Q:
Adobe has a new class of fonts called OpenType. According to their
web site this new font is a replacement for PostScript fonts and can
be used for commercial printing. I’m on a PC using Windows 2000
and having trouble with my PostScript fonts while working in PageMaker.
Can you tell me if OpenTypetype will make my work life easier? Also,
are you using this new type, and do printers accept it?
A:
OpenType is a great looking prospect in the font arena. Problem is,
not all software handles OpenType! YIKES! Your Pagemaker is one of
those software packages. To date, InDesign 2.0 is the only Adobe software
package that handles OpenType fonts.
Vendors who accept InDesign 2.0 would then
accept OpenType. We have yet to see OpenType fonts come through ePUB
in a job, but expect that day to come sooner or later. Interestingly,
if you check your C:\WINNT\FONTS folder you will see that fonts like
Arial and other common Windows fonts are OpenType fonts.
Q:
An
author created a good looking 22-page document in Word and asked me
to spruce it up with colored boxes behind text areas, scanned photos,
bleeds, etc.
I do not use Word and know that it is not an acceptable software choice
to send for printing. I also do not want to use FrameMaker 6.0 so
that leaves me with Illustrator 10 for Windows. Since I work with
Illustrator all the time, I feel I could easily set up text columns
and bring in the Word text as Rich Text Format, import graphics and
images by reference, add bleeds, and give the document a finished
look. But, then I would end up with 22 files in the end! I could save
each file as PostScript, then distill them through Acrobat Distiller
as Press Optimized PDFs and finally combine them to make a single
PDF.
I
also ordered InDesign and it should be here in 7 days.
What
would be your call on this besides taking a vacation?
A:
Our call is: Maui here we come!!! Thanks for writing in.
Just kidding! REALLY! (Though
Maui sounds nice.) Our true recommendation is to wait for InDesign
if at all possible. While we don't doubt your Illustrator prowess,
that whole process is a ton of work and wouldn't allow you to make
edits to the file very easily. Besides, InDesign is a true page layout
application and therefore has a lot of tools to make your job of laying
out and sprucing up that Word file much easier than if you were to
use Illustrator. The bonus is that InDesign 2.0 has many tools from
Illustrator that will allow you to create some vector art, in addition
to the colored boxes, right in the InDesign file! Regardless, always
use page layout apps for page layout to save yourself extra effort.
It follows the age old adage: the right tool for the right job.
