OpenType Functionality in InDesign
Mike Descher
Thomas Phinney
Portland, Oregon
Beverly Houwing
Ogilvy & Mather
Culver City, California
June 22, 2006
By John Lopez
We began the evening with some delicious pizza, refreshing beverages and socializing. Special thanks go out to Mike Descher and Logitech for sponsoring the food and drink.
Mike Descher got the evening off to a fun start with an entertaining demonstration of the Logitech NuLOOQ Pro controller. It's a nifty little utility that really needs to be seen to be appreciated. You can have a look at it using the link below.
Logitech NuLOOQ Pro
Following Mike we had the pleasure of hearing from Tom Phinney, of Adobe's Type Group. Tom did a wonderful job of presenting everything from what makes type work on your computer, to some extraordinary examples of OpenType functionality in InDesign.
We wrapped up the presentations with two of our local experts. Beverly Houwing gave us some time-saving tips and tricks using styles, including how to build a TOC for your long documents. And Andrew Strauss was on hand, as always, to field general Q&A.
Lastly, we really enjoyed giving away some amazing raffle prizes, thanks to our raffle sponsors. Adobe, Logitech, O'Reilly and Peachpit all contributed generously. Along with fantastic books and tutorials, we also raffled off a Logitech NuLOOQ, a copy of Adobe InDesign CS2, and a ten-user licensed copy of the Adobe FontFolio (OpenType Edition).
Many thanks to the presenters and all those that support our group, particularly our members. A special thanks to my friends here at Ogilvy, for help us find a new home for the meeting at the last minute. Looking forward to our next meeting.
About the Presenters
Mike Descher
Mike Descher is from Logitech.
Thomas Phinney
Thomas Phinney has been involved with variable fonts and their precursors for decades, including before and after his 11 years at Adobe. He did his Master’s thesis on Extreme Form Change in Multiple Master Fonts, a precursor to modern variable font technology. Phinney designed Adobe Original typeface Hypatia Sans, and his team’s open-source typeface Science Gothic is a 4-axis variable font commissioned by Google Fonts. With Vassil Kateliev, he created and maintains a 4-axis variable font version of Google’s Material Design icons, the public open-source version of which is called Material Symbols, and has over 3600 icons.
In his time at Adobe (1997–2008), Phinney helped lead the conversion of the entire Adobe Type Library to OpenType. Phinney is also involved in the business of type, having been product manager for fonts at Adobe and Extensis, and CEO of FontLab. He has four patents, an MS in printing/typography from RIT, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. Phinney was on the board of the global typography association, ATypI, for more than 18 years, including a term as President and 15 years on the executive.
Phinney also has an active business as the world’s only consulting font detective, investigating those crimes against typography that are actually illegal, such as forging backdated documents using fonts that did not yet exist, or failing to meet a legally required point size. Defendants in his cases have included Justin Timberlake, will.i.am and the billionaire Russian oligarch who owns the largest private home in London.
Beverly Houwing
Beverly Houwing is an Adobe Certified Instructor. She worked for Adobe Systems for seven years as a Business Development Manager and Adobe Certified Expert. During that time she worked as a representative doing training and presentations at Adobe conferences, at trade shows and for large accounts. For the past ten years she has been teaching the Adobe Creative Suite applications and is an Adobe Certified Instructor and Print Specialist.
Beverly trains at Corporate Accounts, Certified Training Centers and with private individuals on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Professional. For the past four years, she has taught InDesign at UCLA Extension as part of their Design Communication Arts Certificate Program. In addition to her technical capabilities with the Adobe Creative Suite, Beverly has skills in photography, graphic design and watercolor painting. Her photography of international locations and digital image retouching has appeared in magazines and on billboards. Her digital artwork also raises money for organizations like Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS/LA), Best Friends Animal Society and other charities.
