User talk:Laura1822

Welcome to Wikisource

Hello, Laura1822, and welcome to Wikisource! Thank you for joining the project. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• Help pages, especially for proofreading
• Help:Beginner's guide to Wikisource
• Style guide
• Inclusion policy
• Wikisource:For Wikipedians

You may be interested in participating in

• Proofread of the Month
• Monthly Challenge
• Requested texts

Add the code {{active projects}}, {{PotM}} or {{Collaboration/MC}} to your page for current Wikisource projects.

You can put a brief description of your interests on your user page and contributions to another Wikimedia project, such as Wikipedia and Commons.

Have questions? Then please ask them at either

• Wikisource:Scriptorium; or
• Wikisource:Scriptorium/Help

I hope you enjoy contributing to Wikisource, the library that is free for everyone to use! In discussions, please "sign" your comments using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username if you're logged in (or IP address if you are not) and the date. If you need help, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question here (click edit) and place {{helpme}} before your question.

Again, welcome! — billinghurst sDrewth 04:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

colors

I am visually impaired and cannot work with a bright background, so I copied some css from another site to use on wikiprojects to force light text and black background. I copied/pasted it here to User:Laura1822/common.css‎. It strips out colors, which is usually not a major problem on other wikis. However, here the colors are important. I tried to do some proofreading, but I can't see the toolbar, I can't see the color-coding for the page links (whether proofread, etc.) and I can't see the page status radio buttons. Also, on normal pages (like this one), the edit tools below the editing box (i.e., with insert/wikimarkup) is showing up bright white, which is blinding, though the various symbols themselves are showing correctly (this last doesn't happen on wp or commons).

What about now? I think I managed to set the Char[acter]Insert bar to "inherit" it's background and font settings from their parent settings - which in your case is set in your personal .CSS to a black background with a white font. If I was right, that is what your CharInsert bar should have now too. -- George Orwell III (talk) 01:33, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

I am not a coder and find css too complex to deal with easily. (I have attempted to correct this problem in the past, but don't know enough to figure it out.) Would someone who understands these things please modify my common.css so that I can see link colors, the toolbar icons, and the radio buttons, and fix the background on the editing tools? Help! Laura1822 (talk) 19:15, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Hi Laura, we have a gadget that "colours the page background and text boxes to lower contrast in edit mode" that may help you. If you go to the gadgets section of your preferences (Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets), it's the last checkbox in the Editing tools section. I don't know how it will interact with your common.css, but hopefully it will improve things. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 21:50, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Laura, did you get the colors you wanted? I use light grey background with black text. Kindest regards, —Maury (talk) 22:00, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, but no, I didn't. I tried the "lower contrast" gadget but it is still far too bright, very painful. I really cannot tolerate anything but a black background. I hope someone who knows css will find me.  :) Laura1822 (talk) 00:28, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

And now? I fiddled with your .css file and think I've managed to restore most of "critical" colors and such while keeping new or Wikisource specific additions within your b&w scheme at the same time. Let us know if this helped. -- George Orwell III (talk) 03:56, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

MUCH better, thank you! I can now see all the colors, I think. A few of the toolbar buttons don't show up (perhaps they are transparent?), and the numbers don't show up well against the colors, but those are mere quibbles compared to what it looked like before. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Laura1822 (talk) 13:40, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

In plain English

Hi Laura, There are many good technical people here, (which I am not), and therefore ask you for simple guidance to link us to a site, Wikimedia related or not, which pleases your eyes. That will establish your color preferences and hopefully resolve the issues.- Ineuw 03:41, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, I think Mr. Orwell has taken care of it. For what it's worth, I think I borrowed the css initially (some years ago) from Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki, or a similar site. I've always wondered why Wikipedia doesn't have a true black-background skin as a choice, or at least they didn't last time I checked. Laura1822 (talk) 13:40, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Bard

Laura, my wife is totally blind since the age of 17. I want you to know there are also free, professional book readers and you can download their many books on https://nlsbard.loc.gov/login//NLS

You may wish to look into this. It keeps my wife happy and all books are downloadable. There is a special digital player that uses these digital books. The books can be saved if you wish and they can be placed on a "thumb"/"flash" drive that fits in a shirt pocket. It is also good if in a place where you have to wait for a long time to pass that time.

But now you have WikiSource and there are many good and helpful people here. "GO3" aka "Mr. Orwell", is an alias for George Orwell III. He is always helpful and he is one of the smartest "coders" here.

Welcome to WikiSource, Laura!

Kindest regards,

—Maury (talk) 14:23, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you so much. I have downloaded and enjoyed a few audiobooks and I will take a look at that link. which is new to me.

For the record, I am extremely light sensitive, not near-blind.  :) I see very well, but the bright white backgrounds are painful. I have to wear blue-blocking glasses to use a computer monitor or watch TV, and have to restrict general light usage (no fluorescents, no bluish bulbs).

