Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
Best Practices for Accessible Flash Design: Part 2
By Bob Regan
Controlling reading order using off stage content
In cases where the application relies on a highly dynamic content, it can be difficult to specify the reading order in advance. In this very small set of applications, it is possible to control the reading order by placing a second set of content off stage in a single column. The on stage content is all rendered as inaccessible to prevent the screen reader from reading it. The second set of content is positioned in a column so the reading order does not jump between unrelated elements.
There are two primary drawbacks to this method. First, it increases the number of objects in the movie, impacting the file size and performance of the movie. Second, users of screen magnifiers may find the off stage content conflicts with the on stage visual content they are working with. Screen magnifiers not only increase the size of elements on the stage, but move them to the center. If the on-stage content is inaccessible, off stage content will draw the focus of the screen magnifier creating a very confusing experience visually. This method is often used in conjunction with screen reader detection, but it is important to consider that users may have both a screen reader and magnifier in use simultaneously.
Screen reader detection
Since this case is intended to benefit screen reader users alone, this method is frequently used in conjunction with screen reader detection. Flash has a unique advantage over JavaScript in that it is able to use MSAA to detect the presence of a screen reader. The method Accessibility.isActive() will return a value of true if a screen reader is present and it is currently focused on the Flash content. It is important that this method not be called in the first second or so in the life of the movie, or it could return a false negative. Rather than calling this method in the first frame of a movie, many designers will attach this method to the first button in the movie.
Building off stage content
If Accessibility.isActive() returns a value of true, the contents on screen are set to be inaccessible. Perhaps the easiest means of accomplishing this is to place all of the on stage content in a single movie clip and then set the .silent property of that movie clip to true. It is preferable to use .silent as opposed to altering the visibility of the movie clip since people relying on screen readers might be working together with a sighted person relying on the on stage content visually.
Next, the off stage content is loaded into a single column. This column need not match the height of the movie. It is important that as changes are made on stage that the off stage content is updated at the same time.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
Best Practices for Accessible Flash Design: Part 2
By Bob Regan
Controlling reading order using off stage content
In cases where the application relies on a highly dynamic content, it can be difficult to specify the reading order in advance. In this very small set of applications, it is possible to control the reading order by placing a second set of content off stage in a single column. The on stage content is all rendered as inaccessible to prevent the screen reader from reading it. The second set of content is positioned in a column so the reading order does not jump between unrelated elements.
There are two primary drawbacks to this method. First, it increases the number of objects in the movie, impacting the file size and performance of the movie. Second, users of screen magnifiers may find the off stage content conflicts with the on stage visual content they are working with. Screen magnifiers not only increase the size of elements on the stage, but move them to the center. If the on-stage content is inaccessible, off stage content will draw the focus of the screen magnifier creating a very confusing experience visually. This method is often used in conjunction with screen reader detection, but it is important to consider that users may have both a screen reader and magnifier in use simultaneously.
Screen reader detection
Since this case is intended to benefit screen reader users alone, this method is frequently used in conjunction with screen reader detection. Flash has a unique advantage over JavaScript in that it is able to use MSAA to detect the presence of a screen reader. The method Accessibility.isActive() will return a value of true if a screen reader is present and it is currently focused on the Flash content. It is important that this method not be called in the first second or so in the life of the movie, or it could return a false negative. Rather than calling this method in the first frame of a movie, many designers will attach this method to the first button in the movie.
Building off stage content
If Accessibility.isActive() returns a value of true, the contents on screen are set to be inaccessible. Perhaps the easiest means of accomplishing this is to place all of the on stage content in a single movie clip and then set the .silent property of that movie clip to true. It is preferable to use .silent as opposed to altering the visibility of the movie clip since people relying on screen readers might be working together with a sighted person relying on the on stage content visually.
