Brush Lovers has a huge library of Photoshop brushes, many of which are free! Here are a few free brushes that caught my eye: Nature Spatter, Scrubbed Prime, Flurry of Snowflakes, Magical Lights.
Free Photoshop Brushes from Brush Lovers
Text Art Showcase from Vandelay Design
Some neat text art - see the full selection at Vandelay Design
PDF Export and Background Tasks in InDesign CS5
For those of you using InDesign CS5, you may have noticed something happened to the pdf export. There's no longer a status bar/dialog box. Exporting a pdf now happens invisibly as a background task, allowing you to continue to work on your document (which seems completely illogical to me).
People either seem to really like it or really dislike it. I'm in the dislike camp on this one. So if you also find it frustrating to not know when your pdf is done and you can close the file, there is a solution! Here are two places to watch the status of background tasks:
The first place is the minuscule vertical Background Tasks indicator bar that appears in the Application bar. It's below and to the right of the word "Type" in the following screenshot. It appears and moves only when a background task is active — it disappears when that background task is complete.
The second place is the Background Tasks panel. Turn it on by choosing Window > Utilities > Background Tasks. Now you will be able to see what percentage of the pdf export is complete.
Note: The one upside I've noticed about background task pdf export is that you can have multiple pdf exports happening at once. Sometimes I need to provide a spreads layout pdf and single page layout pdf, which I can now do one right after the other, with the pdf processing happening simultaneously.
Old Border Road
A lot of little things please me about this book cover: the misty horse photo - burnt to reds and yellows, the white tab, the simple and understated typography, the flowering line art bursting out from the side.
Holiday Cards from Cocky Rooster Design
I love how the type wraps around and within a form to create a holiday shape. Beautifully executed! From Cocky Rooster Design.
My Work: Japanese Magnolia Card
I design a holiday ecard every year for colleagues, friends and family. This year I decided to create a frosty top layer partially wiped away to reveal a flower (japanese magnolia from our garden - my husband's photo).
The Difference between FSC and SFI
As a designer, I use a lot of paper. I use the most paper when printing jobs for clients. Nothing like printing 25,000 copies of something to use up a ton of paper. These days I often get asked to choose certified paper for print jobs. So what's the difference between FSC and SFI certifications?
These two older articles from Treehugger explain FSC vs SFI: Article 1 and Article 2. In summary:
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
- Never harvests more than what grows back
- Protects biodiversity and endangered species
- Saves rare ancient trees
- Guards local streams
- Supports the local people
- Uses narrow skidding trails so as not to disrupt the rest of the forest
- Prohibits replacement by tree plantations
- Bans toxic chemicals
- Bans genetically modified trees (no GMO)
Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
- Allows large clearcuts
- Allows logging close to rivers and streams that harms water supplies
- Allows use of toxic chemicals
- Allows conversion of old-growth forests to tree plantations
- Allows use of genetically modified trees
Some certification is probably better than no certification and I think SFI certification is improving its standards but at this point, I'm choosing FSC.
From a purely practical point of view, if you are a tight print schedule, FSC tends to be more responsive with my local vendors (getting back within hours) rather than SFI (24-36 hrs).
Florida Gardener's Resource
This beautifully realistic flower on the cover of Florida's Gardener's Resource caught my eye. I like the background texture and typography too. It's also a nice layout/design inside - lots of photos, type is well organized and pleasing to read. A good resource for my bookshelf!
Prana's Beautiful Footer
I love this oversized footer on Prana's website. The design is subtle and artsy and calming.
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