WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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2 comments
Here is a quick artwork done this morning to thank you all for following and supporting Pepper&Carrot in this end of year 2015.
A **big big** thank you!
Have happy holidays!
_[1920x1080pixels wallpaper version available here ](data/images/artworks/2015-12-24_peppercarrot_hollidays-illusration.jpg "hi-res wallpaper version" )_
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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17 comments
[youtube]Hr7OPBxh5_o[/youtube]
During the production of the latest episode ( [ep13. "The Pyjama Party"](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/article338/episode-13-the-pyjama-party) ) I managed to screen-record a sample of the coloring process done with [Krita 2.9.9](https://krita.org/) . Today, I decided to edit and accelerate this 10h of videos material into a short ( 5min ) Youtube time-lapse. I hope you'll like to see how this page evolved from the black and white line-art to the final version. I also [attach a link here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/ep13_The-Pyjama-Party/hi-res/gfx-only/gfx_Pepper-and-Carrot_by-David-Revoy_E13P02.jpg "attach a link here" ) to the final page in the highest-resolution.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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11 comments
Source file for corrections/translation ( libreoffice draw, *.odg ) is [available in this folder](http://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/?dir=article-src "available this folder" )
**[edit 21 december 2015 ]**
Thanks JA12 in the comments for sharing his ( advanced ) method in a video timelapse.
This method can do the random coloring from Blender directly.
[youtube]lzGJgxhGJnw[/youtube]
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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15 comments
Source file for corrections/translation ( libreoffice draw, *.odg ) is [available in this folder](http://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/?dir=article-src "available this folder" )
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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7 comments
This week a second item of my [Dream TO-DO List](https://www.peppercarrot.com/static7/author "Dream TO-DO List" ) was checked.
Receive a photo of a red cat named Carrot !
His long name is "Titou-la-Carotte" and he own Carole who sent me the picture.
**Thank you !
**_( Note: I'll keep publishing on this blog every photos I receive of cats named Carrot )_**
**
**Status of other dreams :
**
☑ be supported by 500 patreons
☑ Receive a photo of a red cat named Carrot
☐ Give a talk in a Japanese comic convention about Pepper&Carrot
☐ Play with a gamepad to a Pepper&Carrot video-game
☐ Get a gallery of 100 fan-arts
☐ Get a Wikipedia page
☐ Receive a photo of a Pepper cosplay
☐ Reach episode 100
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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5 comments
"Capitole du libre 2015" was cancelled ; "Bazar du Libre 2015" is born
Pepper and Carrot conference will happen !
Saturday 21 November, 14:00 – 14:30
Fablab Artilec, 27bis Allées Maurice Sarraut , Toulouse, France
All information ( and program )in french here :
****
This will be **the first **and very short conference about Pepper&Carrot (in french). I'll talk about the origin of the project, why I'm doing this open-webcomic, how the project is running and where the project could go.
About "Capitole du Libre" : After the recent events and terrorist attack in Paris, "Capitole du Libre" event was cancelled by autorities due to security reason. In the last 3 days, the organizator and many volunteers worked very hard to create an alternative event, split over 3 places named 'Bazar du Libre'[http://bazardulibre.org ](http://bazardulibre.org/ "http://bazardulibre.org/" )
Here is my previous 'poster' before the event was canceled :
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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13 comments
I start a quest to find the best online printing service for making a good official Pepper&Carrot mug. In the long term? Not only a mug but setting a good eshop with coaster, magnet, mousepad, tee-shirt...etc... Yes, this is **the start of the quest for the official Pepper&Carrot eshop**!
This tests cost me money as I have to purchase the printed tests objects myself, and also take me time. It's a long term goal, and the eshop will not happen anytime soon: I need to wait for delivery, and test the product within a minimum time period (I'm trying to scratch print, boiling print, putting inside hot program of the cleaning washing machine ). But this effort is the price to pay to do things right and get good quality goodies. Something I want for Pepper&Carrot.
My requirements are simple, all I need is :
* Good products ( eg. the mug itself )
* Good quality, resolution and robust print, conform to the picture
* Easy and user friendly printing service webpage
* A way to setup for the creator the product and earn a little bit on sharing the design
* Interesting final price for the customer
* Low and fast delivery price worldwide
## First test: Vistaprint
**Link:** [www.vistaprint.com](http://www.vistaprint.com "www.vistaprint.com" )
**Period:** October/November 2015.
**Object:** A mug
**Why:** the service 'Vistaprint' was legit to test in first in my point-of-view: it's a cheap online printing service.
**Pros: **
* The shipping packaging is resistant to any shock and the delivery was fast.
* The ink/varnish is stong to resisted to all my test so far.
* Color are good, and conform to the design and no color lost for the moment.
* The mug itself is pleasant with a basic rounded shape and feel robust.
* The price was cheap ( less than 10€ in Europe ).
