Everything is moving towards speed and mobility. Many people, including designers are at least augmenting their desktop and laptop computers with mobile devices such as tablets. With this being said, more companies are focusing on apps you can use to increase your productivity.
Imagine sitting on the subway on the way back to your office and creating a mockup of a website along the way.
Imagine having an idea for a print poster, and getting the layout put together while you're in transit. When you get back, you can bring your idea into your more powerful devices for better design & development. In comes Adobe Comp CC, an app focused on creating quick prototyping on your iPad. Now, you can just right into your ideas and start fleshing them out.
Premade Layouts
The great thing about Adobe Comp CC is that it's free. Search for it on the App store, and download it without paying a penny. Then, install it and fire it up to get started immediately. When you start the app, you have three options to choose from. You can select Mobile, Print, or Web, and they have pre-made layouts set up for you.
Gestures
You can draw your layouts with simple gestures. Everything is simplified, to make it quick and easy to draw even complex shapes and useful design objects. For example, you can draw a square with a circle in one of the corners to create a rounded rectangle. A circle or a rectangle with an x over it creates an image box or a circular image box. You can see the list of gestures, shown in the screenshot above.
Options
The gear icon in the top right corner of the app gives you the option to choose from different document sizes. You don't have to simply remember common document sizes. Adobe has put together a lot of common options for you. You can start with a variety of iPhones, iPads, letters, and web sizes. It even lists the pt and pixel sizes below each option.
Editing Premade Layouts
Moving around the canvas is as simple as swiping, pinching to zoom, and spreading your fingers apart to zoom out, just like any other app. It's even more important in an app like this, because of the simple refines you'll need to make. You also may have small elements in your design that you need to edit. You can tap an element to edit it, and hitting the + symbol below a premade layout allows you to make a copy. I'd make a copy before making any edits.
Once you're into the layout, you have several different options. You can select elements simply by tapping. Also, you open up more options, such as shapes you can make, as well as text, and photos. These menus open up even more options to work with.
Shapes
You can choose from a collection of basic shapes such as circles, rectangles, and horizontal & vertical lines. You can also bring in any custom shapes libraries you have stored in the Creative Cloud.
Text
Just like a typical design program, you can have presets for type. You can control whether certain text is in headline format, sub headline and paragraph text.
Continue reading %Rapid Prototyping Compositions with Adobe Comp CC (iPad app)%
by James George via SitePoint
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