We have a fairly active Type & Fonts folder in the forum. The bulk of the postings are from members seeking identification of specific fonts. They may need them to recreate some letterhead or a logo or just because they like the look and want to use the font in some project but don't know the name. We have some regulars who frequently offer help and I do so as well from time to time. This past week or so I've been posting quite a few font identifications. But it's not always an easy task.

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One way to save money on desktop publishing is to get stuff for free. And you don't have to go dumpster-diving for some of the best freebies. Just enter a contest. OK, there's no guarantee you'll win, but it doesn't hurt to enter. Some of the prizes you can try for right now include a course in digital photography or a digital camera, a crystal-embellished  laptop computer, or thousands of dollars worth of office supplies.

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The PNG (ping) graphics format was developed as a patent-free alternative to the GIF format. PNG or Portable Networks Graphics are raster images that can support millions of colors, like JPG. PNG has variable transparency through alpha channels and has fully lossless compression (that is, saving and re-saving doesn't degrade the quality). These and other features make PNG a better choice than GIF and sometimes better than JPG or TIFF -- it can depend on the specific image and how it will be used.

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I've used the little Paint program that comes bundled with Windows a time or two, mostly just for some quick doodling. There have been a few improvements over the years but nothing stupendous. Earlier this week my husband saw me working on some graphics in a couple of programs (the free and excellent PhotoScape and the starter version (free) of ArtRage) and he mentioned that in Windows 7, the Paint program is much improved. Opened it up a little bit later, and Wow!  It sure is...

Paint in Windows 7

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