This is a great time saver and gives access to information that in many cases you would otherwise have to install specific software to get. QuickLook can view was number of formats but it is possible to extent its use by adding plug-ins to it. Most of them are free. Some software developers offer plug-ins for QuickLook for their software if QuickLook does not preview files made by their software.

One of QuickLook greatest features in my opinion is that it can preview fonts. Not only to see if it’s the font I am looking for, but also to see if the six glyphs specific for the Icelandic language, are in the font (which is a common problem) or, if they are, to see if they are drawn in a proper way and usable.

The problem however is that QuickLook does not have a character table for Icelandic, but the English one is used, leaving out those glyphs I am after. I have not thoroughly investigated this problem for other non-English languages, but it seems that some other languages are dealing with a similar problem. So how can we get around this?

I asked around and finally got a great help on the macosxhints.com forum from Hal Itosis, who by the way is not into fonts at all as he says. The discussion between me and Hal can be read in the link. But here is a shorter version – and less nerdy, on how to customize QuickLook for fonts based on what Hal told me.

First of all you have to have admin rights to your computer. I assume that everyone who is willing to try this out has full rights.

The various character sets that QuickLook presents are based on the language which is the primary language you are using. The character sets are are kept in a file called SampleSupport.plist which is found at:
/System
/Library
/Frameworks
/ApplicationServices.framework
/Versions
/A
/Frameworks
/CoreText.framework
/Versions
/A
/Resources
/SampleSupport.plist

Copy this path and in Finder go: Command + Shift + G and paste the path into the field and you will instantly brought to the right place.

Drag a copy of this file to a different place in your computer. I recommend that you make a folder for it called QuiclLookFonts_IS (IS, CZ..etc. being your language) The reason is that it’s good to keep a copy of this file for later because it will be overwritten in major system upgrades.

Open this file in TextEdit or another favorite text editor (not Word or any word processor).

Now you have to find your language. If you are into this anyway you probably know already what fits. Many of the European languages like Italian are using the en table because Italians don’t need to see any funny diacritics, but countries like Hungary (hu) and Poland (pl) are using the cs table. However the cs table does not fully cover each and every language in East Europe.

Characters shown in the cs table: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ąbčdėfghijklmnopqřstůvwxyž

In the case of Icelandic the en table is used and this the one I want to change. I simply type in the characters I want to add. I preferred not to have it in its alphabetical order simply because their existence in the font is what I want quickly to get information on. In the case where the cs table is used a Czech mac user would look into that table for changes.

I marked my changes in yellow. I could go further and add all of the diacritics but as they are present in other languages they are more likely to be included. I might though do it in next run.

Save the file as text file. Drag a copy over the original file to replace it. You will be asked for authentication. Restart is recommended but not vital.

I am writing mostly in English now unless it’s something only relevant to Icelandic readers. Take a look at the Archives, maybe you’ll find something there you missed before.

The question was asked on Twitter, so my answers were limited to the 140 character boundaries. Therefore I split the answers into six sections like this:

Grid design 01. Let’s start with this nice explanation on baselines, the key element (a PDF): http://bit.ly/c2jlBc

Grid design 02. When you have selected your main leading you should adjust it to the page using : EasyGridCalculator

Grid design 03. This EasyGridCalculator helps you make a grid and columns based on your leading/baseline.

Grid design 04. When finished calculating you can think of everything in document grid units and the fun starts.

Grid design 05. Links to what I have written about making grids in Illustrator: Grid Systems InDesign comes soon.

Grid design 06. Good source with links about designing inside grids: Designing With Grid-Based Approach

The theme/look I was using broke down in the process and moving the data was not as simple as the guidelines suggested – or maybe I just did everything wrong. I decided to change the look since I was put into this situation. Actually I have been looking out for a different theme for some time. The magazine theme I was using was just not cutting it for me anymore. I am still in the process of moving stuff, renaming categories, adjusting pictures and more, so bear with me a little.

So, I am back to much simpler theme called Modern Clix. Designed by the Argentinian Rodrigo Galindez. I compared a few grid based themes and really liked this one. I hope you like it too.

Spending time on making the perfect grid will save you time in the end and in most cases also make your design look better in a much easier way. However, trying to reduce the time spent on calculating the grid is worth while. People often feel so pressed to start the job that they don’t think there is time to do the math.

