texts: reasoning behind black and white color scheme of perfume sites

texts:
In preparation for an upcoming project, I've been looking over a lot of different sites for high end perfumes and/or high fashion. Noticed that most of them (at least the perfume ones)  have almost the same look and feel. I like the sparseness and simplicity of them, but the color schemes drive me nuts. I'm wondering if there are any scientific underpinnings of this trend? I mean ANY. I find them so off-putting it's not even funny, but I'll have to work closely with fairly high ranking company rep and keep a straight face.

EDIT: B&W

... one more...


texts:
I want to be able to edit my objects through code. But it seems that Inkscape, for some strange reason, thinks that all properties in svg's XML are in mm. I've set Grid Units to px, I checked if Display Units is px.
If I go to XML Editor and try to change, let's say, height or style (stroke-width, for example), Inkscape thinks this value is in mm, even if I type px after a number. I'm newbie with this software, am I missing something?


texts: Opening Illustrator CC 2015 without file recovery

texts:
The Illustrator auto recovery feature is nice. However, is there any way to switch it off before or during the start of Illustrator CC 2015?

If the file is small but makes the program hang, it opens the file more or less immediately but hangs after that.


texts: Photoshop CC2015: *Pasted* Vector Smart Objects not Launching Ai

texts:
I get it that if I place an Ai file in my PSD, it will launch Ai for Smart Object editing. However, it used to be just last year that simply pasting a vector object from Ai into PSD file, it would be treated as an Ai file and launch Ai for editing.

Not happening anymore :( Is there something I can do?


texts: Can anyone help me identify this font? It has a weird Q

texts:
Can anyone help me identify this font? I already tried with WhatTheFont!, Identifont, Fontspring Matcherator. The fonts they suggested are Eurostile Next Extended and many variations of Microgramma Extended but none has the same Q as the image. Any suggestion? I only have the plain png, nothing else.

The Q was probably altered for personalization purposes.


texts: InDesign text boxes always come in 5 columns

texts:
I am having trouble with InDesign (v.CS6) text boxes always defaulting to 5 columns. I changed Margins and Columns one column, but this doesn't work. And when I manually change a box to 1 column and add to the library, when I use the library item it goes back to 5 columns. Help!
Thanks!!
Liz


texts: Change the name of elements in the batch when exporting from Inkscape

texts: What is the way to change the names of the elements in the batch when exporting from Inkscape? Right now I am getting g + numbers instead of names. I mean the names like g123, g124 and so on. And what I would like to get is myName1, myName2 and so on.


texts: How to Create Rounded Corner Hexagon in photoshop using polygon tool?

texts: How to Create Rounded Corner Hexagon in photoshop using polygon tool ?


texts: Best practice: keep icons as strokes or outline?

texts:
I am currently working on generating the icon assets for the company I work for. I am using Sketch, and am creating a large library of the icons. They are all Line icons (the style) and basically everything is a 1px line.

I am trying to determine if I should keep the icons in sketch all as strokes, or if I should use illustrator to have them remain in an editable format, and then convert them to shapes and import and use those in sketch.

I am using sketch to export the icons for development. Am using a mixture of mass export as SVG and PNG, and also setting all of them to be able to be exportable. We are using Abstract and the devs can click on an icon and download it from there.

So, here is my question... what is best practice? I have always hung out on the side of the line where I keep them all as strokes because it allows for me to easily change them later on if needed. Converting them to outlines goes against my intuition because it makes them harder to work with, and even possibly scale.


texts: Any way to see the design in different size in illustrator?

texts:
Is there any way to see your design in different sizes in real-time in Illustrator/Photoshop? Like, designing an icon and you wanna see how it will look like in 16x16 or in 512x512?

I know you can Save for web in any size but that's cumbersome for every little tweak you make.


texts: PSD Files: Quick Preview without opening Photoshop?

texts:
I have a lot of PSD files in many random directories. Sometime I need to view many files quickly without loading into Photoshop.

I am looking for a lightweight PSD viewer application, is there any?


texts:
I am all new to Gimp, so this may be a very basic question. I want to use a mockup that I found online to put my images in a picture frame. Now, I can only do this by adding the image as a layer and then resize it until it fits. Very cumbersome to do this with 100 images..

Can I simply paste my image in the pre-made layer? And how? Don't know if it matters, but the image and picture frame are in perspective.

I have been struggling with this for hours now and could not find the answer myself. Hope someone can help!


texts:
I'm looking for the right word to use on my resume, that will be understood by the broadest possible range of people and won't look like I'm over-selling my skills (or under-selling them either).

I'm a freelancer who's done a lot of copyediting and ~2 years of newspaper page design. I totally enjoyed the design part and would like to add more of it to my work. I recently passed the Adobe Certified Expert exams for InDesign and Photoshop, upgraded my skills in Acrobat (a lot) and Illustrator (a little), and learned the basics of e-book formatting.

I'm not a brilliant artist, you wouldn't want me to design your annual report or museum catalog, but I can do simple design or implement someone else's more sophisticated design. So what do I call that? This may seem like a dumb question, but I have looked everywhere and asked everyone I can think of a good term.


texts: How to rotate around shifter center precisely in Illustrator?

texts:
If I select Rotate tool, I can select center of rotation then and move it. After that I am able to rotate object around that center. But this rotation is imprecise. Suppose I want to rotate for 120 degrees. I can double click on Rotate tool and get Rotate dialog, where I can enter precise value in degrees. But this way I can't use shifted center of rotation because it jumps back to geometric center at the moment I call Rotate dialog.

Is it possible to rotate by precise angle with dialog and have shifted center of rotation.


texts: Adobe Illustrator Script for Annotations

texts:
Does anyone know if there is a Adobe Illustrator script capable of creating an annotation like this?
More specifically, drawing a stroked box around the text and showing the formatting info to the side?
Thanks
Simon


texts: How to create this kind of glitch/vhs effect in photoshop?

texts:
The red and blue color is from the original picture.
The filter is called VHS in the app.

Is this stripe related to channels,distort or liquify?
I also tried stylize/wind, that is not i want.


texts: Adobe illusrator 2d, creating simple dent like effect on skin

texts:
I would like to create a logo where an item is tightly secured to human skin, like it was tied up with rope and I want to make it look like there's something behind that objects that would indicate that it dents the skin. You know like as if you pushed pencil on your skin it would create a small dent since the skin is flexible and some small wrinkles would appear around it. It musn't be very detailed but I want it to look like the items is slightly buried in the skin due to pressure from the "rope". Drop shadow looks good on other items but it doesn't give this flexible-skin like effect when it comes to this.
Any ideas how to create such effect that would indicate this item is placed against the skin and it makes it stretch a little?


texts: Brush size changes between versions of Illustrator

texts:
I hope someone can help me.  When I open a AI doc in Illustrator v CS6 the brush definition says 1pt round and the size is 1pt in the settings.
When I open the same file in AI CC, the brush says 1pt round, but in the settings, the size is now 0,8pt.
I am struggling to understand how this happens.  Any ideas?
Thanks!


texts:
Below you'll see a picture of a design done by Chae
Byung-rok, a graphic designer based in Seoul. Can anyone help me figure out how this was done/what technique is behind it?

(No stealing of intellectual property intended, all credit goes of course to the original designer, I'm merely interested in broadening my horizon in regards to visual techniques)


texts: What are the units of measurement of path coordinates in .svg files saved by Inkscape?

texts:
Here are some fragments from the same .svg file made and saved by Inkscape:

<svg width="150" height="150" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 39.688 39.688" ...
...
<path d="m-117.51 88.274c-1.6578 0.02054-2.2324 1.3125-4.1072 2.8502-0.85358...

The width and height are in px (because that was the unit I used to transform the shape - the values match). The viewbox unit is, apparently, in mm (because I used them to resize the document - again, the values match). So, svg doesn't care about mixing different units of measurement in the same file? Also, I couldn't find where it says specifically in the file which units are being used - very confusing.

However, what are the units of the path - I have no idea. They don't seem to match with node coordinates in Inkscape in whichever units. Is there any way to find out, or to pick the units when saving file? I do care because I want to round them to integers (I am going to import those files into Processing, and I don't want to deal with those long decimals there), and to round them, I need to know which units to round.

Thanks.


texts:
I've been looking for a while and i haven't found an answer so far,

So i make a compound path of all the paths in "quentin" , and then convert it to a clipping mask in Layer 1.

Then i dragged the background from layer 2 that needs to be clipped in to Layer 1 and this happens...
As you can see it only fills the little rounded corners of the first letter i want to clip...

Any ideas why? Thanks in advance

Weird thing is, it worked perfectly fine on my older try:


texts: Guidelines for logos using multiple typefaces

texts:
I was wondering there were any helpful guidelines and/or tips for designing logos with multiple fonts. It seems to be a dangerous area to enter into, but can lead to some great results.

Often times fonts blend too much, or they are too different.

Here is an example of a multi-font logo:


texts: Resetting skew/perspective/warp etc. on Smart Object

texts:
Is there a way to reset the skew or perspective effect applied to a smart object?

Setting the warp setting in free transform from custom to none shows no effect.
Otherwise I have to export 50 smart Objects by hand :(


texts: Data is incorrect after importing variable library into Illustrator

texts:
I have a bunch of graphs in an Illustrator document. All of them are tagged and have been exported to an XML document. I want to change the numbers in the XML and re-import it to update the graphs with new numbers. When I click 'load variable library', the graphs update like they should, but the numbers are incorrect. Everything gets rounded down: 3,195 becomes 3.00; 4,080 becomes 4.00; 11,568 becomes 11.00.

Has anyone had this experience before?


texts: I'm having trouble importing .png and . gif files from excel into indesign

texts:
I'm working on a project at work that requires creating 100+ mini community profiles. The profiles are a collection of Data so I'm using a data merge to import all the variables.

