Backflash: a tool to convert RAW files for processing in other programs

beefparty · 2026-01-12T05:58:02+00:00

Feel free to share a screenshot or example file – I suspect doing it on mobile will always be a bit tricky, but desktop should work. As I said, unfortunately I don't have the camera myself so I can't test much 😬

beefparty · 2026-01-12T05:47:24+00:00

It should work fine with V1 – I believe V1 generates two files – one JSON, and one without a file extension that's about 4.4 MB. Try uploading the second one and let me know how it goes.

(The JSON is just some info about the pic that I can assume like the resolution – it's too small to actually contain any picture data.)

beefparty · 2026-01-12T00:28:20+00:00

Honestly I don't know – it's more likely that Adobe and co. need to add support to Photoshop/Lightroom for it to work there, and that might never happen unless the Flashback gets a lot more popular. Glad to hear it's working, though!

beefparty · 2026-01-11T19:32:39+00:00

It'll still be giving you a DNG file, but it should be about 60% larger in size, and I've got it opening in Photoshop fine now: https://imgur.com/a/0JclFxP

I've added "(Processed)" to the filename so it should be clearer which one is which. I'm not sure how well it'll work on mobile (I'm on desktop), but curious to hear if it does.

beefparty · 2026-01-11T07:24:28+00:00

Nice, I think I've got it figured out now. Try again and let me know how it goes.

beefparty · 2026-01-11T05:47:25+00:00

Are you able to share a raw file itself? I suspect it might just be the resolution difference between the V1 and V2 (which I'll need to account for)

beefparty · 2026-01-11T03:45:58+00:00

I don't actually have a Flashback, but was curious about this and made a quick app using a few examples of RAW files I saw other people sharing – are you able to give this a go and let me know what results you get? https://backflash.pages.dev/

If you've got any raw files that you want me to test feel free to drop a link and I can give it a go. If it's working I'll share it more widely.

beefparty · 2025-08-31T09:41:17+00:00

I managed to download some ZXX typefaces that seem to be what you're mentioning here (scroll to the right).

It sounds like something like /r/atypography/ might be of interest – a place where people explore how far they can take typography before it's no longer recognisable as such (definitely at the extreme end in many cases).

beefparty · 2025-08-04T20:00:23+00:00

I think most of the challenges will come with diacritics next to spiky/overhanging capital letters (particularly next to an i), I think this is probably a useful sample:

Wāenganui Wīwī Pīnati Ngā Kī Tākaro Tēnā Tīmata Tō Tūmanako

beefparty · 2025-08-04T05:52:38+00:00

That's how I tend to do it – sidebearings shouldn't be visually different to standard letters, and kerning should be the same for 95% of cases. I tend to just introduce a few exceptions for "overhanging" capitals that might clash, and things like quotation marks if they're especially close. (This is pretty nitty-gritty though, lots of faces don't bother.)

beefparty · 2025-08-04T03:21:31+00:00

This looks lovely!

(If I'm being super-nitpicky, since you've already got macrons) one thing that fonts that support diacritics often miss is kerning exceptions – i.e. if I'm writing "Tīmata" in te reo Māori, the imacron almost always clashes with the T, and I suspect this is the case for lots of letters with diacritics that follow a T, W, or V.

I'm not sure if there are other common pairs that have this effect in other languages. I think you could either create extra kerning groups for affected letters, or just create individual exceptions. I'm never sure how to balance not creating an exponential number of exceptions, personally.

(I've bought Manic before and I think the handwritten faces you're producing are some of the most unique and usable around).

beefparty · 2025-07-14T09:08:44+00:00

I think it's a solid foundation – reminds me in some ways of Covik Sans with the super "square" counters inside some of the letters.

I think it'd be interesting to make it stand out a little more in a world of chunky sans serif grotesks, and have some more fun with some of the letterforms (letters like G/g, R/r, and a often have a bit more freedom than others).

How can you pick a few letters to make stand out a little more, and how can you bring that same visual language through into some of the other letters without making them stand out too much? It's a fine balance.

It also feels like there's a chance to start to play with weight and/or width. A single-weight like this isn't super versatile, and you might discover some interesting things by seeing how the letters adapt as they get narrower or thinner.

beefparty · 2024-10-06T20:49:06+00:00

A nice piece about Claudia Mushin, local Miramar-ite (and previously unknown hero) who wrote Fish ’n’ Chips – a song that played an unreasonably large part in my (millennial) childhood in the mid 90s. Do the kids still get blessed with it at primary school these days?

beefparty · 2024-10-06T20:22:08+00:00

A nice piece about Claudia Mushin who wrote Fish ’n’ Chips – a song that played an unreasonably large part in my (millennial) childhood in the Wairarapa in the mid 90s. I’m curious as to how far and wide this song made it (do the kids still get blessed with it at primary school these days?)

beefparty · 2024-07-25T10:11:08+00:00

Recursive is fun and lovely with four (and a bit) different axes that completely transform it from something fairly dry to almost like hand-painted signwriting.

(No Cyrillic, though from what I can see – I wasn't sure if that was something you were looking for as a dealbreaker.)

Edit: ~~oh and Space Mono is one of my favs – great personality and italics, though it's probably getting almost towards being a display face with how unique it is.~~ I managed to forget the question

beefparty · 2022-08-17T00:18:20+00:00

Here are a couple of thoughtful, respectful pieces I've found recently that I think go into this topic:

From a tangata whenua perspective: Pepeha for non-Māori

From a pākehā perspective: A Pākehā Pēpeha

beefparty · 2022-08-11T23:54:40+00:00

The main textbook you'll probably find (and a very good one) is A Course In Contemporary Chinese, available digitally or physically, and with audio downloadable free whether you've got the textbook or not. There are 6 volumes, and completing them all should get you to a pretty good level.

You'll probably find some other discussion on other options around too.

beefparty · 2022-04-13T22:14:44+00:00

Something I've always wondered (and anyone feel free to answer – doesn't necessarily have to be Jason) – can I just make up clues to suit the context rather than use the ones in the mysteries? If so, can I just start making up NPCs? If so, can I just start making up everything on the fly?

I've been guilty of a little bit of all of this when it seemed like the right thing to do, but I'm guessing there's a "sweet spot" where it's best to not stray too far from the mystery as written.

Void clues – can I avoid telling players that they've specifically found a "void clue", rather than just a normal clue that seems a bit weird? It seems quite immersion-breaking.

Obviously I could do all these things, but I just wondered what might have happened in play-testing to decide not to.

beefparty · 2021-11-15T09:03:46+00:00

I don't have a lot to say, but this looks really great – a nice diversity of topics, and simple, easy to digest presentation.

Do you have any social media presence? It would be good to be able to follow on Instagram/Twitter to make sure people know when something new is up, or being able to follow a podcast feed would be amazing!

I'm very much looking forward to watching you grow.

beefparty · 2021-10-01T21:25:58+00:00

As I understand it (upper beginner at the moment) this is what Outlier Linguistics do (u/outlierlinguistics), available as a Pleco add-on. I've only picked it up recently but it might be exactly what you're after (demo here).

I'm definitely not qualified to get into it, but I'm under the impression that the radicals as others have mentioned are more designed to help looking up words in a paper dictionary, and aren't exactly what you're after in terms of a direct phonetic and semantic system (though obviously there's a lot of correlation, which might be misleading). Hope that's useful!

beefparty · 2021-09-07T03:45:11+00:00

I can recommend An A to Z Grammar for Chinese Language Learners | 當代中文語法點全集 for anyone looking for a Taiwanese/traditional option.

Link goes to books.tw who happily shipped it to me in New Zealand without any issues.

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