If you’re using Photoshop’s Healing Brush, and the results are too dark for your taste, you don’t have to undo and start over, simply choose Edit>Fade Healing Brush and then lower the Opacity setting in the dialog box. The Fade menu item works on many tools and filters, so I encourage you to take a trip to the Fade menu item once in a while to see what you can do. Keep in mind that it only works on the last operation you made.
Changing the font size for PDF comments
To set the font and size of the text in an Acrobat Comment, choose Edit > Preferences > General (or hit Command + K) to open the Preferences dialog box. Once the dialog box is open, select Commenting from the list on the left. Choose the font size you wish from the pop-up menus. You can also set the opacity of the note boxes and the behavior of various types of comments while you’re there.
Photoshop brush previews without clicking
If you’re like me, you collect Brushes for use in Photoshop. And you don’t just collect good Brushes, you collect ALL Brushes you find! I have about 25 to 30 brushes that make perfect clouds, another 50 or so that give some nice industrial texture, yet more that simulate broken glass. Brushes are fantastic! The problem is finding the right one for the job. This usually involves a trip to the Brushes palette to preview them until I find the right one. As you can see in the picture at the right, I have the 39pixel brush selected, but I’m previewing the 59pixel brush circled in green. If you want to preview various brushes In the Brushes palette but get frustrated with clicking on each brush, then simply hover over a brush preset until the Tool Tip show up – then run your cursor over all the brush presets to see a Preview at the bottom of the Brushes palette without having to click on each individual brush. With all the “clicking” involved in your daily life, saving a few is a real treat!
Adjust your digital photos for printing
A lot of digital camera owners has difficulty understanding the relationship of resolution to physical dimensions of a photo. They just assume that low resolution means small photos and high resolution means huge photos. For that reason, they often times try printing their photos, only to find them print out clipped off or grainy. If you’re one of those folks, do the following. Go to Image>Image Size, uncheck the Resample Image checkbox and change the resolution to 250 to 300 dpi. What we’re doing here is telling Photoshop/Elements to reduce the image, but use all the pixels captured in the original sized image. Without unchecking the Resample Image checkbox, Photoshop would actually reduce the image AND throw away pixels – which of course degrades the image quality. An easy way to tell which of these methods you’ve done is to look at the file size in the bottom left corner of the document window. If the file size stays the same, you’ve done it correctly. If the file size gets smaller, then you forgot to uncheck the Resample Image box – thus, the image file size is smaller because there are less pixels.
Creating a ribbon in Adobe Illustrator
Veerle has a great tutorial on how to create a ribbon in Adobe Illustrator. This is one of the most difficult techniques to master for many beginners to Illustrator, but Veerle’s tutorial makes it easy with clear instructions.
31 ways to be creative
The idea doesn’t have to be big, it just has to change the world.
I came across this somewhat comedic yet truly insightful pseudo how-to list on how to be creative. The article starts out with a list, then goes into detail of each number on the list. Anyone who has been in the business of advertising for any amount of time will find this quite humorous!
Adding more pages to your InDesign document
When you want to add a new page to your InDesign document, Command + Shift + P is the quickest way to do it. The keyboard shortcut will add one new page after the currently selected page in your document. Another way is to Option + Click on the New Page button in the Pages palette, which will open the Insert Pages dialog box. This method will allow you to specify the number of pages to insert and where to insert them, as well as what Master page to use.
How to extract and convert audio from a DVD using OSX for free
This tutorial from Simplehelp will guide you in extracting the audio from a DVD and then converting it into an .mp3 for use w/ your iPod or MP3 player. All of the software used in this tutorial is free.
Getting the true measurement in Illustrator
In case you haven’t noticed, strokes, drop shadows and other effects don’t count toward the measurement of an object in Adobe Illustrator. If you draw a one-inch by one-inch box and add a 25pt stroke to the box, the measurement palette still shows the object as one-inch by one-inch (regardless if you have strokes set to “Inside” in the stroke palette) – even though you know it’s wider… that is unless you have the “Use Preview Bounds” box checked in the Preferences under the General section. Then any measurements you take will include strokes, drop shadows and other effects.
Show Import Options in InDesign temporarily
Did you know that you can get the Import Options dialog box to appear when placing an image without actually having to turn it on by default by checking the Show Import Options checkbox? Well you can. Simply hold the Shift key down when pressing the Open button or double-clicking on the file name in the Place dialog box. This will temporarily turn on the dialog.