For some time I have collected various experiments and methods in Excel files. I always had in mind to share some of it with you. In the meantime The Grid Calculator, a standalone application has been introduced and The Grid Calculator InDesign plug-in is already in pre-release and will be released publicly soon. The calculations for the Document Grid units in these tools are based on the Bach Gärde method. That is; the Document Grid is based on the proportion of the page which is being worked with.

The Grid Calculator InDesign plug-in is by the way awesome because it not only calculates the grid but also sets the whole thing up in InDesign ready to go and ready to be saved for later use.

Another tool is Gridelicious, a webpage calculator presented by Arlo Guthrie at Arlo Design. Gridelicious is inspired by The Grid Calculator using the proportional Document Grid, but recently also added calculations for even square Document Grid. That is; the document grid is a square with even sides (less than 0.1% off). Access to Gridelicious is free.

Now I join the bandwagon. Easy Grid Calculator is here . It is not easy to make it look very different from Gridelicious but I am pretty sure Arlo will forgive me that. But there are also a few differences.

Easy Grid Calculator has all of the major grid calculation features. Correct leading calculation based on page size and original leading and Imageline calculation based on the height of the lower case f (Regular, not italic).

But it is also possible to play with number of columns and rows and fiddle with the units in the Margin section to let everything fit and the measurements for the margins are calculated at the same time. I will explain everything in detail in a later article but a seasoned grid user will most likely get this idea at once. The size of the text box is also a subject for that article or maybe a separate one. It’s a little and cool secret which I will let you in on very soon.

For now, it is probably best to take a screen shot of your finished calculations and paste into InDesign or Illustrator for reference. The Easy Grid Calculator is still in progress and more features will be added later.

But here you have it: Easy Grid Calculator

I know for myself that I like it when someone I trust tells me about a great book and I hope you like it what I recommend some to you.

Of course I will get a few cents if someone buys a book using these links but I thought I should tell you upfront. In the next few days I will add more of my books and also some others to give you a hint if you want to buy me one.

As you may already know my interests are in many categories, so don’t be surprised by the selection.

I will soon present few other things related to this basic idea. And also a kind of a sister piece which I am designing too. The pictures here are made in Illustrator and Photoshop.

This is a concept for a diode light unit which I sent in for a competition held by The Illuminating Engineering Society of Iceland and Orkuveita Reykjavíkur (The Municipal Energy Grid). The final results of the jury are in and this concept got an honorary mention as being both technically and aesthetically pleasing. Although I didn’t win the main price I just wanted to show you the piece.

I will soon present few other things related to this basic idea. And also a kind of a sister piece which I am designing too. The pictures here are made in Illustrator and Photoshop.

The idea is an info-graphic panel showing the amount of daylight and darkness at a given latitude anywhere in the world. The light beams out of drilled holes on the panes. In each hole there is a diode light which colour and luminosity is controlled by the user who can select between built in presets. The built in settings as well as custom ones are controlled by a small control board on the side of the panel or by using a remote control or even with a phone.

You can choose between settings like showing only one day, where it also serves as a calendar, all the year at once, solstice, equinox or a clock and few other visual settings like running fast through every day of the year. Dial in a name of a city or latitude to get the correct visual representation of daylight at any given place.

The material use is brushed steel, acrylic or wood. Dimension for interior use is 800 x 800 mm.

Another version I have in mind is a huge panel on a good wall outside in a city at a public square or such. In this case the panel would be like 5 x meters. This would also mean that there could be many more diodes and thus more precision.

Here you have some of the mockup pictures I sent in. This is set up for Reykjavik, Iceland at 64° north. You see at the top of the circle how short the days are in December and how long they are in the summer. At the ecuador all the circles are of even width.

What Type are you, presented by Pentagram. Try it for fun.

This game is entertaining and fun. Amazing at same time and some interesting points about the type and you as a type.

For your curiosity you can compare your results to others who have taken the test.

My type is Corbusier Stencil, a bit of a surprise, but then again why not if the results are Rational, Assertive, Traditional, Disiplined?

I have read quite some of these. My main problem with all this good advise is that I sometimes have a feeling that the author is taking his own natural behavior and tries to make a system out of it. Then tries to get others to adapt to their system. I find a lot of those great ideas just too strict. Too much work to make the system and too much work to maintain it. And what I really hate is: There is no way for me to keep that kind of a tidiness up on a daily basis. Don’t get me started on Empty Inbox, please.

Here is an attempt to describe few ways I am using to tame my email, my own way. It does only require a very little upfront work – almost none. You can even develop your own version bit by bit. At the beginning of each month you only have to clean a little bit more. Actually this might get be something you love to do because you will have a little bit better notion what is in your mail.

