Question: I can’t get any of my Adobe software to update. No matter what I try, nothing ever downloads to my Mac. I think CS3 hates me. Have you ever heard of this?

Answer: Believe it or not, this is actually a fairly common problem. The Adobe Updater is a sophisticated piece of software that looks at the software installed on your machine (along with appropriate licenses), queries the updates database, and then downloads the appropriate update for you—for every one of your Adobe applications! There are a number of possibilities at play here, so let’s look at some common problems along with their appropriate solutions to find the right fit for you.

Keeps apps in original location: One kind of trouble occurs when a user installs a program and then moves that program to a different folder later on. Once you install an Adobe app, whether on an internal or external drive, it’s best to leave it there indefinitely. If you think this is your problem, just try moving the software back to its original folder location and try the updater again.

Fix permissions: On Macs, you may just need to run a simple permissions fix to get your updates flowing through correctly. Just go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, select your hard drive, and then run Repair Disk Permissions. When it’s finished, try running the Adobe Updater again and see if this fixes your problem.

Delete cache: If repairing your permissions doesn’t work, then you may want to try deleting the cache files for your installation of CS3. But be forewarned, you’ll need to have your serial number handy before attempting this trick:

1. Launch any application from the suite and deactivate it (under the Help menu). The suite apps will close.
2. Navigate to Library\Application Support/Adobe/Adobe PCD/cache/cache.db (PC: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\cache.db).
3. Drag the file cache.db to your desktop or Trash.
4. Launch any of the applications in CS3 again and enter your serial number when prompted.
5. Activate the software.
6. Check for available updates.

Throw away Updater folders: If that doesn’t work, you can try throwing away the Updater and Updater5 folders. On Macs, you’ll find them in Library/Application Support/Adobe. You’ll also need to delete the same folders in the User library ([Username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe). In Windows, you’ll find them in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe and in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Application Data\Adobe.

Delete All: Another problem occurs when the Adobe Updater list won’t update to include new updates if there’s a pending installation waiting. The solution is to hit the Delete All button to get rid of all of the existing pending updates. Then the updater will ping the website and list all of the available updates.

No updates for you
Unfortunately, I’ve recently been having the same problem and none of the solutions I’ve mentioned so far have worked for my specific setup. I have a desktop Mac Pro with the full CS3 Production Premium suite and it gets any and all updates from Adobe without any incidents whatsoever. On the same network, I also have a MacBook Pro (laptop) with a second install of the CS3 Production Premium suite. (In case you weren’t aware, Adobe allows for two copies of its software to be installed for just this purpose: one on your desktop and one on your laptop—all with the same serial number.)

I realized I haven’t gotten any updates on this machine for any of the CS3 apps. So I wrote to some friends at Adobe and they recommended that I run the Adobe Updater (Mac: Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities/Adobe Updater5 [PC: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater 5]) and choose Delete All and then try updating again. The Adobe Updater window should look something like this:

Only one problem, I can’t even get to that screen! When I launch the Adobe Updater it gives me this screen where the only option is to launch the Preferences dialog:

So I launch the Preferences dialog and here’s where I realize the core of my problem—the updater doesn’t see any of my CS3 apps! None of them. To the Updater, it’s like they were never installed. The only Adobe application it sees on my entire drive is the Adobe Reader. Take a look:

So the solution is that I need to force the updater to see all of my Adobe CS3 apps, something that I’m currently trying to find a workaround for. I sent my aum.log file (in my [Username]/Library/Application Support/Adobe:Updater5 folder) to the good folks at Adobe to investigate the problem further but unfortunately all they were able to do was confirm the problem.

So sadly, it seems the only way to fix this problem, according to Adobe, is to run the Adobe CS3Clean Script at level 4. This special script available for both Windows and Macs will remove all existing Adobe apps from your system when you run it at level 4. This includes CS2 versions and earlier. (Note: The script actually only shows options for levels 1 and 2, but you can type in 4 to remove all Adobe apps.) It wipes everything out so make sure you backup your Lightroom galleries, Acrobat documents, etc. It basically returns your system to a pre-Adobe state and if you reinstall the CS3 software from this state, you should be back in working order. Yes, this is a huge pain, but it’s the only solution I’ve found so far. The latest versions of the CS3Clean Scripts are located here: www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html.

Good luck!

Question: Rod, I need to make one of those crazy, frenetic, spastic, seizure-inducing show openings like you see on MTV and primetime television. I’m far from being a video guru; it’s just something I’ve been asked to do at my company as the resident “video guy.” Can you get me started in the right direction?

Answer: I can do better than that! I’m going to give you the formula that you can follow step-by-step to create your own dramatic, controlled chaos show opening regardless of what nonlinear editor (NLE) you use.

Like anything else in the world of video, you’re going to want to tell a story in your show opening, even if it’s only 30 seconds long. Specifically, you want to tell the story of the video presentation that you’re about to show, but in the most exciting and dramatic fashion possible. The purpose of the opening is to grab the audience’s attention and prepare them for what’s about to come.

Since the beginning of television, shows of any particular genre have almost always followed a set pattern of characteristics (what’s known as formulaic television). It’s what makes daytime soaps on one network look like daytime soaps on another network (same for sitcoms, medical dramas, and so on). In more recent years, show openings have also fallen into this formulaic style by following a specific set of design characteristics to create a specific type of look or emotional appeal.

To create the modern, frenetic show opening, you’ll need a lot of short video clips, most about a second or less in length. Some clips will be from the video presentation that’s to follow, but some won’t have anything to do with the show whatsoever! You also need some animated elements, or a least the ability to do some basic animation within your preferred NLE. Lastly, you’ll want a set of filters that can add glows and blurs to both video clips and animated elements. Here’s your list of formula ingredients:

• 15–20 stock video clips for your show category or location (medical, military, legal, law enforcement, home & garden, urban, countryside, beach, etc.)
• 10–15 video clips of your actors, main product, or of the specific subject of your video presentation
• 5–10 video clips that have absolutely nothing to do with your subject, but look really cool (slow motion of hummingbird flying, time-lapse footage of a busy street, scorpion walking across the desert, butterflies, volcano erupting, etc.)
• 5–10 animated elements (such as random numbers, grids, and lines) moving onscreen
• 0–5 text elements (actors’ names, product name, keywords, etc.)
• 1 high-energy music track (can be substituted for very eclectic musical track)
• 1 blur filter set
• 1 glow filter set

Instructions

Now that you’ve assembled your ingredients, you need to follow the recipe.

