Orphalese Tarot Software

I knew you would love it. Not only the readinds, but for the prices, its a steal! Scanning in decks, adding decks, backgrounds, spreads! Oh, I could go on and on!

I have been using it here of late, to do readings and posting them on a web page for a group.
I save the reading, open it back up for editing, then using the rich text editor, highlight & copy all of it, then paste the entire reading to a web program (Netscape Composer).
Before I close off my reading, I save the 'reading picture', then add that to my layout of my web page. Its pretty cool.

If you would like to see what the web page looks like, pm me and I will send the link. But beware, the cards I do for this group is with the Decameron Deck and WOW, they are a naked buntch to read with!
Tee hee!
Barbara

I still have to noodle around with it and will do some more tonight, but I just have to say, absolutely fantastic. I PM'd you. BTW.

Peace

Baroli52

I really was anti this software when I first heard about it through the T o D CD. Mainly for the reasons already mentioned. I had a look and decided adamantly never to even consider it.

However, now I am aware you can still shuffle and use a real deck, and use the spreads you have always used to good effect I think I may have to give it a try.

I think the main thing for me will be the fact I can still do the reading for real so to speak, but can then draw the same cards and type a reading before sending it via the PC to the recipient. This will certainly enable them to be a real part of the process, whereby they can see the cards for themselves. I can't ever see myself actually shuffling a virtual deck but that I can see is only a small part of what is available.

Now got to figure out how long it will take me to type out all those 240ish spreads I have in my portfolio.

Thanks to everyone who has actually added to this discussion. It helped me open my eyes a wee bit, and not to be so judgemental of everything technical!

Spreads

You know, Shadowdancer, there are already tons of spreads that you can download to your pc, once you have registered! When I click on spreads, and it opens up, I key in 700 and let it find ALL the spreads it has in there!

Although, creating them from scratch is fun too!

I will look foward to seeing you upload your spreads in there too! I just downloaded another fine looking Rune set and Crowly Thoth deck.

For the money to purchase all the decks that are now on OPT, its still the cheapest way to go. Besides, and there are pdf books too, that people share!
I've got to admit, thats a lot of hours everyone has put into the Orphalese program!

Barbara

I have been umming and aahhing now about trying this. Couple of questions though (and I hope they are not seen as awkward)

Where do we stand with copyright for those decks we use of the 650 available? I am wondering if it is the same as music file sharing which has caused issues with copyright. If we do not own the deck having purchased it, but use a deck from the selection available which have been scanned in, is there a breach of copyright?

(This was raised by my partner and to be honest I did not have an answer)

With regards the spread layout, can that be copied over in a format that can be e-mailed as part of the reading? At the moment I am having a look at the demo version and when I saved the reading with notes etc, the actual spread layout was not shown. Does this facility come with the registered version?

Hope these queries made sense!

Also, to those who like to use real cards so to speak, is it time consuming finding those cards from the database to put into your chosen spread?

I really would want to avoid using the computer shuffle facility, sticking to manual shuffling of a real deck.

shadowdancer said:

I have been umming and aahhing now about trying this. Couple of questions though (and I hope they are not seen as awkward)

Where do we stand with copyright for those decks we use of the 650 available? I am wondering if it is the same as music file sharing which has caused issues with copyright. If we do not own the deck having purchased it, but use a deck from the selection available which have been scanned in, is there a breach of copyright?

(This was raised by my partner and to be honest I did not have an answer)

Click to expand...

Hi shadowdancer, I posted a similar question to the TarotZone forum when I first joined. Here's the post for your information (my posts are in pink, the replies are in green):

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and wanted to know what the situation was with regard to downloading decks from the exchange section in terms of copyright.

Let me start by saying that I'm asking this question because I have some decks that are not currently in the exchange and I was wondering about the legality of uploading them.

