Jun 222012
 

InDesign has always been an excellent application for generating forms but, until now, adding the form fields themselves had to be done in Acrobat Professional, a process that could be time consuming, especially if you were creating complex forms. InDesign CS6 now includes built-in form field support, making form creation much easier and faster.

In this example I am using a quote request form for a fictional design company

The form has been designed and text boxes have been drawn in the areas designated for responses.

Screenshot of InDesign form

InDesign form

To convert the text boxes to form fields, select Window>Interactive>Buttons and Forms.

May 042012
 

Screen shot of Creative Cloud graphic

Creative Cloud is Adobe’s online service which will bring together many of the leading design and production applications together with a collaborative workspace and online storage facility.

Creative Cloud is a subscription service, membership of which allows access to all of the forthcoming Creative Suite 6 applications plus Adobe Muse (for building web sites without coding), Adobe’s Touch apps (such as Photoshop, Adobe Ideas etc for mobile devices) and 20gb of free storage.

Members will be able to manage and download their software applications from Creative Cloud. Note that this does not mean the apps are streamed over the cloud, InDesign, Photoshop etc are still downloaded and installed on your desktop.

Nov 272011
 

With all the focus on new kinds of dynamic electronic publishing, it’s easy to forget that printing still plays a major part in design and communication. Most of us have to create printed material and making sure colours are consistent and accurate, pictures are sharp and documents are technically correct is a big part of getting that right.

Here’s a checklist of digital pre-press essentials for print production.

1) Calibrate monitors and adjust lights and other visual distractions (such as strong colours on walls, coloured desktop patterns, strong natural light sources) so you can be confident you’re seeing the most accurate colours onscreen.

Sep 072011
 
Step 8b

As more and more apps become available in the iTunes App Store, ensuring your graphics stand out is becoming increasingly important. I will take you through the process of creating a character for an iPhone app and saving it in the correct sizes for use on the many iOS devices with Smart Objects in Photoshop. I will also show you how to use the new Stroke Width and Shape Builder tools in CS5 Illustrator over the course of this three part tutorial blog.

 

Not got CS5? No need to fret, I’ll also take you through the alternatives for users on older versions of the Creative Suite.

Jul 152011
 
Camera Raw Interface

Camera Raw is an incredibly useful tool that many professional photographers use to make adjustments to photos. The great thing is with these changes, they are non-destructive – meaning, everything is always undoable! For example, if you make a crop that you then later decide is too tight, you can open the image and change the crop or remove it completely.

Camera Raw is not just for photographers, anyone who needs to make adjustments to their images, small or large, should take advantage of the powerful tools.