Adobe: A Green Building Material
One of the best building materials for homes in the hot, dry climates of the desert southwest is adobe. Adobe is made from clay which is often mixed with other natural materials such as straw and even dung. the process for making adobe bricks for building is simple: the base clay is mixed with water until a proper (mixture) consistency is achieved, it is then transferred into buckets and poured into preset frames (usually wooden). the resulting wet bricks are allowed to set or cure in the frame for several hours before being removed from the preset frame and left to dry (which can take a few days). Adobe can also be poured into blocks using a hydraulic or leverage press.
Some of the benefits of using adobe or other natural earth material to construct a home (from a green building and sustainable development perspective) are:
1. Reduction of energy costs related to transportation (if you are using local material). 2. Reduction of material costs due to reduced transportation costs, especially for well-established industries (again, as long as materials are coming from the local area). 3. Support of local businesses and resource bases. A concern with regard to use of local resources is the over extraction of clay from a prime area(s). Care must be taken to ensure that non-renewable earth materials are not over-extracted. Ecological balance within the region needs to be maintained while efficiently utilizing its resources. Many local suppliers carry materials that have been shipped in from out of the area, so it is important to ask for locally produced/quarried materials. (Source: Earth Materials website)
Growing up in the Southwestern part of the United States, I spent a lot of time in adobe homes. these homes stayed cool in the blistering summer heat without reliance on air conditioners (because of the thermal mass of the bricks) and stayed warm during cold winter seasons using fireplaces or inexpensive heating units (because of adobe's radiant heating properties).
Adobe homes are relatively inexpensive to construct because clay is a natural, sustainable building material readily available in most places. the cost of labor for making the bricks, assuming, a professional or skilled crew is hired rather than the owner making them himself or herself, should still be competitive enough to keep down construction costs for an adobe home build.
Although people living in the United States primarily associate adobe homes with the architecture of the Southwest, it's actually been used as a building material all over the world. in West-Asia, Spain, South America and throughout North and West Africa, it is the predominate building material. in fact, one-third of all human beings live in an earthen home.
One of the problems with using non-stabilized, all natural adobe is it's tendency to crack and chip as a result of weather erosion. This requires regular maintenance and/ repair work to be done by the home owner. for the most part, repairs consist of nothing more than a clay slip ( or paste) being painted over the chipped area or used as filler for cracks. once the slip dries, the repair is complete and, generally, blends in with the original adobe brick so there is no damage to the home's aesthetics.
Mixing in stabilizing agents like cement does not always prevent cracking and/or chipping. however, the use of super adobe, a process that hardens natural adobe, has proven to be very effective. Iranian-American architect, Nader Khalili, invented the super-adobe process. Khalili started setting natural mud walls (interior and exterior) of structures on fire using adobe bricks to concentrate the intense heat in targeted areas. the structure is more or less turned into a kiln and, after 3 to 4 days of cooking, the walls are hard enough and strong enough to resist both rain and wind erosion. in explaining the impetus for this revolutionary approach to green design and architecture, Khalili said,
It's not the time that arrives with an idea. It's a place that arrives with an idea. Somewhere in the world the time is always right. ( Source: Design like You give A Damn, Thames & Hudson, 2006)
Adobe Photoshop CS3 – Dodge and Burn Tools
This tutorial will go over too underused programs by Adobe Photoshop CS3. These two tools are the Dodge tool and Burn tool. These tools have the unique characteristic of lightening or darkening an area in an image. This comes into handy when you have pictures that may be too dark in some areas to see what is going on or to bright to see things. I have used a picture with a mixture of dark and light areas that could use some fabrication. This tool has been around for quite some time, but is very useful none the less. Let's continue with the tutorial so we can see just how this affects the image.
First open up Adobe Photoshop CS3 and select an image that you want to lighten or darken. now select the Dodge tool as shown in the diagram below.
Now select an area that you want to lighten.
Now click once or twice and check the changes this makes to an area on image. You can change the amount it changes per click by going to the top and changing the Exposure percentage. You can also change the brush size up there if you want to do a bigger or smaller area at a time.
Now select the Burn tool from the menu on the left.
Now you can see the tool image on the left.
Now select the lightened area that we just changed.
Now click a couple times and look at the output. It looks almost like it did when we started. It will probably never go back to the same way it was though. we can always try to get close though.
