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Photoshop CS2 has many strengths, all of which are enhanced by the remarkable versatility of the program. Not only can Photoshop CS2 fulfill all of your image editing and effects needs, it can also be used to add effects to text.

Personalized banners and striking headlines can be made by using Photoshop’s Warp Text feature. This feature enables you to wrap or bend text around and object in your image. Warping text can be done in either a horizontal or vertical direction to add distinction to your text. Photoshop has many ways in which this effect can be achieved, but we will use the following as a learning platform particularly for those who might not have used Photoshop’s text tools before.

Start off by opening an image that you would like to add text to. Select the horizontal tool from your toolbar and click in the area of the image close to where you would like to add your text to. Now type in the text you would like to add. Adding standard text enhancements such as italics, bold or underline can also be applied while in text mode.

Once you’ve finished adding text, select and right-click it to open the contextual menu. Select Warp Text…to open the Warp Text dialogue box. Within this box, you can select from a number of pre-defined text warps using the Style pull-down menu. Select the warp that comes closest to the effect you’re trying to achieve. If you’re not sure about the kind of warp you want, you can try some out to see what effect they have on your image text.

There will be several sliders under the Style pull-down that will allow you to make fine-tuning adjustments to the warp effects. You can change the horizontal and vertical distortion and the text bend here. An option to using the sliders is to enter a percentage value for these properties. Once you have reached the effect desired, simple click OK and the Warp Text effect will be applied to your image.

Probably one of the most desirable and interesting hobbies is art collecting. By combining painting or other form of art with usual objects, people can transform them into veritable art collectibles. Usually, people will see art even in the most unusual objects: saw blades and wooden eggs are only one example of objects which became art collectibles after being painted. When collecting art you might also try to hunt for limited edition objects like plates, holiday ornaments, small statues, and thimbles; one of the companies which produce limited edition products is called Bradford Exchange. Last but not least, there are also the people who enjoy collecting fine art.

Art collectors’ advantages

While collecting art, you may notice at some point that you value particular artists more than other; your collection may be based just on one artist’s works or, if you like variation, you can chose to collect works from various old or new artists. Some people like to collect a certain object that has a special meaning to them; people will collect cigars, wild animals, and even piano music.

The definition of the art collector is not a rich person who is able to spend large amounts of money on famous paintings; everybody can collect art even if they don’t have such a big budget. Post cards are a wonderful thing to start with and many places offer a big variety of them; if you want to buy postcards you should try a museum gift shop and start your beautiful postcard collection.

Enlarge your collection with Ebay

Ebay is a good source of art collectibles whatever type of art or collectible you fancy. In fact, if you are just starting out, the choices and options can be overwhelming! Just remember that you can sell your own belongings as well as buying those of others. This should make the impact on the budget a little less powerful. Other ideas for inexpensively collecting art collectibles are scouring flea markets, thrift shops, and garage sales. You never know what treasure someone else may be getting rid of.

One nice thing about art collectibles is that artists can be found in every part of the world. The art collector should scout the local art shows, museums, and artist’s hangouts to find out just what sort of talent can be had less expensively and close to home. Because of the local flavor of some artwork, art collectibles make good travel souvenirs. For instance, the artist Linda Barnicott specializes in paintings of scenes, buildings, and landmarks found around Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Similarly, collectors can find local artist almost everywhere.

When collecting art, people tend to improve their vision upon life; also art collectors fill their houses with exquisite items. Start collecting art today if your life lacks visual stimulation and variety.

Oil Paintings

Don’t let what you might not be overly familiar with such as slices and Javascript rollovers keep you away from creating a web site that will not only support all of your needs, but that you will be proud of at the same time. The following is a Photoshop web tutorial that will help you on your way to this goal by starting out with a simple 2 graphic web page design. Let’s Begin

We’ll create a banner and place it in a table that will contain 5 rows and 1 column. The banner will be placed in the top row. The next row will contain the text for your site and any photos you may wish to include. Row 3 will hold a separator, row 4 will be for your text links and a copyright notice, and row 5 will hold a second separator.

For this example we’ll name this site My Site. Now we need to find a graphic for the banner. You can find professional level images at sites such as the iStockPhoto galleries and at only $3 or so for most images they are affordable. Free stock photo sites are also available for perfectly good quality images.

