Rotovision SA, a U.K.-based publisher, commissioned me in 2011 to write Great Graphic Design in Half the Time, a how-to book for graphic designers. Focal Press released it in the U.S. with a different title, Graphic Design to Beat the Clock. Both editions were released in 2012.
The goal was to provide productivity tips, with a focus mostly on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver.
The book was organized into four sections based on how much time you could save with each tip: Quick Shortcuts (30 seconds or less), Fast Fixes (up to five minutes), Medium Savers (up to 60 minutes), and Long-Term Solutions (two hours or more).
This was the eighth book that I have authored or co-authored. All were related to computer applications in graphic design and/or publishing. Given the subject matter, most were obsolete within a few years. But a surprisingly large portion of this one remains relevant.
Yes, it did include some apps that Adobe later retired, including Fireworks, Muse, Edge, and Flash Professional (which is now Adobe Animate). But when I wrote the book, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign were mature applications, and changes since then have been largely incremental, with a few notable exceptions. Adobe still offers Dreamweaver, but has ended active development of the software.
This is not a sales pitch for the book—it’s still almost 15 years old. But it does show how the software business has changed since then. Annual subscriptions have largely replaced permanent licenses, and Adobe, for one, has steered much of its development work to mobile apps and AI.
