InDesign and Acrobat Tips

When placing graphics and images into InDesign; you say File>Place. Select multiple graphics and text files by shift-clicking.

                Dragging and dropping images and graphics in InDesign; File>Place as well to get your image and a legitimate link. Also you can drag and drop from Adobe Bridge which these are the right things to do. Copy and pasting into InDesign leads you to no direct editing because there’s no link.

                The links panel is very helpful when seeing your links updated. A yellow triangle by your placed graphic or image means that your placed graphic or image needs to be modified. A red stop sign means that your link is missing and it needs to be corrected.

                Transforming graphics is a great way in getting the desired size you wish. By using frames that are automatically on the graphic once placed into InDesign. It can change the size and proportion by using the select tool, the scale tool, and the free transform tool.  The selection tool allows you to move the frame and graphic around your document. The scale tool allows you to scale it proportionately, and the transform tool advances it by rotating and switching from horizontal and vertical.               

                Drop shadows in InDesign and Illustrator are very easy to get as it’s only a click away for simple drop shadow effects. Photoshop, however, let’s you further customize a drop shadow in the shadow effects drop down menu.

                In InDesign, there is a color panel and a swatches panel. Colors created in the colors panel are not stored in the swatches panel. There is further inflexibility with color modes in the color panel with only CMYK, RGB, and Color Lab, however, it’s quick and easy.  From swatches; it’s wise to pick from Pantone, Toyo, and Truematch colors as well as more color modes and it gives you the option of having spot colors or processed colors.

                The Ink Manager fixes spot-color errors and inaccuracies by remapping extraneous colors to correct inks.

                PDFs are often exported into Acrobat from InDesign or Illustrator. After, there are many options in which accompany a PDF.

                There are many settings in which a PDF has to choose from. PDF versions, down sample/threshold, compression image quality, color policy, and description.

                PDF/x-1a: 2001, is the best choice when given no specifications for a PDF file creation. Also the PDF is easy to manage with a wide variety of devices.

                When you want to keep all of your layers, transparencies, or interactivities with Photoshop, you must export the document. However, using Distiller is favored by some print companies; however, exporting is much faster than distilling.

                Editing in Acrobat after exporting your PDF file is limited because it maintains the document integrity. They’re supposed to be finished files, ready to ship.

Check out my source: Print Production with Adobe Creative Suit Applications for more information.

Microsoft Tags

Microsoft tags are on much of every advertisement and media. They include barcodes, QR codes and other recognition technology. All you have to do is scan it through your phone much like QR codes in that respect.

                Generating a tag can take up to five minutes. They are created through your Microsoft Live ID. After, download your tag and then you are ready to market your materials.

                With the popularity of QR codes; Microsoft tags began to track and you are able to track even how many scans your tag receives and which advertisement your tag was scanned.

There are many reasons to use a Microsoft tag. Seize the moment, keeping it simple for everyone, stretching your dollar, and dive into the data. Also creating flexibility in designs and experiences, and taking complete charge of campaigns.

                Custom tags are eye catching. Loescher; a very large text book publishing company, Ciara and Jake Gyllenhaal have their own Microsoft tags as well.

Check out http://tag.microsoft.com/what-is-tag/custom-tags.aspx http://tag.microsoft.com/what-is-tag/custom-tags.aspx http://tag.microsoft.com/what-is-tag/benefits.aspx http://orangeqr.com/microsoft-tag-tracking-now-available/ and http://tag.microsoft.com/home.aspx for more information.

Printing, Photoshop and Illustrator

A customer service representative (CSR) for short gives you an insight to your special print jobs.

                When producing print jobs; communication is key to a successful job.  In other words, talk to your printer, which is probably a sales person. Talk about potential problems that can occur during your printing job.

                When planning for print; there has to be a certain important specification such as external document size and adequate bleed.  As well as internal panel sizes, artwork interactions with folds, perforations or die cutting. Correct number of pages and correct inks are essential.

                Also, check any raster or vector for resolution; usually 300 ppi, color space and filename. Vector artwork is somewhat similar; make sure you have correct colors, images, fonts, texts, and bleeds.

                There are proofs for identifying an image and page proofs that allow the work flow of your print service provider, signing off on proofs mean that you’re satisfied with the work.

                When rotating in Photoshop, you can be more successful than in page-layout software such as InDesign. Usually performing a single rotation is recommended for the least amount of erosion on your images.

                Usually resolution for a document of any size should be high when printing, 300 ppi is appropriate for any size. For clean, clear, and crisp details in an image or vector artwork.

                Color space in Photoshop includes vanishing pint, texturizer and artistic filters; they are not available when converting to CMYK. RGB has more flexibility.

                Layered files in native Photoshop are favored by InDesign and Illustrator. However, if a Photoshop file grows too large (hundreds of megabytes), it would be wise to flatten the Photoshop document.

                Transparency refers to a special effect in Photoshop such as the opacity of a document or image.

Creating a path is easier said than done when in Photoshop. Because Photoshop doesn’t offer a preview of paths.

                A duotone is composed of two colors that are usually black and a spot color. Any white that is present in an image is the paper itself.

