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Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web. Show all posts

Saturday, October 04, 2008

45 Rules for Creating a Great Logo Design

  1. Do not use more than three colors.
  2. Get rid of everything that is not absolutely necessary.
  3. Type must be easy enough for your grandma to read.
  4. The logo must be recognizable.
  5. Create a unique shape or layout for the logo.
  6. Completely ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design.
  7. Confirm that the logo looks appealing to more than just three (3) individuals.
  8. Do not combine elements from popular logos and claim it as original work.
  9. Do not use clipart under any circumstances.
  10. The logo should look good in black and white.
  11. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when inverted.
  12. Make sure that the logo is recognizable when resized.
  13. If the logo contains an icon or symbol, as well as text, place each so that they compliment one another.
  14. Avoid recent logo design trends. Instead, make the logo look timeless.
  15. Do not use special effects (including, but not limited to: gradients, drop shadows, reflections, and light bursts).
  16. Fit the logo into a square layout if possible, avoid obscure layouts.
  17. Avoid intricate details.
  18. Consider the different places and ways that the logo will be presented.
  19. Invoke feelings of being bold and confident, never dull and weak.
  20. Realize that you will not create a perfect logo.
  21. Use sharp lines for sharp businesses, smooth lines for smooth businesses.
  22. The logo must have some connection to what it is representing.
  23. A photo does not make a logo.
  24. You must surprise customers with presentation.
  25. Do not use more than two fonts.
  26. Each element of the logo needs to be aligned. Left, center, right, top, or bottom.
  27. The logo should look solid, with no trailing elements.
  28. Know who is going to be looking at the logo before you think of ideas for it.
  29. Always choose function over innovation.
  30. If the brand name is memorable, the brand name should be the logo.
  31. The logo should be recognizable when mirrored.
  32. Even large companies need small logos.
  33. Everyone should like the logo design, not just the business that will use it.
  34. Create variations. The more variations, the more you are to get it right.
  35. The logo must look consistent across multiple platforms.
  36. The logo must be easy to describe.
  37. Do not use taglines in the logo.
  38. Sketch out ideas using paper and pencil before working on a computer.
  39. Keep the design simple.
  40. Do not use any “swoosh” or “globe”symbols.
  41. The logo should not be distracting.
  42. It should be honest in it's representation.
  43. The logo should be balanced visually.
  44. Avoid bright, neon colors and dark, dull colors.
  45. The logo must not break any of the above rules.
source

Sunday, May 11, 2008

39 Web-Based Tools That Don't Require Registration

Online Conversion
FLVIX simply lets you convert video from URL source into a file that you can keep on your desktop and play it on your PC, Mobile, iPod etc. Copy the link of the page with the video on it and paste it into FLVIX textbox; Choose desired format : AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, MP3; Click on the convert button, and download the converted file.

Convert text to audio file with vozMe to use free on your site or blog. It is really don't get easier than that: Copy-paste the text that you want to convert onto their textbox, and generate yourself an audio file within seconds.

It's the fastest way to resize and convert your pictures and images. You can apply rotation, add some effects, and more. Just select your picture file, choose some process to apply and click on OK. Fixpicture comes in two versions: Flash or HTML.

Convert any file with the powerful ZAMZAR - Free online file conversion. Select file from your compute or URL to convert, choose the format, and receive converted file by email.

Update:
Convert websites to PDFs with active links and embedded video. htm2pdf is a very, very simple to function app that convert webpages to PDFs!

Generators
Web20Badges is a free set of cool web badges. Choose your desirable badge shape, text and color, then generate your badge, and download it to your machine.

With the famous Loader Generator service, you can generate and customize GIFs that you can use free in your site or blog.

Strip Generator - Fastest way to create a stripe. An Ajax-driven diagonal stripes background tile generator.

Online favicon.cc generator is an editor that allows you to create transparent icon graphics for your site or blog. Choose a color; Click on the squares and paint your icon; Download when you're finished, and put the favicon file into your webserver directory.

