3-D printers are making many things better. Quack!

"The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is." E. F. Schumacher

I taught Microsoft Publisher the other day and a student, who uses a Mac at home, asked if there was a version out there he could use. It also had to be free he said. I guess I should take a second and mention what Publisher is for. It is a program that allows you to design and printout all sorts of paper goods like business cards, flyers, signs, brochure, etc. I did a lot of research on this topic and I did find one replacement called Scribus. But there are issues. First it seems slower than dirt. Second it is missing a lot of the templates that I go to Publisher for. It does have a few but mainly you are on your own. But what about the intricate brochures you designed in publisher a while back? Sorry, from what I read even Publisher has issues opening older documents made in an older version of Publisher. Also I read a lot of printer companies complaining about people who use Publisher because it has problems when trying to print professionally. So what are your choices? Unfortunately it looks like you will have to buy something like Adobe Indesign or QuarkXPress. But before you run out the door to buy you should know they are not cheap, upwards of $200 to $600. I had no luck with my usual places, Amazon and eBay. The only thing I can say is if you really need them you will have to pay a hefty price or have print shop take care of the project. I wish I had better news, sorry.

“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?” Bertolt Brecht

How much do you spend on ink? I would argue that it is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet. Every time you print you spend money. It is a simple equation but not printing is not always an option. . What if there was a way to print with less ink but still have pages looking normal? This post has turned into an infomercial. NOW HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY? Well according to Spranq Creative Communications their Ecofont prints with 20% less ink. They created a font with tiny holes inside the letters. It looks like Swiss cheese. Sometimes the simple answers are truly the best. The nice bit is that if you print at normal size type (10-14) it is barely noticeable if at all but if you pump it up to 72 point size it becomes apparent how it works. I am still testing this out but I have to say if it does what it says it does, I may adopt this for almost all my printing. There is no reason to waste money or resources if you don’t have to. One last thing: the font is free so why not give it a try? Download and test it yourself. If you like it, they do take donations.

“I was probably the only revolutionary referred to as cute.”Abbie Hoffman

I recently had to make a PDF for one of the class worksheets and I thought I would use Vista’s new PDF creator and see how it worked. Unfortunately it was an exercise of frustration and a real nuisance. So I went back to my old alternative CutePDF. Before I go on I should explain that a PDF is document formatted so it can be opened with the free program Adobe Acrobat Reader. Every government file like the 1040 tax form is in that format. It is easy to use and open for everyone who wants to read a PDF. Unfortunately the creation of a PDF can be a bit of a pain. Even though the standard has been around for years, Microsoft has been reluctant to give that ability. So CutePDF is there to bridge the gap. All you need to do is download it from the above link. Once you have gone through the installation process write your document in Microsoft Word and then instead of hitting save go to the print screen. Click at the top where you see your printer listed and choose CutePDF then hit print. It takes a second or two but a little window pops up and asks where you want to save it and under what name. Once done just hit OK and your PDF is created. The nice thing about a PDF is that when you send out something like a resume the setup does not change unlike a word document where it can be subject to their setup. Give it a try.

“I never saw a Purple Cow; I never hope to See One; But I can Tell you, Anyhow, I'd rather See than Be One” Frank Gelett Burgess

I meant to do a post on this much earlier but I was waiting to use the service before I recommended it. Unfortunately I never got around to it and instead of waiting more I thought I would put it out there and let you decide. The site is called Moo and their tagline is "they love printing."
Many students ask me about business cards and gift cards and whether they should print them at home. The answer is complex. You could use a program like Microsoft Publisher to create paper goods and I can say the program does a decent job. The problem I usually have is that most home printers are not as good as going to a professional place. Now understand if you are doing a small amount of printing at home is fine but 1000 business cards that are double sided can be awful and tedious. The problem I have had with professional printers is they seem to overcharge. Some of them even charge just to open your document and you are limited to the same image all the way through. That is why I was excited about Moo. They allow as many different images as you would like. Let’s say you are making holiday cards and you have ordered 25 but you really only need 20. The other five will be wasted. Instead Moo allows you to put as many images as you would like in one pack. Same thing goes for all their products like business cards and mini business cards. They do gift cards and all sorts of other types of paper goods. This time of the year many people head to parties and people scribble down their information to long lost friends on the nearest napkins. The idea of a nice good looking card with all your basic info like email or website and of course the basics like phone numbers just sounds perfect. Also I like the idea of creating stickers for every photo I have. The green choice of card stock that is environmentally friendly was a nice thing to see. I checked the prices and they seem reasonable but I would like to stress I have not seen a finished product so please keep that in mind. If you need some paper goods take a look at this service and let me know how it goes.

Note:Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley