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Running Illustrator CS5 on Mac OS 10.7 Reopening an Illustrator document expands all layers For files containing a large amount of layers, this is very irritating. Is this a general problem or just my version/me?
I'm not sure where to look for these resources, but I'm trying to create an Art Nouveau style logo. What I would like to do is have the actual text be shape similar to what is in Carl Jungs redbook. any suggestions on how to create this effect?
Should designers base their font choices for body text and headlines on the typeface used in the logotype (if used) to achieve brand consistency?
I'm trying to draw a roof with no success. These areas should be filled that I can add roof texture there. I tried with sandbox and "from contour" but it's not what I want (can't use a tile texture on it).
As a beginner in Illustrator I've been creating some pretty cool graphics I'd like to share on my website. From what I've seen, people create a one file .ai icon pack that you can download and use freely. Most of these are setup in a perfect grid format, even with around 100 icons. If I am looking to do something like this, how should I go about my project setup? Should I create each icon individually and then import them into the master icon pack file? Any direction would be great. Thanks!
I am an architect and I want to design my basic website with minimum graphics. I'm using coreldraw, but it's more related to print (hardcopies) and it's not as "smart" compared to the adobe software. So, for web design, I started to learn Fireworks and after some practice, I was able to design web graphics. But the main problem is that, when that page is exported into html format, all text is converted into image.
I often find that I need to change the text on buttons. I'd like to create some CSS based editable buttons with mouse over effects. And the whole button should be clickable (not just the text). I have heard that older browsers don't "stretch" images very well so maybe I'll need several variations of the CSS Class, each with a different image background.
I've done search after search, messed with color profiles, image color management, etc, but I still find that when I simply print screen and paste it in Adobe Photoshop CS3, I get a much lighter image. It even looks like it has less colors, or JPEG compression artefacts. I've tried flipping between sRGB, Macintosh RGB modes etc. If I paste the screen capture in windows paint, it's absolutely fine. Any ideas?
I do not want initial image to change size, I simply want to add transparent padding around what I already have.
I want to know how to blur something in peaks, here's a picture to help describe it: Segment C is blurred the most then B then A to create an effect like the one on the right but with blur. I was wondering if there was a way to do this but on a finer scale with more segments that did not involve me selecting 1 pixel tall rows then applying motion blur..
I'm wondering if anyone has any tips, tutorials or templates on how to 'fake' a printed effect. I want to make it look in my portfolio like I have printed business cards and other collateral without doing so.
I am still pretty new to illustrator, so I am still learning. I have a shape (pill shape) that is all white. I am trying to "fill" half of the shape with a yellow color (keeping the black stroke intact. Does anyone know how to go about this?
We have a bunch of Word documents that people create using a template that matches our business's look-and-feel. When we're done writing the content, we send it to a designer than the typeset the document using InDesign. This ultimately produces a PDF that looks pretty much exactly like the source document (maybe a bit better). I'm wondering about a couple of things: What is the purpose of typesetting? Why couldn't I just auto-generate a PDF? What do most companies do to generate nice-looking PDFs? It seems like this process takes us forever and we're spending a decent amount of time and money on it. Thanks!
I need help or rather to be pointed in the right direction please. Take a look at the artwork: On the left you see my "on paper" art. On the right is my attempt to do the same thing on the digital tablet. No matter what I can't seem to find the right technique to do it. If I try Vector lines - it comes out to comic book-like. Drawing it with my hand on the tablet ends up being child-like drawing. I layer-over tracing and drawing from scratch and results are unacceptable. Can you see the difference ? My question is do you think it's simply because I"m new to using a digital tablet and my hand isn't used to it or am I missing some technique in Photoshop or Illustrator that would let me possibly perfectly re-trace or re-draw my graphics? Any technical tips on how I can make my Tablet created graphics looks like the stuff I create on paper would be greatly appreciated.
Situation While moving anchor points around and… you currently have Snap to Point and Smart Guides turned on and you momentarily don’t want the points to snap during this operation. Problem You have to exit what you’re doing (moving points) and your only choice is to visit View and deselect the particular snapping modes (or alternatively hit their keyboard shortcuts) which is fairly disruptive. Question Is there a way around this? Any solution would do; workaround, plugin, custom hack… that let's you toggle snapping on and off while you’re moving points.
I've noticed lately that some of the websites I visit regularly are adopting a new and bizarre trend in Web Design: "the dotted pictures". Not sure what to call it. It looks as if a pattern of regularly-spaced dots was deliberately layered on top of all thumbnails, or sometimes it's a light grid pattern instead of dots, but the end look is similar. It looks like a dithered picture somewhat. I personally find the effect terrible and at first I thought my browser image rendering was at fault, but I tried 3 different browsers and I can still see the pattern. Looks like it was intended. Actually, one of the websites that used to do that went back to regular pictures. It was a newspaper website and I suspect they got a bunch of calls asking why their pics were all messed up and reversed the decision after a few months. Has anyone heard or seen this before? Example link: http://www.linkedin.com/today/se/editorspicks
I am placing some Photoshop-made artwork into InDesign and exporting to PDF for print. My artwork is quite dark, and Ps's eyedropper tells me that some of my blacks are around the 90/95/95/85 mark. My printer specifies a max of 300% ink. Will the colour profile I use in InDesign (Web Coated FROGRA28) automatically convert these to 300% max equivalents? If not, what do I need to do to prevent the print from becoming way too wet?
