This year marks the 20^th anniversary of Adobe Photoshop, the image-editing powerhouse nestled snuggly on the hard drives of more than 90% of creative professionals—not too shabby for a program that started life bundled with 200 Barneyscan scanners! If you think about it, no other application has infiltrated and impacted our culture quite like Photoshop. For example, it’s one of two programs (Google is the other) whose name has become a verb: “Dude, can you Photoshop my ex out of this picture?”

Over the years, the capabilities of Photoshop have expanded well beyond that of a digital darkroom into truly mind-blowing proportions (3D extrusion, anyone?). These days, nary a photo is published that hasn’t spent at least a little time in Photoshop and, as you well know, some have had more ’Shop time than others. Among the most notable Photoshop scandals, Oprah Winfrey’s head was carefully plopped atop Ann-Margret’s body for a TV Guide cover in ’89. Back in 1994, Time Magazine “sinisterized” OJ Simpson’s mug shot for the cover, and more recently, Ralph Lauren landed in hot water after making a model’s waist look freakishly smaller than her head. It’s no wonder we perpetually ponder: Is it real or is it Photoshop? With such power should also come great responsibility—or so we hope!

Nevertheless, this 20th birthday business was a glorious excuse for us to corner the various product managers and evangelists—as well as veteran users—Photoshop has enjoyed over its illustrious career. In the next few pages, you’ll hear from the following luminaries:

• Russell Brown—Senior Creative Director, Adobe—author, lecturer and member of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team (www.russellbrown.com)
• Kevin Connor, Vice President of Product Management for Professional Digital Imaging, Adobe
• Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Photoshop Product Manager, Adobe
• Bert Monroy, digital photo-realist artist, author, lecturer, and member of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team (www.bertmonroy.com)
• Dan Margulis, photographer, author, lecturer, and member of the Photoshop World Instructor Dream Team
• Jeff Schewe, digital pioneer and longtime user (and abuser) of Photoshop and the first offsite “alpha” tester, and in the NAPP Photoshop Hall of Fame (www.schewephoto.com)
• Lee Varis, digital photography pioneer, author, lecturer (www.varis.com)

The Adobe Photoshop Team

Layers: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Brown: As far as I can remember, I wanted to be a mad scientist who could travel through time and, of course, I wanted to have my own spaceship—growing up was not part of the equation. Perhaps I really did become this mad scientist and I’m only visiting this moment in time, but from the past! (Insert the theme music from the Twilight Zone here.)

Connor: Truthfully, I can’t really recall as a kid dreaming about what I’d be when I grew up. What I will say, though, is this: When I was in high school, if you asked me to describe all of the aspects of my ideal job, the key elements wouldn’t sound very different from what I’m doing right now. I just had no idea this kind of job existed! I feel pretty fortunate that I managed to find my way here.

Hughes: From the age of seven, it was very clear that my passion was photography; I couldn’t paint or draw, but I desperately wanted to capture what I saw. I would photograph my mother’s office parties, sneaking around below everyone’s radar with an old Minolta rangefinder. Any money I could save was spent on cameras, film, and dark room supplies. In many ways that’s still the case, only computer hardware/software has entirely replaced the darkroom. A passion for racing briefly collided with photography and I shot motorsports professionally; but I was looking for something more unique.

Layers:How did you come to work at Adobe and on the Photoshop team?

Brown: I started working at Adobe about 25 years ago as their very first art director. I can recall how unsure I was, to be interviewing with this small startup company called Adobe Systems; however, it quickly became clear to me that this company was going places.

Regarding Photoshop, I was influential in the original purchase of Photoshop at Adobe. John Knoll gave me one of the first demonstrations of Photoshop and from the moment I saw it, I knew the world was about to change. In the next few years, I became one of the first Photoshop instructors and contributed ideas to its development.

Connor: I joined Adobe in May of 1995, though I was originally hired as the product manager for Dimensions and Streamline—two small companion products to Adobe Illustrator. Early in 1996, I was asked if I’d be interested in moving over to the Photoshop team, and I jumped at the chance. I’ve been involved with the digital imaging team ever since.

Hughes: In 1996, I saw Kevin Connor demonstrate Photoshop 4.0 at the Seybold show; I was very fortunate to have one of those moments where I knew exactly what I wanted to do—right then. I didn’t own a computer; I didn’t own Photoshop. I didn’t even live in the Bay Area, but I had a goal. I moved to San Jose, enrolled in a Computer Science program at USF, spent 14–16 hours a day retouching and restoring scanned photos, and managing a series of digital labs. By 1999, I was working for Adobe. My first months were spent testing PhotoDeluxe 4.0, though I quickly moved to the Photoshop team later that year.

Layers:Were there any memorable funny/horrible or Hail Mary moments from the releases you worked on?

Brown: There are four Hail Mary moments I can clearly remember to this day: (1) Seeing John Knoll demo a soft-edge selection mask in the .95 version of Photoshop—is that nerdy or what? (2) Seeing Mark Hamburg demonstrate layers with transparency in Photoshop 3.0; it was total magic!
(3) Seeing Thomas Knoll and Jeff Schewe demonstrate Adobe Camera Raw for the first time; I instantly knew this feature was big. 
(4) Seeing the complex task of blending a multi-image panorama without seams.

My most horrible moment was when I gave a demo to a crowd of 1000 users (it still haunts me to this day). It was bad, bad, bad, bad—everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

Connor: The 5.0 release was one of the hardest and craziest releases I worked on. One night, shortly before we were going to send the golden masters off to manufacturing, I was working late in the office handling some last-minute details. Sometime after midnight, I wandered over to see how some of the engineers were doing. They had just finished fixing the last of the bugs in the new text-editing features and two of the engineers were about to head out to Taco Bell for some munchies. They asked if I wanted anything but I said I was calling it a night and heading home, so I left them there in the office. When I came back the next morning, I found out they had flown to Mexico. Apparently they had taken Taco Bell’s “run to the border” slogan a little too literally.

Hughes: There were hundreds. I recall Content-Aware Scaling being added very late in CS4. I felt like I had prepped an already strong story and demo, and then suddenly had this surprise gift. So I learned the feature, created assets, and demonstrated it publicly for the first time—all in the same day! Each and every cycle is a rollercoaster of emotions, ranging from incredible promise to necessary sacrifice (we pride ourselves on quality); though, they always end the same—incredible pride, surprise features, and an application that does hundreds of things that couldn’t be done before. Each and every version has, at some point, made me realize I’m so dependent upon a new feature(s) in the forthcoming version that I can’t possibly switch back. It’s at that moment that I know we have a hit on our hands. As cameras, computers, GPUs, printers, tablets, etc. do more, Photoshop grows in leaps and bounds when it comes to what’s possible. Of course, the most exciting thing about a new release is seeing the things our users do that we didn’t predict. Perhaps more than any other application, Photoshop users continually push the envelope with the power of the application.

