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Subject: 
Re: Instructions for Mobile Message Decoder
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.space, lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish.html
Date: 
Mon, 7 Jan 2002 23:07:42 GMT
Viewed: 
83 times
  
In lugnet.space, William R. Ward writes:
"Tony Hafner" <hafhead@PANTSplanetquake.com> writes:
I've just finished the largest set of instructions I've ever done.  This is
for the Mobile Message Decoder, one of my entries in the Blacktron contest.
Half of the reason I'm posting is to ask for input on the style of the
instructions.

Check it out here:
  http://www.hafhead.com/lego/myspace/bttrain/steps01.html

It looks really good but there are a few comments I'd like to add.

There's not enough contrast within the black pieces.  On my monitor it
just looks like one large black POOP rather than several black pieces
stuck together.  LEGO uses a dark grey in their instructions, with a
heavy black line to show the outline of the piece.  I'd recommend
doing the same.  Using a darker background should make it easier to
make out the details as well.

Yes- tweaking with the colors would probably be very helpful.  I believe
that MLCAD lets you do this.

I'm confused about the "darker background" comment though.  At least one
other person mentioned this.  I can certainly understand that another color
(better still, a background image) would make it look nicer, but this isn't
like photography where glare in one area causes the whole image to wash out.
Note that I'm not arguing with you... I guess I just don't get it.

Also, I think that in terms of navigation, it's a good idea to number
the steps rather than use arrows.  It's not clear whether the first
page shows 6 steps or 3, for example.

Does anyone have any ideas how to easily do this?  Ideally, I could get a
batch-style program that would splice in number images to specified
coordinates in an image.  Of course, that adds more steps anyway...

I don't want to use the MLCAD numbers because I really don't like how they
look and because I need to position them differently in the picture.

Instead of having "Page N of 16" be the link, I'd show that as regular
text with "Previous" and "Next" links to the left and right of it.  Or
do like Goooooooogle does, with a link to each of the 16 pages.

Yes, if I end up doing separate versions for print and browsing then I'll
definitely have clearer links for the browsing versions.

Thanks for the comments!

--
Tony Hafner
www.hafhead.com



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Instructions for Mobile Message Decoder
 
(...) It's not as bad as in photography, but the human eye has its limitations too - they just aren't as limiting as those of film. (...) Make them several images and use HTML to lay them out? Shouldn't be too hard to come up with 10 images (one per (...) (23 years ago, 7-Jan-02, to lugnet.space, lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish.html)
  Re: Instructions for Mobile Message Decoder
 
Tony Hafner <hafhead@PANTSplanetquake.com> wrote in message news:GpLC8u.1sw@lugnet.com... (...) I know I replied on this already, but to augment what I said, you could make your numbers _and_ your pictures transparent gif's, then simply place them (...) (23 years ago, 8-Jan-02, to lugnet.space, lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish.html)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Instructions for Mobile Message Decoder
 
(...) There's not enough contrast within the black pieces. On my monitor it just looks like one large black POOP rather than several black pieces stuck together. LEGO uses a dark grey in their instructions, with a heavy black line to show the (...) (23 years ago, 7-Jan-02, to lugnet.space, lugnet.cad, lugnet.publish.html)

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