Category Archives: Review

Alternatives

30 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by in Review, Technology, Thoughts

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People are very open-minded about new things
as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.
[Charles Kettering]

Logo_lineup

My first computer was a TRS-80 in 1982. It used my TV as a monitor and an audio cassette recorder to save files. Its memory was 4K. Instead of software, it came with a manual about how to program basic. In ’85 when I traded my nurse’s cap for a triangle and T-square, I only used a computer for word processing. By 1990, I was doing graphic design on a tiny Mac screen using Quark XPress and Freehand. Photos were processed and stripped in at the printers.

As output devices improved and finally reached industry standard for print media, I added Photoshop and Illustrator to my computer tools. Shortly after 2000, Quark hit a period where the software wasn’t as adaptable to printing as Adobe Indesign so I changed to Adobe Creative Suite and have used it ever since. When Adobe went to a cloud subscription arrangement, I stayed with my last purchased upgrade (6.0).

Since then, I’ve started a search for replacement software just in case the time comes when I can’t get the old Adobe software to work. The criteria for my search includes the following items as essential:

  • Be able to open and edit old files that were created in other software
  • Usable on both my iPad and Mac
  • Designed to work simply—low learning curve

Eureka! I’m so excited about the new software I found.

Concepts (by TopHatch)

I rely heavily on Illustrator for the vector art I design. Concepts is an app for the iPad (and other tablets). It has already expanded my horizons in illustration. Here is what the company says on their Website:

Concepts for iOS is a vector-based sketching tool with an infinite, whiteboard-like canvas for note takers, visual thinkers, architects, designers and illustrators. The app’s clean, customizable interface, flexible vector lines, and beautiful brushes in Copic colors encourage people to explore, create and share ideas on their iPad Pro, iPad and iPhone. Creators can sketch notes, plans and drawings in the moment, bridge their work across apps and workflows, and present and share with others wherever they go.

Cost: Download is free. In-App purchases for some features are under $20.00

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher

I’ve been using these three pieces of software on my Mac, plus Photo and Designer on my iPad for two months. They do everything I’ve ever dreamed. Affinity Photo is comparable to Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Designer is comparable to Adobe Illustrator, and Affinity Publisher is an elegant alternative to Adobe Indesign. Check out their Website (especially the price — under $50.00 each)

NOTE: I have no business or personal connection with these companies.
I simply enjoy using their software.

Vector Software

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Drawing, Review, Technology, Thoughts

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All of us show bias when it comes to what information we take in.
We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want.
[Noreena Hertz]

vector-drawing

[Note: This post is likely of little interest to anyone who doesn’t use design software, but I did want to share my experience with the few who do. I’ve had trouble finding information about real experiences with this hard and software.]

I select art supplies, computers, hardware and software based upon how each assists me to achieve what I want to achieve. I’ve used Adobe Illustrator since version 1.0 (over twenty years) but am crashing into the brick wall of my bias.

Several years ago, Adobe Systems switched their software distribution to a creative cloud plan. Instead of charging for software and shipping a disc for installation, they offer a subscription plan where the customer pays a monthly fee to use cloud computing that ties the user to Adobe servers through an internet connection. They tout this as being a less expensive and more efficient method of keeping up with the upgrades and taking advantage of a variety of publishing services. That may be true for some customers, but that does not suit my needs nor the way I work, plus I don’t want to be tethered to Adobe’s cloud. Therefore, I happily use Adobe CS6 (the last non-cloud version).

I treated myself to an Apple iPad Pro and Apple pencil for my birthday. It is my new best friend. I use it in place of a TV, and I draw on it. I looked for two types of drawing programs (pixel-based and vector) and settled on Procreate for the pixel-based software, and Autodesk Graphic for the vector-based software. My first challenge was compatibility so I could open the illustrations on my computer as well. Compatibility has been a challenge for me in one form or another since I started using a personal computer in 1982 so I knew I could figure something out.

  • Both of those iPad apps let me transfer documents to my computer by way of iTunes file sharing. My Adobe Illustrator won’t open them.
  • Then I installed Adobe Illustrator Draw on my iPad, found it usable but could only move the drawing to the creative cloud Illustrator for desktop work (unless there is something about it I don’t understand). It won’t transfer via iTunes. So I uninstalled it from my iPad.
  • I ended up purchasing Affinity Designer and the computer version of Autodesk Graphic on my Mac. Wow! I could spend the rest of my life exploring these pieces of software. Also, they open the iPad illustrations.

Now I am on a roll. I love drawing with the Apple Pencil and only need practice getting used to drawing on such a smooth surface to produce images that look like they were drawn in a sketchbook.

Apple Experiences

24 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Favorite Things, Review, Technology, Thoughts

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You can focus on things that are barriers
or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.
[Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc.]

yosemite

So here’s the deal. I’ve had one personal computer or another since 1982. Apple soon became my choice as my major tool in my graphic design business (after I gave up using a triangle, T-square and drafting table). I’ve used every operating system since the Apple II so I do not shy away from upgrading. Here is a cautionary tale in case you are anxious to upgrade soon: do wait for the patches and tweaks to come out before you forge ahead, unless you have a high tolerance for fiddling with technology.