Layers: How has the procedure for feature requests changed over the years?

Connor: Now there are a lot more ways for us to get customer feedback. We’ve always been able to take input from surveys, people we meet at trade shows and customer visits, and those who participate in our usability and beta testing programs. However, the Web has provided even more ways for us to find out what customers want. We’ve recently instituted a new program dubbed “Just Do It” or JDI Days. These are specific days during the cycle wherein the whole team takes a break from the big features to work on small enhancement requests from customers. Individually these may take a day or so to implement, though collectively they can make a big difference to people.

In brainstorming a list of features, we relied on some of the usual sources, though also looked at reader comments in product manager John Nack’s blog (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack), along with gripes posted on DearAdobe.com. We also talked to Scott Kelby and found out what customers were requesting at his seminars and on his blog (www.scottkelby.com). The result of this input—along with hard work from the engineering team—is a useful set of enhancements ready for the next release, in addition to new technologies.

Without a doubt, Photoshop is magic—pure and simple. It’s a groundbreaking program that continues to make our image editing lives easier than we ever dared imagine. So, happy birthday, Photoshop! You’ve come a long way baby, and we can’t wait to see how far—together—we can go.

The Photoshop Vets

Layers: How has Photoshop changed your life or improved your craft?

Margulis: It got me out of prepress management. Pre-Photoshop people were interested in learning color correction, but the post-Photoshop numbers increased by a factor of 10,000 or so, which made my educational career possible.

Monroy: As a painting tool, it’s the best of all worlds—it even has 3D. It has simplified how I do things while, at the same time, forced me to become far more complex in what I do. Photoshop has changed my life by adding new titles to my résumé: I’m an author, TV personality, and host of a weekly show. I’d say those are big changes!

Schewe: Photoshop has had a big impact on the capabilities I bring to my work by giving me the power to completely control the images I make. This is, of course, a double-edged sword. There’s now no reasonable excuse for not “getting the shot” because so much can be altered (fixed) in post-production. On the other hand, Photoshop isn’t really capable of turning bad stuff good. Good photographic skills are still important.

Varis: Photoshop has become a central component of my professional life. My work as a photographer has revolved around digital imaging for 20 years and, over time, Photoshop has come to dominate just about everything I do in photography. My work as a consultant also centers on Photoshop problem solving. My writing and teaching is heavily involved with illuminating Photoshop and its relationship with contemporary photography.

Layers: What would your career/life be like without Photoshop?

Margulis: You never know, though likely my career/life has gotten better, particularly during the last 5–10 years. The development of a program like Photoshop was a foregone conclusion as soon as computers became powerful enough to handle it, which was in the early ’90s. At that time, Photoshop had several viable competitors, although it wasn’t necessarily a more capable program—the strong backing of Adobe won Photoshop a monopoly around ’95. If Photoshop hadn’t existed, the other programs would have replaced it. If only one program came to the fore, then we would have been better off if its developers were superior to Photoshop’s and worse off otherwise. The more likely scenario, though, would have been a Quark vs. InDesign kind of deal where two or more apps were trying to steal market share from one another by offering more and better features. If that had happened, we’d have stronger tools than Photoshop available today.

Monroy: A lot harder and a lot less fun!

Schewe: I really don’t know. I do know I was doing in-camera masking and multiple exposures long before Photoshop. So, it’s not like you can’t do extensive compositing without Photoshop. The big difference was the amount of time and excruciating effort that was required for accomplishing things that are so darn easy now with Photoshop. Truth is, I really can’t contemplate working without Photoshop these days…

Varis: I think it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t have a career without it; I’d probably be in some soup line somewhere.

Layers: Do you remember where you were/what you were doing when you first heard about Photoshop?

Margulis: I was in charge of investigating new technology for the country’s largest color separator, so I had read about the capabilities of Photoshop’s Barneyscan predecessor. I told the head of our Scitex department that this (or a program like it) would cost him his job in about five years. The first time I actually saw it at a trade show, he was with me. He laughed and laughed at how bad it was, and told me I was out of my mind.

Monroy: My partner, at the time, was writing for every magazine that dealt with the Macintosh, and that partner and I went on to co-write the very first book on Photoshop. He used to get everything and, of course, then show it to me. The Knoll brothers sent him an early version (v. 04) quite some time before Adobe bought it. At the time I was known as Mr. PixelPaint—I saw the airbrush in Photoshop and fell in love. It was the best digital equivalent of my old traditional airbrush that I had ever seen, and I knew this was my tool of the future. With Photoshop, the entire world has changed!

Schewe: Hum. I really don’t remember. I do remember doing work on some very early digital imaging systems like the Scitex well before Photoshop—difficult and very, very expensive to do anything. I do remember the first time I worked with Photoshop: version 2.0. I rented a Mac IICi for a weekend to do what now would be a ridiculously easy retouch. I literally worked throughout the weekend. My wife found me sound asleep on the keyboard Monday morning. It was the start of a wonderful relationship. Photoshop and me!

Varis: I was very invested in using another application called ColorStudio because it directly supported CMYK; I had heard of Photoshop but it didn’t seem as professional because you couldn’t edit in CMYK. A designer friend of mine had a project that required grayscale imagery and, as it turns out, ColorStudio didn’t support grayscale so I started using Photoshop. Shortly afterward it started supporting CMYK, and it just kept getting better, finally eclipsing ColorStudio (which kind of died and morphed into Painter). It’s funny to think that back then there were a number of competitive products—including high-end systems like the Quantel Paintbox—and nobody could have predicted Photoshop would come to dominate the image-editing field.

20 Years of Photoshop

1987

Thomas Knoll writes programming code for displaying grayscale images on a monochrome screen.

1988

(March)

Thomas and John Knoll license the first version of Photoshop to Barneyscan; approximately 200 copies of Photoshop 0.87 ship with scanners.

1989

(April)

After Adobe’s Art Director, Russell Brown, and Founder, John Warnock, see a demo of Photoshop the previous November, the Knoll brothers and Adobe work out the license agreement giving Adobe the right to distribute Photoshop.

1990

(February)

Version: 1.0

Key features: Color correction, image optimization for output, Curves, Levels, and the Clone tool

1991

(June)

Version: 2.0 (used same box as version 1.0)

Code name: Fast Eddy

Key features: Paths, rasterizer for Illustrator Files, CMYK support, duotones, and the Pen tool

1992

(November)

Version: 2.5

Code name: Mac—Merlin; Windows—Brimstone

Key features: Palettes and 16-bit file support

1993

(November)

Photoshop 2.5 is released for Windows. All future versions of Photoshop are both Mac and Windows compatible.