Try to incorporate the colors from the graphic into the colors of the banner. You can choose multiple colors but make sure they work well together or create a variation of the same shade from just one color. Here I will create 3 different shades of blue.

I find that by using the opacity slider on a sampled color you can create a nice variation. Open a new document and copy and paste the main graphic you’ve chosen into it. Now from the toolbox select the eyedropper tool and sample a color by clicking on it in your graphic. This will change the foreground color square in your toolbox.

With this done, open another new document and in the Background Contents select White and Click OK. With this document open, create a new layer by going Layer> New> Layer. Then go Edit> Fill and select Contents, Use: Foreground Color. This will fill your document with the color you just sampled. A valuable tip is to reduce the opacity with the slider and to basically adjust it until reaching the desired color hue. Once you find one you like, flatten the image by going Layer> Flatten Image. Again use the eyedropper tool, to change the foreground color square in your toolbox only now it will be the same as your newly created color. Click on the color square and the color picker will come up, and you can make note of the numbers of the color you had just created.

Scroll through your fonts and decide on one. For this tutorial we’ll use Onyx regular. Once you pick a font that suits your needs, play around with the tracking, the leading, and the scale, or a combination. This makes it more unique when some personality is added.

To select a font in Photoshop go Window> Character. In the palette you will see a list of the installed fonts. Go to Window> Paragraph to pull up the Paragraph palette you will use to create the adjustments to your fonts

If it’s new fonts you’re looking for, I’ve included a list of just a few free font resources you can use at the end of this tutorial.

For our example, create a new document that is 600 x 300 pixels. You can adjust this size according to your own design when you choose your own stock photo and plan the layout.

Now lets make a new layer by Layer> New Layer and call it Designer Pro. I’ll position the image on this layer and shrink it to fit. You shrink your graphic with Edit> Transform> Scale. The bounding box will have handles. Use the Shift Key to constrain proportions, and shrink your image by selecting the top left handle and pulling towards the bottom right. Drag inside the bounding box to move the graphic. Once it is to your liking, click OK.

Let’s go with a tinted background. Here we will go with a light green.

Choosing the background layer, Layer 1, fill it with the light green by steps Select> All, then Edit> Fill. In the dialog box in Contents, select Use: Color and in the Color Picker enter the numbers you noted earlier.

The result is a 600 x 300 banner with a gentle background color and with the art placed on the left. It’s finally starting to look like a real web page now.

Let’s say we want to add a thick stroke to the background layer to liven up the design for more interest. Make sure the background layer, Layer 1, is active, and create a copy by going Layer> New> Layer Via Copy. Next double-click next to the layer name; this will bring up the Blending Options in the Layers Style dialog box.

In the Styles options on the left side, select and click on the word Stroke. I changed the settings to Size: 7px, Position: Inside, Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%, Fill Type: Color for my site and then clicked the color swatch and entered the number of the darker green shade in the color picker. Click OK.

The border serves to balance out the design, so you have the option to be as creative as you would like with your own ideas.

We’re going to put the names of the major sections right on the banner. These will be the links. Since it will be just one single graphic we will be using image maps.

Create a new layer for your words. Use the type tool to create the section names and then use the move tool to position them exactly to where you want on the banner. Remember to pick a color for your text that is darker than your background color to avoid finding yourself screaming obscenities and suffering major hair loss! Do this by going Window> Character. In the Character palette you’ll find a color square. Click on it to change colors.

You’ll need an HTML editor like GoLive or Dreamweaver to automate this process. It’s really very simple. You make little “maps” over each word and then enter the link destination. If you don’t have an HTML editor you’ll need to do a Google search on image maps to find a tutorial, or buy a book like Elizabeth Castro’s HTML Quickstart Guide to help you out.

Create a new document. The width should be 600 pixels, and the height should be about 12 pixels. Fill this with your background color. Then, using the text tool and a dark color, type some periods, like this:……….. and place them in the file, centering them. Change the size and the spacing until it looks perfect. Now save this as a GIF file.

In your HTML editor of choice build a simple table that contains 5 rows and 1 column. If you’re going to use text link navigation below the banner instead of image maps on the banner, create an extra row so you end up with 6 rows in your table. Now place your elements into the individual rows of the table and you’re done.

