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… justified because this is the most knowledgeable forum I'm acquainted with, but also because both questions are related to graphics intended for use in FM :-}
Thanks in advance for any help on these marginal topics!
N
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Niels Grundtvig Nielsen wrote:
- patiently tidying up what feels like thousands of graphics I've inherited and need to re-use, I often find myself up to the elbows in Illustrator "area text" boxes. Does anyone know of an Illustrator equivalent for FM's esc,m,p?
I don't know of a shortcut, but you can do it as follows:
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Bowen,
I am not sure that this is what Niels wants to do. Fitting the artboard to artwork bounds changes the artboard to the size of the area text box, IF the text box is the only artwork in the illustration.
I think Niels wants to create an area text box of arbitrary size, write the text, and then do something (shortcut) to shrink the text box to a size sufficient just to contain the text. To my knowledge, Illustrator has no shortcut to do that. I do it manually.
If I have it wrong, Niels, please clarify.
Van
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Spot on, Bowen – that's exactly what I'd hoped to be able to do with a shortcut. Never mind!
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Hi Niels,
I've never heard of the .565 format before. After some searching, it looks like it's a device-independent bitmap format (16-bits). Photoshop can save to a this format, so if you change the file-type to .BMP you might be able to open it PS and save it in another format. (See: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3195786)
Regarding Illustrator, there is no shrink-to-fit option. However, there is a script (that will do that) available. See this posting:
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/4434/how-to-fit-text-box-size-to-text
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Thanks, Arnis. Unfortunately, saving a copy of the .565 as .bmp isn't enough to fool Photoshop: "Could not complete your request because the file-format module cannot parse the file". I'll try posting in the Photoshop forum, though, since I didn't realise until you mentioned it that PS could get anywhere near this mysterious format.
As for scripts … well, here we are again in corporate lock-out land :-} Might try again with IT in a few months.
N
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An update on the .565 question, in case anyone needs the information at some future date …
One source I found explains that a .565 file is actually a bitmap image without a file header and without image dimensions; you have to specify the required size before you can open the file. (makes sense, I suppose, if a typical application for the format is mobile 'phones/Android devices)
I also found a plugin for paint.net that prompts for dimensions and then renders the .565 so you can save it. The remaining challenge is to find out about the colour shift: what should be an image in shades of blue with the occasional daring highlight grey opens in psychedelic lime green. Neither inverting the colours nor applying a colour negative filter gets me to what I'm hoping for.
N