I'm not sure if this is an appropriate question for this site, but I tried to find an answer through Google and I found a question here about copying UI themes/paradigms so I hope it's not off-topic. The answer to that question was that it's not illegal to copy as long as you don't use the exact same graphics. But what if I want to implement a cross-platform UI framework, like Qt, wxWidgets or Java Swing and want to have a native look and feel on each platform? Would I have to obtain a license from Microsoft/Apple/etc. to create native-looking themes for this hypothetical framework? If so, does that mean that the aforementioned frameworks obtained such a license? What about UI mockup software like this? I assume it wouldn't make any difference if this hypothetical framework is released under a very permissive license (MIT, BSD, zlib, ...) or as a commercial product?
If you put this image on a black background you see something different than on a white background. Does anyone have a idea how it works?
I have a requirment to have users be able to select button colors, I want that according to the background color they select, an appropriate, contrasted button text color will be determined automatically. for that - I need some sort of formula, and I was wondering if anyone knows what such formula might be, I looked around, but haven't found anything substantial. Here is an example of a visible text on button that I want to achieve:
The territory names are very small, no results with 'WhatTheFont!'.
I'm using Fireworks for UI design. However, any saved png file from Fireworks shows different colors when opened in normal image viewers. Fireworks doesn't seem to have any color management options. How can I make sure that the colors I'm looking at while designing will appear the same when the images are opened normally?
There was a recent question discussing dotted overlays/dithering patterns on images, and I wanted to explore the method. I set it up so it was one black pixel, one blank, one black, etc. After duplicating it to cover the page, I found that it created what I can best describe as monitor flicker, or maybe banding? Something's happening on my screen. Here's a screenshot; see if it does the same to you! What causes this, and how can I minimize it? I found that using other colors helped, but I'd much rather understand why than pick colors and hope it works. I know that monitors are very different from each other, so I'd like to know that if I get it right on my screen, it'll be right on other screens.
I've been downloading free 3d models for a project that I'm working on, but I can't figure out how to disable the default shading. I'm using 3DS MAX 2013. Here's an example of a table I'm working on: I used the material editor to add a Diffuse material to the top of the table. As you can see, there is shading around the front rim of the table, which moves with the table as I rotate it. Is it possible to disable this shading? If so, how can I do it? I read about Self-Illumination but I didn't have any luck in applying it to the model.
Is there a way to place files in Photoshop without scaling (true pixel of image)? They automatically resize to fit screen when I drag into PSD file! For example, when place a 48x48px to 480x480px PSD, it's scaled to 480x480. My system info: Photoshop CS5, Windows 7.
I have a PSD file that my designer gave me fitted for iPad dimensions. I need to support the retina iPad as well. What's the best way to create the 2x retina images? Should I scale up the layers by 200% and then cut the PNG file? I imagine this would be better than just scaling up the PNG file itself. If so, what's the best way to scale layers in photoshop? I've tried the Image -> Image Size but that seems to produce jagged edges as well. "Content-aware scale" also distorts some of the straight lines in the icon. Thanks.
I'd like to make use of photoshop's "Smart Objects" to have an easier time managing my layers. I have about 20 layers that will be duplicated 10 times... and I'd rather manipulate them as single objects than as 20 layers each. I created a smart object out of the 20 layers... when I duplicated the smart object, and edited to newly duplicated object... any edits also affected the original. Is there a way to make distinct smart objects out of duplicates so they can be edited independently?
I want pixel information menu to float around cursor in Photoshop CS5. How do I do that? The menu called Info or its contents is what I need to float.
The problem: The anti-aliased rounded corners of my app icons show, due to the transparency, some pixels of the underlying background. My quick solution: Instead of exporting with "intact" corners I filled the space with the apporpriate texture. Making the corners look perfect on iOS devices. And it was good for the time. But now as icons get more and more complex, this gets harder and harder to do. And the second problem I have with this is that wherever the icon is used as well (testflight, app reviews) where I have no control over what icon gets picked, the cornerless version simply does not represent the final design. My question: Do you have a better/different workflow to for making beautiful corners without compromising the appearance of the icon?
