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If you ever design web sites xScope is a must have! It gives you all the tools you need to take measurements on your screen in several different ways. You can have a semi transparent cool looking pixel based resizeable ruler. You get a screen size mask, which is great to check how your layout work in different screen sizes and browsers. The magnifying glass will help you check the tiny details. You can also have guides, like in PS, but on all your screen.

This is an obvious technique, still not used by many professionals. Before you apply liquify (Apple-Shift-X) make a selection of the area of interest. This will make your filter work much faster, be more responsive to your distortions and will give you better control.

Generally it's a good idea to make a selection before applying any filter to preview the effect of it. This simple technique will save you a lot of time especially when working on high-res files.

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Backtick, which is also known as backquote in Mac OS X is used to switch between open windows within an application. It's not be confused with the application switcher.

If I had a Dime for every time I said or heard "it was only off a fraction of an inch. Unfortunately, having your ad drawn at a fraction of an inch off can end up causing you to eat a $5,000 ad for you client!

I've had this handy fraction to decimal conversion chart on my desk for MANY years. It won't save you from a colossal advertising blunder, but it's somewhat useful to have around. Recently given a facelift, it's ready for you to download... just click the preview image below to download the PDF.

A small, obvious tip, but I noticed yesterday that a seasoned art director didn't know about it.

Rather than scrolling around in Adobe Photoshop using the scroll bars, just hold down the Spacebar which will temporarily give you the Hand Tool to move the view around the same way, only faster. Add the Command (Apple) Key and you can zoom in as well.

When using Adobe Photoshop, many people find this tip out completely by accident, but many never knew about it, so I thought I would share.

When using the Drop Shadow layer effect, rather than entering numbers over and over into the X and Y box until you get just the right position for your Drop Shadow, you can simply drag the shadow around in the image window until it's right where you want it. The numbers in the boxes adjust accordingly.

This tip also works for textures, bevel & emboss, patern overlay and satin layer effects.

If you want to keep all your passwords, credit card numbers, serial numbers and other confidential information securely in one place on your Mac, you can use the Keychain to hold them for you. Open Keychain Access under Applications /Utilities. In the toolbar you will find the Note icon. Click it and enter your secrets.

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Anyone who has had to work on someone elses files has probably run into the problem of having multiple callouts for the same Pantone ink color in the document. For example, You WANT to have Pantone 158 C (for "coated"), but the person who supplied the file has both 158C and 158U (for "uncoated"). This presents a problem at the print shop because the pre-press operator may have to spend valuable time fixing it.