ASK MORDY: Threaded Type on a Path

Today's question comes in from Donna Tracy:

Is there a way to create text in a circular shape with a text flow like in InDesign text boxes?

This is a great question (and kudos to Donna for also including an image in her email which made it easy to understand what she was asking for), as it exploits one of the strengths of Type on a Path in Illustrator -- which is that Path Text objects can be threaded. If you're unfamiliar with the differences between Point Type and Area Type in Illustrator, refer to this post. Since Illustrator CS, when the newer text engine was introduced, Type on a Path in Illustrator acts like Area Type - and can be threaded just like text frames can be threaded in InDesign.

Rather than try to explain to Donna how to perform the technique she was after, I recorded a quick video, which you can view below. You can also download a full-res version of the video here.

Illustrator Type on Path Tutorial from Mordy Golding on Vimeo.

Clipping Drop Shadows in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

On my Mordy.com blog, I made note of my quest to create an iPhone skin entirely in Illustrator. In the process, one of the elements I had to create – the alert dialog – presented an interesting “problem” in that the dialog had an opaque stroke and a transparent fill. OK, so we know that in Illustrator, you can easily apply an opacity setting to fills and strokes independently, but the dialog also has a drop shadow. And if the fill of the object is transparent, you can see the drop shadow through the fill, which isn’t called for in the design.



Before we learn how to make this work in Illustrator, let’s take a look at two other Adobe applications – Photoshop and InDesign. Why? Because interestingly enough, they both have something that Illustrator doesn’t have.

Photoshop has two opacity settings: Layer Opacity, which applies to the entire layer, including its layer effects; and Fill Opacity, which applies only to the pixels that are drawn in the layer, and not its layer effects.



In our example, if we wanted to create an object that had a transparent fill and a drop shadow, we’d first apply a drop shadow layer effect. But we wouldn’t want to reduce the Layer Opacity, because that would lower the opacity of the drop shadow along with the art itself. Instead, we’d adjust the Fill Opacity, which will allow the just the art to be transparent, leaving the drop shadow at full strength.

But notice that the drop shadow isn’t visible through the art of the object itself. It’s as if the artwork “knocks out” the drop shadow beneath it. How did that happen? The answer lies within the Drop Shadow section of the Layer Styles dialog box. There you’ll find a checkbox marked “Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow”, which is turned on by default.



If you head over to InDesign, you’ll find a similar option in the Drop Shadow section of the Effects dialog box as well. There, a setting called “Object Knocks Out Shadow”, also on by default, helps designers keep drop shadows from being seen through objects with transparency settings such as opacity or blend modes.



Now let’s come full circle back to Illustrator, where the Drop Shadow dialog box (found in the Effects > Stylize menu) has no setting to instruct Illustrator to knock out the effect, and we’ll create the iPhone dialog step by step.*

1. Use the Rectangle tool to draw a shape. If you’d like, choose Effect > Stylize > Round Corners to round the corners of the rectangle.

2. Fill the rectangle with a dark blue color and choose a light blue color for the stroke.

3. Choose Window > Appearance to open the Appearance panel (and shame on you if the panel wasn’t already open). Target the dark blue fill and change its opacity to 80%.



4. Click on the word “Path” at the top of the Appearance panel to target the entire object.

5. Choose Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow, and apply your desired drop shadow settings. At this point, you’ll be able to see the drop shadow through the fill of the object. But we’ll fix that next.

6. With the object still selected, open the Transparency panel and expand it so that all of its options are visible. Check the box marked Knockout Group (you may need to click twice to get a check mark in the box).



If you want to know WHY the Knockout Group setting effectively clipped the drop shadow, you can read my explanation in this post, where I used a similar technique to simulate stitched lines for apparel designers.

I should point out that when I asked Adobe why Illustrator didn't have a check box in the Drop Shadow dialog box that would clip an object's shadow, I got an interesting response: "the real world doesn't really work that way". I can't argue with that logic. If you think about it, if an object were semi transparent, it would likely still be dense enough to cast a shadow beneath it. I'll have to pose the question to the folks over at Apple who designed the interface I guess.

One final note: the Object Knocks Out Shadow found in InDesign will only work when your entire object has an opacity setting applied to it. However, if you try to simulate this exact effect in InDesign, where you apply an opacity value just to the fill of an object, you’ll have to use the same technique as we used in Illustrator – you’ll have to turn on the Knockout Group option for that object.

*OK, so in the final version of the iPhone alert dialog, I had to do a little adjusting. Turns out that the opaque stroke that appears around the perimeter of the dialog is actually filled with a gradient. Alas, gradients can’t be applied to a stroke in Illustrator. I had to create a separate compound path in order to apply the gradient.

