Miaplacidus
1st May 2007, 08:16 PM
As the people interested in the project haven't chosen a leader yet and I'm the one organizing things as of now, I am going to set up some temporary guidelines for contribution. This can, and probably will, be changed after the project becomes more organized and tasks are distributed. However, it is necessary to have something to start.
This is my vision of how the magazine should be organized. I want to make it clear that these are PROPOSED GUIDELINES: I am not imposing them. Feel free to contact me in order to make corrections and adjustments to them, or to replace them in their entirety.
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Empty Closets Magazine Project
General Information and Guidelines
1. Who Can Participate?
All EC registered members are more than welcome to contribute with the project, no matter how many posts do they have or for how long they have been members. All contributors will be treated equally.
2. How Can I Participate?
There are lots of things to do. At the moment, I'm taking care of most of them but it's obvious that I won't be able to do this alone. We need, of course, CONTENTS for the magazine, some people to help with its design, and new ideas, among many other things. Surely there's something to do that will suit you. Your contribution will be happily received.
3. I Want To Participate. What Shall I Do?
This depends on how do you want to contribute with the project. In order to deal with this, I will divide this section in subcategories. However, if you have some content you'd like to send us, PM me and I'll give you an e-mail address to contact me and/or send the contents. There's work ongoing on setting up an FTP server for the project.
3.1. Submitting Contents
3.1.1. Articles and other text-based content
Currently, my computer can read the following text document formats:
* Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier (.doc files)
* OpenOffice.org Writer, all versions (.sxw, .odt files)
* Corel WordPerfect 12 and earlier (.wpd files)
* Plain text (.txt files)
* Rich Text Format (.rtf files)
All you have to do is send a file in one of those formats to me (I'll receive them until someone else takes over that). Please, if you use a format other than plain text, USE AS LITTLE FORMATTING AS POSSIBLE. ALL FORMATTING YOU APPLY TO THE TEXT WILL BE IGNORED! - Sorry, but that's how our page layout program works - text is formatted within the program. Plus, this is necessary to ensure that the magazine has a consistent format.
3.1.2. Photos, drawings and other graphics
This may be a little difficult but it is worth it. Graphics are as important as the text on a magazine. So, we have to ensure that they're of fine quality. I am going to use some technical language now: those who want to collaborate with graphics are probably familiarized with what I'm going to say.
RASTER GRAPHICS
All raster-based graphics (for example, photos) have to have a resolution of at least 300 dots per inch (DPI). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll say that the pictures have to have at least 1000 pixels, either horizontally or vertically (or both).
There are lots of raster graphics formats. Currently, you can choose among the following:
* TIFF (.tif, .tiff files) - preferred format, however the images will be really big and will have to be compressed.
* JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg files) - JPEG is a compressed format which I'll recommend for photos only. When available, use high-quality JPEG.
* PNG (.png files) - It is a lossless compression format that can be used for photos and other images as well. I recommend this one.
Many other formats are available. If you want to know if you can use a specific format, contact me.
VECTOR GRAPHICS
Computer-assisted drawings are the most common example of vector graphics. Currently, you can choose among the following formats:
* Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg files) - USE THIS FORMAT IF POSSIBLE
* Xara Xtreme (.xar files)
* CorelDRAW 11 and earlier (.cdr files)
* Encapsulated PostScript (.eps files)
The files shall be sent in the same way as text files.
3.1.3. Other content
Please contact me if you want to submit another kind of content. I will be glad to help you.
3.2. Collaborating with the design
As of now, I'm the one putting things together. If you are interested on collaborating with the magazine's design tasks, contact me.
I'm currently using Scribus 1.3.3.7 on openSUSE Linux 10.2 as the page layout application, and Inkscape/Xara Xtreme for graphics. Those programs are available for Windows and Mac as well (I think) so you don't have to install Linux to collaborate. Plus they're free.
