texts: illustrator compound paths: how can I make the white shapes transparent?

texts:
I'm trying to handle an Illustrator compound path:

a scanned signature on a white paper
vectorised with the image trace panel
as you can see in the image, the white shapes in the black mother shape needs to be subtracted from the "mother shape" which is now an compound path
when I try to release the compound path I get the error: "can't ungroup the objects".

How can I make the white shapes transparent?

what happens after deleting the white shape twice with the white arow:

what happens after using the "select-all" + pathfinder "merge" button:

full scene with layers:

EDIT/SOLUTION:
The merge function from the pathfinder did not solve the problem, it only made the white holes black. Then I just started over completely and did the trace again from the jpg, this time I made sure I selected the: "Ignore White" option checkbox. It worked perfectly. But still no idea how I need to cut out shapes from a compound path.


texts: Illustrator: Making areas of color transparent

texts:
Hello everyone. I'm a web designer who is brand new to graphic design. I've been experimenting this evening, trying to learn new skills using YouTube tutorials.

I've spent the last 1-2 hours trying to figure out what I'm about to ask you all. I really hope there's an easy answer (I tried erasing and that was just NOT clean).

I want to make the colored ellipses appear only behind the mountains, like a sun. So I need to figure out how to make all of the other colored areas transparent.

Hopefully this question makes sense.


texts: Combining several paths into one in Illustrator

texts:
I have drawn this pattern, combining various elements together. It is a pattern that will be a papercut design. As you can see some elements overlap.

Before turning into an SVG file I want the whole thing to be one image (1 path) instead of being loads of little elements. Is there a way to do this?

Click for full resolution


texts:
I'm trying to import some vector images into inkscape to remove the background and crop them before converting to .svg. Problem is, when I import any of them, they appear really blocky and strange, regardless of which vector I import. I have tried importing .pdf, .eps and .ai. All of which have the same problem. The preview on the import looks wonderful and smooth, then when it actually gets imported... well... I'll let you see.

before:

then after:

I tried entering a higher precision for the gradient meshes (I don't even know what that means), but much higher than 60 crashes my PC and still looks like rubbish.


texts: Trying to create a bent 3D bent pipe with multiple bends (Illustrator)

texts: so I'm trying to create this image, but in 3D. Does anyone know how to go about doing this? I'd like the object to be shown vertically at a 45 degree angle, ideally.


texts: Best image dimensions for downloadable wallpaper, for PC, HD, mobile and tablet?

texts:
Let's say I wanna make a website that would allow a user to download a wallpaper in sizes for PC, HD, mobile and tablet.

What are the top used / best image dimensions I should host?


texts:
For a website, I have a list of some 500-1000 items. I would like to display them individually with(in) e.g. a colored card but also as combinations of 2 up to ~5 items/colors. So, if I would display a rose, it would be a red card;  if a daffodil, it would be a yellow card. Together, it would make a card where I display red and yellow.

For all the items I would like to pick a color from a color palette that 1) is a reasonable reflection of the color of item and 2) is a color that combines well with the hundreds of other items and their colors.

Currently, I chose to work with the material design color palette, but I would like to have alternatives. I probably would not need a palette of 500-1000 colors, too much choice and and too colorful, but ~200 is probably effective. They should fit its purpose, i.e. being colors of flowers, or fruits/vegetables, or other applications.

Hence: Where to find or how to make large harmonious color palettes?
A gpl palette would be practical outcome.


texts: How to place readable text on image, without manipulating the text?

texts:
I want to place some text on images, without adding effects to the text itself. Which one should I change on the image (hue, saturation, brightness) and in which direction so the text will be readable?

The text can be either white, or black(I will go with one of these two, depending on the solution that arises), and the images can be bright or dark images also.

Is this possible by only manipulating the three properties of the image?


texts:
I'm designing a board game in Adobe Illustrator for my cultural youth work, and I've drawn the paths that mark the trails of the game where the player can move along:

Now I want to divide that trails into fields, like I've already done in the top right part of the board. The borders of each field are single paths each:

But I need to fill the fields the player can step on with graphics like these:

I know that this can be done by using pattern fills, but since the fields aren't closed paths, they don't have a fill color. How can I tell Illustrator to use the two borders of each field and the segments of the two trail paths to each side to create a closed path for each field? If there are better ways to approach my goals, I'm open to them as well!

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
Lukas ;)

Edit: Using the Shapebuilder tool to create the individual segments seems to work so far. I've loaded my fill graphic as a swatch, and set it as the fill color for the segment, but it creates unnecessary tiling of the graphic, instead of just placing it once:

How can I tell Illustrator to just place it once (and larger)?
Edit 2: Figured that out on my own. I was supposed to use the regular scaling tool.


texts: What price should I charge for design services?

texts:
I was hoping I would find some people in the industry that could help me decide what's the best price to charge to design (in this case) business cards.

What are standard prices for professional designers?

From a firm point of view? From a freelancer?

I don't want to overcharge clients but I don't want to ruin the industry by underselling my services.


texts: Should I (a web designer) stick with gimp, or buy Photoshop?

texts:
I am a web designer.

I do not use/own any adobe products... except for watching flash videos online of course.

I currently use gimp 2.6 for my graphic needs. It's free and I know how to use it.
The thing is, it seems that there are 10 times as many resources for Photoshop as there are for gimp.

Even though I have a good knowledge of gimp my graphical design talents aren't that great.

Do you think I should purchase adobe Photoshop? What about their other products? Do you recommend any books, blogs websites, etc. to help me acquire better graphic/web design skills?

Please speak from experience, and thanks in advance!


texts:
I am trying to create geometric shapes by joining closed paths together, as shown in this example

However, when adding stroke to the paths, each object create its own corners:

I tried creating a compound path with the 3 objects selected but I had no luck. How can I avoid this?


texts:
How do I make this picture white on transparent background and keep it's semitransparent parts -

(Background is already transparent).


texts: Illustrator - my rectangles are all sheared skewed?

texts:
When I try to create a rectangle in a certain .ai file they all come out sheared:

but this isn't the case in other projects.  Is there any way to fix


texts: Is there something like smashing magazine.com for the Print Industry?

texts:
I know the print industry isn't probably changing as much as the web stuff nowadays but Im just wondering were do print graphic designers get their inspiration, latest news and that kind of stuff.

Are you designing for print? What websites/blogs/online stuff( including social media like twitter profiles,g+,facebook etc) do you follow ?

One example, I love the COLORS magazine, not specifically for print, but just for great photos and inspiration http://www.colorsmagazine.com/magazines

You?


texts: How to find the source of a stock photo?

texts: I have the following screen shot of an image. How can I find the original? I believe it may have come from Getty Images. I'd like to purchase the original version of this, but don't know where to find it.


texts: How should you design both sides of a diary page to avoid sewing/stitching/punching the content?

texts:
I'm using Illustrator to design a page which have content on both sides. I've created 2 artboards of same size for this. It will be used in the middle of a blank diary as an advertisement. Now I'm new to this stuff.

Let's assume this is the page that I'm designing:

Roughly, on front side, I need more space on left edge of page. On back side, I need space on right edge since when we will fold the page, the right side of back page will become inner. I don't know exact words to describe this. But hope you got my point.
Now, I don't want to ask what margins should I leave on each sides. I just want to know if this is the right ratio approach and my thinking is right?


texts: Is there a way to make Adjustment Layers ignore certain layers?

texts:
Is it possible to insert a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer at the top of all layers - but make it so that chosen layers are not affected by it?

Can it be done without altering positions? (Ie. moving this layer down, and moving up the ones that I want to keep unchanged.)


texts: I have InDesign CS 6. When I try to move photos, or even resize them, the pictures moves inside the frame, or it cuts part of the photo. Is there a shortcut that grabs the entire image--and stays grabbed while I do stuff?


texts: What does Photoshop's "High Pass" filter actually do under the hood?

texts: I'm trying to wrap my head around this filter. Like some other filters, I find that I don't understand how it works, both visually and in terms of the algorithm. I'm hoping that by learning the latter, the former would also somehow click in.


texts: Inexpensive or free software to just use to draw chemical equations and structures

texts: I am a chemistry professor who is finishing semester sequestered because of COVID-19.  I bought a Huion 1060+ with the intent of using it write equations/formulas for my students in our online classes.  I am not drawing major artwork - just an occasional simple molecular structure.


texts: Looking for way to sell 3D models without sharing my personal info

texts: I've been practicing 3D modelling for a few months now. I want to find a way to sell models, maybe make models on commission. However, at least at the beginning I don't want to do this using my real name / let people see my personal info. Are there any sites or ways where I can do this? I mean where the site can see my personal info but doesn't share it with people who buy the models, so handles selling / payment indirectly.


texts: Two points on curved path have a "gap" when stroke width is increased

texts:
I apologize if this has been asked before, but I don't really know what to search for. The issue is that I'm designing a "shield" emblem for my company, and I've done that by creating one half with the curves I like, then copy/pasting and mirroring it on the vertical axis. I brought the second side together with the first and when it was snapped into place I added them all together using the Pathfinder window.

The problem I'm having is that when I up the stroke width, the two points that intersect at the bottom are leaving a gap between them, presumably because the paths are on opposite angles. How can I fix this so that the stroke outlines match up nice and flush? You'll see what I mean in the below image:

The same thing happens when I have increased the stroke size on our corporate logo, but only in one place as shown in the next image:

Because this was for a print piece I used the pen tool and created this in InDesign, not Illustrator (CS5), but I believe I would have encountered the same issue regardless of the software.


texts: What is the name for the spiky shape often used to enclose the word "NEW!" in adverts?

texts:
This is the shape I mean:
If you were asking a colleague to design an advert with one of these in, what would you call it?
And, do graphic designers have names for both the spiky shape itself, regardless of what it's being used for, and for the shape when it encloses the word "NEW" (or related words such as "SALE" and "SPECIAL OFFER")?


texts:
im new to inkscape and have little to none experience with it.

i am trying to cut a circle that overlaps a line and delete the inner part of the circle, while leaving the outer part and the line?

any help appreciated!

picture below to help explain

-blue arrow indicate the line that needs to be deleted.

