QuarkXPress 8.0

I recently discovered an entry about the new QuarkXPress 8.0 (via Michael Preidel). But I am really bad with reading all that interesting stuff I stumble upon. There are PLENTY of folders in my bookmarks toolbar, which are called Things to read, to read or similar. But with my aim to use Firefox instead of Safari, it is a bit easier, because I just keep those tabs open until they annoy me that much, that I have to read it, or forget about it.
So. QuarkXPress 8.0. The big news:

There are now single-letter key commands for Tools in the Tool Palette.

Wow! What a winner! InDesign has that since, at least version 2, I think and is currently available as version 5.
OK, to be fair here. I worked with QuarkXPress 6, which basically is just useless. The 7 version got so much better, so I guess 8 adds the few things users asked for after 7. But I so much hope that I never have to work with that tool again, at least not that intense as I did the last six months.

Adobe Creative Suite 3

Did I, or did I not write about the new icons of Adobe's Creative Suite 3? I did not. But recently the news are talking about the Suite of the suites.



So I visited the Homepage of Adobe. They have a brilliant (Flash) Image Site for the Creative Suite and its different packages. You can somewhat try the new programmes. But it is more of a game than a real demo. I like the Rubik's cube thing, in which they present the content of the package. Since I was a kid, I am fascinated by this cube.
They kicked GoLive and welcomed Dreamweaver, they forgot about FreeHand and kept Illustrator. I tend to say that I know FreeHand better than Illustrator, because that is the application we learned at school. I hardly ever use Illustrator because I am all but a designer! I am more the InDesign/Acrobat person. Photoshop just for basic use. I once made a chair full and did other retouching things, which was hard, because I never did anything like that before and it was a major client for the company, at which I worked then. I do not know much about other stuff from the Adobe Macromedia mixture, because I am not using programmes for video editing and such.
But I did write about Kuler and this thing is somewhat integrated in Illustrator (at least the functionality). I did not see it myself, I just read it somewhere.
AND! The big yes! They did it! They finally went Universal! (Some programmes are only running on Mac machines with Intel processor. But it „only“ affects video post production programmes.)

Update: The Joy of Tech comic about buying the new Adobe Creative Suite

Blogging about Prepress

Today I searched for interesting blogs about prepress, print industry, etc. I couldn't find anything worth metioning here. As I read Steve Pavlina's 10 Reasons you should never get a Job the other day, it came to my mind that it may be time to experiment a bit more with blogging. As I'm attending a training about the new features in Adobe's Creative Suite 2.3, I should have enough stuff to write about. In December I will be part of an event about digital printing machines. I don't know how much I can get out of that, but it's worth a try.

Kuler from Adobe Labs

If you want to find the perfect matching colours for your new homepage or blog, try Kuler. You give it a Base Colour and you're getting four which are somewhat related to each other. Change to Complementary for example in the menu above and you're getting said. You can also add your own specific four colours. And finally: Create an account and publish your favourite combinations. Play around and enjoy (web)colour.
More details at Veerle's blog (=via).

Above you see the complementary colours to my background colour (leftmost). As you can see I almost chose the "right" ones for the rest of my homepage. ;)