tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71019331019667984462024-03-17T08:14:57.645-07:00The View from AristeiaScott Meyers' Activities and InterestsScott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.comBlogger368125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-52139145401167717542024-02-20T12:36:00.000-08:002024-02-20T12:36:23.428-08:00Tracking Travel<p>I like to travel. I've been a few places. I have a map on the wall with pins where I've been. Old School, but I started it before the Internet existed. I'd like to move it into the digital era. Looking into that led me to <a href="https://mtp.travel/">Most Traveled People</a> (MTP) and <a href="https://nomadmania.com/">NomadMania</a> (NM). Both offer the ability to generate maps of places visited based on data you enter. I tried both. The NM data entry process was so slow and cumbersome, I gave up. MTP worked better. The map it produced showing the countries I'd been to makes me look pretty well traveled:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lY_3ypzI6tg6ZbcA0p903YK9iF_kBS88yQEpUEILTFn43_BMUs2zjF9_OrjXwQD5s-s1NP47gbH1HUjN3_asKNqQU_Y5EIyCtgB-QPuEgqwJ-yhyphenhyphen3S24r1BrbgwLiILetPM6jzC8C9Ys0Z_HMga8PD_Q13YqEp4xq6qz1ya5KGZLVk9oFSdDHiGTBOo/s1295/2024-02-20%20mtp%20countries.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1295" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lY_3ypzI6tg6ZbcA0p903YK9iF_kBS88yQEpUEILTFn43_BMUs2zjF9_OrjXwQD5s-s1NP47gbH1HUjN3_asKNqQU_Y5EIyCtgB-QPuEgqwJ-yhyphenhyphen3S24r1BrbgwLiILetPM6jzC8C9Ys0Z_HMga8PD_Q13YqEp4xq6qz1ya5KGZLVk9oFSdDHiGTBOo/s320/2024-02-20%20mtp%20countries.png" width="320" /></a></div>This is terribly misleading. Country-level granularity means that if you visit only a single place in a big country (e.g., the USA, Canada, Russia), the map makes it look like you visited the whole thing. Recognizing this, both MTP and NM break the world into much smaller regions, 1500 in the case of MTP and 1301 in the case of NM. My MTP region map is not just less impressive, it's frankly a little depressing for somebody who feels like he's been around:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP7jHG3IFe3ZW6jP1a7TbosVXRHW0eg2wG4Ifzp8XwpZU-7X4vvZw360hyWDiMuVb55z2UaEuoXC1Ky_i9RWMsW7WY1NGaOjxBIQofFZXFnaeltN0U_s09VSPIMK606CD4M3j6V4eun6t-GoOZarEn6Mg9FNjMusUVGlcnQs1F86FK3n2XwJ2SSguxV8/s1295/2024-02-20%20mtp%20regions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1295" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVP7jHG3IFe3ZW6jP1a7TbosVXRHW0eg2wG4Ifzp8XwpZU-7X4vvZw360hyWDiMuVb55z2UaEuoXC1Ky_i9RWMsW7WY1NGaOjxBIQofFZXFnaeltN0U_s09VSPIMK606CD4M3j6V4eun6t-GoOZarEn6Mg9FNjMusUVGlcnQs1F86FK3n2XwJ2SSguxV8/s320/2024-02-20%20mtp%20regions.png" width="320" /></a></div>The region-based approach is better than one based on countries, but as I was entering the data for my travels in the United States, I found that MTP treats a few states as multiple regions. California, for example, comprises four regions, and Texas three. (NM does the same thing.) Like most states, Oregon--my state--is a single region, and my state pride was wounded at the idea that Colorado is broken into east and west, and Georgia into north and south, yet all of Oregon is thrown into a single basket. Eastern and western Oregon differ greatly in terms of geography, climate, economics, politics, and culture. Having been to one of them doesn't mean you've been to the other in any meaningful way.<br /><p></p><p>Breaking the world into regions and tracking who's been where is good for ranking people in terms of how geographically widespread their travels have been. Such rankings are the bread and butter of MTP and NM. I was surprised to find that I'm a comparative couch potato. <a href="https://www.kayak.com/">Kayak</a> tells me that since I started using it in 2011, I've traveled nearly 500 days, flown over a half million miles, and been in 17 time zones, yet those trips plus my pre-Kayak travels let me lay claim to barely 10% of MTP's 1500 regions. With the paltry 43 countries I've visited, I'm not even half way to qualifying for the <a href="https://travelerscenturyclub.org/">Travelers' Century Club</a>. From the perspective of competitive travel, I might as well not even have a passport.</p><p>Fortunately, I'm not out to engage in big-league travel competition. I just want a digital approach to tracking where I've been. For that purpose, I'm thinking a custom Google Map with digital push-pins is the way to go. It's basically the same thing I've got on my wall now, except in digital form. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-86350708764303964612023-11-28T21:57:00.000-08:002023-11-28T21:57:30.475-08:00Pumpkin Pie Cutters<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBq9LEuXvRn5wVwD-2nxHbzO3iCn67B8Kz8x3n2HyS8a_Vafvij2OztbZV5bLaUC-DeBFBIC_9z_wQvkFQRjmWHUSxe3fT5Ps0szY-yMVekyvqkoAAiijXzksRa71yY0PbZFQFlGJJSO5JKBlegvolGDJ4lLAcEm9VosW9Nb3pgxPHrRHXR8csPVBYSY/s1280/trees%20and%20snowflakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1280" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeBq9LEuXvRn5wVwD-2nxHbzO3iCn67B8Kz8x3n2HyS8a_Vafvij2OztbZV5bLaUC-DeBFBIC_9z_wQvkFQRjmWHUSxe3fT5Ps0szY-yMVekyvqkoAAiijXzksRa71yY0PbZFQFlGJJSO5JKBlegvolGDJ4lLAcEm9VosW9Nb3pgxPHrRHXR8csPVBYSY/s320/trees%20and%20snowflakes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Some years ago, I got it into my head that just as there are cookie
cutters for cookies, there should be pie cutters for pumpkin pie. I bought the deepest tree-shaped cookie cutters I could find, thinking I could stack them and produce festive pie pieces for a holiday party. It didn't go as planned. I couldn't get the stacking to work, and the result of using just one cutter was kind of a disaster:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRqogHIbVvArYGvku1ngEqdSZVAHNkwTqAUoZVR8zV0P55nejVv-qJtf1noEgMyen2nKibEMIAPy8r-RZs7oLHwHFLbwXJp-qyswNdiToQI6FFoCR2NUZpyovGirjeujuG4fdnAuSQCAtKtJymu7S1bS-nesJtG6aUCpPznWKlE2ijXPEKIYRZfYiaQM/s3000/pie1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1407" data-original-width="3000" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBRqogHIbVvArYGvku1ngEqdSZVAHNkwTqAUoZVR8zV0P55nejVv-qJtf1noEgMyen2nKibEMIAPy8r-RZs7oLHwHFLbwXJp-qyswNdiToQI6FFoCR2NUZpyovGirjeujuG4fdnAuSQCAtKtJymu7S1bS-nesJtG6aUCpPznWKlE2ijXPEKIYRZfYiaQM/s320/pie1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Nevertheless, proof of concept! <p></p><p>I found that the <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/KindredDesignsCA">KindredDesignsCA shop</a> at Etsy offered custom-made 3D-printed cookie cutters. They agreed to make extra-deep cutters for me, one in the shape of a tree, another in the shape of a snowflake. The cutters worked great, except that once I'd extracted a piece of pumpkin pie with a cutter, the pie stuck inside the cutter. I had KindredDesignsCA make plungers so that I could push the pie out of the cutters:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnRSXoNMZcrzupoG5JsU6lvefjBT8wtaMD_KASU756MC8CGDDn21ZhCeJ6UJpEywXlt6pgF5zo8yd7bxCfg_YJAw46mmQqgdosThA605XQMSlJ4djVPstRXMcj_P1yETn0wKqS-D1DT8ajFEIXVlDrI7MmVydDiHjFqmldyJFuQd5CSUdIbh9vSMYr3U/s1280/IMG_9976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="1280" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnRSXoNMZcrzupoG5JsU6lvefjBT8wtaMD_KASU756MC8CGDDn21ZhCeJ6UJpEywXlt6pgF5zo8yd7bxCfg_YJAw46mmQqgdosThA605XQMSlJ4djVPstRXMcj_P1yETn0wKqS-D1DT8ajFEIXVlDrI7MmVydDiHjFqmldyJFuQd5CSUdIbh9vSMYr3U/s320/IMG_9976.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I was so pleased with the result (shown at the top of this post), I started looking for new pie-cutter-shape ideas. For reasons not worth going into, I hit upon the idea of US states, and the next thing I knew, I was looking at pieces of pumpkin pie that looked like California, Texas, and Minnesota:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkE1TUynLtz7g2ZpIsM684N-yxrwMiDL8lkSsrBltf-cM3QXhqgaXZHW_F4-nhVANBGVqtNEVhxFCoObpqwcx_XpnwiX7adzOVsQD-nsR0ScZgBwDqwpDjHj4ZKrb0pdXzcZkUDaBQGttfkPYWCoiq5kNJMxmYnCUFRs71gNNVmrPPV5oe1vdo37P888A/s1280/states.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1280" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkE1TUynLtz7g2ZpIsM684N-yxrwMiDL8lkSsrBltf-cM3QXhqgaXZHW_F4-nhVANBGVqtNEVhxFCoObpqwcx_XpnwiX7adzOVsQD-nsR0ScZgBwDqwpDjHj4ZKrb0pdXzcZkUDaBQGttfkPYWCoiq5kNJMxmYnCUFRs71gNNVmrPPV5oe1vdo37P888A/s320/states.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This year I decided that for Thanksgiving dinner, it would be nice to have pieces of pumpkin pie that looked like turkeys and pumpkins, so KindredDesignsCA again did their 3D magic for me:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8G1N4y-uQEaEHQhF6phgxSaN2zrH-PX1DZ_iDgV-65WJ1fl6KsRtoAyx5F2yDHv6j1zU4qmm_nJXBtOH6Hx7tb6bzh9ZdRXKWOigHvEl8zqLKRKfzhmWQsn4UPv2UhR9BGjYzexdfIp-1IHFPBeIGPoYju1-zDF_RCNOxCuS5OeA3IWcoSzJbl-YfmM/s1280/pumpkins%20and%20turkeys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1186" data-original-width="1280" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8G1N4y-uQEaEHQhF6phgxSaN2zrH-PX1DZ_iDgV-65WJ1fl6KsRtoAyx5F2yDHv6j1zU4qmm_nJXBtOH6Hx7tb6bzh9ZdRXKWOigHvEl8zqLKRKfzhmWQsn4UPv2UhR9BGjYzexdfIp-1IHFPBeIGPoYju1-zDF_RCNOxCuS5OeA3IWcoSzJbl-YfmM/s320/pumpkins%20and%20turkeys.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I learned a few new things from these latest cutters. One was that it's a bad idea to try to get too detailed. Check out the well-defined beak in the turkey cutter below...<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxy1R4umEqp5WokTT9l1vJ9wdGM8ZT44lxa4Ujpe7zCh9F2dIapMgb7OQxkzqiy62cwqa4NFj_hTaJ_rJqPWRY642tPQQUIhyphenhyphensltPfntNJ0Dz8iT4FE3EXj7eYc0xr8norP5BzKfmntzOfZneDs39BVkaJjKQteaCf__iihJ8N3Tt0i_TlZqpGBDMs-k/s1280/IMG_9977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1280" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGxy1R4umEqp5WokTT9l1vJ9wdGM8ZT44lxa4Ujpe7zCh9F2dIapMgb7OQxkzqiy62cwqa4NFj_hTaJ_rJqPWRY642tPQQUIhyphenhyphensltPfntNJ0Dz8iT4FE3EXj7eYc0xr8norP5BzKfmntzOfZneDs39BVkaJjKQteaCf__iihJ8N3Tt0i_TlZqpGBDMs-k/s320/IMG_9977.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>...and compare it to the poorly-defined or broken-off beaks in the pieces of turkey-shaped pie above. We're sculpting with pumpkin pie here, so just because you can produce a cutter with well-defined details doesn't mean you can get those details to be retained in the pieces of pie you cut. </p><p>On the other hand, I was worried about the narrow strips of pie for the turkey's legs holding together, and they came out fine.</p><p>So far, I've employed these cutters only for pumpkin pie, but a friend and I were musing about what else they could be used for. Ideas include sponge cake, gingerbread, pancakes, hamburger patties, ice cream sandwiches, and gelatin. Plus cookies, of course. In the end, they're just overly-deep cookie cutters with plungers.<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">As far as I know, the only drawback to these cutters is that they require hand washing. The material used for the 3D printing has a comparatively low melting point, so if they were to be put into a dishwasher, you'd likely end up with pie cutter goo all over everything.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-83258855195754048842023-11-04T20:15:00.000-07:002023-11-04T20:15:44.520-07:00Electric Cars are Still Luxury Goods :-(<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAKYjV6jjsHzc5dtcsdqjoWL9yzh7kvPMT_yENwm1y-tjD9UYJGXSoLK6Z6J7qGv6tBZEJWOpCfp-MDhSkQQIYN1D4Tgxxoh6pSvlCApNCCSs1eoGpOnTKvQVc2rTgHKZt4Fubeb-KSWuxI5ZnZ_QDGx6nrRSpbkhEjKu5yGlkIp2-sG5h78iElDHPQ4/s2100/ariya.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2100" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgAKYjV6jjsHzc5dtcsdqjoWL9yzh7kvPMT_yENwm1y-tjD9UYJGXSoLK6Z6J7qGv6tBZEJWOpCfp-MDhSkQQIYN1D4Tgxxoh6pSvlCApNCCSs1eoGpOnTKvQVc2rTgHKZt4Fubeb-KSWuxI5ZnZ_QDGx6nrRSpbkhEjKu5yGlkIp2-sG5h78iElDHPQ4/w200-h110/ariya.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>More than three years ago, I blogged about <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2020/06/electric-cars-are-currently-luxury-goods.html">EVs being luxury goods</a>. Some 13 months ago, I showed that the Nissan Ariya--the only electric compact SUV with the basic features I demand (all-wheel drive, an openable moonroof, a 360-degree camera, and an EPA range of at least 235 miles)--came with a 52% price premium vis-a-vis a comparable gas-powered Nissan Rogue. That difference put the Ariya solidly in <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-luxury-car-price-premium.html">luxury car territory</a>.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3iVjOL2PN6PW6PLYK-DKX8ppyNzM7ghBTbAp2TX6AXjVYcwv7IwXL7diDLnf1iqNonqiRJ1mhjac8JJPESfUC3vBDYhTT9TsSAYsvpiD64SrxJgKS1NXjFLfoUeSeVAYxK-38_hP_UT1gnWG0z_IeM_g2LmCceXlnogKyN0QFnZkXFQPMcXkJuYW3EkU/s1348/2024%20xc40%20recharge.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="1348" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3iVjOL2PN6PW6PLYK-DKX8ppyNzM7ghBTbAp2TX6AXjVYcwv7IwXL7diDLnf1iqNonqiRJ1mhjac8JJPESfUC3vBDYhTT9TsSAYsvpiD64SrxJgKS1NXjFLfoUeSeVAYxK-38_hP_UT1gnWG0z_IeM_g2LmCceXlnogKyN0QFnZkXFQPMcXkJuYW3EkU/w200-h90/2024%20xc40%20recharge.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>In the intervening year, the Ariya has gone from forthcoming to present on dealer lots, and just yesterday Volvo made it possible to configure and price the 2024 XC40 Recharge for the US market. It joins the Ariya in offering the fundamental features I insist on. The XC40 comes in both battery- and gasoline-powered versions, so it makes it easy to measure the cost of going electric.<br /><p></p><p>The intervening year has also seen a big jump in interest rates:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzBN9_To4nx5FRtFUSLgIS7UF5zRC9Nq_SlaKj4wU81YnSsjD5wqd_CxOEJFGOkhiXnSJuMTRRia7mj0_uuV-h48ESJQhEiCKNJo140IuRTa58fAxjB8sdIrHnn9ZuG8bK3MGVEIJv3WemiBznSULMxro80LlLA1NkGrZK-ANDVPUGA4VnGDryTaM5eU/s696/car%20loan%20rates.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="696" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzBN9_To4nx5FRtFUSLgIS7UF5zRC9Nq_SlaKj4wU81YnSsjD5wqd_CxOEJFGOkhiXnSJuMTRRia7mj0_uuV-h48ESJQhEiCKNJo140IuRTa58fAxjB8sdIrHnn9ZuG8bK3MGVEIJv3WemiBznSULMxro80LlLA1NkGrZK-ANDVPUGA4VnGDryTaM5eU/w320-h198/car%20loan%20rates.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Average 60-month new car loan rate (per https://bit.ly/3QUl7ER)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>The concomitant reduction in demand for new cars has changed the market. I decided to recheck the EV price premium by again comparing the cost of the Nissan Rogue with the equivalently-equipped Nissan Ariya. This time I checked not just MSRPs, but also prices at cars.com. I did two searches at cars.com. The first was nationwide, i.e., for the best price I could find anywhere. The second was "near me," which means within about 100 miles of Portland, Oregon. I then repeated the experiment for the Volvo XC40 (gas-powered) and the Volvo XC40 Recharge (batteries). For the Nissans, my data are for the 2023 model year, because the 2024s aren't out yet. The Volvo data are for the 2024 model year.<br /></p><p>This is what I found:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRq4uxEz2Li538uw36Tt0LlY4BNY9Pbe4qZilDPTLvAdf5vEESDJIJ1U1n3e2z8Qj_mGIb6rBZQ_SKE3kIdMXKeavkD__cP3yxkFVQZGE1-sRnl_r6LINu8hcptN0Afp2uh2KgDMnhrp4gmxoq77KZzNhZAEDoL_ygYFS8q8RejzDAK6-VQWAVO3XjgM/s826/EV%20price%20premium.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="826" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRq4uxEz2Li538uw36Tt0LlY4BNY9Pbe4qZilDPTLvAdf5vEESDJIJ1U1n3e2z8Qj_mGIb6rBZQ_SKE3kIdMXKeavkD__cP3yxkFVQZGE1-sRnl_r6LINu8hcptN0Afp2uh2KgDMnhrp4gmxoq77KZzNhZAEDoL_ygYFS8q8RejzDAK6-VQWAVO3XjgM/w400-h194/EV%20price%20premium.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>The Ariya continues to have an MSRP about 50% higher than the equivalently-equipped Rogue, and this doesn't change when looking for real cars within 100 miles of me. If I expand my search to the entire country, the price premium drops to 41%, but it still represents a difference of nearly $14,000. It's also an artificial cost differential, because the lowest-priced Rogue is in Arizona, while the cheapest Ariya is in Illinois. <br /></p><p>Volvo is a premium brand, so MSRP pricing for its its Rogue equivalent, the XC40, starts 26% higher than the Nissan. Going electric from there (to the XC40 Recharge) demands a relatively modest 26% premium, but the result is 58% above the MSRP for the Rogue. Within the Volvo line, the premium to go electric is only 26%, but the price increase I care about--from an ICE-powered compact SUV of any make to a similarly-equipped EV of any make--is nearly 60%. That's far above the 25% I consider acceptable. <br /></p><p>Lest you think I'm not taking government tax credits and rebates into
account in pricing the Ariya and the XC40 Recharge, I actually am. Neither qualifies
for the federal $7500 tax credit (which is <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/05/about-that-7500-federal-ev-tax-credit.html">fictional for most people</a>, anyway), and my state's program for EV rebates stopped accepting applications months ago, because <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/02/electric-vehicle-rebate-oregon/">it ran out of money</a>.</p><p>To me, the most interesting aspect of the pricing data is the smallness of the differential between the Ariya and the XC40 Recharge. Here's the table above with a line added showing the premium you pay for choosing Volvo over Nissan (i.e., the XC40 Recharge over the Ariya): </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWweszAmkwnmOtTtNp6Fehf2aptyVsQnTNRrJHj4IZIwVnSiYdIqDFMmi3qZcjFDd1qNHSgCEX5GWaUOOajWn_1dSHUihzZOg0xoaXI9FcDZuPPu91iO4fNvPcBhbFBCqUB2s4ZtZspntkf59_ZhAL2v9XNhItSU1YO2MOyeP2hd0mIduFIRnxm37SeDo/s826/EV%20price%20premium%20w%20brand%20comparison.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="826" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWweszAmkwnmOtTtNp6Fehf2aptyVsQnTNRrJHj4IZIwVnSiYdIqDFMmi3qZcjFDd1qNHSgCEX5GWaUOOajWn_1dSHUihzZOg0xoaXI9FcDZuPPu91iO4fNvPcBhbFBCqUB2s4ZtZspntkf59_ZhAL2v9XNhItSU1YO2MOyeP2hd0mIduFIRnxm37SeDo/w400-h224/EV%20price%20premium%20w%20brand%20comparison.png" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Regardless of whether you look at MSRPs or prices at cars.com, the Volvo costs no more than 8% more than the Nissan. I've never been able to figure out what makes premium brands premium, but if Volvo has it and Nissan doesn't, I'd expect that to motivate many buyers to choose the XC40 Recharge over the Ariya. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As for me, I'll continue to bide my time and hope that the EV industry eventually comes out with a compact SUV with the features I want at a price that's no more than about 25% beyond the cost of a comparable ICE vehicle.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br />Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-50524140146981472592023-08-21T11:25:00.000-07:002023-08-21T11:25:43.231-07:00Nav App Audio Conflict Resolution<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ctEuA97J6X3ArkuTHIfJRFDmnXSEQctlwdvnQNYx6ow3rnSTxjhdutOKO2C9mxsuCnzsI4hO5_mH7h9_U6GscFfAzqcs_P2tZOCUn1YRZ2AdSByQn7yhNy2CEe-NtquLK-PnsHqsWfvx-OrRN6LUIacu0l8cuMTGuIZkzxg_VlvLKl7MnvP_5UdKHj8/s2246/dueling%20speakers.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="2246" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ctEuA97J6X3ArkuTHIfJRFDmnXSEQctlwdvnQNYx6ow3rnSTxjhdutOKO2C9mxsuCnzsI4hO5_mH7h9_U6GscFfAzqcs_P2tZOCUn1YRZ2AdSByQn7yhNy2CEe-NtquLK-PnsHqsWfvx-OrRN6LUIacu0l8cuMTGuIZkzxg_VlvLKl7MnvP_5UdKHj8/w200-h84/dueling%20speakers.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>You're tootling down the road using a navigation app connected to your car's infotainment system, and you're approaching a turn in the route. You've enabled voice navigation, so the app should use your car's audio to tell you what to do. But what if the audio system is already in use? What should happen if your nav app and another audio source want to use your car's audio system at the same time?<p></p><p>Different nav apps solve this UX design question in different ways. Some resolutions seem obvious. Some are clever. Some are so bad, it's hard to believe they made it into production.</p><p>The stakes can be high. If two apps want to use the audio system at the same time, typically only one will succeed. If it's the nav app, you might miss an <a href="https://amberalert.ojp.gov/">AMBER Alert</a> on the radio while you're next to a car matching the description of one with a kidnapped child. If it's not the nav app, you might miss a freeway exit and have to drive <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/08/longest-distances-between-exits-on-US-freeways-415029/1">many miles before the next one</a>. <br /></p><p>I compared the resolution of audio conflicts for Google Maps and Apple Maps under iOS 16.6 CarPlay on a 2019 Nissan Rogue. I don't know whether what I found is representative of other nav apps, other cars, or other phone-car interface systems (e.g., Android Auto).</p><p>The scenarios I checked were what happens when your nav app wants to speak and:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A streaming app is playing.</li><li>The car radio is playing.</li><li>A phone call is in progress.</li><li>You're talking to your phone.</li><li>Your phone is talking to you, e.g., Siri is responding to a query or command.</li></ul><p>This is what I found.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Nav App vs. Streaming App</h4><p style="text-align: left;">The streaming apps I tested (Pandora and Simple Radio) can be paused, which is characteristic of every streaming app I'm familiar with. It seems obvious to me that the proper behavior when a nav app wants to talk is to pause the streaming app, have the nav app talk, then resume the streaming app. Google sort of agrees, because that's what Google Maps does when the streaming app is Pandora. However, when the streaming app is Simple Radio, Google mutes it instead of pausing it. I don't know the reason for this difference.<br /></p>Apple Maps has behavior that's not just different from Google's, it's incomprehensibly bad. When Apple Maps wants to talk while a streaming app is playing, it just starts talking. The streaming app continues to stream. If what's being streamed is spoken audio, you have two voices talking at the same time! Neither can be understood. It's hard to imagine a worse approach than this.<p style="text-align: left;">Apple would probably argue that I'm mischaracterizing what it does. Apple Maps employs <i>audio ducking</i>, whereby the volume of the streaming app is reduced when Apple Maps speaks. In concept, that's not unreasonable, but in my experiments, the ducking effect kicks in only when the volume of the streaming app crosses a loudness threshold. This threshold is far above my usual listening level. I had to go out of my way to elicit the ducking effect. When I did, I found that the volume of the ducked audio was still high enough to compete with Apple Maps' spoken directives. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"> To summarize:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Google Maps: Pause stream, speak, resume stream.<br /></li><li style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps: Speak while stream plays. At high stream volumes, duck stream while speaking.</li></ul><p>I think Apple's approach shows promise, but its implementation needs considerable refinement. For me, both the threshold and ducked volumes are too high. I wish I could configure them. With that said, comments on the Internet make clear that many people listening to spoken audio (e.g., podcasts) would prefer pausing over ducking, anyway.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Nav App vs. Car Radio</h4><p style="text-align: left;">Radio is a different kind of streaming beast, because it's not pausable. That requires that Google change its approach to audio conflicts. Not so for Apple, which sticks to its guns and issues navigation instructions on top of whatever's playing on the radio. If you happen to be listening to a talk show or the play-by-play of a sporting event, you've again got dueling voices, and there's a good chance you'll understand neither. I'm generally a fan of UX consistency, but Apple's here is of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Reliance">Emerson's foolish variety</a>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Google's approach--to mute the radio while Google Maps speaks--is a lot more reasonable. There's a tiny chance you'll miss something important (e.g., an AMBER Alert), but it's more likely you'll just miss a snippet of a song, commercial, or host's blather. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">We thus have:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Google Maps: Mute radio, speak, un-mute radio.<br /></li><li style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps: Speak while radio plays. At high radio volumes, duck radio while speaking.</li></ul>Given their current implementations, Google Maps' behavior is vastly preferable to Apple Maps', but I think a blended approach would be an improvement to both. A choice between muting and configurable ducking would be very attractive.<br /><h4 style="text-align: left;"></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Nav App vs. Phone Call</h4><p style="text-align: left;">While you're on the phone. Google is polite enough not to wrest control of your car's speakers from the person you're talking to, but it has no Plan B. If you don't notice the visual navigational directive on the CarPlay screen, you're out of luck: Google Maps remains silent if you're in a phone call.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Apple doesn't need a Plan B, because its Plan A is so good. When Apple Maps wants to speak, but you're on the phone, it issues a chime--a subtle indication that it'd like to tell you something, but it can't. It's your cue to look at the CarPlay screen to see what you need to do. I find it works well.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">So:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Google Maps: Don't speak or make any other sound.<br /></li><li style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps: Don't speak, but issue a chime.</li></ul><p>What I admire about Apple's approach is that it takes advantage of the fact that you have a screen; CarPlay requires it. A chime is enough to tell you to look at it, but it's not so intrusive that it interrupts the flow of a conversation. Well done, Apple!<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Nav App vs. Dictation</h4><p style="text-align: left;">If a nav app wants to speak while you're talking to your phone (e.g., issuing a command to Siri or dictating a text message), the audio conflict is between you and your nav app. Google Maps bursts in like an excited child who, unable to restrain itself, says its piece without regard for the fact that you're already talking. It's rude, not to mention a sure-fire mechanism for derailing your train of thought. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Google Maps' interruption also aborts whatever you're dictating, e.g., the command you're issuing or the text you're dictating. This means you have to start over after the excited child has said its piece (and hope that it produces no further audio interruptions before you're finished). <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps' chime strategy would work well here, but Apple inexplicably adopts Google's speak-no-evil policy and remains silent. If you're dictating and Apple Maps wants to tell you something, the only way you'll know is by looking at the CarPlay screen. It's a bitter pill to swallow after the cleverness of Apple's phone call conflict resolution.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">This is a case where both nav apps offer disappointing and frustrating behavior:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Google Maps: Interrupt and abort dictation, speak.<br /></li><li style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps: Don't speak or make any other sound.</li></ul><h4 style="text-align: left;">Nav App vs. Phone Voice Response</h4><p style="text-align: left;">If your phone is talking to you when Apple Maps wants to speak, Apple employs the chime approach again. It works as well here as it did in the phone-call scenario, and it really raises the question of why Apple didn't apply it in the dictation case. You hear the chime, you know to look at your CarPlay screen, but you can continue to listen to your phone. It just works.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Google Maps treats your phone like a radio station. It mutes your phone's voice while it issues navigational instructions, then it turns your phone's voice on again. This is a curious decision. It means you could miss important information, such as a crucial part of an email message. I'd expect a nav app to treat a phone's voice like a streaming app and pause it while the nav app speaks. Perhaps there's no CarPlay API to pause Siri output...?</p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">Recap:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;">Google Maps: Mute phone voice, speak, un-mute phone voice.</li><li style="text-align: left;">Apple Maps: Don't speak, but issue a chime.<br /></li></ul>
<hr />
<p>If you have additional information on how nav apps handle audio conflicts, please let me know in the comments below.<br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-62084864127561169122023-07-25T21:18:00.000-07:002023-07-25T21:18:37.865-07:00Image Metadata: Thoughts after 4000+ Scans<p data-select-link-text="1"> This is part 7 of my series on metadata for scanned pictures. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-scanned-image-metadata-project.html">Part 1: The Scanned Image Metadata Project</a> <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-standards-guidelines-and.html">Part 2: Standards, Guidelines, and ExifTool</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">Part 3: Dealing with Timestamps</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-my-approach.html">Part 4: My Approach</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-viewing-what-i-wrote.html">Part 5: Viewing What I Wrote</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-metadata-removal-problem.html">Part 6: The Metadata Removal Problem</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b data-select-link-text="1">Part 7: Thoughts after 4000+ Scans (this post) </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><hr />
<p> </p><p>In January 2022, I explained in parts 1-4 of this series why and how I store metadata in image files containing scans of, e.g., 35mm slides. I failed to mention that <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-my-approach.html">the strategy I came up with</a> was largely based on merely <i>thinking</i> about the problem. At the time, I had made relatively few scans. However, I had contracted with Chris Harmon at <a href="http://scan-slides.com/">Scan-Slides</a> to scan several thousand old slides, so I had to specify how the metadata was to be handled. The approach I developed was what I directed Scan-Slides to do.<br /></p><p>In the 18 months since then, I've received the image files from Chris, worked with the metadata, and added scans of a few other types of objects (e.g., drawings, notes, and letters). My perspective on image file metadata is now based not just on thinking, but also on experience. It's a good time to reflect on how well my metadata strategy has held up.</p><h4 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">Metadata Entry <br /></h4><p>One
thing has held up very well: the decision to have Scan-Slides do the
initial metadata entry. It was clear from the get-go that this was going
to be demanding work. It required deciphering hand-written descriptive
information on slide trays and slide frames and, for each scan, entering the information into the
appropriate metadata fields in the proper format. Several slide sets were from overseas trips, so many
descriptions refer to locations in or people from places that look,
well, foreign, e.g., "Church at Ste Mere Eglise" and "Sabine &
Sylvie - Fahrradreise in Langeland." </p><p>Copying the "when developed"
date off slide frames proved unexpectedly challenging. Although many dates were
clearly printed, some were debossed rather than printed, and those
were harder to read. Some timestamps were mis-aligned with the slide
frames they were printed on, leading to dates that were partially
missing, e.g., the lower half of the text or its left or right side was not present. Some
frames had no development date on them, but it was hard to
distinguish that from faint timestamp ink or debossed dates that
were only slightly indented. </p><p>Chris handled description and development
date issues with patience and equanimity. His accuracy was impressive.
