Monthly Archives: August 2011

Even with Jack Frost nipping at your nose, you’ll still come off looking like a hot studio when you share the tidings of the season with clients and their families. These six, distinctive holiday cards merge your photography with the excitement of the newsroom, and all the cheer that’s fit to print. Fully customizable and perfect for clients to update friends and family with room for news and events, these cards are so much fun, you’ll find uses for them long after the figgy puddings are a distant memory.

PERFECT FOR:
• Holiday cards
• Two sided postcards
• 5×7 folded cards
• Family newsletters
• Event invitations
• Marketing materials

PRODUCT DETAILS:
• 6 distinctive two-sided designs
• Fully layered Photoshop PSD files for unlimited customization, including color changes
• Designed using WHCC’s 5×7 card templates for easy printing
• Compatible with PS7 and newer, Photoshop Elements 6 and newer, Windows and Mac

*Special thanks to Mi Amore Foto, Peekaboo Photos, Angela Weedon Photography, Tinywater Photography and Olivia Leigh Photographie for the lovely sample images.

Click here to check them out in the shop!

Please take a moment to read this important information about your product.

FONTS:

In order to maintain the look of the templates you will need to have the same fonts installed on your system as the ones we used in the design.

FONTS USED IN THIS DESIGN:

STYLE 1:
Ripe, CAC Champagne

STYLE 2:
Ostrich Sans

STYLE 3:
TypoSlabSerif-Light, Lobster 1.4

STYLE 4:
Steelfish

STYLE 5:
Copse

STYLE 6:
Rawengulk

The fonts we used in these designs are freeware or shareware fonts available for free on the internet.  We cannot include the fonts in your download because they are protected under copyright.  However you can download them directly from their creators.   We find that if you type in the name of the font into your favorite search engine you will come up with several download sources, such as dafont.com.

INSERTING IMAGES:

Inserting your own images into the templates is very easy.  Perform the following steps:

1)) Select the image layer you would like to populate in your LAYERS palette.

2)) Open your image and drag it onto the template using your MOVE tool (Keyboard shortcut “V”)

3))  Click on the tiny black triangle in your LAYERS palette to pull up the drop-down menu and choose “Create Clipping Mask”.

4))  Use the FREE TRANSFORM tool (Keyboard shortcut Control+T) and drag in the corners of your image to position it correctly within the frame.

5)) Press Enter to apply the transformation.

Repeat this step with any subsequent images.

CHANGING COLORS:

These designs are in the form of shapes, which are vector layers.  This makes it very easy to change the color on the fly.  Here’s how:

1))  Choose the graphic that you would like to change in the Layers palette.

2))  Now, double-click the small box of color next to the name of the layer.

3))  Choose the new color when the dialog box appears.

4))  Click “OK”.

PRINTING YOUR CARDS:

We have designed these templates to be used with White House Custom Color’s ( www.whcc.com ) 5×7 double sided card products.  If you currently use WHCC the templates are 100% ready to go.  Don’t worry, however, if you use another lab as the cards will be printed easily with your favorite printer.  Remember that each lab is different, so be absolutely sure that you contact them for their specs and color profiles prior to submitting your files.  When you have your lab’s sizing and submission guidelines, you will need to transfer the designs to their templates before printing them.

Please take a moment to read this important information about your product.

FONTS:

In order to maintain the look of the templates you will need to have the same fonts installed on your system as the ones we used in the design.

FONTS USED IN THIS DESIGN:

STYLE 1:
Wicked Grit, Arial Narrow, Remington Noiseless

STYLE 2:
Arial Bold Italic, Georgia

STYLE 3:
Remington Noiseless, TypoSlabSerif-Light

STYLE 4:
Georgia

STYLE 5:
Cloister Black, Georgia

STYLE 6:
Cloister Black, Times, TypoSlabSerif-Light, Georgia

The fonts we used in these designs are freeware or shareware fonts available for free on the internet.  We cannot include the fonts in your download because they are protected under copyright.  However you can download them directly from their creators.   We find that if you type in the name of the font into your favorite search engine you will come up with several download sources, such as dafont.com.

INSERTING IMAGES:

Inserting your own images into the templates is very easy.  Perform the following steps:

1)) Select the image layer you would like to populate in your LAYERS palette.

2)) Open your image and drag it onto the template using your MOVE tool (Keyboard shortcut “V”)

3))  Click on the tiny black triangle in your LAYERS palette to pull up the drop-down menu and choose “Create Clipping Mask”.

4))  Use the FREE TRANSFORM tool (Keyboard shortcut Control+T) and drag in the corners of your image to position it correctly within the frame.

5)) Press Enter to apply the transformation.

Repeat this step with any subsequent images.

CHANGING COLORS:

Most designs are in the form of shapes, which are vector layers.  This makes it very easy to change the color on the fly.  Here’s how:

1))  Choose the graphic that you would like to change in the Layers palette.