I'm having a problem with images though. I need to use a couple of graphs imported from Excel because the data analyst I'm working with has written scripts to create and populate a large amount of data from Excel.

The problem happens when I import the images. We're using .PNGs because we need the graphics to have a transparent background and for some reason every couple of graphs I get a giant black streak that runs the length of it. When I open the graphic in Preview I can't see the streak, but if I open the file in either Illustrator or Photoshop I get the same result as InDesign. I'm not sure what the problem could be.


texts: How do I move the color picker in a straight line?

texts:
Sometimes, when I'm trying to design something using a monochromatic color scheme, I want to make sure I get exact shades and tints of a specific color, but I don't know how I can do that because I can never seem to make the color picker move in a straight line when I'm dragging it around.

Is there a way to do this in Illy, Photoshop or InDesign?

What I'm looking for is to make it so the color picker is forced to only move along one of the red lines I've drawn:

So I end up getting a perfect shade or perfect tint of the color that I've chosen.


texts: Best way to hang a poster with human figurine oriented in opposite direction of text

texts: I recently bought and framed a poster that has a human figure standing upright, with text oriented against the human figure. The Japanese (I think?) is going downwards and the numbers are going left to right. The question is, what is the best way to hang this picture? Images enclosed


texts: So I have a personal logo that I have recently design, a monogram based on the initials J and S using the Caslon typeface.  I am a graphic designer and web developer, and I am going for a professional, timeless look that doesn't follow trends and values usefulness and the bigger picture over unnecessary details. Could anyone give me their critique of this logo?  Thank you!


texts: How can I use gradients to imitate depth for isometric mazes?

texts:
I would like to create a maze with gradients, but I don't know where to start. I can see that they are subtle gradients that shift, so I would like to start with some techniques that could help me shift my perspective beyond basic flat design:

As a beginner, my reasoning would be:

Create selected areas and put them on individual layers
Choose eight or so colors, trying to find ones that blend into one another for depth. This sum not really sure of and don't know a lot about color theory.
Create the full outline of the maze, but in a slightly different style that extends for a few more turns.
Use the gradient tool to try to match up where intersecting layers.

Would this be a correct technique? Am I missing something?

what additional techniques are needed for a maze with curves?

All  design credit goes to: http://dribbble.com/shots/1118644-G-Glob


texts: How to break superposed objects into pieces on inkscape?

texts: I'm manipulating a vector in which I have six circles superposed like in a Venn Diagram. I want to easily break them into pieces by color. Is this possible?


texts: Single stroke font letters disappear when I export from Illustrator to Auto-cad

texts:
I have a file in Illustrator with text on a path. The font is a single stroke text. I am wanting to use this to engrave with a machine so I can't have the font be outlined. When I export it to auto-cad the letters i, l and the dot on j disappear. How can I keep those letters from not showing up, without creating outlines. Any suggestions?

Link to where I got the font: http://imajeenyus.com/computer/20150110_single_line_fonts/index.shtml

Thanks!


texts: Merging 3 different-Not Crossing Shapes into 1 Path

texts:
I want to merge 3 letters into 1 path. Their paths simply don't touch or cross each other. So basically it means I have 3 different positioned shapes I need to merge.

Is it possible?

And the reason is, I will insert lines inside of them with a clipping mask. Since there are 3 separate shapes, I have to deal them 1 by 1. This is why I am trying to merge all these 3 letters into 1 path. For easy clip masking

But instead of this, Expanding via Object Menu, Merge and Unite via Pathfinder only converts these 3 path into a Group.

Here's an example for what I'm trying to do:


texts:
I Am complete newbie in designing and have Came across the gif like http://imgur.com/kSpeTx5 .. I want to know How to easily do this kinda of cool animation,What is the right tool to do it.

Right now Idea I have is create different thumbnails in photoshop and merge it as gif. OR is there any easiest way or tutorial.Some one guide me.


texts: Icons or symbols for asymmetric (public-key) cryptography

texts:
I need some graphical representation of the elements of asymmetric (public-key) cryptography. I have not been able to find any established convention in this area, and struggle to find good candidates myself for:

private key
public key
asymmetrically encrypted content

Especially grateful for successful usages in the wild, but inspiration for my own wortk is appreciated too.

These are technical concepts, but the target audience understand the distinctions, and handling them explicitly is integral to the purpose of the target application.

Padlock seems fairly established for encrypted content, so some variant on that might be a candidate. But what twist would be sufficiently distinctive, and if possible suggestive of the difference from a regular one?

Similarly, how can I distinguish the two types of keys in a way that makes it immediately clear that they are different from each other, and also easy to deduce or at least remember which is which, provided you already understand the context.


texts: How to create a blurred/glow background for better text readability Photoshop

texts:
I am a photoshop newbie, I am trying to add some transparent background for my text in order to make it more readable, but I don't know, how to create simple semi-transparent background with glowing edges (or how it is called).

Here is an example what I am trying to achieve.

So the idea is to create something like a smoke cloud, and place it as a background for a text layer to make it readable.

How can I get the desired result. I am interested how to create any shape and make it look like that so I could create background for any element.

Thanks. I would be grateful for any help.


texts: Alternative formulae for CMYK to RGB conversion for display on screen

texts:
I am writing software to extract text sections from PDFs and render on screen for analysis; I need to display the text on screen in the colour from the document.

When the PDF contains CMYK colours at the moment I am using the simple formula widely found on the web (eg here) which is:

R = 255 × (1-C) × (1-K)

And similarly for the other colours.

However this is giving poor results.  For example, one sample I have is specified in the PDF document with the command "0.62 0 0.05 0 k" (ie those are the CMYK components on a 0-1 scale).  The formula above converts this to an RGB of #60fff2.  However Adobe Reader renders this text using RGB #3dc6ea.  Not only do these look very different, my colour is so bright that the text is hard to read.  I've tried this on several monitors, and although there is variation in the colours, the overall result is the same: PDF reader shows a light pastel or sky blue, whereas the above conversion gives a bright cyan.

To verify this wasn't due to something missed in the PDF I tried the same colour in Illustrator: entering a CMYK of (62%, 0%, 5%, 0%) rendered on screen as #3ec6ea.  Changing the colour editing box to RGB showed values of #40c4e8;  and this was also rendered if I changed the colour settings to "Color Monitor".  That's 3 different results from Adobe - but the differences are tiny and should be imperceptable.

So, are there any feasible alternative conversions which would give results closer to the Adobe conversions?  I'm aware that conversion between RGB and CMYK is problematic, but this case is somewhat helped in that:

the conversion is for on-screen display only.  Outputs won't be printed.
Differences between monitors are not very important.  If a colour is rendered poorly on a certain monitor in (for example) Adobe Reader then I'm not expecting to produce a good result.
An exact match is irrelevant for me: I just need a conversion that looks similar and is readable.


texts:
How to create an image or an object that can be moved with the mouse? Circular, vertical and horizontal movement, etc.
Or a three-dimensional movement
Like the attached picture, which is on one of the websites.
Moving the cup in all directions is controlled by the mouse.
Thank you very much


texts: Why iOS system grays have a slight blue hue?

texts:
The light system gray defined by Apple Guidelines for iOS12 (and used by the default color scheme of the UI controls), is defined as #EFEFF4 (HSB(240,2,96)). It means that the hue is a little bit blue. The new guidelines (iOS13), also use the same Hue/Sat combination but with more variations for the Brightness.

I'll like to learn why Apple designers choose to do that. I imagine that the intention was to change the overall UI tone (like the Glaze painting technique). But I wonder if there is any additional information about that

Why blue? It looks better to the eye or to the iPhone color profile? Or it was a decision to make it look better with space gray color of the iPhone/iPad?


texts: Creating a technical illustration from photo

texts:
I'm looking to create a simple user manual for a device, something like in image 1.

Image 1: Example taken from Kinde quickstart.

What I'd like to know is if it's possible to create such technical illustrations as in the manual from photos through Photoshop, or if it would be such a hassle, that's it's easier to have someone redraw it from scratch. Say, taking a photo that would show how the battery is charged, and then applying filters to remove all unnecessary detail, leaving it black and white line drawings.


texts: What movement is this book cover (Mischief by Ed McBain, Avon 1994) from?

texts: When I first read this book as a kid, I was struck by the warped angles and stark design of its cover. In order to look up more examples of such art/design, it would be helpful to know what genre/movement such art is from. If anyone knows the artist who designed this cover, that would be great too.


texts:
How can I make reflection like on this image? With this amazing blur effect?

For now I can make only simple vertical reflection following this steps:
 1. Copy layer and put the copy under the main layer
 2. Transformation -> Flip vertically
 3. Add some gradient

But it makes only simple vertical reflection. How can I make such a beautiful amazing reflection exactly like on the example above?


texts:
What is an appropriate restriction to place on a color gamut for user defined colors?

I am helping build a website that will offer organizations to create their own pages. We want to allow them the option to customize the background color, as well as the 'highlight' color on their page.

The 'highlight' color defines the color of all icons and buttons on their page. Because of this, we cannot allow the highlight color to be too light/faint/bright.

We offer the following UI to choose a color:

adaptation of https://bgrins.github.io/spectrum/#details-ieImplementation

You can see the selected color is reflected in the 'choose' button, and would also be applied to other buttons in the UI.

My potentially naive plan was to restrict the color spectrum in two different ways:

Evaluate the selected color in RGB - check if the combined value of R, G, and B is less than 255 (on a 0 to 255 scale)
Evaluate the selected color in HSL - extract the L value (luminance or lightness) and check if the value is less than 0.5

When a user selects a color that is not in the proper range an error message appears to notify that they need to select a darker color.

