InDesign Magazine Tip of the Week: Avoid Transparency Troubles

Avoid Transparency Troubles
In the bad old days, printing an InDesign file with transparency caused problems. That's no longer the case.

However, always ask your print shop what PostScript level they're using to output an InDesign document before you submit it. Some shops prefer that you submit InDesign files as PDF/X files, which are flattened; others may prefer that you submit an unflattened INDD or PDF 1.4 (or later) file.

-- Mordy Golding, instructor, consultant, and InDesign Magazine author

foto8 - The Long Now: Edward Burtynsky and the 10,000 Year Clock

http://www.foto8.com/home/content/view/669/200/

http://www.foto8.com/home/images/report/main/longnow_burtynsky_carrara.jpg

When I first heard Edward Burtynsky's talk on Flycast on my way to work I
thought "What an amazing concept, I love this idea. What an incredible
project. How can I be a part of this?"

When I arrived at the office I immediately made myself a Yerba Maté and
Googled Ed Burtynsky and The Long Now and found this critique at the top of
the page.

After reading this critique and seeing some of the photos, I still think
this is a great concept and I agree that the execution is not quite there. I
have to admit, when I was listening to Edward speaking I did imagine photos
with people expressing their humanity and experience while in the moment and
in various situations.

One of the great things about photos is they force us to slow down and look
at things as a snapshot, a split second. Normally we're moving too fast to
see this and humans are guided largely by their vision.

Kudos to Edward for finding the Carbon Transfer process. The techie in me
wants to learn all about this process.

Have you ever seen a weird grey border close-cropped images in pdfs made from InDesign?

Here’s a Temporary workaround (until Adobe fixes it in a future CS3 update, hopefully we don’t have to wait ‘til CS4).

Someone called Adobe support, was given a temporary workaround and posted their experience on the Layers forum, <http://www.layersmagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2512>

I’ve paraphrased the solution below:

1. Print, instead of Export, to Adobe PDF.
2. Under "Graphics" on the left side of the window and under Images, "Send Data" select "ALL" (See attached picture.)
3. Remaining settings are the same depending on the circumstance.  
3. Print as you normally would.

NOTE: Remember to click the “Printer” button before clicking the “Print” button so you know where your file is being saved.

Yipee! No grey border around your images!

Check out the two attached pdf’s to compare.

Flickr Creative Commons images

Flickr Creative Commons images are a great place to get free public domain images, but not all CC images are created equal. Many of them specify things like “non commercial use”, and require photographer attribution. If you scroll down to the bottom of the right hand sidebar on an images page, under “Additional Information” it will specify “some rights reserved”. If you click that link, it will take you to the page that gives the conditions of that image’s license (for example: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en_CA). Make sure that you have met all of the image’s CC licensing before getting final signoff from the client on images (including photographer attribution – it’s up to the photographer to approve how they are attributed).

In short, don’t assume that a Creative Commons images has no restrictions—make sure you know what they are before including them in a comp.

That be all!

-Leigh

InDesign CS3 Big Tip - Numbered List Paragraph Style Sheets

This is the craziest InDesign anomaly yet. Who knew that in order to get numbered list Paragraph styles to do what you expect them to you have to trick it into doing it. Crazy!

All you have to do is set up your Body text style with as Numbered Lists with no data and the Mode set at Start at 1, of course. See the clear instructions below found in the Adobe Forums, http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c062d7a

Numbered list: List Style = Numbers; List = [Enter specific list name]; Level = 2; Format = 1, 2, 3, 4... [or your choice]; Number = ^#.^t [or whatever you want]; Character Style = [Your choice]; Mode = Continue from Previous Number; Restart Numbers After = Any Previous Level.

Body Text (or other style): List Style = Numbers; List = [Enter same specific list name]; Level = 1; Format = None; Number = [Blank]; Character Style = None; Mode = Start At 1.

InDesign Magazine Tip of the Week: Using SWF files in PDF files?

Tip of the Week: Using SWF files in PDF files?
For a while now, Macintosh users have been frustrated by the inability to import SWF files into InDesign and PDF files. This inability wasn't due to Adobe products' limitations, but to Apple QuickTime. Fortunately, the newly released Acrobat 9 fixes that problem. Mac users can once again import SWF movies into their PDF files.

-- Sandee Cohen

Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine; Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

Rogers iPhone rates draw Canadian users' ire > Hardware, Software and Emerging Applications

http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/7be66eb0-

a7f3-4441-97b5-662d8239fc31.html

Rogers is taking advantage

InDesign Tip of the Week! yeeha!

