Jumpcut is a very handy clipboard extender for Mac OS X. What Jumpcut does is remember a user-specified number of text items copied to the clipboard, and allows one to select from them when pasting.
The standard OS X clipboard allows the user to paste only the last-copied item. Jumpcut just keeps track of everything you have copied using the Command (⌘) -C shortcut or the Edit -> Copy menu item.
Continue reading 'Jumpcut: Free OS X Clipboard History Utility'
by George Coghill -
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A plugin that I always forget to tout, since the functionality it provides seems so intrinsic to Illustrator once it’s installed, I forget it’s a third-party enhancement.
Select Menu for Adobe Illustrator (Mac and Windows, free) from Graffix Software is available for every version of Illustrator from 8 on up to CS3. It adds additional selectable items under the Select -> Objects menu.
This plugin really comes in handy at the production stage of prepping your art, allowing you to find all sorts of items that you need to preflight. It especially comes in handy after flattening transparency, such as when you export art to an older version of Illustrator. I find lots of klunky and open paths all over the place after flattening transparency, and I couldn’t imagine how much of a pain in the neck it would be to clean up art without Select Menu.
Continue reading 'Essential Adobe Illustrator Plug-in: Select Menu'
by George Coghill -
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Just stumbled across these handy Mac OS X software applications to help designers and artists simulate the effects of color blindness on-screen: Sim Daltonism and Color Oracle.
Sim Daltonism works as a floating palette which converts an area under your mouse cursor to the selected type of color blindness — it works similar to the Apple Digital Color Meter sampling utility. There are 8 different types of color blindness to test. Color Oracle works as a menubar item which converts the entire monitor to the selected mode of color blindness, but only offers the three most common forms.
Continue reading 'Color Blindness Software Tools for Artists'
by George Coghill -
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Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I just set up a Jaiku illustrator channel for Adobe Illustrator users and vector artists. If you aren’t familiar with Jaiku, it’s a chat-based social networking community similar to Twitter. Both are also referred to as “microblogs” in that the “posts” are limited to 140 characters. It’s designed for quick thoughts and comments.
Continue reading 'Illustrator Channel on Jaiku'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Ever need to temporarily reference another document while working on something – this may be an image, or instructions, or a PDF file. Many times you want it floating right on top of your current document so you can refer to it while you are working, and not have to switch back and forth between applications.
I do this a lot when working in Illustrator, especially working from reference images, but also the occasional email message or PDF file sent by a client.
Continue reading 'Productivity Tip: Floating, Transparent Reference Images Using Screenshots & Free Software Afloat'
by George Coghill -
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Paintbrush a cool little free image editor/paint software program for Mac OS X. As the site says, this is no Photoshop competitor. It’s just your basic paint program like Microsoft Paint or the old MacPaint. It has just the basics – pencil, paintbrush, line, rectangle & circle tools, eraser, text etc. Even lets you open up an image and draw on top of it.
Still, it’s a solid application and thought out. Opens quick, runs smoothly, some cool little animations for windows and tools. Definitely designed with fun in mind.
Continue reading 'Paintbrush: Free Bitmap Image Editor For Mac OS X'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
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Adobe has this new online tool for creating color themes, Kuler that is not only really useful, but fun (at least for us color geeks). You can save and share your color themes with other visitors, and even rate them. And for you OS X 10.4 people out there, be sure to snag the Kuler Dashboard Widget. There are also RSS feeds of Popular, Highest Rated and Newest themes and other cool goodies offered here. If you’ve ever used a digital color wheel before, this one is pretty similar. And really well done.
The real hook is browsing through the other color themes and being able to save and share them with like-minded others out there. You get the whole shebang: RGB, HEX, CMYK & LAB values as well as all sorts of models to choose from: Analagous, Complimentary, Triad etc. The Dashboard Widget even has a button to plop the HEX values to your Clipboard.
I’ve just started to play around with this myself, but there’s just about no learning curve, so get on over to Kuler and start Kulerin’!
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
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I found this OS X screensaver, Fenêtres Volantes, via this Top Ten OS X Screensaver list. While there were some cool screensavers on there, and definitely worth checking out, the number one pick was far and away the, well, number one screensaver.
I guess this has nothing to do with cartooning, illustration, design or productivity, but how about creativity?
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by George Coghill -
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