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Make an Image Sandwich in InDesign
How-Tos: Written by David Blatner on July 3, 2009
Place an image above and below text and vector graphics for a tasty visual meal.
12 Tips for Creative Pros on Facebook
How-Tos: Written by Dave Awl on July 1, 2009
Facebook offers a slew of communication tools that can help your creativity reach a wider audience. How wide? Try 200 million active users! To make the most of this opportunity without alienating that potential audience or putting your copyrighted creations at risk, follow this expert advice.
Clipping Drop Shadows in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
How-Tos: Written by Mordy Golding on June 22, 2009
Learn how to create an object with both a transparent fill and a drop shadow in three major software programs.
Creating Sharp Images: The Big Picture
How-Tos: Written by Conrad Chavez on June 18, 2009
To get sharper photos, you just apply the right sharpening settings in Photoshop and you’re done, right? Not quite. To create consistently sharp pictures, pay attention to important factors at every step of your photographic workflow -- especially steps that affect image contrast.
Recipes for Applying -- and Ignoring -- Text Wrap
How-Tos: Written by Diane Burns on June 11, 2009
Whip up a few tasty treats using InDesign’s text wrap features.
But Will It Print?
How-Tos: Written by Steve Werner on June 11, 2009
Ten tips for creating an InDesign file that prints perfectly.
QuarkXPress Tips: Word Import, Printing Fix, Preview Prescience
How-Tos: Written by Jay J. Nelson on June 11, 2009
In this collection of quick and handy tips, learn how to improve importing from Microsoft Word, troubleshoot QuarkXPress printer problems, cut paths, and more.
InDesign Tutorial: Preflight Files in CS4
How-Tos: Written by Russell Viers on June 10, 2009
InDesign CS4 introduced a new fusion between design capability and the laws of printing that will blow your socks off. Here's how to create and implement a basic preflight profile and read an error report.
Get the Nesting Instinct: InDesign's Nested Styles Auto-Format Multiple Paragraphs
How-Tos: Written by Michael Murphy on June 8, 2009
Before InDesign CS, no page layout program allowed character styles to work within paragraph styles. The two styles were completely independent of one another. But now you can prebuild one or more character styles into a paragraph style and trigger those character styles with specific conditions; e.g., bold the beginning text in a paragraph until an em dash appears. What character styles are nested in the paragraph, in what order, and what triggers the switch between them, is entirely up to you!
Master Templates in Dreamweaver: Part 1
How-Tos: Written by Dave Sawyer McFarland on May 21, 2009
Templates are production godsends, but they're also flexible enough to let you stretch your design muscles and keep a site's many pages varied and interesting. This three-part series will tell you everything you need to know about making and using Dreamweaver CS4 templates.
Get that Tilt-Shift Look without the Lens
How-Tos: Written by Jeff Butterworth on May 18, 2009
Use software to easily simulate shallow depth of field and make scene looks more like toy models than real landscapes.
How to Cure Typochondria
How-Tos: Written by Pamela Pfiffner on May 11, 2009
"Typochondria" is the fear that you've selected the wrong typeface. If you've ever suffered from that font affliction, rest easy: This article is good for what ails you.
Easy Yet Advanced Masking Selections in Photoshop
How-Tos: Written by Russell Brown on May 7, 2009
Learn how to use Photoshop CS4's Color Range tools to get more subtle, refined, and targeted selections when creating masks.
WordPress for Creative Pros, Part 2
How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on April 29, 2009
Now you're ready to dive into customizing how your WordPress site acts and looks.
WordPress for Creative Pros, Part 1
How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on April 23, 2009
WordPress is a user-friendly way to get a Web site up and running fast, yet it can be the basis of powerful, well-designed sites. This two-part series combines helpful instructions for beginners with tips for advanced users.
Mobile Design How-to: Use a Vector iPhone Skin
How-Tos: Written by Mordy Golding on April 16, 2009
When you're designing for the iPhone, making something look good on a screen is the easy part. The hard part is interacting with that design. What happens when you click on a button? How about a slider? Here's how to create a functional mockup without writing a single line of code.
View Source: Designing and Testing Sites for Internet Explorer 8
How-Tos: Written by Dave Sawyer McFarland on April 8, 2009
IE8 is faster and better, but if you’re not careful, IE8 may ignore all of its fancy CSS and JavaScript improvements and revert to displaying pages like IE7 or even IE5. Here's how to outsmart it.
Add Drama to Photos with Lightroom’s Graduated Filter
How-Tos: Written by Jay Kinghorn on April 6, 2009
In this tutorial, you'll control the lightness of foreground and background elements in landscape photos using the Graduated Filter tool and the Adjustment brush. The results are nothing less than striking.
Photoshop Tutorial: Create a Smart Object Photo Template
How-Tos: Written by Lesa Snider on March 25, 2009
Follow a few easy steps to make s smart object that converts a color image to black and white, gives it a sepia tint, and adds a vignette. Then use what you've learned to create limitless smart effects!
Top QuarkXPress Tips
How-Tos: Written by Jay J. Nelson on March 23, 2009
Adjust dot leaders, link spreadsheets to tables, and learn the logic behind spaces before and after paragraphs.