I did the search as you suggested (and I apologise for not doing that first). I found one of your posts where you wrote:

"My strong conviction is that most deck creators would be happy to have scans of their decks exchanged in this way, given that nearly all users of this progam are keen tarot deck collectors and having a sampler of the deck in Orphalese Tarot format will often prompt them to purchase the real thing. It would be desirable to try to track down the copyright holder of every deck that is uploaded here and confirm this, but given that this is not practical the assumption will be that the author does not mind until they indicate that they do."

At the risk of sounding like the copyright police (which I'm not, nor do I have any connection too ;-)) but how would the author know that their deck was available for download, so that they could then complain, if they weren't happy about it? Some of them may not have even heard of this software (shock, horror, yes I know!!!).

Personally, I agree with your statement where you suggest that seeing the deck in Orphalese would prompt a person to buy it. The same works in reverse in that, you might not go and buy it because you don't like it as much as you thought you would. Orphalese is fantastic for giving you exposure to decks that you would not otherwise have seen.

I expect that an author would have no problems with people having the deck in Orphalese if they had a real copy of the deck (like Tarot of Dreams for example - which I have). It's a bit like burning a copy of a cd for yoursElf from a real copy that you had purchased. But burning mp3's off the net is a different matter.

So, is their an onus on the person uploading the deck to go and check with the author first?

Regards purple_scorp

Here's the programmer's reply:

Hi Purple,

I think if you wanted to double check with the deck's author, and you managed to do that, that would be fine. If you wanted to enthuse them about the program and interest them in doing a software/deck bundle (as with the Tarot of Dreams) that would be even better! But I would not like to talk in terms of an onus on users to do this, because I think that in many cases it would not be possible anyway and it would simply put people off uploading.

I think your metaphor about copying a CD you already bought v making an illegal copy of a song off the internet is not really appropriate. To my way of thinking it misses the point that music is an abstract thing, the experience of listening to it is the same in both cases (CD or illegal mp3). But a tarot card is something that has a tangible reality, so a photographic scan of a card is not the same as the card itself.

It would bother me a lot if people were using deck scans that they downloaded here to physically print out a tarot deck. There have been cases of this kind of copyright theft, where people have commercially marketed decks printed off from scans they found on the internet (I don't mean with the Orphalese Tarot, I mean from the internet in general). My experience of corresponding with the several artists whose deck scans are in the "Other Decks" section has shown that this is a shared preocupation, and I have encouraged them to provide scans at a sufficient resolution that work well on screen, but without enough resolution to make them printable. Actually this is very easy. You need a lot more resolution to make a deck printable, and you can still get good results on screen with smaller files.

Cheers Richard

Hi Richard,

thanks for replying and apologies for such a late response from me.

I have a feeling that the Australian Copyright law states that you cannot reproduce more than 10% of an artists' work without their permission. 10% relates to an individual piece of art (such as one card) not as in 10% of the total deck. So, and I might be incorrect, you would only be able to reproduce a small section (10%) of each card. This covers any type of media reproduction whether it be printing/photocopying etc.

Having said that, I can definitely see a difference in downloading a deck for your own private (screen) use versus downloading a deck for commerical reproduction. And personally, I don't have a problem with the former.

Thanks for clarifying the issue for me.

with love purple_scorp

shadowdancer said:

With regards the spread layout, can that be copied over in a format that can be e-mailed as part of the reading? At the moment I am having a look at the demo version and when I saved the reading with notes etc, the actual spread layout was not shown. Does this facility come with the registered version?

Hope these queries made sense!

Click to expand...

Hmm, I thought that the layout of the reading was actually copied into the RTF at the point of creation but I just tested it and it wasn't, it only copied the individual card images themsElves. I do remember discussion on this point and I think I'm getting confused between what is proposed for future versions and what currently is. I know that Richard's plan for a future version is to be able to email the entire reading so that the recipient can display the whole thing on their screen, the way it was laid out on yours. This might be a question you need to pose to the programmer in terms of time-frames.

shadowdancer said:

Also, to those who like to use real cards so to speak, is it time consuming finding those cards from the database to put into your chosen spread?