1994

(November)

Version: 3.0

Code name: Tiger Mountain

Key features: Layers and tabbed palettes

1996

(November)

Version: 4.0

Code name: Big Electric Cat (the source of the burping cat splash screen named BECk)

Key features: Adjustment layers, and actions

Connor: “Adjustment layers provided Photoshop’s first answer to re-editable image correction and effects. Actions finally provided a way to automate your workflow, and they also wound up providing a popular way for people to share their techniques.”

1998

(May)

Version: 5.0

Code name: Strange Cargo

Key features: ICC-based color workflows, multiple undo, History palette, and Magnetic Lasso tool

Connor: “The History palette probably turned out to be the ‘big new thing’ in this release, although re-editable type and ICC color management were pretty important, too. We were really worried that people would just go ‘ho-hum’ because it had taken us so long to provide an answer to multiple undo, but our solution was so original that it still made a big splash.”

1999

(February)

Version: 5.5

Code name: None, though the Save for Web dialog was referred to as “Pocket Monster”

Key features: ImageReady 2 becomes a component, Save for Web, and Extract

Connor: “This was the ‘Web release’ in which we added ImageReady to the box, and included the Save for Web dialog. This finally made it easy for people to prepare their images for the Web.”

2000

(September)

Version: 6.0

Code name: Venus in Furs

Key features: Vector Shapes, updated user interface, Liquify filter, and Layers Style/Blending Options dialog

Connor: “Vectors! This was the first version to have vector-based masks as well as some of the same typographic features included in the then-new InDesign application. Both shapes and text could print resolution-independent, which means that they’d look sharp regardless of the resolution of your document.”

Hughes: “Layer styles and Liquify are the two features that first come to mind; both allowed creative control and manipulation previously unimaginable. It was my first release and the pace of the team amazed me. During that time, working all hours was very common.”

2002

(March)

Version: 7.0

Code name: Liquid Sky

Key features: Healing Brush tool, new painting engine, and Photoshop File Browser

Connor: “The Healing Brush was one of the most successful new tools we ever introduced, because it made retouching so much easier and effective.”

Hughes: “For me, this marked a very important release. We moved to OS X and that was a big deal; however, bigger (to me at least) was the mass proliferation of digital cameras. Photoshop was becoming very relevant to an entirely new audience and suddenly we had good quality DSLRs for under $1,000. The File Browser and the first version of Adobe Camera Raw (which followed the release as a paid plug-in update) answered those needs in a timely and very relevant fashion. Of course, 7.0 also brought the Healing Brush—and that was just magic.”

2002

(August)

Version: 7.0.1

Key features: RAW file support with the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in

2003

(October)

Version: CS

Code name: Dark Matter

Key features: Shadow/Highlight, Match Color, Lens Blur filter, real-time Histogram, highly modified Slice tool, and hierarchical layer groups

Connor: “The Camera Raw plug-in was introduced midway through the 7.0 lifetime as a separate, $99 purchase, but CS is the first version in which it was included. The plug-in has been improved significantly in each version since, and has almost become an application in itself. RAW images were just beginning to become popular; but before Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw, it was hard to find a single tool that could efficiently handle RAW files from such a wide variety of digital cameras. In terms of features that were 100% brand-new in CS, probably the most notable was the Shadow/Highlight adjustment, which made it much easier to reveal details in your images.”

Hughes: “Aside from being part of a Creative Suite, CS had a lot to offer, especially for photographers. Features like Adobe Camera Raw 2.0, Lens Blur and Shadow/Highlight really changed what you could do with your images after the fact. To this day I can’t pick-up a Motor Trend magazine without thinking about Shadow/Highlight, as they’re very fond of that extreme aesthetic (with Shadow/Highlight used near maximum values).”

2004

(April)

Version: CS2

Code name: Space Monkey

Key features: Adobe Bridge 1.0, Spot Healing Brush tool, Red-Eye tool, Lens Correction filter, smart objects, Image Warp, Smart Sharpen, Vanishing Point, Smart Guides, and HDR imaging support

Connor: “The most generally useful new feature was Adobe Bridge, which graduated from being a file-browsing palette inside Photoshop into an asset manager for the entire Creative Suite. From a ‘wow’ standpoint, the biggest feature was Vanishing Point, which made it possible to clone, paint on, and move portions of your image while maintaining accurate perspective.”

Hughes: “CS2 offered a lot of things for a lot of people. While smart objects took a little while to take off, we’ve seen strong adoption since. The Spot Healing Brush, Lens Correction filter, and Red-Eye tool solved some very common problems while Smart Sharpen and Noise Reduction significantly updated what we offered in those spaces. I was closely involved with the Vanishing Point filter and that was a lot of fun to use, test, and demonstrate—I still get applause when I show that in demos, even after all these years. However, I’m most proud of the fact that CS2 marked our first foray into explicitly improving the user experience. At our 9th version—with many new users—it was clear that we needed to respect legacy workflows while enabling power quickly.”

2007

(April)

Version: CS3

Code name: Red Pill

Key features: Smart filters, native Intel Mac support, Quick Selection tool, Refine Edge, and auto layer alignment and blending

Connor: “Photomerge wasn’t new in CS3, but this was the version in which it really came into its own. New technology could align almost any images automatically and, as a result, many more people discovered the creative fun of building huge panoramas by capturing multiple views of a scene.”

Hughes: “Behind the scenes, we were very busy migrating to Intel on the Mac, though we also offered a whole new version in CS3 Extended. We had new features, compliments of the Macromedia acquisition, and we shared it all in our first ever Public Beta. CS3 was one of the busiest and most exciting cycles—so many features, so much change, and all of it so well received. Personally, the work we did around image alignment and blending gave me the control I always wanted, and made panoramas and masking truly possible (tripod or not). 3D capability also landed in CS3 Extended and has taken off ever since.”

2008

(October)

Version: CS4

Code name: Stonehenge

Key features: Adjustments and Masks panels, smoother panning and zooming, fluid canvas rotation, Content-Aware Scaling, and a common user interface

Connor: “The most magical new thing in CS4 is probably Content-Aware Scale, which can take any image and stretch it or shrink it without distortion.”

Hughes: “Tapping into the GPU [graphics processor unit] meant many new features and a much more accurate way of presenting information on screen. Panoramas and extended depth of field also took compositing to an entirely new level. I’m very proud of what we did around the Adjustment and Mask panels—not only did we add new capabilities but, more importantly, we put the most powerful tools in a discoverable interface that wasn’t tied to a modal dialogue [a dialog that requires user input in order to proceed]. 3D also truly arrived in CS4 Extended, along with healing, selecting, painting, cloning, and much more.”

