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*** DesignGeek ***
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer
In this issue:
-- Reducing Bloated Illustrator Files
-- Google Secrets for Site Owners
-- Perfect Path Text in Quark and InDesign
Issue 17, 3/11/04
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers
© 2004 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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Reducing Bloated Illustrator Files
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Each new version of Adobe Illustrator adds at least a few new palettes, each with its own presets to get you started, like the ones in Graphic Styles, Symbols and Brushes. Unless you explicitly delete those presets before you save your Illustrator file, the default options come along for the ride, increasing file sizes and leading to the malady known as Illustrator Bloat.
Illustrator Bloat can get in the way when you're emailing files, when you're running out of hard drive space, when you're creating hundreds of small Illy files for inclusion in a layout program or as web graphics.
It wasn't always this way. I remember I once designed a tabloid-sized, CMYK magazine cover in Illustrator v6 and the final .eps file was 92K. And then I put it on a floppy and walked ten miles through a blizzard to deliver it to the client, because that's what we did before e-mail, dadgumit.
As a comparative test, try this: Open a recent version of Illustrator and create a new letter-size CMYK document. Drag out a plain old rectangle somewhere on the page using the default settings (1 pt. black stroke, white fill). Save the file in native .ai format using the default settings as well.
On my Mac running OS X, creating this with Illustrator CS (the latest version) results in a file that's 468K. For a rectangle!
Turning off PDF Compatibility in the Save dialog doesn't help, in fact, it increases the file size, even if you keep "Use Compression" turned on. (My rectangle grew to 536K when I tried it.)
To slim down your files, you could tediously go through every palette menu, choose Select Unused, and click the trash can icon to delete them.
Or if you have Illustrator CS, you could run a built-in Action meant for just this task:
1. With your bloated file open, open the Actions palette (from the Window menu).
2. Select the tenth one down, Delete Unused Palette Items, and Play it.
3. If you've already saved the file, do a Save As and overwrite the previous file.
Running this action and overwriting the file reduced my original rectangle.ai file from 436K to a far more palatable 120K. Woo-hoo!
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Permanent Unbloating
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If you'd like all your new files to start out pre-slimmed, just run the "Delete Unused" Action on the templates that Adobe Illustrator uses whenever you create a new document. (Or if you have an earlier version of Illustrator without the Action, you can manually delete the presets, as described above, on the same templates.)
These two files -- one for RGB docs, one for CMYK -- are in the program folder holding the Adobe Illustrator application. Where exactly in that folder depends on the version of the program, but they always have the word "Startup" in them and they're always actual Illustrator documents.
In Illustrator CS, look in the Plug-ins folder for the files "Adobe Illustrator Startup_CMYK.ai" and "Adobe Illustrator Startup_RGB.ai". Put duplicates of these in a safe place in case you need to revert to their defaults. Then open one of the templates in Illustrator, run the Action, and do a Save As to overwrite the file.
Try it, and then create a new file in Illustrator. You'll see it opens without any of the default presets, and starts out as only 100K in size or so instead of 400K+.
To retrieve those default presets for a given palette in your document, use the palette menu's Load... command and choose either Default_CMYK or Default_RGB from the list of files you can load.
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Google Secrets for Site Owners
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If you've got your own web site, or you're a site designer, you've probably already tried Googling your or your client's site on Google, the most popular search engine. That is, you've entered your domain name or keywords that relate to your service in the search term field to see what comes up.
Not sure if Google's indexed all the pages in your site? Try entering this in the Search Term field:
allinurl:www.yoursite.com
... of course, replace "www.yoursite.com" with your own domain name. You don't need the http:// part.
You'll probably see a page containing a couple links to your site followed by the message, "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the ones already displayed."
No matter. Just look at the Results Number that appears upper right ... it tells you how many pages of your site Google has indexed into its database.
You can use Google's search field to get a feeling for your site's "Link Popularity" too.
Link popularity -- the number of other sites that contain a link to your site -- is one of the top factors in increasing your site's search engine ranking, moving you from number 8,569 in the list of Search Results to number 20 or even number 1.
The theory behind link popularity is that if other sites link to yours, yours must be pretty good. If a lot of sites link to yours, especially top-ranked sites in your own industry, then yours must be great!
And since users judge search sites by how many "great" sites for a given search term are presented on that first page or two -- everyone's in such a hurry -- the companies running the search sites will rank your site partly on its link popularity.
To find out how many sites link to your site or a client site you created, go to Google and enter this in the search field:
link:www.yoursite.com
You could also enter deeper links (www.yoursite.com/store/) if you like, to filter the results.
I talked about these and other tips for gauging and increasing your online marketing success at a recent seminar I gave for the Chicago Creative Coalition, "Finding Clients: Marketing Your Creative Services Online"
The seminar broke C3's attendance records, and one month later I'm still being contacted by attendees asking for advice on their sites's search engine-friendliness. You can read the seminar story and see pictures of the event in C3's March 2004 newsletter, a free PDF download:
<http://www.ChicagoCreative.org/fdd.htm>
I'll be reprising the seminar, updated with new information, at the upcoming Mac Design Conference and Expo in Chicago, June 2-4. Learn about the conference here:
<http://www.macdesignconference.com/>
(Note: At the time I'm writing this, the Conference sessions page still shows last year's speakers and topics. It will give you an idea of what the conference is all about, though. And they're taking registrations for 2004 now on the site.)
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Perfect Path Text in Quark and InDesign
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One of my favorite tricks for getting type on a path to be perfectly centered at the top of a circle, aligned to its arc, still works in QuarkXPress 6.1 (It's been around since v4.11):
1. Create a circular text box (hold down the Shift key to create a perfect circle, but this works with ovals too).
2. Enter the soon-to-be text on a path _inside_ the text box, as usual.
3. Change the horizontal paragraph alignment for the text to Centered.
4. Go to Item --> Shape and choose the last option in the fly-out menu, Path.
Voila! The circular text box is converted to a circular text path, and the text jumps to the top of it, hugging the curve and centered.
