Saturday, August 16, 2008
Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in Photoshop CS3 on Mac OS
Supported file formats (Photoshop Elements 6.0 on Windows)
Designing Websites In Photoshop Illustrator?
So you have done some initial sketches for the look of your new design. Now it's time to develop these ideas. So let's jump into Photoshop. Stop! Wait just a minute. What about Illustrator? That can do web-design stuff too, can’t it?
For the “its time to develop these sketches”-stage of designing a site it's worth giving Illustrator a try. You’d be surprised. Sure you can create precise finished results in Photoshop; yet Illustrator excels at generating loads of designs quickly. Comparing designs is easy — just spread them out all over your canvas. It's faster to move things around. It's easier to resize things. It's not that Illustrator is better. It's just different.
By Andy Brown
So you have done some initial sketches for the look of your new design. Now it’s time to develop these ideas. So let’s jump into Photoshop. Stop! Wait just a minute. What about Illustrator? That can do web-design stuff too, can’t it?
For the “its time to develop these sketches”-stage of designing a site it’s worth giving Illustrator a try. You’d be surprised. Sure you can create precise finished results in Photoshop; yet Illustrator excels at generating loads of designs quickly. Comparing designs is easy — just spread them out all over your canvas. It’s faster to move things around. It’s easier to resize things. It’s not that Illustrator is better. It’s just different.
The designs you’ve done now might not be polished to perfection, but you can certainly tell which are worth developing and which you need to chuck. After all, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend polishing a bad design — it just never becomes a good design.
If we take the analogy of polishing a step further, when polishing a stone you start with a very coarse paper or grit and work your way gradually to a very fine paper or grit. In the same way you don’t just jump from rough idea to final polish. It doesn’t give good results.
For that final polish, Photoshop (in my opinion) cannot be beaten. However for the stage between initial sketches and finishing touches Illustrator is a worthy tool and worth a try if you haven’t already.
About the author
Andy Brown has a boring name but tries not to do boring design. He enjoys writing and designing. He works for a lovely company near Birmingham in the UK.
Editor’s note
This post is one of the finalists of our guest author contest. Over three weeks selected top-10-lists and discussion articles will be published. To rate the articles we’ll analyze their popularity, users activity, quality of backlinks, traffic and further data.
Read More
Working the text in Photoshop
CD or DVD drive not recognized by Windows after you install an Adobe application
Windows 2000, XP or Vista doesn't recognize your CD or DVD drive after you install one or more of the following Adobe applications: Audition Encore Photoshop Album Photoshop Elements Premiere Elements Premiere Pro Production Premium Production Studio Soundbooth Other CD and DVD burning applications, such as Roxio Easy CD Creator, are installed on the computer. Other CD and DVD bur...
Can't find or start the installer after you download Photoshop Elements 6 or Premiere Elements 4 (Windows Vista)
Warning "Application Has Moved..." when you open Photoshop CS3 on Mac OS X
When you open Adobe Photoshop CS3, the warning dialog box displays the following message: "Application Has Moved: This application has been moved from the location in which it was originally installed. Some settings need to be repaired." Detail You renamed or moved your Photoshop application file....
Adobe ImageReady CS2 feature location guide for Photoshop CS3
Adobe ImageReady has been discontinued. Most of its core features have been included in Adobe Photoshop CS3. This document is provided as a guide to help you locate ImageReady CS2 features that have been included in Photoshop CS3. In cases where a feature is not available in Photoshop CS3, the location of equivalent features in Adobe Fireworks CS3 is listed. Location of Adobe ImageReady CS2 features in Adobe Photoshop CS3...
Vector drawing techniques in Photoshop
Adobe Creative Suite 3 application installer closes with error code 2739 in Windows Vista
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Integrating Ajax with Spry
Custom paper sizes are not saved with images in Photoshop CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Windows does not retain custom paper size in the Print dialog when you set the paper size to something other than 8.5 x 11 inches and then save, close, and reopen your image.Manually reenter the custom paper size when you open the Print ...
