1. Art

For all makers of art and design a crucial source of inspiration is the work of fellow artists, designers and creatives of every kind. Knowledge of art and design history offers a solid grounding on which to make work, while an awareness of contemporary art practice frames the context in which the work is produced. Successive art movements have evolved and thrived by artists taking inspiration from one and other’s work and this continues to be the case today. At times when inspiration is flagging it is important to look to the work of past masters. When a designer is grappling with an aesthetic problem, they are assisted by the vast history of art that features practitioners who have already ‘solved’ many of these dilemmas.

2. Galleries and Museums

The best way to experience art is in the flesh and fortunately our galleries and museums are bursting with great works and fascinating relics. There is a mass of inspirational art to explore, from the embarrassment of riches held by national museums such as the British Museum and National Galleries to the cutting edge work found in small contemporary shows. Many of the finest museums are free to enter (although some charge for majors exhibitions), and many offer talks and events exploring the collections. Thousands of small galleries have rolling schedules of exhibitions and many publicly advertise for their opening night ‘private views’, a chance to meet the artists, mingle with other creatives, and enjoy a glass of wine.

3. The Internet

It’s easy to take the Internet for granted, but it was only a few years ago that researching artists and creative techniques would involve trawling through libraries, searching for periodicals, and attending evening classes. Today all this can be found with simple searches, reading Wikipedia pages or watching YouTube clips. The Internet has revolutionized many aspects of our daily lives; for artists and designers it is an invaluable source of information and inspiration.

4. Film

Many critics and historians consider film to be the quintessential art form of the twentieth century. The haunting quality of silent movies, the sharp design of light and shadow in film noir, the garish colours of Hammer horror, the grit of American gangster movies, the aesthetics of European art house, the startling graphics of Manga animations, and cutting edge CGI and 3D technologies; for artists and designers film is an enormous source of visual imagery and inspiration.

5. Music

There are two ways in which music can be an important source of inspiration for artists and designers. Firstly, music can form the soundtrack to a designers practice, helping create a mood and ambience to accompany the working environment. Designers can choose music to suit the project on which they are working, helping to set the pace and mood of the work. The second way that music can positively influence designers is in its packaging, performances, posters and other related imagery. Musicians often embrace strong aesthetics, high fashion and state-of-the-art design to accompany their music, inspirational stuff for those involved in the visual arts.

6. Print Ads and Posters

Film and music are prompted with often astonishing posters and print media, as are every kind of commercial product, events and even ideas. Many print ads are made by the leading designers of the day to ensure eye-catching imagery and effective communication. This media is an essential resource for the designer to find reference material and inspiration.

7. The Outdoors

There come moments in every creative person’s practice that the inspiration dries up and the ideas stagnate. At these times it is great to have a break and get outside in the fresh air, have a stroll or take a bicycle ride. Parks and countryside, city streets and urban environments can all enliven the senses and invigorate creativity.

8. Books

While the best way to see art is in the flesh, and so much is available on the Internet, one of the best ways to study visual work is in books. For book designers and typographers, of course, the book form is the best way to present their creations. Books are available on all types of artists, history and techniques, and they remain one of the most rewarding means of finding inspiration.

9. Magazines

In common with books, magazines and periodicals are a fine way of finding inspiration. Publications such as Art Review and Modern Painters cover the latest trends and contemporary artists, whilst also providing overviews of past movements and critical theories.

10. Life

The best art, design and creative works are directly inspired by the maker’s life. Working purely stylistically and aesthetically can produce results, but it is when artists infuse their work with their personal experiences of life that the work becomes enriched and truly enlivened.

Here’s a list of 20 applications that allow you to create blog posts from the comfort of your operating system environment, no internet connection required.

Mars Edit 2: Mac

Mars Edit is among the most popular desktop blogging apps for the Mac. It supports all of the major blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, and Drupal and even many of the newer ones like Squarespace and Tumblr. Composing a blog post in Mars Edit can be as simple as writing an email but there are enough advanced features like macros (reusable snippets) and TextWrangler integration to keep professional bloggers happy.
Price: $29.95

Flock: Mac & Windows

I know this doesn’t strictly fit the category of a desktop blogging app, but it is a desktop app and it does have blogging integration… so there. Flock is the most unique web browser I’ve ever come across and is absolutely worth checking out. The thing that makes Flock unique is that it has integrated tons of the services you use online into the browser itself (by default). This means you can browse the web while keeping tabs on your social networking and blogging services. The built-in blog editor isn’t as fully featured as Mars Edit, but as a free utility bundled in a browser it’s pretty impressive. Check out all the services Flock supports below. Price: Free


Flock Services

Ecto: Mac

Ecto is a surprisingly fully featured blogging application with support for a ton of platforms. Ecto features include both a rich text editor and an HTML editor, full local control of recently posted entries and drafts, and the ability to convert and scale images. In my own testing Ecto seemed a bit rough around the edges but it’s definitely a good alternative to Mars Edit if you’re looking for something a little cheaper.
Price: $19.95

Qumana: PC & Mac

Qumana is another free option with most of the necessary features we’ve already discussed: WYSIWYG and HTML editor, support for most major blogging platforms, and local control of previous posts. What sets Qumana apart is its emphasis making money with your blog. Qumana lets you easily include ads in your posts so you can (theoretically) earn cash as viewers click on the ads.
Price: Free

Blogo: Mac

Blogo breaks ground in the interface category by delivering a slick, minimal UI for updating your blog. Blogo supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Expression Engine, Twitter, Ping.fm and more. Notable features include a bookmarklet to easily grab content from your browser, a fullscreen editing mode and easy drag and drop photo uploading/resizing.
Price: $25

MacJournal: Mac

MacJournal is geared more towards private journaling than professional blogging, but it does include full support for LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, and WordPress. MacJournal takes full advantage of OS X by offering features like Quicklook integration and iSight compatibility.
Price: $39.95

BlogJet: Windows

BlogJet is one of the nicer Windows-only options that I came across. BlogJet sports a ton of great features including posting to multiple blogs simultaneously, Flickr and YouTube integration, file sharing/attachments for your readers to download, and browser/feed reader integration. And of course, support for WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, Blogware, BlogHarbor, Squarespace, Drupal, Community Server, etc.
Price: $39.95

RocketPost

Another really impressive Windows only app, RocketPost claims to be the “only one with WYSIWYG editing, full local editing and full blog import.” RocketPost boast tons of top notch features like automatic linking to related posts, quote tracking, quick linking, auto save, instant photo album creation, and scheduled posts. If you’re on Windows and are serious about blogging, this may be the way to go.
Price: $29

And a Bunch More!

