Manual

While it has been my intention that The Cartoonist's Calculator be easy to use, I realize that it has grown complex enough that its functions are not always clear. If you find yourself confused or puzzled, please refer to this document.

Philosophy

The basic principle of the new Cartoonist's Calculator is that the various functions interconnect with each other, allowing it to dynamically respond to your inputs and populate the changes across the page. This differentiates it from the old version, which was more like a series of unrelated tools that by and large did not communicate with each other. This new approach is more powerful, but as a user, be aware that every change you make may cause changes elsewhere.

As cartoonists (or illustrators), we typically find ourselves having to consider two sizes at once when making our art: the original size and the reproduction size. The original size is typically larger than the reproduction size. The Cartoonist's Calculator is a tool which allows you to calculate appropriate dimensions for either the original or reproduction size, and convert values between the two.

Parameters

The Parameters represent the basic dimensions of your page. At the outset, you likely know either the intended reproduction size of your artwork, or the desired original size. Enter the measurements of either one (it doesn't matter which). You will be able to calculate the measurements for the other in the Transforms section.

Width
The width of your artwork
Height
The height of your artwork
Gutters
The width of your gutters
Margin
An inset region (the "live area"). The width and height of the live area are calculated by contracting its borders away from the edges of the paper by this amount on all sides. Note that the aspect ratio of the live area is not the same as that of the page.
Bleed
An outset region beyond the edge of the paper. The width and height of the bleed area are calculated by expanding the dimensions of the page by this value on all sides.
Units
Choose whether your input values are in Inches or Centimeters. When the user changes the unit type, all values on the page will be converted from one to the other.

Inch display options

Show inches as fractions
If enabled, inches will be shown with fractional designations. If disabled, they will be displayed in decimal notation. Note that input values are always in decimal notation. If you need to convert between fractional inches measured with a standard ruler and decimal inches, use the Inch Ruler Helper.
Round to nearest 16th
If enabled, fractional inches will not be displayed using units smaller than 1/16 of an inch. If disabled, the smallest unit allowed will be 1/32 of an inch.

Transforms

This section allows you to recalculate the appropriate dimensions for your artwork by scaling it up or down. This can be used to calculate the original size from a reproduction size, or vice versa. By default, it inherits the values from the Parameters section.

In the From selector, choose whether to base the transformation on the canvas (page) dimensions, the live area dimensions, the bleed area dimensions, or a custom value. The Starting Dimensions will only be unlocked if you choose Custom; otherwise, they will be populated from the values in the Parameters section.

Transformation values

New Width
Enter a value here representing the width of the transformed dimensions. The height will be calculated to match.
New Height
Enter a value here representing the height of the transformed dimensions. The width will be calculated to match.
Percent
Enter a percent value by which to scale the dimensions, eg, 120 to enlarge by 1.2. The width and height will be calculated from this value.
DPI/PPI
Enter the desired pixel density here in dots/pixels per inch. Note that even if the Units are set to Centimeters, the pixel values will still be measured in dots/pixels per inch.

Proportion Table

The Proportion Table tool allows you to view a series of different scales and pick between them. This is useful if you haven't decided yet on which scale to use and want to consider different options. Click Show/hide proportion table to open the tool.

Minimum %
The smallest scale to be included in the table
Maximum %
The largest scale to be included in the table
Step
The difference between the rows of the table. For example, a step value of 10 will result in rows like 100%, 110%, 120%, etc.
Make proportion table
Click this button to display the proportion table

When viewing the proportion table, you can click the Select button at the end of the row to send its scale value back to the main Transforms calculator.

Structure

This section allows you to calculate the dimensions of regular tiers or panels.

In the From selector, choose whether to base the structure on the canvas (page) dimensions, the live area dimensions, the bleed area dimensions, or a custom value. The dimension input fields will be populated from the values in the Transforms section (if "Use transformation" is enabled) or the Parameters section (if it is not), unless Custom is enabled.

Tier divisions
Enter a list of desired tier numbers separated by commas. The default value of 3, 4 will calculate a page divided into 3 tiers and/or 4 tiers.
Panels
Enter a list of desired panel numbers separated by commas. The default value of 4, 5 will calculate a row of 4 panels and a row of 5 panels.

In the Result column, the heights of tiers and the widths of panels are displayed. Click the different values to preview how they will look on the page.

Printable rulers

The Printable Rulers tool enables you to generate custom rulers based on your tier and panel calculations. These can then be printed out at scale. Click Show/hide printable rulers to open the tool.

Ruler image DPI/PPI
Enter the desired pixel density of the generated image in dots/pixels per inch.
Line weight
Enter the desired width of the lines used in the ruler image.
Download ruler image
Click this button to download the printable image. Note that saving the preview image shown by the tool will not yield a file with the DPI configured properly!

Printing the ruler image

Once downloaded, you will need to print the image using a program that is capable of printing it at the encoded scale. Printing programs which scale the image to fit the page or print at an arbitrary size are not suitable. I recommend dropping the image into a blank Inkscape document and printing it from there if you don't already have a preferred application for this purpose.

Tools

After clicking this button, you will be linked to a new URL that contains all of the data that you have entered into the page. You can bookmark this to easily return to the page along with all of the data you entered. (The Calculator never stores any of your data.)

Summary

This section displays all of the outcomes from the Parameters, Transformation, and Structure sections so that you can easily refer to them. It may be useful to take a screenshot of this or print it out for future reference.

The illustrations are fun but not especially important, so if you prefer you can hide them by clicking Show/hide illustrations .

Inch helper

Since inches are typically divided up into powers of two (4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) instead of decimal units, it can be a hassle to work with them. The Inch Helper provides some simple tools to help you when working with inches.

Unit conversion

Decimal inches
Enter a value here in decimal (eg., 1.46) to see its fractional equivalent displayed in the Fractional inches field below. Note: if Round to nearest 16th is enabled in the Parameters section, the fractional value here will also be rounded.
Fractional inches
Enter an inch expressed as a fraction here to see its decimal equivalent displayed in the Decimal inches field above. For example, for 4 and 1/4 inches, you would enter 4 in the left field, 1 in the field above the fraction bar, and 4 in the field below the fraction bar. The denominator is not limited to powers of two.
Ruler preview
This displays a representation of where to find the value from the input fields on a physical ruler. Note that it is not drawn at 1:1 scale. The red line indicates where on the ruler the current measurement is located, relative to the division lines.
Show x/32 marks
If enabled, the ruler preview will show 32nd marks. If disabled, it will only show sixteenth marks.