Diode Zone

Diode Zone

By
Download on the App Store

Diode Zone episodes

  • LGM 2025 - TypeRoof —Type Tooling Infrastructure

    TypeRoof is type tooling infrastructure. It provides type proofing

    applications, initially based on Video Proof and Variable Type Tools.
    Now it also explores the world of general animation with type as a
    principal actor, and document creation with general typography in mind
    and typographical automations based on expert knowledge.

    TypeRoof is intended as a host for all kinds of type related tools,

    providing advanced methods of resource loading (i.e. fonts, data files)
    saving and restoring state etc. – features which ad-hoc developed tools
    typically miss out, as they are hard to do right on limited time.

    TypeRoof is Free/Libre Open Source Software and web based, build mainly

    with vanilla JavaScript and a few specialized dependencies. We are looking
    for a community of users and developers who are interested in shaping its future.

    Links

    • website: TypeRoof
    • git

      • Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

      0 min
    • LGM 2025 - Printing Maps with Spot Colors

      … using Qgis and Scribus with a little help from Inkscape, and Ghostscript.

      A happy-ending story about finding out the tips and tricks along the way.

      Last November, we've been comissioned to produce a small series of printed

      maps for a cultural center in Lessines, Belgium, to celebrate memories of
      Louis Scutenaire and René Magritte. We aimed for a project using three colors,
      and decided to go for spot color printing - using libre graphics tools, mainly
      QGIS for the design of the map, and Scribus for layout elements and to prepare
      the pdfs for printing.

      We also used Inkscape to vectorize some small illustrations, as well as

      Ghostscript to check and sometimes fix the resulting PDFs.

      Then, once we decided that it would be spot color printing, we had to find

      out a workflow from QGIS to Scribus in order to produce PDFs for spot-color
      printing. It was not without a few obstacles that we encountered, as both
      QGIS and Scribus present limitations in terms of color processing or vector
      rendering.

      We will present our productive investigation into both QGIS and Scribus,

      describe how we use QGIS functionalities to optimize the maps for spot color
      printing and show the tips and tricks we learned along the way - and share
      the results, hoping to inspire other mapmakers around to give it a try.

      Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

      0 min
    • LGM 2025 - Inkscape UI Vision Going Forward

      This presentation explores UI improvements for Inkscape, aiming to make it

      more welcoming for newcomers while enhancing efficiency for experienced
      users. It showcases design concepts, feedback from the UX team, and discusses
      how UI refinements can strengthen Inkscape's community.

      Links

      • Inkscape

        • Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

        0 min
      • LGM 2025 - Libre Designers and the Software Apocalypse

        So, is LGM all about libre tools that software developers make that

        designers and artists use to make creative work … ? At previous LGMs
        we’ve talked about open-source design feeding back into improving the
        look, feel and usability of creative software. But what about the
        tools used to write those tools? Can we link things back another step?

        Coding environments have barely changed in decades. Yet the complexity

        of software produced in them has risen exponentially. The disconnect
        from cause to effect has become ever greater. All software has bugs,
        most bugs involve software doing exactly what it was told to do.
        Sometimes they eat your work, sometimes they kill people.

        The title of this talk is partly “borrowed” from an article that

        appeared in The Atlantic in 2017. But is it all hyperbole? This talk
        was originally proposed for the cancelled LGM in 2020 - the landscape
        may have evolved since then, such as in the growth of AI, but has it
        improved? Let’s consider some of the issues. And ongoing experiments
        in user interaction, liveness and design in various open-source tools
        that are seeking to change coding for the better.

        This talk may cover some of the ideas in play. But it certainly won’t

        have the right answers. It probably hasn’t even found the right
        questions. But just maybe it’s time to help save the world from code.

        Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

        0 min
      • LGM 2025 - From Printer Dust Till Graphics Dawn

        In this presentation, we partly follow this year's topic "RE:imagination"

        and will explore old but not old-fashioned printer control languages such
        as HP-GL (1970s and 1980s) and PostScript (1980s) and device-specific commands
        for dot matrix printers (1980s) to better understand how we relate to printers
        and printing today. What can we learn from these languages from current
        graphic practices and perspectives? What context were these languages
        developed in? Which aesthetics can be created with them today and which
        tools are needed to do so? How can the sharing culture of the FLOSS/LGM
        community be applied to such old "closed source" devices? This artistic,
        media archeological, and auto-ethnographic research is part of the
        Master Experimental Publishing (XPUB) in Rotterdam, where we, students and
        teachers, studied these languages together in the first 3 months of this
        year on the most obsolete and almost discarded printing devices of our university.

        Expect a presentation about frustrations with serial connections, dust removal

        with compressed air, porous plastic that disintegrates into small pieces,
        glitch aesthetic with PostScript and the practice of working within the obstacles
        of dying devices. Watch out for undead pen plotters & printers and their
        obscure languages!

        Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

        0 min
      • LGM 2025 - 3000 % FasterFile Saving With Time Travel

        A developer talk about coming up with a new file format for Drawpile

        with the focus being on the findings and ideas that would be useful for
        other programs as well. Some of those ideas are already implemented and
        have brought a massive speedup in file saving and loading, some wilder
        ideas like continuous autosave with history-altering time-travel are in
        various states of currently still being worked on, but sufficiently cool
        to talk about anyway.

        Links

        • Drawpile

          • Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

          0 min
        • LGM 2025 - Introduction to Usability/UX Evaluation Methods

          The session will start with an introduction to the topic of usability and user experience (UX),

          including the human centered design process (HCD) and design thinking (DT). After having laid
          out the foundation, a brief overview of different usability evaluation methods is given. The main
          part of the presentation is about introducing two often used methods: On the one hand the heuristic
          evaluation as an example of a usability inspection method, and usability testing on the other hand.
          Both methods can be used to find (potential) usability problems in a software. Whereas a heuristic
          evaluation is conducted by an expert following a check-list, a usability test needs end users who
          fulfill tasks to be conducted. After describing how both methods can be used individually, also a
          practical way to combining them is presented. The session will conclude with an overview of the
          advantages and disadvantages of each method.

          Three takeaways of this session will be:

          • A basic awareness for usability/UX and the importance of evaluating it
          • An overview of the two major usability/UX evaluation methods heuristic evaluation and
            • usability testing
          • A first idea how to use these methods for your/a software project

            • Target group

            • UX/usability laymen
            • Contributors to software

              • Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

              0 min
            • LGM 2025 - Making Waterfalls

              Come learn about some ways to create waterfalls for video games!

              Inspired by a variety of waterfalls in the Pacific Northwest of the USA,
              Tom has been playing around with different ways to create waterfalls in
              the open source Godot game engine, with the help of other open source
              software such as Blender, Krita, and Gimp. Video game fluid flow is a
              complex subject, and this talk will outline various methods to cheat so
              that you don't really have to know complex math to make something
              acceptable.

              Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

              0 min

            About Diode Zone

            From the publisher's feed

            This little corner of the decentralized internet is a cozy place for creative and educational videos. We like electronics, and art, and cats, robots, whispering to tiny chips, and making nice places…