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Automatic for the jewel case

The folks behind AutoStylus has made something neat, but to me a little scary — CoverStar.

CoverStar is application that takes an iTunes playlist and automatically builds a CD jewel case insert, booklet and CD disk print. Please note that it doesn't just build a plain text, white paper listing — the program experiments with different layouts, uses any of the fonts on your computer and a bunch of included artwork.

The finished layout can be tweaked, or you can just press a button and have it build everything all over again.

Okay, that is the neat part — the scary part is how well CoverStar does it. Apart from a few times where it made bad decisions about color, the automatic designs it created were readable and funky.

So, is design just math? Probably not — the program can't select artwork and layout that reflects the color of the music. but there is math in symmetry, balance and repeated forms.

A suggestion for AutoStylus: have the program do a Google image search using keywords pulled from things like the artist, track name, CD title, etc. and use those images in the design.

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