Can the colors listed when editing an item be listed alphabetically? I'm not sure if there's some other reason for them to be ordered as they are...
Are they ordered by spectrum?
Kind of, but once you get past purple it all goes haywire. I feel it's easier for my primitive human brain to find something in a text list when it's sorted alphabetically since I know what letter the color's name starts with, ya know?
Makes sense. I'll see what I can do.
So here's what it looks like if I sort the first column, but continue the practice of aligning the other two columns (attached). Does this look like what you want? I hesitate to commit the change, because if you look closely, you'll notice that the sorting breaks for the other two columns, as I use slightly different names for a few things depending on the kind of material (yellow=gold, grey=silver, white=clear, etc). What do you think?
I don't feel they need to align between columns. I don't equate grey to silver, so I wouldn't expect to find it directly across from it in another list. And also Full Color could be at the bottom, since it's not a proper color itself (maybe with a bit of space separating it from the rest of the list?)
Looks good...I do equate grey to silver, but yes, full color should be at the bottom, if you're thinking about going this route.
I preferred the old way, but what do I know? :)
MIKE
engledogg
Well, I have been using it for years the way it is but I always wondered why it was "out of order". Don't change things everyone else likes just because I asked. If no one else wants the change then don't do it on my account.
Well, Ed sounds like he's willing to give your way a try, so I went ahead and made the changes you asked for. See what you guys think. If you don't like it, I can change it back.
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
Not off the top of my head. And thanks for doing this, hopefully everyone likes it!
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
Nope...maybe there's some obscure toyline playset came with a multi-colored stained-glass window accessory or some toys ended up getting "see-through" trading cards from some line that we don't cover yet, but overall, though? Nope...get rid of it. We can always put it back, right?
MIKE
engledogg
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
Nope...maybe there's some obscure toyline playset came with a multi-colored stained-glass window accessory or some toys ended up getting "see-through" trading cards from some line that we don't cover yet, but overall, though? Nope...get rid of it. We can always put it back, right?
MIKE
engledogg
It's already gone. We all set on this issue, for now?
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
There are prismatic stickers on some toys that could make the argument for full color metallic, but since they usually look like something that would be marked chrome/silver when light isn't hitting them the right way, it might be better to mark them as chrome/silver (or metallic whatever color they are when direct light isn't on them). Just thinking while I'm typing, here, but would adding "prismatic" as the metallic equivalent of "full color" make sense? Not necessarily to be used as its own color, but in addition to another metallic color? Say, marking something like regular She-Ra's crown as being chrome/silver and prismatic, or Bubble Power She-Ra's crown as metallic pink and prismatic?
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
There are prismatic stickers on some toys that could make the argument for full color metallic, but since they usually look like something that would be marked chrome/silver when light isn't hitting them the right way, it might be better to mark them as chrome/silver (or metallic whatever color they are when direct light isn't on them). Just thinking while I'm typing, here, but would adding "prismatic" as the metallic equivalent of "full color" make sense? Not necessarily to be used as its own color, but in addition to another metallic color? Say, marking something like regular She-Ra's crown as being chrome/silver and prismatic, or Bubble Power She-Ra's crown as metallic pink and prismatic?
Well, easy enough to add something like that. Tell ya what, let me know when it comes up, and we'll give it a shot.
By the way, can you guys imagine any scenario in which "Full color" would make sense for metallic, or transparent materials?
There are prismatic stickers on some toys that could make the argument for full color metallic, but since they usually look like something that would be marked chrome/silver when light isn't hitting them the right way, it might be better to mark them as chrome/silver (or metallic whatever color they are when direct light isn't on them). Just thinking while I'm typing, here, but would adding "prismatic" as the metallic equivalent of "full color" make sense? Not necessarily to be used as its own color, but in addition to another metallic color? Say, marking something like regular She-Ra's crown as being chrome/silver and prismatic, or Bubble Power She-Ra's crown as metallic pink and prismatic?
Well, easy enough to add something like that. Tell ya what, let me know when it comes up, and we'll give it a shot.
There are already a handful of PoP toys with prismatic stickers or cloth, so I guess now's as good a time to experiment as any.
There are already a handful of PoP toys with prismatic stickers or cloth, so I guess now's as good a time to experiment as any.
So be it!
http://www.shmax.com/products/search
Sorry to revive this old thread, but it's topical... should there perhaps be a "Grayscale" option for b/w printed items like instructions? Instead of picking Black, Gray and White.
How about if I re-label "Grey" to "Grey (Greyscale)"?
How about we just stick with what we have? If we have a figure that is actually black, grey, and white, I wouldn't want it described as "greyscale".
