Included Apps:

Contest Rules:

• All you have to do to enter is leave a comment (tweeting and liking is appreciated)
• Only comment once.
• 2 winners will be randomly chosen from the comments.
• Comments will remain open until Thursday.

Pixelmator is truly an image editor built exclusively for OS X. The more you read about it, the more you will realize that this software has OS X at heart. It blows my mind how Pixelmator is the product of only 2 brothers. Not to sound overly positive in this mini-review, but I find extra value in a product that has heart and soul behind it, instead of corporate management and quarterly statements to worry about. (not to mention, a fair price)

Ok, I’m done blabbing. Here’s the skinny. Pixelmator has come a long, way, it’s awesome, it’s affordable and I have 3 copies to give away. Good luck everyone!

Contest Rules:

• All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. (tweeting is appreciated)
• Only comment once.
• 3 winners will be randomly chosen from the comments.
• You must leave an email address in order to win.
• Please only comment if you have a Mac.
• Comments will remain open until Wednesday, February 17th.

Visit BrushPilotApp.com to download a demo and read more details.

Contest Rules:

• All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. (tweeting is appreciated)
• Only comment once.
• 3 winners will be randomly chosen from the comments.
• You must leave an email address in order to win.
• Please only comment if you have a Mac.
• Comments will remain open until Friday, June 26th.

Here’s a quick overview of what Brush Pilot can do.

Instantly finds all your brushes, fast.

Seperates uninstalled from installed brushes

Single click installation into all installed Photoshop Versions on your machine.

Reveal file locations in Finder.

View names and pixel dimensions of each brush.

Super Fast Freeware Searching on Apple Downloads Site from Jay Hilgert on Vimeo.

Alternatively, you can search by keyword (type in “freeware”) using a Custom Google Search Engine. I created one below for the Imaging and 3D category on the Apple downloads site. Here is the homepage for the search engine if you’d like to bookmark it. You can create a search engine for any category, or the entire downloads section if your heart so desires.

I hope these two quick tips saves you some time. Happy searching :)

Overview:

Automator is an application that runs a series of customizable scripts called ‘actions.’ A series of ‘actions’ is called a ‘workflow.’ I created a Batch Rename Workflow for anyone who doesn’t feel like making their own. You can download it here. Just unzip, double-click, choose your settings and you’ll be batching in no time.

1. Download and Unzip

Download the workflow, unzip it then double-click and it will open in Automator. (Note: you may want to save it in Automator and choose one of Automator’s default locations, so you’ll be able to find it each time you launch Automator.)

2. Choose Your Settings

You should now have the workflow open inside the Automator Application. Now all you have to do is 1) add/choose the folder where all your files are located that need renaming, 2) Choose a location for the files after they are renamed, and 3) Choose a name for the new series of files. (There are lots of naming options: sequential, replace text, etc.)

3. Run the Workflow

Once you have all of your setting in place, Click the “Run” button in the top right to execute the script and you’re done, Depending on how many files you just renamed, you probably save a few minutes at least. You might notice that this workflow makes a copy of each file before it renames them. This is so it leaves your original file intact, but If you simply want to rename without copying, just close the “Copy Finder Items” action inside the workflow.

If you’re new to Automator but you’re curious you can browse the Apple Downloads Automator section for tons of free downloads including an awesome Set of Automator Actions for Photoshop. You can batch anything from image size to color mode, orientation, file type and more. You’d be surprised.

1. Locate Your Icon

Now I mentioned that this tip was for Application Icons, but it will simply work with any ICNS file on your Mac. The first thing you need to do is locate the ICNS file you want to convert. I recommend copying it to the Desktop, not only because it’s easy to see but we’re going to use a file path, and the Desktop is a relatively short path to type.

If you want to convert an “Application” icon, like I am, the quickest way (If the app is in your dock) is to Command + Click on the icon in your dock to bring it up in Finder. Otherwise, navigate to your Applications folder and select an application. Then Control + Click on the App itself and select “Show Package Contents.” I’m going to be using Aperture as an example.

