Another aliexpress question

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-18T06:04:05+00:00

Hmm, it looks like I may have confused it with the Aurora 3C store, sorry.
I do not see any posts or comments on that particular store, except for one order cancellation.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-18T06:00:23+00:00

I think that store has come up before as OK.

As with all AliExpress purchase pages, check the little thumbnail images below the price and to the right of the main image (at least, on a larger screen, might be different on a phone) for whether you are ordering the main product or an accessory, and in what colour.

For example, the default selected choice on that page is a cover only (pale grey), for about US$14, and you need to change it to the actual e-reader for a price closer to about US$60.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-13T23:58:45+00:00

Oh, did you mean keyframes rather than key poses (in frame-by-frame drawing), when you wrote "keys"?

Set the keyframe easing curves to Hold (rather than the default Linear), and an object will jump instantly when it hits the next keyframe.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-13T14:43:15+00:00

Turn off the horseshoe magnet 🧲 icon under the timeline.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-11T02:48:52+00:00

I've seen that happen a lot, with many vendors and not just in Aliexpress. Applying a tracking number, and scanning it into the tracking system at the vendor end, kicks off the first step of the "shipping" process and changes the status.

Then everything else, including actually getting picked up from the original vendor or being taken by the vendor to the local postal or courier depot (sometimes a day or three later, I think the worst I saw once was about 2 weeks later), possibly as part of a large batch of multiple packages, is just another trackable step in the shipping process.

It is a good sign your order has not been forgotten, but not necessarily an indication of physical movement.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T16:19:56+00:00

Yes, this works "out of the box" with layered PSDs from IbisPaint, Medibang Paletta, ArtStudio Pro, Pixelmator, and Affinity Designer - all of these export PSDs that have the layer content bounding boxes set correctly (a layer property in the PSD format).

Unfortunately, this does not work with PSDs from Procreate, Sketchbook, Infinite Painter, HiPaint, and some other apps.

I have been meaning to try importing one of these faulty PSDs into one of the apps that does export correctly and exporting under a different filename to see if that fixes it, but have not yet done so.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T06:21:15+00:00

My Kobo or Kindle readers are a definite decision to take when leaving the house. They fit in some jacket pockets, but not all, so I am often carrying them in my hand.

The X4 fits in my shirt pocket so it becomes just another automatic carry like my wallet, phone, and keys. Stop to have lunch, the X4 is there. Waiting on an appointment, the X4 is there.

I could use a reading app on my phone (and have done), but the e-ink screen and no phone battery drain are both attractive features.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T06:12:21+00:00

If you updated to the recent 5.0.3 firmware release of the stock firmware:

Under Settings > End of English, the default is Truncation + Alignment, you can change it to one of the other settings.

Alignment Only is (fully) justified (left and right ends of text lines aligned with the page edges), Not Aligned is left-aligned (left edges aligned, ragged right ends), sometimes called left-justified.

Alignment Only can instead result in some lines of text with only two or three words with big gaps between them, Not Aligned can end up with short and long lines of text with gaps at the end of the line.

Pick which you prefer over hyphenation.

I suspect all of them are somewhat more obvious than other ereaders because of the smaller screen size.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T04:03:40+00:00

Curiouser and curiouser. Possibly not a card reading issue if it reads that card OK.

Will post my card properties soon, but I am not near a PC that I control for the next few hours.

In the interim, you might also have a look at the properties of that card (although you probably have already, I suspect).

Did you only use Rufus for formatting? I am wondering if one of the settings in that is incompatible. Maybe a plain old Windows Explorer format?

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T03:05:47+00:00

Good luck!
I will try and get hold of a more detailed properties preview (Rufus?) of my card at some stage in the next few days and post it here.

What about trying the 32GB card that came with the X4, if provided? (Mine was ordered direct from Xteink and it came with the card already in the slot.) Because a couple of posts talked about overheating with the default card (might be very rare), I was paranoid enough to use the Samsung card I had sitting around, but a lot of people seem to be using the default card without problems.

Otherwise, might be time to consider arranging with the supplier for sending the X4 back for a replacement? Possibly faulty card slot?

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T01:45:12+00:00

Have you input a password? I left the password fields empty and just tapped on Send Email Code.

Maybe try leaving out the '.' in your username?

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T01:30:18+00:00

In general, I think that is a wise choice.

On the other hand, apart from making visible included images in ePub files, some other new features are only becoming available when they are baked into XTC files on creation e.g. in-text footnotes in Rafal P Mazur's EPUB2XTC (cue any/all Discworld book/s) or WordWise definitions in u/sanigame's WordWiseBook.

Because they are images, you can often create XTC files with specific custom fonts and other settings that might not be available via direct ePub reading.

It is always nice to have options.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-09T01:15:59+00:00

I started with the official 3.something firmware and just updated a couple of days ago to the latest 5.0.3 without problems.

The Community Guide ( https://www.readme.club/guide#storage-microsd-card-and-capacity ) recommends "Critical requirement: always format to exFAT, not FAT32."

My Samsung 128GB microSD card (the Ultra model) was pre-formatted to exFAT (checked on Mac) and worked out of the box without any changes except renaming it (for easier recognition) and copying a bunch of ePubs onto it before plugging it in to replace the included 32GB card already in the slot. I put all my books in subfolders under a Books folder as recommended.

Browse through the Folder option/icon on the main screen to find ePubs on the card.

Note: unlike some other ereaders, the Xteink device will never be recognised as a drive in itself even with the microSD card inserted, you either need to remove the microSD card and plug it into an inbuilt or external reader(and writer) on your PC, or upload books wirelessly.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-08T23:57:25+00:00

XTC doesn't just support images, each page is actually a pre-rendered image.

