If you have a traditional carry around with you and show to prospects kind of graphic design portfolio, you usually put actual copies of your work into the pages. Prospective clients or employers can take out the pieces, flip them over, handle them. Not so with an online portfolio. So you need to use photographs that really show off what you've done. Not just the layout. Reproduce the texture, color -- the actual look and feel -- as closely as possible.

Scanning the pieces is one option. Photographing them may offer even better results -- you can take photographs of a brochure standing up and at an angle to show off the folds. You can use the angle of light to show reflections from metallic inks, subtle paper textures, or clear varnishes. You can create a still-life kind of photo of matching letterhead, envelope, business card.

• In 5 Business Card Photography Tips, get tips on photographing your business card -- or really, any print project.

• Close-up images are what you'll want for much of your print pieces. You may even want to go super close to highlight certain details. Taking Great Macro Photographs has tips on taking those super up-close photographs.

• Lighting is important in any kind of photography. When photographing your print projects for your portfolio you'll want to play with lighting in order to show off texture and subtle features that might not be obvious in a straight on shot with standard room lighting. Photography Lighting defines common terms and describes ways to control the lighting.

• Much of what you create is similar to paintings or drawings -- flat pieces of art. So the advice in How to Photograph Art can also apply to photography of your print work for your portfolio.

• Even when creating a traditional portfolio (in a case, not online) there may be times when you want to use photographs rather than the actual item. Either way, in How to Create a Traditional Graphic Design Portfolio (With an Actual Case) (scroll a bit more than halfway down) you'll find 16 tips on photographing your work to include in a portfolio. They recommend hiring a professional photographer if you can and include some tips on what to ask and what to look for in a photographer for this type of work.

Rather than writing it all out again and just changing a few words, read About.com Drawing / Sketching Guide Helen South's post on No Secrets, No Quick Fixes and simply substitute desktop publishing or graphic design (or whatever other skill you wish to acquire) where appropriate.

What? You were expecting it to be spelled out for you in a few short sentences? Sorry. But it is spelled out here -- the secret to doing good desktop publishing and graphic design is behind those tabs at the top of the page (Basics | Software | Tasks & Techniques). Happy Learning!

Despite the name, the "for Dummies" books aren't too bad. And this particular one gets 5 stars from reviewer Jennifer Krynin. Google Blogger for Dummies, written by About.com's own Web Logs Guide, Susan Gunelius, is for both beginner bloggers and those who have been at it awhile but want to do more about growing their blog and monetizing it. My own blogger blogs (on topics other than desktop publishing) have been languishing a bit lately. I think about them every few days but then don't go blog anything. Perhaps picking up this book will inspire me to dig in and keep on bloggin'.

There are some sinful, shameful, or just plain ugly things that some people do with desktop publishing that make some of us cringe. A nice poster I found on Flickr: The 13 Deadly Sins from Lauren Kennedy's photostream. She also has a two-sided brochure version (front / inside). Not surprisingly, many of these sins correspond directly to my own 12 rules of desktop publishing including:

• straight quotes
• double returns
• space after punctuation
• centered text
• borders
• all caps

Some nice additions I didn't address directly are hyphens for bullets (use real bullets -- there are so many to choose from) and underlining (except for hypertext links it's a bad idea).

Have a rule or something that must be avoided that's not in my list or on the poster? Write about it in this Reader Response form: Your #1 Rule or Best Practice for Page Layout (aka - The Missing Rules of Desktop Publishing)

And for more rules and things to avoid:

• The 13 Deadly Sins of Desktop Publishing (just the text. Credit says: Created for educational use by Don Starr, based off Robin Williams original work.)
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Desktop Publishing (includes things like busy layouts, bad flow, and no clear hierarchy of importance)
• 3 Deadly Sins of Print Design (color and resolution issues)
• The unspoken rules of graphic design (real and funny but not real funny when it's happening to you)
• 5 Design Rules Everyone Should Know (readers of this site should be familiar with most of these already... #5: It’s okay to break the ‘rules’. -- yes, but learn the rules first)
• Desktop Publishings 12 Most Common Mistakes

Most desktop publishing projects involving books are about how to design a book but some design or arts & crafts projects are more about destroying them -- sort of. Have you ever attempted to create a hollow book -- as a decorative container or a secret hiding place, perhaps? I've done it. It can be tricky. How to Hollow a Book in 80 Easy Steps by Heather Rivers (her blog at Tumblr) is one of the best illustrated tutorials I've seen on doing this.

Following links from a blog post at my husband's Radio Controlled Vehicles site I found photographer David Friedman's delightful Ironic Sans blog. A few posts that tickled my funny bone right off the bat are The Natural Cure for [Copy Goes Here] and Idea: A New Typography Term and How bold can Darth Vader be? I needed the laugh after seeing the gleam in hubby's eye when he talked about that wall of outlets from that blog post of his. No, no, no. Not in my living room you don't.

There's more than just design humor at Ironic Sans. There are practical ideas and tips as well. Idea: Word balloons as quotation marks is a nice variation on pull-quotes. And Designing Ironic Sans is a detailed, illustrated look at the stages he went through in coming up with the design of the site. And all of that is just a fraction of what you'll find in the Design category. There's much more as well. Enjoy. He's on Twitter too as @ironicsans.

Speaking of desktop publishing supplies... I found the The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies at Drawger via BoingBoing. How many of these rulers, plastic templates, gauges, bottles of goo, and pens have you used or still use in your art or design projects? There are a few I don't think should be related to the "forgotten" list just yet. Take your time browsing the gallery and reading the descriptions and comments. It's a delightful stroll down memory lane for some "of a certain age" and educational for everyone. Are there any that you have no clue about even after reading the description?

Beyond the less tangible things like ideas, inspiration, and talent, by definition you need software to do desktop publishing. What else? Fonts, templates, images, a printer, paper? Which are essential and which are possibly optional? I've compiled a list of the things you need to do desktop publishing. Some apply to everyone. Some are only really used by professional graphic designers (although anyone could make use of them).

What are your favorite desktop publishing extras? If you were helping someone else get started doing desktop publishing, describe the supplies (software, hardware, or otherwise) that you consider essential or very, very worthwhile. Use this Reader Response form to tell us what supplies you consider must-haves and why.

It's not too late to print up some US Independance Day holiday decorations. From How to Cut a Perfect Five Point Star to patriotic fonts and graphic headlines, here's your 4th of July Project Ideas, Templates, Clip Art, Fonts.

Do you have pictures of your own 4th of July print projects? Point to them in the comments below. Or, have you found a great tutorial or template online for some great Independence Day themed cards or decorations? Tell us about them.

Spotted this post by fellow Austinite Prentiss Riddle (@pzriddle). He tweets, "Tried to use the 'Make the Logo Bigger' video at work today in defense of moderation. Unfortunately irony was not enough." Yeah, too subtle.

And speaking of logos. @famouslogos writes about some changes to the Pizza Hut logo. And a few weeks earlier The Evolution of Logo Design in the United States showcased a handful of logos that are now mere shadows of their former selves.