Another useful calculator

Did you know there is such a thing as a Time calculator?

Very useful if you want to do sums that have hours and minutes, and really can't be bothered remembering how to do that.

(Belated) Merry Christmas

A Saviour has been born to you.

How cool is that?

I thought we were needing a picture, so here's something I see every Tuesday: A motor bike for someone in a wheelchair!

Fonts

"A good font should be invisible. In other words, if you've done it right, your audience shouldn't even notice it."

Jason Brubaker

'Contextualised parables'

An interesting article by the author of The Journey of Life. 

The article is really about his children's books - which I didn't illustrate - but a lot of the same things apply.

Hallellujah - praise the Lord!

I have found a tutorial on the internet showing me a way you can create bleed in Publisher. I've tried it (with a bit of adaption), and the art editor says it's fine.

I have found a website which will convert any type of font to ttf. This means I don't need to change the fonts in my book, which could cause all kinds of problems. I have tried it, and it works. 

Although buying copies of the clipart I used was going to be prohibitively expensive, I was able to draw some new pictures to replace the clipart ones. I used an easy style I like doing, and it took under 2 hours.

I can go out tonight with a clear conscience!!!

Also, it is snowing :-)

Warning 4: Microsoft Publisher cannot handle bleed properly

If you don't know what bleed is, I don't have time to explain properly just now.

But, in a nutshell, it allows you to have pages where the pictures, backgrounds etc go right to the edge.  This is a basic publishing task which you would expect a program called 'Publisher' would be able to cope with.

You know that 50 page book I was talking about?

Have I designed it in Publisher? Yes I have.

Does it have pictures etc going to the edge? Yes, it does.

Do I have time for all this nonsense? No, I don't.

Time to listen to this song again, I think... 


(Edit: I have found a way to do this)

Warning 3: microsoft clipart is for personal use only

You may not use it for commercial purposes.

I have just designed a bunch of stuff using it. I will now need to see if I can find them all on stock sites and buy them.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Warning 2: making a pdf involves embedding fonts

Why does this matter? Because you can't embed otf fonts.

I have just designed 50 pages of a book with otf fonts (and others) used throughout. I need to pdf it to send to the printers.

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!!!!!

New free download

It's that time of year again, when children dress up in tea towels and dressing gowns to represent first century Jews (who wore neither tea towels nor dressing gowns).

As I was doing this anyway for a project, thought I'd post a simple, no-sew, historically accurate first century costume.

Could do with cloak-draping instructions too, but that will have to wait. Basically, wrap a bit of cloth round you for a cloak.

If you really want a hat, a beanie would probably be a bit more (very approximately!) accurate than a tea towel.

A girl can have the same costume ankle length. If she's depicting a married woman, she should cover her hair with a shawl.

Click picture to enlarge.