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Printable dial cards

Started by winkydink, January 16, 2009, 11:37:23 AM

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winkydink

Quote from: Dan/Panther on January 17, 2009, 08:11:45 PM
A great idea, and one that will be very welcome.
Aren't Automatic Electric cards slightly larger than Western Electric cards ?
D/P

That I don't know.  That is why I am hoping to add a shrink/enlarge slider bar/ edit box so that the user can size the dial card on their own and then print them out.  I will start on the project in the next few days and give updates when I can.

One question, does the forum have a place for uploading / downloading items.  If not does any one know a free site on the net that I can place the program for downloading.

mienaichizu

that's a nice idea winkydink, since I'm living here in the Philippines and not so much people here are interested in old phones, also there's no old phone parts and accessories available here.

I'm looking forward to it

winkydink

#17
Quote from: winkydink on January 17, 2009, 12:52:16 PM

Hi Dennis,

Yes I did see this site and after looking around I felt that I could program something that should be a whole lot user freindly and also allow the user to enter in a phone number of their choice (something that I did not see anywhere on the web).

I would like to make this a web application, but I normally write programs for windows, so that is where I will begin.  If the windows program turns out even partially successful, I may talk with some people I know to see if I can convert it to the web. 

We shall see.

Thanks.

Well I have a bare bones program up and running for myself, but it is very limited.  I can insert text into a number card and can scale the card and print it out.  I have (at this point) hard coded the output size to print to an approx 1.5" circle.

I still need to add the ability to increase/decrease font size, add text formatting,  increase/decrease print size, and the ability to print multiple number cards at one time.

Here is a sample of the output of version 0.1 of the software.

-WD


PS - I realize that one could have done the image below in photoshop, but I am attempting to make this a little more user friendly than that.

PSS - Not as good as Mark's contest, but 5 points goes to the first person to identify this phone number.  And it should be "MUrray hill" not "MUrry hill".  (and no, it's not "Francis the Talking Mule" phone number)


PSSS - If some one has a CLEAN, DARK example of the below dial blank that they can scan and upload onto this thread, I would appreciate it.  (I will also accept suggestions for other types of blanks that members might be interested in).  Thanks.

Perry

If you have a clean scan of a dial blank, you don't really need Photoshop to print your own cards. You can copy & paste the scan into Microsoft Word, and then either type over the card picture (after setting the properties of the picture to "behind text"), or add a text box and move it over your card. You can set the font size/type to whatever you want, and even use a different font for the exchange and number.

Sargeguy

Maybe a Word macro would do the trick?  Everyone has word but I think you need the right fonts or else it defaults to Times New Roman
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Perry

You can easily change the font in Word, although I haven't figured out what font was really used on the original cards. It looks a bit like Copperplate Gothic. If you look at these cards, it seems that the fonts weren't always consistent, anyway:
http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/we/we_type_three.html


Konrad

#21
Don't know about original but I like a typewriter style fonts there are many free just google it.

http://simplythebest.net/fonts/typewriter_fonts.html (dead link 10-5-21)

Firefyter-Emt

I am new here, but I just bought some of the cards from old phone works and they have those cards in the package.  I can mail you one if you can use it to scan into your computer.  Or, I can scan here, but I figured you might be better off having it in hand. 

Here is the assortment I bought.  It appears that I have a couple extra.

winkydink

Quote from: Firefyter-Emt on February 16, 2009, 10:59:57 AM
I am new here, but I just bought some of the cards from old phone works and they have those cards in the package.  I can mail you one if you can use it to scan into your computer.  Or, I can scan here, but I figured you might be better off having it in hand. 

Here is the assortment I bought.  It appears that I have a couple extra.


I just got the same card myself, so I am in the process of taking a scan and trying it out.

I have a million things going on right now, but I did get a prototype of the program working (not quite ready for prime time ), however in the next week or so, I will get back to the program and see if I can come up with something that all can use. 

Stay tuned, and thanks for the offer !

dsk

#24
Waking up this thread again.
I have been playing with making dial cards lately.
(Trying out a new avatar)
The avatar is made to fit a 500 and is like our tradition having the number ring here too.  It is space enough to fill inn 2 lines with an old fashioned typewriter and the ext. no at the 3'rd line.
HAKADAL is the exchange name from the magneto times.

I would like to have a collection of dialcards here at these pages, if we just could collect them in an unsorted album, it would still be a resource.

The typewriter fonts are called mom's typewriter and downloadable for free.
http://www.fontex.org/download/Moms-typewriter.ttf

If you have trouble making them youselves PM me. I may give it a try. It will be shown here, but I may remove your no.

Regarding the size.
It will be able to scale when you are printing.

dsk


PS Changed my avatar some time after writing this. DS

GG



Oldphoneworks has done an admirable job with these. However their AE dial cards don't quite line up correctly and have to be trimmed to fit right.  This isn't surprising since the AE dial center design is difficult to get anywhere near right in the first place.  I've tried to re-create it from scratch numerous times and never been satisfied, so I'd rather just buy 'em from Oldphoneworks and trim a little. 

Eman

I'm in Canada, and my exchange cannot be named (519-800-xxxx) so it cuts out a lot of classic cards I've seen and liked.

Any suggestions for which dial card I should choose?

Owain

For developing, can I suggest looking at Cooltext.com which AFAIK is a HTML/PHP front end to The GIMP graphics program. Maybe the owner of that site might be willing to release code as it's for a non-commercial project.

Having it as a web service means it's easier to update periodically without releasing new versions, and allows non-Windows users to use it.


Greg G.

Quote from: winkydink on January 22, 2009, 06:14:18 AM


PSS - Not as good as Mark's contest, but 5 points goes to the first person to identify this phone number.  And it should be "MUrray hill" not "MUrry hill".  (and no, it's not "Francis the Talking Mule" phone number)

A couple years late, but apparently that number belonged to a sofa manufacturer in New York, Castro Convertible.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

AE_Collector

Looks like winkydink lost interest in dial cards. Too bad. I read through this entire thread on the assumption that it was current until I got to d_s_k's post yesterday that started out with "Waking up this thread again". Then I looked at the original postings and discovered that they were over two years old. Then I looked up winkydink's posting history:

winkydink:
Date Registered:  October 22, 2008, 01:34:35 AM
Last Active:  March 03, 2009, 05:53:24 AM

He didn't list his email address in his account page so we can't even attempt to send him an email to see if he ever had any success with his dial card program.

Terry