Graphic Design Tools

Are there any tools that help with developing graphics in a visual way. Something that lets you draw Java2d shaps in a Visio or autocade type way and then generates code.
Even past that is there a visual tool that helps you do animations?
I would be interested in hearing about free and non-free software?
Thanks!

The ideal would be something similar to the design tools that Adobe puts out for flash :), but I would settle for a tool that lets me do any of the following. By do I mean provide me a visual GUI where I am visually working with objects and when I am done given a code output much like the swing form editor for netbeans. They are ordered by how important they are to me.
- Draw shapes in a way where I can move them around, change layers, change properties like fill, line width ect.
- Run operations on them (subtract a circle from a square ect.)
- Animate the shapes.
- Assign event listeners to the shapes.
- Pimp my ride while telling me what an attractive man I am.
Thanks again for your help!
Edited by: megasween on Dec 7, 2007 6:42 AM

Similar Messages

Professional Graphic Design tool

Are there any professional graphic designers / typographers out there (you're probably in your fifties at least!) used to working with pen, drawing board and em rule? The sort of designer to be found at Pentagram? At present I do all my typography and layout work with Appleworks and most of it is hand work. Copy, line-work, photographs, line illustration - fine. But I wonder if any of you have discovered an acceptably-improved alternative. Something that allows hand-work. Something that will suggest a layout - but only if asked to do so - and then allows manual adjustment. Something that does not simply provide a box of assorted gimmicks and standard layouts. Somthing that also suits a book-designer. I've tried 'Pages' and it seems to be designed for the user who knows little or nothing of the design business. I'd love to be proved wrong by someone - and I do mean this - who is used to producing rather more than the parish mag or the odd flier.

As you tried Pages, it would be interesting to look at Numbers.
We may use it exactly as we did with the AW Draw component.
What is missing in iWork is a Paint (bitmap) tool but there are numerous free ones available which offer more power than AW Paint component.
Of course we miss also a DB component but it's an other story
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 9 octobre 2008 17:18:57)

What graphics design tools do you use...

For animations design, button design, splas screens and all the other GUI details that makes a game look good.

Photoshop 7, you dont really need other versions ...
I'm a web designer also and i have no problems using PS7 :)

SUGGESTIONS NEEDED: Graphic Designer needing to organize my graphic library

Ive been wanting to find a better way of organizing my extensive library of the following (Vector & Raster art): Backgrounds, Raster/Vector Patterns, Logos, Icons, Vector Design Elements, Fonts (I use FontBook), print & web templates, Stock Photos, ALOT of vector art, anything from flourishes to multi colored complex images, Web Design stuff (icons, buttons, banners...etc.) and last but not least Adobe CS native color swatches, patterns, gradients, actions, and brushes. I am sure I left out some, but you get the idea.
I have been building my large collection over the period of 4-5 years and has grown to 40g of internal HD space to house these in loosely catergorized subfolder (i.e., Vector Art, Stock Photos, PS plugins (gradients, brushes, ETC) backgrounds/Textures, so on and so forth. I would love to store my Data externally but with the throughput speeds of USB, am not wanting to slow down Bridge anymore than it already is. But help with external storage and accessing files quickly would also help
As your probably thinking it is getting to be a pain to manage and even worse finding or searching for items, considering alot are generically names from packages Ive acquired (i.e. 132456.eps. flower00234.jpg, etc.) Bridge helps alot but I am trying to catergorize and keyword folders or images this as clean as possible hopefully thru manually doing it on a system recommended or using a 3rd party software to apply metadate like keywords that will be searchable is IDEAL!
I am starting to use Lightroom 3 to manage and catalog my StockPhotos (not to many), but love the functionality of the keyword and meta data features within LR.
So that is what I am trying to accompish:
1. organize all my art in to specific catergories
2. hopefully use metadata and keywords within the OS or a 3rd party program to make items easily searchable within the Finder or Adobe Bridge.
3. Properly manage and store art as it comes to me several times a day to keep everything current so I can do a backup of just my Design files, every month or so to keep stored off computer or on the cloud.
Any suggestions(software/procedures), links, or general help on this issue is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks Again for any help lended!!! Any anyone that is willing to help me thru this and is interested in Graphic Design tools or graphics, I can definitely share ANYTHING from my collection for helping
Drew

