An adroit mixture of everyday settings and extraordinary events.
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A compendium of strange-but-true recent events as reported in the legitimate press.
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The world of business and finance gets skewered, as Bottom Liners tackles subjects such as foreign takeovers, office policies, getting a raise, and the fast-paced world of Wall Street.
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A wry look at the absurdities of every day life.
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With a daily readership of more than 95 million, Dear Abby is the symbol of a caring heart for millions of people around the world.
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Liquefied Lettering
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Bring Life to Your Site
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Computer on a Stick
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A Note of Thanks
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A Message From The Famous McKenzie Brothers |
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Planting a Seed
A young woman decided she wanted to grow an apple tree in her back yard. She had never planted anything before, so she started researching all she could about growing an apple tree. She learned about site selection, training and pruning, adequate fertility, pest control, and other factors helpful for creating a healthy apple tree. Every time she went out in her yard, she pictured the tree already grown with rich, beautiful apples all over it. Because of her determination and ongoing nourishment, the seed she planted grew into a flourishing tree that she was very proud of.
Here's the way we see it: You can't plant apple seeds and expect oranges. However, with a little determination and effort, you may be amazed at what you can grow. We plant "seeds" in life more often than we realize, and sometimes these ideas flourish into great accomplishments. If you're looking for creative nourishment, give us a call. We'd be happy to help your seed grow.
The Famous McKenzie Brothers
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Idea of the Week |
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Reproducing Apple’s “Aqua” Lettering Effect
Type effects are a good way to turn a headline into a visual element. One popular type trend, known as liquid or “aqua” lettering, is easy to reproduce in Photoshop using the steps below:
- Create a 300dpi image in Photoshop, with dimensions that are large enough to fit your entire headline text.
- Set the foreground color to R=0 G=51 B=222. This will provide the color for your text.
- Select the type tool and choose a serif font, such as Garamond or Times New Roman.
- Set the font size at 72px, and type the text you want to use in the headline.
- Control-click (Mac: Command-click) inside the type layer to select the shape of the letters.
- Reduce the selection by seven pixels, by choosing Modify > Contract from the Select menu at the top of the screen.
- Create a new layer (with your selection still in place), and change the foreground color to R=31 G=82 B=255.
- Using the fill tool, color your selected area with this new color.
 - Once that’s set, deselect the selected area, and duplicate the layer you just created, so you now have two copies of it.
- Name the first of these layers “Color1” and the second “Color2.”
With all your layers in place, you’ll now need to make the following adjustments:
Color1 — Set the Blend Mode to Multiply
- Double-click the “Color1” layer on the layers palette to bring up the Layer Style dialog box.
- Set the Blend Mode to Multiply, and hit OK.
 Color2 — Add a Gaussian Blur
- Highlight “Color2” on the layers palette, and choose Blur > Gaussian Blur from the Filter menu at the top of the screen.
- A dialog box will appear. Set the radius to 5px and hit OK.
Color2 — Add an Emboss Effect
- Double-click the “Color2” layer on the layers palette to bring up the Layer Style dialog box.
- Highlight and select the Bevel and Emboss style.
- For the Style setting, choose Emboss.
- Change the Depth to 441% and the Size to 10px.
 - Set the Highlight Mode to Normal, with an Opacity of 100%, and the Shadow Mode to Color Dodge, with an opacity of 40%.
- Press OK to continue.
Color2 — Adjust the Curves
- With the “Color2” layer still highlighted on the layers palette, choose Adjustments > Curves from the Image menu at the top of the screen.
 - Another dialog box will appear.
- Insert stop points at the following coordinates (input/output): 50/160, 200/90, and 233/180.
- Once you have these coordinates in place, click OK.
Text Layer — Add a Drop Shadow
- Right-click (Mac: Option-click) on the text layer in the layers palette.
- Select Blending Options from the dropdown menu that appears.
- Highlight and select Drop Shadow in the Layer Style dialog box.
 - Set the color (the swatch next to Blend Mode) to R=0 G=32 B=186 and the Opacity to 75%.
- Choose a Distance of 5px, a Spread of 0%, and a Size of 9px.
The effect is now complete.
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See more great ideas like this!
Click here to visit the DocQmax Ideas Collection.
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Tech Tips |
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Portable Apps
If you are currently using a flash drive simply as a backup or transfer device, you haven't truly unlocked the potential of the USB until you've installed some programs on it. Because portable applications allow users to run programs independently from a removable flash drive without the hassle of installing them, they are becoming a favorite for professionals in a variety of industries. If you aren't already using this feature, here are a few portable apps for Macs and PCs to check out:
- HTTP File Server is a very simple application to send/receive files over the internet, and is very handy when exchanging files that are over the maximum e-mail size limits.
- Foxit Reader is a small PDF reader that is much faster than Adobe Reader.
- OpenOffice Portable is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator, and database tool.
- Thunderbird Portable Edition is a popular e-mail client that allows you to bring your e-mails and address book with you.
- MemPad enables you to save all notes in a single file but arrange and manage them in a hierarchical tree-based manner.
- KeePass Password Safe Portable allows you to carry multiple login information and passwords on your USB drive accessible through one master password to protect them.
- Firefox Portable Edition enables you to bring your bookmarks with you.
- Google Chrome Portable enables you to run different tabs as separate processes which prevents different windows from interfering with each other.
- Notepad++ is one of the most popular replacements for Windows Notepad.
- Web Design Toy splits into two views where you can instantly preview the output when you type HTML code.
- GIMP Portable is the best alternative for Adobe PhotoShop, enabling you to easily edit images no matter where you are.
- Fotografix is a tiny application alternative to GIMP with features including clone, eye dropper, magic wand, etc.
- Inkscape Portable is an open source vector graphics editor, and is a great alternative for Adobe Illustrator.
- FileZilla Portable is the most popular open source FTP client and allows you to save and conveniently access your clients' server details and settings.
While portable applications are great, just remember if you plan to take a USB flash drive with portable apps to a client site for use on one of their machines, you should always check their IT security policy in case they have security restrictions in place.
Don't worry if the portable app program details sound like foreign language... we'd be happy to help you with both your technical and printing needs.
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