To Trim or not to Trim
Not trimming elements and alphas is one of the most common mistakes that designers make. Some designers may wonder why it is important to trim. Others may know trimming is important, but may not know how much space should be left when trimming if any at all. With this post we will cover why leaving too much space is a problem, why trimming is important, how much space should be left when trimming, and how to trim your elements in most programs.
First, why is trimming important.
When an element is trimmed properly it does not damage the element and it keeps the file sizes down. Untrimmed elements take up quite a bit more space wasting valuable hard drive space for the designer and the scrappers who purchase the product.
Here is an example of a trimmed button and it’s file size as shown via the properties:
Similarly, the same button untrimmed is much larger:
So it is easy to see why trimming is important. Imagine a kit with 30 untrimmed elements. Think of the wasted space.
Now that we know that trimming is important there is the question of how much space should be trimmed. Do you trim all the way to the edge of the element and save or do you trim and leave a little bit of space? This gets a bit tricky. In part it is personal preference, although some feel that when an element is trimmed all the way to the edge and saved a few pixels along the edge of the element may be lost. So to be safe it is usually best to trim, expand the canvas a few pixels and then save your element. There are a variety of actions and scripts that do just that for PS, PSE, and PSP. In general it seems that between 3 pixels and 10 pixels is an acceptable amount of space to leave. Some people may feel that more space is necessary and some may think only 1 or 2 pixels. Personally, I save with 3 pixels of space left around my element using the action from my QC Action set.
Now how do you trim and expand your canvas in your program?
If you want to use an action or script we have a few listed in our Resources section that we have personally tested for quality.
Want to do it yourself?
In Photoshop:
Step 1: Select “Image” from the top menu, then “Trim”. Transparent Pixels should be checked and all boxes under “Trim Away” should be checked. Click OK.
Step 2: Select “Image” from the top menu, then “Canvas Size”. Simply add .03 to the height and width. Make sure it is set to add around the entire image and click OK.
That’s it, that simple.
Unfortunately for PSE it appears there is not a quick way to trim. However, many actions for PS work to trim in PSE. In addition, I found a free action that claims to work in PSE for trimming. I am unable to test this so if someone tries it please let me know if it works:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/ss/sf_trimaction.htm
In Paint Shop Pro:
At this time I am having a bit of difficulty determining how to do this in PSP as I do not have access to this program. I believe it is very similar to PS. If any PSP users would like to share their technique they can comment here or email me at tiffany at inspiredbydominic dot com.
Hope this helps some!
Worst Gamut Offenders
Have you ever wondered if certain colors are more likely to go out of gamut than others? Is there a way to know in advance if that gorgeous color you carefully checked for gamut may end up out of gamut after you are finished creating your item? The answer to both questions is yes. There are certain colors that are more likely to move out of gamut than others. Once you know which colors you will know which to start watching more closely and you will begin to recognize when an item is out of gamut.
The worst gamut offenders are greens, pinks, oranges, and reds. These colors are more likely to increase in saturation when overlaid and blended. Even the darkest of reds is likely to have spots off gamut by the time an element is finished and unfortunately a lot of times lowering the saturation or changing the color mode will often change these colors a bit too much.
First, let’s talk about how to tell when your item is moving out of gamut before you merge the layers. Whenever working with greens, pinks, oranges, and reds you will want to watch them closely for any area that appears to be bright or more saturated than others. When you add an overlay does the paper get brighter? If so turn on your gamut warning (if using photoshop) and check. If you do not have photoshop you will have to trust your eye. If you think it looks more saturated it probably is. Play with the blending modes until the saturation goes back to normal. Adjust the opacity of the overlay layer. Put your color swatch on a layer above your item. Does the color still match? You can make minor adjustments to saturation, blending modes, or even dodge and burn a bit to fix any odd spots much more easily before you merge your layers. This is one reason why if gamut is a concern for you checking while you create your item is essential.
Now you’ve carefully watched your saturation while creating and your item is still out of gamut, what do you do? You can adjust the color mode as mentioned previously or lower the saturation. If these change your color too much try a very low opacity dodge to the area.
Sometimes you will find that no matter what you do you cannot fix all areas of your item without compromising the integrity of the initial color palette. In this case you have to look at how much is out of gamut. Is it just a small area on your item? This is probably okay. It is unlikely that a small area will affect the quality of the printed item and that is the concern. If your entire item is out of gamut this could affect the print quality but a small portion will likely be completely unnoticeable. The best way to determine if the print quality will be affected is to do a test print of the items you are concerned about AND have a friend with a different printer do the same for you. I will often print a copy of my preview so I can see how the colors print. If everything looks okay then call it a day and be confident that your customers are getting a quality product.
Best of luck to you!
Possible Work Arounds for Gamut in PSE!
Hello Everyone,
I have been doing a lot of research on Gamut and Photoshop Elements in hopes of finding ways that PSE users can check their items for the gamut warning. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a way to do this yet. However, I have found some FABULOUS looking resources that I think may help get PSE users at least partway there and open up some other new options in PSE for them.
