AYM 4 Training – Online and Onsite Computer Training – Cool Stuff

I just received this announcement. Not only are there links to purchase the software, but also some information on upgrade pricing and date limitations. Take a look!
NEWS: Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 is Now Shipping 

Two weeks after its official introduction, Adobe this morning has released Creative Suite 6 in twelve languages, with major upgrades across the product line…  

All CS6 suites and individual tools are available immediately for Windows and Mac, with delivery via boxed shipment or instant download.  Discounted upgrades are offered from earlier versions, including CS3 and CS4 until the end of the year.

One big change: Starting with CS6, upgrades are only available direct from Adobe in most major geographies.

The company has also released all CS6 free trials for download and installation.  These trials are fully-functional and will work side-by-side with any previous version(s) of the Creative Suite, including CS5 and CS5.5.  We’ve got a complete list of trial direct download links for easy access. 

The CS6 Student & Teacher Editions are now shipping as well.  These offer up to 80% off the regular prices for education customers including students, teachers, and staff. 

Today, I got an email from a rep from JourneyEd.com, one of my vendors. Her message states:
Adobe has a current promotion with the release of  CS6. Adobe is giving a free copy of CS6 to anyone that purchases CS 5.5 now until May 6! Please see attached promotion and contact me today for pricing!

Here’s her contact info:

As I’ve mentioned before, designers are FONT FREAKS! We never do get enough of them, do we?

So, with this in mind, MacAppware.com has offered 10 Free Commercial Use Fonts, with 10 user licenses. Nice deal! Check them out at:

http://www.macappware.com/mac-fonts.html

Today, Dealfind.com is offering a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch Tablet for $70!

As my graphics students know, I’m a big advocate of using a pressure-sensitive tablet for precision masking, vector drawing control and tons of other functions. This is the smaller version of their tablet – which makes it quite portable as well. check it out at:
http://www.dealfind.com/products/los-angeles/brightlightbusiness2?a=16589f8ddd39

Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

According to Deal News Daily, Adobe is offering an additional 80% off select education titles. The discount code is ”SAVE80EDU”

As I’d only owned the CS5 Design Suite, and want the Master Suite, AND I know CS6 is being released soon, I called to confirm that the educational version would make me eligible for an upgrade price (vs. the educational price) on CS6 (the upgrade price is often better than the Educational price, nowadays). They did verbally confirm that the Ed version of CS5.5 is upgradeable when the new version is released (they would not provide any prices though). Then, they said they’d just been informed that this pricing is a mistake and they could not offer it.

However, I purchased it online – and the Educational version of the CS5.5 MASTER SUITE is shipping for $202 including tax. Of course, they need to verify my educational status, which may take a few days – and may be long enough for them to decline the pricing – but it was worth the attempt, IMO.

If you’re interested in trying for an AMAZING price, and can qualify for educational pricing, check out the article on Deal News at

http://dealnews.com/Adobe-Coupon-Extra-80-off-select-education-software/551827.html

My students all know I’m a fan of Layers Magazine. In my general perusing today, I’ve found a nice tutorial on Fitting Images to Frames in InDesign. Last week, my InDesign students were asking for some tips. This may be useful to you. Enjoy!

http://layersmagazine.com/autofit-images-in-indesign-cs5.html

The people at CreativePro.com have posted a page with a link to an excellent free Ebook (in PDF format), named 25 Champions of Design. I’m sure my design students of all types will derive some excellent information from this book. And, best of all – it’s FREE!

http://www.creativepro.com/article/25-champions-design 

Okay – so many of you who have taken my design classes have seen me “pick on” the Helvetica font. As you know, although I consider it a classic, beautiful, clean and highly versatile, I have some issues with it’s built-in kerning at large sizes, so I usually use it for my kerning lessons.

So, today, Graphics.com posted a Facebook link to a great page with 40 great logos designed using Helvetica. Now, I don’t personally agree that all of these do, in fact, use Helvetica (eg: Nestlé, even if it started as Helvetica, didn’t remain Helvetica, IMO), but if you check these out, you’ll gain some great inspiration as to the effects of tracking and kerning, color, use of space, and all things typography and design. Check it out!

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/40-excellent-logos-created-with-helvetica/

CreativePro.com has come up with yet another really good article – this time, about a topic that can be really confusing – how color works for print documents, and how to use InDesign’s color management to get accurate color print jobs done (Note: this is for 4-color, process printing – not meant for your inkjet). Check it out at:

http://www.creativepro.com/article/indesign-how-print-colors-correctly

One of the big complaints about InDesign CS5.5 – with all it’s hoo-ha about being so great for developing materials for the broadening range of devices – was that Adobe’d stopped shipping it with all the Templates they used to include!

Pre-created Templates are great for  deconstructing and developing personal, creative designs without starting from scratch.

Today, InDesignSecrets.com has posted links to bunches of the original templates (they’ve used CS4′s versions) for free download. SO nice not to have to hand-make the CD label template again!

http://indesignsecrets.com/adobes-free-indesign-templates-now-available-at-indesignsecrets.php