Password masking - the practice of replacing the characters a user types into password entry field with bullets - has been widespread on the web for a long time. Jakob Nielsen recently wrote a thought-provoking post suggesting masking is hurting more than it helps, and that it’s only being kept around out of habit. I’ll [...]
Fotografix is an amazing example of what creative developers can accomplish in less than one meg. The 680Kb portable application is a very capable image editor and provides nearly all the same functionality I utilize in Photoshop on a daily basis. It was a no-brainer to include in my list of 40 apps you can [...]
I got a chance to catch up with Aviary today at a CEA event in New York, and the first thing I wanted to know is when the company will be ready to launch its web-based audio editor. Aviary makes web-based image editing tools, but the company purchased online audio editor DigiMix in March with [...]
The Golden Ratio has been used in design for ages. Such greats as DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Mondrian, and LeCorbusier utilized it in many of their works.
Even Mother Nature utilizes the proportion - in nautilus shells and pine cones, for example.
For a simple way to put it to work in your own designs, download Phiculator. It’s [...]
With their Spring Design Challenge recently wrapped up, Mozilla has announced the 2009 summer edition. The focus this time around will be on reinventing tabs in the browser.
Browser tabs haven’t changed much since their introduction, yet the web itself continues evolving rapidly. The goal of this challenge is to envision innovative new ways to handle [...]
Finding free fonts on the net isn’t really all that hard - the list of sites offering gratis typefaces is a pretty one. Good quality fonts? That’s a slightly shorter list.
Good quality free fonts that can be used commercially? That list is even smaller.
Thankfully, the good folks behind Font Squirrel have worked their tails off [...]
There’s a piece over at The Guardian today about the most searched for terms on Microsoft’s Live Search. The top two: Google and Yahoo. They, combined with Google.com and Yahoo.com, account for 2.7% of all searches performed on Live.
The numbers would probably be much different if Live Search was considered a decent search engine. Right [...]
Looking for a fast, easy way to preview the fonts you have installed on your computer? It doesn’t get much easier than visiting Flipping Typical.
Head over to the site and within seconds it will render a table of all your typefaces. Initially the preview text will read “flipping typical,” but you can delete it and [...]
Like many sites offering icon design services, Visual Pharm generously provides a few dozen free downloads for users to enjoy.
As an added bonus, the icon sets they offer are free to use in both personal and commercial settings, provided you supply a link to their web site.
The Must Have pack includes all the OS essentials [...]
While graphic design professionals probably wouldn’t be able to substitute Fotografix for Photoshop, it’s certainly a capable free alternative for the average Joe.
In addition to being totally portable, Fotografix has a ridiculously small footprint. It’s a 370Kb download and about 700Kb once extracted. Despite its size, most of the features I rely on in Photoshop [...]
