Milestone: 100 posts - WOW!

I just realized that my post about Text Alignment Nuances was my 100th post on this blog! How exciting! I can't believe how much I've actually written here. Maybe I should write a book? :)

Seriously though, thanks so much to all of you for visiting my blog and for giving me the motivation to continue. Onwards to 200 posts!

Calling all critics!

Do you own a copy of Real World Illustrator CS2? Did you find anything that you really liked and want to see more of? Did you find anything you didn't like and wish was improved upon? Was there a specific topic or feature that you wished was covered more in depth? Was there a chapter, a paragraph, or an illustration that was misleading or confusing?

As I begin working on Real World Illustrator NEXT, your comments and suggestions would be extremely valuable and helpful. They will help to ensure that the next edition of the book will have exactly what you need.

Please feel free to either leave comments here, or email them to me directly. Alternatively, you can leave comments on Amazon.com. Of course, if you don't have the book yet, you still have plenty of time to get one, read it, and provide feedback as well... :)

ASK MORDY: Text Alignment Nuances

Those who have used Illustrator prior to version CS know that it was once possible to use the Average command to align point text. Alas, those days are gone with the way the newer text engine works, and instead, one can use the Align palette (or the Align icons that appear in the Control Palette when multiple objects are selected) to align text objects. In some ways, the align options are far more powerful now because of this.

To illustrate, take this wonderful question that comes in from Greg Walker:

So, let’s say you’ve a line of text that you want to align horizontally to the center of a circle. If it has ascenders and descenders, then when you align the two they look great (nicely centered). However, if you’ve got something typed in all caps or small caps it starts to look funny because Illustrator (and InDesign for that matter) is still taking into account the space assigned for ascenders and descenders. Your alignment looks slightly off. You can convert the text to outlines and align it just fine, but is there a way to get around having to do that? You can kern optically, but can you align optically?

Greg is absolutely right here. When Illustrator aligns a text object to another shape, it's taking the height of the characters -- which includes ascenders and descenders -- and centering the objects based on that. If indeed, your text contains characters that touch these two extremes, your text will look as though it is centered with the other object, as illustrated below:



The problem arises when you don't have both ascenders and descenders in your type object. In the example shown below, I've changed all the characters to all caps. Now, when I try aligning the cricle and the text, it appears as if the text isn't aligned. It is, from a theoretical standpoint, but us designers don't get paid money to make graphics that is "theoretically correct" -- they need to be visually correct.



So how to get around this issue? I'll admit my first thought was to run to the Align palette, and from its palette menu, choose the "Use Preview Bounds" setting. My hope was that Illustrator would use the visual appearance of the text to make the alignment, the same way it does with vector objects. Alas, it was not to be. Illustrator must use a different algorithm when it comes to aligning text objects.

And then I took a clue from Greg's original question -- where he specified that converting the text to outlines would result in the effect he was looking for. And that was just the clue I needed. Maybe if we "fool" the Align palette into thinking that the text has been outlined, it will align the text correctly? And you know what? IT WORKED.

Here's what to do:

1. First, you'll need to go to your Align palette, and you'll need to turn Use Preview Bounds on. You'll only have to do this once as the setting will stay on until you turn it off.

2. Select your text and choose Effect > Path > Outline Object. If you've never used this Effect before, it converts your object (whatever it may be) into outlines -- but as a live effect. The text of course, it still completely editable.

3. Align the text as you did before, selecting the circle and the text. The result, since the Align palette "sees" the outlined text, and since it has Use Preview Bounds turned on, will center the text based on its visual appearance, not based on the heights of the ascenders and descenders.



If this is something you do alot, you can simply set up a Graphic Style that adds the Outline Object effect. So you'd select your text, apply the style, Align the objects, then clear the style from the text. In this way, the text always remains editable, and you get the effect you're looking for.

Helvetica goes Hollywood!

Now here's a movie that I can't wait to see...

Helvetica.

I was always in love with Helvetica. I use it for all of my identity for Design Responsibly, and over the years, it's been the font that I've always held in the highest of regard. When I started life as a typographer, I remember that other folks who I worked with avoided it like the plague -- but I guess something clicked in me with Helvetica that has stood with me all these years. When I worked at a design firm called Group 33, I instituted a tagline that I thought helped define us "We're not afraid to use Helvetica".

In truth, in a world of $10 font explosion CDs, downloadable fonts from all over the internet, and from all over the world -- it's comforting to know that Helvetica is still a font that continues to define typography and design in so many ways.

(via)

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator

If you're a FreeHand user who has been struggling to get up to speed with using Illustrator -- or if like me, you've been using the two products over the years -- you'll want to check out my latest video at Lynda.com, Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator.

