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Steve Fermor
Participant
Steve Fermor
Participant
Activity
‎Sep 16, 2024
08:01 AM
Hi, I need a little advice on possibly purchasing a graphics tablet. Everyone's workflow is different, so here's mine. My desktop is a 27" iMac. I'm an automotive illustrator, old school using an airbrush. I am an experienced Mac user and and to create for example a wheel, I'll do the technical line work in InDesign, export it into Photoshop and add colour and texture there. I have very good hand to eye cordination and have illustrated this way using a mouse – but that's a bit of a brick and I'm looking for something more intuitive. I've attached an illustration done this way. I'm uncertain whether to have a tablet with a screen, because I will always be looking at the Mac and constantly switching between InDesign and Photoshop while working. My Mac will always be the centre of attention working this way I think. I want to be able to save as I go on the iMac without having part of the illustration on another device. I don't want to have to constantly export between Mac and tablet and back again. I have an iPad air and pencil, but I've never been comfortable working with it. Because what I do is quite analytical, I feel I need the discipline and control an iMac offers me. If I have one with a screen it will need to be an exact duplicate of what I see on the Mac. What can I buy? Any advice or further questions would be welcome
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‎Jul 03, 2024
07:18 AM
Hi Peter, Many thanks. I'll be trying that one out!
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‎Jun 25, 2024
03:46 AM
Can somebody help me with this before I just self destruct or something. I am trying to make a compound path of a circular banner and fill it black, but I can make no sense of the pathfinder facilities and to be honest I never have. I find them illogical and unblievably complex. I have been hours on this theoretically easy task and I have got nowhere. The banner is one circle inside another, with both paths cut and some straight end pieces added. I have made the inner circle and corners into a compound path which you can see in green, and have tried every method I can to join the outer ring (in red) to the green path to make one compound path. it fills the entire shape black and leaves a corner triangle with a hole. What am I doing wrong? Why is it so hard? Thanks in advance.
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‎Jul 27, 2023
03:02 AM
Thanks Peter, I thought illustrator was the place to be, and I do have it, but I really hate the software. When forced to use it many years ago, I always thought it was the poor man's Freehand (if you remember that one) and still do. As you can read above I did get there in the end, but thanks for the pointer.
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‎Jul 27, 2023
03:00 AM
Thank you so much, I had forgotten about Transform Again. I can certainly use this on a forthcoming project. I did get what I wanted on this instance by a somewhat more difficult route. I produced and elipse, stepped and repeated with no offsets, rotated it 6 degrees, and repeated this procedure unti I jad a quarter circle. Grouped it and rotated it 90 degrees twice, then ungrouped and regrouped it, and rotated it again until I got the result shown. Your method is better I think.
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‎Jul 27, 2023
01:32 AM
1 Upvote
Hi, I need to be able to rotate a drawn object in a circular manner and with precise gaps, not guesswork, between them. The most obvious example I can think of is a clock. If I wanted to create 60 one second markers, how would I go about this? Has anyone done anything like this? Many thanks.
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‎Dec 18, 2022
12:07 AM
Hi everyone, Can somebody please show me some mercy with the infernal tool of pasting in a perspective grid? I've watched tutorials, read posts, use Photoshop every day and have around 3 decades of experience of usage, but I still can't get this to work. First off, I'm using Ventura 13.0.1 and the Mac is less than a year old, and I'm on the latest version of Photoshop, so everything should be ok on that front. The project is to have perspective type and graphics running above a car illustration in perspective to give a sense of movement. I'm going to attach screenshots, I hope they appear in order. The graphic is a combination of type and a drawn graphic which have been merged into one rasterised layer. You can see it at the top of the image. Another image shows the layers in the palette. I copy the image using a marquee, go into perspective mode. A further image shows the grid. The pasted area is empty. I select the entire layer, paste it, and it does appear in the top left corner. I slide the graphic into the perspective area, and it fills the whole grid destroying it, as you can see in the final image. I have to keep the pasted item active or I can't access the scale tool. The next problem is the scaling tool doesn't work either. I can't alter the size in any way to reproportion it, except from the side to squash it or stretch it. Or I cam move the perspective area around or rotate it, but I can't fix it. Altering the depth or density of the grid has no effect. I can't get the graphic to slide onto the grid even approximating its correct proportions. What am I doing wrong? Thank you in anticipation.
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‎Nov 06, 2022
11:45 AM
Hi everyone, In the past few days, everytime I open Photoshop, the tools, floating palletes, and top tool bar do not open. I can switch them off and back on again which gets them back, but it is hugely annoying. I have my own workspace and it is ignoring that. I get the same thing with the tools in Indesign which suggests it's an Adobe fault and not the Mac OS. Does anyone know how to fix this? Many thanks.
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‎Feb 23, 2022
09:55 AM
Hi, Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the colour theme tool off the screen? I can't shut it down. Thanks in advance.
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‎Dec 05, 2020
01:26 AM
Hello Barb, It's been a while since I've had a chance to have another go at sorting this out. I have since upgraded to Photoshop 22.0.1. I have enabled the tools in preferences, checked the graphics processor is on, and noted I have to drag the new tools into the toolbar list. However, although they are black and therefore accessible, it doesn't let me drag them anywhere (Curvature pen tool and Content Aware tracing tool). I've attached screenshots of the pen tools I have, and the ones I am trying to get. Any idea what's wrong or am I missing something really obvious here? Thanks, Steve
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‎Oct 26, 2020
10:04 AM
Sorry Barb, I obviously got that wrong and sent the wrong screenshot. You were right though, it did open Photoshop 2020. I tried to rectify this, but 2021 crashes as soon as it opens, I can't use it all. I have reverted to 2020 for now. Any idea what that problem might be? Steve.
