Thank You, Jason
As y’all know — yes, I’m a Southerner now…;) — I’ve been a Macintosh user for, well, forever. From Mac Plus and early-nineties versions of Photoshop to the current setup, I’ve enjoyed every benefit Apple has had to offer.
Unfortunately, as service goes, it’s been a mixed bag. However, I’m pleased to report that the latest problem was handled in a manner that I have to talk about — in a good way.
The problem. Worse, those dots changed color and pattern as objects moved about the screen — rendering it basically useless. Worse still, it was coming up on midnight Saturday night, I was already in a bad mood, and had deadlines.
Thus, a big tip of the hat to Jason, the assistant manager at the Lenox Square Apple Store, who not only shoved me through service in two hours — but did it on an incredibly busy Sunday. Honestly, I had no idea how busy the Atlanta store was — wow. (Tampa? Nothing in comparison, especially for a Sunday. I thought Sundays were quiet in these parts — wrong. So much for being a Southerner…!)
Better still, without knowing it, he fixed another problem (of the computer not sleeping). Oh, how nice it is.
Jason, hats off. Your patience is to be admired, and service to the cause more than above and beyond. Steve’s getting a letter — of praise.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 31, 2007, at 2:04 AM.
Posted to Computers | Personal | Technology | Whatever
Open Library
Imagine a library that collected all the world’s information about all the world’s books and made it available for everyone to view and update. We’re building that library.
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 16, 2007, at 10:00 PM.
Posted to Computers | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Technology
iPhone: Revolutionary
iGrab
There was an iPhone at a party I attended tonight. The proud owner, who without shame would accept the label “geek,” needed little coaxing to show off his new toy.
What was interesting, though, was what happened next. I got scant time with the device initially, as a crowd formed — made up of not just geeks, but housewives, businesspeople, even senior citizens. The hype, it seems, has penetrated the American psyche. (Remember: I live in the middle of Georgia, 75 miles from Atlanta. Small-city, USA — and deep in The South, at that. That people are excited here.…)
Later, when the crowd had cleared and I had a better chance to look, touch — ahem, MultiTouch — and seriously think about, I have to say: it is revolutionary.
I’ve been an Apple user for a long time; indeed, since the Apple II days. My first exposure to a Mac is clearly etched in my mind, and although it took a while to be able to afford one, I eventually landed a (much-upgraded, for the time) Mac Plus. I’ve had nothing but since, and have to say that I enjoy using my Mac(s) every day.
The reason is because, way back when, the combo of mouse and graphical interface “clicked” immediately with me. (Pardon the pun.) Perhaps it is the visual learner, perhaps the artist, perhaps the geek, some mix of the three, whatever — but from that moment forward, IMHO, no one’s done it better than Apple. For me, there could be nothing but.
While the iterations have meant significant developments — the MultiFinder, iMac, OS X, Aperture — only the original Mac exposure itself has had a greater impact. The iPhone brings together several disparate items into something that’s usable. Something that makes every other phone/PDA/smartphone/ultraportable I’ve ever seen look like a complete piece of junk.
Admittedly, I only had a brief exposure, and I can immediately see some problems. The interface requires extra clicks to get places — you can’t immediately dial a number from the music section, for instance. Or the keyboard, which is just too small for fat fingers (true of other smartphones and PDAs, but still). The portrait/landscape switch is both easily fooled and sometimes flat-out wrong. And, I’m sure, more details Apple will certainly improve in iPhone 2 or 3. Knowing them, it’s already the drawing board.
That said: in the big picture, it’s still a revolution. The truly mobile computer is here.
Am I going to get one? No. Holding strong; the price and improvements needed are still enough of an obstacle to prevent purchase. As I said, though, an iteration or two down the road.…
Steve Jobs and Apple, nicely done. Congratulations — no Reality Distortion Field™ needed. This one’s the real deal.
Update: Forgot to mention in the original post that the iPhone’s owner waited in line with as many as two dozen others at the same North Macon store I mentioned below. Apple may have some left over from iDay — or not — but two dozen, there, is astonishing. Living up to the hype, Apple?
Posted by Giles, Sunday, July 1, 2007, at 1:24 AM.
Posted to Computers | Flickr | Personal | Technology
iWant
…an iPhone. Do iNeed? Hell, no — but Apple has done what it does best: make me want.
June!? Whaddya mean June?? &(*@#%& Apple!
Seriously, there’s one reason I want one of these so badly: integration. Finally, finally, a device that does it all — dare I say it, a Newton for the modern era. (Kidding.) Says Pogue:
[W]hat you can’t get from any printed description is how it’s all sewn together with typical Apple polish and grace, with delicious animations and gorgeous graphics. (The crowd went nuts when Steve Jobs demonstrated how you scroll through your iTunes music list: you flick your finger upward or downward on the screen. The list flashes by, slowly coming to a stop like a roulette wheel.)
