Specifications

12
Design Tools Monthly
™
is published by The Nelson
Group, Inc. Its purpose is:
1) to summarize all the
news in graphic design
technologies; and
2) to be a designer’s index
to trade publications
and websites.
Information is collected from
graphic design and prepress
trade publications, websites,
tech notes, press releases,
and user reports.
Editor: Jay J. Nelson
Contributors: Jeff Gamet,
Erica Gamet, Lesa Snider,
Chris Murphy, Lynette Kent,
Rob Barnes, Howard Goldstein,
J. Charles Holt, Melissa Holt
The price of a one-year, 10-
issue, mailed subscription,
including access to our Web
page containing handpicked
updates, shareware and free-
ware for graphic designers, is
$229 worldwide. ($129 for
freelancers, teachers and stu-
dents).
We also offer a $199 world-
wide subscription that does
not include mailed copies;
instead, all issues are down-
loaded from our website.
($99 for freelancers, teachers
and students).
Please address all inquiries
or comments to:
Design Tools Monthly
™
766 Quince Circle
Boulder, CO 80304
phone: [phone]
fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.design-tools.com
©2012 The Nelson Group,
Inc. All rights reserved. No
part of this publication may
be repro duced in any form
without prior written consent.
Printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink.
Monthly
TM
upgRades
GIMP Now Native
for OS X
GIMP is a free, open-
source image editor with
features that rival Photo-
shop in common uses. e
latest version, 2.8.2, now
runs natively on Mac OS
X (previous versions re-
quired installing the X11
windowing system). We
encourage our readers to
give it a look and to get
e Artist’s Guide to Gimp,
by Michael J. Hammel
from No Starch Press.
www.gimp.org
TypeStyler 11 Reviewed
Jay Nelson reviewed
TypeStyler 11 in Macworld.
At its new, lower $60 price
(formerly $180!), it’s a
steal. Not only can you
stretch and bend text for
logos, headlines, and oth-
er creative uses, you can
also easily wrap any im-
age around basic pack-
age shapes such as a bot-
tle, can, or box. en you
can rotate that item in 3D
space and take snapshots
for your clients.
Version 11 adds Grunge Ef-
fects to make aged, dis-
tressed, and weathered vin-
tage graphics. Read more at
www.tinyurl.com/94xp6k5.
www.typestyler.com
Font Auto-Activation
Plug-in for Adobe
Photoshop CS6
Suitcase Fusion 4 now has
an auto-activation plug-in
for Photoshop CS6. To get
it, choose
Suitcase Fusion
4> Check for Updates
(Mac)
or
Tools> Check for Updates
(Windows). en down-
load and install the update.
Affordable Photoshop
If you, your family mem-
bers, or your friends don’t
have the full version of
Photoshop, check out Pho-
toshop Elements ($90). It’s
a powerful image editor
that uses the same engine
as Photoshop, but with a
simpler interface.
Version 11 was just re-
leased, with a new, even
friendlier interface than
before. A new “Guid-
ed Mode” walks users
through common edits,
and Adobe has included
new high-end effects such
as Vignette and Tilt-Shi.
New filters include Pen
and Ink, Graphic Novel,
and Comic.
Read about it in Lesa Snid-
er’s Macworld review at
www.tinyurl.com/98rfawx.
pdfToolbox 6
Callas Soware’s pdfTool-
box 6 (€499) is a stand-
alone PDF manipula-
tion tool with produc-
tion-strength features. e
built-in preflighting in-
cludes several PDF/X stan-
dards, which are based on
Ghent PDF Workgroup
1v4 specifications.
e application includes
controls for replacing and
converting fonts to vector
outlines, completely em-
bedding fonts, and sub-
setting, which reduces the
size of the final PDF. Com-
pression methods of imag-
es can be manipulated in
the existing PDF file using
the built-in image recom-
pression tools.
Color conversion is also
built in, including con-
verting RGB from within
Microso Office–created
PDFs to printable CMYK
and spot color handling.
e new version adds sup-
port for automating ac-
tions such as preflight-
ing and imposition by us-
ing a PDF profile, color re-
mapping, and the ability
to build secure PDFs with
password protection.
www.callassoftware.com
Deliver Express
Zevrix’s file-sharing and
delivery application, De-
liver Express, has been up-
dated to version 2.3.1 for
Mountain Lion compati-
bility. e soware watch-
es user-defined hot folders
and automates deliveries of
files placed within. ese
files can be sent internally
or externally (even to mul-
tiple locations at once) us-
ing F TP, SF TP, WebDAV,
Amazon S3, and more.
Files are automatical-
ly compressed for send-
ing, and users can get a
detailed delivery history.
Pricing ranges from $30
for a basic package with up
to 15 destinations to $300
for an unlimited enterprise
license.
www.zevrix.com
Design Tools Monthly
™
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