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‎Oct 26, 2020
08:04 AM
I've just tried to load the new tracing? tool under technology features and it isn't there to activate. In the notes about it I've also found I'm supposed to have a pen curvature tool. I don't. How do I get these? I'm supposed to be supplied with the latest everything but it doesn't seem to be the case. I've attached a screenshot of the pen tools I do have. If any one can enlighten me I'd be most grateful.
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‎Oct 25, 2020
11:59 AM
1 Upvote
That's it! Fixed! I would never have guessed that. Many thanks for your help.
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‎Oct 25, 2020
11:26 AM
1 Upvote
Hi, I've encountered an annoying problem I'm sure wasn't there a while ago. I know how to scale a photo using the tools, but what about numerically? Using the top bar menu width and height, if I want to reduce an image from say 10 cm to 5cm, even with the proportions locked it reduces the size of the frame, and not the image, which is then just cropped. How do I get both the frame and the image to scale together numerically? For instance, I could drop an image on a page, and want it precisely the same size as one already on there. I look up its width and then want to apply that same width to the new photo. But even with proportions constrained it will only alter the frame. This doesn't make sense to me. I need to temporarily disable the frame, but the only way I've found to do that is to go to object>select>content. Then numerical scaling does work but I don't even recognise the keyboard shortcut for this. What is that three-quarter circle with the upward arrow pointing left? Does anyone know the answer? Any easy shortcut? Many thanks.
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‎Dec 23, 2018
01:49 AM
6 Upvotes
I hate it too. I used to be able to scale in my sleep almost, either proportionately or not. Now I find I have to experiment each time as I can’t get used to it at all, and it doesn’t even seem consistent within Photoshop at times. I think your comment about muscle memory is right. This is a road block to productivity.
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‎Dec 01, 2018
09:54 AM
1 Upvote
That’s just what I was looking for! I couldn’t find it for looking. I was clicking on the image, never thought about the panel menu. Many thanks.
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‎Nov 26, 2018
03:58 AM
1 Upvote
I have tried to mark your answer as correct, but can’t see how to. I’m sure there used to be a button for this?
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‎Nov 24, 2018
01:38 AM
1 Upvote
Hi c.pfaffenbichler, That’s the answer! Many thanks. For the first time in a long time I can get the airbrush to work as I want. Why on earth this facility carries the name ‘transfer’ I can’t imagine. No wonder it’s hard to find.
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‎Nov 23, 2018
10:06 AM
Hi, Many thanks for getting back to me. What I’m fading is the length of an airbrush stroke. It will be expressed in pixels, 50, 100 etc.
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‎Nov 14, 2018
09:32 AM
Many thanks Samantha, that's worked fine I just need to find the fade option on this. Do you know where it is?
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‎Oct 24, 2018
02:36 AM
1 Upvote
Hello all, Many years ago I used to use Freehand. If you wanted type around a cirular path it was easy. You would type away, and centered type would actually be in the centre (it seems to go where it wants in InDesign), and if you wanted to split the type, so that some of the type sitting on the lower half of the circle was the right way up instead of upside down, you would just hit return where you wanted the type to split. It would drop into the lower half, and that was it. You would adjust ascender and descender to suit, job done in moments. That’s far too easy for Adobe it seems (unless I’m missing something) where I need two circles sitting on top of each other, and an endless amount of faffing about to try to get them to balance up. I’ve been on this simple task for at least 45 minutes, still not right, and it’s driving me nuts. Is it really this difficult? Thanks in advance if anyone knows of a more simple way to do this? The attached image shows what I am trying to achieve.
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‎Aug 23, 2018
06:48 AM
Airbrushing used to be a doddle in Photoshop, but over the years it has become harder to use, and is now barely functional at all. The pre set airbrushes right down the list of brush types are of little use. All that is needed is a very soft brush and use the fade control, so you set the airbrush stroke length to last for a given number of pixels – and that seems to have vanished. Have the chaps at Adobe ever used an airbrush? What we have now has too abrupt a finishing edge with the fade option.
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‎Mar 13, 2018
04:59 AM
Hello jane-e, Missed that bit! I’m new to this forum as you have probably noticed. Taken car of now. Bye for now, Steve
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‎Mar 13, 2018
01:30 AM
1 Upvote
Thanks jane-e, The problem is now solved, and I have my paragraph styles back too (see reply to Bill) My workspace is still working ok, so all done. Thanks for your quick response and help.
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‎Mar 13, 2018
01:28 AM
Many thanks Bill, That has fixed the problem! I don't know how I came to turn this off. Reactivating that part of the panel has somehow allowed me to see my paragraph styles again. I'll have to keep a careful eye those panels. Thanks again.
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‎Mar 12, 2018
12:08 PM
Hi, I've just used the paragraph panel to try to activate hyphens ia a paragraph of text and it's gone. So have all my paragraph styles. I have my own workspace set up, and have tried switching this on an off but the re in no difference. I have used Time machine to install an earlier version, but that hasn't helped either. I have restarted the software and the Mac, no joy. This is all I see in the panel. Does anybody know where everything has gone? Thanks in advance
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‎Oct 30, 2017
10:07 AM
1 Upvote
I'm sorry Bill, For some reason I had no notifications to this post and thought it ignored. I've just tried what you suggested and it works. It's a strange anomaly in behaviour and I'm not sure why it was authored that way. I got it working periodically, and now I know why - I'd gone straight in with the Direct Selection tool by chance. Thanks so much, and to Winterm and BarbBinder too.
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‎Jun 25, 2017
11:21 AM
Hello everyone, First posting here, so I hope it works. I have drawn a square in InDesign, and want to select one of the corner points to distort it. I assumed the direct selection tool would do this, but it is completely unable to select any of the points. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks
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