Remove Photoshop CS3 public beta
Flicker occurs if a high-resolution VCD is viewed on a TV (Photoshop Album 2.0)
Solutions Do one or more of the following: Solution 1: De-interlace images that flicker. If you have Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements, run the De-Interlace filter on the images that flicker, and then re-create the VCD. In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, choose Filter > Video > De-Interlace. Solution 2: Use a progressive scan DVD player. Use...
Error "Licensing for this product has stopped working" when you start any Adobe Creative Suite 3 application
Adobe Creative Suite 3 application installer closes with error code 2739 in Windows Vista
When you install Adobe Creative Suite 3 or a stand-alone Creative Suite 3 application in Windows Vista, one or more of the following occur:After you launch the Setup.exe file, the application returns the error message, "This software cannot be installed ...
Photoshop Elements 6 appears to freeze when you repair a catalog
Custom paper sizes are not saved with images in Photoshop CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Windows does not retain custom paper size in the Print dialog when you set the paper size to something other than 8.5 x 11 inches and then save, close, and reopen your image.Manually reenter the custom paper size when you open the Print ...
Working with the History panel in Lightroom
Get an in-depth look at the History feature in Photoshop Lightroom and see how it can help you produce the best results.
Infinity: A Free Wordpress Theme
If you have been following Smashing Magazine for a while you know that we love high-quality freebies. Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free Wordpress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release Infinity — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
If you have been following Smashing Magazine for a while you know that we love high-quality freebies. Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free Wordpress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release Infinity — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Download the theme for free!
You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask our permission first.
- Preview (0.56 Mb)
- Download the theme (.zip-package, 2 Mb)
- Download PSD-sources (.zip-package, 7 Mb)
Features of the theme and Development Kit
- 3 fixed columns design
- Thumbnail covers style
- Flickr, Twitter and delicious integration
- not widget-ready (see the development-kit below)
Currently Yichi is working on an extended version of the theme presented above which will have a style switcher, integration with social networks and a number of JavaScript-based animations. However, at the moment it is quite buggy and he needs your help to get the theme done.
The theme (which is called Mashup) works eventually, but has some strange bugs — for instance, sometimes it freezes for some reason. Please get in touch with him to get the theme done or modify the theme directly:
- Mashup development kit
(similar to Infinity, but widget-ready and with a style-switcher)
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights about the design process and development from the designer himself.
“Thanks to Vitaly for this great opportunity! I have to admit that I’m not very good at telling stories, basically it’s always been hard to explain every detail on how I get it done and why I did this and that… Partly the idea for this theme is based upon my own theme which has a slightly personal touch and uses vibrant and appealing colors. With some rambling designs and fancy head imagery, I’ve tried to put all pieces together to make the theme literally stand out.
Among other things, the start page window of the Infinity theme has thumnails and offers delicious-integration.
I tried to keep it as simple as possible, unlike regular post entries style, with Wordpress custom filed functions. I’ve used them to show off image titles next to the thumbnails. This design decision is intended to catch reader’s attention in a better way, and it could be a huge advantage for portfolios where designers want to present their photos or design works.
I hope you enjoy this theme and I would love to hear any comments you have about my new theme, and for more information please visit my website. Or feel free to ask any questions regarding the theme in comments to this post — I’ll do my best to answer them!”
Posting preview of the Infinity theme
Thank you, Yichi. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
Special requirements
- The theme has no problems in modern browsers and also works fine in Internet Explorer 6.
- Wordpress 2.5 or higher is required.
- Some plug-ins are required for the theme to work (all of them are included in the download-package).
Last but not least…
We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists. You may not know it yet, but we might feature you in one of our upcoming posts.
If you would like to release a high-quality free font, a Wordpress-theme, some wallpapers or an icon-set please contact us — we would like to support you (both financially and with the broad coverage on Smashing Magazine).
