Tag Archive for 'tool'

Page 2 of 8

Essential Adobe Illustrator Plug-in: Select Menu

Published on January 13, 2008 in productivity, software and tools. 0 Comments Tags: Adobe, Adobe Illustrator, art, CS3, free, freeware, illustrator, Mac, plugin, productivity, software, tool, vector.

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
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.

Wacom Tablet Driver for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Released

Published on December 8, 2007 in tools and updates. 3 Comments Tags: 10.5, Apple, art, graphics tablet, Leopard, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, tool, Wacom.

Just a quick post to let all you Wacom users out there know that a Wacom driver which supports compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is now available. The new version is 6.05-3.

Continue reading 'Wacom Tablet Driver for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Released'

Wacom Expands Cintiq Line With New (Smaller, Cheaper) Flat Screen Tablets

Published on December 4, 2007 in tools. 1 Comment Tags: Apple, art, artist, Cintiq, gadget, gadgets, graphics tablet, Mac, tool, Wacom.

Cintiq graphic tablets Although I don’t yet own one, the Wacom Cintiq flat-screen graphics tablets are exceedingly drool-worthy and I will own one in the near future. Everytime I talk to a Cintiq user or read an artist’s blog raving about one it only makes the waiting more difficult.

For those unaware, the Cintiq is a fusion of Wacom’s phenomenal graphics tablets with a flat-screen monitor — allowing one to draw right on the screen. Awesome.

Continue reading 'Wacom Expands Cintiq Line With New (Smaller, Cheaper) Flat Screen Tablets'

Color Blindness Software Tools for Artists

Published on October 12, 2007 in software and tools. 1 Comment Tags: art, artist, calibration, CMYK, color, color theory, design, free, freeware, graphic design, graphics, Mac, Mac OS X, OS X, resources, software, tool, web, web design.

Color blindness screenshot 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'

Acorn: The Leatherman Tool of Image Editors

Published on October 2, 2007 in reviews, software and tools. 0 Comments Tags: Acorn, Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, Apple, art, bitmap, CMYK, drawing, graphics, graphics tablet, Mac, Mac OS X, MacBook, OS X, Photoshop, Pixelmator, RGB, shareware, sketch, software, tool, Wacom.

The more I try out image editors Pixelmator & Acorn, the more Acorn’s simplicity and new perspective on the interface grows on me. Pixelmator is looking to be just about perfect for those people who need a Photoshop Elements style app with low overhead at a sweet price point.

Acorn, on the other hand, seems to be carving out a new niche, and developer Gus Mueller has shown in some of the details that’s he’s not trying to compete with Photoshop (or even Pixelmator), rather he’s attempting to do something new & unique. From the single, unified tools palette to the Option & Control key resizing & crop features (with the live pixel dimension display on the bottom left of the window frame) to the live brush size on the brush slider, Mueller demonstrates that he’s been using graphics software, he’s been frustrated with some things, and he’s thought of a way to make it painless, effortless and intuitive.

Once you’ve worked a bit in Acorn with some of these novel approaches to old habits, you’ll soon wonder why it was never done this way before.

Continue reading 'Acorn: The Leatherman Tool of Image Editors'