There were some errors, but that's to be expected when you're copying
descriptions from thousands of slides involving places, people, and
languages you don't know. I don't believe anyone would have done better. </p><p>It's something of a miracle that he was willing
to do the metadata entry at all. Of the half-dozen slide scanning
services I contacted, he was the only one who didn't reject it out of hand. There was an extra fee for the work, of course, but it
was money well spent. It allowed me to devote my energies to aspects of
the project that only I could do, e.g., correcting metadata errors and organizing image sets.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Four Metadata Fields</h4><p>Using only four metadata fields (Description, When Taken, When Scanned, and Copyright) has proven sufficient for my needs. Populating those fields hasn't
been burdensome. I feel like I got this part of metadata storage right.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">The "When Taken" Problem <br /></h4><p>Using the Description metadata fields to store definitive information about when a picture was taken and storing an approximation of that in the "when taken" metadata fields has worked acceptably, but this remains a thorny issue. I still think it's prudent to follow convention and <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">assign unknown timestamp components the earliest permissible value</a>, but I continue to find it counterintuitive that images with less precise timestamps chronologically precede images with more accurate information. </p><p>The vaguer the "when taken" data, the less satisfying the "use the earliest permissible timestamp values" approach. Google Photos--one of the most important programs I use with digital images--insists on sorting photo libraries chronologically, so there's no escaping the tyranny of "when taken" timestamps. (Albums in Google Photos have sorting options other than chronological, but for a complete photo library, sort-by-date is the only choice.) For images lacking "when taken" metadata, Google Photos uses the file creation date. This is typically off by <i>decades</i> for scans of my slides and photos, so I've found that omitting "when taken" metadata is worse than putting in even a poor approximation. </p><p>Overall, my "put the truth in the Description fields (where you know programs will ignore it) and an approximation in the 'when taken' fields (where you know programs will treat it as gospel)" approach is far from satisfying, but I don't know of a better one. If you do, please let me know.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Making Image File Metadata Standalone<br /></h4><p>I originally believed I was storing all image metadata in image files, but I was mistaken. Inadvertently, I stored some of the metadata in the file system. Scans of the slides from my 1976 trip to Iceland, for example, are in a directory named <i>Iceland 1976</i>, and the files are named <i>Iceland 1976 001.jpg</i> through <i>Iceland 1976 146.jpg</i>. The metadata in the image files indicate what's in the images and when the slides were taken, but they don't indicate that they were taken in Iceland or that they were from a single trip. That information is present only in the image file names and the fact that they share a common directory.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRmBAZGv4tIbFqUGB58Av1X4Scmn93lSPo9CBzM3jPYocrTan5Ryf3eIDgEvn-CfgIouAy30OQt9zuJrvUwfHzcumeVuW1y5klgaiy8VlWIoN9avmERg67m4z5t0xnPEqLR0zAFNyOIMHY1yOrqXLXQXWzQwo9gXv5IJ4XjYgladtpDmsL3qqBDGLHCY/s5086/Iceland%201976%20095.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3427" data-original-width="5086" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRmBAZGv4tIbFqUGB58Av1X4Scmn93lSPo9CBzM3jPYocrTan5Ryf3eIDgEvn-CfgIouAy30OQt9zuJrvUwfHzcumeVuW1y5klgaiy8VlWIoN9avmERg67m4z5t0xnPEqLR0zAFNyOIMHY1yOrqXLXQXWzQwo9gXv5IJ4XjYgladtpDmsL3qqBDGLHCY/w200-h135/Iceland%201976%20095.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Going forward, I plan to include such overarching information about picture sets in each of the scans in the set. That will make the Description metadata in each image file longer and more cumbersome, but it will also make each image file self-contained. As things stand now, if a copy of <i>Iceland 1976 095.jpg</i> (shown) somehow got renamed and removed from the other files in the set (e.g., because it was <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-metadata-removal-problem.html">sent to someone using iMessage</a>), there would be no way to extract from the file that this picture was taken in Iceland and was part of the set of slides I took during that trip. My updated approach will rectify that.<br /><p></p><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Putting <i>All</i> Metadata into Image Files</h4><p>The slides I had scanned were up to 70 years old. Over the decades, slides got moved from one collection to another. Some got <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/04/image-search-and-google-earth-for.html">mis-labeled or mis-filed</a>. As I was reviewing the scans, I often found myself wondering whether a picture I was looking at was related to other pictures I'd had scanned. My parents may have made multiple trips to Crater Lake or Yosemite National Parks in the 1950s and 1960s, for example, but I'm not sure, because there's not enough descriptive information on the slides (or the boxes they were in) to know.</p><p>More than once I wished I could find a way to reconstitute the set of slides that came from a particular roll of film. I think this is often possible. In addition to hints in the images themselves (e.g., what people are wearing, what's in the background, etc.), slide frames are made of different materials and often include slide numbers, the film type, and the name of the processing lab. Development date information, if present, is either printed or debossed, and, when printed, the ink has a particular color (typically black or red). All these things can be used to determine whether two potentially related slides are likely to have come from the same roll of film. </p><p></p><p>I briefly went down the road of creating a spreadsheet summarizing these factors for various sets of slides, but it's a gargantuan job. It didn't take long for me to stop, slap myself, and reiterate that I was working on family photos, not cataloging historic imagery for scholarly research. Nevertheless, I think it would be nice to have more metadata about slide frames in the image files. Whether Chris (or anybody else) would agree to enter such information as part of the scanning process, I don't know.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Dealing with Google Photos<br /></h4><p>Words cannot describe how useful I find Google Photos' search capability. Despite the effort I've invested adding descriptive metadata to scanned image files and the time I've taken to help Google Photos (GP) identify faces of family and friends, it's not uncommon for me to search for images with visual characteristics that are neither faces nor described in the metadata, e.g., "green house" or "wall sconce". Such searches turn up what I'm looking for remarkably often. The alternative--browsing my library's tens of thousands of photos--is impractical. This makes Google Photos indispensable. That has some implications. <br /></p><p>When Scan-Slides started delivering image files, I plopped them into a directory on my Windows machine where GP automatically uploads new pictures. I then went about the task of reviewing and, in some cases, revising the metadata in the scans. In many cases, this involved adjusting the "when taken" metadata, either because the information I'd given Scan-Slides was incorrect (e.g., mis-labeled slide trays) or because Scan-Slides had made an error when entering the data. I also revised Description information to make it more comprehensive (e.g., adding names of people who hadn't been mentioned on the slide frames) or to impose consistency in wordings, etc. The work was iterative, and I often used batch tools to edit many files at once.</p><p>Unbeknownst to me, GP uploaded each revised version of each image file I saved. And why not? Two image files differing only in metadata are different image files! By the time I realized what was happening, GP had dutifully uploaded as many as a half dozen versions of my scans. I wanted only the most recent version in each set of replicates, but Google offers virtually no tools for identifying identical images with different metadata. The fact that I'd often changed the "when taken" metadata during my revisions and that GP always sorts photo libraries chronologically meant that different versions of the same image were often nowhere near one another.</p><p>The lesson, to borrow a term from <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>, is that iteratively revising image file metadata and having Google Photos automatically upload new image files are un-mixy things. </p><p>I told GP to stop monitoring the directory where I put my scans, spent great chunks of time eradicating the thousands of scan files GP had uploaded, and resolved to manually upload my scans only after I was sure the metadata they contained was stable. A side-effect was that I could no longer rely on GP acting as an automatic online backup mechanism for my image files, but since I have a separate cloud-based backup system in place, that didn't concern me.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Multiple-Sided Objects</h4><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">Scannable objects have two sides: the front and the back. For photographs, it often makes sense to scan both sides, because information about a photo is commonly written on the back. (If scans of slides included not just the film, but also the slide frames, it would make sense to scan both sides, thus providing a digital record of slide numbers, film types, and processing labs, etc., that I mentioned above.)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Scanning both sides of a two-sided object (e.g., the front and back of a photograph) yields two image files. That's a problem. Separate image files can get, well, separated, in which case you could find yourself with a scan of only one side of an object. Preventing this requires finding a way to merge multiple images together. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I say <i>multiple</i> images, because there might be more than two. Consider a letter consisting of two pieces of paper, each of which has writing on both sides. A scan of the complete letter requires four images: one for each side of each piece of paper. If the letter has an envelope, and if both sides of it are also scanned, the single letter object (i.e., the letter plus its envelope) would yield six different images.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Some file formats support storing more than one "page" (i.e., image) in a file. TIFF is probably the most common. Unfortunately, TIFFs, even when compressed, are much larger than the corresponding JPGs--about three times larger, in my experiments. More importantly, TIFF isn't among the file formats supported by Google Photos. When multi-page TIFFs are uploaded to GP, GP displays only the first page. For me, that's a deal breaker.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">It's natural to consider PDF, but PDF isn't an image file format, so it doesn't offer image file metadata fields. In addition, PDF isn't supported by GP. Attempts to upload PDFs to Google Photos fail. </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKaZRldatNF2B52EyiUOgKYAsue-fi9qzOI6hEFYw08uonAJQArLDTbVHS2YfKDUYMMvGMPr2AURQ9sS89yeoJWfQ9kBlwCkelXOiyoli-sX07v_2dRebldphxL9PBYVWanSMIJbGgpgJfo-ysaMIKPQRGQ1WGg1VWScZ6raKsriuP0gX9y3K69wIePHU/s2656/001ds.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="2656" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKaZRldatNF2B52EyiUOgKYAsue-fi9qzOI6hEFYw08uonAJQArLDTbVHS2YfKDUYMMvGMPr2AURQ9sS89yeoJWfQ9kBlwCkelXOiyoli-sX07v_2dRebldphxL9PBYVWanSMIJbGgpgJfo-ysaMIKPQRGQ1WGg1VWScZ6raKsriuP0gX9y3K69wIePHU/w320-h126/001ds.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>My approach to the multiple-images-in-one-file problem is to address only double-sided objects (e.g., photographs, postcards, etc.). I handle them by digitally putting the front and back scans side by side and saving the result as a new image file (as at right). A command-line program, <a href="https://imagemagick.org/index.php">ImageMagick</a>, makes this easy. The metadata for the new file is copied from the first of the files that are appended, i.e., from the image for the front of the photograph.<br /><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">I haven't yet had to deal with objects that require more than two scans, e.g., the hypothetical four-page letter and its envelope. My current thought is that the proper treatment for those is to ignore Google Photos and just use PDF. I'm guessing that most such objects will be largely textual (as would typically be the case for letters), in which case OCR and text searches will be more important than image file metadata and image searches.</p></div>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-26294703254185347692023-06-19T07:00:00.014-07:002023-08-04T08:42:45.648-07:00The Convertible EV Search: Four Years Later<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMG3uYReKcFErWXRIgE-9OJKT99-jYS4ArqvoF3aMVYJxb-oOUDGE4_PyiZtZQL04-horQndiOGqpyiEb8uMZwarQV3W3EF1FaDi42IlzVR9G7rHT3xdIaVs5beJyOCiMjKwkBCoCV4EZIArXPBdZB-IVTdoFLrQ2umVpHd2EF6Ckd5xoIWCeh30kX/s1920/silhouet-zwart-auto-cabrioclipart-1683478896bTZ.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1920" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMG3uYReKcFErWXRIgE-9OJKT99-jYS4ArqvoF3aMVYJxb-oOUDGE4_PyiZtZQL04-horQndiOGqpyiEb8uMZwarQV3W3EF1FaDi42IlzVR9G7rHT3xdIaVs5beJyOCiMjKwkBCoCV4EZIArXPBdZB-IVTdoFLrQ2umVpHd2EF6Ckd5xoIWCeh30kX/w200-h167/silhouet-zwart-auto-cabrioclipart-1683478896bTZ.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Today marks exactly four years since my search for a little EV convertible ended with my purchasing a gas-powered Miata. If I were starting my search today, it'd end the same way. For the American market in 2019, there were no electric models to choose from. There are none to choose from now.<p></p><p>It's a little different in Europe. (I don't know about the rest of the world.) Even in 2019, the <a href="https://www.smart.mercedes-benz.com/gb/en/models/eq-fortwo-cabrio">Smart Fortwo Cabrio</a> was available, though I stand by my assessment of its range as laughable (57 miles per the EPA in 2019, 80 miles per the manufacturer now). Nearly as laughable is the range of the other EV ragtop in Europe, the limited-edition <a href="https://www.mini.com/en_MS/home/products/mini-electric-convertible.html">electric MINI Convertible</a>. Its WLTP range is 125 miles, which <a href="https://insideevs.com/features/343231/heres-how-to-calculate-conflicting-ev-range-test-cycles-epa-wltp-nedc/">roughly equates to an EPA rating</a> of 102 miles. The MINI complements this paltry range with an eye-popping price: some $65,000 to start. That kind of money buys <i>two </i>Miatas and leaves enough cash in your pocket for a very nice vacation pretty much anywhere in the world. </p><p>The Miata's range is 357 miles, so the electric MINI convertible offers less than a third of the range at more than twice the price. <br /></p><p>Although there are no EV convertibles for the American market right now, a few have been announced. They make the MINI look like a bargain. Maserati and Fisker have announced the <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/614279/maserati-grancabrio-folgore-ev-coming-2023/">GranCabrio Folgore</a> and <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/625891/fisker-ronin-ev-new-image/">Ronin</a>, respectively. The former is purported to ship this year, the latter in 2024. Starting prices are around $200,000. (<i>Update 4 August 2023</i>: The <a href="https://www.fiskerinc.com/ronin">Ronin web site</a> lists a starting price of $385,000, and, per <a href="https://electrek.co/2023/08/03/fisker-ronin-electric-convertible-compete-with-tesla-roadster/">this article</a>, it won't ship until the end of 2025.) The <a href="https://www.polestar.com/us/polestar-6/">Polestar 6</a> costs the same, but it's not slated to ship until 2026.<br /></p><p>Those for whom the prices above are too low and the details too specific may prefer to focus on the <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/640633/genesis-x-convertible-concept-to-enter-production-as-flagship-ev/">Genesis X Convertible</a>, a car that's been announced for production, but not for when or for how much. Pricing is speculated to run somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000.</p><p>The days of the affordable little EV convertible don't look to arrive anytime soon.<br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-88498727247513469122023-05-26T07:00:00.151-07:002023-05-26T08:37:09.092-07:00The Compact SUV EV Search: Four Years Later<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVqV081zVENEC_UzQlJjZ-Iu8HpaU9dxr626M7oyHYQIsm_d10LrC9Uvp65-xH8tnlZU74r3Vr1B1SP8YQarfmTdXxRRt4FsvnJKOKEAA4QSzp2KeTuTGce4q-OWKYEJS31pnNCnteoHxbBIV7z841PwIoMhcQ3JYG2p3SFxTTeM6_NoXHYO_2E69w/s224/4%20years%20later.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="120" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVqV081zVENEC_UzQlJjZ-Iu8HpaU9dxr626M7oyHYQIsm_d10LrC9Uvp65-xH8tnlZU74r3Vr1B1SP8YQarfmTdXxRRt4FsvnJKOKEAA4QSzp2KeTuTGce4q-OWKYEJS31pnNCnteoHxbBIV7z841PwIoMhcQ3JYG2p3SFxTTeM6_NoXHYO_2E69w/w107-h200/4%20years%20later.png" width="107" /></a></div>On this day four years ago, my search for an electric compact SUV ended with the purchase of a gasoline-powered car. During the time of my search, there was <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2020/06/electric-cars-are-currently-luxury-goods.html">only one compact SUV EV available</a>. It was prohibitively expensive and lacked features I consider essential. Two years later, <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2021/06/my-electric-car-search-year-later.html">more affordable options</a> had come to market, but <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2021/08/why-i-dont-yet-own-electric-car.html">nothing offered the basic features I want</a>: all-wheel drive, a surround-view camera, an openable moonroof, and an EPA range of at least 235 miles. Now that two more years have gone by, it's time to take a look at the compact SUV EV landscape again. <p></p><p>It's still desolate.<br /></p><p>The good news is that we've finally reached a state where one vehicle--<i>exactly</i> one (out of the nearly 30 compact SUV EVs available)--offers the basic features I want. It's the Nissan Ariya. Unfortunately, at <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/09/ev-pricing-nissan-ariya-vs-nissan-rogue.html">more than 50% more expensive</a> than its gasoline-powered equivalent (a premium of close to $20,000), it's too much money. </p><p>Two other cars <i>almost</i> fulfill my basic feature requirements, though not my affordability criterion. The Mercedes EQB 300 has AWD, the moonroof, and the surround-view camera, but its EPA range, per the car's window sticker, is only 232 miles. The range is surprising, because the range for the 2022 model at <a href="https://fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=PowerSearch&year1=2022&year2=2024&cbmkMercedes-Benz=Mercedes-Benz&minmsrpsel=0&maxmsrpsel=0&city=0&highway=0&combined=0&cbftelectricity=Electricity&YearSel=2022-2024&MakeSel=Mercedes-Benz&MarClassSel=&FuelTypeSel=Electricity&VehTypeSel=&TranySel=&DriveTypeSel=&CylindersSel=&MpgSel=000&sortBy=Comb&Units=&url=SearchServlet&opt=new&minmsrp=0&maxmsrp=0&minmpg=0&maxmpg=0&sCharge=&tCharge=&startstop=&cylDeact=&rowLimit=10">fueleconomy.gov</a> is 243 miles. Why the 2023 model has a lesser range than the 2022 model, I don't know, but the number on the sticker is the number on the sticker. (Fueleconomy.gov has no information for the 2023 model.)</p><p>The other nearly feature-complete car is the AWD version of the 2024 Volvo XC40 Recharge. The 2023 model already checked all the boxes except the required range, but Volvo recently announced that <a href="https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/en-us/media/pressreleases/310967/volvo-car-usa-announces-2024-line-up-with-new-fully-electric-powertrains-and-increased-range">the 2024 model's range would be around 254 miles</a>. That's encouraging, but it's currently a car on paper only. Pricing hasn't been announced, and it can't yet be ordered.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">Even when it exists, it's unlikely to change things for me. Assuming the 2024 Volvo XC40 Recharge is priced similarly to the 2023 version, both it and the Mercedes EQB 300 will have MSRPs pushing or exceeding sixty grand. That's even more than the Nissan Ariya. </p><p data-select-link-text="1">None of these cars qualifies for the $7500 federal tax credit (which I recently realized is <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/05/about-that-7500-federal-ev-tax-credit.html">less attainable</a> than the EV media generally acknowledges).<br /></p><p>Four years after I threw up my hands in frustration, abandoned the idea of buying an EV, and purchased a gas-burning automobile instead, I'll have gone from having zero EVs to choose from to having one. Pricing remains firmly at the luxury level. The acceptably-equipped and reasonably-priced compact SUV EV I long for continues to exist only in my imagination.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">The slow progress of the last four years is disheartening. I've decided to significantly reduce how closely I monitor EV developments. For years, I've followed the field closely, eagerly reading articles about new and coming vehicles. I'm going to stop doing that. From now on, I'll just check every few months to see if anything has become available that offers the features I care about at a price I consider reasonable. There's a school of thought that <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a42749754/us-electric-cars-could-get-cheaper-inflation-reduction-act-section-45x/">the IRA's battery subsidy provisions will lead to a radical reduction in EV pricing</a>. We'll see.<br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-91809438493355512952023-05-01T21:54:00.001-07:002023-05-01T21:54:11.884-07:00About that $7,500 Federal EV Tax Credit...<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPiy8wlHZstspFXO33G-pzGsVhABb16QclvOm9pImsA3q6oI6kGfjYO2g1HwJtUxkvEpV5b3HpyEoFy4pihHWDyEzDvyn1hmTmE1ZfGDyWxQIfjsotdF3CS21_nlFEwP-1Wdj42Al9tT2rXSIfmQjvgNPu3yg6A3jppAgMO5b87NabLVXKSJpKB6-/s1199/Form%208936%20header.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="133" data-original-width="1199" height="35" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPiy8wlHZstspFXO33G-pzGsVhABb16QclvOm9pImsA3q6oI6kGfjYO2g1HwJtUxkvEpV5b3HpyEoFy4pihHWDyEzDvyn1hmTmE1ZfGDyWxQIfjsotdF3CS21_nlFEwP-1Wdj42Al9tT2rXSIfmQjvgNPu3yg6A3jppAgMO5b87NabLVXKSJpKB6-/s320/Form%208936%20header.png" width="320" /></a></div>I read a lot of articles about EVs (electric vehicles). The writers of these articles commonly assume that if a car qualifies for the full $7,500 federal tax credit, the effective purchase price drops by that amount. <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/664846/2023-volkswagen-id4-epa-range-prices/">A recent post</a> by <i>Inside EVs</i> is typical:<br /><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>The 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 is eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit. ... The 62-kWh battery
version starts at an MSRP of $38,995 (+$1,295) DST, which effectively
means $32,790. The 82-kWh battery version starts at an MSRP of
$43,995 and is effectively priced at $37,790, while the AWD versions are
$4,000 more expensive (effectively from $41,590).</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Notice how the "effective" prices are $7,500 less than the MSRP plus the DST (destination charge). This is terribly misleading. To get the full $7,500, you have to owe at least $7,500 in federal income tax for the year you buy the car. If you don't, you get less than $7,500. The less you make, the less you get.</p><p>I used the <a href="https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes">SmartAsset Federal Income Tax Calculator</a> to create a quick-and-dirty mapping from income to federal tax liability (and hence EV tax credit). These data are for a two-person married household taking the standard deduction and making no 401(k) or IRA contributions: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lo2T45bsz3au9Gk511VUoqa0ViHi3aY_n5CdclGTVBLhBz4BYOzjfC26Wxd1p34R33eMWGPTt_RM1Z9MoMl1kqtvvZo4svfImuEqXrrsQYHZiQ_wacp2D4qP-2fp_wjwQBpmwa1xJKWUSqDvMNoEZSEUb898QYZjjxAmP4Bc13CU2QFQKJp0QG3G/s602/income%20to%20ev%20credit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="602" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lo2T45bsz3au9Gk511VUoqa0ViHi3aY_n5CdclGTVBLhBz4BYOzjfC26Wxd1p34R33eMWGPTt_RM1Z9MoMl1kqtvvZo4svfImuEqXrrsQYHZiQ_wacp2D4qP-2fp_wjwQBpmwa1xJKWUSqDvMNoEZSEUb898QYZjjxAmP4Bc13CU2QFQKJp0QG3G/s320/income%20to%20ev%20credit.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>You can see that for taxpayers fitting this profile and making under about $95,000, the $7,500 EV tax credit is a myth. For a couple making $55,000, the credit is less than half the full amount. For a couple getting by on $25,000, there's no tax credit at all.</p><p></p><p>$95,000 is higher than the median household income in 2021 for every state (as well as the District of Columbia) except Maryland. (The source for this appears to be the US Census Bureau, but I found the data at <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/233170/median-household-income-in-the-united-states-by-state/">Statista</a>. <a href="https://www.creditkarma.com/insights/i/average-american-income">Credit Karma</a> shows identical numbers.) I'm comparing apples and oranges a little by using a two-person married household for the $95,000 and a household of any type and size for the median incomes, but these are the values that are easy to find. For a broad-stroke picture, I think they suffice. If you have better statistics, please let me know.<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">The broad-stroke picture is that in every state except Maryland, the majority of two-person households would probably fail to qualify for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Some articles on EVs mention that the full credit is available only to those who owe at least that much in federal income tax, but they generally make it sound like an edge case. The data above suggest that failing to qualify for the full credit is the rule, not the exception.</p><p>For completeness's sake, I'll note that the tax credit goes away for high-income taxpayers. For a married couple filing jointly, the credit vanishes when the couple's modified adjust gross income hits $300,000.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-17710060696293589432023-04-26T22:24:00.002-07:002023-04-29T08:46:08.586-07:00How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Free Digital Stuff<p>In October 2015, I found myself behind the wheel of a rental car in Bucharest, Romania. I was frantic, lost, and getting loster. My plan to drive from the rental location to my nearby hotel had gone south the instant I left the parking lot. The sea of cars prevented me from making the turns I wanted, and in less than a minute, I was lost, helplessly flowing with traffic in a city I'd never been in. There was nowhere to pull over, no place to stop and check a map. Vehicles were everywhere, including on the sidewalk. I flung my iPhone at my companion and told him to bring up the Maps app. Having never used a smart phone, he had no idea how. Too busy driving to help him, I grabbed the phone and barked "navigate to Andrei's parents' house!" into it. </p><p>It was an act of desperation. It was my first smart phone, and I'd had it only a month. (I was late to the party.) I still had trouble remembering how to hold it right side up. But I knew it could navigate, and I knew it could respond to voice commands. I also knew that if we didn't break free from the traffic in which we were drifting, things were going to get worse. I held my breath and waited.<br /></p><p></p><p>"Beginning navigation to Andrei's parents' house," the iPhone soothingly intoned, followed by the turn-by-turn directions nav apps are known for. We arrived a short time later, cool, calm, collected, and both convinced that smart phones were a lot more than we'd given them credit for. </p><p>Speech recognition on smart phones is free. You don't pay extra for it. Navigation apps are free, too. You get a lot for what you don't pay. Speech recognition works in multiple languages as well as in terrible audio environments. I've dictated messages in my American-accented German on loud city streets, and my iPhone has gotten it about as right as it does my native English in a quiet room. That's right enough that I take its correctness for granted and get annoyed when it makes mistakes. Nav apps work worldwide. I would happily pay monthly fees for these services. I'm pleased that I don't have to.</p><p>I'm equally pleased that I don't have to pay for Google's internet search services. They don't find all the needles I'm looking for in the world's digital haystacks, but across text, images, and videos, they find the vast majority of them. Where Google comes up short, I can generally rely on YouTube (for videos) and Yandex (for images). Those services are free, too. <br /></p><p></p><p>Another thing I'd pay for is Google Photos' search capabilities. They have an uncanny ability to help me find the photographs (and videos) I'm looking for out of the tens of thousands I have stored on their servers. There's no charge for my being able to request "Scott at Uluru" and have Google pluck this from my mountain of images:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Y9NX0CWdZl5RqDaqw62kOLG84X3jIat3KxgHKxLZkqQNTQMmugkMoxwjWijWg9Qs3Bwq6ht275plGBFnQgUIAwBNId9GNNZ3bOV-fyjMyh1lCNEQLV8pw4-foKJBdOGZUVNJgkt5Z_o5i9ZrtwdHTcaG6o4sbwCKNItEXHihOm5kI9uVoSEnreJ9/s1280/IMG_1649.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Y9NX0CWdZl5RqDaqw62kOLG84X3jIat3KxgHKxLZkqQNTQMmugkMoxwjWijWg9Qs3Bwq6ht275plGBFnQgUIAwBNId9GNNZ3bOV-fyjMyh1lCNEQLV8pw4-foKJBdOGZUVNJgkt5Z_o5i9ZrtwdHTcaG6o4sbwCKNItEXHihOm5kI9uVoSEnreJ9/s320/IMG_1649.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>This isn't my best look, but Uluru looks good, and Google's ability to locate images in this way turns a heap of random snapshots and videos into a useful collection of visual souvenirs. In my experience, nothing from any other vendor can touch this ability. It's remarkable that Google doesn't charge for it.<br /><p>Google doesn't charge for Google Earth, either. It's a mainstay of my trip-planning tools, making it easy for me to get 3D views of places I might want to visit, drop pins at important sites, measure distances between locations (both by road and as the crow flies), and much more. Like speech recognition, worldwide navigation, internet search, photo search, and automatic language translation (which I haven't mentioned, but use nearly every day), it's valuable enough that I'd pay money for it. It's amazing that I don't have to.<br /></p><p>The standard rejoinder is that if you're not paying for a product, it's because you <i>are</i> the product. The currency with which you're bought and sold is data. Your travels on the internet are tracked via cookies (among other things), and your movements in the real world are tracked via the GPS data on your phone (among other things). Your purchases are monitored, the songs you listen to are noted, the routes you drive are logged, and precise records are kept of how much time you spend where, in both the real and virtual worlds. Detailed dossiers on you are sold to advertisers, who use this personal information to aim advertisements at you with laser precision. Such is the price of free, we're told. </p><p>I believe it. But after years of reading about it and thinking about it and trying to decide if I should be outraged, I've decided that if I can trade my data for speech recognition, language translation, universal navigation, comprehensive internet search, personalized photo search, travel planning tools like Google Earth, and myriad other digital products and services, it's one of the best deals I'll ever get. I'm absolutely in. <br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">There are two reasons for this. First, the
corporate villains of the digital world are hardly breaking new ground in profiling me for advertising purposes. They may be able to put together a higher-resolution view of my life than companies that don't follow my movements through the internet, but my life has become a pretty open book without them. </p><p>You want to know who my parents are, where I
live, the amount of my mortgage, whether I'm married, the kind of cars I
own, whether I've been arrested, my political affiliation,
or how often I vote? It's all part of the public record. <br /></p><p>You
want to know what I buy and what I eat? Ask my local grocery stores. They made me choose between joining their loyalty clubs (thus enabling tracking
my purchases) or paying up to double their "special member pricing." I joined. Not that their clubs are necessary. I usually pay by credit card, and it
wouldn't take a genius to figure out that the purchases made with
my card were probably made by me.</p><p>Credit card companies have known for decades where and when I spend money. I use cash less and less, so credit card companies know
more about me than ever. The briefest of glances at my transactions will reveal that I like to travel and I eat out a lot. A slightly longer look will reveal my travel destinations, the kinds of restaurants I patronize, the times of day I buy meals, and the full complement of stores I frequent. Throw some machine learning at that data, and I'm surely a pretty transparent advertising target.<br /></p><p>My cellular carrier
tracks the movements of my phone, roadway cameras track the
movements of my car's license plate, smart doorbells and Teslas in
Sentry Mode record me as I walk my dog, and security
cameras monitor me on public transit and in spaces public and
private. Facial recognition software means there's no hiding in a crowd. </p><p>I use social media very little, so my direct footprint there is tiny, but my family and friends are more engaged. They tag me in their photos and mention me in their posts. I almost never log in to Facebook or Instagram, but the borg that is Meta can probably describe me better than I can describe myself. (I confess to being a regular WhatsApp user.) <br /></p><p>The world is awash
