No, I didn't change the preset to one color job. I open Colorize with F3 which is a hotkey for it in CS5 and the preset defaults at "Custom" edit: I also deleted my post suggesting using a brush and tints which achieves the same thing like Colorize but is not as simple Thanks ... View more

Ok, I got it, it was a stupid mistake, sorry for the trouble. Thanks ... View more

Grant H wrote: or you could (in AI): Save a copy of the file. Then in the new doc. add the spot colour you require to the swatches panel. Create a group with just that swatch. Then, select all the artwork, click on recolor artwork, click on the colour group in the options diologue. and voila. /G Grant, unless I'm not doing it correctly, this will not recolor the artwork with tints of the color in the group but change all colors to one blob of the same color ... View more

JETalmage wrote: ... That's the rub. In a nutshell, Illustrator cannot simulate onscreen the opacity of individual inks (spot swatches). It can't do that with so-called opacity modes; it can't do that with Overprint Preview. Illustrator always assumes the translucent inks of process color. So whenever you want to mock up the appearance of light opaque inks printed on a darker substrate, the setup for that mockup either becomes too tedious or impossible.... Jet, printing bureaus that are serious about reproducing color should have color profiles of their printers and each media, substrates, etc. The clients like designers should be supplied with the color profiles. When the right color profile is assigned to the document, then choosing View > Proof Setup > Customize, checking Simulate Paper Color, and making sure the supplied color profile is selected for Device to Simulate, this should soft proof the appearance of the printed result. ... View more

The default is Minimum 80%, Desired 100%, Maximum 133%. If your settings were the same, most likely something else is affecting the spacing and changing these settings is compensating but with this settings the font should look fine. In your screen shot the settings in the Character panel are for the space before the T where the insertion point is. Make sure the whole text is selected (highlighted) or press the Esc key on your keyboard to switch to object selection. ... View more

As far as I know the Pantone inks can be used only on offset printing technology but most of the jobs for offset printing is from CMYK separations. It will be forbiddingly expensive to print images  like photos containing a full gamut of colors with hundreds of Pantone inks while they can be printed with only four CMYK inks.  And for a lot of images it will be simply impossible to print only with Pantone inks because although the Pantone colors have wider gamut (much more saturated) colors than process colors, Pantone doesn’t have that much colors to cover all colors available in the CMYK color space. Prints with Pantone inks will be  less expensive if  printing with less than four colors, which is suitable for only a small fraction of all images being printed. But if printed with one color and it is black, in my experience the K ink from the four CMYK inks is less expensive than the Pantone black which of course will be rich - they put in the ink a lot of colors and they charge more for that but it is worth it. However, one Pantone color black or not will be less expensive than two runs from the CMYK colors. Digital presses do not use Pantone inks, but with the ever improving technology some have very wide gamut producing much more saturated colors than the CMYK offset press and thus they can simulate more closely and often exactly a lot of Pantone colors using inks produced for the digital printer. ... View more

mec_os wrote: ... I dont believe there is such a thing as 'constructive criticism'. A criticism is just what it is, criticism. People spewing their opinions about your work ... mec, you made me curious and I searched for it . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_criticism when it comes to input for creative work, including my work, no matter how it is called, opinion, criticism, praise, etc., I agree with everyone regardless how opposing the different opinions may be. I consider all opinions as true. This is how different people react to the same thing and this is the nature of things. Usually the creator wants the artwork to cause an intended reaction from all others but  because that is impossible, the best that can be done is to optimize the artwork for a certain audience which is not an easy task but at least outlines the possibilities. ... View more

He is talking about changing the units in Illustrator. Right click anywhere on the ruler and choose the desired unit. You can also change them in the preferences and the document setup. ... View more

Like Fether, so far I like most the one in post #10 except the lines, although it could feel a little bit empty without them. If you have to put something and you want to go more  vintage style I would try something more curvy. Along with the shutter flower it could remind of the top side of a wooden ornaments frame. Jshea22 wrote: John, ... I really want something more modern, something that obviously says professional but is true to me. This post on Behance was very inspirational to me: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Vintage-LogoInsignia-Collection-2/89978 89 ... Its vintage style inspired logos used in a modern context which appears to be appealing to a lot of people. If you want to go in that direction you can try something like this. ... View more

