MacTribe Looks at the Best Design Tools
Adobe InDesign CS4
(Highly Recommended)
Adobe InDesign CS4 allows you the ability to preflight your publication as you design in real-time. Resolution, rotation, and scale are manageable in the customizable links panel. The conditional text option allows for multiple versions of documents to be present without layers. Page layouts can be transformed into SWF without Flash, and page transitions cam be previewed before applied. The cross-reference option makes management of long publications a breeze by updating content or movement of documents. Efficient new options from Indesign CS4 let you complete your publication beautifully with time to spare.
$699.00. Upgrade $199.00.
www.adobe.com/products/indesign/
EazyDraw
Drawing and design become an effortless pleasure with the EazyDraw Version 2.7. Import any file from a Claris Draw and MacDraw program and make any creative project simple. This program is perfect for simpler design projects and quick templates. The educator, student, or engineer will love the ability to draw quick vector-based templates in a Leopard compatible program. Incredibly user-friendly, your electric sketch becomes a PDF in the blink of an eye with Eazydraw.
$20.00- $240.00.
www.eazydraw.com.
Markzware
Ready to launch a new print publication? Or perhaps you might like to save time on your established magazine or newspaper by catching possible print and file errors as early as possible? Markzware Flightcheck Professional v 6.12 preflights both PDF and non-PDF files, as well as a slew of different image and media files. This program is complete with industry standard specifications for print (PDF/X-1A and PDF/X-3) and also a Ghent PDF Workgroup (GWG)PDF/X V2. Printers and other employees can easily review all possible errors and speed up communication and completion of the final product. This award winning standalone program will increase your profits and productivity in no time! $499.00 -$4491.00.
Markzware FlightCheck Designer is a sleeker version of its professional Flightcheck program. As a stand-alone application, this is an extraordinary addition to QuarkXpress or Indesign. The standalone option allows designers to preflight a wide range of files and documents. QuarkXpress 7 and InDesign CS3 support are also included. If you happen to be using a third-party font application, it will assist you in making the most innovative and precise font arrangement possible. The ground control tool allows multiple preflight lists easy visibility. After file and document verification, the preflight shows possible printing errors that may occur with fonts, images, and color. Printing and file errors are marked, and all images and files are easily collected and organized. Ground control to perfect tone, Markzware FlightCheck Designer simplifies the printing process and lets your project fly.
$199.00-$796.00.
www.markzware.com/
QuarkXPress 8
First released over 20 years ago, QuarkXPress quickly became known as the "it" software in the desktop publishing world, and truly dominated during the mid-1990s with weak competition from Adobe's Pagemill and a few other forgettable programs. However, when Adobe came out with InDesign aka K2 (or “Quark Killer”) in 1999, Quark quickly had to share its exclusive limelight and hasn’t had a true comeback since...until now. QuarkXPress 8 incorporates some excellent new features including updated picture and pen tools, “drag and drop” page layout, ability to share content through media, advanced grids, along with enough bells and whistles to make layout artists stand up and take notice.
For $799 or an upgrade of $299.
www.quark.com/
More Stories
More News
iPad Costs
iSuppli Corp., which generally waits until it can actually get the new Apple product to estimate its production cost, has decided to forgo hands on examination in the case of the iPad. They have--from just looking at it, it's amazing--decided the base model only costs $219.35 for Apple to produce. According to AppleInsider the base model won't make Apple anywhere near as much profit as the 32 GB model with 3G wireless priced at $729...that one reportedly costs only $287.15 to produce.
That's some profit! No wonder Apple execs have said they'd stay nimble on pricing! With demand for the iPad under scrutiny and this week's news that the "Take Picture" hint was removed from the Address Book app in the iPad simulator even we are starting to wonder if it's not worth waiting for the 2nd generation.
Trust us, it's painful to say.
Google Challenges the Internet
"Think Big" indeed. This time, Google is setting its sights on the very way we transmit information and asking people from around the country to nominate their city or state to be included in an ultra-high speed open internet network of Google's building. Set to include anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 people, this network will boast 1GB per second fiber optic connections that Google reps are hoping will bolster developer creativity, test new ways to build the infrastructure and challenge internet service providers to band together to create a better internet instead of shunning change to maintain their bottom lines.
This is huge news, and we hope our city is on the receiving end of the new interwebs...here's the official Google Blog if you want to read it all in detail or submit your community.
Dogs on Twitter
From the country that's given us karate and karaoke comes the newest iPhone app: that's right, Japan's Index Corp. has announced the release of "Bowlingual," the dog emotion translator. Latest in a long line of technological advances, this app (to be released this summer) analyzes Fido's bark and puts it into one of six categories, like "needy." Or "happy." Then it adds a caption based on the emotion and allows you to snap a photo of your pooch in its current mood; as if that weren't enough it can modify that photo to enlarge your pet's eyes...oh...so cute.
Seriously, the app is set to sell for $5 and will post your pet's barks to Twitter. Silly? Yes. Fun? Probably!!
Will you let your dog speak his mind? Tell us here.
