-
Along with its Raster Editor and Page Layout CS5 suite-mates, Photoshop and InDesign, Illustrator (version 15) has a mature appetite for system resources. The application is much speedier than previous iterations, especially on 64-bit systems, but that savings can be blunted with the increased resource...
-
...Just When Did You Buy that Video Card? Adobe continues to raise the bar with its flagship image editor. Photoshop CS5's new features include a number of new and updated tools that open up possibilities for image editing that, just a few years ago, would have seemed at home in a science fiction...
-
It’s the Little Things that Just Might Make a Big Difference Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office suite is back in a free public beta, available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx . PowerPoint 14 continues to evolve, and this version, although it does not include...
-
Formatting an HTML email for printing can provide an interesting challenge in Outlook 2010. HTML nominally formats to fit the width of the display device. There is a significant disparity between the size of a printed page and an open email on a 1280 pixel wide display. The pictures and text in the screen...
-
Microsoft made a significant change in how charts are handled in Outlook 2010. Charting in Outlook 2007 saved the charts as an image on completion. This did not allow for any changes to the structure or data of the chart beyond the picture formatting controls. Outlook 2010 maintains the embedded connection...
-
Excel in the Beta and RC1 releases has been stable and very functional. One major issue that we have encountered is the distortion in the column size between Normal and Page Layout views. The Excel 2010 ATS IF file EX4TH1C3.xlsx uses absolute measurements to help printer manufacturers discern distortion...
-
Print Anomalies In a previous blog, we reported a black background being displayed on transparent picture controls using an HP Color LaserJet 4700n PCL5 driver. We’ve continued to see a similar anomaly presented in the Pivot Chart printed output. Rendered on screen, the chart looks like the image...
-
Microsoft has expanded the control and effect the user has on images. The Excel 2010 ATS IF file EX4TG1D3.xlsx explores the many modifications that can be applied to images. Below is an example of the built-in artistic effect available. The selected image has been changed to look like a chalk sketch...
-
Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office suite is back in a free public beta available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx . Word continues to evolve, and this version 14.0 (13 was skipped due to triskaidekaphobia ) includes a number of improvements (like enhanced themes)...
-
The most noticeable charting addition to Excel 2010 is Sparklines. Sparklines is a simple graph that is imbedded in a single cell to provide the user with a quick visual reference to nearby data. A Line, Column, or Win/Loss graph can be added to a cell and the range for the data is defined in the familiar...
-
Microsoft has streamlined the capability of Access to publish content online, including to SharePoint. They’ve also made minor changes to the interface, including new MRU (Most Recently Used) file list and a new “File” button which replaced the circular button found in their previous...
-
Printer, RIP, Printer driver and conversion software manufacturers are primarily concerned about their ability to print, edit or display from applications that their customers will use. So, a major component of their QA process includes the testing of their systems with test files from popular application...
-
On September 23, Adobe launched brand new version of their Creative Suite family of products with much fanfare. CS4 collection now comes in four distinct collections: Design Premium (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat) Web Premium (Dreamweaver, Flash,Photoshop,Illustrator...
-
Quark launches aggressively into competing directly against Adobe InDesign product by launching a brand new redesigned QuarkXpress 8 application. Quark has redesigned the GUI, adopted a new marketing tagline,(“Revolutionizing Publishing. Again.”), added new pen and picture tools and perhaps most telling...
-
The QualityLogic Imaging Test Suites were built initially for the engineering teams of OEMs that built printers and printer technology and focused on the basic problem of conforming and interoperability for printer firmware (Raster Image Processors of various sorts) and drivers that convert various file...