Search Engine Optimization Getting Sarted – New Lynda.com Release!

Just thought I would let you all know that Lynda.com just today released an new training title: SEO: Search Engine Optimization Getting Started

Hey Free 24 hour pass to Lynda.com!

Hey here’s a Great opportunity to get some of the BEST video training available for FREE.

Lynda.com is in my opinion the BEST video training available. There’s a reason that Adobe has been using them!

Check it out, I think you will want to keep using their training to advance your knowledge! Just use the link below. HURRY this offer expires on 01 Apr 2010!

Free 24 hour pass to lynda.com.

A Book Review of an Important Book for Designers, Photographers and Pre Press Workers on The Luminous Landscape

The book is
CMYK 2.0 – A Cooperative Workflow for Photographers, Designers, and Printers

The book takes you from the days of film and half-tone laminate proofs to the use of CTP (computer to plate) where the digital original is exposed directly onto the printing plate and all the changes, advancements and new challenges in color management that came with it.

It also covers the change to digital cameras and how it has brought all new color management issues. The book is a rule book for each member of the color management team designer, photographer, and pre press/press.

Check out the review at The Luminous Landscape and consider buying the book, it’s on my list.

The Best Video Screen Capture for Mac

ScreenFlow is the best most Mac like screen capture application I have used! If you do video screen captures you HAVE to try it. It beats all others in my opinion and I have used most of them.

With ScreenFlow you can capture your desktop and your iSight camera at the same time! It also offers many really good features when editing such as the ability to have mouse clicks heard, a red growing ring from mouse clicks that they call radar effect, background windows and desktop blur automatically (it focuses on the window you are working in and blurs the rest) this can be set for whatever duration, and many others. It ROCKS! Also ScreenFlow captures don’t look washed out like some others.

For Export options it has:

• Web-High
• Web-High (Best Quality)
• Web-Low
• Web-Low (Best Quality)
• PAL DV
• NTSC DV
• Lossless
• iPhone
• Apple TV
• iPod

You can also scale the final output by % or to a custom pixel size.

You can also EASILY add chapter markers when editing and choose to include them when Exporting, this allows viewers to choose the chapter in a drop down menu in Quicktime.

You can name the chapters whatever you want I just typed Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 to test it.
(Not sure about chapter markers if converting to other formats because I haven’t done it?).

Check it out!

Adobe TV

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.

Free Canon Digital Color Management PDF

From Cancon

Digital Color Management Guidebook

Proper color management aligns an entire system of cameras, displays and printers to maintain consistent color across different color spaces. For consistent color throughout the photographic process, from capturing an image, to processing it, to final output as a print, a color managed system is essential. This guidebook provides users of Canon cameras and printers with an explanation of what color management is and how to set up a system easily and effectively.

This looks like a good little reference guide.

New Color Management Training from Lynda.com

There’s a new Color Management ESSENTIAL TRAINING title from Lynda.com. It looks pretty thorough. There’s just too much to list (19 chapters with 7.25 hrs of training) so you will have to look for yourself.

ScreenSteps Screen Capture/Tutorial Software for Mac and Windows

ScreenSteps from Blue Mango Learning Systems is one of the easiest screen capture tutorial applications I have found. It mostly automates the process of making a screen image capture tutorial. Not only does it make the process of capturing and putting together the tutorial easy but it makes outputting the tutorial to HTML, PDF and with ScreenSteps 2, now in beta (download ScreenSteps 2 Mac Beta here), uploading the tutorial to your own ScreenSteps Live account extremely easy! The Windows Beta for ScreenSteps 2 should be released soon according to their website.

This really is great software for teachers who teach computer skills. Particularly good for Graphic Design teachers I would think? It isn’t that expensive and one license covers both Mac and Windows.

InDesign CS3 Prepress Essentials Training from Lynda.com

Lynda .com released a new video training tutorial title covering InDesign prepress issues today. It’s a very good resource for graphic design students or those interested in learning more in this area. It covers prepress fundamentals and specific InDesign information. They also have a title covering Photoshop CS3 Prepress.

I think that all graphic design students will benefit from viewing this tutorial. I HIGHLY recommend this tutorial for students. I had requested that Lynda.com offer this training and I would assume many others did also and I am very happy it’s now available. I have learned some of it on my own but why not get a head start as a student and learn it the easier way? My attitude, and I think it should be the the attitude of any serious graphic design student or working designer, is that I want to learn as much as possible about what I do. Even if you think you already know a lot about a certain subject you should always be open to possibly learning more. You never know when you might get that little piece of information that will make life that much easier or help you to produce something that comes out the way you want it.

I can assure you that printers really appreciate designers who want to learn about prepress and how to prepare files that are easy for them to print and in the short run and long run it could help you to get cheaper printing. In the short run because less problems to solve and time used on a job means less possible charges from the printer. In the long run because if you build a working relationship with a printer and they know that they most likely won’t have problems with your files they may give you a lower quote on your jobs.

A monthly membership to Lynda.com is $25 and you get access to many hours of great training on many different subjects. It is a really great resource for graphic designers and would be very helpful to graphic design students. You can also pay by the year and they have a Premium level that cost a little more where you can download exercise files if that helps you to learn. I just watch the videos and learn fine but it may help some of you to follow along with the files? If you are a graphic design student you may want to ask your parents to get you a subscription?

Wacom Tablet Artwork Video’s

Here are some inspiring video’s of artist creating artwork using Wacom Tablets.

Watch as artist draw and paint using a Wacom Tablet.