This implementation seems to work pretty well. All bright colors get caught by the above restrictions with a few exceptions (full green appears brighter to my eyes than full red for example... not sure why)

My question is if there is a standard restriction that is put in place on similar selections. Is there a better way I should be evaluating and restricting the selected colors?


texts: Remove pure white from images in Photoshop

texts:
I have an image in Photoshop representing a mountain heightmap.
I'd like to darken a bit the pure white areas, but with the levels tool I'm not able to reach this.

This is my current situation:

But, what I want is this:

Could you please suggest a way to do that?
Thanks.


texts: How does 5th color Pantone printing work?

texts:
We are trying to communicate with our factory regarding a 5 color process (CMYK + 1 Pantone).  For some reason something is getting lost in translation and the samples we are getting back (according to our graphics department) is not using Pantone tinting but is using screening.

We have different areas on the packaging that require different tints of the Pantone color.  It may be 50% in a certain area and 100% on a different area.

How does the process work?  Is the Pantone film/plate different?  How do you ink 50% of a color onto a plate?


texts:
:))

I've always wondered how to recreate some textures I always adored these scanlines, 'gritty, badly scanned' grainy effect on a pic?

Would be mega helpful if you knew


texts: Typesetting in English: bijection vs. bĳection

texts:
What's the right way to typeset the word bijection (a mathematical term meaning an injective and surjective map or, equivalently, a map having a two-sided inverse) in English?

bijection (i and j are separate glyphs)

bĳection (ĳ is a single glyph)

The same question can be asked about bijective vs. bĳective.
(I'm not asking about Dutch. I'm also not asking what the typesetting programs currently do in English: their authors are sometimes terribly off, and the programs sometimes exhibit unintended behavior. I'm asking what should be the case in English.)


texts:
I am automating a task in Illustrator by means of Actions.

In particular, I copy/paste some artwork from a drawing to another. Anyway, I don't see a way to control where the pasted artwork will land in the destination drawing, and I have seen a difference in behavior between different versions of Illustrator.

Any hint on how this can be mastered ?


texts: design on apple.com -- how to transition from one photo (color) to another?

texts:
The image is taken from apple.com.

I'm wondering how to recreate this effect of transition from one photo to another (in particular, I want to transition into white background) as shown in the photo:


texts: I have some work to showcase: images which are screenshots of work which are online. However when arranging these screenshot images in Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign, they all appear to be pixelated. I do not have the raw images because it is work which is made online. Is there anyway I can use these screenshots to not be pixelated?


texts:
I have a client that I did branding and design for a particular program within a non-profit organization.

The program is now cancelled by the organization the client was working for.

Now my contact and another staff that headed the project have left the organization and with government funding have been able to relaunch another project serving the same issue and they are wondering if we can resurrect some of the old design elements used for the previous project.

I'm not sure what the legalities are regarding that, wondering if I can get some info if anyone has previous experience.


texts: What are great examples of the influence that design has?

texts:
There is a quote that "bad design never killed anyone," but I know that what we do is less trivial than that.

What designs have you seen cause real change or have a real influence?

Specific context behind the question:

Lord willing, I'll be giving a presentation to my wife's school for Career Day this week. I want to talk about what design is (which could be another question here, I might post later), but since I learn by example, I want to give some examples about how design makes a difference.

To answer the "what have you tried" question:

One of my favorite examples is the butterfly ballot from the USA's 2000 election...a poor ballot design probably shifted the course of my country for at least four years. but that's probably a little too partisan. Partisan concerns also knock out the comparison of health care charts - a great conversation piece about how design can be used to streamline or obfuscate data.

I love propaganda design and respect its unique place in history, but kids might not connect with that.

I could talk about the iPod and iPhone, but some of that drifts into industrial design and I think that's a bit tired of an example anyways.

I'm thinking about comparing two pieces of paper, one that has a bad font, tight leading and kerning, and is right-aligned, and one that is set a little more properly, and asking them to compare. But that's just a boring sheet of paper.


texts: Convert Xd @3x mobile app artboard to @1x

texts:
I have a Xd document for mobile app where the designer has developed it @3x (e.g. at 1125 × 2436 px rather than 375 × 812). That’s fine to get a sense of the look and feel. And when exporting assets for development team, I can specify the scale the designer used, that’s not the challenge.
The issue is that that as developers are implementing, they can’t just take the values in the Xd document, but rather have to divide everything by 3 when selecting the appropriate font size/style, specifying spaces and sizing of controls, etc. Worse, Apple’s Xd design resources are designed at @1x, so integrating those into our Xd doc is a challenge. I contemplated refactoring our Xd document’s artboards to @1x to simplify the life for the developers and to simplify use of Apple’s Xd resources. But I’m not seeing how one would do that (without resizing each artboard manually and then adjusting all of the objects contained therein manually).
Thus the question: How do I rescale artboard and the objects within it from @3x to @1x? I know how to change size of artboards (both with and without “responsive resize”), but I don't just want to resize, but I want to scale everything in it (including x, y, width, height, font size, etc.), too. (I did notice, though, that one can go to a numeric size attribute and add “/3” at the end, and it does the conversion, which is better than doing the math myself.)
I’ve been searching for answers online regarding resizing/scaling, and they all seem to focus on the tactical “how to change artboard size” or “how to resize individual object”. I can’t believe that there aren’t others that have had to deal with this problem, so I’m wondering if I’m overlooking some obvious Xd feature or plugin to handle some automated rescaling of the artboard and the objects within it.
Any guidance would be appreciated.


texts: Why does 1px equal 1pt in photoshop but not on the web?

texts:
Please explain why in Photoshop setting a font size to 16pt or 16px looks exactly the same size but if I do the same test on a web site, the font-sizes are VERY different.

Example on the web

Why would Photoshop consider 1px = 1pt but the web show them as very different sizes? What are they doing differently?


texts: How do I get my vector art to have crisp lines on instagram?

texts:
As soon as I upload my art to Instagram, the quality decreases. I have tried everything I can think of. I have used 1080x1080 image resolution, and larger, exported it in many different files (JPG, EPS, SVG). The quality never changes and always ends up the same.

If anyone knows how to fix this problem, it would be much appreciated!


texts: Importing a vector file into Photoshop WITHOUT rasterising it

texts:
I have a simple question: How do I import a vector file into Photoshop WITHOUT getting it rasterised?

I know that Photoshop can do curves and paths and all of that, so why can't I open an SVG file in it?

I have now tried everything I can. I have a perfectly fine, vector imagine in one PDF file, now I want it to be transferred to Photoshop so it can have the vectors preserved. You cannot tell me it's impossible.


texts: Reading height of average graphic tablet

texts:
I got an UGEE graphic tablet. This is first graphic tablet for me as a beginner. Its reading height is only 3mm between surface and tip of pen.

Did I measure reading height correctly?

Do basic graphic tablets have tiny reading height?


texts: Font Identification for a futuristic tech-looking font

texts:
It's a font from the future, but I don't know what it will be called! Can anyone help?

Tried WhatTheFont, was unsuccessful...posted up a case there, so if I get an answer there I'll post it here.


texts: How do I create a tapered opacity effect around an image in gimp?

texts: I'd like my image to blend into the background gradually around the edges on a web project I'm working on. How do I fade transparency around the edge of an image in gimp?


texts: Keep last parameter from one task to the other in inkscape

texts:
I am using Inkscape for scientific drawing.
Something that really annoys me is that I have to very frequently go in the menu to switch default parameters to the one I want to use.
For instance, the default width for line drawing is 0.265mm.
Let's assume I want to draw a line (with Bézier tool) of 1.5mm of width. I put 1.5mm width, I draw my line: this is fine it is the first drawing.
But if I want to draw a new line, by default he would have put be back at 0.265mm. Thus, I have again to go in the menu, say I want 1.5mm and draw it.
Multiply this by 50 lines and you understand that I had to go 50 times in the menu instead of one.
And this happens for many options, if I want to do a given number of object several times, the options often goes back to default between each object I draw which is really time consuming.
My question: are there options to fix this ?
A related but not identical is when I want to save in PNG. Let's assume my .svg is in the folder "folder1". If I want to export into PNG it always propose me an obscure default folder. I then have to find again my folder.
My second question: Is there a way to force the default path of PNG being the same as where the SVG I am working on is ? I am not asking to specify a default folder for PNG save but to "attach" the folder it saves in to where the SVG currently is.


texts: Free vector graphic images, for commercial use

texts: Is there a free library of vector graphics for commercial use?


texts: How to make truly additive “Addition” layer modes?

texts:
This image summarises my mathematical struggles with the seemingly simple rule of “Addition” layer modes in different graphics applications (tested with GIMP and Inkscape). Since the greyscale layers of RGB decomposed images are subject to the same non-additive behaviour, even this is not viable. Neither does linear light RGB mode (via Image → Precision → Linear light) nor Composite space → RGB (linear) (in the layers context menu) come to our rescue, there still is 0.5+0.5=0.688 always.

I erroneously thought that the simple, component-wise evaluated formula E=min((M+I),255) taken from the official documentation means: values from layer M and I are added (and clipped if necessary). But this is obviously not the case.

Is there a way to obtain plain stupid component-wise addition, without such probably well-intentioned but badly documented Gamma mess?


texts: How to Best Create Templates for Clients to edit the content/copy

texts:
The Big Question

What is the best (possibly a software application) to create Documents (e.g PDF Brochures, Business Portfolios, Annual Reports etc)so that a client can edit the text content?

My Problem

I have a client who often needs me to make small content changes to brochures - as his company grows and gains new clients, products etc he wants these in the orginal documents. He is a good client so I don't want to tell him to just bugger off, but it seems to be a waste of my time and his to have me edit a paragraph and title.

