InDesign's Separations Preview

Have you discovered InDesign's Separations Preview? Adobe's InDesign is the page layout program I prefer. It does so much ... and I'm still discovering many of the things it does. One such discovery I'd like to share with you is the Separations Preview. Do you like to use non-printing items, but wish you could turn them off in order make sure you've made all of your non-printing items non-printing? Or perhaps you need to make sure all of your text is 100% black and not a mixture of C, M, Y & K. At my shop, choosing "print as grayscale" in the print dialog box does not print as dark a black as when I make sure everything on the page is black or grayscale and send it composite. So, I often need to make sure everything is only on the black channel. This is what makes the Separations Preview so invaluable. Found under Window and then Output, the Separations Preview allows you to see the document as the printer sees it. When you choose "View: Separations", the first thing that happens is all of the non-printed items disappear. Then, you can turn off the separations you desire (like in Photoshop's channels pallet) and watch the colors disappear. To make sure everything on the page is on the black channel, click the eye next to Black and make sure everything on the page disappears. Hopefully, you will find the Separations Preview as helpful as I have.

Creating Grayscale PDFs

It's very frustrating that there is no easy way to create a grayscale .pdf file. You can print in grayscale; why can't you create a grayscale .pdf? Anyway, for those times when you need to send a client a grayscale .pdf, there are steps you can take to make your color .pdf grayscale.

You'll need Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Distiller.

Open your .pdf in Acrobat and choose Save As. Change the format to PostScript and click on Settings. Under Output, change Color to Composite Gray. Save the .ps file and then drop it into Distiller to remake the .pdf. Voila, a grayscale .pdf.

Ye Ole Version of Illustrator

During my work as a graphic designer, I have occasionally encountered this error when trying to open an .eps in Illustrator:

Can't open the illustration. The file was generated by a newer version of Illustrator and can not be opened. Please resave it in a format compatible with your version of Illustrator.

There are two things wrong with this message. 1) Cannot is one word (not two) and 2) the message assumes I have access to multiple versions of Illustrator, giving me the ability to open the illustration in a newer version of Illustrator. The question I have concerning that second part is, "If I have both an old and a new version of Illustrator, why would I be still using the old version?" But, I digress.

The reason why I'm writing this blog is because there is a way around this version-compatibility problem if you're using a Mac. Preview has the ability to open any postscript file (.eps files included). Opening the pesky .eps file in Preview will then give you the ability to save the file as a .pdf. Throw the .pdf into your older version of Illustrator and voila! Opened file. There may be some formatting issues, but beggars can't be choosers, can they?

Happy illustrating.

Mary Jane's Gourmet Dairy-free Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream

Mary Jane and I are both lactose intolerant. Mary Jane is so much so that she cannot have ice cream, even with medicine. There are a few dairy-free ice cream options in our grocer's freezer, but not very many, and they're not Mary Jane's favorite. Because of this, we were given an ice cream freezer with the intention of making dairy-free ice cream at home. We were very surprised to find very few truly dairy-free ice cream recipes online, and most of them involve tofu. Yuck. The first summer we attempted to come up with our own dairy-free ice cream recipe, the consistency of the ice cream was very runny and it pretty much became a rock during storage in the refrigerator freezer. This summer, however, Mary Jane hit the jackpot! Introducing Mary Jane's Gourmet Dairy-free Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream:

5 eggs
1 16 oz. container of Coffee Mate peppermint mocha coffee creamer
green food coloring

Beat eggs together until smooth. Heat creamer on stove over medium heat until it coats the spoon. Add creamer to eggs slowly (to keep from cooking the eggs with the heated creamer). Return mixture to stove until mixture coats the spoon. Add a couple drops of green food coloring. Freeze in ice cream freezer, following your ice cream freezer's directions.

We were pleasantly surprised at how smooth this recipe is. We have now made it twice and have had good luck with it both times. Because our other recipes had been more runny, the ice cream freezer never stopped and we had to stop it ourselves. We also stopped the ice cream freezer prematurely the first time we made this new recipe because of this. It was a little runny when we ate some right out of the ice cream freezer, but what we put in the refrigerator freezer and ate later was as smooth and solid as commercial brand ice cream. The second time, we let the ice cream freezer run until it stopped itself and the ice cream was fairly solid right away (as solid as homemade ice cream ever is). We also added white chocolate chips and marshmallows for fun.

Theoretically, any flavored creamer will yield the same good consistency. You could also add a little sugar to taste, but I preferred the second batch when no extra sugar was added (the creamer is already sweet).

Homemade ice cream always helps make summer a little better, in my opinion. I hope you enjoy this dairy-free option.

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

One of my passions is Javascript. I am a programmer at heart. My father before me. We always had a computer at the house when I was a kid and I picked up a BASIC manual earlier than I can remember and began throwing together small "programs." When Dad brought home Visual BASIC, I really went to town. Then, I began examining HTML and creating my own Web pages. A few years ago, I started dabbling in Javascript. Now, I can't get enough. My two main projects which taught me most of what I know about Javascript and DHTML were small helper programs I wrote to go along with two Facebook apps: Heroes and PackRat. These programs garnered me a little fame, but mostly, they were great learning experiences -- teachers, if you will. As many times as I scoured the Web in search of scripts which would do what I wanted or close to it in order to to teach me how to do it, it would be a great token of karma to turn around and make my knowledge available to others. So, here is a little lesson...

Hare today, gone tomorrow.

