tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-155607002011-12-15T03:55:23.050+01:00This is all about visuals, wether it is design, themes, icons, photography, graffiti or Mac related stuff.Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.comBlogger911100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1135433891406992842005-12-24T15:14:00.000+01:002005-12-24T15:18:11.456+01:00

As you have probably noticed I haven't updated VisualFood in quite a while. This was a fun project that taught me a lot about blogging and I'm sorry to leave it behind but I just don't have the time anymore.All is not lost, as I've started a new project with a friend and we've been very happy with the result. Head over to Non Stop Mac to see it.Thanks for all the insightful comments, e-mails and

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1132150823506237372005-11-16T15:17:00.000+01:002005-11-16T15:20:23.526+01:00

With Macromedia FlashPaper 2 you can instantly generate Flash documents that can be accessed by over half a billion web users, or transform files into secure, compact PDFs for e-mailing, archiving, and printing.The single user license is $79. For a case study of how this can be use check this page.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131837828823100072005-11-13T00:12:00.000+01:002005-11-13T00:23:48.840+01:00

Recently I found some very cool software that will be of interest to web developers of all levels of expertise.The Filebrowser is a lightweight open source PHP application that allows you to thumbnail images and view them in a web browser. The download is a mere 47kb.If you need a way to have your images ready for browsing online in a snap and you are not keen on installing complex software this

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131567841496889072005-11-10T10:17:00.000+01:002005-11-10T14:19:06.603+01:00

CSSVista is a free piece of software web developers on the Windows platform will appreciate. It makes things simpler when tweaking CSS code since it lets you edit your CSS code live in both Internet Explorer and Firefox simultaneously.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131563672756878842005-11-09T20:10:00.000+01:002005-11-09T20:24:00.093+01:00

Presentation Zen is running a very insightful article that compares the presentation style of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie. The author makes many good points and it just shows that having the most money doesn't have to make you the best presenter.I would like to note that this is not a post by a person that has something against Microsoft. The author shows examples from which we can all

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131229366700964182005-11-07T00:18:00.000+01:002005-11-06T20:21:47.860+01:00

Photoblogography published an article with some impressive photographs of Iceland. This is a feast for the eyes, a must see. I can't put my finger on it but there's just something about ice and the ambience of extreme winter that I really love.The author notes that he submitted this article to be published in the "Icelandic Geographic" but they never replied to him. I can only say I'm happy,

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131228120885855042005-11-06T00:03:00.000+01:002005-11-05T23:12:21.446+01:00

I never would have imagined of putting the terms "graffiti" and "archaeology" together but I guess the time has come. In these modern times the history of some things evolves faster than a few hundred years ago. Having done some graffiti in the past myself and being very interested in the culture, this project caught my eye immediately.Graffiti Archaeology is the study of graffiti-covered walls

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1131194962501286762005-11-05T13:43:00.000+01:002005-11-05T13:52:33.003+01:00

Photoshop Support has published a review of Photo/Graphic Edges, now in version 6. Now you can have stylized photos in just a few easy steps.This is one of those tools that makes you work faster. Sure, all of this can be accomplished with a bit of work in Photoshop but unless you got some Actions recorded that automate similar tasks, Photo/Graphic Edges will save you lots of time. I'm sure we'll

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1130884094255335572005-11-03T16:15:00.000+01:002005-11-03T15:41:28.443+01:00

When Apple released the new line of iMacs recently, one of the features that made news was the Photo Booth application that comes with iSight, now embedded into the iMac by default.MacZealots has an excellent article that guides you through the features of the application.Leaving the casual user and focusing on the professional, I recently wrote about Apple's new software for professional

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1130864795881441122005-11-02T00:01:00.000+01:002005-11-01T23:34:42.546+01:00

This is one of the coolest gadgets I ever stumbled upon. I'm not good at drawing, except maybe for directions, but this looks like fun."I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1130863672717094262005-11-01T17:10:00.000+01:002005-11-01T17:52:12.820+01:00

When a new A List Apart article shows up I always know I'm in for a treat. In this latest article, the author writes: "Like a kid in a candy store, we creatives redesign like it’s the new black. Why do we possess such an insatiable desire to refresh and remake? Why do we thrive on renewal? What tempts us to be seduced by the sway of renaissance?"The author offers his view on the re-design

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1130449992844203532005-10-27T23:48:00.000+02:002005-10-27T23:53:12.856+02:00

Here's something cool for photographers, professionals and enthusiasts alike :)Autostitch is a fully automatic 2D image stitcher. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever, Autostitch is a breakthrough technology for panoramic photography, VR and visualisation applications.For examples of panoramas stitched using Autostitch, please see the Panorama Gallery.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1130356071778632472005-10-26T21:44:00.000+02:002005-10-26T21:58:34.596+02:00

