03.27.07
An essential part of every label printing business is the prepress department. Without knowledgeable people working on and manipulating customer graphics files, most label printers would not be able to function. Prepress is an area that is constantly changing - new versions of software are released on a regular basis and new tools are becoming available. So how can you keep up with it all? Well one of the easy ways to educate yourself is to subscribe to some prepress and graphic design blogs.
Pretty much everyone involved in prepress and graphic design uses Adobe Illustrator, which has become the industry standard. As the name implies, this blog is focused on this one product. The author is Mordy Golding, who was the product manager at Adobe for Illustrator 10 and Illustrator CS, so as you can imagine he is well qualified to author an Illustrator blog. He is also the author of the book Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2.
The emphasis of the blog is on practical tips and advice that can help you get the most out of Adobe Illustrator. The blog has been going since December 2005, and is updated regularly, usually three to four posts a week. At the time of this writing the Adobe world was abuzz with excitement as the release of Adobe Creative Suite 3 was imminent, so there were many posts dealing with the changes this new release will bring. For anyone who uses Illustrator on a regular basis this blog will help you.
The page layout program Adobe InDesign has been taking market share of industry leader QuarkXpress for years now, and the blog InDesign Secrets will help you get the most from the Adobe product. InDesign Secrets bills itself as "the independent resource for all things InDesign". It is co-hosted by David Blatner (author of InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs and other books) and Anne-Marie Concepcion, the owner of a design studio in Chicago, and there are several other expert contributors as well.
The blog is updated usually four to five times a week, and it stays true to its name: Every post reveals some little known detail about Adobe InDesign. As a companion to this blog, there is a biweekly podcast - the InDesignSecrets Podcast - which you can download and listen to on your iPod. They also have a 20 minute videocast that you can download or watch on your PC. If you spend much time on this blog, listen to the podcast or watch the videocast, you will quickly become an expert in Adobe InDesign.
The Creative Guy is a blog by James Dempsey, a designer who has worked in the print business for more than 20 years. This blog's mission is to "provide tips, tricks and intelligent discussion about all things graphics for beginner and intermediate designers." He covers all the major software packages: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign as well as QuarkXpress. Like most designers he is Mac person, so there are plenty of tips and tricks dealing with OS X.
The Creative Guy is quite prolific, posting up to six times a week. He does keep true to his word: Nearly every post has a technical tip or trick. His most popular category is Photoshop; there were 99 posts in that category as of the time of this column. The tips are all easy to follow - you don't have to have years of experience to follow what he is saying. So for those of you looking for a more general blog to read that covers a wider range of software products, Creative Guy is an excellent choice.
The Graphic Design Forum (GDF) is an online gathering place for thousands of graphic designers. Part of the graphics.com network owned by Jupitermedia, the GDF Blogs are really one blog with 10 different authors. They were started by Chris Dickman back in April 2005, and he is still one of the main authors.
With two years of history The GDF Blog covers a huge range of topics. But if you are looking for technical advice on software you will be disappointed. The emphasis here is more on design. There was a recent five-part series on "free fonts that don't suck" that was both informative and amusing. If you are looking for a blog that is more design oriented than technical, then the GDF Blog will be a good place for you to start.
Real World Illustrator (rwillustrator.blogspot.com/)
Pretty much everyone involved in prepress and graphic design uses Adobe Illustrator, which has become the industry standard. As the name implies, this blog is focused on this one product. The author is Mordy Golding, who was the product manager at Adobe for Illustrator 10 and Illustrator CS, so as you can imagine he is well qualified to author an Illustrator blog. He is also the author of the book Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2.
The emphasis of the blog is on practical tips and advice that can help you get the most out of Adobe Illustrator. The blog has been going since December 2005, and is updated regularly, usually three to four posts a week. At the time of this writing the Adobe world was abuzz with excitement as the release of Adobe Creative Suite 3 was imminent, so there were many posts dealing with the changes this new release will bring. For anyone who uses Illustrator on a regular basis this blog will help you.
InDesign Secrets (www.indesignsecrets.com/)
The page layout program Adobe InDesign has been taking market share of industry leader QuarkXpress for years now, and the blog InDesign Secrets will help you get the most from the Adobe product. InDesign Secrets bills itself as "the independent resource for all things InDesign". It is co-hosted by David Blatner (author of InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs and other books) and Anne-Marie Concepcion, the owner of a design studio in Chicago, and there are several other expert contributors as well.
The blog is updated usually four to five times a week, and it stays true to its name: Every post reveals some little known detail about Adobe InDesign. As a companion to this blog, there is a biweekly podcast - the InDesignSecrets Podcast - which you can download and listen to on your iPod. They also have a 20 minute videocast that you can download or watch on your PC. If you spend much time on this blog, listen to the podcast or watch the videocast, you will quickly become an expert in Adobe InDesign.
Creative Guy (www.jdempsey.com/)
The Creative Guy is a blog by James Dempsey, a designer who has worked in the print business for more than 20 years. This blog's mission is to "provide tips, tricks and intelligent discussion about all things graphics for beginner and intermediate designers." He covers all the major software packages: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign as well as QuarkXpress. Like most designers he is Mac person, so there are plenty of tips and tricks dealing with OS X.
The Creative Guy is quite prolific, posting up to six times a week. He does keep true to his word: Nearly every post has a technical tip or trick. His most popular category is Photoshop; there were 99 posts in that category as of the time of this column. The tips are all easy to follow - you don't have to have years of experience to follow what he is saying. So for those of you looking for a more general blog to read that covers a wider range of software products, Creative Guy is an excellent choice.
The Graphic Design Forum Blogs (blogs.graphicdesignforum.com/)
The Graphic Design Forum (GDF) is an online gathering place for thousands of graphic designers. Part of the graphics.com network owned by Jupitermedia, the GDF Blogs are really one blog with 10 different authors. They were started by Chris Dickman back in April 2005, and he is still one of the main authors.
With two years of history The GDF Blog covers a huge range of topics. But if you are looking for technical advice on software you will be disappointed. The emphasis here is more on design. There was a recent five-part series on "free fonts that don't suck" that was both informative and amusing. If you are looking for a blog that is more design oriented than technical, then the GDF Blog will be a good place for you to start.