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Luisa Simone
Luisa Simone is a Connecticut-based consultant, teacher, and journalist specializing in computer graphics. For the past 11 years, she has been a contributing editor for PC Magazine, writing about desktop publishing, illustration and image editing software, multimedia computing, digital video editing, and web design. She has written two books: Windows 95 Scanning Book (John Wiley and Sons) and Microsoft Publisher 2000 by Design (Microsoft Press), which has won both design and editorial awards from the Society for Technical Communications. Ms. Simone was trained as a fine artist, graduating from New York's City University. She recently formed her own design company, Tadpole Graphics, LLC.
First Look: Macromedia Studio 8
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on August 8, 2005
Macromedia didn't let a little thing like a merger stop its engineering team from creating a whole new version of its Studio software. Creativepro.com gives you a first look at the beta software.
Create and Collaborate: Adobe DesignTeam Brings Project Management Online
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on August 14, 2002
Adobe Design Team attempts to solve some of the more common -- and more frustrating -- project management problems that professional designers face. For example, Adobe Design Team addresses workflow issues, by allowing team members to intelligently share files within a secure environment.
Dropping Anchor in QuarkXPress
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on November 6, 2001
Altering complex layouts is always tedious. But anchoring graphics within text makes reflowing pages easy. Here's how to do it in QuarkXPress.
Getting It Together with PageMaker 7
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on August 20, 2001
Adobe endowed PageMaker 7 with the ability to merge in information from external files, giving us the best DTP solution yet for tasks such as mail merge and merging in data for catalogues. Luisa Simone shows how to exploit Data Merge to its fullest.
ZBrush 1.03: Paint Your Way to 3D
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on June 26, 2001
Half way between 3D and paint programs lies Pixologic's ZBrush. Buyers who master this program's idiosyncratic interface will find a powerful and innovative approach to creating 3D images.
FreeHand 10: More Flash, Plenty of Substance
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on May 16, 2001
Macromedia gives FreeHand 10 the common Macromedia UI and adds master pages, better Flash integration -- and new drawing features, too.
Photoshop Elements: Almost-Photoshop Image Editing at a Bargain Price
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on April 17, 2001
Adobe's image editing product line has always addressed the high and low ends of the market place well, with Photoshop dominating among professionals and PhotoDeluxe targeting consumers. But with the exception of Photoshop LE (for "Limited Edition") bundled with select desktop scanners and digital cameras, Adobe has largely ignored the mid-level marketplace.
Scanning 101: No More Moiré
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on January 3, 2001
In your career as a graphics pro, sooner or later you'll encounter a moiré (pronounced moa-ray) pattern. If this term is new to you, rest assured that a moiré is not a form of exotic wildlife (that's a moray eel); nor is it a varietal grape (that's mourvedre).
Image Grabber: Stock Photo Search Done Right (and Fast)
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on December 19, 2000
Graphic arts professionals are constantly on the lookout for productivity-enhancing tools that can cut down on the overhead of a design business, leaving them more time for their creative pursuits. The current release of Image Grabber from Random Eye Technologies is a nifty Web-based utility that can streamline the picture-research process.
The Web Wizard: Creating Quick and Easy JavaScript Animations
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on November 2, 2000
The animated GIF format makes it increadibly easy to add simple animations to Web sites, and my Web Wizard column covered several techniques to help you get the most of out of this admittedly-older format. But if you want your animations to do something more than play, you'll have to find different ways to add motion to your Web pages.
PhotoImpact 6 Makes Its Splash
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on November 2, 2000
If you're looking for an affordable, all-in-one graphics program that can generate sophisticated graphics and simple Web pages, stop your search: PhotoImpact 6.0 is the perfect image editing program for SOHO users and home enthusiasts, and at less than $100, it's priced to sell.
Scanning 101: Sharpening Your Images
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on October 25, 2000
Today's scanners -- even low-cost models aimed at SOHO users or consumers -- do a good job of capturing the subtle tonal gradations in black-and-white or color photographs. But whether as an artifact of the scanning process itself or as the result of an out-of-focus original, most digital images created with a desktop scanner are slightly blurry.
The Web Wizard: Get Your Web Graphics Moving the No-Hassle Way
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on September 5, 2000
A litle movement can go a long way toward spicing up a Web site, but investing the time and energy in developing Flash movies or Dynamic HTML animation may seem like overkill for many jobs. In fact, many designers still opt to add a little movement by creating animated GIFs.
Scanning 101: Setting the Right Resolution
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on August 15, 2000
Your first goal as a conscientious print designer is to create the highest quality scanned images for your clients. But too often designers interpret this responsibility as a mandate to scan original artwork at very high resolutions, which produces large files that eat up disk space, are difficult to transfer to a service bureau, and take a long time to process at output time.
The Web Wizard: Keeping Colors Consistent on Macs and PCs
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on August 1, 2000
Designing Web pages that look the same whether viewed on a Mac or a PC is no easy task: The Mac OS and Windows handle certain fundamental operations differently, and the differences have their implications.
The Web Wizard: Make Web Text Appear the Same on Macs and PCs
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on July 19, 2000
Here's a paradox for you: Most people who design for the Web use Macs, but most people surfing the Web use PCs. This fact would be mere trivia if Macs and PCs displayed Web pages in exactly the same way -- but they don't. Two key areas of difference -- fonts and color representation -- can compromise the appearance of your Web pages.
SmartSaver Pro 3.0: Big Web-Graphics Help for a Small Price
Reviews: Written by Luisa Simone on July 12, 2000
Windows users looking for a one-stop Web-graphics utility should turn their discerning eyes to Ulead SmartSaver Pro 3.0.
Scanning 101: Getting Great-Looking Line Art from Not-So-Great Sources
Features: Written by Luisa Simone on June 28, 2000
As a professional graphic artist you know you need high-quality source images to achieve high-quality scans. Unfortunately, many of the clients you may encounter will be unable to grasp this simple truth.