Praises for PagePlus
Thursday July 31, 2003
Wondering how PagePlus stacks up as a page layout program? User Bill Schuhle offers his take on just some of the little things that this Windows program does well. ... Read More
There's Got to Be a Better Way
Thursday July 31, 2003
On the forum DivineMissM74 posts (I'm paraphrasing here): Doing a yellow pages directory on a Mac connected to a PC network. Current process involves building ads in Photoshop (TIF), placing ... Read More
Do You Kern Your Headlines?
Wednesday July 30, 2003
At least a handful of times this week I've run across a forum or a blog posting lamenting the lack of kerning in an otherwise good newsletter, book cover, or ... Read More
Sporty Logo Inspiration
Wednesday July 30, 2003
Tasked with creating a logo for a sports team? LogoServer offers a "collection of team logos of mostly minor league, semi-pro, and obscure teams from a variety of sports." Use ... Read More
Successful Design by Committee
Wednesday July 30, 2003
"It looks as if it were designed by a committee" is usually not something you want to hear about your pet project. But it's true that you seldom have the ... Read More
Could You Be Guilty of Identity Theft?
Wednesday July 30, 2003
Over at the Speak Up design blog Kiran goes on a little rant about the new BuyMusic.com commercials on TV (I've seen them, have you?). Seems their ads are an ... Read More
Brand Name Design
Tuesday July 29, 2003
Are you looking for help in creating a brand for your own small business or is the development of corporate identity materials part of the services that you offer as ... Read More
Best Fonts for Print?
Tuesday July 29, 2003
In response to a question about the best fonts to use for something that's going to be printed (as opposed to on-screen fonts) Dave shares "The basic rules I learned ... Read More
Professional PowerPoint Template Collections
Tuesday July 29, 2003
Everyone loves a freebie and there are certainly a lot of free PowerPoint templates out there. However, the quality may not always be of the highest caliber. Put professional punch ... Read More
Who's Got Your Vote? - Logo Design Challenge Continues
Monday July 28, 2003
The contestants have turned in some stunning performances. But who do you think deserves to move on to the next round? View the latest Design Challenge logos and cast your ... Read More
It's a Matter of Style - The Chicago Manual of Style
Sunday July 27, 2003
The use of small caps for some types of abbreviations may be typographically desirable, but it may no longer be the prescribed style for publications that adhere to the 15th ... Read More
PowerPoint Q&A
Sunday July 27, 2003
Q. Is there an easier or faster way to get text out of PowerPoint other than "highlighting and copying each text box... and pasting the text in a plain text ... Read More
Photo Exposé
Saturday July 26, 2003
In addition to the potential of revealing too much information in our Word docs, now we have to worry about digital photo overexposure? About Graphics Software Guide Sue Chastain has ... Read More
Now That's a goodlogo!com
Saturday July 26, 2003
GoodLogo!com offers a showcase of Dutch and internationally-known logos. You can rate (scale of 1-10) individual logos and view the top 250 based on the votes of visitors. It would ... Read More
PDF Software
Friday July 25, 2003
Newest addition to PDF - Software for Creation & Management: CutePDF Printer, a free program for generating PDF files from Windows. They also have other PDF software tools. (via ... Read More
Uninstalling Fonts Q&A
Friday July 25, 2003
Q. How do you uninstall fonts in Windows XP without deleting them? (Assuming you aren't using a font manager.)
A. It seemed like such a simple question but in double-checking my ... Read More
Web Design is Different...
Friday July 25, 2003
"The web can do at least three things that neither print nor film can do..." Theory 9 - Web vrs Other Medium at Design is Kinky
Also see: Web Publishing - ... Read More
PostScript Printer Q&A
Friday July 25, 2003
Q. What's the difference between a PostScript printer and an ordinary one?
A. PostScript is a programming or page description language. It is a way of describing what a page ... Read More
Demo QuarkXPress 6
Thursday July 24, 2003
Check newsstands August 7 for Computer Arts Magazine Issue 87 to get your hands on a trial version of the new QuarkXPress 6.
