DTG December 2009

This Month: * Welcome to December DTG* Gift Ideas: Creative books to give… and get! * Favorite Clip Art Books * Photoshop: Photoshop Madness * Tutorial: Adjustment Layers for Shadow Balancing * Tutorial: 5 Useful Photoshop Effects * Elements Plus – plugins * Image Framer * Textura: Valencia Street Art * Typography: New Gallo Fonts * Tutorial: Color Correction for Photographers * Critical Need For Customer Retention * The Art of SEO * Annoying Illustrator Pencil Tool * Photo Tent and Calendar Tent Templates * and a lot more!

…………… Design & Publishing Center NEWSLETTER ………………..
………………. Vol. 19, #12 – December, 2009 ……………………

01. Welcome to December DTG

Someone recently asked “What does ‘DTG’ mean?”
… well, you could read our “about” page — but suffice it to say,
“DTG is Design, Typography and Graphics” — my favorite subjects,
and yours too, I hope!

November was busy and there are lots and lots of new goodies in the
Design Center for your benefit. But during this season (and all year,
of course) don’t forget the famous words of Benjamin Franklin.

It is written that Ben would write in his journal each evening and ask:
“What good did I do today?”
… and then, upon waking the next morning, would ask
“What good can I do today?”

Today, and every day, ask yourself: “What good can I do today?”

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02. Gift Ideas: Creative books to give… and get!

Here’s my favorite list of hands-on, crafts, discovery books that
will thrill you — and anyone on your gift list. They will be
enjoyed several times … by the reader, while doing, and by
the receiver of the craft while receiving
— it’s a Win / Win idea! Think Creative!

* https://graphic-design.com/wp-content/uploads/graphic-design.com/bookshelf/creative-books-give-and-get

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03. Favorite Holiday Clip Art Books

Here is a collection of our favorite Dover books that provide countless
opportunities for the illustrator, designer, painter, scrapbooker,
crafts person, or anyone that uses legacy art in projects.
(And we have hundreds of free samples at the loading dock!)

* https://graphic-design.com/wp-content/uploads/graphic-design.com/bookshelf/favorite-clip-art-books

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04. Photoshop: Photoshop Madness

This edition of Photoshop Madness opens with holidays with
* 5 useful Photoshop effects then we get into the Holiday Spirit with :
Christmas Wallpaper * Holiday Ornaments with reflections
* an Abstract Snow Scene Wallpaper with superb snowflakes
* The Jungle King Photoshop Tutorial
* and building some cool 3-D Text blocks using Photoshop
… all in the line of Photoshop Madness

* https://graphic-design.com/photoshop/tutorial/photoshop-madness

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05. Photoshop Tutorial: Adjustment Layers for Shadow Balancing

Debi entered a Photoshop 911 Emergency case, with photographs where
the deep shadows were too dark. So, in this Photoshop tutorial, we
demonstrate the use of a Levels Adjustment Layer that acts like
a mask allowing Debi to paint in the areas of the image to be adjusted!

* https://graphic-design.com/photoshop/tutorial/adjustment-layers-shadow-balancing

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06. Photoshop Tutorial: 5 Useful Photoshop Effects

Andrea Austoni sent in this tutorial, and we liked its simplicity
and the fact that Andrea’s site is clean and honest without the
usual screen spam of the other tutorial sites. Here, learn Soft Focus,
Model Depth of Field, Star Field, Wood Grain and Brushed Metal
in easy, 1-2-3 steps.
(Andrea is the first Photoshop Fave on the Photoshop Page — BRAVO!)

* https://graphic-design.com/photoshop/tutorial/5-useful-photoshop-effects

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07. Photoshop: Elements Plus – plugins

Andrei Doubrovski’s latest Adobe Photoshop Elements Plus kit includes
smart filters, vector masks, and many more advanced tools normally
hidden under the hood — unlocking undocumented advanced
functions in Photoshop Elements

* https://graphic-design.com/photoshop/resources/elements-plus-plugins

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08. Special offer for DTG Readers

Our friends at Artlandia have extended a wonderful discount on their
best-selling Artlandia SymmetryWorks 5 plug-in that you’ve read about
many times in the pages of DTG (see: http://bit.ly/6zu4xA )

The DTG coupon brings you 15% off SymmetryWorks and several other
Artlandia products. This is substantial.
Your coupon code is: DTG2009, but it
expires on midnight December 31 (CST).

So if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on this awesome
software for Illustrator and Photoshop, the time is NOW.

* http://www.artlandia.com/

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09. Review: Image Framer

10-thousand tutorials on the naked web, hundreds of minutes and tedious
steps in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and you still won’t be
able to do frames as cool as the ones you create
using ImageFramer on the Mac!

* https://graphic-design.com/design/desktop-publishing/image-framer

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10. Textura: Valencia Street Art

You’ve seen a number of spectacular books surrounding the topic of
graffiti. Last year, the Bay Area Graffiti ranked among our BEST awards.
Now, from the streets of Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, comes a
hotbed of vibrant street art, the best of which is featured in
Textura: Valencia Street Art

* https://graphic-design.com/photography/resources/textura-valencia-street-art

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11. Typography: New Gallo Fonts

Here’s a bunch of new fonts to show off — all created by Gerald Gallo!
His picture and dingbat fonts are a specialty with a new quilt pattern
font along with flowers, fish and birds, and a family of
new display fonts called Dots.

* https://graphic-design.com/typography/fonts/new-gallo-fonts

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12. Elements Tutorial: Color Correction for Photographers

Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski cover the details of color correction
in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, including working with histograms, studio
photo correction, adjusting flesh tones, converting from color
to black and white, and more.

