September 2005 Index of Archived Tips and Tricks from Awesomely Active Web Design, Chicago Web Designers

Friday, September 30th

Transparent Text Effect in Photoshop - or

Make Glass Text in Photoshop Using Curves

category: graphics

We're going to create a transparent text web graphic that, combined with the right blend mode, gives a glass effect to the type. In a nutshell, this means we'll need to create a white chrome look to the text, without sharpening highlights and shadows as you normally would, and then knock out the center of the letters to provide transparency. I'm going to use this graphic to place the Tips and Tricks weblog logo, like a watermark, over the images we use in this weblog to demonstrate graphics and image editing techniques. You can get some interesting variety, depending on the image, by setting different blend modes on the glass text layer. This very blue sky has the glass text set to the Overlay Blend mode. This portrait shows the text layer set to Hard Light. OK, let's get on with it.

He said on 09.30.05 @ 04:36 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Tuesday, September 27th

A Word or Two about Templates - or

Some MS Word Template Hints

category: writing, software

Word processing templates can save you a lot of time and hassle in creating and maintaining documents and document archives. Use templates to achieve uniform appearance in document groups and to quickly create new documents with boilerplate text.

She said on 09.27.05 @ 12:37 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Friday, September 23rd

Photoshop's Most Important Keyboard Shortcuts - or

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts to Zoom and Navigate

category: digital photography and image editing

Keyboard shortcuts are designed to save you time. Automating repetitive tasks by recording Actions and assigning keyboard shortcuts to them will save you even more time. But, if you're just an occasional Photoshop user, maybe most of the time it just isn't worth the effort.

He said on 09.23.05 @ 04:35 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Tuesday, September 20th

Using Appropriate Levels of Diction - or

Word Choice Matters

category: writing

I received an SOS email from my friend Louise recently. She sent me the text of an email from a colleague in a non-profit organization. She was wondering about her colleague's use of the word tergiversate. Louise admitted that she looked up the word and still couldn't make sense of the word or its use. She asked my opinion of the message and the word choice.

She said on 09.20.05 @ 05:07 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Friday, September 16th

Glamorize Portraits of Women with Photoshop's Liquify Filter - or

Photoshop Liquify Filter to Retouch and Enhance Portraits

category: digital photography and image editing

The original portrait, except for a Levels adjustment, is exactly how it came off the scanner. Now, what can we do? The subject's expression could be thought of as a look of determination, not to smile perhaps, but its effect on her features comes off looking more like flaws. The eyes are hooded, and the upper lip has lost its symmetry. Let's address these issues as a first cut, along with brightening the eyes, the hair, the lips, and losing the Alice Cooper eye makeup. That's probably about as far as we should go to dress up our subject for, say, a realtor's photo business card. Then, as a second cut, we'll go for the glamour and address the size of the eyes, the tip of the nose, and the slight jowl on the right side of the jaw. These more heavy-handed kinds of things work in Hollywood, fashion magazines, and politics, but might be pushing it in a business situation, causing one's client to say, embarrassingly, what a really, really, good picture that is.

He said on 09.16.05 @ 05:14 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Tuesday, September 13th

View Source Stopped Working in IE6 XP - or

IE 6 Windows XP - View Source Fails to Consistently Open Notepad

category: software

When you choose View, and then View Source in IE6, Notepad is supposed to open, showing the source of the web page the browser is displaying as a text file. Under Windows XP, not Win2000 or Win98, IE6 will intermittently fail to open Notepad. When Notepad fails to open, the Edit option in the File menu is also grayed out.

She said on 09.13.05 @ 01:49 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Friday, September 9th

Who was Out There in August? - or

Visitor Platforms and Browsers in August

category: hardware, software

August's vistor platforms have been:

Windows 96.1 %
Unknown 2.0 %
Macintosh 1.4 %
Linux 0.4 %

August's vistor browsers have been:

MS Internet Explorer 92.3 %
Firefox 3.7 %
Netscape 0.7 %
Safari 0.7 %
Mozilla 0.6 %
Opera 0.1 %

He said on 09.09.05 @ 02:51 PM CST [entry page] is printer friendly

Wednesday, September 7th

Printer Friendly Pages using CSS - or

Using CSS Style Sheets to Control Printing

category: css

When I want to print web pages, I usually go through a lot of cut and paste shenanigans. I can't stand to simply print the page, find the text of the short article spread over three sheets of paper, and end up with pages of uselss junk. I usually copy the entire page to the clipboard, paste it into a text editor or a word processing program, and then try to delete all the worthless junk. Exceptions to this messy rule are online editions of magazines and newspapers, which offer printer friendly versions of much of their material.

When I print from web pages, I am usually interested in the text. Yes, the colors, images, and navigation tools are pretty, but they aren't useful on a printed page. I want black words on a white page. Why waste paper and ink?

While the printer friendly pages of newpapers and magazines work well, it seems a huge waste of time and resources to create and publish two separate versions of everything.

She said on 09.07.05 @ 04:02 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

Friday, September 2nd

Effects with Metallic Text in Photoshop - or

Photoshop Curves to Make Metallic Text

category: graphics

We're going for a metallic gold web graphic, text and a button, on a white background, with a drop shadow. Later on, we can clone, resize, and sharpen these basic components for use anywhere on the site, but let's start by getting a consistent look that we like.

I started with a new RGB document, 1226 x 366 pixels, with a resolution of 72 ppi, and a white background. Type the text in black, Support Artists in my example, sized at 150 px. With the Elliptical Marquee tool, holding down the Shift key to constrain the marquee to a circle, draw a selection the size of your button somewhere below the type. Then, with the button selection still active, hold down the Shift key to add to the selection, and Ctrl-Click the text layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette. You should now have a selection around your text and your button.

He said on 09.02.05 @ 05:10 PM CST [entry continued] on printer friendly page

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Remember, these Awesome Tips and Tricks are also provided by the other members of our back office staff. Awesomely Active Web Design, located in Chicago, creates and extends web sites with focus on e-business applications and custom design. Oh, the guys in the front office want us to remind you to check out our services links because we do, after all, do this stuff for a living.

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Tips and Tricks: Chicago web design, copy writing, graphics, digital photography, database design, working with people, and getting a web project up and running.

Maintained by The Staff at Awesomely Active Web Design, Chicago web designers.

Transparent Text Effect in Photoshop - or

Make Glass Text in Photoshop Using Curves

A Word or Two about Templates - or

Some MS Word Template Hints

Photoshop's Most Important Keyboard Shortcuts - or

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts to Zoom and Navigate

Using Appropriate Levels of Diction - or

Word Choice Matters

Glamorize Portraits of Women with Photoshop's Liquify Filter - or

Photoshop Liquify Filter to Retouch and Enhance Portraits

View Source Stopped Working in IE6 XP - or

IE 6 Windows XP - View Source Fails to Consistently Open Notepad

Who was Out There in August? - or

Visitor Platforms and Browsers in August

Printer Friendly Pages using CSS - or

Using CSS Style Sheets to Control Printing

Effects with Metallic Text in Photoshop - or

Photoshop Curves to Make Metallic Text