There are two ways you can do this. The first method takes a screen capture of your entire screen. You do this by pressing shift-command-3. You should hear a camera shutter sound and an image file will show up on your desktop.

The second method allows you to select which area of the screen to capture via cross hairs.

For this, you will need to press shift-command-4.

When you do this, your cursor will turn into cross hairs that you can click and drag to make your selection. You will also see numbers to the side of the cross hairs that tell you how many pixels wide and high your image will be. You will also hear the camera shutter sound using this method.

At one point in your design career you might need to create a die line or a die-cut in your layout. This is how you do it.

OUTLINE THE SHAPE

A die line or die cut is the area on a layout that will be cut to a specific shape, such as the one below. You will first need to create an outline of the shape to be die cut. The outline will be given a spot color stroke that the printer will use as a guide to make the die cut.

CREATE A DIE LINE “COLOR”

Once the shape is outlined, go to the swatches palette and create a new color swatch. Name this new swatch “Die Line-Do Not Print”, set the color type to “Spot Color” and in the color mode choose any color that you want. I usually make mine 100% magenta. But realize that the color magenta is only used to visually distinguish the die line, and does not pertain to what color ink is printed.

It is important that the color type for this new color is set to “Spot Color”, so that a separate plate is created for the die line.

SET THE DIE LINE ABOVE THE DIE CUT AREA

The die line you’ve created should be positioned over the area that will be die cut. When type is used in the layout, give .125″ to .25″ space between the type and the die line. This is to insure that the type is not cut off if the printed piece shifts during the die cutting process.

SET TO OVERPRINT

The last step, which is important, is to select the die line and go to the Attributes palette and select “Overprint Stroke”. If this is not selected, the die line color will knock out (leave a blank area) on the other color plates and that is not what you want to have happen.

ADD BLEED

Don’t forget to add bleed to your shape, as when the die cut is made you will need to have access color outside of the die line in case the the printed piece shifts during the die cutting process, which can happen when you have a long print run.

Here’s a sample file of the die line I used for this tutorial:

Now that you’ve learned how to create die lines in Illustrator, read my tutorial on creating bleeds in Photoshop.

]]> http://rubberspark.com/creating-dielines-in-adobe-illustrator/feed/ 9 http://rubberspark.com/colors-101/ http://rubberspark.com/colors-101/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 20:33:19 +0000 Joseph http://rubberspark.com/?p=123

So you’re working on a logo and the client asks you “what Pantone colors are you using?” Pantone?

You send a file to the printer for a banner and the printer tells you “we can only print it in CMYK”.  CMYK?

Or you start on a project for web graphics and the client tells you “just give it to us in RGB”.

What are all of these strange letter combinations? What do they mean and how do they pertain to colors? Welcome to Colors 101.

THE COLORS

Pantone or PMS – (Pantone Matching System). This a system of colors, also called “spot colors”, widely used to get colors that you can’t get from cmyk. They are typically more vibrant or are specialty inks such as metallic or fluorescent.

CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The four inks primarily used in all printing processes, from print to billboards. Sometimes cheaper to print than Pantone colors.

RGB – Red, Green and Blue. If you’re looking at a monitor, you’re looking at RGB. If you’re holding a color photo developed in a process lab, it’s RGB.

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

The main problem with colors is that what you see on your monitor doesn’t look the same when you print it out. That is why whenever you budget a job, add in time and money for a printing proof.

With Pantone colors you can purchase Pantone swatch books. These swatch books come in come in coated and uncoated samples. Coated when printing on coated paper, such as glossy paper, and uncoated, for printing on paper without any special coating.

A Pantone color will look different when printing on the two types of paper, so sometimes you might need to choose a different Pantone color for each type of paper. Also, when creating an image for the web, the RGB interpretation of the color will vary too.

PANTONE TO CMYK

There is also a Pantone process guide that shows CMYK mixes of the Pantone spot colors. Unfortunately, you will not find the colors listed by the Pantone numbers. You will need to compare the spot color to the process swatches visually to get a close match.

COLORS IN YOUR DOCUMENT

It is important to remember that when building your files to make sure your file is in the correct color mode. A color in an RGB Adobe Illustrator document will look and print differently than it will in a CMYK document.

If you have any more questions or tips about colors, please leave a comment or send me the question.