There's been a whole lot of news surrounding Apple lately because of all the new product releases. This doesn't mean that the good stuff is nowhere to be found now. What I'm linking here are interesting tidbits I think Mac users will find interesting. Thirsty for knowledge? Check out MacBreak Minute, a daily video segment covering various applications, tips and tricks for everyday use on the

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129803815195808192005-10-21T00:14:00.000+02:002005-10-21T10:14:30.693+02:00

An interesting article came to my attention today. It is what I believe to be the core problem of both print and web media outlets today - spreading hype. This is a word that will have its center point in this post, or I better call it a rant.The example articleLet me just write about this article first and then I'll continue my thoughts on the general subject.In the above mentioned article the

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129793661312059722005-10-20T09:24:00.000+02:002005-10-20T09:48:20.850+02:00

Today I got my hands on something inspiring - a free art and design magazine called Destructed. The mag is published in PDF format and is released quaterly. Each issue deals with another topic and as the authors put it: "The purpose of the magazine is to enable the interplay of all the participants."Until now a myriad of artists from all over the world contributed to Destructed and the last issue

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129760040359977642005-10-19T23:18:00.000+02:002005-10-20T00:27:02.283+02:00

Aperture from Apple is the first all-in-one post production tool for photographers. It offers an advanced and fast RAW workflow that makes working with a camera’s RAW images as easy as JPEG. Aperture features powerful compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing, color managed printing and custom Web and book publishing.Unique compare and select tools in Aperture allow photographers

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127994226508932202005-10-17T00:15:00.000+02:002005-10-16T22:29:52.216+02:00

How many times were you stuck on a machine that had no word processor installed, or at least not one with many options? This happens often, especially if you travel a lot. In any case, there's another tool I discovered that can make your work experience a lot more comfortable and familiar wherever you are.I'm writing about Writely, a web word processor that provides simple and secure document

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129295268471896232005-10-15T00:01:00.000+02:002005-10-14T21:34:38.010+02:00

As you become a power user you'll want to get things done faster and this is where keyboard shortcuts come into the picture. Here are links to keyboard shortcuts of some of the software titles I use: Mac OS XPhotoshopDreamveaweriTunes Pages I'm sure there are other resources that have many other lists of keyboard shortcuts and I'd love to hear about them so feel free to comment on this

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129292326867501942005-10-14T14:14:00.000+02:002005-10-14T14:36:32.236+02:00

Here are two interesting free widgets for Mac OS X Tiger I found out this week.VideoSpace calculates the disk space required for a given duration, codec, frame rate and audio setting. The widget works in both directions so you can calculate time to space or space to time as indicated by the direction of the arrow between the two input areas.Checkpoint calculates the brightness- and

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1129225358032092932005-10-13T19:36:00.000+02:002005-10-13T19:51:54.360+02:00

There's been a variety of releases of new digital cameras lately but few have been followed with such interest as the 12.8 MP Canon EOS 5D. Wide lenses stay wide and the viewfinder is bright and open. Subtle tonal gradations are reproduced in shadow, midtone and highlights. A low-pass filter and on-chip circuitry suppress false colours and noise. Low (L:50) and high (H:3200) ISO settings extend

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128809901806847532005-10-10T12:15:00.000+02:002005-10-10T11:59:36.486+02:00

In my quests to find great icons I stumbled upon Afterglow and I was hooked. Cian Walsh, the designer behind this website and its exceptional icons and interfaces is here at Visual Food.Let's kick it off with a simple question - please introduce yourself. Hello all, I'm Cian Walsh, an icon and interface designer from Ireland. I might be familiar to some people for the Forum Faces range of Avatars

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128814528477519102005-10-09T01:28:00.000+02:002005-10-09T01:40:05.313+02:00

Damien Stolarz, an inventor with a decade of experience and author of Car PC Hacks, wrote an interesting article over at O'Reilly that shows you how to hack your ride to get a clean audio and video signal into your car.In the living room, red, white, and yellow RCA jacks are the universal standard for input. Wouldn't it be nice if car manufacturers did the same and put these jacks in your car?

