Mandar Apte

UI/UX Designer from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Category: Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American multinational computer software company. Adobe has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application software development.

  • Web/Mobile App Monetisation & Revenue Generation Strategies

    All business survives on net profit.

    In accounting terms, here is how you calculate Net Profit. i.e. (Total Business Revenue) – (Total Business Expenditure) = Net Profit

    In the business world, there are two types of industries Service and Product.

    So if you are in the service industry, you survive on a paycheck by paycheck or hourly charges to the client. You have to work every hour of every day to make ends meet.

    But if you are a product company, you create a product based on your market and user research. You find consumer problems/requirements/gaps in the market and then try to solve them by creating your product in that category. So building a product is based on solving problems that your users are having.

    In my case, I was a designer by profession. I graduated with a BFA (Bachelor of Applied Arts) in Advertising. After my first two jobs, I tried freelancing in the web, UX, print, branding and animation film industries. I was the lone proprietor of my business. I was doing everything talking to clients, executing a project, delivering it and then waiting for the final payment to be released. It was too much for me at that time.

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  • What is a suitable tool for UI/UX Work: Adobe Photoshop / XD / Sketch / Figma

    As far as I can remember, I have used Photoshop from version two. So I have used Photoshop for almost twenty years, less or more.

    I have been using the Sketch app for four years. And just now, because of team recommendations, I have to switch to Figma.

    The most problematic point about Photoshop or XD is Adobe’s pricing model. Adobe forces you to buy all Creative Cloud apps whether you choose them or not. In India, Adobe CC costs INR 45,000/- plus taxes.

    The best thing about the Sketch app is its pricing model, i.e. Annual Subscription, which costs you INR 7,500/- for a year, and after it ends, you use the same app as long as you want without buying another subscription. So yes, you will not get updates, but you have an app to work with.

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  • Every designer has questions about paying Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) Tax or paying for individual third-party design apps.

    Today, I used Adobe XD for the whole day. I felt it was competitive to use the Sketch app on Mac.

    I have avoided using Adobe XD all these years because Adobe Subscription Tax usually costs me INR 5,000/—here in India. But I loved Sketch App’s payment model, which is almost INR 5,000/year. Then, you can renew your subscription or use it without updates as long as you want.

    I loved Adobe XD’s compatibility and integration with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It is really smooth and well done. Adobe XD’s prototype tool is smooth.

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  • Colour Behaviour Study of Japan / True Black on Real Life Physical Paper & on Computer Displays or Screens

    I am now documenting some thoughts about black colour behaviour on Physical Paper & computer displays or screens.

    I was from a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) – Applied Art background, so we had subjects like Illustration, Calligraphy, Typography, Print Media Design, Logo & Symbol Design, Branding & Identity Design.

    We used to design our assignments using Japan Black ink which is very dark in contrast & which creates high contrast reach feeling of black colour tone on white paper.

    So when we print our designs in Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, we fill the design with (CMYK) Cyan: 100%, Magenta: 100%, Yellow: 100%, K(Black): 100%, then using only K: 100%. These CMYK values use to create high-contrast Japan Black ink fill on White Paper.

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  • How to outline the round corners effect in Adobe Illustrator.

    Adobe Illustrator is a full-featured, one-stop solution Vector Illustration program from Adobe, whose birth dates back to 1984.

    Adobe has various advanced and useful features, one of which is (Smart) Effects for vector objects, which are highly editable even after being applied to different objects.

    As stated in Adobe Help Documents, Adobe Illustrator Effects are described as follows:

    Illustrator includes a variety of effects that you can apply to an object, group, or layer to change its characteristics.

    Illustrator CS3 and earlier included effects and filters, but now Illustrator includes only effects (except SVG Filters). The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter modifies an object or layer permanently. Still, an effect and its properties can be changed or removed anytime.

    Once you apply an effect to an object, the effect appears in the Appearance panel. From the Appearance panel, you can edit the effect, move it, duplicate it, delete it, or save it as part of a graphic style. When using an impact, you must expand the object before accessing the new points.

    One of those effects is the round corner. You can apply round corners to your current drawn rectangle and square shapes in your document and edit their value at any time.

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  • How to Draw Perfect Triangle in Adobe Illustrator.

    While using Adobe Illustrator myself, I always wonder how to draw a perfect triangle, as no such tool as ‘Triangle’ exists in the Adobe Illustrator Toolbox.

    So, Here is how Adobe Illustrator Toolbar or Toolbox Look in Adobe Illustrator CC:

    Adobe-Illustrator-Tool-Bar

    So here is a way how to draw a perfect triangle in Adobe Illustrator.

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  • Fix Adobe Photoshop error ‘Could not edit the layer because the layer is locked.’

    When you open a PNG or JPG from the web and want to edit a locked background layer, you double-click on the ‘background layer.’ You get this warning: ‘Could not edit the layer because the layer is locked.’

    photoshop-locked-background-layers-panel

    Here is How to fix this error

    Step 01:
    Select Background Layer

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  • Adobe’s Creative Cloud – Looks Promising

    Today Adobe Announced & Released Creative Cloud with newly launched Adobe Creative Suite 6,

    & it looks promising to me that I will certaily use Creative Cloud for my artwork workflows…

    Here is the video

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  • Learn Photoshop: Learn How to Use Photoshop’s Non Destructive Editing for Transforming, Applying Perspective, Changing Colors, masking by just utilizing Photoshop feature called ‘Smart Objects’

    Following Video will Introduce you the term called ‘Non Destructive Editing’ in Photoshop by using Photoshop’s powerful feature called ‘Smart Objects’.

    No more hesitate to transform objects multiple times by loosing quality of artwork… As this feture simply puts exact original copy of artwork inside artwork called Smart Object…

    A Modern Photoshop Technique That You should Know How To Use it… & Get powerful results from it…

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  • Learn Photoshop: Improve Photoshop Your Creative Workflow & Productivity by Utilizing Photoshop Actions by Creating Photoshop Droplets & Scripts

    Here are detailed tutorials that you will love to learn ‘Photoshop Actions’ to improove your Photoshop Creative Workflow & Productivity by just following video Tutorials:

    We certaily know that Photoshops Actions were available for long time now but learn here to put them for better use…

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