October, 2013 | CreativePro Network

Vernacular Typography Preserves Vanishing Species of Regional Type

When you go away on vacation, do you usually eat at a chain restaurant or a unique, local establishment? If you want to experience something interesting and new, you’d go for the latter. And just like regional cuisine, there are flavors of regional typography, though they may be increasingly hard to find in this “anywhere […]

Take a Deeper Look at Your Documents with Art View

The Mac’s QuickLook feature is pretty handy for previewing files before you open them. Just select a file in the Finder, tap the spacebar and you can see inside image files, Office documents, HTML files, QuickTime videos, fonts, PDFs, etc. But it won’t work with something like an InDesign file. There are free QuickLook plug-ins […]

Using InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop Together: Linking and Embedding Files

Many of my students ask why Adobe doesn’t just combine InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator into one super-application that can do everything—layout, images, paths, etc. Well, actually there is such an application. I call it “InDe-Illu-Shop.” But you don’t open it with a single click. You open it by launching each application separately; then, you use […]

How to Sort Paragraphs and Text in InDesign

Did you know that InDesign has a “sort paragraphs” feature built in? No, it’s not in any of the menus. No, it’s not in the Paragraph panel or Control panel, or anyplace else that you’d likely look. Instead, it’s hiding inside the Scripts panel. Fortunately, it’s not hard to run a script. You can find […]

Convert and Expand InDesign Artwork into Illustrator Paths

In an article on InDesignSecrets, I discussed making custom strokes for paths. But what if you want to do something like put an image inside the stroke, or do some other clever trick that requires that the stroke be outlined? You need to remember that InDesign has an older sister named Illustrator! These siblings are […]

Fontober: Free Sans Serif Fonts

Each Friday this month, we’ll feature a new set of free fonts for your use, abuse, and amusement. We call it FontoberFest. This week: a set of fun (and free for commercial use) sans serif fonts. And don’t miss the earlier installments: Halloween fonts and display fonts. Enjoy! […]

Free Placeholder Images from Lorempixel

Nowadays, you can get lorem ipsum placeholder text in any flavor, from cupcake to bacon to tuna. Or you can grab gibberish in the style of Walt Whitman, Jony Ive, and other famous folks. While always amusing, some of these ipsums might be less than useful in real work. But one site where you’ll find […]

Draw a Word Across the Top of a Paragraph

Vallery wrote: I have a paragraph… diagonally across the paragraph I want to write a word — let’s say, ‘cancelled’. How do I do this? I think the best way to handle this would be an anchored object. It’s a relatively painless operation: First, put the word in a text frame and format it the […]

TypeTalk: Designing For the Aging Eye

As we age, our eyes and vision change, making it more difficult to read – and for some, to perceive color and contrast. If your audience includes seniors, there are some important recommendations to take into consideration in order to attract, engage, and hold your readers’ attention. Whether it be for books, magazines, menus, flyers, […]