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128811695147374002005-10-09T00:45:00.000+02:002005-10-09T00:52:43.406+02:00

You gotta love Tim Burton. He's one of my favorite filmmakers since he manages to deliver a visual masterpiece every time he steps up to direct a movie.There are many interesting bits that can be learned about his latest piece of work - Corpse Bride: Technologically, this is a movie of many firsts; it’s the first feature-length, stop-motion film edited using Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP),

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128749463536719582005-10-08T07:21:00.000+02:002005-10-08T07:37:30.026+02:00

As news from the conference start to come about I see more and more reasons I should attend next year. One of the things that caught my eye is the talk that Jason Fried, founder of 37signals, gave at Web 2.0. It's called Less as a competitive advantage: My 10 minutes at Web 2.0 and it brings forward some pretty radical thoughts:Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128614348482780242005-10-06T17:53:00.000+02:002005-10-06T18:03:16.106+02:00

Have you ever wondered how the police does all those sketches of criminals that are released to the media? Well, not all of them are done by an artist that listens to a witness and than draws patiently on paper, it would take just too much time, so they use programs with lots of predefined features that can be selected to put together a face.Ultimate Flash Face is a Flash enabled goodie that will

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128459934151514732005-10-05T00:25:00.000+02:002005-10-04T23:49:23.973+02:00

Every two months Mercedes presents a music collection that you can listen online or download. It's time for Mixed Tape 09 that brings forth artists from all over the world. This time around there are 15 tracks for a total of 67:56 minutes of playtime. The download is 95.1 Mb in size, which means that unless you're on broadband you'll have some serious waiting to do :)Besides the songs you also

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128431918760782712005-10-04T15:16:00.000+02:002005-10-04T15:29:39.153+02:00

Some people despise Flash altogether but I think it just needs to be used for the right stuff. It's a pleasure to stumble upon websites like Etsy that present Flash at its best. Etsy is a website where you can buy and sell handmade products. It features an innovative way of browsing products depicted below.I suggest you visit Etsy and see for yourself, perhaps you'll find the website useful as

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128356892533391862005-10-03T18:26:00.000+02:002005-10-03T18:38:06.333+02:00

Yes, it's possible, simple and web-based. I'm writing about The Rasterbator that produces rasterized images can be printed and assembled into posters up to 20 meters in size. Imagine the possibilities...In order to use this service you can upload a file from your computer or use any file that is available on the Internet. After you have cropped the image and selected a desired size, the

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128023923750842072005-10-02T16:32:00.000+02:002005-10-02T16:35:35.856+02:00

Rollyo brings something fresh to the world of Web search as it enables you to create personal searches using only the sources you want.I know, you already can search for stuff on a specific website using Google but here you can search multiple sites at the same time and there's more.This free service is not a new search engine but is powered by Yahoo! Search. Besides searching particular websites

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127980239856434302005-09-30T00:03:00.000+02:002005-09-29T23:21:32.753+02:00

First off, since this is a post about a free service that mentions a paid service I wanted to get something in the clear - I'm not affiliated with the creators and I'm not writing this for any kind of profit. It's just one of those things I use and I thought others would find useful. This applies to everything I write on this blog. Off to the good stuff!Ta-da Lists is a great way to get organized

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1128007096050570142005-09-29T21:38:00.000+02:002005-09-29T21:37:25.823+02:00

Tonight I watched Howl's Moving Castle (original title - Hauru no ugoku shiro) by Hayao Miyazaki and, as I expected, it's a masterpiece. I already know I won't be able to get it out of my head for days, the same happens every time I watch one of his works.The messages are here once again: war is pointless and love can prevail. Some may call it cheesy but this anime is all but that. It's got

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127856766702622222005-09-29T00:30:00.000+02:002005-09-29T12:07:13.800+02:00

As the web develops HTML is being phased out and we're witnessing a lot of new ways of presenting content. One of the most powerful features of new websites is certainly the display of content using CSS.While browsing the A List Apart website I stumbled upon two excellent articles: CSS Swag: Multi-Column Lists and Introducing the CSS3 Multi-Column Module. Both are tutorials that target the modern

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127851708870482152005-09-28T00:03:00.000+02:002005-09-27T22:10:18.170+02:00

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 enables you to edit and enhance your photos by fixing common flaws instantly or using advanced options for more control. Show off your creativity in entertaining slide shows, photo mail, Web galleries, and more. Photoshop Elements 4.0 delivers more editing power with the new Magic Selection Brush that allows consumers to select specific parts of photos for easy color,

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127835459065344472005-09-27T17:34:00.000+02:002005-09-27T17:45:45.000+02:00

Wether you're an aspiring VJ or just a person that likes to view something out of the norm, video clips filmed with a special high-speed camera are truly something amazing. The author brings you clips of appliances, cans, glass, fire, smoke, explosions, and much more. Well worth a look! The only drawback is that they are in Windows Media format only.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126218480660677192005-09-26T19:25:00.000+02:002005-09-26T19:54:41.853+02:00

