Desktop Publishing Blog

Alphabet Soup

Tara M. Walsh — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:20:24 GMT

But for the lack of any Adobe Photoshop terms that begin with the letter "X", Joli Ballew would have been able to make a clean sweep of the 26-letter English alphabet in her latest series, "Photoshop Terms from A to Z", on the Desktop Publishing channel. From the letter "A" to the letters "W, Y, and Z", and (almost) every letter in between, Joli covers the most important and/or useful Photoshop terms, along with a concise definition for each. I like this series idea and you can expect to see more like it that cover other major DTP programs, as it provides more of those kinds of resource, or foundational, articles I've been looking for on this channel. So, if you're looking for a quick definition for a term in Photoshop you've just come across, check Joli's series -- you're bound to find it there. Thanks for visiting.

Now Comes the Horse

Tara M. Walsh — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:47:16 GMT

For the past three months, we've been bringing you reviews, how-tos, and round-ups on a myriad of desktop publishing topics of interest to the SOHO community. So it may seem a bit like we've been working the cart and ignoring the horse till now, with the just-published "What Is Desktop Publishing" and the just-launched "Careers in DTP" series. But to use another metaphor--badly--while there's no end to the onion peeling when it comes to these "create xyz" articles related to desktop publishing (and that's a big reason why DTP is so darn fun), we also want to offer you a strong core of "resource" pieces. The aforementioned articles provide some of that core I am looking for: What Is Desktop Publishing offers some concise definitions on this exciting field, while the series Careers in Desktop Publishing explores five of the most common industries employing DTP experts, along with tips for students who want to find desktop publishing jobs. As we add more of these kinds of articles into the mix, we'll be creating a one-stop shopping Resource page to house them, so please keep a lookout for that in the coming weeks. Meantime, continue to check back here often--we have many cool project pieces coming up as well. Thanks for visiting!

No Tricks, Just Treats with These Free Fonts

Tara M. Walsh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:43:06 GMT

Arguably the biggest 'free candy' holiday (well, at least for the kids) is coming up fast. If you're like me, your kids have already picked out their costumes and are in a great state of denial about the fact that October 31st is still more than a month away. But six weeks to go is plenty of time for you if you are planning to create a Halloween project or two. Whether it's an invitation to a Halloween party, or a banner to make for your town's annual Halloween festival, you're going to want to use some Halloween-themed fonts, and preferably the scariest ones, too. Our Desktop Publishing channel's fonts maven Thursday Bram has added a key ingredient to her series on finding the best free fonts online in her latest installment: "Four Free Halloween Fonts." If you're looking for some creepy fonts, please check out Thursday's article. And look for more free fonts pieces from Thursday as she searches for the best ones to use for many of the upcoming holidays!

Templates, Templates, Templates

Tara M. Walsh — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:40:37 GMT

An underlying theme runs through the articles in this channel that I hope is becoming more apparent; that is, producing desktop publishing projects on the cheap. And you cannot get more cheap than free. Dan McGoldrick's ongoing series on free templates you can use for various small business projects is another example of this theme at work. If you have a project coming up and you're not sure where to start, chances are good you'll find great jumping off points in the articles in this series. Thus far, Dan has covered free templates you can use for pamphlets, brochures, snail mail newsletters as well as ezine newsletters, certificates, flyers, and the just published postcards. More to come here too, including events, signs, and, in time for the many holidays that come in fall, greeting cards. This link will take you to all the articles: http://www.brighthub.com/members/danmcgoldrick/articles.aspx. Hope you'll take a look!

Photoshop 7.0 Users: Hang onto Your Copy a Little Longer

Tara M. Walsh — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:03:01 GMT

If you're running a small business, chances are you're still using an older version of Photoshop (I actually have Photoshop 6 on my other laptop and I use it all the time).

If you're using Photoshop 7.0, we have some great excerpts coming up on the site from a book by Joli Ballew (Managing Editor for the Home Office Tech channel at BrightHub). Her book, Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers, was, as the title makes clear, written specifically for screen printers. These excerpts may offer information of interest to desktop publishers, as screen printing has many possible applications: T-shirts, signs, posters, flyers, and even CD covers all can be screen printed on. However, the real kicker in these excerpts is the information on four-color separations. Joli's book covers everything you need to know about color separation. So to kick off this series, we begin with "Getting Started with Simulated Process Color Separations using Photoshop" (http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/3298.aspx), the first of six upcoming excerpts. Please let me know what you think.

If It's Free, I'll Take Three

Tara M. Walsh — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:58:18 GMT

This blog's title may sound like the mantra of a bargain hunter but since this channel is all about finding solutions for your desktop publishing needs that you can do cheaply and when possible, freely, I thought I'd highlight three recent articles that provide free solutions for you.

The first is by Dan McGoldrick on how you can create your own business cards using free online templates: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/1055.aspx. If you need business cards, make your first stop here.

Next is a comparison piece by Carolyn Taraboletti of Adobe Photoshop Elements and the new, free Photoshop Express. You'll be pleasantly surprised to learn how much Express can do for you: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/1174.aspx

And finally, for those of you who are up for trying new things, I offer a roundup of ten free and open source desktop publishing tools that can pretty well cover most of your desktop publishing needs: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/1399.aspx

Ah, but why stop at three, as Dan McGoldrick has also just posted a review of GIMP, the open source and feature-rich image editor that works on all the major platforms: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/1410.aspx

As you'll see, we're hard at work here chronicling the free in desktop publishing. Hope you'll take a look.

Welcome to the Desktop Publishing channel

Tara M. Walsh — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:20:16 GMT

Hello and welcome to Bright Hub's Desktop Publishing channel. If you've found your way here, consider this first blog a mission statement of sorts about this channel and the kinds of content I will be publishing on the site.

First the mission: to help you find solutions for your desktop publishing needs that won't empty your wallet.

Now the content: All of the articles, software reviews, blogs, and forums on this channel will address the desktop publishing (DTP) challenges and needs of the small office/home office (SOHO) community. But we don't want to just give you a solution that will help you with a DTP project, like creating business cards or brochures, we want to give you the cheapest way to do it. Take a look at the first articles to publish on this channel--the writers you'll meet are committed to this idea and we have only just begun. Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!