I'm looking for something that can lay out cards for designing a customizable card game, possibly (preferably) even that could import information from some kind of XML/XSLT format. Has anyone found a good program for this?
I understand OpenOffice Base and/or Draw might be good for this sort of thing. Are there any other suggestions?
Lummox JR
ID:276569
 Nov 26 2005, 7:08 pm
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AZ0123 wrote:
How about java? That's not a program; it's a component. And CardLayout is merely one style of layout manager in Java that allows you to view different things in the same window space, like tabs. Totally unrelated to what I'm asking. Lummox JR | |
Guess I misunderstood what you wanted. Seems others are using DTP programs. This thread has some discussions which might help.
http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t =3424&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 | |
Adobe Illustrator can do some really neat things in that retard.
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Crispy wrote:
PirateHead wrote: That's why I scan my text after I post my messages. =P ~~> Unknown Person | |
I've seen that one as well. Seems to be one of the few useful links I find in Google, but unfortunately it's just game designers stumbling on the very same issues. It looks like any solution is much more complex than I'm willing to deal with.
Lummox JR | |
PirateHead wrote:
Aww man. I feel really regarded now. Don't worry. We're not going to hold you in any lower retard for that. (...because you can't get any lower than zero! *ba-dum CHING* *ducks*) | |
Oh, I didn't catch it as a typo(took me a minute to figure out that you meant the word retard should be regard). I thought he meant Lummox was a retard. =D
Hiead | |
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean something to make a template for each card you'd like to make? Well...you could use MS Paint....Photoshop or Paintshop to create a template, and then paste each card's image(if applicable) in the appropriate box you set aside. After all, what is a card? Just text boxes/text, graphics, and borders.
Hiead | |
I used Inkscape to create a simple card outline, to show you what Inkscape can accomplish visually with not a lot of labor. Inkscape creates and reads SVG, XML, and other vector-based files, and exports them to image files. I exported the image just so you can see what it looks like. I think Inkscape might be just what you need for your project. Create a template with Inkscape or your favorite vector-based graphics editor, create a copy of the template's XML file, edit it, and let Inkscape render the card for the game. I haven't tried to write a program to automate that process, but I'll bet that it would be easy -- and if the functionality isn't there, Inkscape is open source, allowing you to write a command-line rendering extension with little trouble.
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Hiead wrote:
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean something to make a template for each card you'd like to make? Well...you could use MS Paint....Photoshop or Paintshop to create a template, and then paste each card's image(if applicable) in the appropriate box you set aside. After all, what is a card? Just text boxes/text, graphics, and borders. But a bitmap image is not scalable. It would do for the image portion of the card, but not for the rest of the way the card looks. Lummox JR | |
How is a bitmap not scalable? Then how "would it do" for the image portion? You can scale text in Photoshop. Photoshop is a very powerful tool. If all you want is a template, I'd use that. I thought you wanted something that was automated and could read data and produce valid cards. (ahem, *DM*)
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AZ0123 wrote:
How is a bitmap not scalable? You see, a bitmap is made up of these tiny things called pixels. And pixels are discrete units. When you draw something like, say, a circle using pixels, you have to approximate it. If you want to then make the whole thing bigger, you have to work with the approximation and try to scale that up. It won't look the same as if you'd just re-drawn the circle at a bigger size the first time. You can scale text in Photoshop. Photoshop is a very powerful tool. If all you want is a template, I'd use that. I have Photoshop Elements. It has some vector drawing capabilities, but so far I'm finding Inkscape to be much better at that sort of thing. I thought you wanted something that was automated and could read data and produce valid cards. Yes, I want that too. My current thinking is that if I can build the blocks for SVG templates via Inkscape, I can use XSLT to translate a card format into a new SVG document. Lummox JR | |
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/ CardLayout.html