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Apple’s Updated iTouch

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Video calling and much more comes to the iTouch!

And some said… “but it’s not even a phone…” Apple’s “Face Time” does not work over your phone line but rather over the data link, that’s the reason they (iPhone and iTouch) require WiFi. Apple has also updated the camera to the HD model with built in editing capabilities. The iTouch also cameras on both sides of the phone as well (required for Face Time). The new screen of iPod touch is some serious technology. Apple engineers packed four times the number of pixels into the same size screen as earlier iPod touch models.  326 pixels per inch will make graphics and text look smooth and sweet at any size. These new features make the iPod touch an amazing piece of technology.

The new iPod nano has some great new features as well, upgraded specs. The new nano is 46 percent smaller, 42 percent lighter, and 100 percent  Multi-Touch! 1.5-inch color display with 240-by-240 pixel resolution and uses the same standard connector as the larger models and the iphone. I’m not sure how well multi touch will work on such a small screen if you have large fingers but we shall see about the real world tests as the product flys off the shelves.

images via Apple Computer

Christopher Robinson

come check out our specials at PGprint

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Brochure Tutorial – Trifold

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

A Short Tutorial on Building a Trifold Brochure

Good trifold brochure design starts by beginning with a good solid foundation, in this case making sure your margins and folds are set up properly before even beginning the design and layout stage. We supply a wide variety of templates you can use to set up your own collateral material before submitting it for printing. Doing this step first will ensure your job will fly through production without a hitch on the technical side! Aside from that, image resolution and making sure you have bleed will keep you covered! Check out the tutorial below for an overview on the basics of brochure design!

Brochure Design - PGprint.com
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Ready to print you brochure? Check out our Online brochure printing at PGprint!

Christopher Robinson

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Making Grunge Effects – Type

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

How to Make Grunge Type Effects

Today’s blog is a quickie on how to add grunge effects to type easily. First you will need some grungy images, best place to find these is on the web or take them yourself. Make sure before you use an image from the web that the owner/photographer has released rights for personal/commercial use and reproduction (see blog on copyright!) I found some images at Desizn Tech that are free for personal and commercial use, it is also a good reference site for for web designers, techs and anyone with an interest in design in general, back to the topic at hand…

Once you have an image in hand, make sure it has good contrast in the image for the area you want to pull out for your “grunge”. I adjusted the contrast a little in photoshop in the image I picked (from Desizn Tech) before placing it in Adobe Illustrator. Once in Illustrator I ran live trace and adjusted my options to pull out the dark areas. I set it to blakc and white and then ungrouped and removed the white areas leaving me just the black shown below.

Once I had the grunge for my image (see above) I turned the black to magenta so I could see the type and the image areas and overlap clearly (below).

At this point I selected the type, converted it to outlines, colored the grunge art white again and used the pathfinder divide tool to subtract the grunge from the type I then selected all the white areas using “select same fill color” and deleted the white parts. You can see the remainder (below) with points highlighted.

At this point you are done and have your grunge artwork ready to go, click on the image below to see a more blown up version. You can also have a two-tone look by putting another copy of the type artwork without the grunge effect to fill in the white areas with another color.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, and when you are done with that “grunge” poster bring it on over and have us print it for you here at PGprint.com!

Christopher Robinson

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Apple Attempts Another Block to Jailbroken iPhones

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Apple Computer  has applied for a patent that if accepted will block unauthorized hacks.

This time around Apple has actually  put in many beneficial elements into this patent application. It covers many things that would make you want to applaud Apple, like blocking access to sensitive material (credit card, SSN, banking info), blocking unauthorized remote camera use, and the list goes on! Before you pat Apple on the back with a “Good Job” seems they do have some ulterior motives. Elsewhere in the wording it specifies detection of  ”…any action that may indicate the electronic device is being tampered with by being, for example, hacked, jailbroken, or unlocked,…”

See the original post on the Register for more information and more detail. For more detail in your printing come see us at PGprint

Christopher Robinson

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Reference – Copyright and Trademark

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

A great source of reference material for copyright and trademark concerns.

Copyright and Trademarks are two things that everyone knows a little about… but could, and should… know more. In this article I will list some online resources for you to bookmark and reference and explain some of the more basic info myself. Every designer creating logos or writing copy should be aware of.

What exactly are trademarks? Here is an exerpt from the  Cornell University Law School’s Law dictionary and encyclopedia:

“Trademarks are generally words, phrases, logos and symbols used by producers to identify their goods.  However, shapes, sounds, fragrances and colors may also be registered as trademarks…Almost any word, name, symbol, or device capable of distinguishing the source of goods may be used as a trademark subject to few limitations…  ”

Here are a few sites you should bookmark in case you ever get into a situation where you need to trademark something.

Cornell University Law School’s Law dictionary and encyclopedia on Trademarks

United States Patent and Trademark Office (official Government site)

What exactly is Copyright? The US copyright office has this to say about copyright basics:

“Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship,’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.”

A few useful links to more information on copyright can be found at the sites below.

US Copyright Office (make sure to check out the copyright basics!)

Copyright Alliance

There is a lot of great information located on the above sites, the general info I have posted should give you enough to understand the basics of the basics, but don’t stop there! Enjoy the read, and when you finish that trademarked logo and set up your stationary come see us for the Printing!

Christopher Robinson

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