How-Tos

Create Web Animations in Photoshop CS3

Animate banner ad and graphic objects; transform their shape, size, color; or replace them entirely.

Dreamweaver How-to: Create "You Are Here" Navigation Links

Use this simple technique to create a nav bar button that changes to reflect a visitor's location in your site, then make it work across the site using Dreamweaver CS3's Template.

Make Editable Arrows in Photoshop

Create vector arrows you can color, warp, resize, flip, shadow, emboss, and more.

Bake Up a Batch of PDF Files

Open a file, change the header, save the file to a new location, close the file... repeat more times than you can count. If that sounds familiar, help is on the way.

Use Any Font in a Web Site Design

There have always been two certainties in Web design: You can never have enough bandwidth, and all Web design must rely entirely on fonts installed on the viewer’s computer. But thanks to sIFR, at least one of these so-called inescapable certainties is wrong.

Create a Reflection Effect in Photoshop CS3

Mirror, mirror, how do you get a realistic reflection of your image? In Photoshop CS3, it's easy to mirror images using the Clone Source feature with the Clone Stamp Tool and Healing Brush.

Sidewalk Serendipity

Street photography hones your vision, improves your technical skills, and heightens your reflexes. Plus, it's free and legal!

Get Dynamic in Photoshop

HDR is one of the hottest trends in photography. Learn how to shoot, merge, and tone-map photos to extend the dynamic range and produce those painted-looking results so in demand right now.

Slim Down Your PDFs

Follow these tips to shrink a PDF's file size and help it display faster.

View Source: Make Your Links Unforgettable

Most Web usability books (for example, Steve Krug's excellent Don't Make Me Think) emphasize that the less you make a visitor think and work, the more likely they'll visit, enjoy, and benefit from your site. The typical HTML link is one of those things that make visitors work -- a single linked word, for example, is a small target that requires good aim to hit. That's one of the reasons Web designers make navigation bars with buttons that are larger than the text inside them.

InDesign Transparency: No Longer the Forbidden Fruit

With this advice, you can reap the rewards of transparency and never hear those dreaded words, "It won't print!"

Create Clipping Paths without Photoshop

Here's how to cut out an image using only QuarkXPress.

Selectively Adjust Color in Photoshop

To change the hue of only part of an image and not obscure details underneath the new color, try these techniques.

Illustrator How-to: This Technique is a Real Knockout

Thanks to the Knockout Group checkbox in the Transparency panel, you can accomplish the seemingly impossible in Illustrator.

HerGeekness Says: Convert Custom Letterhead to Microsoft Word Templates

Is your client insisting on a Word version of your letterhead design? Follow these conversion guidelines to cut down on your pain and maximize your profit.

A Monstrous Photoshop Technique

Learn how to take images to the creative edge, and break all the rules in the process!

Seven Tips for a Perfect Printed Piece

Straight from the pros at the bindery, this advice will help ensure glitch-free print jobs.

10 Quick Macro Shooting Tips

Eliminate the variables, and you'll end up with nothing but great shots.

Illustrator How-to: Why the Appearance Panel Rocks

Although the Appearance panel has been around since Illustrator 9, many people don't realize how helpful it really is. This tutorial gets you up to speed.

Turn Color Photos into Duotones in Photoshop

You can transform one photograph into a wide variety of duotones to use in print or on the Web.