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OCR Membership Cards


DarkeSword
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Did this idea die officially?

It was never officially alive; just a fun project.

But in the interest of identification, I'm definitely willing to print and pass 'em out at meetups or whatever, after finding the best low-cost method. I'll tweak my designs later this week: look into other viable sans-serif fonts, create a rear, stuff like that.

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It was never officially alive; just a fun project.

But in the interest of identification, I'm definitely willing to print and pass 'em out at meetups or whatever, after finding the best low-cost method. I'll tweak my designs later this week: look into other viable sans-serif fonts, create a rear, stuff like that.

Thanks for the clarification!

Of course I knew this was no official project, just a bunch of geeks throwing in some ideas... ;-P

As I said, I really like this idea and I WANT TO HAVE SUCH A CARD!

Since it's extremely unlikely we will EVER meet (I live in Germany), could you post your template or otherwise give me the final files, so I can print it out myself?

Of course, you could print it, but I think shipping it to me would cost too much...

Anyways, no need to hurry! Take your time and do a good job.

You have my respect already.

NinjaN

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a little time now, so I'm back to work on this design. I'll offer printouts and templates soon, but before I settle on a final, along with a rear design, a little help choosing a font among the following. I've narrowed my choices down to a few for membernames and two for the titles. Names, especially, demand a nice sans-serif for maximum legibility. I'm leaning toward Trebuchet and Cornerstone; how about it?

textpoll1.jpg

textpoll2.jpg

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I'm really digging José's design, and might be open to doing something official.

It'd really only work if we could generate the images programmatically and cache them, though, using TTF and GD2 or ImageMagick or what not.

Are there any intrepid PHP coders out there that want to work with getting template graphics from José and trying to code something basic that I could then take and work from myself?

I'd love to do it myself - it's really rather sexy compared to the work I've been doing cleaning up OCR's code - but right now isn't the best time. If no one's up to it, José please save whatever templates, fonts, etc. are involved, and maybe we can do something down the road....

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This...Is...so...NERDY!!!

but...I WANT ONE SO BADLY!!!!!

SOMEONE, MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!

I can see myself now, flashing my *official* OCR card to someone while pushing my glasses back up my greasy nose, simultaneously checking to make sure all my pens are arranged evenly and symmetrically in my pocket protecter....

I WANT ONE!!! NOW!!!

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It'd really only work if we could generate the images programmatically and cache them, though, using TTF and GD2 or ImageMagick or what not.

Are there any intrepid PHP coders out there that want to work with getting template graphics from José and trying to code something basic that I could then take and work from myself?

I haven't coded PHP in probably 4 years, so I'm out of touch with a few things like current security best practices, but I can certainly give this a shot. I'd probably develop a generic and unstylized UI for testing as well as a method to form the composite image that would be called with a few parameters (so you could later call that method when you've integrated it into the main site), but we'd probably want to pull name and status from the database which, assuming I wouldn't have access to that, you'd have to do. Either way, it wouldn't be hard to give you something workable. Let me know if and how you want to proceed.

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I haven't coded PHP in probably 4 years, so I'm out of touch with a few things like current security best practices, but I can certainly give this a shot. I'd probably develop a generic and unstylized UI for testing as well as a method to form the composite image that would be called with a few parameters (so you could later call that method when you've integrated it into the main site), but we'd probably want to pull name and status from the database which, assuming I wouldn't have access to that, you'd have to do. Either way, it wouldn't be hard to give you something workable. Let me know if and how you want to proceed.

I can handle all the database integration and backend stuff. Let's assume at least initially we're talking about 4 or 5 parameters... username, real name, remixer name (can be null), user title(s) (appears beneath usename on forum posts)... that should get us started. I'm assuming you have your own dev environment... it'd be best to code for PHP5 and GD2 in a linux environment, but my local ocremix dev environment is actually Apache under Windows, so do whatever you can. The idea of starting with a generic template works.... final output should probably be 24-bit PNG, so we can handle transparency. Since you won't need to be talking to a database yourself, you could easily just test with sample data for different types of users (if remixer name is null, assume normal member... if user titles contains judge, moderator, etc. assume staff... if username is djpretzel, assume administrator)... need anything else to get started? Eventually you'll need to figure out the true type font angle, and how to ensure GD2 has access to those, etc., but that can probably wait.

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I can handle all the database integration and backend stuff. Let's assume at least initially we're talking about 4 or 5 parameters... username, real name, remixer name (can be null), user title(s) (appears beneath usename on forum posts)... that should get us started. I'm assuming you have your own dev environment... it'd be best to code for PHP5 and GD2 in a linux environment, but my local ocremix dev environment is actually Apache under Windows, so do whatever you can. The idea of starting with a generic template works.... final output should probably be 24-bit PNG, so we can handle transparency. Since you won't need to be talking to a database yourself, you could easily just test with sample data for different types of users (if remixer name is null, assume normal member... if user titles contains judge, moderator, etc. assume staff... if username is djpretzel, assume administrator)... need anything else to get started? Eventually you'll need to figure out the true type font angle, and how to ensure GD2 has access to those, etc., but that can probably wait.

Not quite sure what you mean by true type font angle, but that's probably (hopefully?) secondary anyway. I don't have a PHP dev environment at the moment, but it shouldn't be hard to roll one; Apache and all that haven't changed *that* much recently and I've done it before. We'd also have to think about caching, but that's another topic that's secondary to actually producing the images in the first place.

Only other thing I think I need initially is the various images (or at least a Photoshop file; I've got PS 7) from Jose, as well as a back image (if that needs to be customized at all).

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Any ability at all to convert to .vcf (v-card format)?

This whole thing isn't for electronic data exchange. It's for actual cards you hold in your hand and put in your wallet. I don't understand how vCards are even relevant. If you're suggesting parsing the vCard to generate the data for the card that will eventually be printed, then you haven't looked at how sparse the forum vCards are.

The contents of mine

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:;DarkeSword
FN:DarkeSword
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:darkesword@ocremix.org
BDAY:1983-12-22
URL:http://www.darkesword.com
REV:2008-03-27T21:34:38Z
END:VCARD

There's nothing in there at all.

If you're suggesting using the image and storing it in vCard format, then you're missing the point.

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Again, missing the point.

But to address your point: why bother? How many people actually use vCards for contacts? I'd guess "not many."

What it really boils down to is that this isn't the kind of card you hand out to people. vCards are analogous to business cards. "Here take my card, contact me."

These are membership cards. They're not supposed to contain contact info. They're for showing off your membership. It's real and substantial and made of plastic. You sign the back and keep it in your wallet. You don't GIVE your membership card to people. It's not a contact card.

I don't hand out my Star Wars Fan Club Membership card to people so that they can contact me. I have business cards for that.

Nothing's preventing you from embedding a finished image in your own personal vCard, but honestly I don't think I know a single person who uses vCards and I don't think its worthwhile to pursue it.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

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