Next, the off stage content is loaded into a single column. This column need not match the height of the movie. It is important that as changes are made on stage that the off stage content is updated at the same time.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
Best Practices for Accessible Flash Design: Part 2
By Bob Regan
Controlling reading order using off stage content
In cases where the application relies on a highly dynamic content, it can be difficult to specify the reading order in advance. In this very small set of applications, it is possible to control the reading order by placing a second set of content off stage in a single column. The on stage content is all rendered as inaccessible to prevent the screen reader from reading it. The second set of content is positioned in a column so the reading order does not jump between unrelated elements.
There are two primary drawbacks to this method. First, it increases the number of objects in the movie, impacting the file size and performance of the movie. Second, users of screen magnifiers may find the off stage content conflicts with the on stage visual content they are working with. Screen magnifiers not only increase the size of elements on the stage, but move them to the center. If the on-stage content is inaccessible, off stage content will draw the focus of the screen magnifier creating a very confusing experience visually. This method is often used in conjunction with screen reader detection, but it is important to consider that users may have both a screen reader and magnifier in use simultaneously.
Screen reader detection
Since this case is intended to benefit screen reader users alone, this method is frequently used in conjunction with screen reader detection. Flash has a unique advantage over JavaScript in that it is able to use MSAA to detect the presence of a screen reader. The method Accessibility.isActive() will return a value of true if a screen reader is present and it is currently focused on the Flash content. It is important that this method not be called in the first second or so in the life of the movie, or it could return a false negative. Rather than calling this method in the first frame of a movie, many designers will attach this method to the first button in the movie.
Building off stage content
If Accessibility.isActive() returns a value of true, the contents on screen are set to be inaccessible. Perhaps the easiest means of accomplishing this is to place all of the on stage content in a single movie clip and then set the .silent property of that movie clip to true. It is preferable to use .silent as opposed to altering the visibility of the movie clip since people relying on screen readers might be working together with a sighted person relying on the on stage content visually.
Next, the off stage content is loaded into a single column. This column need not match the height of the movie. It is important that as changes are made on stage that the off stage content is updated at the same time.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
Best Practices for Accessible Flash Design: Part 2
By Bob Regan
Controlling reading order using off stage content
In cases where the application relies on a highly dynamic content, it can be difficult to specify the reading order in advance. In this very small set of applications, it is possible to control the reading order by placing a second set of content off stage in a single column. The on stage content is all rendered as inaccessible to prevent the screen reader from reading it. The second set of content is positioned in a column so the reading order does not jump between unrelated elements.
There are two primary drawbacks to this method. First, it increases the number of objects in the movie, impacting the file size and performance of the movie. Second, users of screen magnifiers may find the off stage content conflicts with the on stage visual content they are working with. Screen magnifiers not only increase the size of elements on the stage, but move them to the center. If the on-stage content is inaccessible, off stage content will draw the focus of the screen magnifier creating a very confusing experience visually. This method is often used in conjunction with screen reader detection, but it is important to consider that users may have both a screen reader and magnifier in use simultaneously.
Screen reader detection
Since this case is intended to benefit screen reader users alone, this method is frequently used in conjunction with screen reader detection. Flash has a unique advantage over JavaScript in that it is able to use MSAA to detect the presence of a screen reader. The method Accessibility.isActive() will return a value of true if a screen reader is present and it is currently focused on the Flash content. It is important that this method not be called in the first second or so in the life of the movie, or it could return a false negative. Rather than calling this method in the first frame of a movie, many designers will attach this method to the first button in the movie.
Building off stage content
If Accessibility.isActive() returns a value of true, the contents on screen are set to be inaccessible. Perhaps the easiest means of accomplishing this is to place all of the on stage content in a single movie clip and then set the .silent property of that movie clip to true. It is preferable to use .silent as opposed to altering the visibility of the movie clip since people relying on screen readers might be working together with a sighted person relying on the on stage content visually.