in data that is or could easily be linked to me. Some of it stems from the Internet, but much does not. It was nearly a quarter century ago (in January 1999) that Scott McNealy famously remarked, "“You have zero privacy… Get over it!” I have.</p>The second reason I don't mind trading my data for complimentary speech recognition, worldwide navigation, and internet search, etc, is that the bargain is far from Faustian. If the only downside to the deal is that I'll be exposed to advertising that's more likely to be interesting to me, how is that bad? It'd be one thing if I was unwittingly signing up for more ads, but if I'm going to be accosted by a fixed number of ads regardless, why would I prefer irrelevant ones over ads more likely to address things I care about?<p>Advertising is intrusive. I subject myself to as little as possible. I use ad blockers in my web browsers, and I get most of my video from ad-free subscription services. (For music, I'm a throwback and listen to terrestrial FM radio (!), but this is generally in the car, and when an ad comes on, I switch to a different station or hit the mute button.) The relatively few ads that get to me are the ones I can't find a way to quash. Why shouldn't I want to maximize the chances that I'm interested in what they have to say? To this end, I've actually enabled Google's "Personalized ads" toggle. Google's going to collect as much data about me as it can, no matter what I do. For the ads that get past my defenses, it might as well put in the extra effort to increase the likelihood I'll find some merit in them.<br /></p><p></p><p>In sum, (1) no matter what I do, advertisers will have access to detailed profiles of me, and (2) custom-tailored ads are preferable to generic ones. From my perspective, the price of free--my incremental cost for free speech recognition, free worldwide navigation, free comprehensive internet search, free personalized image search, free language translation, and free lots-of-other-stuff--is <i>nothing</i>. All that free stuff really is free, at least to me, because advertisers harvest my data either way.<br /></p><p>I'm uneasy about two things. First, the most commonly mentioned downside to extensive personal tracking is targeted advertising, but that's not the only risk. Profiles of what I do and where I go could be used for stalking, blackmail, extortion, digital impersonation, and governmental abuse. Personalized ads are the smile of the beast. It also has teeth.</p><p>Second, while I'm comfortable with my ability to resist personalized ads for products and services, I'm less sanguine about my ability to recognize and disregard political ads designed to influence me. If you engage an army of psychologists to train AI to read personal profiles and identify hot buttons, I've no doubt it'd find mine. I believe my lack of engagement with social media largely shields me from such attacks, but I recognize that this may simply be hubris on my part. </p><p>It's possible to imagine worlds where personal data isn't automatically collected, packaged, sold, and exploited. Things don't have to be the way they are. There are people working to bring such worlds into existence. I'm not optimistic about their success, however, and at any rate, the world I live in is the one we have now. As long as that's the case, I'll happily take advantage of the free things my data is paying for.</p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-77274689759540113242023-03-15T17:57:00.001-07:002024-01-20T08:20:37.587-08:00Pergola Dreams<p>For years, I've dreamed of a vine-covered pergola ablaze with flowers, something like this (snatched from <a href="https://www.shadefxcanopies.com/pergola-plants-guide/">here</a>):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgNkNZCeBkJy1j1mVRl2GSgjw9Fa2O3V_BPsVbfFDSM8EmEocOlM72HrIyf3U7sj0CbfQec31G2JoLU5wtZn6NMRVhp_x9P4cIcxmAW-qZ80yPjp8Li6gWXELhft9rUOYcVzBmp7QHyx0NJZvL-KGqhGGQ9h4ROFB1NfqjKJgaBAPsVUZSOyzNGrHS/s1920/wisteria%20on%20white%20pergola.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgNkNZCeBkJy1j1mVRl2GSgjw9Fa2O3V_BPsVbfFDSM8EmEocOlM72HrIyf3U7sj0CbfQec31G2JoLU5wtZn6NMRVhp_x9P4cIcxmAW-qZ80yPjp8Li6gWXELhft9rUOYcVzBmp7QHyx0NJZvL-KGqhGGQ9h4ROFB1NfqjKJgaBAPsVUZSOyzNGrHS/s320/wisteria%20on%20white%20pergola.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In 2020, I decided to look into making this a reality.<p></p><p>Pergolas are not hard to build. As Dave Berry might say, you can throw a pile of lumber on the ground, and it will form a pergola. You just put up the posts, attach the beams, put the rafters on top of those, and cap the whole shebang with stringers (aka runners or perlins). It's <a href="https://www.bobvila.com/articles/pergola-plans/">been said</a> that a pergola may be the ideal DIY project for a long weekend.</p><p></p><p>That's assuming you build it the conventional way. The conventional way is not really me. I dislike seeing fasteners, so my pergola dreams lack visible hardware (e.g., bolts or screws). I also dislike the stacked look of rafters atop beams and stringers atop rafters. I'd rather have it look like all the roof components are pretty much at the same level. And I don't care for the look you get when you look up through the roof of a typical pergola. All those rectangles! I want something more visually interesting during the years before the vines have grown to cover the structure.</p><p>After a few iterations, I came up with a design for a "floating pergola," whereby the roof sort of looks like it's floating above the posts and rafters (at least from the front). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_joint">Cross-lapping</a> the beams makes it look like they pass through one another:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrVC9J-cvJqqobnIn2IBNKtIbjSuA8tmEUXBO7vD4hs78lVN4zB5N3ByZXWsOtlfnoqdobhP-2sDKZgu3HTPaBNGSazo0_BxWuSuktvMKT-FjWzsqgCVtk--wqXmLEdBqP1tsPtvHs_YrbAAoRp2qqWbBTe1q2QmP1b06bvg056myaCMwefVLgMVFj/s3072/elevation%20views.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1292" data-original-width="3072" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrVC9J-cvJqqobnIn2IBNKtIbjSuA8tmEUXBO7vD4hs78lVN4zB5N3ByZXWsOtlfnoqdobhP-2sDKZgu3HTPaBNGSazo0_BxWuSuktvMKT-FjWzsqgCVtk--wqXmLEdBqP1tsPtvHs_YrbAAoRp2qqWbBTe1q2QmP1b06bvg056myaCMwefVLgMVFj/w400-h169/elevation%20views.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I also came up with ideas for hiding the hardware holding the structure together, e.g., putting vertical metal rods in the posts which would fit into holes bored in the underside of the beams. Whether that would prove structurally sound, I can't say, but it would hide the hardware, and it would allow the top of the pergola to sit on the posts and be held in place by gravity.<p></p><p>The more creative aspect of the project was figuring out what the roof would look like from below and above. The view from above is relevant, because the second floor of our house looks down on the site for the pergola. </p><p>My design above has the beams and rafters forming this pattern: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3fRgXocCDl_SbP2FNtpiNUTaA4dKrNnRRZa2vSpxt-MJYgWMgBUoY0GNQjFgvmTVyQsi-IqH_CxDf-Er8L5U_VQ1hYAcEfPP3nu8L28hpFAb2Rk5m74G4WJqRn59A3LJFUW13kD9OpyJMRWYgygMFYKbvxVmP0jvpAaZRJSE3GpDfSd11Rz5hpM5I/s1188/top%20view%20wo%20stringers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1188" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3fRgXocCDl_SbP2FNtpiNUTaA4dKrNnRRZa2vSpxt-MJYgWMgBUoY0GNQjFgvmTVyQsi-IqH_CxDf-Er8L5U_VQ1hYAcEfPP3nu8L28hpFAb2Rk5m74G4WJqRn59A3LJFUW13kD9OpyJMRWYgygMFYKbvxVmP0jvpAaZRJSE3GpDfSd11Rz5hpM5I/s320/top%20view%20wo%20stringers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The question is what to do with the stringers. From the pergola's perspective, they're just decorative, but once the vines have grown to cover the structure, the stringers will need to hold their own under the weight of the vines lying on top of them. They thus need to be both visually interesting and relatively sturdy.<p></p><p>I mocked up a number of possibilities:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS5ty951914xWmNQ63CoDZHzIccL8Gas_8ZQo2iWk6XML3BauRNsKD0kz6jbEY0rDp8q6Frhgq-zKkbOXzWu0zjFl32VWbWcU43BFNmUT8y9NpDVIY4OW3kCCETM3xX7es7Lve-m0sdQm9e9RxAiGGMXL5kJPdBZon36fEMtYdy6qN_wa07gvxq7a/s1892/roof%20designs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1892" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihS5ty951914xWmNQ63CoDZHzIccL8Gas_8ZQo2iWk6XML3BauRNsKD0kz6jbEY0rDp8q6Frhgq-zKkbOXzWu0zjFl32VWbWcU43BFNmUT8y9NpDVIY4OW3kCCETM3xX7es7Lve-m0sdQm9e9RxAiGGMXL5kJPdBZon36fEMtYdy6qN_wa07gvxq7a/w640-h202/roof%20designs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Design 5 was my ultimate choice:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX3JHGul959KIIwvWElXIhiAa2NgmxI0ikD-DZ_iwWbz1K3QAyRJlA9OwAJBPt61MZCkY6HMI1PHDlMWF8wEzlURoyLphZnfZJqn372680sLOzKAAj0-NoN4dHBI30sXguOSpw5YNH-77L0XqxjNb5Kpt_Id6ntA1yRxYPxaYouWLZpsSSvNK7fj1t/s1085/final%20roof%20design.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1085" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX3JHGul959KIIwvWElXIhiAa2NgmxI0ikD-DZ_iwWbz1K3QAyRJlA9OwAJBPt61MZCkY6HMI1PHDlMWF8wEzlURoyLphZnfZJqn372680sLOzKAAj0-NoN4dHBI30sXguOSpw5YNH-77L0XqxjNb5Kpt_Id6ntA1yRxYPxaYouWLZpsSSvNK7fj1t/w400-h201/final%20roof%20design.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>With these plans in hand, I approached a number of local contractors. I figured I'd get a few bids, choose a contractor, and watch the sawdust fly.<p></p><p>That's not what happened. Three contractors never responded to my email inquiry about the project. Three came and talked with me, looked at my plans, promised to send a bid, then ghosted me. An additional three didn't do pergolas, didn't work in my area, or weren't accepting new jobs. One wanted payment of several thousand dollars to develop a 3D model of the structure to be built before issuing a bid. One offered a time-and-materials bid that he estimated would come to about $11,500, but it made no mention of the footings for the posts. The twelfth contractor offered only a "very rough" estimate of $21,500. Nobody was willing to offer a fixed-priced bid for the work. </p><p>I was astonished. I knew that my design was unconventional, but it's still just carpentry. I was working on this during the first year of the pandemic, so perhaps that played a role, but oh-for-twelve is still a pretty dismal record.</p><p>I briefly considered doing the construction myself, but I just don't want to. It's a lot of work, and I'd rather have a professional do it. Anyway, it eventually dawned on me that keeping a white pergola that's covered with vines looking good means coming up with a way to clean or paint it, and I don't know how to approach that task. Look again at the pergola at the top of this post. How do they keep that gleaming white structure gleaming white? However they do it, it's probably time-consuming, and what I want is a picture-perfect vine-covered pergola without any fussy maintenance. I'm guessing those don't exist.</p><p> </p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-11492480416521067582023-01-20T19:54:00.000-08:002023-01-20T19:54:23.273-08:00The Beardsley Salome Dinnerware Project, Part 2: Production<p>Part 1 of my report on this project is <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-beardsley-salome-dinnerware-project.html">here</a>. </p><p>Just as creation of the artwork for my Beardsley dinnerware took longer and was more difficult than I'd anticipated, production of the dishes was also unexpectedly challenging. Without the extraordinary commitment of <a href="https://www.ceramicprinting.com/custom-dinnerware/">Enduring Images</a> (the company who made the dishware), I'd still be looking at mockups on a computer instead of dinnerware on a table.<br /></p><p>Let's start with how things end. Here's a photo of one of the dinner plates I had made, along with a smaller plate and a bowl:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRjwXz4d2_Cg2utBP2qgsAN9mySIxj39WaHKzYWiPfkA-gEfKMGloKYx_WF5N77KwfC3QKeOza5dDtcw9KXIVe6vvjvAuGMW_Yr0l-yTk-uzUsxt85TnG0QZ2qyJF0yM1i0BZSys7fRR-2TpLR4V0kUXOUnT0rnJx5o8XIo9PIdhC2dA94gXNz5c8/s1859/example%20plates%20and%20bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1691" data-original-width="1859" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRjwXz4d2_Cg2utBP2qgsAN9mySIxj39WaHKzYWiPfkA-gEfKMGloKYx_WF5N77KwfC3QKeOza5dDtcw9KXIVe6vvjvAuGMW_Yr0l-yTk-uzUsxt85TnG0QZ2qyJF0yM1i0BZSys7fRR-2TpLR4V0kUXOUnT0rnJx5o8XIo9PIdhC2dA94gXNz5c8/s320/example%20plates%20and%20bowl.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Here are the serving dishes:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoG2HlllA9vuC3nHHlYMIQkW4M5jgaprmlIfMXyc48d0w9R5HDdVAHrpsNNp9UBInzROcBwX-7IcpDjeq9TzmCL56HmkGbXYCpyDdjBkhroWq6rDLM2tS2CHu2Dywiils7Ewj8PNAq5YFVSaoKr_EO6ymsxOl1AcTvQt8QdGsp5ZxieEQHc_mOnxOX/s1891/serving%20dishes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1368" data-original-width="1891" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoG2HlllA9vuC3nHHlYMIQkW4M5jgaprmlIfMXyc48d0w9R5HDdVAHrpsNNp9UBInzROcBwX-7IcpDjeq9TzmCL56HmkGbXYCpyDdjBkhroWq6rDLM2tS2CHu2Dywiils7Ewj8PNAq5YFVSaoKr_EO6ymsxOl1AcTvQt8QdGsp5ZxieEQHc_mOnxOX/s320/serving%20dishes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>And here are more of the bowls, because they are the only component of the set that uses color:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOneYd1zhuue9dIJzReprMDkJ6kWn04V1kM8tlEyzqIlkcBvS0xQLwe40H5txScLvKaOg8FxhSyBKOppjWEf6YwFrWoXBFfPoaDSXZJKrF4zEDpWRJd5IkRnbm5PbPK2nwwHJO5d9p5h8yCfwj7Ke7TTUwROkvB86FrnjhzB6yYv3hznJElalsoSz/s1600/example%20bowls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="1600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOneYd1zhuue9dIJzReprMDkJ6kWn04V1kM8tlEyzqIlkcBvS0xQLwe40H5txScLvKaOg8FxhSyBKOppjWEf6YwFrWoXBFfPoaDSXZJKrF4zEDpWRJd5IkRnbm5PbPK2nwwHJO5d9p5h8yCfwj7Ke7TTUwROkvB86FrnjhzB6yYv3hznJElalsoSz/s320/example%20bowls.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>The collection is nice, but it's not as nice as I'd hoped. The pieces look pretty good from a distance, but the closer you look, the more you notice things that aren't as they should be. Well, the closer <i>I</i> look, the more things <i>I</i> notice that aren't as they should be. I spent several months staring at zoomed-in copies of Beardsley's drawings and at dinnerware mock-ups using those drawings. I notice some things other people wouldn't.</p><p>But I'm getting ahead of myself. Having seen how production ended, let's shift to how it began.<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>In September 2021, shortly after starting the project, Enduring Images (EI) ran tests to ensure that the blanks I'd selected were compatible with their production technology. As a test image, I selected a drawing from Beardsley's work on <i>Le Morte Darthur</i>, because I felt that its areas of solid color as well as its use of fine lines was representative of the images I'd want for my dinnerware. At that time, I had not yet decided to use only artwork from <i>Salome</i>.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mqNx_An9wPKqz8VShNNTUgOP6N6UNGoz35i4bUinUK-eCJ9iKZDtT9xYnr7opB7dtUcuBzj4nEeF0iwor4XNup0I9XuO8TwsoBJfbsS-WQyJXodWTfWuoW8heUvSi8pFCNU3DeN6APwNWcUo70oKA9ZDLPNfPzisoJEFz6N9bpUflZu_lnVvFvFU/s1600/flux%20shadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1475" data-original-width="1600" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mqNx_An9wPKqz8VShNNTUgOP6N6UNGoz35i4bUinUK-eCJ9iKZDtT9xYnr7opB7dtUcuBzj4nEeF0iwor4XNup0I9XuO8TwsoBJfbsS-WQyJXodWTfWuoW8heUvSi8pFCNU3DeN6APwNWcUo70oKA9ZDLPNfPzisoJEFz6N9bpUflZu_lnVvFvFU/w200-h184/flux%20shadow.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>When I got a test plate back, I was surprised to find that the edge of the decal could be both seen and felt. It wasn't obvious, but once you'd noticed it, it was hard to ignore. Patrick, my contact in Production at EI, explained that this was a <i>flux shadow</i>. I didn't like it, so Patrick outlined three approaches to eliminating it. I'll refer to these approaches as Techniques A, B, and C, but for those who must open every box to see what's inside, A is on-glazing with a flux topcoat and full-coverage decals, B is on-glazing with a non-flux topcoat, and C is in-glazing.<br /></p><p></p><p>Each of these approaches has limitations. Technique A works for relatively flat pieces, but it can't be used for bowls. Technique B tends to yield a matte finish, rather than a glossy one. Technique C has a poor track record. Patrick had found that it was rarely successful.<br /></p><p>Technique A was a variation on what had been done for the test plate. I was confident it would leave no flux shadow on the relatively flat pieces it was applicable to. I had EI run additional test plates using Techniques B and C. As promised, neither produced a flux shadow. Surprisingly, Technique B produced glossy results. It also yielded a more intense black than Technique C. </p><p>I recommended we use Technique B for the dinnerware. Unlike Technique A, it was applicable to all dish shapes, and it yielded deeper blacks than Technique C. I then threw myself into production of the artwork, a task that ended up stretching over the next eight months. For details, see <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-beardsley-salome-dinnerware-project.html">Part 1</a> of this report.</p><p>Three months later, we ran some samples to test the colors for my bowls. I reminded Patrick of the importance of avoiding a flux shadow. He told me he'd selected Technique C for just that reason. He didn't say why he'd chosen Technique C over Technique B, and I didn't ask. <br /></p><p>After five more months (i.e., at the end of July 2022), I submitted final artwork for the full dinnerware set. Patrick started work on a dinner plate as a pre-production test. We expected smooth sailing. The seas were not cooperative. After three failed trials, Patrick, taking into account the tribulations I'd endured with the artwork, began to talk of a Beardsley curse. After several additional failures, he concluded that Technique C was not going to work for the project. </p><p>The stumbling block was the large swaths of solid black, especially on the rims. Patrick had been unable to find a way to fire the plates such that these areas emerged a uniform color and texture. The picture below is an example of his results. The black in the middle of the plate is deeper than that on the rim, there is cracking in the color at the rim extents, and striations are present at the rim edge in the upper left. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaUJIxenNPUG8GmH1VwQs0jVsfcuoHGrwcYXNbvoJNdu6d-SHqb0iE3kii_ftiwP06SDWTAXkGuUbgKTNi-68Gf4msbNUJwAwNtivxbpC_q7JFxuC_sLBBu67tOzB68Umwl9s5EBERk1P3jcXlHVAAMXAX9LlqnpKkLndD6riW8_WOaaS1HEHmgzL/s1340/in-glaze%20results%202022-08-30.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1142" data-original-width="1340" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqaUJIxenNPUG8GmH1VwQs0jVsfcuoHGrwcYXNbvoJNdu6d-SHqb0iE3kii_ftiwP06SDWTAXkGuUbgKTNi-68Gf4msbNUJwAwNtivxbpC_q7JFxuC_sLBBu67tOzB68Umwl9s5EBERk1P3jcXlHVAAMXAX9LlqnpKkLndD6riW8_WOaaS1HEHmgzL/w320-h274/in-glaze%20results%202022-08-30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>We retreated to Technique A. It dodged the problems of Technique C, but a new issue became apparent. Some areas that were supposed to be white were coming out grey. In the image below, compare the original artwork (above) with the image on the plate (below). On the plate, there's a grey haze around the peacock and the headdress that is not present in Beardsley's drawing:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfajys8OgPRW_5EW5R9UL5nPMUizNwlHAc-imXKZXc1lu6ABcCxfSrEVeSNaOMPilVr-nTNyq2CwSiMiE0ep566e3SHavgcgSJb6TkcLOQTCyb_VmzjARxfskWU-H5DcnVClDKPDLEo7WGi2Oyha9RX_6Fi8S23pvN9UmX7atf-vNs8s8D4_yAYsY8/s1859/haloing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1859" data-original-width="1650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfajys8OgPRW_5EW5R9UL5nPMUizNwlHAc-imXKZXc1lu6ABcCxfSrEVeSNaOMPilVr-nTNyq2CwSiMiE0ep566e3SHavgcgSJb6TkcLOQTCyb_VmzjARxfskWU-H5DcnVClDKPDLEo7WGi2Oyha9RX_6Fi8S23pvN9UmX7atf-vNs8s8D4_yAYsY8/s320/haloing.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>Patrick explained that the black areas tend to bleed a little, and there's no practical way to eliminate it.<p></p><p>At this point, I'd been working with EI for more than 13 months, and pre-production testing was in its fifth month. I was having only 41 pieces produced, so the business case for continuing to work with me had long since evaporated. EI as a company and Patrick as a individual had invested far more time and energy in the project than could ever be justified, and they had done it with a cheery attitude and an earnest commitment to the project's success. I would have liked to find a way to eliminate the flux shadows on the bowls that I knew Technique A would leave behind, and I would have liked to play around with techniques to reduce the bleeding giving rise to grey areas, but EI hadn't signed up for what had become a research project. You don't ask people who've already gone above and beyond to go higher and further. I told Patrick that testing was over and it was time to make the set.<br /></p><p>The dishes showed up about two months later. Creating them involved printing, hand-placing, and firing 82 decals, one for the top of each piece and one for the bottom. Most decals were unique. Bottom decals had to be matched with their top-of-the-plate partner and had to be oriented the same way. Opportunities for errors were rife. I was pleased to see that only one decal had been placed incorrectly. </p><p>I noticed some significant loss of detail in fine white lines present in the artwork. Compare the artwork below (left) with its appearance on a plate (right):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIjb2pRs6FAeHmOlC2GZQNdEqFD4B29vkJIfswO_e0hbaRLMN3ky5f8wTmHrLpYBEq-sBtrhlXTBhzc0YLiDWULbnVe1HF1TbSTgxmfJ9ONFcvt-0aULM1pwFgxqpnJdXekT0FMk4qXk9LxF9gRgxEY7ja3GkaxA5pMkDsW4gS2wU2Kr3twTP6Xam5/s1600/missing%20details.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1600" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIjb2pRs6FAeHmOlC2GZQNdEqFD4B29vkJIfswO_e0hbaRLMN3ky5f8wTmHrLpYBEq-sBtrhlXTBhzc0YLiDWULbnVe1HF1TbSTgxmfJ9ONFcvt-0aULM1pwFgxqpnJdXekT0FMk4qXk9LxF9gRgxEY7ja3GkaxA5pMkDsW4gS2wU2Kr3twTP6Xam5/s320/missing%20details.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>I also saw that the black rims were not as uniform in color as on the test plates we'd run. Contrast the mottled appearance of the production plate (left) with the more uniformly black test plate (right):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhufemKdOJ_1lzOF3Q0746QYM8Jk82y6cXcJ28U3GIfXe0nQPnEHS8Y5O9wHCX2pf7SabY0-m8dD7jdS19MkkHXY55LleJG-a_MlP1QTlsHCfMTRydy5XiEANDA5HQ3sdFmGcPW5Q1f5Amg967UDuhqszmt2wVyqUxTYqZ-slZ19v6fgdqxpMMp0uiY/s1600/rim%20color%20vs%20test.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1314" data-original-width="1600" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhufemKdOJ_1lzOF3Q0746QYM8Jk82y6cXcJ28U3GIfXe0nQPnEHS8Y5O9wHCX2pf7SabY0-m8dD7jdS19MkkHXY55LleJG-a_MlP1QTlsHCfMTRydy5XiEANDA5HQ3sdFmGcPW5Q1f5Amg967UDuhqszmt2wVyqUxTYqZ-slZ19v6fgdqxpMMp0uiY/w200-h164/rim%20color%20vs%20test.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>Patrick explained that in an effort to minimize the bleeding of blacks into adjacent white areas, he'd tinkered a bit with the production process. That had resulted in some loss of fine details as well as a reduction in the density of the blacks.</p><p></p><p>During the months between initial firing tests in autumn 2021 and pre-production testing at summer's end 2022, Technique B had somehow dropped off the radar. I hadn't forgotten it, however. When Patrick remade the plate with the mis-placed decal, I had him make a second copy of the plate using Technique B. That allowed me to compare the results of Techniques A and B on a piece of my dinnerware.<br /></p><p>It was an interesting exercise. The rim color for Technique B (right) was much better than for Technique A (left):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitF8wkVCYJD0YXn9Ob6WcI1IzZNggI6wIByw6ndmeRKhKUHCgLZu5PsUTn5YqAMYL9XfrMyoMO-sSQmkuGYVDTZq0qOfxGW6Xwo8VHijZ4nGeuKUHxq7thb_W3TOajCn2pIZ_lfVhRMyRadUce95HPz0GA7udzGzxvB4_mM_ulAnnvWVvTpAb_7nau/s1812/rim%20color%20A%20vs%20B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1812" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitF8wkVCYJD0YXn9Ob6WcI1IzZNggI6wIByw6ndmeRKhKUHCgLZu5PsUTn5YqAMYL9XfrMyoMO-sSQmkuGYVDTZq0qOfxGW6Xwo8VHijZ4nGeuKUHxq7thb_W3TOajCn2pIZ_lfVhRMyRadUce95HPz0GA7udzGzxvB4_mM_ulAnnvWVvTpAb_7nau/w177-h200/rim%20color%20A%20vs%20B.jpg" width="177" /></a></div><p>That photo was taken under unusually strong light, and it exaggerates
the difference. Even under normal lighting, however, it's clear that
Technique A's black is mottled, while Technique B's is nearly uniform.</p><p>On the other hand, Technique A (left) retained drawing details better than Technique B (right):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFFNQDDUf8aDbwQpzbODd8SU8k3JExwfCJ7iOxWeU7gi1gO1PWiYZq_2153SrULlFZQz5I9cyJ32d4B8ENwL6t4XWL1KnkZ5tpBAIhNd20VKz6ksNBZ6eVns0eIfQcSdfaQg99-mWP3Yq8VOZ_WmvgUBgbEnwSHo334cKoTgeMh3pEFU0SVtBuUeAI/s2948/details%20A%20vs%20B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1579" data-original-width="2948" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFFNQDDUf8aDbwQpzbODd8SU8k3JExwfCJ7iOxWeU7gi1gO1PWiYZq_2153SrULlFZQz5I9cyJ32d4B8ENwL6t4XWL1KnkZ5tpBAIhNd20VKz6ksNBZ6eVns0eIfQcSdfaQg99-mWP3Yq8VOZ_WmvgUBgbEnwSHo334cKoTgeMh3pEFU0SVtBuUeAI/s320/details%20A%20vs%20B.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Technique B yields better solid blacks, then, but it leads to a loss of detail beyond that which Technique A already incurs. <p></p><p>That's how the story ends. I finally have a set of dinnerware based on Aubrey Beardsley's drawings, something I'd yearned for since 1989. But it's not the set I'd envisioned. The areas that should be solid black are more dark grey. If you look closely, or if you see them under strong light, you see that the color is somewhat mottled. The images lack details present in Beardsley's drawings, and some areas that should be white have a grey haze to them. The set is still nice. To the casual observer, it's very nice. It's just not as nice as I'd hoped. </p><p>I suspect it would be possible to do better, but getting there--finding the right combination of toner, topcoat, kiln temperature, firing time, and who-knows-what-else--would be time consuming and expensive. It'd be a research project--even more so than this endeavor ultimately became. That's not in the cards.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">I'm lucky I got this far. Without Enduring Images' dedication to seeing this project through, I wouldn't have. I remain grateful to them and to Patrick for their exemplary patience, cooperation, and assistance.</p><p><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-17332829524503332082023-01-15T11:31:00.001-08:002023-01-15T11:46:49.284-08:00Stained Glass Panels, Part 4<p>This is part 4 of a series about my designs for stained glass window panels.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-1.html">Part 1: The eclipse panel</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-2.html">Part 2: The book data panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-3.html">Part 3: The hummingbird feathers panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 4: The dichro panel (this post)<br /></b></p>
<hr />
<p>In parts 1-3 of this series, I described stained glass panels I designed for transom windows above doors. My fourth panel was for a window on a wall above a stairwell. It was nearly five times as big as the transoms: roughly two-and-a-half by five feet.</p><p>My goals were clear from the get-go. I wanted a design that looked like a metal screen and that was essentially opaque. The view through the window (which included a chunk of roof) would detract from the panel, so I wanted to hide it. I quickly came up with this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQPSeuRlfYkSzH91q_jVjDZXG5V9XA7PCQsnwCDCrxIS8rlLW7-Kn_7PZnyahJVj8MBGEZm0LD-lXJTAI_6ZpCUuOZZt_jpB3rp0_sBvdZOt8296x_sqy8RC3iM0fySS1u2s6w97d6_d9Bogy2AGNrQ2ycKWLtE1ZtMyd3HjmC1HifP-n1VCeVG8q/s1600/initial%20design.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="776" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQPSeuRlfYkSzH91q_jVjDZXG5V9XA7PCQsnwCDCrxIS8rlLW7-Kn_7PZnyahJVj8MBGEZm0LD-lXJTAI_6ZpCUuOZZt_jpB3rp0_sBvdZOt8296x_sqy8RC3iM0fySS1u2s6w97d6_d9Bogy2AGNrQ2ycKWLtE1ZtMyd3HjmC1HifP-n1VCeVG8q/s320/initial%20design.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
<p>I experimented with a <i>lot</i> of color options:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifygu63_Us25YuBeUL21IN_kIvueaPyJJOQfM8CnFtWIEFN0ytlM_cttCUNVop_KzvuryTmZVpS5YB-gn8-RFwrgJUG0zUzyUTri1xo-7exqJVBL9jKg3Un5o3keedMl5h7E-zM4Fm3C4gcZhaP2V2_B08WATnffYJTg1w3VNfFxe7fE4c-WN7U1Er/s951/initial%20color%20experiments.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="919" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifygu63_Us25YuBeUL21IN_kIvueaPyJJOQfM8CnFtWIEFN0ytlM_cttCUNVop_KzvuryTmZVpS5YB-gn8-RFwrgJUG0zUzyUTri1xo-7exqJVBL9jKg3Un5o3keedMl5h7E-zM4Fm3C4gcZhaP2V2_B08WATnffYJTg1w3VNfFxe7fE4c-WN7U1Er/s320/initial%20color%20experiments.png" width="309" /></a></div>
I should have saved myself the trouble. Panel makers told me that the inner right angles on the pieces of glass around the squares would be weak and crack or break. They had to go.
<p>I returned to the drawing board and emerged with a number of designs that had no inner right angles:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaihwxrQ_6etbkPZ0LsZH7C7pIPtj9FuKuPBHHIPBULDldt6T5pYZZTuQkfVUd1PYHRsxmdMQcJFmSp4Mhn-wNEtb4u0kCfTQP78eKAzgHfU2wy4CTPzFe5j-d0gUIVaqUqbTGcIpVjGouwqdweGuKQCYF6BYK-RlIwcKo5ROhPkCpXAxfkHqqCaq/s917/no%20right%20angles.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="890" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnaihwxrQ_6etbkPZ0LsZH7C7pIPtj9FuKuPBHHIPBULDldt6T5pYZZTuQkfVUd1PYHRsxmdMQcJFmSp4Mhn-wNEtb4u0kCfTQP78eKAzgHfU2wy4CTPzFe5j-d0gUIVaqUqbTGcIpVjGouwqdweGuKQCYF6BYK-RlIwcKo5ROhPkCpXAxfkHqqCaq/s320/no%20right%20angles.png" width="311" /></a></div>Panel makers clarified that any concave angle ending in a point (as opposed to ending in a curve) would suffer the same weakness, so designs 6-8 were out. The simple act of rounding the corners of the squares (design 5) would solve the problem, but I didn't like the way it looked. Rotating the squares 45 degrees (design 1) would also solve the problem, but that didn't look like the screen I had in mind. Nor did designs 2-4.<p></p><p>It occurred to me that an alternative to rotating all the squares 45 degrees was to rotate the connecting lines 45 degrees instead. That was equally effective in eliminating the inner right angles, and it yielded this design, which is the one I ended up using.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajW_rJHsNnbqmkQSSgA7uoocPvC0q_kxVLnsGfQLsUg_2DHhjpi_OW3RHoPK9F46tlqQp_oAIdac-qjTb06ieYs2CgF7iIRf3I7dRzOsHX--Mtpu_hch-UJFB4QVbbcyw7W7WQNH22aR3rp4CFHpx-Otf1Hnq8Z1GZSslRYKk7MXWNcj8j5ODXrPo/s1600/final%20window%20design.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="776" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajW_rJHsNnbqmkQSSgA7uoocPvC0q_kxVLnsGfQLsUg_2DHhjpi_OW3RHoPK9F46tlqQp_oAIdac-qjTb06ieYs2CgF7iIRf3I7dRzOsHX--Mtpu_hch-UJFB4QVbbcyw7W7WQNH22aR3rp4CFHpx-Otf1Hnq8Z1GZSslRYKk7MXWNcj8j5ODXrPo/s320/final%20window%20design.jpg" width="155" /></a></div><p>Meanwhile, I'd decided I wanted to use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichroic_glass">dichroic ("dichro") glass</a>
for the squares. Dichro glass is magical stuff. It changes color depending on the
angle from which it's viewed. Its appearance also depends on whether you're seeing transmitted
light (e.g., during the day) or reflected light (e.g., from inside lights at night). Dichro elements in the panel would change colors as you walked by or went
up and down the stairs, would look different night and day, and would present difference faces inside and outside the house. I couldn't resist.</p><p>I ordered some dichro samples, taped them to a window, and took photos of them from different angles to see what they'd do. These photos show five samples from different viewpoints:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfCcOSLSFfnOSj64q5t-Z88e5FuxgGvD2CSh2qb3-rURLyM_6hNCpFRPUl1rEdbLa2t9zxXt8J0m13OTbFq0_DqxNRzhGi8K2awclPj_safx4ek7qO4Ko95cWshdyOnBrUBcGpv3v8N0AmPzlhtXqHU44b8f5NGE4u78ykdcQWRMXMCvw9l0X-fn8C/s1416/dichro%20samples.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1416" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfCcOSLSFfnOSj64q5t-Z88e5FuxgGvD2CSh2qb3-rURLyM_6hNCpFRPUl1rEdbLa2t9zxXt8J0m13OTbFq0_DqxNRzhGi8K2awclPj_safx4ek7qO4Ko95cWshdyOnBrUBcGpv3v8N0AmPzlhtXqHU44b8f5NGE4u78ykdcQWRMXMCvw9l0X-fn8C/w200-h160/dichro%20samples.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p>I settled on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=083K_2unktk">Kokomo's 33G-MA</a> (second from left in the shots above), and mocked up my design using the photos I'd taken. My goal was to approximate the panel's appearance, at least during daytime. Here are the mockups:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpDlH6hQZNSvcIK7PpbDIkshv0gWWmTc1oDlk4kljKjkH5IGckRP4zNLfE0Chh_DGsvOt4Ipp509IJgNTyuglilHCZQqxn8kLQiM23YaL5quccxAreD-4pES9rEVogjwT03_efjwmYT_k_P4NU9CawpK-ZM3ACF8vFo4OcduQ8bhFYEHlSsIvgseFu/s1589/dichro%20mockups.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="1589" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpDlH6hQZNSvcIK7PpbDIkshv0gWWmTc1oDlk4kljKjkH5IGckRP4zNLfE0Chh_DGsvOt4Ipp509IJgNTyuglilHCZQqxn8kLQiM23YaL5quccxAreD-4pES9rEVogjwT03_efjwmYT_k_P4NU9CawpK-ZM3ACF8vFo4OcduQ8bhFYEHlSsIvgseFu/s320/dichro%20mockups.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<p>The actual panel puts the mockups to shame:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQK3ceMVcbIqEVPKWSIiQFUVmP6f2g3sDcsgga8LZS7E2mi3o7l6L7wLxzrpHXF37p1vxa6rdQ0SlcBWD3SIj32PLxmsPHXVU0nlIewgMEiX64wCEZWqpD0S0SKt16ANNzJqxrs6CbG1tXalHer5Hh7rCzuu0-DQKo4mjWRA96dOvHsioN-LBGkMn/s3000/4%20panel%20views.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="3000" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQK3ceMVcbIqEVPKWSIiQFUVmP6f2g3sDcsgga8LZS7E2mi3o7l6L7wLxzrpHXF37p1vxa6rdQ0SlcBWD3SIj32PLxmsPHXVU0nlIewgMEiX64wCEZWqpD0S0SKt16ANNzJqxrs6CbG1tXalHer5Hh7rCzuu0-DQKo4mjWRA96dOvHsioN-LBGkMn/w400-h156/4%20panel%20views.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The three pictures on the left were taken during the day. They show the dichro with transmitted light. The rightmost picture was taken at night. It shows reflected light. In the two middle pictures, different squares show different colors. That's probably because the viewing angle varies from the top of the panel to the bottom, but a contributing factor could be variations in the dichroic coating on individual pieces of glass.
