Paul and Mark, Kare Kare, November 2004

Mark and Maori carving, Kare Kare, November 2004

Mark, Kare Kare, November 2004

Paul on the sands of Kare Kare, November 2004

Mark at Kare Kare, November 2004. Photo by Nick Hodge

Paul and Nick at Kare Kare, November 2004. Photo by Mark Szulc

Paul, November 2004.

Mark in silhouette at Piha, November 2004.

Paul at Piha, November 2004.

Mark and Nick, November 2004. Photo by Paul Stephens

Paul and Mark at Piha, November 2004.

Lion Rock and reflection at Piha, November 2004.

Paul (and Mark) at Piha, November 2004.

Mark and Lion Rock at Piha, November 2004.

Mark and Paul at Piha, November 2004.

Lion Rock, Piha, November 2004.

Paul and Mark set eyes on Piha, November 2004.

A common question via email and on mailing lists

: what are these

white boxes

I see in my PDF

?

There are two “white box” phenomena, both ex

plainable and both are non-fatal in your PDFs

generated from InDesign

CS.

Source InDesign file:

In this source file

, there is a spot colour (PANTONE 285C)

,

text

+

drop shadow

and a Photoshop file with transparency placed over the top.

Using S

eparation Preview (Window>Output Preview>Separation Preview), the page looks

correct

:

Using either File>Print to a Postscript file and Distilling, or File>Export as Adobe PDF using the [Press] settings, and the [High Resolution] Transparency Flattener style, results in an Acrobat 4.0/PDF 1.3 file (ref:)

Once you open the file in Acrobat 5.0 or 6.0, the following appears:

(a) depicts the “white box phenomena 1” and (b) depicts “white box phenomena 2”

(a) White Box 1: Overprint Preview

This is simple to resolve: Turn on Overprint Preview in Acrobat 5.0 or 6.0 (the free Adobe Reader does not show overprint preview)

The result is as follows. The white boxes dissappear. What are they? Firstly, white is not really white. White is infact a command in Postscript to “Knockout”. This knockout removes all colourants (printed elements) from imaging, and what shows through is the paper stock (substrate). The white we are seeing here is in fact a command to “knockout all process colours to permit the spot colour underneath to show” Overprint preview expresses these overprint/knockout commands in the PDF, and we get the result as below. The Separation Preview in Acrobat 6.0 Professional will also show the PDF correctly. Printing separations to a mjaority of devices will result in the correct output.

Some output devices are not smart enough to recognise the special overprint/knockout commands. Devices that only print Process colours, or convert the spot colours to process to proof the output may result in a view as above. This is not a limitation/bug in InDesign, but rather these output devices not respecting Acrobat 4.0/PDF1.3 constructs.

(b) White Box 2: Image/Vector Smoothing

This white box, or in fact white line, is the edge of an atomic region in the Transparency Flattened PDF. To explain this, here is the same PDF displayed using Wireframe; a feature of Enfocus Pitstop Professional:

You can see that this simple InDesign construct is split into multiple elements. The white line/box we are seeing is on the edge of one of these regions. This “breaking up” of seemingly simple InDesign elements is a function of the Transparency Flattener. Acrobat 4.0/PDF1.3 (and Postscript) cannot directly represent the transparency features. The Transparent elements are broken down into simpler atomic regions resulting in a file that will output and separate correctly.

The white lines/boxes are in fact Acrobat anti-aliasing (smoothing) the edges of these boxes. In ‘normal’ PDFs, this smoothing generates a pleasant, well, smooth, graphic elements. In a Flattened high-quality PDF, these lines are intrusive.

There is a major difference when you turn off smoothing (Smooth line art and Smooth image) in Edit>Preferences in Acrobat:

RIPs and other output devices do not smooth in a similar way, so these lines will not appear.

Suggestions for On-screen PDFs

If you are making a PDF for onscreen use, my strong suggestions are:

1. When printing/exporting, use the Ink Manager to “Convert all Spots to Process”. On screen PDFs don’t need many PANTONE colourants
2. Export as Acrobat 5.0/PDF1.4. This will result in a PDF that is not Transparency Flattened, but the PDF should be smaller and faster to display. The Reader 5.0 has been available since 2001, and is widely available. Including for MacOS 9.

