The character sheet "print" option doesn't seem to be working for me. I've been trying to print to PDF, but it's generating a blank, 0-byte PDF.

Also, a more minor suggestion, you may want to consider formatting the HTML character sheet a bit more purposefully to fit onto sheets of paper in an organized fashion and with better visual cues/design (maybe the print version is better, but I can't compare them at the moment). For instance, sizing the portrait and tables to fixed/maximum dimensions.

1 hour ago, tamdrik said:

The character sheet "print" option doesn't seem to be working for me. I've been trying to print to PDF, but it's generating a blank, 0-byte PDF.

Also, a more minor suggestion, you may want to consider formatting the HTML character sheet a bit more purposefully to fit onto sheets of paper in an organized fashion and with better visual cues/design (maybe the print version is better, but I can't compare them at the moment). For instance, sizing the portrait and tables to fixed/maximum dimensions.

TLDR version: Shoot me some details, and I can see if I can chase down the bug. Also, prettify-ing the character sheet would be awesome, and we'd love a specialist's help if one is so inclined

Long version:

1) Hm -- that does sound problematic.

• Can you send the character file (.pbc) that's not rendering to [email protected]?
• Does sending it to your browser to print work (and if so, which browser)?
• Does the application crash or otherwise error in the process?
• Does it work if portrait is hidden? How about if a different portrait image is used?

If you can get me a few clues, I'll be happy to go bug-hunting!

2) This is definitely an area we'd love to get some help from! I've made a few passes at it, but I have no doubt that an html/css ninja could add a lot of polish. There are a few constraints that add to the challenge of beautifying the output:

• We use Qt's API for printing to PDF...and it barfs on certain perfectly reasonable requests, sometimes. I have had to massage the tags until they survive the API...which isn't ideal, but is still better than me writing something scratch. Maybe. I think. In any case, it adds a hurdle to sheet polish.
• The portrait rendering could definitely use some refinement. For one thing, CSS tweaks to keep it in sane limits would be nice (there are a few there, but more could be good). For another, it gets embedded as a base64 right now, which can blow up to ridiculous proportions if a very large image file is used. I'm looking at moving to fixed image references (but those would come at the cost of .pbc portability unless we get complicated and start writing the images out to temp locations on print, which might help). Edit: I can't work on it until this evening, but I identified a place I can at least make the image loading more efficient. If that's the source of your rendering issue, that'd be lovely.
• Currently it allows tables to grow--because they often do. Free-text descriptions can be added, along with varying numbers of tech, advantages, etc. I've tried to put controls in that make it split logically-ish to pages (breaking before tech, curriculum/title, and after equipment) and try to set size constraints that will work on many printers, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

I'll add a few issues to the board to formalize some of this!

1 hour ago, AltitudeMatters said:

TLDR version: Shoot me some details, and I can see if I can chase down the bug. Also, prettify-ing the character sheet would be awesome, and we'd love a specialist's help if one is so inclined

Long version:

1) Hm -- that does sound problematic.

• Can you send the character file (.pbc) that's not rendering to [email protected]?
• Does sending it to your browser to print work (and if so, which browser)?
• Does the application crash or otherwise error in the process?
• Does it work if portrait is hidden? How about if a different portrait image is used?

If you can get me a few clues, I'll be happy to go bug-hunting!

2) This is definitely an area we'd love to get some help from! I've made a few passes at it, but I have no doubt that an html/css ninja could add a lot of polish. There are a few constraints that add to the challenge of beautifying the output:

• We use Qt's API for printing to PDF...and it barfs on certain perfectly reasonable requests, sometimes. I have had to massage the tags until they survive the API...which isn't ideal, but is still better than me writing something scratch. Maybe. I think. In any case, it adds a hurdle to sheet polish.
• The portrait rendering could definitely use some refinement. For one thing, CSS tweaks to keep it in sane limits would be nice (there are a few there, but more could be good). For another, it gets embedded as a base64 right now, which can blow up to ridiculous proportions if a very large image file is used. I'm looking at moving to fixed image references (but those would come at the cost of .pbc portability unless we get complicated and start writing the images out to temp locations on print, which might help). Edit: I can't work on it until this evening, but I identified a place I can at least make the image loading more efficient. If that's the source of your rendering issue, that'd be lovely.
• Currently it allows tables to grow--because they often do. Free-text descriptions can be added, along with varying numbers of tech, advantages, etc. I've tried to put controls in that make it split logically-ish to pages (breaking before tech, curriculum/title, and after equipment) and try to set size constraints that will work on many printers, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

I'll add a few issues to the board to formalize some of this!