InDesign "hiding" in Mac OS X fixed!

Adobe has confirmed that the frustrating issue of InDesign not being able to be hidden (or not being able to come back after it was hidden successfully without a painful Force Quit) no longer exists when running under the latest release of Apple’s OS, Leopard 10.5.6.

Read the full report here (via InDesign Secrets)

ASK MORDY: Preview Without Bleed

Today’s question comes in from Ran, a graphic designer in Israel:

Many times, when working in Illustrator, I have shapes that extend off the artboard, and when I want to preview my work, I have to create a clipping mask in order to see what the final design will look like. This is very tedious when trying to work and preview constantly. In InDesign, I can press the “W” key to preview only my artboard. Is there a simple solution in Illustrator?

I feel you brother – if you were to run some kind of analytical program on my computer to monitor my usage of Adobe Illustrator, you’d find that I use the Blend function in Illustrator more often than just about any tool. But that’s only because the default keyboard shortcut for the Blend tool in Illustrator is the “W” key – and I am constantly pressing it because it’s second nature in InDesign. How I wish we had such a feature in Illustrator as well. Alas, there is none, and we are indeed relegated to the use of masks in order for us to temporarily “hide” parts of our artwork.

Of course, I say temporarily because any designer who is required to specify bleed has come across this issue in Illustrator. All we want is a way to see what our artwork is going to look like when it prints – without the bleed getting in the way.

While I can’t offer a quick solution, what I can do is suggest a better way to create and use your masks. Instead of using clipping masks, utilizing layer clipping masks will not only make it easier to manage your artwork, it will also make it a one-click operation to show and hide your bleed or non-necessary artwork.

Step 1. The artwork displayed below features a common Illustrator file (the art elements came from the fabulous iStockPhoto folks). There are three layers, and I’ve create crop marks so you can see where the art will get clipped. Of course, the goal is to preview the art as it will appear when clipped. You don’t need to use layers, but I have used them in my file. My only suggestion is that even if you have a single layer, rename it to something more meaningful (like ARTWORK, etc). In general, it’s a good idea to name your layers (especially since more and more applications are beginning to recognize Illustrator layers, including InDesign, Photoshop, Flash, etc.)



Step 2. Create a fourth layer, and name it MASK. Create a rectangle to match the exact size of the trim size, or the area to be clipped, and apply the None attribute to both the fill and the stroke of the path.



Step 3. A layer clipping mask works as follows: The topmost object in any single layer becomes a mask for EVERYTHING else that exists within that single layer. Every layer in Illustrator has a mask, and that mask is either active or it isn’t. Our goal is to use the path we created in the previous step as a mask for the three artwork layers in our file. To do that, we’ll need to bring those three layers INTO the MASK layer. In the Layers panel, simply shift click on the three layers and drag them into the MASK layer. Make sure the path is sitting above the three layers, as you see in the Illustration below.



Step 4. At this point, you have everything you need in order to preview your art without the bleed. In the Layers panel, click once on the MASK layer to select that layer in the panel (you don’t have to have any art selected). Then, activate the mask for that layer by clicking the Make/Release Clipping Mask button at the bottom left of the panel. The button is actually a toggle, so clicking repeatedly on the button shows and hides your clipped artwork.



Obviously, once you have the mask set up, it’s pretty painless to switch between “previews” on your screen. But admittedly, it does take a minute to set up the mask. If you do this a lot, you may benefit from setting up a template that already has a mask layer set up within it.

An obvious benefit of this method is that you still may have some artwork that exists outside the clipped area that you want to stay visible all the time. For example, you may have some informational text, a slug, or some other element that needs to remain visible. By simply creating a new layer that exists on the same level as the MASK layer (meaning, it’s not a sublayer within the mask layer), the mask will not effect that layer at all. As always, the control is in your hands.

All told, it would still be lovely if Illustrator could somehow introduce a preview mode similar to that found in InDesign. But until that day arrives, a layer clipping mask will have to suffice.

Rotating Effects (Drop Shadows, etc)

Illustrator (and just about all Adobe apps for that matter) has the ability to apply the most over-used design effect of all time -- Drop Shadows (look out Drop Shadows, reflections aren't far behind). Drop Shadows are applied as live effects, meaning that if you update your artwork or move it, the drop shadow updates and moves as well.

But have you ever applied a drop shadow to an object, and then ROTATED that object so that it's upside down? Have you then taken a closer look at the drop shadow and realized that the drop shadow DIDN'T rotate? Even worse, did you ever see that problem AFTER your job was printed? What I describe happens not only in Illustrator, but in InDesign as well.

