A good, informative post over at TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) comparing low-cost vector software applications for Mac OS X by indepedent developers. The review is specifically comparing tools and techniques available in Adobe Illustrator CS3.
The comparison covers four applications: DrawBerry, EazyDraw, Lineform, and VectorDesigner. I have demoed all of these at one point or another, and found each to have their stregths and weaknesses.
Continue reading 'Mac Vector App Showdown'
by George Coghill -
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A while back I was ranting about the myriad issues I had been reading about concerning Adobe InDesign CS3 and Apple’s (then) new operating system Mac OSX 10.5 “Leopard”. I am happy to report that upon upgrading to 10.5, and using InDesign CS3, everything has been working (for the most part) just great.
Continue reading 'InDesign CS3 & Mac OSX 10.5 “Leopard”: The Good, The Bad & The Not-Too-Shabby'
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Vector graphics software application DrawIt is one of many recent entries into the indie Mac developer vector graphics software field, including LineForm DrawBerry, VectorDesigner, and EazyDraw among others. Not only has the full version been updated to version 3.3.1, but a 1.0 release of the new — and free — lite version of DrawIt is now available as well.
Continue reading 'Indie Vector Graphics App DrawIt – Free ‘Lite’ Version Now Available'
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Adobe just released an incremental update to InDesign CS3 (5.02), and it’s so new it seems to not be in the auto-update as of yet. Per the Read Me file:
 This update fixes known issues with Anchored Objects, Character Alignment, Step and Repeat, Indexing and Table of Contents, Text and Fonts, Dictionaries, Color, Scripting, Graphics Import/Export, InDesign Interchange files (INX), XML, Library files, and Printing, as well as other miscellaneous issues.Â
Continue reading 'Adobe InDesign CS3 5.02 Update Released – 10.5 Fixes On Apple’s Shoulders'
by George Coghill -
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As you may have noticed on this blog, I am a bit of a software junkie, particularly shareware/freeware. I love the ingenious functionality some of these independent developers bring to OS X, and also the direct access you have to the creators of the software.
MacHeist 2 is, as the name implies, a followup to an extremely Mac-only discount shareware software bundle promotion that debuted in the winter of 2007. Until January 23, 2008 at midnight, for $49 you can snag $370 worth of quality software. Last year’s apps were decent, this year’s apps are outstanding. My only regret is that I already own most of the apps that I would want out of the bundle! Â
Continue reading '11+ Excellent Mac OS X applications for a phenomenal price: MacHeist 2'
by George Coghill -
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I just stumbled across some more Creative Suite 3 issues on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, on the Adobe support site Photoshop page. Supposedly this will be fixed by an OS X update, not an Adobe update (and Adobe and Apple are working together on this issue).
Continue reading 'Even More CS3 & 10.5 Leopard Issues: Photoshop CS3'
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James Demsey over at design blog The Creative Mac (formerly The Creative Guy) posted some additional issues with Adobe Creative Suite 3 and Mac OS X 10.5. Seems in addition to the Open/Save/Place issues I mentioned earlier, copying vector art from InDesign to Illustrator has issues, as does hiding InDesign.
Continue reading 'More CS3 Problems On Leopard'
by George Coghill -
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I recently had the opportunity to try out a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet, having purchased one for my Dad this holiday season. Dad is not a graphics guy by any means, but I use my Wacom tablets for so much more than just drawing and graphics applications – and love it so much – that I thought the Bamboo was a perfect accessory for another ardent computer geek.
In short, the Bamboo is a great entry-level tablet for casual users, but graphic artists will want to seriously consider investing in one of the pricier, but more fully-featured Intuos3 models. Read on for full details.
Continue reading 'Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet: Nice Entry-Level Tool, But Limited'
by George Coghill -
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Yikes, just read over at MacMerc.com that one of Adobe’s guys posted a blog entry recently regarding some serious issues with InDesign, basically in all the dialog boxes. That means crashes for Save, Place, Open — doesn’t sound like something I would want to deal with. They did say this seems to be primarily with PowerPC based Macs, but that affects those of us still on a G4. These new InDesign bugs Adobe says they need Apple’s help to squash.
Continue reading 'Serious Issues With InDesign CS3 & Mac OSX 10.5'
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Just a quick post to let all you Wacom users out there know that a Wacom driver which supports compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is now available. The new version is 6.05-3.
Continue reading 'Wacom Tablet Driver for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Released'
by George Coghill -
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