24 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
This article was big in the social-media scene, but in-case you missed it, it’s one of the best Photoshop articles I’ve come across in a long while. Let’s face it. Time is money. If you’re constantly looking for ways to improve your Photoshop workflow, the folks over at the brilliantly-designed WebDesignerWall.com have a fantastic must-read post on hidden, or undocumented Photoshop shortcuts. If you want to learn, or even to test your Photoshop knowledge head on over for a good read, and you might want to sift through the comments for even more shortcut goodness.
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23 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
I don’t even know where to start. Clicky is a new web analytics service (free, or pro for a small fee) that is so feature-rich it’s hard to imagine everything that Clicky can do. Not only do they offer the normal set of analytics features, they have tons more that leave competitors in the dust. Some cool new features include a WordPress plugin, A live Spying feature (like Digg), Access to the API, File Download Tracker, Stats Via RSS, Integration with iGoogle, the list goes on and on. The only dissapointment I’ve found so far is the fact that Clicky isn’t offering their (killer) service to websites with more than 20,000 page views per day : ( They claim to be adding hardware to make this possible soon. One more thing. . . If you sign up for their affiliate program, it’s possible to get the premium service for free. And I hope they hurry. Move over Google Analytics, Clicky is where it’s at!
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20 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
A reader recently asked me about using the eyedropper tool to adjust the (one of 2+) colors in an Illustrator gradient. If you’ve never witnessed this frustration, it is quite annoying. In Illustrator, when using the gradient palette, (Adobe should have figured this out by now) you can’t double-click on one of the gradient color sliders to bring up the color picker? Furthermore, if you click on one of the color sliders of your gradient, and then use the Eyedropper Tool to change that color, Illustrator replaces your gradient fill with a solid color. Every. Time. Although I don’t have a 100% fix for this, I do have a keyboard shortcut to ease your pain…
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20 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
Something that just came to my attention is the contest that Vecteezy.com is holding for it’s contributors. Today (Sept 20th, 2007) is the last day (**UPDATE Vecteezy has extended the deadline to: Monday Sept 24th, 2007, winners announced Tuesday**) to submit your original vector designs and the winner gets an iPod shuffle, and a $15 iTunes gift card. 2nd place gets a $25 iTunes gift card. All submissions must be Nature in theme and no auto-tracing or Live Trace is allowed. I wish I could have gotten wind of this sooner, but if you have a nature-themed vector collecting dust on your hard drive, might as well submit. (I don’t think there are a ton of submissions at this point, so your chances of winning are actually pretty decent) Contest Details Here >>
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18 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
I don’t know if this would be as useful to you as it is for me, but I leaped for joy when I discovered this little Illy CS3 feature. If you deal with client-delivered vector artwork, this could make your life a ton easier. By selecting any or all of the artwork and then clicking “New Color Group” from the Swatches Palette Options, Illustrator will extract all of the colors in your selection, and add them to your swatches in a nice, neat little group! Detailed instructions below.
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17 Sep 2007,
Jay Hilgert
If you’re a CSS-savvy designer and you wouldn’t mind owning an iPhone, I have some good news. The kind souls over at CssMenuMaker.com have just announced a contest where users can submit accessible CSS menus, and the best design will bring home a free 4G iPhone! I’ve agreed to help judge the contest. (I won’t be competing because of a previous Apple.com purchase, if you know what I mean) If you are a talented web designer, you have nothing to lose. You can’t win if you don’t submit!
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