William Overington

A thread on how various languages express that is snowing. https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?id=314 William

Can I also suggest to never lose your initial style of working. A lot of businesses start small, then expand, then have people running them who have come in and not had that initial struggle to get going, then it all gets corporate-ized and the business no longer had the spirit that it once had. Things take longer, things "can't be done, no no no!", and the structure creaks. What I mean by that is, for example, suppose an artist typically sells A3 prints. When starting up, if a customer wants an A2 print, the artist may well do the custom job. When it gets corporate-ized it can become "we don't do A2, never have, waah!" or "we'll have to ask the artist" but then they don't bother asking the artist, just regard the potential customer as a troublemaker who wants special treatment! Also, I suggest to never say you will do a job as "a favour" or "to oblige". It is a business transacation, paid for, complete in itself with no strings, real or pretend. You might find the following thread of interest. https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?id=311 William

I am learning some Welsh using the free course at duolingo.com and so I decided to try using Google translate to translate from the English text of the poem to Welsh. I have only been using the present tense thus far in the course, yet as the poem is all in the present tense, that seems not to be an issue. Here is the result from Google Translate, followed by some notes from me. If anyone reading this post knows Welsh then comments would be welcome please. Mae'n aeaf. Mae'n bwrw eira. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. Mae'n bwrw eira. Mae'r lliw yn wyrdd. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. Mae'n bwrw eira. Mae'r lliw yn llwyd. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. Mae'n bwrw eira. Mae'r lliw yn frown. Mae'r lliw yn felyn. Mae'r lliw yn oren. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. Mae'n bwrw eira. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. Three interesting thing about Welsh in the following sentence are the word order, the use of 'yn' and what I think is called weak soft mutation. Mae'r lliw yn wyn. The literal word for word translation to English seems to be Is the colour (doing) white except that in English that would be a question, but in Welsh it is a statement, as Welsh word order is not the same as English word order. Unlike English, where a question can be made from a statement by changing the word order, in Welsh the word order is not changed, but the word is changed. The Welsh for the 'the' is interesting as it can have one of three forms. If the previous word ends in a vowel then 'r is added to the previous word, else If the next word starts with a vowel then yr is used as a stand-alone word, else y is used as a stand-alone word. The basic word for white is gwyn but the leading g is dropped by the mutation. Yet dropping the first letter seems to only be if the first letter is a 'g', otherwise the mutation is by changing the first letter to a different letter. I think, but not certain, that it is called weak soft mutation because 'll' does not change to 'l' in weak soft mutation. The basic words for the colours used in the poem are gwyn, gwyrdd, llwyd, brown, melyn, oren. The sentence Mae'n bwrw eira. for It is snowing. is interesting. It is interesting to compare English, French, Esperanto and Welsh as regards the "it". English has It is snowing. French has Il neige. Yet what exactly is "It". Esperanto has a word for "It" that is used for things such as It is a car. and It is a dog. where the "It" is something specific, but translates It is snowing. as Is snowing. Yet whereas in English, French, and Esperanto, the falling of snow is represented as an action, the Welsh Mae'n bwrw eira. where the 'n is yn abbreviated to 'n because it follows a vowel, appears to be literally Is (doing) casting snow. So the action is casting, I think of this as like someone casting seed upon a field. I hope readers enjoy the poem in the various languages. I find the contrast of Welsh, a natural language derived from the ancient language of Britain, with its complexities, and irregularities, with Esperanto a constructed language with its highly regular structure, fascinating. William

For the avoidance of doubt I was not thinking in terms of selling licences to print my work, I was thinking in terms of me wanting to be able to buy licences to print copies of work by others, not to sell, just to arrange to have printed, lawfully by me and with fair dealing by me, printed by an online virtual print house, two to five copies and for me to then frame one or two for my personal art collection. There is lots of art in the Share your work forum that would look good as hardcopy prints. William

If the poem were displayed, a person who knew the meanings of each of the symbols localized into English could read the poem as follows. It is winter. It is snowing. The colour is white. It is snowing. The colour is green. The colour is white. It is snowing. The colour is grey. The colour is white. It is snowing. The colour is brown. The colour is yellow. The colour is orange. The colour is white. It is snowing. The colour is white. William

How many of them have indemnification clauses in their Terms and Conditions such that if anyone complains the seller could end up losing lots, perhaps becoming homeless? Serif is a sensible English business and would be able to have reasonable terms and conditions not all this indemnification stuff extending to an enormous number of people. I actually bought something off a well-known UK business and later they sent me an email asking me to review my purchase. I looked to do that, saw a link to Terms and Conditions and found that if I sent in a review I would need to give indemniification and if anybody complained about the review I would be liable for lots in relation to various businesses and people. So forget it, no review provided. William