2010 and beyond

Versions: TBD

Code name: (insert clever name here)

Key features: Only limited by the imagination

Connor: “I will list four major things that will influence Photoshop of the future. The first is what imaging researchers have dubbed ‘computational photography.’ It basically means photographs of the future may not be captured in their final form in-camera; instead, you’ll use software algorithms to synthesize photos from data collected in-camera. The Photomerge feature is a good example of this kind of approach, as well as Content-Aware Scaling (in a different sense, but there is much more new technology to come).

The second influence is convergence: We’ve already added support for video and 3D content to Photoshop Extended, but the addition of video capture capabilities to SLR cameras is pushing more people to explore workflows involving both video and stills. Over time, we’ll need to take the foundation of Photoshop Extended and expand the ways people can work with video and 3D content, along with their photographic imagery.

A third influence is the interface: Over Photoshop’s 20-year history and thirteen releases, we’ve consistently added new features but rarely, and reluctantly removed anything. However, we can’t keep doing that forever, else the application will become unwieldy. In recent versions we’ve been a little more aggressive about removing some features, and we’ve put more effort into reworking existing features to make them more modern and infuse them with new technologies.

The last influence is connectedness: No Web-based application will duplicate everything Photoshop can do anytime soon, but Photoshop itself needs to blur the line between the desktop and the Web by integrating Web-based services and linking to the huge online community of Photoshop users.”

The secret of graphic design, or secrets rather, are four tried-and-true principles brought down the mountain by Robin Williams, a brilliant author who published them in a book called The Non-Designer’s Design Book in 1994. I bought the book when I went back to art school, and I still refer to it every now and then to refresh my ever-fragile (and aging) neural pathways.

If you’re a seasoned pro, then prepare yourself to be refreshed. If you can’t remember driving past an art school—much less going to an actual design class—you’re about to learn some really cool stuff which will enable you to create layouts both visually pleasing and easy to read.

We’ll cover each of Ms. Williams’ principles—proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast—then put them to use on plain-old text, a business card, and an ad.

Proximity, Part 1

Principle number one is that of proximity: Group related items together. Bits of information that have nothing to do with each other should not appear close together on a page. Use spacing to visually convey what information is related and what is not. This helps create structure and organization, and gives the reader a visual clue as to where one piece of information stops and another starts.

To illustrate, let’s take a flyer I designed for Apple, Inc. a couple of years ago to promote their User Group program. Without proper spacing, the text is a mess and really tough to read. However, by adding a little extra space above each subhead, the relationship between subhead and body copy becomes clear at a glance.

CREDIT: LESA SNIDER KING
Credit for the photo on the left in the top row: SARAH FRIEDLANDER

Proximity, Part 2

Now let’s take a business card designed by a local print shop. At first glance, how many times do your eyes stop? Mine stop five times: once in the middle and once at each corner. Because there’s information in the top two corners (why do they always do that?), the natural reaction is to check if there’s something in the other corners as well.

When I apply the rule of proximity and group related information together, the design improves (even though I centered everything). How many times do your eyes stop now? Three times max.

Alignment

The act of aligning items in a like manner creates a visual connection for the reader, and when done properly, gives readers a hard edge for their eyes to follow. This edge forms an invisible line that connects the items on a page, making them stronger, cleaner, and more dramatic. With alignment, each item on the page has a visual connection with another item on the page.

In her book, Ms. Williams states that, “The strength of the edge is what gives strength to the layout.” Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way before, but it’s true. To illustrate, let’s use the same business card and apply a right alignment to the information that’s related. The design is better still, but we’re not finished.

Now let’s apply all this to a truly uninspiring cat clinic ad. It’s not the worst ad I’ve ever seen, but it’s close (use of proximity is its only saving grace). [on left]

By applying a left alignment to the text, we introduce a bit-o-harmony in the design. It’s also easier to read because instead of following text on a curve, our little eyeballs have a single hard edge to follow. Suddenly the ad seems a bit stronger.

Repetition

Repetition is a fun one; just find an element in your design and repeat it throughout the entire piece. It can be as simple as a text style, font, color, or a graphic element. Repetition does wonders for creating a feel of consistency through a design.

On the Apple flyer, I picked up the teal color from the color blocks at the bottom of the page and incorporated that into the subheads. On the business card, I duplicated the star from the logo, enlarged it, screened it back slightly, and floated it off the bottom right of the card. I also incorporated the blue from the logo into key pieces of text.

In the pet clinic ad, I repeated the font, sampled the orange from the cat art, and used it for the phone number. Finally, I duplicated the curve in the cat’s tail, enlarged it, screened it back, and floated it off the bottom right of the page.

As you can see, repetition gave all three designs a more cohesive feel.

Contrast

Contrast is my favorite of all the design secrets. Ms. Williams states that if two elements are similar, then they should be different—very different. Contrast is really important because not only does it create visual interest, but it draws readers’ eyes. Think about it: In almost every ad situation you have approximately five seconds to catch readers’ attention. If you don’t, they’ll never read your copy. Be brave!

Back to the pet clinic ad. We have a few choices for introducing contrast. One idea would be to pick out a word and make it really big and bold. Because I really want to make a statement, I scaled down the cat illustration and added a really big close-up of an angry cat face.

Adding contrast isn’t all about adding stuff either; you can also introduce contrast by taking something away. For example, in this version of the pet clinic ad, I moved the text to the bottom right of the page and introduced a huge area of white space, along with the repetitive paw element. The negative space coupled with the rather small block of text creates contrast.

Final Word

So there you have it: four little secrets that have the power to make or break your designs. Sure there are other things to think about when creating a design, but these principles of proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast lie at the very heart of everything you create. They are the foundation upon which your entire design will be built. Commit them to memory straight away and be sure to pass “the secret” along to others. They’ll be glad you did.

Possibly one of the most confusing aspects of dealing with digital imagery is resolution-specifically, what it really is and how changing it affects an image. You’d be shocked at the number of brilliant designers who don’t know how to change an image from 72 dpi to 300 dpi-without turning it into a pile of pixel mush. That is, until now.

Today we’re going to talk about the relationship between resolution and pixels, and what it means to you. We’ll discuss the difference between upsampling-a rather evil practice of increasing the resolution (and thereby the number of pixels) in order to make the image larger than it originally was-and changing the resolution of an image without changing pixel data. First, let’s chat briefly about resolution in general.

What is resolution?
Simply put, image resolution is the number of pixels displayed per unit of printed length in an image. It’s a measurement used for printing (hence the phrase "of printed length") and it’s usually stated in pixels per inch (ppi-used when referencing screen images) or dots per inch (dpi-used in printing because printers print dots).