Let's take a closer look at what is happening here. A drop shadow is an effect, and is therefore applied to the overall object. The shadow isn't "baked in" to the art, and so if the art changes, the drop shadow simply updates itself to match any edits applied to the object. If you flip your artwork upside down, Illustrator (and InDesign) rotates the art and then reapplies the drop shadow to the art. The result is a drop shadow that may be set to offset down and to the right, but when the art is flipped, the drop shadow is still applied with an offset down and to the right (as seen below).



For those people who regularly do imposition, or those in packaging, this presents a huge problem, and often, these problems aren't detected until it's too late. A workaround I've seen from folks is to use the Expand Appearance command (from the Object menu), but that means the effect is no longer "live" and hence, the art can't be easily updated.

Here's a solution -- create your artwork and add the Drop Shadow effect. Then, convert your artwork to a Symbol (if you use this artwork in multiple places, this is a good idea anyway). If you aren't familiar with how to create a Symbol in Illustrator, just select your art and press F8. When you rotate the Symbol, the drop shadow will now appear rotated correctly (in the example, I've been using, rotating the symbol will mean the drop shadow will be offset up and to the left).



If you ever need to modify the art or the shadow, simply double-click on the Symbol to edit it. Illustrator CS3 makes this almost too easy.

If you're in InDesign, you don't have symbols, so this solution won't work. However, there is a solution there as well, as long as you're using InDesign CS3. Create your artwork element in a new InDesign document, add the drop shadow, and then save your InDesign file. Then, PLACE your InDesign document INTO another InDesign file where you're doing your layout. You can now rotate the artwork at will, and if you need to edit the art, do an Edit Original on the placed ID file.

Oh, and BTW, how do you like them interlocking Olympic rings? If you think I used Pathfinder to create those, think again. It's all about Live Paint baby. Maybe in my next post, I'll talk about how I created those...

Video clips of Adobe's keynote session in Miami

In case you weren't able to attend the recent InDesign and Vector Conference in Miami, here are two video clips from the keynote Address where Michael Ninness of Adobe demonstrated a "technology preview" of some stuff that might appear in a future version of Adobe software. The stuff that you see in the videos involves InDesign and Flash.

Michael starts off by talking about creating interactive buttons in InDesign. The implementation is actually pretty sweet and I only wish Illustrator would be able to do that someday. Michael then proceeds to create a SWF slide presentation from InDesign, with some pretty cool page transitions.



In the second video clip, Myke continues by taking an entire magazine publication from InDesign and bringing it right into Flash (all the pages come in as movie clip symbols as individual frames on the timeline, which alone is pretty cool). Then he attaches an ActionScript and turns the whole thing into a fabulous SWF version of the publication.



Would love to hear your thoughts on what you think of this stuff...

Illustrator vs. InDesign Smackdown (oh yeah, and Photoshop too)

First, a little background is necessary here in order to set some context.

Mike McHugh, author, instructor, and host of Creative Sweet TV wrote an article entitled InDesign vs. Photoshop Smackdown: Who Will Be the Winner? where Mike focuses on some of the new strengths found in InDesign CS3. Of course, no one is suggesting that InDesign actually REPLACE Photoshop (Blasphemy! only David Blatner can make such statements), but Mike's article is a healthy experiment in understanding the myriad ways of using applications and their features. Mike chose to highlight six specific workflows in his smackdown:

1. Recolor Artwork from a Grayscale File
2. Recolor Artwork from an RGB File
3. Create Reflections
4. Play with Special Effects-a-go-go
5. Create a Vignette
6. Create an Editable Contact Sheet

There's only one problem. Where was Illustrator? During the entire smackdown, Illustrator was only mentioned once -- and that was when Mike placed an Illustrator file into InDesign and gave it a reflection.

For anyone who knows me, I consider myself somewhat of an Illustrator evangelist, and nothing gets me going more than a challenge. I wonder why Mike didn't mention anything about Illustrator in his smackdown -- could a possible reason be that Illustrator might indeed win the smackdown over Photoshop AND InDesign in these workflows? Hmmmmm... let's see.

Round 1. Recolor Artwork from a Grayscale File

We all know that you can convert any image into a Monotone in just a few steps with Photoshop. Mike also spoke of InDesign's ability to colorize any linked flattened grayscale image. How does Illustrator match up? Well, you can colorize any placed PSD grayscale file -- linked or embedded. The PSD file can even be layered. And what if your image isn't a grayscale image? You can simply select the placed image within Illustrator and choose Object > Rasterize and choose Grayscale as the Color Model. You can then apply a color to the image.

