The Mac OSX Colour picker is simple and beautifully integrated across Mac applications. Hex color opens the colour picker as a stand alone application so you can save colours without having to open an iLife or iWork application first. Of course all of the colours you save etc will be avialable across apps.
Creating invoices for clients can be tedious at the best of times. Expressinvoice is a really simple, clean and easy to use piece of software for generating, sending and collating invoices that you can customise.
We all like a bit of Eye-candy on our desktops. Desklickr directly feeds desktops from FLICKR to your mac desktop.
iCustomize is a free application that changes and updates the graphics on your Leopard run Mac. Things you can change include the dock, stacks, system icons……see the screenshot below…
Its FREE…
This is just a simple application to give you some natty onscreen rulers to measure different elements etc.
Its very useful if you need to create on screen guides or compare your work to others etc…
Loginox is a utility that gives you the option to change the login image of your mac. Simple yes, but very useful. Especially if you have a macbook or macbook pro, you could leave contact details in case of loss etc on an image that you use for the login screen (hoping that some honest bod would return it).
iMagePhone is an application available in Lite (Free) or Pro (not Free) versions. Its a very neat and quick way of making and loading wallpapers for your lovely iPhone or iPod Touch.
I, use the lite version because a) its free and b) I dont need the extra features that the pro version gives you such as quartz filters etc as I can do all that shiznit in Pixelmator which is fast becoming one of my favourite applications.
Hey all,
Just thought I would point you in the direction of Abduzeedo, a great blog with tips, tricks and tutorials for photoshop, fireworks and (my fav) Pixelmator…
Some of the effects covered are stunning. I just made the ones below in 3 minutes…..and I know NOTHING!
Watching the video on the website of this application blew me away. For a couple of projects I needed to design an application icon, it wasn’t easy and the results weren’t particularly awe inspiring.
Opacity is so cool, it has built in effects and has many vector tools, best of all, however, is the built in ‘factories’ that allow you to export the graphic as icon presets and many other file types, even directly into your website via FTP.
I sincerely suggest watching the video on the homepage to guage the true value of Opacity.
Picturesque is an image editor tailored to those who want some of those snazzy mac effects such as reflections, 3d perspective and rounded corners etc.
It is not free like most of my posts but because of its ease of use and general coolness I thought I would post it anyway…
Compfight is a search engine that references FLICKR but only returns results from images that have CREATIVE COMMONS licenses. This means that you can (mostly) freely use the images for your own purposes without feeling the wrath of an IP lawyer!..
It has a really nice and simple interface and works relatively quickly. Check it out.
I have been working on a few of my websites lately and have come across a couple of very useful tools that are not only free but very cool.
The First is BGPATTERNS, this website allows you to generate a tileable image, useful if you need a website that loads quickly with a seamless tiling background. Try it, you might like it!
Next up is the TARTANMAKER, which similarly allows you to create a tileable image but this time of a tartan of your own design….
heres my feeble attempt…
Lastly there is the great selection of generators at subblue, my favourite being the Guilloche generator (see my attempt below)…
This one is a pretty contentious issue. Can one truly work with colour on an uncalibrated screen.
Well despite my initial misgivings, yes you can and quite succesfully. Its never going to be perfect but if your a designer, work with textiles or simply want to re-decorate your kitchen you cant really go wrong for £5.99. This web app works like a charm and despite being used on a typically saturated screen, the colour matching actually isnt that bad, and goes a long way to helping choose those oh so inmportant hues.
I love that you can email the swatched you create to yourself or others as it generates a lovely image of the colours to include in the mail as well as the colour details.
Just found freevectors.net, a great collection of free vectors for your designing pleasure.
There are some crackers on here, but be careful, one too many vectors and you could bring the universe in on itself and we will all be re-enacting tron (minus the lycra catsuits).
Like urbandirty.com, their sister site, grungetextures.com has zillions of great background for your (ab)using pleasure.
Don’t miss this one!
Buttonbuilder is a nice little application that helps you make nice shiny little buttons for your website – it outputs as PNG files which is perfect for all you little iWebbers out there.
Desktoptopia is a great piece of software that detects your native screen resolution, and feeds desktop bacgrounds to your mac at intervals you choose, some of them being simply divine!
Check it out…you wont regret it!
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