Online Communities and Forums

Joining online communities and forums is sort of like raising your hand and having the entire world answer you. Post a question in an online forum, and the answers arrive in your in-box. Strong emotions and priceless information make the online communities like lively little villages, including the inevitable family squabbles.

Some forums (fora? forii?) are sponsored by software vendors and feature the expected product announcements and sales pitches in addition to useful resources. Some forums are maintained strictly by enthusiasts and are free of any corporate influence.

• Adobe Forums www.adobe.com/support/forums

  Adobe forums are available for all Adobe products. While the forums are predominantly user-to-user in nature, they are moderated for civility, and Adobe staff are frequent contributors. The topics are a mix of general software issues and printing issues.

• Community MX www.communitymx.com

  Community MX contains news about Adobe (formerly Macromedia) products, including Dreamweaver, FreeHandMX, Fireworks, and ColdFusion, as well as online tutorials.

• National Association of Photoshop Professionals www.photoshopuser.com

  The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a national organization that provides online tutorials, publishes a bimonthly magazine, and hosts regional seminar events, in addition to its yearly Photoshop World conference. Members are also eligible for discounts on software and hardware.

• PDF Zone www.pdfzone.com

  A service of Ziff Davis Media, PDF Zone contains PDF-related industry news, as well as tips, tricks, and tutorials. Not all of the content is print-related, though.

• Planet PDF www.planetpdf.com

  Planet PDF is a service of Nitro PDF Software, a software development company devoted to Acrobat solutions. The searchable Planet PDF store offers a huge variety of plug-ins and software related to Acrobat. The online content also includes tips, tricks, and PDF-themed articles about a wide spectrum of industry uses for Acrobat.

• PrintPlanet www.printplanet.com

  Created and maintained by Dave Mainwaring, the PrintPlanet forums are some of the most lively and most useful printing resources on the Web. Forums are devoted to individual topics, including prepress, digital printing, print technology, packaging, and fonts. And there are great training resources available in the associated PrintPlanet University, a service of PrePress Training Solution.

• Typographica http://new.typographica.org/

  Typographica is home to lively discussions of font designs, readability issues, and tutorials on font creation, that should give you some deep respect for the efforts of font designers.