Garmahis » Tools

10 Annotation Tools to get Feedback for Web Design Projects

Michael Garmahis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:46:48 +0000

Online annotation tools for collaboration and getting feedback for web design and development projects are reviewed in this post. They are very useful for commenting, review and debugging with client and as well as with the team members. There’s always a feedback stage in the web design process which requires intensive interaction. What in particular should be changed, improved or fixed? Using online annotation tools you can dramatically reduce time spent on reporting bugs, change requests and improvements. Have you tried any of these tools on real project? Do you have a favorite not mentioned here? Please add your opinion in the comments

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IE6 update warning: 7 ways to tell your site visitors to upgrade

Michael Garmahis — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:20:16 +0000

IE6 update warning and suggestion to upgrade Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome or IE8 is currently displayed by Youtube to all IE6 visitors: ‘we will be phasing out support for your browser’. Previously Digg team started to talk about dropping support for IE6 users because IE6 compatible development requires unreasonable amount of resources spent.

The more websites will support IE6 upgrade movement the more users and web developers will be happier. Users will get modern, speedier, more useful browsers and developers get rid of hours and hours of headache, workarounds and hacks.

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Top 10 free website uptime monitoring services

Michael Garmahis — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:10:49 +0000

It’s crucial for a website to experience minimal downtime (and for site owner to monitor uptime), otherwise visitors or customers won’t return again if the site is always offline and inaccessible. Sometimes it happens that websites are going down even if you have a very reliable hosting with 99% of uptime. The reasons could vary: problems with data center, network outages, server outages, server overload, DNS configuration, or SSL certificate problems. In this case the problem has to be solved as soon as possible.

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Create custom panels in Photoshop CS4 with Adobe Configurator

Michael Garmahis — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:44:08 +0000

Adobe Configurator is a prerelease of an open source utility for easy creation of panels (palettes) in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Now you can create custom panels in Photoshop CS4 without knowledge of Flash/Flex/ActionScript. Just drag and drop tools, menu items, scripts, actions, audio, video, images, and SWF objects into a panel design, then export the results for use inside Photoshop.

Adobe Configurator lets you not only create panels that make Photoshop easier to use but share those panels with others on Adobe Exchange. Configurator requires Adobe Air installed. If you have not installed Adobe Air during Photoshop CS4 installation than download and install it separately. To Install and launch Configurator double-click the .AIR file on your desktop. After you have exported your panel, it can be accessed within Photoshop CS4 under the Window > Extensions menu.

Create fake HDR photo online with Create HDR

Michael Garmahis — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:12:43 +0000

You can create fake HDR photo online for free. Create HDR is a new web service which make process of fake HDR photo creation from 1 JPG easy as pie. You can upload source photo from local computer, from Flickr or using any web URL. After upload (JPG format only, 6MB max) you have only two HDR settings to adjust and have some fun: Radius and Contrast. Click “Apply Changes” after you changed them to see the result. After you finish you have option to download full size HDR image or to save it to gallery for up to 12 hours.

Just now Create HDR is using one JPG to HDR conversion technique but they are promising to roll out Pro version soon. It will include more options, settings and will convert multiple images with various exposures into a single HDR.

Update: Create HDR is offline now. I will update this post if this or similar service will be available.

4 Online favicon tools

Michael Garmahis — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:26:10 +0000

Bradicon is a simple web tool to quickly convert images in popular graphics formats – JPG, PNG, BMP, or GIF- into an ICO (icon) file online. You can download the results afterwards.

Bradicon has a wider file range than similar tool ConvertIcon and more user-friendly two-step process. It could be useful for quick icon design mockup or for people who don’t want to spend time learning advanced software. To get better results you should use square images with fewer colors and details.

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Convert photo into 3D model with Make3D

Michael Garmahis — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:22:01 +0000

Make3D is a simple online tool from Stanford University that automatically converts your single photo into a 3D model with very impressive results. Unlike Microsoft Photosynth which meshes many images together to create 3D models, Make3D use its algorithm to convert one photo into a quasi-3D image.

Make3D utilize a variety of visual signs that humans use for estimating the 3D aspects of a scene and creates a three-dimensional fly around model that includes depth and a range views.

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Search graphic design blogs for best tips, tutorials, reviews

Michael Garmahis — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:29:40 +0000

I made a custom Google search engine on graphic design blogs. This search tool uses handpicked blogs about graphic and web design. Using it you can find reliable and essential information on all topics related to graphic design: news, tips, Photoshop, Illustrator and other software tutorials, reviews, interviews. Now you will not lose your time watching fake, irrelevant or ad full pages. Get only info to the point!

Image search bookmarklets: easy find high resolution images, free stock photos, news and portraits photos

Michael Garmahis — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:05:35 +0000

I create useful image search bookmarklets for various needs. Now you don’t have to browse a variety of photo sites individually or see tons of ads on image meta search engines. All you need is to click image search bookmarklet link and paste keyword. There are such bookmarklets as high resolution image search on free stock photo sites (morguefile.com, www.stockvault.net, www.sxc.hu, imageafter.com, openphoto.net, photocase.com, www.openstockphotography.org), high resolution photo search on Flickr, inspiration Image search on DeviantART, portrait and news image search, Google, Yahoo and Live.com image search

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