Use stock Illustrator symbols to quickly show clients (or your friends!) what a logo or image would like on clothing.

Go to your symbol libraries (if you need help with this refer back to PART ONE: “A Quick Introduction to Illustrator Symbols”), choose the Fashion Library and add the desired pieces of clothing to your Symbols Palette.

Drag and drop the symbol(s) to your artboard. For this quick exercise I am going to add our logo to a hat and a t-shirt, so I have dragged one of each symbol into the document.

I am using a single instance of each symbol here, so I can simply Expand (Object > Expand) the shape if I want to update the color or add a stroke. (I will go over how to edit the actual Symbol in a subsequent part of this series.) Then just add the art or text that you want to appear on your clothing item and you are done!

Here is a little Adobe software trick that not all new users know…

If you often use arrow keys to move objects one pixel at a time - you can hold down the SHIFT key while pressing the arrow key to nudge the object TEN pixels at a time.

Sometimes designers just don’t have their thinking caps on. Unfortunately, this can lead to design that makes people cringe. I’ve included an example that speaks for itself. Thanks to Saudade for the use of her photo.

Have you seen crummy design that you just need to get out of your system? Email me!

My PhotoShop print screen function works intermittently. The only way to “fix” the problem is to reboot, which is not convenient while working. Most of my online searches for fixes to this problem directed me to CS3 fixes, but I found a blog that explains the CS2 fix as well.

This is really easy.

1. Open Notepad and type:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Photoshop\10.0]
“AlwaysImportClipboard”=dword:00000001

(Version 10.0 in the string above is Photoshop CS3. If you have CS2, use 9.0; for CS, 8.0; and for Photoshop 7, 7.0.)

2. Save the file as AlwaysImportClipbd_ON.reg (I saved it on my desktop so it is always handy.

3. Double-click on it. That’s it!

Thanks for this info at: 

 http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/09/05/how-to-fix-the-photoshop-clipboard/

You’ve been busy creating a beautiful illustration using all the colors in your favorite blanket from when you were a kid.  When you mom finally sends it to you in the mail you realize the shade of purple that you were remembering was was actually brown!  It would take you hours to go back and change all the little details you made in the wrong color.  Here is an easy way to select multiple object that share common characteristics, such as color.

We start with a simple design with a few colors used repeatedly throughout the design.

Choose one color that you would like to change.  I am going to update the purple dots in the design above and make them brown.  Select any object that has the fill color that you want to update.  Once it appears as the fill color in your toolbox, go to Select > Same > Fill Color.

Now all of the object that are your chosen fill color should be selected.

 Now all you have to do is select a new fill color from your Color Palette and, VIOLA….all of the selected objects will be updated!

You can use this simple methond for selecting objects with the same fill color, stroke color, stroke width and even opacity.  A very handy tool indeed!