Here's the description of the title from the website:

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator shows how to smoothly make the transition to Illustrator, including how to create and edit vector graphics and how to use FreeHand files in Illustrator. Instructor Mordy Golding approaches the lessons from the perspective of FreeHand users who want to work in Illustrator for small or large projects. The tutorials demonstrate the basics of importing FreeHand files into Illustrator without losing detail, editing paths and changing object attributes, and using advanced creative effects. Mordy breaks down Illustrator-specific tools using FreeHand terminology to make the switch as seamless as possible. Exercise files accompany this tutorial.

I hope this video will be of help to those who are either currently making the move from one app to the other, or who are contemplating using Illustrator as well.

Email feed now available

In my never-ending quest to provide my loyal readers with the best in technology support, I've now made it possible to subscribe to the Real World Illustrator blog via email. You'll find the FeedBlitz "Subscribe Me!" button on the right margin of this page (scroll down to find it, if necessary).

If anyone has other helpful suggestions on how to make this blog better, don't keep it to yourself! Drop me an email!

ASK MORDY: Origin Point Hell

This great question comes from Mark Gervais:

One thing that has been frustrating me with Illustrator is the centerpoint when using the Rotate tool. Since I have the Rotate tool selected there is a ceterpoint defined by the cross hairs in the middle of a selected shape. Often times I'll hold down the Command key (to switch to the Selection Tool) and click on a shape and drag a copy of it by holding the option key. When I release the Command key and try to rotate my newly duplicated shape the center point is still back over in the middle of the original shape. Now rotating the new shape moves it in an arc as opposed to rotating it from it's own center point. I guess my question is... Is there a way to make sure the center point of a shape is always locked to the new shape when drag-duplicating? I don't know how many times this has bugged the heck out of me but it's pretty much on a daily basis. arrrg.

Not every question that is asked at the Real World Illustrator Blog has an answer. But then again, much of life is about finding another way that works. In this case, I can say that I share your frustration. Since you mention that you use the Command and Option keys to both switch to the Selection tool and drag a copy of your object, I also assume that you're using the "R" keyboard shortcut to switch to the Rotate tool. So here are two "solutions":

1. Don't use the Rotate tool. Instead, use the Free Transform tool (keyboard shortcut "E"). The Free Transform tool doesn't have a user-definable origin point and always uses the center of an object. So your keyboard shortcuts and workflow are the same, but you're using the Free Transform tool instead of the Rotate tool. Give it a try.

2. After you've dragged a copy of your object, press the Command (Ctrl on Windows) key to switch to the selection tool and click outside the object to deselect it -- then, while still holding the Command key, click the object to select it again. The origin point for the Rotate tool will be reset to the center of the new object.

ASK MORDY: Origin Point Nirvana

Today's question comes in from Lupe Barba:

I am a product designer who uses Illustrator every day. I prefer to use the transform palette to lay out all my objects. I was just wondering if there is a way to position your rulers origin points (0,0) on a certain spot on the art board other than dragging the origin to that spot. I prefer to have my origin fall on the top left corner of the board or in the exact center giving me 4 quadrants. Thanks for your help and I love the blog.

First, thanks so much for those kind words.

Second, InDesign's guides are totally cool because you CAN position them numerically. Upon selecting a guide, you can punch in an X or a Y coordinate in the Control Palette. But alas, Illustrator has no such capability. The 0,0 point (also referred to as the Ruler Origin Point) is not something that can be placed numerically in either program. But I will tell you that it's quite easy to turn objects into Guides in Illustrator.

So by now, I'm SURE you're totally confused as to what I've said. You're surely thinking, "Mordy didn't understand the question"... and while it's true that I don't understand many things, let me tell you where I'm going with this.

You can't position the ruler origin point numerically, but the wonderful people at Adobe made the ruler origin point snap to guides. When you want to align the origin point to the top left corner, you'll notice that when you click and drag the origin point there, it will snap to the corner. Want to align it to the center of your page?

1. Open the Align palette and from the Align palette flyout menu, choose Align to Artboard.

2. Draw any size rectangle.

3. In the Align palette, click Horizontal Align Center and Vertical Align Center.

4. Press Command-5 (Ctrl-5 on Windows). This turns the rectangle into a guide.

5. Drag the ruler origin point so that it snaps to the center point of the rectangle/guide.

In reality, you don't even need to turn the rectangle into a guide -- the ruler origin point will snap to any selected anchor point (just as any object would). While it isn't exactly what you're looking for, hopefully this will help.

Spot Colors, Transparency, and Overprints, Oh My!

I do enough public speaking and work with enough clients that I often hear the same questions repeated. Sometimes, as soon as someone starts asking a question, I already know what they are going to ask about. One particular issue that seems to always come up is around the subject of transparency. And the thing is, the people who ask these questions really do understand what transparency is, how it works, and what it's all about. But it's one of those things that occur only when certain planets are aligned, and so it seems as if it's inconsistent behavior.

