Illustrator Notes
Bleed: ink that is printed directly to the edge
Crop marks: corner marks for the printer to know where to trim the paper
Illustrator: Vector Art making
-best program for logos, pen tool usage, etc.
Crop marks: corner marks for the printer to know where to trim the paper
Illustrator: Vector Art making
-best program for logos, pen tool usage, etc.
Illustrator is used to create vector graphics:
Vector graphics are very different from raster graphics typically created in Photoshop (it's true that Photoshop has some limited vector capabilities, but no where near what you can achieve in Illustrator). Instead of being comprised of static individual pixels, vector graphics are mathematically drawn by your computer and can therefore be changed with zero loss in quality.
There is a lot of stuff going on when you select and edit something. This is something that new users tend to dislike because it looks confusing, but in reality, all of the information and controls that Illustrator throws at you are extremely helpful.
Vector graphics are very different from raster graphics typically created in Photoshop (it's true that Photoshop has some limited vector capabilities, but no where near what you can achieve in Illustrator). Instead of being comprised of static individual pixels, vector graphics are mathematically drawn by your computer and can therefore be changed with zero loss in quality.
There is a lot of stuff going on when you select and edit something. This is something that new users tend to dislike because it looks confusing, but in reality, all of the information and controls that Illustrator throws at you are extremely helpful.
Illustrator Toolbar:
The Bounding Box: You see this tool when selecting anything on Illustrator--this is an intuitive feature.
In Photoshop, you only see an object's Bounding Box when you're in the midst of a transform. In Illustrator, you see the bounding box whenever you have a complete object selected and the active tool is the Direct Selection Tool (V).
If you have multiple objects selected, the Bounding Box will appear around all of them, allowing you to move or transform them together. The same rules apply with Photoshop. Hold the Shift key to scale uniformly, throw in the Alt option key to scale them to the center, etc.
One major difference is that you can't grab and independently move a specific corner of the Bounding Box like you can in a Photoshop transform. This makes shearing and putting perspective on objects a bit trickier as you have to use the dedicated tools for these types of transformations.
Smart Guides: These allow you to get precise measurements and align whatever you have selected with points and lines from other objects around it. They make it really easy to create complex layouts very quickly and are much easier than "eyeballing" things.
You also have a full set of alignment tools for these types of operations.
In Photoshop, you only see an object's Bounding Box when you're in the midst of a transform. In Illustrator, you see the bounding box whenever you have a complete object selected and the active tool is the Direct Selection Tool (V).
If you have multiple objects selected, the Bounding Box will appear around all of them, allowing you to move or transform them together. The same rules apply with Photoshop. Hold the Shift key to scale uniformly, throw in the Alt option key to scale them to the center, etc.
One major difference is that you can't grab and independently move a specific corner of the Bounding Box like you can in a Photoshop transform. This makes shearing and putting perspective on objects a bit trickier as you have to use the dedicated tools for these types of transformations.
Smart Guides: These allow you to get precise measurements and align whatever you have selected with points and lines from other objects around it. They make it really easy to create complex layouts very quickly and are much easier than "eyeballing" things.
You also have a full set of alignment tools for these types of operations.
C.R.A.P. is an acronym for contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. Less is more when graphic designing, and every piece of the design has a reason for being there.
Layers: In Illustrator, you can place various elements onto one layer and create knew layers by choice. In Photoshop, every piece gets its own layer. An individual object is really defined by the layer that it is on. If you throw two elements on the same layer, they become a single element.
On the right side of the layers palette you should see a circle next to a colored square. Clicking on the circle allows you to easily select an element. Click on the layer's circle to select everything within the layer or an individual element's circle to select only that item.
The colored square indicates the color of that layer.
On the right side of the layers palette you should see a circle next to a colored square. Clicking on the circle allows you to easily select an element. Click on the layer's circle to select everything within the layer or an individual element's circle to select only that item.
The colored square indicates the color of that layer.