Already, Illustrator has the advantage here, but what if your artwork isn't an image? What if it's vector artwork? Or text? Hmmm.. InDesign has no way of easily colorizing those items. But Illustrator has a totally fantastic Live Color feature that makes recoloring artwork nearly instantaneous. Within seconds, you can colorize just about anything in your design with Illustrator.

Illustrator 1, InDesign 0.

Round 2. Recolor Artwork from an RGB File

In this round, Mike spoke of using the Color blend mode to turn any placed image (grayscale or otherwise) into a color. This is almost too easy, considering that Illustrator has the same blend modes too. Follow Mike's instructions to reproduce this in Illustrator. Of course, you have patterns in Illustrator which allows you to add textures. But go a step beyond and use your image as an opacity mask (which are like Photoshop Alpha Channels) and the sky is the limit.

Illustrator 2, InDesign 0

Round 3. Create Reflections

I'll be the first to admit that InDesign CS3's new gradient feather feature is quite fantastic. I use it often (too often maybe). But reflections are also quite easy in Illustrator with the use of an Opacity Mask. You can easily craete a copy of any artwork and flip it upside down like Mike describes in his article, and then adding an opacity masks to complete the effect. But what about text? In Illustrator, you can use the Appearance panel to make a reflection that can be easily edited.

Start by creating a Point text object. Then, use the Appearance panel to add a new Fill. Apply a Transform effect to flip the new fill (use the Reflect Y option) and to also move it down so the baselines match. Now use a gradient as an opacity mask so that the upside-down text fades to transparent. The key here is that you haven't made a physical copy of the text for the reflection, so simply editing the text object automatically updates the reflection. The use of an opacity mask ensures that you can place the text over any colored background or image.

Illustrator 3, InDesign 0

Round 4. Play with Special Effects-a-go-go

Everyone loves Photoshop effects, and the InDesign team did a nice job in mimicking the design of the dialog to match that of Photoshop, as well as offering some nice effects -- even Bevel & Emboss. Sadly, Illustrator doesn't have a Bevel & Emboss filter. However, Illustrator has far more effects than InDesign or Photoshop, including 3D, Warp, Transform, Pathfinder... the list goes on. Through the use of multiple fills and strokes, you can build endless complex appearances. And they can all be applied with the click of a single button with Graphic Styles.

Illustrator 4, InDesign 0

Round 5. Create a Vignette

Mike's examples of using Inner and Outer Glow are nice, but they are no match for Illustrator's Opacity Mask feature. You can draw any shape and either fill it with a gradient or apply a feather effect to it and then use that object as an opacity mask to create a vignette in Illustrator.

Illustrator 5. InDesign 0

Round 6. Create an Editable Contact Sheet

I'll admit -- at first glance, I thought Illustrator wouldn't stand a chance here. I mean, come on -- InDesign is a page layout application and Illustrator doesn't have multiple pages. But there are still plenty of times you just need to create a single contact sheet. Could Illustrator possibly compete here? Hmmmmm... InDesign doesn't really have a Contact Sheet feature per say, but Bridge has a cool script that uses InDesign to build a contact sheet using the images you've selected in Bridge. I wonder if there's a script for Illustrator? Ya think?

Open your Illustrator CS3 application folder. In your Scripting > Sample Scripts > AppleScript (Visual Basic on Windows) folder is a script called Contact Sheet. The script is a droplet -- drag any folder of images onto that droplet and Illustrator will ask you how many images you want across and down and then sit back and watch. Of course, once the contact sheet has been created, you can customize it as you would any Illustrator document. The results look prettier than you'd find in Photoshop's Contact Sheet feature and of course they are customizable.

I'd call this a draw. A final tally of the score puts Illustrator well in front. Now of course, if Mike would have chosen some other workflows (like creating interactive PDFs, long documents, master pages, etc.) the results would be quite different.

Naturally, this is all a fun experiment -- but as I do with all my students and clients, I urge you to always use the tools at hand to best do your job. For now, I'm heading back to my glass of Cabernet.

Oh, and the next time there's a smackdown, make sure Illustrator is around. Please.

Technique: Scaling Area Text

I often get questions with regards to scaling text. For example, some users are looking to scale their text frames, but find that the text within the frame becomes scaled as well. Much like in InDesign, the user is looking to simply resize the frame, allowing the text within to simply reflow. The reason why I get questions about this stems from the fact that it often seems that sometimes it DOES work as the user wants it to, while other times, it doesn't -- which leads to frustration and other acts of computer violence.

The first thing to understand is that Illustrator has two types of text objects -- one called Point Type and one called Area Type. Point Type is used most often for random text objects that appear in your document and aren't bound by any shape or frame. Area Type is used for larger blocks of text where lines flow from one line to the next and are encompassed within a shape or a frame (just a note here -- I'm using the term "frame" here only because it's a familiar term for InDesign users, but Illustrator really has no concept of a frame at all).