Acrobat 6.0 Professional: Graphics, Print, Prepress

Acrobat 6.0 Professional: Graphics, Print, Prepress Overview
Nick Hodge
Acrobat 6.0 Professional adds numerous print/prepress/graphics/creative professional features.

Acrobat 6.0: General

Acrobat 6.0.1 Professional Updater (MacOS X)
Adobe Systems, 10.6Mb

Acrobat 6.0.1 Professional Updater (Win)
Adobe Systems, 15.2Mb

Faster search and retrieval in Adobe Acrobat 6
Cari Jansen
Imagine browsing a 1,000 page book and being in search of the term

Adobe PDF & Acrobat

3DAP (PDF Guidelines for Magazine Advertising Delivery)

Acrobat 5.0 Javascript Training Modules
Adobe Systems
Learn how to write Javascript for Adobe Acrobat 5.0

Acrobat Reader 5.1 (Windows and Mac)

Latest version of the Reader for all platforms.

Adobe Acrobat Reader and Forms Data without Custom CGI
Nick Hodge
How to use the common CGI, Formmail, and Acrobat Forms

Configuring Byte Serving on Web Servers
Adobe Systems
an oft-requested piece of technical info. Here is the obscure file on the Adobe web site!

GASAA: Graphics Arts PDF Usage Survey, 2002

Learning Centre: Introduction to Acrobat JavaScript

PlanetPDF Description on ADBC in Adobe PDF Forms

MacOS Acrobat 5.0.5 Updater

Updater from Acrobat 5.0 MacOS to 5.0.5 MacOS. Size 14.7Mb. Posted 20-Dec-2001

Making Compact PDFs Using Acrobat Distiller
Nick Hodge
How to create small Adobe PDFs for web delivery

MediaBox, BleedBox and TrimBox info in Adobe Acrobat 6
Cari Jansen
When creating PDFs that are PDF/X compliant it is a requirement that the MediaBox, TrimBox and BleedBox are properly defined in the PDF. Acrobat 6’s Crop command is a handy tool to reference the various box sizes.

PANPASpecs (PDF Guidelines for Newspaper Advertising Delivery)

PDF Forms and Javascript
Nick Hodge
How to create forms in Acrobat, and save the data to a web server or database.

PDFExperts on Microsoft Publisher/PDF Workflows

PDFExperts detail how to get CMYK from an RGB Publishing application via PDF

PDFs for Onscreen Presentations
Nick Hodge
Short synopsis of creating PDFs for on screen presentations

PlanetPDF on ADBC in Adobe PDF Forms

PlanetPDF Description on ADBC in Adobe PDF Forms

QuarkXpress, PDF, Trapping and Overprint
Nick Hodge
Quark doesn’t produce good composite Postscript for the Distiller – and this can impact overprint preview in Acrobat 5.0

Using Adobe PDF for Prepress

Links and Tools for Acrobat in a Prepress environment

Windows Acrobat 5.0.5 Updater

Updater from Acrobat 5.0 MacOS to 5.0.5 MacOS. Size 8.9Mb. Posted 5-Dec-2001

After Effects

Adobe After Effects Techniques from Angie Taylor
Angie Taylor

GoLive 6.0

Adam Pratt: GoLive 6.0 Tips & Tricks

Bigbang MenuMachine

Creating a Virtual Directory for the Apache Web Server on Mac OS X

Creating HTML emails with GoLive

Deleting a Bad Installation of the the GoLive Preconfigured Servers package on Mac OS X and starting over

GoLive 6.0.1 Update (Mac, 8.2Mb)

GoLive 6.0.1 Update (Win, 5.7Mb)

Initializing the Sample Databases and Using the Sample Sites on Mac OS X

Installing the GoLive Preconfigured Servers on Mac OS X

Illustrator 10

Adobe Illustrator 10.x – Illustrator 10.x: Clipping vs. Opacity masks
Cari Jansen
How can we put an image inside text? Cari explains how…

Adobe Illustrator 10.x – using appearance & styles to make a simple roadmap
Cari Jansen
Remember the days when we used to create roadmaps, using zillions of paths with various stroke weights and colours.