-red line is the cut line.

-black arrows indicate the piece to remain

-yellow arrow shows a rough drawing of what i want the finished result to be.


texts: Is there a tool that converts Adobe Illustrator's 3D Rotate effect to SVG or CSS transforms?

texts:
I'd like to export a graphic as SVG, and it contains text that has a 3D Rotate effect applied to it.

Saving as SVG this expands my text to outlines :(
I'd like it instead to output <text> with actual 3D transformations applied to it, something like this:

<text id="Textu" style="-webkit-transform: matrix3d(0.7784, -0.2518, -0.5749, 0, 0.1727, 0.9665, -0.1894, 0, 0.6034, 0.0481, 0.7959, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1);">
...

This is CSS, I would prefer SVG transformations.

Is there a tool or plugin that can do this? I have the values from the dialog box (X, Y, Z, Perspective), can I translate them to SVG transforms myself?

The text is meant to be dynamically changed with JavaScript.


texts:
I have a logo created with a dot pattern clipped by a mask. Is there anyway to outline that pattern as is without losing its look? I design for custom engraving and the laser machine needs to read each dot or lines in order to create it's shape--right now, it's only shaped by the clipping path.

HELP!


texts: How to export .svg file from Adobe Illustrator with shape IDs?

texts:
My question is very simple.

How to export an SVG file from Adobe Illustrator with shape IDs? When I export as SVG my group names turn to groups with group name as ID, that's the behavior I would expect from shapes too, but my shapes just get some random ID instead of their name...

example of desired output:

<g id="liikkeet">
        <polygon id="s281" style="fill:#ED3B95;stroke:#FFFFFF;stroke-width:2;stroke-miterlimit:10;" points="157,515.3 157,408.3     180,385.1 180,369.3 248,369.3 248,391.3 266,391.3 266,402.3 393,402.3 393,513.3   "/>
</g>

What am I doing wrong? Currently I get polygons and paths without IDs though I have named them in Illustrator.


texts: Adobe InDesign: Set text justify for every other line

texts:
I'm looking for a solution to achieve something like the image below.
I want to set justify and hyphenation for paragraphs except odd lines.


texts: Why is Photoshop's pixel grid smaller than my actual pixels?

texts:
I'm trying to set up Photoshop cc 2014 for pixel art graphics, but I have this weird issue where my pixels don't align to the grid. I can't work out if it's my pencil which is creating pixels too big, or the grid is somehow wrong. I've set the grid to 1:1 so I'm not sure how that could be any different.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

I'm on a Mac if that makes any difference.


texts: How would I be able to get this line illusion soundwave art on Photoshop?

texts: Hello, I was wondering if someone could help me out in replicating the line design like the one in this banner on Photoshop. Thank you :)


texts: Filling grouped object background with color in Illustrator

texts:
Is there any way to fill grouped objects background in Illustrator?

Below is example how i want it, right now i simply just put white square behind them.


texts: Typeface used by Werner and Schumann (late 19th or early 20th century)

texts:
In order to date a German game of Go-Bang, the only thing I seem to have is the typeface of the numbers 1, 2, and 3 and the lowercase a on the box.

Note the peculiar digit 1 and the letter a which, turning clockwise, ends in a “fish tail”. With a magnifying glass, I had a closer look at the latter and made crude reconstruction of what it looks like (no, not a G):

Here is what I know and found so far:

I would guess that the style is Jugendstil? Does it have a name?
WS&B stands for Werner and Schumann, a German publisher of games and toys from at least 1879 to 1925.
I have searched Google an evening and a morning without success. I have searched using all the methods in the requirements list (except for Photoshop which I don’t have) on the peculiar digit 1 without success. They simply don’t come up with anything near this digit 1.

Could someone please recognize the type and date, period, of use?


texts: GIMP - Search/filter single brush inside brush panel?

texts: I am working with gimp-2.8, when we try to change Brush, we need to scroll all brushes or we can filter by group. Problem is that when we filter by group we can select only one group, and it takes too much loading when we filter/remove-filter(though I did not added additional brushes, except that comes default with gimp). Also it needs to remove filter first and then it will allow to add new filter. Is there any way to change this behaviour or any way to search by brush name? (Note: Filter here means not filter programs, but to filter out Brushes.)


texts: Is there research on the preference of sans-serif fonts in printed text for Western European countries?

texts:
According to an answer on: How are Serif and Sans-serif fonts different, and when should one use one over the other?

  For print, in the U.S., body copy is usually set in serif, while in Europe it's set in sans serif, and that readers in the various regions are trained to that.

Linotype Helvetica is the standard typeface for books printed for non English Western Europe, and their ex-colonies in Africa. They prefer sans-serif fonts even in Print, and that carries through to some major newspapers and official government sites.

My question:

Is there any supporting evidence or research showing that American literature is more likely to be printed in Serif while Western European literature is more likely set in Sans-Serif? Preferably, research with reasoning behind it.


texts:
I have tried online font matching in the usual places without success. Nothing comes even close, really (the G is rather peculiar). Is there anything else I can do? The text (cf. image) is taken from a handbook published in 1939.
Any help much appreciated.


texts: How do gears / cogs behave in an animation?

texts:
So I want to make a 3d system of gears. Like working gears, with math and everything :) and for ease of use, I can just make the master gear rotate smoothly by 360 degrees over a period of X seconds.

But the thing is, from what I can tell, real gears don't rotate constantly and smoothly. Slow them down and you can easily tell how the gears move, stop, move stop. Spun up they behave the same, even if it LOOKS smoothly.

My question being: is it worth adding the extra effort for that minuscule delay in the animation? The gears will vary in size and speed.


texts: Best Practice for variation with animated type

texts:
I am a designer that does not work with much motion graphics. Since I am at a startup I wear many hats. I have created a 30 second animation for our company that explains our product. The type animates in and I was using only two different variations:

A swipe for the first and last titles that look alike (Call that Style A)
A slide up for all of the typography in 3 scenes. This explained a 3 step process of our product. (Call that Style B)

I figured two variations of animating-in type was enough for a 30 second video and it made sense to group them. However I received feedback from a non-designer that Style B seemed too repetitive and they wanted to see another animation.

I think that may be a bit much and they'd lose a sense of connectivity and consistency. I think it makes sense that all three steps in Style B shared the same animation.

I'd like to see if there's any motion designers that have opinions on the matter so I can make an informed design decision. My gut tells me I have it right but my expertise is not in motion graphics.


texts: A best way to compress a png atlas with transparency

texts:
I have an atlas of assets in a transparent png with 8-bit alpha (660kb) and I want to compress it.

Could you suggest what options do I have? When using a pngquant (I'm using SuperPNG plugin for Photoshop), I'm getting a 58kb file but color is transformed to 8bit palette and there's not enough colors to have smooth gradients (balloons are a good example). The original atlas I'm working with has two times more assets so compression is even more visible...

Is it possible to get something like in-between result? I'd be happy with 150-200kb file with more colors and alpha. Maybe I can use imagemagick with some funny options?


texts:
I've been searching for this but all I find are annoying tutorials on how to click the eraser button.

Whenever I switch to the eraser it keeps the tool size I was using for the pencil, I'd really like it if it didn't.


texts: How to edit a closed shape drawn by Path Tool in GIMP?

texts:
I created a custom shape with custom pattern with the following steps:

Drawing the border lines with Path Tool
Making a closed shape by Selection from Path
Selecting the closed shape with Magic Wand
Filling the closed shape with solid color or pattern by Bucket Fill Tool

Now I want to re-design the shape by moving the controlling points of Bezier Curve, but the shape is now independent of the initial points set by the Path Tool.

My problem is that after Step 2, the closed shape is independent of the initial drawing points, and thus not editable. On the other hand, I want to edit the shape when it is filled with color.

How can I create a custom filled shape, which is still editable by moving controller points?


texts: How to reduce the file size of a Live Trace (high fidelity) image

texts:
I have a PNG, its width is 1960px and height is 1583px. It is 3.3MB in total.

When I go to Illustrator Live Trace > Photo High Fidelity, and then I expand the paths, the vector image is very good but the file size is now 8.9MB.

I thought that when I convert to vectors it would have a smaller file size, but it increases.

If I create a vector file from a photo will it always have a larger file size or is there a better way to convert and save them?


texts:
Is there an icon set containing icons for different platforms/stores (e.g. App Store, Play, Windows 8 Store, etc.)?

I am interested in grayscale icons similar to Glyphish and Glyphicons.


texts:
Rafael's interpretation of the question

I want an animation in PowerPoint, where one word appears from left to right, as it is being typed, and then it disappears as it is being deleted with a backspace key, making room for a new word.

Original post:

I wanted to have some simple text animation like what is show on below website where I show one sentence and then in next animation few words in that sentence changes and then again it changes.

For ex.

First sentence

How many computers in your environment ?

and then in next animation computer word is replace by application and then in next animation application is repalce by users and i could see the word getting deleted and replaces with new word as shown in below website

See example below on this website

https://www.axonius.com/

Do we know how i can do this?


texts: Tool to snap point to point in Adobe Illustrator?

texts:
Wondering if this exists in Illustrator.
A tool that allows you to select an anchor point of an object and snap/move it on-top of another point. I cant think of how to do this and there doesn't seem to be any options for it. "Snap to point doesn't work?"

Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

^Trying to get green point to snap to the red point.


texts: Difference of free transform and inserting the font-size in Photoshop

texts: Is there any difference in free-transforming a text or just adding the bigger font size??


texts: How to convert pen-shape path to a working path?

texts:
How do I convert a shape path to a working path in Photoshop CS5?

