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 is a type designer, font technologist, and the world’s only practicing font forensics specialist. Known to many in the InDesign community from his previous IDUG presentations—OpenType Functionality in InDesign and The Future of Fonts in InDesign: Variable Fonts and Color Fonts—he brings a designer-focused perspective that bridges typography, software, and real-world practice.
During his eleven years at Adobe (1997–2008), Phinney helped lead the conversion of the entire Adobe Type Library to OpenType, shaping capabilities that designers now take for granted across modern layout tools. He has also worked on the business side of type as product manager for fonts at both Adobe and Extensis, and later served as CEO of FontLab.
Phinney holds four patents, an MS in Printing and Typography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. A longtime leader in the global type community, he has served on the board of ATypI for 18 of the past 21 years, including a term as President.
His typeface designs include Hypatia Sans for Adobe (with assistance from Paul Hunt on the italic) and Science Gothic for Google (with major contributions from Vassil Kateliev and Brandon Buerkle). Today he continues to work in type design and font production while running an active consulting practice as a “font detective,” investigating typographic issues that intersect with the law—such as forged backdated documents created with fonts that did not yet exist, or failures to meet legally required point sizes. Defendants in his cases have included Zazzle, among others.
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.
