Morning on the beach
Ball of fire
Sand Dollar
Lighthouse
Sunrise
Happy.
What it’s like to have three kids…
This post was originally posted on November 13, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
I get asked a lot what it’s like to have three kids. Mostly from people with two kids thinking about whether they want to have another. Sometimes, the question comes from younger couples who are thinking about having kids.1 And I always struggle to answer.
My standard answer is that when you have three kids, you have to switch from man-to-man to zone. You lose a little control. You are outnumbered. And while that is completely accurate, it sounds scary and intimidating, which isn’t at all what I want to communicate. I love having three kids.
My other answer is that with three kids, how far apart they are really matters. I’ve had friends with three kids under four years old. For us, our oldest was seven when her brother was born. Those are two radically different situations. But that doesn’t really answer the question.
Sunday morning, an interaction with the kids gave me the answer I was missing. We were waking up and getting ready for church.
Middle child: What are we doing for breakfast?
Me: I don’t know. We’ll probably have a small breakfast now and maybe go to brunch after church.
Youngest: WHAT! We can’t go to a restaurant! We need to go to church! (He LOVES Sunday School.)
Me: We are going to church. We might go out to eat after church.
Youngest: Why can’t we eat at church?
Me: Because they aren’t serving breakfast at church.2
Oldest (from another room): We’re having breakfast at church?!?
And that’s what it’s like having three kids — like adding a person to a game of telephone. It gets a little bit crazier. Funnier. Unpredictable. Often delightful and occasionally frustrating. But never boring.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Beautiful fall day on campus.
Moving an InDesign page to a different document
This post was originally posted on November 11, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.
This week, I needed to copy pages from one InDesign file to another. Thankfully, it’s super easy.
Select the page you want to copy from the pages palette. Choose “Move Pages…” from the flyout menu on the pages palette. (Or Layout > Pages > Move pages…)
You can then choose which pages* you want to move and where you want to move it. The default is to move the pages to another spot in the same document, but you can select any document that is open.
Select the destination with the “Move to:” combo box.
And you are done. As a bonus tip, there’s a similar trick in Photoshop, too, that I’ve written about in the past.
* In case you were wondering, it doesn’t matter if the documents you are merging are different page sizes.
Saturday morning sketching.
Post-haircut frozen yogurt. One long. One short.
Introducing Intermodal
This post was originally posted on November 5, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
I’ve been fascinated by stenciled type for a while. Stencils started as a practical necessity – an easy and utilitarian way to reproduce type. But the use of stencils has evolved and is now visually representative of industry and military.
A few weeks ago, I quietly rolled out my latest stencil typeface on Creative Market: Intermodal.
Intermodal started as an experiment. I wanted to create a design that had only vertical stencil cuts. I didn’t like how the cuts on other stencil designs didn’t line up cleanly. By only using vertical cuts, I didn’t have to worry about the horizontal alignment.*
Intermodal is an all cap design, but includes a wide range of foreign language characters, a set of Opentype tabular numerals and an alternate “9.” Intermodal doesn’t have traditional weights. Instead, there are five widths, from A to E. A is more narrow and E is wider. The different versions can be used together to create a utilitarian look. I’ve also got an oblique version of each width for a total of 10 fonts in the family.
For now, the entire Intermodal family — 10 fonts in all — is available exclusively at Creative Market for $29.
Intermodal is one of my favorite creations. I hope you like it.
* After my first set of sketches, I noticed that it was structurally very similar to Power Grid. So I added a stencil version to Power Grid 2.0 and I continued to refine Intermodal. Different look, but similar design approach.
I used to read the ads
This post was originally posted on November 3, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
When I was a kid, I loved magazines. I was curious about everything and in the 80s and 90s – before the internet — there was a magazine for everything. I got magazines about photography, sailing, model railroading, computers, science, cars, bicycling, comics, art, baseball cards and more. If you wanted to learn about a topic, magazines were a cheap and easy way to find out more. In fact, I read MacUser before I could ever afford my first Mac.
I’d read them cover to cover. And that often included the ads. Ads were an integral part of the experience because they were targeted directly at the magazine’s audience. The ads complimented and supplemented the editorial content.
Some of those magazines are still around*, but blogs and online content are much more efficient ways to gather information, especially for beginners.
Today, ads on blogs are more like billboards than the niche, targeted magazine ads. Many of these blogs serve ads that are from a network and most of those ads have no real connection to the blog’s topic.