  • iOS 8.0 and 8.1 for the iPad: I upgraded and immediately had problems with connecting with my bluetooth devices, especially my speaker. I even bought a new speaker and it exhibited the same problem. It would play for short awhile and then turn off. I searched the internet and the closest I could come to an answer is to wait until the next iOS upgrade. Meanwhile, I am using my earplugs for my audio books.
  • OS X Yosemite: This upgrade is reputed to have a number of cool features but I haven’t found them yet since I immediately encountered a fundamental problem—I couldn’t get email to send. I’ve spent three days researching the internet and finally resolved the problem. My advice, search apple support until you find Mail Settings Lookup. Then look for the instructions for using that information in your Mac Mail preferences.

The delicious Apple news is that Fort Wayne has a new Apple store (simply • mac) at Jefferson Point shopping mall.

Pinteresting

24 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Favorite Things, Other Favorite Sites, Review, Technology, Thoughts

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Mama, you should try Pinterest.
It is like receiving a new magazine every day.
[Rachel Smith]

Pinterest

I’ve had a long line of personal computers since 1982. Computers fascinate me and are now my main tool in my work. I spend hours standing in front of my Mac fiddling in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I don’t use a cell phone. Frankly, I like being out of touch. I’ve never felt pressed to answer a ringing telephone. I maintain 5 wordpress blogs and I am working on revising my website, but I am not a member of Facebook or Twitter. In other words, I try to be a gatekeeper to filter that which bombards me from the outside world. Then came Pinterest.

Of course it has been around since 2010, but didn’t reach out and grab me until now. Oddly enough, a tip for cleaning the buildup off of my gas stove grates pushed me over the edge. In addition to shiny grates, I now have an unclogged shower head and plenty of advice for training my two new puppies. The industrial design section convinces me once again that humans can create instead of destroy. The gardening section almost makes me want to pull weeds. Pinterest reminds me of the 10-inch thick dictionary on the stand in my third-grade classroom—whenever I look something up, I am in constant danger of getting completely sidetracked.

 

ArtWorks, The Galleria of Fine Art

17 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in Favorite Things, Other Favorite Sites, Review, Thoughts

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Art enables us to find ourselves and
lose ourselves at the same time.
[Thomas Merton]

ArtWorks

Last Friday was girls night out for my niece, Katherine, and me. After supper, we shopped at Jefferson Point (Fort Wayne) and then went to the opening reception for the art show, “City Blox,” at ArtWorks. I was delighted from the start since Joel Fremion’s landscapes were displayed just inside the door. His craftsmanship, his technique and his vision have fascinated me for several years. He creates fabric collages in great detail and with amazing effect (above left). Among the paintings and objets d’art of other artists were paintings by watercolorist Diana Miller-Pierce. Her crisp technique, sense of geometric balance, and eye for detail drew me into her work (above right). Eighteen artists were represented in the show making it well worth one’s time to stop in and browse this lovely gallery.

 

“There’s an app for that…”

19 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by in Favorite Things, Learning to Blog, Reading, Review, Technology, Thoughts, Writing

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One must be an inventor to read well.
There is then creative reading
as well as creative writing.
[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

iPad-apps

Since I live in relative solitude, my blog gives me a place to share things that one would normally share with a person in the same room. This is a, “You’ve just gotta see this…” post. The thought has crossed my mind that I’m likely the last to learn all of this, but I’ll share it anyhow. I’ll make bullet points of my disjointed thoughts.

  • The image is a screen shot of one of my iPad folders.
    • I’ve never seen non-Apple devices, but am confident that they have reasonable counterparts to this.
    • It is worth the effort to learn how to organize apps in folders so you can find your stuff easily on one screen.
    • The desktop image is either (a) my backyard or (b) a tourist stop near Cardiff, Wales (UK). HINT: I have no backyard.
  • About the first row of apps in the image—these are primarily text readers. iBooks reads books from the Apple store, Nook reads Barnes & Noble books, and Kindle reads Amazon books. The apps are free and many books can be obtained without cost as well. There are also sale priced books available from such sources as BookBub.
  • The second row of apps in the image—these are specialized readers. Audible (an Amazon company) is an audio book reader and not only reads books from Audible.com, but also reads non-Amazon books from iTunes. Overdrive accesses the local public library. Using my library card, I check out both text and audio books using Overdrive. GoodReader could also be called Knitter’sHelper. I use this for my PDF knitting patterns because it allows me to easily mark my place and make notes.
  • The third row shows apps from Blackstone. These audio books are well produced and are now available with a built-in player as apps—one book per app. I bought these in the App Store for reasonable prices. There are many choices. One of my favorite mystery writers is Louise Penny. Her books, set in Quebec, present characters in such depth and with such sensitivity, that they make me want to jump into my little roadster and drive to Canada in search of imaginary friends.