LinkBunch lets you put multiple links into one small link which you can share over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone. When the recipient clicks on the tiny LinkBunch link, he/she will be presented with a page that contains all the links that you put in the bunch.

If you own a blog you must know how important is to tag your post with relevant tags. You also know how annoying it can be sometimes... But with Turbo Tagger you can instantly create Technorati tags for your site or blog without spending too much time and effort.

Utility that will evaluate an image and give you the image's primary and complementary dominant colors of an image, how many visually unique colors are in an image, and the top ten visually unique colors in an image.

QuickRibbon is a completely free generator which lets you create a custom ribbon, insert a link in it and place it in the top right corner of your website. It will take you less than 5 minutes to generate your own website ribbon with this trendy widget and add a stylish Web2.0 look to your page.

Create a web 2.0 button in only 4 steps. You can paint your button with preloaded web 2.0 icons, or upload your personal icon and customize the font of the text inserted.

Message Tools
Send free postal mail letters (to anywhere in the US) right from the browser. eSnailer automatically prints, envelopes, stamps, and mails your letters within 24 hours.

forlater is an easy to use e-mail reminders. Just enter your message, your e-mail and a date. forlater will then remind you at the right time.

Note2email is a web application designed to send quick text notes to any email address in the world. No need for password or username. Note it down and send it, as simple as that.

Have fun with your note. Send innovative messages contains photo, video, and music. Share your Onesenss e-cards with family and friends via email.

Video-Mail
Mailmotion is a video-mail platform that enable anyone with a webcam to quickly send video to family and friends. Record a short message (or upload a video file), specify recipient email(s), add some text to you video-mail, and define date to send.

voxlite is a great Flash-based video-mail application that allows you to send a video card using a webcam and a mic. Note that you have 20 minute recording time limit (which is A LOT)

GabMail is a free, easy-to-use video email service that enables anyone with a webcam or video camera to send, reply to and forward messages to anyone with an email address. Each recording can be up to 5 minutes long.

Easy Storage and Sharing Files
TinyLoad, a service that allows you to upload files to multiple services at the same time. With their new Bookmarklet you'll be able to upload files in no time to: MegaUpload, MediaFire, RapidShare, DivShare, BestSharing, SendSpace, Uploading, FileSend, EasyShare, and Amazon S3.

Senduit's service provides users with the ability to upload a file via HTTP-Protocol and receive a custom URL address to download the file from Senduit's servers. This address can be shared by the user freely and can be used to download the file a reasonable number of times.

3 step process to upload large files which can be sent to another person. Your recipient will get a link where he/she can download the file to his/her computer.

FlyUpload is a service which allows you to share video, audio and photos online. You may share anything with FlyUpload. Share files (up to 2GB), Unlimited downloads per 24 hours, Unlimited downloads (2000MB).

with Wikisend you can upload and download lots of files, big files, small files, data files, media files, archives or backups - any files. Share files with your friends using e-mail, MySpace page, your blog, forums etc,.

esyURL purpose is to turn long complex URLs to short easy ones, so they can be shared in blogs, forums, e-mails and so on. Furthermore, you can upload files (in a limit size of 2Mb per file) and receive an esyURL to access it, fast and without registration required.

Text Tools
Orangoo spell check application lets you check for spelling mistakes from any system or computer that has Internet access. You can Spell check text (in 27 languages) or a whole website page (English only).

Textris is a sweet little site for manipulating text in different ways. Alphabetizes, sorts, formats, changes case, uppercase, lowercase, even tools for coders.

In case you need another notepad... EditPad is pretty similar to the one you have on your desktop, web-based version.

TextSnip convert your text into a clean tabbed format allowing you to easily past text/code examples into a blog, form, or any website.

shortText is a simple tool to post text online, with minimum fuss. Write whatever you need and shortText will convert it to easy-to-share URL. You can also add pictures and video to your text.

Quick Statistics of your Site
A tool to check at-a-glance the link popularity of any site based on its ranking (Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati etc.), social bookmarks (del.icio.us, etc), subscribers (Bloglines, etc) and more. You can also generate a state widget to place on your blog.