forgive me if this question doesnt fit the purpose of this stackexchange site, Some of you probably have experience with logo design, I'd like to ask a question, I currently have a client that owns a website that lets marrying couples arrange their weddings in, find suppliers such as wedding dress designers or wedding halls / gardens. I've never had such a hard time designing a logo before, His website is named "Marrying", not in english though. My main problem here is that I literally can't find any creative idea other than the generic ones like Rings,hearts, love birds, etc'. Please, I'd really be grateful to get some refreshing tips or something like that. So yea I'd love to see your ideas and learn how to think out of the box, even when I have such a hard time. Thanks
I don't know if any of you had this problem, I'm using photoshop CS3, And sometimes in order to choose a font quickly, while the text tool is selected, I click on the text field that shows the currently selected font, then I type the name of the font I want to use, most of the times it works just fine and finds the font I want, I just bought a package of fonts, they all begin with this "EFT" and when I type that in photoshop, it will not find any of them, but only select a different font. The fonts do show on the list when I open it and I can select them manually, but it gets annoying when you have more than 1,000 fonts installed. Do you have any idea what I could do to solve the issue? Thanks
I have a hard copy swatch of pantone Colour bridge uncoated colours. I am setting up some packaging items in illustrator and have shown the client visuals in CMYK. I have now selected the Pantones 4596 U and also 468 U. I am aware that the colours will be off, I am viewing on an Imac and 99% of my artwork I produce is in CMYK so I suppose I need reasurance that the colours I am viewing in illustrator will not print that way!! Am I right to ignore Illustrator and only really view my handheld swatch for colour accuracy? The colours just look so very different on screen, help I feel nervous to send to print!. As you have gathered I am a beginner when it comes to spot colours... Any help much appreciated.
I'm making a new site, but I feel like colors or elements dimension aren't that good at all, I want it to look elegant and makes the user comfortable when looking at it. Right now I'm not getting that feeling, don't know why exactly, maybe it's the buttons or the background, I don't know for sure. I tried to do my best picking elegant and consistent colors, but seems that's not working. So could you help me picking colors and maybe resize some elements? Here's my site I'm making: Large screenshot.
I have a file which is 1020px X 200px Artboard/Document dimensions and the drawings coves the whole artboard as follows. When I "Export" the file as "png" (File>Export) it's dimensions change to 4250px X 458px as follows. However when I use "Save for Web & Devices" (File>Save for Web & Devices" and save as "png" it's dimensions remain the same i.e., 1020px X 100px as follows. Any idea why this is happening? Files are saved with similiar options viz. png-24 format, clip to artboard, save as background, interlaced, rgb color profile.
Is there an agreement on what the optimum mathematical proportion of line height and the size of a text is? And if there is, is it the same for print and web?
I have this image which I want to re-draw/reverse engineered so that I can use it at different sizes as resizing it cause it to look bad. But I can't seem to figure out how to do it. The drop shadows on two sides and with the amount of shadows increasing from less to more as you go further out. Do I, just for example, take a rect and play with the drop shadow settings? I tried that but I am not even getting close. Just need a push to the right direction.
Does anyone know of a font suitable for the title of a newspaper? It is also the type that's used for the first letter of a chapter of a book (and is so calligraphic, you can't tell if it has serifs or not). I am looking for something like the one used by the "newspaper clipping generator" at fodey.com: Generated at fodey.com
I once read, that one should use optimized/specialized fonts for headings and titles. The claimed reason was, that a kerning which is good for reading is not good (or optimal) for titles. I tried to google this issue, but only found collections of 'free fonts for Big and Powerful Headings[tm]' and one Q/A on ux.stackexchange regarding using different font families for headings and body Do the fonts for titles differ from their 'normal' brothers and sisters in features like kerning and x-height?
On Google's search page there is a visible vertical scroll bar even when it is not necessary. This can be avoided by deleting the following style from body selector overflow-y: scroll; When this is done, there is no vertical scroll bar on default and when the height of browser window is not enough to display entire content, vertical scroll bar appears. Since Google is known for their obsession with minimalism on their search page, why aren't they doing this? I tested this behavior on Chromium 18 (ubuntu), Firefox 13 (ubuntu) and Internet Explorer 8 (winxp).
Can I legally use Microsoft Office icons in designing my site? For example:
Most university map apps on Google's Play store seem to just use their university's logo or a generic map icon. Neither way seems ideal, but I'm unable to come up with a better way myself. How do I come up with different ideas for an icon design?
So I downloaded some free custom brushes to draw some hills. The "default" size of these brushes are ~850px so I change it to 35px. But if I use another brush and then switch back to this, then it always scales back to 850px. So, if I change a brush size then how to achieve to "stay" at this size forever? (sorry for my English, if something is bad)
I am new to the graphic design chat here. Please provide any feedback/critique on the poster available via these links. One is on a colored background, the other is on a white background. Which is better? Are there glaring design issues here? There are no designers where I work and I could really use some constructive feedback. This cafe is located in an academic library and is primarily targeted at college students. no other stipulations, really. My idea was to use the color scarlet (the college color) and show larger than life bubbles as a nod to how bubbly life can get when you visit the Scarlet latte cafe. Here is my attempt. My design concerns: One of the responses mentioned that there are too many design elements here (the 3D bubbles, the coffee-stain/textured circles, etc.) I was also concerned that the design lacked a certain cohesiveness. How is the placement of objects on the poster? I have not used a grid, and honestly don't know how to create one and design on it. I do use guides quite scrupulously in illustrator though. I guess this leads to the question, when designing posters and flyers in the future, how can I do so using grids so the nothing is askew and every thing is aligned well? I am not using InDesign and that might be part of the problem. Finally, does this look professional?