Normally, it's pretty easy to make a distinction between Point and Area Type simply by looking at it when it is selected. Point Type (lower left) shows a single point on the first line and other lines are underlined. Note that the line endings shown here are manual, using hard or soft returns. Area Type (lower right) also appears underlined, but is also enclosed within a shape that contains small boxes on the upper left and lower right sides (those boxes are called "ports" and we'll talk about them in detail in a moment). The text within the Area Type object shown below has no specified line breaks -- the text simply reflows on its own to fit within its frame.



However, when you have the Bounding Box option turned on (View > Show Bounding Box), and you use the Selection tool to select your text object, both Point Type and Area Type appear nearly alike when selected.



The trick is, you have to pay attention to the ports -- those are the boxes we spoke about before. It's really the only way to differentiate a Point Type object from an Area Type object. The bounding box gives the Point Type an appearance that makes it look like Area Type.



These ports are used with Area Text to help manage "threads" of text, or text that is linked from one frame to another. It works just like InDesign, and different icons in the in or out ports will indicate functionality.



Now that you know how to identify the two kinds of Type objects, we can understand how to scale them and get the results we expect.

Point Type has no frame or shape that holds it. Therefore, scaling Point Type will always result in the text becoming distorted -- after all, you are scaling the text.



However, if you use the Selection tool to scale an Area Type object, the object itself will scale, but the text within the object will NOT scale, and will simply reflow to fit within the new shape.



As a nice little feature, you'll even notice that while you're scaling an Area Type object, Illustrator will preview live how the text will reflow (InDesign can do that if you click, hold for a second or two, and then start dragging).

However, if you're like me, you'll also want to use the Transform panel (or the Control panel) to resize Area Type frames numerically, to fit a specific dimension. But in doing so, you'll notice that the text within the Area Type object will also becomes scaled. Is there no way to scale an Area Type frame numerically without scaling the text within it?

There are two ways:

1. Double click on the Area Type object to select all the text. Copy. Apply your scale numerically, then select all, and paste. Silly, right? That's why there's option 2...

2. Use the Direct Selection tool to select JUST the side of the frame (see figure below). Now when you apply a numerical scale via the Transform or Control panel the scale will apply to the frame and the text within will reflow as expected.

ASK MORDY: The Changing of the Guides

Chris Rogers sends in this question about guides:

Is there a way to create a guide at a specific point? Eg, a vertical guide at 167 pixels? Or a horizontal guide at 83 pixels? I’m thinking more like a non-traditional number/not on a number point that can be snapped to on a grid by dragging it out. Seems like I remember a way to click somewhere and enter a number and program creates it for you? Photoshop?

This is a great question, only because it provides a wonderful opportunity for me to also explain a change that was made in Illustrator CS3.

First, let's talk about Illustrator CS2 (and just about any version prior to that). Guides are really objects. When you drag out a guide, you can simply use the X and Y coordinate fields in either the Transform palette or the Control palette (at the top of the screen) to reposition those guides numerically. But there's a catch. By default, guides are locked. Meaning that when you initially drag out a guide, as soon as you release it, it becomes locked. And locked objects can't be selected. So what you must do is first unlock your guides (it's easily available by just right-clicking on the artboard). Then you can select a guide and reposition it numerically.

I should mention that InDesign's guides can also be repositioned this way, but the guides are unlocked by default -- making it easy to quickly drag out a guide, punch in a value, and move on.

I should point out that in both InDesign and in Illustrator as well -- since guides are objects, you can also copy and paste guides (or use the Align functions on them). Of course, all while they are unlocked.

WHAT CHANGED IN CS3?

In Illustrator CS3, guides are UNLOCKED by default. That means you can drag out a guide and immediately punch in a coordinate in the Control panel. Which is pretty cool.

HOWEVER, InDesign has the leg up in this case because of something important. You see, in InDesign, while guides are objects, they are "special" kinds of objects. And in InDesign, when you make selections, you can either select guides, or objects -- but not both. In fact, in InDesign, if you marquee select an area that contains both objects and guides, only the objects become selected. In this way, InDesign intelligently allows you to have unlocked guides that don't get in the way, yet can easily be repositioned at any time.

Illustrator CS3 suffers from a problem because guides aren't special objects -- they are objects. And so, if guides are unlocked, they become selected just as art does. The result is that while Illustrator CS3 makes it really easy to reposition guides, it's also really easy to constantly move and delete guides along with your artwork. In fact, you may find that one of the first things you do when using Illustrator CS3 is lock the guides so you don't keep accidentally selecting them.

