Round decks

[Greg the Yeti]

Hi again Tanjamuse,
just returned from walking with the dogs...
If I was right in guessing that you've created some round cards using a "Transparent" background and probably saved in JPG format then - what to do next?

There's no easy way to say the following, so I'll just say it - the JPGs that you've created will probably best be deleted. Sorry!...

You may have scans or originals at a higher resolution? I hope so.

1) If your scans or originals are in JPG format, that's not ideal but they may be usable. JPG compression and probably "Anti-Aliasing" will already have been added at least once.
My "Rule" is only ever to apply compression and/or "Anti-Alliasing" once in the preparation of your cards (and preferably at one and the same time).
With the JPG format is is possible to switch off "Auntie Aliasing" but not the compression, which does very similar things to the file.
If you've only got JPG scans or originals you may have already unwittingly applied two sets and will need to apply a reduction in file size, which is effectively a third set. Not ideal if you want the best quality. But those three processes will most likely have removed all "Moire" from the printed cards.

2) If your scans or originals are in TIFF or BMP format and at a high resolution - Brilliant! You can now achieve the very best results.

Do a little experimentation to find what reduction of image size works best when saved to either GIF or PNG.
PNG will be the best quality but pretty large file size, GIF will give pretty good results but much smaller file size (because only a reduced number of colours is used in the file). Scans from printed cards only use a limited range of colours anyway. Printing doesn't use the thousands of colours that PC monitors display!! So my advice is to go with GIF.
So now do all the cards with that setting. At this stage - and ONLY at this stage - use "Auntie Aliasing". It will help remove the "Moire" that was in the printed cards.

Why not just scan at a reduced resolution?
Well yes you can...
But scanners will only give you limited choices of resolution. You're graphic software can allow you almost infinite choice. Also scans at any reduced resolution count as having had at least one set of Compression/Anti-Aliasing done on them.You're scanning software WON'T let you turn this off!
I just prefer having the flexibility of having those higher resolution scans to go back to if I've made a mistake!! It gives you greater flexibility when it comes to working out what works/looks best!

Then do your "Cookie Cutting" to create the round/oval/irregular shaped cards. Use either white as the background or if there are any white areas within the graphic, choose another colour as the background that doesn't occur in the graphic. A really BOLD colour is likely to be the best choice... ( I have found that bold green, that is in most colour pallettes, to work with a lot of cards). Save this stage as GIF (or PNG) as well.
DON'T let your graphic software apply "Auntie Aliasing" at any of these further stages!!!
If you are unlucky you may find that your not very expensive/free graphic software applies "Auntie Aliaing" as a default at every stage. You may need to switch it off every time? Don't forget! It WILL show!

Finally when you've prepared you're lovely new round Deck, go to the Deck Properties Page in Orphalese and switch on "Transparency". Orphalese automatically chooses whatever colour occupies the pixel at the top left of the "00" card and makes that transparent in every card - and wherever it appears in the images.

If you chose the background colour unwisely you will find some transparent holes where they're not supposed to be...

Regards Greg

[Greg the Yeti]

You WON'T like the idea of deleting those lovely round cards you just created!

So you may not want to take my word for it, you may want the detail of why you can't just go into your graphic software and change the transparent to another colour and rock on...

Lets imagine taking a scan of a round card. Lets imagine it is a jet black card back (to make the result very obvious).
Then within some graphic software using a (perfectly round) circle shape as our "Coookie Cutter".

If you've done the job well there will be no white pixels WITHIN the Circle shape. Not only that there will be ONLY Jet Black and Pure White pixels.

Now lets save the file in JPG format. Lets choose White as the background colour here if that's not already done. And lets turn off "Anti-Aliasing" on the save dialogue (because the Yeti said it was a good idea).

We now think we havn't got "Auntie Aliasing" right? Wrong! JPG compression does more or less the same to an image, and by choosing JPG we've CHOSEN compression - you can't switch it off!

Now lets open the saved JPG file as a separate file within our graphic software and compare the two.

In contrast to the original Black "Cookie" in a sea of pure White, with NO white pixels within the Cookie itself, our new JPG image - sure it has that White background - but in addition to that there are now some grey-ish/white-ish pixels WITHIN the area that we know that "Cookie Cutter" cut. HOW the HELL?...

JPG compression and "Auntie Alias" both smudge the pixels at the edge (for "better" display on PC monitors). So where you formerly only had Jet Black and Pure White, now you have an edge with hundreds of different tones of grey, from very dark ones to very light ones. It's these pixels of grey which will wreck the presentation of the card with transparency within Orphalese.

In the case of using transparent as the background, the JPG compression STILL uses the default "White" as the colour it uses when performing the Compression/"Anti-Aliasing" at the edge. Naughty I know - but that's the way it works!

By changing the transparent to a different colour you wont be changing the other pixels within the "Cookie Cut" shape which were altered when you saved as JPG.