Now you will see (in Finder) all of the files that essentially “make up” your application. Navigate to Contents > Resources. This is where all of the image files for your app are located. You will need to find a file named “Appicon.icns” or sometimes its simply the name-of-the-app.icns, (ex: Terminal.icns). I’m pretty sure the Photoshop Icon is called “PS_AppIcon.icns,” so depending on who made the software, you might have to do some searching to find the icon you’re looking for.

2. Copy Your Icon to the Desktop

You can ignore this step if you like typing really long file paths, but I recommend at least making a copy of the icon. You don’t want to ‘move’ it from the resources folder, just hold option and drag it to the desktop to make a copy, or simply copy and paste.

3. Covert Using Terminal.app

Now that you have your ICNS file on the Desktop, open Terminal.app (Applications > Utilities). Paste the code below into the Terminal window, change your username and file names, then hit enter to convert. That’s it. (assuming you did have your file on the Desktop)

sips -s format png /Users/yourusername/Desktop/Appicon.icns --out /Users/yourusername/Desktop/Aperture.png

Done

As you can see, we have a nice, big png (512 x 512px) as a result, complete with transparency. Now remember that the quality of your end result depends on who developed your software. If they didn’t follow Apple’s guidelines and only shipped their software with a 256 x 256px App icon, you might not get the best results.

Your Options:

Now I would think that PNG would be the most useful because of the transparency but you can choose to convert to any of the following image formats: jpeg, tiff, png, gif, jp2, pict, bmp, qtif, psd, sgi, and tga. Just change “png” in the code above to whatever format you choose.

Last week, I was Photoshopping and I noticed that (screenshot below) all of my brushes looked pixelated. not only did they looked pixelated in the Brushes palette, but even when I used the brushes, they even drew like the document was in bitmap mode, but of course it wasn’t. I tried everything under the sun to fix it, and I even called a few good designer friends of mine and they had never heard of such a thing. This is a recreation of what my brushes palette looked like:

When it should have looked like this:

And this is what the brush looked like when I used it:

When it should have looked like this:

After some discussion with colleagues, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt to try and delete the Photoshop Preferences file from my system and see if that works. Well I’m not exactly sure where to even find that file or if it’s a hidden file or not, so I did some searching. I came across a thread in the Adobe forums that was a godsend.

(*Works for Photoshop 6x and newer!) All you have to do to delete your settings and start fresh is 1) Close Photoshop, and 2) Hold Command + Option + Shift (Control + Alt + Shift, PC) while you restart Photoshop. This brings up a dialogue box where you can choose to delete your settings file, no need to search through your system folders to find it.

After I did this, my Brushes palette was back to normal. Who woulda thunk it! Now, this little shortcut may not fix every glitch you run into, but it’s a butload faster than re-installing, so It’s worth a shot if Photoshop is acting up on you :)

First Things First: The Project

I want to develop a very simple, very sexy software that does a single task, and does it very well. I know 100% that there is a high demand in the Mac-Graphic Design world for this little gem of an app, not only from my experience as a designer, but my hundreds of Google queries in search of something remotely similar, and countless forum threads I’ve come across with desperate designers begging for the exact program I wish to develop. I can’t explain the details of the software until developers who are interested in participating agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement. The App will be simple, easy to use, convenient for designers, lightweight (hopefully), and very very cheap (if not free).

1. I need a developer.

I’m a designer, and therefore, not fluent in the development (programming) environment. For this project, I need someone who loves to code for Mac, and is willing to work with me on the UI and User experience.

2. The programmer will be paid.

If you are selected, you will be compensated for your code mastery, and I will cover the cost for any Developer Membership (ADC, Adobe, etc.) needed to access the code you need. I’m willing to pay cash via Paypal, check, or Apple gift card. Hourly rates and compensation are always negotiable. If you’d rather become my partner on this project, as opposed to a hired programmer, that’s negotiable too. I’m not in this to take advantage of anyone. I’m willing to make this a long-term relationship if you are. I just want to grab the bull by the horns and do the design community a much-needed service.

3. What (who) I’m looking for:

The ideal candidate would be experienced at Mac development (i.e. Cocoa, Objective-C, xCode, interfaceBuilder, etc.). Experience developing for Adobe/Photoshop is a bonus, but not 100% necessary. The ideal candidate should also have a love for attention to detail, and considers the user experience of utmost importance, along with optimization of system resources.

