Online Extra from May/June 2008 “The perfect workstation”
Bob Atkinson of Tool Tips recommends ideal add-ons for your workstation
Once you have the perfect system in place, there are some logical add-ons you may want to consider.
If you do a lot of illustration or photo retouching, a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet is a nice addition. Wacom (www.wacom.com) offers a wide range of tablets, from its Bamboo series (starting at about $80), all the way up to its stunning draw-on Cintiq LCD monitors (up to $2,500).
Built-in webcam, mic and speakers are now fairly common in good laptops but it will cost you about $150 extra on most desktop systems – more than worth it if you videoconference with clients or friends.
A desktop image scanner is still a handy extra, allowing you to capture images from photo prints, paper illustrations or transparencies. Epson (www.epson.com) is the market leader here in graphic arts – its Perfection 4490 photo scanner is a great basic scanner:
4800 optical dpi
3.4 Dmax
Print scanning to letter-size plus 35mm and 2" to 1/4" transparencies
USB 2
$250
If you want very high quality scans, consider its Perfection V700 photo scanner:
6400 optical dpi
4.0 Dmax
Dual-lens system
Print or film scanning up to letter size
USB 2
FireWire
$550
Finally, you'll probably want a good 13" x 19" proof printer, big enough for 11" x 17" documents plus crop marks. Again, Epson is a market leader. Its Stylus Photo R1800 printer is a great choice for the money:
13" x 19"
1440 dpi
Eight colours in individual cartridges
11" x 14" print in less than two minutes
USB 2 and FireWire
Optional 13" roll feed
$500
If your needs lean toward a 17" x 22" format, both Epson (Stylus Pro 3800 for $1,350) and HP (DesignJet 90 for $1,350) are good choices.
Putting it all together, a complete system with workstation, scanner and proof printer will cost you anywhere from $2,800 to $5,500. A lot of money but given the productivity it offers, it's a good deal. Especially if the system you’re working with now is a few years out of date.
Online Extra from May/June 2008 "Type trends"
New fonts for 2008
New for 2008 from p22 Type Foundry in Buffalo are Hoy and Spiggie, two font families designed by freelancer Torleiv Sverdrup. A sans serif combining the exotic with a bit of Art Deco, Spiggie has so far appeared in materials for Sharm El Sheikh resorts in Egypt. Both fonts include regular, italic, bold and bold italic variations.
Hoefler & Frere-Jones recently introduced Archer, a new slab serif series that includes a hairline weight. And the International Typeface Corp. has resuscitated a 1965 Handel Gothic series, which Nova Scotia-based typographer Rod McDonald has expanded to include five weights, each with its own set of alternate characters.
Archives
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Online Extra from Sept/Oct 2006 “Market Forecast 2007”
Top 10 colours for 2006
Online Extra from May/June 2006 “Top 10 colour trends ” by Paul Haft
The secrets of soft proofing...continued
Online Extra from May/June 2006 “Tool Tips ” by Bob Atkinson
Moving to InDesign?
Online Extra from March/April 2006 “Tool Tips” by Bob Atkinson
