Published on
January 15, 2009 in
software and tips.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, backup, Creative Suite, how-to, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, PC, productivity, tips, troubleshooting, tutorial, Windows, Windows XP, workflow.
It’s happened to all of us digital creatives. The dreaded day when you just cannot get one of your Adobe applications to launch. Usually there’s a deadline looming (of course). You’ve restarted your computer (three times) and still you cannot get Photoshop to launch. You’ve tried a few tips from some Google searches, but still nothing. Your geek cred is showing it’s limitations. And your deadline isn’t getting any further away.
What if I told you this could be avoided, virtually forever? And also, that you can get back to work with all your settings just the way you like them?
Continue reading 'Adobe Apps: Backup Your Prefs'
Published on
January 14, 2009 in
Tutorials, software and video.
Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, art, artist, cartoon, Creative Suite, CS4, drawing, how-to, illustrator, keyboard shortcuts, Mac, Photoshop, productivity, screencast, shortcuts, sketch, software, technique, tool, tutorial, upgrade, vector, video, Wacom.
Another brief video in my series introducing some great new features in Photoshop CS4 for artists, cartoonists, illustrators and anyone else who sketches or draws using Photoshop.
This video features the excellent new keyoard shortcuts that allow you to drag-resize the size of the brushes using the mouse pointer.
Continue reading 'Video: Photoshop CS4 Drag-Resize Brush Keyboard Shortcut'
Hold down the Option key when erasing using the Eraser Brush, and you’ll get a marquee that you can drag to erase a perfectly rectangular area.
Bonus Eraser Tool tip: edit the keyboard shortcuts so the Eraser uses the “E” key, and remap the Free Transform tool to Shift-E (essentially swapping the keyboard shortcuts for the two tools). Seems much more intuitive this way.
Both tips via FreeTransform
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.
Continue reading 'Must-Have OS X Productivity Tool Default Folder 43% Off 10/27/2008'
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'
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