But as a Submissions Herald, we have to work with OSCAR (Online System for Commentary and Response), and it's finicky. All the love to Istvan who wrote it, because we couldn't do what we do as Submissions Heralds without it! But it's finicky.
Now, no one wants to do all the work of making a lovely piece of armory, and go to the trouble of putting in on the form electronically, thinking that you are doing the Submissions Herald a favor by submitting it digitally, only to unknowingly give them MORE work. So I'm going to give you a step-by-step on how exactly to provide the digital submission that your Escutcheon herald actually WANTS to receive. Alas, you still have to send in payment by mail (but it's much cheaper to send a single check than a packet of forms!)
My favorite program to use for digital submissions is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It's free, works on GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more, and it's open-source. I highly recommend it. Today's instructions will be done using that program. If you use Adobe stuff, I am sure that the functions I will lead you through are similar, but possibly named different things. Unfortunately, I can't help anyone with Adobe anything, since I haven't used it since High School.
Your FIRST task is the same whether you are doing the submission digitally or on paper. Fill out the top section of the form. WAIT! Your FIRST first task is to go GET the form! You can find it in the Midrealm Library (scroll down to the Submissions Forms). There are a few forms, so please make sure you get the right one.
The Midrealm forms are fillable, which means you can type in your information directly into the forms. This is particularly nice for the submissions herald, because it means that we can copy/paste your name and email, instead of having to decipher any messy or tiny handwriting. Fill out the sections (skip birthday, we don't need to know when to send you a natal anniversary card, sorry), and here's where we start the digital submissions process.
Instead of printing the file, or saving it, choose PRINT TO FILE. This option is usually in the Print menu. Save it as a pdf (this might be your only choice). Make sure to give it a nice descriptive name, like "YourSCAName Device FORM.pdf". That way when the Submissions Herald saves in on their computer, they know whose and what it is.
Now that you've got a nice pdf of your form with your personal information on it, you can open it up in GIMP and put your armory on it. When you do, GIMP will open a dialog that asks you how you want to import it. The important part is to make sure you open it with a resolution 300 DPI.
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| GIMP PDF Import Dialog with resolution control circled |
This is important because OSCAR won't take a form if it's not within a certain pixel range. So please don't forget it!
Once you've got the form open, you can focus on the armory part of the form. There is a space that's either shaped like a shield or a square, depending on what kind of armory you're submitting. That's where your armory needs to go. Start by designing it in black and white. You will need to save a coloring book style version, so don't go coloring it in quite yet!
Now, if you've gone on the internet, and found a good charge to use, but it's in color already, don't panic! There's a tool called "Threshold" that will be your lifesaver. It's in the menu at the top called "Colors". This reduces your current selection to a B&W version. It doesn't work so great if your image is largely black, but for any other color, it works great.
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| GIMP Threshold Dialog. Move the center value control to the right to darken light lines. The image on the left becomes the image on the right after threshold is applied. |
If you're going to copy/paste an already drawn up image, MAKE SURE that it's exactly the size AND SHAPE that is shown on the form. Erase the outer border of the pasted image if you have to, so that it fits inside the shape. The armory can be administratively returned if it's not on the exact shape that's provided on the form.
Now that you've got your "coloring book" armory, you need to "Flatten" your image. In the drop-down menu called "Image", near the bottom of the menu there's an option named "Flatten Image". This squashes all the layers together and removes any transparent parts and makes them white.
After you've flattened your image, go and take the square select tool in the tool window, and draw a box around just your armory.
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| Rectangle Select marked in pink |
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| Select this section of your "coloring book" armory. |
Using the "Edit" drop down menu, select "Copy" and then "Paste as New Image". This should create a new image with just your selection. Export that as something like "YourSCAName Device BW.jpg". MAKE SURE it's saved as a jpg. OSCAR only accepts JPGs. Remember to "Export" since "Save" will make it a gimp-only file.
You can close that image now, but keep your form image open! Now is the time to fill in all your colors. Pick nice bold heraldic colors. You can use your color picker to sample these, if you like. I've also added the RGB code for convenience.
If you're having trouble filling in the spaces without having the color spill all over, it's because there's a break in your black lines somewhere. Go grab your pencil tool, select the color black on your color picker, and make your brush size really small, like 3 pixels. Then go over your image with a fine toothed comb and find the gaps, and close them up.
Once you've got your image all colored in, EXPORT the form whole as a JPG, and then repeat the process for selecting just the armory section. Copy, paste as a new image, and then export it as something like "YourSCAName Device Color.jpg".
When you're all done, you should have four files:
- A PDF form that's got your text information on it, and no armory.
- A JPG file of the whole form with a color armory on it.
- A JPG file that's JUST the "coloring book" armory.
- A JPG file that's JUST the full color armory.
Congrats! You've done it! If you are having problems with my instructions, I am always happy to coach you via my email.