Yup. iLove.
So, how’d I do in the big picture? Let’s take a look:
And herein is where Reality catches up with the Distortion Field (RDF for you Steveaholics). iPhone is very cool. It’s also very expensive, works only with Cingular, and, well, is a v1. I’m always a little leery of the first generation Apple anything — stuff this cutting edge is always better when some of the initial kinks are worked out.
I might try an iTV — ahem, excuse, AppleTV — despite its’ first-generation status. (Once I get a television, that is…;) Sure, it’s got problems — lack of DivX playback, too focused on Apple’s iTunes sales dept, etc. — but somehow it seems more palatable than a $600 phone.
Also, the real bread and butter was alarmingly absent from the keynote — any sort of new Macs, displays, or software. And to put an exclamation point on it, Apple Computer, Inc., is now formally just known as “Apple, Inc.”
Okay, so they didn’t introduce what I wanted. They introduced something I wanted more — I just didn’t know it yet.
Hey, as long as their computers continue to kick butt in the way they do now, I’ll go along for the ride!
Some interesting stuff in that stack of email from the holiday — will be back with at least one of those Thurs Friday or Saturday (looooong week).
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, January 9, 2007, at 10:29 PM.
Posted to Computers | Personal | Technology
Macworld Expo
It’s that time again! Woohoo!
My wishlist: a cheaper tower (they’re plenty powerful already), 27” monitor in an improved case, and an iPhone or whatever they’re going to call it.
My predictions: none, perhaps one of the above will happen. iPhone feels most likely, if you’re going to ask.
What’s the Steve got in store (heh — pun intended) for us tomorrow? Only those in the know can say for sure, but here’s a way to play along:
Sweet Ars. Get your own here.
They’ll have full coverage of the keynote live, too, by the way; Apple usually doesn’t have a simultaneous webcast of the event any more, but posts one soon after — for those of us who just have to see the show…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, January 8, 2007, at 8:51 AM.
Posted to Computers
Weekend Research: Font Management Applications
We’ve covered ’em before — but not on this level:
Well, it was a long time coming, but I’ve been through the trenches and come up, sucking chest wound and all, with the Ars review of font management programs. I’ve also succeeded in not completely losing my mind while the developers updated the apps, nullifying half my criticisms in the process. Giving a lot of time to these programs in a production setting is crucial to seeing how they perform on a daily basis, and I am confident I’ve thrown enough varied scenarios at each to find out where they succeed and fail.
To people outside of design and typography, I’m sure that the words “font manager” sound like something taking itself way too seriously—like some sort of gilded spice rack—but for those that need to work with fonts on a daily basis, the font manager is serious business. To prepress houses and service bureaus, it is the pit stop: you turn it on, hit Print, and go deal with the real work—the more time you have to spend dealing with the font management/activation process, the less money you are making. For designers that juggle a range of clients and projects, working with fonts is more a nebulous creative ritual of feeling a brand, and it demands a tool worthy of the task.
In simpler times, you pulled open a drawer, chose between the three sets of steel blocks, said “I don’t care who you are, you’re getting Garamond,” and that was that. Nowadays clients are wiser and choosier, fonts are cheaper (not making them out of steel helps), and everyone and their dog is making fonts (the dog fonts are terrible; you really don’t want to use those). The result is a need to handle and navigate the abundant libraries available while not stifling that creative process. Now, years after Suitcase started the ball rolling on System 6, we’re lucky enough to have some very mature font management tools for Mac OS X. The big three reviewed here—Insider FontAgent Pro, Linotype FontExplorer X, and Extensis Suitcase Fusion—are now all Universal Binaries for Intel Macs. After a slow and rocky start for font management on Mac OS X, it’s now good times for font junkies. So with the stage set, let’s see how they fared.
Read on for those results.
…Unless you’d prefer to cut to the chase. They gave Font Agent an 8 (out of 10), and Suitcase and Font Explorer both 7s. All have plusses and minuses, none enough to make working with one application over another anything more than choosing which application works best in your workflow.
P.S. Be sure to check out the cache deletion utility mentioned in the article — good for when those fonts aren’t behaving the way they should!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, January 7, 2007, at 12:04 AM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Design | Type and typography
Rumor Update: Photoshop CS3 Beta Tomorrow!?
Update: Beta Available. You’ll need a CS2 serial number. Get it from Adobe Labs. (More on my impressions in a few days — want time to become a little more familiar before I go blathering off…;)
People familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider that Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen will formally announce plans for the beta release during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter conference call with analysts and members of the media on Thursday.
