Re: Screenshot quality in KDE announcements

On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 7:42 AM, Carl Symons <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> On 01/27/2015 06:40 AM, Eike Hein wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> we once again put out a major release announcement using screenshots
>> with obvious UI defects (e.g. the kscreen one where the orientation
>> bar in the display delegate isn't clipped by the rounded rect and the
>> vertical text alignment is off) - frustratingly, some of which have
>> already been fixed in the beta (including those).
>>
>> This is a real problem because it causes negative feedback in venues
>> where the announcement is discussed every time. It's not a small pro-
>> blem, either, because visual quality is one of our major reputation
>> weak spots, so people actively scan our material for defects to con-
>> firm this widely-held belief.
>>
>> There is a bigger problem underlying this which starts in our dev
>> process, but for promo purposes we should try to put our best face
>> forward and use high-quality screenshots. They show the actual pro-
>> duct; they're perhaps the most important part of any communication
>> we do.
>>
>> Could we discuss some strategies to avoid this problem in the future?
>>
>> I'm imagining a QA process+checklist:
>>
>> * Promo puts announcement screenshot package together ahead of time.
>> * Promo checks those screenshots for obvious rendering and UX
>>    defects and tries to alert developers to them.
>> * Promo runs those screenshots by the VDG list to employ the VDG for
>>    bug spotting as well.
>> * We try to fix this problem and re-take the screenshots in time.
>>
>> We already do these things for announcement texts, but screenshots
>> are often done ad-hoc and last minute, and it shows. They deserve
>> no less quality control than the text.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Eike
>>
>
>> They deserve no less quality control than the text.
>
>
> Or the software.
>
> Related to legal principle--false in one, false in everything. So this is
> not just about screenshots...poor quality anywhere suggests poor quality
> everywhere.
>
> This issue is not just about process+checklist. We need to have someone(s)
> who is willing to take responsibility for screenshots. Whoever does this
> needs to install the new version prior to its release and follow the
> guidelines below. This is not difficult or time-consuming.
>
> Any takers? Anyone willing to do a non-technical task that contributes
> directly to KDE quality?
>
> Carl
>
> From Nuno Pinheiro, maker of pretty things
>>>>
>>>> Guidelines for release screenshots:
>>>> - Use default wallpaper
>>>> - Use only two or three colors for anything that's not a photo
>>>> - Resolution 1280x720
>>>> - Use the same font everywhere. Oxygen or Liberation Sans is preferred;
>>>> other sans fonts are workable.
>>>> - Use the default wallpaper
>>>> - Hinting style set to full. Even if you like big fonts, the result is
>>>> much sharper if your hinting is set to full.
>>>> - Use a smaller font size like 8 or 9. Small fonts have a thinner trace
>>>> that makes the font thickness be exactly 1 pixel. If your font thickness is
>>>> not 1, then you are in trouble.  Low hinting style and large fonts make
>>>> traces of about 1.3 - 1.5 thickness that result in blurry looking fonts.
>>>> They are not only bad looking, they tend to produce headaches as your eyes
>>>> try to constantly focus the font.
>>>> - Don't use bold. Bold fonts are not as readable as normal fonts because
>>>> the width of the trace is usually larger than 1 and smaller than 2 producing
>>>> blurry results.
>>>> - Make your fonts more greyish than blackish; gives much better
>>>> sharpness results.

Seems like a "help wanted" ad might be useful. We have a place for that now:

The Mission forum: https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291

Valorie
-- 
http://about.me/valoriez

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