STEP ONE: In your favorite video editor, combine the stock footage video clips (about your subject or location) with the shots of your actors. For your actor shots, it’s best if you have them performing some kind of action or task. You want to make it look like the viewer is just catching a quick glimpse of their life and routine.

Make sure that no clip is longer than 2 seconds long, with the majority being 1 second or less. Do this until you have the basic outline of the message you want to communicate in 30 seconds (or however long you want your opening to be).

STEP TWO: Now go back into your Timeline and drop in the clips that have nothing to do with your storyline, but look really cool (slow motion of hummingbird flying, time-lapse footage of a busy street, etc.).

STEP THREE: Add high-energy (or eclectic) music and position the major action in your video clips to begin on the downbeat of your music track. You can also add any sound effects you think are needed at this time.

STEP FOUR: Import/move this rough draft of your opening into the compositing module of your NLE or into a specialized compositing program such as Adobe After Effects.

STEP FIVE: Add random numbers, grids, streaking lines, and other animated elements to taste. These need to be composited over (on top of) the existing rough draft of your video Timeline.

STEP SIX: Type in the name of your actors and place these text layers onscreen where you want them to appear. This will usually be on top of a video clip for that actor, but it’s cool to let the names stay onscreen and bleed over some miscellaneous stock footage. Leave the names up long enough to read (3 to 5 seconds).

STEP SEVEN: Add an animation preset to your text (or animate manually) so that the text either scales, dissolves, or animates on- and offscreen.

STEP EIGHT: Add a blur or glow (or combination of both) to your text to add that extra bit of pizzazz.

STEP NINE: Look for other animated elements or video clips where you can add blurs and glows to give the whole piece a more otherworldly, mysterious appearance.

STEP TEN: Overlay a last-minute element such as glass shattering, gunfire, or an explosion to heighten the since of drama or suspense to your opening.

STEP ELEVEN: Blend in the show logo at the end of your opening and fade out most of the background elements…but not all. Leave at least one background element for effect.

STEP TWELVE: Add this entire sequence (including music and sound effects) to the beginning of your video presentation and voilà—one supercool, frenetic, modern show opening.

If I had to guess, I’d imagine that you didn’t get into digital photography because you were blown away by how light rays are bent and focused on a camera’s image sensor, or how digital noise can be reduced on a camera’s image sensor (as well as by the camera’s image processor), or how an analog image is translated into ones and zeros. In addition, my bet is that you didn’t dive into Adobe Photoshop because you were fascinated with image resolution, CMYK vs. RGB, scripts and actions, smart objects, LZW compression, or many of the other cool features and attributes of the world’s most powerful digital image-editing program.

My guess is that you were attracted to digital imaging for the same reason that I and many other photographers were: to have fun and be creative with your photography. Most of my photography workshop students have lots of fun taking pictures, but they take the Photoshop side of digital imaging too seriously—striving for the most technically perfect image, and forgetting why they got into digital imaging in the first place.

So this column is about—you guessed it—having fun in Photoshop. And that’s just what I was doing when I created the opening, fanciful image above.

We all make our own fun
To illustrate the joy that I was having one night while sitting at my computer listening to Santana on my iTunes, and to show you some of the techniques that you can use in Photoshop, let’s play with one of my favorite pictures of a group of tulips.

While you’re reading this article, think about the fun that you can have with your own images, using your own creative enhancements. The enhancements that I’ll share here are just a few of the endless creative options that await you—and all fun-loving Photoshop users. Okay, here’s how I created the intro art, using Photoshop CS3. [If you’d like to follow along with this tutorial, download the image used here]

STEP ONE:

After opening the image, go under the Filter menu and choose Distort>Polar Coordinates. In the dialog, click the Polar to Rectangular radio button and click OK. This creates one of the weirdest-looking images I’ve ever seen!

STEP TWO:

Next, go to Image>Rotate Canvas>180°, which creates yet another strange-looking image. However, if you now go back again to Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates and this time choose Rectangular to Polar, the image takes on the totally cool look of the opening image!

There’s an old adage about working on a picture: A picture is never really finished; it’s only abandoned. In other words, you can go back again and again to an image and make additional enhancements until you’re pleased with a different version of that image. (Eric Clapton did that with “Layla,” as rock music fans know.) That adage rings true for traditional enhancements as well as for artistic creations. So, with the thought of additional enhancements in mind, I used the aforementioned technique after I created a mirror/reflection image of my original image.

Creating a reflection image is easy. Here’s how to do it (okay, one way to do it):

• Open your image and choose Select>All
• Edit>Copy
• File>New (Note: After you copy a file, the settings in the New dialog will match the exact size of your copied area)
• Edit>Paste (you’re now in the new file)
• Image>Rotate Canvas>Flip Canvas Vertical
• Click on your original image and go to Image>Canvas Size and double the height of the image (by clicking on the top center square in the Canvas Anchor area, then typing in the new size in the Height field). You now have an empty area below your original image.
• Click on the new file. Drag it to the empty space in your original image and line it up so that your images look like a perfect reflection. .

• Now flatten the layers of your original file (Layer>Flatten Image)
• Be sure to go back to Steps One and Two above to apply the Polar Coordinates filter and complete the effect
• When you’ve completed the effect, choose Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CW

Are we having fun yet?
I hope you’re feeling creative and artistic at this point. More importantly, I hope you’re having fun. The following creative technique takes a bit longer than the previous enhancement. When you’re finished, however, one of your straight photographs can be transformed into an image that looks like a one-of-a-kind painting.

The technique involves “painting” the entire image area with the Art History Brush tool, which is nested with the History Brush tool in the Toolbox. The key to making your image look like a painting is to select a brush that mimics the type of brush a painter would use, for example, a Dry Media, Natural, Faux Finish, or Wet Media brush.

