CMYK Thoughts

I tried to fix the RSS and lost everything. It’s been rebuilt and so let’s move forward. RSS is working, now.

Graphic designers, usually start off working in some sort of a company first. It’s pretty rare to come off the line doing just freelance, unless you have some incredible connections or luck. Most of us will usually start off in a studio artist capability. I graduated a few years back, and the first thing I did was get employment in a print shop. I recommend this for most any designer who is starting out. At least one year in some printing capability will not only give you some great experience it really looks good on the resume. The reason is because anyone with limited knowledge of a computer can truthfully put together a file that should print. However once that file hits a RIP, it pays to build your file correct.

Most of the things you learn will come only from experience. When I first started at the printing shop, I told the owner that I had no experience in working with prepress, rips, or printers (outside of the one in the library.) I told him, however I was a quick study and very knowledgeable in design and art. He put a lot of trust in me, and I was always very grateful. I spent the next week with the guy who I was replacing, taking many notes and reading the manuals in the office. Later, I found out I was the only one to ever read the manuals.

There are so many things that must be looked at when preparing files for print, and I’m gonna try to go over a few of them. I can’t go over all of them, since each project brings it’s own “joys” and “surprises”, plus if I told you all I knew, then why would anyone hire me?

Most of this isn’t brain surgery, it’s about attention to detail. I’ll use a christmas card that recently got rejected, for my sample. I tend to stick to indesign for almost all my layouts, even single page. It’s nice because it usually takes all my files and puts them into a nice folder, for me.

So, first thing is check out the file. Also, some things will depend on the project and if you have any questions, ask the printer. Check the size, bleed, etc… ensure they are what they need to be.

Then, if you have raster artwork check out it’s ppi. We want, for most printed pieces, to be an effective 300. If doing larger work, you can get away with 50-200. The further away, the smaller you can get away with. Sometimes it’s actually smarter, especially if your system, or the printer’s system cannot handle very large files.

I hear CS4 is supposed to be more clear on this, but I have yet to win the lottery and purchase it. I can see by looking at the info pallette, that the selected image is a jpeg. (One thing I prefer to do now with such files is to change to a PSD or TIFF format.) You can see that I need to change it’s color space from RGB to CMYK. This is pretty crucial when desiring a color match. However, if “pop” is what you seek and you are not too worried about color accuracy you might want to look at keeping it in RGB. Ask your printer.

As for images my personal rule is TIFFs, PSDs, PDFs or AI files only. Some people like eps files, but in my experience it can cause problems. I do not like to use jpegs at all. They can work, as far as I’ve seen, but after learning how compression works, I don’t like them. Let the webbers keep the jpegs and pngs.

We can see it’s resolution is 1200 dpi. The Actual is what the image is, whereas the Effective is what it is in the InDesign file.

Quick note to those using InDesign for the first time, or looking over the shoulder of someone using it (yeah, I see you there you AE), the images on screen are not to be used for clarity or image quality. InDesign likes to use a lo-res view of images so as not to choke the computer so much.

While we are checking color spaces, let’s make sure all the colors in the InDesign are CMYK.

As for fonts, I like to do my copy in InDesign. The advice I was given since day one of this graphic design trek was to never use Photoshop for text. However there will be times when you want/need certain effects from Photoshop or maybe even from Illustrator. I like to save a layer in both with outlined fonts.

It is very helpful to clearly label all layers, as well.

Now let’s package for output.

This is important. Ensure the four I have checked are checked. This will make a font folder folder and an image folder. I’ve learned that the second from the bottom should ensure any fonts in the images are carried over as well.

Double check all this. Now you have a folder of the Natives ready for print. Now I like to include a pdf with the files. This helps, along with a print out, so the printer can visually see what it should come out as.

As for the pdf, let’s make a pdf that should be print ready.

I have had no problems with the PDF/X-1a, I do like to use 2003 flavor. As Adobe is constantly adding new features, and RIPs don’t you can experience problems with transparencies, clipping masks, gradients and other situations. This is also the reason I go for an Acrobat 8 (PDF 1.7). And I always View PDF after Exporting. This is to double check problems. One thing I’ve learned on this is to NOT use Apple’s Preview as a default PDF viewer. It tends to compress like a bad printer, use Acrobat Professional.