If you are on deadline and can’t cope with learning any more Photoshop techniques or HTML, here’s another solution. You can buy a ready-made template from Template Monster that you can use as a base to create web pages in Photoshop.

The first page of Template Monster will have a pulldown menu where you can select features and then perform a search for a template. The templates are not only affordable, but pretty simple to manage in GoLive or Dreamweaver. In the past I’ve bought a template just for the color scheme and the images. With certain projects this has proven to be less expensive than buying stock photos. Check out Template Monster to see the large variety of website templates that they have.

I hope this has helped you in your web design needs. Whatever your goal, having the right web page can help you reach it!

American Gold Eagle Coins are an official United States mint coin. It was first released for circulation in 1986, and came in 4 different denominations. These coins are often special collectibles, and are rarely used as a currency due to their value. The following paragraphs will tell you how to find, buy, and start collecting American Gold Eagle coins.

1 troy ounce of gold is what creates the $50 coin. In fact, it’s a bit more than that, weighing around 1.09 troy ounces. Troy ounces are the way that metals are weighed, and even though one ounce is technically pretty light, that’s still a large chunk of gold. Even the lesser money tenders have pretty high quality weights. The $25 piece weighs around 17 grams! It is important to know what coin you want to start collecting first, so you can make the proper arrangements in finding it.

Finding an American Gold Eagle coin is a task within itself, they are rare, and very few were in production. You can start by searching the United States Mint online tool, and find dealers that are nearby. Ebay is also an option, but it is more likely that these are counterfeit, or just scams all together. Be careful when purchasing one of these lovely coins, because you don’t want to risk losing everything in a deal gone wrong. Phonebooks may also be of assistance, but your area may not have any listings at all.

If you were successful with locating an American Gold Eagle Coin, you are now ready to purchase it. You should have a minimum of $1,000 set aside, and be prepared to haggle, and do more researching. The value of this coin will greatly fluctuate with time, and the current gold market. Listings on Ebay have gone for well over $900, for a newer coin. The rarer the coin, the more you can expect to shell out. American Gold Eagle coin collecting is not a cheap or thrifty hobby.

After all the hard researching, and more researching, you should have purchased a coin by now. If you have, congratulations! You are now part of the elite group of rare American Gold Eagle coin collectors. In time your coin will increase in value, but it may also possibly decrease. You can start evaluating market trends, and find a low point in the gold market. Purchase what you can then, so that when it goes back up you are able to sell, or keep them if you want.

Closing Comments

If you love collecting these coins, be sure to treat them with care. Clean them, and keep them safe. Never get down if you cannot find a good place to purchase one, and always do plenty of research! Even seasoned collectors can make mistakes.

1999-GOLD $5.00 MAPLE LEAF

When looking at editing software, you might ask yourself what is the difference between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator? Both programs are made by the same company and many say that the differences are small. The difference lies in the building blocks, Adobe Illustrator actually takes key elements of Adobe Photoshop and builds upon them taking them to the next level.

Adobe’s Photoshop is perhaps one of the most widely recognized and used programs by digital photographers today. This program has plenty of tips and tutorials available making it an easy program to learn and use. Photoshop can transform any image into a polished and professional looking photograph. You can add borders and enhance pictures to a level that no digital camera could capture. With Photoshop you can make almost anything possible to do with a photograph, reality.

Adobe Illustrator is an entirely different program. Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program that enables you to create your own unique graphics from scratch. Adobe Illustrator graphics can be used in print, online, in video, and even on your cell phone.

You can find a vast amount of information online on both programs. Tips and tutorials are in abundance on Photoshop and Illustrator. Check out some of the chat rooms, forums, and discussion groups for new information and ideas. Once you start looking, you will find no end to the information on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Adobe Photoshop cannot compete against the drawing and vector art tools found in Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator offers a huge number of templates to get you started, or you can design your own ideas from scratch using a number of different drawing tools. With Photoshop you can create unique graphics, but they all originate from an existing image and the tools to modify it are limited in comparison to Illustrator. If your drawing needs or small or not too complex, Photoshop should work well, but for the serious graphic designer, Illustrator is the way to go.