The way resolution affects an image is thus: For a given number of pixels in the width or height of an image, the higher the resolution, the closer the printer packs those pixels together in order to make a beautifully smooth and sharp print. The closer the pixels are packed together, the smaller the image will be physically when printed. Conversely, the lower the resolution, the more loosely those pixels are packed and the larger the image can be physically-though it loses definition and the print will look extremely undesirable and, well, chunky.

Because our monitors can only display a certain amount of information that our eyeballs/brains can process, resolution matters only to printing devices. That’s right, it doesn’t mean a hill of beans until that image is headed for a printer because only a printer can do anything with the resolution measurement. Your monitor just doesn’t care: A 72-dpi image will look exactly the same as a 3000 dpi image.

So how much resolution do you need to make a gorgeous print? It depends on the printer. While the current crop of consumer-level inkjets does a fine job at 225–250 dpi, a professional service bureau may require 300+. If it’s your own printer, run a few tests. If someone else is printing it for you, ask them what dpi they need.

What’s a pixel?
I won’t bore you to tears with a dissertation on how the smallest picture element of any digital image is called a pixel and how images are displayed in tiny blocks (also referred to as dots) of color that together form an entire image (or maybe I just did). That’s a pixel, and for the most part, creative types have been brainwashed not to pay attention to the number of pixels an image contains. We’ve been told to pay attention to its resolution instead. As you now know, this is true when it comes to print but not so much any other time.

But why should I care?
Because any file-the same file-can be measured at 72, 300, or 3000 dpi, its pixel dimensions are what matters most, not its resolution. You’re going to encounter 72 dpi files that need to be printed, and because you’ll need to resize that image, you need to understand how to change one without changing the other.

From digital camera to the big screen
For example, let’s take a photo from a high-quality digital camera (an Olympus Evolt E-330 to be exact). I thought this shot might make good stock photography so I took it on a high-quality setting so I’d have sufficient pixel data for printing. I popped open the photo in Photoshop and took a peek at its Image Size dialog to find that it was 3136×2352 pixels, but only 72 ppi. Does this mean my photo is of low-quality and unsuitable for print? Not at all. Read on.
 

There are several important things to note in this screenshot:

1. At the bottom of the document window, you can see that the file is indeed large-it’s 21 MB (circled in red).

2. Note the pixel dimensions shown in the upper portion of the Image Size dialog: 3136×2352 (also circled in red). Remember these numbers for a few seconds.

3. Note the honking big physical dimensions of this image. If I were to try printing the thing at its current resolution, it’d be more than 43.5 inches by 32.5 inches… INCHES!

Now, watch carefully as I increase the resolution of the image without messing with the number of pixels. Here’s how:

Step 1: In Adobe Photoshop, choose Image>Image Size. TIP: In Photoshop CS2, just press Command-Option-I (PC: Control-Alt-I).

Step 2: At the bottom of the dialog, uncheck Resample Image. This all-powerful magic option locks the number of pixels contained in the image, thereby locking the quality. Enter 300 into the Resolution field and look what happens:

The image is now 300 ppi and the physical size has decreased to about 10.5×7.5 inches. See how the physical dimensions of the image changed but the pixel information didn’t? I have exactly the same number of pixels I started out with: 3136×2352; they’re just packed more tightly together. Furthermore, notice how the file size didn’t change at all? It’s still 21 MB, as evidenced in the document window and in the Image Size dialog (another clue that the pixel data didn’t change). I haven’t changed the quality (pixels), I’ve just changed the measurement (dpi), which only affects the printed image.

Admittedly, this is confusing because the onscreen image didn’t change a bit (see earlier paragraph on monitors, eyeballs, and brains). The truth is only revealed by the Image Size dialog.

The thing to remember is that as long as you uncheck the Resample Image box, you can tweak the resolution ’til the cows come home and you won’t alter the image quality at all. Ever. If you leave the Resample Image box checked, you’ll be practicing a dark magic called upsampling, wherein you’re adding pixels (data) to the image that weren’t originally there. It’s usually a very bad idea; unless, of course, you’re in a real pickle or you’re going for that chunky look in your design.

The (dark) art of upsampling
That being said, (lowers voice to a whisper) there is a very special technique for squeezing pixels into an image without losing too much quality, but one should only use it in the direst of deadline or Extreme Large Format Printing (i.e., billboard) situations. The trick is to pop open the Image Size dialog, leave Resample Image checked and choose Bicubic Smoother from the pop-up menu to its right. Next, change the document dimension pop-ups to Percent and enter anywhere from 105–110%, then click OK. Do this as many times as necessary until you get the desired pixel dimensions. This will indeed add pixels to the image with surprisingly little quality loss, and at super large sizes, no noticeable quality loss at all. With such power comes the need for great restraint, however, so do resist the urge to increase more than 5–10% at a time.

Another alternative is to download software specific to this task. Take a peek at PhotoZoom Pro 2 by BenVista or Genuine Fractals by onOne Software . Both of these applications perform some pretty amazing image enlargement voodoo.

That’s all for now, and I hope this article has helped to clear up whatever resolution confusion you might have had. Until next time, may the creative force be with you all!

Point-and-Shoot Girl Goes Digital SLR
My name is Lesa King and I’m a point-and-shoot addict. While I’m writing this, it’s been 42 minutes since my last shot (a beautifully plated Salmon omelet during Sunday brunch). I admit it, a cute little Canon PowerShot SD30 (5.1 megapixel) goes with me everywhere nestled snugly inside my purse, enabling me to capture culinary delights heretofore never before seen.

My PowerShot and I have been quite happy together—that is, until I was invited to teach at the PhotoshopSoup2Nuts.org conference. Seems all instructors were being invited to attend a private tour of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens to capture the elusive Pink Lady’s Slipper Orchid in bloom. Yikes! A quick review of attendees yielded names like Shelly Katz, Jeff Schewe, and Thomas Knoll, among others. It took only nanoseconds to realize I’d need interchangeable lenses. Oh yes, this calls for a big gun: a digital SLR.

Being the point-and-shoot girl I am—I loathe framing shots through the optical viewfinder—I approached Olympus about their new Evolt E-330: the world’s first digital SLR with a live preview screen. Instead of pressing your face to the camera to frame a shot, the E-330 lets you preview the scene live on the 2.5" LCD screen in all its full-color glory. The screen can be pulled out and extended away from the camera body and swiveled up or down for hard to reach shots. The E-330 also dusts off its own sensor every time you power the camera on. Say goodbye to photo specks forever with this one!

The upside to the E-330′s articulating screen is that to the vertically challenged (myself included), it opens up an entirely new realm of over-the-head shot possibilities. Likewise, you need merely to bend slightly to capture beauties below the knee. Downsides include the loss of image stability from the physical act of pressing the camera body against your face and a bit-o-battery life.

Lenses: The Long and The Short of It
Olympus sent a variety of lenses, of which my favorite was the Macro. I’ve never taken such amazing close-ups before (see Heart of a Daylily shown here). I had an absolute ball with this lens, as evidenced by the plethora of macro shots sprinkled throughout this review.

The E-330 performed equally well on fast action shots using the 10x telephoto, as shown in these two images of track day at Barber Speedway. I found shutter speed pleasantly zippy and I enjoyed the ability to fire off three shots per second with zero shutter lag. If you forget your tripod, use this rapid-fire technique to increase your chances of getting a stable, non-blurry shot. The live-preview mode certainly does drink the battery juice, so action pros will want to toggle the live preview screen off.

One oddity did occur: Twice after swapping lenses the camera refused to focus. I just powered the camera off, removed the lens and put it back on, and everything worked fine. There is a firmware update that I’ve not installed so this may never happen to you.

Battery and Interface
The E-330′s lithium battery life was okay, and I went up to three days without recharging while carrying the camera with me, albeit only shooting intermittently. I also spent a fare amount of that time using playback mode to delete images from the 2-gigabyte Compact Flash Type I memory card (the E-330 also supports CF Type II, MicroDrives, and xD-Picture Cards). To preserve battery life, you’ll need to turn the live preview screen off. To recharge, you’ll have to remove the battery and place it in its own cradle, though I would have liked to recharge the battery by attaching a cable to the camera body instead.

The E-330 comes with 29 shooting modes, which is rare for a digital SLR. For the most part, I left it on Program, where it set the ISO, white balance, and metering automatically; though, veterans would be happier in manual mode, tweaking every setting to perfection. I found the entire menu system and button-set extremely intuitive, and though I read the manual for the purposes of this review, I really didn’t have to.

Files of Many Sizes
The E-330 supports the usual array of file formats including RAW, TIFF, and a variety of JPEG qualities. I liked the ability to shoot in RAW + SHQ mode, thereby capturing two images of every shot: one in RAW at 3136×2352 pixels, approx. 12.9 MB; and another "super high-quality" JPEG at 3136 x 2352 pixels, approx. 5.7 MB. Oh sure, that’ll bloat a memory card at warp speed but for one new to the digital SLR scene, it’s a great way to visually explore the benefits of shooting in one format versus the other.

Admittedly, the transfer rate of the included USB 2.0 cable on a full 2-gig CF card was painfully slow (upwards of 35 minutes), but a quick switch to the LaCie Media Reader (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10087) yielded a more tolerable commitment of less than 10 minutes.

The Bottom Line
Overall, I’ve gotten some amazingly crystal-clear shots with the E-330. The only downside to the entire experience was bulkiness; however, this is an evil inherent to all digital SLRs. There’s just no way around carrying the equipment with you (save for hiring a camera caddy). Though the camera itself weighs only 1.21 pounds, the lenses and extra gear add up quickly. To get high-quality shots, you’ve got to pay the price in bulkiness and bag weight. Period.

For those jumping into the digital SLR realm, I highly recommend this camera. It’s a great way to transition from point-and-shoot land by having the ability to use the screen to compose shots. For pros, the articulating screen will enable you to capture hard-to-reach shots like never before. Now all I have to do is save up the money to buy one!

PRICE: $999.99 US
FROM: Olympus
PHONE: 1-888-553-4448
WEB: www.olympusamerica.com
RATING: 5

The Broadcast Designer

In high school, Christopher Dominici drew caricatures of his teachers and his friends. He also played piano by ear and wanted a formal music education, but his father wanted him to be an engineer. So he compromised and went to art school, bought a synthesizer, and joined a rock band. The band never made it, but he did get a BFA in Graphic Design.

Later, in his twenties, Dominici was a print designer by day and a musician by night. Then a friend, a sound engineer at a local TV station, asked if he could compose a music package for their news programming. That’s when he bought his first Mac. The TV station soon hired him as a writer/producer/designer.

Since then, he’s been a broadcast designer, a TV promotion writer/producer, a design director, and a creative director at various TV stations and cable networks. Now, he owns his own company, Potomac Motion in Poolesville, Maryland, and provides motion graphics and broadcast design to corporations, broadcast and postproduction facilities, and government agencies.

Staying alive
To keep his music fix alive, Dominici composes original music for a project or two and plays keyboards and low Irish whistle at church on the weekends.

He likes to stay on top of new developments in the industry and likes to play with new applications. “Of course, I try to keep up with the latest software and plug-ins. My best advice to any designer is to try to avoid using any plug-in or software ‘out of the box,’ but to allow some playtime with your new toy and come up with alternate uses of the product. Some of my best motion graphics have come about when I’ve hit the wrong key while designing.”

When I asked Dominici what was the one thing that had the most impact on his career, he responded, “After Effects, without a doubt. When I first used version 4 in 1998, I was elated because here was a program that essentially gave me a timeline and editing capability for Photoshop. I could now edit keyframes (just as I had edited MIDI data the previous ten years) and create motion graphics in much the same way that I create music.”

When asked about the future of video, Dominici answered, “In five years, I expect full-resolution, uncompressed, high-definition video on digital (tapeless) cameras and decks to be the norm. Also, I suspect that the quality of motion graphics will improve exponentially throughout the industry. I can’t wait to see what the best designers will be capable of producing in the not-so-distant future.”

FBITN Presents video open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 FBI TRAINING NETWORK

The Video: FBITN Presents training video open

The Inspiration: The FBI had a training unit that needed a makeover of their logo and their video training materials. This is a program open that Dominici designed, live-action shot, and created in Adobe After Effects. “I had the luxury of choosing the music track for this open (I try to negotiate this option on most jobs), so I can say it was the track that inspired the look and frenetic pace of the animation.”

The Process: “This is the kind of job that, in my recent past, would have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of broadcast hardware and a full creative team to pull off. Now, I can create and execute a piece like this in less than a week with less than $20,000 worth of hardware/software,” according to Dominici. To achieve the final product, he used a Sony HDR-HC1 video camera (www.sony.com); Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator (www.adobe.com) on a Power Mac G5 and a PowerBook G4 (www.apple.com); and the following plug-ins: Aurora Sky (www.digitalanarchy.com), Power Picker (www.fnordware.com), Knoll Light Factory (www.redgiantsoftware.com), ReelSmart Motion Blur (www.revisionfx.com), and Shine (www.trapcode.com).

[To view samples of Dominici’s video opens, visit www.layersmagazine.com/magazine/downloads.—Ed.]

Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS

The Video: Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open

The Inspiration: The Washington Redskins were in need of a Saturday morning kids’ show program open. Unfortunately for Dominici, he was asked to use existing footage of players and kids shot in a dark studio with one light source. “I felt that the footage was inappropriate (from a design standpoint) for a fun, lighthearted kids’ show,” he said. So, he grabbed stills from the footage and created a virtual world of team colors and football icons. The footage limitation led to this final design that was a hit with the client.

The Process: For this project Dominici used a Power Mac G5, a PowerBook G4, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Motion, and the following plug-ins: Power Picker, Knoll Light Factory, ReelSmart Motion Blur, and Trapcode’s Particular.

Top 10 things Dominici can’t design without:
1. My eyes
2. My ears
3. Nature
4. A grid
5. Music
6. Typography
7. Single Malt Scotch
8. My cameras
9. My Macs
10. After Effects

The Illustrator

The son of a cartoonist, William Evans (http://wevans.co.uk) was exposed to art and creativity very early on. After finishing grade school, he enrolled in The Arts Institute of Bournemouth in England, where he studied graphic design, illustration, and multimedia. While there, Evans seized each and every opportunity to work in his field of choice, and did time in the trenches at various advertising agencies.

Struggling to find work after finishing college as many bright young designers do, Evans decided to take the digital television and Web career path with Teletext (www.teletext.com). It was during this time that he was bitten by the illustration bug. Thus, in his spare time he created illustrations for sale on iStockphoto.com (www.istockphoto.com/onion). Through the resulting connections, he started branching out and taking on freelance work. This not only boosted Evans’ confidence, but it began opening doors of opportunity for him. A few years and a few doors later, he joined the Electronic Arts team (www.ea.com) as a motion graphics designer, where his previous experiences and projects come into play each and every day.

The art
These days, Evans is not resting on his British laurels; he believes it’s vital to create illustrations every single day, either for clients or for himself. With his eye on the future, he creates the type of artwork he wants to be hired to do. “It sounds strange but I always act out a brief in my head before I do anything,” he said. “Some of the work you do can be of little interest, and this helps in these cases and gives you a starting point.” Evans views each image as a journey. “You never know what you’ll have as the finished product,” he reflected. “I keep going through the process until I’m happy and my client is happy with my work.”

For inspiration, Evans suggests investing in shelves and shelves of books, and to be mindful of what you see in magazines and on the Web. “These will give you the latest trends and new concepts to try out,” he advised. He also sings the praises of having a sketchbook and camera with you whenever possible. “I find that every time I leave the house there is always something to get inspiration from; whether it’s from people watching, objects, city life, or ads that catch my eye,” said Evans thoughtfully.

Designing the future
I asked Evans where he thought the print industry is headed, and what type of changes he sees on the road ahead in the next five years. “It’s always very difficult to answer this kind of question,” he said. “I feel that in the last few years there has been more focus on photographic imagery that’s been manipulated in different ways to create an illustration. Though recently, and in the future, I can see Illustration getting more credit and exposure.” Evans was quick to add that this means added pressure on designers and artists to perform at higher levels.

“I would say that the most recent style trend has been for very clean and slick designs,” Evans stated. “Clients now want designs that look more hand drawn and authentic.” Of course, Evans acknowledges it’s anyone’s guess as to how long that trend will last. He also added that he sees a great opportunity in the stock industry for illustrators. “Personally I think this is a great opportunity for new illustrators and graduates alike to get exposure in this difficult industry, and to open new opportunities.”

Music
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Music

The Inspiration: Music and urban living.

The Process: “My thought process was to start on the basis of stencil/graffiti,” Evans remembered. “I started by taking photos, which I then took into Photoshop.… I played around with the Levels and Curves, and Pasteurise until I was happy.” Once he had just the right level of detail, he took his creation into Freehand where he traced the edited images. “I always take images into Freehand first,” he said, “as I am more fluent in that application, and, therefore quicker.” Next, Evans popped the piece into Illustrator to create the composition and add color. “I finished by taking it back into Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.”

Bottle
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Bottle

The Inspiration: “I’m constantly thinking of objects I can use in my designs. With this one I took an everyday object then just went off on it, letting it go and not really knowing where it would end up.”

The Process: Evans started by coming up with concepts—exploding, colorful, and energetic—and kept these in mind throughout the process. “I started to play around in a blank Illustrator file deciding on the main focal point, the bottle, and then working around it, adding swirls and sloshes,” Evans said with a smile. Once he was satisfied with the final piece, he used Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.

Top 10 things Evans can’t design without:
1. 2.1-Ghz G5 iMac: “My beautiful baby,” Evans cooed affectionately.
2. Macromedia Freehand MX: “I always start my work here.”
3. Adobe Illustrator CS2
4. Adobe Photoshop CS2
5. www.istockphoto.com
6. www.bbc.co.uk: “I’m constantly checking the news on this website,” Evans said.
7. A sketchbook
8. Digital camera (he’s saving up for a digital SLR)
9. My collection of books
10. iTunes: “My collection of music.”

The Multimedia Guerrilla

Can a hard-core software developer and programmer with no formal training become a successful Web and multimedia designer? Ask Niilo Tippler and you’ll find the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

A UK native, Tippler’s background in IT and design spans over twenty-four years, and he’s come a long way from developing software for British Telecom. Tippler transitioned into multimedia CD-ROM development in the early 1990s and has produced several critically acclaimed titles. He participated in the production of Peter Gabriel’s groundbreaking XPlora1 CD-ROM, and he also developed a proprietary code engine for analyzing digital audio information and translating it into visual effects, the forerunner to today’s iTunes’ mesmerizing visuals.

Tippler has also worked on highly successful multi-CD infotainment titles, such as McGraw-Hill’s Pony Express Rider and Virgin’s One World Atlas and One Tribe encyclopedia. He has also produced a wide range of CD-ROMs for Fox TV, Fox Sports Net, Sony Vaio, FranklinCovey, and Motown.

Life changes in a Flash
When Tippler discovered Flash, it was love at first launch; and with the introduction of improved scripting features in Flash 4, he began implementing coding techniques from his programming days. “For me, programming is as much art as it is coding; it’s a creative process. I see what I want to do in my head and I just start making it. I never had any formal training so I don’t really do anything by the book,” Tippler said. “Don’t expect specifications, discovery documents, flowcharts, and rigid schedules from me…evolution is the name of the game,” he tells his clients. “Life evolves, so does art; and for me, so does the whole development process.”

His programming background dovetailed perfectly with his newfound passion for creative vision and design. “When it comes to software, I’m a purist,” Tippler said. “I love my basic work suite: Photoshop, ImageReady, Flash, Dreamweaver. These are the core of my production workflow,” stated Tippler. He uses Photoshop’s adjustment layers and layer masking extensively. There’s only one third-party plug-in that he uses regularly, and that’s PictureCode’s Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com). For removing noise from photos, especially high ISO shots, he says it’s invaluable.

