CreativePro.com—Design Tools Weekly Podcast

Two industry veterans cover design, photography, and related news and how-to's. With their wide-ranging interests, each episode has something for everyone!
Written by Jay J. Nelson Jeff Gamet on January 5, 2009

Our weekly podcast is hosted by Jeff Gamet and Jay Nelson of Design Tools Weekly. To hear any episode, click on the dated links below (for example, "December 22, 2008"). You may also want to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.


Sponsored by iStockPhoto.

Click a date to listen to that week's podcast:

January 5, 2009:
LogoLounge.com: Logo Trends in 2008
• Excellent Masking Tools:
- Vertus' Fluid Mask
- onOne's Mask Pro
- Digital Film Tools' EZ Mask
• Download Adobe's Guide to Acrobat 9
• Affordable, Professional Film Clips from Thought Equity and iStockphoto

Tips:
• External Hard Drive Advice
• Use InDesign & QuarkXPress Style Sheets in Word
• Spotlight Searches Photoshop Files!

December 29, 2008:
ReadyImages: New Image Service for Corporate Presentations
iStockphoto for corporate presentations
Artbeats: HD Stock Video & Textures
Color Oracle Bracketeer combines bracketed photos
50 Sets of Free Photoshop Brushes
Cumulus: mega-asset manager
Studio Lettering Collection from House Industries
Design Parts Sourcebook: Rock and Street Culture
Photoshop Lady: Photoshop tutorials

Tips:
• The Key to Successfully Open Files Downsaved from QuarkXPress and InDesign

December 22, 2008:
CS4 Trial Versions Now Available
Pantone GOE Libraries for Creative Suite 4
QuarkXPress 8.01 Update
10 Million Photos from Life Magazine
Verbatim's Movie-Reel DVD-Rs & 45-RPM CD-Rs
Verbatim's Archival DVDs Join AIGA
Pantone's 2009 Color of the Year

Tips:
• Preview Sharpening in Camera Raw
• Better Grayscale Photos in CMYK
• Save All Open Documents in InDesign
• QuarkXPress 8 Tip: The "Local Formatting" ToolTip

December 15, 2008:
RAM: Cheap Speed Booster
CreativeTechs: Free Information & Inspiration
Free On-Demand Webinars: Color for Creatives
DropCopy
Mister Retro's Permanent Press
Nik Silver Efex Pro
Pentawards: Packaging Award Winners

Tips:
• Always Read the Fine Print
• Redefine Symbols in Illustrator
• Quickly Change View Percentage
• Zoomify Your Photos

December 8, 2008:
Selected Ways to Learn Adobe Creative Suite 4

Video
Total Training
Lynda.com

Books
Ben Willmore's Adobe Photoshop CS4: Up to Speed
Deke McClelland's Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One
Adobe InDesign CS4 One-on-One, by Deke McClelland and David Futato
Lesa Snider King's Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Classroom in a Book
Amazon's CS4 Books page

Reviews
CreativePro.com
Macworld
Ars Technica
Design Tools Monthly's CS4 New Features overview

Web Sites
James Dempsey's list at Macworld.com
Free CS4 Superguide

Other Topics
Book: QuarkXPress 8: Production Tricks and Experts' Tips
Inside Digital Design show
ImageFramer: Realistic Mats and Frames
Phantasm
Suitcase Fusion 2
64 Years of Presidential Commercials

Tips
• View First Page Separate from Spreads in Acrobat
• Make Multiple Frames the Same Height or Width in InDesign
• Helpful Adjustment Presets in Photoshop

December 1, 2008

• $25 Gift Subscriptions to lynda.com
Canvastic for Young People
Pando Sends Up To 1 GB Files for Free
Blow Up 2
Genuine Fractals 6
StuffIt Expander 13
Quick Look Filter for QuarkXPress Documents
• Navigate the Image Grid in BrightQube

Tips:
• Make a PDF Form in InDesign or QuarkXPress
• Select and Distribute Guides in InDesign
• Reselect in Photoshop

November 24, 2008

6x Blu-ray drive
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.1
Freeway Discount for Adobe CS4 Owners
2-for-1: Q2ID & ID2Q
• Exporting from QuarkXPress 7 to 6 & InDesign CS4 to CS3
• Quark Posts "New Features" videos for download and on YouTube
• Is It Safe to Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard?