Consider the following two images: The second image is my desired result: the artboard dimensions perfectly match the layer/selection/content. However, I had to resize the artboard manually. Is there a way to do this automatically? Ultimately I'm saving the file as an SVG. Rather than resizing the artboard, is there some setting that tells illustrator to export a file with the final dimensions being the size of the content or selection? Some googling suggests that this was possible in CS3 using Save for Web, but I didn't see any option like this in CS6.
I have 2 layers: first layer is just regular layer with some graphics, and second layer has additional graphics which are on top of the first and it has blending mode set to "Overlay". What I need is to produce third layer (or just convert second layer) which will have blending mode set to Normal and if it will be displayed together with first layer it will give the same result as I get when first and second (overlay) layer are displayed. I need this for splitting graphics to separate images for iPad/iPhone application I'm writing. If I just export overlaid layer, I'm getting wrong result in application.
Have several copies of the same object moved around to different areas in the artboard. Decide you want to scale them all by 75%. Select the first object, do the scale. Select the next object, press Command + D. The object is scaled, but moved in position relative to the original object. Not on top, but near it. How can I stop this behavior? Using Command + D is a great shortcut, but it defeats the purpose if I have to move objects around again. Perhaps there is a setting I'm missing? Note: this only occurs using Transform->Scale for me. On the others it will work correctly.
What do you think are the objective features of Yahoo's well known emoticon set, that they use for mail, instant messaging etc., that make them so much better at communicating user's feelings and subjectively look so much better than most other emoticon sets seen on the web or in desktop software? (Explanation: I thought I was the only one liking the Yahoo emoticons much more than all the other emoticon sets on the web, but I asked a great number of regular user's and they all feel the same. On an imaginary 1 to 10 scale of evaluating emoticons based on "looking good", being "easy to understand" and actually having a way to "graphically communicate emotions", Gmail's square emoticons would probably rate 0, the other emoticon sets from Gmail would be somewhere like below 5, together with the annoying overly animated ones that some people get from weird email clients of adware-ish toolbars, the Skype and MS ones would be somewhere at 5 and Yahoo's would be much higher than all the other's, let's say at 10. And I want to understand what makes this particular set of little faces so much more appealing (especially to white European and American users).)
The concept of a focal point seems to be a fundamental one in web design, yet doesn't a focal point mean a page cannot be balanced? Surely by definition a focal point means that the page's 'weight' is shifted towards this focal point?
When choosing File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files.. in Photoshop CS3, why can't I select a png format (png-8 or png-24)? I cannot trim layers using any of this. :(
You may know me (not that I am worth knowing) from my first question. I am a noob in web design, graphic desgin, font theroy, color theory, guess all of the mixes that are crucial. My expertise (whatever level that maybe) is in web coding (html, css) and RDBMS with strong skills in Database Modeling. Having successfully (to some extend at least) designed a logo, letterhead, small and big enevelops (maybe a corporate portfolio?), I was asked by the customer to design a company brochure as well. Having learned AI-CS5 (to some extend atleast) and helped by the Graphic Design Community (a million and three thanks to them), I designed the brochure in AI-CS5 and was very happy (as a noob) since it came out really nice (to me & the customer atleast). The problem as it happens, comes (as it always comes when new knowledge is acquired) when I read that most if not all brochures are designed in Adobe InDesign and not Adobe Illustrator. That really put a halt (stop! you are going to the wrong road) in my learning of AI-CS5. Please see the below images for samples of what I have come up with. Now I will try to put my question. Why are the brochures designed in indesign rather than illustrator OR more importantly do I really need to or have to "re-design" the above in indesign due to the benefits it offers (as some say given my readings on the net)?. Does it mean I am going to the wrong road and using the wrong tool for the job. You really can't teach an old dogs new tricks and it has been difficult for me (not that I am excusing my short comings of which I am well aware viz. I have not creative talents and am dull as ditch water) to learn AI-CS5 and now I have to shift/move to InDesign just because (beacuse what?).
I am trying to create a bevel effect similar to the attached image. I have set the depth to 30%, size to 1px and soften to 0px, but the final effect has bevels which are not as crisp as those on the attached image - the bevels look very slightly blurred. Any advice on the necessary settings to recreate the bevels seen in this image please?
I followed this solution to make Polish ogoneks in InDesign through GREP style BUT every time I use it, the negative tracking is also be applied to the space or next character which immediately follows it. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?
I've tried searching for an answer to this, but I have no idea what terms to even search for. I'm creating the artwork for a repeating pattern that is going to be printed on a large quantity of fabric (think 100 meter rolls). I'm wondering what the normal way to present the artwork for this would be, since it's not just one block of artwork, but rather a block that is repeated both vertically and horizontally. At the moment, my plan is to give just one full swatch of the part that repeats, with a bit of extra bleed area, and put in crop lines. Does anyone have experience with this or know how this is supposed to be done? (PS-I'm working in Illustrator.)