1. Sending to browser works (using Firefox), including printing from the browser to PDF.

2. No errors generated, though I'm not sure if the application is supposed to show a preview on the print dialog (there's a big blank area that looks like it might be intended for that). BTW, it looks like FoxIt PDF Printer prints a blank, but non-zero-byte PDF (~97 kB). Microsoft PDF printer either prints a zero-byte PDF or dies while trying to generate it (regardless, there's a zero-byte PDF produced).

3. Doesn't seem to matter whether portrait is hidden or not. However, just tried a different portrait image file, and that seems to work properly. Reset back to original, broken again, so it's not a one-time random glitch. From what I can tell, it looks like images over ~1MB don't work. The largest one I tried that did work is 505 kB, and the smallest that didn't was ~1.5 MB.

1 hour ago, tamdrik said:

3. Doesn't seem to matter whether portrait is hidden or not. However, just tried a different portrait image file, and that seems to work properly. Reset back to original, broken again, so it's not a one-time random glitch. From what I can tell, it looks like images over ~1MB don't work. The largest one I tried that did work is 505 kB, and the smallest that didn't was ~1.5 MB. 

That *sounds* like it has to do with rendering of the large image (mine works on some pretty large images, but I have a pretty boss dev machine ). Thanks--and double-thanks for testing on some other PDF renderers, too (that helps me get a feel for the scope of the problem nicely)! I *think* I have something that'll fix that--I'll test and check in some tweaks this evening!

@tamdrik and @Albertorius , I merged pull requests. Should be reflected in the next build! 😄

Thanks again to everyone who contributes, bug-reports, or uses Paper Blossoms. Glad to hear folks are enjoying it! I, for one, am starting to feel taunted by the folder-full of test characters I've built. They're just begging to be played...

Love the software! When purchasing rings (or anything outside curriculum for that matter), the XP cost is correct but applies toward rank advancement at full value instead of 1/2. Am I doing something wrong? My apologies if this is addressed elsewhere or I'm missing something obvious.

2 hours ago, T_Kageyasu said:

Love the software! When purchasing rings (or anything outside curriculum for that matter), the XP cost is correct but applies toward rank advancement at full value instead of 1/2. Am I doing something wrong? My apologies if this is addressed elsewhere or I'm missing something obvious.

Thanks @T_Kageyasu . Glad you're enjoying!

That's interesting -- on my build here (1.1.0 beta, Compiled May 23), it seems to be calculating right: when I buy a ring (for example), it lists the full value under "Total Spent" in the upper right, but only shows half that value under "XP in Rank" under Curriculum. So if I'm leveling the ring to 2, it lists 6 in Total Spent, and 3 under Curriculum.

A few questions:

1) Are you using the English locale (en) or another?

2) What release are you using? (You can see the compiled date under 'About Paper Blossoms if you don't remember which release you downloaded).

3) Can you send replication steps and/or an example .pbc file where this happens?

If we can get this replicated, I'll be happy to chase it down and fix it! 😄

https://github.com/dashnine/PaperBlossoms/releases

With bug reports having wound down, we're happy to announce the latest stable Paper Blossoms release, v1.1.0. For those that haven't been following the prereleases -- this is a major version update supporting a variety of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and feature additions (particularly user description editing tools, and localisation support).

WARNING:

If you use Paper Blossoms in a Spanish (ES) German (DE) or French (FR) locale, this update will no longer open your 1.0.0 character sheets unless you set your db locale to 'en' in settings.ini! This is because the database will now default to your locale's translation; prior to the 1.1.0 update, all characters were created with EN databases.