Illustrator 10: Making Good Text Go Bad
Nick Hodge
Using Illustrators transparency features to make text look bad

Scripting Spot Colour Changes in Illustrator 10
Nick Hodge
Scripting Spot Colour Changes in Illustrator 10

Warping Text using Illustrator 10’s Warping Tools
Nick Hodge
Using Illustrator’s Warping Tools on Text

Illustrator CS

Adobe Illustrator CS – Gradient Text for Effect
Cari Jansen
Using Gradients and Warping in Text for effect

Adobe Illustrator CS – Making Flags with Extrude and Bevel
Cari Jansen
Making flags look 3D, and almost realistic with Illustrator CS new 3D tools

InDesign 2.0

InDesign 2.0 Prepress Tips & Techniques

InDesign 2.0 Scripts

Adobe InDesign 2.x – Scaling and resizing images in InDesign
Cari Jansen
Possibly the more difficult feature to get used to when converting from another page layout program to InDesign, is the way in which images are handled.

Adobe InDesign 2.x – Text Wrap and Alpha Channels
Cari Jansen
Text wrap and alpha channels in InDesign 2.0

Find an InDesign Service Provider (Aust & NZ)

Find an InDesign Service Provider (Worldwide)

InDesign 2.0.2 Update (Mac)
Adobe Systems Support download. 14.2Mb
Adobe Systems Support download. 14.2Mb

InDesign 2.0.2 Update (Win)
Adobe Systems Support download. 13Mb
Adobe Systems Support download. 13Mb

InDesign 2.0: Determining Document Heritage
Nick Hodge
A hidden feature will show you an InDesign document’s heritage

InDesign 2.0: Hidden Baseline Grids
Nick Hodge
Inside Using InDesign 2.0’s baseline grid

InDesign 2.0: Painting Pictures with Picket Fences
Nick Hodge
Using Compound Paths to Create Interesting Pictures in InDesign 2.0

InDesign 2.x – Swatches – adding colours from other documents & changing the default colour setup
Cari Jansen
You can add spot colours, process colours, tint and gradient swatches used in one InDesign document to another. It is not possible to do this using a simple one-click method. There is however, a semi automatic method that allows adding of colour swatches

InDesign Plugin Listing

Nick Hodge: Videos of the InDesign 2.0 Roadshow, Feb 2002

from the Future of Publishing Roadshow

InDesign CS

Adobe Illustrator CS Printing Guide for Service Providers

Adobe InDesign CS – Eyedropper Across Documents
Cari Jansen
Behind the scenes – the eyedropper

Adobe InDesign CS Printing Guide for Service Providers
Adobe Systems
An essential guide to getting the best output from InDesign CS

Changes in InDesign CS’s scripting

http://www.indesignusergroup.com/sydney

InCopy CS Tryout, MacOS

InCopy CS Tryout, Windows

InDesign CS 3.0.1 Updater (MacOS)

InDesign CS 3.0.1 Updater (Win)

InDesign CS Tryout, MacOS

InDesign CS Tryout, Windows

InDesign CS vs. QuarkXpress 6.0.

InDesign CS: Prepress Overview
Nick Hodge
New features of InDesign CS specifically for Prepress professionals

Print Service Provider Resources

InDesign CS2

InDesign CS2 Snippets

InDesign CS2: Print and Prepress Features
Nick Hodge
What is new in InDesign CS2 from a print and pre-press perspective? More than meets the eye!

PageMaker 7.0

Adobe PageMaker 7.x – Using the rotation tool
Cari Jansen
Ever gotten lost using PageMaker’s rotation tool? Does it behave like a rocket launcher when you click-drag, projecting the selected element into

Photoshop 7.0

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 G5 Processor Plug-in update for Mac OS X (1.4Mb)

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.x AltiVecCore Update plug-in
Adobe Systems
2003-01-28

AppleScript: FileMaker Pro to Photoshop 7.0
Nick Hodge
An AppleScript that takes data from FileMaker Pro and inserts it into Photoshop 7.0

Color Remedies on Color Management
Color Remedies

Moonshine: Distilling PDF into JPEG using Scripting
Nick Hodge
Photoshop 7.0 adds scripting. Here we use the scripting as a way of converting PDFs into JPEGs.