Next, the off stage content is loaded into a single column. This column need not match the height of the movie. It is important that as changes are made on stage that the off stage content is updated at the same time.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
| Creating Brushes in Illustrator CS |
Illustrator Tutorial By Sara Froehlich Want to make some special stationery for invitations to your big St. Patrick’s Day bash? Want to whip up some St. Paddy’s Day graphics? Using Illustrator Brushes and Symbols can speed up your drawing time!Last week I showed you how to make two shamrocks, a solid colored shamrock and another one using the gradient mesh tool. This week I’ll show you how to use the solid color shamrock in brushes. Unfortunately the gradient mesh shamrock (or any gradient mesh object) can’t be used to make a brush, but they can be used as symbols, as you will see in a bit.
Shamrock Brush
This tutorial uses Illustrator CS, but it will work in Illustrator 9 or 10 as well, although some of the commands may be in different places, especially loading brushes, but we will get to that later. For now, let’s make the first brush. (Note: symbols were new in Illustrator 10, so if you are using Illustrator 9, you won’t have the symbol option.) Step 1. Either open the shamrock you make last week or follow the instructions here under “Drawing the Shamrock” steps 1-17 to make another. If you don’t want to draw one, you can use mine by downloading this file for Illustrator CS or Illustrator 10, or for Illustrator 9. Note: When opening the file in Illustrator 10, you may get a message saying the file was created in a newer version of Illustrator and some loss may occur. You can safely ignore this message and open the file.Step 2. Because the shamrock we made last time was large, I scaled mine to 20% size. To do this, go to Object > Transform > Scale. Make sure Uniform is checked and enter 20 in the percentage box. Click OK. Save this image as shamrock_small.ai so you don’t overwrite the large one. Step 3. Make a couple duplicates of the scaled shamrock in case you want to start over. The easiest way to do this is to:1. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. 2. Make sure Uniform is checked. 3. Enter 100 in the percent box. 4. Click the Copy button. 5. Before you do anything else, transform again by typing command/control + D a few times to make copies. 6. Click and drag on the copies to drag them off the original shamrock and move them out of the way. If you get stuck and have to start over grab one of your duplicates.Step 4. Select one of the shamrocks by clicking on it with the selection tool (V). Open the Brush palette (Window > Brushes), and open the Brush palette options menu. Choose New Brush.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
| Creating Brushes in Illustrator CS |
Illustrator Tutorial By Sara Froehlich Want to make some special stationery for invitations to your big St. Patrick’s Day bash? Want to whip up some St. Paddy’s Day graphics? Using Illustrator Brushes and Symbols can speed up your drawing time!Last week I showed you how to make two shamrocks, a solid colored shamrock and another one using the gradient mesh tool. This week I’ll show you how to use the solid color shamrock in brushes. Unfortunately the gradient mesh shamrock (or any gradient mesh object) can’t be used to make a brush, but they can be used as symbols, as you will see in a bit.
