Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Align To a Selected Object

 
 

In a previous tip, I discussed Distribution to a Key Object using the Align panel. This ability to select a particular object for positioning of other objects also includes alignment. In other words, if you select various objects on your page, you can choose one of them as the Key Object to which all other objects will Align. To give it a try, draw a number of rectangles across your page and marquee across these objects with the Selection tool (V) to select them. Now click on any of your selected objects to make it the Key Object to which all other objects will Align and press the Vertical Align Bottom button (furthest to the right in the top row). All other objects will Align to the bottom of this Key Object. Just to show it isn't a fluke, go to Edit>Undo and with the objects still selected, click on another object to make it the Key. Press the Vertical Align Bottom button again and all the objects will Align to the bottom of this new Key Object.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Crop Perfectly to the Edge of All Objects

 
 

Sometimes to teach an Illustrator trick in a class, I play a trick on the students. The following is a quick example. I tell the students to draw a whole bunch of objects on their page of varying sizes, shapes, Strokes, and Fills. Then I ask that they use the Crop Area tool (Shift+O) to create a Crop Area that will crop perfectly to the outside edges of the objects that are closest to the edge of the page. In other words, all objects are included within the Crops and nothing more (or less). Many student just click-drag the Crop Area tool, trying to visually crop the page to include all the objects the best they can. Not a very good solution, especially when you Zoom in at high magnification to take a better look. Other students, in trying to be more precise, turn on Rulers (Command [Control]+R), Select All objects (Command [Control]+A) and drag Ruler Guides to the anchor points of selected objects that come closest to the edge of the page. Good thought, but they end up cropping parts of Strokes that extend beyond the selected anchor points. Then there's the one student who inadvertently finds the easy answer while playing with the tool. Don't trust your eyes. Don't select anything. Don't create Guides. Just choose the Crop tool and click anywhere on the page that does not contain an object. The Crops are placed instantly to the outer reaches of the objects including Strokes and Effects which extend beyond the vector paths.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Creating Cooler Color Groups!

 
 

Because of the overwhelming power of Live Color, sometimes the Color Guide panel gets overlooked. This is a shame, because the Color Guide is quite a powerful color manipulation tool in its own right. A quick example: Let's say you have a Color Group in the Swatches Panel, and you'd like to see variations of this Group with Swatches that are all a little cooler in color. Easy! Click on the Color Group folder in the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches). Take a look in the Color Guide panel (Window>Color Guide) and choose "Show Warm/Cool" from the panel's Options menu. Your original Group will be in the center column of the panel with warmer variations of the Group's colors in columns to the left and cooler versions of the Group's colors to the right. The further away from the center column, the more extreme the variations are. Command-click (Control-click on PC) on the cooler colors to the right of the center column to select one color in each row. Then press the "Save Color Group" button at the bottom of the Color Guide to add your Cooler Color Group to the Swatches panel.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - It’s Easy Having Your Own Personal Views

 
 

I'm working on a complex design with objects in several Layers including a small area of type. The bottom Layer contains a scan of a hand-drawn rough layout of the design to be used as a Template. By double-clicking on the Layer listing, I can access the Options window to make it a Locked Template that's Dimmed to 50%. In working on this design, I find myself turning off and on my bottom Layer to "preview" my work without the Template. I also have to keep zooming into the small type area with the Zoom tool (Z) to format and edit the text. Is there a way to save different Views of my document with the visibility of various Layers turned on or off at different magnification percentages? Because of a little known feature call Custom Views, the answer is YES! To try it, set up a couple of new Layers in a document by selecting New Layer under the Options menu of the Layers panel (Window>Layers). Draw several objects in each Layer. Turn off the bottom Layer visibility by clicking its Eye icon. To save a Custom View, go to View>New View, name it and click OK. This View is saved at the bottom of the View menu. Make your bottom Layer visible again by clicking its visibility box in the Layers panel and save a second Custom View. Now marquee across a small part of your design with the Zoom tool and save a close up Custom View. When you select each one of your Custom Views, you'll see exactly what you want on your screen instantly with no manual turning on or off of Layers or Zooming with the Zoom tool. But best of all, you can assign keyboard commands to apply each of these Views (up to ten) under the Edit menu>Keyboard Shortcuts.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Why Is "Merge Layers" Not Available?

