How to Generate a QR Code

If you don't know what QR code or if you've seen these around but don't know what they were called, here is a good description from wiki:

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. ... The information encoded may be text, URL, or other data.

Here's how to generate a QR code:

1. Open your web browser and navigate to your favorite QR code generating website. This free QR code generating site from Kerem Erkan came highly recommended. The better sites will allow you to create the file in vector .eps format—definitely preferred!


2. Select a Code Action which will most likely be "Browse to a Website" but there's a whole drop down menu of options.


3. Select Code Type: QR Code


4. Select Output Type: Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) (vector data is preferred because it's crisp at any size)


5. I left the defaults for the rest. URL Shortening: None, Error Correction Level: Low, Block Size in Pixels: 10, Margin Size in Blocks: 1, Foreground Color: #000000, Background Color: #FFFFFF, Transparent boxes unchecked



6. Click the Generate Code button and the file will automatically begin downloading


7. Insert the code into your Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator document. QR codes will be hard to read at sizes smaller than .59 inches (15 mm). A good standard QR code size is around 1 inch or 25-30 mm.

Photoshop Smart Object Stacking

There's always another layer to discover in Photoshop! I hadn't used Smart Object stacking before and was recently introduced to it at a conference. The stacking modes have mysterious terms like Entrophy, Kurtosis and Summation (Read Adobe's technical explanation of stacking modes here).

Some of the practical applications of Smart Object stacking:

• If you take multiple photos of the same road or fountain and then use stacking mode Median, you can remove moving objects like cars and people (layers must be aligned first)


• If you take photos of the same room with different light sources use the stacking mode Maximum to combine the light of all of these sources (layers must be aligned first)

How to use Smart Object stacking:

1. Open a new document in Photoshop. Drag in at least 2 images. Select the images in the Layers panel, right click and Convert to Smart Object.


2. Select Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode and choose a stacking mode.


3. If you don't like the results, repeat the previous step to choose another option. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a keyboard shortcut or simpler way to access these options but you could always create custom keyboard shortcuts if you end up using this feature a lot.

I had fun playing around with these 2 photos and different stack modes as a creativity tool to see the different results.

Stacking mode: Summation

Stacking mode: Range

Stacking mode: Maximum

Note: Once something is converted to a Smart Object there is no way to ungroup it (at least that I could find in my research) and release all of the original layers (the way you can ungroup layers). To get back to the original contents, open the Smart Object and drag all the layers back into your document. Then delete the Smart Object.

Photoshop Retouching Work from Rocket Studio

If you want to see some high quality computer retouching work, check out Rocket Studio's amazing portfolio.


Finished image


Originals


Finished image


Originals

Resetting the Work Area Background in Photoshop

Somehow when speeding around and keyboard shortcutting and clicking in Photoshop, I accidentally changed my Photoshop work area background color. Not what I wanted! Here's how to set it back to its original color. This tip works for full-screen mode too.

1. The default gray background that Photoshop ships with is R: 204 G: 204 B: 204. Enter this color in the Color Picker as your foreground color.
2. Select the paint bucket. Expand the image window if necessary and shift-click on the background area you wish to change.

Free Photoshop Action: White Photo Border

I've been looking for a simple clean white photo border/photo edge action and couldn't easily find what I wanted online. I wanted something a little more sophisticated than a solid white 50 pixel stroke but still very simple. I created this free Photoshop action with a hint of gradient on the white stroke and hint of inner shadow on the photo to add a little bit more dimension.

Click here to download the free Photoshop action. (In the next window select "Click here to start download")

Note: This works best on images 4 x 6 at 300 dpi or about 1800 px wide. The action doesn't come with a drop shadow - that's just so you can see the border in this example.

Thanks to sxc.hu user mterraza for the photo.

Free Photoshop Brushes from Brush Lovers

Brush Lovers has a huge library of Photoshop brushes, many of which are free! Here are a few free brushes that caught my eye: Nature Spatter, Scrubbed Prime, Flurry of Snowflakes, Magical Lights.

Going Backwards: Extracting a Jpg Tile from a Photoshop Pattern File

It's pretty easy to go forward in the pattern making process—use Photoshop to define a pattern from an existing graphic. It's a little trickier to extract the original file — convert a Photoshop pattern to jpg.