On the other hand, those same people say that the San Jose, Calif.-based software developer does not plan to release or discuss details of other Creative Suite 3.0 applications, such as Illustrator, Dreamweaver and InDesign.
The Photoshop CS3 beta, which will be posted to the Adobe Labs website on friday, will include Adobe Bridge and Device Central components, and be available simultaneously for both the Mac and Windows operating systems.
People familiar with the Macintosh version of the editor confirm it to be a Universal Binary which “simply screams” on Apple Computer’s new Intel-based hardware. However, they tell AppleInsider that this week’s beta will include only the standard version of Photoshop CS3.
Read more over at AppleInsider. I’ll update this entry if a Photoshop beta does indeed become available.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 14, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Computers | Photography | Technology
Rumor: Adobe Might Do CS Beta
It’s thin — but promising. AppleInsider has more.
That said, March is only three months away. And that annual love-in known as the MacWorld Expo is even sooner — where we’ll undoubtedly get an update from Adobe or, perhaps, even the Steve.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 12, 2006, at 9:34 AM.
Posted to Computers | Photography | Technology
More Details on Photoshop CS3 Emerge
From Think Secret:
For many Mac users, the most notable improvement Adobe will be delivering with Photoshop CS3 is native support for Intel-based Macs. Sources stressed that the new version of Photoshop, which sports an upgraded and more responsive interface, continually exceeded their performance expectations, including on PowerPC hardware.
Photoshop CS3’s interface is said to closely resemble the look and feel of Adobe After Effects 7, with easy palette organization and brightness adjustment for the overall interface itself. Palettes can be moved, minimized, customized or collapsed down to a single icon with ease; even that familiar two-column toolbar can be converted into a narrower single column bar, if desired.
Another new feature substantially improving both workflow and raw performance is Live Filters, which effectively brings the dynamic editing features of Layer Styles to Filters. The pixel radius of a Gaussian Blur, for example, can be adjusted long after it has been applied with just a single mouse click. Sources report substantial performance improvements to the filters themselves, as well, and have speculated that Photoshop may now be tapping the GPU of the video card to help the CPU crunch filters.
With regard to non-destructive editing improvements, sources report that layers can now be saved as smart objects that the new editable filters can now be applied to.
Sweet.
Alas, not all is good news — Infinite Loop is reporting that Photoshop may be expanded to two versions, a standard and a pro — with the pro, naturally, costing more. As if it needs to be more expensive…!
A March-April 2007 introduction seems to be the consensus.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 5, 2006, at 11:43 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology
Three of Potential Interest
Checking my email online tonight, to discover more than thirty open tabs in the browser; stuff to read later, stuff to blog on, stuff to deal with, etc. Here are three:
— Sports Artist Sued for Mix of Crimson and Tide:
In the solemn cathedral of college football devotion and instruction that is the Paul W. Bryant Museum here, a large painting dominates the main chamber. It is called “The Sack,” and it shows an encounter between a Notre Dame quarterback and a human locomotive in crimson and white.
“I’ve never been hit like that before,” the quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, said after his near-lethal sack by Cornelius Bennett in 1986, in the University of Alabama’s first victory ever over his team.
Daniel A. Moore, who painted “The Sack” and scores of other renditions of signal moments in Alabama football history, said he felt something similar last year, when his fax machine began to spit out a lawsuit from the university.
Downward spiral. Here’s a wish for recovery before impact.
— Droolworthy, and, uh, funny as hell:
MacRumors Apple ad contest winner. See more.
— I’d noticed the font used in the Sony Alpha ads recently, and wondered about it. Lo and behold, in my (astonishingly large stack of) email was an ad for it:
Vista Sans, from Emigre. (Natch. Love their stuff.) Read some of the designer’s notes on Vista and others at FontShop.
More ASAP.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 12:00 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Computers | Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Public domain | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Aperture 1.5.1, Plus a Trial Version
Apple has released a small version upgrade to its photo-management software, Aperture. It’s available for download here.
Apple’s also, finally, released a trial version — and better still, it’ll run on a good deal many more machines than earlier versions, so more of us can try the program out. And, of course, get us pining for new machines.…
Via Ars. Who, by the way, also identifies a nice Secret Santa gift…;)
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 3, 2006, at 1:41 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology | Whatever
CS3: Now Q1 2007?
The speculation runs rampant!
AppleInsider notes:
People familiar with the software maker’s plans say the suite is currently tracking for a release towards the end of March, ahead of the 2007 Photoshop World conference scheduled for April 4-6 at the John B. Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass.
