It's spring and all kinds of new content has sprung up on the site. This month we added two niches to our 16 areas of specialization: Presentation Graphics and Publication Art. The former is not just for PowerPoint and the latter is not exclusively the realm of graphic artists. Learn about the role of desktop publishing in each of these areas.
One of the hot topics this month was about spelling. In response to Ditching Spelling Tests, a blog about the demise of spelling tests at one school of journalism, Stan S. writes "Today it's garbage in, garbage out. No wonder we have lost the confidence of readers. Bring back spelling bees and spelling tests. We need to impress on our young writers that storytelling is more effective if we are precise." Read the other responses and add your own. Over on Facebook where I cross-posted this blog both Sheryl L. and Cherie L. think spelling should be required for all college students. Cherie even adds that it's critical from "Pre-K all the way through college and beyond."
The big product announcement for the month was the new Adobe Creative Suite 6 and the Creative Cloud.
Desktop Publishing Glossary Terms Added This Month:
- Candy Wrapper for party favors and fundraisers
- Character Emphasis goes beyond bold and italics
- Character Style is one way the software simplifies your formatting
- Convert to Curves turns text into graphics
- Decorative Type can be tame or wild
- Display Type is bigger and better
- Make-Ready is about getting the presses ready to roll
- Zine, a special magazine
Featured Tutorials and FAQs: Starting mid-month in April I'm featuring select tutorials each Monday and Wednesday and a FAQ on Thursday. This content is culled from 15 Years of About.com Desktop Publishing. If you're new to this site, it's likely new to you. And for others, it's always good to brush up on skills we may have learned years ago or don't use regularly.
- How to: Write Copyright Symbols
- 5 Step Formula for Display Ads or Sales Fliers
- FAQ: How Can I Print the Color White?
- How to: Specify Spot Varnish
- Create Artists Trading Cards for Your Digital Work
- FAQ: What is a Text Frame? and What is a Threaded Text Frame?
More Things I Wrote or Blogged About in April:
- Mosaic Portraits
- A Guide to Fonts
- Pantone Art
- Visual Language: When Typography Speaks Louder Than Words
- That Boring Legal Stuff in User Agreements Could Come Back to Bite You
- LetterMpress: Virtually Like a Letterpress
- 5 Ways to Say It Visually
- Printing Chocolate
- An Alternative to InDesign?
- Tight Fit: Avoid Sizing and Cutting Issues
- Hoppy Dingbat Easter
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