InDesign CS5 and the iPad

So everybody knows that CS5 got announced, and I have to tell you, It's the best release ever! Especially InDesign. More than a Print Layout application, it's a Document Layout application. What do I mean?

Reading Michael Ninness thoughts about what constitutes a document is very interesting (Ninness was senior product manager on Adobe InDesign CS5, now is Vice President of Lynda.com). Basically a document in today's terms is not for print only, but for various outlets. Including the iPad.

Enter ePub
One of the bif features of the iPad is its ability to display books usig the open standard ePub format. And, what do you know, InDesign has native support for exporting to ePub (well, it had it since InDesign CS3, but believe me, It's waaaaay better in CS5). Imagine: you can create a document for Print, Web, Interactive Flash or PDFs and ePubs. How cool is that!

Sooooo, is it that easy?
Well, yes and no. Creating an ePub format book has some nuances one must bare before exporting it. One thing to note about ePubs: Although great for novels and the like, it's not so good with more graphically designed layout publications. That's where PDFs (especially Interactive PDFs comes in to play).

ePub + iPad = Cool books!
So, how do you create your ePub books using InDesign CS5? Most certainly, Adobe has published some notes on this here (Note: Information is based on CS4, hopefully they'll update it soon).

But Terry White, of Adobe and Tech Industry fame, just created a video tutorial on creating an ePub book for the iPad in InDesign CS5! Check out the video and also, visit the link here to download the free book! And read more about the creation of the book here!

It's Here: CS5!

Yes, it's finally here: Adobe Creative Suite 5! And I have to say. it's the best release EVER! If you missed the launch event, you can see it here.

And for my latin IDUG users (spanish will be spoken now):

Ya fueron testigos de la mejor versión jamás visto de Adobe, el Creative Suite 5. Pero si eres desean ver en persona esta nueva versión (y vives en Puerto Rico) le invito a que me acompañes a nuestra próxima reunión del InDesign User Group el 1 de mayo de 2010. Puedes ver mas aquí.

Adobe to launch CS5!!

Adobe just announced that they are going to announce the Creative Suite 5! (Weird, I know) Anyhoo, on April 12, 2010 we'll get the whole scoop on what's new in the Creative Suite of applications like InDesign and Photoshop. Something tells me this will be the best release ever!

Sign up here!

The Future of Publishing

There has been a lot of talk of Flash (or lack thereof) on Apple devices. Now, you can argue all you want about it, but Adobe is not letting Apple's decision get on there way of revolutionizing what's possible with Flash, mainly thanks to AIR. They recently announced that, along with Flash Player 10.1, they would be making available AIR on many devices, even on Apple devices (in some way or form).

Think about this, develop one app and deploy it to multiple OSes: Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, etc. That's pretty cool if you ask me! But what about the iPhone, iPod Touch and, mainly, the iPad? Through AIR, you can create apps specifically for these devices.

Now, talking' about the iPad, I think this device will be a revolution in publishing. I will go further in saying, it is the true beginning of the end of Print Publishing as we know it. Now, if we go back to the beginning of desktop publishing, who were the players? Apple with the Macintosh and Adobe with Pagemaker (well, Aldus). Now in this day in age, it just makes sense that both Apple and Adobe be the main players in the future of publishing. Want proof? Check out this video!

Adobe Community Professionals 2010

As the name of the blog implies, my main passion these days is photography. Truly love it! And creating my site/blog was my way of keeping me up to date with my photography (although, i admit, i must update my blog more often). But my day job is all about Print Production and Graphic Arts. Over 10 years of page layouts, fonts, pre-flights, paper, ink, etc.

Back then, my main tools for the job involved Photoshop, Freehand (how i miss you!) and QuarkXpress (how i don't miss you!). Then came a program named InDesign. First version was... ok. Version 2 was great! Ever since, I was hooked; I knew then Quark's days on the top was numbered.

A couple of years ago, my buddy José Ramos became Chapter Representative of the InDesign User Group in Puerto Rico (the first of the Caribbean, if not the first in Latin America) and invited me to help him out. Ever since I have been involved with the group. Last year, I was invited to become Co-Chapter Rep with José, which I gladly (and humbly) accepted.

Now comes a biggie... this year I was invited to be part of the Adobe Community Professionals (formerly known as the Adobe Community Experts). I am totally psyched and honored to be in such a community. What is Adobe Community Professional? From Liz Frederick (Adobe Community Manager):

This community-based program is made up of users who share their product expertise with the worldwide Adobe community. The mission is to provide high caliber peer-to-peer communication educating and improving the product skills of Adobe customers worldwide.

As you can imagine, I am very excited about this program. My thanks to Adobe for creating such excellent tools and for truly engaging with the end user. And, for the complete list of inductees, go here!

P.S.
Yup, my buddy José is in the group, thanks José!