After you’ve listed the features for eight desktop blogging apps, things start to get redundant. So I’m going to stop there and let you check out the rest. The apps above are the ones I found particularly impressive or unique, but here’s another 12 that are definitely worth looking into.

The following is a print-primer guest post from NetPublications, an “award-winning on-demand printing, publishing and fulfillment company with 25 years of experience in the book and manual business”.

There’s a lot to consider before printed products can go to press, so we’ve compiled a list of the top ten problems that occur when a printing company receives your files. By following this checklist, you can avoid many of these problems.

1/ Fonts not embedded in PDF or missing in application files
When you create a PDF file you need to make sure you embed your fonts. This ensures that even if the person who opens the document does not have the font you used on their computer that they are able to view and print the file correctly. If you send application files (Quark, InDesign, etc.) we will need the fonts to print your job correctly.

2/ Incomplete or corrupt files
Before sending, check to see if your file will open correctly and has all necessary pages, images, etc.


3/ Colors that are not converted from RGB to four-color CMYK mode
You might design in RGB, proof in RGB, preview in RGB, however, we print in CMYK format. It is very rare that a computer monitor will accurately display the colors chosen in your layout. Your images may print in black and white or with inaccurate color if you neglect to convert images.


4/ Inadequate bleeds
A bleed is any area on a printed sheet where ink extends to the cut edge. One problem of inadequate bleeds is that an image that you expect to extend to the edge will show a tiny white line on the trimmed edge. It leads to an unpolished, unfinished look that you want to avoid. We require at least 1/8 (.1250) bleed.

5/ Placed images resolution too low or too high (always use 300 dpi)
A scan resolution that is too low results in a low-quality image. A resolution that is too high increases the file size and printing time, without increasing the image’s quality. Images downloaded from the internet do not print clearly (the resolution is too low — 72-100 dpi).

6/ B&W images saved in RGB or CMYK instead of grayscale
They will print with some color if not saved as grayscale.

7/ Images delivered in wrong file format (JPG, GIF)
Use TIFF / PSD (Photoshop). JPG and GIF are great for photographic images on the web, because it compresses the file (makes the file size smaller for faster downloading). Not ideal for printing, because every time you save it, you lose more color and detail. TIFF / PSD is the best image for printing without loss of color or detail.

8/ Missing images in applications.

Will either print blank or a low resolution image in its place.

9/ Wrong applications used for complex page layouts
Use publishing programs like Indesign, Quark or Pagemaker. MS Word is great for word processing at your desk, when you can print to your printer. Limitations in software make it difficult to do proper, efficient layout. Any MS Word files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF. MS PowerPoint is great for creating slides / transparencies for a presentation. Limitations in the software prevent this from being an efficient layout program. Any PowerPoint files presented for offset printing will have to be converted to PDF.

10/ Not supplying a hard copy proof
This helps us spot potential problems. Please supply final color or B&W laser printouts with your digital files. Printouts should be at actual size (100%). If the image area in the page file exceeds the size of a laser or inkjet print, output the laser at a reduced percentage, but clearly note the amount of reduction.

They can present a rich amount of information without intimidating you. Or sometimes they intimidate you, but make the digesting of the information much more bearable. Here in this article below, we are going to discuss best practices for designing infographics followed by some examples which might help you learn a thing or two.

What is InfoGraphics?

Infographics are traditionally viewed as visual elements such as signs, charts, maps, or diagrams that aid comprehension of a given text-based content. Often more powerful than words or imagery alone, infographics utilize visual elements of design and words to convey a message in such a way that context, meaning and understanding are transcended to the observer in a manner not previously experienced. However, visual representation of information can be more than just the manner in which we are able to record what has been discovered by other means. They have the potential to become the process by which we can discern new meaning and discover new knowledge. The observer becomes enlighten, having learned from the visual feast and is motivated to seek out more knowledge in this medium.

Since the days of the fire evolution, we’ve been using infographics, as visual shorthand to convey information to the viewer or readers that might take paragraphs or pages to explain in words. It’s not easy to represent the whole story in one single page or paragraph but it’s far more effective then reading entire book. There are number of infographics out there on every street. Infect, we interact with infographics on a daily basis, from the stick figure telling us when to cross the street, to icons in a web navigation designs.

Little History of InfoGraphics! 

In prehistory, early humans created the first information graphics: cave paintings, later maps and now charts. Throughout most of this history, image and text have remained inextricably mixed. Later map-making began several millennia before writing, and the map from around 7500 BCE. After that icons were used to keep records of cattle and stock. The Indians of Mesoamerica used imagery to depict the journeys of past generations. Illegible on their own, they served as a supportive element to memory and storytelling.

Wow… That’s enough for history unless you really want to get die with boredom. Let’s move further.

Why Using InfoGraphics?

Because “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Information graphics can be done for several reasons. Along with them we can highlight the following important ones to enlighten the mystery.

To transmit or communicate a message.

To present large amounts of information in a compact and easy to understand way.

To reveal the data. Discovering cause-effect relations, knowing what’s happening.

To periodically monitor the evolution of certain parameters.

Elements of Information Graphics 

There are many theories available by which you can identify number of entities that can be considered as the elements of infographics but the basic and key material of an information graphic is the data, information, or knowledge that the graphic presents with limited resources. However, In the case of data, the creator may make use of automated tools such as graphing software to represent the data in the form of lines, boxes, arrows, and various symbols and pictograms. The information graphic might also feature a key which defines the visual elements in plain English. A scale and labels are also common.

Type of InfoGraphics 

There are many types of InfoGraphics available out there. Many information graphics are specialized forms of depiction that represent their content in sophisticated and often abstract ways. In order to interpret the meaning of these graphics appropriately, the viewer requires a suitable level of understanding. In many cases, the required understanding involves comprehension skills that are learned rather than innate. At a fundamental level, the skills of decoding individual graphic signs and symbols must be acquired before sense can be made of information graphic as a whole. However, knowledge of the conventions for distributing and arranging these individual components is also necessary for the building of understanding. Here we are conceding some major type of InfoGraphics to understand its usability.

