Quick Tip: Outer Glow Effect

Why does my Outer Glow get washed out, or even disappear?

Since the default Blending Mode for the Outer Glow effect is Screen, whatever is underneath the glowing object affects the appearance of the Glow. In mathematical terms, Screen mode inverts the foreground and multiplies it by the background, then adds the foreground on top. Uh, yeah.

Below are two examples of the effect, on various CMYK and RGB swatches. You can see that RGB works a little better with this effect. If you’re working in CMYK, a rich black (I use C=58, M=50, Y=53, K=100) works better because there is more color information for the Screen mode to “pick up.”

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Quick Tip: Hide Other Layers

So I got this file that has 65 layers. Whew! It is a paragon of file organization, but I just want to see one layer. So instead of clicking the eyeball off 64 layers and getting a sore mouse finger, I just right-click on the one I want to see and choose “Hide Others.”

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Quick Tip: A Perfect 3-D Cube

Okay, this is an easy one, but I have done it the long way more times than I care to admit. If you want to create a perfect cube with the 3-D effect, make sure your numbers match up. Change your measurement units to points (see previous tip!) and enter the point size of your square in the Extrude Depth field. That’s it!

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Quick Tip: Changing Units on the Fly

If you need to switch between inches and pixels, it’s a long trip up to the Preferences, and a few clicks once you get there. Here’s a tip: Just right-click on the ruler bar and change it on the fly! (Hat tip to Ronnie) 

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