Roadsign Magic iDevice app

[hbelkins]

Not sure how many are aware of the iDevice app that you can use to create road signs.

http://www.roadsignmagic.com

(I can't type a true hyperlink because my laptop died, I'm using a very old one I still had, and the colon/semicolon key isn't working. I had to copy a colon from somewhere else and paste it into that link.)

I bought the Pro version, which costs only $1.99, and I'm using it for work purposes. I've found that graphics on our Facebook page get much more attention than do text-only posts, so anytime we have a road closure or other issue, I'm going to start making a sign to post since my Photoshop skills for doing so are nonexistent.

Check these out.







See the practical application at https://www.facebook.com/KYTCDistrict10

I'm still working the kinks out of the app and trying to get used to it, but I think it will be very useful and practical for me. This might also be very handy for video producers who make signs to use in their road videos.

[Zeffy]

It's just as easy to make those graphics on a computer than on an iDevice. There have been plenty of resources members here have posted that make it as easy as copying and pasting and changing text. You don't even need Photoshop since both Inkscape (free) and Microsoft Office (commonly used) can be used for this purpose as well...

Plus, I think it's a bit of a bitch move to charge for a bunch of free resources on the Internet and stuff them into an app...

[hbelkins]

I've never had any success in making a sign with any desktop software. I've had Photoshop for years and even had a couple of classes in it, but I don't do very well. My lack of hand-eye coordination plays a big role in that inability. Ask me to cut out someone's face from a photo and paste it onto someone else's body -- a pretty common trick -- and what I produce will look like a botched abortion.

[Zeffy]

Fair enough, but I think a lot of people don't realize most signs are done with extremely simple processes, like so:

1. Start with an orange rounded rectangle...


2. Add a secondary rounded rectangle inside the first and give it a thicker outline...


3. Import a US shield from Wikimedia Commons...


4. Remove the black background and give it some numbers with a text tool...


5. Add the supporting text...


6. Make it look nicer by shifting things around...


7. Save and export.


Of course, I have experience, but practice always makes perfect...

[myosh_tino]

Why the fuck would you upload a sign from Wikipedia? Make your own goddamn signs. It's not hard and it doesn't take very long. Back when I was making maps, I made my own shields. You're taking a shortcut that is quite frankly lazy and makes your signs less original.

Did I miss something?!?

[Rothman]

Why the fuck would you upload a sign from Wikipedia? Make your own goddamn signs. It's not hard and it doesn't take very long. Back when I was making maps, I made my own shields. You're taking a shortcut that is quite frankly lazy and makes your signs less original.

Did I miss something?!?

It's just his daily out-of-right-field rage post.

[hbelkins]

I've also made a lot of use of the Skitch app, which does have a desktop version that's very similar to the iDevice app. You can use it to mark up photos. I've found it handy for pointing out exactly where a road will be closed. The app has some built-in symbols that make it easy. I take the official online map of the county where the road will be closed, take a screen shot, crop it, mark the closure location, then save as a JPEG. I include them with the press releases that are sent out to area media, and newspapers love having the artwork. I also include them in the press release that gets posted online.

[Zeffy]

Oh wow. I never knew about that app. Are those callouts one symbol or are they separate that you combined into one?

[Alex4897]

Why the fuck would you upload a sign from Wikipedia? Make your own goddamn signs. It's not hard and it doesn't take very long. Back when I was making maps, I made my own shields. You're taking a shortcut that is quite frankly lazy and makes your signs less original.

[froggie]

Why the fuck would you upload a sign from Wikipedia? Make your own goddamn signs. It's not hard and it doesn't take very long. Back when I was making maps, I made my own shields. You're taking a shortcut that is quite frankly lazy and makes your signs less original.

To more directly answer bugo's obviously-now-deleted-post, it's not always that easy to make a pattern accurate shield.  Most of the roadgeek-denizens on Wikipedia are detail-oriented enough to have made pattern accurate shields there.

[hbelkins]

Oh wow. I never knew about that app. Are those callouts one symbol or are they separate that you combined into one?

They're one symbol for which you can rotate the arrow and add your own text. That's an Evernote app and is free for both Mac and PC as well as iDevices. It also has some arrows built in to it.

Why the fuck would you upload a sign from Wikipedia? Make your own goddamn signs. It's not hard and it doesn't take very long. Back when I was making maps, I made my own shields. You're taking a shortcut that is quite frankly lazy and makes your signs less original.

To more directly answer bugo's obviously-now-deleted-post, it's not always that easy to make a pattern accurate shield.  Most of the roadgeek-denizens on Wikipedia are detail-oriented enough to have made pattern accurate shields there.

Apparently there's a mechanism on Wikipedia through which you can generate your own numbered shields. One of my colleagues was doing that whenever he needed to make a route marker for an illustration, but I think he's going to abandon that in favor of Roadsign Magic, since you can take a black square and overlay the US shield or round state highway marker on it and make a standalone route marker.