I found quite a few references during my research to a program called Elements+ which is said to unlock many features in PSE. What this program does for you varies depending upon which version of PSE you have. There is a demo version of this program available HERE and you can purchase the full version here. (I want to note that this is information I have found on my own and Amy and I have no affiliation with this group whatsoever).
Now you may be wondering how this relates to gamut? During my research many people mentioned soft proofing as a way to see how colors will pring in PSE. This is not the same as the gamut warning in Photoshop, however it seems that it will offer designers and scrapper some ability to see if their colors are really off from what will print.
There are instructions and tutorials on how to use Elements+ on the site, simplephotoshop.com. There are also a variety of other photoshop tutorials listed.
I will continue to research and see if I can find other ways to help PSE users work around gamut issues and other requested issues. However, until I find something more concrete I will lead you towards other resources that I find that may help.
Best of luck to everyone and I hope this helps!
Do You have TONS of Missing Pixels to Fix?
Did you check your element or paper for missing pixels and find out there are way too many to simply use the clone tool? Don’t worry! We have a fairly simple fix for that too!
Here is an example of an element with missing pixels where you may not want holes.
As you can see there are large areas with lots of tiny holes in this element. The designer does not want these missing areas so she contacted us to ask how best to fix it. I would like to take a moment to say that everyone should feel free to PM either of us or ask question on the message board, we love to help and if you are wondering about something someone else probably is too!
Now, onto the fix.
First, enlarge the canvas you are working with (NOT the image size) so that you have extra space around your element as shown below.
Now select the transparent area around your element. In Photoshop the easiest way to do this is to use the magic wand tool. It is important to make sure you select any transparent areas within the element that you want to keep transparent as well. Once you have selected all transparent areas you want to invert your selection so that only the element is selected. In Photoshop this is done by going to Select then choosing Inverse.
Next, contract your selection by 3-6 pixels depending upon the size of your element. I started with 3 and then contracted 3 more for this particular element. Now you will want to create a new layer BELOW your element. You should still have the marching ants showing that your element is selected. Fill the selected area on the new layer with the main color of your element (in this case a light blue-green).
This should look something like this:
At this point it is important to zoom in at least to 100% to make sure that the fill color is not showing along any edges or areas that SHOULD be transparent.
Once you are sure that it is fine you will want to merge the two layers together and check for missing pixels again.
As you can see the missing pixels are gone and the element is now ready to trim and save. I hope this has helped!
Size – How big should that be?
Something that some may not think about when creating products is the size. Size is an important issue to consider when quality checking because if an item is extremely large it will have a larger file size and take up unnecessary space and if an item is too small it may be unusable.
Papers should always be 12 x 12 unless otherwise stated as this is the industry standard.
One of the best guides for the size of elements is to think about how big an item might be in the real world. I will not go into what size elements should be because that is completely up to the preferences of the individual.
However, it is extremely important to look at the size of your item on a 12 x 12 paper or canvas to be sure that it is of a usable size, especially if you have had to adjust the resolution of your item for some reason.
The easiest way to check the size of your product is to pull it onto a 12×12 paper or canvas. I find that creating my preview while I work helps me to see instantly if something is off.
If you do find an item is the wrong size be wary about enlarging it as this will often cause pixelation.
Best of luck!
Increasing Sharpness and Clarity
So you have realized that an item or paper you would love to use lacks the clarity required in a high quality item. However, before you toss it out let’s see if we can fix it. 
There are a few methods I use to increase the clarity of an element or paper.
Sometimes clipping a texture overlay to your paper or element with a soft light blending mode will give it just what it needs to appear sharper and add the needed texture.
If that does not work with your particular element or paper sometimes duplicating the layer of your item, desaturating, and then adjusting the opacity and blending of the duplicate layer will help give your item the needed clarity.
In Photoshop, you can use the unsharp mask or sharpen options to attempt to increase the sharpness of your item. These are located under the “Filters” menu. It is important to not overuse this option as it will cause odd pixelation.
In general, I use one or a combination of the three methods above to improve the clarity and sharpness of my papers and elements when needed.
If none of the methods work I would recommend seeing if you can overlay the element or paper onto another paper to create a beautiful tag or paper element instead of just reaching for the delete key.
Best of luck!
Blurriness – How much do I need to zoom in?
A common problem found with elements and papers is blurriness when you zoom in on the item. Obviously if you zoom far enough in at any item eventually it will be blurry.
So this brings about the question, how far should you zoom in and at what percentage should your item be clear?
There is quite a bit of debate about this currently. However, it appears that most people agree that as with everything else so far your element or paper should still be clear at 100%. Some ask why and state that nothing is ever printed at 100% and unless a person is on a computer they won’t see it at 100%. However, if your element is clear at 100% it will be perfect at print size and you will be more likely to have happy customers that come back again and again.
