[ SECRET POST #5083 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5083 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________


03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 48 secrets from Secret Submission Post #728.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for asking! :D Okay, so these are what I do with basically any secret I make.

Keep it readable: the basics.
Choose a picture without too much contrast or patterns. You can "tone down" a picture's noise by choosing a colour from the picture, pick the paint bucket option of your program, set the opacity low, and add a "thin layer" of color to the picture. Keep adding layers until you're satisfied.
Also choose a legible font, make it big enough, and pick a colour that contrasts with the background – not just in shade but also in brightness (dark red on light blue is better than medium red on medium blue). Avoid color combinations of red/green and blue/yellow.

Format the text.
Emphasize the most important part so readers can understand at a glance what the secret is about. Separate the text into paragraphs, and visually separate the paragraphs in the secret. Work with the structure of the text, for example: if you have a "on one hand ... on the other hand", emphasize those words and separate the two sentences. Emphasis can mean, for example, italicize or embolden, a bigger font size, a different font, a different font color, or a different background.
The longer the text, the more important this becomes. You might not even need a fancy picture, the text and its formatting itself can be the design.

Search for images using the keywords [fandom] wallpaper or background.
The results are desktop or phone backgrounds. Those are high quality images, nicely designed and often with a lot of blank space – perfect for putting the secret text.

If you want to put in more work:

Start with the background.
It can be much easier to start with the background, add the text and then add the picture, than to start with an image and try to fit the text around the picture.

Search for images using the keywords [color] texture.
For when you want a uni-colored background for your secret text, but think just a flat color block is boring. The results are images with one color but some structure to it. You can also add keywords like "fabric" or "geometric". But be careful: if the image is too busy, text becomes hard to read.

Search for images using the keywords [object] transparent.
For example, "apple transparent" will give you images of an apple "cut out", without a background, or rather the background being transparent. This also works with characters and logos.

Get new fonts at dafont.com.
dafont.com is a website that offers fonts for free. (It's just the one I use, I'm sure there are others.) You can even enter your text and see a preview of what it looks like in all those different fonts. Installing fonts on your computer is really easy. If you're making secrets on your computer instead of online, it's worth a visit.

And whatever you do:

Readability is the most important thing.
Remember, the graphic is just the canvas. Keep in mind that your secret text should be readable, and sometimes less is more.

---

Do you think this will help? And just out of curiosity, what program do you use to make your graphics?

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt
dafont look great!

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

It's so much fun!

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

I also liked the tips for "transparent". I usually search for png and clipart.

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

Clipart is a great idea! I sometimes use design or comic but those rarely give me what I have in mind. I'm definitely going to use that.

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the great tips! I tend to stick to Paint just because it's already on my computer.

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

I only remember Paint from playing with it as a kid. I heard it's gained a lot of functionalities, though. Does it use the concept of layers?

Re: secret design tips and tricks?

[(Anonymous)]

da
nope. It's very basic and hasn't changed much.