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Archive: 2005 December
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Photoshop Jargon: Precise Cursor
A “Precise Cursor” is a crosshairs that can be used in lieu of any of Photoshop’s brush tools, brush-based tools or other tools such as the Eyedropper. Using a Precise cursor is helpful when it’s important to start a brush stroke at a specific point on an image.
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Stock.xchng, Free Photostock Website, Upgrades to Version 6
Free photo storehouse announces faster, more powerful servers, host of new features
The free photo storehouse, stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu), has just announcd an upgrade, bringing its services’ version number to 6.
Stock.xchng is a site in which amateur photographers of all skill levels and post and share photo stock, all of which are free for use in publications, websites, or other applications by designers, with permissions requrements ranging from none to a note to the photographer specifiying the intended use. A free registration is required to use the site.
Read more on Stock.xchng, Free Photostock Website, Upgrades to Version 6…
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Muggle Magic Creates Wizardly Type
Crazy Diamond Designs wields a typographic wand
The distinctive looks of the type faces in the universe of Harry Potter, from the pages of the Daily Prophet to the Marauder’s map, may well be wizardly but they couldn’t have happened without the insights of a couple of Muggles, namely, Alex Moseley and Roger Mills, of England’s Crazy Diamond Designs.
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The three dots defined, and style thoughts considered.
We see them all over, and we intutively know what they mean, even if we aren’t typographically inclined. And, in this world of drop-down GUI menus, with items that lead to items and to dialog boxes, we all intrinsically recognize what Print… means: what we get when we click on that menu item will be more than what we see.
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The Washington Map Society Releases “The Portolan” No. 64
Unique DC-based journal for all has articles of interest
The Washington Map Society (www.washmap.org) has just announced the availablilty of the Winter 2005-06 issue of thier thrice-yearly journal, The Portolan to the general public.
Read more on The Washington Map Society Releases “The Portolan” No. 64…
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Vlogmap.com Uses World Map To Create Worldwide Community
Using Google Maps to mash up individal members, website creates community of users
A section of the world map display of video bloggers (“vloggers”) at vlogmap.comJust what exactly is a Vlog? No, it’s not Dracula’s website; it’s a video blog or, to state perhaps the obvious, a weblog with video content. And vlogging has its own map-based home on the web: Vlogmap.org.
Read more on Vlogmap.com Uses World Map To Create Worldwide Community…
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High School Sports Coverage: Design Tips
Covering high school sports to the satisfaction of the local community is one of those Catch 22 challenges of a sports section.
No one is ever satisfied. Either your sports section focuses primarily on local school sports to the dismay of the average sports fan or your sports department gives most of its effort and room to covering professional sports, leaving your local parents and coaches feeling unappreciated and undercovered. More often, the complaints come in from both sides.
As much as a staffing challenge, this is a space and design challenge. Given the room you have to fill with sports news, there is simply no way to cover everything and choices must be made.
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Tutorial: PDF Presentations, From PhotoSpin.com
PhotoSpin.com shows us how a PDF can make a neat slide show presentation from Photoshop or Bridge
Click here for another good tutorial by Tommy Maloney on creating easy slide shows in Photoshop.
Read more on Tutorial: PDF Presentations, From PhotoSpin.com…
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Frozen Photographic Expedition to the Bottom of the World Yields Breath-Taking Visuals
In early December, PhotoshopNews.com editor-in-chief Jeff Schewe travelled aboard an icebreaker ship through Antarctic waters to capture hundreds of stunning and humbling images of the frozen–and not so frozen–bottom of the world.
Read more on Frozen Photographic Expedition to the Bottom of the World Yields Breath-Taking Visuals…
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Photoshop Jargon: Snapshot
A “snapshot” is a temporary saved copy of a Photoshop image in its current History state. To create a snapshot, select New Snapshot… in the History palette’s flyout menu. A copy of the image at its current History state is saved and is accessible at the top of the History palette.
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Playing Cards by Buzz Poole
Ante up for an intriguing and eclectic collection of 1930s and 1940s American artwork.
Playing Cards, by Buzz PooleDating back to the 10th Century and used in every country in the world since not long after, playing cards are ubiquitous and universally appealing as devices of fun or profit or relief of boredom. Unknowable numbers of decks have been hand-drawn on animal skins and vegetable peels, papyrus, stiff cloth, and, of course, paper. As early as 1776, American printers began manufacturing decks of playing cards. In the late-1800s, automated print production took over the playing card world, leading to large scale distribution of mass-produced decks, which brought with it a means to reach large numbers of people with political, advertising, and social messages.
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InDesign The Tools Palette – Part 7
The Gradient Tool and the Gradient Palette.