Issues

Software I don't really want to tell him to buy indesign and Id rather not wrangle with word
Simplicity I don't want to have to spend an entire afternoon helping him learn something

Ideally he will be able to click change a header (keep fonts, pt sizes, etc... the same) and edit content areas.


texts:
Say, I have a small business card that has solid, dark background and white text. Registration, ink amount and look & feel -wise I'd prefer the paper itself be dark and the text printed in one color: white.

However, printing white is impossible with CMYK alone, so I actually need an answer to both of the following questions:

What should I look for when choosing a print house when printing white? Should I look for houses that can do five color printing? What else printing options would hint that they're capable of doing prints with white ink?
How should I go about preparing my file for the printer? What technical requirements should it meet? I mean generally—but if there are shortcuts for this when using Adobe's Creative Suite, I'm all ears.


texts: How to use alternative numerals in a font?

texts:
There are two ways of laying out numerals in a font: lining figures and text or oldstyle figures. The Former has the height of a capital letter while the latter have varying heights and blend in with lowercase text.

I am designing slides that must adhere to a brand style guide. The guide stipulates that headers are in Corbel Bold and sub-headers are in Corbel Regular. The Corbel typeface provides both forms of numeral layout, lining figures and text figures, but I cannot work out how to access the lining layout form, which I would prefer to use for consistency with the required body font, Segoe Light (which only has lining figures).

I'm interested in answers that cover any tool, though for practical purposes it would be useful to cover non-professional tools like PowerPoint.


texts: Changing index letter of a playing card in Adobe Illustrator

texts:
I have purchased stock graphics of playing cards, but would like to change a few index letters (A, K, Q, J) to the corresponding French/German/etc. characters.

In Adobe Illustrator 2020, first I click the index letter with Selection Tool (V) and immediately see the bounding box:

I understand that it is difficult to identify the exact font used to create the original graphics, but I would like to at least keep my new letter in the same bounding box and alignment.

However when I click at the Type Tool (T), the bounding box disappears and I cannot just type at my keyboard and replace the text:

What would be the easiest way for an AI newbie like myself to replace the text there?


texts: Can I place hi-res pdf's into InDesign and export for printing?

texts: I am placing high resolution pdf's into my InDesign doc. The file size of these pdf's are about 60MB. Once I export a X1A PDF from InDesign the file size is around 4MB. My question is will these print fine, why is the file size so small.


texts: How do you achieve the margin:auto effect in Fireworks/Photoshop?

texts:
In Fireworks and for an image similar to this:

what's the best way to horizontally distribute objects in their parent container so that they have equal margins? The same effect can be achieved with margin:auto in CSS.


texts: how to pick shading color from 3D shape in Adobe Illustrator?

texts:
first of all sorry for my bad english.

right now, im making a seamless isometric tileset and i really like the shading color but i cant seem to pick the shaded color and its only picking the base color.

is there a way that i can pick the shaded color?


texts: Does it make any difference compressing a file during exporting or after?

texts: I have an InDesign file with a number of vector images in it. I was wondering whether it made any difference whether I exported a full quality version and compressed the resulting pdf or exported a lower quality version with no subsequent compression. Is there any reason to choose one over the other?


texts: How to change colour of all elements of a group, at once, in Illustrator

texts:
I have a group of objects of the same colour, consisting of compound paths, regular paths and groups of these. How to change the colour of all objects at once? When I tried to use colour picker or change it through color palette the colour remained the same but the graphics was rendered with a very tiny outline of the new colour, which I guess is not printable. Usually I had to change the colour of all objects individually.

Edit:
I'm sorry if I was not too precise. I mean to apply new colour / swatch to all member objects of the group at once, not to change properties of a commonly shared swatch.

Edit 2:
I received very useful answers, however my goal was to pick a colour from another object, serving as a source. When I tried to select all objects, for example with ctrl-a, and then use a eyedropper to pick up a desired colour, it didn't work for some objects in some groups. Please have a look at my answer where several methods are listed.


texts: Can the radial blur zoom outwards not inwards?

texts:
How do you create the effect in photoshop to make shapes appear to shoot out from the center of an image, a bit like light rays.

Radial blur with zoom seems to blur both out from the center and towards to the center (the effect you would see if you were moving in relation to an object). This is close but ultimately isn't the effect i'm after

(attached image of the radial blur effect:)


texts: What is this design pattern called? "Continuation wave."

texts:
See the wavy line at the bottom of this graphic?

I often see this visual technique used in software manuals and other material that contain screenshots.  The technique cues that "there is more to this screen, but it has been omitted from the graphic for brevity or focus".

I am wondering if this wavy line crop technique has any standard names.  I was once interested in Googling about it, but came up empty-handed.


texts: How to create a vector curve programmatically?

texts:
I want to create a vector curve that is symmetric in the top and the bottom. For example, in this baseball icon (How to draw a baseball in Pixelmator?), if I try to write the vector as suggested by the accepted answer, I end up in writing the vector curve by hand - which means the curve can never be symmetrical between the top and the bottom.

So I want to create the vector curve programmatically, such as specifying the starting and ending point of the vector and then specifying the middle point of the vector and also specifying the degree of the curve, in order to create a tidy curve. I don't like to create the curve by hand, since no matter what I did, it looked pretty awful.

So is it possible to create the tidy curve by specifying some numbers? I don't mind what apps I have to use among Affinity Designer, Pixelmator, Sketch 3, or Illustrator CC, as long as it can be done programmatically (the linked post is designed by Pixelmator, FYI).


texts: Bad pic quality from Photoshop export on my Website

texts:
Despite that the fact that I saved it with a resolution enough to be double as big.

The curve here has an awful quality with white resins. Only slightly visible here, but how can I change that??


texts: How can I draw different elements in perspective?

texts:
Can someone explain how is the below image created?

I am specially interested in background grid. I am comfortable with the sphere. Any ideas?


texts: How do I export a complicated floorplan and ductwork from CAD to Adobe Illustrator in vector format (without freezing/crashing Illustrator)?

texts: I've tried lowering the quality of the plot in CAD but that makes the curves so bad it's unusable. Every time I try and open the exported file in Illustrator it takes forever and if/when it loads if I click anywhere on the screen it takes forever to process. Each edit on the document takes 20 to 30 minutes at least.


texts: need a typefont with caps that ascend and descend below baseline

texts:
I know everyone rags on Papyrus, but I love that the caps are higher and lower than the lc letters (see The Paper Store logo).  I see this on script fonts as well (e.g. Typnic Script), but don't want script.  Larger caps are much easier for dyslexics to read, and it's great for a logo with multiple words.
So, other than Papyrus, which fonts do this?  I can't seem to find a way to search for this quality.
Thanks, Lydia


texts: What software is used to create 3D architectural diagrams?

texts:
One day i visit this Denmark based architectural firm website, i see those clean presentations, which got me wonder what kind of software did they use to creating such illustration? it seems like a 3D graphic with all those shadows and stuff.

I think Illustrator is added to create those colorful 2D part, but what i want to ask is what software is used to built all those 3D white blocks?


texts:
So I've downloaded a free for personal use font. I've used it for a logo, but changed some of the lettering as it didn't fit my design (created outlines).

Do I need to buy the commercial license?


texts: Using Illustrator CS6 to create shape out of multiple paths

texts:
I am very new to Illustrator, in fact I am only experimenting with it in an attempt to help my friend develop a logo for a new business venture. I managed to draw out the shell of the logo using the line tool and modifying the lines with the anchor tool to get the shape I wanted.

However, I would like to somehow take all of these paths and create one object, or symbol which I can then apply a drop shadow, fill and various other effects too. Currently when I try to do this I get unwanted effects...

I'd appreciate any help on the subject.


texts:
Is it just me or is the red color stronger than the green? If red is stronger, why? Is there a tool to use a color and convert it to another color with the same strength?

I use color: green; and color: red;.


texts: When I design a logo, can I use a font that was included in my OS? That I downloaded for free? I'm perhaps less concerned with wordmarks than with other types of logos.


texts: Moving vector anchor points in After Effects

texts:
I am trying to do a simple animation in After Effects. I have drawn a straight line with the pen tool, now I would like to animate the movement of one end of the line (while the other end remains in place). I know that I can add two puppet points to each end of the line to do this. But because the line is a vector line, I think that there must be some way to utilize this, the puppet tool does in some ways disort the line (making the edge more sharp when bending in some angles for instance).

Is there a good way of doing this?


texts: Open web font that is somewhere between Roboto and Ubuntu

texts:
At my company, we are doing some rebranding and are having some trouble deciding on a font. We want to use a sans-serif, open web font, so we don't have to worry about licensing issues, and would like to use one font with many different variations to make things easier for everyone.

We are down to Roboto and Ubuntu, more leaning towards Ubuntu. Although we do love the readability of Ubuntu, we are not thrilled at how round the font is. During the conversation, we came to the conclusion that we needed something between the two.

I know this is kind of a strange request, but do any of you have ideas for what we could use that has the readability of Ubuntu but distinguished shoulders of Roboto.

If you have never seen these fonts here are some links

http://font.ubuntu.com/ - Ubuntu

https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto - Roboto

and for clarity here are our requirements

Open web font (free to use)
Sans Serif
As many variations and weights as possible

Again, I know this is kind of an abstract question, but after looking through an insane amount of fonts today everything is starting to look the same.

I would appreciate any and all suggestions.

Thanks so much in advance to anyone who tries to help me out.


texts: Is this typeface intentionally so uneven, or is this some display error?

texts:
I read many books on Android for Kindle, and most of them display in a nice, unobtrusive way. This is a screenshot of my last book:

But the book I am currently reading has a very strange typography. It is not just that the justified text gives it bad kerning, and not just the giant line spacing (both screenshots are made with the same setting of "Line spacing: narrow"), the typeface looks unusual on its own. (For me personally, it is enough to distract me from reading).

