Nice to hear you liked the idea, I also think it's better than your last one. Some comments though:

I think you could enlarge the white box in the title box somewhat (height only) without ruining the effect of the coloured box behind it.

The cost box is much better without the colour.

I agree that centred symbols is better in this layout

I don't like the difference in font and font size in the specific credits. Preferably both number and text should be the same font and font-size. Imho the font of the text is good enough for the number too, but the font-size could be somewhat larger than that of the current text, probably closer to the size of the number.

Relative line height in the attributes box is great, but relative paragraph distance is not. For Trade empire I don't like that there is such a difference between the paragraph distance between paragraph one and two, and the paragraph distance between paragraph two and three. I think the paragraph distance always should be the same, and that it should be perhaps a third of the paragraph distance between paragraph two and three.

For Engineering the paragraph distance it's just way to small. As I don't think we want a smaller font size, we have to look to steal some height somewhere else, if possible, or otherwise make an exception for that one card. I do have a few suggestions for how to make some more height for paragraph distance:

1) A first contender to steal some height from is the specific credits box. Firstly, notice my comment on font and font size above. That said, there is way to much space below the text, imho there would be enough with a pixel or two of white bellow the bottom of the "g" and the lower border. There you could steel some.

2) Another option is to reduce the size of the outer frame, That would also give some extra width, which might even save a line or two of text, which would solve the problem (if it would fit Earthquake on one line or Flood on two).

3) Another option to get more height for font distance by reducing the amount of lines is to remove the list marker "-" and depend entirely on the paragraph distance to make the point, which wouldn't be a problem if the text was two lines shorter.


Of these I like the + in a circle best, will see if I can come up with something better tonight.

Yeah,i agree, but i've chosen to first make these two cards, cause theymaybe exceptions. (including provincial empire)

All other cards should have the relative paragraph-space we want.


This is no option, because my previous print version had a too small outer frame. I had to increase this minimum.



removing the list markers makes the cards less clear. I really want to keep those.


Gonna edit some tonight.

OK,

I've edited some, to gain more space in the attributes text box.



I enlarged the white title-box
decreased the cost-box and made all spaces between boxes equal.

I prefer the larger credit-digit next to the smaller specific card-name, but this way it's possible to decrease its height. It's a thing of getting used to.

The credit-symbols shouldn't be smaller, or it becomes hard to read and to tell the colors apart.

When I have some more time, i'll work on the text-allignment in the attributes-box.

Great!


My idea with that was so that the font size of the title could be somewhat larger, so more of the width was used...


Nice work. While consistent amount of space is nice, I think you standardised on a touch to small a space.


Well, I didn't. Probably just personal preference. Looks great to me now. If, unlikely as it is, we get spare height left in the attributes box, we could enlarge it slightly for a slightly larger font size.


Of course. That's why I never even suggested making them smaller.


OK.

Ok. will change that to the best result.



Well, whenever we get spare space, i'd rather enlarge the attributes' font size than the credits.

Maybe the religion-symbol should decrease a few pixels to make it not touch the outer borders of the box.



Hope to start making all the cards this weekend. at least for the image, title and cost, credits.

When we agree on the attributes, and gerart translated it to card-text, and we agree, I start on puting the text in the boxes.

before that I'll experiment with allignment anyway.

I've made three examples of how I thinkit should be.

NOTE: only the attributes-box is edited. the rest of the boxes are blank ofcourse.


CARTOGRAPHY


TRADE EMPIRE


ENGINEERING



I try to make all cards in fontsize and allignment of Cartography, so even if a card has one or two lines I'm using this size.

The only two differences (maybe three with provincial Empire) are Trade Empire and Engineering.

The text for Engineering cannot be any larger, cause we have to work in 5 seperated issues in the box. I've tried all options, but this turned out best and largest

I've also changed the linemarker into a dot. This way it's easier to see the seperated issues.

Oh yeah, I decreased the religion symbol a little bit and redone all boxes and shadows (almost invisible, but those boxes used to differ, now they're equal)

Looks great.

Honestly, with my bare eye I don't see the difference between Cartography and Trade Empire, so whatever you did you did great!

Engineering is a bit small, but it works, which is all that really matters anyway.

However, I did prefer the hyphen over the list marker. The list marker is way too predominant in the box, the hyphen was much subtler, but still performed it's purpose.

BTW, I'd like to see how the 10 points credits works out, especially on the now shrunken Religion...

I don;t know the word 'hyphen' (is that swedish)
I guess you mean the ' - ' symbol

I have no real problems with the dot, nor do I have problems with the line.
I thought the dot would be better just because its more dominant. But if you like a short line instead, Lets go for that.

I'll create a preview with the new extra bonus symbol.

p.s. the difference between Trade Empire and all other cards is that it's just a bit smaller and the line height a little. Gives you just one extra line. (11) all cards (10)

Engineering need even more lines. (12)

That's not exactly true, because between each new issue, I put some extra space.