Now if you click a few more times you make that little house in the background behind the photographer almost disappear. I can see this being used when something revealing is showing in a reflection in a picture. This is how they would try to make it unviewable.
I hope that this tutorial has taught you how to effectively use the Dodge tool and the Burn tool. I am sure that you will find more useful things to do with it, but this is a nice example of it being used on an image in real life. Whatever image you choose to change make sure you take your time and display some effort in your work. It will go a long way in creating your masterpiece.
If you want to see a version of this tutorial with illustrations where the (Image #) expressions are please visit my website.
Combine PDF Files Without Adobe Acrobat
It's pretty clear that PDF files are the new must use when it comes to document handling. Who doesn't use a PDF nowadays? They are smaller than other similar files, can be viewed on Windows, Linux and MAC, and anyone can protect their PDF files with encryption and password. because of the wide variety of free conversion tools available today, everybody can convert whatever files they want to PDF.
Students use a large variety of operating systems on their computers. Teachers can make sure that their courses will be viewed properly by converting them to PDF files. Universal deployment is maybe the most important asset of PDF format.
Companies and business users can keep their internal documents as PDF files, benefiting from their smaller size and making sure those files are read only by employees who know the password. PDF security is another important feature that made the PDF format so popular.
Finally, home users are using PDF files because Adobe did a very smart thing: Adobe Acrobat Reader is used only for viewing PDF files and is free. This way they made sure PDF format is available for everybody.
After PDF files became widely used, some new needs appeared. Users wanted to extract only a couple of pages from a PDF files. This could be done only by using dedicated software: a PDF splitter tool. also, somebody at one point wanted to combine two or more PDF documents into a single file. They needed a PDF merger tool. Adobe made those tools, but they were not free. And because of their branding and marketing costs, those tools were pretty expensive.
Luckily, free tools emerged during time, but they were not developed by Adobe. Third party publishers made them available to public use, trying to gain a market share.
PDF Sam is the most popular tool that can be used to merge and combine PDF files. Originally started on the Source Forge platform, it is developed in Java and comes in two editions: a free one, and for those who donate any amount, an enhanced edition. It offers the basic PDF split and PDF merge operation, and in the enhanced version, file encryption.
Adolix Split and Merge PDF is quite a young entry in this market. Adolix developed this tool in Visual Basic, and focused on the graphical user interface. their aim was to make it as user-friendly as posible. Following PDF Sam steps, Adolix's tool was first available as a free edition. Users could split and merge PDF files with just a few mouse clicks. at some point they also offered a Professional edition. Users could merge more than 5 files at once and split large documents into PDF files with the PRO version.
Other vendors also released tools to handle the split and merge PDF process. Adult PDF, very PDF, AcroPDF and NitroPDF are only a few of the companies that entered the market with free or paid versions of those type of tools.
Adobe CS5 – Will Your PC Be Able to Run This Advanced New Software?
Adobe CS5 is the latest addition to the Creative Suite family, and looks to be one of the most advanced and feature-rich ever. however, with all these new additions, you need to be sure that your computer will be able to run this new software so that you can get on with what you do best in the fastest and most stress-free environment possible. We've discovered that although many computers will be able to run CS5, many of them will actually have issues which prevent it from running very quickly.
The general requirements for CS5 are as follows:
- 1GHz Processor
- 1GB Ram
- 20GB HDD
- 1024 X 768 Monitor Resolution
- DirectX 9 or higher
Individual packages inside CS5 have different requirements, but those are more-or-less what the package requires in order to run on a PC. the good news is that many people will be able to run this suite no problem on their PC. but the bad news is that many Windows computers will have an internal issue which causes them to run this software extremely slowly.
Not many people know this, but the registry database of Windows could be the difference between making your computer run CS5 extremely quickly or really slowly. the registry database is where Windows allows your software to store all of their settings, and is like a virtual memory for many programs on your PC. unfortunately, the registry is also the reason why CS5 will run slow on most people's computers - as it will basically corrupt many of the settings that Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc need to run, causing the software to take a long time to read the details they need.
The Adobe creative applications are some of the most resource intensive in the World, and they store 1000's of settings inside the registry. each time you use one of the CS5 programs, it need to read huge amounts of data from the registry. and unfortunately, much of that data has the tendency to become corrupt and damaged, causing your system to slow down as it cannot read the files it needs in the most effective way.
