Specifications
11
woRTH ReadiNg
Suitcase Fusion 4
Reviewed
Jay Nelson reviewed
Suitcase Fusion 4 for
Macworld. Read it at
www.tinyurl.com/8z5bjfp.
Children’s Book/
App Designed in
QuarkXPress
If you’re curious about de-
veloping interactive iPad
apps using QuarkXPress,
check out Adventures on
Baggy Farm. is interac-
tive children’s book costs
just £0.69 at
www.tinyurl.com/9xtc5sz.
Artist’s Guide to GIMP
Photoshop isn’t easy to
learn, and neither is GIMP,
its open-source, free im-
age-editing competitor.
With a native Mac version
of GIMP now available, e
Artist’s Guide to Gimp, by
Michael J. Hammel, should
find a broad audience. is
is the first full-color, tuto-
rial-based guide to GIMP,
and it succeeds admirably.
Aer a crash course on
GIMP’s tools and inter-
face, its tutorials show you
exactly how to fix or en-
hance images, create web-
site graphics, and use text
effects, along with teach-
ing other techniques de-
signers commonly need.
If you’re curious about us-
ing GIMP professionally,
this is your best resource.
285 pages, $39.95 from No
Starch Press.
www.nostarch.com
Drupal for Designers
Drupal for Designers, by
Dani Nordin, takes a de-
signer’s view of how to cre-
ate a website using Dru-
pal. If you’re the kind of
designer who’s willing to
dig into a little bit of code,
this book will shorten your
Drupal learning curve
considerably. 292 pages,
$39.99 from O’Reilly.
www.oreilly.com
Illustrator CS6 WOW!
e Adobe Illustrator CS6
WOW! Book, by Sharon
Steuer, is both practical
and inspirational. It’s prac-
tical because it demon-
strates how to use all the
new CS6 features and how
to “think in Illustrator.”
It’s inspirational because it
shows artwork from doz-
ens of top Illustrator artists
and explains how they were
made. It’s also packed with
real-world tips and includes
access to a website con-
taining Illustrator files for
many of the illustrations.
We recommend this book
very highly. 265 color pag-
es, $39.99 from Peachpit.
www.peachpit.com
PitStop Pro 11
Reviewed
Jay Nelson reviewed
PitStop Pro 11 at
www.CreativePro.com. If you
work with PDFs on a regu-
lar basis, have a look!
www.tinyurl.com/94u8zma
Depending on your needs,
PitStop can be:
•Aneditorforobjectson
PDF pages, similar to a
page-layout application.
•APDFpreightingtool
to automatically find and
fix any conceivable prob-
lem.
•APDFrepurposer,to
convert a press-ready
PDF to an iPad-ready
PDF, a Web-ready PDF,
or a small PDF for client
approval.
•APDFcertier,toensure
compliance with interna-
tional standards.
•Partofacompletelyau-
tomated PDF workflow,
when used with Enfocus’
other products.
Note that you can use it in
conjunction with their In-
stant PDF for QuarkX-
Press or InDesign to en-
sure that your PDFs are
perfect for your intended
output.
The Future of e-Books
If you’re producing e-
books, or thinking about
it, get Book: A Futurist’s
Manifesto, by Hugh Mc-
Guire and Brian O’Leary.
is collection of cur-
rent writings by e-book
thought leaders is a fast
way to leapfrog your brain
into thinking correct-
ly about our present and
future. For example: so-
cial networking inside e-
books? 304 pages, $24.99
from O’Reilly.
www.oreilly.com
Take Control of
iBooks Author
In Take Control of iBooks
Author, Michael E. Cohen
explains how to plan, pro-
duce, and publish multi-
touch books for the iPad
with Apple’s free iBooks
Author soware. Al-
though much of the book
discusses specific fea-
tures in iBooks Author,
the book also takes a larger
view, helping you consider
workflow and explaining
key concepts behind the
iBooks Author approach.
150 pages, $15 from Take
Control Books.
www.takecontrolbooks.com
bug fixes
Scanning and
Photoshop CS6
If you’re having trouble
using your scanner with
Photoshop CS6, you’re not
alone! Have a look at Jay
Nelson’s Macworld story
“Get your scanner to work
with Photoshop CS6” at:
www.tinyurl.com/8zrm622
e problem involves
TWAIN, 32-bit code, and
the march of time. e so-
lution involves thinking a
little bit outside the box.
Fix a Spotty Spotlight
If Spotlight isn’t finding
things you know it should,
try rebuilding Spotlight’s
index for that drive.
First, open Spotlight in
System Preferences. Click
the
Privacy tab, and then
drag the problem drive
into the window, and the
database will be immedi-
ately deleted.
en remove the drive
from the list by selecting it
and clicking the - (minus)
button.
Spotlight will then build a
new index (which can take
some time depending on
the size of your drive).
Design Tools Monthly
™
• October 2012 • Acme Printing • www.AcmePrintingUSA.com