CDPUG BlogSphere

Carolyn Lewis, CDPUG Member and recent panelist at the January Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group (CDPUG) program “Best Business Practices for the Creative Professional: How To Be A Mega Success Story,” is on a bike trip from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. As an avid biker and the designer of the printed map of the Ohio to Erie bike trail, Carolyn is going Extremely Mobile in doing  research for her graphic design project.

Follow Carolyn and her husband’s journey day by day in their “IGotABike” blog. There’s a place to sign up for email notifications.

And, CDPUG has an exclusive; Carolyn is scheduled to share a remote 5 minute presentation about her trip at the “The 9th Annual CDPUG Showcase” on Thursday, May 30th. Don’t miss Carolyn’s current Mega Success Story!

“Take Control of PDFpen 6″ explains PDFpen for Mac and iOS

Have you ever had wanted to fill out and sign a PDF-based form without printing it and faxing it back? Or wanted to change the date on a PDF-based flyer? Needed to give feedback on a PDF, but stumbled around trying to insert comments and proofreading marks? Wished you could perform optical character recognition on a scanned document so you could revise the text right in the PDF? For such tasks, we generally turn to Smile’s PDFpen, which can perform most common PDF manipulations more easily than Adobe Acrobat Pro, and at a fraction of the price. (You can learn more about PDFpen at http://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/ and read on to learn how to save 20% on its purchase).

As massively useful as PDFpen is, working with PDFs – regardless of the app – can be complex, which is why we’re happy to throw a clarifying light on the topic with our latest title, “Take Control of PDFpen 6.” Written by Michael E. Cohen, who was first briefed by Adobe about the technology before it was even called PDF, the 177-page ebook explains precisely what you can do with PDFpen 6 and its big brother, PDFpenPro 6, plus Smile’s mobile versions, PDFpen for iPad and PDFpen for iPhone. “Take Control of PDFpen 6″ normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link below.

http://tid.bl.it/tco-pdfpen6-mug-discount

After a whirlwind history and overview of the PDF format sets you on the right track, Michael walks you through PDFpen’s tools and navigation, along with the many ways you can create a PDF from within the program. You’ll learn how to take notes on a PDF, copyedit and comment on a PDF, fill out PDF forms (complete with your signature!), add and remove pages, and edit text and graphics in a PDF. You’ll even find out how export a PDF to a formatted Microsoft Word document. For PDFpenPro users, Michael explains how to create an interactive PDF form and get the user-submitted data back via email or the Web, plus how to control whether a PDF can be printed, modified, annotated, and more. An appendix describes the many useful AppleScripts that ship with PDFpen.

Specific things you’ll learn include how to:

* Figure out whether to buy PDFpen or PDFpenPro, and what features you do (or do not) get depending on if you buy from Smile or from the Mac App Store.

* Scan a document to PDF and make the text editable with OCR.

* Use professional editing marks and add comments.

* Combine pages from multiple files into a single PDF.

* Fill out a PDF form with ease.

* Remove sensitive or confidential text from a PDF.

* Add a signature to a PDF – and store it in PDFpen’s Library for future use.

* Add page and URL links to a PDF.

* Use (or turn off) OS X’s Auto Save and Version features.

* Turn a Web site into a multi-page PDF (PDFpenPro only).

* Make a clickable table of contents for a PDF (PDFpenPro only).

* Store PDFs in iCloud for access from any of your Apple devices (Mac App Store versions only).

* Go mobile with PDFpen for iPad and PDFpen for iPhone, with a special focus on moving PDFs in and out of PDFpen—Michael describes several approaches, including iCloud, iTunes, Dropbox, and Open In.

We created this ebook in collaboration with Smile and worked with PDFpen’s developers during the tech edit process to ensure that the book is accurate.

