Creativetechs would like to welcome the newest member of our growing support team: Jason Hoppe.
Use a scroll wheel to zoom in Adobe Photoshop.
Most people know how to use the Apple (Cmd) key with “+” and “-” to zoom in and out within a Photoshop document. But if you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, there is a faster way. Hold down OPTION when you spin your mouse’s scroll wheel, and Photoshop zooms in and out on […]
Fixes for Stuffit Expander and missing files.
You’ve recieve a Stuffit archive (.sit) that contains crucial files for your project. But when you expand that archive, Stuffit Expander ends up giving you an apparently empty folder, or only shows a couple of your needed files.
This is one of those problems we get a lot of calls about from frustrated designers. Certainly more designers suffer in silence.
In this tip we’ll not only explain what’s going on, we’ll give you three easy ways to fix the problem for good!
Send all those W-9’s using PDF Forms.
Around this time of year, many freelancers and other small creative businesses in the United States start receiving requests for a lot of W-9’s and other tax-related forms from their clients. Tax advice is well beyond the scope of this tips newsletter. However if you are getting a lot of requests for W-9’s this month, […]
Create your own Star Wars opening sequence.
This is just fun. Enter your own details and this little app builds an animated opening sequence, including animated logos for your own film company, distributor, and the characteristic crawling yellow text that opens each Star Wars episode. https://alienryderflex.com/crawl/ Warning: The current version of this application generates over 2,000 individual BMP files that need to […]
Add proofing messages with PDF watermarks.
PDFs have become a prevalent way to provide proofs for clients. But switching to PDFs disrupts the tradition of adding studio-branded “proof” stickers or checklists to a client’s hard copy proofs. Worse, some some creative teams have reported problems with restless clients jumping the gun and using those PDFs as printer-ready digital art. Here is […]
Set default applications in Mac OS X.
RCDefaultApp is a free utility that Creativetechs has started adding to our recommended Mac OS X installs. It adds a special preference pane that allows you to quickly change the default application for many common situations:
- Open all your .pdf files in Acrobat instead of Preview.
- Pick a different default mail client or web browser.
- Control what opens when digital cameras or webcams are plugged in.
- Close security holes with how certain weblinks are handled.
Of course you can change these settings other ways. But RCDefaultApp makes it much easier by putting the most requested controls into one location — a new “Default Apps” option at the bottom of your Mac OS X System Preferences.
Fonts & Mac OS X 2007 Update.
Last week we reprised our annual Fonts & Mac OS X talk at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts. This year included some significant updates for designers managing their fonts in 2007.
Here is a link to the PDF of the presentation, which includes specifics on some of the details covered:
SVC Font Class 2007.pdf
In addition to this PDF, we have a variety of links and resources that were mentioned during the presentation.
Scale Layer Effects in Photoshop.
Back in Issue #57 of our tips email, we demonstrated a fun technique for creating realistic water droplets using layer styles in Adobe Photoshop. The effect was created using a combination of four different layer style settings. The effect looks good with droplets. But when we apply that same set of layer styles to type, […]
Fold your own iPhone today.
Over the years we’ve collected a variety of papercraft Macintosh templates. So when we found this foldable iPhone template at iPhoneCountdown.com we knew it must be added to the list!
iPhone Readymech.pdf.
Find yourself waiting impatiently for the June release of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone? This project might buy you an hour or two of release.