MIKE
engledogg
I was just thinking it would be like the Full Color option, but grayscale. No biggie if you guys don't like the idea, just a thought I had... :)
How about we just stick with what we have? If we have a figure that is actually black, grey, and white, I wouldn't want it described as "greyscale".
MIKE
engledogg
Greyscale, as spliff is talking about, should only apply to printed materials such as instructions, cards, catalogs, etc. It would not apply to a figure.
Greyscale, as spliff is talking about, should only apply to printed materials such as instructions, cards, catalogs, etc. It would not apply to a figure.
Yes, ideally it should...however when shmax brought up the possibility of the color grey being renamed to "Grey (Greyscale)", that's when it entered figure territory.
If, however, "greyscale" were added as an additional color description, that's fine with me.
MIKE
engledogg
Greyscale, as spliff is talking about, should only apply to printed materials such as instructions, cards, catalogs, etc. It would not apply to a figure.
Yes, ideally it should...however when shmax brought up the possibility of the color grey being renamed to "Grey (Greyscale)", that's when it entered figure territory.
If, however, "greyscale" were added as an additional color description, that's fine with me.
MIKE
engledogg
So add it as an entirely new color, down by "Full color"?
That was my intent when I brought it up Shmax ol' pal :)
That was my intent when I brought it up Shmax ol' pal :)
Yeah, I get the general idea, but we don't go monkeying with the colors lightly. Adding another special color to "plain" further disrupts the symmetry we had going across the three different material types. Furthermore, we have to work out how to go back and apply this new color to all the existing instruction sheets.
If you guys are on board, I'm on board.
If its a PITA, never mind. I agree going and switching the other items that exist with the old way of selecting the colors would be a beast. Let's just put this one on the back-burner perhaps?
Too late! Added "Greyscale". Ed, am I safe to apply (with a script) the new color to all instruction booklets that don't currently have any colors applied?
This is the part I just did that made me think of it initially. Is it safe to edit it now quick to Grayscale, or should I wait for you to do your script magic?
http://www.shmax.com/modify_part/41456/instructions_battle_mask_face
Typically, I've always added parts and gray, black and white when they're like this. Maybe finding all items called "instructions" with that color combo would be useful as well?
This is the part I just did that made me think of it initially. Is it safe to edit it now quick to Grayscale, or should I wait for you to do your script magic?
http://www.shmax.com/modify_part/41456/instructions_battle_mask_face
Typically, I've always added parts and gray, black and white when they're like this. Maybe finding all items called "instructions" with that color combo would be useful as well?
Yep, go ahead and tag it with Greyscale. I'll work on the script a bit later.
Done.
Too late! Added "Greyscale". Ed, am I safe to apply (with a script) the new color to all instruction booklets that don't currently have any colors applied?
Not yet. Not all instruction booklets are greyscale...just because we don't currently know a booklet's colors, I wouldn't necessarily default everything to greyscale...as we'll likely have to go back in and change a ton of them.
Could you run a script first that would only find the colorless booklets first? And then, by eyeballing it, I can see if it would be worth it to run a script to actually change them to greyscale...
Also, how do we handle a red, grey, black, and white booklet? "Greyscale and red"? That sounds sorta...dumb. :)
MIKE
engledogg
Too late! Added "Greyscale". Ed, am I safe to apply (with a script) the new color to all instruction booklets that don't currently have any colors applied?
Not yet. Not all instruction booklets are greyscale...just because we don't currently know a booklet's colors, I wouldn't necessarily default everything to greyscale...as we'll likely have to go back in and change a ton of them.
Could you run a script first that would only find the colorless booklets first? And then, by eyeballing it, I can see if it would be worth it to run a script to actually change them to greyscale...
Also, how do we handle a red, grey, black, and white booklet? "Greyscale and red"? That sounds sorta...dumb. :)
MIKE
engledogg
Here's all the instruction booklets with no colors selected:
http://www.shmax.com/parts?q_filters_colors_exact=1&q_filters_form=1865&q_sort_type=colorScheme&q_sort_dir=asc&q_pagination_limit=20&q_pagination_offset=0
No clue about white, red and black. Maybe we should think about this some more...
A lot of instruction sheets are grayscale with some red or purple (Autobot/Decepticon respectively) to highlight the parts being moved.
A lot of instruction sheets are grayscale with some red or purple (Autobot/Decepticon respectively) to highlight the parts being moved.
So you're suggesting we tag those with "Greyscale" and "Red"? I guess, but I thought the whole point of adding "greyscale" was to sort of make a separation between plastic colors and printed colors...