You’re probably saying, “Where the heck do I find these cool brushes?” That’s easy in CS3. Simply select the Art History Brush, then click on the Brushes icon at the right-hand side of your desktop to open the Brushes panel. If you don’t see the icon, then turn on the Toggle the Brushes Palette icon at the right-hand side of the Options Bar. (You can also go to Window>Brushes or use the keyboard shortcut, F5.) To see a complete list of brushes, click on the little flyout arrow in the Brushes panel.

We chose Chalk 44 for this creative Photoshop effect (hold your cursor over the brush to learn its name). Click on the brush, set it to a small size (use the [ key on the keyboard to decrease the brush size), and begin to “paint” and create your one-of-a-kind image.

Tip: You’ll find that if you use a brush that’s too large, it will obscure the details in the image. So if we used a too-large brush in our example, the tulips might look like big blobs of color, not tulips.

Don’t stop now
Remember I said that an image is never really finished? Well, to dress up my “hand-painted image,” I added one of the Brush digital frames in PhotoFrame Pro 3, a Photoshop plug-in from onOne Software (www.ononesoftware.com). In PhotoFrame, you have literally endless creative possibilities because you can customize the color, shape, design, and size of each of the dozens of frames.

Using PhotoFrame Pro 3

And while we’re mentioning plug-ins, check out this effect. I had fun creating it using Nik Color Efex Pro from Nik Software, Inc. (www.niksoftware.com). First, I applied a Pastel filter from the Stylizing filter set and then I applied the Classical Soft Focus effect from the Traditional filter set.

Two Nik Software filters added

And to play with that image, I created a panorama effect in Photoshop: Go to Image>Image Size, then in the dialog, click off the Constrain Proportions checkbox, and double the image Width.

Okay. That’s it for now. Go have—and make—your own fun in Photoshop!

First Step: Import options
When using InDesign’s Place command, you can control the process by checking Show Import Options at the bottom of the file browser window. (An abbreviated version comes up in Illustrator whether you ask or not.) I’ve used the Microsoft Word options in the following examples.

The choice to Use Typographer’s Quotes isn’t as clear-cut as it may seem. If checked, this turns all typewriter-style quotation marks ( ” ‘ ) into typographer’s quotes ( “ ‘ ’ ” ). Sounds good—there’s no good reason to use typewriter quotes—but I advise against it for a couple of reasons. First, your authors’ program should already be creating proper quotes. Likewise, assume that if your authors did use typewriter quotes, there was some (albeit mistaken) reason for it—reasons discussed below. As the typographic expert, it’s better that you search for misused quotes in InDesign, see the problem, and substitute the appropriate characters.

Secondly, InDesign can make mistakes when converting quotes. Normally, a quotation mark preceded by a space is an opening quote. Likewise, one followed by a space is a closing quote. But sometimes an apostrophe (a single closing quote) can appear after a word space, as in the expression “the ’60s.” InDesign will set this character backwards.

You should insist your authors use style sheets to assure formatting consistency. InDesign can take those styles onboard and add them to your document’s Styles panel. So click the button for Preserve Styles and Formatting from Text and Tables, and also the one for Import Styles Automatically.

Save your settings as a named Preset for later use. If you always use the same import settings, after making your choices you can uncheck the Show Import Options box in the Place dialog—your settings will remain until you change them.

Authors: Flag typographic oddities
Preserving styles allows authors to color-code passages of text, flagging unusual formatting intentionally done in the word processor. These include:

• Blanks created by a series of word spaces (replace these with nonbreaking spaces by pressing Option-Command-X [PC: Alt-Ctrl-X])
• Blanks created by a series of underlined characters (replace with nonbreaking spaces styled with the Underline button in InDesign’s Control panel)
• Fractions (which you have to build by hand, if you’re not using an OpenType font containing fraction glyphs)

You can then search for these oddities by color and format them by hand.

Finding and changing
Having placed a file, you’ll do most of your tidying up using the Edit menu’s Find/Change controls (Find and Replace in Illustrator). You can’t automate a sequence of searches—unless you’re adept at scripting—but note that in the Find/Change dialog, clicking the up and down arrows to the right of the Find and Change fields displays a list of the last 15 things you’ve found and changed.

Searching for formatting commands or special characters may mean typing obscure codes, but the rectangular buttons next to the Find and Change fields pop-up lists of common non-alphanumeric search targets: spaces, line breaks, etc.

Note: You can use the Find/Change tool to scan an entire document, not just a single story, so you can place all the files in a document and fix them all at once.

But before you start finding and changing, open the Glyphs panel (Type>Glyphs), then click on the flyout menu and select New Glyph Set. Name it and click OK. Add the characters in the list below to this new set. Keep this set open (choose the name of your set in the Show pop-up menu) and you can simply double-click the glyph that you want to replace the character that Find has selected. Unfortunately, Adobe gives you no easy way to find the glyphs you’re after, so here are their Unicode numbers, which pop up in the Glyphs panel when you run the cursor over them:

• en dash ( – ) Unicode 2013
• em dash ( — ) Unicode 2014
• minus sign ( –  Unicode 2212
• multiplication sign (  ) Unicode 00D7
• opening single quotation, or apostrophe ( ‘ ) Unicode 2018
• closing single quotation ( ’ ) Unicode 2019
• double opening quotes ( “ ) Unicode 201C
• double closing quotes ( ” ) Unicode 201D
• single prime ( ‘ ) Unicode 2032, used to indicate feet and hours
• double primes ( ” ) Unicode 2033, used for inches and minutes

Style, Style, Style
Building a written style guide is the best way to save everybody a lot of work, while assuring typographic conformity and consistency at the same time. Start with a set of basic style sheets and the fundamentals of typography included here, and then build the guide over time. When everyone’s on the same page, it’s going to be a much, much better page.

Quick Cleanup

Here’s a list of common typographical problems to search for in your documents. Some of these Find/Change routines are already available as presets in InDesign CS3. Just take a look at the list in the Query pop-up menu in the Find/Change dialog to see what’s available.

Search 1: Consecutive word spaces
Find What: double word space
Change To: single word space
Use the Change All option for this search. Double word spaces after periods went out of style in the ’50s, and there’s no other reason to use them.

Search 2: Consecutive returns
Find What: consecutive Returns (^p^p)
Change To: single Return (^p)
An extra Return can end up at the top of a column, where it pushes the text down by one line. Repeat this search as necessary. If you need a line space, create a new paragraph style based on the previous style in your document, and in the Indents and Spacing category in the New Paragraph Style dialog, add Space After equivalent to one line space. This adds the open space, but only where you want it.