The Gradient Tool
The Gradient tool works hand in hand with that palette. All you have to do is to select an object with the Selection tool. Then select the Gradient tool and start dragging it from the point you want the gradient to start to the point you want it to finish. Et voilat, you have your gradient. You can apply gradients to fills and to strokes. Before you drag though, you need to make your gradient and then you can use it.
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Win Illustrator CS2 @Work
Win one of five signed copies of Pariah S. Burke’s acclaimed project-based book Adobe Illustrator CS2 @work in Creativepro.com’s weekly giveaway.
Adobe Illustrator CS2 @ WorkUnlike any software book you’ve ever read, Adobe Illustrator CS2 @Work by Pariah S. Burke teaches how and why to use the world’s greatest drawing program through real world projects completed everyday, on the job, by working graphic designers and illustrators. Practical advice on planning and budgeting, overcoming your fear of Illustrator, knowing your rights, and negotiating with clients take this entertaining and confidence-building book even farther beyond the realm of just another software book.
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
A message from your Desktop Publishing Editor
This is a traditional period for many, the time in the year where people make their decisions for the future, make wishes of goodwill for themselves and others, think at the presents for friends and family. Some people consider that Christmas has become a commercial thing, but no one can deny that during this period people are often more united, go out of their way to do acts of care for each other and share nice moments they will remember for years.
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Photoshop Jargon: FOCOLTONE
“FOCOLTONE” is a system for matching color that is based on percentages of process color. FOCOLTONE 5000, for example, is the color 30C/30M/30Y/30K.
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Christmas, By the Numbers
Strange and wonderful numbers from the US Census
From the ‘blog Mapz: a GIS Librarian, we find that GISUser.com has compiled, for our general edification, a list of Christmas statistics that may have your eyes glaze over even before you sit down at the Holiday table.
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Map Projections for One and All
Site supported by Illinios state and powered by a passion for maps and maths has PD PDF content
A section of the Airy Minimum-error Azimuthal projection graphic available at the Map Projection Gallery (courtesy Map Projection Gallery) -
InDesign The Tools Palette – Part 6
The Eyedropper and Measure Tools
By default InDesign will show you the Eyedropper Tool in the Tools Palette. However you will see that tool as another tool hidden in its flyout–The Measure Tool. We will take up the Eyedropper Tool first.
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Applying Bringhurst To The Web
Richard Rutter applies the Elements to the Web, one at a time
Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style (reviewed here) is a lyrical, admired reference, deservedly on many the bookshelf of typographers master as well as tyro. As anyone who designs for web versus print knows, however, web design is a bit of a minefield. Print design gives a guide, but only so far into this extremely dynamic world.
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One of the giants of type at Adobe comments and gives insights on what quality means to him
Typographer Thomas Phinney of Adobe, at his blog Typblography, takes the time to explain his concerns about font and typeface quality in the post Quality in Typefaces & Fonts.
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Photoshop Jargon: Alpha Channel
An “alpha channel” is a channel that carries pixel transparency data, rather than pixels, and in Photoshop files these are kept as additional channels with masks. The masks are a throwback from the physical masks used in platemaking, which consist of black material that protect parts of a plate from the light.
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The Wacom Intuos3 6×11 Wide-Format Tablet
Review: The new Wacom tablet is just the thing for those going to wide-format or dual displays, providing undoubtable power, performance, and just plain good looks.
The Wacom Intuos3 6×11 Pen Tablet, with pressure- and tilt-sensitive pen and 5-button mouse (illustraton courtesy Wacom Technologies) -
Even if belated, here is an overview of the most powerful publishing package I have ever come across
Adobe Creative Suite 2–it’s like the Christmas present I always wanted when I was a kid but that I would never find under the tree, the water in the hot desert the… publishing package that I have always only dreamed of… until Adobe released it.
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Who Does Bastard Measures Right?
Let’s turn a critical eye on the lowly bastard measure.
We’ll start with a definition … in case someone has strayed upon this who probably shouldn’t have.
Every newspaper has a grid. Common grids are five or six columns wide, although grids of 10 or 12 are used, and hybrid approaches should be more fully explored here in the future. A standard newspaper column (one leg of type in a news story) usually is placed on the grid, so that a six-column grid has six legs of type if the story stretches across the entire page. This is probably the most common set up. If a 10- or 12-column grid were used, the leg of type would stretch across two grid columns. A bastard measure is any leg of type that strays from the standard width in use in the newspaper.
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Podcasts: It’s What’s for Dinner
Watch TV anywhereWhat’s your pleasure? What’s your obsession? Whatever it is, chances are, there’s a podcast for it. Recently I was hanging around the iTunes podcast list to see if any of my friends could come out to play, and I started to notice–really notice–the diversity in podcasts. There’s one–or more–for everything!