4. If You’re Interested… Or know someone who might be..

Email me using the contact form, and put “Developer” somewhere in the subject line. Tell me a little about your experience, skills, and why you be a good fit for this project. Portfolios and websites are a bonus. If I think you’ve got what it takes, I’ll send you a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and we can discuss the project in detail.

You can also feel free to send me links or introduce me to people who might be wiling to participate, if you know a developer that doesn’t visit this site. Thanks for listening, and I hope to get this project off the ground soon, I know you will all love it :)

Not only is EPSQuickLookPlugin a godsend, it’s also a breeze to install. It comes with it’s own installer. Just drag the plugin icon and drop it on the ‘QuickLook” folder and you’re done. Note: You may have to Logout of your Mac and Log back in in order for it to start working.

Not only can you use Quicklook to view EPS files, but you can get an “Icon Preview” with some EPS files. The older versions of Illustrator, like 8, will sometimes only have an icon, but you can still use Quickloook to peek inside. You can force the older versions to display a thumbnail if you check “Include Document Thumbnails” when saving to EPS format.

If you would like to preview files other than EPS, you might check out QLPlugins.com, a site with a growing collection of QuickLook Plugins. Not everything on the site is free, but you may find something worth a few bucks if it saves yu enough time.

Before I begin, yes, I’m one of those “side dock guys,” it’s just what I prefer. Anyway, If you’re like me, you like to keep your desktop tidy and as clutter-free as possible. I didn’t like Stacks when they first arrived with Leopard, but now that we have list view, I find them much more useful.

When you use stacks, you might want to use the “Open in Finder” option to navigate directly to your folder in order to drag/copy files, or whatever. I do all the time.

If you want to save a click, just Command + Click on the Stack itself, and Finder will automatically open your Stack for you to browse! That’s it!

Gotta love saving a click. They really do add up over time ;)

1. Reclaim your function keys!

Like in the screenshot above, go to your System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard. Now, directly below the 2 sliders, check the box that says “Use all F1, F2 etc. keys as standard function keys.”

Now your keys will act normally in Photoshop (and everything else). For example, Shift + F5 will do a fill instead of turning up your volume! (MacBook)

2. Regain the functionality of the specialty keys.

You can still use your specialty keys, but you have to hold the “Fn” (function) key to enable them. The function key is the bottom left key on a Macbook keyboard.

… as well as the wireless keyboard:

On the regular keyboards, the function key in up by the delete key:

Now, given the location of the key on the regular keyboards, this will likely require two hands in many cases. Therefore, this little workaround might be much more convenient for laptop users, but as I like to say, It’s nice to know your options. Happy Keyboarding :)

It also looks like Apple is making sure they take care of people who recently purchased Aperture 1.5 (Maybe they really did learn something from the whole iPhone-early-adopter situation). If you purchased Aperture 1.5 between January 1st, 2008 and March 14th, 2008, you can upgrade to Aperture 2 for $9.95. More info here.

If you bought Aperture before January 1st, 2008, your upgrade will be $99.

Personally, I like to keep only the apps that I use on a somewhat daily basis in my Dock. The rest obviously reside in the Applications folder, and before 10.5.2, the Applications Stack left a lot to be desired. This update has fixed a lot of my complaints and now includes a Folder view (Shows the Folder instead of the annoying-ever-changing icon like before), List View (awesome), and more. Best of all, it eliminates 3rd party workarounds. Now if you need to use an app you haven’t used in a while, you don’t have to use finder to get there. Eliminating even a single click can add up over time, so I’m very happy with this workflow improvement. Hope you all like it too! Run that software update baby!

Source: macosxhints

Click on the images for a larger view.

From Column view, click on the little preview arrow to reveal the alphabetic font preview. (I made my column wider for posting purposes).

Font icons display as “Ag.”

Hit the Spacebar from any view and Quick Look gives you an Alphabet preview of the font!

Thanks, pilotzen

You can download the PDF from the Adobe homepage.

Photoshop CS1 on Leopard:

Illustrator CS1 in Leopard:

The font drop down is really wide.

Even the beefiest filters seemed to work ok.