Archive for the 'productivity' Category

Scanned Sketch Prep — Free Photoshop Action

Published on February 12, 2009 in productivity. 7 Comments Tags: Adobe Photoshop, download, free, Photoshop, productivity.

Here’s a freebie for all my loyal readers: a free Photoshop action I created myself to eliminate repetitive tasks I (used to) go through each time I scanned in a new sketch for further work in Photoshop. Boost your productivity with this free Photoshop download.

My custom Sketch Prep action — as you can see from the screenshot — simply resets your color swatches back to the default black/white, does a Select All on the background layer, cuts the image to a new layer (leaving you with a flat white background layer) and then bumps the opacity of the newly-created layer down to 20%. It then adds a fresh new blank layer for you to start drawing in.

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by George Coghill
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6 Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts For Illustrator Users

Published on January 16, 2009 in productivity, software and tips. 0 Comments Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Creative Suite, illustrator, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, OS X, Photoshop, productivity, tip.

Here are a few handy keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop for those of you out there like me who spend an inordinate amount of time in the Creative Suite primarily using Illustrator. These are not keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Illustrator, but rather are keyboard shortcuts providing methods of doing things in Photoshop that you are used to doing in Illustrator that at first it might seem isn’t possible, like click directly on an object to select it, drag to a new layer, etc.

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Zen Of The Pen

Published on October 31, 2008 in productivity and resources. 2 Comments Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, Bezier, Creative Suite, free, graphic design, how-to, Illustration, illustrator, PDF, Photoshop, reference, software, technique, tips, tutorials, vector, walkthrough.

Sharon Steuer’s free ”Zen Of The Pen” PDF is an excellent introduction to the inner mysteries of the vector pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.

The pen tool is one of those obscure graphics programs tools that everyone tries once, and then gets so confused by that they never get any further with it. And understandably. It looks like a fountain pen, but it doesn’t act like one. Click and “draw”, you get weird “handles” sprouting out from a dot. Ignore that, and some annoying rubber band line gets stuck to your pen tip, all distorted out of — not even a straight line! Right there most Illustrator users think to themselves “this program sucks”.

But they couldn’t be further from the truth…

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Must-Have OS X Productivity Tool Default Folder 43% Off 10/27/2008

Published on October 27, 2008 in productivity. 0 Comments Tags: Mac, OS X, productivity, shareware, software.

The current MacUpdate Promo is offering the excellent shareware tool Default Folder for only $19.95 until midnight on 10/27/2008.

I have been an extremely satisfied user since way back in the OS 9 days, and highly recommend you pick up a license while this great deal is going on. Default Folder is worth every penny of the $34.95 standard price, so at almost half off it’s a steal.

What does it do? Here’s a quick overview:

Default Folder X attaches a toolbar to the right side of the Open and Save dialogs in any OS X-native application. The toolbar gives you fast access to various folders and commands. You just click on the buttons to go to your favorite and recently used folders, manage the folders and files shown in the list, and make changes to your settings.

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10 Free Adobe Illustrator Scripts

Published on October 9, 2008 in productivity and resources. 0 Comments Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, CS3, illustrator, productivity, script, software, tips, vector.

Vectips has a post with 10 Free and Extremely Useful Illustrator Scripts.

Illustrator supports scripting from AppleScript, Visual Basic, JavaScript, and ExtendScript. What’s a script you ask? We’ll they’re kind of like plug-ins, kind of like Actions. Basically they are small chunks of software that you can invoke to perform functions.

You don’t need to know anything about programming, coding or anything like that. It’s as simple as downloading the files and placing them in the Adobe Illustrator CS3/Presets/Scripts folder. After doing so you’ll find them in the Scripts menu (under the File menu).

Lots of great scripts. Here’s what you’ll find:

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