Apple’s iPod exploded onto the scene a year ago and changed the face of music forever. Sure, there had been other portable music players (remember an antique called the “Sony Walkman†or if you are really old, like me, “transistor radiosâ€?) and even other portable mp3 players (Creative’s Rio comes to mind. Yes, I had one.) In a technology flurry that barely has given us time to catch our breath before the next gotta-have-it comes out, we have moved rapidly from playing music to audiobooks to podcasts to videos, even playing, if you care to give iTunes $1.99, last week’s episode of Lost or Desperate Housewives, all in the palm of your hand. From humble beginnings…
In the beginning, the military created the WWW–and it was good
It reminds me of when this thing called “the Internet†crept into our culture. It started out as a military thing, designed for communication between the powers that be, but the potential could not be denied, and it started to grow and change and take on a life of its own. Terms like terminal, Sys Admin, and Bulletin Board got whole new meanings, and without any of us being aware of it, the Geeks were beginning to take over the World. One day we were hearing references to it on television, and the next we were seeing URLs at the bottom of television ads. Then words like “email†and “IM me†began to creep into our daily conversation, and before long, everyone knew what these words meant, and rather than vague terms, they were actual verbs for things we did without even thinking about them every day. Now words like “Googled†and “photoshopped†are uttered millions of times every day, and everyone knows what they mean, and its OK to be a Geek. I keep telling myself that, anyway.
“Welcome to My Homepage”
With the new graphics and sound capabilities of the modern computers (you know the ones: the small ones that wouldn’t need a climate-controlled room and their own wing of the house, and cost less than a 747), the webpage explosion began. Not only were there informational web pages from companies or individuals with tutorials on how to make your own web graphics, the “personal†web page made an appearance. People had personal web pages on anything from their favorite hobby to their kids to their cats. They had personal web pages blaring music “borrowed†from other sites, and full of graphics “borrowed†from other sites, and wow!—lots of these graphics MOVED. These things all gave us new terms for our modern vocabulary like “animated gifâ€, “streamingâ€, and “annoyingâ€. Sorry, it had to be said. One of the worst assaults on your eyes and ears at that time in Internet history (OK, let’s be honest. It still is. Some things never change) was to run into a page with a million blinkies and blaring bad midi files that sounded like they were recorded on a kid’s toy organ and no volume or on/off controls in sight.
Variety is the spice of life
Homepages could be the ever-popular “Welcome to my Homepage!†that stated “This is my personal page where I will post gobs of stuff of interest to well, maybe nobody but me and my nearest, dearest friends because no one knows who I am†, but then nothing was ever posted to it ever again. Many of these pages are still floating around in cyberspace, taking up a stop on the Information Highway for eternity. Another popular format was the endless lists of links (and no original content at all). So, which one did you have? Yes, you. I know you had one. We all had one. I had the endless list of links kind (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, thank you very much.)
Don’t Panic! in large, friendly lettersYes, I know there were already hundreds of link pages to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy sites, but it is my favorite book, and not knowing Douglas Adams or any cool people at all I had no way to get original content, and besides, no one else had EXACTLY the same list of links I had, nor did they have the lovely blue silk background with the transparent GIF pansies decorating their pages, both “borrowed” from the web, of course. There was an early internet mentality that if you posted it to the web, it was fair game for anyone to use and claim as their own. Luckily this has changed, and while the “borrowing†(read: stealing) practice still goes on, most people at least feel guilty when they swipe someone’s images to use on their own page. But I digress. Side effect of gray hair sprouting, I believe, at least that’s when the digressing (or mind-wandering, take your pick) became a problem for me. There were, of course, lots of important and informative websites too, like the NASA site. Who didn’t spend hours waiting for a satellite photo to download at 9600 baud or less, not necessarily because you couldn’t live without seeing the photo, but simply because you could?
Luckily that stage of my Internet development didn’t last long and I decided to use my newly found webmaster talents, slim as they were, to do an informational page for the local Fire Department. Before long I had a web of pages with tutorials, essays, photos, and book and software reviews and was starting to see the real value in this Internet thing. Information I wanted someone else already had and many of them were willing to share, and were doing so on a webpage. I had information others wanted and I shared it with them. It was then I realized the web is a living entity. It changes daily, both in content and how that content is delivered, and in 2005, enter the podcast.
