Adobe actively sponsors such user groups across the globe, and incentivizes them with discounts, raffles and educational materials. It’s a win-win and a great chance to network with your peers.

Here’s more information about the User Group Network.

If you’re interested in an Adobe chapter, drop me a note: bill@copiesandink.com

“The problem with graphic design templates, is that they’re just that: templates,” I responded. They make your business look like every other business. And that’s deadly for your marketing, be it in print or on the web.

If your marketing looks like it was “cut and pasted” from another company, that’s a clear message: You don’t have your own story to tell. So you just borrowed someone else’s.

Marketer Seth Godin says it well: “There is no roadmap.” If you’re in business, you’re in the marketing business. That means you have to create your own map. You get to define the customer, and the business model. And of course you must design the ad, brochure or business card that communicates that model.

No, I don’t have templates, and I promise I never will. BTW, Neal appears to be quite an accomplished LinkedIn artist. You can find him here.

Ever since Photoshop became a verb, a tacit expectation rose that (regardless of your background, training, interests, job title or schedule) you should have a working knowledge of most all current graphics software. Still using Corel Draw? Good heavens, you’re a relic! Not sure if you own Adobe Acrobat or Adobe InDesign? What, were you born in a barn?

Now Hiring: We’re looking for a few good clients who don’t Photoshop and are proud of it! The ideal candidates don’t have a mind cluttered by the minutia of application menus, operating systems and process color separation. Instead, they can clearly articulate project goals and objectives in a comprehensive yet concise manner. They haven’t spent the last two weeks trying to strangle an electronic document into submission, and hence there’s plenty of time for someone else to produce the project in question from scratch if necessary.

If you’re great at creating electronic documents and images, our prepress department is most thankful for that. Still, all too often I feel the pain of my customer who is under tremendous pressure to produce work that is far outside of his/her skill set on a schedule that an expert graphic artist would be hard pressed to match.

If I’m wandering here, perhaps I should get to the point: spend your valuable time doing the brainwork. Have a clear marketing plan in place. Succinctly define your objectives in writing and then rent the best graphic design specialist you can afford for a few hours. It just might be the best investment you’ve made all year!

Does a stock market for graphic design represent a threat or an opportunity for graphic designers? Hard to say, though certainly it appears to be a viable resource for end users, or just about anyone short on time or inspiration.

These aren’t the typical junk layouts you see floating around cyberspace. I’m willing to bet more than a few folks would give up $39 for a well crafted business card design. Then again, no template can emulate the life experience of a top notch graphic designer. Still, inkd could be a boon to the design challenged who have no budget!

Have you seen the fine print in WYSIWYG? It usually contains the following statement: “your mileage will vary.”

Last week a talented web designer brought in a snazzy new project, a retro-looking photographic business card design. I know what he was going for, and really it looked amazing on screen. How would he know that the final results might approach a mudslide in his living room? A file preflight confirmed that he was way over the legal limit (for ink density, that is).

The slick, powerful software suites we all take for granted have induced prepress amnesia in many a user. The symptom: unfettered faith in the display screen. Sometimes it pays to kick the tires and look under the hood. That might be a lot cheaper than going to press twice.

If you’re a tire kicker, check out this overview of prepress color separation.

The program has a great feature that collects your document, all needed fonts and linked graphics for print. Using it saves time, and gives you the best results when handing off the files to our graphics department. Here’s the rundown:

In PageMaker, there is a plug-in under Utilities named Save for Service Provider. Using the Save for Service Provider plug-in, the user can copy the publication, all linked image files, fonts, and other files required to print the document. Save for Service Provider also helps resolve broken links by prompting the user to locate the folders containing linked files. Similarly, this plug-in can also check the status of links and fonts in a PostScript file generated by PageMaker 6.5.

Optionally, a concise report of the information we need to print from a PageMaker or PostScript file can also be created. The report includes details about fonts, linked graphics, a summary of the print settings, as well as information about who to contact regarding the publication.

To save files and generate a report using Save for Service Provider:

Choose Utilities > Plug-ins > Save for Service Provider. The Summary dialog box opens. The plug-in works on the active publication if the Check Pub is clicked.

Click Fonts, Links, Printing, or Colors to see a detailed report on that aspect of the publication or PostScript file. Print the status information by clicking Print at any time.

If the Links dialog box shows one or more linked files needing attention, click Relink or
Relink All, and navigate to the correct image files.
To save the publication, click Package, and set options as follows:

From the Report Type pop-up menu, choose Formatted (for a PageMaker publication) or Text only (for an ASCII text-only file).

Select Auto Open Package Report if, after saving the publication and associated files, the user wants to display the summary report in a new window on your desktop.

Select Update Links to bring out-of-date links up-to-date in the original publication before making a package.

For Include, select Copy Fonts to avoid missing fonts at print time, and then select the kind of fonts—All, Type 1 (PostScript), or TrueType.

Click Notes to enter contact information, such as the user’s name and phone number, any comments on printing the publication, and then click OK.

Before you finish, use your normal process to create a PDF version of your Pagemaker document, and include that with the files your send.

Specify a location in which to save all necessary files. Put all of the files in a single folder. Then compress that folder, into a single archive file. In Windows, you can do that by right clicking the folder and selecting “send to..compressed folder.” There’s a similar function on the Macintosh by usiing the control key, while you click on the folder. This will bring up a menu from which you can select compress.

Send your compressed folder as a file attachment, or preferably use the send files feature on our website. That’s it!

Using a menu bar item, or keyboard shortcut, you simply select the content you need and paste it wherever you want. Simple and elegant.

It’s called Jumpcut. Download it from the author’s Sourceforge page.

Kelly’s Extra Handouts

http://idisk.mac.com/kmccathran-Public

Adobe Design Center

Step-by-Step Lessons, Guides and Tutorials for CS2 & CS3 also access to User Forums & Feature Requests
http://adobe.com/designcenter/

Adobe Design Center Video Workshop

Flash Movies on all Creative Suite 3 Products and many new features
http://adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop

Adobe Print Resource Center

Transparency guides and PDF Print Production Information and a wealth of print related resources
http://adobe.com/go/print

Adobe Events

Find Adobe Certified Trainers and Training Centers in your area, on-demand and live eClasses as well as road show events
http://www.adobe.com/events

Adobe Education

Educational resources for K-12 and higher education, free curriculum and more
http://www.adobe.com/education

Better yet, these EPS items (also called paths/shapes) can now be freely and directly placed and edited in Adobe InDesign. Here’s how, according to David Watterson, art director of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation.

Simply copy the item(s) from the source application and paste into you InDesign document via the clipboard. To copy paths from Illustrator 10 and up, be sure that AICB is checked and the “Preserve Paths” button is selected in Illustrator’s file handling and clipboard preferences.

And speaking of Adobe InDesign, be sure to sign up for our latest Copies&Ink event, sponsored by the nice folks at Adobe Systems.