Category Archives: Software

Software for the graphic arts or photography

Out damned spam! Out I say!

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Brian Lawler

I don’t use Gmail. I have nothing against Google or their e-mail offering, but I just don’t use it. I use the Mail application provided as part of the Macintosh operating system. I have done this for years (decades?). Several … Continue reading →

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Details on scanning film with the Epson scanner

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In two earlier blogs I described how I set up a large tabletop arrangement to scan historic panoramic negatives on my Epson Perfection scanner. When using the Epson scanner with the Epson Scan software (you can control the Epson scanner … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, Color Management, History, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

More on scanning film
with the Epson scanner

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

Last week I wrote about my immersion into scanning 19th century panoramic film. These negatives kept me up nights for about ten days. My total output of scans was 26. I carefully sorted through over 150 pieces of film, selected those … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Panoramic Photography, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Microsoft conundrum

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Brian Lawler

On the announcement last week of Steve Ballmer’s pending retirement, Microsoft’s stock shot up seven points as investors cheered for the future of the company without him. On NPR’s Marketplace they played recordings of Ballmer shouting “DEE-VEL-OH-PERS!” over and over … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Software, Technology, Typography | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Drawing a Coleman Lantern with Illustrator’s 3D tools

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In my last blog about the failure of my Cinema Display, I included a detailed illustration of a Coleman lantern. This was dredged entirely from memory, and included as an after-note in an illustration of a heliograph that I built … Continue reading →

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A Big Sur solution to overprint errors

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

As I was winding south from Big Sur last Friday, where I had spent the day making a GigaPan image of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Beach, my phone rang (I had been in a No Service area for over … Continue reading →

Posted in Mistakes you can avoid, Printing and Printing Processes, Software | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Crippling change in iPhoto causes consternation

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Brian Lawler

This blog merits a Mr. Curmudgeon heading because I am angry at Apple for changing a function in iPhoto for the worse. I have the occasion to make slide shows from time to time using iPhoto. Why? It’s simply because … Continue reading →

Posted in Curmudgeon, Mistakes you can avoid, Software | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

I made it to M

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

You may be aware that in early December I built a Network Attached Storage server, loaded an operating system on it (FreeNAS), and began the process of copying my large collection of CDs and DVDs to the NAS server. In … Continue reading →

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Machine carving and old style gilding on a deadline

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

At Cal Poly we recently dedicated the Raymond J. Prince Shakespeare Press Museum Resource Room. It’s a library of printing-related books and magazines, and it’s a study room for our students with desks, computers, a scanner, and comfy chairs. The … Continue reading →

Posted in History, People, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Optical discs fail, forcing me to move back to hard drives

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Brian Lawler

For years I have been making writable DVDs as archives for my files. I compile a selection of about 4GB of material in a folder, and when it’s reached that size, I write a DVD. Then I catalog that DVD … Continue reading →

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