01. Statistical Based InfoGraphics

Information graphics are visual devices intended to communicate complex information quickly and clearly. The devices include charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, maps and lists. Among the most common devices are horizontal bar charts, vertical column charts, and round or oval pie charts, that can summarize a lot of statistical information. Diagrams can be used to show how a system works, and may be an organizational chart that shows lines of authority, or a systems flowchart that shows sequential movement. Illustrated graphics use images to related data. The snapshots features used every day by USA Today are good examples of this technique. Tables are commonly used and may contain lots of numbers. Modern interactive maps and bulleted numbers are also infographics devices.

02. TimeLine Based InfoGraphics 

Timelines are another type of infographics uses where visual representation of information and events that happen over time. A timeline is the presentation of a chronological sequence of events along a drawn line that enables a viewer to understand temporal relationships quickly. Sometimes it is also referred to chronology that is in tabular, year-by-year paragraphs, or other form.

03. Process Based InfoGraphics 

These types usually can be seen in workspaces of factory or offices. You can also catch them in cooking magazines which shows their recipes using graphics. Have you ever wonder why most of the food products have InfoGraphics instead of detailed procedure at the back side of their cover or box. Out of many there is one important reason is to give you understanding about its uses in limited space. Using images to related data it can produce a good example of particular process so it’s easy to understand.

04. Location or Geography Based InfoGraphics 

It’s the most common type of infographics which you can find everywhere starting from your school map to complicated astronomical graphs. City and country maps can also consider as a good example of geography based infographics. These types of graphics include symbols, icons, diagrams, graphs, tables, arrows and bullets. You must be remember that there are many types lines (parallel, dotted, straight) used in maps to define subways, streets, highways, and railway tracks. Also many symbols and icons used for specific landmark like school, church, hospital, bank etc. scale is the important parameter here as everything marked according to particular scale or ratio.

How to Create InfoGraphics?

Three main Questions needs to be answered before start making any information graphics which is Why?, How?, Does it Work? Making good information graphic consist of facilitating the understanding of complexity, instead of complicating what is simple. And this cannot be achieved without the clear understanding of what goal we pursue, who our audience is and a good deal of work and reflection.

Question 1: Why?

It’s the most important question out of three that why you want to create InfoGraphics? What is it for? What is the goal? Is it for research, for discovery, Or for monitoring the data?

If you can able of answer these queries then only you can able to collect the relevant data. This determines the type of relative data to gather and about which we have to ask what type it has to be (quantitative, sequential, categorical, analytical etc.) and more importantly: are they relevant for what we want?

Question 2: How?

If you done with “why?” part then you need to think about How you going to refine your data and in what way we will represent the data. A fundamental aspect of this section is that information graphics are interesting because they reveal differences. For this reason refining them and representing the data derived from their statistical treatment often reveals aspects that otherwise would result confusing which often leads to wrong conclusions.

Once data is refined now you have to choose the most effective visual metaphor. Mostly, for a little data, a table or even a sentence can be clearer that a chart. In certain occasions changing the color palette or the type of chart can clarify the situation enormously.

Question 2: Does it work?

Now this is a critical section where you have to identify if the outcome is fit the goal or not. if it doesn’t fit the goal that we have defined in the first step, we will have failed and again start with first step. There is no documented rule which says how to verify your results but after thoroughly answering all three questions you must able to judge if the result is favorable or not. The key resides in revising and experimenting with what we have done until we find an improvement.

Selection of Colors, Typography

A perfect layout, a good selection and nice resource can produce a creative output. Layout, textures and typography are used more often than one may think but the outcome of different combination can result verity of designs. Professionalism is built upon knowledge and experience. Typography is one of the most important key aspects of any design project. Among other things, effective typography always manages to achieve some of the important objectives of projects like corporate identity, attractiveness of the project, enrichment of visual appearance, trust and interest of viewers etc. Also it’s helps you to represent the bound emotions of your graphics.

Varying the colors, reducing the saturation of what is less important and increasing it for the most relevant data, modifying the typography, the size of fonts, eliminating everything that doesn’t contribute to showing and clarifying the data (irrelevant grids, redundant data, and unnecessary labels) without losing relevant information sometimes provides surprisingly improved results.

Sources: http://www.instantshift.com/2009/06/07/infographic-designs-overview-examples-and-best-practices/

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Switch From Print To Web: Where To Start?
• The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials
• Creative Print Typography Layouts
• Award-Winning Newspaper Designs

1. Use RGB Color Mode For Photoshop Images

For several of the following tips to work, you will have to create and save all of your Photoshop images and artwork in RGB color mode. If you’re a veteran designer, you probably think this goes against what you’ve been taught, which is to use CMYK color mode. Well, technology has come a long way, and nowadays RGB color mode is better because it produces a wider range of colors and allows you to use one image for several media, including print and Web.

Think of it this way: RGB colors (red, green, and blue) are created with light. That’s why your computer monitor and TV use RGB colors to produce its fantastic range of colors. CMYK colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and key, or black), on the other hand, are created by putting ink to paper. “Ink-on-paper colors” will never be as bright or saturated as the colors on your computer screen or TV, no matter how much ink you add to the paper. So, to get the widest range of colors possible, you need to save all of your Photoshop files in RGB color mode. Most of the time, you won’t even have to think about it, because almost every photographer will supply you with RGB images. All you have to do is keep them in that mode.

A 3-D map showing the range of the Adobe RGB (1998) color space, the sRGB (or small RGB) color space and the common newspaper CMYK color space. sRGB’s range is much smaller than Adobe RGB’s. Working in the Adobe RGB color space would result in much brighter colors. The range of the CMYK color space is much narrower. Especially for this newspaper, the white in CMYK mode isn’t white at all. It’s more of a dirty brown.

2. Specify The Right Color Settings

To successfully use an RGB image in Adobe InDesign, you first need to specify the appropriate color settings. Fortunately, Adobe has made it really easy for you to specify the right settings and quickly apply them across its Creative Suite. This is where Adobe Bridge comes in.

To specify a color setting in Adobe Bridge, choose Edit → Creative Suite Color Settings and then select your region: either “North America Prepress 2,” “Europe Prepress 2″ or “Japan Prepress 2.” If your region isn’t displayed in the dialog box, select “Show Expanded List Of Color Settings Files” at the bottom of the dialog box. After clicking “Apply,” the setting you have specified will be applied to Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.

