Rufus Deuchler | Travelogue

A new version of kuler desktop is now available and it allows users to import kuler themes directly into three CS3 applications: Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop (instead of having to save a Swatch Exchange to the desktop first).

Just as a reminder, kuler is a web-hosted application for exploring, creating and sharing color harmonies. And, as I always say in my seminars, it's great source for downloading color themes. But what is even more interesting is that you can upload your own! And maybe, one day, your color scheme will be top of the list. Go create!

This version is also a great example of the integration that is possible between Adobe AIR and the Adobe Creative Suite, using SwitchBoard. For the more nerdy among us, SwitchBoard, which is available on Adobe Labs, allows AIR applications to communicate with CS applications via an ActionScript API (application program interface). Using the API you can send ExtendScript commands directly to the Creative Suite applications that support the ExtendScript Library. Cool stuff! The possibilities for developers are infinite.

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tim Cole and I felt an urgent need to do this Public Service Announcement at Caffè Fibonacci on Adobe TV. The "Stupid PDF Syndrome" is an affliction that affects millions of PDF files each and every day. Here's how you can help.

View the movie on Adobe TV by following this link.

Continue reading "Your help needed to cure the "Stupid PDF Syndrome"" »

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Greg and yours truly will be touring Scandinavia in May to show you how to best use Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium in your creative workflows and production. We will be focusing on InDesign as a hub for putting together your assets, but we'll also touch Photoshop Extended, and Illustrator. During the three hours of our presentation, we’ll be looking at the possibilities these applications can offer and demonstrate their tight integration. We'll be going over each application and also explore some workflow integration with Adobe InCopy. With Greg, we'll also show how to best prepare your documents for XHTML export, and then rapidly edit the CSS in Dreamweaver to publish content on the web.

Continue reading "Touring Scandinavia like Vikings on their longships" »

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is a very good day! Both the Adobe Media Player and Adobe TV have been launched.
In January, Tim Cole and yours truly went on a secret mission somewhere in Texas. We could not talk about it then, but now I can say that we have been recording our initial episodes there. We chose to call our show Caffè Fibonacci for several reasons: mainly it's a pretty cool and exotic name, and second you can actually use the Fibonacci numbers to build some amazing grids for your layouts. The kitchen backdrop is a tribute to Tim's love for cooking (hence the kitchen), and the Tuscan countryside was put in to not make me feel too far from home.
The description of our show is: "Welcome to Caffè Fibonacci, where Tim Cole and Rufus Deuchler share their favorite recipes and productivity enhancing tips and tricks for cooking creatively with Adobe Creative Suite". [Watch it here]

Continue reading "Caffè Fibonacci now open on Adobe TV" »

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the end of April, beginning of May, Adobe Italy has organized a tour to show what it truly means to work within the Adobe Creative Workflow. We'll be touching Turin*, Arese*, Verona, Florence*, Venice, and Rome (I will personally present at the shows marked with *).
And, since these events will be in italian I will continue the description in the language of Dante.

Adobe Italia sta organizzando un tour per mostrarvi che cosa significa lavorare nel flusso di lavoro Adobe. Il tour passa da Torino (22/4)*, Arese (23/4)*, Verona (29/4), Firenze (6/5)*, Venezia (10/5), e Roma (14/5). Sarò personalmente presente nelle città indicate da un asterisco.

Continue reading "CS3 Tour in Italy. Mamma mia!" »

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adobe needs your feedback on different options for font installation behavior in the Creative Suite and many of its component applications. Thomas Phinney's (Adobe's Product Manager for Fonts & Global Typography) blog post with background info is here, and the survey (which literally takes 2 minutes to complete) is here.
I personally completed the survey and it asked some very important questions as far as font installation and how conflicts with already installed fonts is concerned. If you are a type geek like me and enjoy having total control of your typographic assets, then tell Thomas how you feel about it.
Yours truly.

Posted by Rufus Deuchler at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)