Symbols for Hotels
Thursday July 24, 2003
In the About Type & Fonts forum SheriM writes, "I have looked almost everywhere and am hoping that someone... anyone... please, I'm desperate... can suggest a dingbats font for hotel/motel ... Read More
Elements & Principles of Design
Thursday July 24, 2003
Judging from the reader comments, some folks don't care for what they interpret as arrogance on the part of the author in An Intermediate Guide to Formal Visual Design (by ... Read More
It's All in the Software, Right?
Thursday July 24, 2003
I stumbled across this in a forum discussion from March-April at the Design Research Forums:
"If you can use the software then I don't see why you can't be a ... Read More
Word Processor vs. Page Layout Program
Wednesday July 23, 2003
In a discussion on how to reduce the size of Word Perfect files, GRFXDESIGNSH details 3 reasons why you might want to stick with a word processor for publishing ... Read More
Digital Gutenberg
Wednesday July 23, 2003
The first book ever printed with movable type (as in printing press, not the Movable Type software that powers so many Weblogs!) is now available on the Web. The Ransom ... Read More
Product News: TechSmith SnagIt 6.3
Wednesday July 23, 2003
There's a new version of this popular screen capture utility for Windows. SnagIt 6.3 improvements and new features include new edge effects such as torn edge, toolbar add-in for Excel, ... Read More
Corel Corp.
Wednesday July 23, 2003
As you may have heard, Corel is up for sale and it looks likely that Vector Corp. will be the buyer. A Toronto Star article provides a readable recap of ... Read More
Stand Out in a Crowd
Wednesday July 23, 2003
One of the goals of logo, brochure, and ad design is to create materials that help a business stand out from the crowd, get noticed. While in the animal kingdom ... Read More
Color Laser, Yay or Nay?
Tuesday July 22, 2003
A Slashdot inquiry about alternatives to cheap inkjets brings a slew of responses on the merits and pitfalls of color laser printers in general and specific models.
Helvetica vs. Arial
Tuesday July 22, 2003
Font wars have never been more fun. Engage Studio has an engaging way to kill a few minutes (or more) and take out your font frustrations on an entire alphabet. ... Read More
Business Name & Publishing
Tuesday July 22, 2003
Swehner1 writes, "As The Buckmaster Institute Inc, we want to publish a book. There already exists a company called Buckmaster Publishing and we want to avoid confusion. Would publishing the ... Read More
Signs, Symbols, and Ciphers
Tuesday July 22, 2003
I slipped away from my desk for lunch several days one week and took this used bookstore purchase along for a little light reading. While Signs, Symbols, and Ciphers is ... Read More
Product News: StockLayouts
Monday July 21, 2003
Here's a new way to jumpstart the design process using the tried and true method of starting with a template. StockLayouts has a new product featuring 200+ professionally designed, customizable ... Read More
Product News: Interlogic Logos & Trademarks
Monday July 21, 2003
Get over 4800 retail and trade logos in vector formats for the PC and Macintosh. Suitable for both desktop publishing and vinyl sign cutting, download some samples. On CD-ROM for ... Read More
Extract Data from PDF to Excel
Sunday July 20, 2003
Faith is trying to help a friend get data from a PDF file back into to Excel for editing. Eggles has some possibilities including OCR or an intermediate stop in ... Read More
Impose It Yourself? Ask Your Printer First
Saturday July 19, 2003
"Please, please, PLEASE don't send me any files already imposed," implores Scott who works prepress at a commercial printer. As with any commercially printed project, consult your service provider before ... Read More
Now Arriving: XTensions for 6.0
Friday July 18, 2003
If contemplating an upgrade to QuarkXPress 6 you'll need all new XTensions as well. Badia Software leads the way with the introduction of Badia BigPicture 2.0 for managing graphics and ... Read More
Pros & Cons: Mac vs. PC
Thursday July 17, 2003
Here's another take on the whole "which is better" debate. In this case, 6 to 3, PC over Mac. Contact Sheet
Create Your Own Birthday Newspaper
Thursday July 17, 2003
The year I was born Explorer I became the first US satellite launched into space and gas was just $.24 a gallon. And on my birthday this year I will ... Read More
Product News: Is QuarkXPress 6 All That and Then Some?