Hopefully you get some ideas you can use yourself, even inspiration on how you can make a system that fits your own personality.

Rules. Filtering out what can wait.

Here is my scenario: I get close to 3000 mails every month. Luckily this is not all work related mail as such. It’s related in the sense that I subscribe to some mail lists that either concern my work and even some which concern my interests — half related if you will. I don’t have to read these lists as they come in. In many cases it can just wait until I get some spare time to read it. This also includes some newsletters like the ones I get from the font foundries, about 20 mails each month. I get similar mails from software vendors, magazines , etc. And by the way, have you tried to unsubscribe a news letter or mail list? It’s not always easy.

Anyway, the best thing here is to make rules. Every grown up mail application has the ability to make rules. First you have to decide where you want to let that certain mails go and then you ask the rule to move every mail from this sender to that folder. It’s easy as that. You can even edit the rule later if you find a reason to do so. In some cases you might want all mail of certain kind, like from the font foundries in my case to go into the same subfolder. Rules allow you to make rules that include all mail from @sender.com or @sender2.com. Do as you think suits you best and keep in mind that you can always change that later. Just check the Help file of the mail application and search for rules.

I have well over 50 rules of this kind and they move about 2000 mails away from my Inbox each month to be read at some better time or even deleted after a fast eye scan of the subjects.

Subfolders.

Most people have a subfolder or two in their mail application. I have three, Junk, Sent Items (which is for mail sent when I use the web interface), and Sort. This Sort folder currently has 17 subfolders of areas I deal with every day or occasionally. To name just a few: Personal, Work, Fonts, Computers, Media, Mac Friends, Design, Archive, Travel and some more. You see, combination of my interests and work related stuff. Most of these Subfolders have subfolders inside too – too many to count. Here is one example of the sub-subfolders I use, Travel.

Into this subfolder I collect manually all mail that concerns a trip I am going to. Booking statements, flights, communication with hotels, etc. In this case I name the folders by the year and location. It might give you an idea how you can organize yours.

Another example of such a folder is one named Fonts. It has as we speak 11 subfolders. Five are for font mail lists where rules take care of feeding the folders. Others I use to manually move mails to if the subject is of my interest. It might be some material I collect for a blog article, a reference or something that concerns some communication about some font related job I am doing.

Yet another is Computers with over 20 sub folders. Computers are one of my responsibilities at work and I need many categories here. You may have a completely different matter that needs a similar subdivision. It may be communication about our mail server, one about business software, color management and so on. These folder get to host the mails about buying software and serial and license although I keep that information in another database I like to keep the original mails too. All the mails I move into these folders I move manually because I want to see these mail in my Inbox grab vital information out of it and move it myself.

Just remember that you are not stuck with any setup till eternity and you should not even try to make the perfect one in one go. Things change at work, interests change, you leave one group and join another. Folders are great for some of the mail. Although Spotlight search it great in Mail and many other mail applications it’s not always foolproof or should I say I am not always foolproof when I am searching. That’s why I like to have some of those folders.

The most important Subfolder.

The most important subfolder is the Archive folder. It’s one of the 17 subfolders. Let’s have a look at it.

Inside the Archive folder there are folders in this order (actually almost everyone I work with has this Archive folder just like this) :

Those with the years in their name have two sub folders each like this: Out 2010, Q1.2010, Q2.2010, Q3.2010 and Q4.2010. The Out2010 also has Q1.2010, Q2.2010, Q3.2010 and Q4.2010. The names say it all doesn’t it? If you have more or heavier mail than I do you might want to use 12 folders named 01 January, 02 February and so on. You could of course choose to have two folders first: Out2010 and In2010, but the thing is that I have to go into the Out folders much less, so I decided to do it this way.

Every month I move all mail from the inbox to the quarterly folders. If you need to use folders by month move it to the correct month. I also move sent mail to subsequent folders. So after all I have an empty Inbox once every month.

The last folder, gamalt sort is just a small pile of very old mails I keep for sentimental reasons or what ever. It even has two mails from 1995, just to give you some idea.

But what about unattended mail from the last days of the previous month, now moved over to the archive? That’s where flagging and Smart Mailboxes come in.

Flag. I have to deal with some mail right away but some can wait a bit longer.

Of all the 30–50 mails that finally end up in my Inbox every day there are some that are more restless than others. They need to be dealt with either now, soon or later but if you want to be the good worker and polite email user you want to deal with it sooner than later. You reply to all your mail don’t you? Reply to people that you have got their mail and you will deal with it later if you can’t do it right now.

