bash ghostscript conversion of color pdfs to b&w

#!/bin/bash
# Loop through all PDF files in the current directory
for file in *.pdf; do
  # Skip if no PDF files
  [ -e "$file" ] || continue

  # Set output file name
  output="${file%.pdf}.bw.pdf"

  echo "Converting: $file -> $output"

  # Ghostscript command to convert to grayscale
  gs \
    -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
    -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
    -dProcessColorModel=/DeviceGray \
    -dColorConversionStrategy=/Gray \
    -dColorConversionStrategyForImages=/Gray \
    -dAutoRotatePages=/None \
    -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dQUIET \
    -sOutputFile="$output" "$file"
done

finally found decent go transit app

go transit sidekick
1.30$

offline transcription/dictation on raspberry pi with vosk

I installed vosk in a venv inside a directory for nerd-dictation which is another script that works great if you want to run vosk in the background and output it into vim. Heres my transcribe.sh for running vosk-transcriber on audio files

#!/bin/bash
# Activate the virtual environment
source "$HOME/.applications/nerd-dictation/venv/bin/activate"
# Check if a file argument was provided
if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 "
    exit 1
fi
AUDIO_FILE="$1"
# Check that the file exists
if [[ ! -f "$AUDIO_FILE" ]]; then
    echo "Error: File '$AUDIO_FILE' not found."
    exit 1
fi
# Run transcription and output to file
vosk-transcriber -i "$AUDIO_FILE" -o test.txt
# Print the output to the terminal
echo "Transcription output:"
cat test.txt

heres my vosk.sh for running nerd-dictation

#!/bin/bash
# Absolute path to the project
BASEDIR="$HOME/.applications/nerd-dictation"
# Activate the virtual environment
source "$BASEDIR/venv/bin/activate"
# Run nerd-dictation with the 'begin' command
"$BASEDIR/nerd-dictation" begin

shapescript is like openscad for iphones

came across this 5mb app on the hunt for a parametric modeller for cad stuff. you can import text files extrude them, set the background green and key them out in lumafusion to add cool 3d animated text. This is my basic script:

define words import "Text.txt"

font "Menlo-Bold"
color grey

extrude {
  size 2 2 0.5 
  metallicity 0.9

  text words
}
//background green

shapescript mobile on the app store

png to svg by ethisham niazi

a 6.99$ cad vectorizing app that seems promising for local offline use, 15mb. its nice to see something thats a one time payment instead of subscription.

heres the link to it
on the app store

list of tall condensed fonts for movie posters

Font Name	Style	Common Use Case	License Info
Bebas Neue	All-caps, tall, condensed	Action, thriller, indie posters	Free for commercial use
League Spartan (Condensed)	Bold, geometric, narrow	Modern drama, minimalist films	Open source (OFL)
Nexa Light / Thin	Light, clean, minimalist	Sci-fi, tech, design-driven	Commercial license needed
Futura Condensed	Geometric, classic sans	Sci-fi, classic films	Commercial license needed
Gotham Narrow / Light	Modern, versatile sans	Drama, thriller, biopics	Commercial license (Hoefler)
Roboto Condensed Light	Digital, minimal	Sci-fi, modern thrillers	Free (Google Fonts)
Helvetica Neue Thin	Sleek, iconic sans	Drama, minimalist	Commercial license (Adobe)
DIN Condensed	Industrial, narrow, bold	Thriller, noir, military themes	Commercial license needed
Montserrat Thin	Elegant, modernist	Romance, indie, drama	Free (Google Fonts)
Eurostile Condensed	Futuristic, squarish	Cyberpunk, tech, space themes	Commercial license needed

minimal raspberry pi os file manager lacked an unzip option

The fix - thunar archive plugin
I knew I needed xarchiver but despite being installed it wasn't showing up. what i needed was the plugin version

sudo apt install xarchiver thunar-archive-plugin

converting csv to xlsx on ios

csvxlsx converter app on the ios app store

Affinity publisher on ipad doesn't support csv imports. Datamerge is only on the desktop version. You can import xlsx spread sheets. I prefer being able to quickly enter in data using textastic as csv or shortcuts actions to streamline the prompting of forms for quickly capturing things. I opened up an xlsx made from some free csv converter websites hoping it would look like xml but it was unreadable junk. Thankfully I found a small app that does exactly what I want locally it was only a buck and it doesn't ask for permissions or take up tons of space. numbers is great but its huge. This is perfect because its only 2mb. Hopefully affinity adds csv support but for now im happy with this work around for prettying up my tables.