If the Illustrator team wants to keep guides unlocked moving forward, I would recommend they adopt InDesign's logic for selecting guides as well. Otherwise, the guides just keep getting in the way.

An alternative solution is to create a new layer in your document -- and only add guides to that layer. In that way, it might be easier to just lock and unlock the entire layer (FreeHand anyone?).

Or here's another possible solution. Create your guides, and then group them. If you want to move individual guides without other objects getting in the way, double click on one of the guides to enter group isolation mode. Then only your guides are active in your document, and you can move them easily. Simply double click to exit the guide group and you're back to working.

Still, I like InDesign's implementation in this regard.

Yay! Illustrator CS3 revealed!

The long wait is over! Illustrator CS3 -- and a massive list of other Adobe CS3 applications -- are all out in the open.

Want to find out about the new features in Illustrator CS3? Watch the latest episode of the Real World Illustrator podcast!

Want to find out about the new features in InDesign CS3? Head over to InDesign Secrets. Well, I guess it isn't much of a secret anymore, is it? :)

Of course, there's plenty to read at Adobe.com as well.

There's obviously tons to talk about, so leave comments here letting me know what specifically you want to know most about, and we'll talk...

FreeHand Keyboard Shortcuts for Illustrator CS2

Most applications have the ability to redefine keyboard shortcuts. Meaning, if there's a certain feature that you use often, but there's no keyboard shortcut for it, you can very easily choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (in AI, PS and ID for example), and assign one for that feature. In fact, if you scroll towards the bottom of the list of Menu Commands, you'll find that you can even assign keyboard shortcuts to some items that don't appear in menus at all.

And since it might be bad to mess up your keyboard shortcuts, you have the ability to save your own customized sets of keyboard shortcuts. In fact, InDesign ships with a keyboard shortcut set for QuarkXPress users. If you've just made the switch to InDesign and you are still used to all of the Quark shortcuts, you can switch to the keyboard shortcut set for Quark. This way, all of your familiar Quark shortcuts work in InDesign.

My personal opinion is that if you also use other Adobe apps, using a Quark set of shortcuts in InDesign isn't that much of a help in the long term. However, I do see value in the short term, when users first make the switch, to use familiar shortcuts as a "crutch" to prevent frustration and to help build familiarity in the new application. When I made the switch from Quark to InDesign, I used the Quark shortcuts for several days before I abandoned them for the (mostly) consistent set of shortcuts across all Adobe applications.

But I always did wonder why Adobe never supplied a FreeHand set of shortcuts for Illustrator. I made the switch from FreeHand to Illustrator way before Illustrator had the ability to assign custom keyboard shortcuts. But I know that at the time that I made the move, it would have helped to have that crutch to lean on.

So with that in mind, I've gone ahead and created a FreeHand MX set of shortcuts that you can load into Illustrator CS2. If you're a FreeHand user who recently made the transition to Illustrator (or if you're currently evaluating Illustrator CS2), feel free to download this file.

Once you've downloaded and unzipped the file, drop the file into the following folder on your computer (the file is cross-platform):

Windows:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings

Mac OS X:
username > Library > Preferences > Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings

Then relaunch Illustrator, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and choose FreeHand MX from the Set pop-up menu.

ASK MORDY: In Pursuit of Snappyness

This question comes from Jacob Brunny:

Alot of times I create guides and will drag over boxes or whatever to fit to them and it looks good from like 100% or something like that, then when I zoom in closer I see that they are actually not right up to the guide but off by a small amount, it seems Illustrator never gets them perfect except if you are zoomed in alot?

SIGH. In reality, this has been a personal frustration of mine for many many many years. I touched on this issue here but the upshot is that Illustrator doesn't snap object geometry. Rather, Illustrator snaps cursor position.

Go ahead and try it. Draw a guide. Then draw a rectangle and fill it with a color. The click anywhere in the fill area of the rectangle (not on the path), and drag it towards the guide. The edge of the rectangle will not snap to the guide. Keep dragging until your cursor touches the guide -- and you'll see that the cursor itself does snap to the guide.

So where you click on an object makes a difference on how that object snaps. If you click on an anchor, it appears that anchor snaps to another anchor when you drag it, but remember that it's the cursor position, not the anchor. Since when you zoom in really close, it's easier to mouse down on the anchor or the area you're looking to snap, it appears as though Illustrator is more accurate when you're zoomed in that close.

In InDesign, object boundaries DO snap to guides. You can grab a picture frame anywhere and drag it -- and you'll see the boundary of the frame snap to guides.

Because a typical Illustrator document contains many more objects than an InDesign one does, one might think that having objects snap in Illustrator might not be wanted. But at the same time, I'm not happy with the current implementation either. So instead, we struggle with this every day.

