Monthly Archives: May 2012
What’s New in Suitcase Fusion 4 Webcast Recording
May 31st, 2012 by Jim Kidwell
In case you missed my recent webcast covering the new features in the Suitcase Fusion 4 font manager, we’ve placed a recorded version online to view at your convenience.
Watch the English What’s New in Suitcase Fusion 4 Webcast
This webcast covers all of new new font management features, including:
- Font Panels in Adobe Creative Suite apps
- Favorites
- Custom preview colors
- Expanded auto-activation plug-ins
- Free update for Adobe CS6 plug-ins
- Free Starter font library from Google Web Fonts
- Easy access to finding similar fonts with QuickMatch
- Custom font digests
- Fluid interface
Extensis opens new office for Australia and New Zealand
May 31st, 2012 by Jim Kidwell
After several years of successive business growth in Australia and New Zealand, we are happy to announce the appointment of John Parnaby as Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand.
John brings a wealth of digital publishing and IT expertise gained throughout his career. Prior to his appointment at Extensis, Parnaby worked at Future Publishing and BBC Magazines, two of the UK’s leading print publishers, where he purchased and maintained Extensis’ server solutions and technologies.
John’s expertise will be invaluable to furthering Extensis’ technology lead in Australia and New Zealand and providing both existing and prospective Font Management and Digital Asset Management customers support and guidance.
The region’s diverse list of Extensis customers includes: Kmart, Pearson Australia Group, Royal Australia Mint, Target Australia Pty Ltd, Walt Disney Television Australia Pacific Magazines, The Australian Football League, CSIRO, Terry White Chemists (part of Symbion Health) and The City of Sydney.
John will be working closely with Extensis Preferred Partners and Resellers, and is responsible for providing Extensis Professional Services and Technical Support throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Learn CSS3 Web Typography at Big Design 2012
May 30th, 2012 by Jim Kidwell
Want to learn more about CSS3 and Web Fonts? Will you be in Texas on this week? We’ve got a treat for you.
Extensis typography nerd, expert and general savant, Thomas Phinney will be a featured speaker this week at the Big Design 2012 Conference in Addison, TX.
The Big Design Conference is three intense days of learning that includes user experience and code development.
Thomas will cover how CSS3 Web Typography Changes Everything
- Day: Friday, June 1st, 2012
- Time: 10:00am
By attending, you will learn:
- how server-based web fonts work, and what options they replace
- choices for enabling web fonts, from self-hosting to web font services
- see these features in action on web pages, from workhorse everyday typography to the surprising and bizarre, via fonts created by Phinney and friends
- state and near future of advanced typography support in browsers
- “correct” typographic use of all these new features
For more information on Big Design 2012 or to register, visit http://bigdesignevents.com/conference/
What does a digital asset management API do? Part 2
May 29th, 2012 by Edward Smith
Last week I posted an example of a stock photography company using API to connect their digital asset mnagement system to an e-commerce website. This week I’m bringing you an example of how a company can use a DAM API to ensure open access and data portability:
After reaching capacity limitations, a university decides to migrate from a legacy DAM system to a scalable solution. However, they discover that their multi-decade collection of over 1 million photographs and metadata is stored in a proprietary database that cannot be migrated without hundreds of hours of manual data entry. To avoid vendor lock-in, the university’s IT department requires that any DAM replacement solution allows open and direct access to all assets. The university selects Portfolio Server because the Portfolio API provides open and direct access to all files and metadata.
For more examples like this, along with more information about the Portfolio API and other enterprise DAM technologies, check out our Enterprise DAM Technology whitepaper.
Digital Asset Management Best Practices Discussion at 2012 UPAA Symposium
May 25th, 2012 by Edward Smith
Photographers within academic institutions typically deal with high-resolution photographs, and a lot of them. When you’re responsible for shooting sporting events, ceremonies, students, staff, faculty, campuses, buildings, and more you’re going to have a large hoard of media to deal with. That’s why efficient digital asset management is such an important process for university photographers.
That’s also why Extensis will be attending the 2012 University Photographers’ Association of America Symposium to discuss digital asset management best practices with real world examples from university photographers:
Digital Asset Management Best Practices
Friday June 22
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
(To attend the Sympoisum you must be a UPAA member)
The UPAA was founded in 1961 by a small group of university photographers in the New England area. Since then their membership has grown to include photographers from across the United States, Canada, Australia and Israel.
He’s the Jeff Foxworthy of Digital Asset Management
May 24th, 2012 by Amanda Paull
Ed Smith, our in-house DAM dude, is channeling Jeff Foxworthy in his new CMS Wire Article. It should be titled “You know you’re a Rich Media Hoarder if…” Check it out.
And in you are in the NY area, Check out the upcoming ‘Hoarders Unite’ event on June 19th. Learn How Viacom Saves Time and Money with DAM.
Any creative work usually requires a level of input and approval from clients or supervisors. Designers need a quick way to share font selections for approval.
The previous process for most designers was a bit tedious and included creating a sample InDesign, Illustrator or QuarkXPress file, saving it out as a PDF before mailing it to the client.
Extensis Suitcase Fusion 4 makes it easy to quickly create a font sample simply by dragging a font preview to the desktop.
Called a Font Snapshot, these PNG previews are exactly what you see in the font manager, including any custom colors for the font and background.
First, I enter my custom text into the QuickType field.
Then I select the custom colors for my project.
And finally, I click and drag the icon for my selected font to the desktop.
This creates a sample PNG preview file that I can easily mail to the client. It uses the approved client colors and sample text. The client gets what they expect and doesn’t need stretch their imagination to know how the final product will look.
Font Snapshots are easy, fast and simple.
Take them for a spin with a free 30-day trial of Suitcase Fusion 4.
Webcast: Monetizing Your Asset Collection with Digital Asset Management
May 23rd, 2012 by Edward Smith
Join us for a webcast about online art and photography business In Transit Images who are using Portfolio Server to make their photography collections available online for licensing and printing.
In Transit Images Managing Director Bob Hendriks will discuss:
- Challenges they faced with their manual system before DAM, including rising costs and general overhead
- How they implemented and managed the system with no formal IT person on staff
- How they linked their internal system to the Web portal using the Portfolio API to drive their online business forward
- Overall benefits including cutting time savings in half with initial rollout (and 20% savings over time)
- How In Transit plans to manage an expected doubling library of assets year over year
At the end of the presentation, Bob will be available for a live Q&A.
May 31st, 2012
11:00 AM (Pacific) / 2:00 PM (Eastern)
Register for the webcast
(A recorded webcast will be emailed to you if you register but can’t attend.)
Dyslexia, Typeface Design and Legibility
May 23rd, 2012 by Jim Kidwell
Recently, Extensis Typography Guru Thomas Phinney wrote an article for Communication Arts that explores the issues surrounding the typeface design and dyslexia.
Thomas goes into a well-considered analysis of the two common typefaces designed specifically for readers with dyslexia, and how each typeface holds up to scrutiny.
Read the full article over at Communication Arts.
Rich Media Hoarders Unite: FREE Seminar Hosted by Extensis featuring Comedy Central
May 22nd, 2012 by Edward Smith
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Fashion Institute of Technology – New York City
FEATURING: A Case Study in Efficiency: How Viacom Saves Time Managing Digital Content
Are you a hoarder of digital media files like pictures, videos, and graphics?
If so (and you’ll be near NYC on June 19th) join us for a free one-day event that will help you understand how to best find, organize, and convert your digital assets. You’ll also see how TV Land and Comedy Central reined in their growing library of images and PDFs and saved time by making rich media files easily accessible to employees.
Space is limited, so register today!