Learn To Speak Typographers Slang - A Glossary of Type

Term	Definition
Baseline	The invisible line on which most letters sit.
Cap Height / Cap Line	The top boundary of uppercase letters.
X‑Height	The height of lowercase letters (like “x”), excluding ascenders and descenders.
Ascender	The part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x‑height (e.g., “h”, “b”).
Descender	The part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline (e.g., “g”, “y”).
Serif	Small strokes attached at the end of letterforms; found in serif typefaces.
Sans‑Serif / Grotesque	Typefaces without serifs; “Grotesque” is an early sans‑serif category.
Slab Serif	Serif typeface with thick, block‑like serifs.
Monospaced	A font where each character takes up the same horizontal width.
Ligature	Two or more characters joined into a single glyph (e.g., “fi”, “æ”).
Kerning	Adjustment of space between specific letter pairs.
Tracking	Uniform adjustment of spacing across a range of characters.
Leading (Line‑Spacing)	Vertical space between baselines of consecutive lines of text.
Weight	The thickness of strokes in a typeface (e.g., Light, Bold).
Italic / Oblique	A slanted version of the font; italics are redesigned, obliques are mechanically slanted.
Typeface vs. Font	Typeface is the design; font refers to a specific file or style implementation.
Glyph	A single visual representation of a character in a font.
Alternate Glyph / Swash	Optional stylized or decorative glyph variations.
Stroke / Stem	The lines that make up a glyph; stems are the main vertical strokes.
Bowl / Counter / Aperture	Enclosed or partially enclosed spaces in letters; apertures are open counters.
Arm / Leg / Shoulder / Spine	Specific stroke parts—arms and legs extend, shoulders curve, the spine is the central curve of an “S”.
Apex / Vertex	The upper (apex) or lower (vertex) pointed junctions of strokes.
Arc	A curved stroke element within letters.
Foot / Spur	The base of a stroke or a small projection from a curved stroke.
Ball / Teardrop Terminal	Rounded decorative stroke endings, often found on serif fonts.
Joint / Crotch	The point where two strokes meet, like in “v”.
Double‑Story	Letters like “a” or “g” with two counters (e.g., Times “a”).
Point Size	The size of the font, measured in points (~1/72 inch).
Em / En (units)	Em equals the current font size; En is half that. Used for spacing metrics.
Condensed / Expanded	Width-variant styles of a typeface.
Contrast	Variation between thick and thin strokes in a font.
Typographic Color / Rhythm	The overall texture or ‘grayness’ of text blocks.
Hierarchy / Scale	Visual importance created through size, weight, etc.
Legibility / Readability	How easily text can be read, influenced by spacing, x‑height, etc.
Copyfitting / Optimal Line Length	Adjusting font and layout for readability—ideal line length is typically 50–70 chars.
Widows / Orphans / Rivers	Layout issues—lone lines or distracting vertical spaces in paragraph text.
Dingbats / Fleurons	Symbol or ornamental fonts (bullet fonts, decorative elements).
Drop Cap	A large initial letter spanning multiple lines.
Pilcrow / Ellipsis / Octothorp	Special characters like ¶, …, and #.
Raster / Anti‑aliasing	Pixel rendering of fonts and smoothing techniques on screens.
Hinting	Instructions in fonts improving legibility at small sizes.
Static / Kinetic / Fluid Typography	Static, animated, or responsive typographic styles.
Axis / Stress	The orientation of stroke thickness variation in letterforms.
