Illustrator

Hello, friends. Deke here this week. (Colleen is buried hundreds of pages deep inside a book we hope to one day call Photoshop Elements 8 One-on-One, which is slated for delivery next month. Poor dear; book writing is such torment.) And so it is my esteemed privilege to present you with Martini Hour 036, the last dekeLounge-recorded Martini Hour before we embark on a long series of shows captured live and loose from Las Vegas. Baby.

This week's C&D-only show features a question from a caller who fails to identify herself. I dub her Daffodil because she sounds so sweet and pretty and harmless. But Daffodil's question is about the most horrifying one we've encountered, perfect for Halloween: Why is it that Pantone spot colors look one way in Illustrator and InDesign, and another in Photoshop? And how in the world do you correct this problem?

By way of example, we take on Pantone 172: Is it Pumpkin or Grenadine? (See the swatches in the graphic, top left. I mean, holy shit, how different are those?)

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Update: As of November 6, "Photoshop CS4 Smart Objects" is now available at lynda.com. Members of the lynda.com Online Training Library can check out this link, Photoshop CS4: Smart Objects, for the entire course.

Well friends, more than 1900 of you have voted on my fate. And even tho "Photoshop CS4 for Bio-Medical Imaging Geeks" recently surged to 5 percent (95 votes is none too shabby!), the masses have spoken. "Photoshop CS4 Smart Objects" continues to be the dominant leader.

So I'm hoping the masses will be happy to learn that I have finished filming all 80+ screen-capture movies for this series, ending with the project file shown below. (That's just a detail, of course.) The effect is a combination of nine smart filters--Median, High Pass, and Shadows/Highlights; nested inside Variations and Mezzotint; capped by Find Edges and Emboss; with a measure of Poster Edges and Graphic Pen wrapped up inside the Filter Gallery--all set to different blend modes subject to the whims of two filter masks, a layer mask, and an adjustment layer. In other words, utter simplicity itself.

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(Thanks to Mhelcor for the correction on the this week's title! ---cw) It's a true sign of my special penchant for total geeks that there is nothing more enjoyable for me than to sit with two notorious experts, and listen to them talk about something I know almost nothing about. Oh, sure, there are martini's involved, so that helps. And eventually I find out I'm learning along the way.

But really, for those of you who love Illustrator adventures, we've got a show for you with  our good friend Mordy Golding. These two could duke it out (or maybe just a friendly thumbwrestle) for World's Most Knowledgable Illustrator Expert, and yet they're both so sweet and helpful. And for those of you who don't care much about Illustrator, really just take the time to listen to the magic of two passionate experts sharing their knowledge, specifically about Illustrator's Transparency palette. By the way this is the episode has the added advantage of hearing Deke state his distinction between computer graphics and digital imaging, which I tell you, is something, after years of working, drinking, and generally hanging about with Deke, I only just found out.

Here's where Deke and Mordy go on their mutual Illustrator love adventure: Read more »