03/14/08 [DMFA #886] - Card game

[Kuari]

random curiosity, who on the calender was cancer?

These two:

Fluffy: Urge to clip off her feet at the ankles rising...   should I?  should I not.....  grr, so angry....

[AndersW]

...I just remember the picture of the  cast dressed up like the Zodiac...

I got my copy of the calendar:



And by the way Amber, if you'd like high-resolution scans of the artwork so you can skip recoloring it, I'd be glad to get them to you.

The only Calender I knew about was this.
C_January.jpg
C_February.jpg
C_March.jpg
C_April.jpg
C_May.jpg
C_June.jpg
C_July.jpg
C_August.jpg
C_Septermber.jpg
C_October.jpg
C_November.jpg
C_December.jpg

Where did you get that?

[Tapewolf]

The only Calender I knew about was this.  Where did you get that?

Must be an earlier one.  I was thinking of the 2006 one as well.

[Rafe]

My calendar images were from the 2007 calendar.  If I remember right, I got the calendar from Amber when we went to Anthrocon in 2006. 

[Gamma]

I pinch.

I Pinch?....

Maybe little pinch?............

No Pinch no pinch!

[Tapewolf]

My calendar images were from the 2007 calendar.  If I remember right, I got the calendar from Amber when we went to Anthrocon in 2006. 

May have been.  I chickened out of 2006 
However the calendar pictures we're thinking of were unveiled in January 2006, hence the confusion:
http://nice.llearch.net/dmfa_forum2932.htm

[AndersW]

My calendar images were from the 2007 calendar.  If I remember right, I got the calendar from Amber when we went to Anthrocon in 2006. 

Is it possible to get a copy of the 2007 calendar?

[Rafe]

Don't know if there are any left in Amber's posession.  I do believe all the finished art was lost in the previously mentioned computer crash.  I'm trying to remember who else was involved in producing them.  In any case they never got around to printing many of them.  I suppose I could sell my rare and valuable copy, but I'd have to get a massive amount of cash for it. 

I'm sure they could be reproduced if Amber saw enough interest to make it worth the trouble. 

[Lucheek]

I would just like t see the pictures, but I doubt that would help Amber much...

[RobbieThe1st]

I would just like t see the pictures, but I doubt that would help Amber much...

I second that!

[Rafe]

Well, maybe Amber would be willing to post them for some contributions -

If we had a "hostage auction", every time someone contributed, say, $20, another month's picture would appear.  You wouldn't even have to come up with 20 whole dollars, multiple people could send in smaller amounts, and as soon as it got up to another $20, the next one would go up, with a note like "November, featuring Matilda as Sagittarius, is brought to you by so-and-so".  A nice full page of art and text would then be posted.

That text is also a great part of these zodiacal artworks.  It's written by Amber, of course.

So anyway, what does everyone think? Is the price right, or too low? More importantly, will I be attacked by Amber for proposing this without asking first?

[Amber Williams]

I dont even have the original black and whites of the 2006 and 2007 calendar anymore...much less the digital versions. 

If anyone who has the desire to scan/post their calendars is about, feel more than free. Its not like I am gonna lose any profits.

[Rafe]

That's good enough for me.  I'm going to set up the auction and finally get the money for Amber out of this she should have had, but for the hard drive crash.

Look for the "DMFA Horriblescopes" Auction thread later today.  I'm off to get the artwork looking nice and shiny.  Thanks in advance. 

[Fuyudenki]

C_May.jpg

'zit me or have all(both?) of the confirmed DMFA weres so far been redheads?(the May mouse, and Hahwru)

Also.  May.  Yay for may!

[Pagan]

It's probably nothing, but if the were race was only populated by attractive redheads... I'm so on a quest to find them.

[Amber Williams]

*pokes Rafe* I wasnt really implying I wanted an auction for them...that would be kind of...wierd. I dunno.