Now, since I have this built to size with InDesign’s built in Crops and Bleed I turn them on, and change the offset so it sits outside of the Bleed marks. If Bleed is set, then ensure the toggle is turned on. Also, I sometimes use the Slug Area for crucial notes. But if this is for Print, you might want to have that turned off, and make a lores version, Clearly Labeled “NOT FOR PRINT”, with the Slug Area on.

Well, I covered a lot, I think. I’m sure this will be helpful to some, and common knowledge for others. If you caught something I missed or have other helpful advice, leave a comment.

Well in between political tweets (which I know I shouldn’t do, and I will curtail), looking for a job, and a bit of XBOX 360; I’ve been painting. So here is a look how they are looking these days. My latest pirates are done, the dragon isn’t and the warriors are a new set, which are far from done. Enjoy.

Pirate Self Portrait

Pirate Self Portrait

Another Pirate Self Portrait

First of my Warrior Series

Second of the Warrior Series

The First of my Dragons in Modern Times Series.

What does everyone think? Comment…

With the current economical climate, many advertisers are making cuts that they don’t want to make. The wonderful company of DGWB has found no way to keep me on staff in the current economical situation. So I found myself laid off on Wednesday, and with a wedding I have to somehow pay for next year I cannot be lagging in my job hunt.

My downloadable resume is here, and my downloadable portfolio is here. The portfolio shows stuff I have not put onto my portfolio pages, as this site is slowly being updated.

Any art director, or even studio artists positions in Orange County, maybe Los Angeles would be greatly appreciated.

When it comes to taking an object out of a background there are countless techniques. Some make more sense for certain situations and not so much for other situations. I find when I’m in a rush I like to use a wand, but sometimes it will leave behind artifacts and debris only a pixel or so in size. How do I find them? I put a large red stroke on the layer, erase the junk then just take off the stroke to move on with the project.

The Red Stroke finds the hard to find pixels

So my little hack, which I’m still proud of and I will be contributing to the cause, soon, is being discussed on other sites. Not just with me getting credit, of course, there were others who freely came up with the same solution. I am excited because I want to see what others come up with replacement art, tho. So here are a few others discussing the hack.

Flickr

5/8ers

iLounge

MacThemes

This has been causing me a bit of strife for the past few months and every time I get an opportunity to stop and think about it, I have forgotten about it. Well no more.

The problem? I’m using InDesign on a Mac and we have a community server running windows. We store and work off the server. It allows us to all have access so if someone works on something everyone else won’t have to hunt thru the first person’s computer. It really works.

But the thing that wasn’t working was on occasion I would open up an indd file and when I was done, I’d TRY to save over it. I’d get a warning.

Cannot save the document. It may be opened by other applications. Close applications and try again. You may also use saveas to save it into a new document.

Well this would mean each time I was saving the file to my desktop and then replacing the old file, and then trashing this file. Believe me this adds up, especially when you have a stack of important wienerschnitzels and Kentucky Frieds piling up.

Well today I noticed when I opened an indd it said “Read-Only” and the working temp file that InDesign makes disappeared. It seems that when you open a file too quick and Finder is still working on the “Preview” it is technically opening the file. Which means if you open it too quick it will become a Read-Only and you cannot save over it. So wait until Finder makes it’s preview next time.

Okay, I’m pretty stoked with myself. I figured this one out all by myself and it worked. It doesn’t take long, and maybe I’ll post some of the images I use when I get the rest done, or if anyone else comes up with some images let me know. But what am I talking about? The new iTunes 8 has some cool features that I’m really digging and one is to group according to genre. When I looked in my movies I was to find a little surprise. I saw on the top a feature to group according to genre. But then a mess. Apple only made artwork for so many genres and I like a bit more organization than the next guy. So how could I add some? Simple.
First, here is what you see:

i need a war genre

So first let’s design a new one. I’m not going to go too much into depth on this, if you have a design skill use it, otherwise when I make mine available take those or if anyone else offers new art and I’m sure I won’t be the only one to figure this out, hopefully there will be others.

So to get the art I right click the iTunes.app and hit “show package contents”

second one down is the Show Package Contents

and navigate to Contents/Resources inside we find the jpgs we will use and the plist we need to edit. First the art. Open that image in an image editor, I prefer Photoshop. and do as you please. Here is my new War Genre.

