Recreate "green" zebra paper as (master) page

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prino

The attached zebra.png is an attempt to recreate old zebra paper as used by line-printers in a long gone age. The image was manually created as a TIFF file from measurements of a hi-res (2400 dpi) scan translated to pixels (in other words, it needs scaling to actually print it in the proper size, and then converted to a PNG, as this forum doesn't allow TIF images.... It also contains, but this is less relevant, two slightly different coloured halves, and each bar contains slightly different coloured rows of top and bottom pixels.

I can (almost) certainly recreate it as an SVG using Inkscape, which I'm rather more as ease with than with Scribus, and export that as PNG, but given that I would like to use it as a master page for entering text, I'd love to have it as an SLA file. However, having only ever made one simple SLA with just a tiny bit of text, I'm pretty clueless as how I would create what is essentially a set of lines that are stuck together, so if anyone could give me a very simple example that I could use as a template, I'd be very grateful.

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Robert AH Prins
robert.ah.prins @ the.17+Gb.Google thingy
No programming here :)

RodneyLee

Not sure, seems like you can just draw it on a Layer and put all your text on a new layer

RodneyLee

I see your paper is not what I thought (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_printer) still you could easily draw this in Scribus as a background layer.
does your text have to sit on a line?

RodneyLee

I just had to play with this, 2 layers Backgound and text, not sure distance's between line I used your graphic as template

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prino

Thank you, well maybe...

You've created this with 1.5.4, whereas I'm still using 1.4.8 (I don't like beta-testing software), and that doesn't like it. I tried to install 1.5.4, which went OK, but the page doesn't show anything sensible, just empty areas with diagonal lines.

Even worse, but that's absolutely not your fault, 1.4.8 & 1.5.4 cannot be installed in parallel (at least on Wondoze), as 1.5.4 will suddenly become the default for opening .SLA files, and uninstalling that one completely removes the default handler for .SLA files, forcing you to uninstall and reinstall it.
Robert AH Prins
robert.ah.prins @ the.17+Gb.Google thingy
No programming here :)

RodneyLee

I love 1.54, been using 1.5 for years, never tried 1.4

RodneyLee

should be easy to recreate anyway, I used lighter green in stroke to get fade on edges

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prino

I'll try again on a my virtual machine, so that I can back-out gracefully, but the image you posted is nothing like what I saw with 1.5.4!

As far as upgrading to 1.5.4, I upgraded Inkscape to 0.92.4 from my current 0.91 and that was an absolute disaster - filed a bug report, but nothing has happened - I've got several dozen images that result in a similar mess, and that's why I don't like beta versions!
Robert AH Prins
robert.ah.prins @ the.17+Gb.Google thingy
No programming here :)

RodneyLee

you could make 1 bar of strips in Inkscape and import into scribus (svg or png) place on Background layer add a text layer, if it won't hold as a master page you can duplicate pages as needed

a.l.e

you have internetsearched for "scribus zebra", haven't you? : - )

my first result is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8LHozLpWa8

my own tutorial for putting zebra lines as a background of text frames.



bu if you want to do that for a full page, that's almost trivial...

i haven't read through the whole thread, but it seems that it's all way too complicated...

all you need to do is:

- go to the master page editor
- draw a rectanlge of the desired height (the line height you will be using for the text, of course!) and fitting the width of the page.
  (overflowing if you're printing on a commercial printer and are using bleeds)
- multiple duplicate the rectangle (it's in the "item" menu) by shifting the copies vertically by the same line height
- delete the lines that are outside of the page...


of course, for a perfect result, you will be working the other way round and calculating how many lines of which height will be fitting the page exactly and use that value as the line height.
of course, you can always round up and down a bit the first and last lines, since you won't be writing text on those.

you can of course achieve the exact same result by working in inkscape (but no bleed, i guess), if you just want the green lines and you don't need to type the text on top of it...

just ask if you need more information on specific steps! (or have needs that are not fulfilled by the basics steps above ...)

p.s.: 1.5 and 1.4 can be installed in parallel and most (if not all) operating system / desktop environments allows you to redefine the application that will be opened when double clicking on a specific type of file...

prino

#10
Quote from: a.l.e on June 03, 2019, 10:15:53 AM
you have internetsearched for "scribus zebra", haven't you? : - )

my first result is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8LHozLpWa8

my own tutorial for putting zebra lines as a background of text frames.

