PDF Printing, Preflighting, and Prepress

PDF is becoming the de facto standard for not only viewing documents onscreen but also for printing them on paper. Acrobat 6 Professional includes better printing and prepress tools than ever before. PDF pundit Ted Padova shows you how they work.

Padova, Ted. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Adobe Acrobat

Photoshop How-To: Experimenting with Traditional Techniques

Photographers have always liked playing tricks with images. Try these time-honored techniques for adding polish and pizzazz to your digital photos in Photoshop.

Georges, Gregory. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Photoshop

Pinhole Panoramic Camera  

Pinhole cameras have been a long-time favorite of adventuresome photographers. But forget the Quaker Oats carton and go wide with this roll-film, panorama design.

Orr, Ross. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Photography

Plug-Ins and XTensions: Illustrator Path Editors, Photoshop Photo Filters, QuarkXPress Productivity Enhancers

This round-up of plug-ins and XTensions includes tools for opening Photoshop files in QuarkXPress, editing paths in Illlustrator, masking blue screens in Photoshop, and more. Plus, a run-down of what you can do with alap's XPert Tools XTension.

Nelson, Jay J. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software

Printing and Prepress  

PDF is becoming the de facto standard for not only viewing documents onscreen but also for printing them on paper. Acrobat 6 Professional includes better printing and prepress tools than ever before. PDF pundit Ted Padova shows you how they work.

Padova, Ted. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Publishing>Prepress>Adobe Acrobat

QuarkXPress 6 Tips: Working with Layers

Learning to use layers in your page-layout program can greatly streamline design and production. See how to tap into the power and flexibility of layers in QuarkXPress 6.

Assadi, Barbara and Galen Gruman. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

Reinventing Quark: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

When creative professionals think of Quark, they tend to think only of QuarkXPress - or perhaps a negative technical-support experience. But Quark is more than a one-product company, one that has been trying to change for the better. Craig Cline provides an inside peek at Quark's new attitude.

Cline, Craig. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

Restoring Damaged Photos  

Time isn't kind to treasured photographs. See Photoshop Diva Katrin Eismann's digital techniques for repairing creased, stained, torn, and damaged photos.

Eismann, Katrin. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Photoshop

Streamline Review Cycles

Acrobat's annotation tools are valuable for marking-up and commenting on design layouts and digital comps no matter where your client is located. Acrobat 6.0 goes a step further by integrating e-mail comment tracking for more efficient review cycles. Learn how to tap into these powerful features.

Knowlton, Gray. Creative Pro (2003). Design>Publishing>Prepress>Workflow

The Trouble with Web Standards

You may mistrust web standards because of bad experiences with buggy browsers. Or you might have converted a site from HTML to XHTML, only to discover that their layouts suddenly looked different in standards-compliant browsers. Don't give in to the dark side! Web standards are here to stay.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. Creative Pro (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

TypeTalk: Information, Activation, Matching Feet, and Style Sheets

One of the best ways to stay current is to sign up for the free e-mail newsletters offered by many type foundries and resellers. Not only do the newsletters show and tell you about new releases, but they also offer free fonts, special discounts, interviews with designers, and other informative and entertaining articles.

Strizver, Ilene. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Typography

The Typographic Texture of the News

The typefaces in which we read the daily news change, but do we notice? John D. Berry looks at a few of the newspaper typefaces in use today.

Berry, John D. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Typography

Under the Desktop: The Real Nitty Griddy

For creative professionals working in digital video and other media that demands high-performance computing, dual-processor machines are a godsend. But what happens when even two processors aren't enough? Welcome to the world of grid computing.

Morgenstern, David. Creative Pro (2004). Articles>Computing>Multimedia

Version Cue: Balancing Simplicity, Functionality in CS Workflow Tool

Adobe's release of Creative Suite last fall introduced Version Cue, a tool designed to help individuals and small creative teams keep track of the latest versions of their graphics and page layouts. The Seybold Reports took it for a test drive to assess its performance.

Dyson, Peter and Mark Walter. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Workflow

Vetting Clients For Peace of Mind

Landing a new client is a great thrill -- unless you discover he or she is dreadful to work with or fails to pay you promptly -- or pay at all. Here are some questions designed to help you prevent nasty client surprises before the hard work begins.

Adams, Eric J. Creative Pro (2004). Careers>Consulting

What You Want to Know

Questions and answers on word spacing, kerning, tracking, period placement, missing fonts, and font-size confusion.

Strizver, Ilene. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Typography

XML Can Go to H***: One Designer's Experience with the "Future of Publishing"

Ask any guru about the next frontier in publishing and you'll hear the snazzy-sounding letters 'XML.' But according to Susan Glinert, who bears XML battle scars, the future is not bright. It boggles the mind that anyone bothered to invent a publishing solution that plunges both right- and left-brained people into absolute chaos.

Glinert, Susan. Creative Pro (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML

Your Fountain of Font Facts

Read about em and en dashes in print and on the Web; specimen books; and the best way to convert quotation marks and primes from dumb to smart and back again.

Strizver, Ilene. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Typography

Easy Fixes for Microsoft Word Formatting in InDesign 

Two free and easy-to-use scripts convert Word's local formatting to InDesign's character styles. Two more retain InDesign formatting when you export text formatted with automatically applied character styles.

Concepcion, Anne-Marie. Creative Pro (2009). Articles>Document Design>Microsoft Word>Adobe InDesign