Understanding the power (and pitfalls) of Open Source content

A pair of publishing pros share their process for changing the format of a printed book.

Best practices for defining the shapes of custom die cut stickers.

Here’s how you can use artboards to make social media graphics perfectly sized for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest in one Photoshop file. Step 1: Find the Preferred Sizes for Each Social Media Outlet You can find the dimensions on the Sprout Social Always-Up-To-Date Social Media Image Sizes Guide. There is a link in the […]

Here are step-by-step instructions so you can make a single-image graphic that can be sent via email from a publisher like Publisher’s Weekly. Anatomy of an effective book promotion A book promotion eBlast graphic is all about making people want to buy the book. It should grab the reader’s attention, sell them on the book, […]

Animated GIFs are popping up everywhere as a medium for self expression and as a tool for marketing. Twitter and Reddit accept GIFs, and there’s been an explosion of creativity on Tumblr. They’re also great for illustrating steps in tutorials, as shown in this article at InDesignSecrets.com. Load time is important to websites, so there […]

If you’ve ever read Wikipedia or watched a TEDtalk video, you’ve benefited from shared content with a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons, CC for short, has the lofty goal of making “a license for all of us to create a better world.” You can find amazing content—images, video, software, news, stories, databases and whole academic courses—available […]

Like many designers, I work on a wide variety of projects, from websites and brochures, to ads and emails. Recently, a client’s book was getting great reviews and they wanted send out an eBlast promotion through a third party. Due tomorrow. So I needed to design, markup, and test the eBlast as quickly as possible. […]

Spreadsheets may seem like the exclusive domain of accountants and other number crunchers, but they can make life easier for designers too. I’m using Google Drive spreadsheets in the examples below. You can create and store them for free with a Google account. Spreadsheets 101 Before we dive in, let’s review a few spreadsheet basics […]

How this for a worst case scenario: you work for a publisher and need a PDF of a backlist title. The original files have gone corrupt or missing. Nobody’s got time to redo a whole book. Luckily, with a scanner, a razor blade, and some tricks in Adobe Bridge, Photoshop and InDesign you can have […]