resolution

I Have FInished "Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals"

Thursday, May 17th, marked the completion of my next video course for lynda.com, Illustrator CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals. It will include all sorts of exciting and monumentally educational live-action introductions (replete with graphic overlays) as well as scads of screen casts in which I demonstrate how the most elemental facets of this amazing program work. Not to mention how you work with it.

For example, in Chapter 6, "Tracing an Image" (in which I explore CS6's new Image Trace panel), I show you how to take a scanned Sharpie drawing of a half of an insect (how much more pedestrian could that be?) and turn it into the fully realized butterfly pictured below. Entirely auto-traced. And thus transformed from a murky quagmire of pixels to the resolution-independent vector-based realm of Illustrator CS6.

A butterfly drawn with a Sharpie, scanned, and traced in Adobe Illustrator Read more » 

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Expanding and Separating Artwork

Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced PREVIEW, Part 5

Where pirate flags (and perhaps, pirates themselves) are concerned, we are now deep into Vector Territory. Which is that portion of the map where even the hardiest of computer-graphics buccaneers disappear, and eventually return as ghosts. Which is where you come in. In this video, I unghost you. Which is to say, I expand the Live Trace object from the previous movie into a collection of static path outlines, and then divide the various colors (black, white, and red) across three layers. If that's not plain-and-simple skin and bones, I don't know what is.

Here's the official description: Read more » 

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Live Trace and Resolution

Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced PREVIEW, Part 4

As those of you following my special Halloween-inspired pirate flag video blog know, each and every one of this week's videos hails from my upcoming Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced series for lynda.com. And yet, halfway into things, we have yet to even see, so much as use, Adobe Illustrator. That curious situation changes today. In this video, I save the pixel-based artwork at two resolutions: 72 ppi (which Illustrator insanely recommends) and 300 ppi (which works out much better). And then I launch Illustrator and apply the program's Live Trace feature to both, with truly astounding results.

Here's the official description: Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #3: Image Size

Feature #3: Image Size

When I first pitched my Photoshop Top 40 podcast idea inside lynda.com, my producer gave me a wry grin and asked me what my Number 1 feature would be. Without hesitation, I announced "Image Size, of course!"

I later decided a couple of features earned higher honors. But I still consider Image > Image Size to be indispensible. It's the determinant of image detail, the seat of resolution, the place where your megapixels live and die. If Photoshop eats and breathes pixels, then Image Size is the program's stomach and lungs. Whether you're sizing an image for output or downsampling it for the Web, Image Size is where the action is. Read more » 

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Martini Hour 035, In Which Colleen Urges Deke to Stick with Complicated

One of the things that listeners told me while we were in Vegas is that, as fun as our guests are, every once in a while it's fun to listen to a classic Deke-and-Colleen conversation. After listening to this week's show, I think I know one of the reasons: Deke and I can really go nerdy when we're not entertaining. This week is a case in point, as Deke and I delve into his recipe for making a great screenshot. Yes folks, Deke has sound, meticulous advice for creating great screenshots, especially for print. Advice he imparts often when one (that would be me) is working on a book in his series (that would be Photoshop Elements 8 One-on-One which Deke and I are co-authoring due out shortly). If you've ever wondered why those images in One-on-One books look so sharp and clean, and so wonderfully readable, Deke reveals his secrets in this episode.

Here's our thinking: Read more » 

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