What effect is used in this image? Bigger photo.
I am designing org charts using PowerPoint 2010 (because they will need to be edited by people without design software) and it's becoming maddening. I decided to use the smart art feature because it seemed flexible and easy at first. I'm using the hierarchy preset. When I resize a box, it resizes and even moves all or some of the others. The way it will react is unpredictable. Is there a way to disable this feature so that I can resize boxes independently and still keep the good features of smart art, such as lines following the boxes when you move them. I've contacted Microsoft and worked with one of their chat people and it led me to this: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/smart-art-re-sizing-issue/068cea45-7ee6-4883-89e2-f434dfcdc006 Others have been unable to resolve this problem. Can SE do it? Thanks, Ian
My department recently upgraded from CS5 to CS6. We are preparing an InDesign print publication for this year and are repurposing last year's Illustrator and InDesign files which we produced with CS5. When we save each Illustrator file, Illustrator displays the warning message "Saving to a legacy format may cause some changes to your text layout and disable some editing features when the document is read back in. Do you want to continue?" So far, we have been choosing "OK" to continue. My question is: What is the best practice here? Our illustrations are all statistical graphs using the exact same colors, typefaces, line weights, etc. as last year. All of the people working with these files have CS6. If we continue to save to the legacy format are we likely to have problems? From your experience, would it be better to "save as" Version Illustrator CS6 now?
I have read this article by Doug Avery where he explains how to disable Color Management in Adobe Photoshop and the follow-up article in response to the uproar of the commenters arguing against it and supporting sRGB, although I am still not convinced on what technique I should apply in my personal workflow. From what I've gathered while reading the article (please correct me if I'm wrong), the correct way to deal with this would be to have Photoshop manage the colors as sRGB and making use of Proof Colors when in need for a more "faithful" preview of the your work. At the moment I have an entire website project that has been designed with color profiles disabled. I started on it that way because months ago I had noticed that the colors Photoshop rendered, although reported correctly by Photoshop's own Eyedropper Tool, did not correspond when measured from a screenshot to what I was seeing in Google Chrome when opening the image exported as a PNG. After a quick search I came across the post I cited earlier and applied its suggestions blindly (without even noticing the follow-up nor reading about the problems with it). Since then, I've had no problems: I take screenshots of my work in Photoshop and I upload them for the developer to make use of. He gets to see the same colors I see and use when developing the design, and I don't have to jump through hoops to see what I'm actually doing. My questions: Is it really necessary to use sRGB in a web design (I understand the implications of not using it in something like photography or print) when it only adds more work by forcing you to use Proof Colors? (That's just how I see it, please correct me if I'm wrong) Since saving with an ICC Profile will lead to some browsers correctly applying the profile while others ignore it, the article also says that it's probably the best idea to just design with sRGB and then save without the ICC Profile. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of using the color profile in the first place? Or am I misinterpreting what the article says?
Is it possible to create this in inkscape? It would be very useful in flow diagrams. At the moment I have two arrows and it becomes a mess when it needs to be repositioned: I tried drawing two connectors and combining them, then using snap at midpoint feature to some what connect them. It produced a decent result: But I am having problems scaling, to have it fit a certain space while maintaining the line thickness.
I currently have an on-screen table that is ~250 rows long. To make it easier to read, I've decided to go with zebra striping. From what I can gather from this question, the ideal alternate color is something that doesn't contrast too much from the base color (in this case white). The rest of the UI has a pale blue color, something along the lines of (226, 237, 253), We are looking to maintain a corporate and conservative feel. What colors would you suggest as the alternating color? Keep in mind that they should not contrast too much with white, but just enough to be significant.
Given the following setup: File: SomeFilename.ai Which contains artboards named: Artboard_01 Artboard_02 Artboard_03 At the moment if I export the artboards Illustrator insists on prepending the filename to the artboards. So the files generated would be named: SomeFilename_Artboard_01.png SomeFilename_Artboard_02.png SomeFilename_Artboard_02.png I would like them to be named: Artboard_01.png Artboard_02.png Artboard_02.png Obviously I know there are a multitude of options for batch renaming files, but this doesn't fit into my workflow. I do a lot of UI design (iOS or CSS) which involves creating a large number of graphics in Illustrator then exporting them. I often shoot back and forth rapidly between Xcode or a browser and Illustrator tweaking graphics. At the moment I can't just export and rebuild/refresh. I have to find the file and rename it before it will work. This is a major speed-bump.
Is there a way (possibly via a 3rd party plugin) to read/write PDF annotations/comments in Illustrator? We use PDF comments heavily in our workflow with Illustrator. The problem is to add/edit/view these comments we need to use two programs. The comments are used to embed markup language that our custom software which converts it into a web based template. This is why is it is so critical to be easily accesed from our primary design tool (Illustrator).