If anyone else comes along who would like to try my common.css to reduce eyestrain, please try it and let me know how you like it. Laura1822 (talk) 14:36, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

File:ARA 1809 V01 D066 Walking dress.jpg

This conversation was COPIED to Wikisource talk:WikiProject Ackermann’s Repository of Arts. Please delete if you are OK with it.— Ineuw talk 20:47, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

I cleaned up this first colored image. There are 30 color images in Volume 1. — Ineuw talk 03:01, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

P.S: Some additional comments:

• The Bunka Gakuen books are not from Internet Archives. I am convinced that they are originals from their library and exquisitely preserved.
• The IA images are missing the accreditation at the bottom of the image.
• I downloaded the same image from Bunka Gakuen, to compare and will upload it to the Commons.
• The background should be white, the colors we see are of the acidified paper.
• If you missed this In the Scriptorium, there is a very good chance that these images will also be there. — Ineuw talk 13:06, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

@Ineuw: I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I never meant to imply that the BG images were from IA. I agree with you that they are originals. My original point was that I hope that there is an automated way to assemble the BG images into djvu files, upload them to IA, and work from them instead of the set currently at IA. But if the other volumes at IA are not as badly done as this one, perhaps it would be appropriate to get the plate images from BG and upload them to commons (hopefully with a bot), though they need some cropping (carefully, to preserve the texts at the edges of the images). I haven't figured out a way to do the cropping with a batch yet (I use Irfanview).

I saw the discussion about the 2.4 million images, and went straight to commons to look for Ackermann's plates (or any fashion plates), but couldn't find any. Doesn't mean they aren't there. Laura1822 (talk) 13:27, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

• My comment about the source of BG images was only my surprise exclamation. It was I who made the assumption because I didn't look at the BG images closely. Only after leaving the computer, it occurred to me that BG, being a fashion school in the 19th century, they own their own copies.
• Am I to assume that your wish is to transfer the BG images from their website to IA? Why don't you consider asking BG to upload their digital copies of their books, pointing out their quality vs IA versions? IA then will spawn all kinds of formats within 24 hours.
• I also use only Irfanview. But 49 images - some grayscale, don't require batch operations - also the images are not the same size. — Ineuw talk 14:28, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

That's a good idea!

50 images may not require batch, but 50 x4 0 vols =2k images! And that's just plates!  :) Laura1822 (talk) 14:45, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

I appreciate the sample with a white background, but I much prefer leaving the original color of the paper, especially for plates. I have a litany of reasons for that if you want to discuss. Just my opinion. Laura1822 (talk) 15:10, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

• Must have uploaded ~20,000 images, so 2,000 are not too scary. Also, not all images are color plates.
• This is your project, so you make the decision. There is nothing wrong with the colored background on color images, and it looks nice. But, grayscale is not accepted with the yellow background, that I am sure of. I had to request deletions and re-upload the first 1,000 PSM images because of it.
• As for the duplicate image captions, (on the image and then repeated below the images), please ask for clarification from User:Hesperian. He was my Rabbi in these matters. — Ineuw talk 15:31, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

WikisourceMono font

After our discussion earlier, I had a closer look at the DPCustomMono2 font, and decided to fork it so I could fix up the display of dashes. I wanted to see what was a hyphen, what an en dash (added a lump at one end), and what an em dash (a lump at both ends). It's a bit clunky, so maybe you've got some better ideas. :-) I've started some documentation at Wikisource:WikisourceMono. Sam Wilson 08:24, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

@Samwilson: That's fantastic and anything you can do to bring that font into default use for proofreading is I think a major contribution to posterity.  :) As for dashes, etc., though, they don't matter so much in the proofreading font (though I'll always think that lengthening emdashes is a good idea). The problem, apparently, is in the reading font——if I'm understanding our earlier discussion correctly——whether in the web browser or the ereader (both computer-based and handheld). So I wouldn't want you to spend a lot of time working on it for the proofreading font unless that will be good practice to help future efforts address these issues.

BTW I installed the WSMono font downloaded from the page you linked, and still I see the table on that page all in Courier. I'll try again after purging my browser cache later this morning.

Also BTW I don't use the visual editor (don't know if it's even available here). Laura1822 (talk) 08:36, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, WikisourceMono won't help at all with the final display of pages, but I figure it can help with the proofreading process. There's not all that much we can do to help with the end-users' fonts, unfortunately. Sam Wilson 02:31, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

@Samwilson: I finally cleared my cache and the table now displays correctly. I didn't mean to conflate using WSmono with the reading font: in fact was trying to do the opposite. Sorry for the confusion! But there being not much we can do to control the reading font users choose, the one thing that seems to be controllable is to use the bar template instead of emdashes. On my project I use {{bar|2}}, which displays as——a nice comfortable length in the various reading fonts I use. What I don't know, of course, is how it displays in various default fonts (particularly sans serif) that most people probably use. Laura1822 (talk) 11:16, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

I've been investigating some more options with the bar template (doing the squash-the-letter-spacing trick): Template:Bar/testcases. I'm currently just failing on the yesterday-simple step of exporting the test to epub so I can check it out on ereaders. Anyway, come and make any changes you want (it's based on your great list of dash tests).