3.3. Miscellaneous
As I have stated above, there's always something you can do. If what you want to do isn't listed here, or if you want to help us and don't know how, just PM me and we'll find something you can do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revised on 5/1/2007
This is my vision of how the magazine should be organized. I want to make it clear that these are PROPOSED GUIDELINES: I am not imposing them. Feel free to contact me in order to make corrections and adjustments to them, or to replace them in their entirety.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Empty Closets Magazine Project
General Information and Guidelines
1. Who Can Participate?
All EC registered members are more than welcome to contribute with the project, no matter how many posts do they have or for how long they have been members. All contributors will be treated equally.
2. How Can I Participate?
There are lots of things to do. At the moment, I'm taking care of most of them but it's obvious that I won't be able to do this alone. We need, of course, CONTENTS for the magazine, some people to help with its design, and new ideas, among many other things. Surely there's something to do that will suit you. Your contribution will be happily received.
3. I Want To Participate. What Shall I Do?
This depends on how do you want to contribute with the project. In order to deal with this, I will divide this section in subcategories. However, if you have some content you'd like to send us, PM me and I'll give you an e-mail address to contact me and/or send the contents. There's work ongoing on setting up an FTP server for the project.
3.1. Submitting Contents
3.1.1. Articles and other text-based content
Currently, my computer can read the following text document formats:
* Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier (.doc files)
* OpenOffice.org Writer, all versions (.sxw, .odt files)
* Corel WordPerfect 12 and earlier (.wpd files)
* Plain text (.txt files)
* Rich Text Format (.rtf files)
All you have to do is send a file in one of those formats to me (I'll receive them until someone else takes over that). Please, if you use a format other than plain text, USE AS LITTLE FORMATTING AS POSSIBLE. ALL FORMATTING YOU APPLY TO THE TEXT WILL BE IGNORED! - Sorry, but that's how our page layout program works - text is formatted within the program. Plus, this is necessary to ensure that the magazine has a consistent format.
3.1.2. Photos, drawings and other graphics
This may be a little difficult but it is worth it. Graphics are as important as the text on a magazine. So, we have to ensure that they're of fine quality. I am going to use some technical language now: those who want to collaborate with graphics are probably familiarized with what I'm going to say.
RASTER GRAPHICS
All raster-based graphics (for example, photos) have to have a resolution of at least 300 dots per inch (DPI). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll say that the pictures have to have at least 1000 pixels, either horizontally or vertically (or both).
There are lots of raster graphics formats. Currently, you can choose among the following:
* TIFF (.tif, .tiff files) - preferred format, however the images will be really big and will have to be compressed.
* JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg files) - JPEG is a compressed format which I'll recommend for photos only. When available, use high-quality JPEG.
* PNG (.png files) - It is a lossless compression format that can be used for photos and other images as well. I recommend this one.
Many other formats are available. If you want to know if you can use a specific format, contact me.
VECTOR GRAPHICS
Computer-assisted drawings are the most common example of vector graphics. Currently, you can choose among the following formats:
* Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg files) - USE THIS FORMAT IF POSSIBLE
* Xara Xtreme (.xar files)
* CorelDRAW 11 and earlier (.cdr files)
* Encapsulated PostScript (.eps files)
The files shall be sent in the same way as text files.
3.1.3. Other content
Please contact me if you want to submit another kind of content. I will be glad to help you.
3.2. Collaborating with the design
As of now, I'm the one putting things together. If you are interested on collaborating with the magazine's design tasks, contact me.
I'm currently using Scribus 1.3.3.7 on openSUSE Linux 10.2 as the page layout application, and Inkscape/Xara Xtreme for graphics. Those programs are available for Windows and Mac as well (I think) so you don't have to install Linux to collaborate. Plus they're free.
3.3. Miscellaneous
As I have stated above, there's always something you can do. If what you want to do isn't listed here, or if you want to help us and don't know how, just PM me and we'll find something you can do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revised on 5/1/2007