Happy Holidays!Now for that Much-Needed Rest...

I hope that every one of you had a great Christmas! My own was filled with family, fun, and the wonderful sense of cheer and togetherness that not even the hectic pace of the Holiday season can shake.

But speaking of that "hectic pace," it sure is nice, after the Holiday is over, to be able to take a breather and actually relax for a bit. It seems, for me, that the entire past month has been nonstop—from the 'accelerated' schedule on my job, to filling constant client requests, to helping friends and family with various projects, to the big Christmas Rush—and then yesterday having the car stall out on me, at the end of all the day's festivities!

(Yes, my poor Betsy just couldn't take all the excitement anymore!)

Ya know, I remember the days when "going on vacation" meant I could take a break from work, in order to do the things I typically must neglect in life—like napping, eating, writing a blog post or two, and planning how I will spend the next two months of employed life. Not so much the case, these days.

But here's to hoping that I may actually get to kick my feet up today. After all, I called my girlfriend this morning, to ask what activities she was planning for the day, and when she wanted me to show up on her doorstep. (Like all good boyfriends must do!) Her response was, "Babe, why don't you just take a nice, long nap today?" What a gal!

So to everyone, Happy Day-After-Christmas!

--grif

One Kick-A** Little Printer!

Do you own, or know of, a decent color printer? I'm in desperate need of a good yet affordable inkjet, for freelancing and home use! Any suggestions? —D

Well, I'm glad you asked, because I happen to own the best printer in the world! It's a Canon i960 inkjet, and I've had it for 2-3 years. At the store, most inkjets try to sell you on their great photo quality. (After all, that's primarily what inkjets are known for.) And admittedly, I'd held off buying one for some time, because I knew that inkjets can print text with less than satisfactory results, due to their inherent non-Postscript-ness.

But when I brought the i960 home from the Apple Store, I was immediately impressed with how it produced not only photos but graphics and text, as well. (The best edge sharpness and gradation quality I'd seen at the time.) I use it to print most, if not all, of my self-promotional materials, as well as client comps, etc. It's even decent for invoices, letters and resumes.

(Here's a secret: To reproduce vector-based graphics at stunning quality—yes, even on an inkjet, at least the i960—it's best to rasterize those graphics at a high resolution (in Photoshop at 300dpi, for instance) and print those bitmapped images, instead of the original vector files. Trust me, it's worth going through the extra couple of steps!)

Although the printer is a few years old now, it still performs just as solidly as the day I bought it. Having said that, the i960 is not a workhorse, for churning out thousands of pages per month! (Use a decent laser printer for that; otherwise you're likely in for lower print quality, a few maintenance issues, and definitely a shorter lifespan!)

The most intense use I've put the printer through was back when I reproduced my entire portfolio with it. First of all, the print quality is that damn good—able to produce a professional presentation of logos, collateral, and magazine covers. But I could tell that having printed several versions of each piece, all in the space of an evening—on the highest quality setting, no less—definitely made my baby a bit tired!

(Also, I refrain from using the i960 for casual, everyday printing—web pages, notes, instructions, etc.—which keeps it fresh for the jobs that require high quality.)

At the time of purchase, the cost of the i960 was under $200—inexpensive for such a great little printer. And of course, there are other good options out there for around the same price, or even cheaper. (I also own an Epson R200, as well as an HP PhotoSmart all-in-one.) But for quality's sake, I'd avoid the REALLY cheap printers—typically under $100, or the kind that come bundled as 'freebies'—as you then start to 'get what you pay for'!

But where the real cost comes in is the consumables. A full set of ink costs me around $80 these days; and if you're doing heavy color printing—such as portfolio samples, color flyers, a batch of photos, etc.—then you'll really want to keep extra cartridges on hand. Plus, the kind of paper on which inkjet printers produce the best quality is not cheap! A 50-pack of photo paper may cost $20-$30, if not more...

Even so, it's been a great investment. Being able to print professional-looking stationery at home means I no longer have to mess around with commercial printers just to get a few new business cards. The quality is so high that it makes me look good at job interviews and in front of clients; and obviously, the machine's paid for itself times over with freelance business.

By this point, the i960 may no longer be in production—likely replaced by newer model. Even so, my recommendation would be to go for a Canon in the range of $150-$200. It'll be a great freelance sidekick, produce nice family photos, and do well for printing the occasional 'cease and desist' letter...

Hope this helps—Terry

(This was originally an email from April '07, advising a friend—a mom and fellow designer—on what printer would be best for her. Obviously, I have a bias toward my trusty Canon i960! And although I wouldn't mind making a bit of ad revenue these days, this was NOT a paid endorsement!)

