Graphic Design Blog at CreativeBlvd.comGraphic Design Blog at CreativeBlvd.comCreativeBlvd is made up of a group of industry leaders covering all aspects of the design field. Our goal is to provide you with the latest in articles, information, tools, tips, products and opinions. Articles
Auto Save Causes File Bloat
2008-04-07 22:31:00 by Jay Nelson If your QuarkXPress 7 files are growing in size at a rapid rate, check to see if Auto Save is enabled. If so, disable it. Quark is working on a fix. http://www.planetquark.com/ More About: File
Creative Pro Starter Kit
2008-04-07 22:31:00 When you download a 30-day trial of FileMaker Pro, you’ll also get the FileMaker Creative Pro Starter Kit that includes professional database solutions designed to help creative professionals get up and running instantly with FileMaker Pro. http://www.filemakertrial.com/creative/cp skppc.aspx
Shadows Don’t Stick to Objects
2008-04-07 22:16:00 by Jeff Gamet The drop shadow applied to an item in QuarkXPress doesnt rotate when you rotate the item. This makes sense, because the drop shadow needs to maintain its relationship to the virtual source of light, which has not rotated. http://www.planetquark.com/ More About: Shadows , Objects , Stick
TripAdvisor Announces the Top 10 Most Popular Art Museums in the World
2008-04-07 16:26:00 TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel community, today announced the top 10 art museums in the world, based on traffic to the attractions on tripadvisor.com. 1. Louvre Affair: Musee du Louvre, Paris, France Once a fortified palace that was the home to kings of France, the Louvre is now the world’s most famous museum, renowned for some of the finest pieces of art in the world, including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. According to one TripAdvisor traveler, “The world’s greatest museum-from its Italian Renaissance Masters, to its Dutch Masters and the exquisite collection from Egypt’s Pharaonic period. Each time I visit I always discover new treasures and I reacquaint myself with my favorites.” 2. Religious Experience: Vatican Museums , Vatican City, Rome, Italy Spanning nearly nine miles, the Roman Catholic Church’s Vatican collection is one of the largest and most stunning in the world. Estimated to have more than four million visitors... More About: World , Popular , The World
“Webby In Motion” Contest Gives Visual Artists Chance To Showca
2008-04-07 15:59:00 Contest Offers Grand Prize Winner $10,000 and Trip to Webby Awards in NYC New York (PRWEB) April 2, 2008 — The Webby Awards (www.webbyawards.com/adobe) today kicked off their second annual “Webby In Motion ” contest, giving visual artists worldwide a chance to create a video introduction and have it showcased at this years Webby Awards Gala ceremony. Webby In Motion is sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated because of the contests ability to inspire creative and talented Web designers and developers to produce new engaging, interactive experiences. The grand prize winner will receive $10,000 and a trip to New York City to see their work presented during The 12th Annual Webby Awards on June 10, 2008. Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile content. Previous years&rsqu... More About: Contest , Chance , Artists , Visual
Students can obtain QuarkXPress® 7 totally FREE of charge.
