Archive for the ‘Photoshop’ Category

Happy Birthday Adobe (and Fritz)!

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

So not only is today the birthday of James Fritz, one of our Rockstar instructors, but it also marks the 25th anniversary of Adobe Systems, Inc. 25 years ago, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke left Xerox to pursue a new computer system that would incorporate graphics and text into printable pages called Interpress. Interpress and another program called JaM would evolve into the Adobe Postscript language we have all used in our graphics applications today. This was the launching point for the desktop revolution.

Think of it, without the foresight of these two scientist/mathematicians, we would not have the great applications that are industry standards today. Its hard to believe that in 1988 was the first version of Adobe Illustrator, and three years later, in 1991, Adobe Photoshop was launched. (Makes you feel old doesn’t it?)

So Happy Anniversary Adobe! Click the links below to see great video and interactive material from Adobe Systems, Inc. on their silver anniversary!

Kevin

History of Adobe Interactive Timeline
Adobe: 25 Years of Magic Newsletter
Adobe 25 Years of Innovation Video

Lasso Trick in Adobe Photoshop

Monday, December 17th, 2007

During our crazy snowstorm here in Milwaukee I decided to hunker down and do some work in Photoshop over the weekend. While I have been using Photoshop for a really long time, I just discovered a little trick and I wish I would have know about years ago.

When you are making a selection with the lasso pointer tool hold down the Option Key (ALT on windows) while making your selection. As long as your mouse button is pressed, the lasso tool will remain the normal free flowing tool, but when you release the mouse the lasso becomes the polygon lasso tool. Just click and hold your mouse button and it can go back to the regular lasso tool again.

Behold the power of the Option (ALT) key!

Use up that training budget!

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

We’re just weeks away from the end of 2007! Still have some of your training budget left over? Help get your team up to speed – whether it’s upgrading to CS3, intense instruction on certain applications, or a general overview of certain programs. We’ll design a specific training course just for you.

By booking your classes by the end of next week we’ll help you use up your budget before the end of the year and save money by honoring 2007 rates for all classes booked in the first quarter of 2008.

We’ll even come to you! Our instruction for up to 4 hours of on-site training for up to 6 people is only $850.00* and for up to 9 hours of instruction is only $1400.00*. What if you don’t have a training room? You can also rent machines from us and we’ll set them up for your staff’s use during the training! (*plus travel if you’re more than 30 minutes away).

And don’t forget, all of our instruction comes with a reference textbook & follow up support from our Certified Instructors.

We currently have the following days open for your on-site, custom training – just contact Tiffany (that would be me) to arrange your class!

Photoshop/Illustrator Instruction:
December 17 December 19 December 27 December 28
January 2 January 3 January 4 January 9
January 10 January 16 January 17 January 23
January 23 January 24 January 30 January 31

Quark/InDesign Instruction:
December 17 December 20 December 28 January 2
January 3 January 4 January 8 January 11
January 14 January 15

Flash/Dreamweaver Instruction (including Actionscripting 3.0!):
December 28 January 9 January 11 January 18
January 23 January 24 January 28 January 29
January 30 January 31

Video Instruction:
December 19 December 20 January 2 January 3
January 4 January 14 January 15 January 16
January 18

And don’t forget about $5.00 Fridays! January 18, in conjunction with Studio Two, we’ll go over tips & tricks in deciding whether or not to use stock photography vs. original and we’ll show you time-saving trips for color correction & retouching. Get more information.

Did you miss the How to WOW with Direct Mail $5.00 Friday in October? We’re having round two on February 22. We ran out of space last time, so get your seat early.

Great Photoshop Brushes

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

A great resource I use for custom Adobe Photoshop brushes and patterns is a website called Obsidian Dawn.

Stephanie Shimerdla creates some of the best quality work I’ve seen in a while for brushes. You may recognize her “swirls” series as something right out of the Adobe.com website. She also has a link called “tip the brush maker” where you can donate $10 and she will create your own custom brush set!
After you have downloaded the free set, just place it in the appropriate folder. For Macintosh users it is found under Applications> Adobe Photoshop>Presets>Brushes. Windows users can find it C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Presets\Brushes. Once in the folder just go to your brushes palette menu in Adobe Photoshop and select load brushes and choose your custom brush set.

Have fun!

Assign multiple keywords with one click in Adobe Bridge CS3

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

You have always been able to add keywords to images in Adobe Bridge but new in CS3 is the ability to apply sub-keywords and their parents in one simple click, assuming you have made a series of keywords that are related. I created an “animal” keyword that applies to all animals, a “dog” sub-keyword for dogs and a “Labrador Retriever” sub-keyword for just that breed of dog. If I click on just “Labrador Retriever” I apply only the keyword “Labrador Retriever”

But why wouldn’t I want to apply the parent keywords of “animal” and “dog” to this image also? I can do so with 1 click, not 3. If I shift-click on “Labrador Retriever” it adds that keyword and all its parents which is very frequently what I want

Bug in Photoshop CS3 and Leopard

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

There is a transform bug with Photoshop CS3(10.0.0) and Leopard(10.5.0). If you transform (cmd T) and type in any numbers it will work the first few times, but after multiple times transforming the control bar goes crazy and you can’t type in any numbers.
If you restart Photoshop it will be fine for the next new transformations until it goes crazy again. The workaround is to either use the sliders or just use the mouse to apply your transformations. Adobe is aware of the problem, and hopefully a patch will be coming soon.

 

Adobe Quark logo