The i is always somewhat higher than the rest of the letters, giving the whole text an uneven appearance. And then the letters have some unusual shapes. For example here a magnification of the word function, non-interpolated during scaling:

See the left curve of the u's cup: it changes into the straight vertical line at a severe angle. And there is a zit on the upper edge of the c, where the curve should be changing between a mostly oblique part and a mostly horizongal part.

Does anybody recognize the typeface? Was it intentionally created to look this way? Or is this some rendering error in either the application or the tablet's firmware?

Edit This could be Palatino, as BrianC suggested in the comments, but if yes, it is a very poorly displayed Palatino. Here is a picture of a standard LaTeX document set in Palatino. And sadly, I can't change the fonts without a) rooting the device and changing all fonts or b) breaking the book's DRM and reading it in a different application.


texts: How do I easily repeat a face in a photograph (not face swapping)?

texts:
Here's a picture from the walking dead:

How do I easily repeat a face (in this case, Rick's from the Walking Dead) thousands of times in the pattern shown below? The path doesn't need to be exactly the same; it's just the general idea of a serpent-like path (if that even makes sense).

I've tried doing it manually. Besides being tedious, it's never as good as the given meme. I can't line the faces up that closely.

My goal is to learn how to do this manually in hopes of being able to write a script for it.


texts: How can I easily create a path out of a non-linear shape in Illustrator?

texts:
I'd like to convert this shape into a path from the center so I can easily adjust the weight of the graphic with a stroke.

Drawing it anew won't preserve the round elements perfectly.


texts:
I am looking to create a flare effect which will be printed in white ink onto a black colorplan stock. The flare will need to be seperated into two layers, the center spot, and the background flare. I created a simple flare in Illustrator for visual reference (right) and then tried to create my own version using Illustrators blend mode (left). I am struggling to create the smooth transition to black from the outside edge of the flare.

The spot is pure white, and the flare is 5% white tint.

Any help would be great!


texts: A way to enhance scanned image with a low resolution photo?

texts:
So I have a lower resolution photo and a high resolution scan from a magazine that both picture the same thing. However, the scanned image is faded, has text, is not fully in color (parts are in gray) and is not just very good quality. Where as, the low resolution photo is fully colored, very bright and no text or anything.

Cleaning, filtering and color correction won't improve the scanned document sufficiently and it is hard to remove the texts without leaving some trace of it.

So I was wondering if there is a way to use the low resolution photo somehow to improve the scan? Like enhance the colors and/or smooth out the wrinkles that were in the magazine.


texts: Use CSS cubic-bezier for keyframes in After Effects?

texts:
I'm really new to After Effects, and I am used to creating CSS animations.
I want to animate something in After Effects, and I know how to set the animation except for the timing function.

I've used the "Easy Ease" to create an okay looking transition, but I would like to use this timing function (from CSS):

cubic-bezier(0.65, 0, 0.35, 1)

Is it possible to take this Cubic Bezier and input it into After Effects keyframes?


texts:
What kind of calculations are there are behind 'flat' colors? Where I can start to choose them effectively? What are the properties?

I found this article on color theory. It's great but I'd like to know more about this field.


texts:
I have a problem with rigging in maya. I have a skeleton that I smooth bound to the model. The normal position of the legs are this:

But when I move the controller on the left foot, the skin on the right leg moves along with it.

I have used a point constraint on the controller for the IK handle on the leg. I have tried weight painting the skin but it stays the same.


texts: How do you move just the selection box without moving the pixels in gimp?

texts:
I have a simple selection box around an icon. I want to keep the selection exactly the same size and move it to the right. How can I drag the selection box without moving the pixels with it?

It's exactly this question from photoshop: How do I move my mask independently of my layer?

I've tried holding ALT and drag, which appears to be what I want based on the icon, but on linux mint holding ALT drags the whole window around.


texts: Typographic styling when writing about UX elements

texts:
Any thoughts, standards, or good practices on typographical styles to set off UI text in a user manual?

For example, how to style the text of the label on a button in:
"Press the Submit button."

Or styling the text of labels and input values:
"Select Gluten Free from the dropdown menu. Then enter I also don't eat soy. in the Notes box."

To be clear -- I'm not asking about designing the UX. I'm asking about typographical styles in a document about the UX.


texts: Can I digitally sign my graphic design works?

texts:
Apologies in advance if I misplaced this question and if it is a silly question to ask since I'm a newbie.

I want to certificate my graphics works(such as mesh models, animation, etc.,) to keep authenticity of my work.

Is there a possible way to do it? Can I digitally sign my graphics work like code signing? Can I have my own CA to do this?

If there any possibilities please let me know it


texts: GREP terms for searching a dash followed by a string of numbers and a paragraph break

texts:
I need to find several text-elements that have a structure like

 — 12345

or

 — 123456

or

 — 1234567

in InDesign via GREP - I can't display that in stackoverflow, but each of these terms is followed by a ¶. Could somebody help me finding the right search-term or generally does anybody know some sort of "generator" for those GREP-searches?


texts: How to crop everything hidden by an vector OPACITY mask in Adobe Illustrator?

texts:
I have lot of objects which are bounded by opacity mask.

I need to get rid of my opacity mask, clipping each object where it intersects with my mask. It is a lot of hassles to do it manually.

Is there some other easy way? Some automatic clip of all objects?


texts:
If I have more then only a layer in AI and I want to apply different PS effects to every layer, how can I do it?

Do I need to copy/paste every layer to PS separately?


texts: How do I choose a value for a numbered list to start at?

texts: When you have a numbered list, you can simply right-click and choose 'restart numbering' to make it start at 1 (if it doesn't already). How do I choose a value to start at, say I want to start a list at 14, without changing the paragraph style itself?


texts: Cannot Even Find the Align to Pixel Grid Option in Illustrator!

texts:
I have a very annoying problem with alignments in Adobe Illustrator: my paths can move only on pixel grid and, so, it's very hard to align them to each others:

I've read all recommendations how to fix it and everywhere I found the solution - to disable "Align to Pixel Grid" option in Transform Options or View panel, it was told in different sources.

The problem is that I cannot find that option anywhere in Illustrator at all!!!

By the recommendations, that option should be right below "Scale Strokes & Effects". But I cannot see it.

Also, I've tried to disable Snap to Point option (Edit - Preferences - Selection & Anchor Display - Snap to Point), with no effect.

I use Illustrator approximately one month, there was no such problems before - was no aligments to pixel grid.

May be somebody can tell what the problem with the pixel grid alignment and how I can resolve it?


texts: How to select all shapes with specific color and replace this color with an other one?

texts:
I am totally new in Photoshop scripting, but I have some JavaScript experience.

I want to make a script (or find an existing one and study it) that finds every shape with a specific fill color in my Photoshop project and replaces it with an other one. But I have no idea where to start.


texts: How do I save an image with CMYK in Paint.NET?

texts:
I'm more comfortable with resizing/cropping images in Paint.NET. My wife needs to submit a portrait for something and the requirements are a 3x5 300 DPI JPG or TIFF in CMYK. I can handle the size and resolution, but I have no clue how to save an image as CMYK. I'm clueless enough that I don't even know if "save image as CMYK" is the wrong thing to ask.

I found a Paint .NET plugin that seems like it does separation, but it doesn't mention if it saves the image so it is a CMYK image. I found an article about similar GIMP plugins but I'm still not sure if it's right.

I've got a 300 DPI bitmap appropriately sized and I'm assuming it's in RGB since I haven't fiddled with anything. Is there a free, easy process by which I can turn this into a JPG/TIFF with the CMYK color space?


texts: FontForge is cropping my font at the bottom and reversing changes to ascent and descent heights

texts:
I am modifying a font that was published using the Open Font Licence.
So I save the existing font under a different name, open it using FontForge, and start working on it. Change the "f" just to check that everything is working OK, change the metadata so that when I install the modified font it won't want to install over the original, save, generate font, right-click to install. Open MS Word, write a word containing an "f". Check. It's the new "f". Fine.
But then I notice that the descenders are getting cropped. I don't see any reason for this, since with the original font they aren't, and I haven't modified any glyphs that have descenders, or fiddled with the em height, etc.
I've read that Windows 10 can be a bit glitchy in this department and perhaps FontForge can as well. So under Font Information | General I reduce the ascent height by 200 from 1638 to 1438 and increase the descent height by 200 from 410 to 610, leaving the em size unchanged at 2048. This is OK because I plan for my descenders to be long anyway, and there's also height at the top. This all looks great in the glyph table - all the glyphs rise a bit and I can now see the bottoms of all the descenders. OK, so save, generate fonts, install.
But - argh! The descenders are still getting cropped as before, and when I open the modified font again with FontForge the ascent and descent heights have changed back again to 1638 and 410.
How can I change these settings and leave them changed? I think if I can do that then the cropping problem has been defeated.


texts:
There's already a post similar to this, which describes there is no built in shortcut to deselect multiple layers, but I can clarify my problem a bit.

control + click will select a layer in Photoshop. control + shift + click will select multiple layers.

However, after i've selected multiple layers, if I try control + click again on a single layer, it won't deselect those multiple layers and only select the one layer.

Is there some way around this, such as by deselecting a layer with some key combination, or something? I don't want to resort to custom keyboard shortcuts. I want to have a fast workflow using Photoshop on anyone's desk.


texts:
Can someone describe their workflow they use to handle multiple versions of a file ?
For example,

if more than one person worked on it
or you explored an idea with the design then realized you have to undo state multiple times and hope you reach the previous state you needed

Does one just save under a different filename every hour / every 15 minutes ?

As a sole designer does one even need version control ?


texts: What would cause me to not be able to select a path in Illustrator?

texts:
I'm dealing with an issue in Illustrator CC that I haven't come across before. I've been supplied a file that I need to work with as a vector. In Illustrator itself if I hit "Crtl + Y" and go into outline mode I can see the outline of the shape but all the detail inside of it is missing. I also can't seem to select that detail on the inside of the part in either view mode.

