The Blackboard

• OMG it’s 2014 2016! 2018!
• Mao Mao, Mao, Mao…..
• Been really busy, eventually plan to have content more frequently.
• Creative Cloud! Now it’s the only option!

Illustrator Bezier Waggle

A buddy and I noticed what we think is a bug in Illustrator a long time ago. It seems to make its way into each new version of Illustrator

If you make a path with the pen tool, then go back and select the bezier handle with cmd (white arrow tool), then add space bar (to move the anchor point) the other, unselected bezier handle seems to waggle as you move the anchor point, and it gets longer and longer as it goes…

Here is a video… Bug or Feature? you decide!

Illustrator CC: Asset Export Panel

Well, this certainly would have been helpful when I was doing more App Development. A welcome addition nonetheless.

Seems pretty intuitive and straight forward, right?

InDesign: Style Override Highlighter

Does exactly what you think it does. Now you don’t have to hunt for those style overrides!

InDesign: Ungrouping objects releases them back to their original layers

Just found this out, but when you group objects, InDesign places the group into one top level layer. BUT, when you ungroup it, InDesign releases it back to the original layers! This has been a great discovery for working with interactive overlays and interactive buttons.

Illustrator: Create Gradient Mesh from Raster Image

Apparently you can do that now, or maybe you always could have…

Photoshop Peripherals

Every few weeks I get the itch to see if I can improve my photoshop workflow, either through external controllers, or something that will make it more suitable for a tablet experience… There are some solutions what seems like it will work for me, and others that don’t. Here’s what I am looking for…

• Find solutions that supplement the keyboard, not really replace it. (no gaming keyboards or basic keyboard remappers)
• Be a physical interface that does what a keyboard can’t – sliders and dials
• Don’t be so customized and so specialized that I become dependent on this one piece of hardware

Palette Gear
http://palettegear.com/how_it_works

This looks absolutely kick ass. the controller comes in the forms of buttons, dials, and sliders, you can program them differently for different applications, and toggle between modes so a single slider does more than one thing. Set up correctly, you can basically adjust stuff without pulling up menus and what not. Their demo is definitely worth checking out. Seems like it started out as a kick starter project, and is kind of pricey and bulky….

Shuttle Contour

This, and it’s larger brother, the contour 2, seems to be pretty popular in the Photoshop world. you can set dedicated buttons for certain tasks, and there’s a 360 dial and a jog dial for doing ceratin tasks. I’ve set this up for a friend once, and it’s a solid investment for not too much money. The problem with this, like the problem with the express keys that come with your basic Wacom tablets, is that, there is an awful lot of things that your basic keyboard and default keyboard shortcuts takes care of… and I always want to think i can have this thing and NOT have a keyboard.. but that’s not likely to happen.

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Griffin Multimedia controller

Someone was able to hack this and get it to work. There is left and right turn, push, and push while turning left and right. With some additional hacking like Auto Hotkeys, apparently it can be a great solution. The guy even hooked up 2 of them together to do different things.. but at that point, why not get a shuttle controller…

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Duet Display

This isn’t a piece of hardware, it’s really an app, meaning you’ll have to have an iPad to make this work. If you don’t already have an iPad, this will be a costly solution.. if you do.. it’s still kind of costly since the app costs $15. Unlike many of the other apps that turn your iPad into an extended display, this one works by physically plugging your iPad to your computer. The promise is a simpler, more seamless experience with more resolution and less lag. The first time I set up my iPad as a second display it was great. But if I was going to have my email on a second monitor, why not just launch Mail on my iPad without the extra app in between.

The one feature that drew me to this was the fact that Duet Display supports touch, which means, if you set this up, you can basically just drag your Photoshop panels over to your second monitor and the second monitor becomes a touch enabled controller of all of your Photoshop panels. Tap to select a color, tap to select a brush, drag to change brush size and opacity. I’m actually really happy with this solution, though I’m not usually a fan of having my panels on a second monitor. Oh, and there is a bit of a lag, despite what they claim.

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Astro Pad

Astro Pad is another app, but this one supposedly turns your iPad into a Cintiqe tablet. So you’ll still have to tether it to your real computer, but if you have an iPad and a Bluetooth pressure pen, go for it. This promises support for iPad Pro and Pencil too, so it should be a good long term investment… I haven’t tried this yet, but I am willing to give it a try

Illustrator : Object > Line and Sketch Art

In Illustrator, there’s a new command under the Object menu called Line and Sketch Art. What the heck is it?

Well, apparently, it’s for working with the mobile apps, Adobe Illustrator Line and Adobe Photoshop Sketch..

So there, mystery solved

Illustrator: Curvature tool

There’s a new tool for path drawing, and it’s called the Curvature Tool. I don’ t know if it’s because I’m so used to the pen tool, but this tool feels a bit weird to me. But basically, instead of straightlines being the default, curve lines are the default. you can still draw straight lines, but it takes a bit more work to do so (double click or alt click to change the type of anchor point it’s supposed to be). overall i found it to work pretty well, but it seems to have trouble drawing loops!

Also, if i select a loop (drawn with the pen tool) and with the curvature tool, once i click on the anchor point, it immediately changes it to a normal curve instead!

• click to place anchor points
• Illustrator connects points with curves
• Double click / alt click to change the next anchor point to a straight point
• hover back at previous points to edit
• esc/cmd click to exit tool

Crayola Crayon Color History

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/22/crayola-crayon-color-history_n_7345924.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

InDesign: Print Booklet now works with Alternate Layouts

Yes!

I have no idea when it got fixed, but now Alternate Layouts and Multiple pages sizes doesn’t screw up the Print Booklet function!.  In fact, when specifying a page range, you can select the name of your alternate layout from a dropdown menu!