Dont mind one bit, if i can pass along any advice to help someone, Im happy to do so.
first off....My art catalog is mass collections of various file types, and media uses, so I started by keywording by some of these keywords; Vector, Web Graphics, Stock Photos, Patterns (Vector/Raster), Textures, Backgrounds, Shapes/Objects (vector/Raster), and after indifiying a sorting the various files, just in folders and sub-folders, under one main Artwork Directory, and that helped me organize them for transfering between my home office, to my work server. After that it was pretty much a breeze except for one issue I ran into (I will explain at the end). Since I run Bridge at Work and at home, the structure and navigation to search for files by catergory was alot easier, by mimicking the same setup on both Bridge for PC at work and Bridge for Mac at home. the last step I did to help refine things a little better, I keyworded two things within Bridge to make the search faster, and it was just these tags, Vector, Raster High Res, Raster Med-Low Res. I also use the ranking/star system to tag my most used, favorite. 1 star for frequently used, and 5 star for my favorite art packages. When I use the word "favorite", in my terms that is art that i see potential to use in future designs and good clean art that Ive never used, so I can incorporate new designs. That might not be the best way to do it in Bridge, but after bouncing around alot of approaches this eems to work just fine for my graphic/web design needs.
One more thing that I do as I acquire new art, is make a Folder with a custome icon to stand out, that is labeled Un-Catergorized art. And as I download art unless I use it right away, I drag and drop into that folder. I was advised to not do this and label and file appropriately as soon as I aquire stuff so I dont get behind, but to aleviate that, I have made automator actions that move all files that have been in the folder for more than 5 days to move into a diferent folder (Delete Me), and have put an automation on that folder to delete files that are 3 days or older (in that folder). It may sound like alot of work just to remind, but by adding another automator action in Mac OSX to email me when the first move is made, It trained my mind to process all new art every friday like clock work, and have since stop using the email action and the delete after 3 days action! With the size of my library....getting close to 60gig....and consisting of a wide array of different media, I found this to work for my workflow.
Give this a thought, because this may help you in some way, but everyones catalog is different.
The only current problem/issue that I am trying to resolve at the moment is catergorizing and tagging (somehow) all my Creative Suite Plugins for PS, and LR. Because it is getting pretty extensive, with patterns, actions, swatches, shapes, styles, etc...
The issue I ran into with processing VECTOR art in Bridge CS5, was the lack of support for previwing .EPS files, and took a good chunk of my vector art and converted to a native AI file to be able to view the preview in bridge, but there is work arounds I found.
Bridge has really been awesome for someone like me, and learn something new about this robust program everyday.
As far as PS & LR plugins, I could theroretically just add everything I get to their respective plugin system folder on my drive, but I move them around alot and found it easier to search my folder structure and COPY/PASTE plugins in the system folder as needed and clean out the system plugin folder every so often.
I just installed CS5.5 Master Collection last night, and even though Bridge isn't the same build as the changed DW 5.5, and indesign 5.5 (all the rest of the master collection for the most part NOTHING changed, even though its labeled as 5.1 instead of 5.0 or 5.5. So I will be doing some research on this to see if any new features were added in Bridge but doubt it
Hope this helps! and feel free to ask anymore questions
Later, Drew

Graphic design & choice of display

Hidy,
I'm a novice graphic designer and seeking advice from designers. I would like to know what your vision is on the choice of a display for graphic design purposes. I heard a rumor that the LED-backlit displays aren't really useful for graphic design since they wouldn't represent true image, is this correct? Would you go back and use a Mac like the iMac 24" Core 2 Duo 2.16 just because its display is LCD? Or would you go with the future and buy those new iMacs with LED backlit displays? What could be the advantage or disadvantage? Any real life situation experiences? Any suggestions?
Cheerio !

