Here’s something new… According to John Nack – official Adobe blogger – maliciously coded GIF files can cause crashes in Photoshop (I’m thinking other possible security risks as well).
There is a fix, however – so visit John Nack’s Blog to find the appropriate resolution to the problem:
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2011/08/plug-in-security-fix-for-photoshop-cs5.html
Lions are beautiful animals – smart, strong, powerful. However, I’m not feeling that great about upgrading to the new Mac OSX 10.7 Lion. From what I read, it seems that some features on which I depend are going to be either completely deprecated, or won’t function at all in the way I want them.
However, I am NOT an early adopter – I don’t install version 1 of ANYTHING, especially an operating system. It’s my hope that by the time I do install it (probably around the .2 update), Apple will have addressed my needs for Address Book, and iCal, and will have maybe found a way to sell Rosetta as an addition to Lion – or at least for Parallels to devise a way for me to use my Snow Leopard installation in emulation, and have resolved some issues I already see as being against my personal interests to upgrade.
However, many of my clients ARE early adopters, and I get the phone calls to help bring them back, when they’re sorry for what they did. That’s great – thanks – I love the work! But, as I’ve mentioned to ALL my clients and students in the past, it’s IMPERATIVE to have a reliable “Cloned Backup” of their original startup disk.
This article addresses how one may go about resurrecting your Snow Leopard installation, if they don’t like Lion. It emphasizes the “Cloned Backup” idea quite strongly. A good read:
http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-downgrade-from-lion-to-snow-leopard/
One of the big complaints about InDesign CS5.5 – with all it’s hoo-ha about being so great for developing materials for the broadening range of devices – was that Adobe’d stopped shipping it with all the Templates they used to include!
Pre-created Templates are great for deconstructing and developing personal, creative designs without starting from scratch.
Today, InDesignSecrets.com has posted links to bunches of the original templates (they’ve used CS4’s versions) for free download. SO nice not to have to hand-make the CD label template again!
http://indesignsecrets.com/adobes-free-indesign-templates-now-available-at-indesignsecrets.php
Here’s a really good checklist for preparing yourself and your Mac to upgrade to Mac OSX 10.7 Lion, which went on sale today. Courtesy of Gigaom.com
http://gigaom.com/apple/mac-os-x-10-7-lion-install-checklist/
For iPhone – iSupr8 – This looks great. Just saw it listed – can’t wait to try it!
Again, CreativePro.com has come up with a great list of freebies – free font creation app, Free Stock Photos (Love those!), Free Photoshop Watermark panel, Free ToDo List (foc computer and smartphones/pads, Free annotation software for web pages… Gotta love FREE!
http://www.creativepro.com/article/free-all-wont-cost-you-penny
Gradient banding is the effect in which the transition lines in a gradient are too visible. For Photoshop, this is more often an issue for onscreen images than it is in print (it’s rather the opposite in Illustrator)
on KelbyTV (one of my favorite places) Dave Cross has a very interesting tutorial on some anti-banding techniques.
You can watch the video here:
http://kelbytv.com/askdave/2011/07/11/reduce-banding-in-gradients/
Adobe’s posted a couple of great articles on using Dreamweaver for styling your websites using CSS:
The first article (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css-selectors-pt1.html) is an excellent lesson on CSS Essentials.
The second article (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css-selectors-pt2.html) has some REALLY helpful information on what kind of power controls are in CSS3. WOW! CSS is getting stronger and Stronger.
And, with Dreamweaver, we don’t really have to hand-code any of it!
This FREE guide offers excellent technical information regarding the Acrobat X Printing options, as well as technical details and tips for printing from Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign – and how to make the various programs “play nicely” together when printing.
Did I mention it’s FREE?
This cool After Effects plugin seems to work a lot like the Color Guide in Adobe Illustrator, but on footage! Looks like it can work a charm for those of you who need to come up with great color combinations for Motion Graphics projects, without struggling with color theory. The first 500 orders get a very respectable discount: