ideas.

Now...In 3-D!

mattdidthat — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:10:00 -0800

With what imaging software was the new Sci-Fi Channel logo created? The logo looks like it was built from cardboard or HD polyurethane foam and then photographed, but I'm certain it's not that simple, and I don't think its creators used Photoshop--I think they used a 3-D modeling program. Note the different lighting effects and shadows here, and here.

What 3-D modeling programs would I use to create those effects? Are they compatible with Illustrator CS4? I'm on a Mac.

What is a good source for very high quality 3D people?

sharkitect — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:14:33 -0800

What is a good source for high-quality 3D people for use in digital architectural models? Polygon count and cost are of no concern, while natural-looking faces, textures, and poses are a must. I'm finding that clients (and I) are immediately turned off by weird-looking people in our renderings. Our current models are from AXYZ and Lowpolygon3D and are totally unacceptable. I'd prefer to use plain silhouettes in these situations, but unfortunately that's not an option.

Image editing to change colored lines to a black and white pattern

storybored — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:51:27 -0800

I have a line graph with the lines in color. I want to reprint it in a black and white publication. What's the fastest and easiest way to edit the lines in the graph to change them from color to a readable black and white pattern (e.g. dots, dashes). Here is the color image: http://dshort.com/charts/bears/four-bears-large.gif

So for example, I would like to replace the blue line labelled "current bear" with a black and white patterned line of (e.g.) dots.

The one clumsy way I could think of is to sample the blue color and change it to black then use an eraser tool to break up the black line into a pattern. Ugh.

How do I bend an image around a sphere in Illustrator?

namith — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:11:39 -0800

Illustrator CS3: How can I 'bend' an image around a sphere like this? I tried the steps here, but I cannot make the sphere invisible, so my shape is shown on a colored sphere. I don't want to see the sphere, just the perspective on the shape. Thanks.

Good Graphic Design Porfolio Services/Sites

Tim McDonough — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:21:16 -0800

What are some good online graphic design portolio services? Free is great but I don't mind paying for some quality either. I'm a broadcast designer so I have a lot of motion graphics to show. Thanks!