Use Space – Tracking & Leading

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Use space to improve your design. There’s the space around blocks of text – margins. And there’s the space between elements of text – tracking and leading. Tracking is the space between letters. Leading is the space between lines. If tracking and leading are too tight, words appear cramped and are harder to distinguish from one another. If tracking and leading are too loose, units of text fall apart into separate units. Use enough space to help text rest gracefully on the page and breathe, but not so much space that it weakens the relationships between separate pieces and they drift apart.
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Find books on design I recommend here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

13 Go To Fonts, 7 Fonts to Avoid

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Whether you’re designing for a book or a presentation choosing the right type face is important. The font you choose helps shape the tone of what you create. As with any endeavor, it helps to have a trusted resources you can always turn to.
Here are my go to serif and sans serif fonts … and a few I steer clear of.
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sanserif
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Serif and san serif and the most common kinds of fonts. Serif fonts have a classic feel. Sans serif fonts set a contemporary tone. Decorative or display fonts have a great deal more flair and are generally best used for signage; it takes the right project and a great designer to use them well in other applications. Design is typically best used as a support for content, not a distraction from it or a substitute for it.
Find books on design I recommend here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Use PDFs to Make Blurb Books

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blurbpdf
Want to design your Blurb book with something other than BookSmart.
Want to use InDesign or Quark?
Make a PDF with them.
Then make a Blurb book from the PDF.
This way, you’ll have all the refined control of professional design software and still get print-on-demand books from Blurb.
Learn more about Blurb PDF workflow here.
Watch 3 helpful videos here.
Check out these great design books I recommend.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb Widget Makes Online Book Previews Easy

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Blurb’s new book preview Widget lets you preview as much or as little of your Blurb book as you like online. You can embed it on any blog or webpage.
Visitors can view your book as a virtual page turning book or as thumbnails.
They can check Full Screen for a larger preview.
They can click the Share button and help you spread the word.
They can click the Comment button and give you instant feedback.
Or, they can click the Purchase button and get a copy of your book.
BlurbWidgetGrid
BlurbWidgetPage copy
This HTML code generates the widget.
<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000? width=”425? height=”300? codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0?><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /><param name=”src” value=”http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1244722? /><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425? height=”300? src=”http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1244722? allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed></object>
You can scale the display by changing the dimension numbers.
It’s easy to implement and use.
Here’s more on how to install the widget.
Find out more about how to Share, Promote, Sell your Blurb books here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb's Photography Book Now Contest Is Open

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PhotographyBookNow2010
Blurb’s 2010 Photography Book Now contest is open through July 15, 2010.
Now it’s in its third year, this international competition celebrates the most creative, most innovative, finest print on demand photography books – and the people behind them.
Showcase your work to a jury of internationally-renowned judges – editors, publishers, photographers, and gallery owners.
Enter your books in one or more of three categories – Fine Art, Editorial, and Portfolio.
The grand prize is $25,000.
Find out more here.
See the 2009 winners here.

How Long Will Blurb Books Last ?

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antarcticabook3
How long will your Blurb books last?
100 years in dark storage, 45 years in average display conditions, before visible fading occurs.
Blurb books are printed with HP Indigo presses. HP shares Henry Wilhelm’s permanence data. “The study gives pages printed with HP Indigo presses a Wilhelm Digital Imaging Research (WIR) Display Permanence Rating of approximately 45 years, which is longer than the best-rated silver-halide photo paper, Fuji Crystal Archive. The HP Indigo rating is also more than twice as long as the WIR Display Permanence Rating for prints on Kodak silver-halide photo paper. The study also shows that HP Indigo photo book prints received a WIR Album/Dark Storage Rating of greater than 100 years.”
Stay tuned for announcements on my upcoming New York and Toronto Blurb seminars.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Made To Stick

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madetostick
Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick is must read material for any communicator – artist, businessperson, social advocate, politician, partner, parent … well, anyone really. Made To Stick will give you a proven formula for making any message more memorable and effective.
SUCCESs their simple formula.
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories
That’s the key take-away from the book but it’s richly elaborated with hundreds of great stories about how SUCCESs is put into practice.
I give this book my highest recommendation.
Find the book here.
Find out more about the book and free online resources here.