Tippler’s unique blend of engineering and design methodologies result in work that’s the best of both worlds—function and form. “Design by Engineering by Design” is an axiom by which he works, seeing not just the front-end nor the back-end, but the melding of the two. The unique community on iStockphoto.com has also been integral to his success, and their iStock Steel Cage Photoshop battle is where he feels the most creative.

These images are a result of Tippler’s own images, images downloaded from iStockphoto.com, and the images from other players’ blows in one of the iStock Steel Cage battles.

Turning Japanese
When it comes to inspiration, Tippler points to books. “I was able to work my way into the job market through sheer determination and self promotion,” Tippler recalled. “Whenever something came up that I didn’t know, I just got a book and taught myself how to do it.” He loves design anthologies and has a huge library that he browses for ideas. In particular, he likes the Society of Publication Designers Publication Design Annuals and the Creativity series (www.spd.org). For personal inspiration he looks to Japanese marketing design, and back a few generations to the ’60s and ’70s. “Two decades so ultimately different, but whose identities provide immense opportunities for a designer.”

When asked about where the Web and multimedia industry is headed, Tippler said we should look to Japan to see the future. “Technology is far more heavily integrated into Japanese society than it is in the West,” he said. “IT communication is fluid and constant. We think we’re deeply immersed in it here in the U.S. but this is the tip of the iceberg. Japan has always been a couple of generations ahead in terms of the way they use and integrate technology into their daily lives. That’s where we’re heading in a few years.”

In January of 2001, Tippler realized the dream of working for himself by founding UPSIDEDOWNDOG (www.upsidedowndog.com), a multimedia design and development studio, specializing in Flash game and activity development. His client list includes Mattel and Fox Television, and his projects run the gamut of the interactive spectrum. Among his latest are a website for a New Jersey candymaker, a dog training CD-ROM, a paintball game for William Shatner, a website for a technology staffing company, and games for The Simpsons and American Idol.

SusanDeming.com
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Website: SusanDeming.com

The Inspiration: Tippler’s inspiration for Susan’s site came from Monty Python. “Their style of animation, using a mix of cartoons and real objects in a pseudo-realistic setting where perspective, light, and the laws of physics are bent out of shape, seemed perfect,” Tippler said. “Susan was involved in the official Python website, and I’ve always been a huge fan, so this seemed the perfect direction to take.”

The Process: The site was created in Flash, though everything was first put together in Photoshop, then saved as PNGs with transparent backgrounds. “The old ’60s-style record player used to play Susan’s songs shows a particular style of design that I really enjoy producing: real objects with added layers of elements which build it into a user interface,” said Tippler. “It’s this combination of real and unreal which has become something of a trademark in my designs,” he said with a smile.

Method & Red’s Mix It Up
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Media: Method & Red’s Mix It Up

The Inspiration: This was a project for Fox Television to accompany a new hip-hop comedy show called Method & Red. “Hip-hop came from the underground,” Tippler said, “so I wanted to present this audio mixer as something which had been cobbled together with bits and pieces of other equipment, and held together with tape and bits of string. Again, this is where my pseudo-realism style came into play. I built the entire concept in Photoshop, layering numerous elements together, building the interface from old switches and buttons, and using real VU meters whose needles I could animate in Flash. The whole design is a true collaboration of photographic imagery and animated Flash vector elements.

The Process: The specs were quite vague, Tippler remembered, “Just create an audio mixer using supplied sound samples, allow the player to create a short piece of music and then let them email it to a friend. Kind of an audio eCard.” Though the project timeline was unbelievably short (about a week), Tippler said it’s one of the projects he’s most proud of.

Top 10 things Tippler can’t design without:
1. Dual 2-Ghz Power Mac G5 with 2.5GB RAM and 1-TB of hard drive space
2. Twin ViewSonic 18″ VX800 LCD display
3. Macromedia Flash 8 Professional
4. Adobe Photoshop CS
5. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
6. FontAgent Pro v3.0.2 by Insider Software
7. Transmit FTP v2.6.2 by Panic
8. Apple Titanium PowerBook G4
9. Apple Pages v1.0.2
10. Chocolate (any version!)

How a Bluetooth mouse saved my life… er, wrist

<img src="http://www.layersmagazine.com/images/reviews/radtech.jpg" align="left" hspace="4" /I’ve been in the market for a good mouse for a while. I had been using Apple’s regular mouse for years, then switched to the Bluetooth version. The wireless aspect was certainly cool, though it felt really heavy for my hand. It also didn’t seem to track very smoothly and every time I picked it up the batteries were dead (see? I’m not a MacMac after all). I’d been skulking around different websites looking for a good mouse to test out when I came across RadTech’s BT500.

I. Love. This. Mouse. It’s small, it feels so good in my hand, and it’s wireless to boot. Can it possibly get any better than that? Why yes, it certainly can. It has three buttons and—here’s the “biggy"—a scroll wheel (it’s also the third button). Now that may not be a big deal to some, but trust me—this feature literally saved my wrist. Here’s why:

For the entire month of July I’ve been toiling under a particularly nasty deadline on the upcoming iLife ‘05: The Missing Manual book by David Pogue. I created the book from scratch, taking excerpts from various other Missing Manuals—deleting unnecessary chunks, renaming/renumbering graphics—to produce this big monster in InDesign. You can imagine that there was a fair amount of scrolling involved, even with me using Page Down and Page Up keyboard shortcuts. I never dreamed how much this little wheel was going to save me in wrist pain, and the difference was overwhelming. The guys at RadTech sent me this little gem about midway through the project, when I was getting used to going to bed with some pretty serious wrist pain. In about a day, all that changed. You had to feel it to believe it.

The only bit of weirdness I’ve experienced with the mouse is that there are some surfaces it just doesn’t like. I have a black desk that’s really slick and the mouse refuses to work on it; however, if I place a piece of paper underneath, it’s fine. The other minor annoyance was getting it paired with my laptop. Turns out, one really should read the owner’s manual first! If I had, I would have known that it’s necessary to push a little gray button on the bottom for it to be discoverable. Also there’s a handy on/off switch that saves on battery life. The two AAA batteries pop in just beneath the mouse’s backend cover on the top.

Overall, I simply can’t recommend this mouse enough, especially for my small hand size. And with it being so tiny itself, it’s a perfect travel companion. Thank you, RadTech!

PRICE: $54.95-$55.95
FOR: Mac and Windows
FROM: RadTech, LLC
PHONE: 314-209-9993
WEB: www.radtech.com
RATING: 4.0