phantasmCS | D e s i g n e r | S t u d i o
The essential Adobe Illustrator® color plugin range
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which version of Phantasm CS do I have?
- Desaturate and gradients being flattened
- Size of the Curves window
- Live Effects, Eyedropper and color swatches
- Where are the settings stored?
- Speed of previewing changes
- Controlling Drop Shadows
Which version of Phantasm CS do I have?
Q: I would like to find out which version of Phantasm CS I have installed. How do I do this?
Once you have installed your copy of Phantasm CS, it is a simple process to find the version number. (Since the instroduction of Illustrator CS3, access to plugins' information has changed.)
For Mac OS X users with Illustrator CS or CS2: Select , scroll down the list to find and select Phantasm... and click
For Mac OS X users with Illustrator C3: Select
For Windows users with Illustrator CS or CS2: Select , scroll down the list to find and select Phantasm... and click
For Windows users with Illustrator CS3: Select
Both Mac OS X and Windows versions should then display the Phantasm CS information window which states the version number.
For Windows users, to close this information window, simply click on it.
It is also possible to find the plugin's version number via the operating system's filer when selecting the plugin program file. For Mac OS X user, the version number is diplayed in the section of the window. Window users should click on the tab of the window.
Desaturate and gradients being flattened
Q: When using the Desaturate filter of effect tool, some of my gradients become flat fills.
This issue stems from is what and how Phantasm CS is changing:
The top gradient fill, above, is the object that we have then destaurated using the Desaturate filter and the options set to . The CMYK document/gradient has transformed into what appears to be a flat fill. Even if the option was ticked, the resultant gradient would appear like a flat fill, albeit gray in color.
To understand what is happening, you have to consider what Phantasm CS is doing to each color point in the gradient to desaturate. If we recreate each color node as a flat filled square at equal stages and then desaturate, we get the following results:
As can be seen, each color desaturates to virtually the same color (there are slight percentage changes which are virtually indistinguishable on-screen). Therefore, as Illustrator automatically re-tweens between these new colors, the effective result is a flat looking gradient. To prove the gradient remains true, examine the resultant object using Illustrator's gradient window.
As of Phantasm CS version 2, an option has been introduced to improve these situations. The Accurate Gradient Adjustment option allows Phantasm CS to automatically add additional color stops in a gradient to better simulate what a bitmap-based program such as Photoshop would produce:
With ticked and set to , the desaturated result now contains a slight visible color variation.
Size of the Curves window
Q: The Curves window is overflowing off the screen and I can't see the lower advanced options.
With the introduction of the advanced options in Phantasm CS version 2, the size of the extended window has had to enlarge to accomodate these options. This can make one function window in particular very large when fully expanded; the Curves tool.
The Curves function is unique in that it is possible to enlarge the curves graph as well as show/hide the advanced option. By displaying both the enlarged curves graph and the advanced option, it is possible that smaller screen resolutions (1024 x 768 being a minimum) will not be adequate.
Simply reduce the graph size using the window size toggle button (which is positioned higher up the right-hand side of the function window so it should never be inaccessible). This will allow all advanced options to be displayed.
Live Effects, Eyedropper and color swatches
Q: Why does the Eyedropper tool and color picker window select the original unmodified color and not the color I can see?
This issue applies to objects modified with any of Phantasm CS' live Effects. Using the Eyedropper tool or finding the color in the color picker window should work as normal when dealing with objects using the Filter tools.
Illustrator's live Effects system goes to some lengths to ensure that all such effects are applied in realtime and that the original objects are maintained at the base level. This allows you to alter, add or remove existing or additional live Effects at any stage. However, this also implies that when you select an object(s) with one ore more live Effects applied, you are selecting the original base object(s). Therefore the Eyedropper tool, Color window and Fill/Stroke color indicators will display the original color and not the end visual result.
If you wish to select a color generated through a live Effect, you would first have to Expand the object ().
Where are the settings stored?
Q: Phantasm CS stores all color function window positions (and the Curves' window display state) between sessions. It also stores user's options settings. Where are these settings held?
There is normally no need to locate the settings stored by Phantasm CS, so this is only for those curious as to where these settings are stored. Manual editing of these settings are purely at the user's own risk!
The settings to store the window positions, and Curves' window state are incorporated into the Illustrator preferences file:
Mac: [User] » "Library" » "Preferences" » "Adobe Illustrator CS[x] Settings" » "Adobe Illustrator Prefs"
Windows (you need to view hidden files): "Documents and Settings" » [User] » "Application Data" » "Adobe" »"Adobe Illustrator CS[x] Settings" » "AIPrefs"
The user options settings are discussed in the "Manually editing options settings" section of "Saving and Managing options" in the user manual.
Speed of previewing changes
Q: When I open color function windows and then change the values, it takes a long time to prepare the preview. Can I speed this up?
Due to the realtime methods Illustrator has employed to render certain effects such as Live Trace, Live Paint, live Effect drop shadows, etc., some operations can be time-consuming. To understand the issue of Illustrator's speed, open the same artwork which contains multiple live Effects (such as the sample files supplied with Illustrator) and try applying standard live Effects such as "Pucker & Bloat" and Roughen. These Effects should take around the same time to render as Phantasm CS will take to perform a color change.
To help with certain operations such as Hue/Saturation and Curves where you might perform several level changes before wanting to see a preview is to untick the Preview box.
We do recommend that for general use you try to use Illustrator on the fastest possible hardware. This also applies to using the Phantasm CS plugin.
Controlling Drop Shadows
Q: Why am I unable to subtly affect drop shadows using the Levels or Curves tools?
Illustrator allows the easy generation of drop shadows using either the Filter or live Effect tools . Once generated, you would expect to be able to fine-tune these drop shadows using Phantasm CS' Curves and Levels tools to, for example, ensure a minimum color cut-off point. However, on first appearance, only extreme adjustment of the darkest tone present in the drop shadow seems to have any affect.
The reason for this is that by default, Illustrator's drop shadows are merely a solid color rectangle (the color being specified by the user) with an overlying mask/alpha channel. Therefore the only color present in the drop shadow is the single user-defined shadow tint.
The work-around for this issue is to convert the drop shadow to an object without transparency; ie. remove the mask/alpha channel. This ensures the drop shadow is a bitmap with varying shades of color which can be controlled as expected. If the drop shadow was applied as a live Effect, simply open and set to . If the drop shadow is a pre-generated Filter, re-rasterise the drop shadow with a white background using via .
If the drop shadow is placed over underlying artwork and the resultant opaque effect hinders the design, use either Illustrator's Transparency tool (set the object to Screen or Multiply, for example) or if the drop shadow is greyscale, apply overprint.