Upcoming Workshops Jan. 9 and 10, and One Space for 12/13

photographs © Andrew Darlow

I’ve been conducting full-day inkjet printing/color management workshops over the past six months in Berkley Heights, NJ. The space where they are held is excellent, and the small class size of no more than five students helps make it easy for people to ask questions. Below is the press release for two full-day workshops that I’m giving January 9 and 10, 2008. Also, there is one space available for the same workshop this Sat. October 13 from 10:00am-5:00pm.

BERKLEY HEIGHTS, NJ, December 10, 2008 – New Jersey Media Center LLC will host two separate full-day workshops, entitled Fine-Art Inkjet Printing: How to Prepare Files and Make Gallery-Quality Prints on Friday, January 9, 2009 and Saturday, January 10, 2009 from 10:00am-5:00pm. The workshops, held at Nancy Ori Studios in Berkley Heights, NJ and conducted by photographer and consultant Andrew Darlow, are designed for professional and amateur photographers, as well as other artists.

The workshops, each limited to just five participants, will cover the following: an overview of pro-quality printers from Canon, Epson and HP; a description of more than 20 recommended inkjet papers (including glossy, fiber gloss, and watercolor); color management hardware and software options (including a demonstration of how to make custom monitor and printer profiles); and tips for optimizing workflow and print quality with specific papers and printers in Adobe Lightroom 2, Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4, and other programs.

Selected prints output from Canon, Epson and HP printers will be demonstrated and discussed, and each attendee will have at least two prints made of their work on a pigment-based inkjet printer (13-inch-wide Epson and HP printers will be used). Participants will receive more than 30 letter-sized blank sheets of high-end inkjet papers for testing, and a class binder detailing the contents of the presentation, as well as the step-by-step print workflow covered in the workshop will be provided to each participant. Each attendee will also receive a 30 minute private phone follow-up consultation with Andrew Darlow. Continue reading

Take Control E-Books 50% Off Sale Ends Tuesday 10/14/2008

I just received my weekly TidBITS e-mail in my in-box with this announcement. TidBITS is a great newsletter published by TidBITS Publishing Inc. I’ve purchased a few of the Take Control e-books over the years and I’ve listened to many of the authors discuss their e-books on one of my favorite Podcasts: MacVoices with Chuck Joiner.

The company is having a 50% off sale until end of day on 10/14/2008, which is a great value since many of the books are in the $10-15 range to begin with. There are currently 58 Take Control e-books on a wide range of Mac-related subjects, and according to the post by Adam Engst that describes their 5th Anniversary sale, some of the most popular titles to date have been Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Mac OS X Backups,” and Glenn Fleishman’s books on AirPort networking. I’ve read Adam Engst’s and Glenn Fleishman’s Wireless Networking Starter Kit and consider it an incredibly well-written and researched book (it is a printed book).

Of course, technology changes fast, so publishing books as e-books has helped TidBITS make many titles possible that may not have been possible had they been published in printed form. Plus, the Take Control authors will often update their books and make the updated PDFs available at no charge, which is a great bonus for those who buy the e-books.

You can find out more about the 50% off sale Take Control e-books on the TidBITS site here. The direct link with the coupon code can be found on that page about four lines into the article.

How to make your handwriting into a font

I was just listening to TMUPLive (Typical Mac User Live) with the show’s host Victor Cajiao and his guest Chris Christensen. During the show, Victor and Chris discuss some very interesting history about Apple Computer in the 1990’s. After I read the show notes on TypicalMacUser.com, I checked out Chris Christensen’s personal blog, https://chris2x.com, and decided to read his earliest posts from February 2004.

I then came across Chris Christensen’s article about a piece of software called Fontifier. This software allows you to download a chart, which you fill out and scan. The software then creates a font from the characters. I think this is extremely cool, and I’m looking forward to trying it out. You can preview the font you create for free, and the cost to buy the font, if you want to keep it, is $9. You can see Chris’ article and his personal font here. And you can check out and try Fontifier here.

Chris Christensen has a fantastic podcast and blog called The Amateur Traveler. It features Chris’ stories, photos and video, and he also interviews people who talk about destinations all around the world. The audio is offered in mp3, as well as enhanced versions in AAC format, which includes images. A few months ago, I was a guest on the show and shared a number of travel photo tips. You can find the episode here.