Busting the Myth: achieving consistent color across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

Plenty has been written about the holy grail of color consistency -- getting your screen and your print output to match across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign (and Acrobat too). Adobe themselves will even talk about the newer setting in Bridge or in Adobe Creative Suite 2 in general which allows you to synchronize your color settings across the suite. And the nice thing is that it works -- for the most part.

But even with these settings, we still find those out there who complain of colors not matching. Mainly, these are files that include spot colors. I've seen some people talk about these issues, and I've seen a few suggestions for solving the issue as well. In fact, it always seems that spot colors throws a wrench into the workflows we depend on every day. A while back I discussed how spot colors and transparency can present some unexpected results (and I presented a solution to the issue).

I've touched on the real solution to this problem before, but only in smaller specific cases. Here, I hope to present a clear understanding of these settings that accomplish three very important things:

1. Your spot color plates are preserved.

2. The integrity of your spot color CMYK values are preserved should you choose to convert your spots to process late in the workflow.

3. Your onscreen proofs AND your composite proof prints that contain spot colors will match accurately across Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat.

I'll start by saying that some have offered solutions of switching the spot color definitions in Illustrator or InDesign to use LAB values (which match Photoshop) -- but this can be VERY dangerous and results in the loss of number 2 mentioned above. Sure, we all know that a designer should use spot and process colors as needed, but we also know that many designers will spec spot colors (either because it's easier to do so by picking them from a book, or because they don't know any better). In addition, printers may convert spots to process late in workflows as job specs change under deadline. Item 2 listed above can often mean the difference between a job that prints correctly or one that must be reprinted (and at who's cost?).

UNDERSTANDING BOOK COLOR

So first, let's understand something that was introduced to Adobe Creative Suite 2: Book Color. You may notice that at times, a swatch will show up in Illustrator CS2 as something called a "book color". This occurs in InDesign CS2 as well, and here in the United States, you'll find it most often when you specify Pantone colors. So what is this book color setting? Well, here's the story: one of the reasons why we use spot colors is simply because there are colors that simply aren't reproducable in CMYK. Bright blues, purples, greens and oranges are perfect examples. But you also know that there are CMYK conversions of these Pantone spot colors. Pantone delivers an entire Excel spreadsheet to Adobe that lists each Pantone color, along with their LAB color equivalents. Obviously, the LAB color values match closer to the real color. Pantone also delivers a Solid to Process library which specifies the CMYK values of Pantone colors. Obviously, the latter is far less accurate and results in color shifts (and if you're paying attention, you know that by default, Photoshop uses the LAB values and AI, ID, and Acrobat use the CMYK values, which means that placing PS content into the other apps can result in color shifts).

Traditionally, a single swatch can only contain a single color definition. Since Illustrator or InDesign always used the CMYK values, proofing spot colors from these apps -- either on screen or on a composite proof -- was less than desirable. Especially considering the statement made in the previous paragraph, color shifts are also common due to this.

A book color swatch is a swatch that contains BOTH the LAB and the CMYK values of a spot color. In this way, Adobe can be more intelligent and use the values that are best for the situation. But there's a catch. You need to specifically tell Illustrator (or InDesign or Acrobat) that you want to use one value or another for the task at hand. But the important thing here is that you don't want to choose one OVER the other -- you always want to have both at your disposal. By this I mean, when you are actually printing and separating as a spot color, you want the best possible proof. But when you decide late in your workflow to convert your spot to process, you don't care about the LAB value -- you care about the CMYK breakdown and the consistency of that breakdown with other artwork, apps, etc. If you instruct your app to use the LAB color space for your swatch, then if you ever convert your spot to process, you get a LAB to Process conversion -- NOT the CMYK breakdown that the spot color manufacturer has specified in their book.

So what do you do? You use a feature that you would normally never imagine would have anything at all to do with this.

OVERPRINT PREVIEW TO THE RESCUE

OverPrint Preview is a wonderful feature that exists in Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat. But it's the worst named feature ever to grace those programs. That's because you might think that OPP only simulates or displays any overprint commands on your screen (which is very helpful). But it also goes a step further and uses a different algorithm for displaying spot colors. When you have a book color specified, we discussed that the swatch contains both LAB and CMYK values. In normal Preview mode, AI, ID, and ACRO all use the CMYK values for displaying the colors on your screen. But when OPP is turned on, the apps display those colors on the screen using the LAB values in the swatch.

So the first thing we've learned is that if you want to see consistent spot colors on your screen across all of your applications, don't touch the swatches -- rather change your preview mode by turning Overprint Preview on. This way, the integrity of the swatch remains, but you're basically instructing your application to display the color on your screen using the more accurate and consistent LAB values.