How about if I make a new material? So we'd have "plain", "metallic", "translucent", and "printed". "Full color" and "Greyscale" would exist only under "printed". Not sure what to do about "Prismatic"--maybe just move that under printed, as well.
I'll defer judgement for the Dogg to decide.
Sorry, I know I'm late to the party here, but what was wrong with using the existing "gray" option for an instruction book with grayscale (in addition to any other colors it may have had)? Forgive me if I'm being obtuse, but I'm not sure what the point is of having two options for what is for all intents and purposes the same color. Is someone who's searching for an instruction book that has grayscale more likely to search by "grayscale" than "gray", or is this a "covering all our bases" thing for the minority that would?
Not sure what to do about "Prismatic"--maybe just move that under printed, as well.
I'd recommend leaving "Prismatic" where it is. I can name a few Princess of Power figures that have prismatic stickers or clothing.
I think what bothers me is that "plain", "metallic" and "translucent" are mainly meant to describe plastic colors, whereas "greyscale" and "full color" are printing terms. When we snuck "full color" into the "plain" material it was as an afterthought, but we knew it didn't really make sense when talking about plastic (we mention as much in the widget help text). We got away with extending the idea for prismatic/holographic and other shiny printing effects because if you use your imagination you can think of these things as being "metallic", but really we were stretching it.
Now that 'ol Spliffy is introducing the idea of "greyscale" (and even greyscale + red), we really need to re-evaluate the whole idea.
It's been 20 years since my graphic design days, but if memory serves "greyscale" is really just another term for monochromatic printing with black ink. The greyscale + red sheets mentioned by Engledogg are technically just duotone, meaning black and red ink.
So I guess what I'm suggesting--for the moment, anyway--is that we just completely separate the plastic colors from printed colors. We would add a "Printed" material (alongside "plain", "metallic", and "translucent", which would be understood to refer to plastic colors), and it would be home to printing terminology. It would list the same colors as the other boxes, but also have "Full color" and "Prismatic/Hologram" and other fancy effects. To describe the greyscale/red item mentioned previously, you would just check "Black" and "Red" (but not "white", as no white ink is used).
I have to head off to see the family in a few, but I'll see if I can produce a comp before they come pick me up...
Yeah, after all that, I'm all for going with what we had. I think this greyscale business is unnecessary and too much work. If I see a booklet that is red, black, grey and white, but I'm only supposed to pick "black and red"...I'm definitely not a fan of that. We're supposed to be describing the colors we're seeing, not the inks used to make the thing. Yes, I realize that black and white are automatically implied when choosing greyscale, but what will show up on a record? Black and red? Or black (greyscale) and red? Even so, are we sure that every user knows what "greyscale" even means? I mean, I would hope that they do, but...
Long story short, kill greyscale and everyone can just put up with a couple more clicks. ;)
shmax, unless you come up with some really super-awesome, magic script that can do it automatically, in order to convert every instruction booklet that is currently using "part" colors to "printed" colors...that's gonna be THOUSANDS of clicks.
MIKE
engledogg
I agree at this point. I was simply thinking about a Grayscale option under the Full Color option, but didn't think through all the other ramifications of it.
So for future reference, what SHOULD be chosen for a grayscale printed instruction sheet? Like I said before, I've been doing black, white, gray and whatever other highlight color may be on there.
Okay, so what am I doing, removing "greyscale"?
I think so...unless there are any objections.
In the future, we can always revisit this stuff if need be, so no worries.
MIKE
engledogg
So for future reference, what SHOULD be chosen for a grayscale printed instruction sheet? Like I said before, I've been doing black, white, gray and whatever other highlight color may be on there.
I'd say stick with that.
So for future reference, what SHOULD be chosen for a grayscale printed instruction sheet? Like I said before, I've been doing black, white, gray and whatever other highlight color may be on there.
I'd say stick with that.
Yep.
MIKE
engledogg
Removed "Greyscale", but can we agree on just using "Black and white" for instruction sheets? I don't think "Black white and grey" is really a thing...
Just curious...how is the combination of black, white, and grey not a thing? We're describing the colors we're seeing, right?
MIKE
engledogg
Just curious...how is the combination of black, white, and grey not a thing? We're describing the colors we're seeing, right?
MIKE
engledogg
Because there is no "grey" color involved. The paper is white, the ink is black. Any grey you see is really just an illusion created by a dot screen pattern. Plus it's just awkward terminology; have you ever heard of "black and white and grey" photography, or a "black and white and grey" movie?
But we're describing the colors we're seeing, no matter what scientific principle is observed or what method is used to create those colors.
MIKE
engledogg