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Wednesday December 31, 2003
Shellie asks, "Is it possible to over think something sometimes?" She's trying to come up with a logo for a CPA that says "established, security, trustworthiness, and freedom of worry ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Page Layout & Type
Wednesday December 31, 2003
Reverses (white or light text on a black or dark background) are usually best used in moderation. Try this: Reverse a single letter to create an initial cap that is ... Read More
Ironically... (or not)
Tuesday December 30, 2003
"...on a typographical note, italic text is often used to enhance verbal irony and sarcasm." And there's much more to learn about irony in this Writing & Style article from ... Read More
Find an Image Based on Color and Shape
Tuesday December 30, 2003
Coming in February, this image cataloging system lets you organize and search for images based on color and shape rather than the usual keyword search. Sounds interesting... NM Software preps ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Printing
Tuesday December 30, 2003
Although shopping around for the best price is important, also consider the time involved in getting numerous quotes and the time involved in learning the requirements and quirks of a ... Read More
Linotype Lives...
Tuesday December 30, 2003
Meet Patrick Burns. Linotype is lifelong passion - Local News - publicopiniononline.com
Playing with PowerPoint
Monday December 29, 2003
This AP article making the rounds describes how Talking Heads vocalist David Byrne went wild with PowerPoint... The Seattle Times: PowerPoint effect: Does it spark or numb creativity
Tip o' the Day: Graphics
Monday December 29, 2003
You can sometimes trick the eye into believing that a low-resolution image has more data (information) in the file than it really has. This is especially useful when you must ... Read More
What color is your logo?
Monday December 29, 2003
"Creating a logo for both Web and print can be a challenging task." Wanda Cummings discusses and illustrates the use of four-color and spot color printing and color matching between ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: PageMaker
Sunday December 28, 2003
If you find yourself frequently accessing the Utilities > Plug-ins you can save time by opening the Scripts palette. It puts all the plug-ins in an easy-to-see palette in your ... Read More
Desktop Publishing 101
Saturday December 27, 2003
For fun or for profit, learn the basics of design and page layout. Discover the best desktop publishing software - no matter what you want to create - and the ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Publisher
Saturday December 27, 2003
Unlike PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and other high-end programs, Microsoft Publisher uses the term layout guides for margin and grid guides that affect the entire publication (background) and the term ruler guides ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Page Layout
Friday December 26, 2003
The rule of thirds says that most designs can be made more interesting by visually dividing the page into thirds vertically and/or horizontally and placing our most important elements within ... Read More
Typesetting Native American Languages
Friday December 26, 2003
In The Journal of Electronic Publishing Apostolos Syropoulos looks at the characteristics of various native American languages such as Cherokee, and discusses a TeX-based typesetting system that can handle the ... Read More
Quick Fixes
Thursday December 25, 2003
Desktop publishing is complicated. Graphic design is not something everyone can do well. However, in a pinch, there are shortcuts, quick fixes, and a few rules of thumb that can ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Printing
Thursday December 25, 2003
Some printers have specific color days where they print all spot color jobs requiring certain common colors. Plan your project around those common color days to save time and money. ... Read More
Q. What is the best way to choose or mix and match fonts?
Wednesday December 24, 2003
A. There are no absolutely right or wrong ways to choose fonts or mix different fonts. However, there are a few accepted standards that can speed up the font selection ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Logos
Wednesday December 24, 2003
Whether you're constrained by time, your own skills, or just a creative block, you can jumpstart the design and desktop publishing process with the use of templates and other helpers ... Read More
Happy Holidays Everyone
Tuesday December 23, 2003
Season's Greetings and thank you to all my regular visitors here at About Desktop Publishing for helping to make 2003 a great year. And welcome to first-time visitors. Hope you ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Typography
Tuesday December 23, 2003
You may need to adjust the baseline alignment between your initial cap and the rest of the text. Your initial cap should share a baseline with the adjacent text. Ideally ... Read More
Sweet Stuff
Tuesday December 23, 2003
Many of the "rules" of desktop publishing and design call for cutting the clutter, using fewer fonts, less clip art. But not all those pretty pictures are just useless fluff. ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Contrast and Templates
Monday December 22, 2003
Have some last minute gifts to give? Use oversized gift tags on tiny little presents for a nice contrast. Use oversized tags on large presents where normal little tags get ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Photos of People
Sunday December 21, 2003
Haphazardly cropped and resized photos create discord in your publication. With mug shots (head shots) crop your photos so that the head or head and shoulders in each photo occupies ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: InDesign
Saturday December 20, 2003
There are multiple ways to make margin, column, and ruler guides visible and invisible as well as change colors, and remove them completely in InDesign. You can color-code various sets ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Printing
Friday December 19, 2003
Missing graphics and fonts are a major headache and cause of delays. When submitting digital files, check, double check, and triple-check to insure that all graphics and fonts used in ... Read More
What Kind of Creature Is This?
Friday December 19, 2003
It has arms and legs, eyes, beaks, and a tail. It wears spurs and sometimes eats from a bowl.