Thanks to the internet we can send files quickly to the printer or client via ftp. But sometimes the files become quite large when combined, even when zipped. Here’s a great trick I’ve learned that will help get those file sizes down, which means less uploading time.

If you’re creating your layout in Adobe Illustrator, and the image you’re placing in the layout is large, let’s say it is 45” x 12”, 300dpi, and cmyk. That image would be 185 Megs when open and about 44 Megs saved as a jpeg. And when you save your Illustrator file with that image in it, the Illustrator file size becomes just as big as the image file size. Even zipping these files doesn’t reduce the file size much. The time it takes to upload a file this size sometimes takes too long. How do you get the file size down will keeping the high-resolution? Here is what you do:

If your image is created from a high-resolution (300dpi) layered Photoshop file, flatten the file, change the resolution to 72dpi and save it as a jpeg. Place the jpeg into your Illustrator file (make sure to link it, not embed it), and save the Illustrator file. You’ll notice the file size of the Illustrator file is a lot smaller when saved with a low-resolution jpeg linked to it.

Now, go back to your psd file, flatten again, but don’t change the resolution (keep it at 300dpi) and save it as a jpeg with the same name as the low-resolution jpeg. This jpeg and the Illustrator file you saved before are the files that you will zip and upload to the ftp site. The uploading time should be relatively short compared to the time it would take to upload the files had you saved the Illustrator file with the high-resolution file in it.

When the printer downloads the zipped files and opens up the Illustrator file, it will link to the high-resolution jpeg you’ve sent with it because it is saved with the same name as the low-resolution file. The file size was kept small, the upload time was short and you’ve met your deadline!

If you’re a freelance graphic artist, there have most likely been times when you’ve had to load up the files of the layout you’ve created for your client and sent them to the printer. And most likely there have been times when the printer has called and told you the files weren’t built correctly.

If you’ve ever working in a agency, you’ve probably designed a layout and then handed it off to a production artist to make it production ready. But if you’re freelance, you’re the designer AND the production artist. Making efficient mechanicals will help you save time and money.

INFORMATION:

When I start on a job I try to get as much information as I can from the client or production manager. Information such as size, how many colors, and budget may sound like obvious things to know, but you’d be surprised how often great concepts are nixed because the designer wasn’t told pertinent information when the project started. It is best to find out your design limitations before the project is started.

Sometimes the client will give you these limitations, but then tell you that if you have a really great idea that goes beyond those limitations then go ahead and go for it. Just be prepared to have that great idea nixed and consider it an exercise in stretching your design muscle.

These limitations help you most in the final art. The size of a layout being the most important and how many colors to use being the most important. So get that information in writing or email from the client and be sure to double check the size of your layout when working on it.

EFFICIENT FILE STRUCTURE:

When I start on a project I have three components: An Illustrator file, a .psd file and a jpeg.

The Illustrator file is where I have the crop marks and text of the layout.

The .psd file is the image file with layers for editing. The resolution of this file should be the resolution needed for printing, which is usually 300dpi. It should be kept in layers and remember to save often while working on it. Make sure you never flatten this file, as it is your working file and be sure it is in CMYK. Sometimes printing houses charge extra to convert RGB files to CMYK. And if someone forgets to change the color, the color proof can sometimes be very off.

The jpeg is the low-resolution image of the flattened .psd file that is placed in the Illustrator layout. The resolution of this file should be 72dpi, sometimes 100dpi, depending on the size of the layout. But this is only used during the creation of the layout. The reason to set this file to a lower resolution is for the efficiency when updating the file in the Illustrator layout.

A higher resolution file takes longer to import or update in the layout than a lower resolution file. And even though computers nowadays have faster coprocessors, no one likes to sit waiting for that rainbow wheel to spin while the layout updates your image. A smaller file also takes less time to print out on your home or office computer.

When the layout is approved and ready go to print, then save the jpeg as high-resolution file and place it into your document. For safety purposes, so as not to place that image into the layout or load it on the disk, add the resolution setting to the end of the jpeg file name, such as “image_300dpi.jpeg”. There are times when you might need to name the high-resolution jpeg the same as the low-resolution jpeg, and I explain that here.

LINK YOUR IMAGES:

When placing an image in Illustrator always link to the image. That way when you make changes to the image, it will automatically update. Once the layout is approved and ready to go to the printer, then you save the image as a higher resolution file and make sure your Illustrator layout updates the new image.

