34s Vinyl Overlay First Attempt

[Eric Rechlin]

Hi everyone,

I just made my very first overlay on vinyl. I still have a few things I need to tweak, but considering I'd never done anything like this before, I'm surprised at how well it turned out:

The image I drew to make the overlay can be downloaded from here.

Maybe next week I'll have something even better.

Eric

[Walter B]

Eric,

Impressive! What printer did you use?

Some small remarks:

• Capital Pi is bigger than capital Sigmas are.
  
• Green comma is too faint IMHO.
  
• I'd appreciate a better font for the blue 'g' on the prefix key.
  
• Alpha characters are far less important than the mathematical functions. So their color shall reflect this IMHO.
  

Did you test it with the key labels uncut before - i.e. with flaps? Would be interesting ...

Walter

[Geir Isene]

Anybody thinking about selling the final product - with ready ROM, keyboard overlay and all?

Because some of us may be squeezed on time and still want this calc asap.

[Eric Rechlin]

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Impressive! What printer did you use?

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HP OfficeJet 8000. It's a surprisingly good printer.

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Capital Pi is bigger than capital Sigmas are.

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Fixed, thanks. I already had made the Sigma a bigger font size, but it wasn't enough, so I made it even bigger now.

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Green comma is too faint IMHO.

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Fixed.

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I'd appreciate a better font for the blue 'g' on the prefix key.

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I'll think about this. I actually like the font that it is now, and it's consistent with the font on the rest of the keys. However, I will do some font tweaking so I may end up changing it after all.

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Alpha characters are far less important than the mathematical functions. So their color shall reflect this IMHO.

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I think I will keep them white, but maybe I will make them a little smaller. With them red, it turns the calculator into too much of a rainbow, with too many colors, and the red is harder to see, too. But I might do one test with red to see how it looks. I'd be interested in hearing others' thoughts on this.

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Did you test it with the key labels uncut before - i.e. with flaps? Would be interesting ...

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No, but I will next test it with the key labels as a single piece instead of two, and we'll see how that works first.

Thanks for your input.

Eric

[db (martinez, ca.)]

Re: flaps. While making the keyboard face harder to clean, this would give one less place for dust to enter the keys. A good trade-off if it works.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

I want one!

Walter has redesigned some of the key legends. Refer to the latest emulator build (medium skin) for details.

For a 30b, a full size overlay with cutout for the display would make sense.

BTW, I disagree a little with Walter about the importance of the alpha labels. Many of them are used in addressing which justifies a somewhat brighter color than he suggests.

Edited: 13 May 2011, 3:12 a.m.

[Walter B]

Just for clarification: I don't vote for unconditionally keeping the dark red I proposed for the skins, but you may suggest another color you find appropriate. White, however, if used with the same font as gold and blue is far too light IMHO for such a "backstage" functionality. A light grey may be an alternative on such a black background if you don't want to introduce another color.

Walter

[Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)]

I would favor the full-size overlay with display cutting and avoiding the wordy "Scientific Calculator" legend. I wonder why, in the last years, HP included such large and self-evident legends as "Scientific Calculator", "Financial Calculator", "Business Professional" or similar ones.

[BobVA]

Nice! I'm certainly interested in a couple if you decide to sell them.

I agree with Marcus's idea about a full-panel version for the 30b.

For keys that have both a top and face label, would it practical to do that as a single piece? Or does the bend cause some complications?

Regards,

Bob

Edited: 13 May 2011, 10:05 a.m.

[Eric Rechlin]

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For keys that have both a top and face label, would it practical to do that as a single piece? Or does the bend cause some complications?

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I have already decided to do that for my second revision. The vinyl bends fairly easily, and I think it would look a lot cleaner. Plus, I think it would be easier to install (it took me closer to half an hour to get this one done).

Eric

[x34]

Eric, what has happened to your HPCalc.org site? Why no updates for half a year?

[Eric Rechlin]

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Eric, what has happened to your HPCalc.org site? Why no updates for half a year?

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I'll update it before too long. Definitely in the next month or two.

There haven't been all that many things submitted to it in the last 6 months, so you aren't missing much, and more importantly, the vast majority of submissions do not follow my very simple directions on the submission page. That frustrates me, because it means a lot more work for me, and it shows that the submitters don't even care to follow directions.

Eric