3. Ditch Photoshop EPS Files And Use PSD Files Instead

After your images and artwork have been saved in RGB color mode and you’ve specified the right color settings, it’s time to start designing. Do you still keep a copy of your native Photoshop (PSD) files and save TIFF or EPS versions, which you then import into InDesign? If so, you’re missing out on some valuable opportunities.

If you’ve been using InDesign for a while, you probably already know that it honors transparency effects in PSD files, but that’s not all. When you import PSD files, InDesign also honors clipping paths, spot colors, alpha channels, duotone colors and vector information (such as Smart Objects). You can even access all the layers in a PSD file by selecting “Show Import Options” when you import an image or choosing Object → Object Layer Options after importing an image. With all of these time-saving opportunities, saving all of your Photoshop images in the PSD file format is a no-brainer.

4. Accurately Simulate CMYK While Working In RGB

Keep in mind that even though you’re importing RGB images with bright and saturated colors, InDesign actually shows you what the CMYK equivalent of each image will look like. So, how does InDesign make that color conversion properly? Well, because you’ve specified the appropriate color settings in Adobe Bridge, InDesign will use those settings to accurately display each RGB image when it’s converted to CMYK color mode.

InDesign even goes a step further and shows you exactly how the colors in a layout will appear when printed on a certain type of paper using a specific output device. Simply choose View → Proof Setup → Custom. Then choose an output device from the “Device to Simulate” pop-up menu, and select the “Simulate Paper Color” option. After clicking “Okay,” the color of your pages will change, and your images will appear darker and less saturated. So, to get a good idea of how your layout will appear when printed on coated paper using a sheet-fed printer, choose “U.S. Sheetfed Coated v2.” This feature is great because it gives you an accurate idea of how your colors will appear when they’re printed.

If you use Photoshop, you may be wondering, “Wouldn’t it be nice if Photoshop could do the same trick, so that I can see what happens to my RGB images when they’re converted to CMYK?” Well, of course it can. Just choose View → Proof Colors, and make sure that “Working CMYK” is specified by choosing View → Proof Setup → Working CMYK. When you proof colors, you’re not actually changing the color mode of the image, so you can continue working in RGB color mode while simulating CMYK. This is yet another reason not to convert your Photoshop files to CMYK.

The top part of this image is a “SoftProof” of how this RGB image will appear when printed in a newspaper. The bottom part shows the original sRGB. The dirty color is actually the color of the paper. As you can see, the color of the paper affects all other colors.

5. Selecting the Right CMYK Output Profile For The Job

There are many different kinds of paper, such as recycled and brownish paper for newspapers, glossy paper for magazines, uncoated paper for stationary and bright-white coated paper for high-quality brochures. As you can imagine, each type has different characteristics when it comes to printing. The recycled paper sucks up more ink, and if you don’t take this into account, your beautiful full-color photos will become too dark, and the ink will blur over the paper, creating an ugly brownish effect.

So, how do you optimize artwork for all of these different kinds of papers? Well, that’s the easy part. Standard CMYK inks have been tested on every type of paper to the extreme. The way cyan, magenta, yellow and black are printed on a specific type of paper is documented in an ICC profile. All you need to do is download these free “Color Profiles” and select the right one when you export a PDF using InDesign (Export → Output → Color Conversion & Destination). If you’re not sure what kind of paper your printer will use, simply ask them. Most printers would rather answer a simple question than clean up colors afterward.

The information provided by the color setting that you specified in Adobe Bridge is used by InDesign to determine how to convert RGB images to the CMYK color space when you output a document. By using InDesign instead of Photoshop to make that conversion, you gain the benefits outlined in the following point.

6. Use InDesign Instead Of Photoshop To Make The Final Color Conversion

There are several good reasons to let InDesign do the conversion:

• Images are all converted at the same time instead of one at a time before you import each into InDesign.
• You can reuse the same image for different purposes. For instance, you might want to re-use the image on your website for a brochure, magazine or newspaper. If you let InDesign do the color conversion, it will optimize your RGB images for whatever output device and type of paper you choose.
• You can simulate how the colors in a layout will appear on different kinds of paper using the same RGB images.

When you use Photoshop to convert all of your images to CMYK before importing them into your InDesign layouts, you prevent InDesign from optimizing the color for different output devices and paper types. If you make the conversion to CMYK first and start designing later, you might unwittingly alter the “maximum ink” and other important color-related characteristics that were pre-defined in your Photoshop file when Photoshop converted your RGB image to CMYK.

As a result, when you work on the colors and contrast later, what you see on screen won’t be what you get in print because you have altered the optimal colors.

7. Download All The Profiles

Different CMYK Color Profiles are available for different kind of papers and print processes. Several organizations provide top-of-the-line ICC profiles, all of which can be downloaded for free at the bottom of this page. The most common are:

• Newspaper: ISOnewspaper
• Magazines: ISOWebcoated
• Full Color Offset:
• U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
• ISOCated_v2
• ISOuncoated
• Europe ISOCoated FOGRA27
• (or the new one, FOGRA39)

8. Exporting A Perfect CMYK PDF Using RGB Images

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the ICC profiles, they’ll be available to InDesign. You don’t even need to select the right profile and assign it to your InDesign document. All you have to do is select the right ICC profile when you export the document to PDF (Export → Output → Color Conversion & Destination). Although you don’t need to assign the right CMYK profile, I would recommend it, because it allows InDesign to match the colors when you select the “Proof Colors” command.

After choosing File → Export and specifying Adobe PDF as the file format, select the “Output” category on the left side of the “Export Adobe PDF” dialog box. Choose the appropriate CMYK destination from the “Destination” menu, so that InDesign can optimally convert all RGB images to CMYK. Also, be sure to select “Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)” from the “Color Conversion” menu so that the colors you’ve created in InDesign will maintain their original values.

9. Avoiding Errors When Using RGB Images And Spot Colors

You can use RGB images even when producing a high-end brochure that has die-cut embossed areas and spot UV coating. All you have to do is lay everything out in InDesign and then use a spot color to define the areas that will be die-cut, embossed or UV-coated. Make sure that the spot color objects are placed on top of the RGB images and that they are set to overprint: choose Window → Attributes to open the “Attributes” panel and select “Overprint Fill.”

When you export the document to PDF, the RGB images will convert to CMYK, and all of your spot colors will remain unchanged. I recommend that you check the color separations in Adobe Acrobat to make sure that everything that needs to overprint has been set to “Overprint” (Advanced → Print Production → Output Preview).