There are times that an item will not be expected to be perfectly clear at 100% such as some elements with soft edges will not have clear edges and some artsy papers may not be perfectly clear at 100%.
When I check my papers I first look at them at full size at approximately 12.5% zoom in order to see that I like the final result.
Next, I zoom in to 100% to see if my paper is clear or blurry. You can see that the texture of the paper is very clear. It is important to note that patterns may not always be as clear depending upon the desire result when printing so when checking for blurriness the texture of the paper is what I consider most important. There are two examples of blurry papers at the bottom of the post.
Finally, I check one more time at “View” then “Print Size” to be sure my paper or element is clear at that size.
Here are some examples of blurry papers that would need to be redone or fixed.
Best of luck!
Smoothing Jagged Edges – Layer Masks PS
Jagged edges can be very stressful for designers and at times tough to fix. There are a variety solutions to fixing jagged edges. I am going to go over a few of them here.
If your element is a basic shape, such as a circle or square or such, you might be able to use the custom shape tool in your program to create a similar shape and clip your element to it.
If the area that is jagged is a straight line you can use the polygonal lasso tool in photoshop to trace just inside the line and select the area that is jagged. Delete the jagged area and your element should look smooth.
However, if your element is complex there will likely be a lot more work involved with cleaning up the jagged edges. You may need to use your program’s lasso tool to extract your element just slightly inside the edges. Invert or Select Inverse to select the jagged edges and area outside of your element. Delete or Clear that area and your edges should look better.
My favorite way of cleaning up complex elements with jagged edges is to use Adobe Illustrator in conjunction with Photoshop. Here are the step by step directions if you have both of these programs.
- First, open your element in Photoshop and add a color overlay that is black.
- Save your element with a different name as a PNG or JPEG.
- Now open your element in illustrator.
- Make sure your element is selected by clicking on it on the screen.
- Click the “Object” menu.
- Click “Live Trace”
- Click “Make and Expand”
- Click on the “Object” menu once more.
- Click “Ungroup”
- Now click near your element tracing in the white area to select it and hit your “backspace” key to delete the white area.
- Look carefully at your element to see if the edges look smooth. If they do save and move on to the next step. If they look better but not completely smooth you may want to run a second live trace. The live trace settings may need to be adjusted to work better for your element. I use the default settings most of the time.
- Save your illustrator file and open it in Photoshop.
- Drag the smooth shape layer on top of your element.
- Resize the shape layer to be slightly smaller than your element.
- Move your element above the shape layer.
- Clip your element to the smooth shape layer.
- Check the edges to insure they are smooth and that nothing important has been lost.
- If everything looks good save your element and you are done
Check back for more fixes about jagged edges to come in the near future.
Best of luck!
Drop Shadows – Matter of Preference?
Drop shadows are a hot topic in the digiworld. Some believe that there should NEVER be drop shadows in transparent areas, while others believe that a shadowed version of some elements should be offered.
So when is a drop shadow right and when is it wrong? This is entirely a matter of preference. There is no right or wrong. Customers have shown in the past that they are just as split on this issue as designers. However, it is very important to note that stores often have a preference and you should be familiar with the guidelines of your store.
If you decide you want to offer a shadowed element in your kit it is helpful to note that the element is shadowed in the name of the element. For example, designername_kitname_element_1_shadowed. Additionally, many customers like the choice of having an unshadowed element as well if a shadowed element is included.
Now that you know a little bit about why you might or might not want a shadowed element let’s talk about how to check for drop shadows in areas that you may not want them. Perhaps your store requires that there are no drop shadows in transparent areas or perhaps it is your own personal preference not to include them. When quality checking, looking for drop shadows is one of the easiest things to do.
In your program create a new layer and move it below your element. Fill the layer with a bright color that is in contrast with your element. I usually use a very saturated bright pink as my fill layer. Now zoom in to 100% and check the for shadows in what would be the transparent area. If there are shadows they should be very clear. Once you have checked your element you can decide if everything is as it should be or if there is a problem that needs to be fixed.
Want an action or service to check for your shadows for you? Check out our resources section for available actions and services.
Best of luck!
How to get back in Gamut?
So you have an item that is really out of the gamut? Luckily getting back in gamut is easier than you might there. The easiest way to bring your item back into gamut is to lower the saturation of your item. Do this slowly with the gamut warning on so you can see when you have made it back into the gamut range.
Another simple way to quickly pull your item into gamut is to switch the color mode from RGB to CMYK and then back to RGB. However, one should be cautious using this method as it may change your colors more drastically than the saturation method.
Changing your color mode in Photoshop and PSE:
- Go to the “Image” menu.
- Next click “Mode”
- From here you can select the color mode you wish to use. No box will pop up, the color mode will be changed instantly.
Changing your color mode in PSP:
- Go to the “File” menu
- Click on “Preferences”
- Click on “CMYK Conversion Preferences”
- Adjust this as you would like or use the default
- Click ok.
Best of luck!