Oh %$@#...Where'd My Fonts Go?

"Okay...help!! Half the fonts on my Mac are not accesible from within Illustrator—yet they're still installed in the Fonts folder!! What gives? And what can I do to fix the problem!? Any ideas??? Thanks—D"

Eesh...that's a doozie of a problem there, which I've only run into on a small scale—as in, maybe a single font either not showing correctly, or not showing at all. The main thing I recall ever doing for this problem is to remove the font from the Fonts folder and replace it with a fresh copy...then restart, if necessary.

(This is assuming you're in Mac OS 10. I don't remember much about how fonts worked before OS 10...sorry, you're on your own there.)

Another possible problem—though not likely—is if the font family is already in its own folder, inside the Fonts folder. In this case, maybe try putting the fonts out on the top of level of the Fonts folder. (In other words, no 'nested-folder' business.) But that would be a real pain to do—and become quite disorganized—for more than one font. Also, in OS 10, 'nested' Font folders should work fine...

The only other thing I can think of is: You know there's more than one Fonts folder in OS 10, right? Yeah, there's a system-wide Fonts folder in the Library of your hard drive's directory; as well as one in the Library of your personal Users folder...also found in the hard drive's directory. (The the idea is that the fonts you put in that folder are only accessible under your user account...no one else's. Kinda confusing system, but you get used to it.)

I don't know in which Fonts folder(s) your fonts reside. But if they don't work properly in one place, maybe they'll work if installed in the other? It's worth a try...

Anyhow, that's all I got. Yeah, when fonts are on the fritz, it's like the world is coming to an end. But there's usually a simple fix. (Like reinstalling them or something.) Only thing is, if the fix isn't obvious, it may take some time to figure out. The key is to stay calm, so you can be methodical in your troubleshooting. Because if you freak out, what do you think the client's gonna do?

Hope this helped—Grif

Hey, What's That Browser You're Using?

I've noticed that, on the Mac, this blog displays wildly differently between Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. In fact, on IE, this page totally falls apart. (Typical Microsoft product.) And Firefox displays the text a bit smaller than does Safari—making for type that's not very fun to read.

The Apple freak that I am, my preferred browser is Safari. But I'm curious to know which product other Mac-based design professionals use most to access the Web. So please comment—what's your preferred browser?

(On the PC, both Explorer and Firefox seem to display as intended. I have not viewed the blog in other browsers. But obviously, if things are looking funny or funky, please click the "comments" link below or email me directly with the news. Thanks!)

Seeing Jags on Your PC?

As I've been writing/editing this blog solely from my Mac G4, I just now got a chance to check out how it looks on a PC laptop. And though I've browsed the Web on my Dell plenty of times before, I was somewhat jarred by how pixelly the text is...which, of course, makes this blog not very inviting to read. (Sorry about that, PC guys.)

But as an aid to readability for such super-long (yet very informative) text passages, PC users should select the ClearType option under Display Properties / Appearance / Effects. That's Microsoft's very own font-smoothing method for flat-panel monitors and laptop displays. ClearType is usually turned off by default; but on an LCD screen, you can definitely see the difference! And oh yeah...to my knowledge, the ClearType option is only on Windows XP.

(It's the same 'anti-aliasing' effect as Apple's font-smoothing for the Mac. System Preferences / Appearance.)

I'm sure most of you already know and use some form of on-screen font smoothing, for all the obvious reasons. (It makes most screen text better looking and more readable; and overall, it's just easier on the eyes.) So consider this a Public Service Announcement: Unless you actually enjoy reading paragraphs of jagged text on an already dim laptop screen, do your eyes a big, big favor...switch the default!

Okay, Maybe It's a Microsoft World After All...

It takes a big man to admit when he's been bested by a piece of software—but I haven't been yet.

Over the past year or so, my good friend D. and I, between each other, have probably figured out everything that can be done using Microsoft Office programs—such as Word and PowerPoint—for design purposes. Not because we're masochists or have nothing better to do than try to make the most design-unfriendly software in the world do things it should never have been purposed for.

But because the business world runs on Microsoft Office—a fact of life that all us Adobe-bred designers have, at some point, had to come to painful terms with. As such, there's no getting around a corporate designer's having to incorporate Office into his or her 'graphics workflow.'

For all my disdain of Microsoft products, I do have a modicum of respect for PowerPoint, which is actually pretty cool at what it does best—just slide shows, and nothing else!

So for the benefit of corporate 'graphics jockeys' everywhere, I will be posting excerpts of emails that D. and I have traded back and forth, in our mutual efforts to overcome some common—and not so common—hurdles associated with having to design for Microsoft Office. Keep an eye out...