How I have tried:
I have searched through the tools in the program and search through forums and the Adobe help site on the web.


texts: Import in vectors an image from photoshop to Illustrator

texts:
I have a logo in photoshop which consists on 2 layers:

Text
Image (vertical bars, with rounded top and bottom)

Those bars top/bottom are not perfectly round. So I would like to transfer it to Illustrator and convert it to outlines.

I tried to import to Illustrator the image in transparent png and svg...however the "Create Outlines" menu option is grayed out.

How can I import a logo from PS to AI and convert it to outlines?


texts: How to export a layer without cropping my entire image

texts:
I often take screenshots, but then only want to export a portion of the screenshot instead of the entire thing. I know I can crop the image, but I was wondering if there was a way I could export a single layer that is smaller than the entire image without the export including the surrounding empty space that shows up despite having all my other layers turned off?

For instance, I have a canvas size of 5000px^2 containing a layer with size 317x72px. I want to maintain the canvas size because of other layers, so I've been cropping the whole image to the smaller layer, exporting, then undoing the cropping. I'd like to just export.


texts:
Trying to identify this font. None of the online font matchers can find it. Any idea what it is?

Reminds me of "circus" fonts, but I can't find any that matches exactly.

This is from an old Latvian fairytale book published in 1987 (when Latvia was part of the Soviet Union): https://nemaloknig.com/book-11187.html


texts: What are the differences between PSD and TIFF files saved from Cinema 4D?

texts:
I was wondering which format is most appropriate to save for print and digital applications?

I was originally taught to save as TIFF for print. When I save out a still from Cinema 4D (R13), the TIFF file is always considerably larger than the PSD file format. When I try to closely inspect the images side-by-side, I see no difference in quality.

Is there any reason to save in TIFF format over PSD?


texts:
I have been asked to make a letter sized document (8.5 in x 11 in) and have not been given any bleeds or margins even though it is for printing.
Is there a general rule of thumb to follow that most say magazines and publications that use the letter format use for these two measures?


texts: Convert paragraphs to specific style based on content?

texts:
I really like plain text writers, such as Ulysses and the recently found Bear (both Mac). I'm currently writing my thesis and I enjoy styling. However, something that really annoys me is the gap between a plain text writer and InDesign. I can't easily copy over text from a simple writer to InDesign. So I'm looking for a way to minimise that gap.

I noticed that Bear, for example, uses Markdown as an output. If you copy header-1 (i.e. "This is a header") text to InDesign that paragraph will be output like "# This is a header". When you have a header-2 it adds 2 '#' in front and quotes obtain a '>' in front of the paragraph.

With that discovery I was thinking of automatically convert each paragraph to a specific style based on a ruleset, depending on the first character of a sentence.

if rule starts with "#" then apply paragraph style "header-1".

Additionally, that hashtag should be removed, but that could be done with a find & replace (find "# " and replace with "").

But uh.. Is it possible to apply paragraph styles based on certain rules? Preferably automating this thing?


texts: Indesign: hide text in image caption to be inserted into list of figures (TOC)

texts:
InDesign CS6: I have a large document with images, they have captions, and I have generated a table of content for these images ("list of figures" not to be confused with the document TOC).
What I want is the image caption to look like this, short and sweet:

...and the information in the list of figures TOC to have more information, like this:

I have searched far and wide, and the only thing I can find is this post, explaining that i should make a "label" on a hidden layer, which i cannot figure out how to do, and connect it to the caption in question. I could make a new text box on a hidden layer, but how do I connect it to the image so the hidden text turns up in the TOC?

 _________________________________________________

 EDIT

Rad Lexus answer below works. However, it leaves me with overset text in the caption boxes (naturally), and that annoying little red pluss-sign. This again messes a little with the consistency of my caption box sizes (and therefore the padding). In addition it gives me the dreaded "do you want to include overset text" when updating List of Figures.

This is not a catastrophe, but makes me a little nervous for what might show or not under the actual pics.

Are there any other ways of doing this or do I have to live with that uncertainty?


texts: What is the most well representative letter in fonts?

texts: Is there such a thing as the most representative letter in fonts, by seeing which we could definitively say that it's one font or another. Is it possible to identify a font by a single character, or possibly by a set of characters? If so, which character (minimal set of characters) would be the most representative?


texts: Exporting shape layers to SVG without buying Illustrator

texts: I have Photoshop CS6, but I don't have Illustrator. Can I export shape layers to SVG, perhaps using a plugin?


texts: Is it safe to learn Sketch 3 and Affinity Designer in place of Photoshop and Illustrator?

texts:
I realize that Adobe has been the industry standard for the past couple decades, but Sketch 3 and Affinity Designer are quickly gaining momentum and support in the design community. Almost every respectable article, review, and tutorial I read gives me the impression that the future of these powerful new tools is extremely hopeful.

With that being said, would I be shooting myself in the foot (in terms of finding UX/UI/Web design employment) by choosing to skip Photoshop/Illustrator for Sketch/Affinity?


texts: Creating fancy script text without using a font

texts:
I am looking to create a site for a musician so some eye catching logo for their band is in order. I want to just do a script type, calligraphy type, if you will, version of the band name. I'm fairly good with Photoshop, but I haven't done anything like this and can't find any tutorials. I'm probably not wording the question correctly, so the picture below is an example of what i'm trying to achieve. It's not just a font, it's like calligraphy on a computer.

Any ideas on how to do something like this? Like I said, I may not be typing in the right search terms to find what I want so if this has been asked or a tutorial is out there, if you could kindly point me to that, I would be very grateful.

Thanks!


texts: What's the name for the "artistic movement" /technique of these graphics?

texts: Can anybody help me understand if the graphics I linked have elements that make them belonging to the same artistic movement/style,and if positive which is this art name.Even if their styles look similar to my eyes I can't basically tell why.


texts: Illustrator CC 2019 No canvas in new file

texts: I recently Updated Illustrator to 2019 CC and now each time I create a new file, the Artboard is not shown or probably is transparent and instead there are a lot of rulers and guides. Although when I create new files using the adobe templates, it works fine and shows the artboards. I looked through the setting and preferences to see if anything new has been added and caused this but I didn't find anything useful. How can I bring the last version's canvas back?


texts: What is the name for the element with two selection lists and selector buttons?

texts:
I have a design for a control looking like this:

I'd like to know if there is a commonly used name for such control to google its implementations.


texts:
The non-profit organization I contribute to has decided to stop spending money on professional print services and use black & white photocopys for any campaign (recruitment, fund raising, etc.).

I think that will make difficult to communicate with our target, diminish our corporate identity and, in short, result on a waste of resources.

The problem is that I am unable to persuade them, and I think it's because a lack of scintific knowledge about the effects of "cheap" supports over target individuals. Or maybe because I'm wrong and that ugly dirty papers are great...

So the question is: what are the PROs and CONs of using low-cost supports as photocopies?


texts: Trying to create a blackboard texture and gradient in Photoshop

texts:
I'm trying to create a wedding invitation but I'm struggling to get the same effect as the example one I've seen on a website.

How would I create the same background effect? I've tried using the gradient tool in Photoshop, but it doesn't seem to create the same effect.

Thanks!


texts: I would like to evenly space these objects, i.e. having the same distance on the left and on the right side of each object. How can this be accomplished?


texts: Issue with 'Align to Artboard' in Adobe Illustrator

texts:
I drew a Polar Grid and tried to align it centre horizontally and vertically in the artboard. But it's aligning to somewhere else.

Align to Pixel Grid is already unchecked. I'm not facing this issue, if I draw with other shape tools such as Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool and all.

Any help will be appreciated.


texts:
I'm drawing using Inkscape on Linux. At the end I'll save the file as PDF and the figure will be used in many kinds of reports, so I'll insert the PDF file (in LaTeX) with different dimensions.

Suppose that the original draw is 10cm x 10cm (the paper size on PDF info).

If I had drawn a curve with line width 2pt and after saving as PDF and resizing the PDF file, the line width will be scaled accordingly or could I have a small shape with a very thick stroke?

On Inkscape, during the resizing we can choose tho affect the widths or not.

But what about the final PDF file?


texts:
First of all, I use Inkscape for this. I am also not a graphic designer by trade.

Anyway, here's the deal:

As you can see, the nodes aren't lined up properly to make the arrow symmetrical. I only need the left-most node and the right-most nodes to line up with each other and be equally far from the arrow's point.

I really can't figure this one out, so any help is appreciated!


texts:
Here's what I want to achieve:

pretty simple right? BUT, I'd like the text to remain editable in a simple manner, that is:

Editable text (no outlined font);
Only one line of text (any change has to be done once);
The text color must adapt when moving the text around.

I'tried many combination of masks with no luck... any idea?


texts:
I am new in this printing industry and very confused. Ive been working on a brochure and whenever i saved a pdf preview for my client i will always choose “smallest size pdf” from ai and for the final output i will send them “high quality printing” version.

Problem is the client printed both of them and they liked the “smallest size pdf” color more, its more vibrant/closer to the color i had on screen. i know for “smallest size pdf” the color output is rgb while “high quality printing” is cmyk. My ai is in cmyk mode.

I am always told to save cmyk pdf for printing, but now the client likes the rgb version, do you think its safe to print hq rgb pdf?

The fact that the printer can print brighter color using rgb pdf means they can print it using cmyk? why does it differ using my cmyk pdf?

thank you hope its not too long. I really appreciate if you can help me.


texts: How can I automatically group each shape with the text inside it for a huge collection of rectangles?

texts:
I have a .dwg (AutoCad file) map full of fields (rectangles) that I'm manipulating with Illustrator. Each rectangle has a text inside it that indicates its number. The problem is that there is no association between the rectangle and its number and that's what I'm trying to do. Also the order or drawing is not the same, when I check the layers.

