Rufus Deuchler

Five cool Adobe Illustrator tricks IMHO

Follow me as I jump from one feature to the other in Adobe Illustrator, some older and some new. See what you may be missing if you are not yet using Illustrator CS5.

In this episode of CSInsider|Design I am covering the following five features:

• Transparency in gradients (CS4)
• Dashed lines and arrow heads (CS5)
• Stretch control for Brushes (CS5)
• The Shape Builder tool (CS5)
• Nine-slice Scaling for Symbols (CS5)

I you are unsure about when what feature was introduced make sure to check these out:

• The Adobe InDesign new features cheat sheet (CS3 to CS5.5)
• The Adobe Illustrator new features cheat sheet (CS3 to CS5)
• The Adobe Photoshop new features cheat sheet (CS3 to CS5)

Taking Muse (Code Name) for a spin over at Adobe BrowserLab

Out of sheer curiosity, and because quite a few users have asked me about cross-browser compatibility, I took one of the websites showcased on the Adobe Muse site (which, by the way, was entirely created using Muse) for a spin over at Adobe BrowserLab, and here are the results.

With BrowserLab you can preview how your web pages will display across browsers and operating systems.

One of the promises of Muse is that "Muse creates cross-browser compatible code for you, so you can focus on your design and we’ll make sure your site looks great". Well except for IE 6.0 on Windows (which does not display transparency in PNGs) and a couple of browsers not honoring the left padding of the page, I'd say that all looks pretty good.

This is a very superficial test, I'll try to create a more thorough one in the near future.

Give Muse a try.

A closer look at the variable width tool in Adobe Illustrator

Learn how you can use the Variable Width Tool in Adobe Illustrator to rapidly trace complex brush strokes and turn a scanned image into fully-fledged vector art.

Enjoy!

Creating a single one-off publication for the iPad with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite

In this short clip I will be showing how easy it is to get your InDesign content to your iPad using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Specifically I will be showing how you can create a single one-off issue in three easy steps.

• Step 1 - The Folio Builder Panel in Adobe InDesign
• Step 2 - The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Folio Producer
• Step 3 - The Viewer Builder desktop application

Enjoy!

Adobe Muse (code name) is here!

Adobe Muse is in beta and available for all to try. Here are a few videos I created for my Adobe TV show CSInsider|Design.

After this introduction check out:

• Muse: Pinning objects in a fixed position on a web page
• Muse: Trigger and Target

And finally a little experiment I did creating HTML content with Muse and then using it with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite in InDesign:

• Muse: Creating content for DPS

You can check out and start using Muse right here.
Let me know what you think!

My schedule at Adobe MAX 2011 is looking good!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I will be presenting at MAX 2011 in Los Angeles, and these are my sessions and labs:

Adobecadabra! with Rufus Deuchler
Jump-start your designs! In this lively session, Rufus Deuchler, Adobe's worldwide evangelist for design, will deliver killer tips and cool techniques for your favorite Adobe design tools: Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, and InDesign CS5.5. Productivity, accuracy, and creativity are what this session is all about.
Monday, October 3, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 5, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Publishing to Digital Devices with InDesign CS5.5
Learn the different ways you can create engaging publications or documents for tablet and mobile devices with Adobe InDesign CS 5.5. Rufus Deuchler, senior worldwide Adobe evangelist, will demonstrate how you can publish your InDesign content that integrates interactivity, video, and sound to tablet devices, either as an EPUB eBook or as a .folio file via Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. This session will show you the alternatives available if you are interested in creating electronic publications with InDesign and the benefits and limitations of each.
Tuesday, October 4, 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Using Folio Producer Tools in InDesign CS5.5 [Hands-on Lab]
Test-drive the new Folio Producer tools in Adobe InDesign CS5.5. In this hands-on lab, you'll learn how to author engaging interactive content for publication to tablet devices. Using the new Overlay Creator panel, add audio, video, and other interactivity including 360-degree rotation of objects and HTML content to your InDesign layouts. Create and manage a .folio file using the Folio Builder panel and preview it using Content Viewer for Desktop. You'll leave this session with a deep knowledge of the new Folio Producer tools and how InDesign CS5.5 integrates with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
Monday, October 3, 2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, October 4, 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

I have just looked at the registration numbers and all of these are filling up fast! Also, I just found out that the deadline for early bird Adobe MAX passes has been extended to 8/31! Grab your tickets now.

The Perspective Grid in Adobe Illustrator CS5 for Rapid Packaging Prototyping

The perspective grid offers great opportunities to take your 2D content into perspective. See how I turn a flat packaging design into a three dimensional representation for presentation to a Client.

This is the first of my new CSInsider|Design Series this year. Enjoy!

 

The making of a beautiful Photoshop composition

Some time ago I challenged Marcio Negherbon from Meca Image Engineering in Brazil to create an image that would represent yours truly in a creative environment. This is what he came up with. I have been following Marcio's work for quite some time and he always comes up with great solutions.

I am truly humbled that he chose to take up my challenge. Thank you Marcio. Many thanks also go to Marcos Andrade from Meca 3D who created the peluche tools that surround me.

And here's the making of video. Check out all the Photoshop layers:

Making Of Rufus Deuchler from Marcio Negherbon on Vimeo.

Pretty cool stuff, pretty cool stuff...

Adobe publishes a new Creative Suite 5/5.5 Printing Guide

Adobe has published a new Creative Suite 5/5.5 Printing Guide to learn the best ways of handling and preparing CS5 and CS5.5 files for print with an in-depth technical reference, designed especially for printers and production artists. 

For example, this guide will introduce you to forensic tools, such as the Overprint Preview option in Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat X Pro, as well as the Output Preview function in Acrobat, all of which are invaluable in highlighting potential problems. The earlier you can pinpoint problems in a job, the less expensive and complicated they are to rectify. 

As RIPs have matured, there are fewer issues with jobs containing transparency. The advent of pure PDF workflows based on the Adobe PDF Print Engine will result in more reliable reproduction of PDF content—that is, greater consistency and fidelity to the designer’s intent. For example, transparency effects in InDesign CS5/5.5, such as gradient feather, glow, and inner shadow effects, image without the need for flattening when output through a PDF Print Engine-based RIP. You’ll find guidance in this document for identifying such effects and for preparing jobs to correctly render them during output. Additionally, you’ll find links to other available reference materials that cover such topics in depth. 

Download the PDF of the Adobe Creative Suite 5/5.5Printing Guide [22Mb].

Very interesting stuff! Enjoy.

The Adobe Photoshop new features cheat sheet.

I created one for InDesign, I created another one for Illustrator, could I leave this task without creating a cheat sheet for Photoshop as well? Of course not!

Wondering what the new features are in Photoshop CS3, CS4, and CS5? Or what feature came first? Well, I was trying to find a way to have them at hand. You never know. So here's my Adobe Photoshop new features cheat sheet.

And here's a PDF for your reference.

Update June 13: there is now also a Russian translation of the document! My thanks go to Vladislav Ossipov for this!

Enjoy!