Entries Tagged as 'Tools'
Review of the Best Font Managers for Your Own Usage
Published December 5th, 2012 in Fonts, Tools - 14 Comments
I’m sure you have already found a way to optimize your work with fonts, and that you are absolutely happy with your font management app. But wait a minute, why you are reading this post if that is the case?
Just let me guess…you want to compare your solution with other apps or, maybe, like many designers you’re still working without a font management app and cluttered drop down lists of fonts are your reality. Oh man, you should fix it!
Windows users, have you noticed that every new version of Windows brings hundreds of standard fonts. Here are some stats:
- Windows XP: 133
- Windows Vista: 191
- Windows 7: 235
- Windows 8: 400 +
You don’t even use all of these fonts. Working with huge font lists is terrible.
Everyday we noticed that 24 hours is not enough time in the day. We need more extra time to work, to rest, to spend with our family and loved ones. That’s why we are trying to optimize our working process. Without an effective font management system you are wasting your precious time.
There are a huge number of font management apps, and I’ve tried a lot of them. So, let’s start talking about their pros and cons.
Suitcase Fusion 4
License: $99.95 for Windows and $99.95 for Mac.
OS: Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and Windows 7
Suitcase is a super font manager for creative persons, but still it is a very professional app. It allows you to compare fonts side-by-side. Also this font storage has some plugins for work with Adobe Creative Suite 5-6 QuarkXPress (for font auto activation).
Suitcase Fusion 4 makes your life much easier. You can organize your fonts in sets, cool previews and searches will save your time. More features: web font is enabled (WebINK and Google Web Font connections), you can detect and repair bad fonts (FontDoctor ) and find similar fonts (QuickMatch). There is a full-trial-version for 30 days. Just try it 
Tools of the Trade for Web Designers
Published November 13th, 2012 in Tools - 2 Comments
One complaint I hear over and over again from designers is that no matter how hard they push through the day, there just never seems to be enough time to get through everything they’d expected to. I’ve heard it often enough that I’ve done some digging to identify the problem. Sure, we could all be a bunch of lazy lay-abouts, but I think we all know that’s not true. So what’s to blame for productivity that’s not quite up to snuff?
The best I can figure is that we’re all suffering from a condition that I’ve dubbed “Old Guard Syndrome.” That is, we’re stuck in a rut. We aren’t taking advantage of changing technologies as quickly as software and online tools are updating what they’re capable of doing for us. We need to adapt faster if we’re going to stay organized and become more efficient. Following are some online tools that can help you streamline your workload and make each minute of your day count for just a bit more.
Balsamiq
Best Of – Photoshop Actions
Published November 6th, 2012 in Design, Tools - 2 Comments
Photoshop actions can be a great help to designers and photographers who want to be able to quickly achieve different effects with photos. There are a wide variety of action sets available for photo editing and touch ups, some are free and some must be purchased. In the past we’ve showcased number of different Photoshop actions and sets in our blog posts, and today we’d like to present this post that includes links to more than 50 of the best action sets that you’ll find anywhere. The post is separated into two sections, premium actions and free actions.
If you’re looking for some quality actions for editing your own photos, take a look at the sets showcased here and I think you’ll find some great options.
Premium Photoshop Actions:
Leading Options for Creating Restaurant Websites
Published September 12th, 2012 in Tools - 4 Comments
The restaurant industry is notorious for having bad websites. With so many restaurants out there in need of a website, many solutions have been launched specifically to target restaurants. While a restaurant website can be build without the use of one of these platforms, some of the newer options include features that can be useful and even essential for restaurants.
In this post we’ll look at some of the platforms and content management systems that exist specifically for restaurants. As an alternative, there are HTML templates and themes for many CMSs that could be purchased, and a custom design is always an option as well.
Restaurant Engine used the extremely popular WordPress content management system. They host your website and you choose from their available templates. Each site comes with features like an online menu, online reservations, an events calendar, social media integration, photo and video galleries, and more. The templates use a responsive layout, so your site will be ready for users on mobile phones and tablets. Pricing starts at $39 per month with a 14-day free trial available.
