New FREE teleprompter web-based app

Mike Drob · April 13th, 2009, 08:30 AM

Just wanted to update everyone - proper mirrored text is coming shortly. It will require a font download but I am creating my own font that is much more complete and unicode compliant than the Kcab font that's in use on cueprompter. It is based on DejaVu Sans (an open source arial/helvetica - type font). You can look it up online to see what languages/character sets it supports.
I am hoping the international community will help me test out this upcoming release in their language to let me know if there are any problems with non-Latin character sets.

Thanks all. Stay Tuned!

Vito DeFilippo · April 13th, 2009, 08:39 AM

Mike,

Can I add my thanks to that of others? This is such a great thing that you are doing. Thanks a million!

Ken Campbell · April 13th, 2009, 12:55 PM

BIG THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried Prompt! today but the 2500 character limit to the free version got me, plus I wanted a larger screen size. Just tried your telepromter and it is perfect!

Keep up the good work!

Mike Drob · April 23rd, 2009, 12:14 AM

MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT!

After a few weeks and a few sleepless nights, I finally managed to get mirrored text fully working via a font (which I had to create) download.

Thusfar, it is FAR superior to what you find on cueprompter for a couple reasons:
1 - my font is unicode compliant so many languages and character sets will work out of the box

2 - I implemented some insanely complex (and annoying) code to make sure all the text is wrapped correctly.

There is only 1 caveat currently and that's if you resize the window or change font size during playback, the wrapping will get a little weird. I will fix this shortly.

For the time being, I need help testing this as much as possible - especially in languages other than english! Please let me know how it works for you!

Thank you all for the support!

Battle Vaughan · April 23rd, 2009, 09:44 AM

Totally wizard, thanks for doing this! / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Oren Arieli · April 23rd, 2009, 10:23 AM

Mike, you RULE!. Thanks for putting this together and making the suggested changes. Wish I could present you with a medal.

Brian Luce · April 23rd, 2009, 08:09 PM

I used your software on a shoot. It worked! One thing that would be helpful is the ability to smoothly vary the speed the words scroll by -- the talent would vary her delivery and when the teleprompter operartor slowed down the text jerks a bit. It needs a little more fine pinpoint control in the scrolling function.
Since there was no mirror text, we didn't use the reflector glass and just placed the LCD below the lens. As far as I'm concerned, it looks just like the talent is staring into the lens.

Mike Drob · April 24th, 2009, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Luce

I used your software on a shoot. It worked! One thing that would be helpful is the ability to smoothly vary the speed the words scroll by -- the talent would vary her delivery and when the teleprompter operartor slowed down the text jerks a bit. It needs a little more fine pinpoint control in the scrolling function.
Since there was no mirror text, we didn't use the reflector glass and just placed the LCD below the lens. As far as I'm concerned, it looks just like the talent is staring into the lens.

Hi Brian! This is really great to hear. Just wanted to tell you that you CAN control the speed during the shoot. By either using the left/right arrow keys or the mouse scroll wheel. The scroll wheel in particular may be really useful since you can have very fine control over it and if you have a wireless mouse, can do it from anywhere.

Ken Campbell · April 25th, 2009, 12:17 AM

Mike Drob wins the WAY COOL!! award!

Mike Drob · April 25th, 2009, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Campbell

Mike Drob wins the WAY COOL!! award!

Thanks.. too bad those don't come with a big check attached ;) j/k

Duncan Craig · April 26th, 2009, 03:43 AM

OK, So a couple of question...

Will the portable version have the flip option soon?

What's the best solution that people have found, for mirrored glass to get this whole thing to work properly on a camera, and to mount a laptop on a tripod...

Mike, if/when I use this on a job, I want to pay you for it.
Make it Shareware - What's your PayPal address.

In fact here's a starter for 10, the new Cinevate cage holds a laptop... Above a camera: http://www.cinevate.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=133

Mike Drob · April 26th, 2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

OK, So a couple of question...

Will the portable version have the flip option soon?

What's the best solution that people have found, for mirrored glass to get this whole thing to work properly on a camera, and to mount a laptop on a tripod...

Mike, if/when I use this on a job, I want to pay you for it.
Make it Shareware - What's your PayPal address.

In fact here's a starter for 10, the new Cinevate cage holds a laptop... Above a camera: Cage clamps

Duncan,

Yes, i'm working on having the flip option work for the portable version. I would also like to do a video demo of the software and put it up on youtube or something but havent found the time. I thought of making it donation-ware. I did spend quite a long time making this but since it was for my own purposes initially and just as a coding challenge later on, I don't want to charge people directly. There will always be a free version of easyprompter and it won't be disabled in any horrid way ( maximum amount of characters?!! wtf)

anyway.. if anyone is feeling truly generous, my paypal is orders@story-tailors.com and I would appreciate any contributions to help pay for the hosting and things like that.

Also - as far as mounting a laptop - I'd recommend mounting it under the camera instead of above if space allows. This way the text is closer to ther camera since it scrolls up.
Personally, I used a folding music stand for my shoot :)

Thanks again for all your support and spread the word!

Ken Campbell · April 27th, 2009, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Drob

anyway.. if anyone is feeling truly generous, my paypal is orders@story-tailors.com and I would appreciate any contributions to help pay for the hosting and things like that.

