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John Nack on Adobe


Pen Zen for 2009January 2

Mordy Golding offers 10 Illustrator Resolutions for 2009--ten great suggestions for getting more out of this amazingly powerful app.  My notes:

 

  • If you do nothing else, try double clicking your artwork to enter "isolation mode."  It's just like editing a symbol in place in Flash.  Stop doing the whole lock/unlock, group/ungroup dance.  Isolation mode is your friend, particularly in CS4.

 

  • Mordy is right on about the power of the Appearance panel.  In CS4 the panel is at last just what I'd hoped it could be--namely, a killer one-stop shop for adding and editing object effects and parameters.

 

  • My personal addition to the list?  Envelope distortions.  Create some artwork, then choose Object->Envelope Distort, then either Make With Warp or Make With Mesh.  I like choosing the latter, then selecting the Free Transform Tool (E), clicking and dragging on one corner, and then while still moused down holding Cmd/Ctrl to do a perspective transform.  Bam, instant re-editable Star Wars text.

 

 

If you really want to brush up on your fundamentals & really wrap your head around the Pen tool, I recommend a couple of great resources:

 

  • Sharon Steue
Photoshop & hidden menu itemsDecember 30 2008

David Pogue asked a good question the other day:

 

Is there any way to make CS4 stop hiding menu commands it doesn't think I want?  Or is every menu selection an additional click now...?

 

I knew what had happened.  By default Photoshop doesn't hide menu items.  If you use the workspace switcher (screenshot) in the upper-right corner of the app, however, you may end up changing more than panel (palette) locations.  You may apply a menu configuration that hides certain menu items.

 

In CS4 the "Basics" workspace hides some of the more advanced/esoteric menu items.  The idea, of course, is to slim down the application so that it's less overwhelming to new users.  Once you've applied this workspace, menus will be shorter & will feature an entry for "Show All Menu Items" at the end.  Photoshop does pop a dialog box asking whether you want to apply a workspace that changes menus and/or shortcuts, but I think it's one of those dialogs that makes people say, "Uhhhh... I don't really want to think about this... so, 'Yes'?"

 

Long story short, to get things back to normal, just choose the "Essentials" workspace (which is the default).  Photoshop will reset panel, menu, and keyboard shortcut settings.

 

Frankly this area of PS remains a work in progress.  We've been

The Big Picture's Best of '08December 29 2008
Alan Taylor's Big Picture has been an outstanding addition to the online world.  The site now features The Year 2008 In Photographs.  More gripping imagery is on display in parts two and three.  ('Tis the season of an endless succession of year-end collections, but I'm trying not to link to everything all at once.  I'd rather see fewer images and take the time to consider each a little more deeply.)

Christmas EveDecember 24 2008

Recent scene from the Nack family couch:

Margot: “So, do you post every day?”
J: “Yeah, pretty much.”
M: “Will you not post on Christmas?”
J: “Okay.”
M: (hopeful) “Aaaand... maybe not Christmas Eve?”
J: “Hey, let’s not get crazy...”

I'm planning to take a couple of days off from the ol' blog, giving the eyeballs & RSS feeds a needed rest. Before doing so, I wanted to say thanks for reading, and to wish you and yours a most joyous Christmahanukwanzaa season. :-)

All the best, and stay frosty,
J. (intermittently partying with M. & the boy, and wikicheting the paper way)







OS percentagesDecember 24 2008

Last week I requested feedback about operating system usage among Photoshop CS4 customers, and I said I'd share the findings here.  Having gathered some 1,200 responses, I can share a few notes I found interesting.

 

I was curious mainly about how rapidly Windows-based customers are adopting 64-bit operating systems.  You get both 32- and 64-bit flavors of Photoshop in the CS4 box, but plug-in developers need to know when a critical mass of customers will demand 64-bit compatibility.  Of current CS4 customers running PS on Windows:

 

  • 39% (!) are using Vista 64
  • 8% are planning to migrate in 3-6 months
  • 9% are planning to migrate in 6-12 months
  • 23% are planning to migrate "at some point"
  • 20% are not planning to migrate

 

I should point out that this poll is hardly scientific--more like sticking your finger in the air to gauge wind direction.  Still, I was struck by the high number of people using Vista 64.  Of course, the data come from people who bought CS4 in its first two months, and who are motivated to read my blog and to answer surveys. 

 

My take is that Windows-based customers aren't in any rush to install Vista on existing hardware, but that when they do buy new machines, they're going with Vista 64.  In any case, it's great to see