Photoshop tutorials do not extensively cover photoshop drawing, and you’ll have to look for some photoshop drawing specific tutorials to find truly useful information. Photoshop tips pages mention little regarding photoshop drawing and vector art tools. However, to make your digital images look perfect adobe photoshop is the perfect tool for you. Once you learn how to use photoshop to make your images perfect, you won’t be able to stop yourself from “fixing” every digital image that you use.

Adobe Illustrator is a different program. Whereas Photoshop adds a new look to an existing image, Illustrator can create a brand new unique image. Adobe Illustrator is one of the best and user friendly programs you can use for graphic design. The software is relatively easy and with the large number of tips and tutorials to be found online, Illustrator is extremely popular.

Nothing says that you can’t work with both programs to create a polished version of an existing image or a brand new image itself. With both programs sharing some basic features, by learning one you are a step ahead on the other automatically. Both Photoshop and Illustrator will produce stunning, quality and professional images that have never been seen before. If you have need for both programs, become familiar with both to cover every need. Opt for Photoshop for your digital imaging needs and Illustrator for your graphic design needs. With the differences between the two programs, you may realistically find the need for both.

In their own unique ways, adobe photoshop and adobe illustrator and great additions to your existing software. Each program has vast uses for the digital photographer and graphic designer, and you’ll find that both are equally useful when it comes to creating the best and most sophisticated images. Tutorials, photoshop tips, and adobe illustrator information that you’ll find online make using these programs quick and easy. The more you use these adobe programs, the more you’ll want to use them. Who knows what you’ll create next?

Lots of different cultures have been making coins for millennia. Ancient coins are made of different materials and using different processes than modern coins. Reflecting the culture they came from, ancient coins, just like modern ones teaches you a lot of pretty cool stuff about the history of that culture.

Ancient Roman Coins

Rome began making coins about 290 BC. At first they were made out of whatever metal was handy and the value was determined by the weight of the coin. Coins at that time were really just a standardized form of barter.

When people began putting images on ancient coins, they initially chose the images of gods. Various world conquerors saw themselves as gods, and began to put their images on ancient coins, as well. Julius Caesar was the first emperor of Rome, and Roman coinage from his time bears his image.

Ancient coins from Rome tell the story of the Roman Empire. They tell you who the emperor was, what was going on, and would be made to commemorate events that were important.

Roman coins are fun to collect because of the history, but also because there are lots of them. Coins from Rome are found all across Europe–wherever the Roman Empire reached. Just like today, whenever the empire needed cash to fund a new coliseum or war, they minted more money. Ancient coins from Rome are relatively easy to find and an inexpensive way to begin collecting ancient coins.

Ancient Chinese Coins

As with everything else, China was minting coins while the Western world was still using pretty rocks for money. Rome used coins as early as 290 BC, but China was minting coins as early as 350 BC. In 250 BC they started using a round, minted coin with a square hole in the middle, and that’s what Chinese coins looked like for 2,100 years.

With each dynasty memorialized in its coinage, Chinese coins tell history also.

Other Ancient Coins

The other ancient empires had their coins, too. There are Scythian coins, Parthian coins, Greek coins, and Babylonian coins. The oldest known coin is the Daric, used in the Persian Empire prior to 500 BC when it was conquered by Alexander the Great, who replaced it with his own coins that had his portrait on them. There may be coins older than that, but we don’t know about them yet. If and when more ancient coins are found, however, they will tell us more about the history of the people who made them.

Greek coins

Photoshop CS tutorials will definitely be of good use to people who have long purchased the program and have not yet maximized its use. Taking the lessons and tutorials will definitely help you become more productive and creative.

Photoshop CS Tutorials

Indeed there are many things to learn with your Photoshop CS. But once you learn them you can tailor the options for your own use. Let’s take a look at an overview of what you can expect from a basic Photoshop CS tutorial.

Learn the Basics

The basics of Photoshop CS tutorials will build the foundation from which all of the features and operations will come from. These building blocks include screen areas, layers and styles, droplets, actions and even the development of new images.

This will also give an introduction in understanding images. A good tutorial will incorporate how to blend modes and differentiate the vector from the bitmap graphics.

