Adobe has released a plethora of announcements and updates recently. You could be forgiven for missing a few important ones amidst the blaze of AdobeMAX publicity. Here’s a roundup of some of the more practical ones.
InDesign CS5.5 update 7.5.2.
A bug fix addressing a number of problems including: several ePub and XML import and output errors, unexpected quits, layer panel instability and PDF export random quits. Full details here.
End of support for Acrobat 8.
The last part of this trio of tutorials for creating an iPhone graphic will show you how to export the vector character and save it for the different screen resolutions of the iOS devices.
Open Photoshop and create a new document. Go back to Illustrator and select your artwork making sure that you do not select the original drawing on the bottom layer. Now got to Edit > Copy (Cmd + C / Ctrl + C), switch back to Photoshop and select Edit > Paste (Cmd + V / Ctrl + V). Photoshop will ask how you would like to import the artwork. Choose Smart Object, click OK and then press Enter to place the artwork.
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.
With so much of the world looking for subtlety in effects for logos and icons, it can sometimes be hard to know what is the right way to use the many exciting Photoshop filters and effects in the right way from a design perspective. The ‘Gloss’ effect is becoming an important finishing touch to many designs, especially now smart phones are driven by app icons that need to look perfect in order for it to get noticed. Developers are starting to notice why a good, finished design is essential.
This post is about introducing the concept of wireframing – specifically what is wireframing and do you need it/should you use it.
With the advent of the iPhone, iPad, tablets and smartphones in general, I have often found myself with the need to first draw a rough sketch of my idea to show people. Initially I just used pencil and paper, but then I wondered – are there apps out there for me use? and should I use them?
How do you use your iPad or iPhone? With the iPhone being so popular, and now the iPad, I have found a couple of links that I wanted to share with everyone. These links made me laugh or go wow- and I will leave it to you to judge whether the last link is real or not.
YouTube determined that the request did not contain proper authentication.
Yes that’s right, you can now build iPhone apps with Flash using the functionality which was introduced in Flash CS5, following Apple’s announcement last night that it is relaxing the rules in it’s “App Store Review Guidelines”.
You might recall Adobe introduced this great new functionality earlier this year with Flash CS5, allowing Flash developers to build apps in Flash and then compile them quickly and easily to run on an iPhone or iPad as native apps. Apple then issued an announcement on almost the same day as the launch that it was changing it’s T’s and C’s so that apps compiled with 3rd party tools (such as Flash) wouldn’t be accepted into the iTunes Store. There was quite a bit of noise around this at the time as Apple had basically squashed the single biggest new features in Flash CS5 in one go.
There has been a lot of talk lately about HTML5 and whether it would negate the need for Flash. In fact this turned into a fairly mainstream discussion over the last few months after Steve Jobs made his position very clear, by refusing to support Flash on the iPhone, changing the T’s and C’s of the iPhone developer program and publishing an open “Flash Bashing” letter for all to read.
If you haven’t heard already Apple has changed the terms and conditions of it’s developer program to stipulate that all applications must be written in native code, and that software created using “an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool” are prohibited. Whilst this hits a number of products out there such as Titanium from Appcelerator it’s hard not to see it as a shot at Flash CS5 and it’s new built-in tool for creating iPhone apps, especially with the announcement made just a few days before the widely publicised CS5 launch.
