Adobe TV
April 11, 2008
A new resource to check out for Adobe CS3 tips!
Adobe TV looks like a pretty good start of something good. I have only watched a couple of videos so far but they were good and had some good CS3 tips. Like a YouTube channel for Adobe it looks like it will be a good tutorial resource. I’m glad that Adobe is heading this direction.
Amazon Kindle Electronic Book Looks Good
November 20, 2007
Amazon’s new e-book reader Kindle looks very interesting to me. It uses an electronic-paper display that looks and reads like real paper. The electroinc ink technology looks like real paper not a computer screen. It is not backlit. You never need to sync it to a computer or use cables of any sort except for recharging. It uses SD memory cards and better than that you can download books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and probably more wirelessly and there is no need to find a WiFi hotspot because it uses Amazon’s EVDO Amazon Whispernet which is built on Sprints EVDO network. There are no monthly wireless access fees because Amazon covers that, you only pay for the device and the content you buy.
Kindle weighs 10.3 ounces, the same or a little less than a paper back book. It is currently selling for $399.Basically you can read any book you want if it’s in their download library which now stocks more than 80,000 titles and more will be added daily. Wherever you are you just look for what you want to read and purchase it. The library includes 101 of the current 112 New York Times Best Sellers which are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. The device can hold about 200 books. All of your purchases are backed up for you online by Amazon in case you should need to download them again in the future.
I would have liked to have something like this when I was in school for text books rather than lugging a bag full of books all over campus. The only drawback is that it is currently black and white but E Ink who make the screen technology has a prototype for a color display. I would think they would look into this market if it would be friendly towards this technology but with the money the used textbook stores make on reselling there might be resistance?
Looks interesting. Maybe this e-book will take off?
Auto Font Activation/Deactivation in Leopard
October 22, 2007
This could be a great feature for graphic designers.
Right now I use Linotype FontExplorer X which is a good application, especially because it’s free.
Support for font auto activation and deactivation in the OS will be big for designers if it work’s well.
from Apple’s site
Font Auto-Activation
Automatically activate fonts as you need them. When an application requests an installed font that’s currently disabled, Leopard activates that font and keeps it active until the requesting application quits.
I can’t wait for this and other feature’s in Leopard.
I have pre-ordered Leopard and it will be here on the 26th.
Typography School Video
September 4, 2007
This is a cool video with points of view from veteran designers/typographers and students about the use of computers and the possibly declining use of traditional design/typography methods for both concept development and design implementation.
graphic design20/20 Does Graphic Design
August 15, 2007
Turner Classic Movies
August 15, 2007
I love TCM. I love their graphic design and I love old movies. They (or those they hire) just do everything right.
Here are some links to some TCM artwork and info.
- TCM Flash Banners
- Elvis: That’s the Way It Is – site done for TCM by The Chopping Block
- TCM’s old site done by The Chopping Block
- AIGA Turner Classic Movies Director of the Month
- from article in Communication Arts Interactive Annual 9: Turner Classic Movies
- Info about TCM’s online movie database
Cool Visual Font Search Tool
August 10, 2007
What is OpenType
August 2, 2007
This is a very brief explanation of OpenType and a small PDF tutorial on accessing OpenType features in InDesign.OpenType was developed by Adobe and Microsoft. OpenType fonts are cross platform meaning you can use the SAME fonts on Mac and Windows and from the info I have there shouldn’t be any type re-flow issues when for example taking an InDesign document from a Mac to a PC. OpenType fonts are excellent for print design and support the inclusion of many more characters and special characters in a particular font. Some OpenType fonts have many special characters making them valuable for refined typographical choices. Some OpenType advanced typography features include kerning, alternate metrics, and glyph substitution. OpenType is the new font standard and most font foundries are recreating their entire font catalogs in OptenType and adding special characters to some fonts.To use OpenType fonts added abilities you need to use a program that takes advantage of them. I know Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress 7 allow you to access all of OpenType’s capabilities. If you are interested in other programs you should check to see if they take full advantage of OpenType.I personally try to buy only OpenType fonts now if available.Here are some more informational resources:
- Adobe OpenType overview videos – Watch thes, they explain OpenType well.
- creativepro OpenType article
- An article on OpenType by thetypographic.com
- OpenType overview from Typophile
- OpenType specific Overview from MyFonts
- Font Format Overview from MyFonts
- OpenType overview from Fonts.com