<p>Walking down the stairs provides a steady change in viewing angle that brings the panel alive:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='202' height='360' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzSxrBDFegWv8zFrNj_bdG1k6mT917T4kPykOusa3kHEE8oYTw3E7FCvnb_WyCqF8NKLhJ4RBNuO-FNe2OMdQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<p>I really like this panel. During the day, the hot-magenta dichro squares glow with color from the most common vantage points, and they segue to a nice peach when viewed from wider angles. As you walk by, they put on a chromatic show. </p><p>I'm pleased that I heeded the lesson from <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-3.html">panel 3</a> and made this panel opaque. The dichro squares against the wispy white background pop, just as I'd hoped, and there's no distracting view of sky, clouds, trees, or roof peeking through. </p><p>There's a price for that. The panel blocks most of the light coming through the window, and the stairwell is now dimmer than my wife and I would prefer. I knew that putting a panel in front of the window would darken things a bit, but the effect is more pronounced than I had expected. My experience with the transom window panels led me to believe that putting a panel over a window wouldn't have much of an impact on the light in the room, but in retrospect, that was because each of the transoms was over a door with a much larger window in it. The larger windows provided enough illumination that reducing the light through the transoms didn't matter. In the case of the stairwell, the panel covers the only window. The darkening effect is considerable. </p><p>The takeaway from panel 3 was that what's outside the window should affect the design of the panel. The takeaway from panel 4 is that what's inside the window should affect it, too.</p><p> </p><p></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-85097119067789961332023-01-13T19:49:00.002-08:002023-01-15T11:57:03.416-08:00Stained Glass Panels, Part 3<p>This is part 3 of a series about my designs for stained glass window panels.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-1.html">Part 1: The eclipse panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-2.html">Part 2: The book data panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 3: The hummingbird feathers panel (this post)</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-4.html">Part 4: The dichro panel</a></p>
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<p></p><p>I started design work on my third transom window panel even before the <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-2.html">second panel</a> had been delivered. My goal was something dog-related. The initial mockup was intended to depict a wagging tail in a triptych-like design:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qlrv50AqAyefTuivBxmFF-c1N5FHIAmENThKXLyH28dAvLjupIlS_wIAkgFEUgP3SwA3UArUMTv15IKlyoYhWpesTBLslvgNKRrRYHTZ619ViMuxvoODeN41fQahQmg147gH78BhgDwdCZxbkcabP6Crx99HWlFYu9pzHlxsGBPdega9FHui9M5c/s1548/rough%20dog%20tails%20mockup.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="1548" height="72" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qlrv50AqAyefTuivBxmFF-c1N5FHIAmENThKXLyH28dAvLjupIlS_wIAkgFEUgP3SwA3UArUMTv15IKlyoYhWpesTBLslvgNKRrRYHTZ619ViMuxvoODeN41fQahQmg147gH78BhgDwdCZxbkcabP6Crx99HWlFYu9pzHlxsGBPdega9FHui9M5c/w200-h72/rough%20dog%20tails%20mockup.png" width="200" /></a></div>A friend remarked that it looked like a pineapple. Sigh.<p></p><p>Abandoning the canine connection, I played around with variations on a couple of shapes that came to me unbidden:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRgQ2xEbuZehPUMNt1o1ub5vwMDD7x1XgylYSlpKsL9wt3E9pFSDGeeFDK-di3j-6PV-yVaIHEsnjJfM-Hl-pZPSBH0PfVGY-lMtdZwDHiDk3KhuqJY1r2JGVbvTQfLzKSV47IbgU-1NOv-qD2c2RBI31Abst0mi4P46SVH69IgQK-5sTwEHm5JGv0/s1863/dream%20shapes.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1863" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRgQ2xEbuZehPUMNt1o1ub5vwMDD7x1XgylYSlpKsL9wt3E9pFSDGeeFDK-di3j-6PV-yVaIHEsnjJfM-Hl-pZPSBH0PfVGY-lMtdZwDHiDk3KhuqJY1r2JGVbvTQfLzKSV47IbgU-1NOv-qD2c2RBI31Abst0mi4P46SVH69IgQK-5sTwEHm5JGv0/w400-h101/dream%20shapes.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The exercise was interesting, and I think designs 1 and 2 show promise, but I didn't like them well enough to pursue. I set them aside and returned to the dog theme. My approach this time was to build on trajectories of bouncing balls. (Dogs like to fetch them.) The mathematics of such trajectories avoided the need for me to do any drawing, though you'll note a terrible depiction of a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chuckit-Classic-Launcher-Thrower-Assorted/dp/B00006IX59">Chuckit! ball launcher</a> at the left in design 6:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvpGW7uU2Q7b7V0OPWY-iev9Ki70lkj4BF_us7tqWhKAXetALXeeGohJnGHRAX-_fi1wYyuqdqRYCBJWrKUNrfL0J7WoaRe0t_7sBRivB4fNf2wvSCOmSuSQIhJcWjNmgnzC7A8islVD0VH7nw3_OooewdhUtM7zaSwpdSDCMBEhIRtqpaJ-IzMUU/s1863/bouncing%20balls.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="1863" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvpGW7uU2Q7b7V0OPWY-iev9Ki70lkj4BF_us7tqWhKAXetALXeeGohJnGHRAX-_fi1wYyuqdqRYCBJWrKUNrfL0J7WoaRe0t_7sBRivB4fNf2wvSCOmSuSQIhJcWjNmgnzC7A8islVD0VH7nw3_OooewdhUtM7zaSwpdSDCMBEhIRtqpaJ-IzMUU/w400-h100/bouncing%20balls.png" width="400" /></a></div>None of these did anything for me.<br /><p></p><p>Casting about for a different course, I considered encoding a dog-related message in a geometric version of Morse code. That led to designs such as this (which I believe depicts "Good Dog", although I don't remember exactly how):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTQ9frXezhZhzxDfbK0TibOD7bmfY2-RDG-y5GvPtd5ldA1Pclk5ZCfvM4-8irrgDcWAQyVbepKjH3yCRgq6ypZneqRjPIoxfsj6tVWdDZgsK8uhttx7YClxyDR4K3aEGUrxqSxKtht9Dk74NMTN7d62x9iPWwVPcfone68evFi2I25LIG8PgxY-I/s3072/good%20dog%20morse%20code.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1027" data-original-width="3072" height="67" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTQ9frXezhZhzxDfbK0TibOD7bmfY2-RDG-y5GvPtd5ldA1Pclk5ZCfvM4-8irrgDcWAQyVbepKjH3yCRgq6ypZneqRjPIoxfsj6tVWdDZgsK8uhttx7YClxyDR4K3aEGUrxqSxKtht9Dk74NMTN7d62x9iPWwVPcfone68evFi2I25LIG8PgxY-I/w200-h67/good%20dog%20morse%20code.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p data-select-link-text="1">I set the the dog idea aside again and turned my attention to the Rufous hummingbirds that frequent the feeder near the window the panel was destined for. As you can see in <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/styles/grid_gallery_lightbox/public/Rufous_Hummingbird_b57-13-318_l_1.jpg?itok=qjQAlUX9">this photograph from audubon.org</a>, the throat feathers on the males are striking:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyMJ2WNFCnyBf1jQ_R479kwiphO1AaCRo-W8Wb_wEsoPInIhYf_IVIjfjSCm7KFtTclssjI4rKgW4iEQ9G9Tn3KEmPeLd-e2GRrLDnjExhhqGB9Gf2eR4G2lXl4D63CEv6qLPxaRLRrnW8cGalik_pPghEmbPS4YpiUa6ZCVu_N4sRGsuskQoc88Z/s490/Rufous%20male%20-%20Audubon.org%20crop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="490" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyMJ2WNFCnyBf1jQ_R479kwiphO1AaCRo-W8Wb_wEsoPInIhYf_IVIjfjSCm7KFtTclssjI4rKgW4iEQ9G9Tn3KEmPeLd-e2GRrLDnjExhhqGB9Gf2eR4G2lXl4D63CEv6qLPxaRLRrnW8cGalik_pPghEmbPS4YpiUa6ZCVu_N4sRGsuskQoc88Z/w200-h184/Rufous%20male%20-%20Audubon.org%20crop.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I mocked up a conceptual design:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxfyB_f8SLPTbMXlrIVuxpDCvg8k83I8AKKxUN8GqcWDXskOaq5IKwmbV-5u-os1XnG5UtOwIJKS_gum-j93rEM1FstxtSHdEHUftatw7t2h5LmtIcLezcxWwlQKbTqYYg9yicSUzUvSMduPPmZSuyC5zX3_dpS5jF-F0-1SJnP_rC7jWAiATSP1qJ/s1398/rufus%20mockup%202020-01-08.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="1398" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxfyB_f8SLPTbMXlrIVuxpDCvg8k83I8AKKxUN8GqcWDXskOaq5IKwmbV-5u-os1XnG5UtOwIJKS_gum-j93rEM1FstxtSHdEHUftatw7t2h5LmtIcLezcxWwlQKbTqYYg9yicSUzUvSMduPPmZSuyC5zX3_dpS5jF-F0-1SJnP_rC7jWAiATSP1qJ/s320/rufus%20mockup%202020-01-08.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>I approached some stained glass artists about fleshing out the design and making the panel. I also asked about the possibility of incorporating iridescent and/or dichroic glass, because I thought that would be visually interesting and could help convey the dazzling effect the feathers can produce. I inquired about incorporating prisms into the design, too, because I thought it would be fun to have light spectra scattered on the walls near the panel.</p><p>I chose a local artist, <a href="https://www.pnwglassguild.org/my-profile/sondra.radcliffe/">Sondra Radcliffe</a> of <a href="https://www.ambienteartglass.com/">Ambiente Art Glass</a>, to advance my design from concept to reality. Visiting her workshop was a revelation. I selected the glass for my first two panels from manufacturers' online catalogs, but Ambiente Art Glass uses only hand-blown glass for their panels, and they've spent decades curating a collection of unique glass pieces for their projects. It's beautiful and remarkable stuff--colors of various levels of translucence layered on top of one another to produce 3D effects within a sheet of glass. Even the clear pieces show character, e.g., cracks, bubbles, and slight distortions. The glass in my third panel is in a vastly more sophisticated league than those that came before it.</p>We ultimately decided against iridescent and dichroic glass, but Sondra incorporated a number of beveled glass jewels. They scatter light when the sun shines through them. She took my idea of a hummingbird throat and reinterpreted it as a wave. This is the panel she created:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNjLnXhzvyiDXMQOJ3t-xB6-o8JwHBSQjw4HV3Cl97JAWu7HV64Qcz6nGTlUM-F55o7eTtNSkO_09EQRHeLai0X-8jAH6Tz5dSiSPF2PLopP96cUgatLaronZDtkAkTbKjYCNQLOIbGqdR6rBBqKzuOa6AkxgoBjAuVXy3rurowkr0j0xXqFpRr1p/s1280/panel%20in%20place.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="1280" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNjLnXhzvyiDXMQOJ3t-xB6-o8JwHBSQjw4HV3Cl97JAWu7HV64Qcz6nGTlUM-F55o7eTtNSkO_09EQRHeLai0X-8jAH6Tz5dSiSPF2PLopP96cUgatLaronZDtkAkTbKjYCNQLOIbGqdR6rBBqKzuOa6AkxgoBjAuVXy3rurowkr0j0xXqFpRr1p/w320-h124/panel%20in%20place.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A close-up makes it easier to appreciate the glass's complexity, as well as the skill with which Sondra selected, cut, and arranged the pieces:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxzicd4HyptFzYryzDOfwzP3vDHaSjqRlg47RXCFzv_rPp3JWtBc3QuBftPiGxYle175bo5Giwu42CSXjZgdsZAqnwE3RjcM791P7WTSu0lcPgbrTjQ8k2mEE7l9ejZWWb1XDWAcsY9TsnIL3yQaX4nhxz-pPt9FwP8lxZJllbV9fDCXQ7HrUmJdv/s2133/glass%20close-up.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2133" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfxzicd4HyptFzYryzDOfwzP3vDHaSjqRlg47RXCFzv_rPp3JWtBc3QuBftPiGxYle175bo5Giwu42CSXjZgdsZAqnwE3RjcM791P7WTSu0lcPgbrTjQ8k2mEE7l9ejZWWb1XDWAcsY9TsnIL3yQaX4nhxz-pPt9FwP8lxZJllbV9fDCXQ7HrUmJdv/w150-h200/glass%20close-up.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><p>Alas, the panel isn't as successful as I'd hoped. It's my fault. I made two serious mistakes. First, I failed to consider the view through the window when I used clear glass in the design. I'd imagined the colored glass against a white background (as in my conceptual mockup), but the view through the window is largely of trees. That makes it harder to appreciate the colors in the panel. It looks best after a snowfall:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCouz51-3CHvsY18J7W4BmbHp-PMYhjXmBpNFtyXamVocZ7iHZepfE66Wobk2UmcH7R1-wnk90urybIuC6PYkW1t7ECUbVhfBIPwAwVD2DpDJL2xhD8ulcjuVw-chBw99CCKOMKOvBNX9g4pL_DyKhOKhKVmg7KBbcpYN2HPXM5yH2YRhbdj9Fi6a9/s1953/after%20snowfall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="1953" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCouz51-3CHvsY18J7W4BmbHp-PMYhjXmBpNFtyXamVocZ7iHZepfE66Wobk2UmcH7R1-wnk90urybIuC6PYkW1t7ECUbVhfBIPwAwVD2DpDJL2xhD8ulcjuVw-chBw99CCKOMKOvBNX9g4pL_DyKhOKhKVmg7KBbcpYN2HPXM5yH2YRhbdj9Fi6a9/w320-h125/after%20snowfall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>My second error was failing to realize that the window is too high and the deck ceiling too wide to allow sunlight to directly reach the panel. That means the prismatic effect I'd hoped for from the glass jewels doesn't occur. <p></p><p>I'm still happy with the panel. It's a big artistic step up from the panels that preceded it, and it has the attractive property that the closer you examine it, the better it looks. The big takeaway, however, was that when designing a panel, you have to take into account where it will be and what will be visible behind it. You can't design a stained glass panel in isolation. I took that lesson to heart in the design of my <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-4.html">next panel</a>.<br /><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-71240556311243700192023-01-12T21:01:00.002-08:002023-01-15T11:47:09.255-08:00Stained Glass Panels, Part 2<p>This is part 2 of a series about my designs for stained glass window panels.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-1.html">Part 1: The eclipse panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 2: The book data panel (this post)<br /></b></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-3.html">Part 3: The hummingbird feathers panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-4.html">Part 4: The dichro panel</a></p>
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<p>Some months after installing my <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-1.html">first transom window panel</a>, I started work on the second one. It was for a window near my office, so I decided to use data related to my books as the basis for the design. </p><p>I first thought of simply plotting sales and/or royalties over time, because that would allow me to use Excel to generate a graph, and I could use the graph as my design. I plotted unit sales for 1991-2018 (top), royalties for the same period (middle), and both together (bottom), then slapped them into mockups with a waterglass background. This is what I got:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmIbr4Y46gBv9engMAM4RkiVBvJXW635lmQGVEPPjH3_S2DojPz8eVR9lcWmBbqxVeyWR-apFUzK1s0tjqY4VJzhaf9X2zHlifXax5xq3pKwqd0RqiGnhnBeTo3XD8LGmEAKS7baVgfzkvUlEb8aJOb4aEinm6pXEStX2DpTFJpzYMOEzkVf3pVNU/s2729/sales.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="2729" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmIbr4Y46gBv9engMAM4RkiVBvJXW635lmQGVEPPjH3_S2DojPz8eVR9lcWmBbqxVeyWR-apFUzK1s0tjqY4VJzhaf9X2zHlifXax5xq3pKwqd0RqiGnhnBeTo3XD8LGmEAKS7baVgfzkvUlEb8aJOb4aEinm6pXEStX2DpTFJpzYMOEzkVf3pVNU/s320/sales.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmIbr4Y46gBv9engMAM4RkiVBvJXW635lmQGVEPPjH3_S2DojPz8eVR9lcWmBbqxVeyWR-apFUzK1s0tjqY4VJzhaf9X2zHlifXax5xq3pKwqd0RqiGnhnBeTo3XD8LGmEAKS7baVgfzkvUlEb8aJOb4aEinm6pXEStX2DpTFJpzYMOEzkVf3pVNU/s2729/sales.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="2729" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbzw3L_X_52-Dy6g0cPzx1bdek76Jv-O53Qx5hqjoth1MTlD4_RueaBRKwI8v6Sfe4qDbaKX98UxLN8vScXFiL29I0I_eA21ZXpqJNL0NMbQ6RBUHvSAMuM-5eD8IKk1R8ODqu5M6y8TJO2czAVZ8iRtCU-eXEYM_c7nrrJ8QatHV73ENy5arYKkXB/s320/royalties.jpg" width="320" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPSATBNedu2m_lC0ocuepD-BV_XgCN68xXk0G9rBNfLC7XqLIG9V95WaA9G15RWv0sETlUYQ3j7E3G2YUCB8rtRZXWB75dkWpK0QgcBYuAJNthqNuD1NU-A6e-JaoKunO4mGQ7BzS-cF7VNagox5-RE3vlKDjzntX5JPBbrGLyTvV3NF4GUJYKkNe/s2729/sales%20and%20royalties.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="2729" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAPSATBNedu2m_lC0ocuepD-BV_XgCN68xXk0G9rBNfLC7XqLIG9V95WaA9G15RWv0sETlUYQ3j7E3G2YUCB8rtRZXWB75dkWpK0QgcBYuAJNthqNuD1NU-A6e-JaoKunO4mGQ7BzS-cF7VNagox5-RE3vlKDjzntX5JPBbrGLyTvV3NF4GUJYKkNe/s320/sales%20and%20royalties.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><p></p><p>The colors in the graphs correspond to the colors of my books:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaj7CJCb6xPpUGgEslfb1_1QSdv1XbvmWXCmI0H1YYUuaoRlT_vYQ8Z33iBW-7w2zoOMuO8Ckm5Z785-aCikoeT-_zX1BLhGMusbn9w0gNs12e3vndfHv_yk0oX18O-p5pyFQYxKP7l2xZlTXh0NATjDN9cxfnhl-YT5KmPsgB29SBmu8UtMAKgl3W/s3264/book%20colors.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="3264" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaj7CJCb6xPpUGgEslfb1_1QSdv1XbvmWXCmI0H1YYUuaoRlT_vYQ8Z33iBW-7w2zoOMuO8Ckm5Z785-aCikoeT-_zX1BLhGMusbn9w0gNs12e3vndfHv_yk0oX18O-p5pyFQYxKP7l2xZlTXh0NATjDN9cxfnhl-YT5KmPsgB29SBmu8UtMAKgl3W/s320/book%20colors.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>None of these designs excited me, and I was skeptical that it would be practical to build them. <p></p><p>My next idea was to have the width of the panel represent years between 1990 and 2020 and to stack two solid circles for each book on its year of publication. The area of one circle would correspond to the book's lifetime sales, the other to its lifetime royalties. That yielded this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrYEPL5yazPWOTinU5LKPq92UW06tcX5H-5bjlIVWc76yIhQfjBnLxchKjbzPy-0kbwVg-bMafAYmROBOHQYUVerBXrl4BlhT4gZUff4g4fgwSoAISV7-B_RTpOtl5ke2le_Ieyb70M6Z_v8b7ffADaZIUkKuNAUi3YkLeTS6FiyDlmIDfxFTzbCB/s982/washers.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="982" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHrYEPL5yazPWOTinU5LKPq92UW06tcX5H-5bjlIVWc76yIhQfjBnLxchKjbzPy-0kbwVg-bMafAYmROBOHQYUVerBXrl4BlhT4gZUff4g4fgwSoAISV7-B_RTpOtl5ke2le_Ieyb70M6Z_v8b7ffADaZIUkKuNAUi3YkLeTS6FiyDlmIDfxFTzbCB/s320/washers.png" width="320" /></a></div>This did nothing for me. As I wrote to a friend, "It looks like a collection of
washers in a 1960s color scheme."<p></p><p>Retaining the idea of the panel representing time horizontally, I added the idea of it representing lifetime sales vertically. That let me plot total sales against year of publication:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkOxqIVQrfz0oBlck4_OgkJ-jte3sx-qDWexIINK80Y7DbQ2xGci_o8pCC42B14gHs47SwTj6okfHEggDNYh_dWuZLvuLY57RP8PquR-V_njQqSOMmyT-6s47pNQFrwfijXQRyOVNJQHugo4b7LlEC1gylLha7rdWckkghmV8NLkTrmNb5HOWwnGr/s1280/graph%20w%20colored%20points.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="1280" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFkOxqIVQrfz0oBlck4_OgkJ-jte3sx-qDWexIINK80Y7DbQ2xGci_o8pCC42B14gHs47SwTj6okfHEggDNYh_dWuZLvuLY57RP8PquR-V_njQqSOMmyT-6s47pNQFrwfijXQRyOVNJQHugo4b7LlEC1gylLha7rdWckkghmV8NLkTrmNb5HOWwnGr/s320/graph%20w%20colored%20points.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Sizing the points to reflect lifetime royalties, getting rid of the grid lines, and throwing in some candidate glass choices gave me this:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieiHAjwxcW2aN0YVWZEO5AAhe7UCZLgtUaUzcrVVtzRN9gJPKMHEP11v8Q9wtpqGLV2M7aZvrNvzdwHRyjyLa3fphJ_IyJc2OJrRSHbuRladrLH7cn7wslOEAam04wwGDWW5UuJGkodW8xDxzl6xvqnT0RI9NMACrpEQqTvABd79zHPrffGZVL_oKd/s2731/circles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="2731" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieiHAjwxcW2aN0YVWZEO5AAhe7UCZLgtUaUzcrVVtzRN9gJPKMHEP11v8Q9wtpqGLV2M7aZvrNvzdwHRyjyLa3fphJ_IyJc2OJrRSHbuRladrLH7cn7wslOEAam04wwGDWW5UuJGkodW8xDxzl6xvqnT0RI9NMACrpEQqTvABd79zHPrffGZVL_oKd/s320/circles.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I played around with other shapes, too.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhjAzgRZCBDpXMx1aNDCmJNuEERYnC65oXSLQ_Ghz7wNR9meN134ObxQy2yWyMZF_Cckz-qwAmHxkPhp2Zw7Mm5IabdbZozkcfQvn2xYTyWUtEYiL_f5cR_pv4fA16WAc6EGk5zOgeE29pEK-qcnL5NzYPxORQzc3A2jMQyOk5X0SubePL5gwYKoR/s975/triangles.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="975" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhjAzgRZCBDpXMx1aNDCmJNuEERYnC65oXSLQ_Ghz7wNR9meN134ObxQy2yWyMZF_Cckz-qwAmHxkPhp2Zw7Mm5IabdbZozkcfQvn2xYTyWUtEYiL_f5cR_pv4fA16WAc6EGk5zOgeE29pEK-qcnL5NzYPxORQzc3A2jMQyOk5X0SubePL5gwYKoR/s320/triangles.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2KHpcKc1egVjFzK4erhFaN70YpNf53iMkw5ov_2ZN4gm0VyrUPkMBnxPkMi9XRCFTqoQBqW3FwkbPXL2Dx2NmS75njLFGlszB54povIbs6BCX0LFxmjwz0SPBXzvUD4kQIC5Ds2bTktVlxONzvzcuZPJ6Ai-wtFBWlyIhXk53TIld_z2qWTwzo9R/s1029/explosions.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="1029" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2KHpcKc1egVjFzK4erhFaN70YpNf53iMkw5ov_2ZN4gm0VyrUPkMBnxPkMi9XRCFTqoQBqW3FwkbPXL2Dx2NmS75njLFGlszB54povIbs6BCX0LFxmjwz0SPBXzvUD4kQIC5Ds2bTktVlxONzvzcuZPJ6Ai-wtFBWlyIhXk53TIld_z2qWTwzo9R/s320/explosions.png" width="320" /></a></div>I liked circles best. I found the vaguely planetary look pleasing. In addition, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/gigisglass?ref=profile_header">Margo Crane</a>, who made my first panel and whom I planned to use for this one, confirmed my suspicion that she lacked the expensive equipment needed to cut the glass for these kinds of "shapes floating in space" designs. <p></p><p>I added grid lines to make the design buildable, tinkered with some details, and put in the glass choices that Margo and I agreed on. This was my final mockup:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaRHB4pNi_cAh8tDQ9wT3ZORByYqLl9Em0pmJbjMG5WaNWQC1nf3VtGhNe5HE-tJnnpEZOoyOTW1L40MLHOydIDitBvOPeIvZTCUwR70-Y8JneZrT7ZX-c27hcplsX-J2gIkmVIknxltVsUyd1IHIMhLKy2by7Gf4KZz3myqEFdJYMvha-eNw_i2z/s1783/mockup%20with%20final%20glass%20choices.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1783" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWaRHB4pNi_cAh8tDQ9wT3ZORByYqLl9Em0pmJbjMG5WaNWQC1nf3VtGhNe5HE-tJnnpEZOoyOTW1L40MLHOydIDitBvOPeIvZTCUwR70-Y8JneZrT7ZX-c27hcplsX-J2gIkmVIknxltVsUyd1IHIMhLKy2by7Gf4KZz3myqEFdJYMvha-eNw_i2z/s320/mockup%20with%20final%20glass%20choices.png" width="320" /></a></div>The panel showed up about six weeks later:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rSYh58gpaiIvmOBp-uuo5z_doxjCD4znZhNL5jip7GuVuTr9CBgLtgwyt27UmOym2QMZGg7io2uP-dWxDT6ewvOrktiFmm0QzoU03SjlBpkfCsGxWR5-cRHX0BLB3DSb5N2HlEzJWlAxyp9c9-S7CYscBG3LimjaRTQEaMADDNARbHXMOl6apmRy/s1600/panel%20installed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1600" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rSYh58gpaiIvmOBp-uuo5z_doxjCD4znZhNL5jip7GuVuTr9CBgLtgwyt27UmOym2QMZGg7io2uP-dWxDT6ewvOrktiFmm0QzoU03SjlBpkfCsGxWR5-cRHX0BLB3DSb5N2HlEzJWlAxyp9c9-S7CYscBG3LimjaRTQEaMADDNARbHXMOl6apmRy/s320/panel%20installed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>That's what it looks like, but it's not the way it usually looks. A transom window is up high (above a door), and this particular window is typically viewed from a hallway, which provides a view from the side. The usual way to see this panel, then, is from below and to the side, like this:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-BnHUVO-IalPMMA7VtlTZaYQnlykHsXjif6FhWWcogd6yEeYl-G0xc3CjPNdI7CYQpsvs-60AM0fL3mqAounmXMI7j2hZWq6CyMdSnodtOvKOebrfRxIhctcA7zhOTAPgfP4ChSux7XftrMb7WI-hSBzdCsHVUx-TbiJPbgHYdL8uqxvfyVmJhTg/s1200/normal%20view.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-BnHUVO-IalPMMA7VtlTZaYQnlykHsXjif6FhWWcogd6yEeYl-G0xc3CjPNdI7CYQpsvs-60AM0fL3mqAounmXMI7j2hZWq6CyMdSnodtOvKOebrfRxIhctcA7zhOTAPgfP4ChSux7XftrMb7WI-hSBzdCsHVUx-TbiJPbgHYdL8uqxvfyVmJhTg/s320/normal%20view.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><p>I had taken that into account when developing the design. My decision to use clear waterglass as the background was based on the knowledge that the white structure behind the window when viewed from this angle would provide a blurred white background. That's what I wanted: colored circles against a white background. I think it works well. Unfortunately, I failed to take the view through the window into account when I designed my third panel, and, as you'll see in <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-3.html">part 3</a> of this series, that was a mistake.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-50472796378109856862023-01-11T21:01:00.003-08:002023-04-06T08:22:55.303-07:00Stained Glass Panels, Part 1<p>This is part 1 of a series about my designs for stained glass window panels.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 1: The eclipse panel (this post)</b><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-2.html">Part 2: The book data panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-3.html">Part 3: The hummingbird feathers panel</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-4.html">Part 4: The dichro panel</a></p>
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<p></p><p>Near the end of 2017, I decided I wanted to have stained glass panels made for transom windows over doors in our house. By "panel," I mean a stained glass insert to be pushed up against the inside of an existing window. The effect is that of a stained glass window, but the panel isn't exposed to the elements. I looked online for designs I liked, but nothing grabbed me. I tried to find someone to design panels for me, but that didn't pan out. So I decided to take a stab at designing the first panel myself.<br /></p><p>This was a laughable decision. It combined artistic design, an area where I have neither talent nor experience, with stained glass, a medium about which I knew nothing. It was nevertheless a way forward, so I set out down that path. I took the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017">total eclipse that had taken place a few months earlier</a> as my design motif. The area of totality had been not far from my home, and the experience of seeing it was still fresh in my mind. </p><p>For a skilled stained glass artist such as <a href="https://www.rockcrestglass.com/about">Susan Humphrey of Rockcrest Glass Studio</a>, the eclipse led to wonderful works of art such as this:<br /></p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjk-ZZTIkfceyKdfjbkPm5XvpLXU3SjRo23_zFKjYW4LmWTySTNg8zyaMkngGt7WY6HKlkFCwzLwqEpfpl6_gCZrKn8amw7rKuKIF0gi9WQe__YPqjkSbVytbW3Vl5eY8zTeFCGHGTuMElIGDyAxiz5y3b84Qaise6n3o8FobvtX5bQRiC3MjwtrB/s902/rockcrest%20solar%20eclipse.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</a><a href="https://www.rockcrestglass.com/solar-eclipse"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="492" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjk-ZZTIkfceyKdfjbkPm5XvpLXU3SjRo23_zFKjYW4LmWTySTNg8zyaMkngGt7WY6HKlkFCwzLwqEpfpl6_gCZrKn8amw7rKuKIF0gi9WQe__YPqjkSbVytbW3Vl5eY8zTeFCGHGTuMElIGDyAxiz5y3b84Qaise6n3o8FobvtX5bQRiC3MjwtrB/s320/rockcrest%20solar%20eclipse.png" width="175" /></a></div>
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<tr><td><font face="arial" size="-1"><a href="https://www.rockcrestglass.com/solar-eclipse"><i>Solar Eclipse</i></a> from Rockcrest Glass Studio</font></td></tr>
</tbody></table><p>
I'm no Susan Humphrey. As an example of the artistic league I'm in, here's the "eclipse cake" I prepared for the event. It's not stained glass, but I think the sophistication of the work speaks for itself: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OFy8pkVPGOzgo8rkcqo40bpRdTwfaR2QyHSB9zVdDyBOS6zqR8lFq0rzZkKUnagjichmuQ1ifcK4bRoWomtGXWYy8W__vuu3TcWUmN5nSnljw9T8D5itzT6m4n8z2kIIJoQSIqZAxb1rtde3a0xXEFFNKrAv81l5nuLnJId6b10Np1jiPwinhqwl/s2924/eclipse%20cake.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="2924" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OFy8pkVPGOzgo8rkcqo40bpRdTwfaR2QyHSB9zVdDyBOS6zqR8lFq0rzZkKUnagjichmuQ1ifcK4bRoWomtGXWYy8W__vuu3TcWUmN5nSnljw9T8D5itzT6m4n8z2kIIJoQSIqZAxb1rtde3a0xXEFFNKrAv81l5nuLnJId6b10Np1jiPwinhqwl/s320/eclipse%20cake.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="separator" data-select-link-text="1" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Among the many artistic skills I lack is the ability to envision something that doesn't exist. I needed a way to mock up stained glass panel designs so that I could look at them. In a move that will not surprise you if you've read about <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-beardsley-salome-dinnerware-project.html">how I designed custom dinnerware</a>, I turned to PowerPoint. Its support for visual design work is limited, but nowhere near as limited as my imagination. </div><p></p><p>I initially wanted a lot of light to come through the panel, so I chose phases of the eclipse against a clear waterglass background:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86oNpGKkINkDRKY2and_-HszQ4HxDnGGB865GZBEpyXb2vIjvzy77eDJPl0LMp4-kMRfJnQpnXzMMd6J4u2xnhcOIBbbavWP0fWNrvTWE15zsqwYV1Om8oWyzyD2rpVvNdQpaXbKrnvisVWcu38EeGs_WqCCGtAi2zDx-CZhVVfyXysY80AXmetir/s3056/eclipse%20clear%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="3056" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86oNpGKkINkDRKY2and_-HszQ4HxDnGGB865GZBEpyXb2vIjvzy77eDJPl0LMp4-kMRfJnQpnXzMMd6J4u2xnhcOIBbbavWP0fWNrvTWE15zsqwYV1Om8oWyzyD2rpVvNdQpaXbKrnvisVWcu38EeGs_WqCCGtAi2zDx-CZhVVfyXysY80AXmetir/w400-h143/eclipse%20clear%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I then mocked up a design that more accurately reflected the eclipse I had seen. That involved adjusting the phases of the eclipse to progress in a more diagonal direction than purely left to right. It also entailed making the sky blue. This was the result:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dLU5NqdIfqMAks72Z27AOel3QrzRQWJlKbtBvso4zWC9WtYBLv5m1CPfBXW4nInTiJ3x61qimU9VWy4I2Roh1Grbx9JQIo51puW2rzPHy0brWtNf5UCtr1n6WsbagoA5OjIVtz7JZKfmWNbNhsQs5td1rQuLzuD69LtqvIYPeizXeKljiiE74LIo/s9263/eclipse%20blue%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="9263" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3dLU5NqdIfqMAks72Z27AOel3QrzRQWJlKbtBvso4zWC9WtYBLv5m1CPfBXW4nInTiJ3x61qimU9VWy4I2Roh1Grbx9JQIo51puW2rzPHy0brWtNf5UCtr1n6WsbagoA5OjIVtz7JZKfmWNbNhsQs5td1rQuLzuD69LtqvIYPeizXeKljiiE74LIo/w400-h143/eclipse%20blue%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The blue background seemed kind of flat, so I shot for more visual interest by using a wispy blue-purple background instead:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN5ccWOAKV0v5gcunfOMviRgG1Ow7vtjHYPqZvgQpyWXSxzdvr90GQikqAGIeadWmnyok1Lc6_jLdgcJ-GJMlKrof12RDyhwLFgNcwQLq5zY-asbGNtmlBv1h8ZA3B-KCfvsXeZZgC2XLS9LUTdg-Bmz8751SpiFCx6JU8OH7WxwTPxfPLFoA-HBg/s9263/eclipse%20blue-purple%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="9263" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggN5ccWOAKV0v5gcunfOMviRgG1Ow7vtjHYPqZvgQpyWXSxzdvr90GQikqAGIeadWmnyok1Lc6_jLdgcJ-GJMlKrof12RDyhwLFgNcwQLq5zY-asbGNtmlBv1h8ZA3B-KCfvsXeZZgC2XLS9LUTdg-Bmz8751SpiFCx6JU8OH7WxwTPxfPLFoA-HBg/w400-h143/eclipse%20blue-purple%20corona%20as%20ring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>I learned that the white
