We have the following logo for a project at my school:
(PDF: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13934366/M2/Grafiska/Logotyp/M2.pdf)
Now, as you can see, it has a descending triangle to make it look like a speech bubble. However, we still want it to be centered based on the center of the rectangle. So I figured I’d just add an identical margin above the rectangle to the one below it created by the descending triangle.
But whenever we use the logo in other programs, such as Photoshop or Pages, they ignore this margin with regards to positioning etc, and instead crop to the actual content. Is there any way to avoid this behavior?
When using Place… in Photoshop, it’s possible to select “Crop to Crop Box” which initially inserts it with the extra margin. But if I use the alignment tools, it will still align it as the “naked” logo.
Update: It seems the consensus is “eyeball it” in most applications. I should, however, mention that InDesign actually places things with the frame/artboard intact. Considering Pages has a masking tool for images, it should be possible to adjust the margins for that application as well.
Answer
There is a workaround for Photoshop if what you’re trying to do is align the horizontal center. As you’ve discovered, Photoshop’s auto-align tools look only at the pixels and ignore that 100% transparent top margin, but if you invoke Free Transform (Cmd/Ctl-T) you’ll see that the Smart Object still remembers your initial “Crop to Crop Box” choice, so the horizontal center handles will be in the right place.
Drag a guide and snap it to those handles, exit Free Transform and snap your other object(s) to the guide.
Alternatively, drag out your guide first, then use the Free Transform trick to let you snap the logo to the guide at the correct center alignment.
In layout-challenged applications such as Pages, you’re going to have to eyeball it, I think.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : vicvicvic , Answer Author : Alan Gilbertson