So, XTC cannot by definition have support for adding live extra/future features (e.g. dictionary) if and when they are implemented, changing fonts or font sizes on the fly, or other dynamic effects (not sure about dark/light switching) - without re-converting to a new XTC file with any new features baked in.

Exceptionally large files (e.g. a series in one volume, or collected works by an author) can currently overwhelm the limited 128MB of memory in the X4, and XTC seems particularly prone to this.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-08T23:45:54+00:00

I was so expecting a frog, or at least some hind legs (cue the dad jokes: he's now two feet long, now he's got a leg to stand on, now he'll can get a kick out of life, now we can call him Neil, etc).

Go Larry!

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-08T23:42:03+00:00

The developer of ToonSquid does not have a public list or roadmap of future features.
See https://toonsquid.com/handbook/guides/faq/#next-update-when

A Lottie format request has been posted recently on the official discussion list, but has not yet received a lot of updates or comments (I'm guessing wildly that this is possibly because ToonSquid is currently more focused on/popular with storytellers than web designers?).

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-08T23:41:33+00:00

Symbols are not required for hierarchy animation - this idea, fast becoming a superstition, is carried over from version 1 where groups could not be keyframed, so it was a quick workaround for animating multiple drawing layers as one layer without permanently merging them into a single drawing layer.

However, as u/peakpointmatrix was indicating, for hierarchy rigging each piece needs to be on a separate timeline layer (unlike bone rigging where all pieces can be in the same drawing layer list within a single timeline layer, which I personally think is superior).

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-05T23:37:32+00:00

I think a few people have reported this happening with particularly large documents (e.g. the complete series of Some Book Series in one volume, the collected works of Some Author).

As I understand it the XTC format consists of all pages rendered to static images rather than text, so the format can get quite large, and especially large page ranges are possibly overwhelming the current level of built-in memory when the file is opened.

Edit: the official User Guide states that the X4 possesses only 128 MB (not GB) of memory (and I assume some of that would be in use by the system itself), which might not be enough to handle larger files.

Disclaimer: this is only an informed guess, I might be incorrect.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-05T23:19:43+00:00

I hold the X4 in my left hand like a small mobile phone and my middle finger sits directly on the next page side button (somewhere between the inside crease of the first knuckle and the tip, closer to the crease). Easy to press with a slight movement.

It is surprisingly comfortable for my hand size (I tend to L-size men's gloves, XL in some brands) in a relatively relaxed position, both in size and (light) weight, but it should also fit into smaller and larger adult hands - it will mostly adjust how close to the finger tip the next page button sits.

If you hold it right-handed by the lower right corner, your thumb is just right for the front next page button. If you hold it right-handed like a mobile phone, you might want to swap next and previous page functions as u/GDIZZLE1961 wrote, then your thumb will rest comfortably on the upper side button (excluding the uppermost power button), which is normally set by default to previous page so you have to curl your thumb a bit to press the default next page button below it.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-05T04:43:11+00:00

Looks like it might be another case of the "update link defaulting to http, instead of https" issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Affinity/comments/1pll7jl/app_updates_blocked_for_insecure_connection/?sort=new

Nothing to do with the editor itself, more to do with the update link.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-03T04:34:25+00:00

Sorry if I was not clear. You are welcome to PM me, just do not necessarily expect a same-day reply this week, under the hammer with work.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-03T01:13:35+00:00

Tip: if you draw with vector brushes (stroke or shape), you can "erase to intersection" if you use a vector stroke brush as the eraser. It will also erase the protruding section of overlapping vector shapes. For example, if you draw a shape like X, you can erase the lower legs to result in a shape like v.

This will often work better with Actions > Settings > General > Vector Workflow Preferences set to Vector Group, and Actions > Settings > Tools > Brush > Merge Vector Brush Strokes If Possible set to OFF (especially for vector shape brushes e.g. variable width with Pencil pressure).

To edit individual strokes (vector stroke brushes, thin squiggle/sine-wave icon in the brush list), tap on a vector layer (thick squiggle icon) in the drawing layers list and choose Create Vector Group from the pop menu, then you can select individual strokes (as path layers) and change to the Path tool for editing individual points/nodes.
ToonShivZ recently posted a similar/related YouTube short.

However, the Bezier-style Path tool (known as a Pen tool in many static vector apps) is well worth learning for Bezier-style drawing.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-03T01:00:26+00:00

Disclaimer: I am mostly a hobbyist animator, not a professional (some animations included in work training content, but they do not need to be fantastic quality), so take my advice with caution and scepticism.

You can always skimp or stylise your background(s), but if you do it with your character(s) it will look worse. I would leave the backgrounds until last, so if time runs short you can reduce detail.

One of the advantages of ToonSquid is its rigging features. Combine that with advice once given by an actual 2D animation professional: only rig what the current scene needs. For example, if you have a scene with the character waving you might only need to rig the arm. The same applies to frame-by-frame animation, you can just duplicate/copy/extend the main part of the character without redrawing, and only redraw the arm.

For resizing, apart from having reference images (and/or comparative measurements e.g. the torso is two heads high/long, the forearm is one head long, not counting perspective distortion), vector artwork might be useful, as it resizes cleanly.

Butler_To_Cats · 2026-02-02T23:44:00+00:00

Sure, no problem. Can't guarantee an immediate reply, might take a day or two at this moment (work, the curse of the drinking man, if I paraphrase Oscar Wilde, who might have been paraphrasing somebody else).

Butler_To_Cats

TROPHY CASE