I suppose the best answer, if you are a novice graphic designer, is to ask if you intend to do color matching with a calibrated measurement device. If not, you choice of display really doesn't matter.
You cannot do simple visual color matching with any LCD or LED-backlit driven panel, whether matter or glossy, as none produce sufficiently accurate color. You must instead use specialized tools like the Pantone matching system and calibrate or set your display for optimum accuracy, while clearly understanding that you must trust the software, and not your eyes.
I do a great deal of graphics work, and find glossy—as opposed to matte—screens difficult to work with. While their highly saturated color makes them good wide-screen DVD playback platforms, the reflective glare from ambient light is annoying. If you choose a glossy display, which is pretty much all you can these days, be sure to set up your environment so as to minimize reflective light sources such as lamps and windows in your workspace.
For the most part, backlighting is backlighting. Backlights driven by light emitting diodes were introduced almost solely to eliminate the undesirable component parts of cold cathode fluorescent lamps and make displays ultimately easier to recycle, lowering their adverse impact upon the environment.

Laptop recommendations for a graphic designer?

I am trying to figure what laptop I'd want to upgrade to since I'll be doing Graphic Design work very soon for college online. I have never been a Mac user but I know that the Mac notebooks can come with a lot of great tools for graphic design. When I did research myself, I was set on the Macbook Air. Mostly because of the lightweight of the Air and my current laptop is very hard to handle. Since then I talked with a friend and got some advice that the Air wouldn't be a good fit for me because of the small screens. Also from what I understood the Macbook Pro W/ Retina Display (Which she recommended) had way more "designing capabilities" than the Air which is more for entertainment purposes. Well now I'm kind of unsure about which Macbook laptop out of all of them would be the best for me because apart from the weight, the other factor that made the Air so appealing was its very affordable price. The "Pro"s are a lot more expensive so I want to make sure that I know about all my options and be able to find one that really make me happy. In case it helps, when I do graphic design I mean I will be working along side a graphic tablet in Microsoft Illustrator etc. to create drawings and sketches. I know this is a lot of information so thank you in anvance to any recommendations I receive!

Jessehk wrote:Thanks for all the responses!
Hey, I'm always looking for new converts.
Although it's about $300 more, I have to say I'm leaning towards the T61. There seems to be an emphasis on the Thinkpad's cooling system, fan noise, and general build quality but in some ways I'm paying more for less.
Any tips?
My T61p runs cool (especially compared with the T43) and quiet (nice little whisper fan, sort of soothing, actually), and is solid as a rock -- no flex in the screen, and no creaky plastic noises when I pick it up, unlike my brother's top-of-the-line Dell and my teenaged daughter's entry-level Compaq-HP. In fact, I think the build quality may actually have improved under Lenovo, at least comparing the T61p with my two T43s. (The IBM-era T21 is similarly solid, I should add.)
I really don't think you'll regret going with a Thinkpad. Some people have said they're the Volvos of the portable computing world, with which I concur -- not flashy, but solid, well-engineered, durable, classy and elegant. Every few weeks I run across some feature of my Thinkpad that makes me say, "Man, somebody gave that a bit of thought."
Did you scour the Net for coupons? Also, depending on your credit card, you can sometimes shave off another 5-7 percent by purchasing through the credit card's member portal. You might find some info here (which is probably VISA-USA, but might direct you).
Last edited by dhave (2008-07-16 16:00:50)

Graphic Design and Adobe Products

I am a graphic design student, graduating in about a year. I maxxed out my MBP's ram and bought my first mac in hopes that it would be a great tool for graphics. I see that photoshop and illustrator (adobe tools) are running through rosetta and haven't yet (or will be?) been ported.
My question is this, will this machine be the right tool for graphics work? Im pretty concerned about this and really didn't think twice about it when i ordered - i figured adobe products would work flawlessly, as they always have.
any ideas? (ie, try to make me feel somewhat better?)

