Dorchester — Jun 11th 2013
As John was away, Mark introduced the meeting with 20 members present.
First off was Euan, who offered us 'a cup of Instant Alpha'.
Apple's 'Instant Alpha' in Pages, Numbers and Keynote with 'Smart Selection' in Preview are two related and useful technologies. Euan covered the concepts of Channels, Masks and Adjustment layers -- with a brief exploration of RGB and CMYK colour channels. He showed examples of Apple's software transparency in use (showing the scope and pitfalls). Then he showed us how, using Mask editing in Photoshop CS5 he dissolved the background of a dandelion seed head photographed in a dense grass background so that that the spoked wheel of Daimler Benz's first car could be seen through the seed structure. He explained how to improve the quailty of the final image by careful attention to contrast, sharpening and other factors in each photograph before the foreground seed head transparency selection mask was made. He touched on transparency blending in inDesign using the ITV logotype as an example, and the presentation ended by using Keynote to make a 'gallery' of senior Apple people framed within the Apple logo.
On the Mac, Instant Alpha can be found in recent versions of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, iWork etc, but not iPhoto. It is present in Preview, where it is described as 'Smart selection'.
It can be used to produce a variety of effects, for example, one can select particular coloured sections of an image, make these transparent, and use the result to mask another image introduced via a pasted in layer.
After the break, Mick then told us how to print Labels from Address Book (now known as Contacts).
1) Set up cards in required format for addressing envelopes - duplicate cards may be required for inclusion of e.g. 'Mr and Mrs', if these care required to be printed, and a note. such as 'Label' added to facilitate the next step
2) Set up smart group of all cards required
3) Go to Print. A window is then opened in which to select the various label formatting options, which include the following:-
Labels - select Avery label type
Margins - set to allow some margin for misalignment
Gutter - gap between labels
It is then suggested that a page can be printed on plain paper, to enable settings to be refined without wasting the labels themselves.
Q&A - A variety of questions as usual, and some suggestions / answers.
iPhone notes - some have disappeared, why? - Known problem but we don't know reason.
iCloud and storing contact cards - back up first if concerned that contacts will be lost
USB sticks can be formatted using FAT format. Can't store application in this way, but can store these as zip, disc image etc.
BT infinity gives widely different speeds for 2 macs on WiFi - Suggested they may be connecting using different WiFi channels
SR {+EW}
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