* http://bit.ly/2TzbWC

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13. 60-Seconds: Online shopping was never like this

On “Cyber Monday” Fred shared the rich experience of actually shopping
off-line, the joys of visiting your local bookstore.
Try it, you might just like it!

* https://graphic-design.com/wp-content/uploads/graphic-design.com/60-seconds/society/online-shopping-was-never

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14. Business: Critical Need For Customer Retention

The competitive crunch and convergence in communications marketplace is
fueling increased customer churn, testing loyalty. This study by the
COM Council and the Customer Experience Board highlights critical
need for improved customer retention and handling.

* http://bit.ly/4ovhkz

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15. Web Design: The Art of SEO

Four of the most noted experts in the field of search engine optimization
(SEO) provide you with proven guidelines and cutting-edge techniques
for planning and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy

* https://graphic-design.com/bookshelf/web-design/art-seo

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16. Mailbag: Annoying Illustrator Pencil Tool

K.C. from San Francisco wrote with this irritating problem
in Adobe Illustrator

> I’m trying to do a pencil drawing, and every time I draw
> a path next to an already selected path, the original
> line disappears as soon as you draw the next line.
> This is really irritating, what can I do?

Answer: Once you really get into the swing of the Illustrator Pencil
tool, you’ll find it a real joy to draw with — particularly if
you’ve got a tablet.

Unfortunately, Illustrator defaults to what’s called path-editing mode.

So, when you draw a line near a selected previous line, Illustrator
thinks you want to edit the previous line, It dutifully deletes the
line, thus replacing it with the new line. If this is not what you
want it to do, then follow along:

Click the pic: http://bit.ly/4uPeSL

1. Double-click on the Pencil tool to open the
Pencil Tool Preferences dialog box.

2. Deselect the Edit Selected Paths check box
or reduce the pixel distance using the slider at the bottom
and click OK.

Now she’ll behave like she’s supposed to!

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17. Mailbag: Photo Tent and Calendar Tent Templates

Kristie wrote in with difficulty finding the PhotoTent templates
mentioned in the November newsletter … writing

> PLEASE HELP! I LOVE LOVE the photo tent template and I downloaded
> it to the computer at home, but I REALLY want it on our main
> computer in our home office
> — I can no longer get to the Loading Dock!

It’s there for sure — plus, we’ve updated our calendar tent “gift”
template as well. You can find all these in the Publishers’ Warehouse
but the location has changed again! (It changes each month!)
Below, you’ll see the key clue for the address. Have fun!

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18. Site of the Month:

S.C. wrote in from Tokyo to show me the new Web 2.0 site he was working on.
He is trying to convince his colleagues and a number of other
Japanese developers that less is more!

Well, I’ll let you guys decide if this site is ‘clean’ enough — if
you’ve seen many Asian developed web sites, you know the trend there
is to populate it with as much stuff as you can possibly fit on the
screen, up to the point of just before you throw up.

For us, we found this little site quite refreshing — and quite easy
to navigate and use. It’s a cool idea, too — help restoring images
for email without using an image editing program!

So check out our SOM (Site of the Month) “Cut My Pic”
— let me know what you think…

* http://www.cutmypic.com/

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19. Fun & Games: Creating the Moritat Font

Thanks to Chuck Green for sending this one in … a real hoot —
fast action video of the creation of a hand-written font.
(Ignore the music if it’s not your style!)

* http://bit.ly/7fQ4R

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20. Arlington at Christmas

I had no idea this was being done. I thought you might want to see it.

* https://graphic-design.com/60-seconds/arlington-christmas

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21. Seasons Greetings from all of us to all of you!

Here’s a big thank-you and WELCOME to all the new subscribers!
Thanks for joining us … details are in the footer below.

The Publishers’ Warehouse folks have been busy during November too.
They’ve opened our Holiday Gifts gallery with all our traditional
gifts for you — and they’ve added a healthy heaping of new stuff
just for you. Have fun.
You’ll find it all at the Loading Dock! (see below)

December is brought to you by the letter “D”
* https://graphic-design.com/wp-content/uploads/graphic-design.com/graphics/this_month/the_letter_D.html
and the color GOLD… for golden opportunity to do something good today!
* http://bit.ly/8y5yX8

And, remember: we always ask:
Got tutorials?
* http://bit.ly/8l8AY and
What’s in Your Portfolio?
* https://graphic-design.com/wp-content/uploads/graphic-design.com/folio_submission.html

Feeling generous?
Put a link to the Design Center on your site… you’ll be doing
yourself and your readers a favor, and you’ll be doing us a favor!
(Show me the link and I’ll send you a little something to say THANKS!)

Thanks for reading…

Fred Showker

Fred Showker, Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

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Thought for the holidays and GIVING:

If you think of life as like a big pie,
you can try to hold the whole pie and
kill yourself trying to keep it,
or you can slice it up and
give some to the people around you,
and you still have plenty left for yourself.
Jay Leno

The deed is everything, the glory naught.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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————————— POSTSCRIPT ———————————-

WELCOME NEW SUBSCRIBERS …. PLEASE READ THIS SECTION:

Thank you for joining the DT&G monthly newsletter.
If you didn’t subscribe directly, then you posted to the
LOADING DOCK, PUBLISHERS’ WAREHOUSE, or other forms where
the Opt-in button is very clear.

*** HOW TO GET UNSUBSCRIBED
IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SUBSCRIBE, AND YOU WANT OFF THE LIST

go to: http://mac-pro.net/mailman/listinfo/dtgnews_mac-pro.net

THANKS FOR READING, we’ll leave the modem on for’ya.

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