Is there a way with Illustrator that can group each rectangle to the text inside it and this for all the fields? It is possible manually, but impossible to do it for every single field: about 40,000 rectangles.

I guess the approach should have something to do with "closeness" since it's the only data that tells us the correspondence between a rectangle and its number.


texts: What does an artist who wants to learn graphic design need to know?

texts:
There's a (very popular) question that discusses tips and resources for learning graphic design already, but it's from the perspective of programmers who want to get in the game.

I have a friend of a friend who is interested in design, but her background is in drawing and art, not design. I learn this a day before I saw the work of a person who was interested in design but had more art experience.

I realized that artistic skills can help a designer, but, as it's been discussed here, it's not necessary.

So, what are some tips and resources for an artist who wants to get into graphic design? Has anyone here taken this career path? What did you need to learn?


texts: So, I was working on my site and an accidental mistake did a nice 3D effect to my new Logo, is there any way to convert or import a CSS3 code to illustrator so I can have it as .SVG?


texts: What can I use to facilitate drawing in a "cartoon" style?

texts:
Is there a Photoshop or Illustrator action or a set of brushes that can help me achieve this image style and feeling in my drawings / photos?

cartoon image http://thatstupidkid.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/REMOTE-04-Escape-9-5.png


texts: How can I use CSS to make something look "pushed"?

texts:
I'm building a new website in Dreamweaver CS5 and I've made a default spry menu bar. Now I want that the menu bar has an 3D look. When you click the button on the menu bar, I would like an effect that makes the button look pushed. How can I accomplish that?

Here is my design so far:


texts:
I like to draw every now and then and I guess, the results are OK for a computer scientist.

Schematics like the eye on the left are sometimes needed in scientific publications and when you use freely available images for that, you (i) have to check the copyright and (ii) you never find something which contains exactly what you want with the right labels and details.

Additionally, I like to do things by myself and I'm always amazed by people drawing things like this professionally like here or here. I own a heavily underused Wacom Intuos 5M and I have the Creative Suite CS6.

I would really like to either digitally ink or completely redraw my sketches with Illustrator, but I'm simply overwhelmed by the pure mass of available tutorials, videos and documentation. For instance, there seem to be completely different approaches to ink drawings, where there is one newer approach (?) and an old-established method. And I don't even know whether it is not better to build something like an eye from geometrical primitives like circles and curves instead of sketching and inking it. In short, a situation where you can easily follow the wrong path as a beginner and waste time or loose interest.

Question: Is there a preferred approach and are there tutorials/videos/documentation that experienced users would highly recommend for the purpose I described?

Additionally, I would like to know why there are different inking methods and which one is recommended for what purpose?


texts: Have the IPA characters from Sylfaen ever been released?

texts: Sylfaen as originally designed had a full set of International Phonetic Alphabet characters, and they appear in a paper on the designers' website.  But the version that was free with Windows XP — the only one I've actually used — did not include those characters.  Have they ever been released in any form?


texts: What style or technique do these retro images/font fall under? Not exactly UPA

texts: I am trying to use the same illustration technique for some graphic design ideas. I know that it is 50's to 60's style but can't get any further than that. They don't seem to fall directly under UPA.  I would say Mid-Century but that seems like a catch all phrase. T


texts: Export Photoshop layers in subfolder to individual files?

texts:
My question is an extension from this question ( Batch export Photoshop layers to individual PNG files ), but for some reason, I can't seem to contact any of the posters from that thread.

Basically, I want to do that same process, but instead of just doing the top layers, I want to do the layers that are inside a folder. The reason for this is because I have several base layers, that don't change. Actually, all that is changing in mine is some text. So is there a way to add a dropdown that would allow me to choose which subfolder I want to use as the layers to alternate?

Naturally, I want to adapt escalation746's script, as it is the fastest.

Thanks.


texts: How to merge outlines and fills after using image trace on a hand drawn image?

texts: I'm new to illustrator and I'm trying to import my hand drawn line art to color in illustrator. When I add the jpeg to illustrator and do image trace I'm left with an outline (solid black shape behind the image) and the individual components. I'd rather not have a black outline around all my work, but I also don't want everything one solid color. I want to combine the two parts and end up with sections that can be individually colored that include coloring just that section of the outline. Is that possible?


texts:
After creating a path with rounded corners in Illustrator, I added a dashed stroke and aligned it inside the path (but the problem is the same when aligning outside).
Strangely I ended up with a lot of strange 'glitches' (?) along the path:

When aligned centered, the stroke looks neat and sharp:

I've tried changing stroke properties but nothing really helps.
Has anyone ever experienced similar behaviour? How can I get those sharp strokes back?

To create this symmetrical shape I first created the left half, copied it, reflected the copy and united the both parts with Pathfinder.

Here's the actual document in case someone is interested: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17682405/example.ai


texts: What are the frequently used post-press processes in modern digital printing, to name a few?

texts: I'm looking for alternatives to traditional printing processes to strengthen the physical aspects of digitally printed items. it seems with certain systems such as NEXPRESS Press Platform it's possible to add varnishes similar to those in traditional printing. I'm wondering what are the processes most frequently resorted to with such systems? — I realise this is a broad question, but as someone who's new to printing processes with digital presses, I do wish to learn a few facts about this area to have an overall impression.


texts: How to make the export slices equally large as the artboard size in Affinity Designer?

texts:
I created some artboards in Affinity Designer, and gave each artboard a specific height and width. I also want to export each artboard, so I changed to the Export Persona, but to my surprise, the slice has a different size than what I expected (from the screenshots in this question, the Export Persona slice added one pixel to the width). How can I make sure that the Export Persona is using the same size as in the Designer Persona?

For only one artboard, I would just change the size manually, but I have 64 artboards!

I am using Affinity Designer 1.8.1 on macOS Catalina 10.15.3.


texts:
I have a large vector .eps file of 8 logo samples. At 100% zoom, it is crisp and gorgeous, about 4 inches wide and 1.5 inches high on my laptop screen.

I tried object > rasterize with CMYK / 300dpi / type anti-aliasing, but lost quality and it was pasted into a new art-board at a much smaller size.

I want to save it as PNG and EPS (yes 2 files) but in a larger size, 500% zoomed for example in the original EPS file when exporting to new file, without losing any quality, especially when I downsize it and the fonts should not lose quality at all.

I'm new to Illustrator and it is different from Photoshop function wise. How do I export a PNG version at that size and quality?


texts: Photoshop - How to reduce the file size in KB by reducing resolution

texts:
I have tried everything I can think of, but when I reduce resolution of graphics, keeping the same dimensions, it has no effect on the size of the file.

This makes no sense. I prepare graphics for the web and so I often want to drop some weight by lowering the resolution of an image from, say, 300 ppi to 72 ppi. It would seem, intuitively, that this would lower the size of the file.  Yet, when I do it, the file size stays the same.

Is there something I'm missing?  I've tried with resampling on and off, to no avail.


texts: How many colors should be used in a background gradient?

texts: For on-screen design (web or desktop applications), in areas where there is significant background space visible, a subtle gradient adds a lot to the look of the app/page/image.  How many colors (max) should be used in this gradient?  How far apart in tone/hue should they be?


texts:
Im trying to print sheets with multiple numbers on them. I have set up 12 variables on my file that will change from 00001 to 00012 and change with each new set from 00013 to 00024 and so on it changes by twelves for each new sheet, all the way to 500.

I have set the XML file that drives my variables to go all the way to 500 but I want to be able to make files that go 100, 200, 300, in increments of one hundred  all the way to 10k. this XML file only lets me save 42 files that have numbers 1-500 and no way to change it to 1-100 or 200 without making a new XML file if it is like this I would have to make 100 different XML files but that is a bit crazy . Has anyone found a way to do this without having to make a bunch of XML files?


texts:
Can someone tell me why i cannot add a stroke to the selected path?
I have opened the file multiple times/copied and pasted the paths and tried to change the color and weight of the stroke.

I believe this has to do with the circle being filled in. in the layer selection.

illustrator says its adding a stroke but nothing shows up.


texts: How to update all identical smart objects with changes applied from one smart object?

texts:
For example, in Matt Core's "Let's Paint Missiles (2/2)" all duplicated smart objects were updated after he had additions made (mask and colours) then saved in a single version. But no explanation was provided, PS was another version, or mine is simply broken.
Thanks!


texts: What software should I use to create editable mathematical vector images like these?

texts:
Little bit of background: I own Affinity designer, looking into learning Blender 3D, and am decently familiar with Python, Numpy, and Matplotlib.

Examples:

ex1

ex2

ex3

ex4

ex5

ex6

There's nothing particularly special about these images. Mainly you could say they are mathematical 3D images represented in just simple lines, such as wire meshes. That's mainly what I'm interested in, mathematical vector images/patterns. A few other effects I was interested in but couldn't find examples of are:

a plane of dots or lines that appears 3D due to distortions.

a sound wave image like that joy division shirt.

If anybody can recommend software that excels at this, please let me know. Even better if is you provide links to tutorials. Any suggestions are welcome, as long as you feel they have this "mathematical" nature to them. Thank you!


texts: How can I change Photoshop's color picker to the default style?

texts:
Somehow my color picker style is changed and I don't like this style because picking color is very difficult.

I want the default style which has single color shades rather than a number of colors. How can I set it back to the default style?


texts:
I've drawn a sketch on paper for my logo, but I have no idea how to translate that into a computer file. I'm sure the design can be improved, but it seems that the work I need done is not so much "logo design" as it is "logo development".

It seems I've done most of the design work and none of the development work.

Is there such thing as a "Graphic Developer"? Or where can I find someone who can develop my design?