Being a visual junkie I always scout new places to score good icons. Here are some of my recent discoveries: Afterglow has some seriously good looking icons, if you need an avatar for a forum you post on this is the place to visit. The MacBillboard icons is the place where you can find all sorts of icon goodies - from dual Apple Cinema screens to the new iPod nano collection.The Iconizer

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127464154668933312005-09-23T10:17:00.000+02:002005-09-23T10:29:16.963+02:00

BitFontMaker enables you to quickly, or slowly for that matter, design a font using your web browser. The result is perfect for small type stuff and there are not many options but nevertheless it's very cool.What you produce can be swiftly saved into the BitFont museum and made available for others to see and download. As you can imagine, there are both good and bad fonts there, just browse by "

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127334416306293412005-09-22T00:21:00.000+02:002005-09-21T22:46:07.810+02:00

We all need inspiration and better tools. Now and then I stumble upon some true gems and I wanted to share them with you.The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. It makes it very easy to pick default Windows or Mac fonts - see them in action, add a variety of properties and when you're happy with the result just download the CSS with the click of a

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127288595803610412005-09-21T09:39:00.000+02:002005-09-21T10:08:23.523+02:00

Recently I've been in the position of explaining to some people why a certain website is not done properly. There were many problems with the final result but the biggest was a serious lack in usability which is the first thing any developer should pay attention to."Assumption is the mother of all f***ups!" reminds me of a variety of Flash websites. You enter a world of flying beetles, thunder

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1127143420576051582005-09-19T17:18:00.000+02:002005-09-19T17:30:47.496+02:00

Bert is a featured speaker at many world-wide conferences and is part of the Photoshop Dream Team of Photoshop World. His installed base of clients includes Apple Computer, Adobe Systems, Pioneer Electronics, Fujitsu, SONY, AT&T, Chevron and American Express.Bert has also done a considerable amount of film work for Industrial Light & Magic, Pacific Data Images and R/Greenberg Assoc. He is an

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126967629736397662005-09-17T16:45:00.000+02:002005-09-17T16:56:40.640+02:00

We are all inspired by something different. At times just watching something as mundane as another person make coffee can bring forward brilliant ideas, it all depends on the context. Education can also get you closer to understanding your target market and experimenting can yield interesting results, every designer has experienced that.Since there are a lot of things that can be designed I've

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126828135611505802005-09-16T02:19:00.000+02:002005-09-16T02:18:28.073+02:00

At the Professional Developers Conference Microsoft unveiled more details of a new tool set for graphics and animation - Microsoft Expression. One of the titles in the package is boringly code-named Sparkle and is the topic of this rant. Some are already calling it the "Flash killer" which is quite ridiculous if you ask me. How can an application that hasn't even been released yet be compared to

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126723732552350632005-09-16T00:12:00.000+02:002005-09-15T23:52:02.143+02:00

What I'm blogging about here is basically related to doing anything that required concentration and dedication combined with a calm atmosphere. In this case I'm not implying that music is a bad thing, far from it, but having your neighbors changing tiles in the bathroom or rennovating the living room can really make you yell in horror when you have some work to do and you keep hearing that

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126722736736597152005-09-15T00:07:00.000+02:002005-09-14T20:40:19.123+02:00

Since the release of the Gmail Notifier for Mac OS X my e-mail experience has definitely improved a lot. I like having personal and business e-mail separated and Gmail is very useful because it gives me the possibility of storing a plethora of files.Now, since I prefer to keep all my e-mail accessible in one location, using Mail for Gmail was not an option. On the other hand, checking the website

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126616886200509862005-09-14T00:06:00.000+02:002005-09-13T17:14:10.906+02:00

Macromedia announced that Studio 8 is now available and shipping. It contains latest releases of Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, and Fireworks, and key productivity tools Contribute and FlashPaper.Studio 8 contains workflow enhancements, new products, and feature firsts. Studio 8 includes groundbreaking new video encoding tools (about which I've already written about), which give designers an

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125869862699208442005-09-13T00:21:00.000+02:002005-09-12T21:28:28.476+02:00

Every photo tells a story. It doesn't matter if it's about a lion that's attacking his prey or a child running in the park.One of my favorite things on the Internet is the possibility to explore far away places that I haven't seen already. Sometimes it's places I've visited but shown in a different light, a different perspective. Usually when I travel I'm not interested in looking at the sights,

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126524687574306512005-09-12T13:20:00.000+02:002005-09-12T13:34:47.363+02:00

