Issues with dialog bubbles…

The dialog bubbles are a source of joy and frustration for me.  I’ve been asked about how much text can fit into each one, and it’s complicated.  I don’t just count characters or words, but the actual width of the characters, so i’s and l’s take up less space horizontally than m’s and w’s do, for instance.  I’ve also got a variety of ways of figuring out the vertical placement of the text, and line breaks, based on the number of words and the number of lines possible (5) and how many are needed, but there are still some issues I haven’t gotten cleaned up.

I am seeing a few things going on with the misplacement of the dialog bubbles.  Here, for instance:

Social Media Guru and Business Guy, by Marcio Saito

See the problem with the second character’s bubbles in the 2nd and 3rd panels, how the bubble is too low?  This only happens when there’s a panel line at the top, but it’s not clear why it broke in panels 2 and 3, but not panel 1:

Sample 1, by Margo Burns

There’s also the issue of the bubble sometimes being too high, as seen in the 2nd and 3rd panels:

The Customer Service Agent, by Marcio Saito

This I can reproduce:

Sample 2, by Margo Burns

This has something to do with how I count the words and characters, etc. for the line spacing, and I am working on straightening it it out. It happens primarily when people use only three short words.

Then there’s this issue: the text appearing below the dialog bubble:

Sample 3, by Margo Burns

This happens when a user starts off the text in the form with a hard return. The first line somehow gets pushed down. I’ve tried to trap it before it makes the image of the strip, but that hasn’t worked, HOWEVER, if you make the strip again, the issue seems to resolve, likely because the hard return isn’t passed BACK into the form:

Sample 4, by Margo Burns

So, these are the issues I’m trying to clean up. Any input is greatly appreciated!

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