I'm hesitant to hire a Graphic Designer because I don't want to pay for work that I've already done myself (I assume they'll charge me the same fee that they charge people who have no idea what they want), and I don't want work re-done that I've already done (I know what I want, so if they actually do the design work that I pay for and design a new logo, it will be different from what I want).


texts: How to switch between group and layers using a keyboard shortcut

texts: How do I switch, using a keyboard shortcut, from selecting a grouped layer to selecting the layers grouped individually?


texts: How to center a shape so it is "visually" centered in Illustrator

texts:
Say I have 65,000+ shapes (i.e. the CJK Unicode Characters as vector glyphs). I want to create a square for each of the characters and place each vector glyph within its square such that it is visually centered. Not technically centered, but visually centered. Optically centered (i.e. optical adjustment). Is there an "align to optical center vertically and horizontally" button in Illustrator? Or if not, how would I go about doing this? I assume it's a complicated algorithm that can be used to solve this problem, but I'm not sure if it's been implemented or done in Illustrator before.

Maybe it's an Illustrator plugin somewhere. If so, it would help to know how to do it there.


texts: Do I have to create vector files at the correct print size?

texts:
I had to create an 800mm x 2000mm print and so I started by actually creating a 800mm x 2000mm file in Illustrator.

The file contained only vectors so my question is:

Can I create my file size dimensions to be smaller as long as it keeps the correct ratio for the final print?

Like I said, vector ONLY, no photos or raster images.


texts: Photoshop Document size changed in illustrator

texts:
I have document created in illustrator 3600 x 3600 pixel 300 PPI and then I opened with Photoshop to make it 1200 x 1200 pixel with same resolution 300.

I created back document in illustrator 1200 x 1200 pixel 300 PPI and placed the file I made 1200 pixel in Photoshop,However the file size become 288 x 288 pixel,

this is happening only if I save as , not happening when I m saving save for web

Thank you


texts: How to subtract an open path from another path in Illustrator CS5

texts: There are at least two similar questions on here already, but the thing being subtracted from is always a solid object. Please see image below for my situation. I have the two paths on the left and want to subtract the red path from the blue paths to end up with the 4 open paths on the right.


texts: I'm a programmer doing a client project, and I'm trying to write an app that will do this (the photograph of the woman) to user-uploaded images.  I think it's some combination of Sepia and some other filters, but I'm not sure.  Anyone have any ideas?


texts: How to design with density pixels in Photoshop?

texts:
I'm programmer, not graphic designer, but I have to design some Android application interface in Adobe Photoshop (or Illustrator).

I want to follow Google resources/guidelines for new Android applications.

Unfortunately - everything in these guidelines is measured in dp (denisity pixels). I know what a denisity pixel is, but I don't know how to deal with that in Photoshop (or Illustrator). I used to pixels, I have some experience in web design, I was always using pixels. I guess this is why my approach is wrong.

First - I created 1280x720 image and started drawing stuff but... I feel I'm doing it wrong. This is really painful. I have to calculate every size, margin, line spacing etc., I also have problem with setting up grids.

How can I improve my productivity?


texts: Joining zig zag lines with regular lines to make a shape - Illustrator

texts: I'm trying to turn this into a shape that will have one solid color as a fill, but object-> path -> join isn't working when I try to connect the final line (on the left) to complete the shape. Any thoughts?


texts: What's wrong with this neumorphism design?

texts:
I'm trying to create a logo using neumorphism learned from this video. After hours of tweaking I still couldn't get it right.

I know there's something wrong but couldn't know if that's with the color, or the strokes in my logo or something else, I couldn't make it look as expected. Here's the figma link. How do I improve it?

Edit: Do you think this one is better?


texts: Is there any difference between these two terms, or they describe the same thing?


texts: What color scheme to choose for background color of different section in one page website?

texts:
I have a website page with different sections like about us and contact us. I was learning about color wheel schemes but it is still unclear if I should use complementary or analogue scheme for successive sections on the website.

Would you please guide me with some explanation? Although I noticed that many pages uses only white and gray background for different successive pages, why?


texts: InDesign: grep to replace space with EN space after full stops between sentences

texts:
The title describes the issue. I am using this query ([\l\u])\.\s([\l\u]) and replacing with $1.~>$2 and it works, BUT this also picks up paragraphs returns, probably because of the \s in the first string. Any way to rewrite this first string to skip paragraph returns?

What the client wants basicly (and its a very large document), is to increase spacing between sentences. thanks


texts: Deciding On Inside Margins For A Perfect-bound Book

texts:
What factors should guide my decision on adding extra inside margins when preparing a book for perfect binding?

I'm working on a book that will be perfectly bound. It's a budget job, so I'm using an online service with little/no communications with the printer and no opportunity for a proof.

As far as I'm aware, I need to add inside margin for two reasons:

Because the inside margin will be curved inwards, leaving less horizontal space because of horizontal compression due to foreshortening.
Because some of the page will be lost to the binding.

My book is 120mm x 192mm and I have allowed margins at:

Inside: 19mm
Outside: 14mm

I have tried printing off a stack of pages and this feels like the right amount, but I don't want to get caught out.

Incidentally, the book is a poetry book with the text on each page left aligned and centred on the longest line. I'm using inDesign which means I need to do the centring manually, so baking uneven margins into my page makes the centring really tricky.


texts: How to transform fire particle in Anime studio

texts:
I want to create animation of meteor 's moving in sky , this meteor has fire ,

for its flame/fire i draw a fire and then use particle , but now I can't control completely whole fire :

fire must be exit from one whole on the meteor

in frame 0 all thing is correct as you can see in this picture:

in the frame 6 meteor move up so fire must move up but when I translate particle's layer to up  , fire traverse circular path as you can see in this picture :

how can I choose setting to create correct animation ?


texts: Creating an Animated GIF with Text Fading at Different Times

texts:
I'm attempting to create an animated GIF in Adobe Fireworks CS4 that includes multiple text blocks. I would like to have each of these text blocks fade in at different times then remain visible while the rest of them fade in as well.

For example: Consider three text blocks - "Happy", "Birthday", and "To You".

"Happy" fades in and becomes solid. Neither "Birthday" or "To You" are visible.
"Birthday" fades in while "Happy" remains visible. "To You" is still not visible.
"To You" fades in while both "Happy" and "Birthday" remain visible.
At the end of the animation, all three text blocks are visible.

After a bit of research, I've been able to create a fade-in effect for one block of text (Opacity 0-100 over 10 frames), but I'm not able to figure out how to 1) start the next block fading in after (or near the end of) the first animation, or 2) keep the first block visible in subsequent frames.

For starting a new text fade-in, I've tried going to the last frame of the original animation and adding the text (as explained on the Adobe Help page about "How to create a fade-in/fade-out animation in Fireworks 4") through either typing it in or copying it from a "master" image I created, but it seems to always place my new text in the first frame no matter what I do.

For keeping the text visible after it's faded in, I've created a bunch of additional frames after the first 10 and tried to distribute the animation symbol to the other frames. I've tried creating a second copy of the animation symbol and going to the last frame of the first animation to drop it in there before adjusting the animation. It still seems to put everything in the first frame and I can't get it moved down in the "timeline".

Obviously, I'm not well-versed in this area. I've used Adobe Fireworks for years to create simple, static images for Web sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but I've never really tried to create anything with animation before. Do I need to add additional layers or pages? Is there some setting that I've overlooked that will allow me to specify the starting "state" or frame for an animation? If you need further clarification of my goals, please let me know. Thank you.


texts: InDesign CS6 Forms Radio Buttons Not Behaving as Expected

texts:
I am using InDesign CS6 (Mac) to create a one-page data entry form, and it contains three sets of radio buttons where only one choice is allowed for each set. Each of the buttons is supposed to have a square box, and the checked button is supposed to have a square box with a check mark inside. However, when I pull the generated PDF in Acrobat, the buttons exhibit some unexpected behavior as shown in this shot:

If I click on one of the buttons, it will show the square box with check mark, and if I just hover over it the empty square box will appear. But if I click elsewhere, the ugly circles show, with the black dot indicating the selected box for that set.

I have looked at every setting and selection within InDesign for a couple days now, and I cannot see anything wrong. Has anyone else seen this behavior and found a way to fix it?

UPDATE: the link to the InDesign file and the generated PDF is here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fx7q2ym9bhpa7ac/AABlxQSYlHmLwSNUJMgIZX_ba?dl=0


texts: How do you choose fonts in a language you don't know?

texts: I have to adapt a branded document for a one-off Arabic translation, but I have no idea how to choose an Arabic font since I know almost nothing about the language or cultural considerations that effect typeface connotations and it has letterforms that are very different from English. I know this may be a somewhat subjective question (so I understand if it is closed), but there must be some guidelines for working with fonts in other languages.


texts: How to create a solid black shadow behind text in Illustrator?

texts:
How do you create this text effect in Illustrator?

I tried creating a shadow behind the letter, but it did not appear similar to this.

Can anyone point me to the right direction?


texts: Alpha Transparency Remove Background Photoshop

texts:
Is there any way in Photoshop to remove a background color from an image, when some of the background is behind a transparent object.

So far, I've tried using masks and channels but have not made any progress. I want to make the background transparent, so that the bottle and 'ink' can be put onto a white background colour.

Many thanks in advance, any help would be much appreciated.


texts: Why does Photoshop display slight color differences for the same eps file depending on how it is placed into Photoshop?

texts:
I have an EPS (logo.eps). The logo's color is #C34500 (orange). When I open logo.eps in Adobe Illustrator CC  and sample the color is shows as #C34500. When I copy/paste the artwork into Adobe Photoshop CC as a smart object then sample the color it is #C34400. Why is this?
In Photoshop, when I place (as embedded or linked) the same logo.eps file and sample the color it is #C34827. Why is it different?
When I open logo.eps with Photoshop as an RGB document and sample the color, it is #B1331C.
Yes, both Illustrator and Photoshop are in RGB color modes.


texts: Do I need to change colour settings in Illustrator if printing on uncoated paper?

texts:
I've created a CMYK logo file that will mostly be printed on uncoated paper. On screen the colour looks much brighter than I expect it to print. The colour setting CMYK working space I'm using in Illustrator is FOGRA39 Coated. My question is do I need to change the working space to uncoated or is this unnecessary unless I wish to preview on screen more closely how the logo will look on uncoated paper?

