I just love this group!
IDUG Denver member
Front Range Community College: Westminster Campus
Event DetailsA. Meeting Business
We had our "recession-busting" raffle in addition to our auction this time around. The copy of InDesign went for a song! Well, one raffle ticket, anyway! Congratulations to the winner and thank you to everyone that came and participated! Don't forget to bring a friend to any meeting and get $5 Auction Bucks to spend in our meeting's auction. The items available at each meeting are listed on the auction site before the meeting and available to bid on online afterwards: auction.idugdenver.net.
One of our group's co-chairs, Brian Reyman, has started a new user group for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. If you're interested, check out the group's site at: www.dalpug.com.
We have new food sponsors: Charles Holt and Melissa Ollila of Pebmac: Mac consultants extraordinaire. They provided us with some great snacks at the meeting. Special thank you to our other current sponsor, Yellow Dog Printing.
Don't forget about all of your member benefits, such as a two-year subscription to InDesign Magazine for only $39! Member benefits can be found in the Member Area at www.indesignusergroup.com.
Have a meeting topic that you are dying to know about or would you like to do a presentation? Please send an e-mail to admin@idugdenver.net.
B. Presentations
1. The Secret Lives of Fonts
Presenter: Jeff Gamet, Managing Editor of The Mac Observer
Presentation Summary:
The first step is knowing the difference between a font and a typeface. An example of a typeface would be Helvetica. The font is the specific style or characteristics that make up the font. For example Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Italic, etc.
In the past, there were different font formats available depending on the system you were on, Mac or PC. This made it impossible to not have reflow issues with print projects sent to the printer because the Mac format wasn't exactly like the PC format and vice versa. TrueType fonts were created with a partnership between Microsoft and Apple to fix those issues related to using PostScript fonts and to be more affordable for the user. It was great at the time, because instead of having to have two font files for it to work it combined them into one. But you still needed to have a PC and Mac version.
But another format hit the scene that was even better — OpenType (OTF). What's great about this format is that regardless of the platform, the font characteristics are uniform. It is scalable to any size and still holds its shape, and it gives us strokes and fills unlike the PostScript fonts. It also has up to 65,000 characters associated with it. When you install the Creative Suite software, there are some OpenType fonts included.
Font Management
When dealing with fonts regularly, font management is very important, because fonts can be installed in many different areas on your system. Depending on the software you are using, it will look for the font in different places, on both Mac and PC. But never fear, because there are some good font management programs available to purchase.
• Font Agent Pro (for both Mac and Windows)
www.insidersoftware.com
It can work with all of your programs (MS Word, Adobe InDesign, MS Publisher, etc) on your computer. Has font auto activation support, including for Photoshop.
• Suitcase Fusion (for Mac and Windows)
www.extensis.com
• Font Explorer Pro (Mac only)
www.fontexplorerx.com
There is not one really better than the other. It depends on your specific needs. Go to the sites for more information.
Font Utilities
PopChar: This is just a cool utility that you can use system-wide that will bring up all of the font characters and how to key them in. Available for Mac and Windows. www.ergonis.com/products/index.html
What the Font?: On this site you can upload a scan of a font and it will tell you what it is or show you ones similar to it. And it's FREE! www.whatthefont.com
FlightCheck: You can use this utility to see what graphics or fonts are used in a project without having to open the file. www.markzware.com
FontScape: This site has fonts categorized by type. www.fontscape.com
Font Nuke: For Mac only. Clears out your font caches. Free download. http://www.jamapi.com
Download the PDF "Font Locations" (at the bottom of this page) to see where your fonts might be living (Mac only).
2. Panel of InDesign Experts
Barb Binder of Rocky Mountain Training
Jeff Gamet, Editor of The Mac Observer
Erica Gamet, IDUG Denver, Digital Dimensions
Presentation Summary:
The panel discussed several different questions that were posed about Adobe InDesign. This was an informal discussion that was then opened up to the group. We ran out of time at the end, but we hope that you found it helpful and interesting. Remember, if you have questions, please feel free to ask, either at a meeting or by emailing us at admin@idugdenver.net.
Barb Binder for being the greeter on the spur of the moment
Lori Evans for helping out with the welcome desk
Charles Holt and Melissa Ollila of Pebmac for the delicious food at the meeting
Dan Mulligan, of Yellow Dog Printing, for the awesome banner
All of our members for making our little InDesign community great!
"Jeff was great with a lot of wonderful information. The panel was fun — my first time watching you guys interact."
"Great speaker — very interesting topic."
"Jeff's presentation was excellent. Clear, articulate, informative and funny. Perfect."
"Great talk on fonts and font management."
The next meeting is set for Tuesday, October 6, 2009. Networking starts at 6 and the meeting starts at 6:30. Help Desk presentation from about 6:15-6:30, and feel free to continue networking during this time. Check out www.idugdenver.net for the latest meeting information. Hope to see you all there! Don't forget to bring a friend — you’ll get auction bucks and you'll be helping to grow our membership.
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