Go now and buy this book by Sam Harris: Letter To A Christian Nation
It will only take you an hour or so to read. Then, like me, you will be free to go 'round killing babies, punching old ladies in the teeth and setting fire to churches as I do. I've got burning baby all over me right now in fact. Before reading this book I was a good person with a happy smile, clean fingernails and who baked hot cross buns every sunday morning, (the natural result of reading about ancient begatting and 800 year old men on gilded edge paper) but now I have free reign to go completely nuts. It's fantastic! The body count is rising every day! Read it and know the unique sound an infant's head makes when struck with a blunt instrument.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Screw Daylight Saving(s) Time
By the light of ye olde OS X Software Update I see that our wise "leaders" are going to once again mess with the day they mess with the goddamn clock. You know what, I've always hated Daylight Saving Time, it's only really ever been a pain in the ass and adds pointless complication. It messes with your mind and body. That first daywhen you leave work and it's pitch black outside is a real bummer. The day before the sun was setting, but there was still light. Our bodies prefer to be ruled by the sun, not by arbitrary human tinkering. There is a very noticeable funk one gets in when the clock is changed. Yes, it is a natural bummer when the days start getting shorter and shorter, but for me the alteration of the clock has worse effects. I never felt as if I had "saved" very much by the change.
DST also has historically fucked up my work. There hasn't been a year that's gone by where the images in our Quark docs haven't been needlessly "modified" thanks to the automatic time change on the server. Although improved computer speed and software has lessened this issue as of late, I recall it wasn't too long ago that this put a big hurt on productivity. It was a huge deal to open up a 60-page Quark doc and have to update all the pictures. And you knew it was all for nothing. You were just wasting your time appeasing the whims of this braindead software so you could print the damn thing.
DST also has historically fucked up my work. There hasn't been a year that's gone by where the images in our Quark docs haven't been needlessly "modified" thanks to the automatic time change on the server. Although improved computer speed and software has lessened this issue as of late, I recall it wasn't too long ago that this put a big hurt on productivity. It was a huge deal to open up a 60-page Quark doc and have to update all the pictures. And you knew it was all for nothing. You were just wasting your time appeasing the whims of this braindead software so you could print the damn thing.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thinking Inside The Box
You know, I have to say that when designing a graphic or logo there seems to be a helluva lot of time spent dicking around with text adjustments. You sit and tweak on point size, leading, tracking, kerning and so on but you also want to experiment with different fonts. Well, when you pick a different font all your adjustments go out the window. If you've got a really condensed font and then try an extended one it can blow up so big you can't see the whole thing anymore. Well, what if you told the software (e.g. Illustrator, Quark etc.) no man, make everything fit within THIS BOX. I want a tool that automatically constrains any and all text that you put into a certain box no matter what to fill the bounds of the box.
If the text was made to behave then it would simply be a matter of tweaking what font you want and the size of the constraining box to fit with the other elements. If you make a certain sized box in Quark and type or import too much text you get an overflow box. Well, why not just do whatever it takes to make it fit? And you should be able to control what parameters it's allowed to change. If you don't want any distortion of the chracters it should only adjust size equally and then tweak the leading\spacing to fit. Obviously there could be a practical limit. Certainly if you make a small box and paste a whole paragraph inside it you don't want .00005 pt. type or something.
I don't know if this exists elsewhere, (maybe InDesign? I haven't used it much myself) but as far as I know no such functionality exists. It seems odd that it wouldn't because it's such a basic thing. Hmmm... If this were possible the design process could be sped up considerably and you could concentrate more on the layout, thinking in terms of objects and shapes rather than spending your time telling the computer to do what it could probably figure out for itself.
If the text was made to behave then it would simply be a matter of tweaking what font you want and the size of the constraining box to fit with the other elements. If you make a certain sized box in Quark and type or import too much text you get an overflow box. Well, why not just do whatever it takes to make it fit? And you should be able to control what parameters it's allowed to change. If you don't want any distortion of the chracters it should only adjust size equally and then tweak the leading\spacing to fit. Obviously there could be a practical limit. Certainly if you make a small box and paste a whole paragraph inside it you don't want .00005 pt. type or something.