Any help much appreciated.


texts: Is Adobe Animate CC suitable for these animations?

texts:
I have noticed many people on Dribbble and Behance create animations such as the one below in Illustrator and then animate it in After Effects.

I need to create similar animations, as well in an isometric view, for game assets. Is Animate CC, (formally known as Flash), a suitable option?

Sailor Walk Animation - Jonathan Dahl


texts: I was wondering if anyone could tell me the name of this design element - I've seen it used for quotes, such as in Yahoo News Digest, but also in other places. It came up on github, and I'm not sure what it means there, but I know I've seen it used to differentiate importance on elements in a list before. They could be different elements too, but it seemed to me they were both being used to adjust margin to call attention to content.


texts: Drawing sharp diagonal lines in Photoshop

texts:
Is there a way to draw as sharp as possible (pixel-perfect) diagonal lines Photoshop?
I want to create an "X" close button but I can't get it to look good in smaller pixel dimensions such as (16x16).


texts:
I need to apply shadow to an overarching border, however so far I've created the shadow with CSS, and since the overarching border is formed by two boxes, the shadow overlaps.

My solution to this is to cover up the overlapping part with an image that looks like a seamless blend, however I'm not sure how the shadows should look, when they meet like that. Please see the blue circle area.

How can I figure out how the natural shadow blend would look for an example like this?

I can use Adobe Photoshop or GIMP to achieve this.


texts:
I have managed to obtain the SVG graph from google spreadsheet using developer tools.
What I did
First I ran this command in console:

I clicked on the output blue square which opened the node in the main HTML inspector:

Finally, I copied the outer HTML:

I'm mentioning this for googlers and anyone who'd like to reproduce my steps.
What I don't like
The image is a little bit malformed when opened it in inkscape:

All I need to do to fix that is to cut the rectangles along the most bottom guideline:

How would I do that?


texts: I am working on designing animal icons and was curious the best way to create a sheep icon. I am looking for the most efficient way to make the circles on the fur.


texts: Is there a way to restore live corners in a shape? For example when I expand a text or object, sometimes the symbol of dynamic corner doesn't appear.


texts: Fill colours in shapebuilder tool not in the CS6 version?

texts: Im following a tutorial, I noticed using the shapebuilder tool there is an option in the version the tutor is using where you are able to also colour the shapes using the tool and seperate them with the fill colours. I can't seem to do that in my CS6 version I am wondering if Live paint is the alternative? Even then I can't seperate the shapes once filled like it was done in the tutorial.


texts: Photoshop - Transparent backgrounds replaced by white?

texts:
I've literally just started using Photoshop tonight because I want to edit my mum into a photo of Michael Buble for a photocake. All was going well, I managed to cut out my mum and layer her over another photo, but I wanted to make another.
This time however, instead of having the transparent grey boxed background (meaning I can layer her onto another picture and still see the background of the picture), I have a white background. I don't know what's changed, but I need to get it back to the transparent one as I don't want my mum in a white box and then pasted over a picture of Michael Buble, I could do that in Word. Thanks.


texts: Is there a term for saturation and brightness moving in opposite directions?

texts:
I've noticed that to generate slightly different "versions" of a color that look good together, either of the following two methods works well:

Bump the saturation UP and brightness DOWN
Bump the brightness UP and the saturation DOWN

I've also noticed the latter is what happens as you decrease the opacity of that color if it's on a white background.

Clearly there's something to saturation/brightness moving in opposite directions.  What is it called and where can I learn more?

Thanks :)


texts: Minimum font size for “Jr. Poster” Billboard (5 by 11ft)

texts:
I'm planning to rent several so-called "Jr. Poster" billboards (about 5 by 11ft), displaying several paragraphs of text (black text on white background).

I was wondering, what is the minimum font size I should use? I'm aware that this ultimately depends on the viewing distance and other factors, but I was wondering if you have suggestions. Some of the paragraphs are rather long and obviously I'd like to include everything, preferably not having to cut down the text more than I already have.

Just curious about your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks for your time!


texts:
I've used a clipping mask to obtain the top ribbon, but I was wondering how I could get the same effect with the bottom ribbon, where the ribbon is filled in with the horizontal lines.

Thanks in advance,
Michael


texts: Tools to put into place for designing for yourself

texts: I know I am my worst enemy from critique to execution.  I ask this question because I wanted to know any good ways to stop myself from going on and on in my own work.  I have several ideas and things I'd like to design but I realized last year I only completed sketches and drafts and never really followed through with my personal projects or goals.  Its easier when you are working for a client and it helps when you have a design process, I get that, but when you are your own client what do you do?  I've heard some that will outsource to a friend but I feel to me I'm telling myself I cant design for myself if I did that.  So the question is when designing for yourself, what do you put into place to prevent yourself from disaster?


texts: Save for Web in Illustrator clipping incorrectly!

texts:
I am tearing my hair out on this one, albeit I am fairly new to Illustrator I have researched the best way to export art of particular dimensions for the web, and this appears to be the best way. It's worked fantastic in the past, but I am now embarking on resizing this image at a range of different dimensions, and I've noticed the rounded corners are vastly different in size and roundness between all four corners (as per screenshot).

I have been exporting this picture in W+H >100px and it has been keeping symmetry, yet when I resize anywhere from around 65-79 pixels the rounded corners differentiate, how can this be?

It is using the standard Illustrator rounded edges effect of 32 pixels.

Please any Illustrator pro I'm hoping you can shed some light on this matter!

I actually had 'clip to artboard' unticked for the last few tests, and that still didn't help, I've since resized the artboard to the exact 250px the rounded box was created as, and still no luck. So it won't be my box is extending past the artboard, I zoom in and it fits perfectly to the pixel inside.

UPDATE: An export of 57x57 and 100x100 are perfectly symmetrical on all corners! It's the 70's range which skews. Incredibly odd!


texts: Graphic design courses under a Creative Commons license?

texts:
I'm an amateur graphic designer, with a decent head for theory, and intermediate skills. I would like to run a graphic design course for my friends, but I would prefer not to spend months on developing the course. I recently ran a workshop on using git, and for that I used someone else's open source git tutorial, which I modified, and expanded. I would love to be able to do the same with a graphic design course (ideally, a short series of workshops).

Is anyone aware of such a course? e.g. a set of editable slides, or a course outline/framework, that is available under an open source license (creative commons, GFDL, etc.)?

There are plenty of courses available on youtube, but for the most part, they aren't available under an open license, so I can't re-use the content. There is also the wikibooks graphic design book, but it's pretty empty, and also not really in a suitable format.


texts: How can I legally design something which looks like US currency notes?

texts:
I've been asked to create artwork for a mock US currency bill.
Similar to those fake novelty bills you can purchase.

(This is not my artwork. It is merely something Google found as an example)
The end goal is not to reproduce currency accurately, but to trick the reader into thinking it's currency at first glance. So, to this end, the artwork needs to closely resemble a real bill, but be different enough to be legal and not seen as counterfeit.
I am aware of US Legislation regarding reproduction which states:

Reproduction of Currency

Authority: The Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550

Color Reproductions

Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations permits the printing, publishing or importation, or the making or importation of the necessary plates or items for such printing or publication, of color illustrations of U.S. currency provided that:

The illustration must be of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of any matter so illustrated;
The illustration must be one sided; and
All negatives, plates, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof shall be destroyed and or deleted or erased after their final use in accordance with this section.

Black and White Reproductions
Title 18, United States Code, Section 504 permits black and white reproductions of currency and other obligations, provided such reproductions meet the size requirement.

However, clearly the novelty bills don't follow the size restrictions above (they are the same size as real currency).
How do these novelty currency bills get away with ignoring the reproduction size restrictions? In addition to being two sided?
Is it merely due to the clear "novelty" aspect which allows them to come closer to real currency? After all, there's no real "million dollar bill" so clearly it can't be legitimate currency.
Wikipedia states that these novelty bills are legal because no "real" bill of that denomination exists. Is this accurate? Given the nature of "anyone with a computer and browser can edit" I'm somewhat skeptical of wikipedia for these types of issues.


texts: What happens to the alpha channel in different blend modes

texts:
I have a question about how the resulting alpha is computed for different blend modes in gimp.
The manual [1] describes the color channels, but not how the opacity is processed (I am also sort of interested in a rationale).
[1] https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-concepts-layer-modes.html


texts: What are the differences between vector graphics and raster graphics?

texts:
I understand from prior knowledge that there are two different image format / composition options available for creating images; raster and vector.

I would like to understand more about them, such as what the defining characteristics of each are, and what typical, generic use-cases each might have.

What are raster graphics composed of?

When would I want to choose raster over vector?

What are vector graphics composed of?

When would I want to choose vector over raster?


texts: Ever use anti-glare glasses for an over bright design department?

texts:
My design department just moved to a new building and the space they set up for us is bright! Super bright! 16 in-ceiling fixtures with three tubes per fixture. The room is closed in, no windows and the walls are white. My eyes are killing me and I am starting to get headaches. All of our complaints are falling on deaf ears. The management won’t even let us just flick off the light switch. The glare off my monitors is incredible. There are 9 of us... Open revolt? Maybe...

Ever heard of any kind of glasses that would help with the brightness AND the glare?


texts: How do you change the color of multiple shape layers at once in Photoshop?

texts:
I have a series of shape layers that I am using to create a logo.

These shape layers are not directly above or below each other. Instead, they are spaced out between a series of other shape layers. I can't move these layers, nor can I move the layers above or below them (because the design's structure won't let me do that).

