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TUTORIAL • AUGUST 28 , 2001
Photoshop Tips: The Digital Darkroom Target Workflow
Optimizing your image correction process

The first three steps in creating the best image are done before you ever get into Photoshop. The first step, and the most difficult, is capturing the image that expresses what you are trying to communicate. From there, examining the original (the second step), will help you to select the image with the best exposure and tonal range. As a general rule, if the detail isn't there in the original, it's very difficult to make it up! The third step is getting a good scan. Even if the original is great, if the scan doesn't capture the information, then you'll have to get it from somewhere else or, create it yourself. In other words, garbage in, garbage out! Read More

REVIEW • AUGUST 22, 2001
Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 6
Photoshop training series

Every time a new version of a software application is released, there are always new features that users must get used to, old features that have been dropped or changed, new shortcuts to learn, changes in the interface and, of course, a bigger, thicker manual. For users who have been using the program for a while, adjusting to the new stuff can have a short or long learning curve, and new users can find themselves completely lost. While manuals are an excellent source of information, the printed media doesn't have the ability to show you how the application works without resorting to long tedious steps with no explanation as to why you are doing things that way. Luckily there are training videos available, and some of the best ones for Adobe products come from Total Training. Read More

REVIEW • JULY 18, 2001
Macromedia FreeHand 10
Vector illustration suite (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)

Macromedia is nearly as dominant in certain areas of graphic creation as Adobe is in others. Although the two graphics giants do clash in many areas, nowhere is the battle as fierce, or relatively unsettled, as in the vector drawing arena. Macromedia's FreeHand 10 is the latest version going against Adobe's Illustrator 9. Read More

TUTORIAL • JULY 3, 2001
Printing Varnish Plates from QuarkXPress
Using ALAP ImagePort and Adobe Photoshop to prepare and output files for varnish-ready separations

Printing a varnish plate from QuarkXPress for images that require masked areas can easily be accomplished using the XTension ImagePort. This will demonstrate how to setup and print varnish plates. Read More

NEWS • Jun. 14, 2001
Adobe Stands Behind PageMaker Upgrade Price
A clarification on PageMaker 7.0 pricing

A couple days ago we reported that Adobe plans to release PageMaker 7.0 this summer. It stirred up a lot of emotion from users, mostly very grateful to see Adobe get behind their publishing system of choice. But there was also a little bit of confusion over the upgrade price for 7.0. Read More

REVIEW • MAY 23 , 2001
Flaming Pear Flood
Water effects for Adobe Photoshop

Flaming Pear is a company that you might not be familiar with but that has put out some pretty serious effects filters for Photoshop. I've previously reviewed two of their products, BladePro and Super BladePro, both of which are designed to generate general material effects like stone and metal. This week we'll look at a plugin of theirs that has a much more limited scope but that might prove pretty useful to you compositing folks out there. It's called Flood, and its sole purpose is to place bodies of water onto an image. Read More

TUTORIAL • MAY 22, 2001
Video Tutorial: The Secret of Good Gamma in Photoshop
Designing for cross-platform viewers

Cross-platform computer users have probably noticed how different the same image can look when viewed on a Mac or PC screen. This lesson from Total Photoshop 6 is of especial interest to Macintosh web designers; instructor Deke McClelland shows how to use the Levels controls to approximate-and correct for-the gamma differences inherent in the two platforms. Let Deke help you to see your onscreen images the way "the rest of the world" sees them! Read More

TUTORIAL • MAY 14 , 2001
Working with Source Images in Studio Artist
Using multiple sources to create a range of original pieces

For the visitors of this page who are already familiar with Studio Artist, this tutorial may be a bit too simplistic. However, for those who come to this fabulous application for the first time, I hope the tutorial will help them enter an exciting environment. I will work strictly on one canvas, no added layers, but will open and use several Source Images. Studio Artist requires the opening of a Source Image in order to get started, and this Source Image can already be greatly modified right at that initial stage, simply by setting a canvas size that might be radically different from the original image size/resolution/proportions. Read More

REVIEW • MAY 2 , 2001

CValley FILTERiT 4
Filter effects for Adobe Illustrator 8/9

FILTERiT is probably the most remarkable set of tools I've ever seen for a vector illustration program. This is a package of innumerable effects for Adobe Illustrator 8 and 9, ranging from new types of transformations to object distortions to effects that can be applied to text without even converting text to paths.

I reviewed version 3.0 of this set of filters last year and was impressed with its variety, power, stability, performance, ease of use, versatility and price point. (You can read this review here.) Version 4.0 adds even more to the package, while still maintaining the incredibly modest price of $129. Read More

TUTORIAL • APRIL 10 , 2001
Digital Washes
Adding wetness and tint to your canvas in Studio Artist

This week we're back to Synthetik Studio Artist to take a look at another one of those features that makes this program unique, namely the ability to use media that interact with one another like liquids. Those of you with natural media backgrounds, particularly life drawing, are familiar enough with washes and the great ways they can interact with dry media like charcoal or Conté. I can remember in my art school using everything from watered-down Dr. Martin inks applied with a rag to transmission fluid applied with a very expensive sable brush. (In retrospect, maybe I should have done things the other way around.) Read More

REVIEW • APRIL 18 , 2001
Future Fantastic Genesis V2 Pro
Special lighting effects for Adobe Photoshop

I first encountered Genesis V2 Pro just a few months ago when I was compiling a guide to commercial Photoshop filters. I had left it off the list because I had never heard of it. So a reader wrote in and said, "Man, you have to check this out," or something like that. So I did. True story. Read More

REVIEW • APRIL 11 , 2001
Nowhouse Propeller Paint Engine
Painting and effects for Adobe Photoshop

If there's one thing lacking in the most popular image editor in the world, it's paint capabilities. Sure, you have a tool shaped like a paintbrush and one that functions like an airbrush, but paint functionality in Adobe Photoshop is incredibly limited. Read More

REVIEW • MARCH 28 , 2001
Creature House Expression 2
Vector illustration and painting software

Over the course of just the last couple years, vector-based illustration programs have begun making their first serious strides into the territory of bitmap painting tools. That is, programs have introduced vector tools that behave in many ways like bitmap tools but retain the editability of vectors. These include Macromedia Fireworks and Freehand, which retain most of the functionality of traditional vector (formerly known as EPS) applications, and Synthetik Studio Artist, which you wou ld never identify as a vector tool unless you were to engage in some research to discover this fact. Read More