Enter the next big thing—
In case you have been under a rock for the last year, a podcast is a broadcast that sort of mirrors the personal webpage. Or it can be. They’re fairly new. I know they are fairly new, because MS Word tells me I am misspelling a word every time I type “podcastâ€. That means they have not become deeply ingrained in our culture enough yet to be added to the dictionary, or at least not the dictionary of MacWord 2004). They range from Johnny broadcasting whatever he can think of from the Family Room to real information essential to your daily existence, like News, Sports, Inside Mac Radio, and Photoshop Tips and Tricks. Chances are, whatever you are interested in, someone somewhere has created a podcast dedicated to it.
Podcast listingsMy obsession is Disney and Disney World. Well, one of my obsessions anyway. I am planning another vacation to Disney World, so of course I checked for Disney podcasts, and I found quite a few, several very helpful in trip planning, some just fun. You will also find some podcasts that seem to have been a passing fling, as there is one episode and nothing more, and some are regular features with new episodes on a regular schedule.
I know they’re out there, but how do I find them?
Finding Podcasts at the iTunes Music StoreFinding the podcasts that interest you is quite easy to do in iTunes. In the left window menu, click Podcasts. At the bottom of the Podcasts window, click the link for Podcast Directory and let the fun begin. The iTunes Music Store opens to a colorful page full of podcasts of comedy, sports, news, music, and even podcasts that deal with a specific show like the Official Podcast for ABC’s popular shows Lost and Desperate Housewives or Fox’s Family Guy and the O.C. There are also fan podcasts for everything from Lost to Harry Potter. But wait! There’s more! On the right side of the window, read the list of Today’s Top Podcasts. You may find something of interest there. If not, at the bottom of Today’s Top Podcasts is a link for Top 100 Podcasts. Scroll through this for a huge variety. Some offer video and some are audio. Most of them are free, so all you have to do is click the icon or the Subscribe button to have them added to iTunes, where you can listen on the computer or transfer them to your iPod.
Check out those you are interested in by clicking the podcast’s icon (reminiscent of a tiny CD jacket), and iTunes opens with a list of episodes that you can download. Listen to them, and they stay on your hard drive unless you delete them. If you want to subscribe right away, click the Subscribe button, and iTunes opens with a list of the shows available, but this time will download the current episode right away. Click the Get button in the iTunes podcast window to download the older shows and listen whenever you like.
Search for PodcastsStill want more? You can search through all podcasts by keyword. On the left side of the iTunes window is a Search All Podcast bar. Simply type in the search term and iTunes will find all listed podcasts relating to your search.
Podcasts go commercial, uh…make that without commercials
As technology advances, the phrases we grew up with acquire new meanings. “Coming to a screen near you!” meant the movie you were watching previews for in the local theater was on its way to a theater close to you (usually the one you were in at the time) for your viewing pleasure. “From the big screen to the small screen!” used to mean the movie you saw in Cinemascope and Technicolor at the neighborhood theater (which sadly is another technology casualty) was coming to the “TV Movie of the Week”. Then the meaning changed again and it meant the movie was coming to cable, another term that used to mean “strong, large-diameter, heavy steel or fiber rope”, but now means “commercial-free TV, lots of channels, and still nothing on but infomercials at 2 am, except that now there are 180 channels of themâ€. The phrase evolved once again and it meant the movie was coming to Beta, VHS, Laser Disc, and then DVD, as new strides were made. “As seen on TV” no longer just applies to gimmicky gadgets you can get Mom or Dad for Christmas like a salad shooter or Popiel’s Pocket Fisherman. No, no, no!
TV for your little screen“As Seen on TV” in the palm of my hand
With the advent of iTunes 6 and Quick Time 7 coupled with the new iPod, you can now download select television shows to watch in iTunes on the Mac or the PC or on your shiny new iPod. Missed an episode of Lost? Missed the whole first season of Lost? Missed The Office this week? Not to worry. You can buy them by the episode for $1.99, or by the entire season (which oddly enough works out to the same as the per-episode price) and watch them over and over, either on the computer or if you happen to have a video iPod, anywhere you wish. In the interest of research, I bought an episode of The Office. Yes, it was research. Oh, all right, you got me. I love that show! If they ever sell the original British series here, I’ll be getting that one as well.
Couch Potatoes are on the Move!
Right now the television show selection is small, but it’s good stuff, including Lost, Surface, Desperate Housewives, and Law and Order. Oldies are showing up too, like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Dragnet. You can give iTunes downloads in the form of gift cards, give your kids an iTunes allowance, or associate a credit card with your .mac account, and you will be watching your favorite show wherever you are. Who says Couch Potatoes have to stay at home? Ah, the sweet smell of progress!
Got something to say? These links will get you started making and broadcasting your own podcasts:
Creating Audio Podcasts on Mac OSX
Creating Audio Podcasts on Windows XP
Creating Video Podcasts on Mac OSX
Creating Video Podcasts on Windows XP
Suggested Links
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