I don't know if this exists elsewhere, (maybe InDesign? I haven't used it much myself) but as far as I know no such functionality exists. It seems odd that it wouldn't because it's such a basic thing. Hmmm... If this were possible the design process could be sped up considerably and you could concentrate more on the layout, thinking in terms of objects and shapes rather than spending your time telling the computer to do what it could probably figure out for itself.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Photoshop CS3 Beta Observations
Caught wind of this on some eBay auction no less, so I went and got it. Definitely different looking. One thing that bugs me about having multiple versions of a certain application on your computer is that the OS always thinks the newest one is the one you want to use. So now if I double click an image the thing opens in the Beta rather than full-on CS2. Doh! Anyway, looks like it's got multiple clone sources which looks kinda cool. Eyedropper averaging took a massive jump up to "101" pixels which is indicative of the increasing resolution of digital imagery I suppose. Instead of the bone stock Point sample\3x3\5x5 you've now got 11, 31, 51, 101.
There's a new "Black and White" adjustment which quite frankly I find a bit pussified. I mean, I learned how to alter tonal values when converting from color to grayscale at my first job thanks to Ken, a convicted murderer and a helluva swell guy. You just use Hue\Saturation fer cripes sakes. Crank down the main saturation and futz the brightness on the separate color ranges. Well no biggie, Photoshop has always had tools which do the same thing in different ways. There are presets in the Black and White tool, so I suppose that's kinda nice.
Once at a job interview I was asked how I approach color correction. I said , "...and then I might go in and fine tune with Selective Color" and the dude didn't get that "Selective Color" was an actual Photoshop tool but that I was "being" selective about what I adjusted...hell I have no idea what was going through that guy's head. A non-hacker in my beloved corps it would seem.
After many many years of anticipating it, you've now got non-destructive filter effects on layers. Nice. Of course, going filter-crazy is something that one seems to grow out of. Not that it isn't very useful of course.
Oddly enough, they've updated the crude, dust-collecting Brightness\Contrast control which now acts more subtley but with a "legacy" checkbox to make it work the old way which is why you never used the thing in the first place! Heh! Curves has also been updated with some more display features. I noticed it wasn't live-updating but maybe it's just me.
One thing I really could do without is this odd screen view mode which they added. It's called "Maximized Screen Mode" and it seems to keep the main canvas and the palettes separate or something. It seems to serve those unfortunates without dual monitors I suppose (again, one of the benefits of dual monitors in this case is that they are treated as separate devices by the application) but my gripe is that it can't be removed from the toggle stack. I mean, that's double the amount of "F" I gotta tap in a day, folks. I could get a blister or something!
The palettes have got some sort of docking behavior going on, I'm still trying to figure that out. Although maybe it could be a good thing for some. I know many folks who are constantly moving palettes this way and that because apparently the TAB key's function has alluded them. Watching this game of Whack-A-Mole physically pains me, but it's not my business how they work I guess. The Maximized Screen Mode in combination with these docked palettes would seem to serve the function of always keeping "stuff" out of view of your work. I can see how it would be great for a single screen. Old habits die hard, though. There's also some sort of icon collapse thing. Again, these things are merely stop gaps for the True Future of 300ppi Monitors The Size of Drafting Tables. Mote It Be!
The clone tool has got a wicked cool overlay mode now where you can see a ghosted image of your clone source. Could certainly come in mighty handy. This new-fangled selection tool thingy is mighty cool too. The "refine edge" thing is sweet. But so far there isn't anything so mind-blowing so as to demand upgrading, though. I've always felt I could safely go back to version 4.0 and be relatively happy. Okay, that's probably not entirely true. Smart Objects are rather handy. I was most stoked by Adjustment Layers (was that v4? Can't remember...) and layer masks. After that everything's gravy.