ring surrounding the black circle in the center of the panel would
stymie most makers, because they typically lack the ability to cut a
ring of glass. (Cutting circles is easy, but cutting rings is apparently hard.) I revised the design to eliminate the ring. I also went back to the horizontal evolution of eclipse phases, because people found the diagonal placement off-putting. My final design looked like this:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyUQ3cfOwzohhs0Q3LRsKtqvUyD4wEIujuNgKtgTmgHz1b66wObwO0TomlkgpRwviPirXdXxcolFmzpuD1kvj7PfwzZhrO4IJdsdbwkPlUv1e3rqqXZwKEIWGLlfJ9hp-oZqro_7ucmBhbg-z5Ta0H1flIHZjsZS1AUM0JFmg7p4WJ2USYGnlA7hV/s1680/eclipse%20final%20window%20design.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="1680" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyUQ3cfOwzohhs0Q3LRsKtqvUyD4wEIujuNgKtgTmgHz1b66wObwO0TomlkgpRwviPirXdXxcolFmzpuD1kvj7PfwzZhrO4IJdsdbwkPlUv1e3rqqXZwKEIWGLlfJ9hp-oZqro_7ucmBhbg-z5Ta0H1flIHZjsZS1AUM0JFmg7p4WJ2USYGnlA7hV/w400-h143/eclipse%20final%20window%20design.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The image looks deceptively like a photograph, but it's nothing more than a few PowerPoint shapes with online images of glass samples as fill patterns. </p><p data-select-link-text="1">Each piece of glass in the design is a wispy mixture of two colors (e.g., blue and purple, yellow and white, etc.), and in the real world, each piece of such glass is unique. A mockup can never do more than approximate what a panel would look like. What it actually looks like is determined by the artist choosing, cutting, and placing the glass pieces and then soldering them together. For this panel, that artist was Margo Crane. Her Etsy shop for stained glass work is <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/gigisglass?ref=profile_header">here</a>. Here's the panel she delivered:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileA2DmI_X6Htm7bLQWJXd1WUh3bDtPQNq_SHDWIygBZLseBFXIHGWd3Dz2oFcFRpAXBALNzxD9g0ummahPsMPMyENx9NMIfNYXFpk1c7G4q_dy5nTt_CZnJe3a9Il5NwNw8yhuz38em0kJpKkn5UamfO4CPQRRD6Z51yjWFI1i-dM1ZY_7NmQUlif/s3363/eclipse%20final%20panel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1189" data-original-width="3363" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileA2DmI_X6Htm7bLQWJXd1WUh3bDtPQNq_SHDWIygBZLseBFXIHGWd3Dz2oFcFRpAXBALNzxD9g0ummahPsMPMyENx9NMIfNYXFpk1c7G4q_dy5nTt_CZnJe3a9Il5NwNw8yhuz38em0kJpKkn5UamfO4CPQRRD6Z51yjWFI1i-dM1ZY_7NmQUlif/w400-h141/eclipse%20final%20panel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I'm quite happy with it. It's visible from my bed, so it's one of the first things I see every morning. It's a nice way to start the day.<p></p><p data-select-link-text="1">The design remains childishly simple, but working on this panel taught me a lot about the kinds of glass that are available and about how to use PowerPoint as a mockup tool. It also introduced me to a number of stained glass artists and their studios, both local and remote. It put me in a position to hit the ground running with the design for my <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/stained-glass-panels-part-2.html">next panel</a>.<br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-582674002502340112022-12-30T19:29:00.009-08:002023-01-06T15:18:15.110-08:00Anne Frank's Diary: Versions, Translations, and Ownership, Oh My!<p>This is a follow-up to <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/12/anne-franks-diary.html">my previous post</a> about reading Anne Frank's famous diary. <br /></p><p>In an entry for October 1942, Anne Frank reports that no one had warned the people in hiding that someone would come to fill the fire extinguishers. In the German translation I read, the beginning of the sentence is worded this way (after translation into English via <a href="https://www.deepl.com/translator">DeepL Translator</a>):</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Because they are so clever downstairs, they didn't warn us...</p><p style="text-align: left;">My German's not bad, but I'm far from fluent, so as I read the diary, I checked my comprehension using the published English translation. There, the sentence fragment reads like this:<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">The office staff stupidly forgot to warn us...</p><p style="text-align: left;">This bothered me. The sarcasm in the German is missing in the English. That greatly affects the tone of the diary entry. A diary is a very personal thing. I wanted to hear Anne's voice as I read it. Did she express her annoyance using the sarcasm in the German, or did she simply employ the deprecating wording of the English? My money was on sarcasm from a young teen, but I wanted to know for sure. At least one of those translations had to be wrong!</p><p style="text-align: left;">This question sent me down the rabbit hole of diary versions, translation inconsistencies, and ownership rights for Anne Frank's diary. It's an interesting story, if you're into that kind of thing. If you're not, I'll cut to the chase. It looks like neither the German nor the English translations convey the tone present in the Dutch that Anne wrote in.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Update 6 January 2023</i></b><i>: As noted below, it's now clear that sarcasm is present in the Dutch, so the German translation is correct in tone, and the English translation is not.<br /></i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Versions of the Diary</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Anne wrote two versions of her diary:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Version A</b> is her personal diary. She wrote it only for herself. The diary consisted of multiple notebooks. The one covering December 1942 to December 1943 was not recovered after Anne was arrested, so Version A is now incomplete.<br /></li><li><b>Version B</b> is Anne's revision of Version A, including the entries in the Version A notebook that has since been lost. Her aim was to publish Version B as a book after the war.<br /></li></ul><p>Her father, Otto, created</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Version C</b> from Anne's versions. Version C doesn't contain everything in Versions A and B, because Otto withheld some material (typically having to do with sex or Anne's feelings about her mother). He also edited the manuscript for length and, in some cases, tone. Version C was the diary published in 1947 that made Anne Frank famous.<br /></li></ul><p>For researchers and others with a serious interest in the versions, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/3WwUGVM">The Critical Edition</a> </i>includes complete copies of Versions A, B, and C. (It also contains other writings by Anne Frank as well as the findings of a detailed investigation into the diary that confirmed its authenticity.)<br /></p><p>1991 saw publication of the<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Definitive Edition</b>, a new version based on Versions A and B that includes the material Otto withheld when preparing Version C. It's about 30% longer than Version C. The Definitive Edition is sometimes known as <b>Version D</b>.</li></ul><p>In 1998, <a href="https://bit.ly/3Vzuit8">five new pages</a> from Version B surfaced. They have since been incorporated into the Definitive Edition, resulting in what I refer to below as the <b>Revised Definitive Edition</b>. In 2018, <a href="https://n.pr/3jzOjmi">two pages</a> that had been deliberately obscured (presumably by Anne) were visualized. I don't know whether they currently are or in the future will be in the Definitive Edition.</p><p>While investigating translation discrepancies such as those discussed below, I tracked down a number of digital copies of the diary. These were generally scans of books. In some cases, publication information was missing, so I had to figure out which diary versions I was looking at. I came up with the following algorithm:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If the first diary entry is for 12 June 1942 and the entry for 15 October 1942 mentions refilling fire extinguishers, it's Version A.<br /></li><li>If the first diary entry is for 20 June 1942, it's Version B.</li><li>If the first diary entry is for 14 June 1942, it's Version C.</li><li>If the first diary entry is for 12 June 1942 and the entry for 20 October 1942 mentions refilling fire extinguishers, it's the Definitive Edition.</li><li>If it's the Definitive Edition per the above and the entry for 8 February 1944 discusses Anne's parents' marriage, it's the Revised Definitive Edition.<br /></li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;">Translation Inconsistencies</h3><p style="text-align: left;">When looking at excerpts from Anne's diary entries, the academician in me wants to follow <a href="https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2421391.html">Nicholas Whyte's lead</a> of showing both the original Dutch and the English translation. Unlike Whyte, however, I don't know Dutch, so I can't interpret what's in the original. All I can do is translate the Dutch into English (I use DeepL Translator) and look at the result. In the examples that follow, I'm assuming the DeepL-generated English accurately reflects the Dutch original. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Since I'm showing only English translations for the Dutch, I'm also showing only English translations for the German. I'm using DeepL Translator for those, too.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Each translation from the Dutch shows the diary version I used. For the German and English, I'm always using the Revised Definitive Edition. <br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"> 15 October 1942 (Version A), 20 October 20 1942 (All Other Versions)<br /></h4><div><div><div><div><p style="text-align: left;">This is the diary entry I introduced at the beginning of this post. In the Dutch original, does Anne use the sarcasm reflected in the German translation, or does she express her annoyance through the deprecating wording in the English translation? </p><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>German:</b> Because they are so clever downstairs, they didn't warn us...</div><p data-select-link-text="1" style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>English:</b> The office staff stupidly forgot to warn us...</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"> </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version A):</b> We had not been warned...<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version C):</b> We knew someone was coming to fill the devices, but no one had warned us...<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The answer appears to be neither. In the Dutch, Anne simply states a fact: those in hiding had not been warned. She doesn't pass judgement on this lack of warning, so why the German translator (Mirjam Pressler) added sarcasm and the English translator (Susan Massotty) added derision, I don't know. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I find these translations disturbing. I think it's unreasonable for a translator to make gratuitous changes to the tone expressed by an author they're translating.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Update 31 December 2022</b>: In a comment on this blog post, Unknown posted the Dutch from the Definitive Edition. Submitting that to DeepL yields this:</i></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i><b>Dutch (Definitive Edition):</b> Being so savvy downstairs, they didn't warn us....</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>That's definitely sarcasm, so the German translation retains the tone of the original, while the English translation does not. Presumably the sarcasm is present in Version B (which I don't have), and the definitive Edition decided to go with that instead of with the unsarcastic wording of Version A that appears to have been picked up for Version C.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Update 6 January 2023</b>: I have now acquired </i>The Critical Edition<i> in English, so I have a translation of Version B at my disposal. It confirms my guess above:</i></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i><b>English (Version B):</b> Downstairs they are such geniuses...<br /></i></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">27 September 1942</h4><p style="text-align: left;">This is my favorite line in the book, because it reflects the attitude I'd expect a thirteen-year-old butting heads with her mother to adopt, especially given the "there is no escape" conditions in the secret annex.<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>German:</b> Today I had another so-called "discussion" with Mother.</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>English:</b> Mother and I had a so-called “discussion” today...</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version A):</b> Today I had a so-called "discussion" with mother...</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version C):</b> Had an argument with mother, for the umpteenth time lately...</p>When I first checked this against the Dutch, I had only Version C, and I was horrified to see that the young-teen snarkiness present in the German and English was missing from what Anne had written! It struck me as unlikely that the German and English translators had independently come up with the idea to quote "discussion" when it wasn't present in the Dutch, so I went searching for a Dutch Version A. There I found the wording I was looking for.<p style="text-align: left;">We know that Otto Frank created Version C from Anne's Versions A and B. We also know that Anne wrote Version A for herself, but Version B for eventual publication. In this diary entry, I'm guessing that Anne decided to tone down the attitude for the general public, and her father used the Version B wording in his Version C. </p><p style="text-align: left;">For the Definitive Edition, it seems that the decision was made to go with the wording of Version A. (I can't confirm this, because I don't have the Definitive Edition in Dutch.) I'm glad. I prefer snarky thirteen-year-old writing-for-herself Anne over fourteen-year-old smoothing-things-over-for-the-public Anne.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">15 April 1944</h4><p style="text-align: left;">In several places, I noticed that the English translation made some things explicit that were implicit or ambiguous in the German. The following is a good example. I show a translation from Dutch only for Version A, because I can't find this passage in Version C.<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>German:</b> Kugler is furious. He gets the blame for not having anything changed on the doors, and we do such a stupid thing!</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>English:</b>
Mr. Kugler’s furious. We accuse him of not doing anything to reinforce
the doors, and then we do a stupid thing like this! <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version A):</b> Kugler is furious; he gets blamed for not having anything changed on the doors, and we pull a stunt like this! <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The Dutch uses the passive voice in describing how Kugler gets blamed, and the German follows suit. Who's doing the blaming is unspecified. In the English translation, the passive is eliminated, and it's explicit that the people in hiding (Anne's "we") are the ones assigning blame. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I was confused when I read this diary entry (in German), because I didn't remember anybody having complained about Kugler and the doors. Consulting the English clarified who'd done the complaining, but a cursory search of earlier diary entries doesn't turn up anything that explicitly supports the English interpretation. In principle, there's no reason why the complaints couldn't have been levied by members of the office staff rather than by those in hiding with Anne. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">Given the sentence as a whole, I think the interpretation is probably correct ("<i>We</i> asked Kugler to do something, but then <i>we</i> turned around and did something stupid"), and it's consistent with the tensions that sometimes arose between Kugler (who helped those in hiding) and the people he helped. Nevertheless, the English translator's decision to replace the passive voice in the Dutch with an active voice has the effect of putting words in Anne Frank's mouth. <br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">9 April 1944 (Version A), 11 April 1944 (All Other Versions)</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In the following, note how the German mentions a washtub, but no books. The English mentions books, but no washtub. The Dutch Version A mentions both, and the Dutch Version C mentions neither.</span><br /></h4><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>German: </b>All four of them ran upstairs, Peter opened the doors and windows of the kitchen and private office, threw the phone on the floor, and finally they all ended up in hiding, along with the wash tub. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>English:</b> All four of them raced upstairs. Dussel and Mr. van Daan snatched up Dussel’s books, Peter opened the doors and windows in the kitchen and private office, hurled the phone to the ground, and the four of them finally ended up behind the bookcase. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version A): </b>All four of them ran upstairs, Pf. and v. P. took the books from the former, Peter opened the doors and windows of kitchen and private office, smashed the telephoon on the floor and with the washing up, all four had finally ended up behind the hiding walls. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version C):</b> All four snuck upstairs, Peter quickly opened the doors and windows of kitchen and private office, smashed the phone on the floor and finally all four had ended up behind the hiding wall.</p><p style="text-align: left;">DeepL's translation of the Dutch Version A is somewhat stilted, so here's the result of Google Translate on the same passage:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Dutch (Version A) via Google Translate:</b> All four ran upstairs, Pf. and v. P. took the books from the former, Peter opened the doors and windows of the kitchen and private office, threw the telephone on the floor and ended up with the washtub, all four of them had finally ended up behind the shelter walls.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The diary entry containing this passage is long, describing a tense two-day period where those in hiding fear even more than usual that they are about to be discovered. I think it could serve as the basis for a great stage play, but that's neither here nor there. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The books mentioned in Version A play no further role in the story told by the diary entry. That's presumably why they don't appear in Version C. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The situation as regards the washtub is more interesting. Prior to the passage we're looking at, the diary entry tells us that that the washtub is in the office kitchen. Later in the diary entry (i.e., after this passage), we're told the washtub is still there. Based on the DeepL and Google translations from the Dutch, Version A seems to say that that the washtub is taken with the four people as they leave the kitchen and enter the secret annex ("behind shelter walls"). That's a problem. How can the washtub have been removed from the kitchen, yet still be there (as we're later told it is)? Perhaps this apparent contradiction is why Version C got rid of the washtub in this passage.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Since both the German and English translations mention either the books or the washtub, their source must be Version A (presumably via the Definitive Edition, on which they're based). It's possible that the English translator kept the reference to the books, because it's in the original and doesn't cause any problems, but got rid of the reference to the washtub to avoid a later inconsistency. This would be in line with my impression that the English translator isn't averse to veering away from the Dutch in the interest of clarity.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As for the translation into German, all I can do is scratch my head. It eliminates Version A's mention of the unproblematic books, but it retains Version A's confusing mention of the washtub. That's got me stumped. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Diary's Legal Landscape<br /></h3><p style="text-align: left;">When Anne's father, Otto, died in 1980, he left Anne's diary and other writings to the Netherlands. The <a href="https://www.niod.nl/en">NIOD</a> Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies is currently responsible for them. NIOD has the pages Anne wrote, but it doesn't have the copyright to them. Otto left that to the <a href="https://www.annefrank.ch/en">Anne Frank Fonds</a>, a Swiss foundation he established. It's a curious situation. NIOD has Anne's writings, but not the right to publish them. The Anne Frank Fonds has the right to publish them, but it doesn't have the writings themselves.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It gets curioser. The building where Anne and the others hid is owned and managed as a museum by the <a href="https://www.annefrank.org/en/">Anne Frank House</a>. Thanks to a permanent loan from NIOD, Anne's original diary is displayed there. The Anne Frank House possesses the diary, then, but it owns neither it nor the copyright to what's in it. </p>Copyright issues came to a head in 2016, because that was when, in principle, the copyright on Anne's writings should have expired. They sort of did, but only in some places. The situation is so convoluted, I'll just point you to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/anne-frank-diary-copyright-public-domain/">this article</a>, which gives an overview of the convolutions, and <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/11/anne-frank-foundation-moves-to-keep-famous-diary-copyrighted-for-35-more-years/">this one</a>, which explains how new wrinkles were added to old ones.<br /><p style="text-align: left;"></p></div></div></div></div>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-41421322051326183582022-12-27T22:47:00.001-08:002022-12-30T19:54:01.272-08:00Anne Frank's Diary<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdSULH2Dsk5vDjj5IFELBujWBFe7MO6qOA5bbKsG6DGiqJtnXVxK0xYa_XRj7wd29sQp6EbwwA_fjI38KgIk1W0RaqVHJeK0Xxg9VQfoxzFPP_9FeZJWQzU1H-TaNhmaQSEv3_ZJTkqByBROApiIXQtMUFerRM9eiVVdmDi__1VaxmMdVqldp9XfF6/s2229/Einband.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2229" data-original-width="1448" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdSULH2Dsk5vDjj5IFELBujWBFe7MO6qOA5bbKsG6DGiqJtnXVxK0xYa_XRj7wd29sQp6EbwwA_fjI38KgIk1W0RaqVHJeK0Xxg9VQfoxzFPP_9FeZJWQzU1H-TaNhmaQSEv3_ZJTkqByBROApiIXQtMUFerRM9eiVVdmDi__1VaxmMdVqldp9XfF6/w130-h200/Einband.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>During a visit to Amsterdam in 2009, I toured the <a href="https://www.annefrank.org/en/">Anne Frank house</a> and bought a copy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl">the famous diary</a>. I knew Anne and her family were originally from Germany, so I assumed she'd written in German. I bought that version of the book, figuring I'd get the words straight out of her mouth. I later found she'd written in Dutch. Oops.<br /><p></p><p>For 13 years, the book sat on my "to be read" pile. This month, I decided to take the plunge.</p><p>It's a wonderful book. Nailing down just what book it is is complicated, because there are multiple versions of the diary. In addition, different translators approach the job in different ways. I'll <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/12/anne-franks-diary-versions-translations.html">blog about those things</a> separately. Here I want to focus on the content of the book.</p><p>As a preface, I'll note that the proper pronunciation for "Anne" isn't "Ann," but "Anna" (more or less). Watch interviews with people who knew her, e.g., <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWRBinP7ans">her father</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNlL8sVq6dQ">Hanneli Goslar</a>, and you'll see what I mean. Anne Frank wrote one of the most significant books of the twentieth century. It and her fate have made her the face of the holocaust. Her name is easy to say. We should know how to say it.<br /></p><p>The title of the English translation is "Diary of a Young Girl," and that does a good job of establishing appropriate expectations. It's not a book about the persecution of the Jews during the Nazi era. It's not a book about the holocaust. It's not a book about WWII. All those things play a role, and Anne writes about each of them. If you're looking for insights into those topics, you'll find them. But the essence of the book is the struggle of a girl in the passage from child to adult under unimaginable conditions.</p><p>Anne starts her diary on her thirteenth birthday, and what emerges is a portrait of a child who's exuberant, smart, and curious, but also strong-willed, sarcastic, and not as smart or experienced as she thinks she is. She doesn't get along with her mother. My favorite line from the book, in the entry for September 27, 1942, includes this classic teenager remark:<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"> Today I had a so-called "discussion" with mother...<br /></p><p>I laughed out loud. You can almost see the eye-roll. This was far from the only place that got me laughing. Some of Anne's remarks are very, very funny.</p><p>It's good she had a sense of humor, because at the time she wrote that, it was the eighth week of sequestration for her and seven others in a hidden set of rooms in the building housing her father's business. The "secret annex" the eight of them lived in comprised only about 450 square feet. Anne's bedroom was 13 by 6 feet. She shared it with a 53-year-old man (a family friend). The windows were covered (to prevent outsiders from seeing them), so they couldn't see out. Much of the time, their single toilet could not be flushed, lest someone hear the water in the pipes. Sometimes the inhabitants of the annex could (carefully) visit other parts of the building, but the eight of them were stuck together most of the time. The men smoked constantly. If someone got on your nerves, there was no escape. If you had an argument, there was no escape. If you wanted to go somewhere and be alone, there was nowhere to go. Leaving the building was out of the question.<br /></p><p>Try coming of age under those conditions. </p><p>It's astonishing, then, that in a diary entry after three and a half additional months in hiding (January 13, 1943), Anne displays such empathy for the Amsterdammers on the outside:<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">We're quite fortunate. Luckier than millions of people.
It's quiet and safe here. ...
The children in this neighborhood run around in thin shirts and
wooden shoes. They have no coats, no caps, no stockings and no one to help them.