Hyphens
Thursday December 18, 2003
The grammar and the visual use of hyphens. McCabe: Hyphens - WirtschaftsWoche
Related from this site: How to create and use dashes and hyphens
Tip o' the Day: PageMaker
Thursday December 18, 2003
When editing text wraps the screen redraws each time you edit the wrap by adding, subtracting, or moving a point. Disable screen redraw until you are finished editing the text ... Read More
What's Your Favorite Color?
Wednesday December 17, 2003
Crayola presents America's 50 Favorite Colors. Crayola Creativity Central
Related from this site: Color Symbolism and What Colors Mean
Tip o' the Day: Graphics
Wednesday December 17, 2003
It is generally not a good idea to rotate raster images (bitmaps, such as TIFF, PCX, BMP, and GIF) at anything other than 90 degree increments because it causes pixel ... Read More
Unicode
Tuesday December 16, 2003
I recently received email suggesting that this site needs more info on Unicode fonts. Well, I'll have to do more digging around and research to really write intelligently on the ... Read More
Certified to Do the Job
Tuesday December 16, 2003
In the DTP Classroom Tom writes, "There are far too many jobs now that require some sort of permission to do. Ask any economist, the real reason for certification is ... Read More
Tip o' the Day: Page Layout
Tuesday December 16, 2003
Crop out unnecessary elements and zoom in on the key parts of an image. You can also grab attention by cropping in unexpected ways: chop off a head, cut a ... Read More
Free Public Domain Photo Database
Monday December 15, 2003
Looks like an interesting resource: PD Photo - Public Domain Photos(found via Creative Commons blog)
Tip o' the Day: QuarkXPress
Monday December 15, 2003
QuarkXPress uses margin guides, ruler guides, and column guides. QuarkXPress differentiates between spread guides, those that are created on the pasteboard, and page guides that are confined to the document ... Read More
Is PowerPoint Making Us Dumb or Just Lazy?
Sunday December 14, 2003
"...what if PowerPoint is actually making us stupider?" The Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA says that PowerPoint carries some of the blame in the disaster. How? Because NASA engineers ... Read More
Which Desktop Publishing Program Do You Need?
Sunday December 14, 2003
Published in 2002, some programs have since had upgrades but this article by Bevi Chagnon for The Journal of Electronic Publishing offers a useful comparison of Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, ... Read More
Bookshelf Symbol 7 Font Removal Tool
Saturday December 13, 2003
According to Microsoft, the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font (Bssym7.ttf) that comes with Office 2003 has some unacceptable symbols in it. Get this tool to remove the font. 833404 - Description ... Read More
Digital Photography Captured Volume I
Friday December 12, 2003
This sounds like something I could use as a not-a-beginner but certainly not a professional digital photographer. About Cameras Guide Erick Hanneman gives it 4 stars. DVD Review: Digital Photography ... Read More
In the News: Disappearing Ink
Friday December 12, 2003
Here's an interesting bit of technology being tested in Japan - a special ink that can be removed from the page so that a sheet of paper can be reused ... Read More
Follow the Rules
Thursday December 11, 2003
Instead of the 12 Days of Christmas we've got 12 Days of Desktop Publishing with this free email class. What are the rules of desktop publishing? Basically they are ways ... Read More
Counting the Days til 2004
Wednesday December 10, 2003
Make a statement every day of the year with a personalized calendar. Here are some calendar project ideas and software choices for your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly calendar ... Read More
Beautiful Boxes and Bags
Wednesday December 10, 2003
Never mind what's in the box, learn how to design the box. Go retro at The American Package Museum, design or redesign private label products, or dig into a pizza ... Read More
Take a Letter
Tuesday December 9, 2003
Running a desktop publishing business sometimes involves more than just designing ads and letterhead. Learn all about sales & marketing letters in these features and links from some of our ... Read More
Product News: Graphics Fun
Tuesday December 9, 2003
From our Graphics Software site, some graphics tools to check out:
An inexpensive Photoshop compatible drawing and painting program, Introducing openCanvas 3 and openCanvas 3 Plus
Discover 10 Favorite New Features ... Read More
Drop It!
Friday December 5, 2003
Can you name the basic styles of initial caps - those oversized letters often used to introduce an article or new paragraph? Yes, drop cap is one of them (and ... Read More
The Color of December
Friday December 5, 2003
This month is brought to you by red and green. Get excited about the holidays but don't forget to relax and enjoy the season.
Product Upgrades and Info
Thursday December 4, 2003
Adobe FrameMaker Version 7.1 extends its XML capabilities. Adobe has the details.FinePrint releases version 2 of pdfFactory and pdfFactory Pro. Get more control over graphics. (via graphics.com)
Put 2004 into print ... Read More
How Many Fonts Do You Own?
Wednesday December 3, 2003
Not as many as you might think. Typographica: You Don't Buy Fonts.
How Trendy is Your Logo Design?
Wednesday December 3, 2003
Do the logos you design drip, spiral, tilt, or slink? Graphic Design USA: 15 Trends Taking Shape In Logo Design
Is Your Scale Out of Whack?
Wednesday December 3, 2003
Graphs are great for displaying complicated data but things get more complicated when the graphs seem to misrepresent the facts. IDblog: Bad graphs?
Letters from Santa
Monday December 1, 2003
As a business, added service, or just for fun, design your own letters from Santa Claus. Personalized letters step-by-step