2))  Now, double-click the small box of color next to the name of the layer.

3))  Choose the new color when the dialog box appears.

4))  Click “OK”.

Sometimes you will encounter a layer that has a texture or designs built into it that a color fill will not work for.  In this case, we use the Hue/Saturation slider.

1)) Select the layer you would like to change in the LAYERS palette.

2)) At the bottom of your LAYERS palette you will see several little icons.  Choose the “Make adjustment layer” icon (it is a tiny circle filled with half black and half white)

3))  Click this icon and choose “Hue/Saturation”.

4)) Slide the “Hue” slider until you find a shade you like.

5)) Click on the tiny black triangle in your LAYERS palette to pull up the drop-down menu and choose “Create Clipping Mask”.

PRINTING YOUR CARDS:

We have designed these templates to be used with White House Custom Color’s ( www.whcc.com ) 5×7 double sided card products.  If you currently use WHCC the templates are 100% ready to go.  Don’t worry, however, if you use another lab as the cards will be printed easily with your favorite printer.  Remember that each lab is different, so be absolutely sure that you contact them for their specs and color profiles prior to submitting your files.  When you have your lab’s sizing and submission guidelines, you will need to transfer the designs to their templates before printing them.

Amazingly delectable and as dainty as a butterfly kiss on the cheek, these six stunners from Design Aglow will knock your knee socks off. Each proof border comes to suit in 6 standard image sizes and allow for limitless customization. So sweet, you’ll create reasons to find time alone with these charmers.

PERFECT FOR:
• Weddings, engagement shoots, children, fine art, and marketing materials.
• Digital mat on framed photos
• Proof album
• Any display album up to 10×10
• Loose proofs

PRODUCT DETAILS:
• Six lovely designs
• Included action applies border to 6 image sizes: 4×6, 5×5, 5×7, 8×8, 8×10 and 10×10
• Fully layered, vector PSD files included for unlimited customization
• Included action makes inserting your pre-cropped images fully automatic – takes just seconds
• Insert images one at a time or run a batch
• Compatible with Photoshop CS or newer, Windows and Mac

*Special thanks to Tinywater Photography for the lovely images.

Click here to check them out in the shop!

~~HOW TO USE PROOF BORDERS~~

PLEASE READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH.  DON’T WORRY, EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT :)

The .zip file you just downloaded includes folders of the templates including .psd format and jpeg previews.  The fully layered .psd files of each border are there so that you may go in and apply the borders without using the actions…but, trust us, you will want to use the actions.

The only files you will probably want to concern yourself with are a set of actions for automatic application of the borders, and a .pat file that consists of the borders themselves.

Please make sure that you also read through the ever-so-lovely copyright text file.

You should be relatively well-versed in the concept of “Actions” and “Batch” processing in Photoshop before attempting to use these files.  If you need more help please see our highly informative tutorial section at http://designaglow.com/tutorials-search/. We are always updating so if there is something you have a question about that is not listed there, please let us know about it and we will add it to the list.

You will most likely want to sharpen your images after you are finished adding your borders to make them look a little more crisp when you go to print.

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Follow these instructions EXACTLY to install proof borders and actions – the entire setup process will take less than 10 minutes:

1.  Save the compressed .zip folder to a convenient location on your hard drive.  The desktop works great for this.

2.  Unzip the compressed files using a program such as WinZip, or equivalent.

3.  Inside of the unzipped folder, locate the files “4×6.atn”, “5×7.atn”, “8×10.atn”, “10×10,8×8,5×5.atn” and “KISS_AND_TELL_BORDERS.pat”.

4.  Double click each of the action files and the pattern file (separately) and they will load into Photoshop.

To help the patterns load a little faster when you are bordering a large group of images, you may want to clean out your patterns in the Preset Manager.

5.  Choose “Edit–> Preset Manager…”

6.  Choose “Patterns” from the drop-down menu.

7.  Select all the patterns that are not from the “Kiss and Tell” set and choose “DELETE”. (Make sure you have a copy of these patterns on your hard drive.)

8.  Click “Done”.

*Phew* We are now all done with that…and now the fun part.  Good news is, you will only have to do this once.  Your border actions are now installed and ready to go…Now let’s border some pictures!

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To apply the borders to a single image:

1.  Open the file you would like to border.

2.  Select the “Actions” tab and choose the border you would like to add to the image.  Please note, that you will have to use the Horizontal templates for horizontal images, and vice versa.

3.  Click “Play”.

4.  Sit back and relax while all the magic happens and then save your file.  BE SURE TO ALWAYS “SAVE AS” SO THAT YOU DO NOT LOSE YOUR ORIGINAL!!!!