Thursday July 17, 2003
With the release of the new QuarkXPress, the XPress vs. InDesign wars heat up once again. Some features may have users rethinking their page layout options.
This release has ... Read More
Product News: The Print Shop for Mac
Wednesday July 16, 2003
Until now, creative printing and home publishing software was mostly available only for the Windows platform. Now, Broderbund's popular The Print Shop is coming to the Macintosh. You should be ... Read More
What You Need to Know About OPI
Wednesday July 16, 2003
The Open Prepress Interface (OPI) is not something everyone needs to be intimately familiar with, but it's good to have at least a basic knowledge of what it is and ... Read More
Can I Quote You On That?
Wednesday July 16, 2003
We often use quotes and quotations in brochures, ads, and other materials. Are you using them correctly? About Quotations Guide Simran Khurana has tips on how to format quotations. Additionally, ... Read More
CD Cover Design
Wednesday July 16, 2003
Shellie12345 writes, "From CD covers that I've seen, I'm guessing that the font size listing the songs doesn't usually run over 8 or 9 point size." Chime in with your ... Read More
Free Clip Art from Texas A&M
Wednesday July 16, 2003
The links to the hundreds of free clip art images from Texas A&M have been updated with their new URL. Happy downloading.
Harry Potter Fonts
Wednesday July 16, 2003
The Harry Potter fonts page has been updated with links to some free star-studded companions to use with Harry P, Lumos, or other Harry Potter fonts. Use for fan pages, ... Read More
Product News: Photoshop Photo Improvements
Wednesday July 16, 2003
Here are a couple of noteworthy plugin announcements brought to you via graphics.com: • Extensis SmartScale is a Photoshop plugin to help designers effectively and efficiently increase resolution of ... Read More
More Lorem Ipsum...
Tuesday July 15, 2003
Can't get enough of the lorem ipsum text? Here's yet another online text generator, this one from Will Munslow at Subterrane. Choose desired number of characters, words, or paragraphs and ... Read More
Product News: Scribus 1.0 DTP App for Linux
Tuesday July 15, 2003
Scribus 1.0 is a new desktop publishing application for Linux and other platforms. Among the pro features: CMYK seps, "press-ready" PDF (and many more PDF options), ICC color management, and ... Read More
Content is King - So Give it the Royal Treatment
Tuesday July 15, 2003
We often get all caught up in finding just the right colors or trying out every Photoshop filter and forget that it's the content that's the most important element of ... Read More
To Link or Not to Link... or Perhaps to Embed Those Graphics?
Monday July 14, 2003
"I keep reading that I should have a large image linked and not embedded how do I make this happen? Is this what 'place' command automatically does or do I ... Read More
Are You a Good Typist?
Monday July 14, 2003
Test your typing skills with TyperA, a fun Java game. Take a 1 or 2 minute speed and accuracy test in several languages. See if you can make the Top ... Read More
PDF No Fun on the Web
Monday July 14, 2003
In Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox he asserts that users don't like reading PDF files on screen. He summarizes by saying:
Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text ... Read More
Food for Thought: We are all more than our job descriptions
Monday July 14, 2003
In response to Are You an Artist?, Carol M. writes:
A person is a person. I do graphic design AND fine art. I do not often have the opportunity to mix ... Read More
When Are You Most Creative?
