Martini Hour 056, In Which Colleen Is Trapped in a Mellow Yellow and Purple Groove

Hello deKats and deKittins, coming to you from a very relaxed place this week. I have no idea why. I guess it’s just because it’s me and my good buddy Deke, in a show where Deke does what Deke does best, go all-nerdy on some obscure issue related to graphics. This week it’s trapping, that technique of building in a buffer zone in a CMYK print that’s there just in case (inevitably) that the plate registration doesn’t quite line up. And it’s a good thing one of us is relaxed because you know how this kind of stuff gets Deke going.

But as (ahem) much as that sounds like print-nerd geekery, it actually turns out to be a very informative discussion. We cover print methods, color separation, and how you get what you pay for. We’ve had such exhilarating conversations with notable renegades lately, on what’s ahead for Photoshop and Lightroom, and the future, and and living on the moon. I gotta tell you though, it’s pretty nice to discuss old school craftsmanship with the man. Deke that is.

Listen in. Find out when you need to trap and when you don’t. Find out why David Blatner is going to call Deke and tell him he’s wrong. Find out how David Futato is more of a design mastermind than I even know. Find out about how Deke and I disagree about whether or not we should bleed figures of the page (something that has nothing to do with trapping, but hey, we’re relaxes, drinking martinis, our shoes are off, and we’re letting the conversation flow, baby).

Life is stressful, sit with us a while and relax.  Here’s the regular-quality (128kbps) audio file. You can stream, or for best results, right-click and choose Download or Save. For you audiophiles out there, here’s the link to the high-quality (320kbps) version. Be sure to download, don’t stream. And don’t forget the usual suggestion to subscribe via iTunes.

Until next week, dekeFelines, keep slinking along, looking unruffled on the outside and being deceptively brilliant on the inside. Cheers, babies.

Next entry:Photoshop Top 40, Feature #5: The Sharpen Filters

Previous entry:Martini Hour 055, In Which Deke Teases Because He Loves…Photoshop

  • hi there

    Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

  • Randomness!

    Hullo, King Deke and Queen Colleen!

    Long time, no see! Miss the shenanigans, but thought immediately of you two when I discovered this visual treat. Enjoy -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erbd9cZpxps

    Love you both, still a BIG BIG fan, natch’ully. :-D


    Take care, have fun!  *smooches*

  • Add border to photo with drop shadow

    Hi Deke,

    I have Lynda.com subscription and have watched your PS CS4 training videos but cant find how to add a white border to a photo then add a drop shadow to the outside edge of the white border.


    I also want the background to be transparent so I can place it on website.

    Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

    Dennis

  • dfarol

    dfarol

  • dfarol

    dfarol

  • Like an Ogre

    Your question contains layers… :-)

    Make a duplicate layer of your picture, hide the orig.


    Either increase the canvas size, or select the picture and decrease it. Apply Change
    Create new layer, fill white with paint bucket, move beneath image in layer panel, then adjust it’s size to frame your picture. Apply Change
    With new layer selected, use FX add drop shadow, adjust to your liking.

    Save for Web.

    I’m not great with explaining, but if you play with what I gave you, you’ll figure it out!

    Happy Photoshoping!!!

  • Nice to hear

    your still around stranger… well stranger then me anywho ;-)

    BTW; liked the video!

    Your old 4F buddy aztech

  • Transparency and full colour photos

    Just to add a little to Aztech’s reply: saving for web in PNG format will allow you to have a transparency effect, while keeping the colours in your image close to the original. (Personally I’d hit apple+J to duplicate the photo, and then hide the background layer, apple+t to free transform using the shift and alt modifiers on the corner of the transform bounding box, then create the solid white background layer and select both layers and do another free transform on both layers to create the space for the drop shadow).

    An alternative is to just create the white background and shadow seperately and get your Style Sheet wizard/witch (what the hell do webmasters call themselves these days?) to place it on a lower z-index than the image.


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