Sometimes printing houses will need the Illustrator file with the image embedded in the file and if you come across that, well, that is what you will need to do.

SELECT THE CORRECT COLOR MODE:

When creating a new Illustrator file to work in, make sure it is set in the correct color mode you will need when going to print. And that is usually CMYK. Make sure you do this when you first create your document, as changing it from RGB to CMYK after you have your layout created could change the colors drastically.

If you’re working on a project that has more than one page, you might be working in InDesign. Recently I worked on a menu design, created each page in Illustrator and imported them into InDesign. Even if you decided to create your project in InDesign I would still apply my principles above to insure that your time spent waiting for your computer to update files is short.

Though some of these tips are basic, I hope that they help you keep your work flow moving smoothly.

When you sit down at your computer, you want to focus all of your energy on creating great design. These tips will help you become more efficient on the Mac, meaning more time spent creating, and less time spent troubleshooting. 

Tip #1: ADJUST YOUR MOUSE TRACKING

With the larger size of displays nowadays, moving the pointer from side of the screen to the other can involve moving the mouse until you run out of mouse pad, move the mouse back and keep it up until you’ve reached the area of the desktop you were headed for.

The problem is that the default setting on the mouse tracking, which is how fast your pointer moves on the screen, is set in the middle; not too fast and not too slow. But having it set in the middle is still too slow. Open up your “System Preferences” control panel and select “Keyboard & Mouse”. This is where you set the mouse tracking all the way to the right, the fastest setting. It may take awhile to get used to the new speed of your pointer, but you’ll soon find that you need to use a lot less mouse moving on your mouse pad to get things done.

Tip #2: BUY A MIGHTY MOUSE

When the Mighty Mouse first came out I was against the little roller ball located on top. I didn’t think I needed it. And then I had to use one. When I got my new G5, it came with a Mighty Mouse, so I had no choice but to use it. Now, whenever I get on a computer with an older mouse I get frustrated because I don’t have the scrolling capabilities I have with the Mighty Mouse.

It takes some time getting used to it, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be thankful that you have one.

Tip #3: USE THE QUICK KEYS

What are “Quick Keys”? Quick keys are key combinations that execute an action that you would normally do by moving the mouse around to a menu, selecting the appropriate action and letting it happen. By using quick keys you become more efficient on the computer. I’m not sure if people just don’t know about them, or they aren’t comfortable using a keyboard, but it pains me to see someone using the mouse to do something as simple as quitting out of a program when they can make two key strokes and get the job done a lot faster.

The best way to learn quick keys is to use them. Yes, practice makes perfect and the more you use them, the more you’ll use them: they will become second nature. A link to most OS X quick keys can be found here, and most programs have quick keys for most of the programs menu actions. In Adobe Illustrator you can even “program” your own quick keys. I found this especially helpful with such actions such as “Place” when placing an image in your layout.

Tip #4: ORGANIZE YOUR FOLDERS, AND LABEL FILES

Your office has file cabinets to store important documents. Your desk has trays that hold documents you’re currently working on. Your computer should be as organized. Make folders, and name them accordingly. Your “Work” folder should have individual folders for your clients. In those folders should be individual folders for the projects you’ve worked on or are currently working on for that client.

Name your files with names that reference the project you’re working on. Create a name-filing system that gives you the information you need to find your work, which helps remove the chance of you saving over important files. This will save time and frustration when searching for important files and will help you reference those files in the future if need be.

Tip #5: CLOSE THE FONTS YOU AREN’T USING

Fonts are great, as they add feeling to your layout. But they sometimes bog down your system. Purchase a font utility program such as Suitcase Fusion. By using this program you can organize and open only the fonts you need. It also comes with a program called FontDoctor that will reorganize your fonts into individual, alphabetized folders for easy referral.

Tip #6: BACK UP ALL OF YOUR FILES

Nothing’s worse than having your hard drive crash and all of your work is gone with it. It rarely happens, but it does happen. Having your work and system backed up is a life saver and great insurance in case something like that happens.

I would suggest purchasing an extra external hard drive, such as the Lacie 500 GB. It comes with back-up software that will designate what folders to back up, and when to perform the back ups. I set mine to back up my system once a month, and my work folders everyday. That way if my hard drive crashes, I can pull everything off of my back up drive and all is well.