Word on the street is that Photoshop under Rosetta is useable, but a tad slow for really heavy work. Not great news, but that an application like Photoshop works acceptably on a completely different processor than what it was written for is a minor miracle. The only real way to know for sure that it will meet your needs is to give it a go.
The good news is:
- you made the right choice in maxing out the RAM
- Rosetta apparently gets quicker with age due to caching
- If the MBP sells well, Adobe is likely to bring forward a universal version of PS (send them feedback to let them know that you are interested in a universal version)
If you do find that PS performance is not acceptable you have a few (not great) options:
- return the MBP for a PB G4 or G5 iMac/Powermac (you will get better performance from PPC native versions of PS, but performance is not likely to be as good as the MBP when a universal version of PS is released and the MBP is likely to be a better long term investment)
- try the new universal binary version of GIMP
Other more experimental options to try if you get desperate:
- try running older windows versions of PS (I think v 5 works) under Darwine
- try running more current Windows versions on a virtual PC (only current (and messy) option is to boot into Linux and use VMWare, but I expect there will be other options before we see a universal PS: intel version of iEmulator is apparently due out shortly and I suspect that a VMWare for OSX intel won't be too far off)

Collaborating with a Graphic Designer

Hello,
I am going to be working on a new website for my employer and
I was
hoping some of the web professionals could give me some
advice.
I did our previous website by myself using Dreamweaver 4 and
Fireworks
4. When creating the visual look of the old site, I used
Fireworks to
create a mock-up of the way I wanted the page to look. I then
used
Dreamweaver to create a web page that duplicated the mockup.
Any fancy
graphic images (such as the masthead) were sliced up using
Fireworks and
imported as an HTML table into Dreamweaver. This worked
pretty well for
me while working solo.
However, for this new website I will be working with a
graphic designer.
What is the best way to take the graphic design that she
produces and
translate it into HTML+CSS in Dreamweaver? Can I use a
process similar
to what I used while solo? (i.e. let the designer create a
mockup in a
graphic program and then try to duplicate it in Dreamweaver
as best I
can with HTML and importing graphics as needed.) Or is there
a better way?
Keep in mind that the designer we are using is not
knowledgable about
creating websites or using tools like Dreamweaver/Fireworks.
I believe
she uses with Photoshop/Illustrator/Quark Xpress. (I will be
talking
with her tomorrow.)
Also, what software should I plan on ordering? I am planning
on
upgrading our software to Adobe CS3 Web Standard. But if she
is using
Photoshop, should I get plan on getting the Premium version?
Can
Fireworks import Photoshop files well, or do I need
Photoshop?
Thanks for you help.