The Pathfinder: Simple shapes can be difficult to create if you're not a master of the Pen Tool. As with most professional vector software, Illustrator makes creating complex shapes much easier through the use of "boolean" operations found in the Pathfinder palette.
The artboard: You can create as many artboards as you want in a single document, They can even be different sizes. Functionally, there are a lot of benefits to using multiple artboards within a single document instead of simply creating multiple documents. You can easily move/copy objects back and forth and print/export selected artboards all at once.
The artboard: You can create as many artboards as you want in a single document, They can even be different sizes. Functionally, there are a lot of benefits to using multiple artboards within a single document instead of simply creating multiple documents. You can easily move/copy objects back and forth and print/export selected artboards all at once.
Photoshop Notes
Photoshop: Pixel Art making
-best program for altering photographs
-best program for altering photographs
Photoshop:
1. Open each image (not place it) and drag with the selection arrows.
2. Lasso tool (3) = making selection--list what each one does
3. Image/canvas size: you can change this, see it, etc. (72 DPI = low resolution, 300+ DPI = high resolution)
4. Layers: each image you drag in gets its own layer. You can lock it, turn it on/off, change the oder of the layers--layers on top are above.
5. History--lets you go back many steps in time
6. Selections--magic wand, marquee, quick mask, etc.
a) POSTCARD: 3 images together in Photoshop
b) add all logo, front and back info in Illustrator
7. Adjust scanned or digital camera images for better screen display or printing. Photoshop lets you easily change the file format of images to use as email attachments, on web pages, or in printed documents such as brochures and newsletters.
8. Edit photographs, especially those taken with a digital camera or digitized with a scanner. Photoshop becomes an electronic darkroom.
9. Because it is so complex, here are often several ways to do the same task. Photoshop Elements is less expensive, consumer level graphics editing application. Elements is terrific for simple image editing, but Elements doesn't have nearly the range of capabilities as the full Photoshop application.
Every PSD will be saved with layers. You need to save as a JPEG or GIF to flatten it before it is placed on a website.
1. Open each image (not place it) and drag with the selection arrows.
2. Lasso tool (3) = making selection--list what each one does
3. Image/canvas size: you can change this, see it, etc. (72 DPI = low resolution, 300+ DPI = high resolution)
4. Layers: each image you drag in gets its own layer. You can lock it, turn it on/off, change the oder of the layers--layers on top are above.
5. History--lets you go back many steps in time
6. Selections--magic wand, marquee, quick mask, etc.
a) POSTCARD: 3 images together in Photoshop
b) add all logo, front and back info in Illustrator
7. Adjust scanned or digital camera images for better screen display or printing. Photoshop lets you easily change the file format of images to use as email attachments, on web pages, or in printed documents such as brochures and newsletters.
8. Edit photographs, especially those taken with a digital camera or digitized with a scanner. Photoshop becomes an electronic darkroom.
9. Because it is so complex, here are often several ways to do the same task. Photoshop Elements is less expensive, consumer level graphics editing application. Elements is terrific for simple image editing, but Elements doesn't have nearly the range of capabilities as the full Photoshop application.
Every PSD will be saved with layers. You need to save as a JPEG or GIF to flatten it before it is placed on a website.
Photoshop Toolbar:
Adobe Photoshop offers many options on its toolbar, beginning with the gripper tool on the top that allows you move the entire bar to a certain location on the Photoshop space.
With the Eraser Tool, you can add a layer mask to an image that will let you erase pieces of the image and blend the image into the background. This is helpful when creating scenes and images, with multiple elements involved, becoming one image. The Magic Eraser Tool can also come in handy when physically erasing the image is too tedious.
The Clone Stamp Tool allows the photoshopper to extract a piece of the image (by pressing Alt) and placing an exact "clone" of the piece somewhere else on the image.
The Text Tool allows you to add personalized text onto the image, but since Photoshop is not a vector-based art, the text may turn out pixelized.