Sunday July 13, 2003
Do you do your best creative work in the morning? If so, you're probably a thirty- or forty-something. Seems the youngsters (those souls under 25) tend to get more creative ... Read More
Typing Accent Marks and Other Special Characters Just Got Easier
Sunday July 13, 2003
I recently installed a nice little Windows freeware program called Allchars v. 3.6.2 that makes it easy to insert all kinds of special characters into text. By typing a special ... Read More
A Decade of Acrobatics - Adobe Acrobat Turns 10
Sunday July 13, 2003
Last month marked the 10 year anniversary of Adobe Acrobat 1.0. Hard to believe that when first released it didn't catch on right away. [Mercury News] Learn more about Acrobat ... Read More
Making Sport of Italics
Saturday July 12, 2003
Did you know that in the world of newspaper publishing there's a certain persistent feeling that italics are too lady-like for use in sports and hard news stories? In "Italics ... Read More
Graphics Finds
Saturday July 12, 2003
Some notable discoveries posted today by Sue at About Graphics Software are a graphics program for drawing in the Manga style, an online Font Browser, and a Photoshop-compatible plug-in for ... Read More
High Five (Megapixels) - New Digital Cameras Arrive
Saturday July 12, 2003
I just bought a new 2 megapixel digital and it does what I need. Do I really need more pixels?
About Cameras Guide Erick Hanneman is certainly enthusiastic for the new ... Read More
Singing Quotations - How to Properly Reference Song Titles
Saturday July 12, 2003
On the forum, Shellie asks about how to properly quote song titles. Is it quotation marks or italics? Barring any overriding style guides used for a specific organization, the general ... Read More
A Capital Idea for Improving Drop Caps
Friday July 11, 2003
ROP CAPS are both useful and decorative. But sometimes they need a little adjustment for best appearance and readability. I offer several finetuning tips in my "Drop It Right Here" ... Read More
Script Font from The Letterbox
Friday July 11, 2003
Posting over at Typographica, Claudio Piccinini describes the latest script font from The Letterbox as one that
"forces the amateur designer to avoid all-caps settings of scripts by simply… avoiding capital ... Read More
Umlaut vs. Diaeresis
Friday July 11, 2003
From the "I did not know that" department: Although I've written a brief tutorial on creating accented characters or diacriticals, including the umlaut, I never delved too deeply into the ... Read More
Graffiti Goes High Tech - World's Largest Printer
Friday July 11, 2003
Earlier I mentioned the World's Smallest Printer. At the other extreme, a couple of Swiss researchers have a new over-sized but portable printer that uses spray paint instead of ink. ... Read More
De(sktop)-Publishing in Cyberspace
Friday July 11, 2003
There's an interesting take on self-publishing and editing over at Ten Reasons Why - "The Ethics of De-Publishing". The ease with which words can be edited, corrected, rearranged, updated, and ... Read More
Word of the Week: Gestalt
Thursday July 10, 2003
It's a German word that can be summed up as "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." See how gestalt applies to photo and page composition.
Play the Color Trivia Game
Thursday July 10, 2003
If you were designing the cover for a book aimed at children under the age of 8, what color palette would most appeal to them? What colors in packaging are ... Read More
Word Processing Problems - Can You Help?
Wednesday July 9, 2003
We've got some Word and WordPerfect inquiries in the forum. Do you use either of these word processing programs? Lend a hand if you can:
• Looking for more ... Read More
Colophon Revisited: What's It All About?