Is there a way in Illustrator to know the exact dimension of shape in pixel and possibly to resize it down to different (but precise) dimension?
I've worked with single and dual monitor setups in different situations in the past, but it's been a while since I last had two. Right now, I'm using a single Dell 24" that seems enough to handle adobe and web developing programs (I got used to just alt-tabbing my way through them), but I'm wondering if I should grab one of the smaller spare monitors in the office and add it to my workspace. Last time I had two, I only used the second one as support, for displaying complementary information (mostly thumbnails and previews). The main disadvantage for me was that both of them were inevitably positioned in a diagonal, something that I found quite annoying. To those who use dual monitors, are there advantages regarding efficiency (I've freelanced for most of my life so my work process is kind of... personal) that I might be missing? Or is it just a question of preference?
I have a font which has six styles (Black, Bold, Extra bold, Light, Medium and Regular). For each style there's an OTF file. If I install all the OTF files, the font shows up properly in the Fonts panel in Windows, it shows as a family so that if I double click it, then another window appears with each style. However, in Photoshop, when I choose the font, only the "Regular" style appears in the style menu, which is grayed out, and does not let me choose any other style. I've been twiddling with FontCreator and some other font-related software, trying to properly set up the options for each style, with no luck. So the question would be this: how should I edit the parameters in the fonts so they keep being from the same family but Photoshop recognizes each style, just like Windows does?
Photoshop's pencil tool has a setting for "auto erase". When set, clicking on a pixel of the current foreground color causes it to draw over it with the background color. This is great if you're drawing on a colored background, but useless when the background is transparent. How can I set the pencil tool to erase pixels (replace them with transparent) instead of just drawing the background color over them? Or if this is not possible, is there another tool that can be set to draw a single pixel in the foreground color and then auto erase to transparent?
I have photos of a product and I would like to create a white background behind it. See it here: I have tried playing with levels and the brightness but that also messes up the product itself. How do i do this?
I'm designing a web application which has lots of data tables with business information both as numbers (sales, hours etc) and text (product names, region names etc). What fonts are great for dense information displays? I've played with usual suspects like Helvetica, Helvetica Neue and Tahoma, but are there others that would add a splash of unique feeling, but still would be an excellent choice for displaying tabular data?
First some background... We have a custom piece of software that requires PDF files to auto generate web pages. These PDF files are pretty typical, the only special thing about these is that hey have proprietary programming codes added to the comments/annotations that instructs the 3rd party software on how to transform certain things. To any tool capable of opening PDF files it just sees a bunch of plain text annotations/comments no different from any other PDF. Because we need to create hundreds of these pages and manage them in a source control system we are considering working directly with the PDF file. Previously we have had an .ai file that is exported to .pdf then the PDF is "marked up" (has the special codes added to the comments) finally the file is commited to source control. This means we have two files to manage keeping in sync. This is why we are investigating using he Illustrator option "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" so we can work directly in the PDF files and avoid the storage/management of a .ai file as well as .pdf file. Our current graphic designer claims this option limits his ability to edit the file (despite the obvious message to the contrary in Illustrator) his predecesor claimed it worked fine. As I am just a programmer who is having to manage this graphic design process I am wondering if in fact the option works and if anybody knows of any "gotchas" with it.
The graphic designer for my club created a red and black logo (major color is black highlighted with red). Everyone thinks it looks great, and I agree. The issue lies with designing the site. We've been trying to design a red and black site around the logo, but everything we've come up with looks dark, heavy, and saturated. Is there a trick to designing dark-colored sites? I've looked at other sites that use red and black (for instance, these), but they all seem to be graphical, rich-content sites, as opposed to a simple text-heavy site like we are trying to design.
I am trying to create a gif of a growing line, which changes direction. I drew the line using the path tool, so I need a way to animate drawing process of a Beziér curve. Essentially I need to create a similar animation to the the following one (just the red line and the black dot, however the black dot is optional):
I've got a bunch of puppies i need to mask in the same way as below, where each puppy will be within a shadowed circle: I got the first one working using a layer mask, but now i want an easy way to apply the same mask layer to all my other puppies, and I can't figure out how. The current mask is tied to this specific layer, like so: How would I create a single mask that I could apply across many puppy pics, and modify in one place if need be. Update on this: I discovered I could apply a mask to a group, like so- however, I can't apply filters on the group-level mask. So I'm closer, but not there yet...
Metalista is a modern blackletter font (afaik :)) designed by Suitcase Type Foundry as a tribute to "the persistency of the metal culture." What other typefaces (used as subtitles) would mix best with Metalista (used for the title)? In case that's too broad a question, here's an example narrowing: How well does Steinem go with Metalista? To give you a bit of context, the above question(s) arose discussing a "steampunk" YA book cover for which Metalista is a good choice.
Everytime I create a new shape in Photoshop CS5, whether on a new layer, document, whatever, it's always starting out with a drop shadow. I can't figure out why this default filter is being applied?