 
 

In discussing the Layers panel in an advanced Illustrator class, one student posed an excellent question. "Why is 'Merge Layers' always grayed out in the Options menu of the Layers panel? How can I combine Layers if I can't access the command?," he asked. "Merge Layers is only available when you actually select multiple Layer listings in the panel," I answered. He jumped in, "But I targeted all the objects in three different Layers by clicking the hollow circle to the far right of each Layer listing." I answered, "Ah, but you didn't select the Layer listings, just the objects in those Layers. Click on the first Layer listing, then Command-click (Control-click with PC) on the other Layers that you'd like to Merge. If you look under the Options menu of the panel and select 'Merge Layers' (which is no longer grayed out), all Layers combine into the last Layer selected, which is marked with a small black triangle to the far right of the listing."

Adobe InDesign CS3 Tip – All Wrapped Up in a New Favorit

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Even before I wrote a Layers Magazine online tutorial about InDesign Text Wraps ("All Wrapped Up" - http://www.layersmagazine.com/indesign-making-wraps.html), I had a steady flow of emails with requests for tips and workarounds. As good as the Wraps feature was in CS2, there were some interesting quirks and issues. With the introduction of CS3, many of these Wrap workarounds are no longer necessary. One of my favorite new additions is in the Wrap Options section of the Wraps panel (Window>Text Wrap) - "Wrap Largest Area" in the "Wrap To" popup menu. What makes this a favorite? Try the following to see for yourself. Fill a two-column Text Frame with type (Type>Fill with Placeholder Text). Then draw an oval with the Ellipse tool (L). With the oval selected, click the "Wrap around object shape" button, in the wraps panel, and choose Wrap Largest Area from the Wrap To popup. Drag the oval across the Text Frame to see what happens. The type will Wrap either the left or right side of the object depending which side has the most type area next to it in a column. So text will Wrap one side of the Wrap object, instead of just jumping across it.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Alter Your Brush After You Paint

 
 

I saw an interesting illustration that contained a three dimensional globe with all of the water areas of the Earth missing. It looked as if all the continents were mapped to an invisible sphere. You could even see the reverse side of the continents on the far side of the globe. How was this done? Here's what I did to recreate it. I saved a flat outline tracing of the continents as a Symbol, by selecting the entire map with the Selection tool (V), and choosing New Symbol from the Options menu of the Symbols panel. Then I drew a circle by clicking and dragging the Ellipse tool (L), while holding down the Shift key. Next, I selected the left anchor point of the circle with the Direct Selection tool (A) and deleted it. I Filled the semicircle that remained with an existing blue Swatch and no Stroke from the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches). To apply a 3D Effect, I went to the Effects menu>3D>Revolve. Now the fun part – I pressed the Map Art Button, found the Continents Symbol from under the Symbol popup menu. Then I checked Scale to Fit, and Shade Artwork to give it a 3D shaded look. But how did I make the Water part of the Earth invisible? To see for yourself, check Invisible Geometry, the Preview button and OK.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Moving Objects from Different Layers to the Same Layer

 
 

One fast way to move objects from different Layers into the same Layer is to select the first object with the Selection tool (V), then Shift-click on additional object to select them as well. Next, go to the Object menu>Group. This will not only Group the objects, it will move all of those objects into the same Layer as the topmost object. But what if you wanted to move all selected objects into a totally different Layer? No problem! Select all of the object with the Selection tool. Then click your other Layer in the Layers panel to make it the active Layer. Then go to the Object menu>Arrange>Send to Current Layer. All objects move to the active Layer maintaining their original stacking order.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Cropping Images Just Got a Lot Easier in Illustrator

 
 

Cropping images has always been easier in layout applications, such as InDesign, than it is in Illustrator. But one simple addition to the Control panel has simplified cropping in AICS3 a great deal. To see what I mean, Place an image in Illustrator (File>Place). Then draw a rectangle with the Rectangle tool (R) over the top of the photo. Marquee across the image and the rectangle to select both. Go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make to "crop" the picture. Two new buttons appear to the far left of the Control panel. The left of these two button, Edit Clipping Path, lets you move the Mask or change its size by dragging on bounding box points to crop the picture. Press the button immediately to its right and just the image is selected allowing to edit or move just the image within the Mask that "contains" it. This little feature (that is barely mentioned in Adobe's materials) is a huge leap in dealing with images in Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Building One Layer Right on Top of Another

