My office is Wean Hall 3122 on the CMU campus. I am usually in the
office from 9:00 to 5:00 Monday - Friday. But check
my
plan file to see special circumstances.
I read and respond to e-mail
regularly, so that is the best way to contact me.
For more information, look at my personal page.
- A typical scenario
- Email me to tell me that you
are going to send me slides.
- Create slides using Powerpoint or Persuasion, making sure that
"Page Setup" is set to 35mm Slides, and that only Times, Helvetica,
Symbol and Courier fonts are used. Make sure to check on your Slide
Master and to change your bullets (select the body text in the Master,
Select Bullets from the Format menu, and select Helvetica and the
round bullet from that dialog box.)
- Save the file as a scrapbook file or PICT files.
(Select SCrapbook in the Save As dialog.)
- Copy the scrapbook or PICT file(s) to the appletalk volume
CS3:Film Recorder:Public. (Connect as Guest.)
- Send me mail to tell me they're ready to go.
- I shoot the slides and have ProPhoto pick them up on their
afternoon run (between 2:00 and 3:00).
- ProPhoto processes the film and returns it to my office on the
next day's afternoon run (2:00 to 3:00).
- I send you email to let you know your slides are done.
- This generally takes one day to shoot, and one day to process.
If your scenario is atypical (for example, if you're shooting postscript
files, or if you have a tight deadline) contact me in advance. I'll make
every attempt to get you what you need on time.
- The basics of slidemaking
- We can produce high-quality 35mm slides directly from Macintosh
files, PICT, Scrapbook, Postscript, or TIFF files. The film recorder is
a Matrix QCR-Z, with an AGFA Chromascript Postscript interpreter.
Contact me (via email or call
268-3085) a couple of weeks before you need your slides done (even
before you have created them) to discuss special needs. If this is your
first time doing this, consider it a special need.
I will shoot the files as they are given to me. I will not proof your
materials for you.
No work will be done without an
authorized CMU account number.
- Aspect ratio considerations
- A 35mm slide has an aspect ratio of 1:1.5. An 8"x10" page has a ratio
of 1:1.5. This means that if you create your slides in a program with
the page defined as "Letter" (8"x10"), some of the top and bottom (in
"wide" orientation) will be left off of the slide.
You should set your page to be 35mm size. This is done on the Mac in
the "Page Setup" window, under the "File" menu in the program you're
using. If your program has, instead, customizable sizes in the "Page Setup"
window, define the size as 7.0 by 10.5 inches, landscape orientation. If
you are not given the option of defining your page size, use the US
Letter setting.
Leave a margin on all sides of about an inch. This is to compensate for
the area the plastic slide mount will cover up. Slides also look better
if the text doesn't run right up against the edge.
- File formats
- I can shoot PICT, Scrapbook, Postscript, or TIFF files. (TIFF Files
must be uncompressed.) Note that if you create your files using most any
Macintosh application, we can "Print" to the machine, effectively
sending it a Postscript file.
- Content guidelines
- As in all of life, practice moderation and simplicity.
- No more than 10 lines per slide.
- Use key words or short phrases instead of sentences. Neither you
nor your audience should read your speech from your slides.
- Use a dark background and light type. Yellow and white text on a
DARK blue background works well. Don't put red text on a blue
background, or vice versa.
- Limit your color palette. Two colors of type are plenty. I'm not
kidding.
- For more general information on please check out our deli page on
making better slides and
transparencies.
- Text sizes
- The following minimum text sizes will be readable under most circumstances:
Headline text 36 to 48 points
Subhead text 30 to 36 points
Body text 24 to 30 points