To make sure that CS5 runs smoothly on Windows, it's highly recommended that you clean up the registry of your computer with a 'registry cleaner'. These are software tools which scan through the registry database and fix any damaged registry settings that could be causing a problem.
Adobe Contribute
Adobe Contribute is a desktop software application originally developed by Macromedia (who were purchased by and merged into Adobe Systems Incorporated in December 2005). The purpose of the software is to provide a very easy and straightforward method (one that is particularly well-suited to non-technical users within an organization) for people to update web pages without needing to learn sophisticated web design or programming skills.
The main reason why the Adobe Contribute software is ideal for non-programmers and other non-technical users, is because it is based around a simple and intuitive WYSIWYG (What You see is What You Get) development environment. You might say it makes editing web pages, almost like using a word processor. This makes it very simple to update and edit both blogs and web sites.
One particularly welcome feature of the software is that it is designed for a multi-user environment. in other words, several people can be working on updating the same web site simultaneously. There are several features designed for this purpose, including features that prevent two people trying to amend the exact same page simultaneously (and thus messing up each other's changes), and features which allow administrators to set up different permission levels for different users (for example, some users might be limited to editing only the text on particular pages, other users might have more capabilities and options).
The software also incorporates a number of other useful features, for example, the ability to use templates created in Dreamweaver with Adobe Contribute too. Furthermore, versions of the software are available for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computers.
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Basics Tutorial
This tutorial will go over the basic aspects of Adobe Illustrator. within the immediate viewing area of the user a list of buttons and features are available to use on your Adobe Illustrator document. I will be going over the basic uses of these features and how you can implement them.
The first Adobe Illustrator tutorial is the Selection Tool. the Selection Tool is used to select projects on the screen that you may be working on. usually, a large amount of these can start to form when you are managing a project. you can move the files around to be easily viewed. However, there are limitations to this tool. Adobe has come up with two other Selection Tools that will solve these space issues.
The second Adobe Illustrator tutorials are bundled. they are related to the Selection Tool in terms of operation. they are the Direct Selection Tool and the Group Selection Tool. the Direct Selection Tool is used to reshape an object or image by using its anchor points. it can change the width and height of a segment of an object or change the way it shaped by moving anchor points in a certain direction. the Group Selection Tool allows you to select one object on the first click and if you select again it will target all of the objects that are within its field. This tool helps to organized all the objects so you can select them easily.
Next up is the Adobe Illustrator Magic Wand Tool. the Magic Wand Tool lets you select objects that are similar in stature. you can do this by just selecting one of the targets and the Magic Wand Tool will attach to the others that are similar. you can make the tool look for anything that you can think of within each object to connect the two.
The Lasso Tool is the next feature within Adobe Illustrator's long list of incredible features. the Lasso Tool allows you to select objects by drawing around them. you don't have to complete the connection all the way around the objects. Adobe Illustrator will make an educated guess of what you were thinking if you did not finish. sometimes this is a better way than using the other tools to select objects.
The features listed next are within the Pen Tool family. Most of them are Point Tools that help you manipulate objects. the Pen Tool is probably the most important tool that Adobe Illustrator CS3 has to offer. Anchor Points are used to define the way an object is and can be shaped. you can make very artistic shapes with this single tool. Many professional swear by it. the Add Anchor Point Tool allows you to add anchor points to an existing object. This feature will change the shape of the object indefinitely. it gives you more choices in the way you will your object to look. the Delete Anchor Point Tool deletes any anchor points on an object. This will also drastically change the way the object looks when displayed. the Convert Anchor Point Tool helps you shape objects very cleanly and precisely, so that you can get the most accurate shapes and transformations when you use anchor points.
The Type Tool has a wide assortment of features. the Type Tool makes different types and formats to put them in. you are able to edit these however you like. the Area Type Tool allows you to open up paths that were once areas you could type in to edit it yourself. the Type on a Path Tool allows you to manipulate the path in which the text will take. you can often use it to type around an object. I am sure you have seen typing that is in a spiral shape. the Vertical Type Tool makes it possible for you to type vertically. it is just like what you saw when you watched the matrix. Except those weren't real language characters. the Vertical Area Type Tool changes paths that were closed to vertical type. you are also given the freedom to edit the type as well. the Vertical Type on a Path Tool makes the path that you chose for the text write in a vertical fashion rather than making the text lay on the line as normal.