Adobe Photoshop offers many options on its toolbar, beginning with the gripper tool on the top that allows you move the entire bar to a certain location on the Photoshop space.
With the Eraser Tool, you can add a layer mask to an image that will let you erase pieces of the image and blend the image into the background. This is helpful when creating scenes and images, with multiple elements involved, becoming one image. The Magic Eraser Tool can also come in handy when physically erasing the image is too tedious.
The Clone Stamp Tool allows the photoshopper to extract a piece of the image (by pressing Alt) and placing an exact "clone" of the piece somewhere else on the image.
The Text Tool allows you to add personalized text onto the image, but since Photoshop is not a vector-based art, the text may turn out pixelized.
File Formats in Photoshop:
- BMP is a standard Windows image format used on DOS and Windows computers.
- EPS files can contain bot bitmap and Vector graphics. They are supported by almost all programs.
- GIF is commonly used on Web pages, and it is a compressed format designed to load quickly.
- JPEG is commonly used to show photos on the Web, and it supports many color modes, retains all color info in a RGB image, unlike a GIF format. Most cameras make JPEGs.
- PDF is a flexible format for PC and Mac. PDF preserves fonts, layouts, and graphics.
- PSD format is default for Photoshop, and it is the only format that supports all features.
- RAW format is flexible for transferring images, and there are no pixel for file restrictions in RAW.
- TIFF is a flexible bitmap image format supported by most applications.
Modifier Keys:
Windows = ctrl, alt, and/or shift keys
Mac = Apple, command, control, and/or shift keys
Alt + click to do certain functions, click with mouse and keys
Resize/focus = cropping, shrinking, enlarging, slicing, changing the aspect, rotating, leveling, and mirroring
Enchancements/layering = filters, layers, clones, borders, artwork, text, animation, painting, morphing, ordering, styles, masks, cut aways, selections, move, warp, and shapes
Windows = ctrl, alt, and/or shift keys
Mac = Apple, command, control, and/or shift keys
Alt + click to do certain functions, click with mouse and keys
Resize/focus = cropping, shrinking, enlarging, slicing, changing the aspect, rotating, leveling, and mirroring
Enchancements/layering = filters, layers, clones, borders, artwork, text, animation, painting, morphing, ordering, styles, masks, cut aways, selections, move, warp, and shapes
Layers: one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop. It is a section within a PSD that you can manipulate independently from the rest of the document. They can be stacked, and the order of the layer is important.
They can be deleted, displayed, hidden, merged, locked, grouped, and flattened. They can be images, patterns, text, shapes, colors, and filters. You can use them to apply special effect, correct/colorize photos, repair damaged photos or import text.
They can be deleted, displayed, hidden, merged, locked, grouped, and flattened. They can be images, patterns, text, shapes, colors, and filters. You can use them to apply special effect, correct/colorize photos, repair damaged photos or import text.
Correcting Image Tonality:
-How much contrast is in the image
-If it is light or dark
-If the image was captured with an incorrect exposure
-Pixels range in brightness from 0 (black) to 255 (white)
- There is no reason to spend time removing dust, scratches, mold, or other artifacts from parts of the image you will later trim off.
- When you adjust an image's overall tone and color, artifacts become more or less obvious. If you want until you have finalized the color and tone corrections before removing artifacts, you only have to clean up artifacts once.
- Get the digital image from: camera, phone, table, or scan it (be sure to scan with correct resolution for high quality print).
- Open and SAVE AS. Do not alter the original version.
- CROP the working copy to reduce unwanted pixels from its penmeter and straighten the image if appropriate.
- Improve overall image tone and color as needed.
- Fix localized problems and make "artistic" changes. "Sharpen" if needed.
- Tonal Range or Dynamic Range of an image is determined by the way its pixels are distributed throughout the image.