You may be interested in the following free Wordpress-themes as well:
- Wordpress.Fun: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Fervens: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Dilectio: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Smashing: A Free Wordpress Theme
Label and view hidden photos in the Organizer (Photoshop Elements 6)
What's covered Label photos as Hidden View Hidden photos Unhide photos (make photos visible) This document explains how to label photos as Hidden in the Organizer in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6; and how to show the photos again after they have been hidden. Earlier versions of Photoshop Elements used a special "Hidden" tag to accom...
Color management workflow in After Effects
Learn how to manage color in high-definition video, cinema, and web video projects using After Effects CS3 and Photoshop CS3.
Troubleshoot installation problems in Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Windows XP
Photoshop Elements 6 appears to freeze when you repair a catalog
When you repair a catalog (File > Catalog > Repair) in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, during the "Checking catalog for errors" stage the progress bar turns white and stops displaying the amount of progress.� If you click the Cancel button at this stage, the entire dialog turns white and Photoshop Elements appears to freeze.The catalog you are repairing contains a large number (5000 or more) of photos.The catalog you are repairing contains...
Weekly Worth a Click
A few things that are “worth a click” here in the Lightroom and photography industry: • Frederick Johnson from Adobe has a cool interview with John Nack (Photoshop’s Principal Product Manager) • Sean McCormack has a Horizontal Scroll web gallery for Lightroom 2. It’s actually more then just a web gallery but an entire site with some [...]
A few things that are “worth a click” here in the Lightroom and photography industry:
• Frederick Johnson from Adobe has a cool interview with John Nack (Photoshop’s Principal Product Manager)
• Sean McCormack has a Horizontal Scroll web gallery for Lightroom 2. It’s actually more then just a web gallery but an entire site with some pretty neat features.
• A VERY interesting post by Lightroom product manager, Tom Hogarty, on Plug-ins in Lightroom.
• Some interesting thoughts and comments on certification exams (both pros and cons) brought on by the Lightroom ACE exam post from a couple weeks ago. In case you missed the comments section to read them, here’s the link.
Printing photos
Configuring a slideshow in Lightroom
Cool Web 2.0 Badge
Make a good looking Web 2.0 style Badge, in a easy way using the Polygon Tool and some Layer Styles.
Make a good looking Web 2.0 style Badge, in a easy way using the Polygon Tool and some Layer Styles.
Error "Some problems occurred during installation," "Component install failed," or "Shared components failed to install" (Adobe Creative Suite 3 on Mac OS)
Presentation possibilities in the Slideshow module, part 3: Playback and export
Infinity: A Free Wordpress Theme
If you have been following Smashing Magazine for a while you know that we love high-quality freebies. Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free Wordpress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release Infinity — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
If you have been following Smashing Magazine for a while you know that we love high-quality freebies. Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free Wordpress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release Infinity — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 3 fixed columns, thumbnails integration, Flickr, Delicious and Twitter integration as well as an attractive visual design. The theme was designed by Zhang Yichi, the creative mind behind Vikiworks Studio from Shanghai, China especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
Download the theme for free!
You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask our permission first.
- Preview (0.56 Mb)
- Download the theme (.zip-package, 2 Mb)
- Download PSD-sources (.zip-package, 7 Mb)
Features of the theme and Development Kit
- 3 fixed columns design
- Thumbnail covers style
- Flickr, Twitter and delicious integration
- not widget-ready (see the development-kit below)
Currently Yichi is working on an extended version of the theme presented above which will have a style switcher, integration with social networks and a number of JavaScript-based animations. However, at the moment it is quite buggy and he needs your help to get the theme done.
The theme (which is called Mashup) works eventually, but has some strange bugs — for instance, sometimes it freezes for some reason. Please get in touch with him to get the theme done or modify the theme directly:
- Mashup development kit
(similar to Infinity, but widget-ready and with a style-switcher)
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights about the design process and development from the designer himself.
“Thanks to Vitaly for this great opportunity! I have to admit that I’m not very good at telling stories, basically it’s always been hard to explain every detail on how I get it done and why I did this and that… Partly the idea for this theme is based upon my own theme which has a slightly personal touch and uses vibrant and appealing colors. With some rambling designs and fancy head imagery, I’ve tried to put all pieces together to make the theme literally stand out.
