The Empty Triangle
Pictures on Substack
Here on Substack, pictures illustrate articles, decorate display links, and provide backgrounds to shared images.
For each of these purposes, the Substack interface puts the pictures we provide in a different kind of box. Thus, the illustrations we put in articles fit into reclining rectangles, each of which measures 1,456 pixels on its long side and 1,048 pixels from north to south. The decorations that appear in all our display links, however, take the form of perfect squares.
Unfortunately, when Substack converts our landscape-style illustrations into square thumbnails for use with links, it can deprive them of meaningful features. Thus, when turned into a display link, the postcard I used to bring to mind the Entente Cordiale between France and Great Britain lost the better part of John Bull.
I solved this particular problem by using my presentation program to change the proportions of the original image. Thus, for the price of taking a few pounds off the figures of Mr. Bull and Mademoiselle Marianne, I was able to arrange for both national avatars to appear in the picture.
So far, so good.
Alas (and, indeed, alack), when I asked Substack to generate shared images of the square sort, the text covered the face of the lady who symbolized France.
Because of this (quite literal) defacement, I declined to post the share image to social media, thereby depriving the readers of X, Instagram, Facebook, Gab, and Minds of an attractive advert for my wares.
My first attempt to solve this problem employed compositions that showcased a lot of sky.
Where, moreover, sufficient emptiness declined to present itself, I added a little of my own. Thus, when George Dunlop Leslie painted a splendid picture that lack sufficient room at the top, I took the liberty of expanding the thin strip of brown above the head of the reader.
When it converted the modified painting into a share image, the text placed by Substack allowed a clear view of the most expressive part of the face of the reader. Better yet, it left plenty of space for the star of the composition.
Nonetheless, I would have been much happier if Substack had given me the option of placing the text in the upper right hand corner of the painting, thereby freeing the all of the reader, and perhaps even the entirety of her book, from the imposition (double entendre intended) of words.
After that experience, I began to look for paintings in which the southeastern corner contained more in the way of interesting things than the upper lefthand triangle. Happily, many farsighted artists of bygone years have obliged me by painting pictures like the one at the top of this post.
For more in the way of graphical goodness …