Search 3: Incorrect quotations marks
Find What: single typewriter quote ( ‘ )
Change To: either a single open quote ( ‘ ), a single closed quote or apostrophe ( ’ ), or a single prime ( ‘ ), depending on context.

Find What: double typewriter quotes ( ” )
Change To: either double open quote ( “ ), double closed quote ( ” ), or double ( ” ), depending on context.

Search 4: Misused hyphens
Find What: double hyphens
Change To: em dash ( — )

Find What: single hyphen
Change To: minus sign ( – ) or en dash ( – ), depending on context.
Usually a hyphen is just a hyphen. Watch for hard hyphens erroneously used to divide words and now appearing in mid-line

Search 5: Mis-spaced dashes
Find What: space em dash space
Change To: em dash

Find What: space en dash space
Change To: en dash
Dashes are always set closed up, without space before or after.

Search 6: Tab-based paragraph indents
Find What: tab (^t)
Change To: nothing. Paragraph indents should be specified in the Paragraph panel or Control panel. If necessary, create a new paragraph style (or edit the imported one) to produce first-line indents where needed.

BEFORE

Client: New Leaf Landscaping Company www.newleaflandscaping.com

“Overall, he’s not satisfied with the balance between readability…and creativity.”

Founded in 1994, Michigan’s New Leaf Landscaping Company, with about 10 employees, is a full-fledged landscape construction company, not a yard maintenance service. Owner Peter Katke is educated in landscape, horticulture, and design, and he tries to use his knowledge to create a landscape that will work over the long term without requiring heavy maintenance, but one that will also be unique and interesting in every season. Katke prides himself on being able to create a landscape like no one’s ever seen or thought about before. (Of course, he admits, not every customer wants that.)

While the company does have a website, most of its marketing is done through print—magazine ads, newspaper ads, Yellow Pages, flyers, postcards, and so on. The original logo was a hand-drawn silhouette of a leaf printed in black on brown paper for a “natural” effect. But Katke says that version didn’t get a lot of attention, so he decided to add some color. “I respond to things that are colorful,” he says, and his customers look for color in what they ask him to do. He left the original leaf outline as the outer shape and added the interior shape with a graduated fill.

Katke still likes the way the logo gets people to notice it. He also likes the “hand-drawn but not cartoonish” look. But he’s not entirely happy with the way the colors work anymore and he’s tired of the “New Leaf” font (Papyrus, which Katke complains he now sees everywhere). Overall, he’s not satisfied with the balance between readability (for example, the use of Copperplate in the ad) and creativity.

We asked three designers to give New Leaf a new logo and use it to redesign the company’s half-page newspaper ad. Their challenge was to balance creative with professional and unique with classy.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Vicki Pene www.visualitydesigns.com

“I thought their logo should be more simplistic and modern, with fonts that have the same characteristics.”

My first step was to analyze where the company is now and where they want to go, in terms of their identity. New Leaf Landscaping wants to be known as classy and upscale, with a focus on their creativity and knowledge in the field of horticulture and design.

To achieve this, I thought their logo should be more simplistic and modern, with fonts that have the same characteristics. In Adobe Illustrator, I created an icon with intertwined, free-flowing lines that can be interpreted as blades of grass or simply as natural, organic shapes. This icon can be used as a design element across their various marketing efforts to establish a brand that’s both classic and modern. The fonts needed to be simple as well and easy to read, so I went with Trade Gothic LH Extended for both the name and company subtitle. I chose medium green and brown colors to portray the earth elements with which their company is identified.

For the ad, I wanted to carry through the clean, simple tone of the logo. I went with bright colors because this is something the company felt was important. And rather than show a photo of their work, I felt a conceptual object-oriented image would again convey a modern, upscale feel, plus leave plenty of white space.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER VISUALITY DESIGNS

In 1997, after working in the hotel business for several years, Vicki Pene was looking for a new direction. A career counselor suggested she should be a graphic designer. “I was shocked!” she says, “as I didn’t think I was creative and didn’t know the first thing about art.” But on blind faith she quit her hotel job, went to art school, and hasn’t looked back since.

With a B.S. in Marketing from San Diego State University and a Graphic Design diploma from Platt College, Vicki has worked as a photo retoucher at Corbis and as senior designer at Blue Shield of California; she’s currently the senior designer at the wireless technology company Qualcomm. She also runs Visuality Designs, her one-person design studio. A southern California native, Vicki was recently married.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign

AFTER

DESIGNER: Margot Miller www.margotmiller.com

“Using textured paper instead of a flat color vector illustration gives the logo a more organic, natural quality…”

My first thoughts upon seeing the existing New Leaf Landscaping logo was that it lacked unity. I felt as if the leaf illustration was slapped on as an afterthought, instead of enhancing what was already there.

Keeping in mind that the company owner wanted the new logo to look more sophisticated, I gave it a more earthy color palette. I scanned a piece of paper with a textured floral print and brought it into Adobe Photoshop, where I changed the color and greatly increased the contrast. I then brought it into Illustrator and laid type over it, set in Birch STD, a clean-cut, timeless font rather than a trendy font. I converted the type to outlines and used them to create a clipping mask for the paper texture. This allows the letters to serve as a design element themselves, keeping the overall logo simple.

I used the same approach to create the leaf symbol. I placed it behind the text in Photoshop and reduced its opacity so it would not distract from the words. Using textured paper instead of a flat color vector illustration gives the logo a more organic, natural quality that should appeal to someone searching for a landscaper.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: MARGOT MILLER

A lover of coffee with soy milk, Margot Miller can often be found doodling in an Upper West Side coffee shop. She dreams of writing and illustrating a children’s book series, meeting Kathy Griffin, reading the top 100 novels of all time, and being a guest on Oprah.

As a designer for Global Design Concepts, a leading manufacturer of accessories, she works primarily with the Disney-licensed products.

Margot’s work has been published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Layers, The Outreach for Breast Health Foundation, The Post-Standard, and The Society of Illustrators Student Exhibition catalog. Her mixed-media work combines textured surfaces and found objects to create bold, colorful images.