Note that members of Take Control’s sister publication, TidBITS, can save 20% on all Smile products purchased through the Smile cart. To learn about joining TidBITS, visit http://tidbits.com/member_benefits.html. To access the coupon code, make sure you’ve logged in and visit http://tidbits.com/your_benefits.html.

cheers… -Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers

Here are a bunch of local Green Sites relating to our Sustainable Graphic Design Program on Thursday, April 25th.

Ecowatch. Cutting Edge Environmental News Service. Located in Temont

www.ecowatch.com

The World’s First Kinetic Charger for Hand-Held Devices. Also located in Tremont.

http://www.npowerpeg.com

Cleveland is on the forefront of sustainability and has big summit every year

http://sustainablecleveland.org

Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium

http://vibrantneo.org/workshops/

Green Eco-Friendly Biodegrable products. Located in Highland Heights

http://greenpaperproducts.com

Susie Frazier is an environmental artist and designer who works with organic patterns from the earth to develop fine art, functional art, and public art.

 http://www.susiefrazierart.com

Cosmic Bobbins is a lifestyles brand fashioned at the crossroads of business and social good. Through a ground floor recycling initiative, Cosmic Bobbins upcycles materials that might otherwise be considered waste and turns them into one-of-a-kind accessories, while creating meaningful, fair-trade employment in underserved populations.

https://www.facebook.com/cosmicbobbins

Video Course Review

“Freelancing Fundamentals” with Tom Geller. Video Course Review

In this video course offered through http://www.lynda.com, Tom Geller explains how to transition into freelancing, no matter what field you are in. In a sincere and thorough manner, he presents a comprehensive overview of how to start off on the right foot, with additional hard-earned tips based on his own experience as a freelance writer.

He begins by explaining how freelancing is different from employment, both legally and personally. He leads you through the basics of how to marshal your creative, financial, and networking resources. Other topics covered include interacting with clients, managing your time and projects, sharpening your market focus, and staying motivated. He provides guidance and optional worksheets in areas like developing your own career goals. Just as I was finishing the course, a new, bonus chapter was added that addresses “FAQs” that freelancers often have when entering the field.

While I was disappointed that this video did not get specific about my own field, he did an excellent job of providing an overview of areas common to all freelancers. When he couldn’t go into depth, he often recommended other courses or links so you could explore more on your own.

I would recommend this video course to those who are contemplating the leap into freelancing because it provides a logical overview of the issues you should consider in preparation for your transition without a lot of cheerleading hype often found in other self-help courses.

 Karen Jewell-Kett is an experienced graphic designer who is transitioning from employment to freelancing. She specializes in education, corporate, service, and non-profit markets. Karen is also listed in the CDPUG Services Directory and even manages the CDPUG Services Directory.

Book Review

“Talent is Not Enough: Business Secrets for Designers, Second Edition.” (New Riders, 2010)

by Shel Perkins

It takes more than talent to be a successful graphic designer, insists author Shel Perkins in this book that details the often forgotten side of the profession—the “internal, operational issues” that can turn artistic success into business success.

In a clear, surprisingly readable style, the author organizes topics in the order in which he figures they would arise in the course of a designer’s career. Each chapter builds on the previous one, but you can also dive in and read a chapter on its own as an excellent quick reference.

Beginners in the field as well as seasoned professionals—from independent design contractors to small and large design firms—all will find useful encyclopedic information presented in up-to-date detail. Mr. Perkins covers forms of business organization, contracts, legal issues, taxes, rates, project management, bookkeeping, and cash flow management as well as how to determine profit and loss and much more. Helpful charts and diagrams explain some of the more technical concepts. It’s not surprising that this book has been used as a text book in some college design programs. It’s like having an expert advisor sit down and explain it all to you. The only quibble I can find with the book in print form is its tiny typeface.

I highly recommend “Talent is Not Enough” to graphic designers at all stages of their careers. It’s an eye-opening, in-depth look at what it really takes to succeed in the business side of graphic design. I’m going to add this book to my personal library.

Reviewed by Karen Jewell-Kett.

Karen is is listed in the CDPUG Services Directory and also the Manager of the CDPUG Services Directory.