-How much contrast is in the image
-If it is light or dark
-If the image was captured with an incorrect exposure
-Pixels range in brightness from 0 (black) to 255 (white)
- HIGHLIGHTS 205 - 255 MIDTONES 65 - 204 SHADOWS 0 - 64
- FLAT image: pixels are in the midtone range
- TOO LIGHT: lacking shadows
- TOO DARK: lacking highlights
- HISTOGRAM: graphic display of its color and tones. It is like a mountain range of the 3 tone ranges, we want to have all 3 areas in the image for quality image tone.
- Crop edges off of image
- Improve: brightness/contrast, levels, hue saturation
Special Tools
2. Spot Healing Brush tool
- Clone Stamp tool: to remove unwanted artifacts in an image
- way to paint with photographic pixels
- is used to sample an area of an image and then paint it to another area
- it is widely used to clean up spots, dust, tears, etc.
- the challenge is to blend into the target areas seamlessly
- set "source point" press option (Mac), or Alt (Windows)
- cloning is destructive so it is best to duplicate the layer or make a new blank layer to use
2. Spot Healing Brush tool
- Skin tones are a challenge because the gentle curves of the face capture light with varying highlights and shadows
- This tool works much better than the Clone Stamp
- Pixels are first applied and then blended into the surrounding area
- This tool is a simplified version of the Healing Brush tool, don't get them mixed up
- Be aware it is very sensitive to sudden changes in tones or areas of sharp contrast (it is best to create a duplicate layer)
Layers:
- The background layer - when you open an image, the single layer you see is the background layer. Made of pixels, is has special features. *it always is in the bottom level of the doc
- Opacity - the percent to which a layer hides the pixels of those beneath it. The background is completely 100% opaque.
- The Move Tool - can be used to move any of the layers
- Blend Modes - determine how the visible pixels of each layer combine with the layers beneath it.
- Altering any layer, such as erasing part of it, will show the layer beneath it.
- Layers panel - has create, hide, display, duplicate, group, link, lock, and delete. The panel displays the "stacking order" from top to bottom.
- casa home site: 6 photos. school logo, multi-colored, 9 links, 3 paragraphs at the bottom, bottom address bar, cal/news/links (only have 3 layers: pics, elements, and text group. create and use guides/margins)
- eye icon = show/hide for each layer. You can change the name of any layer and lock them.
- Active Layer - This one is shown by a highlight color; you can duplicate layers.
- Layer Groups - are folders that help to organize and manage layers. The triangle expands the contents.
- The bottom of layers panel has many useful buttons:
- -link layers
-add link style
-add layer mask
-fill or adjustment layers
-layer group
-new layer
-delete layer - In theory you can have up to 8,000 layers in one document
- You can copy/paste in the same layer, and into other layers
- Merge; Down - combine active layer with one below it
- Blend Modes - layers interact with those beneath them in special ways. These use mathematical formulas to blend pixels to create special effects. there are 2 in CC version. They are grouped together by their general results.
- Blend Color - color displayed in the active layer when you view it all by itself
- Result Color - appears in the document window after combining the blend and base colors/layers
- Opacity
"Stop Stealing Sheep"
(info most likely to be on the final)
- A newspaper gets its look, its personality, from the typefaces used and the ways in which they are arranged on the page.
- In North America, something may look unacceptable, but would please a French reader.
- Not every typeface is suited for every language. Certain faces are popular in certain countries.
- Newspapers require careful planning and are laid out with complex grids.
- Design -- in this case at least -- has to be invisible. Typefaces have to look so normal that you don't even notice you're reading them.
- Every PC user today knows what a font is, calls at least some of them by name; Helvetica, Verdana, Times. What we see on screen are little unconnected square dots.
- In ancient Rome, letters were drawn by brush on stone and then chiseled out.
- Graphic design and topography are complicated, but even simple projects benefit from thinking about the problem, forming a mental picture of the solution and carefully planning the steps.
- Typefaces were designed 500 years ago, around the time of movable type. These basic shapes and proportions are still valid today (Bible of 1455).
- There are thousands of variations of the letters that have been created. Typefaces for reading are derived from handwriting.