You have to find out the names of the programs that are displaying your image differently. And to make sure it is the same image, you have to open it in at least two different programs at the same time when comparing it. Dropbox does not display images. When displaying images on the dropbox website it uses your default web browser to display images and when browsing the dropbox folder on your computer it uses your operating system browser to display preview of the image files. You have to tell us what web browsers, operating system, email programs, etc are displaying the image differently. ... View more

What software (programs) are in charge of displaying the images you are comparing? Are you comparing the images on the same monitor and computer? Different software may display the same image differently depending how it is color managed and if it can be color managed at all. Different monitors, computers, devices, outputs and etc, display the same color differently. The color management was designed to achieve consistent colors as much as possible on different outputs, but on each end this requires software and equipment with color management capabilities and users who know how to use correctly color managed images. Having the above limitations in mind, can you please explain what are you trying to achieve? ... View more

If you don't have any printing requirements given to you from the printer, choose Illustrator Default preset and let the printer deal with it. ... View more

dissidently wrote: This is slightly disingenuous because you're using a different combining method in the bottom example, right?  No, here's exactly how to reproduce what I did: Create a circle and a smaller circle inside it. Select all and make a copy next to it. Select the original two circles and apply Minus Front while holding Alt. Select the circles of the copy and apply Minus Front without holding Alt. Select all and make a copy of them at the bottom. Deselect all. From the bottom select the two inner circles by clicking on each with the white arrow, holding Alt, and Shift. Then move them so they are partially outside the encompassing circle. This shows a possible difference of this example between applying a compound shape or path to the same set of objects. Here's a couple of more examples that may help you with understanding these things better. On top is the original combination of objects and at the bottom are two copies of it after applying Minus Front and holding Alt on the left one and without Alt on the right one. The left one becomes a compound shape giving you the flexibility to adjust each of the original objects while the left one becomes simply one path. If the smaller circle was inside the larger one like the example in my previous message then the right one becomes a compound path which is the method used for vector objects with holes  - they are technically one object but they contain more than one path and each path can be selected and transformed independently which is similar to what can be done to a compound shape but is still not the same thing in regards to what is possible. In the next example on top is the original combination of objects. the smaller black shape is a rectangle with a round corners effect applied to it which allows you to change the roundness of the corners at any time later. At the bottom are two copies of this after applying Minus Front and holding Alt on the left one and without Alt on the right one. You can see that the Compound shape retains the flexibility to transform the two object independently and the roundness of the corners that can still be changed while the shape on the right loses the round corners and becomes a simple path. To retain the round corners on that one, you have to expand the appearance (the effect) before applying Minus Front. I think they should have programmed this to happen automatically because that's what I think most would expect but this is what you get at least in my version. hope this helps dissidently wrote: I really do want to know WHY each individual idiosyncracy is the way it is..... Oh, don't worry too much about such things. There is so many idiosyncrasies everywhere you will never be in peace. Everyone is different and it is very hard to find things that fit perfectly to your intuition. Intuition is your previous experience used unconsciously and thus without new efforts but there are so many tools, software, devices, interfaces, and what not in the world which makes it impossible to make these things easy for everyone. More you use something more you will get used to its idiosyncrasies If you don't like something and  you are not the only one your feature request can eventually make a difference and that's all you can do when it comes to things like software. ... View more

To be honest I don't reed the manual a lot too. I can't learn and remember manuals by reading from cover to cover without working on a specific job. I learn better when I need to do something and feel it could be done easier then I refer to manuals and web input. I learned about the compound shapes probably long after they were introduced and probably read the manual (can't remember) but learned better about compound shapes by just playing around. The major reason I would prefer compound shapes over compound paths is flexibility and the reason choosing compound paths is simplicity (less items clutter). The left side is a compound shape and on the right compound path - on the bottom you can see what happens if I decide later to change the shape. ... View more

zo0tboy wrote: ... Any other ideas? All help is appreciated. Thanks. did you pay any attention to my input ... View more

release the compound paths (select all and press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + 8) then select the two red shapes and in the Pathfinder click Minus Front while holding the Alt key on your keyboard. repeat for the green shapes. In the Layer's panel examine the hierarchy of the objects you have now to understand the difference between Compound shapes and Compound paths. ... View more

Thanks Monika, that worked not sure if I will ever need it as smart objects are what I use all the time but it is good to know. ... View more

Kurt, unless there is an external tool like a script or plugin, I don't see a possibility in Illustrator. I just tried a file with nothing else but a box with black fill and no stroke and it exported as raster. And I also tried it even with no fill and no stroke and I got an empty canvas and no path in PS. I can't think of any simpler test files. ... View more