For the avoidance of doubt, I thanked Walt for his courtesy in having replied. I still consider that a Serif run facility for this specific purpose for people using Affinity software would be a good idea. Maybe the idea needs some rule such that Serif must approve the particular artwork so that only high quality artwork is available through the Serif Store in this way. Fundamentally I regard what I am suggesting as not much different from Serif selling content not produced by Serif in the Serif Store, such as brushes, clip art and fonts. I appreciate that those items are for use with Serif Affinity software, though some not necessarily only with Serif Affinity software, but I opine that what I am suggesting is worthy of serious consideration. William

Hi Walt Thank you for posting. William

Referring back to the poem in the winter_poem.pdf PDF document that is available from the first post in this thread. If the poem were displayed, a person who knew the meanings of each of the symbols localized into Esperanto could read the poem as follows. Estas vintro. Neĝas. La koloro estas blanka. Neĝas. La koloro estas verda. La koloro estas blanka. Neĝas. La koloro estas griza. La koloro estas blanka. Neĝas. La koloro estas bruna. La koloro estas flava. La koloro estas oranĝa. La koloro estas blanka. Neĝas. La koloro estas blanka. William

I am puzzled. That text in Bangla appears in the Google Translate web page. I copied and pasted to this thread and it works here. But when I pasted into WordPad I got black rectangles and it is listed as the Shonar Bangla font. I have found the following web page. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/shonar-bangla It mentions that the font is supplied with Windows 10, but I have not got it installed. William

A test. I put It is winter. into https://translate.google.com/ and tried translating to Bangla (which is listed as Bengali) I got the following এটি শীতকালীন My computer that has the Serif software on it has problems at present. Is this what you need? William

I know very little about the typography of languages of the Indian subcontinent bit I seem to remember that for some languages from the Indian subcontinent that although special software is needed for ideal renderiing that it is possible to produce an understandable rendering using an ordinary desktop publishing software program. William

There is the following. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/ch12.pdf Bangla starts at page 30 of the PDF document. William

I have started a thread for a discussion about the Bangla language. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/177078-bangla-language/ William

In https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/100317-save-failed-because-access-to-the-file-was-lost/page/4 there is a note about the Bangla language. I have started this thread so that discuusion can continue in a thread for the topic. William

Are you aware of this? https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/ch12.pdf Bangla starts at page 30 of the PDF document. William

Is there anybody who is willing to say that they think this is a good idea please? This could be because you would possibly like to buy a licence to print some copies of art sold in this way, or because you like the idea of trying to earn some money from your art in this way, or because you like an optimistic, positive idea for progress, or because you like opportunity creating infrastructures, or for some other reason, or some combination of those. Such support for the idea would be good. I opine that this would be a forward-looking facility to implement. William

I have now started a new thread to discuss the idea. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/177025-can-pdf-documents-of-art-with-a-licence-to-print-a-small-number-of-copies-be-sold-from-the-serif-affinity-store-please/ William

A side discussion arose in another thread, starting with the following post, then continuing. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/176510-futurist-style-or-thereabouts/&do=findComment&comment=1018117 The side discussion about how to earn money from producing output using Serif Affinity software. Will Serif consider my idea about selling, from Serif Affinity Store, PDF documents of art produces by users of Affinity software, with a licence to print or have printed up to five copies for personal use by the purchaser or to give to family and friends please? I think it is a good idea and could be an incentive for users of Affinity software to produce good quality art in a pure electronic PDF document form, potentially earn some money from sales of licences to print a small number of copies of their work, and perhaps result in new opportunities for them. William

Even if one sells a few, one's work could become displayed in people's homes and maybe offices. Who knows who might see the print and admire it. Maybe the artist might get a commission for some custom work, maybe the artist might be invited to exhibit in an art gallery. Maybe, maybe not. There is a saying in the History and Philosophy of Science "Chance favours the prepared observer". I think in similar terms over putting forward new ideas and new output. Lots of people miss the opportunity for a second order effect to benefit them by not pursuing an activity at which they could do well yet that has no obvious first order substantial benefit to them. Too many people stop because someone tells them something like "you'll never be a singer" or "you'll never be an artist". William