**Cons:**
* The print is also too blury and too grainy, no sharp details. ( The file sent was a lossless PNG 600dpi, 3400x3400 , enough big to print on a truck ) It feels like if it was made with a home printer Inkjet from the 90's
* Vistaprint spam marketing after a purchase
* Vistaprint website is really a marketing gate to hell ( fake promo period, trying to propose always ten product unwanted, add hidden cost on the way so the price tag looks nice at first but it cost a lot at end )
* The design is not protected, and Vistaprint feels like they own it after a usage (mine are CC-By, it's fine, they 'own' it as everyone)
* Not possible to setup a 'eshop' with my design and earn a little bit on it.
**Conclusion:**
I wouldn't recommends Vistaprint's service. I also purchased 100 postcards the same day, and the postcards are not thick enough and haven't got any guidelines printed on the back ( for the stamp, adress, etc ). It feels really cheap quality. I wouldn't say it's totally money wasted, but just really low quality compare to the price tag. I also was disappointed by the website and aggressive email marketing. It wasn't a nice experience to make a purchase on their platform. I'll not use this service to setup a Pepper&Carrot eshop!
## **Next test :**
I setup a mug on [deviantArt eshop here](http://deevad.deviantart.com/art/Pepper-and-Carrot-logo-565770223?purchase=print "deviantArt eshop here" ) , the price is a bit higher and with the shipping oversea it's not a good deal for europeans and I guess africans and asians. I'll purchase one to see the result and I'll update this page as soon as I'll be done with all my test. If you also want to do it or have a recommendation ; let me know in the comment !
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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5 comments
I received many email, comments and feedbacks about **the need of a central Wiki** for the universe of Pepper&Carrot named Hereva. That's why I decided to add a collaborative Wiki to the website. You can find it on the top categorie. That's the start of a new adventure, and I hope I'll use it to add more details, and illustrate it step by step. Corrections and proof-reading needed :)
## Technical details:
The wiki is manually [sync with the Github wiki](https://github.com/Deevad/peppercarrot/wiki "sync with the Github wiki" ) . **Github wiki** is a git repository with markdown files. Here is a screenshot of the folder with the **markdown files**.
It's easy to clone or to edit online with a Github account.
git clone https://github.com/Deevad/peppercarrot.wiki.git
To translate the markdown files to Html, I used an open library named [parsedown.php](https://github.com/erusev/parsedown "parsedown.php" ). I used the static pages of **Pluxml** ( the CMS I use for running Pepper&Carrot ) to display the markdown pages. I also generated a menu with PHP to wrap-up everything. A Wiki is born!
## PHP code for Pluxml
Here is my **PHP code** to include a markdown page inside a Pluxml static page ( static8/wiki in my case ), I share it because I didn't found anything like this on internet, and I had to do it from scratch. I guess a lot of project would like to have this type of sync between website and a markdown wiki and this code should be pretty standard and easy to tweak because I fully commented it :
_Loading the Markdown pages :_
text($contents);
?>
_
Generating the Menu buttons :_
urlRewrite('?static8/wiki&page='.$wikifile);
echo '" title="">'.$wikifile.'';
}
}
}
}
?>
I hope it will be useful and you'll enjoy the Wiki !
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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19 comments
Here is a technical post where I explain my choices and process in the move from storing the high-resolution **PNG@300ppi-lossless** to **JPG@300ppi-compressed@95%** for optimization and performance.
## The problem
[Hosting 20GB of Hi-Resolution](https://www.peppercarrot.com/static6/sources "Hosting 20GB of Hi-Resolution" ) PNG to propose print quality for all the languages is **a lot of work **to maintain, for a service rarely used. But delivering this 'pre-build' **300ppi version** of the comic is something I want to keep, as I believe Pepper&Carrot** is a rare **( if not the only ) webcomic to offer this type of service.
Each pages (** 2481x3503px** ) rendered as PNG lossless weight more than 10MB. An episode with all current languages represents around 300 pages. So each time a typo, a correction, or a change is done over a page, it's Gigabyte of data to process and upload again. That's why I'm perfecting day after day a set of [computer bash scripts](https://github.com/Deevad/peppercarrot "computer bash scripts" ) to do it, and task for my computer to work alone at night. Today, with 12 episode and 25 languages, I can still manage... Not exactly ; someday at morning, the uploading jobs started the night before is not finished. This affect my productivity as my Internet connexion is slow for half a day. What my actual situation would be with the double of episodes and translations files? Certainly a lot of maintenance, but it also can certainly happen sooner as I expect. Pepper&Carrot is growing at light-speed, and my days are still made of the same 24h. Too much maintenance is a real problem: I want to keep control and free the most time to produce comics, drawings and artworks. That's why I invest time in perfecting my computer bash scripting skill : **only automation and optimization can save me time**.
_my bash script 'filewalker' doing a report on file weight_
[External link: filewalker](https://github.com/Deevad/peppercarrot/blob/master/filewalker.sh)
## Solutions
One solution to solve this problem was to check how to reduce the file weight of the PNG hi-resolution lossless for print. 20GB can certainly be compressed. I made **many test **with cWebP, Pngcrush, Optipng, Pngquant, Imagemagick, Graphicmagick, Gmic, GDlib to check the best solution to provide high-resolution files ready for print over internet. Also, I wanted to study this change in depth to be sure I'll not do a big** switching effort** for nothing.