My goal here today is to make it all crystal clear. Before I even get started by the way, I think it's important to state that today's lesson covers not just Illustrator, but InDesign and Acrobat as well. All of the concepts covered in this post apply to all three apps (hey, we may even squeeze Quark in at the end -- that's me -- always doing the unexpected).

First, let's lay out the facts:

You create a logo that contains two spot colors (in this case, I've used PMS Blue 072 and PMS Red 032). The logo has a drop shadow behind it, and you've correctly set Illustrator's Drop Shadow feature to use the Blue 072 spot color, not black. On Illustrator's artboard, the logo appears correct (see below).



Then you save the art as a PDF/X-1a file because it will be used in an ad and you want to make sure that it will print correctly. Or you save your document using Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) compatibility. Alternatively, you save your file as an EPS because maybe you're required to place this logo into a QuarkXPress document. (By the way, if you're saving your file as EPS and you're placing it into InDesign, shame on you, and read this.)

The point here to focus on is that you're saving your file to a flattened format. (If you're unfamiliar with transparency flattening, you can get some information here and here.)

The "problem" that arises is that when you open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, or Adobe Reader, or when you place the file into QuarkXPress or InDesign and print the file to your laser or inkjet printer, it comes out looking incorrect -- with a white box where the transparent effect should be (see below).



But that white box isn't what causes the head scratching and the frustration. Because when you choose to print as separations (many designers are trained to do this, to check that the plates appear correct before sending out to the printer), the color-separated plates -- in this case, two of them -- appear correct. And the totally wacky thing is that sometimes, when you fiddle with enough settings, you find that the file DOES print correctly, even when you print a composite proof. So what gives? Why does it appear to be so inconsistent?

So this is what I refer to when I say that the "planets need to be aligned" in order for this phenomenon to occur. The key items to focus on here are that you have used a transparent effect, and you've used a spot color. Let's discuss:

When you have a transparent effect, the result is a mixture of the inks. In this case, the shadow, which is PMS Blue 072, blends right into the PMS Red 032 background. By default, when one color sits on top of another color, a knockout occurs -- meaning the area beneath the top shape is removed from the lower object. Otherwise, the top color will print on top of the bottom color when the paper is run through the printing press, causing the two inks to mix. In our case of the red and blue colors, the result would be purple in appearance.

However, in this case, where you WANT the drop shadow to blend into the background on press, you have to override that knockout by specifying something called an overprint. An overprint is a command that tells the printer not to remove the background colors that appear beneath the object that appears on top. If you're familiar with overprints and knockouts (or are a trapping freak), this is a simple concept. For those who need more information, Chapter 11 in the book covers it in detail).

The thing is, Illustrator already knows this, and so no action is required on your part. When you print your file from Illustrator, all of these settings are done automatically, so your file looks great when you print it -- either as a composite, or as separations. The same applies when you save your file from Illustrator as a native Illustrator file and place it into InDesign, or if you create a PDF with Acrobat 5 compatibility (PDF 1.4) or higher.

But when you save your file to a format that doesn't support transparency, Illustrator has to flatten the transparency. And in that process, Illustrator realizes that in order to preserve the spot colors so that they print in separations correctly, the drop shadow must be set to overprint the background color.

The problem is that overprint commands are only honored when you print your file as separations. When you are previewing your document on screen, or when you are printing a composite proof of your file, the overprint commands aren't used and the result will be white where overprinting should occur. The file will print correctly when you print as separations, because at that time, the overprints are honored (as they should be).

So now we know WHY we're seeing the white boxes when we view a PDF/X-1a in Adobe Reader, or why we see them when printing a composite proof from QuarkXPress or InDesign (when EPS is used). And here's how to solve the issue:

If you're opening a PDF 1.3 file in Adobe Reader, and you want to see the file correctly on your screen, you need to turn on a preview feature called Overprint Preview. Both Illustrator and InDesign have this feature (found in the View menu), but they've managed to do a good job hiding this feature in Acrobat: open Preferences and navigate to the Page Display panel. Then check the button marked Overprint Preview. The file will now appear correctly on screen.



The final issue here is to find a way to have the file appear correct when you print a composite proof. To do that, you can call on a feature that Adobe applications have in their Print dialog boxes that allow the apps to simulate the appearance of the overprint in a composite print.

If you're in Acrobat, choose Print and then click on the Advanced button. Then check the box marked Simulate Overprinting in the Output section of the dialog (see below).



If you're printing the file from InDesign (and you've used EPS for the Illustrator file), choose File > Print, navigate to the Output panel of the Print dialog box and check the box marked Simulate Overprint (see below). This option will only be available when printing a composite of course. If you placed the Illustrator file as a native .ai file, you don't have to worry about anything as InDesign will automatically print the file so that it appears correctly in both composite and separations form.



