For the serious photographer or designer, one of the most frustrating things can be converting your images from color to black and white. Often times, people will just click Image->Mode->Grayscale, then either leave the image as is, or use curves to adjust.

There are several better ways to do this in Photoshop- methods that give you much more control over the contrast range of your images as you convert them to black and white. I am going to show you some of the better ways to do this, including the new tools. First, let’s start with a nice, colorful image to convert.

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Digital Film Tools releases new versions of 55mm, Digital Film Lab, EZ Mask, Light, Ozone, Snap and zMatte for Adobe Photoshop versions 7 through CS3 and Photoshop Elements as well as new Intel Mac compatible versions of 55mm, Digital Film Lab, Composite Suite, and zMatte for Avid Editing Systems–specifically Avid Media Composer 2.5.1 and higher and Avid Xpress Pro 5.5.1 and higher.

Digital Film Tools software is available for download or purchase at: WWW.DIGITALFILMTOOLS.COM Upgrade pricing is available for existing customers.

WE are running a few specials on Business cards and postcards that will be over by 4/30. So if you want to take advantage of really inexpensive cards, place your orders by then.

Why do we need another design competition? Before the design magazines have their say, before the market votes yea or nay with its dollar votes, design competitions are a way to shine a light on great design.

The Spark Awards, launched this year, incorporates dozens of possible design niches organized under three umbrellas: general, mobility and public sector. Entries are coming in from as far as Sweden and as near as Mexico.
•    The registration deadline is May 15, with late registrations accepted until May 30. Entries must arrive at the jury site between May 21 and May 31
•    The Spark Awards Ceremony, HotSpark Night and SparkLive Exhibition will take place June 9 at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena
•    Winners will be exhibited at Art Center South Campus through June 29
•    The Online Exhibition will be available from June 2007 until May 2008

The sponsors of Spark Awards are as wide-ranging as the scope of the contest itself. They include Hewlett Packard, Dwell Magazine, Automobile Magazine, Design Within Reach, RedClay, San Francisco Mart, California College of Art, Rutgers NCPP, School of Visual Arts, University of California College of Environmental Design, University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, AIGA SF, Billingsly & Brown.

Learn more: www.sparkawards.com

With an estimated 500 million pounds of electronics collecting dust in California’s closets, garages and attics, finding ways to reuse those metals, plastics and chemicals is critical. That’s where John Shegerian’s company, Electronic Recyclers, comes in. The Futures Channel takes viewers inside the largest electronic recycling plant in California in its new online micro-documentary, “Recycling Computers.” Watch the movie: http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/hands-on_math/recycling_computers/

Apple just unveiled Final Cut Studio 2, a significant upgrade to the industry’s leading video production suite that delivers new creative tools designed expressly for editors.Final Cut Studio 2 includes:- Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces Apple’s ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes and support for mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline- Motion 3 featuring an intuitive 3D environment, paint and new behaviors- Soundtrack Pro 2 with dozens of innovative tools for multi-track editing, surround mixing and conforming sound to picture

The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for the Web, today nominated COLOURlovers for the Best Community Website of 2007 and an Official Honoree for Best Social/Network Website. COLOURlovers was created and is run by Darius A Monsef of Portland, OR. Of the more than 8,000 entries submitted from over 60 countries and all 50 states, fewer than 15% were distinguished as an Official Honoree and an even smaller number received the accolade of being an Official Nominee.

View the nominated site: http://www.colourlovers.com/

Vote for the site: http://pv.webbyawards.com/account/login 

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Light, the resellable content management system for designers and agencies, announces the addition of a web concierge to its client support team. The web concierge provides assistance to designers and agencies who wish to design and build content managed websites for their own clients using Light.

Learn more: http://www.speaklight.com/

A common question at Bargain Printing is, “What type of fold should I choose?”

Here is a rundown on the common types of folds:

Bi Fold - Commonly referred to as a short or long fold. It is just one fold made to the paper in either direction.

A short fold, would be a fold across the shortest dimension of the paper. For example, a short folded 8.5″ x 11″ sheet would fold down once to 8.5″ x 5.5″

A long fold, would be a fold across the longest dimension of the paper. For example, a long folded 8.5″ x 11″ sheet would fold to 11″ x 4.25″

Tri-Fold - A fold where a three panel piece has both side sections folded inward, one on top of the other Each section is approximately 1/3 the length of the piece. Also known as a C-fold or letter-fold.

Z-Fold - A paper fold represented by back and forth folds into three panels.

That pretty much covers the typical fold types when printing a brochure. Another good term to know is scoring. Scoring is a crease applied, in a straight line, to a sheet of paper to allow it to fold easier and more accurately.

Quark has some new items available for download.

A free upgrade to Xpress 7.0.2 is now out. There are several new features and several bug fixes as well. This is a free upgrade, so if I was you, I would download it.

Also, there are a set of Xtensions called Xpert Tools Pro available for free as well. I have downloaded these Xtensions and love them. There are a bunch of productivity enhancing features in here.