Small Caps	Capital letterforms scaled to x‑height.
Subscript / Superscript	Smaller characters positioned below or above the baseline.
Gutter	Spacing between columns in multi-column layouts.
Justify	Aligning text evenly to both left and right margins.
Typography	The craft and technique of arranging type.
GSUB (Glyph Substitution Table)	OpenType table that substitutes glyphs—used for ligatures, alternates, contextual forms. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
GPOS (Glyph Positioning Table)	OpenType table that handles precise glyph placement—kerning, mark positioning, cursive attachments. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
GDEF (Glyph Definition Table)	OpenType table that classifies glyphs (base, mark, ligature) and defines caret positions.
BASE (Baseline Table)	OpenType table for baseline alignment across scripts (e.g., roman, ideographic, hanging).
JSTF (Justification Table)	OpenType table that supports script-specific justification (e.g., Arabic kashida).
Unicode	The universal character encoding standard covering nearly all scripts and symbols.
Blackletter	A Gothic script style (Textura, Fraktur) with medieval calligraphic texture.
Transitional Serif	Serif style between old-style and modern (e.g., Baskerville), moderate contrast.
Old‑style Serif	Serif faces with diagonal stress and bracketed serifs; inspired by Renaissance writing.
Didone / Modern Serif	High-contrast serif fonts with vertical stress and fine hairlines (e.g., Bodoni).
Display Typeface	Highly stylized fonts for headlines or large sizes, often too decorative for body text.
Text Typeface	Fonts optimized for body text and readability at small sizes.
Geometric Sans‑Serif	Sans fonts based on simple geometric shapes (e.g., Futura).
Humanist Sans‑Serif	Sans faces with calligraphic influence and subtle stroke contrast.
Neo‑Grotesque Sans‑Serif	Neutral, modern sans-serifs (e.g., Helvetica, Univers).
Script Typeface	Typefaces that mimic cursive handwriting or calligraphy.
Variable Font	A single font file that supports multiple axes (weight, width, optical size).
Ligature Caret	A marker in ligature glyphs to define cursor/caret placement.
Contextual Alternates (calt)	An OpenType feature for substituting glyphs based on context.
Stylistic Set (ssXX)	Predefined alternate glyph sets that can be turned on manually.
Oldstyle Figures (onum)	Numerals with varied heights and alignments for flowing text.
Lining Figures (lnum)	Numerals aligned to cap height, consistent with uppercase letters.
Proportional Figures (pnum)	Numbers with variable widths designed for visual harmony.
Tabular Figures (tnum)	Monospaced numerals for tables and aligned columns.
Discretionary Ligatures (dlig)	Decorative ligatures applied optionally for stylistic effect.
Fractions (frac / afrc)	OpenType features that auto-create fraction glyphs.
Swash Capitals	Highly decorative uppercase glyphs, often with flourishing strokes.
Initial/Final Forms (init / fina)	Contextual forms used at the beginning or end of words (common in Arabic).
Split Diacritics	Diacritics positioned separately from base glyphs (e.g., Vietnamese).
Glyph Coverage	The set of Unicode blocks and scripts supported by a font.
Script Tag	An OpenType label identifying the script for a set of features (e.g., “latn”).
Feature Tag	A four-letter code defining OpenType features (e.g., kern, liga).
Lookup Table	A GSUB/GPOS structure defining specific substitutions or positioning rules.
Coverage Table	Specifies which glyphs are affected by a lookup in GSUB/GPOS.