Deaf Web Designer
Perhaps I should correct my sentence, that in my opinion
(once I was a
graphic designer) photoshop and illustrator was a great tool
for me both
to create web images for the web and for print design. The
save for web
dialog box has helped me a lot for optimizing the web images.
I also used firework for creating websites. But It seems for
me that
photoshop and illustrator is very perfect for me to create
artwork both
for the web and print design. No matter how complicated the
job, the two
programs were indeed very helpful for me.
I'm not saying that fireworks is bad for creating web images.
Since this
program is only for the web design (I really think so).
Remember that
Will's designer is only familiar with both program. I think
it would be
wise for his designer to stick with his tool rather than
learning a new
tool.
But. for years, even though I had fireworks, Photoshop and
Illustrator I
choose to stick with both program to works. So user friendly,
and both
program share the same interface.
I don't think that Illustrator is mainly for vector-based
application,
mobile developer also use its capability for creating svg
images, and
also for animation. And photoshop is not only for creating
bitmap, it
also often use for beautifying video and 3D animation.
Whatever it is, choose what you like. As long as you are
comfortable
with it.
Cheers
Deaf Web Designer wrote:
> Dreamworms,
>
> I am afraid that you provide inaccurate information
about primary purpose of
> Photoshop and Illustrator.
>
> Illustrator is mainly a vector-based application, while
Photoshop is a
> high-end image editing application (which is a
bitmap-based image editing app).
> While Fireworks is ideally a web image *and* web graphic
(including
> fundamentals of vector-based and bitmap-based app),
where Fireworks does a nice
> job in opitmize the file size that is specifically
designed for faster-loading
> web images or web graphics. To make it work, you need to
have a better
> understanding on how Fireworks works.
>
> As for workflow between Photoshop, Illustrator,
Fireworks and Dreamweaver, it
> can be accomplished. But again, you need to know and
understand the primary
> functionality and the primary difference between these
applications per se.
>
> But when you say "Photoshop and Illustrator are the
image editing tools that
> are perfect..." that is very inaccurate statement.
>
> Cheers, Brian
>
>
quote:
Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
> Photoshop and Illustrator are the image editing tools
that are perfect
> for the web.
>
> Will G. wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am going to be working on a new website for my
employer and I was
> > hoping some of the web professionals could give me
some advice.
> >
> > I did our previous website by myself using
Dreamweaver 4 and Fireworks
> > 4. When creating the visual look of the old site, I
used Fireworks to
> > create a mock-up of the way I wanted the page to
look. I then used
> > Dreamweaver to create a web page that duplicated
the mockup. Any fancy
> > graphic images (such as the masthead) were sliced
up using Fireworks and
> > imported as an HTML table into Dreamweaver. This
worked pretty well for
> > me while working solo.
> >
> > However, for this new website I will be working
with a graphic designer.
> > What is the best way to take the graphic design
that she produces and
> > translate it into HTML+CSS in Dreamweaver? Can I
use a process similar
> > to what I used while solo? (i.e. let the designer
create a mockup in a
> > graphic program and then try to duplicate it in
Dreamweaver as best I
> > can with HTML and importing graphics as needed.) Or
is there a better way?
> >
> > Keep in mind that the designer we are using is not
knowledgable about
> > creating websites or using tools like
Dreamweaver/Fireworks. I believe
> > she uses with Photoshop/Illustrator/Quark Xpress.
(I will be talking
> > with her tomorrow.)
> >
> > Also, what software should I plan on ordering? I am
planning on
> > upgrading our software to Adobe CS3 Web Standard.
But if she is using
> > Photoshop, should I get plan on getting the Premium
version? Can
> > Fireworks import Photoshop files well, or do I need
Photoshop?
> >
> > Thanks for you help.
>
>
>
>

Graphical Design on Azure Database

Hi
I have read through a lot of older posts (2009 onwards) regarding the limitations of the SQL management studio when connected to Azure Databases. I'm just making the transition into the cloud, and as far as I can tell, most of the problems still exist,
hopefully someone can tell me I'm wrong...
The big problem is that I cant find a graphical designer for queries within stored procedures. In my local database, within the stored procedure I can just right click and choose 'design query in editor', however when I connect to the Azure database, this
isn't available.
I have tried using the Azure online designer but that's the same, if I right click I just get Silverlight and no obvious option for creating queries graphically.
I'm missing something, as far as I can remember this functionality has been available since way back when, it seems like a pretty big omission? All though its not the end of the world, it was really useful to be able to do this
Any help would be much appreciated
thanks
Andy

Hi Andy,
If your used to create your queries from a graphical tool, I can do nothing but highly recommend SQL Server Data Tools for Visual Studio. This enables you to create Database projects where you'll have a graphical UI for creating your queries. Moreover, this
feature also enalbes you to do things like schema comparison or data comparison directly within Visual Studio.
Alex