What I want to do is create a library of screenshots and photos of ereaders etc. so we can try to isolate some of the problems. This stuff is seemingly always going to be a pain though! Sam Wilson 01:38, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

Poem Formatting

https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page%3ABlessedbegodcomp00call.pdf%2F356&diff=14016966&oldid=14016941

wikitext inside a Ppoem cannot use block level elements like {{c}} and {{dhri}} which generate <DIV>...</DIV> in HTML.

{{dhri}} is a <SPAN>...</SPAN> based alternate , and the <> brackets are how centered lines are indicated within ppoem formatted wikitext. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 21:59, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! That was a lot packed into two concise sentences. I think I see a glimmer of light. I will study this and work some more on formatting those pages. Laura1822 (talk) 11:43, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Ackermann’s

Hi, I was hoping to proofread some stories from Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, and came across the Wikiproject you created for it. The stories are in a few different volumes, and the best scans I could find for the text were the ones on IA that you linked to on the main IA page:

• Series 2, Volume 11
• Series 2, Volume 12
• Series 2, Volume 13
• Series 3, Volume 4

None of the stories contain any colour plates (one of them continues after a diagram for the following article, but I guess this should be ok to leave out until it's transcluded when the relevant article is added). Just wanted to check with you before I started uploading and proofreading! --Yodin^T 21:54, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! I really appreciate your interest. This project is almost "abandonware." I got too bogged down in details, including technical ones, and never really grasped how to actually finish a volume. I am still interested in it, but my focus has shifted to other projects. So I gladly welcome any help and am willing to re-evaluate editorial decisions I made way back then.

Please be careful when uploading the volumes to Commons to follow the naming conventions for both files and Categories set out here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ackermann%27s_Repository_of_Arts_by_volume

There is an IA upload tool to facilitate uploading books from IA to Commons. https://iw.toolforge.org/ia-upload or toollabs:ia-upload

I can help with the uploading/naming/categorizing if it's not something you've done before.

It will be really nice to see some of the serialized stories transcribed. Is there a particular author or subject that you are working on? Laura1822 (talk) 13:35, 8 August 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for the slow reply, and thanks for the kind response! At the moment I'm adding stories by the authors of Fantasmagoriana ("The Apparition" and "The Green Mantle of Venice" are by Carl Heun, plus one other related story) – most of the time I end up creating quite minimalist pages for annuals/magazines (e.g. The European Magazine, Leigh Hunt’s London Journal, Court and Lady’s Magazine, The New Monthly Belle Assemblée, Knight's Quarterly Magazine, The Literary Magnet, Forget Me Not) – your work on Repository of Arts is by far the best I've found, so it would be great to collaborate on the project.

After looking at the scans on IA a bit more closely, I think they would be affected by some unfixed ia-upload bugs (adding non-book scan calibration pages, which offsets the OCR text layer), so it took a while, but I've downloaded the page scan images and compiled djvu files from them (series 2, vol 11 is now uploaded). Unfortunately when starting the index I found that the IA scan had missed out a couple of the plates (will add them from another source, and maybe move a few plates to match the bookbinding instructions, unless you think this is a bad idea?). Also wondered about creating a volumes template, to link all the Index pages (maybe something like this, this, or any of these)? --Yodin^T 20:08, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

No worries, I haven't been able to log in every day. For volumes templates and for the "minimalist" pages you've created, I have no strong opinions at this point, minimalist is fine and can always be elaborated upon later. (I like the template for Godey’s Lady’s Book.) I originally wanted to stick pretty closely to the printing layouts and styles in the originals; however, they changed over time and thus following the publisher's styles too slavishly ends up being too complicated. Practicality deserves a big weight. (But my prejudice is still that I want them to be pretty.) Re: bookbinding instructions, so long as the links work, I could be persuaded to follow them or not. Because they were rarely sold as bound volumes, but bound later by individuals or institutions, the copies vary a lot.

As for the IA scans vs other sources. Yes, they are imperfect. In an ideal world, the Bunka Gakuen images (the site is still there, I checked) are generally the best. I do not have the tools or patience to turn their images into a djvu (or pdf) and IIRC some of their images were occasionally slightly blurry, so not ideal for text. Also IIRC the contrast is low for the text pages. And of course, the images would have to be split, cropped, etc. (which is why I never did it myself). There is some discussion about this above here on my talk page.

I learned a lot from Ineuw, who has done Popular Mechanics and lots of great work.

Feel free to "be bold" and take on as much as appeals to you. If it gets involved and requires significant discussion, we can move it to the Project's talk pages. Laura1822 (talk) 20:45, 15 August 2024 (UTC)