A lot of the free patterns available online are available in Photoshop pattern (.pat) format, but if you want to use a Photoshop pattern as a website background, you need the original tile in jpg or gif format, not the pattern file. Here's how to get an accurate jpg file from a Photoshop pattern (so you don't have to guess where the seams are, crop, test, crop again, test again):

1. Open your file in Photoshop. Choose the layer you want to apply the effect to and choose Pattern Overlay. In the Layer Style dialog box, Pattern Overlay, scroll through the patterns to select the pattern you'd like to use. Click on it to select it.



2. With the thumbnail view still open, hover on the pattern you selected for a while until its tool tip appears. The tool tip will tell you the original file name and pixel dimensions of the original tile! (If there's somewhere else this information is, I'd love to know - this was the only place I could find.) Write down or screen capture the pixel info. In this example the pattern is 250px x 307px. Click OK to to exit the Layer Style dialog box.



3. Select Image > Canvas Size. Select the top left corner of the canvas (patterns are always applied from the top left corner down) and enter the pixel dimensions from the previous step. Click OK to crop the canvas.


4. Export the cropped file as a jpg or gif.


5. Bonus step: If you would like to test your file in Photoshop to be 100% sure the tile was created correctly, make sure the file is flattened, select all (Cmd-A) and select Edit > Define Pattern and save your pattern. Create a new document at a much larger size than your pattern. Then choose Edit > Fill, choose pattern, find your pattern (usually new patterns move to the end of the list) and click OK. The pattern should fill the document seamlessly.

Using Photoshop CS5's HDR Toning Adjustment as an Image Correction Tool

There are so many different ways to adjust an image in Photoshop: Curves, Levels, Brightness/Contrast and more. CS5 introduces one more way to adjust images: HDR Toning. HDR toning can be used to create artistic photographic effects but applied at low settings on high contrast images it works to preserve highlight detail while illuminating the shadow detail.

1. Open your image in Photoshop. Select Image > Adjustment > HDR Toning.


2. Set the Method to Local Adaption (it may already be set on this setting). Tip: if the saturation default is high, set it to 0 first and then adjust the rest of the settings.


3. If you want your adjustments to look realistic, keep the settings low and don't make drastic adjustments. For this specific image, I used: Radius 50px, Strength .50, Gamma 1.14, Exposure 0, Detail +30, Shadow, +10, Highlight -20, Vibrance 0, Saturation 0.


4. Click on the down arrow by Toning Curve and Histogram and make any necessary Curve adjustments.


5. If artistic/drastic adjustments is what you're looking for, go wild. Making major adjustments in the HDR toning settings will yield images like this:

Thanks to sxc.hu user mossholder for the photo

Trimming, Expanding and Revealing in Photoshop

A few of my favorite useful little Photoshop commands reside under the Image menu.

Image > Trim. Crops out all transparent pixels. Favorite use: No more eyeballing it! Using Trim crops to the exact edges of an image. Trim preserves drop shadows too.

Image > Canvas Size (Cmd-Opt-C). Expand the canvas size. My favorite part of this dialog box: Checking 'Relative' and typing in an amount is a speedy way to evenly add white space on all 4 sides.

Image > Reveal All. Expands the canvas to show all pixels hidden off the edges of the image window. Especially useful when layering multiple images and something gets lost off canvas.

Straighten a Photo in Photoshop CS5

One of my most appreciated one click features in Photoshop CS5 is the Straighten button. It's so easy to use. Open a photo with a crooked horizon.


Select the ruler tool and draw a line along the horizon. Click the Straighten button and Photoshop will straighten and crop your image automatically.



Photo courtesy of jawcey

Photoshop Annoyances: Turning off the Pixel Grid

I never noticed the pixel grid in CS4 but somehow it was turned on by default in CS5. I found it annoying to zoom in and have the pixels outlined in white and I couldn't figure out where to turn the grid off for a while. Once I found it, I was relieved because it's so easy to turn off (unlike certain other frustrating CS5 interface upgrades that won't turn off like InDesign's frame edge selection feature).

