Published on
April 17, 2009 in
tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, CS3, CS4, Illustration, illustrator, software, troubleshooting, vector.

For longer than I can remember, I have been flustered with the Flatten Transparency feature in Adobe Illustrator CS3 and CS4. Very often I use the excellent Layer Targeting feature introduced into recent versions of Adobe Illustrator, however I found that when using the Flatten Transparency feature, it seemed to ignore the attributes of the Targeting, which forced me to find lengthy workarounds to solve this. Turns out there was an approach to solving this that I had overlooked…
Continue reading 'Flattening Transparency Properly When Using Layer Appearances in Adobe Illustrator'
by George Coghill
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Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
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Published on
November 25, 2008 in
tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, Creative Suite, CS3, CS4, free, keyboard commands, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, PDF, Photoshop, reference.

Great resource for Adobe Photoshop users — reference cards for quick overviews of Photoshop’s interface, specific and often-used tools.
Includes links to versions for Photoshop CS3 and CS4 as well as both Macintosh and Windows versions.
Some of the “cards” are actually links to Adobe’s own online help (which is where the default Help in CS4 apps now takes you). But the rest of the cards look helpful in learning or referencing common tools such as the Pen tool, the Marquee tool, and the Brush tool. Worth a look and a download for the reference cards that suit your workflow. Sure to enhance your productivity.
Continue reading 'Photoshop Cheatsheets and Reference Cards: Free Downloads'
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
Published on
November 13, 2008 in
tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Creative Suite, CS3, CS4, illustrator, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, Photoshop.
Just a quick tip for those out there getting ready to upgrade to the new Adobe Creative Suite CS4: I discovered after the upgrade that CS3 customized keyboard shortcut files do not transition into CS4.
This is a huge bummer, as there is no easy way that I know of to display what you have changed compared to the default set. I can only speak for Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4 and InDesign CS4 as I do not use the rest of the programs in the Design Premium suite enough to customize keyboard shortcuts.
I can’t recall if this is the case with previous Creative Suite upgrades as well or if this is a CS4-only situation.
Continue reading 'Creative Suite CS4: Custom Keyboard Shortcut Woes'
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
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:
Continue reading '10 Free Adobe Illustrator Scripts'
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
Published on
September 23, 2008 in
software.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, artist, Creative Suite, CS3, CS4, graphics, graphics tablet, illustrator, Photoshop, sketch, software, vector, Wacom.
If you aren’t aware, Adobe is announcing the CS4 update the their Creative Suite design software package today. Photoshop always gets the spotlight, but us vector artists want the scoop on our baby: Illustrator CS4. I guess the gag order was lifted as of midnight, because details are pouring in, and even Adobe has updated their site to feature CS4.
Illustrator guru Mordy Golding over on his Real World Illustrator blog has a nice detailed overview of the major new features and refinements in Illustrator CS4.
Continue reading 'Adobe Illustrator CS4 Details Released!'
by George Coghill
View my cartoon character and logo illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Be sure to check out my live and recorded drawing, sketching & vectoring videos.
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