There's a new "Black and White" adjustment which quite frankly I find a bit pussified. I mean, I learned how to alter tonal values when converting from color to grayscale at my first job thanks to Ken, a convicted murderer and a helluva swell guy. You just use Hue\Saturation fer cripes sakes. Crank down the main saturation and futz the brightness on the separate color ranges. Well no biggie, Photoshop has always had tools which do the same thing in different ways. There are presets in the Black and White tool, so I suppose that's kinda nice.
Once at a job interview I was asked how I approach color correction. I said , "...and then I might go in and fine tune with Selective Color" and the dude didn't get that "Selective Color" was an actual Photoshop tool but that I was "being" selective about what I adjusted...hell I have no idea what was going through that guy's head. A non-hacker in my beloved corps it would seem.
After many many years of anticipating it, you've now got non-destructive filter effects on layers. Nice. Of course, going filter-crazy is something that one seems to grow out of. Not that it isn't very useful of course.
Oddly enough, they've updated the crude, dust-collecting Brightness\Contrast control which now acts more subtley but with a "legacy" checkbox to make it work the old way which is why you never used the thing in the first place! Heh! Curves has also been updated with some more display features. I noticed it wasn't live-updating but maybe it's just me.
One thing I really could do without is this odd screen view mode which they added. It's called "Maximized Screen Mode" and it seems to keep the main canvas and the palettes separate or something. It seems to serve those unfortunates without dual monitors I suppose (again, one of the benefits of dual monitors in this case is that they are treated as separate devices by the application) but my gripe is that it can't be removed from the toggle stack. I mean, that's double the amount of "F" I gotta tap in a day, folks. I could get a blister or something!
The palettes have got some sort of docking behavior going on, I'm still trying to figure that out. Although maybe it could be a good thing for some. I know many folks who are constantly moving palettes this way and that because apparently the TAB key's function has alluded them. Watching this game of Whack-A-Mole physically pains me, but it's not my business how they work I guess. The Maximized Screen Mode in combination with these docked palettes would seem to serve the function of always keeping "stuff" out of view of your work. I can see how it would be great for a single screen. Old habits die hard, though. There's also some sort of icon collapse thing. Again, these things are merely stop gaps for the True Future of 300ppi Monitors The Size of Drafting Tables. Mote It Be!
The clone tool has got a wicked cool overlay mode now where you can see a ghosted image of your clone source. Could certainly come in mighty handy. This new-fangled selection tool thingy is mighty cool too. The "refine edge" thing is sweet. But so far there isn't anything so mind-blowing so as to demand upgrading, though. I've always felt I could safely go back to version 4.0 and be relatively happy. Okay, that's probably not entirely true. Smart Objects are rather handy. I was most stoked by Adjustment Layers (was that v4? Can't remember...) and layer masks. After that everything's gravy.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Most Books Look The Same
With the vast wealth of typefaces available it seems that the book world isn't interested. I'm not a huge book reader, but I have purchased around six books recently and they all look the damn same. I find it very dull. It's all just a regular 'ol Times serif kind of stuff, nothing catchy about it. I mean, why not try Paperback by House Industries? Still mostly regular stuff, but with a bit more flair. Maybe I am being too hard on them, maybe I just don't see enough books with interesting typefaces. Still, seems to me that they're all the damn same. Of course, this blog itself has a bookish quality thanks to the template, which is cool, but only cause it's the web. Low res screens necessarily must sacrifice most of the nuance of typography in favor of legibility. With books there's no such restrictions. Okay fine, so there's a difference with paper stocks, but you can still get more res with paper. Anyway the point is, I decree by force of sheer will that all books published after this date shall have more interesting fonts. I am waving my hands and squinting very hard now. Waves of energy are beaming from my head making the air look like someone's using a Weber grill. Can you feel the power?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
