CreativeTechs Tips

Designing websites that take advantage of the iPhone web environment requires more than simply designing for a smaller screen size. The iPhone automatically scales websites when needed. iPhone readers use multi-touch gestures to zoom or move around the page. Flash isn’t supported, and neither are larger animated GIFs (a surprise to me).

Tucked away in Apple’s free iPhone Software Development Kit is a terrific iPhone Simulator you can use to test and preview your websites. In the full version of this tip we’ll show you where that iPhone Simulator application is hidden, and include a few tips on how to test various iPhone features.

Download Apple’s Free iPhone SDK

Note: You’ll have to register for a free developer account and agree to Apple’s terms. Read on and we’ll show you where the iPhone Simulator application is hidden, and include a few tips on how to test various iPhone features.

Read the Full Tip »

If you find yourself collaborating and sharing files with a small team, check out DropBox.com.

DropBox Easy File Sharing

Dropbox is a terrific application and web service that syncs a shared folder of files over the internet to multiple computers. After you install the application on several computers (using the same account), it creates a synced Dropbox folder on each hard drive. Any file you put inside that folder will be synced and available on each computer or through the Dropbox web interface.

Dropbox works on both Mac and Windows. You can get started with 2GB of shared space for free. Or upgrade to 50GB for $9.95/month or 100GB for $19.95.

Source: We use a free 2GB Dropbox account at CreativeTechs for sharing and working on a variety of classroom materials, including the small weekly class icons that we use to promote each week’s class schedule. It’s a handy tool.

Photoshop CS4 introduced document tabs that make it easy to switch between a variety of open images. It’s a terrific feature that I usually like a lot.

But there are days the tabs feature drives me crazy! If you’ve ever dragged one Photoshop window over another, only to have it sucked in as a new tab, you know what I mean.

So for you, a checkbox in Photoshop’s Interface preferences: Turn off "Enable Floating Document Window Docking" and say goodbye to that annoying feature.

Source: Working with lots of small images for our tips newsletter, this is one of the very first preferences I disabled in CS4. Adobe even posted a recent technote covering how to How to un-tab image windows in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

I was working on this week’s tip, when I got an email from Steve Laskevtich from Luminous Works with a PDF handout titled “11 Ways to Zoom in Photoshop CS4.” There are SO many ways to do the the same thing in Photoshop, that I (like I expect many of you will do) immediately set out to find ways of zooming that Steve had missed.

So let’s call this a group project. How many different ways are there to zoom in Photoshop CS4? I’ve started us off with the eleven from Steve. I’ll be contributing my own additions in the comments along with the rest of you.

Read the Full Tip »

We teach clients how to manage their professional image libraries using a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Bridge. I typically don’t recommend iPhoto for most professional libraries.

Then Apple added Faces (facial recognition) in the latest version of iPhoto. I’m loath to give up my professional workflows, but easily keywording photo libraries with people’s names is a game changer for many businesses.

This week I started testing Picasa 3.5, free software from Google, which now includes face-matching. It works great, integrates easily with Lightroom or Bridge, and did I mention it’s free? Read the Full Tip »

I’m always delighted when I discover basic Photoshop techniques I missed along the way. We all know you can drag selected pixels from one window into another. Somehow I missed that if you drag that same selection while using one of Photoshop’s selection tools, you can drag the selection itself (with no pixels) over into a new document.

I must have known this at some point, but I’d obviously forgotten because I have a clumsy method I’ve used for years when I needed to copy selection outlines between documents. If this little tip saves anyone those extra steps, then revealing my personal ignorance was worth it.

Source: This is one of those little details I picked up during Jason Hoppe’s 5-Week Photoshop Fundamentals course. For as long as I’ve been using these tools, I still learn something new from almost every course I sit in on.

Did you spend the extra for an "Extended" version of Photoshop CS4? If so, your copy of Photoshop sports a new 3D menu that you’ve never touched. (Tip: If you bought the bundle of CS4 that included Flash and Dreamweaver, you got Photoshop Extended in the deal.)

You’ll get your money’s worth today. This 3D Postcard trick lets your extra Photoshop investment finally pay off. This is a great trick for adding a sense of dimension to your portfolio when you need to show off flat screenshots, webpages, or examples of printed projects. Adjust your flat object in 3D space, add an appropriate shadow and you’re set! Read the Full Tip »

I just spent (yet another) weekend getting our September course list posted. The upcoming class calendar is pretty cool. Take a look through the slate of upcoming free classes, and sign up for a couple that catch your interest:

Link: Photoshop Course (6-Months!)

Link: Digital Photography Course (10-Weeks)

Link: Lightroom Course (10-Weeks)

Link: Dreamweaver Course (10-Weeks)

Here is the problem: I’m leaving for an extended family vacation in two days. I’m frankly a little concerned that with so many classes starting at once, we’re not going to get the number of people we need signed up by the end of August.

Help Spread The Word! Our free training model only works when we’re sharing with a large worldwide audience. Help us keep these classes free.

I’m delighted to announce that instructor Erik Fadiman will be leading a special 10-Week Dreamweaver Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the fourth week of September.

Enroll via Email: Dreamweaver Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

We have dates set aside for this class. Erik will post a breakdown of the individual weeks we get closer to the start.

Week 1 – Sep 22
Week 2 – Sep 29
Week 3 – Oct 6
Week 4 – Oct 13
Week 5 – Oct 20
Week 6 – Oct 27
Week 7 – Nov 3
Week 8 – Nov 10
Week 9 – Nov 17
Week 10 – Nov 24

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Read the Full Tip »

I’m delighted to announce that instructor Steve Laskevitch will be leading a special 10-Week Lightroom Course in our worldwide classroom starting in the third week of September.

Enroll via Email: Lightroom Course Enrollment.

The free weekly webinars are free. In order to join us, you’ll need to sign-up for a special weekly email notification we’ve created for this course.

We have dates set aside for this class. Steve will post a breakdown of the individual weeks we get closer to the start.

Week 1, Sep 14 – Overview.
Week 2, Sep 21 – Importing
Week 3, Sep 28 – Library Module pt1
Week 4, Oct 5 – Library Module pt2
Week 5, Oct 12 – Develop Module pt1
Week 6, Oct 19 – Develop Module pt2
Week 7, Oct 26 – Exporting
Week 8, Nov 2 – Juggling Catalogs
Week 9, Nov 9 – Output Module
Week 10, Nov 16 – Editing in Photoshop

And yes, you can pass this offer along to friends, or even post it on your blog. Help spread the word. We need a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled to make this free class viable.

Read on for an extended Q&A, and to ask your own questions in the comments. John is currently developing material for this extended course, so if you have a topic you’d like to see him cover, mention it in the comments below.

Read the Full Tip »