Prepping for Print

Reinder · Post by **Reinder** » Tue Nov 06, 2001 4:31 am

I've been going back to my originals to prepare them for a future print edition. One thing I found it essential to do was to fill in black areas on the original art so that I would have a definitive version of the drawings that I wouldn't have to fill in on the computer again. This did pose some problems though: <IMG SRC="http://www.rocr.net/images/corbies-web.png">
This is a panel from <A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/d/20010531.html" TARGET=_blank>Curse of the Corbies part 1</A> as it appears on the website. Look how I "skirted" the problem of the dresses becoming an indistinct black blob by making Krakatoa's dress blue. <IMG SRC="http://www.rocr.net/images/corbies-print.png">
This is how I will do it in print. It's close to the edge but I think it works. <IMG SRC="http://www.rocr.net/images/corbies-print-enlarge.png">
This is an enlargement to show that the dresses do not, in fact, become an indistinct black blob.But on the whole the work on "Corbies" has been straightforward. The main problems now are choosing a language (Dutch or English) and deciding between hand lettering and electronic lettering. I lean toward hand lettering now because I'm fed up with computer work <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"> but I will want to keep my originals clean for use in other languages.However, with <A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/d/20010711.html" TARGET=_blank>Dolphins and Dragons</A>, I used my electronic box of tricks so extensively that it will probably be impossible to go back to "analog" publishing. Even a lot of things that look handmade, like the rain in the storm sequence, aren't. So that will probably have to go through the box of tricks again, at high-res (what fun it will be to wait for every change in those huge files), and then I might as well letter it electronically...------------------
Reinder Dijkhuis
<A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/" TARGET=_blank>Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan</A>, Humorous fantasy strip, updated Mon-Fri, and really rather good. <A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/d/20000701.html" TARGET=_blank>Read it from the first strip!</A><A HREF="http://whio.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>White House in Orbit</A>

Reinder · Post by **Reinder** » Tue Nov 06, 2001 10:40 am

As I said, Dolphins and Dragons will demand more digital work. One problem is the common use of Gradients which will need to be halftoned. This is the result of a bit of playing around with the GIMP's Newsprint filter. It's fairly crude and allows only three basic levels of grey, but it does allow smooth fades between those levels and will probably do the trick.Spons in color, as a glowing purple thing:
<IMG SRC="http://www.rocr.net/images/spons-color.png"> And an experimental image showing him in halftone:
<IMG SRC="http://www.rocr.net/images/spons-halftone.png"> It takes some work with layers that I soooo look forward to doing with the giant images that print demands, and I will have to learn to work with the plugin, but I think I will eventually have a hig-res halftoned
set of master files that will look good in print------------------
Reinder Dijkhuis
<A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/" TARGET=_blank>Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan</A>, Humorous fantasy strip, updated Mon-Fri, and really rather good. <A HREF="http://www.rocr.net/d/20000701.html" TARGET=_blank>Read it from the first strip!</A><A HREF="http://whio.keenspace.com/" TARGET=_blank>White House in Orbit</A>