Processing SVG experiments

I’ve been experimenting with creating SVGs programmatically, which opens up a world of possibilities. It allows patterns, shapes, and compositions that would not be easy or possible by hand. The results can then be imported into Illustrator, Sketch or your design tool of choice, augmenting their features.

Colour management, part 3

I believe colour management is an essential feature for professional design tools — being able to rely on what you’re seeing when choosing colours, deciding on contrast, and assessing legibility is critical. In the last two articles, we covered the basics of colour management. In this article, we’ll detail the settings required for screen design in many popular design tools.

Colour management, part 2

Previously, we discussed how colour spaces are similar to units of measurement. While “50” has no absolute physical characteristic, “50cm” does. Combining a value and a unit of measurement gives it more meaning, and removes ambiguity. Colour spaces are a bit more complex than units of length, but the analogy can be used to understand many aspects of colour management.

Colour management, part 1

If someone asked you to build a coffee table and they specified the legs as a height of 50, what do you think that would mean? 50 kilometres? 50 feet? 50 inches? 50 millimetres? Probably 50 centimetres. You can’t know for sure, but you can guess, based on the table’s intended use — 50 kilometres, 50 feet, and 50 inches are way too big for a coffee table, and 50 millimetres is way too small.

Vector icon speed runs

It’s common to have to draw the same kinds of icons over and over — many different apps and websites use similar glyphs, but each instance typically needs to be tweaked for size and style, so they need to be redrawn.

My Mac app icon design workflow

My favourite Mac app icons are simple enough to be easily read in the Dock, yet they contain interesting details when viewed up close. They have large vibrant areas of colour, yet they contain enough contrast and shading to give them a sense of volume.

Displays for designers and developers

If you’re considering an external display for your Mac, there’s a few important decisions to make. Apple doesn’t sell external displays any more, so you can’t just default to their wisdom. That’s an issue, because not all displays are well suited for Macs.

Design

Skala

Why Skala won’t have artboards

Skala progress, December 2014

Photoshop

Really old

Colour management and UI design

Dissecting iTunes and App Store links

What if iChat was one window?

A new Drobo Dashboard icon

Photoshop CS6 wish list

What to do with all those extra pixels?

Noise and textures

Photoshop roundrect roundup

PNG compression and iOS apps