c4300b02b8
Spec for three cover generation improvements: omit obituaries from headlines, increase font size, and use pixel-width truncation. Made-with: Cursor
64 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
64 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# Cover Refinements Design
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**Date:** 2026-04-06
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**Scope:** Three targeted changes to the weekly newspaper cover generation
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## Context
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The cover is a 480×800 JPEG with a masthead bar at the top and a translucent headline strip at the bottom. Headlines are currently rendered at font size 14 and truncated by character count (45 chars), which doesn't correspond to actual pixel width — causing text to be cut short before filling the available space. Obituary articles also appear in the headline list, which is undesirable.
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## Changes
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### 1. Omit Obituaries from Cover Headlines
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**Problem:** Obituary articles appear as cover headlines alongside news stories.
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**Solution:** Filter articles whose `categories` JSON array contains `"Obituaries"` when building the `headlines` list. This applies at the three call sites that construct headlines before calling `generate_cover`:
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- `src/routes/publish.py` — manual publish
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- `src/routes/issues.py` — regenerate issue cover
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- `src/scheduler.py` — auto-publish
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Each site already iterates articles to build `categories_list` for AI prompt selection. The obituary filter will be applied when building both `headlines` and `categories_list` (excluding "Obituaries" from the prompt category pool is harmless since it has no matching prompt entry).
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**Identification:** Category string match on `"Obituaries"` (case-sensitive, matching the RSS feed tag).
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### 2. Increase Headline Font Size
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**Problem:** Font size 14 is too small to read comfortably on the cover.
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**Solution:** In `_draw_text_overlays` in `src/cover.py`:
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- Headline font: `_get_font(14)` → `_get_font(18)`
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- Line spacing: `22px` → `26px`
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- Strip height formula: `28 + max_headlines * 22` → `28 + max_headlines * 26`
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### 3. Dynamic Pixel-Width Truncation
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**Problem:** Character-count truncation (`len(text) > 45`) doesn't account for variable-width font glyphs. Headlines get truncated well before reaching the edge of the 480px canvas.
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**Solution:** Replace character-count truncation with pixel-width measurement using Pillow's `textbbox`:
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- Compute `max_width = width - 32` (16px left padding + 16px right margin)
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- For each headline string (with bullet prefix), measure its rendered width via `draw.textbbox((0, 0), text, font=headline_font)`
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- If it exceeds `max_width`, find the longest prefix that fits (iterating from the end) and append `"…"`
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- The ellipsis itself must be included in the width measurement
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This makes truncation adapt to actual font metrics and canvas dimensions automatically.
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## Files Modified
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| File | Change |
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|------|--------|
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| `src/cover.py` | Font size 14→18, line spacing 22→26, strip height formula, replace char truncation with pixel-width truncation |
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| `src/routes/publish.py` | Filter obituaries from headlines list |
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| `src/routes/issues.py` | Filter obituaries from headlines list |
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| `src/scheduler.py` | Filter obituaries from headlines list |
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| `tests/test_cover.py` | Update tests for new truncation behavior |
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## Testing
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- Existing cover generation tests updated to reflect new font/spacing values
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- Verify pixel-width truncation produces headlines that fill available width without overflow
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- Verify obituary articles are excluded from cover headlines
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