Moonshine: Distilling PDF into JPEG using Scripting NOW in VB for Windows!
Nick Hodge
Photoshop 7.0 adds scripting. Here we use the scripting as a way of converting PDFs into JPEGs. Now available in VB for Windows!

Photoshop 7 File Browser Automatic Numbering Technique
Nick Hodge
How to use the File Browser to renumber files starting from non-zero

Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin 1.0.2a (Mac)

Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin, Samples and Documentation for Macintosh (v1.0.2)

Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin 1.0.2a (Win)
Adobe Systems
Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Plugin, Samples and Documentation for Windows (v1.0.2)

Photoshop 7.0.1 Update (Mac, 15.2Mb)

Photoshop 7.0.1 Update (Win, 12.8Mb)

Photoshop 7.x – Amending File Browser width for palette well
Cari Jansen
Do you find that when the File Browser is docked to the palette well you can’t make the browser window wider only deeper?

Photoshop 7.x – Cache & the File Browser
Cari Jansen
When you view the image contents of a new folder using the File Browser, you must have experienced a delay in the viewing process at times.

Russell Brown
Russell Brown
Russell Preston Brown’s whole host of Photoshop (and more!) related tips

Premiere 6.x, Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro

Better Titles with Premiere
Nick Hodge
How to create Titles in Premiere 6.0

Faster Editing with Premiere
Nick Hodge
How to tune up your productivity in Premiere

Picture-in-Picture
Nick Hodge
How to create a picture in a picture (or overlay video) with Premiere 6.0

Premiere, PowerPoint and Piha
Nick Hodge
Using Premiere to make video for Powerpoint

Reversing Footage in Premiere 6.0
Nick Hodge
How to reverse a clip in Premiere 6.0

Stop-motion Frames
Nick Hodge
How to create stop-motion (aka strobing) frames with Premiere 6.0

Using Effects in Premiere
Nick Hodge
How to use Video Effects in Premiere 6.0

Video to the Web
Nick Hodge
Slides and web URLs from the February 2001 Premiere 6.0 Roadshow

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

NZ Weather SVG & PHP Demo
Nick Hodge
Nicks Dynamic New Zealand Weather maker

SVG Information at Protocol 7

SVG intro at Adobe

SVG intro at the Adobe Systems web site

SVG Tips and Tricks: Adobe’s SVG Viewer
Antoine Quint

SVG Tutorial Files
Nick Hodge
Nicks SVG Tutorial from OpenPublish 2001

SVG Zone

SVG Zone at the Adobe Systems web site

Of Historical Interest Only…

GoLive 5.0

Livemotion 1.0

Photoshop 6.0

Fairfax: Apple Technologies Used

Golden Master

Switch Canary

The Fairfax Experience

New Downloads on www.adobe.com

Adobe Studio Exchange

This is about as good as I get in a picture. This picture was taken whilst I was presenting Apple’s Quicktime at a Macromedia conference in 1998 when I was still at Apple Computer. In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromedia. How small this IT world is.

Nick in a Skyhawk @ Ta Papa, Wellington, NZ. May 2000.

Nick doing air guitar, Hobart May 1999. Photo by Tim Cole.

Nick doing air guitar, Darwin May 1999. Photo by Tim Cole.

Nick doing air guitar, Darwin May 1999. Photo by Tim Cole. Jordan Reizes on the phone (what else) to the right.

Nick doing air guitar on Crocodile @ Crocdilus Park, Darwin May 1999. Photo by Tim Cole.

Nick and Victor Guerrero. Middle of f*cking nowhere. Photo by Lyndal. (on the way to Bay of Islands, May 2000)

Nick & Victor Guerrero, Sheep World. 1 hour’s drive north of Auckland, NZ. Photo by Lyndal.

Nick driving a Mustang in the US. Thanks to Neverlost, I was knew where I was. I don’t know where this photo was taken. Photo by Aaron Tavakoli, April 2002

Nick on VTA Train San Jose, April 2002

Nick standing outside Adobe Systems, San Jose. April 2002

Fat Bastard Nick at Norman Lindsay’s Place. Photo by Tim Cole August 2000

Nick @ Melbourne Convention Centre @ Photoshop 7 User’s Conference April 2002. Photo by Eric Persijn

Nick @ Melbourne Convention Centre @ Photoshop 7 User’s Conference April 2002. Photo by Eric Persijn

Fisheye Nick

Nick Hodge at the Photoshop 7 Roadshow, Perth, May 2002. Photo by Henry Oorjitham of Nu Designs

Nick at Sales Conference in San Jose, June 2002

Nick in Bangalore: Ajeet Indian Trainer

Nick in Bangalore: Kirin

Nick@ the Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Sept 2002

Nick@ the Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Sept 2002

Nick@ the Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Sept 2002

Nick, onstage talking about his MINI. And Adobe stuff, too!