BLUDVLZ's Revised Rules of Graphic Design

It's been a year or so since I last posted these, and since the old post has gone to the great forum resting place in the cybersky, I decided to repost. This time with some choice addtions.
REVISED RULES OF GRAPHIC DESIGN
1. Before you can break the rules of graphic design, you must first know the rules of graphic design.
2. Microsoft Word is not a graphic design program.
3. The greatest obstacle to an effective campaign is usually the client.
4. Always build in a little extra safety time when determining project deadlines; just in case something goes wrong or breaks.
5. Before a designer can do his job he needs all the pertinent information up front; reverse engineering a project never produces a good result.
6. Any advertisement will be successful as long as you give away a free tool set.
7. Never use script or calligraphic fonts in ALL CAPS.
8. Microsoft Excel is not a graphic design program.
9. There is no point-and-click solution to good graphic design.
10. Photoshop is not a verb.
11. The death penalty should be enacted for those designers who use the following fonts:
Comic Sans
Zapf Chancery
Ad Lib
Exotic
Brush Script
Monotype Corsiva.
12. Never mess with a client who tosses his own dick salad.
13. Adobe does not yet include a talent filter in any of its programs that will miraculously make a bad design, good.
14. Microsoft PowerPoint is not a graphic design program.
15. Images pulled off of the Internet DO NOT work in print.
16. The client isnt always right, and when hes wrong its always going to be the designers fault.
17. Clipart is evil.
18. Clipart is your best friend.
19. The best computer for the job is the one that is working when you really need it.
20. Camera-ready art that is built to the exact specifications is good; camera-ready artwork that is scanned off an inkjet printout and faxed to you is bad.
21. Microsoft Publisher is the most dangerous piece of software in existence.
22. When you find a good print house, keep it.
23. Develop good relationships with other designers who work in other specialty areas; it always comes in handy in a pinch when looking for artwork or logos.
24. Never be satisfied with your current level of expertise; always look for ways to improve your talents and understanding of design.
25. Dont just know how to use one program, know as many as possible.
26. Learn good time management skills.
27. Educate the client whenever possible.
28. Dont get too defensive about creative feedback. Be able to offer solid reasons for your design decisions and be prepared to offer alternative suggestions as a compromise.
29. There is always a way to make a good layout, better.
30. A starburst is a method for poor designers to draw attention to the copy points that should have been addressed through better layout.
31. Never blindly trust a file sent to you by another designer unless you truly trust the designer.
32. The designer that doesnt keep up with current technology wont be a designer for long.
33. Always pay attention to changing design trends.
34. You will find yourself identifying typefaces on billboards as you drive down the interstate (Note: This will drive your family and friends nuts).
35. No one but designers and artists will ever truly understand the creative process.
36. Just because you have a computer and a program does not automatically mean that you are a graphic designer.
37. Only production artists and bosses seem to have 9-5 workdays.
38. No matter how many hours you work, make sure you set aside enough time to let your creative mind recharge.
39. A solid marketing plan can help poor creative. Good creative will never help a poor marketing plan.
40. Never underestimate the importance of being able ********.
41. A good designer needs to know how to fix his own computer.
42. A good designer can be effective w

Well crap. I guess I hit my limit and it's too late for me to go back and edit. So here are the rules that are missing:
42. A good designer can be effective without wearing shoes, but not without wearing socks (this is one of those deep, philosophical statements).
43. Always keep a good digital camera handy. You never know when youll need to stage an impromptu photo shoot.
44. The creative mind works best when it works uninterrupted.
45. Dirty balls suck. Go optical.
46. The bigger the size of the project, the less it should say (in reference to copy on billboards, banners and posters).
47. Keep the Bevel and Emboss layer effects in Photoshop to a minimum.
48. You dont have to have formal training in graphic design to be successful, but it sure does help.
49. Take whatever steps are necessary to get the creative juices flowing.
50. More often than not, you cant fix it in post.
51. Get the client to sign off on everything before doing any printing or production.
52. That which doesnt kill you will only try harder the next time.
53. If in doubt, talk to the printer.
54. The key to defending yourself against backseat designers: Back up your chair suddenly.
55. Changing the keyboard layout on your fellow designers computer is a great way to break up the monotony of a stressful workday.
56. In advertising, sex sells. In graphic design, sex usually means youre hogging up all the bandwidth and have a sticky keyboard.
57. Never be afraid to push the limits of good taste (case in point, rule #56).
58. Never accept less for a job than you believe your time and effort is worth and get it in writing.
59. A good designer is thinking at least five steps ahead of the step hes currently on.
60. Never be afraid to walk away from a design and start over.

Please help me with portfolio.I am new in graphic design.I need portfolio done immediately soon as possible otherwise my design advisor will not let me register for fall. I need 15 or 10 artworks to show.Please help me

Please help me with portfolio.I am new in graphic design.I need portfolio done immediately soon as possible otherwise my design advisor will not let me register for fall. I need 15 or 10 artworks to show.Please help me.