The only way to get a path from Illustrator to Photoshop is copy and paste. And to get it on a shape layer select Shape layer in the Paste options. This will create a new shape layer with the path using the current foreground color. But if when pasting with Path or Shape Layer options, you also have a path  selected on a shape layer in Photoshop then the path from Illustrator will be pasted in in the currently selected shape layer making a compound shape with the existing path/s. Exporting to Photoshop rasterizes the paths with the selected resolution keeping their original appearance and Preserve Text Editability is available as an option if there is a text without appearance attributes. ... View more

Can't offer you much help but can only mention how bad the font technology is in this respect. In my opinion the font usage interfaces available nowadays  are the most primitive and undeveloped than any other software solutions. Initially, decades ago, the primary goal of the font managers was system performance. In the early desktop computers even a few dozen fonts would slow down considerably the system performance. Nowadays the computers are so much faster that I can have thousands of fonts installed without any problem. So, the major advantage of font managers is lost and I have to use them for organization purposes only. However because they are external means to a problem that needs to be solved internally on a system and program level, they are very inefficient. You have to organize your fonts externally and load or unload with another program all the time in order to have manageable font menu. However this doesn't affect the system fonts and many program fonts which are a number large enough to clutter and interfere with any external arrangement. Basically a font manager allows you to organize your fonts externally where you can choose which fonts you want or don't want to use, then the font manager  automates the installing and uninstalling of these fonts in the system fonts folder and thus limits the number of fonts that appear in the font menus. Font managers don't have access to and can't sort the font menu in anyway. Ideally, this problem should be solved on a system level. The perfect interface I imagine would be user created sub-folders in the system Fonts folder where a font or its alias can be put and this would be the way the fonts should appear in the Fonts panels and menus of the programs with collapsible sub-menus. ... View more

Ana, your path may have been corrupted and cured which is not a common thing and could have been due to video card/driver related display glitch but  in general if you delete all text after selecting it with the text tool, the beams should remain and the selection of the path is the same with or without text. Also, the fact that you had the text path with a stroke, means that you already had selected the path in the way required for copying it as a line path. Adding a stroke or copying it as a line path requires the same kind of selection. And since we started talking about the Group Tool, each click with it on the same object or its selected siblings in a group selects the next hierarchy level (parent/group). If only a component of the path is selected the first click will select all components (the entire path) and then each subsequent click will select the next containing group. ... View more

anacathena wrote: ... Holding down Option, while using the Direct Selection Tool, adds a little plus sign to the side of the tool, as there is next to the pen tool when you are in a position to add points. Is the plus sign there to let the user know the tool is in an option mode? ... The plus sign in this case means that another selection tool is being used called Group Selection Tool. You can pick it from the Tools panel if you click and hold the mouse on the Direct Selection Tool (white pointer) and then you don't have to hold Option when clicking with it. If you hold Option while using this tool will switch to the Direct Selection Tool (white pointer without the plus sign) Once there is text on the path. The option-click seems a reliable solution. Shouldn't make a difference with or without text on the path. [scott w] wrote: ... An easier option may be to select the path via the Layer Panel, then copy it. Scott, there is no way I can select the path without its text aspect via the Layers Panel in CS5 ... View more

You can check for files in the location you are trying to save but if there is nothing there I don't think you are going to have anything else unfortunately. I hope this never happens to you again. ... View more

It says "Reading Illustrator file..." Have you placed linked Illustrator files in your document? Can you move that progress dialog window around or it is frozen too. ... View more

kiski wrote: .... I went to Edit/Edit Colors/ Change to Grayscale. The .AI vector art now looks gray on screen, but the title says "Icon.ai@100% (CMYK/Preview)". It still reproduces as a CMYK file and not Grayscale. I can't place this into a 2 spot colour document. What am I missing? Why not? If you sent to print CMYK file with nothing on the CMY channels and all you have is on the K channel then this is in effect 1 color job that can be printed with any spot color. ... View more

Tested on CS5 and it works perfectly. Great job! ... View more

Noel Carboni wrote: ...  Some would argue that they don't find merit in previewing things at print size on the screen, but others clearly do... I don't think they would remove features just because not everyone is using them but I don't think it was an accident ether. May be they were replacing it with something that didn't make it for whatever reasons and they forgot to put the previous one back. I wonder if  this has been reported to Adobe. ... View more