Changelog (from 1.1.0-alpha3):

• Character portraits now capped at 500px before rendering PDF (resolves some rendering errors)
• Spanish Translation updates

Changelog (from last stable release 1.0.0):

• User description editor, exporter, importer
• Localization: full French, German, and Spanish UI and DB Translations
• Added a settings.ini file supporting locale and last used save/open directory
• Export to XML
• Note: Locale now saved in character files. Will not open a char file if wrong locale detected!
• Newlines now render in notes and descriptions on character sheets
• Allow editing family name after saving
• Performance enhancements, data and code bugfixes

Known Issues:

This application may be unrecognized by Windows or Mac (causing the infamous "Windows has protected your PC" error). If this occurs, you can run it anyway -- see this link for steps on Windows, and something like this link for guidance on OSX.

If you identify bugs, let us know! We've marked this release stable due to diminished bug reporting, but will happily hotfix any issues that the wider release identifies.

On 6/8/2019 at 12:54 AM, AltitudeMatters said:

Thanks @T_Kageyasu . Glad you're enjoying!

That's interesting -- on my build here (1.1.0 beta, Compiled May 23), it seems to be calculating right: when I buy a ring (for example), it lists the full value under "Total Spent" in the upper right, but only shows half that value under "XP in Rank" under Curriculum. So if I'm leveling the ring to 2, it lists 6 in Total Spent, and 3 under Curriculum.

A few questions:

1) Are you using the English locale (en) or another?

2) What release are you using? (You can see the compiled date under 'About Paper Blossoms if you don't remember which release you downloaded).

3) Can you send replication steps and/or an example .pbc file where this happens?

If we can get this replicated, I'll be happy to chase it down and fix it! 😄

I'll double check, and thanks for following up. Maybe it would be easier to track if there was an "outside curriculum" option to check during purchases. I installed in early June using the latest English version.

6 hours ago, T_Kageyasu said:

I'll double check, and thanks for following up. Maybe it would be easier to track if there was an "outside curriculum" option to check during purchases. I installed in early June using the latest English version.

Cool--let me know! At the moment all in/out of curriculum calculations are handled automatically (and almost have to be, given how ranking up works). That said, it might be doable to add a UI indicator in the 'advancement' window to indicate whether something will count as in or out of curriculum. I'll add a feature request to the board!

I'm just trying this out for the first time, and it's AMAZING! This really streamlines the process and makes it so much easier to make a character.

On 6/15/2019 at 9:41 PM, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

I'm just trying this out for the first time, and it's AMAZING! This really streamlines the process and makes it so much easier to make a character.

Thanks!!! Glad you're enjoying! ❤️

1st - BIG thanks a very neat and helpful tool.

Only one question, can I still run the program in English only?

I am in Germany, but I need to use the English version since all so far has been done in English in our group.

2 hours ago, Agis said:

1st - BIG thanks a very neat and helpful tool.

Only one question, can I still run the program in English only?

I am in Germany, but I need to use the English version since all so far has been done in English in our group.

Sure thing! And definitely -- you can set your locale by opening the settings.ini (it's in the data directory--typically C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\PaperBlossoms, but you can find it by going to Tools->Open Application Directory in the app). In the settings.ini file, you can alter your settings accordingly:

[General]
localeDB=en
localeUI=en

You *should* be able to use an english DB and a german UI, if you're so inclined, for that matter!

Works, BIG thanks!

For folks wondering: I've got Courts of Stone in hand, and don't see significant obstacles to getting it added in (other than the Samurai Heritages -- those are *always* a challenge). Current estimate for next release: Mid-July.

Re: The Ring Images

Originally posted on reddit by u/mproud

I doubt anyone is going to have any issue with it, just wanted to credit him as he was the original source that I failed to credit when using in the article on Imperial Advisor.

4 hours ago, Bazleebub said:

Re: The Ring Images

Originally posted on reddit by u/mproud

I doubt anyone is going to have any issue with it, just wanted to credit him as he was the original source that I failed to credit when using in the article on Imperial Advisor.

Awesome--I'll update the README/About, and try to reach out to the post-er . Edit: touched base with /u/mproud -- they're cool with it! :-D

Thanks! (Big fan of your site/cast, by the way).

Just wanted to mention that Paper Blossoms was nominated for a 2019 Ennie Award! Voting starts on July 10 -- I'll post a reminder when it goes live. 😄

Thanks again to our users, contributors, testers, and well-wishers. We're glad folks are finding it helpful!

