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Post by smclean150 on Nov 13, 2005 17:28:56 GMT -5
Greetings Feat Fanatics,
I too am smitten with my Little Feat live recordings...I've been busy lately cleaning things up and completing my collection with proper cd covers, etc.
I am looking for completed cover sets for the 7-14-99 and 8-5-99 shows...does anyone have cover sets for these shows? I have exhausted my searches at the various Feat sites and come up empty...
Thanks for your assistance!
Word!
Scott
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Post by threebeards on Nov 17, 2005 22:43:03 GMT -5
Scott,
I'm not able to help you out but I do have a general question about covers and labels. I have been using the Fellowes/Neato Mediaface software and cover/tray/labeling supplies. It is a real bitch to find the stuff around here but I can order it readily online. The cover art that has been created for the samplers is Adobe Acrobat-based and I can get covers printed from other software (I-tunes/Nero/etc.) I like using the Neato system: partly because I'm now fairly proficient with it and partly because I like the results I get. The fly in the ointment is that the supplies don't come cheap. With the recent effort to provide a central point for everyone's FEAT cover art, it begs the question; is there going to be a software standard for this stuff? If the choice is Acrobat-based, can it be formatted to print properly with the Neato (or anyone else's) system? I would be willing to upload my covers and trays but I am concerned that, if most people are just printing to high quality paper and then trimming to fit, my efforts would be wasted. What's the general feeling about this?
TB
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Post by smclean150 on Nov 18, 2005 19:24:07 GMT -5
Threebeards, Your point is well-taken. It would be helpful to have/make available covers to share with everyone in a standard format. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but I think maybe being able to save your work as a standard .pdf might be useful as the reader is available freely to everyone. I have been able to open/print with nice size adjustability using Irfanview (also free) and I am currently fiddling with an admittedly dated version of Adaptec's Jewel Case Creator. Its a bit clunky but I've figured out how to get good results. Keep 'em trimmed-  Scott |
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Post by featphoto on Nov 18, 2005 21:36:46 GMT -5
Threebeards, Your point is well-taken. It would be helpful to have/make available covers to share with everyone in a standard format. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but I think maybe being able to save your work as a standard .pdf might be useful as the reader is available freely to everyone. an excellent suggestion ... at best, this is a very loosely organized group of folks (with a few notable exceptions, but only a few), so hoping that a standard will be agreed upon internally is a long shot at best. as you said, probably better you adhere to an industry standard like the .pdf format. |
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Post by threebeards on Nov 18, 2005 23:46:39 GMT -5
My understanding is that those covers would print on standard sized 8 1/2 x 11 paper that you would then cut down to size. What is the cost of the Adobe software that allows you to create the pdf files? Are there other softwares available which can create pdf or is that strictly an Adobe property? I have never used nor do I even know anyone who is creating pdf files. We've all (well, mostly all) had experience opening the files but few create them. I seem to remember that the full version of Acrobat is a bit pricey. Does anyone have details on the software's ease of use? I use Microsoft Photodraw (which is out of production now with no replacement) to manipulate images and photographs I snag from Google image searches and then incorporate them into my covers, trays, and labels. I assume Acrobat allows that kind of image importing.
TB
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Post by threebeards on Nov 18, 2005 23:50:00 GMT -5
And one final thought. If someone is having success with Acrobat, perhaps providing a correctly-sized template for covers and trays would be a big help for the rest of us. Maybe just a thin line that represents the outside borders so we can just "color inside the lines."
TB
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Post by featphoto on Nov 19, 2005 11:41:22 GMT -5
My understanding is that those covers would print on standard sized 8 1/2 x 11 paper that you would then cut down to size. What is the cost of the Adobe software that allows you to create the pdf files? Are there other softwares available which can create pdf or is that strictly an Adobe property? I have never used nor do I even know anyone who is creating pdf files. We've all (well, mostly all) had experience opening the files but few create them. I seem to remember that the full version of Acrobat is a bit pricey. Does anyone have details on the software's ease of use? I use Microsoft Photodraw (which is out of production now with no replacement) to manipulate images and photographs I snag from Google image searches and then incorporate them into my covers, trays, and labels. I assume Acrobat allows that kind of image importing. TB I use a piece of software called PDF Converter, marketed by Scansoft ... it comes in 2 flavors, the $50 version and the $100 version, and it allows you to convert text & image files into pdf format. it worked perfectly with the set of Microsoft Publisher (yes, that old chestnut) files that I created the Feat Fan Cookbook in, so it might very well work for you too. If you go to www.download.com and type in "pdf converter" in the search window, you will get a whole bunch of hits including Scansoft's product. nice thing is, you get a free trial period before you have to pay, so you can test it out to see if it does what you want it to do. as a general tip, download.com is a great place to find small pieces of (fairly) cheap software. |
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Post by threebeards on Nov 19, 2005 20:51:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip, Hank. I would also recommend tucows.com for a huge variety of shareware/freeware.
TB
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Post by DPK on Nov 20, 2005 14:35:38 GMT -5
Free, free, free.... everyone wants something for FREE!   Keep using Neato, I do too. Once you have your cover art the way you want it, "print it" to something like these... www.primopdf.com/never used it www.pdf995.com/ Used it with some luck but it makes you suffer some purchase splashes or at least it did... www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp we use this at the office and our guy wouldn't put it on if it wasn't pretty decent. One caution, if your art is quite complex or uses huge image files the results may not be quite what you expect. HTH |
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BillL
Full Member
RIGHT ON !!!!
Posts: 172
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Post by BillL on Nov 20, 2005 18:39:24 GMT -5
Primopdf is pretty good but it does have a strange interface. I think you should create the covers in whichever program works best for you and then use one of the free converters to create the .pdf files. I'm still trying to find a program to create in that will let me do what I want to do easily. I'm sure they all can, but I'm very impatient with things like that.
Bill L
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Post by DPK on Nov 21, 2005 1:17:02 GMT -5
The CutePDF has no interface really. Install the "printer" driver and make it the default system printer or select at the time of printing and it will simply pop up a browser window in which you can target and name a file name for your cover art. Couldn't be easier. I agree on using what you feel comfy with. FWIW, the Nero burning software (v6 at least) has a cover creator but I've never used it. Also if you get the Avery label making kits I think you get a free authoring app. I'm sure there's shareware out there too. I just made a few this weekend in Neato that works for me. What I need to do to step up a notch is find some way to incorporate more fonts and learn how to produce images with transparent backgrounds so that I can layer up some different shots... We have too much time on our hands I think |
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Post by featcovers on Nov 21, 2005 15:54:50 GMT -5
Just a reminder to you good folks out there. I have hosted the Little Feat Covers Annexe at www.featcovers.com for a few years now. There are covers (or links to covers) for many shows, and yes, I realise that I haven't updated it for a while. This four letter word called "life" keeps getting in the way, but an update is moving higher up my (very long) '"to do" list. Please check it out - and let me know what you think. |
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Post by threebeards on Nov 29, 2005 8:49:02 GMT -5
Dave,
I use Microsoft Photodraw to massage my graphics images before embedding them in my cover/tray/label files. I can crop, clone (remove or duplicate parts of the original image), and there is a transparency function that lets me control the percentage of transparency so I can "ghost" the image as much as I want to use as a background without the image interfering with the text I layer on top. The software is unfortunately out of production (with no Microsoft replacement) but E-Bay may pop up a copy for you.
As far as the apps that convert to pdf, is it just a function of "printing" to the destination file?
TB
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Scott
