The Beauty of Letterpress: Blokboek becomes art

Our name, blokboek.net, comes from the oldest form of printing letterpress, blokboek in Dutch. Letterpress is relief printing carved from one piece. The similarity with blog-boek (blog book) made it even more interesting to choose the name blokboek.net. In the Beauty of Letterpress Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum show that letterpress has become art. 11 Special…

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How to choose a typeface

Fastcodesign has put together a poster which allows you via few simple steps to choose a typeface. For 19.90US$ you get a flowchart which through simple criteria such as ´should it look modern´ or ´should it look quirky´ leads you to a choice of 43 fonts. For professional designers the poster may be a bit…

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Value adding designs with Agfa: Fortuna

Passports, identity cards, lottery tickets and entrance tickets are examples of printing with the highest value add. Designing these, in compliance with the highest security measures, is work for specialists. These specialists will now with version 9 of Agfa´s Fortuna get a perfect tool which can save a lot of time. Version 9 builds on…

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Jack Wallen: five affordable or free photo editing apps

Photoshop still is the best photo editing program, but the list of affordable apps continues to grow. Jack Wallen of the TechRepublic blog listed some of them. From GIMP (free) to PaintShop (65 Euro) and from Pixlr Editor (free with an account), Photo Editor (free Android version) and PicMonkey (online editor), he reviews them all.…

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QuarkXpress 2015, available from 28 April

Based on the top 10 of user requests Quark has adjusted their desktop publishing and design software QuarkXPress. Most important adjustments are support for PDF/X4 output, larger page sizes and a fixed layout option for interactive ebooks. QuarkXPress has become much faster due to the long expected 64 bit structure. Version 10 users can upgrade…

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Xerox: printing with gold and silver toner

Xerox brings a metallic silver toner to market which enables the Xerox printers Colour 800i/1000i to print silver also at high speed. The metallic gold and silver toners which adhere to the Pantone specifications, can enhance prints. Because of the silver and gold toners the prints appear to have a metallic shine which has a…

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Golden colour edged Dutch dictionary 

In honour of the 150th anniversary of Van Dale, the Van Dale pocket dictionaries Dutch, English, French and German have received a festive look.  A golden colour edged celebratory limited edition will be available from today. The pictures show how the books have been produced. Publisher Jaap Parqui: “I didn´t know it, but colour edging…

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Grafische Groep Matthys wins Invercote Award 2015

The Grafische Groep Matthys (Turnhout, Belgium) recently won the international Invercote Award 2015 in the ´Best Design´ category for their exclusive luxury folding carton packaging for saffron. “This prize is a recognition for the special products made in Turnhout using the innovative in-line cold foil printing process.” Using this technique they make luxury graphics products for…

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The road to Fame and Fortune: FESPA Awards 2015

The FESPA Awards can be the road to fame and fortune for any creative communicator. The Awards are open to anyone, you do not have to be a FESPA member and any application, digital, print, sign or hybrid can compete for this much desired prize. No less than 21 categories from Point of Sale to…

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Apple Watch marketing trusts printed advertising

It is supposed to be the newest digital hype, the Apple Watch, but to start the hype Apple is using a trusted an proven medium, printed advertising. The company bought no less than 12 pages in the very big March edition of American Vogue. Apple hopes to make its Watch the ´must have´ luxury product…

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