NOTE: For the 4×6 actions, you can leave your image in the original 2:3 ratio that it comes in straight out of camera. For the 10×10, 8×8 & 5×5, you will need to crop your image to 10×10 first. For the 8×10 and 5×7, you will need to crop your image to 8×10 and 5×7, respectively.

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To Apply the Borders to an entire folder of images you will need to crop your images first to the desired size. For the 4×6 actions, you can leave your image in the original 2:3 ratio that it comes in straight out of camera. For the 10×10, 8×8 & 5×5, you will need to crop your image to 10×10 first. For the 8×10 and 5×7, you will need to crop your image to 8×10 and 5×7, respectively. If your images are not already cropped to the correct size, the action will not work properly.

To apply the borders to an entire folder of images we will run a “Batch” on the folder.

*****Unfortunately, you must separate out your horizontal and vertical images into their own folders so that the batch may be run with the right orientation.  Photoshop cannot tell the difference between horizontal and vertical images.   There are a number of ways to separate out images according to their widths and heights.  In fact, the techniques are so numerous, I recommend sticking with whatever you know, and go with that.  I will list the simplest technique I know below*****

Navigate to the folder of images you would like to run the batch on and open the folder in Adobe Bridge.

1.  Click to View Thumbnails.

2.  Choose “View–> Arrange Icons –> By Dimension” .  This will separate out the vertical and horizontal images.

3.  Highlight all of the horizontal images and place them in a new folder called “Horizontal” or whatever name you would like.  Do the same for the verticals.

4.  Open Photoshop and choose “File–>  Automate –>  Batch –>”

5.  Choose Set “4×6.atn” and insert the appropriate border action into the drop down menu (remember to choose horizontal or vertical appropriately).

6.  Choose the “Source Folder” of the images you would like to apply the borders to.  For example, we just made a folder called “C:weddings/lisa_and_jon/horizontal” that we’ll use.

7.  Choose the Destination Folder.  This is where Photoshop will save your proofs after doing its magic.  I like to send all my proofs to a central folder called “proofs holding” and then move them after the entire batch of vertical and horizontal images is done.

8.  I DO NOT RECOMMEND RENAMING YOUR FILES IN THIS STEP SO JUST LEAVE THAT PART BLANK.

9.  Double check everything and click “OK” and Photoshop will go to town.

Remember to run the batch again on your vertical images to complete the job.  After the batch has run you may merge the horizontal and vertical images back together, or keep them separated – it’s up to you.  I prefer to merge them back into the same folder so that everything is together, for simplicity’s sake, and that they are back in chronological order.

Depending on how many images it has to process, the time it will take for the batch to run varies.  If you have hundreds or even thousands of images, do this step at night before leaving so that its done in the morning.

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ADDING IMAGES BY HAND

Inserting your own images into the PSD templates is very easy.  Perform the following steps once you have opened the desired PSD border template from the “PHOTOSHOP_FILES” folder:

1)) Select the image layer you would like to populate in your LAYERS palette (It will be called “IMAGE LAYER”).

2)) Open your image and drag it onto the template using your MOVE tool (Keyboard shortcut “V”)

3)) Your image will be placed above the IMAGE LAYER, but right now it will probably appear quite large.

4))  Choose “Create Clipping Mask” from the “Layers” menu at the top.  (This will contain your image with the IMAGE LAYER)

5))  Use the FREE TRANSFORM tool (Keyboard shortcut Control+T) and drag in the corners of your image to position it correctly within the frame.  (Hold SHIFT while you drag to constrain proportions, so your image won’t get “smooshed”.)

6)) Press Enter to apply the transformation.

Repeat this step with any subsequent images.

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****VERY IMPORTANT****

DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE NAMES OF THE TEMPLATES, ACTIONS, OR PATTERN FILES.  DOING SO MAY CAUSE THEM TO MALFUNCTION.  ALWAYS KEEP A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL .ZIP FILE SO THAT YOU MAY RELOAD EVERYTHING IN THE FUTURE SHOULD SOMETHING GET MESSED UP.  IF ANYTHING STARTS MISBEHAVING, STOP IMMEDIATELY AND SIMPLY RELOAD THE .ATN AND .PAT FILES ACCORDING TO THE STEPS ABOVE

Today’s fan share comes from Carla of Carla Rhea Weddings. She writes, “I love all the great tools from DA! You guys make it so easy!!! My bride and groom wanted a guest sign in album that was unique, so I used the Boudie Call template to design the cover and inside of one book and the other I used the Baby Plan template for the outside. I wanted them to have a choice so I used different designs for both books. I used WHCC for my books – metallic cover with satin pages. The Boudie Call template is not just for boudoir. It makes an elegant statement for weddings and engagements! Thanks for making it sooo easy! My clients loved both books! They were torn!”

Thanks for the great share, Carla! Enjoy your $75 gift certificate~