The problem with Engineering is not so much the number of words but the number of issues.

That's why the line-marker get so important for cards like engineering.

I've tried to create a symbol as large as for instance the science symbol.


That just won;t work. It looks empty.



So I just tried the preset photoshop-symbol again and it works much better




Why not use that very symbol.



(as for those few card, as it won't work, they are easily replaced)

Another thing is my way of working.

This is how I'm about to do it:

I creat 51 different psd-files, In which I can get the best allignment per card, also for the credit symbols which will be in a different place for evey card.

I export all files to 51 seperated files with a transparent background. (png, psd whatever you like)

I put these onto a a4 with ONE-piece background marble. So every 9 cards have a slight different background, though marble-look.



The marble-background i used is a 300dpi (unscaled) photograph copy-mirrored 180 degrees and gradiently dissolved in eachother.

I put NO cutlines inbetween the cards. This way, when you cut a little to the left or right (which might happen, if it's not for the front, it's for the back, cause no printe ris perfect in double-sided printing), you won't notice it.

The only cuttingmarks are on the edges. (could also put a dot on the crosscorners as a guide)

If you don't like this way of cutting, you could also add cutlines aftwerwards.


I've made testprint this way, and on my printer it works great and all 9 cards on a page look good and fit on the paper.


This might sound like a kinda complex way of working, but this gets the best results. You could alawys cut the full pages in 9 and use the files anyway.

All psd-files I use have got the same marble background, so you could also use this and export it directly to printfiles.

Here are the first few def results. (with a white background instead)

"Hyphen" is very much English, the Swedish translation being "bindestreck" (literally "binding line"). A hyphen is the character you use in hyphenation, the art of putting a hyphen in the middle of a word and line break directly after it. The hyphen then indicates that the word continues on the next line.
So yes, I do mean the the "-" symbol.


Great


OK, still waiting.


So, did I get this right.
All cards but Trade Empire and Engineering has a font size and line height that allows for 10 lines, if it all were one paragraph, but as most cards isn't, you can't actually fit 10 lines on the cards.
Or did you mean that you do fit 10 lines on the cards, as long as it is at most four paragraphs (items), which is the current maximum on all other cards.
On Trade Empire and Engineering you have then reduced the font size and line height just enough to fit 11 lines in 3 paragraphs and 12 lines in 5 paragraphs, respectively.


As I've been unable to create anything better, I guess it'll have to do.


Yes, it does sound a bit awkward, but definitely doable, and I can't think of any better way to achieve the same result.

However, when I do get your source files I do think I'll play with scaling the marble background down to 33% of it's size and putting it behind each image, so they all look the same. Then I'll print one of each and see which I prefer.


Well, that's why I never ever put cutlines on both front and back when printing double sided. That doesn't mean you can't have solid cutlines on one side though.


The problem with this is that once you done the horizontal cuts, your vertical cuttingmarks is in the trash, and the same goes with the horizontal cuttingmarks if you begin with the vertical cuts...


I definitely will for the sets I'm printing...


Great.


OK, is this anything like the experiment I'm proposing to do above?
As I understand it you are having a marble background in the 51 PSD files, but are hiding that layer to get a transparent background on the cards you put on the big marble background when you print. Is that correct?

all correct, the way you interpreted my explanations on the allignment.
My previous layout (januari 2008) had all text in one type-layer. Now I'm over to using a seperate type-layer per issue. The same for the markers.

(So Gerart, the excel-column without linebreaks in useless from today on. Sorry for the extra work)


My way of cutting without solid cutlines takes more work and some experienced cutting. I do this, beacuse I am experienced and therefore quick enough to do 6 sheets x 9 cards x 18 copies = 864 cutting without throwing it all in a corner to watch tv.

I use a knife and a ruler. (only to get better results, not because its easier



What you gotta do is, cut only in the middle of each line, and leave some millimeters on both sides. Cutting the first 4 lines, gives you a one-piece paper with 4 cuts in it. Only when you cut the crosslines all cards fall apart, and you have 9 cards.
Takes some concentration and you gotta press hard on the ruler to not to make off-slides.


If you want to use a cutting device, my way is impossible and you should use solid cut-lines.




The downside (to me) is, that you always see some markings when done. Especially, when some mistake is made.


Maybe i can ask my friend who's working in a book-binding-factory. he handles a computer-programmed cutting machine that can do a preset cutting workflow, But I have to make the first cut myslef, cuase it only handles 90 degrees cuttings.

Well, I paid €80 for this machine, just for CivProject, so I damn better use it .


I tried ruler-and-knife earlier, but always managed to slip with the knife, ruining half of the page...


I usually manage to cut in the middle of the line, so all you get is a very thin black line (less than a pixel wide).
In the rare case I miss the line I do a second cut to remove the surplus. As I never miss with over a mm, I can live with the other card being slightly smaller than intended.


Fancy stuff. Probably expensive too
I'd like one of those, or even better a die cutter which could be used for both civilization cards, trade cards and counters...