Farooq,
If you look at the first one, you should be able to align quite easily as follows, View>Smart Guides being your friends:
1a) ClickDrag the top flower with the Selection Tool (black arrow) so it is clear of the pointy part;
1b) Click an empty spot on the Artboard to deselect, then ClickDrag the top flower by its bottom Anchor Point (Smart Guides say anchor when you are close enough to grab it) down to snap to the top Anchor Point on the pointy part (Smart Guides say anchor when you are close enough);
1c) Do the same for the boroom flower.
If you look at the third one, to get the triangles and the hexagon sized and aligned precisely, you may, creating them with stroke and no fill:
3a) Click with the Polygon Tool and select a suitable/chosen Radius and 6 Sides, then Object>Transform>Rotate by 30 degrees (or use the Rotate option in the Transform palette), you may Object>Transform>Reset Bounding Box to have it look nicer;
3b) Click with the Polygon Tool and select the same Radius and 3 sides, then deselect and ClickDrag the top Anchor Point to snap to the top Anchor Point of the hexagon;
3c) Object>Transform>Rotate by 180 degrees clicking Copy, deselect, and ClickDrag the bottom Anchor Point to snap to the bottomAnchor Point of the hexagon;
3d) Select all and Ctrl/Cmd+G to Group (for alignment purposes, you will know why if you try without grouping, see below).
To create full symmetry, you may use circles rather than almost circular ellipses; you may:
3d) Click with the Ellipse Tool and select a suitable/chosen Width = height;
3e) Object>Transform>Move a copy vertically by the Height (= Width) twice (or you may Ctrl/Cmd+D to repeat), to get three circles over one another with no gaps;
3f) Select the topmost and bottommost ones and Object>Transform>Rotate a copy by 120 degrees twice, to have all the seven circles precisley touching one another; you may Group them, but it is not necessary.
To have everything aligned, just:
3g) Select everything and click Vertical Align Center and Horizontal Align Center in the Align palette; you may click the pointy group or the circles ojnce more before aligning if you want to keep it in place (that will make it the key object that the other set is aligned to).
These ways may also help you further.
Edit: About half an hour after midnight here. High time to attend to other duties, before the sun is up.

Interested in learning graphic designing... What Adobe products should I buy?

I would like some input from people already using Adobe's products. As the topic states, I'm interested in teaching myself graphic designing for t-shirts. My t-shirts may sometimes have just a background design with added text or I may get fancy and try to design a diamond watch.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm trying to do. Money is not the issue here. I just want to get the right products from Adobe.

Hello!
If you are interested in creating illustrations, Adobe Illustrator is a really great tool. It allows you to create vector illustrations which means that they are scalable to any possible size. Here's a short video introduction to Illustrator CS6:
Illustrator is great way to start. However, if you're serious about becoming a designer you may want to consider a Creative Cloud Membership.
The Adobe Creative Cloud gives you access to all of the Adobe CS applications as well as some subscription exclusive apps (Muse and Edge Animate) among many other benefits!
Here's a link to learn more!
Hope this helps!
Julia

Rate My Graphic Design Projects

If a freelance graphic designer would like to get feedback from other (hopefully knowledgeable) designers concerning their own designs, is there a website(s) that allows one to upload their works and have people comment? There are many times the people around me comment on what I create, but I know they don't actually "know why" a design is good or bad. I would like to have technical feedback on what I create and not possible biased feedback from the people I know. I can't get any negative (or should I say construtive) feedback because I'm sure no one wants to offend me or say something in which they know nothing about. I compare this to a person who doesn't know anything about cooking to be a judge about food. Sure, they can say if the food is good or bad, but I want to know the WHY of their opinions.
I taught myself everything I know about graphic/web design and I have never really been evaluated by another graphic designer. I'm certainly not looking for priase, but professional feedback. So, are there any websites/services out there for something like this?