Tip of the Week: Reposition as You Create Objects
So you're right in the middle of drawing a frame or a line and you realize that you need the object a little further up the page so you can get a better idea of how big it should be. There's no need to stop the drag and reposition -- just hold the spacebar and you can move the object anywhere you want. When you're satisfied with its position, release the spacebar (but not the mouse) and continue to draw. This tip also works while drawing in Photoshop or Illustrator!

-- Sandee Cohen

Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine; Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide

Download free fonts @ fontspace.com

http://www.fontspace.com/

Email Standards Project Acid Test | Email Standards Project

http://www.email-standards.org/acid-test/

Photo.net - Jpeg Compression by Gordon Richardson - photo.net

This site has great visuals that will help you explain the visual difference
between a high quality jpeg and a low quality jpeg. HINT: Click on the "Jpeg
Quality Settings" link at the top of the article.

http://photo.net/learn/jpeg/index.html#qual

Let me know if this helps.
Thanks,
Sarah

InDesign Tip of the Week

=========== T I P  O F  T H E  W E E K ===========

Use the Script Label Panel for Notes
How do you add notes to others working on a document? If
you're working within text frames, you've got the handy Note
tool. But what if you want to make a comment about an image
or other non-text element on a page? How can you give the
next person who works on the file instructions about that object?

Here's how to do it in CS3: Select the image, then open the
Script Label panel (Window > Automation > Script Label). Write
anything you want in the area inside the panel -- there's room
for hundreds of words.

Tell the next person working on the document to keep the Script
Label panel open. When any object is selected, the note will appear
in the panel.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321503066/creativeprocom

InDesign Magazine: Tip of the Week

=========== T I P O F T H E W E E K ===========

Place EPS Images without the "White Background"
If you have legacy vector files saved in the EPS format (this includes
Illustrator, FreeHand, and CorelDraw files), they may show up with
a white background when you place them into InDesign. There are
many ways to fix the problem, but here's my favorite:

Choose Show Import Options when you place an EPS file and check
the Rasterize the PostScript option under Proxy Generation. Don't
panic, you're not actually rasterizing the vector information; you're
only changing how the preview appears.

From that point on, you don't have to select Show Import Options;
InDesign applies the setting to all new placed images.

I prefer this solution because other methods require changing the
file from EPS to AI. That's not always possible for FreeHand or Corel
files, and it can take a while to process a large library of legacy
documents. My method also works with any platform and doesn't
require changing any other ID preferences.

-- Sandee Cohen
Senior Editor, InDesign Magazine
Author, InDesign CS3 Visual QuickStart Guide
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321503066/creativeprocom

InDesign Tip of the Week

=========== T I P  O F  T H E  W E E K ===========

Resizing Tables by Dragging
You can resize a table with the Type tool by dragging the
right or bottom edge. But if you want to resize all the rows,
hold down the Shift key while you drag the bottom edge.
To resize all the columns proportionally, Shift-drag the right
edge. Or, to resize the table rows and heights at the same
time, just drag the lower-right corner of the table with the
Type tool. Resizing the table using this technique does not
scale the text in the table.
--David Blatner
Editorial Director, "InDesign Magazine,"
co-host, InDesignSecrets.com

Random Tech: Take a Screenshot of DVD Player in OS X

http://highschoolblows.blogspot.com/2005/11/take-screenshot-of-dvd-player-in-os-x.html

Apple introduces the iPology - MarketWatch

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/apple-introduces-ipology/

story.aspx?guid=%7B0109D115-F0E4-4CE7-9FF7-6010FD962B7A%7D

InDesign Magazine: Tip-of-the-Week

=========== T I P - O F - T H E - W E E K ===========

Apply Only Color Attributes with the Eyedropper
If you load the attributes of an object with the Eyedropper tool
while holding down the Shift key, the Eyedropper loads only the
color of the object (ignoring all other object attributes). If you
load attributes of an object with the Eyedropper and hold down
Shift while applying the attributes to another object, InDesign
applies only the color to the object.

-- Eliot Harper, from InDesign Magazine
http://www.indesignmag.com/idm/issues.html

========================================

The Learn List

A cool portal for the best Adobe tutorials everywhere and anywhere.
http://www.thelearnlist.com/photoshop.html

InDesign Tip of the Week

=========== T I P - O F - T H E - W E E K ===========

Switch Swatches
The New Swatch button on the Swatches palette duplicates any
selected swatch. To duplicate the swatch and open the New Color
Swatch dialog, hold down Option/Alt while clicking it. To create a
spot color version of a swatch, select the swatch and hold down
Command/Ctrl while clicking the new swatch icon. You can also
switch among RGB, CMYK, and Lab modes inside the Color Swatch
dialog box by holding down Shift while clicking on the color proxy.

-- Eliot Harper, from InDesign Magazine
http://www.indesignmag.com/idm/issues.html