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*** DesignGeek ***
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- New Info on Cleaning Up OS X Fonts
-- Quickly Find Specialty Typefaces
-- Sign Up for My Webinar on CS2
Issue 50, 2/8/06
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
(c) 2006 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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New Info on Cleaning Up OS X Fonts
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An "alert reader" (apologies to Dave Barry) e-mailed me a few days ago about an out-of-date link on my Managing OS X Fonts resources page on my web site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/fonts-osx.html
He said that the link I titled "World's Best Forum Post: How to Prune Unnecessary OS X Fonts," which I found last year on an Apple Discussions board, had been updated by the author with info on Tiger and moved to a new location on Apple's web site.
I went to the new URL he sent me (wait for it, it's coming) and boy, was it worth it! The post is beefed up with detailed, comprehensive, information on basically any OS X font question you've ever had. I was suffering my own font problems (from adding two new iMacs and a doing a mass upgrade to Tiger about a month ago), and the info here solved it all.
The intro says, "This post deals with font usage in OS X Tiger 10.4.x and Panther 10.3.x. Its main purpose is to show you where fonts are located on your system and which can be removed. The idea being to keep your fonts as lean as possible and to avoid font conflicts. These issues would benefit prepress operators the most, but can clear up font issues for most users."
I was curious about the author of the post and clicked on his profile. Was it an Apple software engineer? A well-known author of some sort of OS X troubleshooting book or web site?
Nope ... author Kurt Lang is a regular working stiff. He runs his own color-retouching business, JKL Studios (http://www.jklstudios.com) in White Bear Lake, Minnesota . Just one of those kinds of people who voluntarily take the time to research and write up (and update!) helpful forum posts for the benefit of their colleagues.
There is a special room in heaven for people like this, full of 30" LCD monitors and supercomputers, with angelic masseurs who rub the carpal tunnel out of their wrists and drop tiny, perfect sweetmeats into their mouths while a hovering chorus sings their praises in the musical style of their choice.
Oh, right, the URL.
Font Management in Mac OS X Tiger and Panther
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607630
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Quickly Find Specialty Fonts
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Someone on a listserv I subscribe to asked if anyone knew of a font that contained credit card logos. After a bit of Google searching I found one that was linked to by numerous web sites.
Rick Mueller's True Type font, Credit Card.ttf, can be downloaded from his specialty font portfolio site here ($5 shareware fee):
http://moorstation.org/typoasis/designers/mueller/a_f.htm
One of the Google hits that linked to Rick's font, DaFont.com, caught my eye. It looked like a handy resource for finding other fonts, so I added it to my "Font Finder" bookmark collection. DaFont is available in French or English here:
http://www.dafont.com
The main online resource I use for locating, previewing and buying fonts is the web site for Adobe's Type Library (http://store.adobe.com/type/main.html). If I want to search the collections of multiple foundries for the same typeface, I try Fonts.com or MyFonts.com.
Neither Adobe's site nor MyFonts.com turned up any hits on "credit card logo." The Fonts.com site found one Type 1 font with credit card logos called CreditCardsPO1:
http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?pid=204893
... but I really hate using that site, it's slow and all the information is jammed up in the left side of my browser window.
DaFont.com, in contrast, is cleanly-designed, roomy and fast. Its collection is not nearly as comprehensive as the other ones, but it comes in first when you're looking for inexpensive specialty fonts (anything other than a traditional body text font). Most of its collection are TrueType freeware or shareware fonts designed by smaller companies and individuals, and the ones I've downloaded and tried out work fine in all my latest design software programs.
I like that you can enter your own text for a custom preview of all the fonts that match your search term, too, and that preview comes up amazingly fast as well.
You can download the fonts right from DaFont.com (PC or Mac OS X), or you can go to the designer's web site (if available) via a link next to the search result and peruse the designer's other offerings. Purchase terms for each font are listed next to their name. Most of them are free or under $10.
A couple weeks after the credit card logo request, someone else on the same mailing list asked if anyone knew of a handwriting font that would work for addressing direct-mail pieces. She wanted a font that looked like "real" handwriting, not a script font.
I went back to DaFont and looked at the tidy list of linked categories and sub-categories that appears at the top of every page. Clicking on Script > Handwriting, I arrived (in about .05 seconds) at the first 20 out of almost 200 matches. Wow!
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Sign Up for My Webinar on CS2
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Adobe is rolling out a three-part series of webinars (online, real-time seminars) "hosted by industry experts" instead of Adobe marketing staff. It's called the Adobe Creative Suite 2 Expert Series. Amazingly, I was invited to host one!
I'll be first at bat on Tuesday, Feb. 21, doing an hour of talking, demonstrating, and answering questions online about Adobe Bridge, "Your Creative Hub." The next day, David Blatner hosts the "InDesign Typography Tips and Tricks" webinar, and the following day, Mordy Golding wraps it up with his session, "Discover Adobe Illustrator CS2".
Though they're free, you do need to register in advance if you want to attend. You can sign up for any or all of the webinars in the series here:
http://adobe.regsvc.com/?site=1507h
Unlike previous Adobe webinars, we'll be using Macromedia Breeze to present, and it's tres fantastic. I don't know if they're going to change its name to Adobe Breeze or what, but you can see a preview of how it works here:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/
As an attendee, you don't need anything special ... just a phone, a computer (Mac or PC), an internet connection and your browser, and be at your workstation at the appointed time (they're all at 10:00 a.m. PST). I'll be presenting live -- you'll hear me on the phone or via Voice Over IP if your computer supports it -- and you'll be seeing my screen on your computer ... cool!
You can ask me questions during the webinar by typing them into a window of your browser when you're in the "seminar room" ... there will be too many people listening in to allow us to talk with each other on the phone. But I'll see your questions appear in my own window and towards the end, I'll choose the ones I know the answer to (you think I'm kidding? They're recording this!) and discuss them with everyone. Other fun surprises will be in store, you should come.
For more details, register at the URL above and you'll get all the information you need. Hope to "see" you there!
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MASTER THE NEW CS2 APPS WITH HERGEEKNESS!
Do you like what you read in DesignGeek? Find anything useful? Bring me or any of my hand-picked Associate Geeks in for a session or two of hands-on training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have this level of expertise all to yourself. All training comes with three years of 24/7 follow-up support for each student by phone or e-mail.
To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact us or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote' form on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html
Recent training clients in Chicago and throughout the U.S. and Canada include The Higher Learning Commission (InDesign, Bridge); Digi-Key (InDesign); Kalmbach Publishing (advanced InDesign and InCopy); Human Kinetics Publishing (InDesign, Bridge); Luby Publishing (InDesign); Food Technology Magazine (InCopy); and World Book Publishing (Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge).
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DesignGeek is a free bimonthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).
To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site:
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Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com
Copyright 2006 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in DesignGeek may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.
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