We need to mark the mail somehow. There are a few options here. Flag is one of the most obvious. I think every mail application has flags. Usually you can use a keyboard shortcut to flag a mail and it’s a great time saver. You also need to un–flag the mail when the job is done or reply sent. Usually it’s the same keyboard shortcut you can use.

But I need more. I want the mail to really stand out so it’s easy to see immediately what mails still need some attention. I wished Mail had easy coloring options like Thunderbird and Eudora have and I would also want to see Mail get some of the utilities Outlook has. But Mail is getting better with every version and there are some add ons for free or for a little sum of money.

I flag the mail I really need to attend to in the next few minutes or hours and also those who I need to file away later, serial numbers, receipts for buying something etc. I use this feature sparingly; overuse will diminish the importance. Through the day I try my best to do the actions required by the mails, reply, design and all that but things I have to file or which I have flagged as a memo I leave flagged and deal with that later. And of course I take the flag off when I have done what was required.

There is an incredible tool I use along with the flagging. It’s called Mail Act-On from indev.ca. It’s only available for Mail but similar tools might be available for other mail applications. There is an old free version 1.3.3. which works on Leopard and previous systems. I used the free version to begin with and it is great. But there is a far better and more advanced version Mail Act-On 2 for just about $25, which I use now. It is really powerful. You should try out the demo at least and see how it can boost your mail handling. Check out the other powerful application Indev Software makes, Mail Tags. I have that one too, but tagging mail and files it’s not a subject here although it would be worth some discussion later. On the other hand it adds more options which Mail Act-On and Mail rules can use.

Basically Mail Act-On is a rule activator and using it is really simple. One keyboard shortcut (I use Control + g) flags and labels my mails yellow (The Icelandic word for yellow is gulur) and flags them at the same time and another shortcut labels the mails back to white (Control +h) (Icelandic white is hvitur) when I am done and takes the flag off at the same time. The yellow mails simply yells at me. You can improvise tons of other ways to use it.

I try to be at least that responsive that I get to reply to the mails before they run off the screen. On a busy day I scroll few times during the day if I see Today reaching for the edge of the mail window. There is still a danger I’ll loose some colored mails out of sight and even over to the Archive when a new month starts but here is how I use Smart Mailboxes to prevent disasters.

Smart Mailboxes.

Smart Mailboxes are actually more or less the same thing as Smart Folders in Finders Sidebar. Where ever they are, in Mail, in my RSS reader or in the Finder they are one of the best things that Apple has added to the system lately in my opinion. Smart folders allow you to sort together related things without having to move it from the place they are situated. The key thing why Smart folders are so great for added productivity is not having to memorize everything, just know where to find it.

When you make Smart Mailboxes in Mail you are asked to give it some criteria for it to find for you mails of a certain kind. It can be mails from certain sender or senders, by subject, etc. As you see on this picture, Mail Act-On and MailTag have added quite some options to the list you will see on your mac when you make a new Smart Mailbox.

One of the features I like the most is that I am able to have a Smart Mailbox that keeps track of all flagged and/or colored mail, where ever it is. It may be in my Inbox still or in Archive, another mail account or sorted away deep down in a subfolder. That way I won’t loose track of the mail I really need or want to do something more with.

Another great thing about Smart Mailboxes is that although its findings comes from various places in my mail it is not aliases. I can do what ever I want with it, delete the findings, reply or anything you would expect from any mail.

One thing I do is that I like to see every mail that comes from some travel agencies and software vendors and more of that sort. I don’t need to keep those mail at all. It’s mostly some time limited offers. I define two Smart Mailboxes by Match all From: to keep track of those. I need two Smart Mailboxes because the addresses are many. I call those @ Ruslinfo and RuslInfo2 (Rusl means Dump). Every once in a while I look at those boxes and send it to the trash to free up some mails from the Inbox.

Another similar idea for some of the Smart Mailboxes is to keep separate track of all the mails that I get related to social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I like to see what’s happening, who’s following, etc. Clean out about once a month or just when I feel like.

And one more. When a project is being worked on I like to gather all the mail concerning it in one place. Because I don’t sort it afterwards I simply change the criteria to use the same Smart Mailbox again for another job. The reason is that sometimes setting up the criteria is rather complex and I like to reuse as much as I can. So, make Smart Mailboxes for long or short term uses as you go.

Few other tidbits about trimming the mail.