How do I change the color of multiple layers (shape/vector layers) at the same time?

I can change the colors individually but it's such a tedious task, and with clients asking for color changes constantly, I was wondering if there was a quicker way.


texts:
Got a real issue with web artifacts. I create a photoshop image with text and it's crisp, save it for web at 80% and still crisp. As soon as that image is rendered by a web browser it has a lot of artifacts. I don't notice many other sites with this problem.

The images are zoomed. The first is the jpg rendered in chrome, the second, the cleaner image rendered in wiindows photo viewer. The first one is garbage compared to the second and it notices a lot at normal magnificaton. Not sure how this can be mitigated but I would really appreciate some help.


texts: How to cut along guides to form layers in an image

texts:
I have an image that I need to split up into multiple smaller tile pieces. Each tile piece should be in its own layer. While I could manually create each layer,  this would take a very long time, considering I'm working with almost 100 small tiles. If it helps, these tiles are square and of constant size (16x16 pixels).

I thought the guillotine tool from this question might help, and while it does cut along the guides, it creates new documents for each tile piece.

Is there a tool built-in to GIMP similar to guillotine which allows me to cut the image in-place into layers? I'm using GIMP 2.8.22.

Here are 2 images describing the process I'd like to replicate with a tool (the layer names are irrelevant).


texts:
What font is used in this logo?

Here is logo in the footer of this page.

Looks a little like URW Linear Ultra Bold, but the 'A' is slightly different.

It's a very basic typeface, but I love how wide and solid it is. Also, similar fonts work too.


texts: just want to know: what are the X and Y settings of the Artboard good for? are they in any way relevant for print?


texts: Creating gif with transparent background (used as loading animation)

texts:
As my title says my goal is to create a gif with a transparent background. I've created an animation within After Effects. Because there is no possibility to export as a gif with that kind of background, I export it as a png sequence and remerge all images later in Photoshop. Finally, I can export it as a gif with a transparent background. Now if I do so, the gif has a transparent background but the animation is surrounded by a white stroke and is a kind of pixely. Does anyone have an idea how to fix this or maybe another possible solution for me? Other file formats than gif like svg etc. are also possible. In the end this animation is going to be used as a loading animation for web.
I've exported it already in many file formats that allow an alpha channel but still no success. Something I wanna say about the pixely resolution. Sure it can be the small resolution but on the other hand, why is it high res with a colored background then?

Greetings Yannick


texts: Outter stroke is overlapping other characters

texts:
Here's an example:

And here's an image I designed yesterday without that problem:

I didn't use any special process on the second image to keep the character strokes from overlapping things.


texts: I love the new open source font by Adobe, Source Sans Pro. But I am not sure what will happen if I use the font in a website, and the font isn't installed on the visitor's machine?


texts: Photoshop: prevent path from escaping image bounds

texts:
In Adobe Photoshop, I have many existing images each with several saved paths. With many of the paths, an anchor point extends outside the bounds of the image, as seen below (path shaded in 3px blue, image is a black rectangle on a white background).

Is there a function to automatically clip the path and add an anchor point where the path crosses x = {0, max_x} and y = {0, max_y} and remove the points outside the image, as manually performed below?


texts: Original creative ways representing users photo thumbnails on a social media homepage? and examples

texts:
**What are creative ways of representing user profile pictures on a homepage ( or you can call them avatars but they will always be a real small version of a real photo  like 80x80 pixels in size. Are there any social networks that represent there users in a cool unique way? If you know some please share a link or an image :) thx!

you have,

a social media type site
users registered with profile photo
enough photos to show on the homepage
perhaps roulate them a bit

you want:

creative way to represent those pictures
be orginal use some colors and interaction ( rotate images)

Some examples I like and look for concepts like this ( Im not from India ):


texts: Scripting actions by hand in Photoshop / Bridge

texts:
Does anyone know if there's a less clunky way of creating actions than by using the built-in recording function in Photoshop? For instance, if I have an Action I want to alter slightly (add a step, alter a single step, etc.) it seems like I have to duplicate the action in the Actions menu, click down to where I want to alter the individual step, turn recording on, perform that step, stop recording, delete the old step, etc.

It would be a lot simpler if there was a simple scripting language that you could use to go in and alter an existing Action. I use expressions in AfterEffects and ActionScript in Flash so I know Adobe allows some scripting. Just wondering if anyone had an easier way to do this in Photoshop (I'll occasionally run Photoshop actions in Bridge if I need more pain / suffering in my life so I figured I'd ask about bridge, too).


texts: Adobe Illustrator is making my PDFs HUGE! Why?

texts:
I received a pdf of about 1Mb, with 6 pages. I opened each page, one at a time, in Illustrator, changed some text, then saved, so it saved back to the original PDF. After 6 pages of minor text changes, my PDF swelled to 23 Mb!

I have tried changing image compression to the minimum. Besides making the original, crisp images look terrible, it does little to the file size.

This makes no sense. I have tried saving without preserving editing capabilities, and all else I can find that might save bytes, including optimizing in Acrobat. The best I have been able to do is to get file size down to about 12 Mb with terrible image quality.

Addendum. I did not mark this as duplicate of another question because the edits I am making are so simple, there is no reason for increased file size, and the answers there do not help with my situation. The point one answer makes about the Audit feature, however, might prove helpful.


texts: Which is the faster way to replicate this effect in Photoshop with those light green squares having a shape tween to little dot?


texts:
Was wondering if there is an automated way to re-position shapes to minimize the space between them. Besides manually trying to guess the optimal configuration.

I am trying to achieve some layouts like the following


texts: Custom Isometric/Parallel Projection Grids

texts:
I found these attached designs online while looking for isometric illustrations. These designs are not on the standard isometric grid (30 degrees), rather they have different angles.

Has someone worked on such angle/grid before? What are they known as? How can to create custom grids and what things to keep in mind while designing one? What are some good sets of angles? Can anyone share some resources/tutorial/workflow around these?

Please note, I'm not talking about the standard 30-degrees isometric grid that everyone uses.


texts: Why is InDesign creating strange patterns in several viewers?

texts:
When creating pdfs with InDesign CS6 my target pdfs show sometimes strange patterns in the pdf. These patterns are sometimes black horizontal lines straight over the whole page, sometimes a square around a graphic I included, or some others. I experienced these patterns only on A4-pages which are completely filled up with one colour and a semi-transparent image (meaning only a part of the square-sized image is transparent) copied over it afterwards.
My problem is that I have problems with reproducing it. These patterns only show up when (in my current case) I am viewing the resulting pdf in Foxit PDF Reader at a specific size. When I zoom in, they are gone. When watching the pdf with the integrated Windows pdf reader, I can not see any lines regardless of the zoom level. Same goes for the integrated reader in Ubuntu. In InDesign I can not see these lines either. According to a friend he can see the lines when watching the pdf with the Adobe Reader.
Where do these lines come from? And how can I remove them? Or is it a simple bug of the viewers (Adobe InDesign -> Adobe Reader: Bug? Seriously?)?


texts: An online resource or a book that teaches how to draw from a physics/optics perspective

texts:
There are plenty of online tutorials, that can teach one to use Photoshop or adobe Illustrator. I don't know how to draw, but want to develop that skill, threfore I am looking for a good video tutorial or a book that can teach me.

An important aspect is that it has to teach me how to know what to draw, from the physics point of view. I call it that way, but it may be the wrong name for the painting undertanding approach. Let me provide an example:

Consider two images: one without

and one with the gradient overlay

So the gradient overlay from white to black in this case adds an effect of light dropping down on an object.

The next time I will be drawing something, I will know, that if I need to express a light on the object, I use gradient overlay.

I am looking for a resource that teaches me how to draw in this reality-related way.

Hope my question is understandable. If not really - let me know please, so I can break it down into a more logical pieces. Thank you.


texts: Is there any tool in CorelDraw X4/X5 that allows to change the outline like you can do in Illustrator?


texts: What are the origins of terms "em" and "en" as typographic units?

texts:
As you know one of the most common versions of the dash in typography are the

en dash "–" (Unicode character U+2013 and HTML symbol &ndash;) as well as the
em dash "—" (Unicode character U+2014 and HTML symbol &mdash;).

where the terms en and em are so called typographic units which are equal to or the half of the currently specified point size.

Furthermore according to Wikipedia

  both dashes are named for the length of a typeface’s lower-case n and upper-case M respectively

as this example shows:

On the other hand practicaltypography.com states that

  the em dash is typically about as wide as a capital H, the en dash is about half as wide. Em and en refer to units of typographic measurement, not to the letters M or N.

Now the question is what means em and en in typographic context really and what are the origins of these terms?

Edit I: In German the terms "Geviertstrich" and "Halbgeviertstrich" are used instead of the terms em and en dash. A Geviert (in English quad) was a metal spacer used in letterpress typesetting. Today the is adopted for common sizes of spaces – an em quad for example is a space that is one em wide. For more details please refer to the Wikipedia article.

Edit II: Perhaps em – as a typographic unit – literally refers to the letter M and is therefore called "em" in order to avoid confusion between other unit symbols like a m (meter).


texts: How to create a triangular grid in Illustrator

texts:
This has been bugging me for some time and i'm not sure how to approach it. I've attempted several times. I'm trying to create the lines similar to the compositions in the picture shown:

PS - If anyone could identify the designer who made these I would appreciate it.


texts: OpenType alternate characters in Scribus

texts: Is it possible to select alternate characters of an OpenType font in scribus?  If so, how?


texts: Best way to crop these planks into individual layers, and export them all as separate JPEG files with no white around the edges?

texts: I'm looking for a good workflow in dealing with a document like this. The files need to be JPEG, but I also can't have any white around the planks. Is there a smart way to select and separate each plank into its own layer, and then export them all at once?


texts: Is recreating an existing logo as vector a copyright issue?

texts:
A company I've been working for has lost the vector versions of their logo. They've asked if I could recreate them, copying the jpeg version they have exactly to provide vector files. The logo is basically just Rockwell Bold in a coloured square so it would be very simple to do.

