Just what we need, another font format

DTP Types Limited:

Fonts for QuarkXPress� in Mac OS/X
If you are a QuarkXPress user on a Mac and have just upgraded to OS/X, you are probably having some font problems, especially with custom made or language fonts like CE, Cyrillic or Greek. Well we have a solution!
Our hfont format will overcome all those nasty problems of characters misplaced or not printing. Download a free trial font from here to see just how well they will work for you.

Not that Quark's problems with font handling don't need to be solved, you understand. I just think it would be, uh, less complicated if Quark solved them by fixing the dang application.

The Tyranny of the Tagline

Michael Bierut in Design Observer: "This is a bit of a prelude to a remarkable new corporate identity that was unveiled last month for the YWCA. It is not remarkable because of the way the identity relates to the tagline. It is remarkable because, as far as I can tell, the tagline is itself the identity. "

He's referring to this, which I think is just about the most gawdawful logo I've ever seen. It's cluttered, the elements fight, and it obscures the name of the organization. What's it going to look like on a sign?

I've created a few logos in my day, and it's hard for me to see how this identity got through the approval process. Design by committee, maybe.

Aw, what the heck

It's cruel to laugh at the afflicted, and this has already propagated widely through the blogosphere, or at least the portion I attend to, but what the heck--it's a name worthy of John Train.

Euphemism of the day

From CNN.com: "There was a frank exchange of views."

Now what's supposed to have happened is that VP Cheney used some form of profanity in response to criticism from Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. But, hey, I guess "frank exchange of views" is one way of putting it.

Silly folksongs

From Dan Goodman's Life and Observations blog: "Wednesday June 23, 2004. Today began as Silly Folksong Day. Beginning with 'And the name they called that ship was the Golden Monotreme.' "

Some folks hum; RP sings "Well I don't know/But I've been told/A green grasshopper's/got a green asshole," in styles ranging from operatic to hip-hop. Never drill-sergeant style, though.

Like a Vietnamese racehorse?

I've grown used to the Sizemores and Johnsons trying to convince me I'm somehow inadequate; today I heard from Hung Darby.

I also heard from Liechtenstein Letisha. Like Tokyo Rose but less so, I guess.

The best dating site for horse singles, equestrian single, USA equestrian, horse lovers, cowboys, cowgirls, horse riders.

I'm speechless.

Brian Wilson Tour info

Austin on October 24! : And it's a Sunday, too! Woo-hoo!

My motto, from now on

Client Quotes: 33/521: "less creativity, bigger pictures"

Egad. Again.

The company we've engaged to help us optimize our web pages for search engines has some room for improvement in just about every area, but most particularly in proofreading .

I've had to correct this phrase in the comments of several pages: "All information herein is copywrited by the [IncorrectlySpeled] Corportation."

Corportation? Copywrited??

And I already have a copyright notice in human-readable form on every page, so I sorely doubt I need it in the comments too. But if I do, shouldn't it just say "Copyright (c) 2004 [CorrectlySpelled] Corporation"?

Lots of big news.

Events both good and bad are propelling us headlong back to Texas.

The bad first: I mentioned in this post RP's daddy passed away very suddenly on Tuesday, June 8. He was only 68. He leaves behind his wife, a son and three daughters, and three grandchildren; all loved him dearly. So did I. (I'll talk about RP, Sr. at greater length later.) Anyway, we now feel a great need to be nearer to RP's mom.

Now the good: Around March my parents, who are in their mid-80s, told us they were planning to move out of their house in the Hill Country into an apartment in a retirement community at the end of May. So we proposed that we buy their house and relocate to be near them.

Progress has been almost unnervingly swift. We've already sold our house, for a profit; closing is scheduled for the end of July. RP will be able to keep his job and I can freelance and bring some money in while concentrating largely on my parents. We don't even have to fret about replacing the Explorer — its lease is expiring in August, while the Explorer itself seems set to expire at any second — because RP's mom can't climb up into RP Sr.'s Yukon by herself, and wants to sell it, so we're buying it.

That's not the case at all..

From Ansible, quoting a press release from a cable network: "Following this repositioning, SCI FI is no-longer spelt with a hyphen or dot in the centre (i.e. Sci-Fi or SciúFi) and should always be written in upper caps (SCI FI)."

Aside from the fact that a graphic design decision like the choice of all caps in a logo shouldn't mean a damn thing outside the organization whose logo it is, it's not upper caps, it's upper case. (What, exactly, would lower caps be?) Or, as I just said, all caps.

Hell, maybe Brits are correct to say "upper caps". The main thing I learned from that book that tells the panda joke badly is that the nicest and most correct British usages can be gratingly wrong to Americans as well as the other way around.

Department of iPod segues

Good: "Walking the Cow," K. McCarty > "Sleepwalker," the Wallflowers

Bad: "Mousetrap," Soft Machine > "Little Bit of Soul," the Music Explosion

They're back!

Quark forums :: QuarkXPress, ServicePlus, Enterprise and QuarkAlliance user forums

Of course, this happened last Monday while I was helping the folks move...