I really would want to avoid using the computer shuffle facility, sticking to manual shuffling of a real deck.

Click to expand...

If you lay the cards out, in ascending order, face up, in free selection, it's not too much bother to reselect the cards from your physical spread. Though, I think there could be a much easier/quicker method. I'm sure that Richard would be happy to hear suggestions.

Hope this has clarified some of your queries.

BTW - Don't um and ah for too much longer cos you'll miss out on the lifetime of free upgrades offer. Seriously, you won't be disappointed if you purchase the full version. Just even the "Compare Cards" feature (which lets you view the same card from every deck installed on your computer) is reason enough to buy this software. Before this feaure existed in Orphalese, I tried to recreate a similar process using MS Access and it was resource hungry and cumbersome. It's an excellent tool if you are studying Tarot.

with love
purple_scorp

Purple Scorp, you're my hero!

Thank you so much for answering all those questions. (It would have taken me several emails to do what you did in one nifty post!!! ;-)

If I save that picture of my entire spread reading -that we see- to my hard drive (not using the print screen but using the Save key inside the reading wizard), I can upload 'that saved pic' (from my hard drive) into the same email and then paste the reading (from the wizard) into the same said email below the 'saved pic'.

That way, the whole layout is presented to the client, as we see it. I like to use that "safed tarot reading layout picture" to do a web page for an entire group reading too.

Thanks again, Purple Scorp, your're my hero!

Barbara

Many, many thanks for taking the time to answer this so comprehensively for me.

It has been sooo helpful.

I knew this forum was a great place to be, and you have just proved that.

Take care, and thanks again

Davina

Barbaras Ahajusts said:

If I save that picture of my entire spread reading -that we see- to my hard drive (not using the print screen but using the Save key inside the reading wizard), I can upload 'that saved pic' (from my hard drive) into the same email and then paste the reading (from the wizard) into the same said email below the 'saved pic'.

That way, the whole layout is presented to the client, as we see it. I like to use that "safed tarot reading layout picture" to do a web page for an entire group reading too.

Click to expand...

Ah, thank you Barbara, because you reminded me of a feature that Richard has recently added that I've not used too often. He has now included a shortcut key for "Screen Image". Here's how it works:

Once you have your reading laid out, press CTRL + E. A Screen Image dialogue box will be displayed. It captures the layout and gives you the ability to save the image. You can click on the "Email" tab and type a message, and providing you've set your email settings in the Options form (F9), your email will be sent once you click on the "Send" button.

Now, how do you get these two pieces of information (the .jpg - layout image and the .rtf Reading Notes) into one email? I know you could save them separately and include them (.rtf and .jpg) in the one email, but Barbara, you've indicated that you can do this another way. Can you provide us with step-by-step instructions of what you do?

Thanks,
with love
purple_scorp

Inserting a photo

Hero/Purple Scorp,

The only way I am able to insert a photo of a reading into an email, is with an mail program that gives me the option to insert a photo directly into my email. (Using the attachment puts it elsewhere and defeats the purpose of an impact reading.)

I know Outlook has a button within its email to click, to "Insert Photo."
My Walmart ISP mail program has the "Insert Photo" option too. I believe AOL has that option too (?).

I can't use yahoo, juno or the free Netscape mail programs to insert a picture into the email itself. That may be because they are free?

When I create an email I then click the "Insert Photo" key thats is on the email tool bar. Then I can paste the photo onto the top of the page, or where ever I want it to be.

But if you are refering to a web page that I do, pm me and I will send you the link to it. Its a bit of a shocker deck, but its just a web page I do on Angelfire for free, for a group!

Thank you for reminding me of that shortcut! That one is now TAPED to my moniter!! I always forget my shortcut keys except the F6 for doing up my datacard.xml!!!!

Hugs!
Barbara