2008-03-24 02:15:00 Students can obtain QuarkXPress® 7 (plus Quark Interactive Designer™ and Quark XPert Tools Pro) totally FREE of charge. They can use it at home for the full academic year, provided their school purchases the Quark School Unlimited User License priced at £1,750 excluding VAT.This offer is only available until 30th April 2008 Here’s how it works:1 Order the site license QUK-122922-S 2 Add QUK-123991 to the order, plus a contact within the school responsible for managing the student licenses 3 The contact within the school directs the students to download the software at: (more…) More About: Students , Free , Charge
Free Color Calibration Software at X-Rite
2008-03-24 01:59:00 If your prepress shop is like most shops, you will have a spectrophometer from X-Rite kicking. It may have a layer of dust on the case from being on the shelf for a number of years, but you have one. Many shops have an Eye-One, it virtually comes with every Prinergy system nowadays. You should use it to calibrate your Matchprint although many shops just calibrate it once and then stick it in a corner. (more…) More About: Software , Color , Free
iStockphoto Extends Program That Makes a Collection of Free Stock Images Av
2008-03-24 01:45:00 iStock photo®, the world’s busiest online stock image marketplace, today announced that it will extend a year-old program that makes a collection of low-resolution images and illustrations available free of additional charge to Microsoft (News/Aktienkurs) Office® users through Microsoft Office Online. Based on the initial success of the program, iStockphoto will significantly increase the number of free images to the collection. In addition, the companies are looking to expand the program to new languages and countries in the coming year. (more…) More About: Images , Free , Program
Create Magazine Announces The 2008 Create Awards Call For Entries
2008-03-24 01:17:00 Create Magazine is officially accepting entries for its 2008 Create Awards – one of the top creative competitions for professionals and students in advertising, film and video, motion graphics, graphic communication, photography, printing, interactive media, and copywriting. The 2008 Create Awards (www.thecreateawards.com) has once again doubled its prize pool from last year. More than $125K worth of the latest in software and hardware from leading creative industry manufacturers is up for grabs, not to mention national print and online exposure in Create Magazine. (more…) More About: Call , Create
X-Rite unveils ColorMunki color management system
2008-03-24 01:12:00 X-Rite and Pantone Launch Color Munki Family of Breakthrough Color Products for Photo and Design Markets ColorMunki Photo, ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Create Empower Users to Create and Control Color from Inspiration to Final Output GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. � March 17, 2008 � X-Rite, Inc., the world leader in color management and measurement technologies, along with recently acquired Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today introduced ColorMunki �, a breakthrough in both price and performance. Based on X-Rite and Pantone�s deep understanding of the photo and design communities, ColorMunki solutions are the industry�s first easy-to-use, convergent technologies developed specifically to feed the artistic imagination of creative professionals � at an affordable price. Designed to meet the requirements of creatives working in a digital environment across industries, the revolutionary ColorMunki ... More About: System , Management
Adobe withdraws Lightroom 1.4
2008-03-18 01:25:00 The 1.4 update for Adobe ’s Lightroom and the 4.4 update for Camera Raw, the Photoshop Raw importer, contain a number of errors. These relate to the way that Lightroom deals with the EXIF time stamp, the conversion of raw data to the open-source DNG format and the conversion of Olympus files. While it fixes these errors, Adobe has withdrawn the software update from 13 March, which included support for the formats of several new camera types. In the Adobe Blogs Lightroom Journal,Tom Hogarty from the Lightroom team recommends users who have already updated to uninstall the update and reinstall Lightroom 1.3.1 on their Windows-PC or Mac. The EXIF error causes Lightroom 1.4 to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file, although the information written to the XMP sidecar files remains correct. Apart from this, the raw data itself is not affected by the errors. Lightroom also reports an error when converting Olympus JPDG photos. (more…)
Adobe Releases AIR Runtime
