 |
|
Editor’s Corner: News Deluge
The past few months have been a little dry in the creative pro news department. Now two of the big names in our biz are making up for lost time with several major announcements.
Quark uncorked a major upgrade to its page-layout app. The new version, QuarkXPress 8, has an updated interface that's finally stepped into the 21st century. And it's not just about looks -- once you adapt to the changes, the new interface actually makes XPress easier to use. Many of the other updates (multi-language support in one app, inclusion of Quark Interactive Designer, better typographic control) aren't headline grabbers, but they are worthwhile improvements.
QuarkXPress 8 will ship sometime in the next 60 days; we'll publish a full review as soon as we've tested the final code. In the meantime, see below for Gene Gable's first look, complete with screen shots.
Adobe made two significant Acrobat-related announcements. First, a new version, Acrobat 9, will be in stores by July 2008. In the app's continuing quest to be all things to all members of its diverse user base, Acrobat 9 now includes "deep support" for Flash technology.You can learn more about that and some other innovative changes here. We'll publish our full review of Acrobat 9 as soon as the software ships.
Second, Adobe has opened Acrobat.com to everyone as a public beta. This site is actually a rich Internet application, or RIA. In this case, that means lots of functionality that was limited to the desktop in the olden days is now accessible in a Web browser. (Photoshop Express is another RIA.) Once you sign into Acrobat.com, you can store files online; share those files with others; collaborate on online text-based documents; share screens and hold meetings (audio, video, or chat); and, oh yeah, convert files to PDF. And it's all free. While Acrobat.com is mostly an office tool, sort of a nicer looking version of Google Apps, I can definitely envision creative pros using aspects of it in their work. For a real-world example, see Anne-Marie Concepcion's article "Screen-Share with Your Clients."
Photography Secrets from One of the World's Top Shooters
Joe McNally is not only a big name in photography (think Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Time) -- he has a great sense of humor, too. Read his lighting tips and you'll be entertained as well as informed.
|
Related Reading: Want to build a light tent on the cheap?
|
First Look: QuarkXPress 8.0
Gene Gable says that QuarkXPress 8 is more like Adobe's Creative Suite in how it looks and works. But the changes go beyond that. By re-focusing on the little stuff, Quark has made some giant strides forward.
|
Related Reading: If you haven't yet moved to QuarkXPress 7 and plan to get 8, buy 7 now and upgrade to 8 for free!
|
Use Any Font in a Web Site Design
There have always been two certainties in Web design: You can never have enough bandwidth, and all Web design must rely entirely on fonts installed on the viewer’s computer. But Pariah S. Burke is here to prove one of these so-called inescapable certainties wrong.
|
Related Reading: Did you know you can subscribe to our Web/Mobile how-tos as an RSS feed?
|
TypeTalk: Identify Fonts in PDFs
Need to know all the fonts that appear in a document, but you only have a PDF, not the original file? Ilene Strizver has the solution.
|
Related Reading: Catch up on all the TypeTalk installments.
|
Bake Up a Batch of PDF Files
Open a file, change the header, save the file to a new location, close the file... repeat more times than you can count. If that sounds familiar, Donna Baker is on her way to help.
|
Related Reading: Into efficiency? Read this.
|
CreativePro Creative Diversion
Are you working on a design inspired by a particular decade and really want the feel of the times? Sounds like a perfect excuse to charge these retro candy baskets to the client.
|
Wacky Web Site of the Week
|
|
|
|
|