The rumblings are contrary to comments from Adobe chief executive Bruce Chizen, who in a March 2006 interview with Forbes magazine said the San Jose-based company would not launch the next generation suite until the second quarter of 2007.
Meanwhile, Investor’s Business Daily is sticking with a later date:
“As far as the next product cycle, everything seems to be lining up,” said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital.
Pyykkonen predicts that Adobe will release CS3 on May 1. Adobe executives are guiding analysts lower in their financial targets for the firm ahead of the CS3 launch, he says.
[…] A big question hanging over Adobe is how much of a dip in revenue it can expect in its creative solutions unit ahead of the Creative Suite 3 launch. Some buyers looking to upgrade might decide to wait until CS3 comes out, says Ross MacMillan, a Jefferies & Co. analyst.
“No one really knows quite how sharp the deceleration is going to be ahead of the (Creative Suite 3) product cycle, particularly in the January quarter,” MacMillan said. “Everybody knows it (CS3) is coming. So how do you stimulate purchases of the existing CS2 product and the other products that sit within it, like Photoshop?”
There’s a pent-up demand for CS3 among creative professionals who use Apple Computer’s (AAPL) Macintosh PCs, he says.
Ya think?
It’s about speed, Adobe! The current Mac Pro towers — in either 2.66 or 3.0 — roughly equal, give or take a little, the Quad G5 in a Photoshop Actions test. But, the Mac Pros require translation for the Intel stuff through Apple’s Rosetta.
The 3.0GHz Mac Pro’s 20% faster clock speed, larger L2 cache, and faster system bus enables it to muscle through these two non-optimized apps. When Adobe releases the UB versions in Q2 2007, “look out below”!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 10, 2006, at 10:13 PM.
Posted to Computers
Aperture 1.5
Apple released a new version of Aperture this week at the Photokina show in Cologne, Germany. It’s a free upgrade for current owners, and should be available as a download today or tomorrow.
Rob Galbraith has a good overview:
The program can now work with pictures wherever they reside, not just on a single drive as before, the adding of metadata on import has been streamlined, RAW photos can be exported with XMP-format sidecar files, Aperture Library contents are accessible from applications in Apple’s iWork and iLife suites and a developer’s SDK enables third parties to create custom export modules.
There are important changes to the image viewing and processing controls too, but the most compelling aspects of the new release involving importing, tracking, exporting and sharing pictures. Here’s a look at some of what’s new.
Read the rest, and note the photos from the introduction — nice. (Thanks, Rob!)
Aperture has the potential to be a nearly-perfect application for sorting and preparing photos for use in book projects — its ability to organize is what got me interested in the first place. (After all, I love Photoshop. I’m not interested in “replacing” Photoshop, only streamlining the process — using something to organize and do simple adjustments to RAW files. Photoshop would still be the king for complex adjustments and all “artistic” stuff…!)
Note Apple’s section on books, too:
Presenting prospective clients with a handsome, bound and printed Stock Book sends a powerful message. And Aperture makes the production of such high-quality bound books both simple and affordable. To help you put a unique stamp on them, Aperture includes a sophisticated book-layout engine that offers significant design flexibility.
You can manually drag or have Aperture automatically place photographs in a layout for you. Double click on any photo, and you can zoom in or pan the image until it’s perfectly positioned. Aperture also lets you add both text and photo boxes; move, resize, and rotate photos; insert multi-columned text; even use your own photos as full-bleed, ghosted background images. Need another page? Add a blank one whenever you’d like or simply duplicate an existing page and replace its photos or text.
With Aperture, you have total control. And when you’re ready, you can print your completed book on your own printer, save it as a PDF, or take advantage of Aperture’s integrated ordering service to order hard- or soft-cover books printed at 300dpi for optimal print quality.
Would I lay out a photo book in Aperture rather than InDesign? Probably not. Will have to see, once I have the program.
…Which, unfortunately, won’t be immediately. It’s not just a matter of purchasing Aperture — it’s a matter of also purchasing a computer it’ll run on. My 20” iMac won’t cut it. Soon.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, September 28, 2006, at 9:45 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography
More Adobe News
Things are rolling forth from Adobe these days — pulling us ever closer to the CS3 experience. Can’t wait! (Looking forward to that $500+ upgrade, too — not.)
First up is a new version of Camera Raw, 3.5. This Photoshop plug-in now supports new digital camera (Sony Alpha, Nikon D2Xs, etc.). RAW can be a valuable tool when shooting photos — try it. The big news here is that it’s now Universal, for those of you using MacIntel.
Second, speaking of MacIntel, Adobe demonstrated Photoshop CS3 on a MacIntel machine at the recent Photoshop World.
