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Create Photorealistic Reflections and Shadows

How-Tos: Written by Bert Monroy on October 13, 2008

Celebrated digital painter Bert Monroy shares tips on creating realistic reflections and shadows in Photoshop.

Create Rich Media with Acrobat and Flash

How-Tos: Written by Donna Baker on October 8, 2008

If you have Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, you can combine PDFs and Flash files for previously impossible media richness.

InDesign How-to: Take Object Styles Where They've Never Gone Before

How-Tos: Written by David Blatner on October 6, 2008

A cool trick using anchored objects extends the power of object styles to the geometry of your InDesign pages.

Tug and Twirl Text in Illustrator

How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on September 29, 2008

The sky’s the limit when you convert Illustrator text to outlines. It’s so easy to change each letter’s size, position, and color, and even push and pull letters into fantastic new shapes.

Tips for QuarkPress 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8

How-Tos: Written by Jay J. Nelson on September 17, 2008

These tips on guides, layers, image attributes, and style sheets will leave you happy no matter what version of XPress you use.

Photoshop How-to: Add Energy and Interest with Layered Images

How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on September 9, 2008

By layering thematically related photographs and colored backgrounds and foregrounds, you can create unique imagery for print and Web projects.

HerGeekness Says: Convert Any File Part III

How-Tos: Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion on September 7, 2008

You've now converted that funky file to a PDF. It's time to tackle the final step: extracting assets from that PDF.

Create a Searchlight in Photoshop

How-Tos: Written by Colin Smith on September 3, 2008

Whip up a Hollywood-style spotlight effect with realistic-looking beams of light in Photoshop CS3.

Create Nondestructive Text Effects with Photoshop's Smart Filters

How-Tos: Written by Russell Brown on August 25, 2008

Apply Photoshop's Smart Filters to text to get special effects you'll love and still keep the text live.

HerGeekness Says: Convert Any File Part II

How-Tos: Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion on August 18, 2008

In case of file-conversion emergency, start with a PDF!

Make Vector Splashes

How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on August 13, 2008

Get all Jackson Pollock and make a splash -- literally. Then use Illustrator's easy Live Trace feature to bring your art into the digital world.

Transform a Busy Photo into a Strong Silhouette

How-Tos: Written by Chad Neuman on July 30, 2008

When you want a clean, strong image for a print or Web project, use Illustrator to turn a photo into a striking silhouette.

How to Break into T-Shirt Design

How-Tos: Written by Sean Ashcroft on July 27, 2008

T-shirt design is huge, and thanks to online stores like Threadless, you don't have to open a brick-and-mortar storefront or even build your own Web site to see success.

Protect Your PDFs

How-Tos: Written by Joel Geraci on July 23, 2008

Digital files can end up in the strangest places. Before you send another PDF to a client, coworker, or anyone else, find out how and when to password-protect your work.

Rehabilitate Old Photos

How-Tos: Written by Sara Frances on July 14, 2008

Good photo rehabilitation goes beyond repairing typical tears and fading to rebuilding important, but initially unsatisfactory, images that recover the emotional impact of an event. And clients pay a lot for that!

QuarkXPress Tips: Graphically Speaking

How-Tos: Written by Jay J. Nelson on July 7, 2008

Good design does not live by text alone. To master QuarkXPress, add these image-oriented tricks to your workflow.

Create Web Animations in Photoshop CS3

How-Tos: Written by Pariah Burke on June 22, 2008

Animate banner ad and graphic objects; transform their shape, size, color; or replace them entirely.

Dreamweaver How-to: Create "You Are Here" Navigation Links

How-Tos: Written by Dave Sawyer McFarland on June 13, 2008

Use this simple technique to create a nav bar button that changes to reflect a visitor's location in your site, then make it work across the site using Dreamweaver CS3's Template.

Make Editable Arrows in Photoshop

How-Tos: Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion on June 4, 2008

Create vector arrows you can color, warp, resize, flip, shadow, emboss, and more.

Bake Up a Batch of PDF Files

How-Tos: Written by Donna Baker on June 2, 2008

Open a file, change the header, save the file to a new location, close the file... repeat more times than you can count. If that sounds familiar, help is on the way.