I have not suggested Serif having a print on demand facility as that would involve post and packing and physical delivery. I am suggesting that it would, if Serif choose to do it, to sell for £1 or £2 or so the download of a PDF document with a licence to print a number of copies, say up to five, for personal use and to give to family and friends. I am wondering if that would be no more difficult to add to the Affinity store than the sale of the download of a clip art collection. The printing would need to be organized by the purchaser at the purchaser's expense. That could be on the purchaser's own equipment or over the internet, such as at Viking Virtual Print House, or wherever, at whatever quality of print the purchaser chooses. Whether Serif chooses to implement this idea is a matter for Serif. When I put forward a suggestion I never attempt to guess whether the business(es) assessing it will be enthusiastic. Well, the artist would not be selling his or her output for £1 to £2. He or she would be providing one PDF document to Serif and an unlimited number of copies could be sold with no further work by the artist. The artist would retain copyright. If a purchaser wanted more than five copies, pay another £1 or £2 for a licence to print another five copies. Suppose, however, that only a relatively small amount of money is received by an artist, it would be money earned because people appreciated his or her art and wanted a print and were prepared to pay to obtain that print, and the prints being about could possibly lead to something good for the artist. I don't know what that could be, but it does happen. People often miss that and opine downbeat without considering indirect effects. I have never used TIFF so I won't comment on that. I have used jpg as that is what is needed for producing what is called a photo card at papier.com though I don't use a photograph as such, I use a jpg of the correct size as output from a Serif product, initially Page Plus X7 for two cards, Affinity Publisher after that. I really like PDF documents, particularly if the image is vector. Each to his or her own preference, but I export a PDF document if the end use can use a PDF document. In fact, PDF is one of the few formats that Viking Virtual Print House will accept as input. It depends on the licensing. I have not looked into the licences of clip art that is available yet that I have not purchased. William

@VectorVonDoom Can I suggest that if you sell things that you state a price. Or if something is free, then it is free absolutely. Also, if you can achieve it, try to sell through the Serif store, rather than a direct sale as I, and possibly others, are wary about paying via some otherwise unknown website. I don't know at what minimum price Serif would allow a product to be sold. Serif should get something for use of the facility, and I don't know how much of what a customer pays goes to the banks and the like such that the customer can pay by credit card or debit card. So if, say, someone made a clip art collection and it were available from Serif store, would it even be possible to try for an income by pricing something at £1 in the hope that the very low price would make more money than pricing at £5 or £10, on the basis that if a hundred times more people buy at £1 rather than at £10 that might be a bigger income? A big issue though is what conditions are attached. There are various fonts for which I would have happliy bought a licence, but if I use a font I need to be able to embed a subset of it in a PDF document to go on the web without some payment for each time someone reads it. So with highly restrictive End Use Licence Agreements attached, I just don't buy it. But what are reasonable licensing conditions for clip art? Please discuss. Sometimes I see things that say it can be free or what you choose to pay, so I end up not having it, because I think, well, I wouldn't feel right about having it free if the person is hoping to get some money, and if I were to pay, what is reasonable such that I would not be being mean nor paying far more than reasonable. I appreciate that fixed prices does mean that someone's personal financial situation may well be a barrier to some things, whether going on a World Cruise, buying a fancy meal, buying some software, but I am not claiming to have all the answers. And I avoid getting anything from a site that has a "give a money tip" facility. I am not expecting to get everything free, I am happy to pay as long as I have certainty that the price I am paying is the price with which the seller is content to do business, and if money is involved it is business. What I am wondering is this. If someone produces, say, an A3 size PDF document of his or her artwork, what would be the situation if it were offered for, say, £1, from Serif store with it being stated that the person may get up to some low number of hardcopy prints made at the purchaser's expense for use personally by the person and/or as gifts to family and friends? Yet the PDF document has no security protection on it. It might sound unstable on the theoretical basis that a copy could be passed around, but would it work in practice on the basis of people being fair about it? For example, I have seen artwork in Share you work of which I would like to get a print to frame, but I do not do so as I feel it would be wrong to do so unless there were explicit permission to do so. Yet if the image were available in a PDF document at a standard paper size, plus bleeds if the colour goes to the edge rather than a white border, and I could pay £1 at Serif store and thereby be allowed to upload the file to an online virtual print house and buy some prints, perhaps 2, perhaps 5, maybe 2 now and know I can get another 3 anytime if I choose to do so, then that would be good. Maybe it would need to be £2. I know it could be more, but if there were various PDF documents available, several at £2 each adds up. Can we all have a lively discussion about this please? If people like the idea, maybe Serif will implement it. William

Thank you. What is "Paper Cut Woodlands Assets" please? William

So what would that mean. A Behance-type experience yet in relation to Serif Affinity products. So now I have registered to follow this thread as I think it may well be significant. There are at present 210 pages of threads in Share your work. So those people who want to do so could each start a thread with a title of Portfolio [username] for their own username and that thread could contain a list of links to the Share your work threads of that person. Then it could be the practice that when someone starts a new thread that the person also adds a link tto that thread in their own Portfolio thread. Now that could be done now in the Share your work forum. Yet if Serif moderators so decided, a new forum, Portfolios coukd be added and each Portfolio thread put in that forum. ---- Now another possibility could be a thread that is a Curator thread, where someone, or more than one person, includes links to Share your work threads on particular theme, for example, a thread Curator Science Fiction Curator Robots Curator Art Deco Curator Art Nouveau Curator Steampunk and so on. These too could be in the Share your work forum or in a separate Curator forum. --- William

I had not known of Behance before today. So this thread is good because I have learned something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkkLvdO7Ojk William