Tip #7: SAVE OFTEN

Sometimes programs crash. Sometimes you close a document and hit the “Don’t Save” button instead of the “Save” button. And then all of the work you’ve done for the past hour is gone. Use that thumb and index finger and hit the apple key and “s” key to save your work. And do it after every round of actions you perform on your document. Illustrator has multiple undos and Photoshop has the “History” palette. Do it until it becomes second nature and you’ll never have to worry about losing that awesome illustration you’ve spent the past hour creating.

Hopefully these tips will help you with your workflow and relieve you of some of the frustrations you’ve experienced in the past. If you have tips of your own, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Gone are the days of printing out a layout and sending it UPS or FedEx to the client to get an approval. Now, thanks to technology, we create pdfs for fast transit of such materials to be approved. And it all happens within minutes. 

Making a pdf of your layout is easier than ever, and this is how you do it:

Whether you’ve created your layout in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, almost all programs can create pdfs, even Microsoft Word.

When you’re ready to create your pdf, just follow the same steps you would follow if you were going to print it out on your printer. But instead of pressing the print button, go to the pdf button in the lower left corner and select “Save As Pdf”. You will be asked where to save the pdf, select the location and press “Save”.

When creating a pdf in Adobe Illustrator, go to “Save As” and save as an “Adobe Illustrator Pdf”. You will then go to a settings window where you will adjust it according to the size and quality of the pdf you require.

If you’re creating a pdf from a Adobe Photoshop file, you will save the file as an “Adobe Photoshop PDF”.

Sometimes the easiest task can be so difficult if you don’t know how to do it. Placing an image in a PowerPoint presentation used to be one of those tasks. But not anymore. 

Here’s how to do it:

When in your PowerPoint presentation, go to “Insert” in your upper menu, then “Picture”, then “From File”. There you will be able to choose the image you need to place into your PowerPoint presentation. 

You can also use your Formatting Palette to do this.

Go to “View” in your upper menu and select “Formatting Palette”. The Formatting Palette will pop up, and you can click on the second icon after the word “Insert”. This is just a shortcut to inserting an image and will give you the same result as using the above technique.

Now, when you have placed your image on a page that had copy, it will cover the copy. What you need to do now is send the image to the back. Select your image and go back to your Formatting Palette. Under the “Size, Rotation, and Ordering” heading you will find the “Layering” option. Click on that to bring up a drop-down menu and select “Send to Back”. You image will now go back behind your copy. And that’s it! 

How many times have you printed out a layout and the colors look very different from what is on your monitor? What you don’t want is a client seeing their printed product looking different than what they’ve approved. So get a printering proof.

Sometimes designers go to great lengths to calibrate their monitors to their home or office printer. And that’s great if you’re printing out the actual product on that printer. But I doubt you’d do that for a job that calls for a run of about 5000 pieces.

Not matter how exact your monitor is to your printer, it’ll probably look different when it comes off of the printing press. So make sure you add in time and money in your budget to get a printing proof.

GET CLIENT APPROVAL

When you send your files to the printer they will print out a proof that will represent what their printing press will produce. And that is what you have the client approve. The printer will use that proof to make sure all of the pieces they print out will match that approved proof. And that is exactly what you want.

The client may say “I trust you” and leave it in your hands to be the only one to approve the proof, but taking the time to get their approval on it is better than having the job done and them wondering why the color looks different. Believe me, it happens.

It’s worth the trouble to take this precaution and keep your reputation intact.

Uploading files is quite easy. But, there are some important things you need:

1. An ftp client.

2. The ftp information of the ftp site.

The ftp client is simply the software that you use to upload or download files from

an ftp server. The ftp program I currently use is Fetch.

It’s an easy program to use and only costs $25.

The ftp information is what you input into the ftp client. It consists of the following:

Hostname: Usually a nine digit number, sometimes an ftp address such as ftpsite.upload.com.

Username: supplied by your contact at the ftp site

Password: supplied by your contact at the ftp site

After opening Fetch, you will input the information and click connect.

Once connected you will see a list of other files on the ftp site or if it is an empty folder that you are uploading to, it will not have a list. But what you should see is an indication that you have connected to the ftp server.

When you have connected to the ftp server, drag your zip file into the window. This will begin the uploading process.

You should see the uploading status in the lower left corner of the window, along with how much time it will take to upload your file.

When your file is uploaded, you should see a confirmation message in the lower pane of the window.

And you’re done!

The downloading process is done in the same way, except you will drag the file you need to download from the ftp window onto your desktop.