a nest of bees in graphic design

tips and tricks for photoshop, indesign and other print design and web design tools and software

The InDesign Swatches panel includes four undeletable swatches: None, Black, Paper, and Registration. The purpose of the first three is obvious. You probably know not to use Registration for any object to appear on the printed page, but do you know why?
The Registration color prints on every ink plate. In CMYK, that means anything with [...]

For image-intensive page layout in InDesign, selecting images visually is better than doing it by filename, and dragging and dropping is easier than File > Place. Rorohiko’s ImageLibraryLoader is a free script-based plug-in for Mac and Windows versions of InDesign CS, CS2, CS3, and CS4. It automatically builds a thumbnail library of images in a [...]

When you add an arrowhead to an open path, the arrowhead appears at either the start of the path or the end. However, you might want to change the placement of the arrowhead from one end of the path to the other. The quickest way to do so is to choose Object > Paths > [...]

Photoshop Express, the long-awaited free online image editor from Photoshop maker Adobe, was released.
If i was to present it, i would say it is like Ennio Morricone says: it has good points, bad points, and… ugly points.
the good: the attractive interface of photoshop express; useful retouching tools and well-done interface for using them; most operations [...]

some days ago i’ve wrote you a post on how to import excel charts in indesign and how to import excel tables in indesign.
now… i’m sure you find yourself quite used to getting the images and text supplied from customers are in MS word formats.
and inserting them within layouts with simple copy paste operation [...]

do you struggle with pictures with useless names like P1010002.jpg?
indesign bridge can rename all your pictures at once in the blink of an eye using batch rename.
select in bridge the images you want to rename and choose tools > batch rename.

then use the fields in the middle to construct your new file name [...]

have you had trouble chosing fonts for your site?
have you ever lived too see your site go like this?

here’s the fonts that are most safe to use are:
1. Arial / Helvetica
2. Times New Roman / Times
3. Courier New / Courier
other options that usually work cross-platform are:
1. Palatino
2. Garamond
3. Bookman
4. Avant Garde
fonts that work on Windows [...]

have you tried this new thing?
unlike quarkXPress, indesign can link text frames when both frames contain text.
when you use this indesign tool, the stories in the text frames are merged into a single story.
and here’s the tipest of the tips:
if the text in the first text frame did not end with a carriage return (the [...]

some time ago, i’ve written you a tip for text wrap in indesign.
i’m going to give you some more tips on working with indesign text wrap:

to wrap text around the shape of an imported graphic, save the clipping path in the application in which you created it, and then select apply photoshop clipping path in [...]

so i’ve seen you’re quite interested in creating an indesign brochure. (at least google’s analytics) tells me that you’ve search it in order to get to me.
so, after you read how to create an indesign folding brochure, just see the options for folding an indesign brochure.
but before that, here’s how you should order [...]