Printing on the Go: Top 5 Cloud Printing Apps
Published June 26th, 2012 in Tools - 2 Comments
According to recent figures (in the UK) there will be 60% as many tablets sold as PCs by 2015, so it is hardly surprising that nowadays we are just as likely to use a Mac or PC to crack on with our client’s design requests as we are a tablet PC.
With tablets offering the ability to design on the move it seems only natural that we are able to print our mock-ups and wireframes while in transit too – and this is where printing apps come in to play. Here are the top 5 cloud printing apps for you to download.
1. Samsung MobilePrint
Compatible with Samsung wireless printers, this free to download app is perfect for designers and casual users alike. Content can be printed in various formats, with documents and webpages all capable of being sent to the printer, and the app now supports Google Docs for truly mobile printing.
8 Web Apps to Make Online Life Easier
Published June 20th, 2012 in Tools - 3 Comments
Here you have a collection of 8 apps that will make living online a lot easier and more pleasurable. Make sure to click on a few and try them out.
Mighty Deals – Great deals on services for web savvy consumers.
Everyone is always looking for a good deal, and Mighty Deals does have quite a few of them. If you’re a web expert there are items here, like font packages, themes and other web design tools that you can actually use. They have a ‘daily deals’ section that sometimes has a great item, and they usually don’t have a lot of junk although, unless you make a lot of websites, you probably won’t use a lot of what they have to offer.
Best feature –Absolutely no registration fees.
40 Excellent Fonts to Use Through Google Web Fonts
Published May 9th, 2012 in Design, Tools - 4 Comments
In recent years the possibilities for using a wide variety of fonts and typefaces in web design has come a long way. There are now several different options for approaches that you can take when you want to use a font other than the basic, standard web safe fonts. Google Web Fonts has quickly become one of the leading options.
With Google Web Fonts it is quick and easy to implement a wide variety of fonts into the websites that you design and code. There are currently more than 500 fonts that are available through Google Web Fonts, and many of them are of sufficient quality to use in professional designs. In this post we’ll feature 40 fonts that you can start using today.
10 Resources for Creating Website Color Schemes
Published December 28th, 2011 in Design, Tools - 18 Comments
Choosing the right color scheme is one of the most important decisions of the website design process, and it can also be one of the most challenging. Fortunately, there are a number of great tools available to help with color selection.
Some of the resources mentioned in this post will allow you to browse through a variety of color palettes or schemes, many will allow you to create and save your own color schemes, and some are interactive, allowing you to quickly create an effective color scheme.
Kuler
Adobe’s Kuler includes a large library of user-submitted color schemes. You can view the color schemes online or download them to be used in Adobe Creative Suite products.
20 Awesome Thunderbird Addons
Published December 12th, 2011 in Tools - 5 Comments
Thunderbird is a popular and free email application from Mozilla, the people behind Firefox. Like Firefox, one of the reasons for Thunderbird’s popularity is the number of quality add-ons that are available for download. While Thunderbird includes all of the necessary features for managing your email, there are tons of add-ons that bring additional functionality that may make the application far more useful and productive for you.
In this post we’ll highlight 20 add-ons that can prove to be highly useful.
Lightning adds a calendar to Thunderbird so you can keep track of your schedule from within Thunderbird.
Organize your schedule and life’s important events in a calendar that’s fully integrated with your Thunderbird email. Manage multiple calendars, create your daily to do list, invite friends to events, and subscribe to public calendars.
Best Options for Real Time Analytics
Published November 8th, 2011 in Marketing, Tools - 22 Comments
Every business, large or small, has a need to know what is going on with its website and how users are interacting with it. There are a number of different options when it comes to website analytics, and this post will feature the leading options that provide visitor data in real time.
Real time analytics can prove to be invaluable when working with social media or viral campaigns that tend to send traffic quickly and in short bursts. In these situations you’ll need to be able to react quickly, and real-time website analytics allow you to do so. Here is a look at some of the best options.
Google Analytics
In recent weeks Google Analytics rolled out a new feature for real-time reporting. You can see how many visitors are on your site at the moment, what specific pages they are viewing, what sites referred them, where they are located geographically, and more. You’ll need to be using the new version of Analytics in order to view the real time data (read more about that in this post on the Analytics blog).
