Distributing Objects in Adobe Illustrator, Part 2 By Dave Nagel In our last tutorial on object distribution in Adobe Illustrator, we looked at a fairly routine method for spreading out objects evenly across and down a page. But there were limitations to that technique. So this time around, we'll take a look at a different method--one that gives you a bit more control over the results and also allows you to introduce rotation into the objects that you spread over the page to create spirals, wreaths and other geometric patterns. ...Read More »

Quick Tip: Text Distortions in Adobe Illustrator By Dave Nagel Creating a logo from scratch or reproducing a logo can require complex text distortions, which usually requires you to convert text to outlines and then go through a series of difficult or time-consuming path manipulations. However, there's a quicker way for some projects, and one that doesn't require you to convert text to outlines: envelope distortions. ...Read More »

A Stroll Through Office 2007 By Lynn Greiner Microsoft's Office 2007 will sport a shiny new interface. Lynn Greiner walks you through a few of the changes, and points out likely places where users might be confused. ...Read More »

Illustrator Tip: Distributing Objects By Dave Nagel "Distribute" commands are some of the more misunderstood features of Adobe Illustrator. It's likely that you've tried to use them a few times, given up and forgotten they ever existed. And it is, in fact, tricky to get them to do what you think they should do: distribute objects across your canvas. But with a little trickery, you can actually use these commands or this purpose. ...Read More »

Download: Texture Generators for Adobe Photoshop By Dave Nagel In our last article on displacement effects in Adobe Photoshop, I mentioned that I'd try my darnedest to come up with an automated method for you to produce your own texture files. Well, gum if I haven't done it. Better yet, I'm not just going to tell you how to automate this sort of texture creation. Instead, I'm going to give you a set of fully automated generators--free for you to download and use as you see fit. ...Read More »

Adobe Illustrator Tip: On Screen Pixelization By Dave Nagel When you work in Adobe Illustrator, you will occasionally encounter problems where elements appear to be tremendously pixelated on screen--that is, the objects' strokes and/or fills appear to be jagged. This is generally a display problem only, and one that shouldn't trouble you too much, though the problems will sometimes make themselves apparent in your prints as well. There is a simple solution for this. (And if you actually want to create pixelization effects, there's a simple solution for that too.) ...Read More »

Students Who Shine: The Winning Projects of the 2006 Adobe Design Achievement Awards Adobe recently announced the winners of its annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards. Now in its sixth year, the premier student design competition honors the world’s most talented student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers and computer artists from the top design, film and broadcast institutions. ...Read More »

Drawing Conclusions: This Pen-and-Tablet is a Good Value By Esther Schindler Graphics professionals easily can justify devices to draw on the computer. For ordinary office workers, a tablet might be a gratuitous toy. Yet, this pen and tablet combo is inexpensive enough use for occasional graphics use — and perhaps even as your everyday desktop interface. ...Read More »

Download: Displacement Maps for Adobe Photoshop, Series 1 By Dave Nagel Displacement maps can be used to create a wide variety of 3D or quasi-3D effects in Adobe Photoshop. The basic idea is that the luminance values of one image are used to define the bending and warping of another image. So, for example, you can use displacement to create crumpled paper, billowing fabric and other types of illusions of depth. ...Read More »

Waving the Flag in Adobe Photoshop By Dave Nagel We've looked at displacement effects in Adobe Photoshop for creating effects like crumpled paper and water reflections. This time around, we'll look at it from another angle: creating billowing fabric, like a flag waving in the wind. And we'll also take a look at some compositing tricks to make the effect a bit more convincing. ...Read More »

The Art of RAW Conversion By John Virata The RAW file format is the preferred format for professional digital photographers because it serves just like a digital negative, enabling photographers to tweak the file without changing the makeup of the file. There are several RAW converters on the market or in development. Apple's Aperture, RawShooter, and Adobe Lightroom are some of the products available or in pre-release. ...Read More »

Alien Skin Blow Up By Dave Nagel Alien Skin is known for its effects filters for Adobe Photoshop, but the company's latest software release falls into a different category altogether. "Blow Up," as the software is called, is designed for a single purpose: to enlarge images using alternative methods to Photoshop's built-in algorithms. Is it worth the $200 price tag? We shall see.... ...Read More »

Lost Minds Vectoraster 1.0 By Dave Nagel There's no shortage of tools out there for making halftone and other line-screen effects on still images. But there are two things that make Lost Minds' Vectoraster 1.0 stand out from the crowd. First, this software gives you a tremendous amount of control over the effects you create. And, second, it allows you to export your effect as an EPS file, making it fully editable in vector illustration programs like Adobe Illustrator. ...Read More »

Download: Photoshop Brushes Series 43 By Dave Nagel This week we have another collection of brushes for Adobe Photoshop. But this time around, the new set is designed for brushing hair and fur effects onto your canvas, as well as creating stubble effects. As usual, the brushes are available for download free and can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes alike. ...Read More »

Reconfiguring brushes in Adobe Illustrator By Dave Nagel When you work with brushes in Adobe Illustrator, chances are you'll want to customize them a bit to suit your own style, rather than conforming your style to the stock presets. But the customization process isn't always straightforward. So in this tutorial, we'll take a look at three different ways to make brushes your own and try to keep it as simple as possible. ...Read More »

Xara Xtreme: Lots of Power, Not Much Dough By Esther Schindler Xara Xtreme has an impressive suite of graphics editing features and most of the power of the big boys. Unfortunately for us casual users, it also has some of their learning curve. ...Read More »

Adobe Illustrator Quick Tip: Radial Gradients By Dave Nagel In Illustrator CS2, standard radial gradient fills won't automatically follow the edges of an object. They'll generally be circular and clipped by the bounding box of the object, rather than conformed to the object itself. However, with oval-shaped objects, there's a little trick to get the gradient to follow the edges of the object, rather than appearing completely circular and clipped by the bounding box. ...Read More »

Achieving Amazing Easing Effects in Flash By Rafiq R. Elmansy In previous versions of Flash, motion tweening was a difficult and time-consuming way to give animations realistic motion effects. The Ease In/Ease Out feature was helpful but its limitations became apparent when you applied it to complex animations because you had to create a lot of frame-by-frame shape and motion tweening to mimic something that looked natural. ...Read More »

Web Browsers Evolve As Web Usage Changes By The Associated Press The major Web browsers are getting facelifts as they increasingly become the focal point for handling business transactions and running programs over the Internet rather than simply displaying Web sites. ...Read More »

Mac OS X Web Server Tips for Designers, Part 3 By Kevin Schmitt For our final foray into ways to beef up the Web server included with Mac OS X, we might as well delve into technologies that actually require the server to be running in order to work. Today we're going to learn how to switch on two such server-side technologies that are built into Mac OS X but disabled by default: PHP and SSI. And considering how tantalizing I've already made our final installment sound, how could you not read further? ...Read More »