Walk into a graphic design or photography studio and you’ll probably see a graphics tablet on the desk. With an app called Astropad you can use an iPad or iPhone as a graphics tablet for a Mac, painting and drawing with your finger or stylus. Astropad even supports pressure sensitivity with a compatible stylus or with 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. But how close does it get to using a Wacom graphics tablet?
To see what I think, read Review: Astropad, published on CreativePro.com.
For creative professionals, one of the most interesting things about the Late 2015 release of the 4K and 5K Retina iMac is that it uses the first wide gamut display Apple has ever made. And the color gamut it uses is not the Adobe RGB gamut usually seen on wide gamut monitors, but a gamut called P3 which is used in digital cinema.
Mac websites have not gone into much detail about this display except to more or less repeat what Apple says in their marketing materials, so I took a closer look at this display in my earlier article, A look at the P3 color gamut of the iMac display (Retina, Late 2015). As I was examining the wide gamut P3 display, I realized that there are several color profiles installed with OS X that I haven’t seen before. What led me to write this article was that almost no one seems to have mentioned these new profiles…and what they have in common.
With OS X 10.11 El Capitan now available as a free download from the Mac App Store, you’re probably wondering how well your Adobe software and other Mac apps will run on it. Upgrading to El Capitan seems to go relatively smoothly for most software. The biggest problems with compatibility and stability were with the first release of El Capitan (OS X 10.11.0); many of those problems were fixed in OS X 10.11.1. Here’s what I know so far about the state of Adobe software in El Capitan.
Every web designer is taught to enter colors in hexadecimal values like #47B56C, but hex code can be like an alien language compared to the traditional RGB and CMYK color values that are familiar to photographers, videographers, and print designers. Luckily, entering colors using simpler RGB values is allowed in CSS, and it’s easy to do.
Want the whole story? Read my article Vexed by Hex Web Colors? RGB is OK! published on CreativePro.com.
It’s a time-honored tradition to sketch a design idea on the nearest piece of paper, such as the back of an envelope or a cocktail napkin. You then have to take that paper over to your computer and manually translate the sketch into a document you can take through production to final output. Today, with Adobe Comp CC on the Apple iPad, you can design layouts by sketching gestures with nothing more than your fingers. You can then send that design directly to Adobe InDesign CC, Adobe Photoshop CC, or Adobe Illustrator CC as a fully editable layout, ready for immediate refinement and production.
I take a step-by-step look at this mobile and fully digital idea-to-production workflow in Issue 77 of InDesign Magazine. If you just want to read the article, Adobe has made it available as a free PDF at this link:
InStep: Adobe Comp CC
Here’s the whole issue (paid):
InDesign Magazine, Issue 77: Fresh Tips
The issue’s called Fresh Tips because it features a long list of genuinely useful InDesign productivity tips…I’m learning from them myself! In addition to my article on Adobe Comp CC, the issue also introduces the new Publish Online feature in InDesign.
The article is part of an issue of InDesign Magazine that you can buy as a single issue or as part of a subscription. You can download a free trial issue, and you can save $10 when you sign up for a 1-year membership by using this coupon code: friend.
InDesign Magazine is a bimonthly PDF periodical devoted entirely to Adobe InDesign and to the thriving community of InDesign professionals. With editorial direction by page-layout guru and author David Blatner and CreativePro.com editor in chief Mike Rankin, InDesign Magazine brings you the in-depth features, reviews, and tutorials you need to master Adobe InDesign.
conrad chavez | blog 