 
 

One thing that is different in Illustrator than in InDesign is adding new Layers. In InDesign, a new Layer is always added as the top Layer in the Layers panel. This is not the case in Illustrator. When you go to the Options menu of the Layers panel and select New Layer, an Options widow opens for this Layer and when you press OK, the new Layer is added directly above the currently-selected Layer. Of course, if Layers don't stack up in the panel exactly the way you'd like, you can click and drag the Layer listings up or down the stacking order and insert them further up or down in the panel listings.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Magical Panels

 
 

Adobe has done an amazing job opening up extra screen real estate with the new Interface in Illustrator CS3. But sometimes you need as much space as possible while working on a design. If that's the case, you can press the Tab key on your keyboard to make all panels disappear and hit the Tab key again to make all panel reappear. But when you get tired of hitting your Tab, leave all panel hidden until you really need them. Then bring your cursor to the side of your screen and the panels will reappear on just that side of the Interface. Move your cursor away from the panel and they disappear again. Magic!

Layers Tip of the Day - Magical Panels

Layers magazine wrote:

Layers Tip of the Day - Magical Panels

Från:                                Layers magazine [info@layersmagazine.com]

Skickat:                           den 13 juni 2008 22:48

Till:                                  christian.earl@gmail.com

Ämne:                             Layers Tip of the Day - Magical Panels

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – Magical Panels

Adobe has done an amazing job opening up extra screen real estate with the new Interface in Illustrator CS3. But sometimes you need as much space as possible while working on a design. If that’s the case, you can press the Tab key on your keyboard to make all panels disappear and hit the Tab key again to make all panel reappear. But when you get tired of hitting your Tab, leave all panel hidden until you really need them. Then bring your cursor to the side of your screen and the panels will reappear on just that side of the Interface. Move your cursor away from the panel and they disappear again. Magic!

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip – A Gem of a Tip

 

 
 

"Is there a quick way to create a diamond shape?," a student asked in a recent training session. I answered, "Sure! I can think of a couple of ways off the top of my head. Draw a square by clicking and dragging with the Rectangle tool (M) while holding down the Shift key. Double-click on the Rotate tool, specify a rotation Angles of 45° and click OK and an ordinary square is transformed into a diamond instantly. If I want the diamond to be narrower than it is tall, I could switch to my Selection tool (V) and drag in on one of the side bounding box points. Another way to draw this narrower diamond shape is to draw an oval that is taller than it is wide, by clicking and dragging with the Ellipse tool (L). Switch to the Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift+C) and click on each of the four points in the oval. This converts all the smooth anchor points into corner points and the ellipse into gem of a diamond."

Leonardi Da vinci’s webdesign tips

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire artists, scientists and others. Here are six things we can learn from him about web design.

1. Be curious

One of the most remarkable things about Leonardo is his insatiable curiosity. Besides being a master painter, here are some of his other interests…

• Botany
  
• Music
  
• Human and animal anatomy
  
• Fluid dynamics (before there was a name for this branch of science)
  
• Writing great poetry
  
• Platonic philosophy
  
• Designing remarkable inventions, including flying machines and a sort of pre-industrial tank
  

Many of these interests show themselves in his artistic work. Anatomy is obvious, but have you ever compared the ringlets of hair in his paintings to his drawings of water flow? Or thought of how rhythm, which is so essential to music and poetry, also shows up in painting and drawing?

The point is that being curious and learning about many things that are apparently unrelated to web design ultimately gives you more tools with which to design well.

2. Look beneath the surface

I've already mentioned Leonardo's interest in anatomy. His study of what lies beneath the surface gave him an understanding which enabled him to draw and paint his subjects remarkably well. Something similar applies in web design.

For the graphic designer, it might be studying the structure of HTML & CSS. For the front-end coder, it might be understanding the workings of a content management system. I don't know what the appropriate analogy would be for a back-end coder. Any suggestions?

3. Build on the work of others

Despite his genius, most of Leonardo's achievements didn't spring fully formed from his mind like Athena from the head of Zeus. He was building on the works of others who were his contemporaries and predecessors. He studied under the Florentine master Verrocchio, from whom he learned the techniques and tradition of previous Renaissance art.