Nick in a natural presentation pose, Adelaide, June 2003. Photo by Peter Sinclair, Onstage Presentations.

Nick, Acrobat 6.0 Roadshow Brisbane 12 June 03. Sick as a dog, lost my voice

Smiling. Adobe Sales Conference, San Jose, June 2003. Photo by Aaron Tavakoli

Smiling. Adobe Sales Conference, San Jose, June 2003. Photo by Aaron Tavakoli

Nick and Alan win Asia-Pacific Sales Impact Award. Photo includes Craig Tegel, Jim Stephens and Bruce Chizen

Nick, Kym & Danno at Expotech Sydney June 2003

Nick looks over Auckland, NZ, January 2001

Nick at Gateway to India, September 2002

Nick at Gateway to India, September 2002. Looking toward to the Taj Mahal

Nick Hodge, with MINI, August 2003. Photo by Mike Wallen

Me, my MINI and a Pub (Sydneys oldest pub, Lord Nelson)

Nick in Canberra, Nov03. Photo by Michael Stoddart.

Nick and Alan in Perth for Creative Suite Roadshow. Nov 03, Photo by Cari Jansen

Nick in front of Korean War era Sherman, War Memorial, Seoul, South Korea. December 2003.

Nick and Brent Irwin, Express Data, as Bouncers Melbourne Dec 03

Qantas Club, International Terminal, on way to Singapore, March 2004. Photo by Michael Stoddart.

Nick, the MINI, somewhere north of Eden, NSW, August 2004. Photo by Tim Cole

Nick on the sands of Kare Kare, November 2004. Photo by Mark Szulc

Nick at Kare Kare, November 2004. Photo by Mark Szulc

Nick at Lion Rock, Piha, NZ. November 2004. Photo by Mark Szulc

Nick in silhouette, Piha, NZ. November 2004. Photo by Mark Szulc

Nick and Kookaburra, Lake Macquarie, NSW. Photo by Daniel Low.

Thanks John G for getting me in a compromising situation

My MINI gets married

My MINI gets married

The lovely couple, and some MINIs

The wedding party with the five MINIs

Like the Hodge family travels in 2004, (see 70 Days, 7 Countries); in March through June 2005 we’ve journeyed to many cities and countries: this time, the locations are around the Pacific basin.

The Places:

Christchurch II (5th June to 8th June)

Christchurch II Gallery

Los Angeles (14th June to 16th June)

Los Angeles Gallery

Mexico (9th June to 14th June)

Mexico Gallery

Shanghai (15th March to 19th March)

Shanghai Gallery

Tokyo (9th May to 19th May)

Tokyo Gallery

Wellington and Christchurch (21st April and 22nd April)

Wellington and Christchurch Gallery

Shanghai, night lights, downtown

Famous tower in Shanghai

Seagull Restaurant, on the River in Shanghai

At the gate, Hong Kong airport

In Shanghai, All trucks are this sky-blur colour

Bridge, Shanghai

Some of the massive freeway/overpass system in Shanghai

Some of the massive freeway/overpass system in Shanghai

Shanghai suburbia

ClubMINI Run 26 February 06

Resume: Nick Hodge

The most current Resume, with contacts and endorsements can be found at: www.linkedin.com Profile: Nick Hodge

To view a particular year’s details, click on a year to the left.

Random Access Adelaide, 1987. Taken from Hindmarsh Square looking toward Twin Plaza.

Nick inside the “tech support” room at the rear of Random Access. Klipsch KG4 speakers (which I still have!) blasting music I am sure!

Nick at his desk, early 1987, Random Access.

Inside Random Access in early 1987. The computer is one of the first Macintosh II’s. Probably taken just before opening of the updated store.