Linux on a Magazine Cover?

romney wrote in to give us the scoop on an interesting opportunity: "I've been asked to design a cover for a high-end graphics magazine that shows Linux. I'm looking for suggestions on how you would graphically illustrate the ideas that are the basis for Linux. I really want the reader to get a visual understanding of Linux just by looking at the cover. What would you do? " Hint: It needs a penguin.

Comments

Re:moderate that post down!

[cpt kangarooski]

That's absolutely true. And it's 'sir.'

Actually it's only true if I were: 1. A programmer, which I am not (try as I might, I'm just not good at it) 2. A really damn good programmer (even rarer than #1) 3. Could access all of the proprietary information required for good graphics software (like patented color matching systems)

The point of my post was that designers are using Macs not because we're stupid - though there are always stupid people in every profession - but because Windows and Linux systems usually either don't offer what we want or offer too little to make changing systems attractive.

I'm not on a power trip (although design has many practical applications - like forgery ;), at least I don't think so. But I don't like it when people tell me that I and my bretheren are dumbasses for using a practical solution, especially if the person saying that is unfamiliar with what we do in the first place.

I'll tell you this, and this is a FACT, not opinion. Gimp, and Linux in general are really not useful for graphic designers.

Really this is less important for Linux because the underlying OS is just a thing for us. It's not important, because we're really concerned with the applications. If Linux could run my software I'd switch.

But the Gimp... non-graphic designers always wonder why we stick to Photoshop. The reason is because the Gimp is lacking in a number of key areas. Chief among these is that it has lousy color support.

Sure it can display RGB color. That's about the last thing I need. Lab is a very good color space and last I heard it wasn't supported. This may have changed but it's not the really critical one. CYMK is totally absent from the Gimp AFAIK, as well as support for Pantone. Nothing in this country gets printed, in color, professionally without being in either CYMK (or a subset thereof) or in Pantone or once in a jillion years Hexachrome. NOTHING. That's just how things are for little reasons like chemistry and the color spectrum.

This means that suddenly the Gimp is only useful for people making RGB or greyscale images. Very few people deal exclusively in those colorspaces. Web designers, while only concerned with RGB or greyscale output often have to convert other people's more complicated files and so there's little reason to adopt an incomplete solution just because it's there. Would you switch from Emacs (assuming you use it) to an editor without support for capital letters? Only if you're e. e. cummings.

Since the Gimp is not sufficiently attractive to draw people to Linux all by itself, let's look at what else Linux is lacking:

• Fonts
  Most shops have a really large investment in typefaces. Thousands of dollars of typefaces. Typically in Mac PostScript format, which may not lend itself to conversion to something Linux can use. If not, that's bad because it's of critical importance that everyone have the same fonts (or be able to use them) for about the same reasons that it's good for people writing software to rely on standard libraries and APIs. Only more so.
• Layout
  The only layout program I know of for Unix is Framemaker, which is commercial and no longer being updated AFAIK. Plus it's more suitable towards books than single-page design, and is heavily weighted towards typesetting. TeX is for typesetting, not layout and while I'm told LaTeX has some simple layout functions it's probably not a good replacement for Quark.
• Illustration
  Is there a good illo program for Linux? Something like Illustrator? I don't do vector when I can avoid it so I have not looked into this much. Still a vector program is an essential part of the desktop publisher's toolkit.
• Misc apps There are a lot of little plug-ins and single-purpose apps out there. Some are drivers for exotic hardware like scanners or imagesetter RIPs. Others are like KPT Bryce or AlienSkin. I know people who depend heavily on these kinds of things and would stand on one leg if that's what it took to get them to work. Sure they could program their own, but few designers are also programmers. You want to get non-programmers using Linux, this is what you deal with.

All of that stuff is critical. All of it is a problem for the designer who wants to use Linux exclusively. Since designers tend to not give a crap about the OS and just want tools that work (as I mentioned, I knew one shop that had been using a customized PDP-11 for ~15 years because that's what worked - at least until it couldn't be fixed) the Mac is a really attractive option. If standard commercial apps get ported over that will be much more of an inducement than the current offerings on Linux are.

Me, I like Linux, BeOS, Mac... but only one is good for work right now. I'm painfully aware of how old the MacOS is which is why I'm looking forwards to MacOS X (which is based on BSD). Get my stuff working on Linux and I'll use that. It's not even a matter of preference right now.

Mostly though I'm vocal on this subject because I just don't like ignorant bozos, no matter what OS they use, telling me that I'm an idiot even though I know what's up with the state of DTP and they don't. Non-designers have no right to talk to me that way.

Covergirl Ideas

[Kagenin]

Have a cover of the GIMP Mascot drawing a target on Adobe's Logo. Even better when Paired w/ a Gimp article. If you don't think a target is shocking enough, you could have him doing a very unclean act to it.

Another Idea - A Tux penguin with a Rocket Launcher from Quake III: Arena. Nothing yells 'HIGH END GRAPHICS' like Quake3.

Kagenin

Don't overkill the penguin

[debrain]

Admittedly, Tux has been a great refinement of our view of Linux, but let's not overkill it. Some way to graphically portray people from all over the world, united by free software, seems more apt to cover Linux community, rather than Tux, which seems symbolic of Linux software.

Then there are some twists -- like throwing in how this is pulling away from the corporate philosophy of profit, and moving towards the philanthropic philosophy of most members of this community

The penguin is an idol -- it's a nice single-symbol entity that Linux is reflected in. But it does not portray much real information about what Linux is.

It's all about people. Not to get wierd on you :), but I believe that Linux is about giving power to people. Linux is about rebellion and defiance, an anathema to corruption (speak not of it getting corrupted itself) and a way to perpetuate good technology, in the face of technological and economic and marketing forces working against it.

It's a philosophy. It is poetic justice.

Stick to the features

[blazer1024]

The penguin is nice, but it doesn't really tell you anything about Linux. (Does linux need a cold room to work?) You need something that illustrates it's features and or it's versatility.

Show something somewhat abstract looking, like a small network diagram, with an overlapped screen shot of the GIMP working on a colorful photo. Throw in some command line stuff showing server configuring and it's Un*x like style, then show some clips of a word processor and a browser displaying a nice web page. Then top it off with a tad of 3D images, in a freely available modeller, or some such, and throw all that together into a beautiful peice of artwork. Show off features, rather than just a penguin. (If you put Tux in, throw him one of the screen shots, like an embedded graphic in the word processor or something.)

Well, those are my ideas. If you need any help, don't hesitate to e-mail me. :)