But the question is, what about composite proofing? I understand that I can use OPP to SEE my colors in a consistent way on screen, but how can I also get color proofs without color shifts? The answer is...

SIMULATE OVERPRINT

I always wondered why if I create a file without any overprints in it, I can go to the Print dialog and see that the Simulate Overprint command is available. If there are no overprints present, the item should be grayed out, no? The answer is that when you turn on simulate overprint in the Print dialog, the same thing is happening as we discussed above with Overprint Preview. The printer is using the LAB values for the color, not the CMYK values.

So the second thing we've learned is, if you want to see consistent spot colors on your composite proof prints, turn Simulate Overprint on in the Print dialog box. Again, this feature is available in AI, ID, and ACRO.

If you use OPP and Simulate OP, then you never lose the CMYK definition of the color that was specified by the book manufacturer, so it's always safe to convert to process at any time in the workflow if necessary.

In closing, you can ask why AI or ID even allow users to switch their spot colors to use only the LAB equivalents at all, if based on what you read here, it's such a bad thing. The answer is that in a color managed workflow, printers or RIPs may be able to better match spot colors to specific press or paper stock conditions when going straight from LAB. So I would strongly suggest that if you do want to use the methods described by others (such as Steve Werner's suggestion which I've linked to above), you first speak with your printer -- or you make sure to never convert your spots to process.

C vs. CVC -- a battle of Pantone proportions

As many of you already know, Pantone colors were once named with "CVC" and "CVU" after their numbers. These were to indicate Computer Video Coated and Computer Video Uncoated. But in the year 2000, Pantone switched to a universal naming scheme, using only C for coated, M for matte, or U for uncoated. But since the naming itself wasn't enough, Pantone also changed the actual color breakdowns, or CMYK representations of those colors. A new Spot to Process Guide was published as well.

Illustrator 10 was the first version of Illustrator to use these newer libraries (according to Adobe's licensing agreement with Pantone, Adobe is required to ship their products with the latest available libraries).

This opened the doors for a potential problem: If you opened an older Illustrator file that used an older Pantone CVC number, the CMYK equivalent of that color might not match the newer CMYK equivalents found in the newer Pantone C libraries that ship with newer versions of Illustrator.

In reality, if you are specifying a Pantone color, and are printing it as a spot color plate, the underlying CMYK values really don't mean much (except for proofing). But on press, everything will be fine, as those CMYK values are never used.

However, many designers use Pantone colors -- and those colors are many times converted to process later in the workflow -- either by another designer or by the printer. This can cause color shifts where the older and newer colors appear.

For this reason, the release of both Illustrator 10 and Illustrator CS also shipped with both the newer C libraries as well as the older CVC libraries, so that users could load and use the older CVC colors and migrate to the newer colors as they were ready to do so. Basically, Illustrator will allow you to import older colors in an unchanged state, and you can choose to manually move to the new colors -- thereby retaining the integrity of the older files.

However, InDesign chose to take a different route to address this problem.

As a page layout application, InDesign is used to aggregate content from other sources and applications. When you place content into InDesign -- for example, an EPS, a PDF, or an Illustrator file -- InDesign will look for any spot colors in that file and add those colors to its own Swatches palette. Now, if you already have a newer Pantone C color that exists in your file (say for example, Pantone 485 C), then if you place an older Illustrator file with a Pantone 485 CVC swatch, the result will be TWO plates in your InDesign file -- one named Pantone 485 C and one named Pantone 485 CVC. Because of the difference in the name, these colors will separate on two separate plates.

To prevent this from happening though, InDesign has code that can recognize the names of Pantone colors. When InDesign sees a Pantone CVC number, it imports it and merges it into the same swatch as the C number -- meaning if you place a file with Pantone 485 CVC into InDesign, that color is automatically merged with the newer Pantone C number -- and the result is a single plate. Which is nice. But there's one problem -- in this process, InDesign uses the newer Pantone C CMYK equivalents of the color. In fact, even if you import a CVC color into InDesign, and you don't even HAVE an exisiting C color in your file, InDesign will recognize the CVC number and automatically convert the CMYK equivalents to match the newer book color (the C values). This means there is no way in InDesign to preserve the older values, if you had wanted to. That means if you convert that spot color to process in InDesign, the color values will change -- and there's nothing at all that you can do about it.

You can argue whether InDesign's behavior is correct, or whether Illustrator behavior is correct, but the end result is that Illustrator and InDesign are not consistent, and you'll see different results depending on which app you print these files from. I should point out that Acrobat will mimic Illustrator's behavior here -- so printing from AI and Acrobat will give you the same result -- but printing from InDesign will result in something different.