When Automator was introduced in Mac OS X Tiger everyone was talking about it. Now, months later, the number of Automator actions keeps growing steadily. Below are some that I believe you will find useful, and best of all - they're all free. Adobe Illustrator Save as JPEG - Includes all of Illustrators JPEG Export options: antialiasing, artboard clipping, blur, horizontal and vertical scaling,

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126457058997098862005-09-11T18:37:00.000+02:002005-09-11T18:49:26.563+02:00

CoverFlow is an album browser for Mac OS X, using Cocoa and OpenGL. It allows you to browse your albums complete with beautiful artwork pulled from any sources it can find, whether that’s buried in your song tags, collected via Synergy, or looked up on Amazon. If CoverFlow still doesn’t find the artwork you want, simply drag and drop an image. Looks good, very good!The software required Mac OS X

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126099783851017532005-09-10T00:25:00.000+02:002005-09-11T15:30:18.853+02:00

Derrick Story, author of the Digital Photography Pocket Guide Third Edition, shares some insightful tips aimed at, you guessed it, digital photographers. He notes an universal truth: "...you can make great photos with a simple consumer point-and-shoot camera, or take lousy shots with the most expensive Nikon. It's not the camera that makes beautiful images; it's the photographer."The tips are

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126200662494866002005-09-09T09:26:00.000+02:002005-09-09T10:03:44.810+02:00

Although mainly iMac G5 users will find Disctop to be extremely cool, it's still a very fancy thing that many will enjoy. I can't wait for an iMac to try this myself.In order to give you a complete picture here's information directly from the homepage: "Normally when you insert a CD in your Mac it disappears, but where does it go? They simply pop up on your desktop! After installing Disctop, your

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126181784832579962005-09-09T00:13:00.000+02:002005-09-08T22:45:56.423+02:00

Graphic designer Ross Howard wrote an insightful article that shows you how to provide a better print alternative, through the use of specific high-resolution images specifically for print, on websites.In Howard's own words: "HTML and CSS allow us to force images to display in a different size than their native dimensions. I recently began wondering whether higher resolution devices like printers

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126125130701237102005-09-08T09:22:00.000+02:002005-09-08T09:56:52.483+02:00

Right about now, there's someone connecting their digital camera to a Mac and wondering how to speed up the work of creating 148 thumbnails of the photos he/she took at his family reunion to send by e-mail to all the relatives.Well, fear no more as I've stumbled upon a piece of software that will make that chore very easy and quick. What's more, it's freeware! Here comes ThumbsUp by

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1126093765071224882005-09-08T00:06:00.000+02:002005-09-07T20:55:02.056+02:00

It doesn't matter if you're a web developer, work with databases, a programmer or just someone that would like to harness the search capabilities of Google. You just can't remember all the different functions, options, tags, etc. that exist. Your problems may just become smaller after you visit this page, as it contains a collection of quick references that feature the most commonly forgotten

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125520144844681212005-09-07T10:57:00.000+02:002005-09-07T12:24:26.936+02:00

David Lanham, well known for his iconsets, has website with some goodies on it. All the work is exceptional and will have great appeal to those of you that like comics. The majority of his art reminds me of Spirited Away, a masterpiece of modern animation by Hayao Miyazaki that I've already watched a few times.Minimalist decor is something many enjoy, especially if you're on a Mac and the desktop

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125525354722233442005-09-06T00:07:00.000+02:002005-09-05T23:18:40.693+02:00

Bob Johnson posted a simple yet good explanation of DPI. It certainly is one of the first things people notice and ask about when they get a digital camera and start doing some basic stuff in Photoshop.Here's the intro that shows you what this is all about: "When you open image files from your digital camera, are they 240dpi, or are they 300dpi? Or perhaps only 72dpi? If you open them in a

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125861881506266922005-09-05T00:13:00.000+02:002005-09-04T22:52:38.606+02:00

This post is from contributing author bhz. The blog is getting some attention :)I wanted to share a tip on resizing images in a specific condition. By specific I am thinking of a situation where my computer doesn't have any graphic software installed and I am too lazy to search versiontracker.com for some freeware solution.By Googling "online resize image", I was introduced to a good and free

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125507290449684032005-09-04T00:32:00.000+02:002005-09-04T12:54:11.280+02:00

One of the topics that always seem to pop-up in conversation with computer unsavvy people is photomontage. Can you really do it easily if you get a computer? Well, I always say, no. You have to acquire some skills and Photoshop would be the tool of choice.To give you some concrete ideas I would like to point you to this article where illustrator Steve Caplin shows you how to go from a plain

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125517795680863862005-09-03T19:22:00.000+02:002005-09-04T12:43:19.670+02:00

