File talk:Paullusmagnus-logo (small).png/development

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This is a listing and discussion of the things that may need doing to the logo. Anyone is welcome to add suggestions or to implement things.

Source files

The current version on the English Wikipedia is a 135x135 pixel version scaled down from the large version. The sphere probably should not be abuting the sidebar line, so this may be a better size after all.

Changes (possibly) to be made

The process that I used to make this is a bit ... cluttered. Each step depends on the results of the previous one, so I suggest beginning by resolving early-on modifications and proceeding to later ones when there is a choice. The early-on ones seem to be the most important anyways. Paullusmagnus 19:42, 26 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Step 1

Surface of sphere - text

  • In general, this is where the text needs to be decluttered if possible. There are a few ways to do this:
    1. Increase spacing between lines
    2. Increase kerning between characters
    3. Increase space between words
    4. Lighten up text (This can be done later on, however)
    5. Use a lighter weight font
      • I think the font should be a serif font. I think an excellent choice for the font would be the Code2000 font becaue it has glyphs in almost every writing system in Unicode, and then the text could be of even greater variety, but yet would all somewhat "match" because the different glyphs were designed to be harmonious when mixed, even from different writing systems. For example, you could in clude glyphs in various cool-looking Indian writing systems, Mongolian, Tibetan, Georgian, Coptic, Hebrew, etc. As far as I can tell right now, all there is is Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, and CJK glyphs. -- Nohat PS Code2000 can be downloaded at [1]
  • "kallo" (or any similar cases), if the above doesn't kill it, needs to have a couple non-latin characters inserted to break it up
    • Maybe every adjacent glyph should be from a different writing system -- Nohat
    • Also, maybe the puzzle pieces and the text should not be orthogonal. Perhaps rotate the text -30 degress and the puzzle pieces 30 degrees? -- Nohat

Surface of sphere - puzzle pieces

  • In general, this seems okay, but someone suggested (I think) clear gaps between pieces instead of black. This may be possible because the raytracing should handle those gaps realistically, if shadows are enabled. This is a "try it and see" sort of thing.
    • I think it would good if the pieces were beveled at the edges, like a real jigsaw puzzle. The gaps could also be a bit thinner. Nohat

Step 2

Mapping and rendering

  • It is trivial to play with lighting, etc., but this step seems alright.

Step 3

Post-production tinkering

  • At this stage, the visibility of the text can be altered variably (so that, as it does now, the text can become nearly invisible toward the edges)
  • Some other touchups (adding noise to the piece backs, shrinking the gaps at corners between pieces) are performed here.
  • The puzzlesphere maybe ought to be shrunk some and a "The Free Encyclopedia" subtitle added. (Because of space constraints, the two go together, but each has individual benefits.) Eloquence tried this:

  • A drop shadow could be added. Eloquence tried this:

"WIKIPEDIA"

  • This should probably be moved down some. There are currently 2 pixels of buffer between the word and the bottom of the logo (and 1 pixel between the word and the sphere), but nothing goes directly below it on the page, so we could just shift the text down.
  • Someone has suggested changing the font.
    • I think that Garamound is "encyclopedic" (whatever that means), simple and dignified, but we should figure out what the consensus is. -- Paullusmagnus

Step 4

Post-shrinking tinkering

(The effects of this step are absent in the 135x135 example because it was regenerated from the large version)

  • Some more antialiasing cleanup (bringing lines out of a blur) should be done here.
  • Currently, the text lightening is performed here, leaving the text fully dark on the larger version, where everything is clearer.

Internationalization

see Wikipedia raster name