Grief Helps: a labor of joy

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Review, Thoughts, Writing

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It’s the great mystery of human life that
old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.
[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]

Grief Helps blogIt has been my good fortune that I have been able to spend my working life doing what I enjoy. My career has not only been fun, but it has also been enlightening, enriching and rewarding. Most of that is due to my clients. As an independent designer, every project I finish puts me out of a job. Fortunately, projects have materialized in adequate supply for the past twenty-eight years. This post is about one of my favorites.

I’ve produced print publications, electronic publications, and web-site work for Willowgreen, Inc., a publishing company, for over a decade. This company specializes in inspirational materials to help with illness, caregiving, transitions, and grief. Two of the greatest assets with Willowgreen offerings are Jim Miller’s writing skill and his magnificent photography. Recently, his publications have focused on helping folks who are experiencing grief.

Today, Jim will release a new blog called Grief Helps. It is designed especially for grieving individuals and families. It is simple to navigate, easy to read, and beautiful to view. Jim writes:

Grief Helps includes only fresh resources that are found nowhere else. Only Willowgreen’s own resources—not a copy of anyone else’s work. And the new blog provides an unusually wide variety of resources, unlike what you’ll find on any other blog: lovely mini-videos, bright mini-books, and meaningful PhotoThoughts, all absolutely free. In addition there are the more customary posts you’ve come to expect on blogs everywhere. A section also is provided for individuals to share with others their own “grief helps”—acts or practices or approaches that have assisted them personally on their journey through loss.

Working on Grief Helps has been such a healing experience for me that I wanted to share it with you.

I love these apps

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Favorite Things, Other Favorite Sites, Review, Technology

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Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
[Arthur C. Clarke]

My first criteria for a good app is, it is simple. I’m a graphic designer and not a computer scientist. I look for apps that behave themselves (they work without bugs), and apps that are intuitive to use (they have a small learning curve). I spend my main self-education time keeping myself up to speed with my major software tools. I want my smaller apps to be more like a manual screwdriver than an electric drill with multiple bits. These two apps fit the criteria and are affordable.

CalculatorMyScript© Calculator is magic for sure. It was free! How does Vision Objects© do that? Also it works well and is fun to use. Write numerals and function symbols (+, -, =, etc.) with a finger on a touchscreen and then watch your writing change into real equations with the correct answer. It even charmed my five-year old grandson. When I used it in a knitting class to help people figure their stitches and rows from their gauge, it was fast and accurate. Some students even downloaded the app for their smart phones during class.

TaskTimerDesktop Task Timer by Erik Asmussen is also a winner in my book. I track my design time for billing purposes. In the past 30 years, I have tried using a number of methods to accurately record time and translate it in to an invoice. This app ($0.99) is the best I’ve found so far. I’ve even started tracking my non-chargeable tasks just out of curiosity.

Drum roll please . . .

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Knitting, Review, Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

Win as if you were used to it,
lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

I just mailed the new book to Caitlin in Minnesota, the winner of the drawing. However, I want the rest of you folks to win something too so I’m emailing a PDF file to each of you. It is my newest pattern that I developed for a workshop here in Fort Wayne. It is written for any size yarn, needles and feet. It is also written for both magic loop and a 5-needle sock set. Three of the folks who commented are among the only 14 knitters who have seen this pattern so I’ll dream up something different for you.

Thanks so much to everyone for playing along.

The Sock Knitter’s Handbook

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Knitting, Review

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All things are difficult before they are easy.
[Thomas Fuller]

I took this book to a sock-knitting class, and the seven class members insisted that they each had to have a copy for reference to carry with them. I listened to their excited discussion about what they liked best about the book. Here’s a partial list:

  • The photos are so clear and easy to understand
  • The binding allows the book to lie open easily
  • There are so many variations to choose from
  • The charts and diagrams are useful
  • The stitch samples stimulate sock design ideas
  • The book size is easy to handle and carry . . .

The Sock Knitter’s Handbook, Expert Advice, Tips, & Tricks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott was published this year (2012) by Martingale and Company. At first glance, this book seems quite simple, but simple usually requires more thought, organization and effort to produce well than something lengthy and wordy. This handbook hints at that underlying effort which has made it very useful.

The authors introduce color-coded photos for parts of socks in the “Sock Architecture” chapter then proceed through the various sections using the color coding to present a number of ways to knit each part of a sock. They also present charts for such information as yarn yardage and foot measurements. Diagrams show how to execute specific stitch techniques, and a stitch dictionary presents a variety of decorative ideas for jazzing up a sock.

Since my day job is working as a graphic artist in publication design, the first thing I notice about a book is its production features. Not only does this book have a pleasing page design that enhances its message, but its binding and paper choices make it user friendly. Since I also design knitting patterns and I want to avoid being influenced by other people’s designs, I must confess that I rarely look at knitting pattern books or magazines. I’m delighted I had a reason to review this one. It will go directly into my knitting bag for future use.

Book Giveaway Contest

Ms Schurch sent me an extra copy of this book to give away in a contest. In one week, I will collect the names from the comments to this post and have a drawing. Then I will email the winner for a mailing address and send the lucky knitter the new book. So, do enter the contest by leaving a comment.