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Veerle's blog: full articles


Reviewing Vector Magic, a vector tracing applicationYesterday

Sometimes readers mail me with the question on what’s the best approach to trace logos or illustrations. They ask if I do it with the Pen tool. Yes, I do, but I have been using this tool for more than 15 years. So it’s safe to say I’m very routined. Still, there are certain situations that I wish there was a tool that could do the job for me. Let’s say on a occasion that you don’t have the time or budget to charge the time needed to redraw company logos that are delivered in jpeg or gif format. The Live Trace option in Illustrator isn’t bad, but it doesn’t give me the expected result on most try-outs (too many nodes or noisy result, path imperfections…) . Recently the developers of an application called Vector Magic gave me the chance to test out their desktop app. Here is a short review…

Vector Magic?

Maybe the name rings a bell for you as it did for me? Yes, it is that online free web-app that started at Stanford University and got rave reviews online. Now they transitioned away from Stanford to explore the commercial route and build a desktop application with the technology.

First impressions

In my opinion, Vector Magic is a great tool if you want to save time in tracing flat colored artwork or if you need to convert a low resolution jpeg or gif into a vector illustration. It's an easy tool to use as it is very user-friendly, and in my opinion, I

My first Duoh! websiteNovember 25

I already talked about it a few years ago but since so much has changed here on the blog and many new readers don’t dig that deep in the archive I’m reviving this post inspired by Jason Santa Maria’s lastest post about his first website.

First a little backstory on how I did discover the Internet

We have to go back to 1996 when we owned a Tektronix Phaser 140 printer that had a little bit of trouble communicating with AppleTalk. You gotta love those Mac OS 8/9 days, where a crash a day was on the menu. In those days we had a pricey support contract with an Apple dealer Compuvision that charged us money to just do the following: "I'll look on the Internet to see if a new driver is available". That's when I started to get fascinated with that mystery thing called the Internet. So, I went to a computer store and got myself an account with a service called Netlink, and got myself a Farralon 14.400 modem that I soon after exchanged for a 28.800 one. My first baby steps to browse on the Internet was with a browser called Mosaic and only showed text. The first advanced browser that I used that was able to show a bit of the potential of the Internet was Netscape 1.0 alpha. You can't believe how buggy it was on the Mac, but we didn't know any better so it was cool too, if you know what I mean. I still hear the modem dial tone whil

Poll: How do you lefties use a Wacom tablet?November 20

I’m currently testing a Wacom Cintiq 12WX. I’ve never used a Wacom or any other tablet before, and I’ve always wondered how this would work for me as a left-handed person who is used to work with a mouse right-handed for more than 15 years now. I’ll write down my thoughts in more detail later, but first I want to pick your brain if you use a tablet as a lefty too:)

My situation is a bit complicated I guess. I am left-handed, but I do certain things, such as writing and cutting with a pair of scissors, with my right hand, because teachers taught me to do so when I was little. Drawing happens with my left hand as well as playing tennis or bowling for example.

Poll

Jono from I Love Typography actually gave me the idea to do a poll. There are a few questions that are keeping me busy while testing this tablet:

Question 1

How is your display set-up when you are using a Wacom with built-in display? Is your computer display the main screen? Or do you move the Finder menubar to the Wacom display?

Question 2

If you use a tablet with built-in display and your computer display is rather big, let's say 24" or 30" inch. On which display do you work mainly? When do you decide to switch?

Question 3

Are there any left-handed people like me that are using the mouse with their right hand and use the Wacom with the left

Adobe Community HelpNovember 18

Adobe is now shipping the CS4 suite so that means all new applications and new things to learn. Judging from the amount of questions that I receive about Illustrator or Photoshop there are a lot of people who didn’t discover the Community Help yet. It’s something new that was launched together with CS4. In the past it was hard to find relevant help, but this is a step in the right direction.

What is Adobe Community Help?

This help system is a whole new direction for Adobe because as the name suggests, it's no longer only Adobe that is updating the help files, it's now with help from the community. This new help taps into the regular Adobe Help, Support, Design Center, Developer Connection, Forums, and online community content. This way you get access to the most up-to-date resources such as this blog for example. Adobe is using a Google technology called Google Custom Search Engine. You can also comment on their content and Adobe has active community members to act as moderators by responding to comments and adding quality content so that they improve the user learning experience.

Adobe Community Help search example
Illustrator moderator

I'm proud to say that Adobe also asked me to be an Illustrator moderator. In case you are w

Gradient flower icon in IllustratorNovember 11

A reader asked me if I could write a tutorial about how I created the Cecif.com logo icon. It is the perfect icon for learning certain basic Illustrator techniques. We’re going to use the Pen, Reflect, Scissors and Gradient tool, and of course we’ll also use the beloved and super timesaving Transform again technique.

Cecif.com logo

Analyze

First of all, we need to analyze the shape, and search for patterns or drawing steps. What do we see when looking at this shape? We see 5 equal parts. I'll call them leafs. Secondly, we see that each leaf is also perfectly symmetrical. Thirdly, there is a seamless rainbow gradient fill that connects them together. Last but not least, a tricky one, the lines of the icon overlap each other.

Diagnose

These are the steps I'll take:

  • Draw 1/2 part of a leaf using a stroke
  • Reflect and duplicate this 1/2 part and turn it into a perfect symmetrical leaf
  • Duplicate rotate the leaf at 72°
  • Repeat this 3 times to complete flower shape
  • Connect the 5 leafs at the center area of the flower
  • Turn strokes into fills
  • Apply the gradients
  • Check the overlapping lines and correct where (and if)