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Carving holes to see what lies behind.
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3, 2, 1… Lift Off!
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Don’t Forget Your Camera’s Memory
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Little Tab, Big Effect
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Idea of the Week |
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Understanding Compound Paths
Illustrator lets you carve holes inside a path. You can then see through these holes to objects and colors that lie behind the path. A path with holes in it is called a compound path.
If you convert a letter such as B or O into outlines, the letter is automatically converted into a compound path.
To make a compound path, do the following:- Draw two shapes.
Make one smaller than the other. You can use any tool to draw either shape, and the paths can be open or closed.
- Select both shapes and choose Object>Compound Paths>Make.
Where the two shapes overlap, the compound path is transparent. Where the shapes don’t overlap, the path is filled.
- Edit the individual shapes in the compound path with the direct selection tool.
After you combine two or more shapes into a compound path, select the entire path by clicking on it with the arrow tool. If you want to select a point or segment belonging to one of the subpaths — that’s the official name for the shapes inside a compound path — press Command-Shift-A (Mac) or Control-Shift-A (Windows) to deselect the path, and click an element with the direct selection tool. You can then manipulate points, segments, and control handles as usual.
At this point you might ask, “Why do you need a path with a hole in it? Why not just stick the smaller path in front of the bigger path and fill in the smaller path with the background color?” Two reasons: - First, the background may contain lots of different colors. The “B” on the left is a proper compound path, allowing us to see through the holes to anything behind it.
- Second, working with opaque paths limits your flexibility. Even if you can get away with filling an interior path with a flat color, you’ll have to change that color any time you change the background or move the objects against a new background. But with a compound path, you can move the object against any background without changing a thing. You can even add effects like drop shadows without modifying the compound path one iota. It’s flexibility at its finest.
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Now, as we said, Illustrator automatically turns letters into compound paths. But you may want to create additional compound paths of your own. Doughnuts, ladders, eyeglasses, windows, and ski masks are just a few of the many items that lend themselves to compound paths.
See more great ideas like this!
Click here to visit the Paradigm Impressions Ideas Collection.
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Marketing Tip |
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Launching New Products or Services
Successfully bringing a new product or service to market can be a tricky task. Here are a few tips on how to spread the word and generate sales:
- Remember it is easier to fill a need than create one. Focus on your target customers who are most likely to purchase from you. These will likely be people who are currently buying something similar from you or your competitors who will appreciate the additional features.
- Perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of your business. Highlight your strengths, strive to improve your weaknesses, be open to new opportunities, and identify competitors and other factors that pose the greatest threats to your success.
- Study your competition from your prospects' point of view, including their web site, ads, marketing materials, and brochures.
- Test your marketing message and approach with a small, targeted audience. Also cherry pick a couple loyal customers to provide their honest insight from a customer's perspective in a brief round-table discussion. Be sure to reward loyal customers for their input.
- Identify features and benefits that help you stand out from the sea of competitors. Do you offer free shipping? Extended hours? First-time customer or referral incentives? Be sure to market your unique value proposition.
- Strategize your marketing approach, considering all angles such as print, electronic, direct mail, and word of mouth marketing. Create a waterfall effect touching your target audience no less than three consecutive times to create the greatest awareness.
- Consider holding a launch event to generate buzz and help your customers and prospects learn more about your new products or services in a non-threatening atmosphere.
- Adjust your pricing accordingly, considering your competition, the demand, the economy, etc.
If you'd like help creating brochures, flyers, posters, and other print materials to promote the launch of your new products or services, give us a call. We'll help you develop creative marketing materials that increase awareness and generate sales.
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Tech Tips |
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Memory Card Care
While digital cameras vary greatly from style to style, care for your memory cards is similar across the board. Here are a few tips on caring for your digital camera's memory card and making it last as long as possible:
- Prolong the life of your memory card by deleting images on your computer (not in camera). Erasing all your images at one time after uploading them to your computer means one rather than numerous erase cycles when deleting images one by one on your camera.
- Avoid completely filling your card's memory, which can occasionally cause problems with memory cards, and can help avoid the heartbreak of losing hundreds of valuable images.
- Turn your camera off before removing your memory card.
- Keep an eye open for camera updates from manufacturers that will help keep your camera up to date and interact at its best with your memory card.
- Recharge or replace your camera's batteries before they completely run down, which can prevent corrupt files and card errors that can occur with low power.
- If space allows, label your card with your name and phone number in case it is lost or misplaced.
- Keep your card dry, clean, and do not drop, bend, puncture, or expose to extreme temperatures.
- If your memory card gets wet, do NOT insert into your camera since water could seep into and damage your camera. Instead, wait for the card to completely dry and then insert into an external USB reader (not built into a computer). This way if the memory card damages the reader you’re only out a few bucks instead of ruining your camera or computer.
- Immediately back up files from a damaged card and replace the card (since a damaged card may work one day and not the next).
- Periodically reformat your memory card for the camera you plan to use it in, but only after downloading all images, since reformatting will wipe any data, images, and file names and reset it clean for your camera.
- Stop using your card immediately if you see a card error message or accidently delete your card's memory. You may be able to recover your images with data recovery tools such as a photo recovery program.
- Always have an extra memory card as backup in case you have problems with one or nearly fill your memory, and store spare memory cards in a safe plastic casing (usually supplied with the card.
If you'd like other tips on creating and safe guarding high quality images for print, stop by today. Our team of image experts can help you adjust various settings such resolution to ensure your images reproduce at their best.
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