In Photoshop, select View > Show > Pixel Grid. To turn it off make sure Pixel Grid is unchecked.

The Power of Smart Objects: Editable Raw Files in Photoshop

Want editable Raw files in Photoshop? It's easy - just open your Raw file as a Smart Object. In Camera Raw, hold down the Shift key and Open Image becomes Open Object. When you want to edit the Smart Object, double click it to launch Camera Raw and edit the image.

Something else that can be helpful with this workflow: you can convert the Photoshop document to CMYK but the embedded Camera Raw is still in RGB.

Content Aware Fill Keyboard Shortcuts

The content aware fill keyboard shortcuts were a little confusing to me initially since the video Adobe released showed content aware fill working by just pressing the Delete key. I also discovered that the content aware brush isn't its own separate brush (again - not clear) but an option on the Spot Healing Brush.

The photo above uses the content aware fill with no other retouching and there are definitely a few problem areas. But overall I think the content aware fill and brush are worthy additions to the Photoshop toolbox. The content aware fill keyboard shortcuts are:

• Content Aware Fill on flattened background layer: Delete (which brings up dialog box with Content Aware as the default option)


• Regular Delete on flattened background layer: Command+Delete or Opt+Delete depending on whether you want to fill with background or foreground color


• Content Aware Fill on any floating layer: Shift+Delete (which brings up dialog box with Content Aware as the default option)


• Regular Delete (to transparency) on any floating layer: Delete

Photo credit: sxc.hu user sundstrom

Put Layer Effects on a Separate Layer

Sometimes layer effects get in the way. Especially in documents with multiple parts that wrap around (book cover, CD packaging, etc.) you may need a layer effect to stop on one side. But Photoshop applies a layer effect to all sides of a shape. What you need to to do is apply a layer mask, but only to the layer effect. Here's how to separate a layer effect from its layer:

1. Open your file in Photoshop. Select the layer with the layer effects you wish to separate.


2. Right click on the drop down Layer Effects menu. Select Create Layer (almost all the way at the bottom).


3. If necessary, load a selection of your original layer and add a layer mask to the newly created effect layer to hide the fill area of your original layer. Load other selections or paint on the mask to hide any unwanted effect.

Note: This particular example that I created could have also been solved with some layer reordering but there are many cases where layer reordering won't solve the problem and this technique is required.

Using Apply Image for Signatures and Black and White Illustrations

Here's an easy way to convert a black and white signature scan or illustration into a layer masked graphic which you can then recolor and use on any background. The trick is that the image is its own mask.

1. Open your image in Photoshop. Apply Sharpening and Curves if needed.


2. Add a new Layer Mask. With the layer mask selected, select Image > Apply Image. In the dialog box, use these options: Source: (your file name), Layer: Merged, Channel: Gray with Invert checked, Blending: Normal with 100% Opacity and click OK.

Signature is Joan of Arc's from wikipedia commons

Creating Quick & Easy Automatic Center Guides

Here's a quick time saving tip for automatically creating vertical and horizontal center guides in Photoshop.

1. Open Photoshop. In a blank document or other document, select View > New Guide.


2. In the New Guide dialog box, enter 50% for Vertical Position and click OK.


3. Select View > New Guide. Enter 50% for Horizontal Position and click OK.

Photo Restoration Workflow

Here is my non-destructive photo restoration workflow for restoring vintage photos.

1. Open your image in Photoshop and analyze it. What the biggest problem with it? What needs to be done? If there is a drastic color shift problem, address that first by adding a Curves adjustment layer and adjusting the white and black points and other colors as necessary. If there are no major problems besides dust and scratches, rotate (if necessary), crop and proceed to the next step.


2. I like to deal with the small sharp dust first because it's easily fixed with the Dust and Scratches filter. In the layers panel, right click on the layer with your photo and click Convert to Smart Object. Select Filter > Noise > Dust and Scratches. The radius and threshold values will depend on the resolution of your photo but I usually try a radius of 2 or 3 and threshold of 15-20. Click OK.