If you're working on a file with overprints in Illustrator and need to simulate those overprints when printing from Illustrator, you can do so by choosing File > Print, navigating to the Advanced panel of the Print dialog, and choosing the Simulate option in the Overprints popup menu (see below).



If you're ever playing Trivial Pursuit: Adobe Edition (now there's an idea), the Preserve option keeps any overprints in the file intact (the default setting), and the Discard option ignores all overprint settings in the file (useful for when you want a 3rd party trapping utility or a RIP's internal trapping software to decide what overprints and what doesn't).

To close, if you're using QuarkXPress, you really don't have an option, as that program doesn't allow you to simulate overprint commands when printing composite proofs. One workaround is to create two versions of your file: one that uses spot colors which will separate correctly when you print separations, and one version where you've converted your spot colors to process colors. When you convert to process, the overprints aren't needed and the file will print with the correct appearance on a composite proof. Oddly enough, InDesign has a feature called Ink Manager which contains a checkbox that will convert all spot colors to process at print time -- even when printing a composite. This will also make it possible to preview the file correctly when printed from InDesign. I am not aware of such a feature in Quark (Quark only has that setting available when you print separations, not composite).

ASK MORDY: you gotta read between the lines with masks

Today's installment will cover two questions I received on the same subject: masks.

The first question is from Scott Southerland, who asked:

Our bread and butter is packaging in Illustrator. This is the second time I've run into this mysterious dotted underline type layer thing. What is it, how does it get created? Where do they come from? :)

What Scott is referring to here are layers that appear in the Layers palette with a dashed underline beneath the name of the layer (or object). See the Group that appears at the bottom of the Layers palette in this screenshot:



If you select that Group and take a look at the Appearance palette (you know me), you'll notice that Illustrator indicates the Group as the target, and the target also has a dashed underline beneath it.



So what's with the dashed line?

The answer is that the dashed line is an indication that the object (or Group in this case) is an opacity mask. With the mask selected, you can take a look at the fully-expanded Transparency palette to see both the artwork and the mask.



The palette also allows you to disable the mask (Shift-click on it), edit the art and mask separately, or to release the mask (from the Transparency palette fly-out menu). Of course, there's plenty else you can do with opacity masks. I've spoken about them here, and of course, you can get more detailed information in the book.

This leads us to our second question, which was posed by long-time friend and artist supreme Ron Chan:

I came up with this strange anomaly that I never really thought about all the years I've been doing it - until I went through it step by step.

1 - Start off with two simple shapes
2- Make a mask (clipping mask) using the top object
3- Direct select a path segment of the mask and copy and paste in front
4- Complete the shape and fill it with a color
5- The shape is INSIDE the mask or at least is giving the appearance of being masked -- but how can that be? The shape is sitting on top of the mask! If you look at the layers the stacking order confirms it. Additionally, if you take another object, direct select the masked object, then paste in front -- that object also becomes part of the mask but is sitting two levels above the Clipping Mask (although it is still in the Group).

I always thought that an Clipping Mask always had to be on the top of the stacking order?

More weirdness. When I close and reopen the file again, the stacking order changed! The Clipping Mask is back on top of
everything. So I did it again, and yes the object is on top of the clipping mask but is still affected by the mask. I closed the file down and opened it up again -- viola! The stacking order changed so that the object is below the clipping mask.

Am I going crazy or what???

And so, the masked crusader strikes again! This is precisely why I urge people to utilize Layer Clipping Masks rather than just use the Object > Clipping Mask > Make command. Not because the result is that much different, but because it exposes something in the user interface that you might normally overlook. I discuss Layer Clipping Masks in detail here, and of course, you can find more detailed information in my book as well. But your question does require a bit of an additional explanation of how these things work.

First, it's always important to take a look at the Layers palette when working with masks. As we revealed in the first question above, items that are opacity masks show up with dashed underlines in the Layers palette. Well, items with a SOLID underline are clipping masks. When you create a Layer Clipping Mask, the object that is the topmost object in the layer becomes the mask for that entire layer. But here's the kicker -- once you've turned an object into a mask, it stays a mask, even if you change the stacking order. That means if you turn an object into a clipping mask, then change the stacking order in your layer so that the item with the underline (the mask) is not the top-most object anymore (see screenshot below), that object will still mask objects that appear above it, within that layer.



It appears that when you close and reopen the file, Illustrator moves the mask back to the top of the stacking order for you (maybe Teri can explain why -- maybe it's just because Illustrator cares about your sanity).

When you specify masks using the Object > Clipping Mask > Create command, Illustrator groups the objects together and makes the topmost object the mask (if you look within the Group in the Layers palette, you'll see it underlined) -- but again, once the mask is created, even if it's moved to a different spot in the stacking order, it will still act as a mask for that entire group.

In all of these cases, the solution is to release the mask, change the stacking order as desired, and then to reapply the mask.