“During the Photoshop World keynote, Adobe’s Sr. Vice President of Creative Solutions provided a quick look at Photoshop CS3, apparently running on an Intel-based Mac,” PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients on Monday.
“While the presentation did not reveal any of the CS3 features, it provided evidence that the company has already successfully moved this core application to the Intel-Mac platform.”
AppleInsider also notes:
Next year’s Photoshop World is scheduled for April 4-6 at the John B. Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass., suggesting a release of Adobe Creative Suite 3.0 may precede the conference.
Third, that same article notes that the existing Creative Suite 2 has been updated:
Version 2.3 will include its Acrobat 8 Professional software, the newly released version of its PDF workflow software. In addition to supporting industry-standard PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 files, Acrobat 8 Professional now outputs PDF/X-4 for native transparency support, as well as PDF/A for long-term archiving.
Adobe Creative Suite 2.3 Premium also bundles Dreamweaver 8, the Web design and development tool acquired from Macromedia.
Interesting. GoLive, once the king of the hill, is now pretty lacking — glad they’ve selected Dreamweaver instead. (Or perhaps both? Either way.…) Acrobat 8 adds to the PDF letter soup. (Joy.)
Yup, exciting times…;)
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 19, 2006, at 5:24 PM.
Posted to Computers
Photoshop 9.0.2, Again
It’s back:
Back in August, the company briefly made available 9.0.2 for Mac via the program’s software update mechanism, but that update was found to have a printing bug that affected OS X 10.2.x and 10.3.x systems and was quickly pulled from circulation. This 9.0.2 updater has the same fixes as the earlier 9.0.2, plus a correction for the earlier 9.0.2’s printing bug.
If you installed the earlier 9.0.2 updater for Mac, the new 9.0.2 updater’s Read Me document notes that Photoshop CS2 must be reinstalled before running the new updater.
Oh, reinstall joys!
Seriously, hat tip to Rob Galbraith, who also notes that the Windows version has been out since Aug. 23.
Posted by Giles, Monday, September 18, 2006, at 8:13 AM.
Posted to Computers
Off Topic: iTV
I want one:
Breaking with Apple’s tradition of not announcing unreleased products [sic], Jobs said that the company will release a wireless, set-top box for the TV called… iTV. Approximately half the size of the Mac mini, the iTV will feature Ethernet, 802.11g, USB ports, component video, optical audio, and HDMI ports. It will work with the Apple Remote and sport an interface much like that of Front Row.
iTV will allow music, TV shows, and movies residing on a computer to play on a television in another part of the house with what Jobs describes as instantaneous access. It is slated to ship during the first quarter of 2007 and will retail for $299.
More on the new iPods, the update to iTunes, etc., at Ars, or, watch the Apple event.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 3:18 PM.
Posted to Computers | Personal | Technology | Whatever
Scoop: Acrobat 8 on Sept. 18; Possible CS3 Details
From a Google-translated Italian article:
From the scarno communicated it is learned that Adobe will renew the entire line of Acrobat applications and that “will be enriched from new functionalities […] offers the possibility to create, to manage and to share documents and information, from the layout of press to the creative campaigns, without worries in terms of emergency, arranges operated or applications to you”.
Beyond to Acrobat, in that occasion, innovationes in the field are preannounced of “web-conferencing turned to the professionals and companies that must communicate and interact in real time without geographic and technological barriers”.
It will be occasion also for having greater information with regard to the distance and to the tempistica of Photoshop and the other applications of the Creatives Suite 3 in Universal version, for the Mac with processore Intel.
Probably the international announcement will happen the day before, the 18 september.
Apple’s all-Intel line of computers is making Adobe’s non-Universal flagship applications a little behind the times. C’mon Adobe. Surprise us with something!
Posted by Giles, Saturday, September 9, 2006, at 12:22 PM.
Posted to Computers
Surprise: 24-inch Apple iMac
Back in September, 2004, I looked on the new iMacs with pleasure. Had only one request, really:
The only thing better would be a bigger iMac G5. Slashdot to the rescue, though, quoting an Apple engineer (if you believe it) saying that they chose the arm they did specifically because the articulating ones couldn’t support LCD panels larger than 20 inches.
Well, fast forward two years. While rumors of a 23-inch iMac have been around (and around, and around), Apple’s announcement this morning took many by surprise — not only for being a week sooner than the latest rumors expected, but an inch larger, too:
Better still, they dropped the prices — $999 for the entry-level 17” and $1499 for the 20”, with the new 24 coming in at $1999. Sweet.
