jokographic

Transfer swatches from one Illustrator file to another

Jo — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:47:40 +0000

I learned a great trick yesterday and wanted to pass along the info. I’ve always been annoyed that I couldn’t figure out how to take swatches from one .ai file to another, and couldn’t accept that the simplest way to do it was making little boxes of all of the swatches I was trying to pick up and pasting them into the new file. I dealt with it for a while, not really bothering to research it. I finally got fed up enough that I decided to figure it out, and after reading through Adobe’s online help resources, I found the answer. Needless to say, it was easy to find, easy to do, and I’m a little embarassed I didn’t know this before. But in my own defense, no one I asked knew of any other way than the copy/paste method. Anyhow, here goes.

Say you have an Illustrator document with a series of Pantone swatches like the sample below.

If you want to bring these swatches into another document, you can load your source file as an actual library. Go to your swatch menu and select Open Swatch Library > Other Library.

It will ask you to select a library, but you can simply select the Illustrator file you want to pull swatches from.

You’ll see a new swatch palette pop up that has all the swatches from the document you selected.

Piece of cake, right? And the great part is that palette will stay there so you can apply the swatches to as many files as you want without having to do this process every time.

Chicago Variety Show

Jo — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:18:07 +0000

My very good and very talented friend, Shawn Roberts will be showcasing some new work at Rotofugi‘s Chicago Variety Show beginning August 13th, 2010, with the opening reception being from 7-10 pm that night. The show goes until August 22 and the gallery will also feature work from Jeremiah Ketner, Myong Kurily, Jim Pavelec, David Rettker, Shawn Roberts and Chema Skandal. Go check it out! Below is the actual invite as well as an amazing sample from Shawn, called Infinity.

If you’d like to see more of Shawn’s work, you can visit his website here.

Warning: no pixels were selected.

Jo — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:12:45 +0000

Does anyone else get a teence annoyed when this pops up while using the lasso tool in PS? While it’s not a big deal since there is the option to not show again, I really don’t understand why it’s reason for a warning in the first place.

Under construction!

Jo — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:12:24 +0000

That exclamation point is very deliberate because I’m pretty excited about revamping my entire site. I got an itch to change something and decide that I really wanted to make it much simpler and more centralized. So I decided to drop the flash and build out something more blog-based.

The site will look the same for as long as I’m still working on it. Every once in a while, some portions may look different as I’m testing live periodically. Once I’m truly finished, I’ll share more details about the process. In the meantime, I will continue with posts as usual.

Swatch Me: Purple Candy

Jo — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:31:12 +0000

I’m really liking this deep ultraviolet I see popping up all over the place. I recently picked up this tank from Gap in what they’re calling ‘purple candy.’

Collect files for output in Illustrator CS4 & CS5

Jo — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:56:44 +0000

This may seem rather delayed considering CS5 has already come out, but I know many of us are a little behind on updating. I was ecstatic when I finally learned how to package Illustrator files in CS3, but recently found out that it doesn’t work the same way in CS4. This sent me on another mission, though a much quicker one, luckily. Thanks to Google + Real World Adobe Illustrator CS4 by Mordy Golding, I got an answer.

Here’s how you collect for output in CS4. First, find the collect for output script in Applications > Illustrator CS4 > Scripting > Sample Scripts > AppleScript. Then, drag a copy of it to Applications > Illustrator CS4 > Presets > en_US > Scripts.

Restart Illustrator if you had it running. Once you get the program started, you simply go to File > Scripts > CollectForOutput. It will ask what file you want to package and where to put the resulting folder. I actually like that they changed it a bit so now it can live in the menu.

I did a little more browsing around, and it looks like this approach also works with CS5. Please let me know if anyone finds out different. Also, this still does not collect fonts, only images.

UPDATE: We now have confirmation that this method definitely works in CS5. Thanks Nick!

Some files are missing or modified

Jo — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:45:41 +0000

No, I can’t imagine why in the world I’d want to know which of my files went missing or see how the link I just modified looks in the layout. Why is this necessary and why isn’t there a “don’t show this again” option?

York Trash Bucket

Jo — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 05:05:17 +0000

On top of greatly appreciating simple type against a clean background, I’m also a fan of objects with a ‘super obvious’ element to them. That being said, this little trash can at Urban Outfitters spoke to me.

I’m going to have to add this to cart.

Blurry iMac screen freak out

Jo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:13:16 +0000

Alright, so I just saw my iMac’s life flash before my eyes. Yesterday, I noticed a little bit of fuzziness on the screen. The fonts on every web page I opened seemed hazy. Chalking it up to being tired or some weird glitch, I let it go. Today, I notice the same problem. And this time, it’s starting to bother me a bit more. My first instinct is to check things I’ve recently installed. I shamefully admit I doubted the magic of that which is firebug for a brief moment (such a cool add-on, by the way). Needless to say that wasn’t the problem.

Next, in typical self-diagnosing fashion, I began searching the web. Initial answers pointed to essentially being screwed and having to take a trip to the Apple Store for repair. That’s when the panic set in. Not to be defeated, I continued to search and finally found the solution on a Mac Rumors.

Anytime I run into a frustrating issue like this, and find a way out, I feel compelled to share for anyone who might be in the same boat. So here’s the deal. It turns out your accessibility options could be causing your screen to look blurry. Try to go in through system preferences and make sure the zoom function is turned off. If your problem was the same as mine, you should notice the screen become sharp again.

Tree House Humane Society 2009 Year in Review

Jo — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:45:16 +0000

For about the past year, I’ve been doing volunteer design work for Tree House Humane Society, a no-kill shelter here in Chicago. I recently laid out their 2009 Year in Review booklet. Though I plan to incorporate it into the portfolio section of my main site, I wanted to share it here first.