Digital Arts Tips

Reset Mac OS X Lion's 'annoying' page scrolling

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Robert Strohmeyer) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:10:00 GMT

I wouldn't exactly call myself an old-fashioned guy, but I'm a little surprised at how long it's taking me to get accustomed to one of the minor little tweaks in OS X Lion, the new version of Apple's Mac operating system that launched today. I'm talking about page scrolling, which Apple has just inverted by default, and the newly tweaked feature can take more than a little getting used to.Historically, in most desktop operating systems, rolling a mouse wheel or sliding your fingers on a trackpad has made the contents of your active window scroll in a consistent direction. Rolling the mouse downward (toward you) scrolled up, while rolling it upward (away from you) scrolled down. In Lion, this has been inverted so that rolling the wheel (or sliding your fingers on the trackpad) downward moves the content down, and rolling upward moves the content up.

Reset Mac OS X Lion's 'annoying' page scrolling

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Robert Strohmeyer) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:10:00 GMT

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Create an outline style

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Fri, 20 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

If you want to create a custom indented list style, choose Edit > Bullet, Numbering, and Outline Styles, then choose Outline Style from the New button in the resulting dialog box.The Edit Outline Style dialog box displays, giving access to nine levels for each outline style. You’ll see that each level of the outline style has an indent value, which can be changed. Each indent is applied cumulatively and all outline style indents are applied on top of paragraph indents. There’s also the choice of Bullet or Numbering style (or None) and a number separator setting for each level.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Create an outline style

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Fri, 20 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Bullets, numbering, and outline lists

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Instead of manually inserting bullets and numbers and then manually formatting paragraphs to accommodate them, you can select your list and click on the Paragraph Attributes in the Measurements palette.Click on the menu next to the •123 icon for options to choose a bullet, number or outline list (with a further choice of numbered, bullet and plain styles). You can also control how such lists behave by choosing Bullet, Numbering, and Outline Styles from the Edit menu and choosingEdit. You can choose how the element should look, what formatting it should have, how far it should be from the text, and how it should be aligned.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Bullets, numbering, and outline lists

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Thu, 19 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Instead of manually inserting bullets and numbers and then manually formatting paragraphs to accommodate them, you can select your list and click on the Paragraph Attributes in the Measurements palette.Click on the menu next to the •123 icon for options to choose a bullet, number or outline list (with a further choice of numbered, bullet and plain styles). You can also control how such lists behave by choosing Bullet, Numbering, and Outline Styles from the Edit menu and choosing Edit. You can choose how the element should look, what formatting it should have, how far it should be from the text, and how it should be aligned.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Blio Interactivity

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

To add an interactive slideshow to a Blio ebook, draw a picture box on your active layout.In an external folder, number the picture files in the order you want them to appear. Using the Save Picture feature (File > Save Picture), resize and crop the pictures so that when you import them at a scale of 100%, they fit perfectly in the picture box. Select the picture box and choose Item > Digital Publishing > Edit Interactivity. Choose slideshow from the Type drop-down menu in the Interactive Attributes dialog box. Click Attach and select the folder that contains the picture files, then click OK.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Blio Interactivity

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Unlink with Linkster

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Linkster offers a new and more advanced way to unlink text content.First, select the items you want to unlink. Next, choose Utilities > Linkster to display the Linkster dialog box. Click Selection, click Unlink, and then choose one of four options. The first option creates three stories: one for the boxes before the selected box, one for the selected box, and one for the boxes after the selected box. The other three options create two stories by combining the stories before or after the selected box, with or without the selected one – the dialog box displays icons that simplify your choice of options.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Unlink with Linkster

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Tue, 17 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Build catalogues with ImageGrid

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Mon, 16 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The ImageGrid feature in QuarkXPress 9 can automatically build catalogues of images with a variety of layout and labelling options.To create such a grid within an active layout, choose Utilities > ImageGrid to display the ImageGrid dialog box. You can specify how many rows and columns should be included in the grid, manually specify the size of the boxes, or click AutoSize to allow the application to size the boxes to fit automatically. Using the Add picture info checkbox, each image can be captioned with its filename, resolution, dimensions, colour model, and format. An automatic drop shadow can also be added to the picture boxes.

QuarkXPress 9 tip: Build catalogues with ImageGrid

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Michael Burns) — Mon, 16 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Video Tip: Extract still images from any video

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Ben Long) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:00:00 GMT

This might sound familiar. You’re recording video on your digital stills camera, pleased that it has a movie capability aswell as its stills photo facility.Then, when youget home, you pause the video mid-edit and realise that a particular frame would makea great picture. If only you could save thatsingle frame as a still image, you’d have ausable picture. Fortunately, there are several ways to do just that.

Video Tip: Extract still images from any video

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Ben Long) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:00:00 GMT

This might sound familiar. You’re recording video on your digital stills camera, pleased that it has a movie capability as well as its stills photo facility.Then, when you get home, you pause the video mid-edit and realise that a particular frame would make a great picture. If only you could save that single frame as a still image, you’d have a usable picture. Fortunately, there are several ways to do just that.

Photoshop Tip: Give your artwork a comic book look

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Chris McVeigh) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Thinking of making a comic book out of your artwork or photos? Maybe you’d like to make a calendar with a gritty vibe? With minimal effort, you can approximate the print style of old comic books. These steps are for Adobe Photoshop CS5, but they’re similar for earlier versions.1. Open your photograph or artwork in Photoshop CS5. (Always make a backup of your original.) The image can start out at any size; however, once you’ve applied the technique, you can downsize the image.

Photoshop Tip: Give your artwork a comic book look

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Chris McVeigh) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Photoshop Tip: Top of the stack

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Fabio Sasso) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

It’s easy to lose track of elements and effects in Photoshop’s or Illustrator’s layer stack if you’re not careful.

Photoshop Tip: Top of the stack

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Fabio Sasso) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

It’s easy to lose track of elements and effects in Photoshop’s or Illustrator’s layer stack if you’re not careful.

Photography Tip: Capture amazing images in Raw mode

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Ben Long) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

There are many advantages to shooting Raw images, from making edits that are impossible with JPEG images, to the ability to easily alter white balance.The term Raw simply refers to the fact that the data in a Raw image file has not been processed by the camera. To turn that into a usable image, you must still put the file through all the processes your camera employs when you shoot in JPEG mode (calculating colour, determining white balance, sharpening), but these steps are performed through raw converter software, such as Lightroom, Aperture, iPhoto, or Photoshop Camera Raw.

Photography Tip: Capture amazing images in Raw mode

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Robert Strohmeyer) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Photography Tip: Capture amazing images in Raw mode

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Ben Long) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

iMovie Tip: How to use News and Sports themes

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Rob Beattie) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Simply click the File menu and choose New Project and iMovie opens the Project Themes window, which includes News and Sports themes with all the titles and fancy transitions you need to get started.

iMovie Tip: How to fix wobbly video

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Rob Beattie) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

A moving camera may produce distorted results.

iMovie Tip: How to add one-step effects

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Rob Beattie) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

There’s a selection of funky effects you can access from the Clip menu.

iMovie Tip: How to edit audio

digitalarts@idg.co.uk (Rob Beattie) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

With a project loaded, click the new Audio Waveforms button at the bottom of the window.