If I obliged, would I be infringing copyright, as I didn't design the original? I'm unsure, as I would not be copying to make something new, but just to replace the files that went missing (i.e. were presumably copied over).

I guess the alternative is to suggest they contact their original designer first, and if they can't help, would that then be acceptable for me to do so?


texts:
I am working on vector banners which should be saved in SVG format...the main issue is SVG is not picking the drop shadows and gradients.
I know SVG some times not accept all the blending options, but my client says you have to save it in SVG only.
Please guide me what should I do.
Any alternate of SVG or anything.
Waiting for your quick response.
thaNks in advance.


texts:
For example, how could I recreate the "Ask Question" button in pure CSS without images?

There is this method here but I'm looking for a normal no-fill stroke-only border.

I've been able to do it using inline SVG, but I was hoping there was a way to do it without SVG, using nothing but CSS styles (perhaps something like the border tags in the above question).  Does anyone know if this is possible?


texts: Trying to put a guide layer within a mask

texts: I'm doing an animation with a planet revolving around an object. I used a guide layer to create the animation so that the planet goes along the ellipse. In order for the planet to go behind the object, I of course need a mask. But it seems that I can only use either a guide layer or mask layer for an object, not both. I tried Googling the issue; it's coming up dry.


texts: How do I increase the width of a curved line drawn using a bezier pen?

texts:
I have used the bezier curve tool in Inkscape and I get the following line:

For the above drawing I had used the bezier curve and selected the "Create Spiro Path" option and under "Shape" selected the "None" option. Now when I go to "Path -> Path Effects", I see no option of increasing the thinkness of this line. How do I increase the thickness of this line?

P.S. When I select the shape "Ellipse" and draw a curve, I do see an option of "width" like so:


texts: Do you have a "formula" for the webfont vs graphic type threshold?

texts:
Disclaimer:
I realize there is not a perfect "formula" for this question. I'm looking for your experiential working practices. If you don't have any, I won't hold it against you.

Over the last couple of years, webfonts have finally gone mainstream! Browser support is good enough and the market has broadened to the extent that designers have an excellent range of possibilities.

For my performance-focused clients using webfonts has some nice benefits beyond visual/branding: Getting type out of images makes greater image compression possible and content and style updates much faster.

The question today is:
At what point do you make the break from live html text to graphics? Especially in the context of a site with high performance requirements (loads of traffic, logic, and third party assets loading). I'm walking the line in a few projects now and having a hard time deciding in some cases. I'm wondering what formula others have come up with. If any.

We need to balance several factors (I know there are more):

Typographic integrity
Asset requests made to the server
SEO and accessibility
Responsive design (where applicable)

Complicating matters, rendering still varies widely by browser and OS. Compare IE 8 to 9, for instance or, more dramatically, OS X to Windows. Obviously, your market may negate concern for some of those issues (I unfortunately still support back to IE7 in a big way on some projects). And while webfont OpenType feature support is pretty good in Firefox, it's still lagging in virtually all others.


texts: Brush tool line very faint when using click, shift+click to draw straight lines

texts: I'm trying to draw straight lines in photoshop with my Wacom tablet, and the lines are coming up very faint and short. Is there a way to lengthen the lines created by the click, shift+click method?


texts: Exporting Illustrator image for CMYK printing using jpg

texts:
I'm wondering if I need to convert fonts to outline when exporting to a jpg? I assume not, but it's been a while since I've had anything printed. I want to have the best quality but still have it be easy to send online.

I've tried a PDF but it's too large with the photos I'm using in the file.


texts: How do you make separate layers after using the Polar Grid Tool in Adobe Illustrator

texts: After drawing a segmented circle in Adobe Illustrator using the Polar Grid Tool, how do you make each of the segments into individual layers that arent connected to the whole circle?


texts:
I have a couple of PSD files that I need to convert into PNG but I need to keep the layers separate. I don't have Photoshop and was wondering if it was possible to do this

click here for the files if anyone who has Photoshop could do this for me. thanks!


texts: Sketch: How to change all shades of a color to another color?

texts:
I have an image that I downloaded online:

As you can see it's not just monotone. I would like to change all shades of the red to shades of a different color (Imagine the red liquid was purple instead of red)

Is this possible in Sketch?

Sorry I'm a programmer, so this is kinda outta my realm of expertise. I'm using a Mac.


texts: import multiple meshes in autodesk maya without overwriting the first

texts:
I'm an architecture student trying to design a virtual world with fbx's made from recap360.

The problem is when I try to import another fbx in the same scene.
The first scene gets overwritten by the second mesh while opening.

Is there a possibility to import multiple fbx's in one scene instead of overwriting the last scene when you import a new fbx?

Thanks in advance!

Lukas claessens


texts: Photoshop CS6 - Is there anyway to apply gradient overlay on multiple layers at once?

texts: Is there some way that I don't have to go to one layer by one and open their layer style one by one?? I wanna be able to apply the dither option of the gradient overlay for every layer style. Is that possible? I'm not sure if I explained it correctly but does anyone know how to do it??


texts: I'm really new to Illustrator and I drew an image I like, but then I noticed there were different brushes and think it'd look cooler with another one, so is there any way to change the brush strokes for what I've already drawn without having to trace over the entire thing?


texts: How do I create a grid in Illustrator, 7x5 with equal sized boxes? (Grid tool only allows 6x6)


texts: How to get effect like Dodge & Burn tool in photoshop, but nondestructively?

texts: Does anyone know how to get effect like Dodge & Burn tool in photoshop, but nondestructively? Any normal solutions with soft light doesn't change saturation of the color, and I'm looking for effect similar for the Tool. Anyone ideas? :D


texts:
Is there any tool/plugin to have functionality of Adobe Illustrator's Blob Tool?

Essentially, I have some artwork which has been already filled with Fill Bounded Area tool. Now I want to perform some detailing by adding some different colors in different parts of my illustration.

Roundabout way of doing it to just copy paste shape on which I want detailed work and then use Eraser to remove unwanted things. Or use brush to draw things and then combine them with Union operations. But that is very tedious way to achieve simple thing.


texts: Techniques to draw tasteful lines and border in Photoshop

texts:
When I draw lines or borders in Photoshop for my web design work, they are usually not beautiful and seem to me to not be aesthetically appealing. I don't know why, as drawing a line seems to be a very easy concept. I mean it shouldn't matter who how draws a line. A line or a border is a simple thing. But I really see that lines and borders in many websites are more beautiful than my lines and borders.

Is there any special technique I should know while drawing lines and borders in Photoshop, to make them beautiful?


texts: Unable to change text color in Photoshop

texts:
I'm using the text tool, I type some text but it types in all white. I go to highlight the text and change the color to black, at the top of the screen on the toolbar, and the color won't change.

I'm just poking around with everything that even looks like I could change the color and it's still white.


texts: On average, what kind of precision should I expect when debossing over an existing print in a small run?

texts:
This question most definitely deserves to be asked directly to my printer but since they're currently on leave for the week, figured I'd give it a shot here to get a general idea on how I should approach my design.

I'm getting a text printed and want to add a debossed detail in the existing printed word spaces. It's a small run of 500 cards at the most. Quick and dirty example:

  Let's/say/all/the/slashes/here/are/debossed/but/the/text/is/printed.

So it's a limited space and could easily look off center. On average, what kind of precision range should I expect? 0.5 point? 2 points? 1/16 inch? More?


texts: Adobe illustrator: basic editing questions (break apart)

texts:
I have some experience with Flash/Gimp/Photoshop, but now I have to edit an FXG file (an asset for a Flex app) in Adobe Illustrator and can't do even the two basic things, shown in the screenshot below:

I need to double the size of the clubs symbol in the middle while maintaining its central alignment
I need to change the indices in the corners (by different text)

but I can't even select the clubs symbol or the indices! Whenever I click and drag - I select and move everything. Do I need to break apart like in Flash editor? Can't find it in the Adobe Illustrator menu.

UPDATE:

Thank you Scott, this has worked after the Ungroup.

I wonder though, why can't I select anything in the layers window (I realized after some time that there are indeed several layers already). I click on a layer, but nothing is selected.

I'm asking, because I want to place the new text symmetrically.


texts: Exporting from Corel: file format field list is empty

texts:
I have a problem when exporting any file from Corel. When I try to choose a format, the list appears blank.
Is there anything I can do?


texts: How to convert existing image to A4 and set page orientation?

texts:
I'm aware the option to preset International Paper (such as A4) for New documents.

So I'm looking for similar/same option, but for the existing document without having to hardcode millimetres and dpi in Canvas Size? Or having creating new document and re-pasting and resizing it there?

Is there any simple option for setting page format (A4) and page orientation (e.g. landscape) for existing image in order to save it as PDF?

I'm using CS6, but any further version is fine as well.


texts: Can I print a booklet from an .indb instead of a .indd file

texts: As best I can tell I can't print a booklet from an indesign book file that combines multiple indesign document files.  The prepare book for printing command seems to prepare it to be printed to be perfect bound but I need to print it using the booklet printing dialogue window so that the book can be sewn together instead of glued together.  Does anyone know how to do this without having to make the whole book into one document file?  I've used formating that seems to disappear if I try to make it one document.


texts: Uploading Fast sketches to Internet with Wacom Drawing Board and Phone?

texts:
Suppose I have some phone and some Wacom drawing board (I have actually many Wacom boards so suppose any of them). I do not want to plug the Wacom board into my computer but to plug it to my phone (which can be what-ever). Does there exist some phone with which I could fast draw things and then fast upload pictures to Internet?

I find irritating that I need to use Laptop / Phone / Wacom -board to upload fast sketches to internet.