Capture is another gem that comes from the people at VanillaSoap Design.Features include: Filetype options (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, JP2, PICT, BMP, QTIF, PSD), Customizable save destination, Scaling (10 to 100%) Take shots of your whole screen, selections or windows — with or without the Dashboard layer. The widget is free, only 392K in size and available for Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125597854240825792005-09-02T00:05:00.000+02:002005-09-02T15:26:05.263+02:00

David Biedny is a leading digital effects, graphics and multimedia expert. Working at Industrial Light and Magic, he produced digital effects and has also been a key interface/feature consultant/beta tester for many of the major multimedia tools currently on the market, including Photoshop (David was user #4, spec'd many of the key features of the product, and was included in the credits for

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125585096216513282005-09-01T17:04:00.000+02:002005-09-01T22:23:54.316+02:00

The full Creative Suite 2 (CS2) contains InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Acrobat, and Version Cue, plus Bridge (a browser built right in for connecting to CS2 products).This article takes a look at each application in the suite and gives us the details on what's different this time around. This review breaks things down so that if you don't use all the programs you can just skip and

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125439317587586562005-09-01T00:02:00.000+02:002005-08-31T22:44:45.080+02:00

Vlogging is short for video blogging. It is the practice of attaching video to RSS and Atom enclosures.Joshua Paul presents a good introductory article on the subject that covers everything you need to get started as it covers the creation, posting and syndication of a video, informing iTunes, subscribing to a feed as well as feeding a feed. The article is Mac-centric but, as with every O'Reilly

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125431780605741852005-08-31T18:26:00.000+02:002005-08-31T18:16:29.076+02:00

Although I've been involved in all kinds of design over the years I've always been a big fan of HTML for presenting my work on the Web. Of course I would use JavaScript, DHTML, etc. but never ever Flash. The technology always intrigued me but I though that it was mainly misused on with so many designers making heavy pages with little content that didn't send the right message, except "Connection

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125430689229960722005-08-31T00:36:00.000+02:002005-08-30T22:03:07.383+02:00

Adobe added four new royalty-free image collections available through Adobe Stock Photos. The additional collections, along with increases in existing collections, bring the total number of images to over a whopping 355,000.This service makes things easy since you can evaluate an image before licensing it by downloading an un-watermarked, low-resolution version right into an Adobe CS 2

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125416856142921752005-08-30T17:46:00.000+02:002005-08-30T17:47:36.146+02:00

Times have definitely changes since I was a kid and I'm just amazed at some of the cool things that are possible today. I used to be pretty much obsessed with LEGO back in the days, building all day long just as a busy little ant. These days, the Internet has given the opportunity to LEGO lovers to go to the next level with the LEGO Digital Designer which enables you to build your way customizing

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125414748985272612005-08-30T17:08:00.000+02:002005-08-30T17:22:42.303+02:00

One of the amazing advantages of shooting digital is certainly the opportunity to immediately see if you got the shot you wanted. This article is full of hands-on details coming from the professionals that deal with action photography on a regular basis. It deals specifically with skateboarding and breakdancing although the advice you get can be used in general.When it comes to action photography

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125258624373862312005-08-29T15:33:00.000+02:002005-08-29T15:40:29.220+02:00

Being an icon junkie I want my desktop to have a new feel at least once a week. This leads me to search high and low for all the design elements I need to gather in order to make the perfect OS experience. These are the resources I used to grab free stuff recently, some I use regularly as they are constantly updated: Enhanced Labs - perfectly polished icons that seem to come from somewhere

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125073980797713722005-08-28T13:24:00.000+02:002005-08-28T13:13:10.393+02:00

It was published in July but I only found this article today. It contains a plethora of photographs and the author, Jeff Schewe, really manages to bring the corporate Adobe world closer to the fans.The visit starts in the garage and then it moves to the upper floors covering many of the important people behind Photoshop. If you ever wondered what computer equipment they use, what they offices

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125075352618381582005-08-27T16:52:00.000+02:002005-08-27T16:29:35.170+02:00

This is a handy calculator for the depth of field, near focus, far focus and hyperfocal distance, no matter what camera you’ve got. It’s the perfect companion for the Apple PowerBook or iBook you probably carry to store and touch-up your digital images. It will hopefully make a welcome addition to your shooting set-up, whether you shoot for soft Bokeh in portraits or ultimate sharpness in

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125076761442121932005-08-26T19:19:00.000+02:002005-08-26T19:46:06.356+02:00