The cover of a brochure for a well-known Dutch beer brand. Adobe InDesign’s “Separations Preview” shows the RGB image in CMYK. Scene 2 shows the parts that will be highlighted using a glossy ultraviolet coating. Scene 3 is the part that will be embossed. Scene 4 shows all of the colors combined. (The combined image looks a bit weird because the UV coating and embossed parts have been given a extra spot color so that the printer can keep them separate from the full-color artwork).

10. Share Your PDF Files With Acrobat.com

Now you have but one problem to solve: getting that high-resolution PDF to your client and the printer. Email won’t work because a high-resolution PDF is usually too big. Most printers offer an FTP website, but many clients don’t know how to use FTP. Fortunately, sending out large files is much easier with Acrobat.com, which is a free Web-based service provided by Adobe.

With this incredibly easy and free service, you get your own online storage where you can upload high-resolution PDF files. You can notify your client and printer via email that a PDF is ready to download. And the email even contains a preview of the PDF. If you don’t want Adobe to email your clients, Acrobat.com lets you create a short URL to include in your own email. You can create an online “vault” if you wish, but no log-in or registration is required by default for your client or printer to access the PDF. You can even share PDF files on your website or blog using the embed code provided.

This email is automatically generated when you upload a PDF to Acrobat.com. Feel free to take a look at the PDF file of this brochure (which I’ve downsized to 100 dpi). I’ve shared it on Acrobat.com. Click this link to see it: https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=6ba6d3e1-988e-4452-83bf-2fe036749171

Further Resources

• Adobe ICC profiles (3 RGB and 12 CMYK profiles for worldwide usage)
• ECI Offset 2009 (scroll to ECI Offset 2009)
• Profiles for Newspaper Ads (bottom of the page)
• Introduction to the ICC profile format

All of the color profiles and tricks in this article can be used throughout the entire Creative Suite: 1, 2, 3 and 4. ICC Profiles can be accessed from the following directories:

• Mac OS X: …/Library/ColorSync/Profiles
• Windows: …\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color

Owning a copy of Adobe Acrobat is not necessary, but the application comes in handy when checking the PDF files that you’ve exported from Adobe InDesign. Adobe Acrobat even lets you see which destination profile you have specified in InDesign by choosing Advanced → Print Production → Output Preview. Quark XPress users can use these same ICC profiles.

Keep in mind that experimenting with color can create undesired results if you’re not sure what you’re doing. I highly recommend speaking with your printer before altering your workflow because he won’t be expecting color-optimized artwork if you’ve never bothered to submit it before. Should you have any doubts about the colors in a design, ordering a color proof on paper is always a good idea.

Related posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Switch From Print To Web: Where To Start?
• The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials
• Creative Print Typography Layouts
• Award-Winning Newspaper Designs

About the Author

Marco Kramer is a graphic designer who works in the Netherlands. He specializes in the technical aspects of the design process. As such, he refers to his position as Digital Engineer. Marco has been publishing articles about pre-press and design-related topics for eight years on his blogs DigitalEngineer.net and MacMojo. He has recently started publishing articles for an international audience. (Illustrations by Frank De Man.)

Sources: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/27/10-pre-press-tips-for-perfect-print-publishing

1. Adobe Creative Suite
An obvious and primary requirement (I feel) all serious web designers should have. I couldn’t get through the day without Photoshop while Illustrator and Flash are constantly called upon. I hear Fireworks is good too, especially for compressing images, but I’ve yet to use it myself.

2. Transmit
Transmit is an FTP client for Mac. Edit remote files, synchronize, search, SSL, tabs; it covers all your daily FTP needs.

3. Coda
Coda is a light-weight all in one text editor. You can edit your code, preview your web page, upload to server (integration with Transmit), edit CSS and run commands in Terminal; all from within this one app. I would use Coda for front-end development.

4. Textmate
Textmate is another text editor that I prefer using for back-end development. Code completion, snippets, syntax colouring are some of the things I enjoy about Textmate along with ease of customizing fonts and colours.

5. CocoaMySQL
CocoaMySQL gives you an interface to work with your MySQL databases. This is a desktop alternative to PHPMyAdmin, which is a lot quicker and in my opinion a lot easier to operate.

UPDATE 13/12/08: CocoaMySQL has been abandoned and replaced with Sequel Pro. Works just as well and looks even better. Check it out.

6. MAMP
MAMP is an easy way to get Apache, MySQL and PHP up and running on your machine. Just by running MAMP all these three services will be up and running, no messing around in Terminal needed.

7. Things
Great app for getting things done. Set yourself project tasks and daily tasks and check them off as and when you get them done.

8. CSS Edit
A very good CSS editor. It allows for real time previews of your website and styles and is a very efficient app allowing you to easily find all styles being applied to certain elements.

9. Transmission
Transmission is used for downloading/uploading torrents over the net. Useful for sharing files with friends and colleagues (among other things)

10. MarsEdit
MarsEdit allows you to compile draft blog posts on your local machine before publishing them live on your blog. I use it daily to take notes on various blog topics I think of and then I can easily compile a blog post over the course of a week.

11. Skitch
I was only recently introduced to this by GoodOnPaper @ FOWA. Allows you to easily share images/screenshots on the web and using the Skitch editor you can add notes to your image or highlight areas of a screenshot. Very useful and saves having to load up Photoshop for simple tasks.

12. Parallels Desktop
You can run Windows XP or Vista on your Mac using Parallels. Handy for being able to test your websites in versions of IE (using Multiple IEs) and if there are any Windows only apps you need to use, e.g. Microsoft Access.

13. Office
A good old favorite for creating text documents, preparing slideshows or looking after sets of data. There are a few Mac alternatives, and of course online alternatives, but I personally prefer Office.

14. Paparazzi
Paparazzi takes full screenshots of webpages. The problem with Cmd+Shift+3 is that it only takes a screenshot of the visible screen. Paparrazi takes the whole height of the page, even below the fold, so it’s great for showing screenshots of your web designs.

15. Twitterific
Easily interact with Twitterland via Twitterific. Saves you having to make the trip to Twitter to see what’s going on as it can retrieve and send tweets for you.

Maya was developed for the film industry and is now being used for design, visual effects, games, film, animation, visualization and simulation. The most significant thing that sets it apart from other 3D packages — and the reason it is used so widely in these major industries — is that it is highly customizable. Big studios can write custom code to suit their productions using the software’s development kit. This makes Maya highly adaptable to any workflow.

