#Formatting

[msbarrows]

Argh... so I've been reading in Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS) fandom recently. And it's given me a new pet peeve about formatting and TTS. A bunch of the authors in that fandom are using black lens brackets to indicate the 'system' voice, 【like this】, because the original novels do, and, yeah... unfortunately that's not always compatible with TTS (definitely not with google's TTS engine, and testing with various other online TTS engines gives mixed results).

Guess how I know they're called black lens brackets.

…

Go on, guess.

…

YUP! They get read aloud! Every. Single. Time. They. Appear. Open black lens bracket like this close black lens bracket.

Please resist using the novel's formatting and just use regular square brackets instead! Which do not get read aloud unless there's a space in a bad position, [ like this ]. If you want to be fancy, maybe use <tt>...</tt> formatting or a monospaced font such as courier to make it stand out more as something mechanical.

[Like this]

Which reminds me, another bad formatting choice I've bumped into multiple times (and I can't remember if I've mentioned this one before) is where authors use something <like this> to indicate things like speaking mind-to-mind, or that someone is speaking a foreign language (despite the actual text still being in English). Cool. Neat. Also not TTS compatible, unless you like repeatedly hearing less than and greater than mixed into the text. But guess what - there are already perfectly serviceable ‹single› and «double» angled quotation marks that could be used instead - and since they're recognized as actual quotation marks, they don't get read aloud! Shocking, I know.

Those angled quotation marks could also be another decent option for indication of things like the system voice, obviously.

«Like this»

Thanks to everyone who is already using more TTS-compatible formatting, and to anyone who decides to make some changes to theirs after reading this :)

[is-the-post-reliable]

New formatting

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the new, more accessible formatting. Particular thanks to @butchlinkle for suggesting the use of different shapes.

I have settled on using:

🟢 Rating: Reliable 🟢

🟨 Rating: Mostly Reliable 🟨

🔶 Rating: Partially Reliable 🔶

❌ Rating: Unreliable ❌

[myfandomrealitea]

Three Clicks and Thirty Seconds

Essentially; if I cannot find out what I need to know about you in 3 clicks and/or 30 seconds, its a waste of time and clearly not that important.

If you absolutely insist people need to know your age, pronouns, DNI and shipping stance before they're allowed to reblog your aesthetic FNAF gifset, you cannot hide that information behind 14 different links to multiple Carrd pages and 300 words about your childhood pets and the way you drink your coffee.

Necessary information should be precise, easy to find and easy to understand. Put the longest parts like your DNI underneath parts which are short like your age. Again, if people have to wade through your 274 point long DNI to find out if you're a minor or not, its not effective information and most people will simply not bother.

If you have "rules" for interacting with you and/or your content, they need to be clearly visible. Stop assuming every single person will do a deep-dive of your profile before interacting with you/your content. Most do not for the majority of interactions like sending a brief ask or reblogging a post from someone else who reblogged it from someone else.

"This person is so disrespectful, they ignored my DNI!"

Did they? Or did you put your DNI on page 5 of a Carrd profile and automatically assume everyone knows to click on your profile, click on your Carrd links and read every single page meticulously before messaging you?

Or did you just have a micro note in your bio telling people to go to your archive and search for 'DNI' to find it?

Or did you put your DNI in the middle of a poorly formatted, jumbled pinned post marred by colored font and stolen GIFs?

3 clicks and 30 seconds. That's it.

[leo-leaper]

AUTISM BLAST [levels the continental united states]

[ikebanaka]

Forever mad that the ORV manhwa didn't go the route of deliberately obscuring KDJ's face. If it were up to me, he would always be drawn at angles where you couldn't see his face or have something covering it in the frame, and if his expression ever needed to be shown it would be done by zooming in on the most relevant facial feature and never by showing the whole expression.

Like, come on! What are we, amateurs?? Use your medium effectively goddammit!!

[echoesoftheark]

TWO WEEKS LEFT!📢

There is only two weeks left to fill in our interest check!

Let us know what you would like to see from this zine before it is too late! 💫 📅 March 24th - April 24th

Interested? Fill our interest check here: https://forms.gle/EFSegfGGCLpLUerX9

We also are still looking for mods to help this project come to life! 📅 March 24th - April 24th

Apply here: WRITING: https://forms.gle/9LAaBG4cN7jcK73L6 FORMATTING: https://forms.gle/i7mMZzjjEd55TFLi7

[shatteredsimp]

I love bringing up my special interest whenever I can SO- welcome to my business class!

My teacher has been super lenient on what we make out of the stuff as long as we put in the effort.

