Lorem Ipsum Blvd A Graphic Designers Personal Bag of Tricks

Reduce your .ai file size

One of the easiest ways to reduce your file size is to create a template document, in which you delete all the default data that is included in the document information. You'll want to eliminated unused colors, brushes, graphic styles, and symbols. For each group you will want to select the top right options box and select Select All Unused. After deleting all of this unused data, you will have a smaller, cleaner file.

Make it Snow!

Create a single snow flake and open the brushes panel. Click the top right button and choose new brush>new scatter brush.

Set all of the preferences to Random and find the right amount of space and overlap you would like to achieve.

Draw a path and assign the brush you just created. Adjust as necessary to achieve desired effect.

Turn Kuler Colors into Pantones

To use the kuler colors select Window>Extensions>Kuler

Select the color scheme you are looking for and click the arrow labeled Add to Swatch Libary.

Once the new Kuler color group imports into Illustrator double click on the the Color Group folder.  This should open up the Edit Colors window. Select the Pantone group you are looking for by pressing the second box the the right, next to the bottom color picker. After you select the proper color book select tint on the mode button to the left. Next you will need to hit the New Color Group button. When you look at your pallate the new group should be your Kuler colors in pantone.