Selfportraits in Illustrator

14.09.2009design 4 Comments

I showed this to the students but gave them absolute freedom to use what they had learned in this short time. … All the portraits look very much like the author, even the cubic one 😀 So here you go, an exhibition: self6 self11 self18self8 self23 self22 self16self7 self2 self3 self4 self22 self10self19 self5 self13 self17 self9 self15

Close your fonts to fix Illustrator freeze, crash and sluggishness

06.09.2009adobe

That means what even if you delete font sets (a set of aliases/links to the fonts) the correct fonts will open in Illustrator when it calls for it even if you closed all your fonts to start with. … I hope this persuades you to let go and close all your fonts when Illustrator is really acting up because this is fast, no risk and you don’t have to be a tech geek to do this.

The Grid Calculator

27.08.2009grid systems, type

It means you can leave Grid Calculator and paste the information into the document you are working on and don’t have to go back and forth to copy one field at the time. … So, if you are ready to jump on the grid bandwagon, read my articles about grid making in Illustrator and use the Grid Calculator to speed up the process.

Sync Things easily between Macs

23.08.2009productivity 5 Comments

I have been using me.com (former mac.com) service from the time it started ([email protected]) but I have to say, that although I like it a lot to host my pictures, sync my iCal calendar and more, it is very slow for me. … Dropbox is similar to the iDisk in that a centralized server somewhere out there makes a copy of everything you put on it and if you open your account on another computer you will have a copy there too.

Convert CMYK swatches to Pantone numbers in Illustrator

24.07.2009adobe, design, tutorial 38 Comments

But notice the white triangle that is added to the swatches, which means that the colors are now Global. convertpan07 This results in a new Color Group , where the selected colors are grouped together inside the Swatches panel. convertpan09 Select the Color Group inside the Swatches panel. … The Pantone Swatch Libraries are under Color Books and as an example choose: Pantone solid coated and let go. convertpan12 Now watch the difference we have here: Over the button we just released it says: PANTONE solid coated and in the upper left corner you see that a dot has been added to the white triangle , meaning that we now have changed the Color Group to spot colors, which Pantone colors are . convertpan13 Before you click OK be sure that Recolor Art is checked.

Wallpaper : Geigy Chemicals

23.07.2009design, grid systems

geigychemicals A chemical can shown with this article on AisleOne inspired me to make this wallpaper which is free for you to download and use on your computer. Size is 1920×1200 px.

Converting colors between different color systems

23.07.2009workflow 3 Comments

These systems are like RAL which is commonly used for car paint and plastics, NCS which is a common system for house paint colors and many more I am sure you have not heard of. Your client might call you and say something like this: „There is this company in Germany which is going to paint my new Lear-jet in our company’s colors.

Improper kerning

30.06.2009type 2 Comments

alignleft A clever idea, keming , a new typographic term meaning that kerning has gone bad. … Buttons, t-shirts and more can be bought with this pun at Cafepress.com .

Grid Systems – Making grids in Illustrator 2

29.06.2009adobe, grid systems, tutorial, type 16 Comments

As I mentioned before, if we are going to have the same width of margins on both left and right we have to use a number of Document Grid units that the number of columns divides into, minus one.

…The only thing we needed to do if we wanted to have the f-line all over the page (might be useful in some other grid you make later) we select this line, go to Obejct > Transform > Move and put -4.477 pt in the vertical field and we are done.

Grid Systems – Making grids in Illustrator

02.06.2009adobe, grid systems, tutorial, type 20 Comments

It only allows you to set it for even sided squares, while InDesign lets you set different measurements for horizontal and vertical lines. iddocumentgrid On the other hand Adobe Illustrator which is a one-page program (although CS4 has multiple artboards) has some other tools that are just as great in its own way, tools that can really speed up the making of the grids. … Do the same with the horizontal guides using 210 mm for the width and turn them also into guides. makeguides When you make your next grid, after this tutorial you might consider if it suits you better to keep the lines in their green color and not to make them into Illustrator guides, but at least you should move them into their own Layer.