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…

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

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!

Illustrator: Customized Tools Panel

This feature has been kicking around a while, but I just stumbled on it recently. You can customize and create your own Tools Panel in Illustrator!

This is great for those buried subtools that don’t have a default keyboard shortcut (looking at you, polygon tool!) or those tools that I can never find for the occasional use (knife and scissors). you can basically drag any tool from the tools menu into a new tool bar of your own making, and then have a second tool bar!

• To add tools to your own new tool bar, drag it from the default tool bar

• To remove tools from the customized tool bar, drag it out into the artboard (you have to have a document open to do this)

Photoshop: Extract Assets

Photoshop introduced a feature to generate assets automatically from your layers by giving them a specific name (see more here) with File > Generate > Image Assets, but the rules for naming the files are… complex. So now there is a friendlier way to do this through File > Extract Assets, which gives you a GUI interface for doing the same thing.

• Select the layer or layers you want to extract
• Choose File > Extract Assets, or right click on the layers panel and chose extract assets from the contextual menu.
• The Extract Assets Dialog box shows up
• Follow instructions to set up asset extraction.
• Photoshop will automatically name the layers for you
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