Anyone who has worked much with any Adobe product or other similar design software is familiar with layers. Layers act like pieces of glass stacked one on top of the next. Each layer can contain a piece of art. It can be moved around or removed all together and it has very little (if any) effect on the others layers above and below. DHTML has layers, too, sort of. They are specified with the DIV tag. Starting with <div> and ending with </div>, everything in between is on what I like to think of as a layer. When given enough instruction, these DIV layers can move around and be turned off and on just like a layer in Photoshop or Illustrator. For instance, within the BODY tags of an HTML file, we could find this:

<div id="one">Layer 1</div>
<div id="two">Layer 2</div>
<div id="three">Layer 3</div>

If the HTML file were viewed, it would like something like this:

Layer 1
Layer 2
Layer 3

Let's say we want to make Layer 2 invisible. We don't want to delete the information, we just want to hide it. By adding style="display:none" to the DIV tag, the layer disappears:

<div id="two" style="display:none">Layer 2</div>

So, the HTML file, when viewed, would now look something like this:

Layer 1
Layer 3

The information on "two" still exists in the HTML file; the browser just hides the layer, making it look as though it is no longer there. But, what if you want the layer to be visible at the click of a button? Well, what we have to do, then, is to show the layer by making it visible again. This, we accomplish with Javascript. The first thing we have to notice is that I have already assigned IDs to the layers. "One," "two," and "three" distinguish each layer from each other. What we want to do is to change the style of "two" from "none" to "block," making it visible. So, within Javascript tags in the HEAD, we add this:

function showLayer(whichLayer) {
document.getElementById(whichLayer).style.display="block";
}

Then, we create a "link" somewhere on the page which activates the Javascript:

<a href="#" onclick="showLayer('two')">Show Layer 2</a>

There are a few things you should notice about the Javascript function and the "link." First of all, notice that nowhere in the function does the word "two" appear. Instead, what I have created is a function which could show any layer specified within a "link," instead of just "two." It uses "whichLayer" to pass which layer from the "link" to the line which actually makes a layer visible. So, then notice the "link." The link passes the variable "two" to the function, letting the function know that the you want to make a change to that layer and not another. If you changed the "two" to "one," the function would attempt to show "one." "One" is already visible, however, so nothing would happen. However, if style="display:none" was added the DIV tag for "one," passing "one" to the function would then make an invisible "one" visible. One last thing to notice about the "link:" There is no URL specified. Instead, "#" is used. This is a way to keep the browser from changing pages, and, instead, only activating the Javascript function.

Using a combination of DIV tag specification and variable passing through "links," lots of changes can go on where "layers" are concerned. So, that's a very brief (and hopefully understandable) explaination of DIV layers. They're part of the backbone to real DHTML design.

Jones Family Reunion

Today, the first of the three families arrives for our Jones family reunion. Mary Jane's brother, Jeremy, and his wife and child, Nelda and Andrea, have driven in from Texas. Mary Jane's sister, Amy, her husband, Tod, and children, Elliott and Emily, fly down from Vermont on Thursday. Mary Jane's other brother and his wife, Dan and Laura, are driving down from Washington, D.C., at the end of the week and will get here on Thursday, probably. They have six: Laurel, Elaina, Selena, Lydia, Marielle and brand new Nathanial. On Saturday, we're driving over to Panama City for the big Jones family reunion, with all of Dad's family. This will be the first time all of us kids and grandkids are together with Mom and Dad in almost 10 years. And we've never all been to a big Jones family reunion together. It should be a lot of fun.

On a completely different topic, I have given my two weeks notice at my current job and start a new job on the 13th. My soon-to-be new employer actually offered me this job before I started working where I work now. However, they had to take it back, as the person who was leaving decided to stay. Well, the person is leaving for real and they called me to see if I was still interested. The compensation is better and the location is more convenient, so I have taken the new post. I will be working in graphic design (still) on print projects, signs and vehicle graphics. It's sort of combination between my first two jobs.

I am coming to the end of The Stand, by Stephen King. I have been listening to it for some time. It is better than I had thought, and I have high expectations for all Stephen King books. He is -- by far -- my favorite author. He has such a way of writing that completely captivates me and makes me want to write. I'll try to remember to let you know if it ends well.

You've got to start somewhere

Mary Jane, my ever-lovin' wife, has decided to start a blog. Being as scared of all things technical as she is, she asked me to familiarize myself with Blogger in order to teach her how to use the Web site. Back when I MySpaced, I used to blog quite regularly. Facebook, on the other hand, does not have such a system and I did not continue the task. So, here I am, starting a blog again. We'll see where it leads.

Something I think I'll catalog is our remodel process. After moving to Florida and deciding that living with the in-laws is not "all bad," we (the four of us: Mom Jones, Dad Jones, Mary Jane and I) have decided to enlarge the house in order to accommodate us all more easily so that we can continue to cohabitate. The house currently includes a single-car garage which contains a sofa, a golf cart, and lots of junk. Behind that is a fairly large laundry room with some cabinets for storage. We're going to take that space and turn it into a new entry, a nice-sized office and a dining room. The current dining room will be absorbed into the kitchen, doubling its size, and a new addition will be added to the rear of the house, consisting of a master suite and new laundry room. We also hope to add a covered car port onto the end of the addition and a screened in porch beside it. We'll have to see if the funds are available. So, the process is complete thus far: We have drawn up the plans and given them to the group of fellas who will do the work. They are working on drawing up the plans officially and pricing the portions in order to let us know how much we'll be able to complete and, perhaps, how we can complete it all in stages. I was advised this morning that we should be having a meeting some time this week with them. So, that's where we are so far with that.