I love this infographic. The simplicity is nice, and the data behind the graphic is interesting to almost any viewer. View the full info graphic below. (more…)
The one Adobe Photoshop plugin you should absolutely be using
I’ve tried a LOT of Photoshop plugins. They all have their specific uses, and many of them are worthy of your purchase. But few are as useful on a daily basis as this one.
FlatIcon is a plugin for Photoshop CS5 and later that places a new panel in Photoshop that allows you to search for, and place in your document, vector icons from a collection of over 41,000. Best of all, they’re free. And because they’re vector shapes, you can resize and edit them without losing quality.
To use FlatIcon, visit Window > Extensions > Flaticon to bring up the panel. Then you simply search for the icon you wish to use, click and drag it to your document, and start editing it as you would any other vector shape in Photoshop. It couldn’t be easier.
FlatIcon is a plugin many designers, particularly web designers, will use daily. For me, having a collection of arrows and typical web elements is worth the install alone.
FlatIcon is free, works with Adobe Photoshop CS5, CS6 and CC. You can download FlatIcon here.
By the way, if Photoshop plugins aren’t your thing, you can also download the icons individually from FlatIcon as a PNG, SVG (vector) or Webfont from the main site.
Infographic: The ridiculous cost of email
Email hasn’t changed in twenty years. This infographic reveals just how inefficient and time-consuming business email has become. (more…)
How to show a list of all the files you’ve ever downloaded on your Mac
Have you ever wanted to show a list of the entire download history of your Mac?
Whether it’s for troubleshooting, personal interest, or forensics, MacOSXDaily has a nifty Terminal tip that will show you a list of all the files you’ve downloaded.
It’s an old tip, dating back to 2012, but it still works perfectly.
New look for the site
If you’re not a first-time visitor to The Graphic Mac, you’ve no doubt noticed that the site has changed dramatically. Not just the blog theme, but the color scheme as well. The color scheme change goes against everything I know about “branding” – but quite frankly, I was tired of the bright green. I may even switch the colors on a whim, or go back to the bright green in the future. Who knows.
The layout is a little easier for me to manage. Regular posts get the larger headlines with white background. While link posts, those post that simply point to a page on another site when you click the headline here, have a smaller and italicized headline with a grey background. Everything else, you’ll figure out on your own.
This change to the site, like others in the past, is not meant to be “creative improvement.” I’ve said it before, and it’s worth repeating: I don’t care about the design of this site. It’s about the content. And because this site is a hobby for me, I have to make it as easy for me to manage as possible.
Don’t get me wrong, I value input if you have it, so feel free to share in the comments.
The A-B-Cs of logo design
One of the most popular articles (at least by page views) here at The Graphic Mac is 9 rules to creating a logo you can live with and still get paid. I wrote it back in 2008, but the advice is still absolutely valid today.
I recently came across 6 common mistakes in logo design at SitePoint. It’s an excellent article by Kerry Butters, and offers some pretty good insights into logo design. While there is some similar advice in Kerry’s article, a few of the points she makes I wish I had included in my article years ago.
If you’re relatively new in the business, or you’re working on your first logo design project, you should definitely take a look at both articles. They offer some great advice.
Grab these free Classic Mac OS alert sounds for your OS X Mac and iPhone
Nothing like the old Wild Eep sound… except maybe Dogcow’s Moof!
Steven Cohen has converted the original Mac OS alert sounds to various formats that work with Mac OS X as well as ringtones for your iPhone. Pretty cool, and for those longtime Mac users; it brings back some fond memories.
Creating simple 3D type with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
Clean and modern 3D type is a cool effect, and it’s surprisingly quick and easy to create. With the combination of Photoshop and Illustrator, this effect is can be created in minutes. Here’s a quick tutorial on creating 3D type from WeGraphics on how to do it easily.
Quickly change InDesign’s Presentation Mode background color
You probably don’t think of Adobe InDesign as a presentation application like Keynote or PowerPoint. But the fact is, you can apply page transitions, embed movies, and more to your InDesign document and present it without the viewer having to look at object handles, panels or the rest of the InDesign interface.
Simply hit Shift+W to enter into Presentation Mode. By default, InDesign uses a solid black background. But you can change to a neutral gray background by hitting the letter G, or white by hitting W. If you want to switch back to solid black, hit B.
Of course, to exit Presentation Mode, simply hit the ESC key or Shift+W again.
Free Photoshop Brushes: Optical flares
35 Optical Flare brushes for use in Adobe Photoshop. I love these brushes because they allow you to adjust the color, size and placement – making them much easier to use than using lens flare filters and images.