So after making one of these emblems (I hate calling them burst) I figured I would make a couple color variations and pass them along. They are saved down to Illustrator CS and you can download them by clicking the preview below. Nothing says “look here” like a bright shiny Burst… ummm, emblem.
Apple has fixed a problem with the new 27″ iMacs regarding intermittent display flickering and occasional blackouts. This issue affects the new 27″ iMacs with a ATI Radeon HD 4670 or 4850 graphics card. I noticed this happening on my new iMac last week, I had a random white bar that would flicker on my screen, and once in a while my screen would turn black for a second or two. The update can be downloaded at your apple software update, or you can download it here
2009 was a good year for me, I was able to work with some amazing people, form new relationships with new clients, and continue to grow my business. I purchased a home with my fiance and finally created the home studio I have always dreamed of… a big open space! I think the economy is getting back on track as I saw a flood of new companies inquiring about their advertising needs towards the tail end of 2009. I am excited about this year and what it has to offer. I wish everyone huge success, health and happiness in 2010.
Sometimes I forget to go through all the scripts online you can download for InDesign, many of which are super helpful. I recently got an email from InDesign Tips and it reminded me of a great one. For automatically alphabetizing a list go to Window/Automate/Javascript/Sortparagraph.
I used this script when I had a list of over 50 donors for a charity event that I needed to alphabetize, and it saved me a lot of time. A while back, I also found a calendar script online called Calendar Wizard that will create a calendar for you can you customize and edit. You can download it here
Found this link from smashingmagazine.com with some great Illustrator tutorials to tackle on your free time. Some are sorta basic, some not so basic, but there are some really cool ones, coming from a huge fan of illustrator. Here is the link… Illustrator madness
A very handy app to download for Mac or PC. Click to go to the download page…
If you are using Firefox and have noticed your address bar searches or url’s are being redirected to an Open DNS search engine here is the fix. This started for me last week and drove me nuts, mainly because I rarely type .com after a url in the address bar. Here is a link to the Firefox add on Feeling Lucky Fixer, just install and restart Firefox and the Open DNS page is a thing of the past.
This might be the best plug-in I have come across for Indesign yet. In short, you can style text or an object using the eyedropper tool without ever leaving current tool you have selected. You simply hold down the control & option keys and the eyedropper comes alive for you to pick up a style from another element. This is very useful when you do not have a style sheet set up for a certain text style, and want a new block of text to be exactly like another on your document. Select the text in a text box you would like to style, then hold down the option/control keys and you will see the eyedropper icon come up. You can then click on a body of text that is styled and the new text will pick up that style, the color, leading, font, size… everything.
It works the same way for objects as well, but you will need to be on either the Selection Tool or Direct Selection tool. With either tool selected, select an object, then hold down option/control and you can click on a styled object.
One thing you need to look out for is if another object is in front of the object you are trying to pick up the style from it will pick up the style from that top object, so you will have to rearrange the order of objects to get the one you are trying to select on top. On a side note a quick way to toggle through objects that are layered on top of each other is to choose your Selection tool, hold down the command key and continue to click on one area and you will see the objects be selected one by one. Once you select the object you want to be on top, you can either go to Object/Arrange/… or a simple key shortcut is select the object, hold down shift/command and click the ] key to bring it forward or the [ key to send it to the back.
The plug-in for CS4 is only $29.95 and CS3 is now only $20. It is well worth it in my opinion. You can download either CS3 or CS4 versions at Flux Consulting’s website on this page:
When I think back on the places I have worked over the years, a large amount of Adobe software knowledge came to me from other designers. Whether it’s looking over someone’s shoulder and asking “how did you do that?” or the morning coffee brainstorming sessions where people would point out tips and tricks in case someone did not know them. Now I am not claiming to know it all, but I have been using this software since I first opened photoshop 7. No matter how long you have been using the software, in my opinion if you think you know it all, you are a dead duck.
I wanted to focus some of my blog post on some of the things you can do in creative suite that I myself have seen other designers overlook over the years. Now I am sure, especially on this fist post about the eyedropper tool, some of you might say “no duh”, but… I remember the first time a designer showed me this and I was like “wow, that is awesome”.
This is an easy way to create a color palette based off of a photo you may have in your project you are working on. First off I like to make sure my color on the toolbar is set to the fill color so I can see what the color I choose looks like. Select the Eyedropper tool on your toolbar and as you bring it over your image you will notice it has an empty white fill to the eyedropper. Go ahead and click on any area of the photo and you will then see the eyedropper has a black fill to it, this means you have selected a color from the image. The fill color on your toolbar now shows the color you selected. If you are happy with the color selected you can add it to your color palette by clicking “New Swatch”. If you do not like the color the eyedropper picked up a simple way to clear it (have it turn white again) is to just hit the letter “i” on your keyboard, you can then select another area of the photo. It’s that easy. The photo below shows three areas that I selected marked a with a yellow box that created the three new colors in my color palette.
One thing you can also play with is using this tool to color type, or create a stroke or fill color based off the same eyedropper tool technique. Highlight your text in a text box, make sure your toolbar color is on fill color, select an area in the photo with the eyedropper and your text will pick up that color. This works for fill and stroke as well on both type and objects as long as the item is selected when you use the eyedropper tool to select a color.
If you are new to Indesign or have overlooked this feature go play with some photos and see what you come up with. Next blog post I will be featuring a great plug-in from Flux Consulting that allows you to style your text in a very similar way as the eyedropper tool without ever leaving the type tool. A must have plug-in in my opinion!
Well after a couple months of trashing layouts, not having enough hours in the day to work on it, and being overly critical of myself, my site is now live.
Check back for blog post on everything from design to surfing to amusing stuff I come across during my long days at a computer. Make sure to check out my friends links especially Antonea Nabors who I have been working with on several projects and who is an amazing web and print designer.