Margot is a graduate of Syracuse University, with a degree in Illustration. She’s represented by Jane Feder (www.janefeder.com) and invites you to visit her website at www.margotmiller.com.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop

AFTER

DESIGNER: Carolyn Crown

“I used a bright, vibrant green to represent everything above ground and a darker, neutral brown to represent everything below the grass line.”

My approach to this project was to address the client’s concerns about the original logo: a font that was outdated and no longer unique, a color palette that wasn’t working, and an overall look that wasn’t as professional as the client wanted.

To me, a professional-looking logo is simple, clean, and graphic. Before creating any graphic elements, I looked at examples of the client’s work online. The photos all showed green and lively trees, plants, and shrubbery—no maple leaves. So I decided to draw a different kind of leaf—one that better represented the client’s work. The new leaf still looks hand-drawn rather than cartoonish.

I chose the font Americana for the logo because it’s retro-modern and stylish. I also wanted to use a serif font as in the original logo because, in my opinion, a serif font tends to look more professional and established than a sans serif one. For the text of the ad, I chose Futura and decreased the tracking and horizontal scale of the letters to differentiate it a little more from the logo font.

Green was an obvious color choice, and I decided to give the client an entirely new color palette—a natural one. I used a bright, vibrant green to represent everything above ground and a darker, neutral brown to represent everything below the grass line. I followed this color palette and pattern through to the ad. I wanted the “pop” colors in the ad to come from pictures of the client’s own work. (The photos come from the New Leaf website.)

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: CAROLYN CROWN

Carolyn Crown is manager of design and production at CME Outfitters, a healthcare communications firm in Rockville, Maryland. Her professional projects for domestic and international audiences include brochures, advertisements, annual reports, books, postcards, and posters.

Although Carolyn specializes in print design, she’s also skilled in digital photo restoration. She learned her Photoshop essentials from her father, who owns and operates Split Image Photography in Smithtown, New York.

Originally from Long Island, New York, Carolyn moved to Pennsylvania with her family at the age of 10. She graduated from Loyola College in Maryland in 1999 with a degree in Communications.

In her spare time, she enjoys singing, cooking, and doing freelance print design (invitations, stationery, CD covers, photo restoration, etc.). Carolyn is also a newlywed and would like to use this opportunity to plug her new name: Carolyn Crown Tierney.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2

First, follow the Holy Font Guideline #1 when choosing different typefaces for a piece: Concord or contrast, but don’t conflict.

That is, either stick with different styles in the same typeface family (concord), or choose completely different faces (contrast). Do not choose typefaces that are similar (conflict).

To feel confident about which font combinations concord, contrast, or conflict, it helps to first train your eye to categorize typefaces. We can break down type families into six broad (very broad) categories:

1. Oldstyle: Slanted serifs, a moderate transition between the thick and thin strokes of a letterform, and a diagonal stress (the angle of a line drawn through the thinnest parts of curved letters).

2. Modern: Thin, horizontal serifs, a radical difference between the thick and thin strokes of a letterform, and a vertical stress.

3. Slab serif: Thick, horizontal serifs, little to no difference between the thick and thin strokes, and a vertical stress.

4. Sans serif: No serifs, and most often monoweight (the strokes are pretty much one thickness).

5. Script: Anything with a flowing, handwritten style.

6. Decorative: Whimsical and fun. Grunge faces are a subcategory in that they are definitely decorative, but lawless and edgy, breaking the rules, trashy and trendy.

CONCORD
For a concordant look, choose one type family from any category. Use only the fonts from this one family. As you can see in Figure 1, a concordant look can be quite elegant if you don’t use a lot of contrast; it stays rather sedate and comfortable.

Fig. 1: This example uses the Bauer Bodoni family, a modern typeface—Bauer Bodoni Regular, Italic, and Bold.

Now, if you want a juicier yet still concordant feeling, you can add a little contrast, such as a contrast of size or weight, as shown in Figure 2 (more about contrast in a minute).

Fig. 2: Using the same copy and type family, in this example I merely emphasized the differences.

Limiting yourself to one type family is always safe. It can actually be a fun challenge to create something provocative from a limited type family. But typically we tend to use more than one family in any design.

CONFLICT OR CONTRAST?
The trick to combining different faces is to choose fonts from different categories. In other words, don’t combine typefaces from the same category—don’t use two different sans serifs on the same page, or two moderns, or two scripts, or two oldstyles, or two decoratives. Choosing from different categories gives you a basic contrast of structure (how the typeface is built). The reason this is a fail-safe guideline is because of Holy Font Guideline #2: It’s the similarities in typefaces that create conflict. When you see a designed page with a font combination that makes you twitch, I guarantee it’s because of the similarities—not the differences.

Take a look at these three examples, and listen to your eyes.

Fig. 3: This is a concordant combination with italic in the same font (Brioso Pro) for emphasis.

Fig. 4: These two oldstyles (Brioso Pro and Palatino) in the same point size have too many similarities, creating conflict.

Fig. 5: This oldstyle (Brioso Pro) contrasts well with the bold sans (Myriad Pro Black)—the structures are very different, the stroke weights are very different, and the stresses are very different.

Figure 3 uses the regular roman font of an oldstyle family with the italic of the same family as a subtle emphasis. Nice and concordant, your eyes are at peace.

In Figure 4, can you feel your eyes twitch as they notice the change in font? Your eyes twitch because they know it’s a different font, but it’s so similar that they can’t quite figure out what’s going on (is it really different? is it the same? is it trying to tell me something? am I missing the point? aacckk!). So it’s a little befuddling and annoying and you quickly scurry on just to get away from the confusion.

In Figure 5, your eyes feel much more comfortable and peaceful because they understand the change in font. It’s clear, it’s obvious, your eyes know what’s going on, and they feel secure. Listen to your eyes.

CONTRAST
The key to strong, bold, clear communication is in the differences, the contrast. Start with fonts from different categories; for instance, a sans serif headline with oldstyle body copy. That’s the first place to begin, but it’s rarely enough. In Figure 6, you see a sans serif headline with an oldstyle body copy—fonts from two different categories. It’s a good start for a combination, but in the example there are too many other similarities causing conflict: their sizes are similar, their weights are similar, and their forms (italic vs. roman; caps vs. lowercase) are similar. So you need to juice up the contrast, as in Figure 7.