I cringe when I hear anyone suggest uploading content to the internet. If I were you, I'd get in touch with area ad agencies or art school graphic design departments where they would be happy to critique your work one-on-one. Many questions come up when viewing a portfolio. For instance, what is the client's objective? What was the client's budget and how did you comply with it? Where are your sketches? I, for one, like to see "thought" process rather than a bunch of flash on a screen. Not that flash is bad, but I like the nuts and bolts of it all. How did you solve the client's problems? How did you go about selecting that photo? Who art directed the piece? On and on like that. Another question for you. How is anyone going to know you really did that piece? Just because you said you did it? Won't wash. Think about it. Go out and see people. Get feedback where you can defend the process and bolster up your knowledge of the tools required to "design".

Graphic design, desktop publishing, image management, web development?

I'm a university student studying graphic design in the uk. During workshops, we are basically only taught how to use Adobe CS4 on Macs. I've been looking into what tools are available for linux, hoping to find some quirky apps for creating/editing images, page layouts, managing large collections of images, developing websites, creating motion graphics, or producing my module file, which is a large document containing research including images, text, etc.
Looking around, the same software seems to pop up - gimp, inkscape, photoshop CS2 on wine (thanks for that, google!), latex, scribus. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for software, for any of the tasks listed above? Or any individual applications which perform a single aspect particularly well? Any software which has a more interesting use / function / outcome than the standard mac or windows equivalent? Something which might set my work or workflow apart from the technologically backward point-and-click mac users?
For example, I'm currently collating all my notes as a Zim wiki, with links to my briefs as PDF files. I can import text, images, and then export a wiki site with a custom css theme to give to my tutors when assessment comes. They'll love that It's not something I'd ever have considered doing on a Windows machine.
Go!
Last edited by saft (2010-04-13 21:21:27)

Well I'm certainly not advanced, but I use gimp... Never felt comfortable with PS (any version). A friend of mine, on the other hand, is more comfortable with PS, but is trying out gimp after that whole fiasco about CS5 using something that gimp has had for years. For vector graphics, you don't really need anything beyond inkscape. Gimp covers creating/editing images and page layouts. For managing large collection of images, I just have the filesystem. I have a /common partition, and images go in /common/images. Then I can group certain images by "genre" I guess you'd call them. Wallpapers have their own directory sorted by resolution. I can just use something like:
% ls /common/images/wallpaper/**/*.{png,jpg}
If I needed a list of images. I could probably use awk and imagemagick to give me an html page with thumbnails.
When I write my lab reports, I use vim and LaTeX (haven't tried vim-latex yet). I can include whatever images and text I want. The text is usally split between several raw data files and the report itself. At first it may seem odd to type process instead, but after you make your own document classes, it all makes sense and you can start to really streamline everything.
For XHTML + CSS, I just use vim.

Best Graphic Design Software

Hello. I recently purchased a MacBook Pro {love} and I would like to get a graphic design software to use for making custom photo birthday invitations/thank you cards (you know the ones they sell all over eBay for children's birthdays, etc.) I've been buying them for years and I'm tired of buying them when I know I could create them myself if I had the correct software. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance!

Hi there,
You do not need to buy at this first time, assuming you do not have graphic design experience you can start by using an Apple application as Pages, Keynote, iPhoto or others in your /Applications/ folder, check it out, try opening applications, read tutorials and welcome presentations or open a template file for some start edition.
After that you can try a freeware third party application, you will find many of that here: http://osx.iusethis.com/tag/graphics
Professional applications require a minimum specific knowledge that you would naturally acquire after sometime around with these others.
Before go on using third party apps would be smart to get one smart removal tool so that you'd be able to remove applications you do not like and related support files in one move, which would be better than having useless files remaining in your system. I use AppCleaner - http://www.freemacsoft.net/ - with it's SmartDelete Preference enabled, set it up if you will.
Despite most of Mac's applications only need to be copied to your HDD to be ready to run, they usually keep some support file maybe elsewhere the ~/Library and/or /Library/Application Support/ folders.
Good luck

Graphic Design Tools

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for