Now, if Adobe could just get moving on Universal Creative Suite applications.…
Note: Yeah, I’ve had some troubles with my existing iMac. But not so many that I wouldn’t consider another — and a 24” iMac is more than $1000 cheaper than a tower and 23-inch monitor combo. Another nice one, Apple.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 6, 2006, at 11:58 AM.
Posted to Computers
Photoshop Tech "Sneak Peak"
From Rob Galbraith:
During his upcoming keynote address at Photoshop World, John Loiacono, senior vice president of Adobe’s Creative Solutions Business, will provide “a sneak peek at some of the new Photoshop technology being developed,” says a company press release. Photoshop World runs from September 7-9, 2006 in Las Vegas; Loiacono’s speech is slated for the morning of September 7.
Hope to see more news on that soon.
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 1, 2006, at 12:42 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Computers | Photography | Technology
Google Book Search Allowing Downloads of Some Books
From Ars:
When Google Print was first unveiled, it was clear that the site would become an amazing resource. It provided full access to books that were already out of copyright, but only if you viewed them online, one page at a time. What people most wanted, though, was the ability to download full PDF versions of the books, which they could read or print at their leisure and on their own machines. Oh, and they wanted Google to provide this free of charge.
Google went ahead and did it. Books no longer in copyright are now available for download from the Google Book Search site.
Wow. Google strikes again, in a big way.
Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, joining Apple’s board is an interesting thing, too. They certainly have become the company to watch.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 1, 2006, at 12:36 AM.
Posted to Book sellers | Books | Computers | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Publishing | Technology | Writing
Photoshop 9.0.2?
PHOTOheadlines says that Photoshop 9.0.2 was released back on the 17th:
Photoshop CS2 update 9.0.2 is avaiable. No news on the adobe.com homepage yet regarding what’s being updated. To access the update you must download it through the Photoshop CS2 help menu, then select “update”!
Try as I might, though, I can’t seem to locate the update — Photoshop itself lists 9.0.1 as the current, and adobe.com still doesn’t list a 9.0.2 — it seems to have been pulled. If anyone knows more, please let us know.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at 4:52 PM.
Posted to Computers
New Version of Barcode Producer
…is available:
Check it out. Both the application and upgrade are expensive, I’d say, but worth it.
Almost seems funny how 2007 is only a few months away. Sheesh.
Photography trip again this weekend, so forgive the lack of posting or comment moderation until Monday. Have a good weekend.
Posted by Giles, Friday, August 18, 2006, at 10:34 AM.
Posted to Computers
FontExplorer X Updated
…to version 1.1. MacInTouch says:
Linotype’s FontExplorer X 1.1 combines font management, font display and information, font activation, and font shopping. It includes plug-ins for Illustrator, InDesign, and QuarkXPress, along with Smart Sets, the ability to clear application font caches, and other features. This release adds activation of single fonts in a suitcase, duplicate import, labels, a QuarkXPress 7 plug-in, customizable columns in the conflict table, improved font import, improved InDesign and Illustrator plug-ins, and more. FontExplorer X is free for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and up (Universal Binary).
Haven’t tried it again — but perhaps soon. These regular updates signal a maturing product worthy of consideration. Well, that and the new Quark 7 plug-in.
Kidding!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 7:41 PM.
Posted to Computers | Type and typography
So, It's Finally Here
The Mac Pro:
Interestingly, only offered in one configuration: a $2499 machine, with numerous build-to-order options. It’s an all-dual processor option lineup, in 2.0 ($-300 option), 2.6 (standard) and, finally, 3.0 (+$800) — but, in this case, both of the “duals” are actually dual-processor. That means an all-quad processor lineup.
Wow.
Furthermore, the processors are Intel’s “Woodcrest,” aka “Xeon,” processors, which are the server chips — powerful stuff. Hopefully, that means running items in Rosetta (stuff not Intel-native — read: Photoshop) will be fast enough to be truly usable.
Intel-native applications will, for lack of a better term, scream. Ever driven a G5 Quad? It was the first machine I’d ever used that ran Photoshop in what amounts to real-time. These are faster.
Plus, because of an extensive redesign inside the (familiar) case, we’re allowed two optical drives, four hard drives, 16GB of RAM, and more and more and more. The case reminds me a little of Apple’s Mirrored Drive Door machines relative to the rest of the Blue and White and Graphite G3 and G4 towers — similar outside, but oh-so-much-better inside.
I was pretty disappointed in the lack of announcements from Adobe, and of course I’ll go on my biannual rant about Apple needing something between 23 and 30 inches when it comes to monitors — I want a 27!! — but at least they did lower the monitor prices. The 30” is $1999 ($1699 if you can handle a refurb), the 23” $999.
Never thought I would be eager to get Intel Inside. Heh.
