Gene Gable

Review: QuarkXPress 8

QuarkXPress users will welcome many of the changes in XPress 8, and may even delight in a few of them.

Review: Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional

Even with so many applications and operating systems exporting decent PDF files, Adobe has pumped just enough new features and online services into Acrobat 9 to keep it useful, and perhaps even compelling.

First Look: QuarkXPress 8.0

Finally, the makeover designers have been waiting for.

Scanning Around With Gene: Pay Up, or Else!

The current economic slowdown has resulted in many people having to stall on paying some bills. Gene Gable takes a look at collection stickers from days gone by and wonders just what motivates someone to break down and actually mail that check.

Scanning Around With Gene: Five Years on a Flatbed

On the occasion of five years writing his column for CreativePro.com, Gene Gable looks back on what he's learned scanning everything from dirty cocktail napkins to old record-albums. That, and the difference between a quail and a pheasant.

Scanning Around With Gene: Oh Yeah? Then Show Me Your Badge.

There was a time when many professions, from elevator operator to society reporter, came with a badge. Gene Gable takes a look back at badge design and wonders what themes might emerge if graphic designers were to revive this lost art. Submit your customized badge and you may win an Amazon.com gift certificate!

Scanning Around With Gene: One Ringy-Dingy, Two Ringy-Dingies

If people think Apple is overly controlling of the iPhone, they must not be old enough to remember Ma Bell. Gene Gable takes a graphic look at a time when the most exciting phone on the market was called a "Princess," and "phone manners" were not about talking at the opera.

Pantone 2.0: After 45 Years, the Sequel to PMS

The new Pantone Goe spot-color matching system has a lot going for it compared to the venerable Pantone Matching System: It nearly doubles the number of unique colors, adopts a logical naming scheme, and comes with innovative color-palette software. But will Goe replace your current PMS swatch book? Only your wallet knows for sure.

Scanning Around With Gene: Part 2 of That '70s Type!

Gas was in short supply during some of the 1970s, but not so great type designs. Several new companies and technologies emerged that made that period the decade of display type. While good headlines were still set one letter at a time, new technology gave both designers and typesetters almost unlimited options. The results, says Gene Gable, while not always readable, were at least nice to look at.

Scanning Around With Gene: Part 1 of That '70s Type!

The decade from 1970 to 1980 stands out for many reasons, from sideburns to Richard Nixon to disco. But the things Gene Gable remembers most fondly are the decorative, bold, and sometimes goofy type designs.

Why the Adobe/FedEx-Kinkos Deal is the Best Thing that Could Happen to the Printing Industry

Gene Gable is a man with strong opinions. This time, his opinion is that it's time for printers to grow up and get off Adobe's Back.

Scanning Around with Gene: When Sparks Fly

Of the many images associated with the Fourth of July in America, it is those related to fireworks that bring back the best memories for many. In this installment, Gene Gable looks at the graphic art of fireworks and things that go boom.

Scanning Around With Gene: Profile of An Early Clip Art Character

The artists behind most clip art are anonymous. But fortunately some, like Reno cartoonist Lew Hymers, leave a well-documented body of work. In this installment, Gene Gable looks at the art and life of one of America's most prolific clip-art pioneers.

Scanning Around With Gene: Hamming it Up this Easter Dinner

There are a wide variety of images associated with Easter and the beginning of spring, says Gene Gable. But for reasons best left between Gene and his psychiatrist, the theme he's chosen for this installment is one of food: that of the Easter Ham.

Scanning Around with Gene: When I Grow Up to Be a Man

Faced with his nephew's eighteenth birthday and the independence that comes with it, Gene Gable has been wondering just what turns a boy into a man. In this installment, Gene presents a variety of visual clues, but concludes that manhood has no common face, and may ultimately be elusive for many.

Are You Ready for the Small Web?

If Apple's iPhone becomes as ubiquitous as the iPod, many millions of people will view Web sites on screens very different from the computer monitors most sites are optimized for. What are you going to do about it?

Scanning Around with Gene: Getting That New Bike Down the Chimney

Children still get wheels under the Christmas tree these days, but more and more they're in the form of skateboards, scooters, and other devices. Yet even in the era of Nintendo Wiis and Elmo dolls that laugh hysterically, Gene Gable wonders if there is anything more exciting than waking up to a shiny new bike on Christmas morning.

Scanning Around with Gene: The Joke's on You

Since 1914, the Johnson Smith Company has been astounding young and old with its catalogs of novelties, practical jokes, puzzles, magic tricks, and every sort of whacky entertainment item you can imagine. In this installment, Gene takes a look at an assortment of goods from the company's 1940 catalog.

Scanning Around with Gene: Barbecues, Bar-B-Ques, or BBQs -- We Love 'Em All

Labor Day is the second-most-popular day for barbecuing in America, only slightly behind the Fourth of July. In this installment, Gene Gable looks back to a time before outdoor cooking was referred to as "grilling." Along the way, he wonders why so many men are obsessed with the size of their Weber.

Scanning Around With Gene: When Printers Went to War

Today it's near impossible to find any U.S. business, let alone an entire industry, that takes a public stance on the war in Iraq. But as Gene Gable recently discovered, during World War II, the graphic arts industry was proud of its role in fueling our country's military effort and wasn't afraid to say so.