Format: Graphics programs
These are extracts from the FORMAT NEWSLETTER.
CLEANING UP LOGOS
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How do you get good looking logos for the smaller advertiser, especially the one who expects great results from a printed flyer or business card?
We normally suggest, clean up the bitmap scan in Photoshop, or maybe Streamline, then have up to half a dozen or more sets of conversion options in Streamline and try each -- deciding on one, if you're lucky or apply different ones to different areas if you're not. As you get more experiences in doing it you might have to try only one or two).
Then, either in Streamline or in Illustrator, use the other tools to smooth lines or edit individual points. In part the aim here is to have at least an acceptable image available if time runs out -- and then continue to tidy it if time permits.
However, Tim Reiner of Comnet in Japan has another suggestion and sent us a copy of their Illustrator plugin, LogoSpruce, which is intended to make the process of manually tracing an outline much easier, once one is proficient in its use. For a complex logo, we can see that this route could be more accurate than tracing in Streamline.
I didn't appreciate what LogoSpruce can do from the original manual, but Tim has now sent their new manual in PDF format, which, even though still "an interim version" really does show the uses for the wide variety of additional tools which load into Illustrator.
If logos are a problem, then this is possibly an answer. It costs US$199, and is available from ThePowerXChange <http://www.thepowerxchange.com> or direct from <http://www.comnet-network.co.jp/eng/product/elogospruce.html>. Download the 259kb user guide PDF from the latter page.
They are in the process of making an auto-demo available for download, as well as a series of tutorial pages.
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Portfolio 6 from Extensis is a new version of the management program for digital files which includes "FolderSync" to copy, move, rename and delete files and folders directly and thus keep them synchronized with your catalogs. "Portfolio Express" is a palette to access files while editing images, writing emails, creating etc.
The new version also extends operations to digital cameras allowing files to be moved, copied, renamed, and categorized from camera memory card to hard drive or network in one step and the program works with Mac Finder or Windows Explorer to add any disk, file or folder to an existing catalog or to a new one. US$199.95
Details at <http://www.extensis.com/portfolio>. There is a trial version available but you have to fill in full personal details.
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One of the new tools in Illustrator 10 is the "envelope distort" tool that allows text and other items to be distorted based on an envelope shape created either with the warp tool or with the mesh tool (which used to be gradient mesh). I have to admit that it does it well, and maybe now I can get rid of the ancient copy of CorelDraw 3 which I've managed to transfer from computer to computer. (CorelDraw 3 won't install from the CD on modern systems, but if you copy the files across from a working system, modify the configuration .ini file to reflect any new drive letters, and make a new shortcut, it continued to work well).
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If you have a problem graphic it can be useful to look at the file in a text editor, as most graphics files include some text saying what the format is. Best to work on a copy of the file just in case you accidentally save the file in the program.
Anne Smith suggested that this procedure can also be useful when you have a file that you KNOW is, say a PDF, but it just won't open with Acrobat or Illustrator. Open it instead in a text editor and look at the beginning string of characters. PDF files should always begin with "%PDF-".
If the file doesn't begin with "%PDF-", then search for that string and, once found, delete all the characters preceding it. Then save the file (as text) and try to open again. Usually that will work.
The same idea may work with PostScript files which should always begins with "%!PS-Adobe-3.0" though it may be a different number).
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A hint on scanning pre-screened pics from Blatner and Fraser in their "Real World Photoshop 6": "When you rotate an image in Photoshop, the program has to do some heavy-duty calculation work, and those calculations typically soften the image somewhat, breaking up the halftone pattern. If you have a very slight patterning effect after scanning a pre-halftoned image, you might try rotating the entire image 10 or 20 degrees, and then rotate the same amount back again."
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There's an Illustrator mailing list, with details at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illstrtr>. If you are not already a member of a group operating through Yahoo, you will have to sign up first before joining the individual list. This is the latest home for the long established Illustrator list hosted by Sterling Ledet & Associates, Inc.
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To help remove banding. try adding a small amount of noise -- 1 per cent should be enough -- in Photoshop or other image editing program.
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There's a Multi-Page plugin for Illustrator from Hot Door software at <http://www.hotdoor.com>. US$49. We haven't tried it yet so would welcome any comments. The 361KB demo is unlimited in time but limited to two-page files.
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You get a file in Illustrator format and the white bits on a background don't come out when you proof it. What's up? It could be the new feature in Illustrator which allows white to be set to overprint. When you know it is there, it is easy to switch it off, but, unlike FreeHand which shows a little "O" inside overprinting objects, there's nothing on screen to show you that white is in overprint mode, unless you think to go to the overprint preview.
Because InDesign accepts graphics in Illustrator format, the same problem could carry over to that program. Just another little thing to watch for.
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One of the problems overcome by the Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 update is that of paths in EPS and TIFF pictures not being recognized by QuarkXPress 4.x. According to Adobe: "Image clipping paths in EPS and TIFF files saved from Photoshop 6.0.1 have been modified so that software, such as QuarkXPress, is able to read them." The update also includes updates to the painting tool, brush picker, ImageReady save and preview usability, batch file naming, and more. It is around 12MB.
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An Illustrator hint: Converting fonts to outlines sometimes doesn't convert text lines that contain no characters. These may have been created by inadvertently clicking on the Illustrator window with the text tool. It may have nothing in it or just a space, but it still has the font attributes. You think you've converted all the text blocks to outlines, but when you try to print in another application, you can have problems.
One fix is to use Find Font in the Type menu to find these invisible text blocks and delete them until there are no longer any fonts appearing in the Find Font window. Another suggested fix is to "Select > stray points", then delete them before saving to EPS. This catches all sorts of stray points in the image, including those text blocks that are empty. It has also been suggested that you may need to do a "Save As" to remove all vestiges of font info.
Stray fonts seem to particularly cause problems with Illy EPS files brought into PageMaker on Macs, but it may apply to other programs, other platforms.
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FontIncluder2 by Callas makes sure you embed fonts into EPS files. There's a demo version (for Mac and Win, around 600KB) at <http://www.fontincluder.com/>. The US$149 program allows "watched folders" and will automatically embed required fonts into any EPS saved to those folders.
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We read this on CompuServe (but we hasten to add, we haven't tried it): I often use this latter one when printing half-tones to my laser printer at 85 lpi. I print them at 156.25% and then tell the printer to shoot them at 64%. That way, I get a 133 linescreeen from my 600 dpi printer. We've even done duotones and (on one occasion) process-color separations this way with very good results.
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