I need some input friends. My fellow prepress coworker is leaving for a better job/pay ($18/hour, his own office, etc.) end of this week and of course EVERYTHING is coming down on me. One of the things that was his job was auto numbering invoices and we use Auto Numbering (http://auto-number.com). He went over it with me and it is a little over my head, and it requires us to trick the software to get what we want like numbering one side of a invoice that prints two sided. Another one problem is that you can not print the invoice number sideways. 

So, I need some recommendations of other alternatives software or plugins for Acrobat or InDesign for management to look over. I know some of the simple invoices can easily be done in InDesign using the master page/auto page numbering features.

Hey guys, I need some questions answered on Pitstop 11. Since we are expected to be taking in more pdfs in the near future, the boss is looking at Pitstop 11. He needs to know if this going to make things easier and fasting in prepress when fixing clients' pdfs. As you all know very well that practically all clients' files need fixed for one thing or another, but we need to know if Pitstop can fix our most common problems which include:

-bleeds need to be extended
-converting RGB to CMYK or spot colors when it comes to photos, text, art, and/or the whole pdf itself
-converting RGB or CMYK pdfs to grayscale
-creating new spot colors and applying them to text, strokes, art, and photos
-type corrections and/or type changes
-embedding and/or converting text to outline
-changing screen text to 100% solid text (example: 75% black to 100% black)
-changing size of text and/or stroke
-making text overprint especially black text
-changing type style and/or font (example: bold to italic, and Times to Helvetica)
-replacing a photo with another photo
-making global changes through out a multipage document

I think that covers our most common problems.
Also, I like to know if there is anything that Pitstop 11 can't do and has anyone installed it on the new Adobe Acrobat XI and run into any problems.

OnOne Software has come out with a free version of their Perfect Effects.
It only contains 25 of the 300+ effects of the full version. I have been trying the Faux HDR effect and it's not bad. Can't complain about something that's free.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-effects-free/

Anyone have any thoughts on Apple's new iBook Author app?

I thinks it's kind of cool if it works like they say.
I just hope it will be easy for someone like myself (please no coding!!) to publish my own book.
Maybe DCS could publish his printing guide to iBooks for clients to download and maybe they will read it just because its on the iPad.

Well, if you are into photography like me than it's been an exciting week.

First, Adobe has released in beta Adobe Lightroom 4. I am definitely upgrading when the final product comes just for the ability to create photobooks right inside Lightroom and being able to email photos directly from Lightroom without creating a run around.

Second, Corel is releasing AfterShot Pro for the Mac. Think of it as a cheaper alternative of Lightroom (minus a few bells and whistles). I am thinking of getting it and using it as a secondary workflow for my photography.

Third, Nik Software has released a desktop version of their popular iPad/iPhone app Snapseed. It is available for the Mac thru the Mac App Store. It requires Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or higher.

We are looking at getting a new barcode creator that works with either InDesign or Illustrator. We have a windows application that works alone but since we use Creative Suite 99% of the time, we like to get something that works with CS5. Any recommendations would be appreciated?

I know I am going to get laughed off the forums for asking this question.

Here is the problem:
A client gave us a hard copy 200+ page manual. They want us to scan it to PDF (I already have done) and then convert it to a completed formatted word file. In other words, the client does not want to set up (typeset and format) the manual, they want it to be done without any effort and be perfect.

So the question is:
Is there a way of doing this?
To my knowledge there is no application that converts a hard copy into a already formatted file that is ready to go.

I can't believe it! Is anything safe to use these days?! :shocked:
I saw on the news that the American Medical Association is "discouraging" the use of Photoshop especially when it comes to making people look perfect on magazine covers. Don't be surprised if the next version of Photoshop has a health warning label of it just like cigarettes do.

Well since I had to install a new graphics card in the Mac which lead to having to upgrade OSX to Snow Leopard since the new card requires Snow Leopard, that meant that our Spyder2 Pro will not work under Snow Leopard. So now I need to find options to calibrate the LCD monitor. I see that there is a new Spyder 3 Pro but boss wants to know if dispcalGUI can be used to extend the life of the Spyder2. I am not familiar with dispcalGUI and need to know if anyone uses this. Anyone have any suggestions to solve my problem?

http://hoech.net/dispcalGUI/

Well I replaced my graphic card (NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) in my old Mac Pro (2006) 1,1 at work. Its been acting up the last few weeks. The only card we could find compatible is a ATI Radeon HD 5770 (Mac version). But the monitor will not calibrate or switch to any of the monitor's profiles. All I can find on Apple forums is that I would have to upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard 10.6.7. So, tomorrow I have to call Apple to double check and most likely upgrade OSX.

Technology. You gotta love it.

I have found a few things on Photoshop and iPad that I found very cool.


The first is a video on a digital magazine that brings content from the magazine to your Photoshop on your computer with just a touch of your iPad. I think its cool that you can watch a PS tutorial happen in PS on my computer. Neat!
DI Magazine video


Over at the NAPP site, they are showing Adobe's new Photoshop apps for the iPad. I really like the ability to navigate and control my tools on the iPad and browse photos and throw them over into Photoshop. Also like the ability to mix swatch colors and create new swatches on iPad and then saved to Photoshop.
Adobe Nav, Lava and Eazel

Well I am thinking of downloading and installing Dropbox for sharing files since Adobe's Acrobat.com has become a paid site.
So anyone here uses Dropbox? What do you think of it? It seems very simple to use and I like the 2 GB free service.

https://www.dropbox.com/

I see that MS is releasing Office 2011 for Mac with Outlook (on certain versions).
I don't know if I would get it but I am curious about Outlook coming to the Mac.
So is anyone planning to try Outlook on the Mac?

Now if only MS would (dare I say it) bring Publisher to the Mac so I don't need to keep moving over to the PC to open those crappy Publisher files.

In case anyone haven't heard, Adobe is releasing Acrobat X Pro (and Adobe X Reader).
One new feature I am curious about is the Acrobat SendNow which let you upload and send large files. I just wonder if it is anything like YouSendIt.

Adobe Acrobat X page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat.html

Adobe Acrobat SendNow:
http://sendnow.acrobat.com/

Apple just released 10.6.4 update.

So, Joe, since you had so much fun with the 10.6.3 update, why don't you go first. :grin:

I just ran into a article on FontXChange. It is a font conversion application for Macs.
Has anyone heard or tried this application?

http://www.fontgear.net/fontxchange.html

Just in case anyone in photography or is a photographer, Adobe just released Lightroom 3.
I have been using Lightroom since version 1 after being disappointed with iPhoto.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

Today we received our first InDesign CS5 files. I had to take it home to work on since we have yet to upgrade at work.

My concern with the client's files was that they use pc postscript fonts. I thought that I read somewhere that the new InDesign CS5 Document Fonts feature doesn't support postscript fonts (pc and Mac). For those who don't know what the Document Fonts feature is, InDesign CS5 temporary loads the fonts from the packaged Document Fonts folder when you open the InDesign file and then unloads them after you close the document. Very cool feature.

Well back to the client's files, I had no problem with the fonts, I did not have to load them. I do not have the fonts on my Mac, but InDesign CS5 used the fonts right out of the Document Fonts folder which really surprised me. So has anyone else read or heard differently when it comes to postscript fonts and InDesign CS5?

Yesterday afternoon I was shadowed by a teenager who wants possibly go into graphic designing / prepress. She fell asleep, seriously! Boy do I know how to put them under. I think I single handedly changed another young person's mind about going into prepress.

Hey guys, I need help.
I have been given the job of finding Opentype or Truetype replacements for nearly two dozen old Postscript Type 1 fonts.
We plan to upgrade to Leopard (or Snow Leopard) and the fonts are from different foundries.
Is there one place that one can purchase the various fonts or do we have to go to each foundry and purchase the fonts directly?

And is anyone having problems with Postscript Type 1 fonts on Leopard or Snow Leopard?