Stock Photo Rights

David Gilder    Cool Links     Business, design, Images, Photography, Photos, Stock

Here is a quick little visual guide to why it is a good idea to license images for commercial purposes through stock agencies: http://www.stockphotorights.com/

Their main point is that the stock agencies offer legal guarantees that protect you if you accidentally overlook a model, trademarked, or copyrighted element in the image. The site is geared toward helping people working in the creative field better understand the issues surrounding using content they did not create themselves.

Browser Testing Made Easy

DavidM    Cool Links, Design and Development     browser, coding, design, development, testing, tools, web

Any web designer will tell you that one of the biggest headaches in development is making sure that what you code looks good across multiple browsers. We all know the quirks and workarounds for some of the mainstream browsers, but testing a site in several different ones can be frustrating and time-consuming.

To simplify the process you can use a tool like Adobe BrowserLab that lets you see how your design is rendered across multiple browsers. Just enter your URL and select what browsers you want to view and BrowserLab renders it. To compare, you can view side-by-side, switch between single views or overlay using onion skin mode. This is an excellent tool that Adobe offers for free and all you need to do is sign in with or create a free Adobe ID account.

Brands of the World

AWWA    Cool Links, Design and Development     branding, brands, corporate, design, logos, vector logos

Designing a logo? Need an existing vector logo of an existing brand? Find it here at Brands of the World.

PDF Application Settings

AWWA    Design and Development     commercial, design, pdf, printing, publishing, settings, workflow

The Ghent PDF Workgroup is the organization for determinations of professional prepress standards for the best practices of publishing workflows. Creation of pdf files has become standard practice. Why would someone be interested in this? Simple: if you design something and want it to print as you intended, you need to prepare the file properly for the printer. Most publishers will ask you for pdf files and not native files (ones created by a specific application). Do not expect the printer to fix your mistakes. Your client will be charged for their time in order to facilitate printing.
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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.

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.