I've checked for clipping masks and compound paths but aside from that I don't know what other settings can be applied to a shape that would "hide" the inside detail. When opening the EPS in other software the vector lines are imported (and are editable) so I know that they exist I just can't seem to work with them inside Illustrator. Where should I start looking to try and separate out these paths?

Unfortunately I am not able to post the file so hopefully that is enough of a description.

EDIT: If it helps the other program wants to attempt to rasterize the image to "retain transparency" if that might help diagnose the issue.


texts: How to determine whether logo design will require illustrative skills

texts: A new potential client has reached out to me to design a logo that features a mascot. This mascot would need to poised in different positions and needs to be animated. Does this sound more like a job for an illustrator?


texts: Alternatives to illustrator for tablet drawing for Mac OS

texts:
I love Illustrator for graphic design, but for tablet drawing it's a real pain. Why?

You can't rotate the artboard like you do in Photoshop. When drawing on real paper it's very natural for me to rotate the paper for making lines in certain directions.
When using the pen, you can't see what you are drawing until the shape is done. Sure you see a preview in the layer color, but unless you are drawing on a white background it's not always perfectly visible. The blob brush works well in that aspect but then it's not the right tool for other reasons.

Can you recommend a vector software for mac that has those features?

I just want to be able to draw vectors naturally with my tablet... and I stil haven't found a good option.


texts: Cinema 4D Generative Plane using audio file

texts: In Cinema 4D I am looking to create an object that is developed through audio file. As the song plays I want it to displace the shape and by the end give me an object that is deformed by the music. I have gotten so far in creating something similar using imported sound, displacer tag and expresso on an object, however, this is animated and constantly changes form rather than generating into a final form.


texts: Warping an image to the interior of a cylinder

texts:
I'm trying to mock up some ads for the London underground, and I'm having trouble warping the image to the interior of the tube shape.

There are various guides to warping labels to cylinder exteriors etc but I cant find anything regarding warping images to the interior shape.

I want to add an ad over where the current ones are, but I'm having trouble getting the perspective to look right.

The image I intend to use for the mockups is this one:

And here's where I'm at so far:

I think I've got the skew right, I just need it to look "curved" so it looks like it's pasted to the wall. The idea is that it will be kind of experiential so the entire wall and roof of the tube will be covered.


texts: how to remove brush stroke overlay from a picture mainly comprise of text

texts:
I am not a professional graphic designer but I have an issue to resolve and needs pro advice
I have some text written in picture format and it has brushstroke overlays in red color hiding the text. I want to remove those overlays to read the full text - is there any way I can peel them off.
Thanks in advance


texts: Adobe Illustrator - How do I separate the dot from a lower case "i"?

texts:
How do I separate the dot from a lower case "i" so I can re-color just the dot?
I want the straight part black and the dot red.


texts: How can I present this information with less required user interaction?

texts:
Here's a typical graphic from my web app:

It shows the performance of grades 1-12 on each of four tasks (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide). But this is only for whole numbers. Behind each of the other tabs (for different types of numbers), the exact same thing is repeated.

I'd like to be able to represent the contents of all five tabs in one chart, so that the overall performance can be seen in one glance, without having to jump around the tabs, hiding one view to see another. It would also be nice to be able to combine the four charts that are shown into one, but that's secondary.

Can anyone suggest a better type of chart to condense this information into a more useful and visible form?


texts: Strange GIF artifacts when uploading to Behance

texts:
I'm getting these weird effects when I upload GIFs to Behance.

Here is the GIF, on stack.imgur:

Here is a screencap of what it looks like on Behance:

The trails don't appear in the upload preview or when uploaded elsewhere. So this problem is somehow specific to Behance, but I haven't been able to find anything on the net about it, and I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Does anyone know what to do about this?


texts: I have read some articles about web design, all of them recommend to choose a color palette first. I know colors are most important thing for professional web look. COLOURlovers, a web for color palettes. It has thousands of color palettes. I am beginner to web designing so, I don't know how to properly use palettes. Working with one and ending up with ugly colors on screen. Is there any technique to properly use color palettes? Which color should be used for links, for background, for header, for footer e.t.c out of given palette colors.


texts: Is Inkscape suitable for design (logo, branding) on the West?

texts:
I'm novice designer from Russia, already make a fistful of projects (logo, branding, etc). All my work I do in Inkscape, really love it - but in Russia nobody hear about *.svg, customers want *.ai, print shops want *.cdr. And I need to convert my *.svg with proprietary soft.

Please, tell me: in what file formats you send sources to your customers on west? (Europe, USA, Canada, etc.). Is Inkscape enough for professional design work? How many times you met misunderstanding from customers or printshops, who wants only *.Ai sources?

Thank you!


texts:
I'm trying to find out what the below symbol is (does it have a name? What does it represent?) and also, does Unicode have a codepoint for it? For what it's worth, the image is a binarized screenshot from a PDF.

My first attempt was to try and draw it in shapecatcher, and then, realizing I'm terrible at drawing things, even moreso with a mouse, I tried searching for similar websites that will allow uploading an image. The only thing I found was "drewish Image to Unicode" which doesn't find anything. Next I tried Google Image Search, which interestingly came up with the English Wikipedia's article on Language, but skimming over that, nothing helpful stood out.
Does anybody know what symbol this is, and whether it has a representation in Unicode?
Also, since this is my first post to the Graphic Design community, please do let me know in the comments if I can improve this question in any way!


texts: Trying to find "distinctive" font for undistinctive letters - O N T I U

texts:
Freelance work for a friend, shirts for a small group starting a startup. After a wild goose chase he now wants a "distinct" font. He gave me sample fonts where the "distinct" marks are all in letters that aren't in the company name.

How do I get around this? The letters C, I, N, O, U, and T, aren't usually fun in fonts.

Do I need to make my own font?


texts: Object-based alignment guides in Illustrator

texts:
In InDesign, I never have a problem aligning objects in relation to other objects because the Guides always show me where each object's center points are:

I would love to know how to do this in Illustrator CC 2018. In my menus, Smart Guides are enabled and yet I cannot see objects' centers when trying to align by dragging another object near or inside it:


texts: Replace smart object content without Photoshop

texts:
I am looking for a way to bulk replace smart object content without using Photoshop. My goal is to create nice poster mockups for hundreds of posters automatically.

So I have a PSD file containing the smart object and a bunch of PNG files which I want to place inside the smart object and export each result to PNG/JPG/whatever.

I couldn't find a software that can handle smart objects besides Photoshop.


texts: Should I pick fonts or colors first for my design?

texts:
I always struggle to choose what to pick first, fonts or colors?

This applies to website, brochures, pretty much anything that uses both.

Any advice on this? Couldn't find anything on Google...!


texts:
I have a client who has the most abysmal logo. He thinks it's epic... he made it himself. His web presence is sadly afflicted by said logo. As he is beginning to see the shortcomings, I want to ride this wave to changing his mind about how we should do things in future.

Is it acceptable to shift web presence (site, social media) onto new logo / branding / style while the business's physical assets retain the old branding, for anywhere up to, say, a year, after which we can rebrand the physical assets once the website is a proven pull? The newer branding is similar enough to the old, for potential clients to make the connection that it is in fact the same brand. Or is this a no-no?

I'm asking from the perspective of ad / marketing industry rather than graphics as such. I am happy to close/delete question or migrate if there is a better place for it.


texts: Is it acceptable as a web developer to know very elementary JavaScript and rely on frameworks such as Materialize?

texts: I've been using cusotmised Materialize CSS for most of the effects I want on my pages. I know very little JavaScript. Is it reasonable for me to continue working with frameworks such as Materialize CSS or should I learn JavaScript?


texts:
I have some old Freehand files (versions 9 and 11). I remember that in the past I could open them with Illustrator CS4 and then I could open that CS4 with Illustrator CS6. I remember I could not open directly with CS6.

Now, June 2017 I do not have the computer with the Illustrator CS4. My question is if I pay the Adobe Creative Cloud will I be able to have the Illustrator CS4? Is there now any other way to open Freehand files.


texts: How do I distribute space between paths within a compound path?

texts:
It seems impossible to distribute space between paths in a compound path. If I shift select all the paths in compound path isolation mode and choose a distribute spacing option, nothing happens. But if I cut and paste the paths outside the compound path I can align them as normal and then cut and paste them back into the compound path. Obviously this is not a pleasant workflow. Why can't I just distribute space between paths within the compound path?
Similarly, ungrouping seems completely broken inside compound paths. I can group paths but ungrouping does nothing. I must cut the group outside the compound path, ungroup the paths and then cut and paste them back in. Why is compound path editing mode so seemingly broken?


texts: How to create this coloured pencil effect?

texts:
How can I recreate this coloured pencil effect with Inkscape? The original image is just flat colours with a slight gradient on the background. I uploaded it to PhotoMania and used their coloured pencil effect which produced this output:

The export from PhotoMania is very low resolution so I'm trying to recreate the effect in Inkscape. I've played around with all the filter options, but I can't find anything that's even close.

The main issue is the way the lines extend from the cupcakes and the clouds. I can get the edge detection using a convolution filter, but I can't think of any way to have the lines extend like this.

Inkscape doesn't seem to have a transform option for custom filters, but even if it did that would only allow simple horizontal/vertical transforms, which wouldn't create this "extended line" effect.


texts: Applying blur amount in a gradient manner in Photoshop

texts:
I have the following image:

The gray version of the pin will obviously be it's shadow. I know how to skew it and all to make it look like a shadow.

What I want to do, but don't know how, is to blur the shadow version of the pin more at the top and less as you go towards the tip of the pin shadow.