Gnawing on a carrot to still their hunger pangs, they walk from their cold houses through
cold streets to an even colder classroom. Things have gotten so bad in Holland that
hordes of children stop passersby in the streets to beg for a piece of bread. </p><p></p><p>She's still just 13, though. A few weeks later (March 10, 1943), she writes:<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">The guns were booming away until dawn. I still haven't gotten over my fear of planes and shooting, and I crawl into Father's bed nearly every night for comfort. I know it sounds childish, but wait till it happens to you!</p><p>Things get worse. The allies conduct air raids near Amsterdam. Anti-aircraft guns blaze. Bombs fall. It goes on for months. Anne remains terrified, but her sense of humor endures. June 2, 1944:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">I ... have a brand-new prescription for gunfire jitters: When the shooting gets loud, proceed to the nearest wooden staircase. Run up and down a few times, making sure to stumble at least once. What with the scratches and the noise of running and falling, you won't even be able to hear the shooting, much less worry about it. Yours truly has put this magic formula to use, with great success!<br /></p><p>Many of Anne's diary entries focus on how nobody really understands her and how she's always being treated unjustly. It's standard teenage angst, which is at once both unsurprising and surprising. She's a young teen, but you might think all the other things she's going through would crowd that out. They don't. </p><p>1944 ushers in lovesick Anne. She sets her sights on literally the only boy in her world. January 6, 1944:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">My longing for someone to talk to has become so unbearable that I somehow took it into my head to select Peter for this role.<br /></p><p>Peter is more than three years older than Anne, who by that time is 14. Anne's sister, Margot, is about the same age as Peter, but Margot is quiet and reserved. Anne is anything but. Her diary entries from January through March are filled with thoughts and hopes and dreams of Peter, Peter, Peter! It gets to be a bit much. Finally on April 16, 1944, we seem to get what Anne's been waiting for:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Remember yesterday's date, since it was a red-letter day for me. Isn't it an important day for every girl when she gets her first kiss?<br /></p><p>Check your modern sensibilities at the door. The kiss in question is on the cheek. (Well, half on the cheek and half on the ear.) Their lips don't meet for 12 more days, and if anything more serious than that ever takes place, it's not in the diary. </p><p>Anne wins the boy, but her ardor cools. He won't become the confidante she yearns for. July 15, 1944:<br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">We talked about the most private things, but we haven't yet touched upon the things closest to my heart. ... I never broach the subjects I long to bring out into the open. I forced Peter, more than he realizes, to get close to me, and now he's holding on for dear life. ... I soon realized he could never be a kindred spirit...<br /></p><p>It's sad for both of them, but by then, lovesick Anne has given way to introspective Anne. She's wrestling with the tension between her introverted but pure, good, and serious self and the superficial, extroverted, flippant persona she displays to the world. Her final diary entry--August 1, 1944--agonizes over the problem of displacing this persona in favor of her purer, deeper self:</p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">A voice within me is sobbing, "You see, that's what's become of you. You're surrounded by negative opinions, dismayed looks and mocking faces, people who dislike you, and all because you don't listen to the advice of your own better half." Believe me, I'd like to listen, but it doesn't work, because if I'm quiet and serious, everyone thinks I'm putting on a new act... [They] berate me for being in a bad mood, until I just can't keep it up anymore... I ... finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be...<br /></p><p>That's the last paragraph in the book. It's a downbeat ending, but it's an artificial one. Anne didn't decide to stop writing. Instead, three days later, Anne and the others were discovered, arrested, and, eventually, sent to Auschwitz. By the end of the war, only Anne's father was alive.<br /></p><p>When the diary ends, Anne is barely 15. She's grappling with weighty, adult issues (inner self vs outer self, identifying who you want to be, figuring out how to be that), but at heart, she still is and wants to be a schoolgirl. In various entries, she writes of her long-term goal to be a successful writer, but when, on June 6, 1944, the allied invasion they've been expecting for at least 16 months finally materializes, the hope she expresses is that of a student: "Maybe...I can even to back to school in September or October."</p><p>It's Anne's diary and it's her story, but eight people don't hide themselves for more than two years. Without the genuinely heroic actions of their six "<a href="https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/front-section/company-office/">helpers</a>," there would have been no food, no clothing, no soap, no tobacco, no newspapers or magazines, no library books, no mail, no correspondence courses, and no conversations with people in the outside world. As the war drags on and resources become scarcer, the helpers find it increasingly difficult to feed eight mouths that aren't supposed to exist. The black market fills the void, but trafficking there is as illegal as hiding Jews. The diary opened my eyes to the essential and dangerous work performed by Dutch "helpers."<br /></p><p>Anne, her family, and her other fellows-in-hiding were deported to Germany on September 3, 1944. Along with 1,011 other Jews, they were on the last train from Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz. It's natural to wonder what would have happened to Anne and those who hid with her had they not been caught on August 4 or if they hadn't made that last train. My sense is that their prospects would not have improved much. Amsterdam remained under German control for eight more months, and the Nazis engineered a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944%E2%80%931945">famine over the winter of 1944-45</a> that led to the death of more than 20,000 Netherlanders.</p><p>Anne Frank's life story is tragic and upsetting and centered on death. Her diary is quite different. It's tragic and angsty, but it's also insightful and funny, and all about life. It makes you wish you'd known Anne personally. It makes you feel a bit like you did.<br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-42859495602253481072022-09-28T15:07:00.000-07:002022-09-28T15:07:16.941-07:00EV Pricing: Nissan Ariya vs. Nissan Rogue<p>I've wanted to buy a small electric SUV with AWD since 2019. <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2020/06/electric-cars-are-currently-luxury-goods.html">I was initially put off by the cost</a>, but last year I realized that money was not actually the problem. The problem was that <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2021/08/why-i-dont-yet-own-electric-car.html">nobody was making an EV with the features I want</a>, at least not for the United States market.<br /></p><p>Thirteen months later, nothing has changed. You still can't buy an EV that satisfies my basic criteria: a compact SUV with AWD, an openable moonroof, a 360-degree overhead view, and an EPA-estimated range of at least 235 miles.</p><p>Nissan is supposed to start shipping the <a href="https://www.nissanusa.com/ariya.html">Ariya</a> in the coming months, and it checks all the boxes. So does its gas-powered sibling, the Nissan <a href="https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/crossovers-suvs/rogue.html">Rogue</a> (except for the electric part). Since they're compact SUVs from the same manufacturer, if you equip them similarly, you can ballpark how much it costs to switch from an ICE drivetrain to one based on electrons.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYh5Dhhjq1eUVMJSx2b5Nsv0OBvtj-TQHIuRk1RAQc_3xGr1ldxrttB7DNLrTCKUe5tuXJ_I-0saXY5fwXniih-jErI1Esm30ZBIrX2f-BSSv2ul0Zi_ioUMOHOoTHPf9jmigwSHbMVbbdYA-GZXH_Rro0B5f03KrdMAhADlN-PmzBIGrMatY4mIyr/s1877/rogue%20and%20ariya.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="1877" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYh5Dhhjq1eUVMJSx2b5Nsv0OBvtj-TQHIuRk1RAQc_3xGr1ldxrttB7DNLrTCKUe5tuXJ_I-0saXY5fwXniih-jErI1Esm30ZBIrX2f-BSSv2ul0Zi_ioUMOHOoTHPf9jmigwSHbMVbbdYA-GZXH_Rro0B5f03KrdMAhADlN-PmzBIGrMatY4mIyr/w640-h126/rogue%20and%20ariya.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nissan's Ariya (left) and Rogue (right)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>The least expensive Rogue configuration that includes AWD, an openable moonroof, and a 360-degree overhead view is the SL trim. MSRP (with destination) is $36,295. </p><p>The corresponding Ariya is the Evolve+ e-4ORCE. Its MSRP is $55,485. </p><p>That's a difference of $19,190. The Ariya is built in Japan, so the federal EV tax credit doesn't apply, though there may be state and/or local incentives. Based on MSRPs, going from a gas-powered Rogue to a comparable battery-powered Ariya incurs a premium of about 53%. That's more than twice the 25% limit I consider reasonable.<br /></p><p>Last year, I noted that Volvo's XC40 Recharge has AWD, an openable moonroof, and a 360-degree overhead view, but its EPA range was only 208 miles. That's since been improved to 223 miles, but it's still short of my 235 mile requirement. The forthcoming Mercedes EQB looks to tell a similar story. It's got AWD, a moonroof, and an overhead view, but estimates of its EPA range generally fail to hit the 235 mile mark. (The EPA hasn't yet published its official range.) Both the Volvo and the Mercedes have MSRPs that exceed that of the Ariya, so they look to cost more and deliver less, at least in terms of range. </p>For the fourth year in a row (since 2019!) I find myself waiting for the automobile industry to produce an electric car with the features I want for a price I'm willing to pay. I've never had much trouble finding a reasonably-priced ICE vehicle with an acceptable feature set, so I don't understand why it's so hard this time around.<br /><p></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-48331717871601506332022-08-26T12:06:00.000-07:002022-08-26T12:06:07.516-07:00More Old Magazines need New Home<p>Inspired by <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/08/old-magazines-need-new-home.html">my recent magazine housecleaning</a>, I'm also making these old technical magazines available to anybody who wants them:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPV1SZl9zizo61ybhrR9yoJyHua6WAIgtIzT8Nk14iLJNe3Ikkj8CK6Xp9QJYMlaOQXHY-D7gJ6KFKCBgQSgbyuufpRR2nqUjxbNTfDtnOYXQhCL5O9MxhyMC-KITFGYLW84cf1FprvuIjfrPOxJ3jYIDqRoDlBb9XugnF5j_mpLDKu-okgrJbnUl/s1948/IMG_6455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="1948" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPV1SZl9zizo61ybhrR9yoJyHua6WAIgtIzT8Nk14iLJNe3Ikkj8CK6Xp9QJYMlaOQXHY-D7gJ6KFKCBgQSgbyuufpRR2nqUjxbNTfDtnOYXQhCL5O9MxhyMC-KITFGYLW84cf1FprvuIjfrPOxJ3jYIDqRoDlBb9XugnF5j_mpLDKu-okgrJbnUl/s320/IMG_6455.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i><i>IEEE Computer</i></i>, December 2002-March 2013. <i><br /></i></li><li><i>Communications of the ACM</i>, January 2005-October 2012.<br /></li><li><i>IEEE Software</i>, November/December 2002- March/April 2013.<br /></li><li><i>ACM Queue</i>, June 2004-May/June 2008.</li></ul><p></p><p>Let me know if you have any interest: <a href="mailto:smeyers@aristeia.com">smeyers@aristeia.com</a>.</p><p></p><p><br /> </p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-36189921198628274672022-08-24T22:14:00.001-07:002023-01-20T20:28:39.501-08:00The Beardsley Salome Dinnerware Project, Part 1: Concept to Artwork<p>In 1989, my friend, Karen, invited me to an exhibition of drawings by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beardsley">Aubrey Beardsley</a> at Harvard's Sackler Museum. I'd never heard of Beardsley or the Sackler Museum, but Karen was working on her Ph.D. in Art History, and I wasn't about to turn down a chance to attend an exhibition with an expert.<br /></p>
<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyt74lFkvVWLg1bIIlJrcYlorZ8Wa18viJu7uADsoYdY6Ygzp5aZH4OKPNrbjXjMHSJQm3Twp1Qyyb0sAsnzlZYJMNnfyCPbKj4yG3PxmmTUNJyNUKLKJSfrqOX_pAeP9hSW192OcK3mt7YN266gLPJB5q989TG0hOzfXwi0M4GNUOSZQB0PDUEUj/s4058/PAM%20The%20Climax%20-%20cropped.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4058" data-original-width="2912" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyt74lFkvVWLg1bIIlJrcYlorZ8Wa18viJu7uADsoYdY6Ygzp5aZH4OKPNrbjXjMHSJQm3Twp1Qyyb0sAsnzlZYJMNnfyCPbKj4yG3PxmmTUNJyNUKLKJSfrqOX_pAeP9hSW192OcK3mt7YN266gLPJB5q989TG0hOzfXwi0M4GNUOSZQB0PDUEUj/w144-h200/PAM%20The%20Climax%20-%20cropped.png" width="144" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Climax<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgpgZraoeYZXvLnbdsAoDUPQoeoIL0rjWg6fCiKPz-izUfrUSb5XYEcJNm9sT0ZHfAykZNU47h1jAWfvw2Gw-FC-O4fNZIQnX1N2PRMm5bO8gwbmM32BqbkP1iJu_99mRcMonFEfoX77Yq2UtsILuCJVr868hVji7wiAahetCefB6nkitmww1LT1T/s4066/PAM%20-%20The%20Peacock%20Skirt%20(cropped).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4066" data-original-width="2911" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPgpgZraoeYZXvLnbdsAoDUPQoeoIL0rjWg6fCiKPz-izUfrUSb5XYEcJNm9sT0ZHfAykZNU47h1jAWfvw2Gw-FC-O4fNZIQnX1N2PRMm5bO8gwbmM32BqbkP1iJu_99mRcMonFEfoX77Yq2UtsILuCJVr868hVji7wiAahetCefB6nkitmww1LT1T/w143-h200/PAM%20-%20The%20Peacock%20Skirt%20(cropped).jpg" width="143" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Peacock Skirt<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>My memory of the drawings themselves is hazy, but I clearly remember thinking that Beardsley's black-line artwork would look great on white dinner plates. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peacock_Skirt"><i>The Peacock Skirt</i></a>, for example, seemed like it would make a fine choice, as would <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Climax_(illustration)"><i>The Climax</i></a>. <p></p><p>I wasn't the first to look at Beardsley's drawings and think dishes. In 1979, Poole Pottery introduced its <a href="https://i.servimg.com/u/f21/13/72/55/08/210.jpg">Beardsley Collection</a>, and for its <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/aubrey-beardsley">2020 exhibition</a>, Tate adorned <a href="https://shop.tate.org.uk/aubrey-beardsley-iokanaan-mug/24653.html">mugs</a> and <a href="https://shop.tate.org.uk/aubrey-beardsley-iokanaan-plate/24654.html">plates</a> with Beardsley artwork. These days, you can find plates and mugs with Beardsley drawings at <a href="https://ifarfor.ru/en/?search=beardsley">ifarfor</a>, though you may want to take into account that it's in Russia before placing an order.</p><p>I've long liked the idea of custom-made dinnerware. When the Internet blew the lid off the Pandora's box of product personalization in the 2000s, I started looking for places to make dishes for me. It wasn't difficult to find companies to design and produce limited runs of tableware, but their idea of a short run was a dozen or more place settings, each with five or more pieces. Including set-up fees and minimum order requirements, total costs started at several thousand dollars. That might pencil out for a restaurant, bed and breakfast, private club, or corporate dining room, but for an individual like me? No. <br /></p><p>I bided my time. In August, 2021, as part of a spot check into options for made-to-order dinnerware, I discovered that <a href="https://www.ceramicprinting.com/custom-dinnerware/">Enduring Images</a> offered custom sets under attractive conditions. From artwork you supply, they create decals using ceramic toners. The decals are applied to "blanks" (i.e., dishes provided by you or by them) and fired in a kiln. The results are functionally indistinguishable from dishware you'd buy at retail. They're no more prone to scratching than mass-market tableware. If the blanks are dishwasher- and/or microwave-safe, the dishes are, too. </p><p>This was exactly what I was looking for. I began work designing a Beardsley dinnerware set.<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The <i>Salome</i> Challenge<br /></h3><p>Aubrey Beardsley's best-known work is probably the 16 illustrations he created for Oscar Wilde's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome_(play)"><i>Salome</i></a>. <i>The Peacock Skirt</i> and <i>The Climax</i> are among them. However, these drawings comprise a mere drop in Beardsley's artistic bucket. His work for Thomas Mallory's <i>Le Morte Darthur</i> makes up several hundred images, for example, and that's still less than half of what he created before he died of tuberculosis at only 25. My initial plan was to use the drawings from <i>Salome</i> for my dinner plates and to select from his other works for the remainder of my set, but I became so intrigued by the <i>Salome</i> illustrations that I decided to use only them. </p><p>The decision was partly motivated by the challenge of pulling it off. I had decided I wanted 12 place settings, even though it's nearly inconceivable that my wife and I would host a meal with 10 other people. In addition, I wanted five serving dishes, because I had found a mix of that many platters and large bowls that I thought looked nice. Finally, I wanted every piece to be unique: each plate, bowl, and platter should have its own look. With 12 dinner plates, 12 smaller plates (for e.g., salad or dessert), 12 bowls, and five serving dishes, that necessitated 41 different designs. The fact that Beardsley produced only 16 illustrations for <i>Salome</i> (plus two front cover designs, one back cover design, and a spine design), well, that was part of the challenge. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Getting the Images<br /></h3><p></p><p>It's easy to find copies of Beardsley's <i>Salome</i> drawings on the Internet. Quality varies, in part because some images are scans of the original drawings, while others are scans of prints made from those drawings. I wanted the best, most authoritative images I could find, so I made a digital bee-line for the <a href="https://harvardartmuseums.org/">Harvard Art Museums</a>. They have nine of the 16 <i>Salome</i> originals.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">Scans of these drawings are freely downloadable, but the resolution is terrible. <a href="https://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/17386565"><i>The Peacock Skirt</i></a>'s 745 x 1024 pixels is typical. Printed at 300 dpi, which I consider the bottom of the barrel for print resolution, the image would be about 2.5" x 3.5". That's considerably smaller than I want to put on a dinner plate, much less a serving dish.<br /></p><p>Harvard offers higher-resolution imagery, but it's subject to the <a href="https://harvardartmuseums.org/image-licensing">Harvard Art Museums' licensing policy</a>, which includes this restriction:</p><blockquote><p>Each image must be reproduced in its entirety without cropping, bleeding, alteration, splitting, or other modification.</p></blockquote><p>Beardsley's work for <i>Salome</i> used two colors: black ink and white paper. The drawings are now over 125 years old, so the inks have faded and the papers have yellowed. Compare Harvard's scan of <i>Salome on a Settle</i> (left) with the cleaned-up black and white version I created (right):</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikKsMLZgLvMZZPDJCiOpSExMmHrWblgNjIFCXhKKNJYJ_rOLeuGtEKp3TwNSBihFiPf2wnv6q0w8xz0O7z_0fMjmapcVg1wtuVfkvO-V0EqIaOsIEeWsgdFiLfHrUMaiR3D0ZjYNBrk1bhSSDVe0OtisiUNmiAZ8KfdCQFFUBuCwXRnChdQeO0dJxu/s1528/Salome%20on%20a%20Settle%20raw%20and%20cleaned.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1528" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikKsMLZgLvMZZPDJCiOpSExMmHrWblgNjIFCXhKKNJYJ_rOLeuGtEKp3TwNSBihFiPf2wnv6q0w8xz0O7z_0fMjmapcVg1wtuVfkvO-V0EqIaOsIEeWsgdFiLfHrUMaiR3D0ZjYNBrk1bhSSDVe0OtisiUNmiAZ8KfdCQFFUBuCwXRnChdQeO0dJxu/s320/Salome%20on%20a%20Settle%20raw%20and%20cleaned.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salome on a Settle<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p>I believe my version is more representative of Beardsley's work than the original has become. I'm certain it would look better on white dinnerware. However, the Harvard Art Museums' licensing provisions preclude color correction. They also prohibit removing the border present in Beardsley's drawing. That's problematic for my tableware, because I want to use the rim of a dinner plate as the frame around the drawing instead of the border that Beardsley drew.<br /></p><p>Harvard's licensing terms surprised me, because Aubrey Beardsley died in 1898. All his drawings are in the public domain, at least in the United States. Such works are free of copyright restrictions. My understanding is that they can be used by anyone in any way.</p><p>Of course, I don't want to use Beardsley's actual drawings on my dinnerware. I want to use <i>scans</i> of them. Enter the lawyers. If a drawing is in the public domain, is a scan of it also in the public domain? Or is creation of the scan tantamount to creation of a new work of art that's protected by its own copyright? </p><p>I'm not so paranoid to think that Harvard (or any other owner of a Beardsley drawing) will sic their legal team on me if I adorn dishes for my personal use with scans of their artwork. Nevertheless, I've been the beneficiary of copyright protection for the books I've written, so I try to respect the rights of others. Furthermore, I find the legal question interesting. What does it take to make a newly-created image worthy of copyright?</p><p data-select-link-text="1">More than simply scanning something else, as it turns out, at least in the United States. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.">Bridgeman vs. Corel</a>, the court ruled that slavish copies of two-dimensional works fail to contribute the necessary originality needed to quality for copyright protection. (The legal landscape may be different when 3D objects such as sculptures are involved.) Practically speaking, scans of 2D artworks in the public domain are themselves in the public domain. Harvard and other institutions may attempt to impose more restrictive licenses, but it's unlikely they'd survive a legal challenge.</p><p>Rather than petition Harvard for higher-resolution scans (and possibly get embroiled in a licensing dispute), I shifted my search from scans of their drawings to scans of prints made from them. Such prints are in many museums, because they were part of Wilde's book, <i>Salome</i>. If you have a copy of the book, you have copies of Beardsley's drawings.<br /></p><span class="span-citation">In the end, most of the images I used came from </span><span class="span-citation">the <a href="https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/">Princeton University Art Museum</a>. When I first looked at their scans, the majority had
significantly higher resolution than I was able to find elsewhere--nearly six times the resolution of those at Harvard. However, a few scans had relatively low resolution. I wrote to ask about these suspect images. Princeton confirmed the anomalies and said they'd scan again. When they posted the updated imagery a few weeks later, I was surprised to discover that they'd rescanned <i>all </i>the <i>Salome</i> prints, not just the ones with low resolution. The new resolution was nearly twice the high resolution they'd had before! Thank you, Princeton Art Museum!</span>
<p><span class="span-citation">These scans had the best resolution I was able to find, but my goal wasn't maximum resolution, it was highest overall quality for use on tableware. Image resolution was only one consideration. A second consideration was whether a scan was of an original Beardsley drawing or of a print. Originals were preferred. A third was fidelity to the original. Some scans show more details than others. Consider these two versions of a portion of <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1919-0412-1"><i>The Toilette of Salome II</i></a>:
</span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rqmRdcnA7WSgMHxdyqQsuVhfFX7fWhvefkVVuZck2g-bnHQN6TKilOy2re1sHf8aU5gDopXPr-OUBzxVHIgTm6yz0QCXDGw8RGMJ2HJMtFyYaT2MaTmy3DruPlNhrqn9Nx8bJ1SshL7NByqO7gRIPKAow5OFGpHkJ1LqBxwWJ683YXXvJxNpmX3E/s1416/The%20Toilette%20of%20Salome%20II%20PAM%20vs%20BM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1416" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rqmRdcnA7WSgMHxdyqQsuVhfFX7fWhvefkVVuZck2g-bnHQN6TKilOy2re1sHf8aU5gDopXPr-OUBzxVHIgTm6yz0QCXDGw8RGMJ2HJMtFyYaT2MaTmy3DruPlNhrqn9Nx8bJ1SshL7NByqO7gRIPKAow5OFGpHkJ1LqBxwWJ683YXXvJxNpmX3E/s320/The%20Toilette%20of%20Salome%20II%20PAM%20vs%20BM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from <i>The Toilette of Salome II</i></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The one on the left is from the Princeton
Art Museum and is a scan of a print. The one on the right is from the
British Museum and is a scan of the original drawing. The
Princeton scan is at about 1100 dpi, while that of the British Museum
is at only about 280 dpi, but you can see that there are more details in the scan from the British Museum. For this image, I chose the scan from the British Museum.<br /></p><p><span class="span-citation">I ultimately availed myself of scans from</span><span class="span-citation"> the Princeton University Art Museum, the <a href="https://library.princeton.edu/">Princeton University Library</a>, the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/">British Museum</a>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/11561957@N06/">B at Flickr</a>, and <a href="https://www.alamy.com/">Alamy</a>. I paid Alamy a small fee for use of <a href="https://bit.ly/3uadwFi">one image</a>. Everything else was free. </span> </p><p data-select-link-text="1">Acquisition of the images spanned several months. Some of that time was spent in the legal cul-de-sac of usage restrictions on scans of public domain works, some elapsed as various museums took their time responding to messages I'd sent, and some ticked by as Princeton worked to post new imagery. The dominating activities, however, were searching for and downloading images, examining them for quality and authenticity (some online Beardsley images have been subtly revised), and comparing different scans of the same illustration to find the best versions. <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span class="span-citation">Cleaning the Images<br /></span></h3><p>Most scans were of complete book pages. Beardsley's artwork didn't extend to the page edges, so I cropped off the extra space. Some scans were askew, so I straightened them. Then the fun began.</p><p>As I noted, Beardsley's drawings (and the prints made from them) are two-color works, but the inks and papers have undergone color shifts since they were created. Scanners pick up color variations, so a scan of a Beardsley drawing will typically yield an image with thousands or tens of thousands of colors. The Princeton University Library's scan of <a href="https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/C0056_c0092">the original drawing for <i>The Black Cape</i></a> contains a full 117,000 colors. To save space, some institutions store the scans in JPG format, which, as a side effect of reducing the size of a file, may increase the number of colors in the image. </p><p>Recreating the original appearance of a Beardsley drawing required taking images with many colors and transforming them into images with only black and white. The program I used for this (<a href="https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/">XnView MP</a>) has an option to do just that. Check a box, and the deed is done. Applying that directly to downloaded scans didn't yield very satisfactory results. Image details got lost, and artifacts were introduced. Converting to greyscale before reducing to black and white didn't help. </p><p>What I found worked best was to adjust attributes of the scan, primarily contrast and exposure, before checking the box to reduce the image to two colors. Each scan had to be tweaked individually to get the best results. <br /></p><p>Drawings and prints over a hundred years old have spots, smudges, and other imperfections. Dust specks may be present during scanning. Scanners dutifully record all these things. Combined with the fact that the process of transforming colored pixels into black and white ones isn't perfect, it's no surprise that the two-color versions of scans contained errors. Some black pixels should have been white, and some white ones should have been black. I used a simple image editor (Microsoft Paint, of all things, because it's what I had) to flip the colors of such pixels.</p><p>Along the way, I fixed "mistakes" in the scanned images. I'd encounter a few black pixels on the face of a character that looked like they shouldn't be there. Or I'd find a white line in a black garment that petered out when it seemed like it should continue. When that happened, I'd consult the original scan to see what was there. If the pixels were still on the face or still faded away in the clothing, yet they still looked wrong, I'd check scans of prints from other institutions to see if they looked the same. If I could, I'd consult a scan of the original drawing. Unfortunately, the low resolution of Harvard's online scans often made answering questions about image details difficult. I spent a lot of time agonizing over pixels and staring at three monitors: one showing the black and white image I was working on, one showing the scan from which that image was derived, and one showing a different scan of the same illustration (ideally a scan of the original drawing). In cases where I wasn't sure what to do, I just made a choice and moved on. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I was working on artwork for dinner plates and cereal bowls, not retouching the <span data-select-link-text="1"><a data-select-link-text="1" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvator_Mundi_(Leonardo)">Salvator Mundi</a>.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span data-select-link-text="1">Rework</span></h3><p style="text-align: left;"><span data-select-link-text="1">I cleaned images of most illustrations more than once. When I first came upon the scans at the Princeton Art Museum, their resolution was so good, I stopped looking for anything better. I knew Princeton was working to address the anomalous low-resolution scans I'd reported, but I didn't realize they were rescanning all their Beardsley prints at even better resolution. By the time the new scans were online, I'd cleaned up the ones I'd already downloaded. Unwilling to leave better resolution on the table, I repeated the cleanup work on the new scans. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span data-select-link-text="1">I eventually realized that highest resolution didn't always equal highest overall quality. I did the work to clean up the Princeton Art Museum's version of <i>The Toilette of Salome II</i> before recognizing that the British Museum's lower-resolution scan retained more detail. So I cleaned it up, too. Similarly, I did preliminary cleanup work on the Princeton Art Museum's scan of a print of <i>The Black Cape</i> before discovering that the Princeton University Library (a separate entity from the Art Museum) offered a scan of the original drawing. The drawing had authenticity on its side, so I stopped working on the scan from the print and shifted my attention to the one from the drawing. <br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Blanks<br /></h3><p>Interspersed with my work acquiring images was work acquiring the dishes to serve as blanks. I considered square and <a href="https://amzn.to/3iVZXVO">squarish</a> shapes, with and without <a href="https://amzn.to/3p23oMY">texture</a>, before deciding to stick with classic untextured rimmed round plates. </p><p>I wanted a bright white to provide good contrast with the black Beardsley drawings, and I didn't want to try to evaluate shades of white from online photos, so went to the local <a href="https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/">Bed, Bath, & Beyond</a> (BBB) to look at what they had in stock. Their <a href="https://bit.ly/3BMeJYU">Neveah White</a> line had a color I liked, it featured pieces in shapes and sizes I found appealing, and, being on clearance, it was attractively priced. I bought what the store had, and I ordered the remainder from BBB online. </p><p>It was amusing to see the pieces trickle in. Oftentimes, plates and bowls arrived in sets of one and two, each from a different store. When I placed the order, I envisioned a shipment from a giant warehouse with shelves of discontinued pieces, not dribs and drabs from stores across the United States. </p><p data-select-link-text="1">Many of the pieces I received were chipped, cracked, or otherwise marred. Perhaps I should have expected that from clearance items. The local BBB took them back without fuss, but the process of ordering the pieces, waiting for them to arrive, having Enduring Images run tests to confirm that they would provide a suitable substrate for their decals, realizing that too many blanks were flawed to proceed, and returning them took several weeks.</p><p>It also put me back at Square One on the blank front. Well, almost. I had originally decided not to use the blanks offered by Enduring Images, because they didn't have serving dishes I liked. However, their other pieces were acceptable. The BBB platters and serving bowls were a reasonable color match for the Enduring Images dishware, so I went the mix and match route: plate and bowl blanks from Enduring Images, serving dish blanks from BBB.</p><p>Enduring Images' dinner plate blanks were back ordered several months. That was initially frustrating, but it turned out not to matter. A time-consuming fight with PowerPoint was building over the horizon...<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Designing Dinner Plates<br /></h3><p>For my dinner plates, I knew I wanted a common rim design with a unique Beardsley illustration in the middle of each piece. But what rim design? I mocked up more than <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iriV0h5nR81VTVklFrCpt0g8yUEYquXN/view?usp=sharing">two dozen variations</a>. I started with black adornments on a white rim, but I soon decided I'd remove the rectangular border present in most of Beardsley's drawings and employ a black plate rim as an ersatz frame. This simple device often disguised that I was using images designed for rectangular pages on plates that were round.</p><p>My mockups convinced me that the rim should serve two goals. First, it should act as a black frame that neither competes with nor detracts from the artwork inside. Second, it should convey that the dinnerware is based on <i>Salome</i>. I decided to fulfill these goals by employing a plain black band adorned with a copy of the symbol that Beardsley developed for the cover of Wilde's book. <br /></p><p>These are my dinner plate designs:</p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Kus6AWYJpFP-CXl6F9vRKVaaT_bQTHYf1dYhUCwqmar26eBEp-AR86WqbpK_M6qXU9u67uOIlZk3buY69J-SgKldFTYUeBPCicUWAzzzXN2R7GBhlIOfyrFalyBk7QpDCXF-1cj1fwRR0mRphGQXnbSeF7JgQDSFZ0K5LGZIFpv-2hJse5eoK7is/s1871/dinner%20plates%20-%20top%20only.png"><img border="0" data-original-height="1444" data-original-width="1871" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Kus6AWYJpFP-CXl6F9vRKVaaT_bQTHYf1dYhUCwqmar26eBEp-AR86WqbpK_M6qXU9u67uOIlZk3buY69J-SgKldFTYUeBPCicUWAzzzXN2R7GBhlIOfyrFalyBk7QpDCXF-1cj1fwRR0mRphGQXnbSeF7JgQDSFZ0K5LGZIFpv-2hJse5eoK7is/s320/dinner%20plates%20-%20top%20only.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Because I'll eventually forget which drawing is on which plate, and because the academician in me loves attributions, I decided to put a decal on the underside of each plate identifying the Beardsley illustration on it and the source of the corresponding scan. For these underside decals, I added a splash of color. Beardsley worked with black ink, but everyone familiar with the publication process knew that his drawings could be printed in any color. Oscar Wilde recommended scarlet for the artwork on the book's cover. His publisher ignored this request, but in its honor, I decided to use red for Beardsley's insignia on the bottom of my pieces. This is the front and back of one of the dinner plates:<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWwQN5lNlVUiHUgH5HG4c5S1kexUF04CJ4yBIU-UeuYX-NSfRFvExd8UXltXOQoMRyYp1K5RpjqFAl13Pg9iDtNoWPzdEKDsh4TCMWpYTHVjIGaJqSGQ0nKcGgoTTddokr5zbWQtuW2l1rst5N_5oS79Cb86G0-iBZw52M03twdDjaH3x5nScUGiH/s1911/john%20and%20salome%20front%20and%20back.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1911" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWwQN5lNlVUiHUgH5HG4c5S1kexUF04CJ4yBIU-UeuYX-NSfRFvExd8UXltXOQoMRyYp1K5RpjqFAl13Pg9iDtNoWPzdEKDsh4TCMWpYTHVjIGaJqSGQ0nKcGgoTTddokr5zbWQtuW2l1rst5N_5oS79Cb86G0-iBZw52M03twdDjaH3x5nScUGiH/s320/john%20and%20salome%20front%20and%20back.png" width="320" /></a> <br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Designing Smaller Plates<br /></h3><p>I expected the rim design for the smaller plates to go quickly, because I had an idea for it early on. Peacocks are common in Beardsley's work for <i>Salome</i>, and in <i>The Peacock Skirt</i>, there's a peacock perched on Salome's back that I thought would look great on a plate rim. Here's Beardsley's illustration and a rim mockup:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXwDdR_G9bz3r7cKUZ6g1vIzLEh6FFTIB567wRJNBO8T3tp-XR_KpGga1kJ0voBLXjHype6_kOoPf85Azl8PUeqhrzamzBQDkCAPMiSP84hzSe1gykT1CTWfl3sNtIIq2ir2JGLX_Y8ubmSWGEPp-_MnbiaiBRPA7DzCQ47Odd4fsPCpToIRZue1E/s1785/peacock%20skirt%20rim%20design.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="1785" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXwDdR_G9bz3r7cKUZ6g1vIzLEh6FFTIB567wRJNBO8T3tp-XR_KpGga1kJ0voBLXjHype6_kOoPf85Azl8PUeqhrzamzBQDkCAPMiSP84hzSe1gykT1CTWfl3sNtIIq2ir2JGLX_Y8ubmSWGEPp-_MnbiaiBRPA7DzCQ47Odd4fsPCpToIRZue1E/s320/peacock%20skirt%20rim%20design.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p>Sadly, I found that the peacock that worked well as a detail in <i>The Peacock Skirt</i> foundered on its own. It evoked more Dr. Seuss than Aubrey Beardsley. I returned to the drawing board.<br />
</p><p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13okncwPXc_iAcmxpdGYwJ-EAHW-hVUUO/view?usp=sharing">Some 20 designs later</a>, I had something I could live with. I again wanted a design that tied the set to <i>Salome</i>, but I also wanted something that would look nice stacked atop a dinner plate. For the <i>Salome</i> tie-in, I ended up using the S from Beardsley's lettering for the book title. This entailed considerably more work than I had anticipated. Creating a high-enough-resolution image of a single letter from a photograph of a book cover in a museum exhibition was, well, let's just say I spent a lot of time fiddling with pixels. Four times I junked what I had and started over.</p><p>For the artwork in the center of the smaller plates, I decided to focus on heads and faces. That allowed me to give prominence to details of Beardsley's drawings that are easy to gloss over when viewing his compositions as a whole. It also afforded me the opportunity to use parts of his work that hadn't made the cut for the dinner plates.</p><p>Here are my designs for the smaller plates: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7o2CUSEusXeIOXsSBE0RBO1E9zz4dFXQgg01_ZRAwqNtfF7MzHdOrJb23mj1JtWr5fnFLryiHV_8ooG6SeRE6kWlJXM9bUbts1tr6F3cDFf9W3bM1GtdeSDDw5lQvDl0iUfmtLAEJdrKe4bJV0JZS6oVIWHmqR6LTgYuqZbbeTHZ8SULGm0Uib5U8/s1845/salad%20plates%20-%20top%20only.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1377" data-original-width="1845" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7o2CUSEusXeIOXsSBE0RBO1E9zz4dFXQgg01_ZRAwqNtfF7MzHdOrJb23mj1JtWr5fnFLryiHV_8ooG6SeRE6kWlJXM9bUbts1tr6F3cDFf9W3bM1GtdeSDDw5lQvDl0iUfmtLAEJdrKe4bJV0JZS6oVIWHmqR6LTgYuqZbbeTHZ8SULGm0Uib5U8/s320/salad%20plates%20-%20top%20only.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>I find that the black part of the rim lends the impression that some figures are floating above an invisible horizon. The effect came about by accident. The height of the black is simply the approximate height of the left side of the black background in <i>The Climax</i> when put on a plate. One of my experiments was to use that background as a rim design. The result didn't wow me, but it put me on the path of partially black rims, which ultimately led to the design I adopted.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Designing Bowls<br /></h3><p></p><p>The designs for my plates feature a different image on each plate, but a fixed set of colors (black and white). For my bowls, I flipped this around. They feature a fixed image (the <i>Salome</i> symbol from my dinner plate rims), but each bowl employs a different color. </p><p>Enduring Images warned me that the colors produced by ceramic toners can differ noticeably from what's displayed on a computer screen. They recommended we run a sample tile with the colors I planned to use. It was good advice. Some colors that were easily distinguishable on screen looked nearly identical on the test tile. I adjusted some color choices, we fired another sample, and we were good to go. </p><p>Here are my bowl designs:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZ-rEpSNGN1KjpV28echpGBMBAfoS7zYP3DxXymunKJAm9EAhhzyui-z588tqDbHV_BRtxVjUxqFGXBlMi8FTa2Q0UNg6HtUb1aHxcrdFvlUN9w0J8RdhGe-40sJz41hC82rCYXDFveI4Nk-f3eCH1nljHueFgjKWYamiXF85qx2AxOz5KV9-zxVA/s1072/bowls%20-%20top%20only.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1072" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZ-rEpSNGN1KjpV28echpGBMBAfoS7zYP3DxXymunKJAm9EAhhzyui-z588tqDbHV_BRtxVjUxqFGXBlMi8FTa2Q0UNg6HtUb1aHxcrdFvlUN9w0J8RdhGe-40sJz41hC82rCYXDFveI4Nk-f3eCH1nljHueFgjKWYamiXF85qx2AxOz5KV9-zxVA/s320/bowls%20-%20top%20only.png" width="320" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Designing Serving Dishes <br /></h3><p>The serving dishes consist of three platters and two bowls. The platters are rectangular. Two have about the same aspect ratio as Beardsley's drawings. I used full Beardsley illustrations for them, borders and all. One of the platters is narrower, but its shape is a good match for the depiction of Salome in the drawing for the book's list of pictures. I chopped off the rightmost two-thirds of Beardsley's illustration, and the result fit the platter perfectly. Here's Beardsley's <i>List of the Pictures</i> (left) and my platter design based on it (right): </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPyHn0vfDmwB5mGxcaeYODvVZx33gYeh5mMTb9kpJa_0y9CBIAwppsOhZt2loPgRQoM9av_Hivv-i-Yl_-60f9q8IRWEI5ZzLlB77bP9tlYH0V6kUE0ONPwjE_hoxYXfe0K1Phz70CtMAXYvSOAyKn2Pj3fFXtwDjn-nrhZO5c9qPlj3XxVSXVOEI/s1446/LOP%20and%20Platter.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1094" data-original-width="1446" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPyHn0vfDmwB5mGxcaeYODvVZx33gYeh5mMTb9kpJa_0y9CBIAwppsOhZt2loPgRQoM9av_Hivv-i-Yl_-60f9q8IRWEI5ZzLlB77bP9tlYH0V6kUE0ONPwjE_hoxYXfe0K1Phz70CtMAXYvSOAyKn2Pj3fFXtwDjn-nrhZO5c9qPlj3XxVSXVOEI/s320/LOP%20and%20Platter.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Like the smaller plates, the serving bowls feature details from Beardsley drawings, but this time it's not heads or faces. One bowl (left) shows the powder brush from <a href="https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/87577"><i>Cul-de-Lampe</i></a>. The other (right) shows the lily sprouting from the blood of John's severed head in <i>The Climax</i>:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDw72ZkV8FZN7OM2IdlH8VtFKP3ZCpTwlBheRpseefN6wL3tuln5B5QEARW83m4WuS7antxvrbfP6V_UU2PzjAxg2QyXqMq6dULBTOrYka99LzK-hBelJ3ERImjwckhrwBDiZu3jVmi-sfC0EFY-HWUlJI6uGBYu8C847wacl-51MUx7paek3AOsY/s1745/serving%20bowls.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1745" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDw72ZkV8FZN7OM2IdlH8VtFKP3ZCpTwlBheRpseefN6wL3tuln5B5QEARW83m4WuS7antxvrbfP6V_UU2PzjAxg2QyXqMq6dULBTOrYka99LzK-hBelJ3ERImjwckhrwBDiZu3jVmi-sfC0EFY-HWUlJI6uGBYu8C847wacl-51MUx7paek3AOsY/s320/serving%20bowls.png" width="320" /></a></div></div></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Modifying Beardsley's Artwork</h3>
