Cuma becanda, amit-amit gone postal.  Sudah pada tahu kan cerita gone postal?

Kalau belum tahu, ini ceritanya :

Going postal is an American English slang term, used as a verb meaning to suddenly become extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence and in a workplace environment. The term derives from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. Following this series of events, the idiom entered common parlance and has been applied to murders committed by employees in acts of workplace rage, irrespective of the employer; and generally to describe fits of rage, though not necessarily at the level of murder, in or outside the workplace.

Untuk selengkapnya silahkan ya baca di sini.  Kalau saya sih tahu nya dari temen yang sempat kerja di US.  Nah kan, serem juga ya kalau orang sudah emosi diluar kendali.  Makanya harus sering-sering ngunjungin TanteSun biar kepala jadi adem…  Hahah, gak nyambung.

Bai de wai, logo TanteSun tersebut dibuat dengan menggunakan software kebanggaan.. iya.. Inkscape.  Viva Open Source!

Digi+ (digiplus) ini adalah merek yang pernah saya pakai dulu waktu sehabis tutup usaha dagang kecil-kecilan produk SanDisk karena dongeng “lampu merah berkepanjangan” di pabean lima tahun yang lalu – para importir pasti pada tahu .  Jenis usahanya adalah servis komputer keliling, semuanya saya kerjakan sendiri.  Sebetulnya waktu itu sudah lumayan banyak konsumennya – tapi karena tergiur untuk jadi TKI di negeri leluhur, akhirnya usaha ini di’peti-es’ kan dulu.  Mudah-mudahan dengan dimulai lagi di rumah, bisa menjadi berkah.  Amiin.

Sebetulnya sih ingin pakai nama baru “BaktiDotCom” tapi berhubung harus ngirit seirit mungkin, pakai yang sudah ada saja – jadi gak perlu bikin cap lagi.. hehe.

After sometimes Googling around, I found no satisfactory result and then I just nagging around kicking some unexplainable objects in the neighborhood putting the blame of this incompetency to the whole world (just kidding….) then some angels (actually some disgusting tiny smelly friends who lives inside my empty head) comes and bump me an idea on how I can slice with Inkscape.

First, I need a mockup to slice.  Let use the ugly first WP theme I fiddled with the last time.

The mockup

Then, I create a rectangle with the exact dimension of the final sliced object dimension will be.  Let say, I need to make a background image for my content div to make a “rounded rectangle” content box effect.  In this case, a 50% transparent red rectangle with 900px wide (the same width with the content) and 30px height (approximately where the rounded corner radius).  I use tranparent red so I can see the rectangle cleary on the mockup.  You can use any color or transparency or even any stroke style for your own works.

Create red transparent rectangle

Then align the red box with the content box or header bottom.  You can access object aligning features of Inkscape by pressing Shift+Ctrl+A.  Try to play with the feature for a while and you will be an Inkscape aligning expert in no time…

Aligning

Then, you will have the rectangle exactly as the final slice will be.  Then select the transparent red rectangle and remove the fill and / or stroke style by right clicking the fill / stroke panel located on the bottom left of the inkscape window.  Careful don’t lose selection by clicking any other object since the transparent red box will become ‘invisible’.

Remove Fill / Stroke Style

After that, you can export to bitmap by using menu File->Export Bitmap or by pressing Shift+Ctrl+E key.  You will have the following dialog box.

Choose Selection for Export area, let other parameters set to default, and you can select the export file location and name by typing it on the textbox or use the browse button.  All bitmap export from inkscape is only in *.png format, so if you want to use jpg or gif, you have to convert it with another image manipulation tools (GIMP, Picasa, etc).  When you think it is all set, don’t forget to click the Export button.  I missed this step several times since after selecting the export file location by using browse button, the OK button on the end of the browse process is quite deceiving.  And if you happened to select more than one object when exporting, please make sure that the Batch export all selected objects check box is unchecked.  If not, you will have a lot of images (subsequently with the number of the object you have selected).

Maybe it is not a perfect slicing tool or method anyway, but it does do the trick for me.  I’m beginning to build a bad habit of ‘sketching’ on any part of  inkscape document and export the selected object(s) only.

Incoming search terms for the article:

• Building a wp theme using photograph using Inkscape
• creating a theme with photographs using inkscape

Just want to show off my first photo cartoonizing project using inkscape.  It is quite fun and surprisingly addictive.

Still need a lot of practice.

A little tip for the first timer like me : don’t stop just because the initial result is not satisfying or looks akward.  The drawing does not look good instantly.  Small details like shadows and accent lines help a lot.  Just enjoy the process.

Along with contract termination from one client I’ve just had yesterday, I will have a lot of time to spend drawing…