I want to do that because in real life, the shadow will be more softer as it gets farther from the object that casts it (as can be seen in the bellow example).

Thank you!

UPDATE:

Just to clarify: I need a map style shadow, not a simple drop shadow. Something like this:


texts: How to create a gradient opacity mask in Illustrator

texts:
I was having an issue earlier, where I wanted to create a simulated reflection on the floor beneath a vector object made up of many smaller paths, while still maintaining full transparency of my final vector.

This is a very easy thing to accomplish in Photoshop and I found a few posts here about it, but I was having trouble finding anything about how to do it in Illustrator (let me know if this is a duplicate and I'll delete).  I figured I would share how I accomplished this task and open it up to any better methods you might have.

So, the question is: How do I take this vector object below and add a reflection beneath it, that fades to transparent?


texts: How to simulate long exposure light trails?

texts:
How can I apply long exposure lighting effects to a road (ideally using Photoshop or Illustrator)? See the image below for an example.

How can this be achieved?


texts: What do you call this word-image made of other words?

texts: What do you call this type of image in design term?


texts: Tools for creating and exporting a LOT of icons?

texts:
I have to create and a large number of icons (multiple sizes and colors of a couple hundred icons). Sizes can range pretty drastically (largest at 256x256px, smallest at 14x14px) so I also have to be able to be able to have really nice sharp vector-like shapes at the larger sizes and pixel-perfect icons at the smallest sizes.

I'm looking for an process or software that is really good at handling such high volume. Something that exports in multiple sizes would be excellent. Another thing that saves a lot of time is being able to specify a specific naming convention or naming slices in advance so that they export and are automatically the right file name when I export them.

If there is anything that will handle this process or a good chunk of it, please let me know!


texts: How to avoid the tragic fate in the Oatmeal cartoon "How a web design goes straight to hell"?

texts:
This is a famous web comic about a common experience in web design:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

It's based on the author's personal experiences and describes a typical / caricature client from hell who treats the designer as:

  a mouse cursor inside a graphics program which the client can control
  by speaking, emailing, and instant messaging

...ruining the finished product by, for example:

Demanding unnecessary changes so they feel they have put their stamp on the design
Making vague, half-baked  or contradictory requests
Bringing in requests for changes from people not connected to the project
Silly requests that appeal to the client but would make no sense to an end user

Some of the solutions I thought of:

Quitting web design and starting my own online business.
Only accepting jobs offered by professional web/graphic designers.

Any suggestions?


texts: Can I use Surface Pro 4 and Illustrator CS6?

texts: I recently bought the new Surface Pro 4 with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. I installed my CS6 Standard Suite yesterday and I was quite impressed how fast illustrator and Co. opened. Unhappily, the pen does not seem to interact with the programs, so there is no pressure sensitivity (which works quite well with One Note or Fresh Paint). Any solution?


texts: is there any painting medium other than light emitters(like computer) that has cyan?

texts:
I've been trying different pencils, crayons, acrylic and watercolor paint, oil pastels, but I haven't been able to find anything that I can take picture of, and invert/negate digitally to make a bright red color.

At best I am able to get orange with "sky blue" ish colors, and magentas with some teals but nothing seems to produce a primary red(hue 0 in hsv, preferably with 75+ saturation, 75+ brightness).

Here is a picture of my screen with a cyan rectangle on it, which succeeds inverting to red, although a bit dark. In the process of taking the picture, it shifted to hue 173, saturation 54, brightness 100 from the original hue 180, saturation 100, brightness 100. but this is largely if not completely due to a bad camera, the computer screen cyan seems like the brightest cyan I've ever seen other than perhaps cuba ocean, and I might be misremembering about that(it might just be bright aqua).

Here's a cropped google result similar to what I remember of cuba, but even so it has no perfect red at all indicating absence of very bright true cyan, but again it might be because of image capturing process, and there still might be some grayer cyans that I haven't been able to filter out.

Is there any reason why sky blue(eg hue 191, 80, 100) is the closest I can get to true cyan using non direct light emitting media?

I am just a bit confused since cyan blue is incredibly easy to invert into since yellow is quite abundant, and green is incredibly easy to invert into since red-violets are quite abundant, but red seems really tricky, even after buying sets of 100 pencils, 96 crayons, various paint sets, none of them have any colors that invert into red, at best, only teal and sky blue come close but don't invert to red.

Sidenote, I have managed to find that a few teals could invert into hue 2, saturation 74,  brightness 68, which is really close, but is too dark of a color to work as a subtractive primary.

I imagine there must be butterflies that can force this wavelength to be reflected with nanostructures.

Is there no pigment that blocks only red wavelength, why is true cyan so rare or nonexistent?

What's stranger is that inverted space has plenty of bright cyans yellows and magentas, and non inverted space has plenty of reds, greens, and blues, but inverted space reds are really rare, and regular space cyans are really rare.


texts: InDesign Script new layer naming by page number

texts:
I've got an odd query where I need to take all the objects on a certain layer and put them each on a separate new layer so they can be exported as individual PDFs (and converted to png). I've found a script that does this:
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var myLayer = doc.layers.item("Answers");

for (var i = myLayer.pageItems.length - 1; i >= 1; i--) {
  var newLayer = doc.layers.add();
  myLayer.pageItems[i].itemLayer = newLayer;
}

This works great, but the layers are just named sequentially. I'm wondering if it's possible to have the new layers named with the page number that the object is on so instead of
Layer 1
Layer 2
etc.

I get:
Page1-1
Page1-2
Page1-3
Page2-1
Page2-2
etc

Is that doable? I've tried finding scripts to get the page number but I can't get it to work (I wish I knew more about Javascript!).
I'm using PageExporterUtility to export all the individual layers as PDFs but because there are many pages that have nothing on a lot of the new layers, I'm getting a lot of blank pages created which I have to sort through and delete manually. I'm thinking if the layers are named with the page numbers I can export just the layers I need for a given page.
I know it's a weird request, any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Duncan
Edit:
The export process I'm currently using with this is Page Exporter Utility 5.0.1 (here). This exports each layer in the doc as a separate PDF per page. Then I run a Photoshop batch to make them 5500px wide and a png, which is what I need.


texts: How do game designers create graphics for their games?

texts:
Lets say a game designer is going to create a new character for his game and now needs to draw the character using an art style that is a smooth (not pixel art) style. What would be the best way for the game designer to draw his character and get it into the game?

Im asking this because I really have been wanting to create some flash games but I really am no good at creating graphics for them because I myself tend to focus more on programming the game since thats what I like doing and focus a lot on.

Would the game designer use one of the following processes to create the graphics for his game? And if so which one is the most efficient way for that smooth art style?

Drawing them on paper, scanning it, color and fix up in Photoshop
Drawing them and coloring them in Photoshop/Illustrator.
Drawing them onto an actual computer screen using a stylus pen.

Thanks for your time!


texts: Using Adobe Indesign for scientific writing

texts: For the last years I had a somehow cumbersome and inefficient workflow to write and layout scientific papers. I wrote them in Mellel or MS Word due to the structure/ouline functionality and exported the text to finally doing layout in Indesign. So my question is: are there plugins for indesign that provide a structure/outline view, so one can navigate easyily to different chapters and managing the hierarchy of chapters?


texts: Default "Preview On" - Illustrator plugins and effects

texts:
Every time I use an effect or a modifying function ("Extrude and Bevel" or "Split into grid" for example) I have to check "Preview". I always want preview to be enabled.

Is there a way to get Illustrator to have preview enabled by default?


texts: Beauty font, can someone help me to find this font?

texts:
can someone help me, whats font the letter "P"
2 days i spend my time to find this font, but nothing :( pls help me, thanks.
*sorry my english is too bad


texts: Need an input device between tablet and smartpen

texts:
This question is a bit complicated to sum up in the title. I know there are a few technologies when it comes to digitizing your drawings.

Tablets like Intuos and Bamboo
Smartpens like Livescribe Echo

My gripe with graphics tablets is the hand eye coordination because I want to look where I am drawing. On the other hand with Livescribe smartpens, I can look where I am writing but it only records the movements and does not let you control the mouse cursor in realtime on a computer. What I really want is something in between; to be able to handwrite with a pen on a regular paper and simultaneously control the mouse cursor on the monitor.

I hope I explained it sufficiently well. I need such an input device for the purpose of making instructional videos such that the videos contain my writings and doodles as I speak. Please point to an appropriate solution.


texts:
I had a simple model imported into FreeCAD and I'd like to know the dimension of the bounding box for the model, how do I do that?

PS: the software used is FreeCAD, but the tag wasn't available.


texts:
I'm trying to convert a bunch of company logos to one single color (not just black and white). It's for a website I'm working on, for the "We support those products" type of thing.

Here's what I'm starting with:

What I did so far:

Desaturate via  Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
Convert to grayscale via Image -> Mode -> Grayscale
Convert to Monotone via Image -> Mode -> Duotone, then select Monotone and my color
Make the background transparent with the magic wand tool

Here's where I'm at now:

The thing that I'm not happy about is that there are still multiple shades of blue there. I want it to be just one single color on transparent background. Just one shade of blue (or whatever color I pick).


texts:
Which is better experience in responsive design..

To create all containers with % and em units OR use pixels for main containers and % for content (adaptive)?

Thanks


texts: Set order (start) of nodes in a closed shape/path?

texts:
I need a way to mark the starting node in a curve. I am using the curves in an external program that animates the drawing of the object from the starting point to the end.

It appears that cutting a path at a point will move the start to that position, but combining it again will move it somewhere else.

