Tagged: Photoshop

Quickly access Open dialog box in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

Photoshop tip

If you want to spare every key click you possibly can, you can quickly access the Open Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator with nothing but your mouse – and you don’t even have to make a trip to the File menu!

With no documents open, simply double-click an empty space in the Application Frame (the space normally taken up by a document window. The catch of course, is that you have to have the Application Frame active and no document open.

[zilla_alert style=”yellow”] This is a tip I posted back in 2012, but it’s a great shortcut so I thought I might repost it. [/zilla_alert]

Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud updates

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe has updated, for the second time in a very short period, Photoshop Creative Cloud. It’s actually kind of nice to see the update notification pop-up more often with CC apps.

Tutorial: How to make a rippling flag in Adobe Photoshop

Tutorial: How to make a rippling flag in Adobe Photoshop

Rippling flag tutorial

It’s easy to find flat flag artwork online. But it’s not so easy to find images of rippling flags, especially shot against the background you want. Fortunately, you can use Photoshop to create a multi-purpose rippling flag, and then replace the design with the flag of your choice. Pretty cool, right? So let’s see how it’s done.

Check out this simple Photoshop tutorial by Steve Caplin at CreativePro that’ll help you turn your flat artwork into a rippling flag.

Quickly find the CMYK equivalent of a Pantone color in Photoshop or Illustrator

Many times you are asked to find the CMYK equivalent of a particular Pantone color. If you don’t have a ridiculously overpriced Pantone to Process conversion guide available, you can use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

There are a lot of theories out there as to how you can get the most accurate CMYK values (some area quite complex, such as first converting to LAB color before converting to process colors, etc.). But if you’re a pro you already realize that no Pantone color is going to match 100% in process printing anyway and the Pantone Color Bridge guide is the best and most accurate conversion method.

The Pantone Color Bridge Guide is expensive, so these are the fastest ways that I’ve come across that give the best results. (more…)

Alien Skin updates Eye Candy

Alien Skin Software announced the immediate availability of an update to its Eye Candy 7 graphic design effects plug-in. The update adds the capability to store presets in a cloud storage folder so that they can be synchronized between multiple computers.

Perspective Shadow

Cloud preset sharing is available to all users of Eye Candy 7, not just users of Photoshop CC. It works with multiple cloud storage services, including Dropbox.

I’ve done a visual review of Eye Candy 7 in the recent past, and I love the plugin!

The update also adds compatibility with the new Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud.

Get cleaner strokes in Photoshop CS6

Get cleaner strokes in Photoshop CS6

Photoshop strokes

There are two ways to apply strokes to shape layers in Photoshop CS6 — via layer styles, which have been around since version 6 (that’s the ancient version 6.0, not CS6), or via the all-new vector shape options. They may appear similar at first glance, but there’s some significant differences.

Bjango has put together an excellent post on getting higher quality strokes in Photoshop CS6 that’s definitely worth a quick read!

Photoshop etiquette for agency designers

Photoshop etiquette for agency designers

Photoshop Etiquette

Photoshop Etiquette is a site dedicated to offering some best practices for web designers using Adobe Photoshop. Of course, many of the tips are applicable for print designers as well.

Naming layers and using folders to group appropriate layers is a pet peeve of mine. There’s nothing worse than opening a PSD file with 75 layers all named “Layer Copy 1 Copy” and set in no particular order.

Got any tips not listed that makes life easier when using Photoshop? Share in the comments below.

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