Annnnnnd voting for the Ennies is now open! If you like Paper Blossoms, and want to support it, it'd mean a lot if you went and marked a '1' next to our humble little product! If you *really* like it, tell your friends!

Regardless, it's awesome to be nominated -- thanks for everyone's support on our little labor of love!

Voting link for Best Aid/Accessory: Digital:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/2019/ballot.php?category_id=3

Voted!

It's been such an incredible aid in running my game. Looking forward to the update!

It's not all Fun and Ennies! Release time:

dashnine released this 19 minutes ago

Version 1.2.0-beta1

This is a minor release containing data and code changes for Courts of Stone! Note that this is a prerelease to test these changes (as there are significant data and code changes to support the new content). Be sure to register any bugs you find!

Changelog (from 1.1.0):

• Now supports content from Courts of Stone
• Now requires paying 3 XP to purchase a passion
• Updates About dialog to show proper credit to /u/mproud for ring art

Hi!

First of all, the Paper Blossom builder is an incredible tool, as it helps me prepare my character for my first session (and I'm a huge fan of character builders).

I'm using the most recent version (1.2.0-beta1) with Windows system (Win 7).

During the character creation and - later - trying some development, I came across some troubles with it:

1. Question 8: when I select "Conflicted - Choose a Skill" option, there is no Skills list to choose from when I expand (just an empty field).
2. In Summary ("Part 7: Death" page), my Rings (and other things) are displayed normally, but when I Finish and move to the Character Data, all my Derived Attributes have value of "0", and in a Summary at the bottom part of a page my Rings are also: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 (however the colorful Rings are correct).
3. In the Advancement section, when I want to Add Advances and select "Ring", there is no Rings list to choose from - I can't even expand it, no matter if I select any of other options (Curriculum, Title, Free, Special Training), or not.

Am I doing something wrong? I haven't seen anyone posting about it, so I assume these are not common issues.

On 8/2/2019 at 3:41 AM, BorisPretzel said:

Hi!

First of all, the Paper Blossom builder is an incredible tool, as it helps me prepare my character for my first session (and I'm a huge fan of character builders).

I'm using the most recent version (1.2.0-beta1) with Windows system (Win 7).

During the character creation and - later - trying some development, I came across some troubles with it:

1. Question 8: when I select "Conflicted - Choose a Skill" option, there is no Skills list to choose from when I expand (just an empty field).
2. In Summary ("Part 7: Death" page), my Rings (and other things) are displayed normally, but when I Finish and move to the Character Data, all my Derived Attributes have value of "0", and in a Summary at the bottom part of a page my Rings are also: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 (however the colorful Rings are correct).
3. In the Advancement section, when I want to Add Advances and select "Ring", there is no Rings list to choose from - I can't even expand it, no matter if I select any of other options (Curriculum, Title, Free, Special Training), or not.

Am I doing something wrong? I haven't seen anyone posting about it, so I assume these are not common issues.

That is definitely not expected behavior! I gather you're seeing data in other parts of the application? Are you running in an EN locale?

The only thing I can guess is that you might have an older database still hanging around and causing odd conflicts. Try the following to clear and readd the database:

1. Tools->Open Application Directory
2. Close Paper Blossoms completely.
3. Select paperblossoms.db and delete it.
4. Relaunch paper blossoms.
5. You should see 'The local data is missing or older than the bundled data. Do you want to overwrite the local data?' Choose 'Yes'
6. See if the application behaves properly.

If you're still having trouble you can also reach out to me at [email protected]!

7 hours ago, AltitudeMatters said:

Are you running in an EN locale?

It seems that this caused my problem. The program must've automatically recognised different country and changed it. After changing to "en", all the problems I mentioned were solved (with one exception):

1. I'm able to choose skills from a list while conflicted with bushido;
2. I see Rings in proper places, Derived Attributes are corect as well;
3. While advancing, I am able to select and purchase a Ring, BUT only the lower ones (for example: my character has Air 3, Earth 2, Fire 2, Water 1 and Void 2 -> I'm able to purchase everything except for the Air Ring; another example: my character has Air 1, Earth 3, Fire 3, Water 2 and Void 1 -> I'm able to purchase Air and Void Rings only, but after I purchase Void, I can now purchase Air, Void and Water - so again, those that are below a value of 3).

Thanks for response!