Fig. 6: Here we have a good combination of structure with a head from the sans serif category and the body copy from the oldstyle category. But it’s not enough.

Fig. 7: The contrast of structure is the best place to start, but we need to strengthen the contrast. Here I used a heavier weight in the head and a lighter weight in the body copy.

You see, Holy Font Guideline #3 is about contrast: Don’t be a wimp. Don’t contrast semibold with bold, or light with regular. Don’t contrast 10-point type with 11-point type. If it’s not going to be the same (concord), then dammit, make it different (contrast).

You might have a modern face as a large headline, and choose the body copy from another category, such as slab serif. These two families have great contrasts in their stroke structures and serif shapes, but because they’re both serif faces, you’ll need to emphasize their contrasts. Moderns are particularly gorgeous when set large so everyone can admire their elegant structures, so take advantage of that.

Fig. 8: “The Shakespeare Papers” is in a modern font (Didot), set horizontally, with several short vertical body copy segments in a slab serif (Clarendon).

So how exactly do you emphasize the differences? There are six forms of typographic contrast, many of which I’ve alluded to already:

1. Structure: The structure of a typeface is how it’s built. Imagine you have to create a typeface out of the materials in your office. A font made out of pencils would have a different structure than a font made out of printer cables or staples. Whatever you use creates its structure. The different categories of type each have different structures.

2. Size: You know what different point sizes are. Follow Holy Font Guideline #3 when combining sizes.

3. Weight: How thick the strokes are in a typeface determines its weight. It’s always good to have a couple of really heavy weights in your font collection.

4. Form: The form of a letter is its shape. For instance, a capital F has a very different form/shape from a lowercase f, even though they might have the same structure (same font, even). A capital F has a very different form from an italic f, even though, again, they might have the same structure.

An easy way to think of a contrast of form is italic vs. roman (which simply means type that is straight up and down), or all caps vs. lowercase.

A conflict of form would be two italic fonts used together, or a script with an italic, because they both have flowing, usually slanted forms. Two different faces both in all caps have potential for conflict.

5. Direction: I don’t mean a slanted direction, although that’s sometimes useful. Type automatically has a direction when set in lengthy headlines or narrow columns, for example. If you see a contrast of direction happening in your design, take advantage of it, emphasize it.

6. Color: Typographers have always referred to color in text, even when all the text is black. It refers to the impact of blocks of text. Squint at a page in a novel and you can see the even gray tone; in a newspaper, notice the darker colors of the headlines compared to the gray stories. You might call out words in the main text by using a different color, even if the “color” is a sans serif bold in black.

Looking back at Figure 8, you’ll see that I created or emphasized four different contrasts:

• Size: 40 point vs. 9 point (in the original graphic).
• Structure: Modern vs. slab serif.
• Direction: The heading is horizontal, while the small columns have a vertical emphasis.
• Color: A dark plum vs. gray.

To avoid a potential conflict in Figure 8, I used the warm color for the words that I wanted to catch the eye of someone skimming the page (warm colors attract the eye), thus emphasizing the headline. If I had used the warm color in the small body copy, it would conflict with the headline in that the small body copy would be calling attention to itself in one way (the dark plum), but the headline would be calling attention to itself because it’s so much bigger. Be careful that your contrasts themselves don’t conflict with each other!

Take a look at the beautifully designed headlines in this magazine. Put into words the contrasts the designer employed and it will become very clear exactly why the headlines are pleasing, dynamic, interesting, and communicate clearly: There are three lines of type—the title of the article, a subtitle, and the byline. In these three lines there are contrasts of size, weight, color, and form (lowercase vs. all caps). Make sure you can point out where each contrast is happening.

Take a particular look at the byline. When using caps vs. lowercase as a contrast of form, you run a risk when the smaller text is in all caps: The two pieces of text have the potential to conflict in that the larger type says, “Ha ha! I’m bigger!” and the smaller text says, “Well, you might be bigger, but I’m in all caps!” However, the designer of these particular headlines avoided that disaster by strongly emphasizing the size and weight differences so there’s no competition, plus he added letterspacing to the text in all caps to further emphasize the difference between it and the other two lines, especially the main title with its extra-tight letterspacing. Contrast is the key.

Now, if you’re really typographically astute, you’ll say, “But in those three lines of the article titles, there are two different sans serifs (Trebuchet and Cronos)! Doesn’t that break the Holy Font Guideline #1?” Well, yes it does, and it just goes to show you what a good designer can do with contrast. Take note.

LISTEN TO YOUR EYES
Look carefully at every great piece of design that catches your eye. Get in the habit of putting into words where the designer used contrast in the typography. Also notice pieces where the type is not so great—exactly what is the problem? Name it and you can fix it.

Remember, if you feel that the typefaces in your design conflict, take a look at what is similar—that is probably where your problems lie. If you absolutely must use the particular type combination that you’re working with (a corporate style sheet, for instance), emphasize the contrasts.

The other issue of conflict might be that you’ve used contrast, but the contrasts are competing with each other. Decide how you want to lead the reader’s eye around the page. Use contrast to do it, but always keep in mind the order in which you want information to be read. You, as designer, have almost complete control of a reader’s eye.

Also keep in mind that contrast doesn’t always mean big and heavy. It’s merely a reference to the elements around it. Small and thin might be the most appropriate and effective contrast on a field of empty white space; a small splash of red type might be exactly what you need amongst a lot of other text.

RULES? WHAT RULES?
Rules, of course, are made to be broken. The trick about breaking the rules is to be able to articulate in words why you’re breaking them—then break them with gusto. Don’t just break a rule a little bit, for heaven’s sake. If you’re going to be a maverick, then do it with glee, do it with panache. But that’s another story.

“Which version of Photoshop should I get?” It’s a question we hear often from people who are just moving into digital imaging. Since the release of Photoshop CS3 Extended and the introduction of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it has become even more confusing, leading to even more questions: Photoshop Elements or the full version of Photoshop? Photoshop CS3 or CS3 Extended? And where does Lightroom fit in?

