Blue is a popular color. It's also the go-to color for corporations that want to convey attributes of intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism. But too much blue is a downer. You'll find at least 3 of the 10 sites in About.com Web Design Guide Jennifer Krynin's list of ugly Web pages go with a blue scheme -- and not always in a good way. Other colors get abused as well. In answering the question Why Are Web Pages So Ugly?, Jennifer also points out other problems which apply both to Web pages and to print. Examine her list then come back here to find out the right way to use:

• Contrast
• Emphasis
• Bullet Lists
• White Space
• Type Size
• Number of Fonts
• And of course, Color

And don't forget to check out the nominees and vote in the Reader's Choice Awards for Best Use of Color in a Web Design

I tend to use my iPhone more as a reading device for news and other material more than as a phone. I like books, but there's not always time for a long read. For printed matter, booklets are a great way to get a reading fix without worrying about dying phone batteries or long books. I'll pick up any stray booklets on counters in waiting rooms or wherever I happen to be and when the price is right, I'll even purchase certain booklets. From a consumer point-of-view, booklets are more interesting than brochures and when done right they deliver just the right amount of information plus marketing. And they come in all shapes and sizes.

Here's a round-up of tutorials on designing and using booklets. I dug through a lot of links purporting to be booklet design tutorials to find the ones I felt were most useful and most focused specifically on booklets.

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Grace asks, "Is there a desktop publishing application that's compatible for both mac and PC?"  As Phoenix replies in the forum, programs such as InDesign come in both Mac and PC flavors and can share files cross-platform. But, when money is an issue (such as for a school or a small organization), Scribus is the open source/free alternative. What would you recommend and why and what issues might come up when sharing design duties across platforms?

And speaking of Scribus... it's one of the finalists in multiple categories of the About.com Reader's Choice Awards. Check out the competition and tell us who has the best for software graphic design, personal projects, or in the category of free desktop publishing software.

Received this from a reader this morning:

I once read a book published in Germany which explained the meaning of each combination of two color. For instance, green and black indicated stubbornness. Blue and red indicated the longing for emotional connectedness. The book has color cut-outs for each color that you could put together. Does anyone remember this book? -- Guest nyny3a

I'm not familiar with the book myself. How about you? Does anyone know the name of this or a similar book that gives meaning to color pairs rather than just the individual colors?