I made Idol Killer sans a whole fake band

NOT REAL NUMBERS OR PLACES OR ANYTHING...

Art belongs to > @zucchiyeni + @xnzlian

Creator of Idol!Killer > @zucchiyeni

This was so fun to do 👀

[netscapenavigator-official]

And what if god said, "the hyperlink was fake all along."

[pink-onyx-au]

How did you learn to do comic formatting? Did you follow a tutorial? Or are you more self-taught. Do you use comic book page templates or no?

UHH haha

Self taught. I have no formal art schooling. I like to read a lot of manga and enjoy when the pages are like pictures in their own right, and the panels help draw the readers' eye. I like to make them part of the story, too.

I draw everything in Procreate on my iPad, so the base is eyeballed from page to page. If I need a page that isn't the standard 3x3 blocks of stuff happening, I draw the art and characters without any panels, then draw the panels after everyone is in place for those wacky, dynamic panels.

Onyx did cut right through one of the panels in episode 3, too. Utterly destroyed them, and then weird stuff started happening to the format. All depends on how Onyx is feeling, I guess.

[fly-the-pattern]

[darlingghoulette]

I'm not sure if this question even make sense at all, but I'm playing around with fic formats on Ao3. It's never something I notice for other fics, but I can never seem to get mine looking right. That said:

[wip]

any chance of bringing back small text & horizontal line in posts? i know those are more work to maintain but they're very useful formatting tools

Answer: Hi, @skysometric!

We shall address your question in two parts here.

Good news. Small text is supported! Simply write some text in your draft post, highlight it, and select the “Small” icon from the list (it will look like this: <s>). You can see what this looks like as a draft in the screenshot below.

As for horizontal lines, we hear you here. You are right on both counts –while they are more work to maintain, they are also useful formatting tools. So we can maybe someday, but we can not say much more than that at present.

Thanks for your question, and keep 'em coming, folks!

[is-the-post-reliable]

Update

I am planning on changing my formatting to be more accessible. From now on, I won't be using coloured text, as I have read that the low contrast can cause problems for those with visual disabilities.

I know some people like the colour coding, so I am planning to use a colour emoji to indicate reliability too. For example:

🟢 RATING: RELIABLE 🟢

If there is any reason this formatting would not be accessible, please let me know! I'm posting this now to get any feedback people may have

[all-purpose-dish-soap]

hi, can i get a tutorial on how to put tags as a link? i wanna do mine for my blogs 😞

sure! i assume you're referring to this sort of thing i do in my masterlist and at the bottom of my posts to point readers toward similar content--

more Price / more Gaz / masterlist

how to make tumblr tags into links

first, and this may go without saying, but make sure you have at least one post on your blog with the tag you intend to link.

first method: desktop (recommended)

1. navigate to your blog on the left-hand sidebar.

2. then, on the other sidebar--right side--select "view blog." you should be seeing your blog the way any other user would, including its custom colors, header image, etc.

3. navigate to the post with the tag you want to turn into a link.

4. go to the post's tags and right-click the one you want (or command-click; whatever it takes to bring up the menu).

5. copy the url from there. the url should look something like "https://www.tumblr.com/[yourblogname]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]." alternatively, left-click the tag and let it take you to the "[...]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]" page itself, then copy that url from your address bar.

6. now, wherever you want to add it (like in a new post), type out the text you want to display--

all my homemade posts

7. --highlight it, and and use tumblr's hyperlink function to link the "[...]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]" url to that text.

8. click the linked text you made just to be sure. you should end up with something like this:

all my homemade posts

second method: mobile

this method is more roundabout. i haven't found a way to do this solely through the app, so you'll need to use a combination of the tumblr app + your phone's browser.

1. navigate to your blog in the tumblr app .

2. navigate to the post with the tag you want to turn into a link.

3. select the arrow at the bottom of the post to send/open the link in your browser of choice. alternatively, select the meatball menu (•••) in the top-right corner of the post, copy the link, go to your browser of choice, and open that copied url.

4. in your browser, go to the tags of your post and select the one you want.

5. copy the url from there. the url should look something like "https://www.tumblr.com/[yourblogname]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]." alternatively, select the tag and let it take you to the "[...]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]" page itself, then copy that url from your address bar.

6. now, wherever you want to add it (like in a new post), type out the text you want to display--

all my homemade posts

7. --highlight it, and and use tumblr's hyperlink function to link the "[...]/tagged/[thetagyouwant]" url to that text.

8. you should end up with something like this:

all my homemade posts

and you're done. happy hyperlinking! b(￣▽￣)d

[leo-leaper]

nevermind i figured it out [DEAFENING EXPLOSION]