How can I set the start point for a curve?


texts: Illustrator - move objects safely while zoomed back?

texts:
I'm a diehard FreeHand user who has only recently migrated to Illustrator. In FH you can just click on an object (say, a closed path or text) and move it, without it being distorted. In Illustrator, I often find that some sort of transform (scaling or rotating) is spontaneously activated. Then I have to undo.
I find that the only way to get around this is to zoom in closely enough that when I click on an object to move it, I don't accidentally activate a transform. This is very time-consuming. Is there some way to disable those pesky transforms? After all, there are already other ways to do the transforms, so disabling these would be no loss. Thanks!


texts: Bulk converting PSD files with Artboards into PDFs

texts:
I'm currently looking to bulk convert a whole bunch of PSDs into PDFs.

Each PSD is comprised of no more than 10 individual art boards. I know that I have the option to export them as a PDF when the PSD is open, but the issue is that I have a lot of indivudual PSDs, so it's going to take a long time to do them all manually.

I was wondering if there was a way of making an action that will automate this process?

Thanks for any help, and sorry if this isn't the correct site to ask!


texts: How to prevent Illustrator from converting text to path when saving project as SVG?

texts: When saving an Illustrator file which contains some text as SVG, the text is converted to outlines. How can this be avoided? It is possible in Inkscape.


texts: Keyboard shortcut to switch black/white or foreground/background?

texts:
I was watching a video tutorial and the instructor seemed to switch the colour of a layer from white to black with a shortcut, since his cursor did not leave the layer thumbnail section, per below...

Does anyone know which shortcut that would be?

Thanks in advance.


texts: How to make camera ignore an object (my case: wall) when rendering?

texts:
I'm using 3dsmax and vray as my renderer. I want to take an interior scene but have a trouble when I render it because the camera render the wall and cannot see through it (I cannot delete the wall behind the camera because it keeps messing up with my light setting).

How can I hide the wall from camera (but not from the scene)?


texts: Cutting out a part of a field of lines in Illustrator

texts:
I made a field of lines evenly spaced in illustrator.  They are grouped together.  I want to cut out and paste a segment of this group.  The grouped lines are parallel and the group is tilted at an angle; I wanted to cut out a vertical segment so I have a strip of trapezoidal shapes to paste elsewhere.

How do I do this?


texts: Photoshop Batch save under unique names when cutting images apart

texts:
I am trying to batch process images that need to be cut into multiple smaller images. I have an action that opens an image, then selects a portion of it, copies, creates a new image, pastes, then saves that new image, closes it, goes back to the original, copies a new portion...and so on
It properly cuts the original image into multiple smaller parts (9 each).

Now I want to batch process multiple original images and cut them in the same way.
When I override the save command and use a serial number, expecting to get a unique name for each saved image, Photoshop updates the serial number only for each ORIGINAL image that it opens, so the 9 smaller images all get the same names and therefore overwrite each other.

How Can I get Photoshop to save each new image with a new unique name? I was thinking that a timestamp would also work, but the batch naming only allows dates and not time.

Is there any way to achieve what I need? (Seems like a pretty common thing to cut an image into multiple parts, I would think.)


texts: Trying to create a text box vector shape

texts:
I am looking to make a shape like this on Inkscape, does anyone have any tips on how best to tackle this?

I have tried to input this into my design but it covers images I already have on the design as it imports in as a rectangle image with white corners.


texts: How can I control the size of my generated asset when it contains transparent areas?

texts:
I'm trying to use Photoshop's Generate Image Assets feature to export a 32 x 32 transparent image with a solid 16 x 16 square in the middle:

My layers look like this:

I'm using a fully transparent (no fill or stroke) rectangle that fills the area I want to be exported. This doesn't work, as the Generate Image Assets feature does not appear to consider it when determining the size of the asset; I get a 16 x 16 image containing the opaque square instead of the full 32 x 32 image.

I have read about vector masks or layer masks possibly being a solution to this, but I don't really understand them that well, and my attempts to use them to solve my problem were not successful.

So, how can I control the size of my generated asset when it contains transparent areas?


texts: What is the purpose of using a very dark color for text instead of a pure black?

texts:
I have seen that some web designs implement an almost black font color (hex #001c00) in their designs instead of a pure black color (hex #000).

Does the design actually benefit from this or is this practically the same as using a black color?

I am a hobbyist web designer and developer and can't seem to grasp the difference.


texts: How can I get the output from Image Trace to be Strokes instead of a Fill?

texts:
I need to trace picture below to vector.

After tracing it with black and white mode I got result below that I don't like. I would like to have all lines to be in the same constant width.

What tracing strategy I should use to get needed result?


texts: Is there a way to customize the default canvas size in Inkscape?


texts: This is probably far easier than I'm making it out to be.. I have this path that I duplicated and reflected but since both paths have a border I'm not sure how to join them so that the path is just one continuous path (without a line down the middle separating them...)


texts: Somebody help me find this Japanese font? I already have an idea for what it is

texts:
So I have a font similar to this installed on my phone, called "cherrybomb" that I got from this website (I'll post the link below) but the thing about that font and the one in the picture is that the one I have doesn't include any kanji, which the font below does. I need help finding the version of the font with kanji, since without kanji it's basically unusable for me. I've searched various things on google like チェリーボムフォント　漢字 (Cherrybomb font Kanji) and I haven't found anything. Here is the website I originally got the font from: http://www.asterism-m.com/font/cherrybomb/

I doubt anyone will be able to find the kanji version of this font but on the off chance that you do thank you so much!


texts: How much caring about design is too much? In-house graphic designer

texts:
I am working as an in-house graphic designer under the marketing team. I am not sure if the culture in my company is the norm in other companies.

There are only 2 graphic designers in the print area. We outsource our main launch model photos, and product photos to another small agency.

Here are some things that worry me:

We don't have an art director. The marketing director is our art director. (I think that's not too bad)

However,

The lead designer always shows lots of options for marketing teammates to judge and to choose from. I have noticed how the marketing team has become controlling on the design outcome.
The lead designer shows options to the marketing team, for example "the difference between 60% opacity or 68% opacity",
"the difference between font size 12.75 and 12.5", and other very detailed design decisions.
The lead designer will make things perfect even though other projects are due. What I have learned from other companies is that you do your best by how much time you have in a project. However, the lead designer will spend so much time to create her prefect design. I am not like that. If there is a deadline, and I would like to finish on time rather than extend the timeline.

Is all of this healthy for a designer?

How many options should we show to our team? Is what my company does the norm?


texts:
Is there a standard classification scheme used by graphic designers for icons to help identify the characteristics of icon designs?

I am not referring to things that describe the physical characteristics (e.g. 32px x 32px or file size), but style characteristics or the nature of the image (e.g. noun vs. action or abstract vs. detailed).

For example, iconfinder.com uses Categories and Styles on top of keyword terms, but it is still quite difficult to find or describe the icons clear enough to communicate the design elements.

Just wondering if things such as defining the icons as 'objects' or 'actions' or 'descriptions' and also describing the style and complexity of the design (single or multiple objects in the design) would make it more useful for people to find and design them.


texts: Handle a transparent layer in Targa file

texts:
I need to create some Targa file in order to load them in OpenGL (I can only use .tga ..). I created my images on Photoshop, I set a transparent background but when I save my file it's totaly opaque.

The black layer is at 98% opacity

How can I handle transparent layer with Targa file in Photoshop ?

Thanks for your help !

EDIT :


texts:
I am trying to create a template for a wedding card with multiple color options.The design uses 4 colors in a custom swatch palette.

Is it possible for me to load a 'new 4-swatch palette' to replace the 'active 4 swatches', and change the colors in the document?

Thanks
Ng


texts: How to adjust smart guidelines to show distance between 2 objects and other things?

texts:
Let's say I have this button in Illustrator CC 2017 (on mac).

How do I adjust my smart guidelines to pop up the pixel distance between the text and end of button?

Another scenario, I have these 2 squares. How do I find the distance (in pixels) between these 2 shapes? I know in Sketch, you can measure the distance by selecting 1 object, press 'option' key, and hover over another to find the distance. How can I do this in Illustrator?

Update: About the function in sketch, Sketch has great tooltips that measures the distance between objects with their tooltips (view image below). How can I get a similar function in Illustrator?


texts: What are the advantages of laying out documents in pts (vs other units) in Illustrator?

texts:
All of the document presets for print are defaulted to using points. I’ve always worked in inches. Is it more common to work in points? What are the advantages?

Edit: To clarify, I’m not asking about working with fonts. I’m asking about document layout. I read the answer to the other question, but it doesn’t help me understand the reason for working entirely in points.


texts: How do I combine closed shapes' paths in Illustrator?

texts:
I'm hoping this isn't a "doh" answer as I've been looking for quite a while to find an elegant solution. I'm trying to merge two shapes together that are placed right next to each other but not overlapping. Essentially I want to combine the overlapping strokes as the goal is to laser cut the shapes most efficiently.

Here's a close-up screenshot of my file. Note that I'm in Outline mode (CMD Y).

The selected shape is a block letter "C" and the shape on the left is just a rectangle. Since both have perfectly vertical lines and the lines are perfectly overlapping (I've verified this in the Transform panel), what's the best way to make these lines the same? Obviously I can pathfinder the objects together and then manually add a single line to replace it, but this would take quite a bit of time.

I'd prefer to have a simple solution as I have a LOT of letters to combine.

Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide!

P.S. Using the lastest 2017 release of AiCC.


texts: Gimp: How to export images at a specific dimensional size

texts:
Does Gimp provide a way to export an image at a desirable dimensional size, and still preserve the original size while working in the UI?  I need a scaled down version of a file I am currently working on.

Many thanks on any tips or ideas.


texts: Photoshop: shift+resize (transform) disables snap to grid function?

texts: When I grab any side of an object in transform mode, I can have them snap to a grid (purple line is visible to indicate alignment) but whenever I grab a corner to keep the correct ratio, the shift+resize disables snap to grid function. Any way around this?