<p>I think Beardsley did fabulous work for <i>Salome</i>. I devoted a great deal of time to the creation of faithful two-color versions of his drawings, but that merely got me to the dishware design starting line. Beardsley targeted rectangular spaces (book pages), while I was designing for circular objects (plates or bowls). This often put us at odds. I felt no compunction about removing elements of Beardsley's pictures in the service of designs I found more attractive. A good example is my treatment of the drawing, <i>John and Salome</i>. On a (rectangular) serving platter (left), I used it exactly as Beardsley drew it, but on a (circular) dinner plate (right), I removed both the border and some horizontal lines:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9Yfw4nh4e0UchyKsQr1kLUTmGPmjyELOvmn-nxRgMaBoY80QxFPRcJLs2ddtTucT7xaVQP4zR64Ls5Hg9NsRFdhZJKsN5IQJrJZ3-c3OYsyiL0yxs8Wa3wCj88dzuY9C5vtf6csvh2WtiX4yL2ojcYD5UM1QFChXOC_cb2qLn0VrS0lKM3ETl_ll/s1482/john%20and%20salome%20platter%20and%20plate.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1482" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9Yfw4nh4e0UchyKsQr1kLUTmGPmjyELOvmn-nxRgMaBoY80QxFPRcJLs2ddtTucT7xaVQP4zR64Ls5Hg9NsRFdhZJKsN5IQJrJZ3-c3OYsyiL0yxs8Wa3wCj88dzuY9C5vtf6csvh2WtiX4yL2ojcYD5UM1QFChXOC_cb2qLn0VrS0lKM3ETl_ll/s320/john%20and%20salome%20platter%20and%20plate.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Different renditions of <i>John and Salome</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>If this puts you off, perhaps you'll feel better when I note that for dishes with modified drawings, the attributions on the undersides indicate that that is the case. </p><p>Sins of removal are nothing compared to their artistic antipode: sins of <i>augmentation</i>. In some cases, I added elements to Beardsley's illustrations that he never drew! </p><p></p><p>This should horrify you. It horrified me. Showing the truth and nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth (i.e., omitting part of an illustration) is dodgy enough. Showing things that aren't true at all is vastly worse. Yet still I put posthumous pixels on Beardsley's pen. There simply were cases where I felt that a lot of Beardsley and a little of me made more visual sense than Beardsley all by himself. </p><p>Consider the caricature of Oscar Wilde in <a href="https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/87561"><i>The Woman in the Moon</i></a>. I wanted to use it as one of the faces on my smaller plates, but it's tucked into the corner of a drawing, and its rectangular shape is a bad fit for the circular region I needed to fill. So I extrapolated what Beardsley drew until I had what I desired. Compare his work (left) with what I turned it into (right):<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrMsUSu4DypJZRmdd7xtXnBNUg_7Hx_ucVlPsgAS5YQTCK-jLWaXuo0Ism7px-O7S55n3RiC_IfIAm8yt0OySHfgy4HHNmU-fFHAcpP2VTITQsYlZl1PfIaP9X1306c3XrBhbRihmldHZ6I_EeWmwMf7piJkfG-D5sjMzAT38qKTt_c8j0QMrmSKP/s1593/moonface%20from%20the%20woman%20in%20the%20moon.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="1593" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrMsUSu4DypJZRmdd7xtXnBNUg_7Hx_ucVlPsgAS5YQTCK-jLWaXuo0Ism7px-O7S55n3RiC_IfIAm8yt0OySHfgy4HHNmU-fFHAcpP2VTITQsYlZl1PfIaP9X1306c3XrBhbRihmldHZ6I_EeWmwMf7piJkfG-D5sjMzAT38qKTt_c8j0QMrmSKP/s320/moonface%20from%20the%20woman%20in%20the%20moon.png" width="320" /></a></div>I did more than just add ink around the edges of Beardsley's creations. One of <i>Salome</i>'s most striking images is John's head on a platter. Setting aside why anybody would want to eat off a plate with that on it, I was determined to use it as part of the "faces and heads" theme for my smaller plates. Unfortunately, Salome is handling the head in that illustration (<a href="https://hvrd.art/o/297896"><i>The Dancer's Reward</i></a>), and if you're looking only at the part of the picture showing John's head, Salome's hands are a distraction. I removed them. That left gaps in the drawing, so I filled them in. Compare Beardsley's work (left), the same thing with a first cut at removing Salome's hands (middle), and my final image (right):<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDS5ocsw7LuO47HZz3TWpEi8cuha3yMt9N1FFkclPhB7O8WOFgSnIMbmsR_aW6cxw9RqRuO_iu4w1xyByTzUNNWaxqATbEMQV4qyIKnTM6mjEYtqcEoGRP1vTKCsT0zGkJrgpHR02dpTRBYOG_vL4sCFzB3QEE8W2Uezcky8xcqgEfoa-BJbqjZ0D/s3572/3%20heads%20on%20platters.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="3572" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDS5ocsw7LuO47HZz3TWpEi8cuha3yMt9N1FFkclPhB7O8WOFgSnIMbmsR_aW6cxw9RqRuO_iu4w1xyByTzUNNWaxqATbEMQV4qyIKnTM6mjEYtqcEoGRP1vTKCsT0zGkJrgpHR02dpTRBYOG_vL4sCFzB3QEE8W2Uezcky8xcqgEfoa-BJbqjZ0D/w640-h106/3%20heads%20on%20platters.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p>Not a pixel I added is worthy of Aubrey Beardsley, but I'm happy with the result. The artistic blasphemy doesn't bother me.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">PowerPoint as Hotel California<br /></h3><p>To design plates, you don't need fancy software--at least not the way I do it. If you can draw a circle and put an image in the middle, you're most of the way there. Add the ability to perform basic shape and image manipulation (e.g., crop and rotate, add and subtract shapes, set a transparency color), and you're set. PowerPoint (PPT) can do all that and, unlike proper graphics programs like Photoshop and GIMP, I had it and knew how to use it. So I did.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">This was a colossal mistake. However, even in retrospect, I don't think it's one I should have foreseen. There were no hitches as I designed my pieces. It was only when I went to generate PDF for delivery to Enduring Images that I ran into trouble.<br /></p><p>PPT directly supports the generation of PDF, but, by default, it reduces the resolution of the contained images to 200 dpi. Installing and using PDF printers bumps that up to 220. Setting the right combination of program options (some of which must be set before you save your work the first time) can push this to 300. That's it. If there's a way to go higher, I wasn't able to find it, and I spent a lot of time looking. <br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">I'd worked <i>very</i> hard to acquire, clean up, and design with scans of Beardsley's artwork at at least 600 dpi. Enduring Images can print at up to 1200 dpi. I didn't want to throw such resolution away because of some ridiculous PPT limitation. It was easy to demonstrate that, once I'd enabled the proper combination of options, PowerPoint files contained the images I was using at their full resolution. It was equally easy to show that PDF had no trouble containing high-resolution images. So PPT allowed me to import high-resolution images, and it allowed me to work with them inside the program, but if I wanted to generate PDF, it insisted I settle for 300 dpi or less.</p><p>That got my hackles up. "Fine," I thought, "I'll find another way. There's more to life than PDF." I set my sights on TIFF. One program upgrade, a registry hack, and an extrapolation of said hack later, I was generating 600-dpi TIFF images of my designs and patting myself on the back. "Take that, PowerPoint!," I gloated. "I wanted 600 dpi, and I've got it!"</p><p>Let us recall the story of Tithonus, whose request for immortality was granted, but who failed to ask for eternal youth to go with it. Although he never died, he grew ever older and more infirm. Not what he had in mind. The PowerPoint parallel is that although I found a way to coax 600 dpi designs out of the program, I took fidelity for granted. Such naiveté! The TIFFs PPT created at a sparkling 600 dpi didn't contain the images I'd imported and that PPT stored. They contained <i>modified</i> versions of those images. In particular, they'd had anti-aliasing applied to them. This had the effect of taking my carefully-prepared, high-contrast, two-color images and softening the edges by adding colors. It undid a key part of the the cleanup work I'd performed on the scans I'd downloaded. Definitely not what I had in mind.</p><p>I couldn't help but think of the line from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BciS5krYL80"><i>Hotel California</i></a>: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." High-resolution images can go in to PowerPoint, but once they're part of a design, they can't come back out. </p><p>My track record for getting software to do what I want is pretty good. It's generally just a matter of putting enough time and energy into it. Not in this case. PowerPoint beat me. I got to the 99½ yard line, but I couldn't get the ball into the end zone. Ten months into the project, I realized I should have gone with something like Photoshop or GIMP, after all.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">When in Doubt, Farm it Out<br /></h3><p>From the perspective of a graphics professional, my designs are laughably simple. My dinner plates, for example, are just a black ring with a picture in the middle and another one on the ring. Enduring Images had explained how they would
take my artwork, import it into Photoshop, and use that to print the
decals. Because my designs were so simple, I suggested that Enduring Images take my high-resolution, un-anti-aliased images and my design mockups and create the final artwork directly in Photoshop. That would bypass PowerPoint and obviate the need for me to learn a real graphics program. To my relief, they agreed. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Ending is Pending<br /></h3><p>That's where things stand now. Enduring Images has my designs and my high-resolution artwork, and they have the blanks on which to print them. Soon they'll produce a complete dinner plate for my examination. In principle, they could run everything, but just when you think nothing could possibly go worng (not a typo--look it up), something does. Better to find out on one piece than on 41.<br /></p><p>There may be additional bumps down the road, but I'm confident we'll get past them. Later this year, I expect to be the proud owner of what will probably be the world's only Beardsley <i>Salome</i> dinnerware set. It will be 33 years after Karen and I visited the Beardsley exhibition at Harvard, and it will be more than a year after I first wrote Enduring Images about custom tableware, but the key thing is that it will be. When it is, I'll post again and <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-beardsley-salome-dinnerware-project.html">let you know how things turned out</a>.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>
Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-26366110210283546572022-08-21T11:30:00.000-07:002022-08-21T11:30:05.266-07:00Old Magazines need New Home<p>I've decided that the shelf space I currently devote to old technical magazines can be put to better use. That means the old magazines need a new home. Otherwise they'll go in the recycling bin. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsB4G73N9vQwxVrH_5BA_aHjKzNhIJjc8OegxQYTCV1NKZpPEOIwAkpAKs1nmzyrSXIISHjaZ8ui9x9dpVL7YqJIIdQr2VO0xh_swhD9uSMqig1yPf2nTfBfHFi3cI3AFbBxanRMmp8ZlBnyrkFw5pCvR0XAxKKW7zO8lHpMZB0sSPZWcTp42fMC2/s3818/ESPs%20and%20DDJs%20cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="3818" height="74" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKsB4G73N9vQwxVrH_5BA_aHjKzNhIJjc8OegxQYTCV1NKZpPEOIwAkpAKs1nmzyrSXIISHjaZ8ui9x9dpVL7YqJIIdQr2VO0xh_swhD9uSMqig1yPf2nTfBfHFi3cI3AFbBxanRMmp8ZlBnyrkFw5pCvR0XAxKKW7zO8lHpMZB0sSPZWcTp42fMC2/s320/ESPs%20and%20DDJs%20cropped.png" width="320" /></a></div>The magazines in question are <i>Doctor Dobb's Journal</i> from March 1996 through February 2009 and <i>Embedded Systems Programming</i> (later <i>Embedded Systems Design</i>) from March 1997 through May 2012. <p></p><p>If you'd like to save some quarter-century-old magazines and their compatriots from being turned into paper fiber, let me know: <a href="mailto:smeyers@aristeia.com">smeyers@aristeia.com</a>.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-40590580584901665112022-04-29T14:46:00.001-07:002023-03-26T08:15:06.086-07:00Image Search and Google Earth for Identifying Pictures<p>For more than 50 years, my parents used slide film to record family memories. I recently had their 1500+ slides digitally scanned, and I've been working to organize the resulting files. At the outset, the job seemed pretty straightforward. My father had carefully labeled the boxes and trays the slides were in: "High Rock 1953", for example, or "Europe 1978".</p><p>However, when I peeked at the slides in a tray labeled "Hawaii" and found dozens of pictures of my sister in her infancy, I knew I was in for more than I had expected. When my father confidently proclaimed that the little girl in a slide I showed him was my cousin when I knew it was my sister, I realized I was on my own.</p><p>Among the slides in a set labeled "Jeff Park 1956" was this mountain shot: <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0quH7X3q-RGedRA1jzz82XT4a6RORGU5-zJebG-V37pYIj6hivvdAajrVb5d3FWK9zj-xKdJz7rvjUbsyGtfqrtChBrAfYsqhyq09BqH1eaj1lMyXOGI2tWyHhQY3ElG9mDIermN6DH-Gy-Dfx0qHgCj5rSiDNp4Il5fiTFPQhOAZ-R6KjbLg_Ry/s5256/Mt%20Shuksan%20196x%20001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3512" data-original-width="5256" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0quH7X3q-RGedRA1jzz82XT4a6RORGU5-zJebG-V37pYIj6hivvdAajrVb5d3FWK9zj-xKdJz7rvjUbsyGtfqrtChBrAfYsqhyq09BqH1eaj1lMyXOGI2tWyHhQY3ElG9mDIermN6DH-Gy-Dfx0qHgCj5rSiDNp4Il5fiTFPQhOAZ-R6KjbLg_Ry/w320-h214/Mt%20Shuksan%20196x%20001.jpg" width="320" /> </a></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">I've been to <a href="https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Jefferson_Park">Jefferson Park</a> several times, and the view from there doesn't look like this. I guessed that the slide had been mis-filed. </p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p>One of the wonders of the Internet, in my view, along with song recognition, speech-to-text capability, and worldwide navigation, is image search, whereby search engines return images similar to one you provide. I use <a href="https://smallseotools.com/reverse-image-search/">this page</a> to perform image searches at Google, Bing, and Yandex simultaneously, because sometimes I get the best results from each of those sites. In this case, Bing volunteered that the picture looked like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Shuksan">Mt. Shuksan</a>, and images found by Google and Yandex agreed. </p><p>Mt. Shuksan is nearly 300 miles from Mt. Jefferson.</p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p> Another slide in the "Jeff Park 1956" collection was this one: </p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtgZOlBsFpcuaUviGkz5VRVBmHJTBn7_Fy6sggodAn3QpeDpYpBLYIz9K5thgHCUMzsG_HP1hyjAJNw-CjTb80PG_pzIiPGrY3aNX8qSVloOn72DkPmZYyxud5J9oSEuGfbhqjfdI3fhBtW7euUnL3zUEVKvBlZcq1srr8ycuefoRDsrOCZRBNYLa/s5280/Mt%20Shuksan%20196x%20006.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3608" data-original-width="5280" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUtgZOlBsFpcuaUviGkz5VRVBmHJTBn7_Fy6sggodAn3QpeDpYpBLYIz9K5thgHCUMzsG_HP1hyjAJNw-CjTb80PG_pzIiPGrY3aNX8qSVloOn72DkPmZYyxud5J9oSEuGfbhqjfdI3fhBtW7euUnL3zUEVKvBlZcq1srr8ycuefoRDsrOCZRBNYLa/s320/Mt%20Shuksan%20196x%20006.jpg" width="320" /> </a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I suspected that it was related to the picture of Mt. Shuksan, but I wanted to be sure. I searched for images taken from the top of Mt. Shuksan, but I didn't find anything that looked like this. Then I used Google Earth (another Internet wonder) to virtually plop myself on top of the mountain and look around. When I did, I found this essentially perfect match:</div></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglb552Su_eX2SecwK-oE6gbTni6kfxTTeT2Z58kdc14a14Bdp54HaEGnZ5QCU5aDo-VNxiz2ct6PDRVHcq1JdG1pfyy0NALKanv4YauA5cS4qpiFCQGzvlrcENRtJiUiYkgFFhiS6yCtVBVtyd8I0vc92ImsX8lxY1zt6-hsoLJaXLm6jlT7uqqpWT/s1696/gearth%20mt%20shuksan.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1696" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglb552Su_eX2SecwK-oE6gbTni6kfxTTeT2Z58kdc14a14Bdp54HaEGnZ5QCU5aDo-VNxiz2ct6PDRVHcq1JdG1pfyy0NALKanv4YauA5cS4qpiFCQGzvlrcENRtJiUiYkgFFhiS6yCtVBVtyd8I0vc92ImsX8lxY1zt6-hsoLJaXLm6jlT7uqqpWT/s320/gearth%20mt%20shuksan.png" width="320" /></a></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>So the picture was, indeed, taken from the summit of Mt. Shuksan. </p></div><p>From time to time, the power of the Internet really amazes me. Image search made it possible for me to identify an incorrectly labeled mountain, and Google Earth allowed me to determine that a picture I guessed was taken from the top of that mountain over 60 years ago was truly taken there. <br /><br /><br /> </p><p></p>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-8188475178819013232022-03-10T21:00:00.003-08:002022-03-10T21:00:00.200-08:00Buffy at 25<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPOMl8RbpQwAAL7KVpm-0dWVNrz_sEHnA7v3zR48prXTpfOG8fA9st3mFDU4Jv6GfZlHGttbPzrQQI12_QCrAw7yD4Fv4nzsCkBWYnM3Qw_NQPkODwOJimbcleyYe9c1uxqcRwerxE8x0rLWTvSB98q5y9ZQ4wP0Ons1u1GkHEE2RY0UAj3_dYj_DN=s2230" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2230" data-original-width="1612" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPOMl8RbpQwAAL7KVpm-0dWVNrz_sEHnA7v3zR48prXTpfOG8fA9st3mFDU4Jv6GfZlHGttbPzrQQI12_QCrAw7yD4Fv4nzsCkBWYnM3Qw_NQPkODwOJimbcleyYe9c1uxqcRwerxE8x0rLWTvSB98q5y9ZQ4wP0Ons1u1GkHEE2RY0UAj3_dYj_DN=w144-h200" width="144" /></a></div>25 years ago today--March 10, 1997--<i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> debuted on TV. I didn't start watching until a few years later, but it quickly became my favorite TV show. At some point it morphed into my favorite TV show <i>ever</i>. Now I call it <i>the</i> best TV show ever. I suspect I'll always feel that way.<p></p><p></p>The twenty-fifth anniversary of <i>Buffy</i> got me thinking about, well, years, and in particular about the differences in ages between the characters on the show and the performers who played them. Rivers of words have been devoted to the show and the characters and the people behind the episodes, not to mention the meaning of it all, but I've seen only passing references to the fact that, for example, when the show first aired, 26-year-old Charisma Carpenter was playing high school sophomore Cordelia Chase. Our first few times through the series, my wife and I completely bought Carpenter as a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old, but now that we know she was a decade older, she looks less high schoolish to us. That doesn't mean she's less good in the role. She's still a great Cordelia. It's impressive that she wasn't just portraying somebody ten years younger than she was, she was playing a character 40% younger than her years. That can't be easy. <p></p><p>It was similar for Nicholas Brendon as Xander. He was also about 10 years older than his character. Even today watching him in <i>Buffy </i>Season 1, I have no trouble seeing him as a sixteen-year-old boy. I'm not sure what that says about him. Or me.<br /></p><p>At the other end of the spectrum are Mercedes McNab as Harmony, who at the time of <i>Buffy</i>'s debut was a high school junior playing a high school sophomore, and Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn, a fifteen-year-old playing a fourteen-year old at the time she joined the show.<br /></p><p>Here's some information I compiled on ages of <i>Buffy </i>characters and performers once I got it into my head to look this stuff up. I apologize for it being in the form of an image instead of a table, but I couldn't find an easy way to convert an Excel spreadsheet into a decently-formatted HTML table.<br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSKuXz24psAoEWd5Tq_ZdwCKsZULfdFbX2w3dSeSxlvvJ2mSq6F4SKm6PbeyxvclTHHrLusZveZZieM4hfctZsPN_UFMdf3t4nCh_DNNoFwRRVuIrX0kLpalpieMthT_ONwzkJ45uJhg7KnLxj7ze3zK7CxGIqBZfuy_PN7NerX2WGm3YZlA4Ki7u5=s901" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="901" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSKuXz24psAoEWd5Tq_ZdwCKsZULfdFbX2w3dSeSxlvvJ2mSq6F4SKm6PbeyxvclTHHrLusZveZZieM4hfctZsPN_UFMdf3t4nCh_DNNoFwRRVuIrX0kLpalpieMthT_ONwzkJ45uJhg7KnLxj7ze3zK7CxGIqBZfuy_PN7NerX2WGm3YZlA4Ki7u5=w640-h248" width="640" /></a></div><br />Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-48627703009317601702022-01-25T12:13:00.002-08:002023-07-25T21:21:39.226-07:00Image Metadata: The Metadata Removal Problem<p data-select-link-text="1"></p><p data-select-link-text="1"> This is part 6 of my series on metadata for scanned pictures. <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-scanned-image-metadata-project.html">Part 1: The Scanned Image Metadata Project</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-standards-guidelines-and.html">Part 2: Standards, Guidelines, and ExifTool</a> <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">Part 3: Dealing with Timestamps</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-my-approach.html">Part 4: My Approach</a></p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-viewing-what-i-wrote.html">Part 5: Viewing What I Wrote</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 6: The Metadata Removal Problem </b><b> (this post)</b></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/07/image-metadata-thoughts-after-4000-scans.html"><span>Part 7: Thoughts after 4000+ Scans</span></a><b> <br /></b></p><hr />
<p> </p><p>When I embarked on this project, I knew it'd be a challenge to figure out how to put metadata into image files. I expected that some programs would be better than others at showing the metadata I'd put in. But I didn't realize I'd have to contend with programs that silently strip metadata when you ask them to do something completely different. <a href="https://thephotomanagers.com/metadata-photos-2/">Caroline Guntur's blog post</a> opened my eyes:</p><blockquote><p>Many cloud platforms and social media sites will not upload, or retain the [metadata] in your photos. Some will even strip the information completely upon download.<br /></p></blockquote><p data-select-link-text="1">So I can upload an image file with metadata, but the uploaded file might not have it. Or I can download a file with metadata, but the downloaded file might not have it. Ouch!<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">I shouldn't have been surprised. Especially on social media sites, photo metadata has acquired a reputation as a security and privacy risk. The GPS coordinates for where a photo was taken (typically included in the metadata by cell phones) have drawn particular attention. Some sites have responded by removing most or all metadata from uploaded images (sometimes while <a href="https://usa.kaspersky.com/blog/exif-privacy/7957/">keeping it for their own use</a>). That has drawn the ire of many photographers, who have been understandably unhappy about having, among other things, their embedded copyright notices removed from their pictures.<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">It got me to wondering: if uploading and downloading images may affect their metadata, what about other ways of moving files around? Is email safe? Texting? I decided to do some poking around.<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">I looked into two basic scenarios:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><p><b>Upload/Download</b>: Is metadata maintained in image files that are uploaded to a web site or cloud service and then downloaded? This scenario covers social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as cloud storage platforms from Google, Apple, Amazon, etc.<br /></p></li><li><p><b>Point-to-point Communication</b>: Is metadata maintained in images sent via email, texting, or instant messaging (e.g., WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger)? And what about Airdrop, Apple's close-range wireless mechanism for transferring files from one device to another?<br /></p></li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;">Upload/Download Scenarios<br /></h3><p style="text-align: left;">IPTC is not just the name of a metadata standard. It's also the abbreviation for the organization that created it: the International Press Telecommunications Council. Among its activities is looking out for the intellectual property rights of its members. One of the ways it does that is by checking how well a variety of web sites adhere to the IPTC's request that metadata in uploaded image files be left intact. Every three years since 2013, the IPTC has tested a variety of sites to see whether they retain four fields the IPTC considers particularly important: <i>Caption/description</i>, <i>Creator</i>, <i>Copyright Notice</i>, and <i>Credit Line</i> ("the<b> </b>4Cs"). The latest results (from 2019) cover 16 sites and are <a href="https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/social-media-sites-photo-metadata-test-results-2019/">here</a>. I encourage you to read the report (it's not long), but the highlights are that "good" sites (i.e., those retaining the 4Cs) include Flickr, Google Photo and Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive. The "bad" sites (i.e., those not retaining the 4Cs) include Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.<br /></p><p>The IPTC's test results are interesting, but they're silent regarding the retention of the two timestamps I care about ("when taken" and "when scanned"), and they have nothing to say about Apple's iCloud, which I think is a serious omission. I decided to do some testing of my own. </p><p>It's useful to distinguish sites whose primary purpose is <i>storage and accessibility</i> from those whose primary purpose is <i>sharing</i>. Google Photos and Apple iCloud Photos, for example, push themselves as services that let you securely store your photos (and videos) in the cloud and have them accessible from all your devices. They support sharing photos with others, but that's not their primary purpose. You could easily make use of these services without ever sharing anything. <br /></p><p>In contrast, the primary reason to upload photos to social media services like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, is to share them with others. The <i>purpose</i> of uploading photographs is for other people to see them.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Sites for Storage and Accessibility</h4><p></p><p>I uploaded an image file to the following
services, then I downloaded it and checked to see if the Exif, IPTC, and
XMP copies of the four fields I use (description, copyright, "when
taken", and "when scanned") remained intact. My findings were consistent, both with one another and with the results of the IPTC's testing:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Google Photos</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li><li><b>iCloud Photos</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li><li><b>Google Drive</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li><li><b>iCloud Drive</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li><li><b>Microsoft OneDrive</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li><li><b>CrashPlan for Small Business</b>: All my metadata was preserved.</li></ul><p>This is reassuring. Storing an image file in cloud storage is unlikely to change its metadata. This is good news for those of us who believe in cloud-based backups.</p><p>My experiments were based on the default behavior for these sites, and I suspect that's the case for the IPTC's, too. According to <i>Consumer Reports</i>, Flickr can be configured to <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/what-can-you-tell-from-photo-exif-data-a2386546443/">omit metadata when images are downloaded</a>, and it's possible that the same is true of other storage and accessibility sites. However, anybody who configures a site to omit metadata in downloaded images is hardly in a position to complain if images downloaded from that site lack metadata.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Sites for Sharing<br /></h4><p>Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are perhaps the best known sharing-oriented web sites, but the umbrella over such sites is broader than that. Also covered are dating sites (e.g., Tinder and eHarmony), for example, as well as sites for selling things (e.g., eBay and craigslist). </p><p>I didn't test how these sites handle image metadata, because others (e.g., <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/what-can-you-tell-from-photo-exif-data-a2386546443/">Consumer Reports</a> and <a href="https://usa.kaspersky.com/blog/exif-privacy/7957/">Kapersky</a>, in addition to the IPTC) have covered this ground better than I could. They've all come to the same conclusion: social media and other sharing-based sites typically remove metadata from uploaded photographs. </p><p>Social media and other sharing-based sites are a poor choice if you want to share not just pictures, but also their metadata.<br /></p><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Point-to-Point Communication <br /></h3><p data-select-link-text="1">The point-to-point communication mechanisms I considered are email, texting and instant-messaging, and Apple's Airdrop. I did little experimentation of my own, because this terrain has also been well explored by others.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">On the email front, the consensus is that image files sent via email retain their metadata. I did a few simple tests, and my results showed the same: metadata was preserved.<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1">Email can contain images either inline (i.e., displayed in the message itself) or as attachments. In 2020, Craig Ball published a <a href="https://craigball.net/2020/11/20/the-metadata-vanishes/">blog post</a> describing how inline images in email appeared to have no metadata, while attached images did. His investigation revealed that the inline images he received did, in fact, contain all the metadata in the images that had been sent, but the metadata somehow got stripped during the process of saving an inline image as an independent file. The blog post went on to explain how to work around the problem.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">To see if I could reproduce his results, I emailed an image to myself twice, once as an attachment and once as an inline image. In both cases, I was able to see the metadata without any trouble. However, the email client I used was Thunderbird, whereas Ball used Gmail and Outlook. That could explain why we experienced different behaviors. </p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">It's comforting that Ball's conclusion aligns with the consensus that images sent via email retain their metadata. At the same time, it's disturbing that extracting an inline image from a message may cause its metadata to be removed. Sigh.</p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">But that's email. These days, more photos are probably sent by text or instant message. How does image metadata fare when communicated in those ways?<br /></p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">On the instant-messaging front, things are clear. I didn't run any tests myself, because the net community speaks with a single voice:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>WhatsApp</b> removes image metadata.</li><li><b>Facebook Messenger</b> removes image metadata.</li><li><b>Signal</b> removes image metadata.</li><li><b>Telegram</b> removes image metadata.</li></ul><p>There are ways to work around this behavior (e.g., by<a href="https://citizenevidence.org/2020/04/20/sending-encrypted-photos-while-preserving-metadata/"> sending photos as documents</a>), but the fact remains that these instant-messaging services redact photo metadata as a matter of policy.<br /></p><p>When we shift from instant messaging to good, old-fashioned, ordinary texting, the air is fogged by the fact that smart phones typically obscure whether you're engaging in good, old-fashioned, ordinary texting. Users of the Messages app on Apple devices, for example, typically communicate with one another via iMessage. iMessage is an internet-based protocol that is quite different from the cell phone system's SMS/MMS technologies (which underlie good, old-fashioned texting). iMessage works only between Apple devices and only when an internet connection is available, so for texting to or from non-Apple devices or when internet access is lacking, the Messages app employs SMS/MMS. The protocol used for a particular sent message is indicated in Messages by the bubble color (blue for iMessage, green for SMS/MMS), but all incoming messages look the same (grey bubble), regardless of whether they were transmitted using iMessage or SMS/MMS.</p><p>This means that a text message sent or received using Messages might be a "normal" text (conveyed via SMS/MMS), but it might be an iMessage text, depending on whether the other party (or parties) in the conversation were using Apple devices and whether an internet connection was available. My understanding is that a similar bifurcation exists on Android devices, where the Google Messages app may send and receive messages using either RCS or SMS/MMS, depending on the capabilities of the parties' devices and those of their service providers.</p><p>The effect of texting on image metadata appears to be:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Photos sent using the iMessage protocol retain their metadata</b>. This is both the wisdom of the net as well as my personal experience. Photos texted between Apple devices arrive with their metadata intact (unless the lack of an internet connection causes Messages to fall back on SMS/MMS), </li><li><b>Photos sent using the RCS protocol retain their metadata</b>. It's harder to find information about RCS than iMessage, but the sources I consulted (e.g., <a href="https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/11/22/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-googles-rcs-but-were-afraid-to-ask/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/01/10/stop-texting-photos-from-androids-alternative-to-apple-imessage-on-iphone/">here</a>) agree on this point. Photos texted between devices running Android should arrive with their metadata intact (provided both sender and recipient(s) are using RCS).<br /></li><li><b>Photos sent using SMS/MMS <i>may</i> retain their metadata</b>. This is the scenario that applies to texts between different kinds of devices (e.g., between iOS and Android devices). Most (but not all) Internet sources I consulted said that MMS strips metadata. My favorite <a href="https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/834-Texting-Pictures.html">overview of the situation</a> is by Dr. Neal Krawetz. His summary is that "the entire delivery process for texted pictures is just one bad handling process after another." I lack the expertise to evaluate the accuracy of his analysis, but it looks quite plausible, and it would explain the varying behavioral descriptions I found elsewhere on the internet. I feel confident in stating that transmitting photos via SMS/MMS <i>might</i> retain their metadata.<br /></li></ul>Stepping back from the details, we can say that instant messaging apps scrub metadata from photos, and sending photos by text may or may not have it scrubbed. Texting photos between Apple devices is a good bet as regards metadata retention, but it's important to make sure that both sender and receiver see blue bubbles in the Messages app.<p>The final point-to-point communication mechanism I looked at is Apple's Airdrop. I'd always thought of Airdrop as simply a way to wirelessly copy a file from one Apple device to another, but that's not quite right. A standard file copy entails copying a sequence of bytes from one place to another. What the bytes represent (e.g., a document, an image, the state of a game) is immaterial. The copying program doesn't care what the bytes are for. It just copies them.</p><p data-select-link-text="1">Copying an image file in that manner would copy the file's metadata, because the copying program wouldn't care that it's an image file. It would simply copy the bytes, just like it would with a document or a game state, etc. But that's not how Airdrop behaves. By default, metadata is removed from pictures that are Airdropped. This can be overridden by <a href="https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-share-original-quality-photos-videos-using-airdrop-on-iphone-ipad/">enabling the "All Photos Data" option</a>, but it's a non-sticky setting, so it has to be explicitly enabled each time Airdrop is used to copy images from one device to another. </p><p>Airdrop's "strip metadata by default" behavior makes it less convenient and less reliable for sharing photos with metadata than a simple file-copying program would be.<br /></p><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Conclusion</h3><p>Once you get metadata into an image file, you don't want to accidentally lose it, either for yourself or for those with whom you want to share it. The safest things you can do with image files (from the perspective of metadata retention) are to upload them to sites designed for storage and accessibility (as opposed to sharing) and to send them via email. The worst things you can do (again, from the perspective of metadata retention) are to upload them to sharing-oriented sites (e.g., social networks) or to text them using instant-messaging services.</p></div>Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7101933101966798446.post-2322693562320205452022-01-18T21:55:00.006-08:002023-07-25T21:21:31.317-07:00Image Metadata: Viewing What I Wrote<div>
<p>This is part 5 of my series on metadata for scanned pictures. <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-scanned-image-metadata-project.html">Part 1: The Scanned Image Metadata Project</a><br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-standards-guidelines-and.html">Part 2: Standards, Guidelines, and ExifTool</a> <br /></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">Part 3: Dealing with Timestamps</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-my-approach.html">Part 4: My Approach</a></p><p data-select-link-text="1" style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Part 5: Viewing What I Wrote (this post)</b></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-metadata-removal-problem.html">Part 6: The Metadata Removal Problem</a></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2023/07/image-metadata-thoughts-after-4000-scans.html"><span>Part 7: Thoughts after 4000+ Scans</span></a> <br /></p><hr />
<p> </p>
<p>Just because an image file contains metadata doesn't mean that the metadata is visible or recognizable as what it is. Lots of programs can display metadata. Each has its own quirks. I put only four pieces of metadata into my image files, but most of the programs I tested show only some of these. The fields that are displayed may be labeled differently from both the standard names and the names used by the program used to put the metadata into the file. Some programs apply a name from one standard to a field from a different one.</p>
<p>It is, as usual, a mess. The closer you look, the messier it gets. I've performed numerous experiments, and the stories I could tell... </p>
<p>But I won't. The way to deal with the mess is to not look very closely. My goal is to produce image files with metadata that I can share with others. I already know how to view an image's metadata, so the real question is whether other people can see it. </p>
<p>There's no reason to expect friends and family members, etc., to know anything about Exif, IPTC or XMP. However, they'll know descriptive text or a copyright statement when they see it, and if they see a date and time, they'll assume that's when the picture was taken. If they see another date and time that says something about when the picture was scanned or digitized, they are unlikely to be confused.<br /></p>
<p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUVkGfzpj4wfSivGkxUpPQWcJaF6dqMK3v1pqd_eHL12jUX2nEHcUaxW2ejbeHxnDLaXd2eM211mpKkDcUde-iYktwnjxcRRmc8zrcggQMZXwqnyd6GCwkQaOplC-Z1IQtTtNKo0gcIknbxHm1ZLgQjLRt1OV9c2izUPzbW83fDR_Xrdhw3Qd6KsPz=s2425" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2353" data-original-width="2425" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUVkGfzpj4wfSivGkxUpPQWcJaF6dqMK3v1pqd_eHL12jUX2nEHcUaxW2ejbeHxnDLaXd2eM211mpKkDcUde-iYktwnjxcRRmc8zrcggQMZXwqnyd6GCwkQaOplC-Z1IQtTtNKo0gcIknbxHm1ZLgQjLRt1OV9c2izUPzbW83fDR_Xrdhw3Qd6KsPz=w200-h194" width="200" /></a></div>
<p style="text-align: left;">Inspired by Carl Seibert's survey of <a href="https://www.carlseibert.com/xmp-iptciim-or-exif-which-is-preferred/">how different programs prioritize Exif, IPTC, and XMP when reading metadata</a>, I examined a dozen programs to see how well they made the metadata visible for my sample side from <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">part 3</a> (shown at right). Although a couple of the programs are aimed at more serious users, most of the 12 are stock apps that come as part of the operating system. They're the programs likely to be used by people with no special interest in metadata. All of the programs I looked at are free. </p>
<p></p>
<p>The high-level takeaway is that the most important metadata stored in my
scanned image files is pretty accessible for anybody who knows to look
for it. Things could be better, but they're not bad. As such, my
approach to embedding metadata in image files seems to be reasonable.</p><p></p><p>I scored each program I looked at on a 10-point scale. Points were awarded as follows:</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<p><b>6 points</b> if the image's metadata description is fully visible. If this requires making a window wider or putting a phone into landscape mode, that's fine. I used this description (from <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-my-approach.html">part 4</a> of this series) for testing:</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 80px; text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">Tim Johnson's equipment | Taken 7/1992 | Developed 8/1992 | Scanned 35mm slide</p>
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<p><b>3 points</b> if the metadata description is partially visible, but can't be made fully visible. A partially visible description tells the person looking at the picture that descriptive information is present, but it's not as good as showing the entire description.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><b>2 points</b> for showing the date when the picture was taken such that a viewer could reasonably assume that that's what the timestamp represents.</p>
</li>
<li data-select-link-text="1">
<p><b>1 point</b> for displaying the
copyright notice (even if it's only partially visible).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><b>1 point</b> for showing the date and
time scanned in a way that makes it recognizable as what it is.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>I weight the description field heavily, because it contains the two most important pieces of metadata: what's in the picture and when it was taken. (Recall from <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-dealing-with-timestamps.html">part 3</a> that the "when taken" field holds only an approximation. The actual "when taken" information is part of the description.) If the description is visible, and especially if it's fully visible, that's all most people need.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>I issue a big penalty for programs that engage in what I consider a grossly deceptive practice:</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<p><b>-6 points</b> if the image's description metadata is <i>not</i> visible, but the program offers its own description field that, if used, stores the entered information, but <i>not</i> in the image file. In other words, a program loses 6 points if it offers a field that looks like an image's metadata field for a description, but isn't. </p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>Only one program incurred this penalty. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that it carries a company name that rhymes with "Boogle".</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><p>The scores tell only part of the story. 10 means that a program can display all the metadata I store in a recognizable form, but it doesn't mean that getting it to do that is straightforward. For details, read the per-program overviews that follow.