Shamrock Brush
This tutorial uses Illustrator CS, but it will work in Illustrator 9 or 10 as well, although some of the commands may be in different places, especially loading brushes, but we will get to that later. For now, let’s make the first brush. (Note: symbols were new in Illustrator 10, so if you are using Illustrator 9, you won’t have the symbol option.) Step 1. Either open the shamrock you make last week or follow the instructions here under “Drawing the Shamrock” steps 1-17 to make another. If you don’t want to draw one, you can use mine by downloading this file for Illustrator CS or Illustrator 10, or for Illustrator 9. Note: When opening the file in Illustrator 10, you may get a message saying the file was created in a newer version of Illustrator and some loss may occur. You can safely ignore this message and open the file.Step 2. Because the shamrock we made last time was large, I scaled mine to 20% size. To do this, go to Object > Transform > Scale. Make sure Uniform is checked and enter 20 in the percentage box. Click OK. Save this image as shamrock_small.ai so you don’t overwrite the large one. Step 3. Make a couple duplicates of the scaled shamrock in case you want to start over. The easiest way to do this is to:1. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. 2. Make sure Uniform is checked. 3. Enter 100 in the percent box. 4. Click the Copy button. 5. Before you do anything else, transform again by typing command/control + D a few times to make copies. 6. Click and drag on the copies to drag them off the original shamrock and move them out of the way. If you get stuck and have to start over grab one of your duplicates.Step 4. Select one of the shamrocks by clicking on it with the selection tool (V). Open the Brush palette (Window > Brushes), and open the Brush palette options menu. Choose New Brush.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
| Creating Brushes in Illustrator CS |
Illustrator Tutorial By Sara Froehlich Want to make some special stationery for invitations to your big St. Patrick’s Day bash? Want to whip up some St. Paddy’s Day graphics? Using Illustrator Brushes and Symbols can speed up your drawing time!Last week I showed you how to make two shamrocks, a solid colored shamrock and another one using the gradient mesh tool. This week I’ll show you how to use the solid color shamrock in brushes. Unfortunately the gradient mesh shamrock (or any gradient mesh object) can’t be used to make a brush, but they can be used as symbols, as you will see in a bit.
Shamrock Brush
This tutorial uses Illustrator CS, but it will work in Illustrator 9 or 10 as well, although some of the commands may be in different places, especially loading brushes, but we will get to that later. For now, let’s make the first brush. (Note: symbols were new in Illustrator 10, so if you are using Illustrator 9, you won’t have the symbol option.) Step 1. Either open the shamrock you make last week or follow the instructions here under “Drawing the Shamrock” steps 1-17 to make another. If you don’t want to draw one, you can use mine by downloading this file for Illustrator CS or Illustrator 10, or for Illustrator 9. Note: When opening the file in Illustrator 10, you may get a message saying the file was created in a newer version of Illustrator and some loss may occur. You can safely ignore this message and open the file.Step 2. Because the shamrock we made last time was large, I scaled mine to 20% size. To do this, go to Object > Transform > Scale. Make sure Uniform is checked and enter 20 in the percentage box. Click OK. Save this image as shamrock_small.ai so you don’t overwrite the large one. Step 3. Make a couple duplicates of the scaled shamrock in case you want to start over. The easiest way to do this is to:1. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. 2. Make sure Uniform is checked. 3. Enter 100 in the percent box. 4. Click the Copy button. 5. Before you do anything else, transform again by typing command/control + D a few times to make copies. 6. Click and drag on the copies to drag them off the original shamrock and move them out of the way. If you get stuck and have to start over grab one of your duplicates.Step 4. Select one of the shamrocks by clicking on it with the selection tool (V). Open the Brush palette (Window > Brushes), and open the Brush palette options menu. Choose New Brush.
Filed under: Graphics 1 & 2
| Creating Brushes in Illustrator CS |
Illustrator Tutorial By Sara Froehlich Want to make some special stationery for invitations to your big St. Patrick’s Day bash? Want to whip up some St. Paddy’s Day graphics? Using Illustrator Brushes and Symbols can speed up your drawing time!Last week I showed you how to make two shamrocks, a solid colored shamrock and another one using the gradient mesh tool. This week I’ll show you how to use the solid color shamrock in brushes. Unfortunately the gradient mesh shamrock (or any gradient mesh object) can’t be used to make a brush, but they can be used as symbols, as you will see in a bit.
