Using iPhoto as a cross-program clip art manager

Since the iMedia Browser makes it easy to get media into other programs, I've thought about the idea of importing clip art into iPhoto so that it can be easily inserted into various other applications.
Has anyone ever used iPhoto in such a way? Would this be possible? Does anyone know of any stumbling blocks in such a set-up?
I'd be interested in hearing others ideas of thoughts? How would you organize the clips in iPhoto, tagging, albums, etc?
This may not even be possible, but iPhoto has such a great browsing environment, it would be nice to have commonly used clip art and graphics within iPhoto to ease it's integration into other programs.

There’s no reason whatever why thos wouldn’t work, as long as the images are in a format that iPhoto works with - and that’s any format that can open with quicktime.
Regards
TD

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Clip art manager

Now that I'm fully converted to Aperture for photos, I find I have no tool to roganize my clip art.
Anyone know of anything - perhaps not so high-end - that will allow me to import, store, search on, ad metadata to etc gifs and comparable clip art?
Thanks!

There’s no reason whatever why thos wouldn’t work, as long as the images are in a format that iPhoto works with - and that’s any format that can open with quicktime.
Regards
TD

Can a selection be used to create an arc without clipping art to the selection size?

I need to arc a rectangular shaped piece of art into an arc.
The art has bleed which can't be calculated into the arc, but needs to remain as a bleed. (Just like a clipping path obscures the view of the extraneous art, yet it's still there)
Is there a way to tell Illustrator to designate a selection to use as the starting area…and then arc it into a shape…without first eliminating the art/photo/type hanging off into the bleed?
In the following example, the orange rectangle is the area of the art I need to warp into the shape of the arc laying on top…yet I need the bleed to remain.
[IMG]http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i53/Bug_Nuts/Adobe%20Illustrator%20Forum/Screenshot.png[ /IMG]

Katrina,
The question is how can I make illustrator take this
art...and warp it...making the area that equivalent to the yellow trim
box fit to the warp shape...YET...keep the bleed...and warp evenly.
No, unfortunately not: different shapes are warped quite differently.
My
experience has been that because of the irregular things hanging off
the sides, illustrator uses those when it calculates the arc. I need it
to calculate the warp of this art using the yellow box as "from"...and
the warp shape as "to".
To get things to work properly, you can only apply one warp, and the obvious choice is to get everything inside (by getting rid of outlying parts, hence the Clipping Mask with subsequent snipping off) and then inflate the photograph part and get it as nice and even as possible; this has been the basis for the instructions below.
Referring to the AI file (see bold type) and an amended version of post #17 (I can see that both the photograph(s) and the vector artwork are to be clipped):
If you have some vector/raster artwork (this is the cat and the circles) within a rectangle (this is the upper, smaller rectangle) and a woody photograph in the background (I can see that the woody photograph to have bleed is only in the right side), all of which are supposed to be warped using Arc, so that the warped woody photograph extends past the vector artwork to also function as a bleed (the bleed seems to be 18pt, corresponding to the lower, larger rectangle), the bounding rectangle of the vector/raster artwork forming the basis of the Arc, and if you are willing to adjust the woody photograph which may have a slight distortion and live with a non constant bleed, you may:
1) Copy the rectangle (this is the upper path in the first Group), to get a top rectangle and a bottom rectangle (the bottom rectangle replaces the lower path in the second Group which cannot be used here, step 6) is to create a path that can do it);
2) Select the top rectangle and the underlying vector/raster artwork, Group them, and reduce the opacity to 50% (so you can see the woody photograph beneath;
3) Copy the bottom rectangle to the front, to get a middle rectangle;
4) Copy the middle rectangle to the front to and Object>Path>Average, to get an supplementary middle rectangle with W = H = 0;
5) Select 3) and 4) and Object>Compound Path>Make, to get a middle compound path;
6) Scale the bottom rectangle up by a suitable amount, possibly 1.1 times for W and 1.2 times for H so that it covers the desired part of the photograph including the bleed (see more later);
7) Select the scaled bottom rectangle and the underlying photograph and Object>Clipping Mask>Make;
Now   you need to get rid of the outlying parts of the woody photograph (copy before these destructive steps and hide the original set):
8) In the Transparency palette/panel dropdown, click Multiply (or just anything but Normal);
9) Object>Flatten Transparency (just keep the defaults, especially if you have vector artwork along with the image(s));
Now you need to resize the Clipping Mask to match the rectangle/artwork Group:
10)   Scale the Clipping Mask down by the reverse amount of that in 6) (1.1   times for W and 1.2 times for H) so that it has the same size as the rectangle/artwork Group, but with the woody photograph compressed;
The main shaping step:
11) Select everything and Effect>Warp>Arc (this will give the top rectangle the Arc shape, and everything else will be warped correspondingly);
Creating/shaping the woody photgraph/bleed along with the middle compound path:
12)    Select the Clipping Mask and the middle compound path (easy to do by clicking it in the Layers palette/panel), then Object>Expand Appearance, then
12a) Click the uppermost Anchor Point (which corresponds to the inner W = H = 0 path of the middle compound path, and its says Anchor, if you have Smart Guides on), to set a more correct centre for scaling and thereby reduce the additional distortion of the photograph, and then
12b) DoubleClick the Scale Tool and scale up by the same amount as in 6) (1.1 times for W and 1.2 times for H).
Placing the woody photograph:
8)   Move the woody photograph vertically until the bleed is roughly equal on all sides and the photograph is placed correctly behind the   artwork/rectangle Group;
You may need to redo some of the steps to adjust and get them right. In this process, you may move the supplementary middle rectangle 4) upwards before creating the compound path to further reduce the additional distortion of the woody photograph.
When things are right (if they will ever be):
9) Increase the opacity of the artwork/rectangle Group to 100%.
Final note: I believe the exact distortion of the woody photograph is less crucial than it would have been for the cat.

