Comments on: Photoshop Smackdown: Web Graphics the Easy Way with Keynote

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:30:59 +0000

Thanks Zett, that’ll do.

By: Zettt

Zettt — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:23:30 +0000

That would be really cool!

I found a solution. Not very good but it works. You could use Leopards Preview.app. Just select “Instant Alpha” from the “Select” Dropdown.
What’s good about this feature is, that it doesn’t just cut out but also blurs the edges a little which was i needed to do.

As i said technically not the best solution. But it works… :-/

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:54:37 +0000

Hmm, I just tried to recreate it, using the background transparency (as you did), but it doesn’t work. I may have to have another look at it, but I’m sure it DID work for me once, as it was something I used to prepare a circular logo - it was a square image with transparent background, so the circle neatly overlaid a background image.
Will have to track this down.

By: Zettt

Zettt — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:14:56 +0000

Hi,

Just found this entry via Google. Can Keynote really export transparent TIFF images?
It doesn’t work here.

I have one Slide and in the Appearance Tab i have selected for Background color “None”. That is the right option isn’t it?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:04:15 +0000

Nice tip Mak, wasn’t aware of that at all.
I’ve been using Picturesque more than ImageWell - great for batch resizing, shadowing etc. ImageWell still has a place as you can crop while showing dimensions.

By: makentosh

makentosh — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:03:43 +0000

You can actually do the sizing and cropping right within Keynote, no need to export to an image first. Since Keynote objects copied to the clipboard are already high resolution PDF’s with alpha channels already there, you can pass any set of shapes copied out of Keynote through Preview to save as the image file type of your choice. I describe it here (Preview Passthru) but in short, simply

1) Copy the set of objects you want to export
2) Open Preview
3) Do Command-N
Now, you’ve got a PDF with an alpha channel that can be used in almost any other graphics app on the Mac. Preview doesn’t export transparent bitmaps from PDF’s like these, but other apps like Skitch can convert them to bitmaps AND apply transparency with no problem. (Not sure if ImageWell does)

Most of the images on my site were created using Keynote.

By: Phil Crosby

Phil Crosby — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:32:12 +0000

Thanks for the writeup. Keynote is very good for mocking ideas up quickly. It really does have a simple UI that makes easy a lot of the annoying tasks you do in web graphics. I’m sick of mucking around photoshop or inkscape just to create a simple shape with a drop shadow.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:26:10 +0000

You are spot on Edmund, it was the ability to record presentations with voiceovers and be able to export them to the web that triggered me to buy Keynote in the first place.

A friend of mine recently took my advice and bought a 24″ iMac … I was pleased for him, but jealous

By: Edmund Pelgen

Edmund Pelgen — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:22:09 +0000

Thanks for pointing out this use for Keynote. I hadn’t previously considered using Keynote for the creation of graphics like this.

You also can’t go past the multimedia capabilities of Keynote either. A case in point is the presentations it allows me to put together of the type that are posted in my blog and that are becoming more popular with online marketers.

That’s probably why I recently upgraded to the amazing 24inch imac. A great piece of kit that allows me to be much more productive with a lot less fuss.