tips and tricks

  • Photoshop

  • One of the best new features in Photoshop CS3 is the REFINE EDGE addition to selection tools. Used correctly, this extremely handy tool enables the roughest of selections to be... refined.
  • But many users have yet to upgrade to CS3 (this at a time when CS4 has been announced), and thus have no access to REFINE EDGE.
  • But fear not. You can always resort to the 'old way'.
  • When you make a selection, EXPAND your selection by a couple of pixels (more if working in very high resolution) and COPY/PASTE to make your layer. CTRL/CMMD-CLICK the layer icon to select all of the pixels in the layer. Now you can perform many of the actions in REFINE EDGE to clean up your selection.
  • For one thing, if you want a black or a white background on which to see your layer better, just create a layer beneath the target layer and PAINT BUCKET the desired color.
  • Then you can CONTRACT your selection to a pixel or more inside the edge and FEATHER it, INVERT the selection (so that the extreme outside pixels are selected) and press DELETE. If you press DELETE a second time, more pixels will be trimmed from the layer.
  • Experiment.

  • Photoshop

  • If you work in Photoshop, you've got LAYERS. Even when using layers doesn't seem necessary, it pays to remember they're there. Even if it's only to duplpicate the current layer in order to try something first.
    Without getting too involved in Adjustment Layers and Layer Comps (both tremendous tools), it doesn't take much to duplicate the layer you're working on, try something, and if it doesn't work, trash the layer.
    Or you can try blending the new layer onto the old one.

  • Illustrator

    Control/Command-D is Transform Again. This key combo should be as ingrained as -S for Save, or -Z for Undo.
    A lot of what you've done can be repeated using the -D command; rotation, moving, duplication etc.
    Just try it. There's always Undo.

  • Dreamweaver

    There's a tool I've used for so long it's become ingrained in me. But recently I came across a fellow Dreamweaver user who had never heard of it.
    Next to the link box in the PROPERTIES tab is what looks like a target symbol. This is the Link Pointer. With your FILES palette open and visible on the right, simply click and drag the Pointer to a page to create a hyperlink.
    If you want to change an image, select the image and drag the pointer to the new image and you've done it.

  • InDesign

    In Windows the right mouse button (or OPTION-CLICK on a Mac) is full of extremely helpful stuff.
    Use this contect sensitive menu to access Text Box Properties, Fitting Properties and all manner of other commands that are a couple of menu clicks away.
    It's got so that the first thing I do when I want to change something is RIGHT-CLICK to check that the command isn't there before I go up to the menu bar.

  • Photoshop

    An extremely helpful little command is EDIT/PURGE. If you haven't familiarized yourself with this, your computer is too powerful.
    For the rest of us, if you find your computer's reaction time slowing after a lengthy spell in Photoshop, this little command can clear up vital RAM. Just be aware that once you clear your HISTORY, for example, you can't go back ...

  • Illustrator

  • Don't forget that Illustrator makes web pages too. Or at least, when you create a new document, you can choose a WEB document at, say, 800 X 600 pixels. You're then able to use all of Illustrator's vector tools to design your page, before taking the file into Photoshop for optimizing.

  • Dreamweaver

    An essential tool of Dreamweaver in the early days which seems to be largely overlooked of late is the TRACING IMAGE. You'll find this in the PAGE PROPERTIES dialogue box. With this feature you can create a concept or design in Illustrator or Photoshop and output your design to JPEG, then place it underneath your web page setup. This is a very simple method for designing a unique web page.

  • InDesign

    Another use for PAGE NUMBERS is to create consecutive numbers in a print document - such as raffle tickets, or numbered invoices.
    Create your entire design on a MASTER PAGE, including the 'page numbers', then add the required number of pages (blank) to make up the file. This could be 100 or 1000. Output the file to PDF for the printer. It may be a big file, but this is the only way to do it without expensive software like Darwin.

  • CorelDRAW

    The thing I love about CorelDRAW is its SCALING ability. Uniquely among vector drawing applications (as opposed to CAD applications), CorelDRAW allows you to set a page scale. It might be, for example, 1000-to-1, in which a 1mm wide line on the page is represented as being 1 metre wide. This is great for creating graphics larger than normal page sizes which have to be to scale.

rasterize graphics at high resolutions

Always rasterize your graphics (convert to bitmap) at a higher resolution than your target dpi. For example, if the end result will be displayed on a web page at the resolution of 72dpi, rasterize at 200dpi or better.

Why?

Because when you've finished your work (photo manipulation, montage or whatever), and then DOWNSAMPLE to the target resolution, you will clean up any small errors or glitches in your graphics work.

It is also much easier to make complex selections at a higher resolution than it is when the pixels are larger.

 

Spot colors

If you're doing anything that involves spot colours, the biggest problem - and the greatest cause of trouble at the prepress end - is having too many colors, or the wrong colors in the file.

Commonly a file will contain PMS 347C and PMS 347CV and PMS 347 CVC, all of which are the same color, but the presence of three versions will generate three separations - not a good thing.

This is easily remedied. If you have a two-color logo, or a duotone or any other spot colour graphic, always bring your spot color graphic into InDesign or QuarkXpress BEFORE setting up the color swatches. These graphics will bring their own colors into the page layout program by themselves, and populate your swatch panel.

From there, you can use those colors alone without having to set up the PMS colors and potentially getting it wrong.

 

Transferring Files between Applications

Always remember the lead time between development that affects all applications. This, allied to the to ecomplexity of graphics files, means that compatibility between different applications is not always perfect - despite the presence of an IMPORT FILTER.

For example, if you have an Illustrator file that you need to bring into CorelDRAW (which has an IMPORT FILTER for Illustrator native (.ai) files, save your Illustrator file as an earlier version first.

Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do with Freehand files. Neither Illustrator nor CorelDRAW will open native Freehand files, and with this product a dying breed, there will probably be a lot of people wishing to transfer their Freehand files to these vector applications.

Once again, Freehand's limitations will cause problems. Both CorelDRAW and Illustrator open PDF files, BUT Freehand only creates to Acrobat 4 level - without support for transparency. This means all the files will be flattened.

You're only option really is to export your Freehand file to EPS and open it in the other applications, but there will almost always be issues.

Stay tuned here as we come across solutions for this problem.