Network buys allow advertisers to serve ads only to a target demographic. This seems like a dream situation for many advertisers, but reaching niche audiences is much more difficult. It’s hard to identify from demographics or browsing history who is interested in a topic like cameras or fountain pens.
I’ve been listening to podcasts lately. Podcasts about topics like fountain pens, pencils and space. The ads that run on these podcasts are like the old magazine ads — they support and complement the editorial content. And as a result, I’ve made purchases based on recommendations from ads on podcasts. I can’t say that I’ve ever made a purchasing decision based on a random banner ad.
Context matters. If I was a media buyer today, I’d look closely at podcasting and tightly curated ad networks. They might be the best fit for online advertising to niche markets.
* Still around, but much harder to find. Newsstands are gone in most parts of the country. Bookstores aren’t as common. Grocery stores have smaller and smaller selections of publications.
Ready to go.
Stormtrooper selfie
Clearly Rapunzel.
Help me please.
The definitive guide to rounding corners in InDesign CC 2015
This post was originally posted on October 28, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.
Over the last two weeks, a 2010 post of mine on rounding corners has suddenly become very popular.* I wrote it for CS4 and posted an updated version for CS5. But I wanted to revisit the tip and update it for Creative Cloud 2015.
The process for rounding corners is actually more complicated than I expected and is different depending on what shape you are working with.
Rounding corners on a square or rectangle
Rounding the corners** on a rectangle is straightforward and there are actually a couple of ways to do it.
The yellow box method: When you click on a rectangle with the selection tool, a yellow box appears near the upper right hand corner. Click the yellow box and diamonds appear at the corners. Drag the corners inward to round the corners equally.
To round only one corner, click the yellow box and then, while holding down shift, click and drag on the corner you want to modify.
(1) Click the yellow box in the upper right hand corner to edit the corners. (2) Drag the diamonds to change the amount of the corner effect. (3) Hold the shift Key to change only one corner.
The dialog box method: If you prefer a little more precision, you can go to Object > Corner Options… and set the rounded corner to a specific value. And it’s easy to round one corner.
Set the amount and style of your corner effects with the corner options dialog box. Uncheck the chain icon to set corners independently.
The control palette method: You can set a rounded corner value for all four corners in the control palette.
View fullsize
The corner controls are easy to find… It’s the only icon in the Control Palette with blue dots.
Rounding all corners on polygons that are not squares or rectangles
So rounding corners on rectangles is easy, but what if you don’t have a rectangle. It’s still easy, but different.
The yellow box method: Doesn’t work. The yellow box appears only for rectangles. Triangle, trapezoid, hexagon… no yellow box.
The dialog box method: Works just like it does for the rectangle with one, major exception. You can’t round individual corners. All of the corners have to be exactly the same.
Try to change the corner size or shape on a shape other than a rectangle and all but one input field is faded out.
The control palette method: Exactly the same as the rectangle method, with no control over individual corners.
Rounding individual corners on a polygon
So let’s say I want to round selected corners on any polygon. None of the normal methods will work, but thankfully, Adobe provides a script for this.
The scripting panel (Window > Utilities > Scripts) contains an Application folder with sample scripts in Applescript and Javascript. Select the “CornerEffects.applescript” or “CornerEffects.jsx.”
The top part of the dialog box essentially provides the same options as the “Corner Options” dialog box. And the offset box allows you to adjust the size of the corner. The Pattern combo box defaults to “all points,” but take a look at the options available: first point, last point, second point, third point, odd points, even points and more…
When applied to a box, it gives you the ability to round or bevel selected corners. Sometimes, it takes a little trial and error to figure out which point the “first” point is. The first point usually seems to be point in the upper left and then selection moves counterclockwise.
Pretty much the only way to make these shapes in InDesign is with the Corner Effects Script.
You can also use the odd and even points patterns on a star shape. “Odd points” effect the inside points. “Even points” modify the outside points.
That should help you round any corner you need. As an aside, Adobe Illustrator has a completely different and superior corner rounding process. Personally, I hope that Adobe adopts the Illustrator method in InDesign.
* Google works in mysterious ways.
** You can do more than just round corners. You can bevel them or create several different effects. But most people just want to round them.
Little short for a stormtrooper.
New mechanical pencil from @jetpens.