P.S. Leopard, aka Mac OS 10.5, contains auto-backup and restoration software! Get the scoop here.
P.P.S. Apple’s posted the keynote. Check it out.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, August 8, 2006, at 7:59 AM.
Posted to Computers
WWDC Bingo
Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference keynote is August 7th — much later than usual, probably so that new machinery can be introduced (Intel just announced new chips, so the timing makes sense, at least). Speculation online is rampant. Reminds me of the “old” days, where there was a viable summer MacWorld.…
Anyway, the clever folks at Ars have come up with a brilliant idea: Keynote Bingo.
There are 42 versions of the cards — grab your own and play along. Someone yelling “Bingo!” during the keynote would be side-splittingly funny.
Note especially the “Adobe Universal demo” square. Could care less about M$ Office, but an Intel version of Photoshop and InDesign sooner rather than later would be a Good Thing™!
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, July 26, 2006, at 9:40 AM.
Posted to Computers | Technology | Whatever
Microsoft Buys iView
Now here’s an interesting change to the digital-file/media-management landscape:
iView said on its Web site that Microsoft has many plans for iView’s technologies and product line, but those plans would not be announced right away.
iView made a point of noting that its Macintosh versions will continue to be made available and supported.
“Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products,” said notes on the iView Web site.
I worked with iView MediaPro at the juice company, and found it great for nearly everything except EPS files, which is what we used most. I looked at it again just recently, but decided that Aperture was the better route for my digital media workflow. Glad I did.
This comes hot on the heels of Adobe’s announcement yesterday of the purchase of the RawShooter conversion engine for use in the Lightroom product. The big boys are definitely solidifying their positions — seems like the battle for who “controls” the media market is just heating up.
Notice that iView promises an upgrade path, not a Mac one. Peter Krogh, author of a digital management book for O’Reilly, calls it a good move — but cautions M$ to keep Mac support.
Time will tell.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 27, 2006, at 6:49 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Computers | Photography | Technology
"Better Than Suicide"
ArsTechnica has posted a comprehensive review of Quark 7 — from an InDesign user’s perspective:
With a new face, you would hope that there would come a new heart for Quark, one capable of stopping the flow of customers it once so confidently thought it would never lose. The new text engine is a welcome, but long overdue change, and it’s hard to call things like full Opentype support and decent onscreen rendering “features” in this day and age. The addition of powerful transparency options are a boon but otherwise, the main new features in XPress 7—Collaboration Setup and Job Jackets—are not going to appeal to every user and the latter feature even misses the mark as a substitute for a preflighting tool. This while Quark still avoids basic features like drag-and-drop that people have been waiting on for years. It’s not encouraging and doesn’t say “we’ve clued in to your needs” to me.
[…] In the end, XPress 7 is good for QuarkXPress but not great compared to the competition and while I enjoy using it much more than previous versions, it doesn’t have me excited or itching to leave InDesign.
See the rest, including screen captures, specific features, and a good comparison of Quark 7 and InDesign CS2, here.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 8:50 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Computers | Design | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography
FotoExpresso
…has a new issue out, which offers some good tips for color correction, if anyone’s after a refresher. Note that English isn’t the author’s native language, but the info’s still clear and easily understood.
They review and point to a new product I wasn’t familiar with (and might pick up): Pantone’s Huey. Nice. (And cheap!)
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 23, 2006, at 11:54 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography | Printing | Technology
Stairstep Resize Myth Debunked
For years now, ever since a Photoshop World conference back in my juice-label days, whenever I’ve had to resize an image up — make larger file from a small original, I mean — I’ve used the “stairstep” method. I’m pretty sure it was Scott Kelby whose presentation started the trend for me, followed by another Photoshop “guru” afterwards cementing the method; others have been heard to say the same thing.
By “stairstepping,” I’m referring to the practice of sizing up an image in 10% jumps. I’ve even added actions to Photoshop to do this, so it’s just a matter of a few clicks to get an image to a size I might need. By and large, it’s worked pretty well.
Well, no longer — it’s been proven the less effective method:
Stairstep upsampling on the left; bicubic (with smoothing) on the right.
[I]t’s pretty easy to see that this method doesn’t hold a candle to the bicubic smoother method. Look at the differences in test patches 0/4, 0/5, 0/6. They’re no longer clearly resolved, because the aliasing that I feared has messed them up. The same aliasing has the effect of ‘enlarging’ each of the dark areas, so that the Stair Interpolation version seems to ‘bloom’ slightly compared to the bicubic version.