- As literacy spread, people began to care more about expressing their thoughts quickly, and less about style and legibility.
- Quills, pens, pencils, etc. have all changed handwriting, but the Roman alphabet has survived all of these remarkably intact.
- Our view of things is still largely shaped by nature: plants, animals, weather, scenery, etc. Most of what we perceive as harmonious and pleasing to the eye follows the rules of proportion that are derived from nature.
- Our classic typefaces also conform to those rules; if they don't, we regard them as strange.
- Television, web, phones, etc. put to question our "natural" rules of perception.
- The world of typefaces is bound to change more by 2020 than it has since the 15th century.
- HEADLINES = usually large in scale and at the top.
- NEWSPAPER TYPE = created some of the very worst typefaces, typesetting, and page layouts known to mankind.
- BOOKS TYPE = hasn't changed much over the last 500 years.
- "Classic" typefaces: Caslon, Baskerville, and Garamond (all serif typefaces?).
- An overall impression is created in our minds before we even read the first word of a magazine, newspaper, etc.
- Graphic designers, typesetters, editors, printers, etc. follow the rule that "it is best to follow the rules," but at times they need to be broken.
- Good designers learn all rules before they start breaking them.
- Type has practical uses -- it can walk, run, skip, jump, climb, and dance. It can express emotions.
- Personality of type can be -- light or heavy, round or square, slim or squat.
- Dark emotions call for a black typeface with sharp edges, pleasant feelings are best evoked by informal and light.
- The best casual typefaces have always had some spontaneity o handwritten letters into mechanical restrictions
- The more characters in a words, the more chances there are to find the right letterforms to express its meaning.
- Type and graphic designers often choose typefaces for reasons of "beauty," "ugly," etc.
- For more scientifically-minded people, there are measurements for type.
- Components, details, and proportions are used to describe various parts of a letter.
- X-height, descenders, cap height, etc.
- Metal letters can be made for any width and height, but digital type has to conform to pixels.
- On screens, 72 pixels = one inch
- Typographic variety cannot be suppressed by technological restraints.
- Picking typefaces for a design job is similar to what clothes to pack for a trip.
- Before you pick your font family, you need to look at the task at hand. Get a balance between practical and aesthetics -- that is what design is all about.
- Pick typefaces for reading that are easy to read.
- "Loose fit" is a typesetting term that means letters have a comfortable space between them.
- Italic style came from many years ago when scribes had to write hundreds of pages every day.
- We read best what we read most...
- Most type is used for business communication of one sort or another so it has to conform to rules of the corporate world.
- Text for business has to look fairly serious (like a person in a suit and tie).
- Typefaces such as: Times New Roman and Helvetica fit this bill perfectly, due to lacking individualism.
- There are typefaces that are only suitable for more occasional occasions.
- They may be too hip to be used for mainstream communication, or simply be too uncomfortable (like wearing tight jeans rather than admitting that they don't fit us anymore).
- FUN FONTS = more entertainment than corporate fonts, fun to work with.
- When you print on paper, your choice of typeface is covered first by the content of the message, then audience and then technical constraints.
- CMYK = cyan, magenta, yellow, black
- RGB = red, green, blue )this is the color type used in screens)
- Human's eyes do not like light coming out of screens with reading.
- They way books are read hasn't changed much over 500 years, only the economics, which means fitting more onto a page.
- Generic ad style: headline on top, attention grabbing picture, subhead, main copy, logo, address, URL, phone numbers (never more than 8 elements).
- The computer has given us access to the design language that would have been far too complicated without the aid of sophisticated programs.
- Gradations of color, overlaid images, frames, lines, boxes, back/foregrounds, all add up to the appearance of the page as one image.
- The waves may come and go, but graphic design will always be about problem solving first, and style-making afterward.
- Corporations have tons of money, so they hire designers and advertisement agencies (there is a difference).
- Some designers set trends and others follow them. They all get paid to make their clients look different from the competition.
- Type and design enhances and helps reinforce a message.