Should I use a second library / catalog for clip art photos

Hi!
I've used LR for several years for my personal photos - editing & tagging & sorting etc. I've only ever used the one catalogue - hence putting this in the beginners forum.
I also have on my laptop a range of stock photos and clipart. This is beginning to increase as I do more on blogs/websites etc. and I need to manage it - and be able to find what I need. I have considered getting picasa, as I didn't want to mess up my personal lightroom catalogues and have millions of unrelated tags, but then I thought about starting a second catalogue specifically for stock pictures.
But I would like to ask some more experienced users their opinions. Is lightroom viable for cataloguing stock photos (I may do some editing of them, though the primary purpose would be tagging)? If I start a second catalogue will the tags be completely separate and not impinge on my own photos? Or there any pros/cons I need to consider? Would picasa or some other tagging software be better suited (I had heard that picasa also tagged things like colour automatically)? If I keep all of the stock photos on an external hdd will that impact on my decision making process?
Many thanks for your time!

I use two catalogs but one is only used when on the road. I will add metadata to photos but I never do any development work on the laptop catalog. As soon as I am back home, the first thing I do is export the working catalog on the laptop and import it into my primary catalog on my Mac Pro. The second catalog is only a temporary thing. I had tried maintaining two catalogs at one time using one for my working catalog and a second for my archives but that also became unworkable since I always had to search them both to find what I was looking for. LR only allows one catalog to be open at any point in time so switching back and forth became more than just a little annoying. Now I work out of the one catalog which contains both the working files as well as the archives and the catalog on my laptop is only live when I travel and even that only if I plan to be gone for more than a few days. For your situation I would toss my vote on the side of a single catalog as well. The metadata is a great way to distinguish images coming from other sources making it easy to locate them or distinguish between one of your own images from a stock image. If you want a more visual way, you could use one of the color labels as well. Add the label and then set your preferences to shade the background with the color and you can tell instantly in Grid mode which images are stock by the background color of the cell (I tend to be visual in my thinking). I would still add a keyword such as "stock" or "stock image" though.

Using iPhoto for organizing and another program for editing

I really like iPhoto for organizing my photos. The tags/comments along with smart albums are amazing. The problem is that I would like to edit the photos externally to iPhoto. I am wondering if there is a way to edit your photos externally but still use iPhoto to organize them? Would iPhoto still be able to allow the external program to edit the photo nondestructively?
I am looking to use Gimp (using X11) to edit my photos.
Thanks for any help.
mini/ibook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

bauer172:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. There is a caveat to using a 3rd party editor from within iPhoto. If Gimp is capable of creating layered files and/or changes the extension to its own after extensive editing you must take some precautions so as not to lose those edits.
Any time the 3rd party editor requires a change of extension due to the editing you must either flatten the image and/or force a save as a jpg with the same original file name OR do a Save As to the desktop and import that file as a new one. Otherwise you run the chance of saving the edited file and not have iPhoto know it exists.
Do you Twango?