I meant more that if peeps just wanted to post the pages, they were free to. I dont expect any returns because like I said, I lost the hi-rez and I dont have access to the originals.  There is nothing really there worth charging for.

one day I would like to go and do another calendar...but sadly I need to work out a better system. Both times I have tried the problem came with the printing in that the person doing the printing couldn't meet the demand and quality.  And I am too stubborn to go with the cheap alternative of a "poster size" one pager that he kept trying to suggest.

So its kind of moot point.

[Rafe]

Oh, Okay.  Sorry.

[Amber Williams]

Its no problem. And dun get me wrong, I appreciate the thought.

If I still had the images, I would probably post them for everyone to see myself.  Its just that I dont. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

the "couldn't meet the demand and quality" thing - is that the demand is too low, and the quality too high, for the price point you're willing to accept as valid?

Just in case anyone else out there is wondering, and stuff. It'd be interesting to know what price point you're limiting yourself to, because it may well be I, and probably others, would be happy to pay more if necessary. I'll admit it'd lower your sales, but one of the reasons we like your work is you go out of your way to keep the quality high...

[Amber Williams]

I dont feel its right to charge more than $20-$25 for a calendar.  Which...granted in regards to the prices some peeps set for merchandise...is insanely cheap since I know some peeps who charge $20 for a single image print.

I dont think demand has ever been too low. Its just that unless I seem to charge $40-$50 per calendar, most small printing groups dont want to even consider the behemouth that is a 12 month calendar.

I dunno. I am not the best when it comes to gauging merchandise prices. I felt $20-$25 is a nice range because it still doesnt set it insanely far from a regular calendar price. But then again I guess regular calendars have the advantage of mass printing.

Merchandising and pricing and business is not my strong suit.  I am terrible at it and dont have the head for it. I just draw gud gud.

[RobbieThe1st]

One idea I have been toying around with, although I am not sure how practical it would be:
Just like the early calendar, you use those bind-ring things, and each page is a 8.5X11 standard piece of paper - after its printed, the wholes for the bind-ring is punched in one of the long sides.
It might be a tad smaller than a standard calendar, but could be printed extremely cheaply, on any inkjet/laser/solid ink printer. It would require a bit of work however, punching for the ring and putting it together.

Heck, with this, you could probably have the issue printed on-demand by one of our members, and the cost per printing would be less than a dollar per copy.

You could even just set up the pages, in TIFF or PDF form for download, and people could make their own. I know that double-sided printing can be done on any inkjet or other printer(with a bit of work), and it wouldn't be *too* hard to do.

Another option would be a print-on-demand service, like http://www.lulu.com/en/products/calendars/
For a standard 8.5X11 calendar, overhead for them would be $11.29, so if you sold it at $20, you would make $8.71. And, the advantage of this is no cost to you - you just design it, and get payed when someone buys one. Also, you don't run out of stock - they can always make more when someone buys one.


-RobbieThe1st

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

lulu does calendars?

Now -there- is a good option. The only limit is quality on the output - and it doesn't hurt to ask someone there how to optimise things for best quality, then look at the output.

Of course, there is also the downside of this: Amber has to spend time doing the calendar, instead of doing strips. On the other hand, starting now would probably be a good move ;-]

For my part, I'd be happy to pay 30 or 40 for the quality of calendar Amber brought out before. The only problem was, she didn't have enough, and/or wasn't able to ship overseas, as I recall. :-/

[CameronCN]

Lulu's calendars don't look real spectacular. They're still pretty good, but with the way Ambers talking about getting high quality, I don't think they'd be good enough for her. I haven't ever bought a CafePress calendar, but they look like they might be better. Has anyone else bought one recently?

Also, could somebody with one of the old calendars pleeeeez scan it and post the images? Think of all the deprived fans like me, wallowing in misery because of malartrition!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Ah, useful information. Although given lulu's setup, once you've got all the images, you can put them all together into a calendar just to see, fairly easily. I'd think so, anyway.