Wednesday July 9, 2003
Last week's Word of the Week, colophon, is the subject of a recent interesting rant from Michael Barret at Abouthalf.com. He makes some valid points about how this somewhat ... Read More
Pricing Your Value-Added Service
Wednesday July 9, 2003
Not only do we have to tackle the problem of coming up with the right price for our desktop publishing services, we have to be able to compete with those ... Read More
Epson Boycott & More on Costly Inkjet Cartridges
Wednesday July 9, 2003
Found an interesting follow-up to my recent note on The High Cost of Inkjet Printing. Seems that Dutch Consumer Association Consumentenbond is advocating a boycott of Epson inkjet cartridge printers. ... Read More
It's Greek to Me
Tuesday July 8, 2003
Greeking is the use of non-readable characters or nonsense text as a placeholder in a layout. One of the most frequently used bits of nonsense text is the Lorem Ipsum ... Read More
The New 3 Rs: Reading, 'Riting, and the Right Type
Tuesday July 8, 2003
How early should typography be taught in schools? High school? Even earlier? A few weeks ago Tamye Riggs posted at Typographica about a Typography in Education panel scheduled as part ... Read More
Design: Binding Artwork
Monday July 7, 2003
About Art/Technology Guide Sharon Silvia asks, "Did you know that approximately 1.7 billion traditional ringed binders are made each year in the United States?" And through the UniKeep Design Awards ... Read More
Value of Design
Monday July 7, 2003
Found this nice tutorial on Using Value by Andrew Kator in the July issue of ATPM. It appears to be the first article in a new Quick Tips in Design ... Read More
Random Drops of Ink from World's Smallest Printer
Monday July 7, 2003
We have computers that fit in the palm of a hand, why not a printer for your shirt pocket? Not only that, how about a printer that can print on ... Read More
Fontosaurus
Sunday July 6, 2003
Looking for some original free fonts? Daniel Bailey has more than a handful of nice freebies (personal use only, please). There are a few commercial offerings as well. Fallen Family ... Read More
TMI: Too Much Information!
Saturday July 5, 2003
Some users of Microsoft Word may be unaware of the amount of "hidden" information — metadata — embedded in a Word document. Normally unseen, this feature of Word recently ... Read More
Typography on the Web
Saturday July 5, 2003
When companies try to adapt their print materials to the Web, they generally want to bring their favorite or corporate fonts along too. Unfortunately, some fonts that look great on ... Read More
Pick Your Business Name Carefully...
Friday July 4, 2003
...because one list you don't want to make is Light Reading's 50 Worst Company Names. After you're through chuckling (or coming up with your own additions to the list) use ... Read More
The High Cost of Ink Jet Printing
Thursday July 3, 2003
I'm desperately in need of a new ink cartridge for my printer but have been putting it off. It's no wonder. A story in This is London tells us that ... Read More
Crooked Lines
Thursday July 3, 2003
Anne is puzzled over the way her new HP 6122 is printing lines that "are always slanted up, sometimes only slightly, but sometimes really noticeably." To which Oranquintrel replies "It's ... Read More
Design: Business Cards with Attitude
Thursday July 3, 2003
Tired of the same old business cards? Take a gander at IDEO's Identity Card Concept Project. It's a collection of ideas that use business cards to explore concepts such as ... Read More
Word of the Week: Colophon
Thursday July 3, 2003
Jeremy Hedley of Antipixel laments the growing scarcity of the colophon. [glossary entry]
How We Get Our Fonts
Wednesday July 2, 2003
In response to a request to obtain a free copy of a commercial font, Tom writes, "First off, and I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but I paid ... Read More
Product News: Inkjet Printable CD-Rs
Tuesday July 1, 2003
I have a hard enough time figuring out how to print on envelopes and label sheets. Now Memorex wants me to put a CD in my printer? Today Memorex announced ... Read More
Creative Photography
Tuesday July 1, 2003
Fancy yourself a photographer? Today is the start of The International Photographic Scavenger Hunt for July at sh1ft.org. Take photos of 26 things on themes such as animal, weather, money, ... Read More
Do You Need Microsoft Word?
Tuesday July 1, 2003
When the subject of Word comes up in connection with desktop publishing it's usually met with derision, rants, and (I imagine) rolling eyeballs. But most complaints about Word — aside ... Read More
Teach Yourself Design
Tuesday July 1, 2003
"I would like to read a book that could give me some basic design skills for the desktop publishing required by my job," writes NASCARNOLE in the forum.
We have ... Read More
Logo Design Contests - Can You Spot a Winner?
Tuesday July 1, 2003
Poking around at 5 in the morning I found the Logo Design contest for the Department of Homeland Security. The contest closed in January, but you can view the finalists ... Read More