Site Performance Testing with Pingdom

DavidM    Cool Links, Design and Development     development, error, performance, pingdom, site, testing, tools, web

Whether you are tweaking the design or working on a complete overall, checking how your site is performing is a critical step. Not only can you see where delays are occurring, like externally linked images or affiliate programs, you can also see some not so obvious errors. There are several tools out there to test the performance of your website and it is a good idea to build a collection in your designer’s toolbox.

One such tool is Pingdom’s free Full Page Test which loads the full page and all it’s objects then displays bars representing the time taken for each item to load. It will also highlight items that exceed recommended times or generate errors. Along with the time bars there is also a complete page summary with some very useful information.

Pingdom also offers monthly fee based site uptime and performance monitoring for critical web sites.

Accurate Image Placeholding with Dummy Image

DavidM    Cool Links, Design and Development     design, dummy image, placeholder, productivity, resources, Tutorial, web

Dummy Image is a simple script that lets anyone place a properly sized image into a web design just using a link. Lifehacker calls it the lorem ipsum of images.

Just a simple call to the server using an image source of “http://dummyimage.com/325×123″ alt=”A Dummy Image” or any other image code creates a dummy image of whatever dimension you specify in the url, complete with dimensions inside the box. What’s even cooler is you can download the php files and set up your own image generator on your own site.

It may not be the prettiest image, but it is a great way to mockup a layout without having to create individual images or set width and height values.

Sample 50px by 75px dummy image

Looking at the Camera More Engaging to Stock Buyers?

David Gilder    Design and Development, Photography     Advertising, Copy, design, Microstock, Models, Photography, Sales Trends, Stock Photography, Text

Rahul Pathak over at LookStat (a multi-stock agency statistical analysis webtool) has put together some information about whether or not it is more engaging to have the models looking at the camera, or looking away. He looked at sales trends between images of senior citizens, comparing images where the models were looking at the camera to those where the models were looking at each other or off into the distance. His results were very surprising.
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My Fonts

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     buy, design, find, fonts, identification, identify, typography

An all-time favorite site with designers: My Fonts

Find the fonts you need. What the Font will allow you to upload a sample font to determine the typeface.

Linotype Fonts

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     design, fonts, Linotype, specify, typography

Linotype website. I like their breakouts for font usage. i.e. Text Fonts for books and magazines. Symbol fonts that function as artwork in pictoral depictions. Love those Pi fonts!

Bitstream BOLT mobile browser

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development, Gadgets and Stuff     Bitstream, browser, design, fonts, mobile, new technology, phone, typography

Looking for the perfect font on the fly? Bitstream has developed a browser for your mobile phone. Enter BOLT.

Layers Magazine Tutorials

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     free, Layers, magazine, online, training, tutorials

An amazing array of tutorials from Layers Magazine. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Premiere and Lightroom.

Kuler Tutorial

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     color, Kuler, swatches, training, Tutorial

Here is the tutorial for you to find out how to manage Kuler from within InDesign CS4.

Kuler than Cool

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     color, CS4, design, InDesign, Kuler, matching

Kuler is an online community resource for color. It can be run from within InDesign CS4.

Managing Your Invoicing (and Time) with Freshbooks

DavidM    Business, Design and Development    

I’ll admit that I’m always struggling with invoice/accounting/time tracking and I’ve been trying to get a handle on it with various tools, services and even paper.  In yet another attempt to get the business side of my business organized and manageable I’m working with Freshbooks.com (referral link).

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