Below, we feature tutorials that address most Maya-related topics for beginners and advanced users. These tutorials cover almost everything Maya has to offer, from modeling to the final rendering process.

For Beginners

Poly Head Modeling

Box Modeling a Male
Brief tutorial on the box-modeling technique.

Low Poly Character
In this tutorial, you will see how to create a low poly character in 3D.

Real-Time Character Modeling
Modeling a real-time character.

Subdivision Surfaces
Use subdivision surfaces to model a character in Maya.

Face
This video tutorial teaches you how to model a face in Maya using polygons.

Texture Map NURBS Dragon
This tutorial teaches you how to paint 3D texture maps onto a NURBS dragon model.

Layered Texture
In this tutorial, you learn how to use the alpha channel of your projected image to “stencil” your image over or under other images in your geometry using a layered shader.

Fur
Basic tutorial on Maya fur.

Tree
Create a realistic tree in Maya.

Grass
Creating simple grass in Maya.

CG Nature
This tutorial shows you how to make terrain, trees and grass using Maya.

Realistic Ear
This tutorial shows you how to model a realistic human ear.

Human Anatomy UV Coordinates Setup for Texturing
Learn how to create your UV texture maps correctly so that they don’t blur or stretch.

Coin
This tutorial shows you how to create a very realistic coin using Maya.

Keroro Gunso
In this Maya tutorial, you learn how to model Keroro Gunso.

Coffee cup
This tutorial shows you how to create a coffee cup in Maya.

Screwdriver
This is a basic modeling tutorial that teaches you how to create a screw-driver and then use Final Gather to render global illumination, HDRI and depth of field.

Onion
Create a realistic-looking onion in Maya.

Mud Effect
Tutorial on creating a dynamic mud effect in Maya using soft body.

Wine Glass
This video tutorial teaches you how to model a wine glass in Maya.

LCD Monitor
In this tutorial, you learn the basic modeling of an LCD monitor in Maya.

Toilet
Tutorial on modeling a simple toilet in Maya.

Cigarette Box
In this tutorial, you learn basic modeling and UV mapping for a cigarette box.

Tea Cup
In this tutorial, you learn how to model and texture a tea cup.

Space Ship
Learn how to model a space ship.

Airplane
Video tutorial shows you how to model an airplane in Maya.

Tarantula
Tutorial shows you how to model a tarantula in Maya.

Paint Geometry Tool
The Paint Geometry Tool can be very useful when adding anything that needs to be duplicated and randomized across a given surface. In this tutorial, you learn all the basics of Maya`s Geometry Tool.

Using Bump Map to Sculpt Details

Rendering Wireframe
This tutorial shows you how to render wireframes on top of 3D models.

Subsurface Scattering
Simulating subsurface scattering with Mental Ray.

3D Cloud Shader
Create a realistic cloud in Maya using fluids.

Light Lamp
Creating a realistic lamp light using Maya.

Mental Ray Studio Lighting
This tutorial teaches you how to achieve a basic studio lighting setup with Maya and Mental Ray, using a single HDR image and Final Gather.

Maya Optics
A brief explanation of how lighting works in Maya and how it is different from physical real-world lighting.

Getting Started With Mental Ray`s Final Gather
Basic guide teaches you how to use Mental Ray’s Final Gather to render a model.

Light
A detailed tutorial on lighting in Maya.

Studio Lighting in Autodesk Maya 2009
Tutorial gives brief explanation on studio lighting in Maya 2009.

Image-Based Lighting
In this video tutorial, you learn how to create shadows under an object with a photorealistic image in the background.

HDRI in Mental Ray
This tutorial demonstrates how to use HDRI to achieve photorealistic rendering in Maya.

Realistic Lighting with LDRI Images

Chrome Car Rims
This tutorial guides you through the process of creating realistic-looking chrome car rims.

MapCreation in Maya 2009
Video examines how, using Maya 2009’s new render pass features, we can easily export a normal map from high poly geometry.

Realistic Glass
This tutorial explains three methods of creating realistic glass in Maya.

Tennis Ball Fur

Tire Cover
This tutorial shows how to model difficult rotating objects.

Cable
In this tutorial, you learn how to make a simple NURBS cylinder behave like a real cable, affected by gravity, elasticity and other real-life physical forces.

Hair styles with Maya fur
In this tutorial, you learn how to create various hairstyles with the Maya fur plug-in.

Hair Dynamics

Dynamic Telephone Cord
This tutorial shows you how to create a dynamic telephone cord using Maya Hair.

Crowd
Create a simple crowd in Maya with the help of the CrowdMaker Rendering Engine.

Cobblestone
This tutorial guides you through creating a 3D mesh in Maya that will be used for repeating material. It also includes instructions on how to create the model and then obtain a color map and normal map from the model.

Gear
This tutorial teaches you how to model and render a gear in Maya.

Sport Car Nissan 350-Z
Tutorial explains how to create 350Z’s body using polygonal modeling with blueprints in Maya.

Bee
This basic tutorial covers topics such as modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering and particles.

Using Sun and Sky in Mental Ray with Maya
This tutorial demonstrates Sun and Sky system options in the Mental Ray Maya rendering engine.

Tire
In this tutorial, you see how to create realistic-looking sports car tire in Maya.

Candle Flame
Create a realistic candle flame in Maya.

Eye
Model and apply shaders to get realistic eyes.

UV mapping Techniques
This tutorial shows most of the UV mapping techniques and tricks of Maya software.

Water from Particle
Learn how to create realistic water, with effects, from Particle in Maya.

Pillow with ncloth
Maya ncloth provides excellent ways for CG artists to create realistic clothing. It simulates real-life factors such as forces acting, friction, rigidity, glue strength, pressure, tearing surfaces, etc. This video tutorial teaches you how to use ncloth to create a pillow.

Controlling Fog Density
Create and control a fog effect in Maya.

Optimized Caustics in Maya Mental Ray
In this tutorial, you learn how to make fast and optimized caustics effect with Maya and Mental Ray.

Coca-Cola Bottle
Modeling a Coca-Cola bottle in Maya.

Shelves And Mel scripts
Mel is a scripting language for Maya that is similar to C. Using Maya’s Mel scripts, you can link objects, loop an action, simulate real-world dynamics and do many other things. This tutorial teaches you how to make shelves and create Mel scripts to speed up repetitive tasks.