Glenn Feron has an amazing portfolio that showcases some of the best photo retouching I've ever seen. Feron provides us with perfect example of how Photoshop can be used to achieve stunning results.We all rant sometimes about how some celebrities cannot be that beautiful and perfect in real life, how all of their photos are fake. This page hosts comparison photographs of several famous people in

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1125063170775843452005-08-26T15:32:00.000+02:002005-08-26T18:20:41.103+02:00

John Watson has developed a collection of very useful Flickr utilities: you can make your own magazine cover, a square or rectangular mosaic from a photoset or individual images, create a calendar using your photographs, etc. This is just one of those pages that you just have to bookmark, you're gonna be searching for it in a few months :)If you're a Firefox user you might want to try FlickrFox

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124921503915789572005-08-26T15:09:00.000+02:002005-08-26T15:34:47.840+02:00

Here you can find a gallery of Photoshop splash screens. It's fun seeing again some of the screens I've used to see several times a day.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124983819448941682005-08-25T17:21:00.000+02:002005-08-25T17:50:32.566+02:00

Douglas Dixon, author of "Adobe Encore DVD: In The Studio" and "Desktop DVD Authoring", writes about the pain of working with MPEG-4 clips. More and more people are buying cellphones with photo and video capabilities and therefore every day the amount of media recorded with these devices increases. I hear it all the time: "This is unusable, I can't figure out what to do with the clips anyway." An

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124979490087564482005-08-25T16:07:00.000+02:002005-08-25T16:18:10.210+02:00

Enhancer is an image enhancement software for revealing details on a picture. Enhancer allows detecting details from underexposed, overexposed and mid tone areas of a photo without manipulating exposure. A tutorial that shows you just what you can get with this software can be seen here. Find out more by reading review excerpts.This looks like a very handy tool. I would recommend it to people

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124910140875712922005-08-25T00:17:00.000+02:002005-08-24T22:51:15.836+02:00

Joe Clark, author of "Building Accessible Websites" wrote an article that deals with PDF accessibility.The article explores the use, or better too much use, of PDF documents and poses the question if all the material present on the web in PDF today should really be in PDF format. It's interesting to discover that publishing a document in this format - universally considered to be excellent for

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124825931939019102005-08-24T16:13:00.000+02:002005-08-24T16:19:09.380+02:00

The scenario is usually this one - you're either great at Photoshop and do stunning interfaces but you're not exactly comfortable with CSS or you're a good coder but you lack design skills. Well, there's an article that can help you mix the two and learn how to make better websites.Corrie Haffly presents a rather large tutorial spread over several pages with lots of Photoshop screenshots and CSS

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124840755053889842005-08-24T01:35:00.000+02:002005-08-24T01:48:14.310+02:00

Jahshaka is an Open Source Realtime Editing and Effects System. The Jahshaka UI Design Challenge focuses on revamping the Jahshaka 2.0 User Interface. The winners of the challenge will receive: 1st place - a new mac mini 2nd place - a new ipod mini3rd place - a pick from the Jahshaka store The contest started August 11th and will run until October 11th. Since anyone can enter I suggest

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124835249634752872005-08-24T00:08:00.000+02:002005-08-24T00:15:16.503+02:00

ShapeShifter is a product by Unsanity that lets you change the overall appearance of your Mac using 'themes'. Not just desktop backgrounds and icons but everything - the look of windows, menus, apps, buttons, absolutely everything.There are several changes in the 2.2 version but the one that caught my eye is the addition of a new module called "guiTweak" that makes it simple to tweak a theme that

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124805230528276682005-08-23T15:44:00.000+02:002005-08-23T15:53:50.533+02:00

Browsing the Dashboard widgets over at Apple I stumbled upon two freeware gems.RGB Converter that enables you to quickly preview a colour by it’s HEX or RGB code and also convert between HEX and RGB codes.ColourMod is a flexible color picker allows for users to select ANY color that they want. It outputs Hex, RGB and HSV values and converts between the three. Its functions are similar to

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124793163940861512005-08-23T12:47:00.000+02:002005-08-23T12:58:34.466+02:00

The new forums are structured to be an online community that enables design and photography professionals and enthusiasts to exchange ideas and share their expertise with others.The publishers of Layers hope to create an environment where readers can find answers as well as advice on mastering all aspects of design and creation.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124704776527506112005-08-23T12:16:00.000+02:002005-08-23T12:17:32.266+02:00