The Elemental Question

BY DAVE CROSS

Let’s start by taking a look at Adobe Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS3. This is one of the most difficult questions to answer, because the latest version of Photoshop Elements has many similar features found in the full version of Photoshop. In fact, some would argue that Photoshop Elements simplifies many operations and includes some features that the full version of Photoshop doesn’t have.
For example, a common workflow for digital photographers is to organize their photos, apply some overall corrections, combine images together, and create some output (website, galleries, prints, etc.). With its simple interface and built-in automated commands, Photoshop Elements does a great job at this. Using the Organizer, images can be sorted and, well, organized, and then edited using either Quick Fix (for basic adjustments, Red Eye Fix, and Sharpening) or Full Edit (for manual adjustments and working with layers). Turning photos into greeting cards, slide shows, websites, galleries, and photo book pages is a snap thanks to the Create options that feature built-in templates and themes.

CREDIT: DAVE CROSS

Photoshop Elements includes layers, adjustment layers, healing tools, adjustment tools, selection tools—in short, the key tools needed to work with photographs. One of the strengths of Photoshop Elements is the ease with which these functions can be used, taking advantage of automated commands and built-in templates. In a way, this is also a disadvantage of Photoshop Elements: When you want to take things a step further, you can often run into limitations.

As an example, Photoshop Elements includes a command called Adjust Color Curves that includes some built-in choices (Increase Midtones, Lighten Shadows, Backlight, etc), and sliders to adjust Highlights, Brightness, Contrast, and Shadows. These controls do a good job of adjusting an image. Compare this to the Curves command in Photoshop CS3, which offers features such as per-channel editing; increased number of points on the curve; black, midtone, and white point eyedroppers; the ability to edit the curve itself; built-in presets; and options to work with Histogram and channel overlays—plus many more options for a much greater level of control.

Photoshop Elements Curves

Photoshop CS3 Curves

The Curves example pretty much sums up the main difference between Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS3: Photoshop CS3 offers more tools, with more options and a much higher amount of control. In addition, Photoshop CS3 includes many key features not found in Photoshop Elements, including layer masks, smart objects, smart filters, the Refine Edges dialog, filters such as Smart Sharpen, Calculations, Apply Image, layer comps, recording automated actions, the ability to work with individual channels, Lab color mode, and more. Both photographers and designers who want to take their work “to the next level” take full advantage of these features that are exclusive to Photoshop CS3. It’s also very important to note that while Photoshop Elements does include the ability to work with Camera Raw files, it’s a fairly basic version of the incredibly powerful version of Camera Raw found in Photoshop CS3.

So the most common answer to the Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3 question? Photoshop Elements does a good job of covering the basics, while Photoshop CS3 offers more options, more flexibility, and a great deal more control.

Extending the Possibilities

BY COREY BARKER

When Adobe released the newest version of Photoshop last May, they surprised a lot of people by releasing two editions: standard and Extended. This left a lot of users scratching their heads wondering which version they should buy. Well, before we get into that, let’s talk about why there are two versions.
Until now, every major Photoshop upgrade has introduced new or enhanced tools for graphic designers, Web designers, and photographers. This process has made Photoshop the standard in these fields. However, lately it has been realized that Photoshop is capable of so much more. With the digital imaging world changing at an exponential rate, most industries are beginning to abandon their analog ways and embrace the digital age by using tools such as Photoshop for various imaging applications.
Where Photoshop was once only the domain of graphic designers and photographers, the Extended version has broadened the spectrum of Photoshop’s capabilities by including specialized tools for 3D, video editing, advanced animation, image analysis, and measurement. I say specialized because these new features work with various specific file formats and have procedures that go beyond the normal Photoshop workflow.

Perhaps the most notable of these are the 3D and video capabilities. Photoshop Extended now has the ability to open native 3D files created in 3D applications such as 3ds Max, and gives you the ability to edit position, lighting, and texture mapping—all inside a 3D layer. There’s also support for video formats such as QuickTime, which can be opened as video layers, and with the new Timeline panel you can scrub through and edit the video by applying corrections and filters, and even cloning across multiple frames.

The new animation capabilities allow you to create motion graphics from layers and layer styles all within the new Animation Timeline. Both versions of Photoshop support basic frame-by-frame animation, but the new animation features in Extended interpolate motion between keyframes giving you more fluid animations which can be exported as an image sequence or as a QuickTime video file. Even though it’s limited in what properties can be animated, Photoshop CS3 has a much smoother integration with Adobe After Effects CS3. For instance, you can import layered files into an After Effects composition and all the layers styles will be maintained without having to rasterize them in Photoshop.
The measurement and analysis features give engineers and medical professionals the tools they need to open industry-standard file types such as DICOM an MATLAB. They can enhance these images nondestructively for presentations, apply annotations, create animations from multiframe files, and record and export measurements. The applications of these features are relevant to such medical disciplines as ophthalmology, dentistry, pathology, radiology, etc., not to mention its use in architecture and engineering.

CREDIT: COURTESY OF ADOBE

So now that brings us back to your original question: “Which version is right for me?” Simply put, if you work in any of the specialized fields that would use these core extended features, then Photoshop CS3 Extended is the way to go. If you’ve been using Photoshop for years as a design, imaging, and compositing tool, then Photoshop CS3 standard is all you need. And don’t think that if you buy standard that you’re getting shortchanged with a watered-down version of Photoshop. Aside from these specialized features found only in Extended, both versions have a host of new features that every Photoshop user can get excited about, such as a streamlined interface, integration with Photoshop Lightroom, improved curves, new selection tools, new alignment features, and nondestructive smart filters. So you can see it’s not a matter of one being better than the other; it just makes you ask yourself a different question: “What am I going to use Photoshop for?”

Where Lightroom Fits In

BY SCOTT KELBY

So where does Adobe Photoshop Lightroom fit in with all this? First and foremost, Lightroom is a tool strictly for photographers, and it was designed from scratch by Adobe as a tool to help photographers get their work done faster, more efficiently, and to make the whole process easier (and more fun).
Lightroom has five main modules: The Library module is for sorting your images, working with metadata, and managing your entire library of photos (even tens of thousands of images from shoots that span years), and it pretty much replaces Bridge for most of the photographers I know.
The Develop module is where you process your RAW, JPEG, and TIFF images and because it offers tools and features that Camera Raw still doesn’t offer, for many photographers (myself included) that module replaces the need to use the Photoshop CS3 Camera Raw plug-in.