                Art boards are imaginary pieces of drawing paper that can be extended beyond the scope of the white paper. When creating a new Illustrator document, an art board is automatically created.

                When creating an Illustrator document, you are given the option to create a bleed and specify the bleed.  Bleeds can be asymmetrical and have up to one inch in depth.

                There are benefits to simplifying artwork when RIPs are concerned to make processing and efficiency more accurate. Just choose object>path>clean-up to erase stray points and empty text paths.

                In Illustrator, effects are divided into two sections; Illustrator effects and Photoshop effects. Illustrator effects are applied to the interiors and edges of vector images. Clipping masks are also included for placed images.

                Transparency in Illustrator includes the opacity and blending. They create interesting visuals between objects. Be sure to use carefully, however, as it may create undesirable results.

                Linking and embedding images is a choice in Illustrator. Linking results in a smaller file while embedding makes it easier to keep track of all of the components of a file.

Check out Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications : chapters 8, 9, and 10

Variable Data Mail Project

My purpose for this project is to get people interested in the Pittsburg Art Walk. My two target audiances are Graphics Arts majors and Fine Art majors.

 Outline

 Thumbnails

                    Roughs

Final

  My call to action is to get more people to attend the Pittsburg Art Walk. 5X7 with margins and bleeds.

Fonts and Cross-Platform Issues

PostScript; once to be known as the ‘Only Right Way’; where others were pronounced evil, because RIPs couldn’t handle TrueType.  PostScript consists of a bitmap; for onscreen display and a printer component that contains instructions to print.

TrueType fonts only contain a single file for both components for onscreen and print. However, early RIPs couldn’t translate TrueType, making for errors in converting the fonts.

Open Type; also single file fonts that do not have separation from print to onscreen to keep track of. However, there is more variety of fonts to choose from with 65,000 glyphs.  Adobe has done away with PostScript fonts and only utilizes Open Type fonts with enhanced typographic features and linguistic support.

A font family takes fonts and creates division among a certain font; making it italic, bold, and underlined, given the specific qualifications of that font.

Glyphs are specific and distinct letterform. In other words, multiple glyphs can exist for a single character of a font in Open Type.

Dfonts are just another name for TrueType fonts and are data-only and single filed. Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, and Times Roman are included and called dfonts.

A nightmare for prepress is Multiple Master Fonts in which the user creates multiple weights, angles, and widths of a certain font. A pretty good idea at the time, but soon died as printing servers couldn’t handle the complexities of it all.

EULA; End User Licensing Agreement, allows you to purchase fonts under their strict licensing agreements. To legally take a copy of a font to a print service, it must be license. As well as selling it to a client, the client must have license of that font as well, or it’s in violation of EULA.

File naming is a lot more complicated than you think, Windows and Macs have restrictions on the number of characters a file name can have. However, they’re a lot more generous than the old days of just eight character naming. You have wiggle room of about 255 characters extending for a file name. But, punctuation and spacing isn’t needed when naming a file, usually an underscore or capitalization is acceptable for easy file finding.

In the old days of Macs, file extensions weren’t needed when naming a file. Today, it’s needed to differentiate locations and program specific for the document. Usually file extensions are automatic when naming a file.

Open Type fonts are completely cross-platform to both Windows and Macs. Others such as TrueType and PostScript can run into problems and errors when to cross-platform them.

I found this information in Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications: Chapter’s six and seven.    

Copyright

There are many things that have copyright, even images and content on the internet. Copyright parameter describes the identification on the internet, a packaged file that can be viewed of copyright information.

                Fonts are even copyrighted to certain companies as to branding rights. Once you purchase a font, it’s not really you that now owns the font to do as you please with it. You cannot make a profit on your newly purchased font. Fonts also have to be purchased separately per user; including clients whom you’re selling your design and font to. If not, it’s a violation of licensed agreement between logo designers and typeface designers.

                Most images on the internet that you get are from Google or Wikipedia. However, they’re all copyrighted under creative commons. Also, copyright free images actually mean public domain; which is far from completely free. There are varying degrees of copyright restrictions of images either on the internet or photographs, graphics, and illustrations. Always assume that every image you see is copyrighted unless otherwise specified. Painting a photograph to the exact and also copying a style of another is also in violation of copyrights.

                With content, such as logos, music, graphics and writings, fallow limitations and restrictions of copyright laws.  ‘Works of Authorship’ and originality are protected by copyright. It first must be fixed. Copyright arises automatically when a work is published.

                Intellectual property refers to a company or any institution’s trade secrets, basic policies, procedures and even employee’s know-how; like manufacturing procedures. Copyright of these things protects the articles, procedures, and expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. However, one can sue for copyright infringement based on the written statement if it’s registered.

                Online content and images are less restricted as it’s a vast network. Though it is much easier to access content and images, everything is copyrighted under creative commons and public domain. Even heftier copyright laws are enacted on the internet such as fonts, logos, images, and music.

Check out  http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51200 http://www.csoonline.com/article/204600/intellectual-property-protection-the-basics

http://mojo.codehaus.org/rpm-maven-plugin/ident-params.html for more information as these are the sources i got this information from.

Image from http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=copyright&search_group=&lang=en&search_source=search_form&x=5&y=14#id=79049779