Contribution made and merited! Can I suggest putting a donate button on the homepage?

Thanks again for your efforts!

Chris Swanberg · April 27th, 2009, 09:27 AM

Thanks for all your effort. I find that the font does not replicate the flip function, but only reverses individual letters, which does not help by itself. Is there something more I need to do to use it in the stand alone?

Mike Drob · April 27th, 2009, 09:37 AM

Since a few people expressed interest in donating to the cause, I put up a donations page - EasyPrompter Donation

I would appreciate any support, but would like to maintain that EasyPrompter is FREE, so if you don't want to donate, don't feel guilty or anything :) - I'm cool with it.

----

Ken - thank you so much for your contribution.

Chris - I don't think I completely understand your issue. Can you describe what you're seeing in more detail? As far as portable version - flipped text is not yet available for it. I AM working on it though!

April 13th, 2009, 08:39 AM	#32
Vito DeFilippo Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Montreal, Quebec Posts: 1,585	Mike, Can I add my thanks to that of others? This is such a great thing that you are doing. Thanks a million! __________________ . http://www.nosmallroles.com

April 23rd, 2009, 12:14 AM	#34
Mike Drob Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Scotch Plains, NJ Posts: 75	MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT! MIRRORED TEXT! After a few weeks and a few sleepless nights, I finally managed to get mirrored text fully working via a font (which I had to create) download. Thusfar, it is FAR superior to what you find on cueprompter for a couple reasons: 1 - my font is unicode compliant so many languages and character sets will work out of the box 2 - I implemented some insanely complex (and annoying) code to make sure all the text is wrapped correctly. There is only 1 caveat currently and that's if you resize the window or change font size during playback, the wrapping will get a little weird. I will fix this shortly. For the time being, I need help testing this as much as possible - especially in languages other than english! Please let me know how it works for you! Thank you all for the support! __________________ -Mike Drob EasyPrompter - the best free online teleprompter - (Twitter) \| (Facebook)

April 26th, 2009, 03:43 AM	#41
Duncan Craig Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Leeds, UK Posts: 660 Images: 10	OK, So a couple of question... Will the portable version have the flip option soon? What's the best solution that people have found, for mirrored glass to get this whole thing to work properly on a camera, and to mount a laptop on a tripod... Mike, if/when I use this on a job, I want to pay you for it. Make it Shareware - What's your PayPal address. In fact here's a starter for 10, the new Cinevate cage holds a laptop... Above a camera: http://www.cinevate.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=133 __________________ FCPX/LS300/EX1/FS100/GoPro/Vinten/HotHead/Jib/Track/Dedos/Lightstorm/Coollights

April 27th, 2009, 09:37 AM	#45
Mike Drob Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Scotch Plains, NJ Posts: 75	Since a few people expressed interest in donating to the cause, I put up a donations page - EasyPrompter Donation I would appreciate any support, but would like to maintain that EasyPrompter is FREE, so if you don't want to donate, don't feel guilty or anything :) - I'm cool with it. ---- Ken - thank you so much for your contribution. Chris - I don't think I completely understand your issue. Can you describe what you're seeing in more detail? As far as portable version - flipped text is not yet available for it. I AM working on it though! __________________ -Mike Drob EasyPrompter - the best free online teleprompter - (Twitter) \| (Facebook)

April 13th, 2009, 08:30 AM	#31
Mike Drob Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Scotch Plains, NJ Posts: 75	Just wanted to update everyone - proper mirrored text is coming shortly. It will require a font download but I am creating my own font that is much more complete and unicode compliant than the Kcab font that's in use on cueprompter. It is based on DejaVu Sans (an open source arial/helvetica - type font). You can look it up online to see what languages/character sets it supports. I am hoping the international community will help me test out this upcoming release in their language to let me know if there are any problems with non-Latin character sets. Thanks all. Stay Tuned!

April 13th, 2009, 12:55 PM	#33
Ken Campbell Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Milan, Italy Posts: 140	BIG THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried Prompt! today but the 2500 character limit to the free version got me, plus I wanted a larger screen size. Just tried your telepromter and it is perfect! Keep up the good work!

April 23rd, 2009, 09:44 AM	#35
Battle Vaughan Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami, FL USA Posts: 1,505	Totally wizard, thanks for doing this! / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

April 23rd, 2009, 10:23 AM	#36
Oren Arieli Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Jose, California Posts: 919	Mike, you RULE!. Thanks for putting this together and making the suggested changes. Wish I could present you with a medal.

April 23rd, 2009, 08:09 PM	#37
Brian Luce Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,290	I used your software on a shoot. It worked! One thing that would be helpful is the ability to smoothly vary the speed the words scroll by -- the talent would vary her delivery and when the teleprompter operartor slowed down the text jerks a bit. It needs a little more fine pinpoint control in the scrolling function. Since there was no mirror text, we didn't use the reflector glass and just placed the LCD below the lens. As far as I'm concerned, it looks just like the talent is staring into the lens.

April 25th, 2009, 12:17 AM	#39
Ken Campbell Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Milan, Italy Posts: 140	Mike Drob wins the WAY COOL!! award!

April 27th, 2009, 09:27 AM	#44
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Thanks for all your effort. I find that the font does not replicate the flip function, but only reverses individual letters, which does not help by itself. Is there something more I need to do to use it in the stand alone?