So the other day I was working on a layout with InDesign CS (we use both programs in our studio) and needed to create the same kind of text on a path. Since you can't change the shape of frames (boxes) on the fly in InDesign as you can in Quark, I couldn't use that trick.
On the other hand, one of the amazing things about InDesign is that every frame (box) *is* a path that can be edited with the Pen tool or Direct Selection tool, or that can be used as-is for text on a path. You don't need to change the shape of the frame first.
In fact, the same text frame that contains text can also have text running around its edge. Just switch to the Text on a Path tool and hover over any frame's boundary, empty or not, selected or not. When you see a "plus" symbol appear on the tool's cursor, it has detected a path. Just click and start typing.
But I didn't need any fancy effects, I just wanted a few words to center align at the top of an empty circle. So I created a circular frame and switched to the Text on a Path tool. When I clicked at the top-most point of the circle (12:00 position), the text wasn't centered on the path. It was left-aligned by default. As I typed, the characters approached the 3:00 position. Hmm.
A problem here is that with the Text on a Path tool chosen, you're locked out of changing paragraph alignment beforehand ... the alignment settings only are active when you've clicked an insertion point.
So I typed my text, then chose Centered for the paragraph alignment. Doing this inexplicably (to me, at least ... there's probably a good explanation somewhere) moved the text to the bottom of the circle, centered, but reading right to left and upside down. A puzzlement.
You can use the Direct Selection tool to easily move the text around on a path, getting it into the right position, or you could rotate the circle 180 degrees to get it up there exactly.
But that inexplicable behavior got me thinking. And so here's my InDesign tip for centering text at the top of a circular path from the get-go:
1. Create a circular frame.
2. Switch to the Text on a Path tool (press on the Text tool to reveal and select it).
3. Click an insertion point at the bottom of the path (6:00 position).
4. Change the paragraph alignment to Centered.
5. Start typing, and your text center-aligns perfectly at the top of the circle.
Weird, huh? But it works!
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UPCOMING HERGEEKNESS APPEARANCES
[Half of my business is graphic design, half is Adobe and Quark training, and the other half is public speaking engagements... hee-hee. Join me at one, I'd love to meet you! --AM]
Chicago InDesign User Group - March 25, 2004
Capps Digital University, Chicago Illinois
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
I'll be one of three presenters at the next meeting of the Chicago InDesign User Group. My dog and pony show will be all about style sheets. After a quick review of the basics, I'll show how to become a Style Sheet Power User. You'll learn innovative ways to use Nested Style Sheets for real-world projects, how to force InDesign to "take over" styles imported from Word files, how to base Paragraph Style Sheets on Character Style Sheets a la QuarkXPress, and more. Attendees will get a handout of Her Geekness' Top InDesign Style Sheet Tips and Mac/Windows keyboard shortcuts.
Details, map and registration:
<http://www.indesignusergroup.com/chicago/chi_next_meeting.html>
OS X Transition: A Survival Guide for Designers - April 5, 2004
Hilton Alexandria, Washington D.C.
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
This is the next scheduled date for the seminar I developed for Dynamic Graphics Training. Designed for OS 9 users about to move to OS X (the majority of Mac designers, in other words), I cover installation, new features, and in-depth review of the top issues: Fonts, Classic, Printers and Peripherals, File Sharing and Troubleshooting.
Details and registration:
<http://www.dgusa.com/dgt/dgt.aspx?viewcourse=13>
Mac Design Conference and Expo - June 2-4, 2004
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois
I'm actually doing two seminars at the Mac Design Conference. One, "Marketing Your Creative Services Online" (mentioned in the Google story above) is about how use e-mail, online forums, and your web site to find new clients. I'll have lots of insider tips and down-to-earth how-to's that don't require a lot of money or programmer-type abilities. The other seminar, "Professional Layout Techniques," will help non-designers and newbie designers alike get a handle on successful ways to lay out publications for print and web.
Details and registration:
<http://www.macdesignconference.com>
Note: Existing 2003 Conference information is being updated for the 2004 one as I type, so revisit them periodically. However, the money part's working fine... :-) You can pre-register for the 2004 Conference at the site at significant savings.
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IS 2004 YOUR YEAR TO MASTER YOUR DOMAIN?
You can fully master the latest versions of OS X, Photoshop, InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, Acrobat, GoLive, and the rest of the designer's toolbox in far less time than you think! Just call in HerGeekness for an enjoyable session or two of targeted training (Mac or Windows) for you or your staff in the program of your choice -- starting at the level you're at, going to the level you want to attain, using the files you actually work with.
All clients receive three years of 24/7 follow-up support by phone or e-mail, too -- it's like having your own personal consultant at your beck and call, and can save you hundreds of dollars in per-incident support calls direct to the software companies.
Anne-Marie provides authorized Quark and Adobe training at your workplace for groups of one to ten or more, in the Chicago area and throughout the country. Out-of-the-office training in Seneca's bi-platform studio or Mac classroom is also available. Recent clients include the Chicago Cubs (that was cool!), McDonalds Corporation, the Chicago Tribune, and World Book Publishing.
Detailed information including pricing, student pix and unsolicited feedback are here:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/
... or contact her directly to talk about your training needs and get a friendly, no-obligation quote:
mailto:amarie@senecadesign.com
Phone: 312-946-1100
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DesignGeek is a free bimonthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com/).
To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site: http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/subscribe.html
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Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com
Copyright 2004 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
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