communityblog-images/README.rst

Images for the Fedora Community Blog
====================================

This README was originally written on the `fedoramagazine-images`_ repository,
managed by the Fedora Magazine team. A lot of the content in this document
was originally sourced from that repository, by the work of @pfrields and
@ryanlerch. This information is slightly revised here because the same tips
and useful information apply!

This repo holds the Source SVGs for the graphics we design for the Featured 
Images on the Fedora Community Blog. 

Each article in the Fedora Community Blog is recommended to have a featured
image. The image gives the article added visual appeal. It also appears in
links on social media, to attract more viewers.

.. _fedoramagazine-images: https://pagure.io/fedoramagazine-images


Image Guidelines
----------------
We have a small set of guidelines for the format of the images that
help them look their best on the Community Blog site. These are:

* a size of 1890x800 pixels

* a 100px bleed area at the top and bottom of the 800px height. The
  background should extend into the bleed area, but the main focus and
  content of your image should not. This is because the images are
  trimmed at the top and bottom for the Recent Posts sidebars on
  posts.

* a 192px bleed area at the left and right of the 1890px width, some
  social sites automatically crop wider images, and keeping content
  in these bleeds makes sure your lettering and icons are not truncated
  by these sites. The template.svg has guides to show both vertical and 
  horizontal bleed markers. 

* exported images that are uploaded to WordPress can either be PNGs or
  JPGs. If you have an image that uses a photo, please convert it to a
  JPG to reduce the filesize.


Getting commit access to this repo
----------------------------------

Please join and send an email to the commops list if you want commit
access. Otherwise, pull requests are also welcomed.


How to use this repo
--------------------

These images are created as SVG (scalable vector graphic) images. To
work with these images, you should install a SVG capable application
such as Inkscape. You will also need the git utility installed.

Getting started with the image repository
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Use the Fork control near the top of this page to fork a copy of the
  repository.

* Open a Terminal. (You'll type commands into the terminal for some of
  the following steps.)

* Install the git and inkscape packages if you don't have them
  installed already::

    su -c "dnf install git inkscape"

* If desired, change directory into the folder where you like to store
  your project work. This example uses the folder name projects, but
  you should use a folder you have on your system. This step is
  optional::
  
    cd projects

* Now clone your forked repository of Fedora Community Blog images::

    git clone https://pagure.io/fork/<username>/communityblog-images


Creating a new image using the template
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Open Inkscape, and choose *File > Open...* (or hit
  *Ctrl+O*). Navigate to the project folder, then into
  *communityblog-images*, then into *images*. Choose the
  *template.svg* file.

* Save this as a new file with a different name.

You can use the assets inside this file to start with the right-sized
document, with some pre-configured backgrounds. Feel free to look at
other SVGs for guidance. If you don't have experience with these
images, try to stick with fonts and motifs that you see in recent
banners. But also feel free to experiment! For instance, use
photographs (freely licensed, such as CC-BY or CC-BY-SA) with a text
overlay for a nice look. `Unsplash.com`_ has a large library of images
in the public domain you can use to get started.

.. _Unsplash.com: http://unsplash.com


Fonts
~~~~~

There are a few fonts that are commonly used in featured images. You
are encouraged to use these fonts in your images to help featured
images fit into the general "theme" that other images follow. They are
all freely available at the links provided. The fonts we commonly use
on the Fedora Community Blog are listed below.

* Montserrat_ (friendly and Sans-like)
* `Roboto Slab`_ (friendly with serifs)
* Molot_ (heavier font, feels technical)
* `Grand Hotel`_ (for a fancy script-y feel)

.. _Montserrat: https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/montserrat
.. _`Roboto Slab`: https://fontsquirrel.com/fonts/roboto-slab
.. _Molot: https://fontsquirrel.com/fonts/molot
.. _`Grand Hotel`: https://fontsquirrel.com/fonts/grand-hotel

To use these fonts on your Fedora system, download the font and unpack
the OTF or TTF file (if required) into your *~/.fonts* folder. Then
update your font cache::

    fc-cache

You will need to close and reopen Inkscape, GIMP, or other
applications to take advantage of the new fonts.

Getting your work reviewed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To ask for review, you will use Pagure's pull request function.  Make
sure your SVG file is saved in the *communityblog-images/images/*
folder as above. Typically these should be named after the article in
some way to make it easier to find images later. For this example,
let's assume your SVG file is named *using-inkscape.svg*.

* Open a Terminal and go to the *communityblog-images/images/*
  folder::

    cd projects/communityblog-images/images/

* Add your new image to be tracked in git::

    git add using-inkscape.svg

* Now commit it with a log message::

    git commit -m 'Image for Using Inkscape article'

* Push back to your repository::

    git push

* Then you can return to Pagure and issue a Pull Request, which lets
  the Community Blog team know you have an image ready to review.
  Visit your repo at
  https://pagure.io/forks/<username>/communityblog-images and you
  should see the Pull Request button next to the branch listing.
  Select it, and follow the form to issue the PR.