Tips:
• Option/Alt Key Resets Dialog Boxes
• Skip the Confirmation Prompts
• Control InDesign's Frame Fitting
• Instantly Name PDF Bookmarks

November 17, 2008

Apple Updates MacBook & MacBook Pro; Switches to DisplayPort Video. MacBooks Can Use 6GB of RAM.
• 25 Years of Cell Phones
• FCC Approves Unlicensed Use of White Space
Flash Player 10 Includes 3D Tools
Acrobat 9 Pro, Bookmarks and Hyperlinks

Tips:
• Add Several Layer Styles
• Save Your Guides as Snippets
• Quickly Change Fonts in QuarkXPress

November 10, 2008

MetalFX: Single-pass Metallic Inks
Galaxy Gauge: An Exceptional Graphic Arts Ruler
Graphic Inspector 1.5
ITC Franklin vs. ITC Franklin Gothic
Switching from Windows to Mac
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual

Tips:
• OpenType Pro "Opticals" Explained
• InDesign's Slug Area
• QuarkXPress and Text in Legacy Files
• Two-Step File Sharing with .Mac

November 3, 2008

* USB 3.0 in 2010 -- substantial speed improvements to come soon
* Drobo: Now with FireWire!
* See Your Favorite Font Designers at Fontshop
* Text Exporters for InDesign
* TeXTractor: Intelligently Export Text from QuarkXPress

Tips:
* Use Command-Tab to Switch Applications
* Force Text to a New Column
* InDesign: Force Paragraphs to Start at Top of Page or Column
* QuarkXPress: Show & Hide Tools in the Toolbar

October 27, 2008

* Quark Publishing System (QPS) now supports InDesign?!
* Casio EX-FH20: The latest mind-blowing high-speed camera features
* StuffIt Deluxe 2009: Why you need it
* MenuMeters shows your network activity

Tips:
* Sample Colors from Anywhere
* Color Expert for iPhone
* Drag to Insert Pages into PDFs
* Bigger Previews from InDesign
* Space/Align Tricks in QuarkXPress 7

October 20, 2008

* Orphan Works Act "Hotlined" by U.S. Senate
* Adobe Creative Suite 4 New Features List
* Apple's New MacBook Pro
* SilverFast Eliminates Shadow Noise in Scans
* Beautiful, Affordable Photoshop Actions from PanosFX
* Better Vertical Justification for InDesign and QuarkXPress
* Adorama's 100 Photography Tips in 100 Days

Tips:
* Save Every Page as EPS in QuarkXPress
* Change Phone Number Formats in InDesign
* Use iChat for Text Messages
* Renumber PDF Pages
* Copy Photoshop Layers, Maintain Position

October 13, 2008

* Pantone speaks: What's In For Spring 2009
* Low, low price for big hard drives
* Booklets on printing that are very useful and free
* Newsletter and books with advice on running your creative business
* FontAgent Pro is now cross-platform
* PopChar type-character finder is also cross-platform

Tips:
* Photoshop
* InDesign
* Acrobat
* QuarkXPress

October 6, 2008:

* Adobe Design Achievement Award Winners
* Flashforward Winners
* Pantone ColorMunki Create
* Pantone Color Cue 2.1
* The The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book
* An Awesome Map of Web Trends

Tips:
* Faster Digital Camera Transfers
* Refine Edge of Selections
* Power Nudge
* Small Caps vs. All Small Caps
1

Link

Our weekly podcast is hosted by Jeff Gamet and Jay Nelson of "Design Tools Weekly."

Not intuitive. Either subscribe in iTunes or click on the Design Tools Weekly link.

D

2

Nov 10 - missing tip

Well, this was the first podcast I tried to listen to... not only was the link broken to begin with, but the tip I was interested in hearing "Two-Step File Sharing with .Mac" apparently was not included in the podcast. I've listened to the podcast three times now. So, I don't think I'll be subscribing to this one, sorry guys.

3

Link broken

The link to the November 10, 2008 podcast points to the November 3 podcast :(((

4

OK, if I could only find you !!!

I guess the show is good, informative and entertaining. But - for the life of me - it sure seems to be only gray-ware at this point!

I received an email announcing it, so I clicked; being sent to the CP site. No link in the article I was served so I could listen to the show. But there was one to RATE the show. Sorry guys, no matter how could I 'expect you to be', I don't rate before I listen.

I then looked for the podcast link - thought I found it - but it only opened a new page to the same article with no link other than the RATE link. Y'all must want to get RATED awfully bad. But like I said before, NO LISTEN, NO RATE. I'm sure I'm not alone in this... am I ?

Send me a link to the REAL podcast (if there is one!) and I'll work in a listen. And maybe, I'll even provide a RATING.... or maybe I'll just send you a link that'll allow y'all to chase your tails/tales for a while.

Waiting within the Circle ..

NET500.CG
J. Leslie Booth
Creative Information Architect
www.net500.com
net500cg@gmail.com

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