What does this mean for web design? Don't reinvent the wheel. Do your customers need to be able to manage their own site? Maybe all they really need is a little customization for Wordpress.

Building on the work of others is also the philosophy behind programming frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, and CakePHP. Instead of writing everything from scratch, much of the work is already done for a standard web application.

And, of course, you can also use a CSS framework like Blueprint to supply some good basic layout and typography settings before adding some customization.

4. Do quick studies

Before beginning work on a painting, Leonardo would often draw several studies of it, experimenting with different compositions and learning how the various aspects of the painting would interact with each other, all without having to start over from scratch if the first idea didn't turn out well.

This can be done in web design too. Have an idea for a layout? Sketch it on paper. Building a web app? Sketch out a use process. If it looks good, go for it. If not, try again.

5. Iterate

Leonardo didn't just iterate his studies. He also completely repainted (iterated) The Virgin of the Rocks.

But with web design we have it easier. If we want to redo our work and make it better, we don't have to start from scratch again. We can make continuous incremental improvements.

6. Be careful of experimental techniques

The final lesson we can learn from Leonardo is a warning. During his painting of the Last Supper, he employed an experimental technique for mixing his paint. While all seemed well at first, soon afterward cracks appeared in the painting, and since that time it has continued to deteriorate, leaving his masterpiece in ruins.

Web designers take note. While experimental technology is wonderful, be very careful about deploying it directly to a crucial system/site, otherwise it could leave you, like Leonardo, trying to mend the cracks.

 
 

Inklistrat från <http://joshuaclanton.com/blog/2007/12/27/6-web-design-tips-from-leonardo-da-vinci/>

 
 

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Looking at Smart Guides from a Whole New Angle

 

 
 

I'm working on a brochure for a new office building complex, and as part of the project, I have to draw a whole bunch of floor plans and site plans. Because of the irregular shape of the plot of the land, some parts of the buildings in the floor plans as well as the parking spaces in the site plans, need to be drawn at unusual angles to the page. How could I keep these angles consistent throughout the various plans? I Placed a scan (File>Place) of the office arrangement of a typical floor in the building (supplied by my client to use as a template). I click with my Pen tool (P) on the beginning of an angled outer wall of the building and look in the Info panel (Window>Info) as I move my Pen along the wall and see that my the Angle is 30°. That's easy! Now how can I use this information? I went into Preferences (Command+K [Control+K on PC]) and found the answer under Smart Guides & Slices. In the Angles section of the window, there's a popup menu of Preset Angles, one of which is 30° Angles. When I select this setting and click, OK Smart Guides show up at all multiples of 30° and each Pen tool anchor point snaps right to them. The perfect answer to drawing my floor plans quickly and accurately. Note: If you try this, remember to change your Preferences back to "90° & 45° Angles" when you're finished.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - The Outer Limits of Strokes

 
 

A reader emailed recently to ask about the maximum Weight of a Stroke in the Stroke panel, so I decided to take this as an opportunity to discuss all maximums and minimums in Illustrator. The fastest way to find a maximum or minimum for any feature is to specify a ridiculous amount. With Strokes, I started by typing 1000 pt in the Stroke panel for the Weight of a selected path. Hmm! My path now had a Stroke of 1,000 points. When would I ever need such a heavy Stroke? Probably never! But I still did not have an answer. So I specified a 10,000 point Stroke Weight and an error message appeared on my screen, which read: "The value must be between 0 pt and 1000 pt." So 1,000 points is the maximum Stroke Weight that you can specify in the Stroke panel. But is that the maximum Stroke Weight possible? It would seem so, but a little experimentation proves otherwise. To see what I mean, select a path with a 1,000 point Stroke and double-click on the Scale tool. Specify a Uniform Scale of 200% with the Option for "Scale Strokes and Effects" selected and press OK. Hmm! No error message. But the Weight in the Stroke panel is still 1,000. But if you check the Weight in the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance), it's 2,000 points. So what's the maximum Stroke Weight possible? The answer is, it really does not matter. In my experimentation, the maximum is much heavier than the size of Artboard (227.5 square inches) can possibly contain.