2008-03-17 01:17:00 While Microsoft is looking to convince developers and consumers alike to try Silverlight, the alternative to Adobe ’s Flash, the incumbent has made some strides of its own. Adobe Systems Inc. has released the first version of its widely anticipated Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) cross-operating system runtime along with updates of its Flex framework for Windows and Mac platforms. The release of AIR is expected to let Web developers use their existing skills to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the desktop, smart clients and browsers. AIR is a technology long in coming. Under development at Macromedia, AIR was acquired along with Flex, Coldfusion and Dreamweaver when Adobe acquired the developer tools company in 2005 for $3.4 billion. (more…)
Dynagram Releases INposition 7.3
2008-03-09 02:34:00 n tune with the needs of QuarkXPress users, Dynagram, the industry leader in imposition solutions, announced today the release of version 7.3 of INposition, its QuarkXPress XTension. This new version offers increased performance and compatibility. INposition 7.3 now runs natively on both Intel and PowerPC-based Mac processors (Universal Binary). INposition users can thus benefit from increased performance. INposition 7.3 also offers new compatibility with latest systems and applications such as: Mac OS X.5 (Leopard) Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Adobe InDesign CS3 (more…)
XChange Announce Xfile 2 Plug-in for Seam Carving and Resizing
2008-03-07 02:53:00 XChange International, the source for extended technology worldwide, are pleased to announce the release and availability of the Xfile 2 plug-in for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Corel PhotoPaint and more. The new version offers Seam Carving and Image Resizing capabilities. Imaging applications today work with linear resizing, so everything within the image changes size proportionally. Xfile 2 does that too with super advanced algorithms and now features a seam carving tool that allows the image to be resized while changing its aspect ratio and keeping important features untouched. It removes or adds areas to an image that would be least noticed. To give users more controls on elements of the image they absolutely want to maintain and the parts they do not really care about, Xfile’s Seam Carving features provide an easy-to-use interface to define image areas. Xfile 2 offers a dual set of Protect/Erase masks. Users simply brush on the image to protect an area, or brush to tell... More About: Plug
Convergence #2
2008-03-06 05:20:00 The convergence of still and video went mainstream in the early days of multimedia. If I were to point to one moment in history it might be the introduction of the interactive CD-ROM, which quickly became a vessel for mixing still and video images. Prior to the interactive CD-ROM, multimedia was more of a theatrical production, viewed at shows or kiosks, with a cutting edge appeal that now seems quaint (imagine the sound of 12 carousel projectors tripping through slides for a 6 screen show, sequenced and triggered by an elaborate control system). Artists have long pioneered mixed media, from ancient tribal dance, to Dada, to Broadway. But for photographers and videographers, convergence has entered an era of viability being brought about, paradoxically, as much by tools, as by the need for the tools. (more…) More About: Convergence
Bah Humbug
2008-03-06 05:01:00 Web design is going through a change. Maybe its already changed, and Im just behind the times, which is not beyond the realm of possibility. Im an old timer in terms of web design. I remember the days when nested tables were a new thing, and GoLive was the name of the company, not the name of the application. These are the days before Dreamweaver. Yes, Im old. We had to trudge through the snow sixteen miles to make our web pages. So whats all this CSS table-less stuff? Through my jaundiced eyes, this looks like the web geeks are taking web design out of the hands of designers. All of it looks the same to me. It looks like drapes. Its all design in columns, and its all code design, not design design. Its not organic, its homogenous. So Im just going on record to say here and now that yeah, Ill end up doing it, but I wont like it. Ill make my version of those web pages without tables, using CSS and Ill be unhappy doing it. Ill probably just find some kid who isnt even old enough to re...
Corel announce ‘Focus on Imaging’ offers
2008-02-20 21:55:00 Corel Corporation,a leading global software provider, is pleased to announce that at the Focus on Imaging show, it will be offering visitors 20% off three of its multiple-award-winning image editing and creativity products: Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, Corel VideoStudio 11.5 Plus and Corel Painter X. And while stocks last, anyone who orders a copy of Corel Painter X will receive a FREE Pantone huey stick. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2is the easiest way to get professional-looking photos fast. At the show offer price of just 63 (SRP 79), visitors can get their hands on this simple-to-use, yet sophisticated, photo editing tool. With everything from automatic photo fixes to precision editing tools, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 gives you full-power image manipulation at an unrivalled price. (more…) More About: Offers , Corel
