Sue's Graphics Software Blog April 2008 Archive

Give the Gift of a Photo Slide Show
My father-in-law recently passed away and although I didn't always have the words to say to my husband and his family, I offered to create a slide show for his ... Read More

Tuesday April 29, 2008 | permalink | comments (3)

Try FinePrint When You Can't Convert
Fairly frequently, I hear from people who need to export standard graphics files from various page layout and design programs that don't offer an export or save option, and only ... Read More

Tuesday April 29, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Graphics Challenge: Fabergé Egg
This week's graphics challenge theme is Fabergé Egg. Carl Fabergé was commissioned to create an Easter gift for the Czar's wife. The rest is history as they say. This week's ... Read More

Monday April 28, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Tinting a Pencil Sketch with Corel Painter
For this Corel Painter tutorial, you'll work with a terrific technique using a pencil sketch to build in texture and color. The end effect is very painterly with a ... Read More

Monday April 28, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

virtualPhotographer Free Photo Effects Plug-in
virtualPhotographer is a fun and easy-to-use plug-in that helps you add drama and artistic effects to your photos. The free software lets you experiment with a wide variety of color ... Read More

Friday April 25, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Digital Scrapbooking: Everyday Occurrences
Guest contributor Bonnie Covel advises: Snap Before you Snap! A digital scrapbook album is a collection of memories, and should include the bad with the good, the funny with the sad. ... Read More

Thursday April 24, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Fun with Paper Texture in Corel Painter
© Karen Bonaker Paper texture is one of the many ways you can enhance an image. Paper texture can add interest, additional texture or stand alone as visual delight. In this ... Read More

Wednesday April 23, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Cherrie's Jubilee Digital Scrapbooking Kit
Cherrie's JubileeDigital Scrapbook Kit "Cherrie's Jubilee" is a general purpose digital scrapbooking kit in a cherry and cherry blossom theme with a color scheme consisting of burgundy, purple and lavender ... Read More

Tuesday April 22, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Shattered Text In Adobe Illustrator
Sara Froehlich shows you how to create a shattered text effect in just four steps using the pathfinder palette in Illustrator CS. © Sara Froehlich • How to Create Shattered Text ... Read More

Monday April 21, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Graphics Challenge: Digital Makeover
This week's graphics challenge theme is a revisit of Digital Makeover, only this time it's the guys turn. We've provided starting images, so try one or all of them. No ... Read More

Sunday April 20, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Turn a Photo into a Color Sketch
This tutorial will show you how to convert a photo into a color sketch effect using Photoshop Elements. The technique uses several filters in combination with layers and blend modes. ... Read More

Friday April 18, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

125 Free Seamless Patterns
One of 125 free patterns by Sue Chastain. Browse and download 125 pattern textures in PNG format, which is supported by most graphics software. These are seamless tiles so you can ... Read More

Thursday April 17, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Creative Painting with Corel Painter Essentials 3
Spring Flowers Photo Art In this tutorial Karen Bonaker shows you how to create a beautiful spring painting from a photograph with Painter Essentials 3. You'll learn to customize your ... Read More

Wednesday April 16, 2008 | permalink | comments (2)

Scanning Pictures Too Big for the Scanner
The other day I had a photo to scan which was too big for my flatbed scanner. That's no problem--you just scan the image in multiple parts and then join ... Read More

Tuesday April 15, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Graphics Challenge: Vector Drawing
Do you know your cusps from your nodes? Tangents from your paths? It's time to discover some of the virtues of vectors with this week's challenge theme of Vector Drawing. ... Read More

Monday April 14, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Wood Texture Patterns for Photoshop and Elements
© Sue Chastain My newest set of Photoshop patterns are all wood textures in paneling and parquet patterns with a variety of wood stain colors such as oak, pine, cherry, maple, ... Read More

Monday April 14, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

The Photoshop History Palette
The History palette in Photoshop is the command center for keeping track of changes to your images, undoing editing steps, and correcting mistakes. Not only can the history palette undo ... Read More

Friday April 11, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Photoshop Express Beta Revised Terms of Service
If the terms of service for Adobe's new Photoshop Express online service scared you away when it was announced, you may want to give it another look. Effective today, ... Read More

Thursday April 10, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Creating Atmosphere in Your Photos
© Karen Bonaker Painter has many tools that can serve to enhance your creative process. One of the most interesting ways to add a dramatic effect to a portrait is to ... Read More

Wednesday April 9, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Smooth Out Jagged Lines in a Bitmap Image
Image Courtesy Nova Development. There is a lot of old, royalty-free clip art that was originally digitized in a true 1-bit bitmap format, which means 2 colors--black and white. This clip ... Read More

Tuesday April 8, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Layer Blending Modes in Paint Shop Pro
Blend modes in Paint Shop Pro and other software allow you to combine the pixels of one layer with the pixels of the layers underneath it in various ways depending ... Read More

Monday April 7, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Graphics Challenge: Something Old, Something New
This week's graphics challenge theme is Something Old, Something New. The object is to create an image with at least two (it can be more) objects that are related, one ... Read More

Sunday April 6, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Using Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator
One of the features most requested by Illustrator users has been a good trace tool to turn bitmaps into vector drawings. Adobe stopped upgrading its vector conversion application Streamline some ... Read More

Friday April 4, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Xara Xtreme 4 Released Today
Today Xara announced the release of Xara Xtreme 4, a new version of their fast and affordable graphics program. I have not worked with Xtreme 4 yet, but here are ... Read More

Thursday April 3, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

27 New Seamless Textile Patterns
Textile Patterns© Sue Chastain I've just posted three new sets of of original textile patterns for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. These seamless patterns resemble fabric and wallpaper and can be used ... Read More

Thursday April 3, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Public Beta
One year after the release of Lightroom 1.0, Adobe is announcing the public beta of Lightroom 2.0. The new version of Lightroom offers improved organization, support for dual monitors, smoother ... Read More

Wednesday April 2, 2008 | permalink | comments (71)

All About Nodes
Do you know a cusp node from a tangent node, and can you tell a symmetrical node from an asymmetric one? Brush up on all there is to know ... Read More

Tuesday April 1, 2008 | permalink | comments (0)