As you know by now I still have some old mail. But that is not a problem at all. Mail has a great feature which is buried in the Message menu: Remove Attachments. It deletes the attachments from selected mail. By doing that to older mail you keep all the mail you want and it takes very little space. The name of the attachment still lives on in the mails so it’s easy to find it on your computer if it still exists.

Mail applications should not be used as database and certainly not for heavy attachments. Save the attachments as they arrive to your computer, to folders where it belongs. It gives you the power to delete the attachments later without any further thoughts.

I do this for mail that is two years old or more. That way I can be pretty sure that everything work related is saved. For my work it’s important that we don’t delete work related mail for two to three years but there is no reason to have it be a burden on the mail server.

Try looking at the mail from a different angle too. Use sorting by different columns like for instance by name. Some people have sent you tons of unnecessary mail or mail that has no relevance anymore, haven’t they? Dump it.

Then try to sort by size. Choose all quarterly folders from one year. Most likely you can safely delete some most heavy attachments already. How about looking at your sent files? Most of the attachments came from your own computer anyway, so why not delete these duplicates right now?

Rocket science

This is more and less what I do to keep my sanity when it comes to handling my mail and not the least to keep track of what needs to be done and what can wait for a better time or even what can be completely discarded. Everyones needs are slightly different. I hope you get some inspiration to make your own system to control your email. It’s far better than it controlling you.

Start by making a new document in Illustrator. The size does not really matter because Illustrator is resolution independent. I prefer to have my document in RGB colors because it gives me the freedom to move it over to diversity of different color profiles later on. Besides RGB has wider color spectrum and thus brighter colors.

Hit Command + R to make the rulers visible and drag one guide from each of the rulers, one horizontal and one vertical.

Select the Polar Grid Tool. You will find it under the Line Segment Tool. The Polar Grid Tool is very cool and is great to know its abilities. Start by dragging from the center, where the guidelines intersect.

Drag a little out from the center. Don’t worry about proportions for now. While still holding the mouse move your other hand over to the arrow keys. The left and right arrows determine how many sections you get for the grid and with the up and down arrows you can control how many circles are within the grid. Choose to have four Concentric Dividers and six Radial Dividers. Don’t let go of the mouse yet.

Now move you hand over and hold down the option key to draw the grid from the center and add the shift key to make a perfect circle. Release the mouse button. You could also do all this by clicking with the mouse on the center of the guide lines to get a dialog box to fill in the measurements but I thought it would be worth it to show you both methods.

Select the grid and make it to guides with Command + 5 or go the long way via the View menu down to Guides and to Make Guides in the sub menu.

Draw a rectangular box with the Rectangular Tool. The height should be the same as the gap between the three outmost circles. The width is not that important, just make it long. (If you feel better you can measure the diameter of the inner circle and multiply it with π (3.14) to get the circumference of the circle.)

We are going to blend the spectrum based on six colors and that is the reason we divided the circle into six sections. We also need to split the rectangle box into six divisions. This time we are going to use the Gradient Mesh tool.

To start with it is good to use a color like this green one for the whole area because as you will see later on contrasts nicely with the guides and allows us to see clearly any direction lines.

Select the Gradient Tool. Click in the middle of the left edge of the box. The first division is there.

Then click approximately into the center of the top edge.

And after that add two vertical dividers on each half so we have six sections in total horizontally.

Using the Direct Selection Tool, (the white arrow) select all the anchor points, except those who align with the circle. Holding the leftmost bottom anchor point, move the selected area so that the next set of anchor points align with the next radial guide line.

While still selected grab the Rotate Tool (just hit R) and Option + Click on the anchor point you just released and type in –60° in the input field. (For other number of sections you can put in 360/number to get the correct degree)

Repeat this over and over always skipping the last aligned anchor points until you reach the end. It should look something similar to this:

The most tedious part of this work starts here. You have to drag the direction lines out to shape the circles outer side and inner side. It’s also important to do the same with the center line. But you have the guide lines to help you. If you find this difficult to do please don’t give up. It’s just that you need more exercise. You’ll be great the second time you do this.

When you feel that your circle is good enough, select one set of anchor points, and chose the first fill color of your spectrum. You can add to your super power by defining Global colors for your spectrum. It’s simple:

First make a new Color Group and drag into it the colors you need for your spectrum. Double click each color and check the Global box in the Swatch Options. This will make it easy to edit the colors later through the Swatch Options instead of having to choose the anchor points every time.

Ok, on we go and color each section. Now you can go back into the Swatch Options and fine tune your colors to get balanced spectrum.