When you have a human in an alien city...

You need a way to translate the alien language into the human's native language, or at least a plausible explanation for why the alien wrote in a human language.
(especially when you have physical journals written in that alien language)

One option (aside from having everything written in a human language) is to have the player find some kind of communication device that the aliens use to communicate with other alien races and each other.
This communication device then can translate things as the user sees them.
(the only trick to explain is how the device knows what language to translate into, and that's easy enough to explain without too much trouble)

I have a couple of designs for this device that are easy enough to explain and integrate into the story.

The first is similar to Uru's "KI" (D'ni for 3. A round device that handles communication and navigation) and contains a very small but powerful hologram projector that could be used to project almost anything one wants.

The second option is a set of glasses with LCD-type lenses.
I'm not too fond of this option at present as it doesn't seem alien enough, and the aliens in my story might not be quite similar enough in form to humans, which would require further explanation I'm not prepared to make.

Once you have a device like this, other things become possible (it IS alien technology, after all, so it's supposed to be more advanced), such as displaying an object's combination lock pad (especially helpful for hidden doorways), acting as a controller for high-security machinery (if there's no physical control panel, you have to have one of these devices to use it), flashlight (poor example, but it works), digital journal (with translations), card reader (useful for the possible end-game I mentioned in my last journal), and many other things that I haven't mentioned yet.
(oh, and most of what I just mentioned may figure in my story in some way or another)

Again, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Your imagination can set boundaries with the level of technology you weave into your story, and if you step outside of those boundaries with your design, your players will have a hard time understanding why it works the way it does.

Possible revenue stream?

This was originally posted on my FA journal and is copied here so more people can see it and provide their opinions.

At present, I watch about 120 people here on Fa, and most of the people who post the most are artists who can be commissioned to draw artwork for you given some reference pictures or the occasional detailed description.

I also noticed that most of said artwork doesn't usually include backgrounds, or the artists aren't very happy with the way they drew their backgrounds.

Further, I noticed that most of the artwork I have here on FA or in my DA gallery is actually backgrounds, and many of them would (if I ever actually finish them) work quite well as backgrounds for commissions.

So, I see two options for myself (three if you count doing nothing, which I'm going to ignore for now):

1. Sell permission to other artists for the use of my imagery for the intent of using it in commissions and charging maybe five to twenty dollars for their use (each time preferably)
2. Get my own artwork act together (which means learning to draw better than I do now, which isn't very well yet) and create 3D backgrounds as I've been doing so far, which you can download for free as desktop backgrounds as-is, or sell people's characters draw into the image for maybe twenty to thirty dollars each, which the commissioner can then do what they like with.

On the whole, both options seem like rather good ideas, though to keep expectations to a reasonable level, I don't want to allow commissioners (mine or those that buy from artists who buy from me) to dictate new backgrounds and only choose those I've done already.
(this would be to keep everyone fairly happy with the amount of time taken to complete a commission, as it can take a fairly long time to create one of these backgrounds, especially if it's to be commission-quality)

Any comments or questions?
(I might eventually post this to my DA journal, but the environment on DA isn't quite so friendly to commissions, and especially of this type, so it probably won't be as worth it as here and on FA)