Sharon Steuer’s free ”Zen Of The Pen” PDF is an excellent introduction to the inner mysteries of the vector pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.
The pen tool is one of those obscure graphics programs tools that everyone tries once, and then gets so confused by that they never get any further with it. And understandably. It looks like a fountain pen, but it doesn’t act like one. Click and “draw”, you get weird “handles” sprouting out from a dot. Ignore that, and some annoying rubber band line gets stuck to your pen tip, all distorted out of — not even a straight line! Right there most Illustrator users think to themselves “this program sucks”.
But they couldn’t be further from the truth…
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by George Coghill -
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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'
by George Coghill -
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Vector artists and Adobe Illustrator users – rejoice! You no longer have to toil away in obscurity. Let the world know where your heart lies.
This t-shirt will get a knowing wink from those in-the-know. If you look closely, you’ll notice the heart is in fact created as a vector object, complete with points and handles. Or perhaps these are “love” handles?
People may go on and on about the (former) Macromedia Freehand, or their own open-source or alternative vector application, but you know what vector software you love the most.
I know, I know. Not everyone is ga-ga over Illustrator. Well, no need to fret — the “I Heart Vectors” t-shirt design is available as well. Regardless of your allegiances, I think we can all agree it’s “Points, Not Pixels”.
by George Coghill -
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Adobe Illustrator Automator Action Pack from Automated Workflows allows extended use of Mac OS X’s Automator in Leopard with 20 actions for use with Adobe Illustrator.
For years I have been trying to wrap my head around Automator in OS X; it seems like a super handy tool, but I can never seem to get it to do exactly what I want. But don’t let my ineptitude stop you — lots of users swear by Automator and if you are in need of additional Actions for Automator for use with Adobe Illustrator, these look like they could be really useful.
The full list of the Adobe Illustrator Automator Actions:
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by George Coghill -
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Wacom has updated their tablet driver software for the USB versions of all Intuos3 (PTZ), Intuos2 (XD), Intuos (GD), CintiqPartner (PTU) and Graphire2 (ET-0405A) pen tablets and the Cintiq 12WX, 20WSX, 21UX, 18SX, and 15X pen displays.
Get the Mac OS X (10.4 & 10.5) version, the Windows XP version or the Windows Vista version. Or visit the main Wacom driver download page for other operating systems.
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Layers Magazine has a hefty selection of videos showcasing the new tools and features of all the Adobe Creative Suite CS4. Each video is a short demo/tutorial,walkthough/how-to of all the new stuff you can expect in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the rest of the software in CS4.
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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!'
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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.
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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)'
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Symmetries from Earthlinksoft Software is an interesting symmetrical vector object generator tool.
The control system is very intuitive, requring no knowledge of how to manipulate vector paths. While simplistic, it gives one a high level of control over exploring interesting symmetrical objects. I did find that there seemed to be a bit of a genre of shapes that were the calling card for this tool, but maybe I just didn’t play with it enough.
Symmetries does not generate tiled patterns, but rather single vector objects, which then can be pasted into the vector software of your choosing for futher editing. The demo mode doesn’t allow this, so I couldn’t test it.
Continue reading 'Symmetries – Vector Path Software Tool'
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