Adobe releases first Beta version of Digital Editions 1.5
2008-02-16 05:08:00 Adobe is pleased to announce the release of the first Beta version of Digital Editions 1.5. You can find it here The Beta is an opportunity for customers to test and provide feedback to Adobe on new features and compatibility with their digital publications. The key feature of Digital Editions 1.5 is the addition of new DRM support that provides content portability across computers and devices that you authorize with your Adobe ID. (more…) More About: Adobe , Version
Adobe Shuts Down Stock Photos Service
2008-02-16 05:02:00 By Scott Gilbertson Adobe has announced it will discontinue Adobe Stock Photos , its royalty-free image service, which shipped as part of Adobe Bridge. Stock Photos will be shut down April 1, 2008. First introduced as part of the Adobe CS2 package, Stock Photos was touted as a one-stop image shopping solution. The goal was to provide a convenient way for photographers to search across multiple image libraries at once and purchase royalty-free images. Unfortunately for Adobe, it would seem that no one wanted Stock Photos. Adobe has posted an FAQ that covers common questions about the closure, including what existing customers can expect. The short version is that you have until March 3 to search for images and until March 31 buy any image youve downloaded. (more…) More About: Service
XChange Announce Availability of BatchXport and XTend-Xport for Quark 7
2008-02-16 04:55:00 XChange International, the source for extended technology worldwide, are pleased to announce XTend-Xport and BatchXport for Quark XPress v7. The main purpose of document extractors is to significantly reduce the manual work needed to create text and image content suitable for web and database applications. Using BatchXport or XTend-Xport means no endless configuration processes to create multi-use output from QuarkXPress document text. More About: Availability
Apple Releases Aperture 2
2008-02-16 04:48:00 Major Upgrade Features Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing Apple today introduced Aperture 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone(TM), iPod(R) touch and Apple TV. At a new low price of $199, anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro. (more…)
PaperSpecs Announces Free Webinar to Re-introduce Letterpress Printing to a
2008-02-16 04:45:00 PaperSpecs today announced a free webinar, sponsored by Neenah Paper, to re-introduce letterpress printing to a new generation of commercial and corporate designers, as well as print buyers. Due to its unique look and feel, Letterpress Printing is making a resurgence in demand. The one-hour webinar, titled “Impressed with Letterpress,” will explain and demonstrate how this methodical process can offer clients a renascence image. The webinar will begin on Tuesday, February 26th at 2:00 EST/11:00 PST. To attend the FREE webinar, prospective attendees can register at www.paperspecs.com/webinar/letterpress.ht m. (more…) More About: Free , Webinar
Bare Bones Software Releases Yojimbo 1.5.1
2008-02-16 04:41:00 Bare Bones Software , developer of leading-edge power tools for Mac OS X, today released Yojimbo 1.5.1. Yojimbo 1.5.1 is a maintenance update that includes fixes for various reported issues to this popular, easy to use information organizer. Yojimbo 1.5.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). An update is available free of charge to all registered Yojimbo customers from the Bare Bones Software web site: http://www.barebones.com/support/updates. shtml (more…) More About: Bare
Photographer finds Flickr pics sold on iStockphoto
2008-02-16 04:35:00 Posted by Stephen Shankland | CNet News An Icelandic photographer has for a second time encountered the ugly side of Internet photo sharing, finding photos she published at Yahoo’s Flickr site being sold by somebody else through the iStockphoto Web site. Rebekka Guleifsdttir, a professional photographer, found a picture she took of three frolicking horses on iStockphoto, a “microstock” site that licenses images for relatively low prices. “I mean for crying out loud, out of 31 images this particular user has on his ‘portfolio,’ 25 of them are mine, and at least 3 are of me,” she said in the caption for a screenshot of the iStockphoto page. (more…) More About: Photographer , Sold
Corel launches Painter portal
2008-02-16 04:12:00 Corel has launched The Painter Factory, an online community for Painter artists and enthusiasts. This global community site is the newest in a series that Corel is launching to support its various user communities. Through The Painter Factory, artists, designers, and photographers can share their ideas ad projects, find solutions to design challenges, and provide feedback on Painter to the products design, development and marketing teams. The site provides members with a centralised location where they can access community news, participate in discussions in the Painter Discussion section and download content from the Painter Resources area. In addition, members can learn from some of Corels Painter Masters by reading their blogs on the site or viewing their latest works on the Factory Wall. For more information see the Corel Web site. More About: Portal , Corel