Among other things, the start page window of the Infinity theme has thumnails and offers delicious-integration.
I tried to keep it as simple as possible, unlike regular post entries style, with Wordpress custom filed functions. I’ve used them to show off image titles next to the thumbnails. This design decision is intended to catch reader’s attention in a better way, and it could be a huge advantage for portfolios where designers want to present their photos or design works.
I hope you enjoy this theme and I would love to hear any comments you have about my new theme, and for more information please visit my website. Or feel free to ask any questions regarding the theme in comments to this post — I’ll do my best to answer them!”
Posting preview of the Infinity theme
Thank you, Yichi. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
Special requirements
- The theme has no problems in modern browsers and also works fine in Internet Explorer 6.
- Wordpress 2.5 or higher is required.
- Some plug-ins are required for the theme to work (all of them are included in the download-package).
Last but not least…
We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists. You may not know it yet, but we might feature you in one of our upcoming posts.
If you would like to release a high-quality free font, a Wordpress-theme, some wallpapers or an icon-set please contact us — we would like to support you (both financially and with the broad coverage on Smashing Magazine).
You may be interested in the following free Wordpress-themes as well:
- Wordpress.Fun: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Fervens: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Dilectio: A Free Wordpress Theme
- Smashing: A Free Wordpress Theme
Adobe ImageReady CS2 feature location guide for Photoshop CS3
Adobe ImageReady has been discontinued. Most of its core features have been included in Adobe Photoshop CS3. This document is provided as a guide to help you locate ImageReady CS2 features that have been included in Photoshop CS3. In cases where a feature is not available in Photoshop CS3, the location of equivalent features in Adobe Fireworks CS3 is listed. Location of Adobe ImageReady CS2 features in Adobe Photoshop CS3...
Straighten crooked photos in Photoshop Lightroom
Learn how to use the crop tool in Photoshop Lightroom to straighten out a crooked image.
Error "Installing Creative Suite 3 / Adobe Photoshop CS3 results in a conflict with Adobe Photoshop CS3"
When you install Adobe Creative Suite 3 or Adobe Photoshop CS3, the application returns one of the following error messages: "Installing Adobe Photoshop CS3 results in a conflict with Adobe Photoshop CS3" "Installing Creative Suite 3 results in a conflict with Adobe Photoshop CS3" Detail You previously installed the Photoshop CS3 public beta. This error occurs when you try to instal...
Using Vanishing Point to map a 3D environment
Friday, August 8, 2008
Camera Raw files are not oriented correctly when you import into Photoshop Elements 3.0 or 4.0
Personalize your Lightroom workspace by changing the Identity Plate
In the Photography business, image is everything. Now you can personalize the Photoshop Lightroom workspace with your name or studio name.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 application installer closes with error code 2739 in Windows Vista
When you install Adobe Creative Suite 3 or a stand-alone Creative Suite 3 application in Windows Vista, one or more of the following occur:After you launch the Setup.exe file, the application returns the error message, "This software cannot be installed ...
Working with History and Snapshots in Lightroom
Keep track of the adjustments you’ve made to an image by using the History and Snapshots features in Photoshop Lightroom.
Photoshop World Contest
OK, here’s the deal on the Photoshop World contest. I’m giving away a free pre-conference workshop (a value up to $279). You can see the list here and there’s some really good ones available. First off, you have to be signed up and going to Photoshop World to win. So if you haven’t signed up, [...]
OK, here’s the deal on the Photoshop World contest. I’m giving away a free pre-conference workshop (a value up to $279). You can see the list here and there’s some really good ones available. First off, you have to be signed up and going to Photoshop World to win. So if you haven’t signed up, you’ll need to by next Wednesday (July 16th) because that’s when I’ll pick the winner. To enter, all you have to do is a leave a comment to this post and let me know which session you’re most psyched about or any ideas on a class you think would be good for Photoshop World. I’ll randomly pick a name from the list, and as long as you’re signed up for Photoshop World by that time, I’ll get you into the pre-con that you want. Sound good? Hope to see you there.