The next set of tools provides the user with the ability to make lines in all types of fashions. the Line Segment Tool lets you draw a simple straight line. the Arc Tool is pretty self-explanatory within itself. the Spiral Tool allows you to draw spiral shapes near perfectly and manipulate by using its preset anchor points. it can be a handy tool if you have a reason to make a spiral. the Rectangular Grid Tool allows you to make what looks like a spreadsheet. like the Rectangular Grid Tool the Polar Grid Tool gives you the ability to make a grid; however, this grid is circular in shape. it is fully configurable using the anchor points.
The next tools are one of my favorites in of the Adobe CS3 Series. these tools are the shape tools. they allow me to make shapes easily and without much attention to detail. I have saved many hours of headache by resorting to these tools. the first one is the Rectangle Tool, which makes a box shape or a rectangle shape. you can manipulate the width and height of the box to your liking. the Rounded Rectangle Tool allows you to make the edges of the box like structure rounded for a more smooth feeling. if you look at my website you can see that I used them a lot. I believe it adds a bit of flavor to the website. of course, I am always trying new things. when you check again you may find that my website looks totally different. the Ellipse Tool allows you to make seemingly perfect circles. if you have ever tried to freehand draw a perfect circle you know the headaches that I have gotten trying to do it myself. the Polygon Tool lets you make a six-sided object that is configurable for the user. the Star Tool does exactly what it says. it makes stars the Flare Tool makes objects that look like they have blown up or if you saw a supernova in the sky. so you will see a circle with a lot of lines poking out of it and it will be bright in the center. it is a pretty cool effect to use in many situations.
The Paintbrush Tool is a very old tool in the Adobe and Macromedia line of products. In reality, it is probably one of the first features in the first paint program ever made. it is very simple to use and only does what it says. it paints like a brush in different sizes and tones.
The Pencil Tool like the Paintbrush Tool only does what it says it does. it writes like a pencil in different sizes and tones. the Smooth Tool allows you to straighten out kinks in your drawings by erasing extra anchor points that may be messing up the path that an object would regularly make. if you use the Path Eraser Tool you can erase part of an object by erasing part of its path. if you just erased an anchor point with the Delete Anchor Point tool the object would just reshape into another form; however, with the Path Eraser Tool the object will act like that section doesn't exist anymore and it will seem as if somebody erased it with an actual eraser
The Rotate Tool is a simple feature that allows you to rotate any object on the Adobe Illustrator field. Many another Adobe design products have this feature as well. I believe even Macromedia products had it as well. the Reflect Tool allows you to copy the reflection of an object and move it however you like.
The Scaling Tool makes an object increase or decrease in size along the x and y axis. the Shear Tool allows you move an object around on its x and y axis. like if you set a point in the center of an object and spun the object around it like it was a compact disc. the Reshape Tool allows you to move certain anchor points while keeping the overall integrity of the object.
The Warp Tool allows you to shape objects with your freehand abilities by moving pixels around independently. the Twirl Tool makes an object perform a swirling motion within itself. the Pucker Tool makes it seem that the object is getting the air poked out of it. I would say it's like the object is imploding on itself. you can do this by simply using the cursor around the edges of the object. the Bloat Tool increases the air in an object and makes it looks like it will explode. the Scallop Tool makes the object looks like it is becoming spiky in nature. if you have seen a blowfish before its transformation from skinny fish to prickly prey is a good interpretation of this. the Crystallize Tool does the same thing as the scallop tool, except it only does it too the outside of the object. the Wrinkle Tool makes an object look like it is wrinkled. you can easily see this if you are using a grid or a line that is straight in nature to start.
The Free Transform Tool is used if you want change the shape of an object freehand. it is pretty simple and it reminds me of a couple other features I have used.
The Symbol Sprayer Tool lies under the symbolism options section of Adobe Illustrator. it has a series of options that you can pick from. the Symbol Sprayer Tool places a series of objects on the screen. the Symbol Shifter Tool is able to move symbol objects around. the Symbol Scruncher Tool moves objects closer to each other or further apart as a group. the Symbol Sizer Tool is able to change the size of the symbol objects. the Symbol Spinner Tool is able to move the symbol object around in a circular fashion. the Symbol Stainer Tool is able to change the color of each individual symbol object. the Symbol Screener Tool gives the symbol object the additional effect of a change in opacity that you are able to control. the Symbol Styler Tool is able to change the style that the object is shown in.