A black-and-white image becomes hot through the application of a little Photoshop wizardry. This short but useful tutorial shows you how to make a black and white image come to life.In another tutorial, you learn how to give a color image some vivid colors, all in Photoshop naturally.Not advanced stuff but rather quick techniques for the novice user.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124655888576463072005-08-22T16:47:00.000+02:002005-08-22T16:48:42.630+02:00

iStockphoto hosts another excellent article that teaches something practical. Jodie Coston writes: When you focus your lens on a subject, anything at that same distance from your lens will also be in focus. Things that are closer to or further from the camera lens will gradually - or quickly - get fuzzy.If you're new to photography and you would like to try something beyond the "point and click"

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124660212285949622005-08-22T11:32:00.000+02:002005-08-22T11:53:48.910+02:00

The winners have been chosen! This is not exactly breaking news but it's definitely an impressive collection of very interesting works from around the globe: United States, Canada, U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.Not only can you take a look at some great designs but if you're considering attending an art school than this page is a very good

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124653042409032492005-08-22T00:13:00.000+02:002005-08-21T23:37:53.163+02:00

The IF International T-Shirt design contest is a premium T-shirt contest for 2D, 3D, Vector, Animation and Fine artists around the world.All forms of design are eligible, you can send a symbol, a single character, or a full fabric design. Winners are chosen based on originality and impact. The first prize is a whopping $1000.I think I'm just gonna fire up Photoshop now... :)

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124652363035947972005-08-21T21:26:00.000+02:002005-08-21T21:30:33.090+02:00

PIXELSURGEON has an interview with American artist Margot Knight. Her art seems to be about a strange parallel universe, it's very dark, surrealistic and sometimes even disturbing.It's quite interesting to see the technical side (not in many details) about what programs she uses as well as details on some of her series of works. Some of you may recognize her work since she spent 2 years working

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124494193720852132005-08-21T00:17:00.000+02:002005-08-21T00:30:58.666+02:00

I bet that at least once before you've heard about Flickr or at least you've seen a nifty animated set of photos on a webpage or a blog and you thought Coool!To make things short - Flickr makes sharing photos very easy. In case you're wondering how it works and how to get started I recommend this article as it's a perfect introduction to using this system. It is geared towards Mac users but you

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124528191025408912005-08-20T10:50:00.000+02:002005-08-20T10:56:31.026+02:00

Ambrosia Software released EasyEnvelopes, a FREE MacOS X Tiger (10.4) widget for Dashboard that makes printing envelopes a breeze. Since EasyEnvelopes integrates with your Address Book, you can quickly and easily address an envelope to a friend or business contact. Impress someone later today!

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124493537988984192005-08-20T10:00:00.000+02:002005-08-20T12:01:54.893+02:00

MacDevCenter.com is running an article that every "urban" photographer could find useful. In the authors own words: "The rig I came up with uses Mac OS X, and depending on the accessories you already have, will cost you from zero to a few dollars."This is a good hack, very cheap and very doable. The only catch, if you haven't noticed so far, is that you have to own a Mac :)

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124490311275522502005-08-20T07:25:00.000+02:002005-08-20T00:27:49.803+02:00

LUGIC.drives VII is a collection of dark and futuristic icons, perfect for a polished and mysterious desktop. The X of Mac OS 10.4 in the background makes me groan since I still haven't got Tiger on my machine. Soon...

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124482981608326372005-08-20T00:26:00.000+02:002005-08-20T00:29:29.503+02:00

Gedeon Maheux made Futurama Vol.1 available now for your Mac or PC at the Iconfactory. Bender, Leela, Fry and Nibbler are waiting. Pretty good icons, truly a good download.While you're there you might want to check out the recently released version 8.0.1 of IconBuilder, a filter for use with Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks that makes creating icons for either the Macintosh or Windows

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124461603010369142005-08-19T16:22:00.000+02:002005-08-19T16:36:26.910+02:00

XtudioDesign has just released a new impressive pack of Nike Box icons. Polished and slick, they will certainly find a place on many desktops. A few days ago they released a pack of Nike related wallpapers so if you're a Nike fan hurry up and download.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124461181258360892005-08-19T16:09:00.000+02:002005-08-19T16:20:55.606+02:00

John Gruber, author of the excellent Daring Fireball blog, has been interviewed by Marcin Wichary, author of the GUIdebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces. In the interview John Gruber speaks about the good, the bad and the ugly of the Mac OS X interface.

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15560700.post-1124460018518757342005-08-19T15:51:00.000+02:002005-08-19T16:09:26.913+02:00

This is it, no turning back now. After much thought I decided to kick off a blog in this vast area called the Internet. There are many blogs out there but I think I can manage to make it interesting.This is going to be all about visuals, wether it is design, themes, icons, graffiti or Mac related stuff. We'll see where this journey takes me. I hope someone will find this interesting and worth

Mirkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06093120316397036718noreply@blogger.com0