Now save out the new jpg with the naming convention used, so I named mine genre-militaryM.jpg (the large M is for Movie, i noticed different sizes for music.)

and then place that file into the folder we found the other jpgs. Open the genres.plist in a property list editor. I just copied one of the previous genres and changed as I need it. Save it. (I would save a copy backedup somewhere in case my hack destroys the program in which case I’m NOT responsible. This works fine so far on my machine but it’s your decision to go thru a program and add code and what not. Don’t blame me. okay, disclaimer is done.)

And viola you have your own genre art.

War Genre is added.

Edited (For further clarification):

I kinda rushed this thing as soon as I got home from work. I know what it’s like when it seems something is missing, so let me help you guys out. When I right clicked the “genres.plist” i was given the option of opening it in “Property List Editor (default)”. It’s a part of the developer kit from apple. but you can open it in a text editor as well.

In the text editor you will see a bunch of code, but it’s real easy to add to it. What we want is something that matches either the square or movies string depending on which type of art we are messing with. In my example I wanted to add the Military string, so I’ll just take one of the other movie strings and copy/paste it in.

matchStringromance
resourceFilegenre-romanceM.jpg
kindmovie

Make sure you have it from the dict to end dict parts. So all I need to do is in the copied part, I replace the key parts I need. The first string (Match String) is looking for the first word. And the second is our image. The third, which is only on the movies I think, is if it’s a movie. So I put in:

matchStringmilitary
resourceFilegenre-militaryM.jpg
kindmovie

and it’s done. I hope that helps, if not just let me know. This is the my first time sharing one of my little hacks, so sometimes it’s easy to overlook something. Also, one more time, ENSURE YOU BACK UP THE PLIST. It also might be a good idea to keep a back up of your new plist and images in case a future iTunes overwrites them.

Enjoy.

Okay did you forget I had a blog? It would seem I did, but I have been incredibly busy. With work and wedding plans and all else that happens in life.

So, today I have finally set up my Firefox 3.0 to how I find the best way, for me. I’m sure you might find some good tools in here.

First off, I’m using the GrApple Yummy (graphite) theme so it doesn’t make my firefox look like something that doesn’t belong on my mac.

Extensions I’m using:

1Password: This is my loving saviour. I can now have my passwords a bit more secure and even sync/use on my iphone, and sync to an online secured database so my work computer is also up to date.

Adblock Plus: I probably don’t use this to it’s full potential of blocking all the flash on most sites, but it does block quite a bit on it’s own and that’s great.

Better Gmail 2 and Better GReader: I love how these really clean up the looks and give me more usability. I am now going thru my 1000+/day RSS updates much quicker.

Delicious Bookmarks: I am still on the fence between Delicious and Magnolia which is really messing this whole situation up, but soon I’ll pick one and then be able to streamline my organization.

Digg Toolbar: This is cool because it gives me a little pop up sporadically to peek my interests.

Download Statusbar: no more download popups for me. I really like this plug in.

Evernote Web Clipper: this is part of the delicious/magnolia situation, but I have it so if I decide to go with Evernote, I’m ready.

Facebook Toolbar: This really keeps me up to date on my friends and whatnot.

FaviconizeTab: I tend to open alot of tabs, so this has been REAL helpful.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer: Not only are my passwords in sync but so are the Bookmarks, which stay synced to Delicious thanks to the previous add on.

Googlepedia: my new fav. It’s cool. It shows a related wikipedia article on my google searches.

PicLens: if you haven’t tried it, you haven’t seen what the internet is made for.

Shareaholic: helps me keep my digg posts coming in.

Smart Bookmarks Bar: So all my immediate bookmarks are clean and tidy.

StumbleUpon: for when I’m bored and seeking new things.

Now, you must not keep all the toolbars open. I keep most closed, and some of them I utilize only essential buttons. First let’s close the unnecessary toolbars.

Only the essentials.

That little Customize button is now going to be the next step. I set to default (for some reason this will allow me to see buttons that weren’t there related to the toolbars.) and set my toolbar now. I even moved the Home button and Bookmarks buttons.

how I customized my Firefox

So, what is it you do? Let’s discuss Firefox. Any cool tricks or addons I haven’t heard of? Share them in the comments.