If you’re entering into a book layout project and considering QuarkXPress, don’t. Author Charles Maurer shares just a few of the horror stories from his experience using QuarkXPress to lay out his most recent book.

In keeping with our tradition, we’re going to take off the last few weeks of 2020, which this year means staying safe with our immediate households and scheduling virtual gatherings with our extended families. You can expect the next email issue of TidBITS on 11 January 2021. Thanks for reading TidBITS, and we hope you’ve found our content useful, accurate, and enjoyable!

Apple has pushed Dark Mode hard in Mojave, and it will appear in iOS 13 as well. If Apple thinks Dark Mode is such a good idea, should you switch to it? Only if you’re more interested in being trendy than productive, since the science behind human visual perception is resoundingly against Dark Mode.

The iPad is a great tool for reading electronic books, but its default settings and apps are unlikely to be ideal for your eyes. Charles Maurer draws from research into vision and perception to suggest how to tweak your iPad’s display to be more legible.

In keeping with our tradition, we’re going to take off the last few weeks of the year to spend with family and friends, so look for the next email issue of TidBITS on 7 January 2019. Thanks for your attention in 2018, and we hope you’ve enjoyed both our content and our site redesign this year!

At WWDC, Apple threw back the curtains on macOS 10.15 Catalina, bringing the Mac ever closer to iOS without losing sight of what makes the Mac unique. We’re particularly impressed with the work the company did on accessibility features.

The XQ1 is a pocket-sized point-and-shoot from Fujifilm that can pinch-hit for pros when teamed up with the application Photo Ninja. Charles Maurer looks at both products and shows how they work together.

Former commercial photographer Charles Maurer shares the details about a new small camera that competes with the heavyweights and wins.

Are you a serious photographer who’s frustrated by the limitations of the iPhone’s camera? A new app opens up more of its potential, but it can’t work magic.

Despite selling over one million units, FileMaker Inc. has announced that it is discontinuing its personal database product Bento. Adam Engst delves into the details, and suggests that the moral of the story is that we users must constantly be vigilant when relying on an app or service to make sure we have an exit strategy.

A previous chapter talked a lot about adding metadata during the import process because that’s the easiest way to apply it. Assigning keywords and other information during that initial stage takes some prep time, but when you click the Import button, the metadata is applied with a broad brush across all your incoming photos. After import, though, you still have some touch-up work to do. To make your photos easily searchable later — the ultimate goal in our organization project — you also need to apply more-specific metadata to individual photos. This might include identifying people and landmarks, or describing shots. In this chapter, I look at how to choose good keywords and how to apply them smartly. I also discuss how to fix incorrect dates and times, how to apply geolocation information, and why it may not be worth investing the time in your program’s facial-recognition tools.