Tank
This tutorial focuses on making tank treads using Mel scripts.

Making eyelid rig with driven keys and expressions
This tutorial teaches you how to create an eyelid rig with driven keys and expressions.

Growing Flowers
In this tutorial, you see how to create a growing flower animation.

Stormy Ocean
This animation tutorial teaches you how to create a realistic ocean storm.

Clock Animation
Create a clock animation using Maya Expression.

Lava Effect
This tutorial explains how to make a shader for lava effects using Maya’s material editor, called Hypershade.

Rocket
Model a rocket with a particle trail in Maya.

Particle Emission When Objects Collide
Emit particles at the exact location of the collision of objects.

Destroying A Wall
Destroy a wall using rigid bodies and particles in Maya.

Rigid Body Collision Detection

Spaceship Fleet
This animation tutorial shows you how to use the particle instancer to create a fleet of spaceships flying across a plain.

Bend Deformer
This Maya tutorial covers the use of the Bend Deformer, which links one attribute to another, and the use of math in expressions to create animation.

Rotating Wheels
Learn how to create an animation of a wheel that rotates in sync with the speed of the car. The final animation is more accurate and realistic.

Falling Leaves
Create a falling leaves animation in Maya using nCloth and Paint Effects.

Yoyo Animation
Tutorial on animating a yo-yo, with the string wrapping around the fingers of a deforming hand.

Muscle Rigging
Maya tutorial on creating muscles that contract and expand a few frames before the limb moves.

Instancing Animated Geometry To Particles
Particle Instancing saves time when animating many identical objects in a scene.

Mechanical Stairs 
This tutorial teaches you how to create a set of mechanical stairs.

BlendShapes
This Maya tutorial explains the process of using BlendShapes for facial animation.

Domino Effect
This tutorial teaches you how to set up the geometry of a domino effect and apply a passive-to-active key switch.

Jellyfish
This tutorial shows you how to create and animate jellyfish. It covers many topics such as modeling, texturing, animation and paint effects.

Walk
This complex tutorial uses Maya Expression to add repeating actions to a model.

Motion Blur
Add motion blur to your 3D animation in post-production by creating 2-D motion vectors in Maya.

Maya Live
Maya Live is a set of motion-tracking tools for matching CG to clean plate footage. This basic tutorial teaches you how to use Maya Live.

Hotbox
Hotbox is a great feature of Maya that will increase your speed and productivity. It allows artists to access every tool in Maya with the keyboard space bar, without having to waste time searching for tools and menu items all over the large Maya interface.

Irradiance Particles in Mental Ray
Learn how to use the powerful irradiance particle system in Mental Ray to lower your rendering times while balancing the rendering quality of your image using custom techniques and settings.

For Advanced Users

The tutorials featured below come from skilled professionals who work in the CG industry and are intended for advanced users of Maya software. You can use these techniques in other 3D software packages as well. Some of the tutorials use other packages like ZBrush, Mudbox and Photoshop in combination with Maya for best results. Before you begin any of these tutorials, make sure you have enough processing power: most of these tutorials are resource hungry. If you perfect the basic techniques covered above, try to use your skills to work on some of the high-quality projects featured below. Practice is the key to success.

Modeling a Character
In this tutorial, you see how Carsten Lind creates a character model in Maya.

American Alligator
See how Massimo Righi creates a sunbathing American alligator.

Next-Gen Environment Textures
A tutorial by Daniel Vijoi on creating next-gen environment textures in Maya. This tutorial focuses more on texturing.

Sohrab
Making Sohrab, by Farzad Dalvand.

Male Green Frog
Tutorial teaches you how to create a photorealistic render and 3D model that can be used for animation.

Steam MasterNext
Making Steam Master: next-gen game head by Sorin Lupu.

Spitfire War Plane
In this tutorial, you see how to model a Spitfire war plane.

Swimsuit Babe
Make an attractive woman, by Jimmy Chow.

Fruit Tarts
Make lovely fruit tarts, by Hau Ming.

Last ELF
Make the Last Elf in Maya. The author, Piotr Fox Wysocki, has done everything in detail to give it a real-life look.

Skullhead Mobster
Making Skullhead Mobster, by Harsh Borah.

Prince
Making Prince, by Robert Vari.

Tiger Zoo
Making Tiger Zoo, by Massimo Righi.

Prehistoric Animals
A demonstration of how this artist renders realistic-looking prehistoric animals.

Ingrid Bergman
Making Ingrid Bergman, by Max Edwin Wahyudi.

Morgane
Modeling Morgane in Maya, by Cousigne Adrien.

Breaking Subsurface Scattering into Render Layers in Maya
This tutorial is about the process of breaking the subsurface into rendering layers and compositing them in post.

Portrait of a Troll
Jonas Persson creates this Portrait of a Troll.

Cheese Platter
Detailed tutorial on making a cheese platter, by Hau Ming.

Quiet Room
Making a quiet room, by Yan Chan.

Gladiator
Making a gladiator, by Christopher ADAJAR.

Joker
Making the Joker, by Mohammadtaghi Aibaghi Esfehani. The detailing is done with ZBrush, texturing and matte painting and shave and haircut with Adobe Photoshop, and the finaly rendering with Mental Ray.

Varga
Making Varga in Maya.

Old Farm
Creating an old farm, by Daniel VIJOI.

Trapped
Making Trapped, by Massimo Righi.

Fatjon’s Performance
Making of Fatjon’s Performance, by Qu Yu Cheng.

High Polygon Realistic Character Creation
Creating a realistic high polygon character in Maya.

Gordon Ramsay`s Caricature
Making Gordon Ramsay, caricature by Jason Edwards

Turtle
Maya tutorial on creating a realistic-looking turtle. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Street Cop
Creating a street cop, by Mashru Mishu.

Dr Julian
Maya texturing tutorial by Julian Jeremy Johnson-Mortimer.

Character Walk Through
Maya tutorial on creating a stunning character.

Meet You
Making of Meet You by Zhang Sheng.

Facial Animation Rig for Delgo
This tutorial from Warren Grubb shows how he created a facial animation rig for this character, which is more powerful and flexible than standard multi-targeted blendshape rigs.

Character hair
This tutorial shows how to create low poly hair for game characters using lots of images and some printscreens directly from the application used ( Maya, Photoshop, etc.)

Next-Gen Game Car
Model a game car without blueprints. This tutorial covers modeling, UV mapping and texturing.