3. Fill the Smart Filters layer mask with black to conceal the Dust and Scratches filter effect. With white as your foreground color (white to reveal the Dust and Scratches effect), click and paint to hide the small bits of dust using a small brush in detail areas, large brush in background areas. I recommend against flooding the whole image with the Dust and Scratches filter - it ends up blurring too much image detail.


4. For the bigger pieces of dust or damage that can't be fixed with the Dust and Scratches filter, I use the healing brushes and sometimes the clone stamp tool. Create a new layer above your original image layer. If you have a Curves layer, make sure it is below the Curves layer.


5. Select the healing brush and set it to Sample: Current and Below. Select the clone stamp tool and set it to Sample: Current and Below. Select the spot healing brush and set it to: Sample All Layers (there is no Current and Below option). Click and paint with these three tools as needed to get rid of all dust and damage.


6. If you haven't done Curves in the beginning, go ahead and adjust the image now.


7. Now for one of my favorite shortcuts: In the layers panel, select all layers and press Cmd-Opt-E (Stamp Layers). This merges a copy of all previous layers into a new layer on top. Apply sharpening to this merged layer with your favorite sharpening method (I like High Pass).

Thanks to FamilyOldPhotos.com and Martin Ruffner for this image.

Creating A Sepia Tone Photo

Here are two great ways to create a sepia tone photo. My favorite way is the second way, using Adobe Camera Raw - something new I learned from Michael Ninness at the InDesign Conference in DC.

If you look at the photos closely, you will see that using the Black & White adjustment in Photoshop puts a lot of color into all areas: highlights, midtones, shadows. Using Adobe Camera Raw gives you a sepia tone with a more authentic vintage effect - the color is applied mostly to the midtones, giving you brighter, cleaner whites and shadows closer to black.

Using the Black and White Adjustment Layer in Photoshop

1. Open your image in Photoshop.


2. Create a new Black and White Adjustment Layer. In the Black and White Adjustment panel, adjust the individual sliders left or right to control how the black and white conversion is applied to the image.


3. In the top corner of the Black and White Adjustments panel, check "Tint". You can edit the default color by clicking on the Tint color box.

Note: Now that I think about it, you could simulate the effect of an Adobe Camera Raw sepia tone by adjusting the Blend If sliders on the Black and White adjustment layer and adding a Hue-Saturation layer underneath set to -100 saturation (desaturate). There are always so many ways to replicate an effect with Adobe products!

Using Adobe Camera Raw in Bridge
Adobe Camera Raw is a great sub application embedded into Adobe Bridge. It's generally used for raw files (hence the name) but it can also be used for any jpg too! So all of the settings like exposure, fill light and color temperature can also be applied to jpgs. Here's how to create a sepia with Adobe Camera Raw:

1. Open Bridge. In Bridge, select the jpg or raw file you would like to edit. To open the image in Adobe Camera Raw, type Cmd + R.


2. In Adobe Camera Raw, go to the row of icons below the histogram and click on the fourth item, HSL/Grayscale. Check "Convert to Grayscale". Adjust the individual sliders left or right to control how the black and white conversion is applied to the image. Arranging your sliders in an "S" curve is a general rule of thumb for a good image.


3. Click on the next menu item (fifth), Split Toning. Adjust the top two sliders, hue and saturation, to apply sepia tone color to the image.


4. Click Save Image in the bottom left corner to save your changes to a .tif file or click Open Image (bottom right corner) to open your jpg with the sepia effect in Photoshop and continue from there. Clicking Done will save the Adobe Camera Raw settings without harming the data in the jpg or raw file (it saves your Camera Raw settings for that image in a special side file).

Thanks to sxc.hu user CDJensen for the image in this example.

Tips for Speedy and Efficient Graphic Design - Part 2

So you want to be a faster graphic designer? More tips for speed:

Clean Up Your Text Before You Start Designing
(InDesign)
It's such a pleasure (and it's more efficient) to design with clean text but let's face it: designers rarely receive perfectly ready and clean text. There's always some issue: the bullets don't convert properly, the hyperlinks cause issues, there's all sorts of invisible trash (extra spaces, paragraph marks, tabs, etc.). For those pesky hyperlinks from Microsoft Word: Select all of the text in Word and hit Cmd-6 which strips out all of the hyperlinks (and hyperlink formatting!). In InDesign, use Find & Replace to get rid of the invisible extras: double spaces, extra paragraph marks, tabs and other document trash before you start designing. It will be that much easier to hit the ground running with your design.