Of course, that's a lot of setup work for no result, but you'd hope you can re-use most of it for the other options. And if it works...

Anyway. All this is a bit of waffly hand-waving...

[Rafe]

Here's Sagittarius featuring Matilda. 



This one posts here at 500 x 339, about 1/47 the file size of the high-res scan (about 300 dpi).  Take a look at the high-res version here:

http://24.106.113.210/otown/horriblescopes11c.jpg

Anybody think that one, printed at 300 dpi on an 8.5 x 11, isn't high enough quality to sell?

[Edit - I'm not trying to argue here. If it isn't good enough for Amber, that's what matters.]

[RobbieThe1st]

http://24.106.113.210/otown/horriblescopes11c.jpg

Ok - a bit of a problem here - I loaded up the full-sized image, and while it looks ok shrunk down, I am worried that that image did not get uploaded fully - At full size, I notice a large amount of artifacts, which look like jpeg-artifacts. It could be because the image did not get uploaded fully, or it could be because of low-quality compression.
As I wrote that last line, I checked the image, and noticed this in the comment:

File written by Adobe Photoshop¨ 5.0

It looks to me that while the scanned image may be printable, the version you uploaded may not be printable.

Don't get me wrong - I appreciate your uploading this for us and all, but I am just afraid that this isn't good enough quality to print in its current form.
If you did it deliberately, to lower the file size, it is ok, but Amber, or llearch, or whoever ends up making the calendar will need full quality scans to work on.

If you are having trouble because you have no place to upload to(File-size limit or w/e), I can set you up with a place.


Edit:
Ok... I am sure that something is wrong with the large-size image - I rescaled the small-sized image up to the size of the full-size image, and the smaller one actually is a bit better quality at that size!

Again, thanks for uploading, but yea...


-RobbieThe1st

[Rafe]

I scanned the original as a .PSD.  I had to rotate and crop it, and did some cleaning up (some printing on the reverse was showing through).  I changed it to a .jpg, full size (3223 x 2455), at the lowest compression, and that's '11c.

  I reduced it in size (808 x 614), also used lowest compressionand that's '11cR. 

I just downloaded and checked it again, and the full size image was loaded fully, and downloads fine for me, and looks as good or better than the original print (300 dpi at approximately 8.5x11 inches). and looks a lot better than the small version. 

Yes you'll see .jpg artifacts, because IT'S A .JPG.  Therefore, it's compressed (as little as possible)  I didn't expect everyone out there to be able to use a .psd. It's also from a scan of a color half-tone print - a good print, but if you look at it in "actual pixel" size you can see the grain.  My point is that, if printed in the original size (which you can't see on a monitor, unless you stand ten feet away) it's as good as the print.

I use Firefox as a browser, and my ISP doesn't have me on any image-downsizing speed-up software.  Anyone else having trouble?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Ah, I think I see part of the problem.

The smaller image you've posted is 808x614, as you've said. The forum shrinks that to 500 or so, and the browser attempts to sort that out, resulting in a fairly poor image embedded. If you open the image directly, the browser shows it at near full size. Expanding it out to full size (slightly larger than the space I have on screen) results in an image that is significantly better to look at. *ahem*

I think, as Robbie says, if anyone wants to print it out, the PSD versions would probably be a better idea - if only so they can apply whichever management works best, in the minimal amount possible, to get the effect they're working for.

However, having said that, the image you've provided is probably "good enough" for most purposes... ;-]

[e_voyager]

it's much larger then the space i have on my screen but still it's nice to see the calendar.

[Rafe]

If you want to see it "screen sized", look at the small version posted above. 

It's not really that small.  Unfortunately, you can't post anything over 500 pixels high or you'd see it here.  The forum shrinks it.  Assuming you didn't know how to read the image location and look at the actual image instead of the shrunken version, I'll make it easy -

CLICK HERE

Looks pretty good, doesn't it.  Remember, that one is just 1/16 the size of the original file,  The image is about the same size, but more like photo quality,