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CafePress, Zazzle & Spreadshirt Showdown

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on January 2, 2008

. 0 Comments

Rick over at MacMerc has just posted an excellent overview on the three main online print-on-demand t-shirt printing shops: CafePress, Zazzle and Spreadshirt. For artists considering using one of these services, this is a great in-depth review on the similarities/differences between all three shops and their printing methods, as well as the pros and cons of each service and type of printing. Included are samples of shirts from each company, as well as magnified images of the printing.

Continue reading 'CafePress, Zazzle & Spreadshirt Showdown'

by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet: Nice Entry-Level Tool, But Limited

Published

George Coghill

on December 25, 2007

in gadgets, reviews and tools

. 19 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to try out a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet, having purchased one for my Dad this holiday season. Dad is not a graphics guy by any means, but I use my Wacom tablets for so much more than just drawing and graphics applications - and love it so much - that I thought the Bamboo was a perfect accessory for another ardent computer geek.

In short, the Bamboo is a great entry-level tablet for casual users, but graphic artists will want to seriously consider investing in one of the pricier, but more fully-featured Intuos3 models. Read on for full details.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

CS3 + G4: Using Adobe Creative Suite CS3 on a PowerMac G4

Published

George Coghill

on October 5, 2007

in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Apple, OS X, opinions, productivity, rants, reviews, software and tools

. 2 Comments

Apple Macintosh PowerMac G4 desktop computer It’s been about a few months since I upgraded to Adobe’s Creative Suite CS3 suite of graphic & design applications, and am running them all on a PowerMac G4 (dual 1.25 processors, 2 Gb RAM). I thought I would share my experiences with anyone out there contemplating upgrading to CS3 with an older Macintosh. I also have one of the original MacBooks, so there’s a decent comparison with CS3 running on an Intel processor Mac.

In short, I would recommend waiting to upgrade your Mac to at least a G5 or an Intel based Mac before going to CS3, but that said it’s still usable.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Acorn: The Leatherman Tool of Image Editors

Published

George Coghill

on October 2, 2007

in OS X, reviews, shareware, software and tools

. 0 Comments

The more I try out image editors Pixelmator & Acorn, the more Acorn’s simplicity and new perspective on the interface grows on me. Pixelmator is looking to be just about perfect for those people who need a Photoshop Elements style app with low overhead at a sweet price point.

Acorn, on the other hand, seems to be carving out a new niche, and developer Gus Mueller has shown in some of the details that’s he’s not trying to compete with Photoshop (or even Pixelmator), rather he’s attempting to do something new & unique. From the single, unified tools palette to the Option & Control key resizing & crop features (with the live pixel dimension display on the bottom left of the window frame) to the live brush size on the brush slider, Mueller demonstrates that he’s been using graphics software, he’s been frustrated with some things, and he’s thought of a way to make it painless, effortless and intuitive.

Once you’ve worked a bit in Acorn with some of these novel approaches to old habits, you’ll soon wonder why it was never done this way before.

Continue reading 'Acorn: The Leatherman Tool of Image Editors'

by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Default Folder X - Essential Mac Productivity Utility Software

Published

George Coghill

on September 9, 2007

in OS X, keyboard shortcuts, productivity, reviews, shareware, software and tools

. 0 Comments

Default Folder X is one of those shareware utility applications that seem pretty handy while you are demoing, but until you use another Mac without Default Folder installed (or the demo runs out), you don’t realize exactly how perfect the software actually is.

I constantly run across these “714 Absolutely Essential Mac Applications” blog posts that always leave this one out. And I think the only reason is that the author is unaware of it’s existence. There’s no other explanation. Half of the time the apps I see on those lists are so-so anyways.

So what is this so-called “Default Folder” anyways? In short, it’s a way for you to access — from the Open/Save dialog windows — not only commonly used folders, but also recently used folders and open Finder windows, all with (mostly) user-defined keyboard shortcuts.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Podcast review: The Illustrative Designer

Published

George Coghill

on September 6, 2007

in Illustration, art, cartooning, design, reviews and web links

. 0 Comments

Illustrator extraordinaire Von Glitschka has a very cool podcast out that I just started listening to, The Illustrative Designer podcast. Each podcast is basically an interview by “the Vonster” (as he calls himself) with a chosen professional illustrator, cartoonist or designer. The most recent illustrator interview was with (the unimaginably prolific) cartoon illustrator & designer Bob Staake.

The “illustrative designer” moniker comes from Von’s idea that when asked to describe his work, he says he’s not a graphic designer that can draw, but rather an illustrator who can design. Hence, “illustrative designer”.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Adobe Creative Suite 3: First Thoughts

Published

George Coghill

on August 15, 2007

in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, OS X, opinions, reviews, software and thoughts

. 0 Comments

Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 arrived this morning, and was immediately installed on both my trusty G4 and the MacBook. Here are my very initial thoughts on the first run of the main software applications: Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Archive That Artwork! Backup Tips & Software Advice for Mac OS X

Published

George Coghill

on July 31, 2007

in Apple, OS X, productivity, reviews, shareware, tips and tools

. 0 Comments

Backup. It’s something most computer users - let alone artistic types - never think about, at least not until after it’s too late. Trust me, once it happens to you, it will never be forgotten. Perhaps I can convince you to never have to go through that by recommending you start your backup system now.

All that precious time spent creating, tweaking, and perfecting your masterpiece is well worth a few measly bucks and a bit of effort (which will be automated once it’s all set up) to ensure you don’t lose those hours of hard work.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
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Great Wacom Tablet Scrolling Software For Mac OS X: Smart Scroll X

Published

George Coghill

on June 27, 2007

in OS X, cool stuff, productivity, reviews, shareware and software

. 3 Comments

Smart Scroll X icon In some previous posts, I rambled on about the ability to scroll, one-handed, using the Wacom software, and a shareware alternative, Smart Scroll X . I also touched on this a bit in my Wacom Intuos graphics tablets review.
I am very pleased to report that the developer of Smart Scroll X has worked out the issues with Camino and NetNewsWire. The newly introduced scrolling feature in the Wacom tablet driver software is very cool, and should be more than sufficient for most users. Smart Scroll X fills a gap that the more nerdy of us may appreciate. And I think this is the proper situation for a shareware app - to extend functionality. Continue reading 'Great Wacom Tablet Scrolling Software For Mac OS X: Smart Scroll X'OS X: Smart Scroll X’

by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.

Must-have Adobe Illustrator plugin: Zoom to Selection

Published

George Coghill

on May 24, 2007

in Adobe Illustrator, Illustration, OS X, cool stuff, design, productivity, reviews, shareware, software and tips

. 4 Comments

I just picked up a great new plugin for Illustrator, Zoom to Selection (Mac only) from the Adobe Illustrator plugin coder known cryptically as Worker 72a. Zoom to Selection does exactly as it’s name implies - allows one to zoom (maginify) in and out of an Illustrator document using the currently selected object as the centering point of the zoom.

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by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.