Scribus is an open-source professional page layout program…
2008-02-16 04:06:00 Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Download the Latest Scribus v1.3.3.11 Download ScribusThis stable release adds the following: Several fixes and improvements to text frames and the Story Editor. New Arabic Translation. More translation and documentation updates. Many improvements to PDF Forms exporting and non-Latin script handling in PDFs. Several fixes to protect against possible crashes. Improved Color Managed Display in some cases. Some fixes to the Scripting plugin. More About: Open Source , Open , Page , Source , Open-Source
NEWS: Adobe Named to FORTUNE’s List of “100 Best Companies to W
2008-02-08 21:59:00 Adobe Systems Incorporated was ranked No. 40 on FORTUNE magazines eleventh annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Adobe was among the top companies included from the high-tech sector. In FORTUNEs subcategory of medium companies (those with 2,500 to 10,000 U.S. employees), Adobe ranked No. 12. This marks the ninth time Adobe has been included on list. The full list and related stories are currently available at www.fortune.com and will be featured in FORTUNEs Feb. 4, 2008, print issue, available on newsstands Jan. 28, 2008. Adobe is proud to be ranked on this distinguished list once again, said Donna Morris, senior vice president, Human Resources at Adobe. Our employees are the best in the business - passionate, innovative, collaborative and driven by a set of core values that makes Adobe a place where people want to build their careers. (more…) More About: News , Adobe , Fortune , List
WebAssist Delivers Cutting-Edge Text Editing Solution For Dreamweaver
2008-02-08 21:21:00 iRite by WebAssist achieves unparalleled cross-browser rich text editing in Dreamweaver . Encinitas (PRWEB) January 24, 2008 — WebAssist today announced iRite, a groundbreaking solution for Dreamweaver users that delivers the ability to edit text for web pages in the same way that you would edit text using a word processor like Microsoft Word. Bringing a familiar editing paradigm to Dreamweaver will provide users, of varying skill levels, a comfortable alternative to editing text by hand or through complicated HTML tags. Without the rich text editor capabilities that iRite brings to the table, all the formatting and HTML coding has to be added manually in an additional process. Based on the highly popular FCKeditor open source project, iRite allows formatted content to be brought over directly to text fields in Dreamweaver, or text can be formatted in Dreamweaver using the point-and-click menu that provides all the same features as word processing programs. (more…) More About: Cutting Edge , Editing , Text , Edge
Markzware Announces Settlement Agreement in Patent Case
2008-02-06 00:09:00 SANTA ANA, Calif."January 24, 2008"Markzware, the leading developer of preflighting, data extraction and conversion software, announced today that Enfocus/Artwork has entered into a settlement agreement for its part in the patent infringement lawsuit Civil Action No. SACV07-461-JVS, filed in the Central District of California in May of 2007. Technologies at issue included preflight products as described in the 641 patent. The agreement resolves all pending litigation between the companies. Details of the settlement are confidential. (more…) More About: Case , Patent , Settlement , Agreement
MadeToPrint technology update for QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe Acrobat 8
More articles from this author:2008-02-05 18:34:00 XChange International, the source for extended technology worldwide, are pleased to announce the immediate availability of MadeToPrint XT for QuarkXPress 7 (Macintosh and Windows) as well as MadeToPrint for InDesign CS/CS2 for Acrobat 8 compatibility. MadeToPrint is an award-winning output organisation tool that provides features such as batch processing, token-based file naming and flexible layer output that go beyond the host applications built-in output functionality. More than that, the XTension allows hotfolder based processing of Quark 7 files, thus enabling users to output QuarkXPress documents completely unattended. MadeToPrint XT was developed to streamline and enhance one of the most neglected but vital aspects of QuarkXPress: printing. At its simplest, MadeToPrint XT combines all the aspects of a given print job into a simple selectable item. These can include: the desired printer on the network, any special settings required for that device, page setup configuration and ... More About: Technology , Adobe , Update , Adobe Acrobat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |



