Robot Forest » Design

Visualize Your Fonts With MyFontBook

gjunkie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:03:13 +0000

MyFontBook.com is pretty interesting. It will scan your computer for every font you’ve got installed and display them for you.

What can you do with it? Well, plenty of things. You can rate fonts, tag them, print proof sheets, get sample text, and more. You can even check out what paragraphs and symbols would look like with each font. The only thing you can’t do, which I tried to do instinctively was to drag fonts around to re-order them.

It’s great for designers needing to see sample text of multiple fonts at the same time. I highly recommend it.

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Great Texture Resources For Designers

gjunkie — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:23:43 +0000

I’m in the midst of finishing a new design for this blog and during the process I was in heavy need of some good textures. Inspired by Joesdaily’s earlier post, I decided to post some resources for designers. The following four websites have some really great textures.

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Best Adobe Air Applications

gjunkie — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:01:25 +0000

If you don’t know what Adobe Air is it’s basically a way for being able to run applications across multiple platforms. So for example if a developer wants to make an application but is dreading making it for Mac, Windows, and Linux, he could simply make it to run on Adobe Air and it will run on all platforms.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install Adobe Air. After that you’re ready for the fun part. Here’s a list of applications I’ve been using.

1. Kuler Desktop
This is pretty much a must for all web developers and designers, as well as all color aficionados. This application will let you see any color and its relating colors, complementary colors, and so much more. It’s basically color theory all in one place. Not only that, the application has an accompanying website that is out of this world.

2. TweeDeck
If you’re an avid Twitter user, TweetDeck is for you. It allows you to group the people you follow in specific groups so that your updates aren’t all bunched up together. Even better, they have an iPhone app that syncs directly with the desktop AIR application, so that all your groups stay up to date. Pretty sweet.
This one is also geared a bit towards web developers. It connects to your Google Analytics and gives you all of your stats. It’s pretty handy and the interface is solid.

3. DestroyFlickr
This is an amazing way to view your flickr photos. It’s got a fluid UI that allows you to see photos with dark backgrounds. It also let’s you see your contacts’ photos all in one place. Check this one out.

4. Live Quotes
Keep track of stocks, compare companies, see highs and lows, open and close values, and more. Not bad at all.

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Twitter Changes Its Home Page And Becomes More Useful

gjunkie — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:11:42 +0000

The first thing you’ll notice, and also the most useful thing about the redesign, is the way they now display the trending topics. You now get a clear list of trending topics by the minute, day, and week.

The redesign now emphasizes their topic search even more. It’s simply the biggest thing on the page. The sign-in form is now a simple and attractive pop-down box and I love it. I’m a big fan of pop-out boxes and modal windows when used properly.

As of now the home page is the only thing I’ve noticed they’ve changed. Have you noticed any other changes?

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Convert Your PSDs Into Wordpress Themes

gjunkie — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:36:51 +0000

This is an interesting concept. Design your entire website just how you like it in Photoshop, then use Divine to convert that PSD file into a full blown Wordpress theme. This comes especially handy for those that either hate coding CSS/PHP or simply don’t have the experience to do so.

Divine only works on Windows machines for now, so for those of you designing on a Mac you’ll simply have to wait it out.

How it works
Basically you’ll have to design your theme with fake text all over and exactly how you would like it to look. Once you get the design exactly how you like, you can open the file with Divine and assign each element in your design as a specific type; Post Title, Comments, Post Text, etc.

An interesting idea to say the least. If any of you get a chance to try this free product let me know what you think.

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Design Inspiration: Current Favorites

gjunkie — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:21:51 +0000

I’ve been diving more and more into web design lately, in turn looking for lots of inspiration. The truth is that I’m a newbie at the whole thing, so inspiration for ideas is what I rely on. Here are some of the current places I look to for design inspiration.

1. Smashing Magazine
This place is simply amazing, and perhaps my favorite of the bunch. I go here for everything from CSS tips, to photoshop tutorials, Drupal/Wordpress themes and photography tips.

2. Yay!Everyday
I love the simplicity of this site. Take a look at their front page and you’ll get a hundred ideas for your own work. Really creative stuff.

3. Kyle and Bonnie
This is a buddy of mine that I work with who is pretty obsessed with design. Check out his website for some pretty amazing design tips, links, and pictures of his place… you’ve gotta check out what he did with his apartment.

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