</p></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="#win10">Windows 10</a><br /></b></p>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><a href="#winfileexplorer">File Explorer and Photo Viewer (Score: 6)</a></li>
<li><a href="#winphotosapp">Photos App (Score: 2) </a><br /></li>
<li><a href="#winxnviewmp">XnView MP (Score: 10)</a></li>
<li><a href="#winadobebridge">Adobe Bridge (Score: 10)</a></li>
<li><a href="#winexiftool">ExifTool (Score: 10)</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="#macos">MacOS Big Sur</a></b></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><a href="#macfinder">Finder (Score: 6)</a></li>
<li><a href="#macphotosapp">Photos App (Score: 8)</a></li>
<li><a href="#macpreviewapp">Preview App (Score: 10)</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="#ios">iOS 15</a></b></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><a href="#iosphotosapp">Photos App (Score: 8)</a></li>
<li><a href="#iosgooglephotosapp">Google Photos App (Score: -4)</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;"><b><a data-select-link-text="1" href="#cloud">In the Cloud</a></b></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><a href="#cloudgooglephotos">Google Photos (Score: 8)</a></li>
<li><a href="#cloudicloudphotos">iCloud Photos (Score: 2)</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h1 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="win10"></a>Programs on Windows 10</h1>
<p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">Of the following six programs, three (Windows File Explorer, Windows Photo Viewer, and the Microsoft Photos App) are included with Windows. The other three (XnView MP, Adobe Bridge, and ExifTool) must be downloaded and installed separately.<br /></p>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="winfileexplorer"></a>Windows File Explorer and Windows Photo Viewer (Score: 6)<br /></h3>
<div data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">These two programs show image metadata the same way: on the Details tab of a file's Properties dialog. This dialog displays a limited-width view of the description (3 points) and copyright (1 point), as well as the "when taken" timestamp (2 points). There's no timestamp for when the image was scanned. The fact that the description is displayed twice and is labeled both <i>Title</i> and <i>Subject</i> is strange, but both fields are in the <i>Description</i> section of the tab, so I think things are clear enough. <br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvklWhTOkW9tCcJ8qDOUy_UAuaLN28yxEFDLMmMVDckOrhErYxyMgHaOd24gADY9VaKsnw-uPtCZl046SZJnmlFNYVcoto5RxqOIOK5cENeORntigUXL8QVwp3aQny_AHWXuGcTBfz9ha6rit2p42b4kTphunLqDQKyVJB1uU0EXkqpehFzjV2S_mi=s509" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="509" data-original-width="363" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvklWhTOkW9tCcJ8qDOUy_UAuaLN28yxEFDLMmMVDckOrhErYxyMgHaOd24gADY9VaKsnw-uPtCZl046SZJnmlFNYVcoto5RxqOIOK5cENeORntigUXL8QVwp3aQny_AHWXuGcTBfz9ha6rit2p42b4kTphunLqDQKyVJB1uU0EXkqpehFzjV2S_mi=w229-h320" width="229" /></a></div>
</div>
<div data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"></div>
<div data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">Both of these programs ship with Windows 10, but my understanding is that Photo Viewer is hidden in some installations in favor of the Photos app. From a metadata point of view, that's a big step backwards, as we'll see next.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a name="winphotosapp"></a>Photos App (Score: 2) </h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">Clicking on "..." and selecting "ⓘ File Information" when viewing a photo in the Photos app brings up a panel with metadata information. Of the four fields I write into image files, only when the photo was taken is displayed (2 points). This is disappointing for a dedicated photos app, and it's notably worse than Windows Photo Viewer, which is the program the Photos app replaced.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"></div>
</div>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh89k0mbr4rgCFPaNbKkycreNoe2KL5VQucUAbCObfleWy1JT-jxLaWcbsu5RD0sldxyrnwTzi6V72eM6S4Vqq0AAJ4LNJ2Ln86Sb0GNB9rbA_hCvf5fYi2JqGYnbofWSKUC_zczSXsilKSOvV6M5stxVF9IGwo-ZE4bVmqizM4RPd88iKHjYZc3S-G=s520" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh89k0mbr4rgCFPaNbKkycreNoe2KL5VQucUAbCObfleWy1JT-jxLaWcbsu5RD0sldxyrnwTzi6V72eM6S4Vqq0AAJ4LNJ2Ln86Sb0GNB9rbA_hCvf5fYi2JqGYnbofWSKUC_zczSXsilKSOvV6M5stxVF9IGwo-ZE4bVmqizM4RPd88iKHjYZc3S-G=s320" width="244" /></a></div><a name="winxnviewmp"></a>
XnView MP (Score: 10)<br />
</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>XnView MP is my default image viewer, and that was the case before I started worrying about metadata. Its score of 10 indicates that it shows all the information I put into image files, but the plethora of metadata viewing options takes some getting used to. </p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>Everything starts with the Edit menu, which includes entries for "Edit comment...", "Edit IPTC...", and "Edit XMP...". For purposes of viewing metadata, none of these is correct. What you want is "Properties..." (also on the Edit menu). Selecting it brings up a window with multiple tabs, including one for each of Exif, IPTC, XMP, and ExifTool.</p>
</div>
<div data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>The Exif tab does the best job of showing all the metadata I embed, with each of the four fields clearly labeled and near the top of the window. On its own, this tab scores a 10.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDpyhd4GYM66I9T3GNIlL_eftY1oe96wNNteteyb05jxnZ1fltrDYNbbS7kPEcKdLCB4yzpTpcBmVCPmsIypNKSwzXxLWvNy3eV_ZervUy3SecF0jo2L-w42byLy9bMbS7OgcMaA8sPeSYEumhKdOGRRnqS3HSGIf_2t_YiHiOo119YI0bfrmDozwH=s671" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="671" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDpyhd4GYM66I9T3GNIlL_eftY1oe96wNNteteyb05jxnZ1fltrDYNbbS7kPEcKdLCB4yzpTpcBmVCPmsIypNKSwzXxLWvNy3eV_ZervUy3SecF0jo2L-w42byLy9bMbS7OgcMaA8sPeSYEumhKdOGRRnqS3HSGIf_2t_YiHiOo119YI0bfrmDozwH=s320" width="320" /></a></p>
</div>
<p>The IPTC-IIM tab also shows all the fields, but the timestamp for when the image was scanned is unrecognizable unless you know that the hexadecimal codes for the relevant timestamp fields are 0x3e and 0x3f. No "normal" person would know that, so the IPTC tab loses the point for showing the date/time scanned and ends up with a 9. </p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9ww8_UlEVCI6NSfpWAleJZJzPmQQ-8-4TYuoyOZ5-MI3FZhyK8gSaLu716-TtZN4e-0KAQCk0ixzhcV258-6eNT_Dd4JzOzkNzJRo213hOQSozQe-PrZ-3-83YDiHCHWW-5vcZB0o8oVbDWR5R2UV2_XVAbmdxh2Hpwv2N8BTxa-Qw_Frqh_-e-OZ=s594" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="594" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9ww8_UlEVCI6NSfpWAleJZJzPmQQ-8-4TYuoyOZ5-MI3FZhyK8gSaLu716-TtZN4e-0KAQCk0ixzhcV258-6eNT_Dd4JzOzkNzJRo213hOQSozQe-PrZ-3-83YDiHCHWW-5vcZB0o8oVbDWR5R2UV2_XVAbmdxh2Hpwv2N8BTxa-Qw_Frqh_-e-OZ=s320" width="320" /></a></p>
</div>
<p>The XMP tab shows everything, but I'd expect the similarity of the names for the "when taken" and "when scanned" fields (<i>DateCreated</i> and <i>CreateDate</i>) to sow confusion and uncertainty. I give the tab credit for neither, and it gets a 7.</p>
</div>
<div data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiN68JKaFxIgJNr033gsJGBJz7xkyfYZB6FftFtAwU73W4YTAcEM1QgOJ_9l70PD8pmaj-3GFIdmYh94cV2K3umr7p60cSNljLksdCrWGCuUSTgCyEkdcemv3MqkL5hXa54W9oPNvIfAOzuLB6moupXbDT_OEan2_ZceZSGHwtaJtwgIfO6Q7Y-vT_8=s677" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="661" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiN68JKaFxIgJNr033gsJGBJz7xkyfYZB6FftFtAwU73W4YTAcEM1QgOJ_9l70PD8pmaj-3GFIdmYh94cV2K3umr7p60cSNljLksdCrWGCuUSTgCyEkdcemv3MqkL5hXa54W9oPNvIfAOzuLB6moupXbDT_OEan2_ZceZSGHwtaJtwgIfO6Q7Y-vT_8=s320" width="312" /></a></p>
</div>
<p>The ExifTool tab shows the results of running the copy of ExifTool that's embedded inside XnView MP. The amount of information can be overwhelming, but everything's there. It's there three times, in fact, once each for Exif, IPTC, and XMP. Taken by itself, the ExifTool tab scores a 10, but the Exif tab remains the easier way to get the information.</p>
</div>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="winadobebridge"></a>Adobe Bridge (Score: 10)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>Bridge is Adobe's free companion to Photoshop and Lightroom. It's designed to organize and manage photos, not to change their appearance. Using Bridge, you can view and edit metadata, but you can't change what a picture looks like. </p><p>It's reasonable to expect people who use Bridge to have an above-average familiarity with image metadata.<br /></p>
<p>Bridge's metadata panel is divided into several sections, including ones for Exif, IPTC IIM, IPTC Core, and IPTC Extension. XMP appears to be missing until you recall (from <a href="https://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2022/01/image-metadata-standards-guidelines-and.html">part 2</a>) that IPTC Core and IPTC Extension are sometimes used synonymously with XMP. No single section shows all the fields I write, but everything is present: the IPTC-IIM and IPTC Core sections have the description, "when taken" timestamp, and copyright notice, and the Exif section has the "when scanned" timestamp.</p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXXfoLtiknVsCftAb6Ewirpd_h2eluo9GLPbmrP2ghOUK6oY0w-fvQCtQW0Qp0c4AgyXklDYhysDnBnKlvM9M6kH5-BReE3RT2i8cHa9B-mQc2p3yvMpcIj4BBAAQNmPBGLP1BpH8LzdOSTBAV0vt2CaqsPaUf8qt8m0ULS5CCmf4WngbTU3NuqhlJ=s576" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="576" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXXfoLtiknVsCftAb6Ewirpd_h2eluo9GLPbmrP2ghOUK6oY0w-fvQCtQW0Qp0c4AgyXklDYhysDnBnKlvM9M6kH5-BReE3RT2i8cHa9B-mQc2p3yvMpcIj4BBAAQNmPBGLP1BpH8LzdOSTBAV0vt2CaqsPaUf8qt8m0ULS5CCmf4WngbTU3NuqhlJ=s320" width="320" /></a></p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0etgr0AJ_cKDqprlrg7gorwnBbRIBsKQEuWqGfwwDOYKW_nbnJrGn-9hmL76kksqs_OyPpVnmySQVe9yXtnSgILdaBx0BAI3kOqf8jD-QvQjHaWwhqOw-rL0xK5zVRZI79QODNAaZ5wn3c_ziOWj6583FkqEkbjGD_EgmQdQlPAQZrdSWmusRnRlw=s576" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="576" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0etgr0AJ_cKDqprlrg7gorwnBbRIBsKQEuWqGfwwDOYKW_nbnJrGn-9hmL76kksqs_OyPpVnmySQVe9yXtnSgILdaBx0BAI3kOqf8jD-QvQjHaWwhqOw-rL0xK5zVRZI79QODNAaZ5wn3c_ziOWj6583FkqEkbjGD_EgmQdQlPAQZrdSWmusRnRlw=s320" width="320" /></a></p>
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<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="winexiftool"></a>ExifTool (Score: 10)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>ExifTool is a command line program, though GUIs have been built <a href="https://exiftool.org/index.html#related">on top of it</a>. It's the go-to power tool in the image metadata world, and it didn't take me long to regard it as <i>the</i> source of truth for metadata in image files. Different programs label the metadata they show in different ways, so when you look at a field value, it can be hard to know exactly what you're looking at. Some programs lie. The Preview App on MacOS, for example, has tabs for Exif and IPTC, but there are conditions under which the values on those tabs come from XMP! Since metadata in image files can be seen only with the aid of programs that know how to read it, how do you know which programs to trust? I trust ExifTool.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>It's hard to imagine anybody using ExifTool without knowing about Exif, IPTC, XMP, and the various fields they offer. I therefore score ExifTool with the expectation that it's being used by somebody who brings a fair amount of metadata knowledge to the table. Such users can be expected to recognize the difference between <i>DateCreated</i> and <i>CreateDate</i>. With that in mind, ExifTool scores a 10.</p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">ExifTool's output on the sample slide is an unwieldy 96 lines long if you let it show you everything (which is the default), but if you ask it for only the fields I put into it,</p>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">
<p><span style="font-family: courier;">exiftool -S<br /> -mwg:description</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /> -mwg:copyright</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /> -mwg:datetimeoriginal</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /> -mwg:createdate</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /> '.\The Brown Experience 1985-1993 031.jpg'</span> </p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">you get this in return:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Description: Tim Johnson's equipment | Taken 7/1992 | Developed 8/1992 | Scanned 35mm slide<br />Copyright: © 2022 Scott Meyers (smeyers@aristeia.com), all rights reserved.<br />DateTimeOriginal: 1992:07:01 00:00:00<br />CreateDate: 2022:01:14 17:54:46<br /></span></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>The copyright symbol (©) is displayed incorrectly, but that's a problem with Windows PowerShell (where I ran the command), not ExifTool.<br /></p>
</div>
<h1 style="text-align: left;"><a name="macos"></a>Programs on MacOS Big Sur</h1><p data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;">Each of the three programs I tested on MacOS is included with the operating system. <br /></p>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="macfinder"></a>Finder (Score: 6)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">Right-clicking on an image file in the Finder and choosing "Get Info" brings up this window: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJj0KGkpURzd5MAn3P4qwH5A19AljqV6Jm2Mb4SbQR_vd3xnW8awfwN2GJSUFy06njY564KsLoXnGDVPr8ke7hzoO17NIeKMyYJx6UbbeMoogF-0lDAkZHeg3FlJypVqxZ4hu8lsSr2LGmAnmYUJ6ZP7GI7XWGCXIx8aovPwRnEAoZ2J9Rd39ZZSjl=s602" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJj0KGkpURzd5MAn3P4qwH5A19AljqV6Jm2Mb4SbQR_vd3xnW8awfwN2GJSUFy06njY564KsLoXnGDVPr8ke7hzoO17NIeKMyYJx6UbbeMoogF-0lDAkZHeg3FlJypVqxZ4hu8lsSr2LGmAnmYUJ6ZP7GI7XWGCXIx8aovPwRnEAoZ2J9Rd39ZZSjl=s320" width="272" /></a></p></div></div><p> It shows the full description in the metadata (6 points), but though
timestamps are shown for when the file was created and last modified,
there is no sign of the "when taken" and "when scanned" timestamps. The
copyright notice is similarly missing. The Finder thus gets a score of 6.</p></div>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="macphotosapp"></a>Photos App (Score: 8)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;">Clicking the ⓘ while viewing a photo in the Photos app brings up its Info window:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMYFcZtLbTBvpoSL0eh8kmxPJx46f0SeHVTnjkLIgj0a8JmMHWX65G5Z3hRO5PDSV672fU-OHrrW6rYFBsigjvsvzRD_hBdw3XMr0D-JWLTSgUTtiiTOqZd9UxJgq97ctP8lb1oARUia5P0dh7CVEWFqzC_5AiP_nEK2HmPALnwpergSZ5aLw_Fqv5=s411" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMYFcZtLbTBvpoSL0eh8kmxPJx46f0SeHVTnjkLIgj0a8JmMHWX65G5Z3hRO5PDSV672fU-OHrrW6rYFBsigjvsvzRD_hBdw3XMr0D-JWLTSgUTtiiTOqZd9UxJgq97ctP8lb1oARUia5P0dh7CVEWFqzC_5AiP_nEK2HmPALnwpergSZ5aLw_Fqv5=s320" width="276" /></a></p></div></div><p style="text-align: left;">It shows the full description (6 points) as well when the photo was taken (2 points), but the "when scanned" timestamp and the copyright notice are not shown. The score for the Photos app is 8.<br /></p></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a name="macpreviewapp"></a>Preview App (Score: 10)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;"><p>Viewing image metadata with the MacOS Preview app reminds me of using XnView MP, but with a twist. With XnView MP, the Exif tab shows metadata from the Exif fields, and the IPTC tab shows metadata from the IPTC fields. That's not always the case with the MacOS Preview app. Regardless of how a tab is labeled, it may show metadata drawn from Exif, IPTC and XMP. That's disturbing, but, fortunately, irrelevant for my purposes. Writing the same metadata to corresponding fields in Exif, IPTC, and XMP means that it doesn't matter which field gets read. The Preview app's Exif tab, for example, shows when the photo was taken and when it was digitized (i.e., scanned). This information is correct for my image files, although it's actually pulled from the IPTC metadata instead of that for Exif. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh61MLeDYXzEmkIc4BtFzYzmEuNR7x_uWCad-56uSHLyfTrtmmj7m7WmGp8KMQM_pIH-josSP9B6t9P3lIq-7Yrdwav3ADq1AQFkunPu_2fpx79lYxYVIv1ew2-Dl0qu-NH8elMpCw-NSI7zC8vHrbtaeu_WbnmL-K09bGMfI-VuT7YPrxU-YxD0JGS=s1018" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="1018" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh61MLeDYXzEmkIc4BtFzYzmEuNR7x_uWCad-56uSHLyfTrtmmj7m7WmGp8KMQM_pIH-josSP9B6t9P3lIq-7Yrdwav3ADq1AQFkunPu_2fpx79lYxYVIv1ew2-Dl0qu-NH8elMpCw-NSI7zC8vHrbtaeu_WbnmL-K09bGMfI-VuT7YPrxU-YxD0JGS=s320" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>On its own, this tab gets a score of 3: 2 for the date/time when the picture was taken, and 1 for when it was scanned.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The IPTC tab shows everything and thus gets a 10, though I take a dim view of the decision to display the date and time digitized between the date taken and the time taken:<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjInzMJq434eGr8jUqjYM3RSHGbqVZrRzRp0q0JzQxnlHsHxCwsCQtMwwSeP9hm15DAt3c-M8Cya2ejQH3epJlRNYYYgljbTemtlq10CJAdFvujhblrAWgTcBUt1qcdqhL3aNYN98bpeD8aK0mYRuzB8XommD4Fq9sTe89Ta5K6FUjPp1D1D1LVemLz=s1018" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="1018" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjInzMJq434eGr8jUqjYM3RSHGbqVZrRzRp0q0JzQxnlHsHxCwsCQtMwwSeP9hm15DAt3c-M8Cya2ejQH3epJlRNYYYgljbTemtlq10CJAdFvujhblrAWgTcBUt1qcdqhL3aNYN98bpeD8aK0mYRuzB8XommD4Fq9sTe89Ta5K6FUjPp1D1D1LVemLz=s320" width="320" /></a></p></div><p></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>The Preview app also has a TIFF tab. I don't know what kind of metadata this tab is supposed to show, but since all the tabs can show metadata from Exif, IPTC, and XMP, the labels don't really matter. Here's the TIFF tab for the sample slide. It shows the full description (6 points) and the copyright notice (1 point). The value it shows for the "Date Time" field corresponds neither to when the photo was taken nor to when it was scanned, so no points for that. The tab gets a score of 7.<br /></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizg0ptGTrnb4YK7l0t0yUqhOGMfYudSfyisg_nhM3IweCBNZCU1RQHFecu3EBfXviP-84tV5jPaip2Z_PUSOnlsqmWFdUvRoiYZ3iUHcMvmf3kblseJk2LsJNjTn4wzrnAsf5QrE9IgxUHI_NWxNisXX2EouW7qDa5oL0ZpFADUQ6PTrYfENMXOctz=s1018" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="1018" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizg0ptGTrnb4YK7l0t0yUqhOGMfYudSfyisg_nhM3IweCBNZCU1RQHFecu3EBfXviP-84tV5jPaip2Z_PUSOnlsqmWFdUvRoiYZ3iUHcMvmf3kblseJk2LsJNjTn4wzrnAsf5QrE9IgxUHI_NWxNisXX2EouW7qDa5oL0ZpFADUQ6PTrYfENMXOctz=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The more I use the Preview app to look at image metadata, the less I like it. It right-justifies field names with respect to the center of the window, and it left-justifies field values with respect to that center, and, as you can see, this leads to a lot of wasted space on the left side of the window. I've often found that widening the window doesn't cause the text inside to be reformatted, so I've had to play games to get all the metadata properly displayed (e.g., force-close the app and then reopen it).
<p></p></div><h1 style="text-align: left;"><a name="ios"></a>Programs on iOS 15<br /></h1>
<div style="text-align: left;"></div>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="iosphotosapp"></a>Photos App (Score: 8)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p>As of iOS 15, touching the ⓘ icon or swiping up while viewing an image displays the Info pane, which includes the image's full description (6 points) and the date and time it was taken (2 points). There's no sign of the copyright or "date scanned" metadata, so this app gets an 8.<br /></p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiap20nmP5QWCBIUjVqtojbJpON4_4lB8nHtY6a3oD8AacAZwp3PwuxBzH6wMb0W_Korq2BnZqPVh1B8CJtX2JavZjJdy626rUVge2fihx0h1wu5IFA1FSldjNRRefccZmLQAfNDhOKpGqF3AiaELXD6r5PocDqP_f-EZwMJ5xRlQ59s6qM7wpmKfdV=s1334" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiap20nmP5QWCBIUjVqtojbJpON4_4lB8nHtY6a3oD8AacAZwp3PwuxBzH6wMb0W_Korq2BnZqPVh1B8CJtX2JavZjJdy626rUVge2fihx0h1wu5IFA1FSldjNRRefccZmLQAfNDhOKpGqF3AiaELXD6r5PocDqP_f-EZwMJ5xRlQ59s6qM7wpmKfdV=s320" width="180" /></a></p>
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Prior to iOS 15, accessing an image's metadata typically involved <a href="https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-get-metadata-of-photos-on-iphone/">saving the image to the Files app, then using the Files app to view the embedded metadata</a>. That continues to work on iOS 15, but it's more cumbersome, and my experience is that even though it displays more metadata fields than the Photos app's Info pane, it doesn't show any of the fields I write to my scanned image files. It would get a score of 0 if I officially evaluated it, but since I'm running iOS 15, I'm going to pretend I know nothing about the Files app workaround.<br />
<p></p>
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a name="iosgooglephotosapp"></a>Google Photos App (Score: -4)</h3>
<p style="text-align: left;">I'm generally impressed with Google's products and services, but the impression its iOS Photos app leaves on me is a depressing mixture of disbelief and anger. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Pressing "..." while viewing a photo brings up its Info sheet:<br /></p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifGRrOBGvRaW5NcrWUdNyOHz3tqVfR_HwBIqdsaNSIDeD5S_uwhvugBD2vFhdY9-Lo6feuOqRgTM5-N-d0g5trkFzVb1i-5aBFlzshvt0b0klGzFqHvyGQjdmkmKdWM7y8GepzmDRMvGZLgeNJ84YytiE_GnUhccRusA0RMunM2Mf1h2fi1slj04ZJ=s1334" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifGRrOBGvRaW5NcrWUdNyOHz3tqVfR_HwBIqdsaNSIDeD5S_uwhvugBD2vFhdY9-Lo6feuOqRgTM5-N-d0g5trkFzVb1i-5aBFlzshvt0b0klGzFqHvyGQjdmkmKdWM7y8GepzmDRMvGZLgeNJ84YytiE_GnUhccRusA0RMunM2Mf1h2fi1slj04ZJ=s320" width="180" /></a></p>
</div>
It shows the "when taken" timestamp (2 points), but there's no sign of the "when scanned" timestamp, the copyright notice, or the description. Instead, there is an "Add description..." field, which, being empty, suggests that the image lacks a description. For my files, this is not just untrue, but triply untrue, because my scanned image files have description metadata in each of the Exif, IPTC, and XMP fields. As a company, Google knows this, because Google Photos in the cloud (see below) displays the embedded description.
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">But that's not the heinous part. Should you, noting the the empty description field, succumb to temptation and put information into it, <i>your text will not be stored in the metadata in the image file!</i> Instead, the information you enter will be stored separately by Google. The same is true of any other edits you make on the Info sheet, e.g., "Add a location" or "Edit date & time". The Info sheet is a place to enter image metadata, but it's not a place to enter image metadata that will be stored <i>inside the image!</i></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">This is reprehensible behavior. Hiding metadata present in a image while offering users the chance to add metadata that you'll keep private is...well, words fail me. But math doesn't. I slap on the -6 penalty for grossly deceptive practices, and Google's Photos app for iOS ends up with a record-setting low score of -4.<br /></p>
<h1 style="text-align: left;"><a name="cloud"></a>Cloud Services<br /></h1>
<p style="text-align: left;">There are lots of cloud-based photo storage services. I tested only Google Photos and iCloud Photos, and to be clear, I did it via their web browser interface, not via an app on a computer or mobile device. Among the many services I did not test are <a href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/">Flickr</a>, <a href="https://www.smugmug.com/">SmugMug</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/photos/">Amazon Photos</a>, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-photo-storage">Microsoft Onedrive</a>, <a href="https://degoo.com/">Degoo</a>, and <a href="https://app.photobucket.com/">photobucket</a>. I welcome your comments about viewing image metadata using these services.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">In a 2017 <a href="https://thephotomanagers.com/metadata-photos-2/">blog post</a>, Caroline Guntur wrote,<br /></p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">Many cloud platforms and social media sites will not upload, or retain
the [metadata] in your photos. Some will even strip the information
completely upon download.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a later post in this series, I will address what happens to metadata when you move image files around (e.g., upload or download them, email them, text or IM them, etc.). My testing shows that uploading an image to both Google Photos and iCloud Photos has no effect on its metadata--at least not for the four fields I care about. <br /></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<h3 data-select-link-text="1" style="text-align: left;"><a name="cloudgooglephotos"></a>Google Photos (Score: 8)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">Clicking the ⓘ symbol while viewing a photo opens its Info panel. That panel displays the full metadata description (6 points) as well as the "when taken" timestamp (2 points). The copyright and "when scanned" fields are missing, so the Google Photos cloud service scores an 8.</p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAwmZgYKbbyPPCFh9Ei31xE5E_zjac4Ifn4b2Lkyp2Y3MX322geWxVchM4O1b13l0S0LnsSKN_myUKzq2SRW9EcdoHggO_i_7471UPX1dWMrVUHbFowTH-lG64f5ZWIfHN5jm8yzs9Vr7L6Aub54sO_JO00okV3322Su0Jb-iJb657nMoL0ltwJha5=s567" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="353" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhAwmZgYKbbyPPCFh9Ei31xE5E_zjac4Ifn4b2Lkyp2Y3MX322geWxVchM4O1b13l0S0LnsSKN_myUKzq2SRW9EcdoHggO_i_7471UPX1dWMrVUHbFowTH-lG64f5ZWIfHN5jm8yzs9Vr7L6Aub54sO_JO00okV3322Su0Jb-iJb657nMoL0ltwJha5=s320" width="199" /></a></p>
</div>
<p style="text-align: left;">Like the Google Photos iPhone app, the Google Photos cloud service displays an inviting "Add a description" field at the top of the panel. As with the iPhone app, metadata you enter here is <i>not</i> stored in the image file, but instead in a Google database. </p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Unlike the iPhone app, the description metadata already in the file is shown, albeit with the label "Other." Because Google Photos in the cloud displays the description metadata embedded in the file, there's less chance the person viewing the photo will think there's no description for it and will avail themselves of the "Add a description" field. I therefore withhold the six-point penalty here that I impose on Google's iPhone app. <br /></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p></p>
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a name="cloudicloudphotos"></a>iCloud Photos (Score: 2)<br /></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<p style="text-align: left;">As far as I can tell, the only metadata visible for a photo viewed using the web browser interface to iCloud Photos is the date on which it was taken. It's displayed above the photo being viewed:</p>
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<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7jkUb803TXZrs-IT2H_hkCgwA8AZ34LY3gZjvvwuATx2pExzAzr-Sy9wozWLeOksSawnfrlfmD7OufzMcfp2Ak9EeMVaVkx5Tw8I7-ZIHWDlw_A_LJaRjdqll25AsnrGd6WgJ-IJapHCmzExyN8C1sE1T6ZJ2a-TAn-Zw0migcMGkTcXLyA8sW0Go=s199" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="43" data-original-width="199" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7jkUb803TXZrs-IT2H_hkCgwA8AZ34LY3gZjvvwuATx2pExzAzr-Sy9wozWLeOksSawnfrlfmD7OufzMcfp2Ak9EeMVaVkx5Tw8I7-ZIHWDlw_A_LJaRjdqll25AsnrGd6WgJ-IJapHCmzExyN8C1sE1T6ZJ2a-TAn-Zw0migcMGkTcXLyA8sW0Go" width="199" /></a></p>
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That yields a disappointing score of 2. Apple's apps on MacOS and iOS do notably better, and my impression from looking at Apple's support pages is that they expect you to use those apps as much as possible. If you don't have an Apple device, well, presumably that's an incentive for you to get one.<br /><br />
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Scott Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05280964633768289328noreply@blogger.com2