Clip art. Png file sharing. One of my apps tells me I need to use this on iPad

How do I enable file sharing feature from I tunes ? I need to use clip art on an app. Specifically png.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4094
 Cheers, Tom

Problems w/ importing video clips using iphoto 08

I am having trouble importing video clips from my digital camera into iphoto 08. Some video clips can be imported while others can not. I get a message that says the file is unreadable and can not be imported. I don't understand why some video clips can be imported while others can't using the same camera. Any Suggestions?
dankmiller

dankmiller
Size. iPhoto baulks at copying larger video files directly from the card. Use Image Capture to move the files to your desktop, then import them to iPhoto.
Regards
TD

The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.How is this possible? I have no photos and have never used iphoto and the program is up to date.

How is this possible? I have no photos and have never used iphoto and the program is up to date. I try to import and drop my pictues into iphoto but nothing happens or I get above statement. Help please!

Then it's a bogus message and indicates that the default library is damaged.
Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library' and use that one.
Regards
TD

I've been using Iphoto as a primary download program for years. As of today, when I click a thumbnail to open the photo, I get a black screen with an exclamation mark on some shots. Also, these shots can't be dragged into Adobe Bridge. Would love help!

I use Iphoto as my primary download tool, then drag images into Adobe Bridge. Just today, when I tried to open a photo by clicking a thumbnail, all I got was an image of an exclamation mark and I couldn't drag the shot either. These are images I've successfully opened and dragged before. I would love guidance from anyone who knows a fix for this. Thanks! John

The ! turns up when iPhoto loses the connection between the thumbnail in the iPhoto Window and the file it represents.
What version of iPhoto?
As Larry says, your workflow doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If you're using iPhoto only for downloading then you're best off using Image Capture (in your Applications Folder) and just keep the whole database element out if it. If you're using iPhoto also to organise, then what are you using Bridge for? Anything you do in Bridge - or Photoshop - is unavailable in iPhoto if you work this way.
Regards
TD

I have to export from Iphoto to use my photos in other programs (like Photo

I'm new to MAC or IMAC. Moved my photos so IPhoto could use them and apparently IPhoto eats them. The only way I have access to them is to load them in IPhoto then export them.This seems unreasonable. So I'm hoping I've misunderstood some basic procedure. I use Iphoto to organize not to edit.
TIA -
Barb

Barb
Yes that is unreasonable, however the good news is that it's not necessary:
You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically.
That's the way to have pics you edit in PS (or whatever)
There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
To upload to MySpace or any site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. If you're using Gmail you can use THIS
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser. Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
Also, for 10.5 users: If you use the extended Open or Attach dialogue (with Column View) you can scroll to the bottom of the Shortcuts and find the Media browser there. Select any pic you want from there.
Regards
TD

When saving a document as a PDF for printing, I lose pages, clip art, and my orginal format. Help!

I have created some forms for our congregation to fill in with answers on adobe forms central. When I go to turn it into a PDF for printing for a hard copy, (not all our members have internet) when i save it to a PDF, it doesn't save all the pages and formats it differently then show on the screen i programmed it onto. How do I fix this issue?

Hi;
In the "Feature Tutorials/Help" linked from the top of the main page of the Forums: Feature Tutorials / Help
There is a Tutorial on "Creating and distributing fillable PDF Forms": Tutorial: Creating and distributing fillable PDF forms
The main thing to look at is the "View" setting and for PDF set it to "Page View", the page breaks you define in Page View will be used in the PDF, there are also "implicit" page breaks added automatically based on the page size.
For the issue with clip art see this FAQ: Image does not show up in PDF
Thanks,
Josh

Clip Art Suggestions?

Does anyone know of any good clip art collections other than Art Explosion? I have an older Art Explosion and I'm not too happy with it - bland images and too many duplicates.
I would like to find a clip art package that has decent, Macintosh-friendly file names to help with searching. With CoverFlow in Leopard, I don't need any previews, thumnails, or catalog programs. Having image metadata searchable via spotlight would be ideal, but I would be happy with file names better than TECHNOLOGY11.JPG, TECHNOLOGY12.JPG, etc.
I don't really want to use the online services because I like to have things local. I don't mind paying for it. I would buy Art Explosion 750000 if I were happy with my old Art Explosion 500000 (or whatever I have).
Thanks

Thank you. Thats what I am talking about. Except the collection I had seen at the printer's place, years ago, had a variety of subjects in each catalogue he had there. At $200 dollars per subject listed here, I think I'd better look up this printer, and find out what the names of the collections they had there. I hope I can get one of those collections for the two hundred or less.
From what I figure, clip art has been around for a century or more, used by newspapers and magazines for articles and advertisements. Some of the clip art that I had seen in those collections looked like they could have been created by artists back in the 1920s or earlier.
Don