My requirements are simple: I don't mind the file to be a bit altered from the original artwork, the compression can be lossy but it has to be subtle. Subtle to the point I can't see the difference when zooming on both files : PNG lossless on one side, and compressed version on the other side. I used Krita and the Tiling Windows to zoom and compare. I also put the two version each time as layer** with the difference blending mode**. This blending mode compare the pixel colors, return pure black if nothing is changed, and brighten with an intensity depending the amount of difference between original pixels, and the one in compressed version. I also added on the top of the layer-stack **a Filter Layer , with increased Levels**. This filter highlight the amount of compressions noise. The compression noise was then something I could appreciate and compare with my eyes :
_The rig in Krita: comparing in the stack with Difference blending mode. The grey information reveals ( thanks to the Level dynamic filter ) compression artifacts and changes for human eyes; real result of 'difference blending mode' are 90% more subtle._
Thanks to this methodology and tools, it was easier to build my final choice on a real study.
Here are my notes while I make the test :
**PNG Optimisation: **OptiPNG and PNGcrush took around 10min per pages with full usage of all thread and CPU of a icore7 8 core 2,4GHz machine. They changed a 10,5 MB into a 9,2MB page while keeping the same extension and the lossless **perfect quality**. This type of compression **cost too much in time**, electricity and the result **file-weight is still too high**.
**WebP: **I studied the proposition to do almost lossless files with Webp, using option as -q 100 , and the --preset 'photo'. I was happy to can compare WebP in Krita ( yes, Krita can open them ), but my difference blending mode revealed a really high level of artifacts of compression. With default settings ; cWebp rendered the page to 0.5MB but with a really potato compression aspect. With best settings, ( -q100 and -preset photos ) I was able to obtain a 3MB file. But this file **had too many compression artifact**. Also, Webp is **not supported by all** browser or image editor. I would adopt it if the compression artifact was competitive to JPG and if the final weight was also an improvement. But for 'near-to-lossless' this **promising technology** is not adapted.
**JPG:** I studied JPG with many libraries and obtained **best result in terms of speed, quality and compression** with Imagemagick. JPG is compatible with every applications and the king image format of the Internet since more than a decade. First, the 'blur' option is far too destructive. Progressive encoding has advantages to display the hi-resolution pages and almost no impact on filesize, so I kept this option only for hi-resolution. I studied all compression from 92% to 100% , and compared the noise compression with my method described on the picture above. The result : on hi-resolution from 100% to 95% the **compression noise is not noticeable**. The artwork is not affected at all, nor the colors. The noise don't build any blocks, and don't make a difference with the natural artwork's noise. Render is really fast and file weight go down to **26% size of original**. This is my solution.
_While uploading the files, PNG and JPG were side to side. You can compare the file size on this screenshot._
### Here is my table to sumarize the tests :
**filetype**| **software/options**| **size**| **notes**
--- |---|---|---
PNG| imagemagick| 10,5MB| lossless ( original )
PNG| pngcrush| 9,2MB| lossless, 10min too long
WEBP| cwebp default| 505KB| potatoe looking-like
WEBP| cwebp -q100| 2,9MB| too much artifact
WEBP| cwebp -q100 -preset photo| 3MB| too much artifact
JPG| imagemagick 99%| 6,4MB| ok
JPG| imagemagick 98%| 4,7MB| ok
JPG| imagemagick 97%| 3,9MB| ok
JPG| imagemagick 96%| 3,4MB| ok
JPG| imagemagick 95%| 2,9MB| ok
JPG| imagemagick prog + -quality 95%| 2,8MB| ok ( Final choice )
JPG| imagemagick 94%| 2,6MB| too much artifact
JPG| imagemagick 93%| 2,4MB| too much artifact
JPG| imagemagick 92%| 2.2MB| too much artifact
JPG| imagemagick 85% 0.5 blur prog| 939KB| blury potatoes looking-like
## Conclusion
convert -strip -interlace Plane -quality 95% input.png ouput.jpg
Here is the final simple command-line I'm using now for managing my high-resolutions 'very-very-near-to-lossless'. I think I can be happy with what I found because I optimised everything to be **74% smaller,** a huge impact on bandwith for the HD button, on downloading, and uploading.
This study concerns of course only the case of my pages ( **2481x3503px** ) with all requirements I had ( Browser and app compatibility, low file-weight, no-noise but lossy a bit is ok ). I don't write this blog post to feed here a war of format between PNG, WEBP and JPG. I just regret I had to do this study alone, and nowhere on the Internet I could find an article about high resolution pictures with near-to-lossless and recommendations.
I'm making the switch right now of all the database of artworks. It took 2 hours to convert all the hi-res PNG, and more than 40h of upload to update the JPG. I also had to modify the [renderfarm](https://github.com/Deevad/peppercarrot ) and the website to adapt to the new files. Not a little work. But to **share 20GB of data with 5GB only** , it totally worth it.
For pure lossless quality, I still propose the Krita files with all layers in the Sources category of this website, translations are still SVGs. So, the sources are intact and lossless. Just the final output can be 'very-very-near-to-lossless' to ease every online sharing of files and maintenance.
