January 2005

PatternMaker, Pattern generator plug-in for Adobe InDesign; Teacup Software, $99.95 Mac and Windows

This powerful PostScript pattern generator for InDesign was designed by page layout guru David Blatner, PatternMaker brings high quality PostScript patterns to InDesign. Fill any frame with one of fifteen patterns, then modify, tweak and reinvent each pattern into unlimited designs. All very nice, but the real fun with PatternMaker is that it puts type outlines on steroids! Convert type to outlines then fill with any number of patterns. Since they use a background color of None, you can even add a colored background behind the pattern. It gets better. Because these are PostScript patterns, they can be tweaked via the PatternMaker palette in unlimited ways, can be made transparent against anything on the page, and filled and stroked with any color in the Swatches palette. If you're tired of filling text and frames with pictures, these patterns are an exciting design alternative. The plug-in is elegant, stable, inexpensive, and more fun to play with than a bundle of pixels. Download the demo and only one session with PatternMaker will make you wonder how you ever got along without it.

Some of the pattern fills for frames.

Patterns applied to type outlines. The type and patterns can be filled and stroked independently.

Moving to InDesign by David Blatner, Christopher Smith and Steven Werner, Peachpit Press, $19.99

For all the refugees from QuarkXpress this book will help you transfer your typesetting skills to InDesign. Rather than a compendium of InDesign features, the authors deal with the critical layout functions such as paragraph formatting, graphics manipulation, color and printing and show you how to transition your skills quickly and efficiently. If you're still thinking inside the box when you should be thinking outside the frame, this book will make it much easier for you to work as intuitively with InDesign as you did with Quark.

If you've just realized that Adobe Acrobat is this decade's “killer app,” then this book is the fastest, easiest and most efficient way to learn how to use it. It covers everything you need to know about Acrobat 6 Standard and Professional, from creating links, bookmarks, and interactive forms to repurposing PDF content. With step-by-step instructions and lots of wonderful movies, it communicates clearly and effectively. You'll find it the most helpful tool for creating interactive documents and dynamic PDF presentations. Exercises, screenshots, tips and tricks will ensure your mastery of this powerful and pervasive application.