Graphic and 3D design for cross-media publishing. This entails creating illustrations and imagery for printed publications as well as the web, and mobile devices. The section mainly discusses software that helps with the design process.
Artlandia is well-known for its professional pattern-creating plug-in for Adobe Illustrator CS2 and CS3. With LivePresets it now has Illustrator’s own preset patterns and symbols covered as well. LivePresets allows users to create a live copy of a pattern swatch or symbol and edit the copy with real-time changes to the original if so desired.
With DiscLabel 5.2.x and Disc Cover 2.x being released, we decided it was a good moment to review these two applications and simultaneously ask an objective designer who has a lot of know-how in disc labelling, what he thinks of these applications, the market, and what designers want and need. The people at Jewelboxing were the first we thought about. They’re specialised, they’re experienced and they’re well-known. I had an e-mail based interview with Bryan Bedell. I asked for his Skype handle as well, just in case something wouldn’t be clear, but that proved to be unnecessary; the answers below speak for themselves, I think.
DrawIt is a vector and bitmap program that relies heavily on Mac OS X’s built-in effects and graphic capabilities. For a moment, I thought DrawIt would be a perfect replacement for Adobe Illustrator, but after having reviewed the product, I don’t think you should throw away your copy of Illustrator just yet. Having said that, DrawIt has a couple of nice touches.
It must be awfully difficult to create an illustration program in a world dominated by Adobe. Illustrator CS3 especially offers so many features that blur the line between vector and bitmap program. Think about Live Paint or the capability to embed Photoshop images into Illustrator.
I keep hearing those complaints of prepress people about graphic designers not bothering to check their layout documents for errors that will pop up when printing the file. Colour space problems are always among those topics raised, but font problems and line thickness, the use of gradients, transparency, etc. are raised just as often. Living in the cross-media publishing world we do these days, I rarely hear those complaints from web “prepress” departments. It made me think about what graphic and layout designers should know.
Avenza Systems produces MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop. The company just announced the release of MAPublisher 7.6 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 7.6 is the latest version of this software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data.
MAPublisher 7.6 for Adobe Illustrator is a full product update that is free of charge to all current MAPublisher Maintenance Program subscribers and replaces the current shipping version of MAPublisher, version 7.5, for all new customers using Adobe Illustrator CS2 or CS3.
“The inclusion of live GPS data collection and drawing is a tremendous new built-in feature that we know many users will enjoy and find to be extremely useful,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza.
Version 3 of Chronos’ labelling software is a hit. SOHO Labels replaces Labels and Envelopes and for a good reason; SOHO Labels doesn’t just do labels and envelopes. It now also does DVDs and jewel boxes. I was wary of this new capability, with Disc Cover and discLabel being long-time values in this market, but SOHO Labels fares well, very well indeed.
We all know about the divine proportion, right? It is the ratio based on the irrational number 1.61803. It’s called “Phi” in mathematics, and it is believed to be the most natural ratio, in a sense that many things around us can be expressed in this proportion. As nature was once regarded as created by God, so was the golden ratio, or Divine Proportion.
MAXON released a dramatically enhanced version of its CINEMA 4D software. Sporting a wealth of new features added to the core CINEMA 4D program, the update also takes in a number of enhancements that have been made to CINEMA 4D’s optional modules. Chief among these are new tools for MOCCA and MoGraph, plus major enhancements to HAIR.
One highlight is the new DWG import filter. CINEMA 4D users now have access to one of the most widely used CAD exchange formats on the market. AutoCAD versions 13 to 2008 are supported, including layers, blocks and references. A further boost to file exchange for customers in the architectural field is the new connection to Allplan 2008, which guarantees loss-free transfer from CINEMA 4D R10.5.
Often, a brochure, an annual report, indeed any piece of information that uses artwork to illustrate content and juice up presentation, will benefit from colours that are harmonious. It goes even further than that: clashing colour schemes can have their appeal, but in publishing for print or web, such colour schemes are proof of amateurism.
While Adobe’s colour swatch system isn’t open to other applications besides Adobe’s, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign CS3 all share the same colour swatch exchange format, making it easy to create art that harmonises with all other art in a layout.
ArtMatic Pro 4.1, ArtMatic Voyager, and vTrack 2.1 are three applications developed by U&I Software, a group of developers who want to do what Kai Krause did years ago, but better. ArtMatic Pro lives up to that promise, as does ArtMatic Voyager.
For the first time, Phantasm CS will now be available in multi-license packages. This is in order to cater for the growing number of corporate users who have discovered the new way to vastly improve illustration creativity and work-flow.
The table shows the amazing package deals available - especially when considering the very low standard price of $37.50…
cineSpace is a digital film calibration system designed by Rising Sun Research. It came under my attention because of Apple’s Color component of the Final Cut Studio 2 software suite. Using a GretagMacbeth or similar colorimeter, cineSpace allows users to match his display to any film output stock, and to other displays.
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