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Make your own flag overlay for profile pics using Inkscape (Part 2) In 2015, flag profile pic overlays were very popular for virtue signalling , especially when tragic incidents happened (French flag for Charlie Hebdo , Syrian flag for the civil war). I was not satisfied with the readily available overlays offered by Facebook because most of them darkened the colors. So I made my own using Inkscape (version 0.48 back then) and posted a howto (which I later reposted here in Blogger). My earlier method was to use overlay colored shapes with 'lighten' blend mode (and lowered opacity for the light-colored areas). That original method also involved cutting out parts of the underlying colored areas if the overlying parts are white or light-colored, otherwise the white will be tinted with the underlying color. Here's the newer method that does not involve tinkering with blend modes, opacity, and cut outs. Step 1. Import your profile pic Preferably one with dramatic lighting (hi...
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Windows Spotlight/Bing wallpaper info

Windows Spotlight Ever since Windows 10 introduced Spotlight—the backgrounds that you see on the lock screen when you log in to Windows 10 (and above), I've wanted to get the ones I like and put them in my fave wallpapers folder. Thing is, getting these images and their info can be a bit of a challenge. The simplest way is, before logging in, you can try hovering your cursor over the "Like what you see?" text on the upper right of the screen. If you're lucky, you'd be shown a clickable info like this: Click on that link and, once you're logged in, Microsoft Edge browser will take you to a Bing image search results page where the image can be (if you're lucky) and you can download from there. End of story. But this is a hit-or miss thing (in this case, the result wasn't the exact image but it looks better though). Also, depending on your windows set up, you might not see this link. If you don't have this link, don't worry, you can hunt down for ...

Queen City Cebu logo makeover

Two years ago I came up with a logo for Queen City Cebu , featuring the Magellan's Cross landmark. But it was pretty staid, I should say. Now we have this: Coupled with occasional cosmetic treatments, it's more fun and lively, more appropriate for a fun oriented page. The funny thing is that I originally made this as a placeholder for a photo-post mockup in 2019 (the original brief was for something precolonial but nothing came of it), using the old technique of making shapes from letterforms (in this case, turning 'QCC' into a crown resembling that of the Sto. Niño's (minus the surmounting cross). Now no one remembers the old logo. 😉 I also employed making shapes from letterforms in the " Ayy, Ang Cute! " (another Facebook page) profile pic:

T-shirt mockup template for Inkscape (SVG)

As an avid Inkscape user, I've always wanted SVG t-shirt mockup templates. But, most often, the commonly available ones for download are for Photoshop (PSD) or Illustrator (AI). I currently can't afford an Adobe subscription so I'm sticking with open source apps (Inkscape, Gimp or Krita). So, back in July, I decided to make an SVG t-shirt mockup template, based on a tutorial (for GIMP) by Irfan Prastiyanto . Making one is just getting an image of a white t-shirt (one with slight shadows to show contours is good) and then, through the use of clipping paths, layers, and blending modes, be able to change the color to the one you want. Here's how it looks: To change the t-shirt color, just select the group on the 'color' layer and change its fill. To change the design, just make your own in the 'design' layer or import an SVG, PDF, or a PNG file (with transparent background) into the 'design' layer. There's also a 'heather texture' effec...

Queen City of the South, Cebu logo

Two years ago I was assigned to design the website logo of QueenCityCebu.com , a popular Facebook page on all things fun to do in Cebu. The original Facebook page profile pic is the one below (actual size), and my boss wanted a similar "crowny" feel to the new logo: I'm a sucker for symbols. Aside from the Sto. Niño, the second most obiquitous symbol for Cebu is the Magellan's Cross  shrine/chapel, as can be seen in the Cebu City seal (the pûsô  is probably the third): Since I'm lazy, I decided to go via the Magellan's Cross route. I wanted to combine the Magellan's Cross chapel with a shape that recalls one of those bulbous European crowns, like the Spanish royal crown ( corona tumular )– which is a bit appropriate, Cebu having been the first major area to be under the Spaniards in their conquest of these islands (and the corona tumular resembles that in some depictions of the Sto. Niño): Ellis Manuel Mendez' personal replica at Fli...