Shamrock Brush
This tutorial uses Illustrator CS, but it will work in Illustrator 9 or 10 as well, although some of the commands may be in different places, especially loading brushes, but we will get to that later. For now, let’s make the first brush. (Note: symbols were new in Illustrator 10, so if you are using Illustrator 9, you won’t have the symbol option.) Step 1. Either open the shamrock you make last week or follow the instructions here under “Drawing the Shamrock” steps 1-17 to make another. If you don’t want to draw one, you can use mine by downloading this file for Illustrator CS or Illustrator 10, or for Illustrator 9. Note: When opening the file in Illustrator 10, you may get a message saying the file was created in a newer version of Illustrator and some loss may occur. You can safely ignore this message and open the file.Step 2. Because the shamrock we made last time was large, I scaled mine to 20% size. To do this, go to Object > Transform > Scale. Make sure Uniform is checked and enter 20 in the percentage box. Click OK. Save this image as shamrock_small.ai so you don’t overwrite the large one. Step 3. Make a couple duplicates of the scaled shamrock in case you want to start over. The easiest way to do this is to:1. Go to Object > Transform > Scale. 2. Make sure Uniform is checked. 3. Enter 100 in the percent box. 4. Click the Copy button. 5. Before you do anything else, transform again by typing command/control + D a few times to make copies. 6. Click and drag on the copies to drag them off the original shamrock and move them out of the way. If you get stuck and have to start over grab one of your duplicates.Step 4. Select one of the shamrocks by clicking on it with the selection tool (V). Open the Brush palette (Window > Brushes), and open the Brush palette options menu. Choose New Brush.
Filed under: Photography
Leveling and Sharpening a Reflection Image
Text and photography copyright Bob Steele. All rights reserved.
Return to Nature Photography 101 IndexTaking a great water reflection image requires your camera to be perfectly level. No matter how hard you try – tripod leveling base, bubble level, etc. – you will get some that aren’t perfect. This is when the Photoshop “Measure Tool” comes to the rescue.Photo 1 is an example of a reflection image that’s not quite level. After some minor image adjustments (brightness, contrast), it’s time to level and crop. The Photoshop Measure Tool makes this task easy. You’ll find this tool under the Eyedropper Tool, just left click and hold down to get the tool choices to pop up. Select the Measure Tool at the bottom. Where to measure is probably the hardest part of the process. If you have relatively flat water, pretty much any feature that is well defined in both the primary and reflection can be used. If you have a good catchlight in the reflection, that is the most accurate feature.The Measure Tool is similar to any line drawing tool. Zoom in on your image until the two features you wish to align are large in the window. Move the cross to the primary feature, left click, hold, and drag the line to the reflected feature (Photo 2). Note: If you hold the Shift key down, the measuring line will be constrained to a perfect vertical line – a useful feature for checking your image quickly for level. The next step is to select Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary… The magic of this tool becomes evident here as the exact amount of rotation and direction necessary is already programmed into the Rotate Canvas box. Just click OK and your image is level.At this point, the outside edges of your canvas are no longer level and you’ll need to do some cropping to correct this (Photo 3). Here I’m using the Crop Tool constrained to the original 3:2 proportions, and doing a tiny bit of creative cropping to eliminate some unnecessary negative space on the sides of the image.While were here, lets discuss sharpening for a water reflection image. This discussion will apply specifically to a photo sized for web posting. Sharpening for the web should be done last, after all other adjustments and final sizing. Selective sharpening is a technique used to avoid enhancing noise in large out of focus (OOF) areas. Selective sharpening for the typical bird photo would include sharpening the bird and any perch that was within reasonable focus. It would exclude large areas of OOF background. In a water image, there can be some features in the water that you want to sharpen – ripples that are near the focus plane of the subject. There is usually no reason to sharpen the reflection since it is typically well outside the depth of field for the image. Using a combination of the Magic Wand Tool and the Lasso Tool, I’ve selected the primary subject and those ripples in the water that are in focus (Photo 4). Start with the Magic Wand Tool at a Tolerance of about 10. Shift+Left Click in the open areas of the water until the entire primary subject is surrounded. Use the Lasso Tool to grab the reflection and any remaining bits of water. Inverse the selection (Shift+Ctrl+I). Finally, with the Shift key held down, use the Lasso Tool to surround the ripples in the water you want sharpened. The image is ready for the sharpening method of your choice. The Unsharp Mask filter (USM) works well for web sized images. My typical sharpening routine applies multiple application of USM in small amounts. With USM settings of Amount – 100, Radius – 0.2, and Threshold – 0, I apply the filter 5 or 6 times. Note: Ctrl+F will repeat your last filter, in this case USM after the initial application. If you need a small amount of additional selective sharpening for specific areas (like the eye of your subject), use the Sharpening Tool with a soft edge brush, strength 50%, sized slightly larger than the spot you want to apply it to.Using the tools available in Photoshop, we can improve an image with a minor problem, and make a good image even better (Photo 5).