9 hour font making tutorial

bewilder entertainment's youtube video showing how to use inkscape and fontforge to make a font

Fixing Screen Resolution On Raspberry Pi 4 Running Wayland Labwc and Raindrop With i3wm

Arandr was scriptable and made sense after being replaced with raindrop I couldn't find any info on setting up a config for raindrop the drop in Arandr replacement. First I added an exec no startup id to load raindrop on login with i3 but I finally came up with a better solution.

  exec --no-startup-id xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1680x1050
  

The raspberry pi loads perfectly when I am on my smaller computer monitor but when on the TV text would be cut off on the top of the screen. This was bugging me for ages. I'm glad I finally have this sorted out so all I have to do is plug it in and it auto starts

getting mixxx to recognize the fc310 as hid

you need to flick the switch on the back of the controller to d instead of x for direct mode instead of x mode
you get a permissions error about usb devices to fix that create a udev rule

sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/99-logitech-f310.rules

# Logitech F310 Gamepad in DirectInput mode
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="046d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="c216", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

sudo udevadm control --reload
sudo udevadm trigger

sudo usermod -aG plugdev $USER

my hid mapping

its cool not needing to use antimicrox, this is as far as I got with the mapping. I was hoping to map the superknobs to controll the delay but have'nt figured it out yet
I still need to add the left/right nudge functionality

stuff I added to the mixxx custom keyboard config.

shift 1-8 for samples, removed the loop stuff because i never use it,
ctrl vx turn deck 1 super knob up and down c resets
ctrl r angle and m are up and down for deck 2 super knob
ctrl c and ctrl left angle bracket turn super knob send to zero

[Sampler1]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+!

[Sampler2]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+@

[Sampler3]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+#

[Sampler4]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+$

[Sampler5]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+%

[Sampler6]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+^

[Sampler7]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+&

[Sampler8]
cue_gotoandplay Shift+*

// -----------
// THE SUPER KNOB
// -----

[QuickEffectRack1_[Channel1]_Effect1]
enabled b
[QuickEffectRack1_[Channel1]]
super1_down Ctrl+x
super1_set_default Ctrl+c
super1_up Ctrl+v

[QuickEffectRack1_[Channel2]_Effect1]
enabled n
[QuickEffectRack1_[Channel2]]
super1_down Ctrl+m
super1_set_default Ctrl+,
super1_up Ctrl+.

How To Edit Metadata Using Clipboard Managers, Puddletags And Autohotkey

Its like a spreadsheet its really easy to see everything this way.
trying a few clipboard managers out so I don't need to manually type everything out each time.
diodon, parcellite, copyq
out of all of these my favorite is autohotkey
With it I can easily set it up to label genres like shift 1 jungle shift 2 footwork etc..

you can't safely eject usbs on ios

video about it

kind of freaks me out for djing.
tau lets you back up your database to iCloud or dropbox
it's stored locally within the app.
be careful because it might pull down an old version and overwrite your hard work setting cue points and adjusting beat grids.

They say the safest thing is to turn off your device to prevent corrupting it.

• always make backups!

Tau dj mapping for dj control compact

my hercules dj control compact mapping

They got rid of the tempo faders on this controller. The software workaround is to hold shift and turn the jog wheel but the default mapping doesn't do that. This map fixes that but at the expense of being able to finely nudge which isn't great but its works if you just use the touch screen for that.

fontforge masterclass

michael harmon is the man for making this fontforge tutorial series on youtube.

renoise defaulting to hdmi on raspberry pi 4 fix

install pipewire-jack and run pw-jack renoise to run it with the jack settting but have it bridged to run in the back with pipewire

beorg and organice encryption with gnupg

Its a 3.99 IAP
beorg encryption
I usually sync everything in icloud and the notes app lets you lock notes
testing it out by using dropbox and syncing notes using organice.200ok.ch
to decrypt on linux:

gpg -d mynote.org

you can use the iSH app to decrypt also

  apk add gnupg
  

gpg -d mynote.org > output.org
that redirects the output from the terminal to a file

djay player pro em fix

I was sad
when this app stoped working it was a one time purchase light version without dvs and midi but still very wicked. I was able to still download it and install from under purchase history but it would stuuter.

the fix:
under output options enable experimental 96k output
im so glad it works again
they no longer aell dj player pro
tried to install that and it wouldnt let me subscribe.

the app is now a one time purchase of 50$ called tau djv1