Read the rest, including some nifty mouseover comparisons, here. (And check out some of Paul’s portfolio — nice.)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 11:11 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Design | Photography | Technology
Quark 7 Ships; Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Camera Raw Updated
From the news desk:
— Quark 7 ships in a PowerPC, OS X-compatible green box. Apparently supports drop shadows. Ooooooo. (Joking. I’m not impressed.) According to Ars, the box also says “Universal” on it, but those emblems have been covered with stickers, and that’s beta’s not actually expected until this summer. Dunno about you, but I don’t do print output using beta programs.
— CS3 is still on track for the second quarter (Spring-Summer) 2007. Shame to have to wait that long for Universal, but I’ll still be using PowerPC on my desk anyway, so.…
— Adobe updated both Photoshop CS2 and the Camera Raw plug-ins recently. Get the latest goodies!
Final Canon gallery later today. Sorry for the delay!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, May 25, 2006, at 11:34 AM.
Posted to Computers
On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1
Phew: Survived. The last six weeks have been out-of-control busy, in case you couldn’t tell by the lack of posting (or comment moderation). Why? Well, six book covers (including the two Bush covers I’ve posted about), two magazine ads, a new edition of a 56-page catalog, and 100+ hours into this POD project I yapped about a few days ago now. Speaking of which, I’m starting with this because it’s fresh on my mind, then will work my way backwards through my list of once-intended posts over the next few days.
This post is a little off-topic for a book design blog, but I’m posting it for two reasons: One, uh, well, I can. Great thing about blogs — built-in soapbox…;)
Two, some of our “regular” readers might be interested either in this particular camera and how it worked (and didn’t work) for me in a very demanding test, or might be thinking about professional protography and are interested in the opinion of what amounts to an amateur shooting his first wedding — with a camera he’d used for only a few hours, didn’t have a manual or more than one effective (in my hands) lens for, and who undertook this project more than a little ragged after weeks of eighteen-plus-hour days.
Am I glad I did it? Yes. Absolutely, emphatically yes. I learned more about the hoops necessary to do this effectively than a thousand lectures from the best professionals in the world could have given; got to gift a good friend with more than a thousand photographs of his bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and a kickin’ party afterwards; and find out under the most grueling conditions possible whether a certain camera system will work for me before I put down the investment.
Couple of notes before I get the review proper underway: Product reviews are not my forté, so I’m hoping you’ll forgive a bit of a haphazard style. I’m going to give you good and bad, followed by a sample gallery of photos, posted through my Flickr account. Some photos are straight out of the Rebel XT (or my current Sony f828), some are altered in Photoshop. No matter what, it’s my opinion. There are Canon vs. Nikon wars aplenty; we don’t need one here. I’m not qualified to speak with authority on anything other than how I feel about this camera equipment, relative to what I have now, as someone serious about taking the step from “amateur” to “professional” photography. (I’ll explain that better, too.)
Continue reading "On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1"
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 22, 2006, at 4:24 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news | Technology | Writing
An Approach to RGB-CMYK Conversion
A very interesting article on one approach to CMYK conversion has been posted over at The Luminous Landscape:
I have for many years worked in the CMYK colour space for press and printer image production. In doing to I discovered the most important area for me to consider when using Photoshop for RGB to CMYK conversion for printer or press printing, was the colour space conversion set-up to ensure the correct gamut on printers and printing presses is realised. As photographers are now encompassing Photoshop as their photo manipulation software of choice to process images, there is and will continue to be a service for printer and printing press ready CMYK files to be supplied. An understanding of the printing process and its relationship with Photoshop, will greatly assist in any a users abiltiy to ensure the maintenance of image quality and gamut control throughout the printing process.
It’s aimed at pro photographers getting stuff right for print, but it’s a great tutorial for those who need a refresher and contains some excellent tidbits for all so inclined on how the “color settings” palette in Photoshop can be a very big deal indeed.
Something to chew on if it’s a slow Monday for you…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 8, 2006, at 1:41 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Book printers | Computers | Design | Photography | Printing | Publishing | Technology
More on Richard Eckersley
…at the Design Observer:
That legacy is enormous. His books and jackets have been annually included as selections in the annual Association of American University Press competition, as well as frequently included in the AIGA “50 Books” competition, and among them are many that were instantly hailed as masterpieces of the publishing arts: Karl Bodmer’s America and The Journals of Lewis and Clark, of course, but also Jacques Derrida’s Glas and Cinders, Avital Ronell’s The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, Warren Motte’s Small Worlds, a steady stream of translations of contemporary French writers (including books by Marcel Benabou, Marguerite Duras, Jean Echenoz, Maurice Blanchot and Gérard Genette), and many, many more.
The article includes links, but in case you’re busy and need to get back to it, here’s a taste — also