Although technically these tips apply to any graphics software, this particular tutorial over at Spoon Graphics focuses on the exact steps to set up bleeds for print design in your document within Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. The method to do so in other graphics application might be slightly different, but these walkthroughs should give you enough info to apply it to non-Adobe software.
Continue reading 'Setting Up Bleeds For Print Design In Creative Suite'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I didn’t know about this - and don’t ever plan to switch to Windows - but I thought it might be worth passing on the info that you can indeed switch from Windows to Mac (or Mac to Windows if that’s your desire) and take your Adobe software right along with you without paying for another software license.
Supposedly there is a misonception (and one that I had as well) that once you bought a license for either Mac or Windows, you had to buy another brand new license for the new platform you switched to.
Not so, and really it seems to make the most sense on Adobe’s part. If you paid for the software and switched, most likely if you contact Adobe about this you’re not trying to swindle them - if that was your intention, there’s plenty of options out there for those who don’t feel they have to pay for the software they use.
Continue reading 'Adobe Software: Switching From Windows To Mac (or vice versa)'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
While I had no idea that Photoshop had a 3GB RAM limit, a clever user over at MacOSXHints.com has figured out a hack/solution/workaround using a RAM disk as a virtual scratch disk. Clever.
Continue reading 'Photoshop’s 3GB RAM Limit - A Workaround For OS X Users'OS X Users’
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I thought global colors in Illustrator were something everybody knew about, but perhaps not. Doesn’t anyone read the manuals for their software?
James Dempsey over at The Graphic Mac just posted a brief overview of the global process color swatches in Adobe Illustrator.
Continue reading 'That Little White Triangle In The Corner: Global Process Color Swatches In Adobe Illustrator'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I just came across a serious bug in Photoshop CS3 under Mac OS X 10.5.3 (the newest version as of this post).
Seems saving a file to a networked drive will result in a corrupt file. I found this out the hard way, unfortunately.
Adobe and Apple are aware of this bug, and John Nack over at his Adobe blog is under the impression that this will be fixed in the next Mac OS X update. This seems to imply that the issue is with 10.5, but not necessarily I suppose. Adobe has posted a TechNote on the issue as well.
Continue reading 'Photoshop Bug: Corrupt Files When Saving To Network Volume On Mac OS X 10.5.3'OS X 10.5.3′
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
SneakPeek Pro is a QuickLook plugin fro Mac OS X 10.5 (”Leopard”). In a nutshell, it extends file previews in both QuickLook and the Finder to previously unsupported file types such as Adobe Illustrator .ai files and EPS files.
If you aren’t familiar with QuickLook, it’s a pretty awesome new feature of 10.5 which allows you to quickly preview a good number of core file types — PDF, JPG, PSD, Word docs, movies, text files and more — without actually opening an application. One just needs to tap the spacebar with a file highlighted in the Finder, and a floating bezel-type window opens up with the full image, document or movie. Even works with multi-page documents as well. It’s just plain awesome.
Continue reading 'Illustrator File Previews: SneakPeek Pro QuickLook Plugin For Mac OS X'OS X’
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A hit-or-miss resource I always forget to check, the Adobe Exchange has a decent amount of downloadable resources for use with just about every piece of software they offer. In particular here I am focusing on Illustrator section of the Exchange.
The Illustrator Exchange has actions, brushes, styles, swatches, plug-ins, scripts, templates, tutorials and symbols to browse or search, and there’s a 5-star rating system as well to hopefully help you sort the good from the not-so-good.
Continue reading 'The Adobe Illustrator Exchange: Great Resource For Illustrator Actions, Brushes, Scripts and More'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A good, informative post over at TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) comparing low-cost vector software applications for Mac OS X by indepedent developers. The review is specifically comparing tools and techniques available in Adobe Illustrator CS3.
The comparison covers four applications: DrawBerry, EazyDraw, Lineform, and VectorDesigner. I have demoed all of these at one point or another, and found each to have their stregths and weaknesses.
Continue reading 'Mac Vector App Showdown'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I recently finished up this cartooning project of a cartoon mascot & logo of a dog with a cigar and a hockey stick. The client had a specific vision for this character, which initially included a cowboy hat (see sketch below), but the hat was nixed before going to the final vector art.
Continue reading 'Cartoon Dog With Cigar - Mascot & Logo Illustration'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