Embedded clip art

I want to create a button on a form that looks like a human eye.
I can’t seem to find a wingding of an eye, so I want to display a piece of clip art on the form button.
I’ve seen examples on line like:
This->button1->Image = Image::FromHbitmap(IntPtr hbitmap);
This->button1->Image = Image::FromFile(“path/eye.bmp”);
And I’ve seen references like:
HBITMAP hBMP = (HBITMAP) LoadImage( NULL, "Your/ImagePath/a.bmp", IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE);
I don’t want the program to require the bmp file on disk when it runs.
Is there a way to convert the bmp file into some sort of binary bitmap stream and then embed that stream in my source code instead of referencing the file itself in the code?

Images can be embedded into resource file having .resx extension. Check if your project already contains such a file in Solution Explorer, otherwise add one using Add New Item command. Then double-click the .resx file in Solution Explorer. Then you
should be able to insert existing images. After compilation, the image will be embedded into executable.
In order to access the image, consider the ResourceManager class:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/7fffb96c-81f8-4fe6-b4fd-fa423806801e. Adjust the name of the application, the name of resource file (without extensions) and the name of resource item.

Reducing AI size for clip art (wmf or emf) CS3 on Windows

Hello All -
I was actually in an Adobe workshop last week with an Adobe goddess and she was not able to answer this question - so unfortunately, I do not have much hope. But the last question I asked on this forum was answered so quickly and accurately I thought I would give it a shot!
I am creating clip art for a client who has decided they can only use .wmf or .emf files for their application. My illustrations, when exported to .wmf, are around 3MB. Obviously, for clip art this is much to large, since these files are typically around 7-15 KB.
I have tried numerous ways to reduce my file size drastically, (including merging, saving as older versions, tiff's & png's and reimporting, correcting in photoshop...) and the only way that has produced a small enough file size was to remove any beauty in my illustrations and make them completely flat, solid, colors. At first, the client was pleased with the results, but has now decided they are not pleased and want to be able to use the original illustrations that I provided and still have a small file size.
Suggestions?

Your client is painting you into an impossibly small corner, and for no reason. Large posters such as you will be producing are printed on expensive inkjet plotters, operated by professional print service bureaus. Those people use professional graphics programs, including Illustrator. They would most likely prefer either native files (ie: Illustrator) or PDFs. Your client is asking for impossibly small EMF files because... well there’s no way to logically finish that sentence. Probably that’s the format they grew up with or that they were told works best with Microsoft Word. Perhaps it did, too, in the 1990s.
Since quality of image is probably the most important factor, anything you do to make smaller size or EMF compatibility a priority will compromise that, probably for no good reason. See if the print shop will accept PDF. See if the client can work with PDF, if the client feels some need to work with the files.

Clip Art Showing as Wav file

I am having aproblem on multiple computers where the clip art images downloaded from the Internet are showing as .wav files.
I have cleared the Temporary Internet Files and temp folder on the hard drive. I have also verified that the image is (for example) and jpeg and the file is supposed to open with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.
Nothing has worked and I am getting quite frustrated. I have checked the kb that Microsoft has on their web page and did what they mentioned, but we are also not using a proxy so that can't be the issue.
Any information anyone could provide would be great and appreciated!
Thank you

Dear Tiffany,
This issue usually occurs because of the un-proper settings in IE. Based on the current situation, I suggest trying some methods to troubleshoot the issue and check
if the problem can be resolved.
Method 1: Check the program that opens the clip art picture
=========
Right click the clip art picture and choose
Properties. In the General tab, make sure
Internet Explorer is selected after Option with. If Windows Media Player is selected, please click the
Change button and change it to Internet Explorer.
Check the issue again. If the problem persists, let’s continue.
Method 2: Reset IE settings
================
1.
Exit all programs, including Internet Explorer (if it is running).
2.
Click
Start. Type the following command in the
Search box, and then press ENTER:
inetcpl.cpl
3.
The
Internet Options dialog box appears.
4.
Click the
Advanced tab.
5.
Under
Reset Internet Explorer settings, click
Reset. Then click Reset again.
6.
When Internet Explorer finishes resetting the settings, click Close in the
Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialog box.
7.
Start Internet Explorer again and check the issue.
Please take your time to try the suggestions and let me know the results at your earliest convenience. If anything is unclear or if there is anything I can do for
you, please feel free to let me know.
Best Regards,
Sally Tang

Using iPhoto as a cross-program clip art manager

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