Techniques and Tools

Once you have tackled the basics, the tutorials can take you through the process of painting, creating shapes, and drawing. It can also address filling, cropping, cloning, sampling, annotation and retouching.

In knowing all of this, the Photoshop CS tutorial will help you appreciate how the Internet web sites and web in general are structured. You will also see how graphics and animation basically operates.

Optimization and Download

You can learn about browsers, JavasScript, platforms, backgrounds, positioning, monitor resolution and interpolation next which will be especially helpful for you if you plan to expand on your own web page.

Any task you take on with Photoshop will rely heavily on colors. At this point in the tutorial you will learn to determine the best color selections for your web page. You will also learn how to best manage the colors by exploring their modes and how to use them correctly.

If you find yourself lost at this point and unfamiliar with many of these terms, a Photoshop CS tutorial is even more important for you to take in order to make the most of this program.

Photoshop CS Tutorials Options

Now that you have seen the significance of taking lessons on your Photoshop program, then you can start exploring the many options for you to learn. Here are some of them:

1. Web Page Tutorials

You can access web sites that will teach you how to operate Photoshop. You can investigate the site and get everything you need to learn for a fee.

2. Demo Version

There are also demo versions for Photoshop tutorials that you can download for free. This will include very few chapters only. You can use this to evaluate the offers of a particular site before purchasing the whole package.

3. CD Version

You can also buy the CD to do your Photoshop tutorial even if you are not online.

4. PDF Files

Some web tutorials offer tutorials in the PDF format. This is a great option for people who want a printout for their lessons.

5. Video Tutorials

Photoshop CS video tutorials are good also for people who need to be guided in every step of the way. This will demonstrate to you exactly what you need to see and click.

Conclusion

Online Photoshop CS tutorials offer the best chance for people to make the most of their program and skills to become more productive and creative. Take the time to broaden your Photoshop knowledge. Just a little will go a long way.

Coin collecting is fascinating, and collecting American coins is an easy and entertaining hobby if you live in the United States. There are some really interesting coins of most denominations.

Pennies

Probably the most collected American coin is the Lincoln head penny. They have been minted since 1909. Some Lincoln head pennies were made out of zinc instead of copper during WWII. A very few were made of copper in 1943, and these are rare and valuable American coins.

Before the Lincoln penny was minted, pennies had an Indian head on them. Indian head pennies are another rare American coin.

Nickels

Nickels had a picture of the goddess Liberty on them, from 1883 to 1913. An extremely rare American coin, interestingly, is the 1913 liberty nickel. A mint employee made them illegally after hours and only five copies were made.

The buffalo nickel is the most classic American coin. It has a buffalo on one side and an Indian head on the other.

Since 1938, the nickel has had President Jefferson’s portrait on it. In 2004, the mint started a “Westward Journey” series of nickels to commemorate Lewis and Clark’s journey. They’ve tweaked Jefferson’s portrait and the coins have different historical themes on the reverse side, so the Westward Journey nickels are destined to be collectible coins.

Dimes

Probably the most boring American coin are dimes. The design of dimes hasn’t changed since 1945, the year after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died. He suffered from polio and supported the March of Dimes. The March of Dimes helps people with birth defects now, but in Roosevelt’s time it also helped children who had polio. To memorialize his support of the March of Dimes, Franklin’s portrait has remained on our dimes since his death. Dimes are a boring coin, but that is a great American coin story.

Quarters

The quarter, our favorite American coin, had the Statue of Liberty on it until 1930. George Washington replaced her. The mint has been releasing the very collectible US State quarters, an American coin series that will be completed in 2008, since 1999.

Half Dollars and Dollars

Half dollars used to be common, and until 1964 they had Ben Franklin on one side and the Liberty Bell on the other. In 1964, President Kennedy’s portrait went on the half dollar. Because Kennedy was beloved, and because the 1964 silver dollar was to be the last “real” silver dollar, people hoarded them and they became a treasured American coin. Because so many people collected the 1964 Kennedy half-dollars, the mint released more of them than any other half dollar. Congress even froze the date, and 1964 half dollars were minted in 1965, too.

The Susan B. Anthony silver dollar is an interesting American coin as silver dollars are rare now. Minted from 1979-1981, it is the only American coin with a woman’s portrait on it.