The next sets of tools are graph tools. the Column Graph Tool is just like your standard graph, which has vertical graphs. the Stack Column Graph Tool is similar to the Column Graph Tool except the fact that it can show similarities in certain things by stacking the graphs upon each other. the Bar Graph Tool makes graphs that are horizontal in direction. the Stack Bar Graph Tool is like the other stacked graph except it is horizontal in position. the Line Graph Tool uses a simple line over a period of some type of measurement to show progress. the Area Graph Tool is similar to the Line Graph Tool except fills in the area below it until it reaches the outline of another calculation. the Scatter Graph Tool is a graph that only uses the dots to show pivotal changes in the graph at regular intervals. the Pie Graph Tool is a very popular graph. it is a circular graph that shows the different options in different colors. the Radar Graph Tool makes graphs that take different graph sets and puts them categories that are displayed in a circular fashion.
The Mesh Tool makes meshes and allows you to edit them accordingly.
The Gradient Tool allows you to fully customize the start and ending spots of each gradient that you use.
The Eyedropper Tool is able to take color from one area from an image or an object and apply it somewhere else. the Measure Tool is able to see the length between two objects.
The Blend Tool makes one object into a series of objects. it also makes it look like they are transforming into something else. it is a pretty cool feature that can have some uses with my website now that I think about it.
The Live Paint Bucket Tool is similar to the regular Paint Bucket. the difference is you can fill in areas with the memory from other similar areas.
The Live Paint Selection Tool lets you paint, but it also lets you fill in live areas that are grouped together. the different options are great for painting.
The Crop Area Tool simply lets you cut out and area of an object with fine detail. the Slice Tool allows you to cut images into different sections so they can be put back together on the web. This helps with web downloads most of the time. the Slice Selection Tool allows you to select the slices that you have cut for the web.
The Eraser Tool is exactly what it says it is. it erases everything that it touches. the Scissor Tool will make cuts in an image and allow you to pull that section out. then you are able to do whatever with the new anchor points that it makes on the object and the cut segment of the object. the Knife Tool cuts object as if you cut them with a knife. once you do this you are able to pull the objects apart and reform them.
The Hand Tool allows you to move the window that the objects are stored in with the Adobe Illustrator CS3 program. the Page Tool allows you to change how the printed version of the output looks by manipulating the viewing screen.
The Zoom Tool allows you to zoom in on objects within the program.
I hope that you have learned the basics of the Adobe Illustrator CS3 program with this short tutorial. In the near future, I will have picture illustrations of the uses of each option so that you will further grasp what you can do with the program. of course, this is only a few of the things that you can possibly do with the program. it takes a lot of imagination and hard work to get your thoughts on paper. if you visit my webpage you will be able to see this tutorial with appropriate pictures added. Remember that you can be an Adobe Guru if you try
Photoshop CS3 Tutorials
Adobe Photoshop is the arguably the market leading bitmap graphics editing software package. The product which is by Adobe Systems Incorporated, has established a reputation as the premier raster editing tool for professional graphic designers. Originally created for the Apple Macintosh computers, and still popular on that platform, today the program is also available for PCs running the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Over the years, many versions of Adobe Photoshop, each with improvements over the prior versions, have been released. The latest version of the software is known as Adobe Photoshop CS3 - CS3 stands for Creative Suite 3. It should be noted that Adobe distributes various collections of their software applications (the software applications being intended for web and graphic design, as well as video-editing) under the Creative Suite 3 name. There are in fact a variety of different Creative Suite 3 packages available: Web Standard, Web Premium, Design Standard, Design Premium, Production Premium and Master Collection. of these packages, Web Standard does not include a version of Photoshop, Design Standard includes Adobe Photoshop CS3, and all the other packages include Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended.
One thing that you should be aware of is that it can take some time and effort for new users to master Adobe Photoshop. This is not because of any deficiency in the program, but simply because of the fact that the program includes such a wide range of features that learning how and when to use them all, does take time. It is for this reason, that many Photoshop newbies can benefit from training or tutorials - with the right kind of help, even a novice can learn Photoshop quickly.
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