Beyond the Phone Book  

Whether you know it or not, 'database publishing' probably describes some of what you do. Here's how to do it better!

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Databases

Blurring the Boundaries  

For years, the desktop-publishing landscape has been characterized by sharp boundaries - PC vs. Mac, vector vs. bitmap, page-layout vs. illustration, and so on. But Illustrator provides the perfect example of how that is changing.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Illustrator

Felicitous Frames  

There are plenty of things in life worth fearing, but frame-based layout isn't one of them. If you've been using PageMaker 6.5 but haven't explored frames yet, here's your chance to find out just how much fun you've been missing.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Get It Inline  

Inline frames in Adobe InDesign help you keep your text and graphic frames (or text frames or groups) sticking together.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1999). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Growing Up With Acrobat  

PDF moves toward its destiny as the full-service, customizable digital file format we all want.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Hot Shots  

The elusive screen, captured at last.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Idea Generators  

Stuck for design ideas? Try messing around with plug-in filters for Illustrator.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Illustrator

Illuminating Illustrations  

Too often, illustrations just sit there, taking up space on the page. Here's how to make them work.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Graphic Design

Linking 101  

Linking is surely one of the least understood functions of many applications. But if anyone can explain how it works in PageMaker, Illustrator, and FrameMaker, Professor Kvern can.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Document Design>Hypertext

The Many Faces of Cheapness  

In the spirit of Adobe Magazine's Cheap Tricks Contest, a grab-bag of ways to save money, save time, and cheat fate.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Prepress

On the High Wire  

Some unexpected ways that Adobe Acrobat software can help with design and publishing tasks.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Open Up with OpenType Fonts

OpenType fonts act just like PostScript Type 1 or TrueType fonts in programs like Microsoft® Word or QuarkXPress, but Adobe® InDesign® can perform special tricks with them, such as replacing characters with swashes (fancy versions of a letter), or with ligatures for character pairs such as “ct” and “ffi.” InDesign ships with several OpenType fonts, including Adobe Garamond® Pro, Adobe CaslonTM Pro, Caflisch Pro, and Kozuka Mincho Pro (a Japanese typeface).

Kvern, Olav Martin and David Blatner. Adobe (2004). Design>Typography>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

PageMaker Archaeology  

Opening somebody else's PageMaker publication? Here's an explorer's guide to the discoveries and dangers that may be lurking.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Plan Now, Play Later  

Whip that document into shape - master the master page in InDesign and PageMaker.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (2000). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Playing Tag  

Lots of people don't know about PageMaker's support for tagged text - and they're missing out.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

The Right Match  

Ever wonder why some graphics file formats have a poor reputation? Sometimes, it's not because they're inherently bad, but because they're not designed to be used in certain ways, on certain printers, or on certain platforms. Knowing how to match a job with the right formats can save you some real headaches.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Standards

Rules of the Game  

PageMaker's paragraph rules feature lets you attach lines to paragraphs. So what? Watch this ...

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Setting Code

My pith helmet never left my head. The journey took weeks, crossed two major deserts, led through steaming jungles, and ended in a rather dull corporate campus, but it was worth it. I believe I’ve discovered a group of readers who are entirely oblivious to the appearance of a text, who read only content and are frankly blind to the form of the characters they read. In a series of carefully monitored tests, they were able to distinguish serif from sans serif faces less than 40% of the time. They are capable of reading six point all caps Helvetica set on a 50 pica measure without the least hint of complaint or eyestrain.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1998). Design>Typography

The Soapbox, Please

I admit that my intelligence is easily insulted. It’s probably because I’ve got so little of it left – raising a child, running a business, and working in the software industry take their toll, after all – that I’ve got to defend it with the ferocity of a rabid fruit bat. But, as I review the state of the art in desktop publishing software, I’m left with one nagging question: Just exactly how dumb do these guys think I am?

Kvern, Olav Martin. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1999). Articles>Software>Document Design

Total Control: The Next Generation  

There's never been a better time to free yourself from boring, repetitive tasks using PageMaker's scripting language.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Troubleshooting PageMaker Documents

This document will attempt to tell you what causes corruption, how to prevent it, and — if it’s already too late — how to attempt recovery. There are even a couple of tips for when you can’t open the document at all. There are also some links to other documents that may be of interest. Finally, you can download some scripts that may help you.

Kvern, Olav Martin, Gordon Woolf, Carol Majors, Christine Hummel, Kristina McCook and Peter C.S. Adams. Makingpages.org (2002). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Unexpected Text  

I know, I know, Illustrator is a drawing program - but its text-handling features can be handy, too. Here's a guide to using them.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Illustrator

We've Come a Long Way  

A (detailed) peek into the brave new - and nostalgic old - days of typesetting, through the eyes of an InDesign insider.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1999). Design>Typography>History

You Can't Touch This

It was advertised as a revolution in typesetting, but, when I first saw it, I thought it was wrong, misguided, and verging on the blasphemous. And I’m usually an open-minded sort. What was it about Adobe TouchType, a now defunct typesetting program for the now defunct NeXT machine, that prompted my feelings of outrage and intolerance?

Kvern, Olav Martin. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1999). Design>Typography>Online