October 02, 2006
One of the most common questions in graphics development is the difference between raster and vector images, why we need each of them, and what their appropriate uses are. I gave a short speech about this simple subject to my business group, LeTip, and I thought I'd share the information, complete with a downloadable PDF of guidelines.
In a nutshell, if you even consider using an image for anything outside of a Web site, start with vector graphics if you can. You can always scale the size of vector graphics since they're made of points and lines, but you can only go smaller with raster images, since they're made of dots. Increasing a raster file stretches the dots when you increase the size, so the image will appear blurry and will ultimately be un-usable. You cannot use a low resolution raster file easily if you want to print your image, create a storefront sign, create a banner, put your logo on a truck, etc.
All logos should start as vector graphics, and photographs with many color should start as high resolution raster graphics.
Download the PDF here - it includes a visual explanation.
Filed under Tutorials
Tips on how to Score
July 13, 2006
Repost from 9/17/04. Because I liked it that much.
No, not that kind of "score." So.. I was scoring some paper at work in an unconventional manner. This may have been thought of before, but hey, I thought of it on my own so I'm happy about it in my own geeky way (I realize I really miss interning in the GRC bindery at Cal Poly).
First of all, scoring is pre-folding to avoid crooked cracks in your paper. Usually, a wheel on a folding machine will score paper with a scoring wheel... I think sometimes they'll moisten the paper, too to avoid unnecessary breaking of the paper fibers.
What do you do when you have an at-home job?? Use two rulers! Preferably at least one metal ruler for the scoring. If you have folding marks on the sheet, that's helpful. Otherwise, find another way to indicate your fold line. Lay the first ruler down along the fold line, then use the corner of the second metal ruler to drag along the edge of the first ruler. Ta da! Now you have a perfect fold. =) Here is a picture:
P.S. You know how they say the pH of soda is stronger than the solvent that cleans the rollers? I'm having a Pepsi right now and my teeth feel really gritty. =( But it tastes so good..... *burp*
Filed under Tutorials
Schrekke, Alligator Lizard
July 11, 2005
"Anyone in here have a child that might be interested in havng a pet alligator lizard?" Mr. Schrette from down the hall at work popped his head in our door at 3pm today. I looked around and no one wanted it... I thought, "Forget the children, I want a lizard!" Phil's been wanting a pet for a while. We can't get a dog yet, and salt water fish are a little hard to get started, so I thought a lizard was a good compromise. And hey!! It's free and needs to be rescued! So I put the little dude in a water bottle, poke a lot of holes in it and cover the top with a napkin fastened with a rubber band. He sits on my desk until 5:30, nice and calm. He even goes poo. I spend several of my 2 minute breaks reading reptile forums figuring out how he would be most comfortable, what he likes to eat, etc. I email Phil a message that simply says, "We have a new pet!" to get him excited.
At 5:30, I am out the door, and I drive straight to Petco to get a 10 gallon tank, a cover, some soil and 10+ little cricketts. I get the small ones because my newly named lizard named Schrekke looks kind of young. By 6:15pm, I am out of Petco and I start driving home. Lizard check - looks good. Still looking around. I get home, carry all the equipment to our back porch, and I start pouring the soil, setting up his little cave that I bought, and just making it nice. This is going to be a nice surprise for Phil.
Now comes the last step - putting Schrekke into the tank. I pick up the water bottle, give him a look, and he looks a little stunned. Hm. Well, I better cut the top of the bottle off and dump him in. Why is he still in the shape of the water bottle!?!? SCHREKKE IS DEAD!!!! He could have waited like... FIVE MINUTES to enjoy his home.
Phil just called and he's asking on my
voicemail, "I wonder what kind of pet we have!!" *sigh* I call him
back to talk about dinner, but I don't mention the pet at all. Uggh I
don't want him to see it because now it is true. I have no hope for
sustaining life. I should never have children.
At least the cricketts live another day.
I guess it's funny. In a strange way.
Filed under Why?
Adjusting color
June 28, 2005
So... maybe after all this time that I have been using Photoshop, I should have KNOWN how to properly fix your curves/levels without screwing up the color family. Somehow, I missed the boat. After sitting in for a couple hours in Eddie Tapp's class at West Coast School in San Diego, here's something I realized I should have been using all along...
First of all, what is considered the "color family"??? Let's look at the color picker:
Picking any color with the circle cursor within the square box on the left side is considered within the color family. If your new color is achieved by sliding up or down the arrows on the skinny rainbow colored column on the right, you've entered into a new color family (color crossover).
Sometimes, when you mess with curves or levels, your color is going to move into a whole new color family. For example, this is probably most noticeable by a fair skinned person's face turning really reddish. To avoid this problem, we should change ONLY the LUMINANCE of the image, and not the color information.
Let's start with this image... bad contrast, bad brightness... just.. bad.
In order to modify the luminance of the image, the proper method is to work in LAB mode (as opposed to working in RGB or CMYK). Open your image > then Image > Mode > Lab color.
What does LAB mean? L stands for Luminance. A represents the colors Red/Green, and B represents Blue/Yellow. If we only change the Luminance, color is unaffected and you don't get the strange colors. Your Channels should now look like this:
Make sure that when you select the Luminance (Lightness) Channel, you have the eyeball turned on for all channels, or you won't be able to see the image in color...
To fix your color, select the Lightness Channel, then in Layers, make an adjustment layer. Why use an adjustment layer instead of just changing the original photo? For a couple reasons - 1) You can always see the difference you made from the original by turning off/on the layers. 2) If you don't like the change, you can delete the changed layer without affecting all your other changes. 3) You can turn down the intensity of an adjustment layer (as many times as you want) without using Edit > Fade (you can only do this once). Anyway, here's the adjustment layer icon on the Layers box.
First, fix your curves.
You now get this image:
Make another adjustment layer (Hue/Saturation) to add some color intensity to the image. Upping the saturation a bit will do this:
Much better. Here is a comparison for ya:
How to do this if you want to stay in RGB Mode:
If you want to stay in RGB:
Adjust Curves > See color crossover
Edit > Fade Curves
Turn down opacity, and change mode to Luminosity
This doesn’t work with Dodge and Burn (you’d have to change mode for
every stroke)
Filed under Tutorials
Photoshop: Clone Stamp
May 06, 2005
Here's a 2-minute baby Photoshop tool tutorial... Say no to the cutting and pasting of patches of patterns! Duplicate textures with the Clone Stamp Tool. It looks like this, located in your Photoshop toolbar directly below the bandaid:
Say, for example, you need to fill in a patch of nice grass (photo source). Start with a photo like this:
Click on the rubber stamp tool. Choose a semi soft brush. I'll be using a 36px/44% hardness brush. When you press Alt on your keyboard, the icon will change from the brush to something that looks like this:
This icon will choose the good part of the image you want to duplicate. With the Alt key held down move your mouse to a good part of the image and then click. Let go of the mouse key and the Alt key, and now Photoshop knows what you think is the good part of the image. I'd choose something like this:
When you let go of the Alt button, your cursor should turn back into the 36px brush. Now put your mouse on the brown spot and just color! If you run out of grass due to image borders (or if you start cloning bad parts of the image), just choose a new spot to clone by hitting the Alt key.
Ta da! You can use this tool to get rid of grass blemishes, animals in the grass, people laying out the grass... etc. This same method can be applied to any other texture you like.
Filed under Tutorials
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