Mini Cooper
This Maya tutorial focuses on shading and texturing.

Classical Girl
Making a Classical Girl by Wang Shiyong.

Foot
Modeling a foot in Maya, by Steven Stahlberg.

About the Author

Vailancio Rodrigues is a college student, webmaster and Web designer who likes to learn new things and share them with others. He likes to work in the creative field and is constantly improving his skills. His fields of interest are Web technologies, photography, motion graphics, art and technology. You can follow Vailancio on Twitter.

Sources: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/27/the-ultimate-collection-of-maya-3d-tutorials/

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

KISS(Keep it simple stupid)

Rule 2

Take advice, you never know too much that you can’t take the advice of others, look at other magazines, newsletters etc, and especially, the rest of this list…

Rule 3

Determine what kind of document you’re producing. If we can break it down into two kinds:

… you have to read me, so it really doesn’t matter how I make it look, and I don’t give a damn anyway…

… please read me, I have something to offer and I hope you’ll take the time to read on…

for those with the first kind of document, just stop reading now, for others…

Rule 4

Is it a formal or informal document?

Formal documents need to be well structured, look as if they mean what they say, keep them consistant in terms of fonts and layout… be businesslike

Informal documents can be looser, make them inviting, choose an informal (optima etc) font, lots of white space. Make the reader want to read on.

Rule 5

There are a number of socially correct mechanisms to make sure that whatever type of document you are producing looks good …

One font for body text and one for headline text …

Never put more that one space between words, especially after punctuation. …

Respect other languages, use the correct accents when appropriate …

use the correct quotation marks (not feet and inches symbols) …

be consistant with paragraph spacing (first line indent, inter paragraph gap) …

not too much hyphenation (if any) …

beware of widows and orphans…

respect your reader

Rule 6

Select an appropriate format for the type of document you are producing. A5 booklet, A4 report, A3 broadsheet etc.

Rule 7

Consider the reproduction mechanism. …

If you are photocopying the end document, beware of the limitation of tints on any specific photocopier (hint: fine tints smudge on some copiers) …

Professional printing of the final document: choose your paper with care, ask the advice of your local printer (print office) before getting too deep in the production process. If they have preferences regarding the tools they use for preparation of documents, consider them (ie Pagemaker etc).

Rule 8

Keep backups (copies) of items as you go along, make sure that you have copies of all documents (pictures, logos, main document etc) well secure. Sodd’s law will ensure that something untoward happens in the last hour of your deadline.

Rule 9

Having selected a publication format, edit to that format, not the other way around. Do not try and make the format fit the pieces…

Rule 10

Remember Rule 1

Quark has a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but most of them aren’t mnemonic, so they are hard to remember. Here’s a list of the ones you’ll probably want to suffer to learn anyway. With one exception (noted below), these work in both version 3.3 and 4.0.

• Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V = Cut, Copy and Paste the selected item (respectively). What you can select depends on the tool you are using.
• Ctrl+Z = Undo. Everyone’s favorite “oops” command. You get one…count it…one level of undo, so be careful.
• Ctrl+Shift+B = Apply Bold. Select text press the combination and lo your text is bold.
• Ctrl+Shift+I = Apply Italic. Same idea as adding bold, except it adds italic instead.
• Ctrl+J = Go to a certain page. Why J? Maybe it stands for jump? I just dunno.
• Shift+F8 = Toggle the Item and Content tools. You get really sick of switching between the two using the toolbox.
• F5, Shift+F5 = Bring to Front and Send to Back respectively.
• Alt+clicking on a style name = removes local formatting and applies the style. (This command changed in version 4.0 — it used to be Shift+style name.)
• Ctrl+0 = Zoom to fit in the window. If you have a big monitor, you can sort of still read the text.
• Ctrl+1 = Zoom to actual size, so you really can read the text.
• Ctrl+Shift+F = Opens the Paragraph Formats dialog box.
• Ctrl+E = Get picture or get text (depending on the type of box that is selected).
• Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F = Make an imported picture fit in a picture box, without changing the aspect ratio.

Revert to Saved

As noted, the folks at Quark give you just one level of undo. A way around this limitation (sort of) is to use the Revert to Save command. Before you decide to attempt anything weird, save the file. Then commit the weirdness. That way, in the event of a big design failure, you can choose File, Revert to Saved to return to your last good (i.e., pre-weird) version of the document.

Use Libraries

It’s sad how few people take advantage of Quark’s libraries. Two minutes of setup can save you eons of repetitive formatting. For example, supposed you have a standard figure box and caption that you use over and over in a newsletter. Rather than redrawing them every time you need a figure, create a library and drag the formatted boxes into it. Then whenever you need to add a figure, you can drag the perfectly formatted objects into your layout.

Apply Styles in Your Word Processor

An easy way to speed up applying styles is to just not do it in Quark at all. Set up the Quark file with the same style names you use in your word processor (or vice versa). The key is that the style names must be exactly the same. Then when you choose File, Get Text, make sure that Include Style Sheets is selected. You’ll get a bunch of messages (one for every style) asking you if you want to use the existing Quark style. Say you do. Your text arrives in the Quark file already formatted. Cool.

Create a Jump Line

If you have an article that continues on another page, you may want to include a “jump line” to tell your readers where it’s continued. Create a new text box and type in “continued on page” or something like that. For the page number, press Ctrl+4 instead of typing in a page number. This command inserts a code for the page number of the next text box in the linked chain. If you rearrange the pages later, the jump line will automatically update.

Move to the Next Box

If your layout includes articles that continue on other pages an easy way to have Quark move you to the next page is to place your cursor at the end of a text box. Then hit the right arrow key. Quark jumps you to the next text box in the chain, no matter whether it’s on the next page or 20 pages later in the document.

Find/Change Special Characters

As you can in some word processors, you can use Quark’s Find/Change function to look for unusual items such as tab characters, spaces, or paragraph. For example, if you (or a wayward author) type two spaces instead of one after a period, you can use Replace to quickly replace two spaces with one space. Or if you have documents with a lot of extra paragraphs, you can search for extra paragraph returns.

These are a few of the special characters you can enter in the Find what and Change to boxes:

• \t = Tab
• \p = Paragraph
• \n = New line
• \c = New column

For example, many times people indicate a bullet with an asterisk followed by a couple of spaces. If you want to find all the asterisks that should be turned into bullets, you would enter “\p* ” into the Find what box.