 
 

Adobe InDesign CS3 Tip - An Easy Way to Work with a Horizontal Page in a Vertical Layout

 
 

I was walking through a friend's studio, when I noticed one artist working with his head tilted to his left. Once I realized that he wasn't suffering from some unusual medical condition, I decided to take a closer look at his screen. After a quick glance, I decided to help before he hurt himself. I said, "I see you're working on a horizontal page in a vertical layout." In response he joked, "Yes and it's a real pain in the neck." I answered, "It doesn't have to be." Now that I caught his attention, he looked up from his work. I continued, "Set up this horizontal page in a separate document, and Save it as an InDesign file. Then open your original layout, go to File>Place, select your horizontal layout and Place it on the correct page. Then Rotate it 90° in the Control panel and move it into position with the Selection tool (V). Placing one InDesign file in another is new in CS3 and it can be a real lifesaver." He questioned, "But what if changes need to be made on the horizontal page?" I answered, "Make the changes in the horizontal file and because it's been placed in your original layout, you can just update it in the Links panel (Window>Links) by clicking the Update Link button."

Adobe InDesign CS3 Tip - Take Total Control of Effects

 
 

With the new Effects panel in InDesign CS3, you can choose to apply Effects to an entire Object, or its Stroke or Fill or even just the Text in a text object. Simply select the appropriate listing and choose the Effect desired from the "fx" popup menu at the bottom of the panel, before specifying your settings and pressing OK. You can even apply different combinations of Effects to multiple listings in the panel. Just select a listing from the Effects panel, choose the first Effect you'd like to apply from the popup menu, and in the window that opens, specify your settings, and check Preview to see the results. You can also apply additional Effects to that same object listing by clicking on the Effect in the Transparency section of the window. You can even add Effects to other parts of your object, under the "Setting For" popup menu, before clicking OK to apply all Effect to each part of the object. So if you'd like your headline text to have a Drop Shadow in a color-filled Frame that fades to transparent toward its right side with a Stroke that fades in exactly the opposite direction, no problem. The Effects panel is your window to taking total control of any combination of Effects you can think of.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - The Mystery of the Missing Artboard

 
 

The other day I got a logo from a new client and opened it in Illustrator to check it out. Something immediately bothered me about the file, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me! "There's no Artboard," I said to myself. It was just 227.5 square inches of Scratch Area with a tiny logo in the middle. No page! "Could the Document take up the entire Scratch Area? Yes, but not likely," I answered my own question. I put my theory to the test, by going to View>Fit Window. With this, the View zoomed in and the logo almost filled the entire document window. "Hmm! There is a Artboard. I just can't see it," I reasoned. Then it occurred to me, "A lot of what you can and can't see in a document is controlled under the View menu." With a quick look, I had my answer. I selected Show Artboard under the View menu and the Artboard reappeared. Mystery solved!

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - A Question of Geometry

 
 

Is there a quick way to figure out the circumference of a circle in Illustrator without being a math wiz? Sure but only if you know the secret place to find the information. Click with the Ellipse tool (L) to open its Options window, and type in "1 in" for the Width and "1 in" for the Height and click OK. You end up with a circle with a 1/2" radius (1" diameter). But how can you find the circumference? With the circle still selected, open your Document Info panel (Window>Document Info) and select "Objects" from the panel's Option menu. The circumference information is revealed in general information in the very first listing in the panel – "Paths: 1 (0 open, 1 closed, 4 points, length = 3.142 in)" The Length of the entire path (or its circumference) is 3.142. I'm sure all of the math wiz's out there are about to put this information to the test using a variety of different sized circle. To give it a try, use the geometric formula for circumference (2∏R) or 2 X 3.142 X the Radius (1/2 the Width of the circle).

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Swash Lettering Made Easy

 
 

When you open the OpenType panel (Window>Type>OpenType), the unparalleled power of OpenType, is a click away. As an example, format a headline using Adobe Garamond Pro Italic (which comes with Creative Suite), and to see what Swash alternates are available, select the headline with the Type tool and click the Swash button (fourth from the right) at the bottom of the OpenType panel. Make note of the alternates that you'd like to use and click the Swash button again to turn all Swashes off. Now select each individual character you'd like to replace with its Swash alternate and press the Swash button to turn it on.

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