Roadsign Magic doesn't have the wide-format Interstate or US markers, nor does it have the oval/ellipse wide Kentucky route markers, and there's no mechanism in the app to expand the existing markers to a 1:1.5 ratio, but that doesn't matter to me since I personally prefer the square markers.

Bottom line: For two bucks, this was a worthwhile investment for me. I can get plenty of work-related use out of it, and maybe even some personal hobby-related use as well. For those of us who are challenged in our use of photo-manipulation or image-creation software, this is a pretty handy app.

[Scott5114]

Apparently there's a mechanism on Wikipedia through which you can generate your own numbered shields. One of my colleagues was doing that whenever he needed to make a route marker for an illustration, but I think he's going to abandon that in favor of Roadsign Magic, since you can take a black square and overlay the US shield or round state highway marker on it and make a standalone route marker.

It's not so much a mechanism as it is that for most states Wikipedia has a full set of sign images, in vector form, already uploaded, so you just have to grab whatever you need. If there isn't an appropriate sign, there is a bot that can be called to make it, but I wouldn't imagine too many non-Wikipedians having the technical knowledge or desire to get into that.

As for why you would use a Wikipedia image...frankly, if someone's done the work to create a near-perfect shield, what is the point of duplicating their labor if you don't want to? I've derived a route shield from specs before and it's tedious and usually not as good as what exists already. Some shields even specify mathematically impossible things (so I've heard) so you have to wing it. Might as well save the time and effort and use someone's pre-existing work. Or do you program your own Web browser before you access this site?

Plus, having the shields has had a tremendous impact on the world outside of Wikipedia. I see advertisements with pattern-accurate shields all the time now. I'm pretty sure those come from Wikipedia.

[vdeane]

Most of the shields on my site come from Wikipedia as well (though many are made from the templates they have since it's easier than resizing a bunch of downloaded images and doing background removal).  The exception is everything from Quebec, because the Wikipedia shields are simplified for some reason; those I got from MTQ's site before the servers went underwater.

[Scott5114]

The reason is Wikipedia copyright policies. In the US, most road signs are public domain as government works, but in Canada, that isn't the case. Although it's fairly unlikely that Quebec would enforce copyright on the autoroute shield, especially on an educational work like Wikipedia, policy there says you have to act as though there's lawyers combing the site for things to jump on.

[Pete from Boston]

It's just as easy to make those graphics on a computer than on an iDevice. There have been plenty of resources members here have posted that make it as easy as copying and pasting and changing text. You don't even need Photoshop since both Inkscape (free) and Microsoft Office (commonly used) can be used for this purpose as well...

Plus, I think it's a bit of a bitch move to charge for a bunch of free resources on the Internet and stuff them into an app...

So all those steps you think are no big deal are a pain to many people.  I have been using Photoshop comfortably for twenty years and would prefer an easy app if I had to get a graphic made quickly for business purposes.  Time is money, and all that. 

As for charging the two bucks, someone spent their time on making something, and that something then saves you time (money).  Two bucks is a wonderfully fair bargain.  And you're very welcome not to pay it if you find the price excessive.

[hbelkins]

It's not so much a mechanism as it is that for most states Wikipedia has a full set of sign images, in vector form, already uploaded, so you just have to grab whatever you need. If there isn't an appropriate sign, there is a bot that can be called to make it, but I wouldn't imagine too many non-Wikipedians having the technical knowledge or desire to get into that.

Looked up the email my colleague sent about how he generates route markers via Wikipedia.

My roundabout way (no traffic pun intended), for anyone who cares, uses Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_60.svg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elongated_circle_11.svg

Click and go, then in the URL bar I simply replace the number in the link ... and it creates the appropriate sign in several sizes, png file.

Edit -- it appears that this only generates route markers for routes already on Wikipedia. For instance, I was able to generate a US 360 marker but not a US 960 marker. For the Kentucky routes, I tried 3630 (the old routing of relocated KY 30 in Jackson and Laurel counties) and got a marker. Then I tried 6011, a signed frontage road. Both images had links to pages where they are used.

[Scott5114]

These images are not generated on the fly; they are images that have been created and uploaded by Wikipedia users (or generated and uploaded by a bot). The images that this "fails" on are the ones that nobody has ever uploaded, usually because the route doesn't exist, or in the case of KY, because the route system is so large coverage has never existed that required the shield.

Some nonexistent routes have shields because it was easier to have a computer program loop through 1, 2...99 and having it skip the shields that are not necessary would be more work than just uploading them. This is why you can grab an I-33 shield from Wikipedia, but not US-647.

[vdeane]

I actually saved the .svg files to create templates where I can just edit the text in Inkscape and export the graphic.