I know how to trim a document to get rid of surrounding transparent space, but is there a way to do this only for saving off to web & devices, without impacting the actual document?
I would like to reconstruct a simple bitmap to vector, so I have put a grid and a layer on top of it. Is it possible to e.g. use the fill tool, to just fill out one of the grid squares at a time? Or is there a better way?
Is it possible to find out what compression algorithms have been used for images in a PDF document?
A friend of mine uses PDF as the default format for saving Photshop files. For both master and working documents. He never saves anything as a PSD. Is this good practice?
I know this is all subjective, but I'm hoping there are general principles here that will mean this is a valid question. Take a look at the layout below. In the past (before I tried to learn about this stuff properly) I would have made the text line up with the left hand side of box 1. However, I think it looks more balanced where the text is now. Is this the correct way to balance these elements? (or a correct way rather). (A follow up to my question: How can a design be balanced and yet have a focal point?)
If I want to use the Arc Tool, I click & hold the Line Tool icon and then I count, 1 Mississippi ... 2 Mississippi ... And then the submenu appears. Is there a way to reduce this lag? Or is there a keyboard shortcut to open submenus?
I've cut and pasted vector art from Illustrator to PhotoShop and chose "smart object" when I pasted it. Is there a way to convert the smart object to a shape layer now so I can edit the very simple art directly in PhotoShop?
I've gotten errors when I attempted to use Inkscape, GIMP, and Uniconverter because I don't have access to the proprietary software. Perhaps the file corrupt? Thanks for any advice, this is a charitable cause ("Feed my Starving Children") if that is extra motivation for you! I'm trying to convert the .eps which is part of this .zip. Another way to get to the file is to start here, and scroll down to the three "Mobile Pack Logos"
I can't find much about using fleurons/hedera as bullets in a list online or in Bringhurst, but I did find several "floral heart bullets" in Unicode. Are these still only for decorative use? Would their use in a complex list be a faux pas?
We have roughly 55 cards that all have the exact same text. The titles and backgrounds differ among the cards. So I've made just one AI with the different backgrounds and all the text as one copy in a layer on top. Now I can just hide each background layer and save as PDF. But even unchecking preserve editing capabilities, the file sizes let me know that it is still including the images and backgrounds for all the hidden layers. Doing a quick test and deleting all the hidden layers brings the file sizes done considerably. I was under the impression that saving as a PDF without editing capabilities only saved what was needed for that particular PDF. It seems I was wrong. Do I just have to keep deleting the hidden layers for each copy?
I've a Wacom Bamboo Fun Touch & Pen to draw on the PC. I also have some old designs drawed on paper that I want to draw on the PC using Photoshop. The problem is that the paper design is bigger than the drawable surface of the graphics tablet. I want to redraw the designs overlapping the paper on the tablet, so that I can trace the design. So, my question is: How can achieve this? I've tried slicing the paper using a pencil and redraw the designs little by little, part by part, but the final result is awful... Thank you very much in advance!
Sometimes when using Adobe Illustrator I need to get a range of tints from a certain color, so I'll drop the opacity to, say, 75%, 50%, and 25% on a white background to get there. It's the quickest way to get what I want in that moment, but then it comes back to bite me later when I put something underneath and then I have visibly overlapping layers. What I want to be able to do is get the value of the color that I'm seeing. In Photoshop I'd do this by putting a white layer underneath, merging the two layers, and then sampling the color. Is there some sort of trick I can pull in Illustrator to do the same thing? If not, is there a different (and preferably simple) way to add white to a color? Changing S and B values in the color picker is the only thing I could think of in that regard and isn't always terribly simple to do...
I am new to illustrator, if this is too basic do provide links for me (tutorial). I've made a shape, and I put styles on the layer, gradient, color overlay, opacity reduced, I know how to copy the shape, but to get the exact same gradient, opacity, how to do it? it's like a blend of styles.
Some time ago I managed to add this text (see below) to a logo at 512 x 512 px. I reproduced the black text using Arial Bold 200 with kerning at -20 in Paintshop Pro. However, if I try to feather, expand or contract in Paintshop Pro or Photoshop, I end up with a much more rounded inner area (shown in white below). I've also tried using a smaller font, but I can't get it to match the right size of the black border. My question is, how do I produce the outlined text (as shown below), where the black text is at the size mentioned above, in Paintshop Pro or Photoshop? I need to generate a much larger image, 1024 x 1024 px, so I can't just scale it up as it will look awful. Note that although I have scaled up this image for the benefit of this question, the text is anti-aliased in the final image.
I'm having problems adding text using the type path tool in illustrator within a round vector. Every time I go to type on a path though the background colour disappears. Here's an example: If anyone can help and it's the blue area I want to get circular text within. I also tried saving it as an image and creating new paths, but get the anchors lined up without the background turning white...any small suggestion on how I could do this would be great.
Possible Duplicate: Life size image in Photoshop I'm designing my first business card for a client so this question is a matter of printing. Here's my question; how come when I make my canvas 3.5in x 2in (at 100% zoom) it's not as big as the business card when I hold it up to the screen?