Art Morse A jeweler for more than 20 years try these online sites for a good selection.

Antique Gold And Silver Coins

Woodworking covers a variety of processes, such as cabinetmaking, joinery, marquetry, turning, and woodcarving. Even so, each and every skilled craftsperson at some time had to learn the basic principles of marking, measuring, dimensioning, assembling and finishing. These skills are the fundamentals of woodworking and are the nitty-gritty of woodworking, be it hobby or profession.

The capability to conceptualize three dimensionally is necessary to mark up the wood and to envisage how one piece fits with another and in what order. As well, you’ll have to learn which tools will bring about the best outcome, considering the degree of accuracy called for and the attributes of the wood you’re working with.

The procedure of cutting down the wood precisely to size is known as dimensioning - a process that’s straightforward in theory but takes much repetition to hone. All except the most basic of woodworking projects call for cutting and putting together an assortment of joints. Long considered to be a test of a woodworker’s skill, joinery requires unwavering hand-eye coordination. However, practice will help you discover the most effective means to secure one section of wood to another appealingly and inconspicuously without giving up durability.

An essential add-on to these fundamental abilities is a perception of how wood performs. It’s a one of a kind, living object that swells and shrinks with shifts in humidity, an issue that a woodworker has to address in the planning and building of each item. Some woods are simpler to work with than others, and each piece, irrespective of the type, is unique in the way the grain twists and turns.

There isn’t one correct method to do anything in woodworking. The best method is the one that suits you the most, and strikes a balance between the time required to complete the project, the tools at hand, the satisfaction you receive from the activity and the desired quality of the finished product.

There are pros and cons for using either hand tools or machines for woodworking. Some argue that hand tools enable you to get the hang of cutting and forming wood without disrupting the grain. Other woodworking experts claim that it’s often possible to finish a project in less time using hand tools due to the preparation involved in using mechanical tools. Yet others think exactly the opposite.

With a bit of patience, the proper tools and techniques, and a good design, you could be well on your way to creating something you’ll appreciate for a long time to come.

The unique style is what attracts many people to grow Bonsai trees in their home. However, some people prefer to have them decorating their outdoor landscaping. Being the same type and species of trees does not mean they won’t have different characteristics, mainly their size. Outdoor Bonsai trees will grow much larger due to their environment.

The tropical species of trees are the most common type of tree found indoors. While they grow well inside the home, they may also be placed outdoors in the spring or late summer, depending on climate.

Consisting of only a few species, the outdoor Bonsai tree will be a deciduous tree or an evergreen, such as a Pine or Juniper. The latter will go dormant during the cold weather months and will continue growing come springtime. During the fall the deciduous trees will shed their leaves.

Outdoor Bonsai trees can be planted right into the ground or kept in containers. This type of tree doesnt do well indoors for lengthy amounts of time. Outdoors, these trees should be well protected from freezing. For best results, an outdoor Bonsai tree should receive adequate water. Be sure to check the soil; the top surface of soil might seem dry but moist under the surface.

Also, due to the change in the environment, these trees may experience some changes after being purchased by an individual. Before making any major changes for the tree, give it several weeks to acclimate. Some of these changes could be yellow leaves which might fall off. But in most cases it is only temporary.

Keeping these trees properly trimmed and pruned is important to their health. Repotting will also need to be done. When the roots have filled the pot to the limit, the tree will need a bigger pot to continue growing.

Correct watering of your outdoor Bonsai is important. If your bonsai is potted, you can simply put your finger about one inch into the soil to check the water the level. If you find that the soil feels dry, water your tree until you notice that the water is flowing from under the pot. If your tree is planted in the ground, you will need to gauge the amount of water needed based upon the amount of rain in the area, or you can simply use your personal judgment. During winter, watering outdoor bonsai trees should be done with care. If it is under 45 degrees, do not water your tree. It could cause growth to stop and ruin your tree. If the trees require watering during the winter, the temperature needs to be at least 45 degrees or the tree could be damaged. The tree could freeze and stop growing if this is not done properly.

Outdoor bonsais are becoming more and more popular - what a great way to bring a fine hobby into the outdoor!