The Slideshow module pretty much kills the limited slide show capabilities of Bridge (just the fact that it lets you add music to your slide show puts it out front, but that’s just one of the many advantages it offers), and the Web module is the best way Adobe has ever created to quickly and easily put your portfolio, or a client proof sheet, on the Web.

But my favorite part is the Print module, which is so brilliantly designed that it makes it hard to want to print directly from Photoshop ever again. So, for photographers (and only photographers) it’s an incredibly compelling package that will change the way you work with your digital photos in a very meaningful (and fun) way.

CREDIT: SCOTT KELBY

So, does Lightroom replace Photoshop? Absolutely not—it’s designed to work along with Photoshop (although admittedly there are some photographers who will be able to use Lightroom alone for their entire workflow). Lightroom and Photoshop work together to create what I call “the new digital photography workflow,” and as amazing as Lightroom is, it won’t be long before you find yourself needing to do things that Lightroom just can’t do, like serious retouching, working with layers, applying filters, running actions, adding professional-level typography, or one of the hundreds of things that we still rely on Photoshop for. But put these two together, and you’ll be working faster, getting more done, and having more fun than ever before.

So, here’s how I use these two together: I use Lightroom for all my sorting and metadata work, and to process and correct my RAW and JPEG images. Then I jump over to Photoshop (the two work seamlessly together, with files moving back and forth between them behind the scenes) to do serious curves tweaks, apply filters, add special effects, portrait retouching, and all the “cool stuff” that only Photoshop can do. Finally, I take the image back to Lightroom before I show the work to my clients, either in a slide show, on the Web, or in prints.

It’s a workflow that has been really well thought out by Adobe. It has made working with thousands of images quite painless, and more importantly it has meant less time sitting at my computer, and given me more time behind the camera. And to me, that’s a very good thing.

Question: Rod, I need to make one of those crazy, frenetic, spastic, seizure-inducing show openings like you see on MTV and primetime television. I’m far from being a video guru; it’s just something I’ve been asked to do at my company as the resident “video guy.” Can you get me started in the right direction?

Answer: I can do better than that! I’m going to give you the formula that you can follow step-by-step to create your own dramatic, controlled chaos show opening regardless of what nonlinear editor (NLE) you use.

Like anything else in the world of video, you’re going to want to tell a story in your show opening, even if it’s only 30 seconds long. Specifically, you want to tell the story of the video presentation that you’re about to show, but in the most exciting and dramatic fashion possible. The purpose of the opening is to grab the audience’s attention and prepare them for what’s about to come.

Since the beginning of television, shows of any particular genre have almost always followed a set pattern of characteristics (what’s known as formulaic television). It’s what makes daytime soaps on one network look like daytime soaps on another network (same for sitcoms, medical dramas, and so on). In more recent years, show openings have also fallen into this formulaic style by following a specific set of design characteristics to create a specific type of look or emotional appeal.

To create the modern, frenetic show opening, you’ll need a lot of short video clips, most about a second or less in length. Some clips will be from the video presentation that’s to follow, but some won’t have anything to do with the show whatsoever! You also need some animated elements, or a least the ability to do some basic animation within your preferred NLE. Lastly, you’ll want a set of filters that can add glows and blurs to both video clips and animated elements. Here’s your list of formula ingredients:

• 15–20 stock video clips for your show category or location (medical, military, legal, law enforcement, home & garden, urban, countryside, beach, etc.)
• 10–15 video clips of your actors, main product, or of the specific subject of your video presentation
• 5–10 video clips that have absolutely nothing to do with your subject, but look really cool (slow motion of hummingbird flying, time-lapse footage of a busy street, scorpion walking across the desert, butterflies, volcano erupting, etc.)
• 5–10 animated elements (such as random numbers, grids, and lines) moving onscreen
• 0–5 text elements (actors’ names, product name, keywords, etc.)
• 1 high-energy music track (can be substituted for very eclectic musical track)
• 1 blur filter set
• 1 glow filter set

Instructions
Now that you’ve assembled your ingredients, you need to follow the recipe.

STEP ONE:
In your favorite video editor, combine the stock footage video clips (about your subject or location) with the shots of your actors. For your actor shots, it’s best if you have them performing some kind of action or task. You want to make it look like the viewer is just catching a quick glimpse of their life and routine.

Make sure that no clip is longer than 2 seconds long, with the majority being 1 second or less. Do this until you have the basic outline of the message you want to communicate in 30 seconds (or however long you want your opening to be).

STEP TWO:
Now go back into your Timeline and drop in the clips that have nothing to do with your storyline, but look really cool (slow motion of hummingbird flying, time-lapse footage of a busy street, etc.).

STEP THREE:
Add high-energy (or eclectic) music and position the major action in your video clips to begin on the downbeat of your music track. You can also add any sound effects you think are needed at this time.

STEP FOUR:
Import/move this rough draft of your opening into the compositing module of your NLE or into a specialized compositing program such as Adobe After Effects.

STEP FIVE:
Add random numbers, grids, streaking lines, and other animated elements to taste. These need to be composited over (on top of) the existing rough draft of your video Timeline.

STEP SIX:
Type in the name of your actors and place these text layers onscreen where you want them to appear. This will usually be on top of a video clip for that actor, but it’s cool to let the names stay onscreen and bleed over some miscellaneous stock footage. Leave the names up long enough to read (3 to 5 seconds).

STEP SEVEN:
Add an animation preset to your text (or animate manually) so that the text either scales, dissolves, or animates on- and offscreen.

STEP EIGHT:
Add a blur or glow (or combination of both) to your text to add that extra bit of pizzazz.

STEP NINE:
Look for other animated elements or video clips where you can add blurs and glows to give the whole piece a more otherworldly, mysterious appearance.

STEP TEN:
Overlay a last-minute element such as glass shattering, gunfire, or an explosion to heighten the since of drama or suspense to your opening.

STEP ELEVEN:
Blend in the show logo at the end of your opening and fade out most of the background elements…but not all. Leave at least one background element for effect.

STEP TWELVE:
Add this entire sequence (including music and sound effects) to the beginning of your video presentation and voilà—one supercool, frenetic, modern show opening.