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Martini Hour 094, In Which We Hypocritically Mock Some of Adobe's Odd Feature Names

Submitted by colleen on 9 December 2010 - 12:15am.

What's in a name? Does a feature that goes by any other name still function as well? This week we're enjoying making fun of the names of Adobe features that don't really make any sense. And who are we to complain? "Martini Hour" is never really an hour and this week we're drinking Manhattans. So join us on this vaguely hypocritical but otherwise entertaining discussion of goofy names for otherwise highly useful (for the most part) set of features in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Like Martini Hour, you shouldn't be scared off by the names. 

Martini Hour 094: Adobe's strangely named features

Here is a list of cryptically, oxymoronically, or just ridiculously named features that we enjoy making fun of this week: Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #27: The Crop Tool

Submitted by deke on 13 October 2009 - 12:32am.
Feature #27: The Crop Tool

Okay, so the crop tool isn't necessarily Photoshop's most exciting feature. But what in the hell would we do without it? This one tool lets you clip away the edges of a photograph so you can hone in on just those details that you want to keep. You can straighten an image that you inadvertently shot cock-eyed. And best of all, you can temporarily hide portions of an image (as opposed to forever clip them) so that you can restore the cropped areas and recompose the image five ways to Sunday.

Which is a lot of "featuricity" for one tool. As usual, I show you more than how the crop tool works. (Cropping couldn't be much more obvious.) Rather, I show you how to exploit the crop tool six ways to Tuesday. Which is the promise of Photoshop Top 40, after all. Read more » 

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Employing a Seamlessly Repeating Pattern

Submitted by deke on 13 May 2008 - 11:30pm.

In my last article, I explained how to create a tessellating tile pattern--that is to say, a pattern that repeats seamlessly, with no flaws and with guaranteed results. Here's the spoiler: It all hinges on the Offset filter. Really, that's all there is to it. Choose Filter > Other > Offset, and everything falls into place. For more information, check out the previous article.

At the end of that article (honestly, how many links do you need to it?), I promised to share with you some interesting ways to employ your seamlessly repeating pattern. And true to my word, that's precisely what I'm going to do now. Two ways to use a repeating tile pattern. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing more to say. Read more » 

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