I use the typeface "Lobster_1.0_.otf" in my Android application, but the problem is, that some of the letters appear "hollow", with a black&white outline. You can see the problem on the following image: Another typeface (CasLonItalic.ttf) had similar problem: only the character "l" was hollow. So I think there is something with the typefaces, but I don't know what. I'm a basic user of TypeLight 3 (added Hungarian glyphs to Lobster), so I can make basic modifications if needed.
It's very quick (a few seconds) to add bevel to a shape in Photoshop but when I do the same for a graph object in Illustrator the Mac I'm working on takes an age to render the artwork. Why does this happen?
I want to make a business card in illustrator. Here is my design: Question 1: The design labeled (1) is perfectly aligned from back to front. I've downloaded a template for illustrator here. The problem is when I export as tiff, the image doesn't follow the guides, the lines that are already in illustrator. Instead, it saves the whole image, I mean they didn't cut just until bleed line, or am I misunderstanding something? Question 2: If I want to print there and to have it perfectly match the design labeled (1) I must follow this right? So do I have to make the design in illustrator like the design labeled (2)? I'm having a difficult time matching these up.
So, you can have a heading running on each page that varies automatically based on the most recent heading (or, occurrence of any other paragraph style) by putting text with InDesign text variables based on the Running Headings text variable type ( type > text variables > define). Example tutorial. So, for a textbook, novel, etc, where chapters span multiple pages, you could have the title of the latest chapter run in the header of each page automatically: For a book like a dictionary, where each page contains multiple headings, you could get running headers that show the range of each page, by using two Running Header text variables, one set to "First in page", one set to "Last in page": My question is, what if you have an awkward book or report with sections that have very variable lengths, which can be very short (several on a page) and can be multiple pages? Imagine something like an in-depth dictionary or encyclopaedia, where most entries are short, but a few are necessarily exceptionally long. The ideal result would show just one running title where there's one or less header on the page (where the result of the "First in page" and "Last in page" lookups are the same), and the first and last where there is more than one (where the result of the lookups is different): I can't find any way to do anything like this, however - even with manual input. Using the Dictionary-style method like above gives ugly duplication in cases where there are one or less entries: Re-jigging the content of the book or changing the heading hierarchy isn't an option - they're all of equal importance, regardless of their awkwardly varying lengths. I'm fine with answers involving scripting or some way of manually varying text from one master page text frame between pages - but I'd really not like to need to manually set a whole different text frame in the same place with the same style on every page then manually type into and adjust all of them as independent elements...
Just wondering if anyone has hammered out any good solutions to presenting PNG screen comps to clients, especially if there are more than a dozen screens. Adobe Bridge has some half decent HTML gallery output options, but I was wondering what other tools and techniques people use to remotely and reliably present full-quality comps. Any advice?
I read this question regarding Fireworks layers, where it said that master pages have to be applied underneath other layers. Is this true for InDesign as well? If not, how does one put the Master Page content on top? I was playing out a scenario that another user presented where you'd have one piece of text and different backgrounds.
I've been trying to draw a beehive graphic in illustrator. My approach has been to draw an ellipse in yellow and change it's perspective. Then on top of that adding a copy of that ellipse, resize it slightly, make it black and place it over the first yellow ellipse so it forms a banana like shape. I do this slowly getting smaller all the way up to the top, alternating yellow and black where I finish with a full ellipse. This approach has been working and the result I get is good but I've found it hard to make the beehive a uniform shape all the way up....simply adjusting the size of the ellipses by hand means that I end up with uneven gaps of black between the banana like sections and slightly uneven banana sections. Any ideas on how I can draw this with more accuracy? I'm very new to graphic design. I've attached an image that was taken with a mobile phone of the screen. I drew the image at home and took a picture for a friend. I'm now away from my computer so don't have access to the original image - hopefully this will give you an idea of the problem though. http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1984/hiuve.jpg
Is it possible to roughly select an area (with the Export area tool) around an image you are working on and have the bounding box automatically shrink to fit it? to I have to do this a lot and manually drawing the bounding box is v. fiddly, and it is easy to click outside the handles and have to start again! I usually can't use 'trim' on the whole page because there will be other elements. Thanks!
I was wondering how I copy selected paths of a shape in PS CS6. I start selecting the paths I want to copy by clicking on them and holding SHIFT. I then press ALT SHIFT which only copies one of the selected paths. How can I copy all of the selected paths, not just one?
I'm converting hand-drawn and scanned letters into vector paths via live trace. So far, so good. The next step I need to do is break up the live-traced letters into individual objects, so I can move them around, independently of each other. But after live-tracing, the object seems to have the dimensions of the original .psd file it was copied over from, and I don't see a way to ungroup or otherwise extract the different letters from the trace are. Is there a way to break there letters out of the traced object so I can manipulate them individually?
Is there any way of converting a illustrator file with text and logos to one only. As I'm working for a client that only wants to print with one-color?