Pixlr – Eat this Photoshop Express…
Dont get me wrong, Photoshop Express is pretty cool….but, its just not photoshop. Without layers and selection tools it is simply a neat way to mess around with photos. Pixlr, however, goes that one step further and provides layers and most of the tools your used to in photoshop in a neat and uncluttered layout via its website. It is flash based and so its performance will vary from machine to machine but so far for me it has not been anything other than blazingly fast. I think it even beats installed photoshop cs3 on many occasions! The good thing about Photoshop Express, however, is that you can store your images on the Adobe servers (currently up to 2gb) which is pretty natty. For me, I would rather use Pixlr and a memory stick any day!
This Application was suggested to me by my mate Dan, so thanks matey! (If you have any suggestions please do not hesitate to contact me so you can share them with the world!)
tiltshiftmaker.com – Create tiltshift images on the fly…
I have posted links to tutorials in the past on how to achieve the tilt shift lens effect on images, making your photos look like snaps of model villages. Well forget that as tiltshiftmaker.com does it for you.
You just upload your image and use the simple controls to make your own. Very easy. Very effective.
P.s. There is also an iPhone application that you can use which is pretty cool. You can get that here.
Dock Spaces – Have multiple docks for different things…
I bloomin love this one!
I love having a dock for every theme, one for web, one for communication, one for design, one for photography… I cant remember how I worked before this one, all I know is it involved a very long dock with teeeeeney icons.
Enjoy…..This ones a keeper!
Colorate – Create colour palettes from images
This one gathers colour information from an image or swatch and generates a pallette using the colours it finds. Neat, does what it says on the tin!
So for all you colour geeks out there ‘av a look!
Rulers – Measure stuff on screen…in a nutshell…
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…
Sweet Home 3D – Free interior design software
Heres a nice little application to visualise your home ready for your to re-decorate or even knock through walls.
You create a 2d floor plan and get a 3d preview, you can also include some standard furniture types etc to get a better idea. Obviously its not going to give Sketch Up the heebee jeebees but its free and its open source so that is to be applauded.
FramebyFrame – Free Stopmotion capture from your isight (or usb webcam)
Hey guys, this app is cool. Its a bit like iStopmotion from Boinx except it has fewer features but most of all is FREE!
Its nice and easy to use and onion skins frame by frame so you and the kids can make a lil toon out of plasticine (or any other non-branded, generic modelling clay).
Oh and its another website made in iWeb…..hoorah!
Skim – Powerful PDF annotation…
I have to, as part of one of my professions, have to make notes on fairly long and wordy documents which are mostly in PDF format. Skim has some powerful features that Preview now can boast also. Skim, however still has the edge when it comes to marking and annotating. Heres the feature list from the horses mouth…
Features:
- Viewing PDFs
- Adding and editing notes
- Highlighting important text, including one-swipe highlight modes
- Making “snapshots” for easy reference
- Navigation using table of contents or thumbnails, with visual history
- View all your notes and highlights
- Convenient reading in full screen
- Giving powerful presentations, with build-in transitions
- Handy preview of internal links
- Focus using a reading bar
- Magnification tool
- Smart cropping tools
- Extensive AppleScript support
- Bookmarks
- Saving passwords in Keychain
- Export notes as text
- Automatic download of remote PDFs
- Support for Apple Remote Control
- Interaction with LaTeX and PDFSync
- Integration with BibDesk
- Spotlight support
- Highly customizable
- And much more…
loginox – Customise your login screen
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 – Quickly create wallpaper for your iPhone
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.
