We got the shirts fixed last night
This post is also titled "Adventures in Arabic and Technology".
The problem was that when you copy and paste Arabic to a computer that reads left to right, the computer rearranges the text so it will read left to right. FYI for those not familiar with Arabic: it reads right to left. We *thought* we had this sorted out before. We did not. Will explain why this is hard to tell in a sec.
Jonathan had located a website with a script that would turn every thing around the way we need it. The site also mirrored text instead of properly rearranging the order of words and letters. So you had to use a certain one to get it to work right: I was using the certain one last night. For whatever reason, copying and pasting the reversed version from that site into Photoshop worked better than directly from the translator page to Photoshop.
I was using the one that reversed it the way we needed. Jonathan clued in that we should use Zoom in Firefox. Even doing that, it was hard to tell if we had it right because the different Arabic web font VASTLY changed how it looked between what I saw pasted into Photoshop. So here I am with my face crammed up on the monitor going "wiggly line...big wiggle...little wiggle...ok I think that matches". So if you think you can just look at some Arabic online, and then look in Photoshop and go "hey, same pattern, we got it right"...you're wrong. It's just not that easy if you don't know the language. I mean look, it's me and Jonathan: two perfectly intelligent people with a background in art which means we should be able to do this. Nope.
So he's working on some and I'm working on some and I get done. And as he's working on one he realizes his is all wrong. And tells me to scrap the shirts for the 4th time, because it's still not right. I'm exhausted and going "but I know what I saw! It matched!" and he's saying its not right. So I delete all the shirts in Zazzle AGAIN. He's exhausted and not feeling well. And me too. And we're hungry. And I've HAD IT with the fucking t-shirts by this point. They have destroyed every plan I had for the week.
At this point, he and his best friend (who is on the phone) are futzing around trying to figure out how to get this to behave in a left to right environment. To the point of: his buddy (who is a programmer who also subcontracts for me and handles some back-end stuff now and then) is contemplating writing a script or program to make this happen.
Then Jonathan realizes something. Remember the site we found that turned the text the right way for us? That I could swear I used? That did 2 different things to text in terms of rearranging it? He was using copying and pasting from the wrong one. I was right all along.
/headdesk
And I'm going "you really owe me. I don't know what, but you owe me something". So we laugh and I put all the shirts back up and he finishes that last shirt and it goes up. For the 5th time.
The end.
Seriously.
I'm not kidding.
The end.
And if it's not....don't care! It's the end in my book. :-P
As it stands, most people (read: rabid Christian fundamentalists) that want to tell me that "I know my bible", my thought (and maybe response) has typically been "no, you don't". After all the time futzing with this, from here on: If someone can't read Hebrew AND Aramaic....fuck you, you don't know your bible. Having spent hours and days with just Arabic, I can say with a certainty...almost no Christian on this planet "knows my bible".
I can just see early Europeans trying to wade through that shit HANDWRITTEN. What a nightmare for someone that didn't know what they were reading. Or was learning to read it, but "hey is that dust or a dot?".
Last point, because this will come up: YES we know how funny the web translators can be. They aren't that accurate, they don't do idiom, etc. We figure this is, at worst (we hope) some Engrish for Arabic. We spent a ridiculous amount of time taking the results of each translator and running them through other translators to see what turns up what, and if any matched (here's hoping the ones we went with were remotely accurate).
Next time, we put an image of what we plan online and let the self-correcting Internet inform us that "you're doing it wrong". Then we'll print the funny.
The problem was that when you copy and paste Arabic to a computer that reads left to right, the computer rearranges the text so it will read left to right. FYI for those not familiar with Arabic: it reads right to left. We *thought* we had this sorted out before. We did not. Will explain why this is hard to tell in a sec.
Jonathan had located a website with a script that would turn every thing around the way we need it. The site also mirrored text instead of properly rearranging the order of words and letters. So you had to use a certain one to get it to work right: I was using the certain one last night. For whatever reason, copying and pasting the reversed version from that site into Photoshop worked better than directly from the translator page to Photoshop.
I was using the one that reversed it the way we needed. Jonathan clued in that we should use Zoom in Firefox. Even doing that, it was hard to tell if we had it right because the different Arabic web font VASTLY changed how it looked between what I saw pasted into Photoshop. So here I am with my face crammed up on the monitor going "wiggly line...big wiggle...little wiggle...ok I think that matches". So if you think you can just look at some Arabic online, and then look in Photoshop and go "hey, same pattern, we got it right"...you're wrong. It's just not that easy if you don't know the language. I mean look, it's me and Jonathan: two perfectly intelligent people with a background in art which means we should be able to do this. Nope.
So he's working on some and I'm working on some and I get done. And as he's working on one he realizes his is all wrong. And tells me to scrap the shirts for the 4th time, because it's still not right. I'm exhausted and going "but I know what I saw! It matched!" and he's saying its not right. So I delete all the shirts in Zazzle AGAIN. He's exhausted and not feeling well. And me too. And we're hungry. And I've HAD IT with the fucking t-shirts by this point. They have destroyed every plan I had for the week.
At this point, he and his best friend (who is on the phone) are futzing around trying to figure out how to get this to behave in a left to right environment. To the point of: his buddy (who is a programmer who also subcontracts for me and handles some back-end stuff now and then) is contemplating writing a script or program to make this happen.
Then Jonathan realizes something. Remember the site we found that turned the text the right way for us? That I could swear I used? That did 2 different things to text in terms of rearranging it? He was using copying and pasting from the wrong one. I was right all along.
/headdesk
And I'm going "you really owe me. I don't know what, but you owe me something". So we laugh and I put all the shirts back up and he finishes that last shirt and it goes up. For the 5th time.
The end.
Seriously.
I'm not kidding.
The end.
And if it's not....don't care! It's the end in my book. :-P
As it stands, most people (read: rabid Christian fundamentalists) that want to tell me that "I know my bible", my thought (and maybe response) has typically been "no, you don't". After all the time futzing with this, from here on: If someone can't read Hebrew AND Aramaic....fuck you, you don't know your bible. Having spent hours and days with just Arabic, I can say with a certainty...almost no Christian on this planet "knows my bible".
I can just see early Europeans trying to wade through that shit HANDWRITTEN. What a nightmare for someone that didn't know what they were reading. Or was learning to read it, but "hey is that dust or a dot?".
Last point, because this will come up: YES we know how funny the web translators can be. They aren't that accurate, they don't do idiom, etc. We figure this is, at worst (we hope) some Engrish for Arabic. We spent a ridiculous amount of time taking the results of each translator and running them through other translators to see what turns up what, and if any matched (here's hoping the ones we went with were remotely accurate).
Next time, we put an image of what we plan online and let the self-correcting Internet inform us that "you're doing it wrong". Then we'll print the funny.