I don't know how Google does it, but it now shows, as does this thread, on the first page of results! Impressive video, it only there was a way to play them in slow(er)-motion ;)

The zebra paper I need is slightly less trivial...

The original paper I'm working with is 15x8.5", starts and ends with about 1/16" of white background, followed by 67 (34 "big"green, 33 white) lines of zebra stripes, with the added "complication" that every "big" green stripe is made up of another zebra of 9 (5 green, 4 white) stripes, where the first and last of the "small" green ones are marginally wider than the three in between. The width of a "big" green & white stripe is 1/8 inch.

My TIFF (attached as a PNG above) obtained from the hi-res scan uses 150 pixels for a combined "big" green + white stripe, which is then subdivided in 11 sub-stripes, 67w/9g/11w/5g/14w/5g/14w/5g/11w/9g (and to be totally accurate, the "g" stripes are made up of three stripes, a top- and bottom-stripe of one pixel that's a tiny bit lighter than the middle (7 or 3) stripes, although in the end I'm not too fussed about that. (Oh yes, I am!  8)) Add all of the above together, and I need a printer with a resolution of 1200 dpi! (and it must be printed on 60 gram paper...)

Why easy, if you can make things complicated  ;D

Quote from: a.l.e on June 03, 2019, 10:15:53 AM
but if you want to do that for a full page, that's almost trivial...

i haven't read through the whole thread, but it seems that it's all way too complicated...

all you need to do is:

- go to the master page editor
- draw a rectanlge of the desired height (the line height you will be using for the text, of course!) and fitting the width of the page.
  (overflowing if you're printing on a commercial printer and are using bleeds)
- multiple duplicate the rectangle (it's in the "item" menu) by shifting the copies vertically by the same line height
- delete the lines that are outside of the page...

of course, for a perfect result, you will be working the other way round and calculating how many lines of which height will be fitting the page exactly and use that value as the line height.
of course, you can always round up and down a bit the first and last lines, since you won't be writing text on those.

you can of course achieve the exact same result by working in inkscape (but no bleed, i guess), if you just want the green lines and you don't need to type the text on top of it...

just ask if you need more information on specific steps! (or have needs that are not fulfilled by the basics steps above ...)

I'll give it a go using the video, and if I need more help, I'll come back!

Quote from: a.l.e on June 03, 2019, 10:15:53 AM
p.s.: 1.5 and 1.4 can be installed in parallel and most (if not all) operating system / desktop environments allows you to redefine the application that will be opened when double clicking on a specific type of file...

Except that the installation on Windoze willy-nilly changes the registry, and sets the double-click action to that of the last installed version. It would be very nice if the installation added an option to associate .SLA files with Scribus, so that you can unclick that for a parallel version, at least on Windoze.

Finally, why all this trouble? The answer is somewhat surreal, I use cuts of old 15x8.5" original zebra paper to file some of my hitchhike statistical output(*), and I'm running out of the stuff, and this type green mini-zebra within zebra seems to have vanished from the surface of the earth. Next to that there's the satisfaction of just producing it, similar to what I did with some old images in a webified French dissertation about (again) hitchhiking. I build some very simple skeleton SVG using Inkscape, and then, manually, converted all six PNGs that related to my trips into nice SVGs in Auto-stop  Approche géographique.

(*)I'm actually writing readable inside the 11w bands!
Robert AH Prins
robert.ah.prins @ the.17+Gb.Google thingy
No programming here :)

a.l.e

1. in my youtube i have a settings wheel on each video where i can set the play speed...

2. of course you can that zebra in the png too... just create your 2 + 4 stripes, group them and duplicate the group. you can also put all the groups you want making sure that the first one is at the top position and the last and the lowest one at the bottom, then distribute the groups (with window > align and distribute)

3. for that you don't need the video. just duplicate / multiple duplicate. and, possibly, the "align and distribute" tool.

4. please, internetsearch for "windows pick default application".

5. if you just want the zebra, and not actually writing on it in scribus, do it with inkscape (not because it's easier or better... just because it's the "righter" tool for such a thing). basically the same steps, but inkscape is better suited for png / svg output than scribus.