Master Selecting Objects and Selecting Tools
(InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)
Do you know the quickest way to switch from inside a text box to the Selection tool in InDesign? (Hint: hit Escape.) Can you draw and modify a shape in Illustrator without ever selecting a tool with the mouse? Learn the keyboard shortcuts to all of the tools and be able to select, move and modify an object using keyboard shortcuts whenever possible. Those little side trips to the menus and toolbar really add up over the course of a day.

Organize Your Files (Computer & Paper)
It doesn't matter if your desk looks perfect or if it looks like a cyclone hit it. The true measure of organization is function: if you can find a document or file you need in 10 seconds or less, you're doing great. If you can't find your files that fast, you might need a better system. My main organization inspiration comes from Julie Morgenstern's books and Zen Habits. I analyzed my own workflow and tested out different methods until I found the one that worked best for me.

Think Like a Race Car Driver
Race car drivers drive safely at dangerously high speeds (at least most of the time). How do they do it? Training, practice, focus. The same principles apply to designing faster:

1. Training. Know your design programs backwards and forwards. The more familiar you are with the programs, the less time you spend figuring out how to do something. You just do it.


2. Practice. Practice, practice and more practice. The more you do something, the better you get at it (at least usually). Also remember to practice skills that don't get used daily in your job. For example, if you rarely work in Illustrator, do something for yourself for fun in Illustrator to keep you skills from getting rusty.


3. Focus. The research is becoming clearer and clearer: multi-tasking doesn't make you more efficient, it does exactly the opposite. Intense focus for periods of time, focusing only on a single task and ignoring distractions like email and phone calls, is a more efficient and productive way of getting things done. It's also more pleasant! So do whatever you can to help you find that single focus.

Tips for Speedy and Efficient Graphic Design - Part 1

Speedy design is a bit of an oxymoron. It's important to be able to design quickly and efficiently but you also need enough space and leisure to be able to explore and generate quality ideas. Here are some tips for speedy and efficient graphic design when you already have that quality idea:

Keyboard Shortcuts
(Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator)
"The first thing I do when I walk in is pick up the mouse and turn it upside down." I heard these words from a design efficiency expert years ago at a design conference and they've stuck with me deeply ever since. The message: the mouse is the slowest tool in your repertoire. If you want to be fast, you have learn (and use!) keyboard shortcuts. If a common command you use doesn't have a keyboard shortcut, assign your own custom keyboard shortcut. Make it a game to avoid the menus. Here are keyboard shortcut guides for Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

Templates
(Photoshop, InDesign)
Take the time to create templates (or download templates) for whatever you create a lot of and/or have as a recurring projects. Create the templates in the programs you commonly work in. For example, if you often use Photoshop and InDesign on brochure projects, create brochure tri-fold.psd and brochure tri-fold.indt. Make your template file the right size, adjust margins, add guides and bleeds, add basic text styles, etc. I recommend locking your template files (make them read only) and your templates folder so you won't accidently overwrite your original template files.

Actions
(Photoshop)
Actions are awesome. I don't know how I could be a designer without Photoshop actions, especially batch processing (File > Automate > Batch) using actions. I use actions for everyday operations like converting to 300 ppi CMYK and saving as tif or converting to grayscale. Whatever I find myself doing often, I create an action. I also use actions for project specific tasks like applying a special sepia photo effect or adding photo edges. For even more speed, I assign keyboard shortcuts to my most commonly used actions.

Paragraph and Character Styles
(InDesign)
Paragraph and character styles are powerful, flexible, easy to apply and vitally necessary for most InDesign projects. For ease of use, create folders for your styles and organize them by hierarchy (ie. organize them in the order that you apply them in the text: headers first, then subheads, text, bulleted lists, numbered list and the rest). For greater speed, I apply keyboard shortcuts to my styles so header might be Cmd + 1 and subhead Cmd + 2.

Stay tuned for Part 2.