Go on you'll need to test this one out for yourself before you are willing to delete your hard worked files!!

Just to "check up on myself" and what I'm telling you, I did the test right now. You may find as I did that the grey pixels are quite faint and more noticeable outside the "Cookie" shape.
To get a proper idea of just how many different shades of grey were now in the image I took that JPG file and re-exported it to GIF format. Now the save as Dialogue shows the full gamut of different shades of grey already in the jpg image I'm exporting. Well it wasn't quite the hundreds I said above but was at least twenty dark shades of grey and just as many light shades of grey, with no "middling" shades of grey.

[Greg the Yeti]

Hey Tanjamuse,
at the end of writing a rather detailed answer for you (in three parts!) I noticed you're reply:-

"I didn't know that I could turn on transparency :)
Thanks so much it's now transparent in the corners."

If you're only wanting rounded corners then using "Transparency" is a rather "Over the Top" solution.

Try the much simpler "Round Edges" option, also on the Decks Properties Page. This doesn't require ANY special work on the cards, so it's MUCH simpler!

[Tanjamuse]

Hi Greg.

I scan all my decks, to use on tablet and computer.

In that process I always round off the corners to match the shape of the cards I hold in my hand.

I would prefer to see those round corners as well in Orphalese which is why I asked about the round corners.

Unfortunately, even though the cards appear transparent everywhere else, they don't in Orphalease unless I use the round-corner options or the transparency.

Could that be helped in any way?

[Greg the Yeti]

Hi Tanjamuse,

"Unfortunately, even though the cards appear transparent everywhere else, they don't in Orphalease unless I use the round-corner options or the transparency.
Could that be helped in any way?"

Orphalese is a brilliant Tarot/Card Oracle Program and has so many brilliant features and different options it could blow your mind - however it DOES display Transparency differently to most other programs (Graphics programs or Web Browsers for example). Any complaints about that will have to be addressed to "Programmer God"... I doubt any change on this (speedy or otherwise) since the current system WORKS - you just need to learn the "Inns and Outs" a bit!

I've produced and shared probably more decks using transparency than anyone else here, and in the process I've made ALL the mistakes and learnt how to get it done. I've posted all my findings here in this thread and on another thread at
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=21187
and become a bit of a self apointed expert on it?

If you do decide to continue using the Transparent feature rather than "Corner Rounding" then all the information you need is here (and I'll answer any questions). The earlier posts will have more about the mistakes and later on is more correct stuff. Sorry if I've been long winded in that learning curve. I've just tried to be thorough and accurate. I just wish I could edit out some of the duff stuff and make it all a bit more concise!!

But seriously if it's just for Rounded Corners, do consider using the "Corner Rounding" feature - it's so much simpler! In my opinion the "Transparent" feature is best for Round Cards, Oval Cards and Irregular cards of all shapes and sizes and even with holes in the middle - where it can perform wonders!

Regards and enjoy using the power of Orphalese!
Greg

[Tanjamuse]

Hi Greg.

That actually cleared it up.

I think I'll stick to the corner rounding feature.

I may return with more questions :)

[Greg the Yeti]

Hi Tanjamuse,
glad to have been of help!

If you have a stack of nicely scanned decks and are sharing them I will be sure to check them out!

I noted what you said in an earlier post about prefering your cards to look like the paper originals, with rounded corners just like them. While you're probably still thinking about your collection of decks and how best to use them in Orphalese can I BRIEFLY outline what I consider to be the "Ultimate Kickass" option...

I've seen quite a few "Cropped" decks on the Deck Share here.
But like you, I tend to prefer the cards with a border.
However unlike you, I've noticed that I quite like a whilte border with a square edge. (The round edge is primarilly to reduce the obvious damage which would happen to a square edge on a real paper card!)

With Orphalese you can have the option to try out all three and flip between them as the fancy takes you!

To do this:-
1) follow my advice elsewhere for preparing cards for "Transparency".
Using GIF (or PNG) format.
Only using Auntie Alias once in the chain of preparation.
Using in this case either a pure white or a pale cream background colour (or to taste).

2) Crop the image as accurately as you can.
Preferably make all the cards of the Deck the same pixel size, both ways.
If necessary, "Round Crop" the corners too.
So that there is nothing but the card image on that single-colour background.
(If there was text, Title or Number, in the margin you will need to decide if you want to put it back..)

3)"Size" the background either to match the Real Card's borders, or to your artistic sense...
(I tend to prefer a little narrower)

4)Scale it to best size and Save as GIF.

With these cards you can now:-

A) have full "Cropped" cards, using the "Transparency" option.
B) have perfect "Identikit" copies of the Real Deal, using the "Corner Rounding" option.
C) have ultra-modern "Square Edge" effect (© the Yeti?), using neither of the above options.

You might like? Who knows until they've seen it?...

Hope this helps
Regards Greg