Filed under: Photography
Leveling and Sharpening a Reflection Image
Text and photography copyright Bob Steele. All rights reserved.
Return to Nature Photography 101 IndexTaking a great water reflection image requires your camera to be perfectly level. No matter how hard you try – tripod leveling base, bubble level, etc. – you will get some that aren’t perfect. This is when the Photoshop “Measure Tool” comes to the rescue.Photo 1 is an example of a reflection image that’s not quite level. After some minor image adjustments (brightness, contrast), it’s time to level and crop. The Photoshop Measure Tool makes this task easy. You’ll find this tool under the Eyedropper Tool, just left click and hold down to get the tool choices to pop up. Select the Measure Tool at the bottom. Where to measure is probably the hardest part of the process. If you have relatively flat water, pretty much any feature that is well defined in both the primary and reflection can be used. If you have a good catchlight in the reflection, that is the most accurate feature.The Measure Tool is similar to any line drawing tool. Zoom in on your image until the two features you wish to align are large in the window. Move the cross to the primary feature, left click, hold, and drag the line to the reflected feature (Photo 2). Note: If you hold the Shift key down, the measuring line will be constrained to a perfect vertical line – a useful feature for checking your image quickly for level. The next step is to select Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary… The magic of this tool becomes evident here as the exact amount of rotation and direction necessary is already programmed into the Rotate Canvas box. Just click OK and your image is level.At this point, the outside edges of your canvas are no longer level and you’ll need to do some cropping to correct this (Photo 3). Here I’m using the Crop Tool constrained to the original 3:2 proportions, and doing a tiny bit of creative cropping to eliminate some unnecessary negative space on the sides of the image.While were here, lets discuss sharpening for a water reflection image. This discussion will apply specifically to a photo sized for web posting. Sharpening for the web should be done last, after all other adjustments and final sizing. Selective sharpening is a technique used to avoid enhancing noise in large out of focus (OOF) areas. Selective sharpening for the typical bird photo would include sharpening the bird and any perch that was within reasonable focus. It would exclude large areas of OOF background. In a water image, there can be some features in the water that you want to sharpen – ripples that are near the focus plane of the subject. There is usually no reason to sharpen the reflection since it is typically well outside the depth of field for the image. Using a combination of the Magic Wand Tool and the Lasso Tool, I’ve selected the primary subject and those ripples in the water that are in focus (Photo 4). Start with the Magic Wand Tool at a Tolerance of about 10. Shift+Left Click in the open areas of the water until the entire primary subject is surrounded. Use the Lasso Tool to grab the reflection and any remaining bits of water. Inverse the selection (Shift+Ctrl+I). Finally, with the Shift key held down, use the Lasso Tool to surround the ripples in the water you want sharpened. The image is ready for the sharpening method of your choice. The Unsharp Mask filter (USM) works well for web sized images. My typical sharpening routine applies multiple application of USM in small amounts. With USM settings of Amount – 100, Radius – 0.2, and Threshold – 0, I apply the filter 5 or 6 times. Note: Ctrl+F will repeat your last filter, in this case USM after the initial application. If you need a small amount of additional selective sharpening for specific areas (like the eye of your subject), use the Sharpening Tool with a soft edge brush, strength 50%, sized slightly larger than the spot you want to apply it to.Using the tools available in Photoshop, we can improve an image with a minor problem, and make a good image even better (Photo 5).