BuiltWite is a massive tool that providing all the technical analysis and SEO optimization info you need to know on a site.

Picture this...
If you need an avatar for one of your favorite social network, mypictr helps you to get it in few seconds. First upload your picture, select and crop yourself from it, choose which network, and click 'picturit' to get the result!

A simple tool that turn your photos into cool reflecting images.

kwout allowing you to quote part from any web page as image with an image-map. You can upload the results directly to Flickr, Tumblr, or website. A new feature called 'my-kwout' will let you show the collection of the sources that you quoted via kwout.



Online tool for making anti-aliased rounded corners, for avatars and images.

ResizR is a very useful little helper that allows you to resize an image from your local computer or the web, then download the results to your computer - Free.

Pixenate is simply a great online image editor, that enable you to edit your image with lots of effect tools. When you finish, you can upload your creation directly to Flickr, Myspace, Web, or your own computer.

Last service is my favorite one, I use it constantly so I highly recommend it:
It is actually a Wii application, but it works great on the web as well. Just pick your favorite artist/band, and finetune will play hours of music based on your taste.



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Thursday, January 31, 2008

The 13 "Best of the Best" Free File Hosting Options

Need to store your files online? There are hundreds if not thousands of options, but the trick is picking out the cream of the crop. Some sites have long registration requirements, slow upload speeds, and annoying ads, or worse.

This list has been narrowed down to the best of the best file storage options, guaranteed to be stable, free, generous with file size limits, offer lots of space, and top things off with some really cool features.

adrive logo

1. ADrive is an online storage provider offering tons of space - 50 GB to be exact - and their generous 2 GB file size limit lets you make the most of it. You can get a free account and then upload all your files through the web browser interface, then you can keep your files private or share them with a simple click of the mouse.

Link: www.adrive.com

mediamax logo

2. MediaMax (formerly StreamLoad) gives you a free account with 25 GB of secure storage space that works well for private storage and file sharing.

Link: www.mediamax.com

humyo logo

3. With Humyo you get a total of 30 GB of free space, which is awesome for secure file storage and sharing, along with other sweet options for streaming and embedding media files. To top things off you can access Humyo from any web or mobile phone browser.

Link: www.humyo.com

divshare logo

4. DivShare is a different take on file storage. It allows you to store files and view them online without downloading them - watch streaming video, view photo slideshows, read documents, or listen to streaming audio. Plus, it easily integrates with Facebook, Wordpress, and the Apple iPhone. The free account gets you 5 GB of storage space.

Link: divshare.com

dropio logo

5. Drop.io is another unique storage provider that lets you setup secure file "drops" between specified groups of people. It's totally secure and you can setup as many drops as you want, and you have the option of adding files via web browser, email, or phone! It's very simple but very useful.

Link: drop.io

filefactory logo

6. FileFactory is "the leader in free unlimited file hosting." You can upload files for storage or to send to a friend, with a generous 300 MB limit per file and the ability to upload 25 files at once. There is even a desktop application and Facebook app to let you upload files from anywhere. Once your files are uploaded you can create photo slideshows, music widgets, and more.

Link: www.filefactory.com

mediafire logo

7. MediaFire offers 100% free file hosting with unlimited space (except for a 100 MB file size limit.) Registration is optional so you can quickly upload files or sign-up and get an account to manage your uploads. MediaFire has been getting rave reviews from PC World, PC Magazine, and more.

Link: mediafire.com

badongo logo

8. Badongo, despite the funny name, means business. You get unlimited space with a whopping 1 GB file size limit, all 100% free. Extras include slideshow creators, music players, and more.

Link: www.badongo.com

xdrive logo

9. XDrive is like having a second hard drive offering 5 GB of free space. Use it for secure remote file storage or file sharing with friends and family. New features include photo slideshows, automated scheduled backups, and desktop software.

Link: www.xdrive.com

dropboks logo

10. DropBoks offers free online storage, just like an online "drop box." You get 1 GB free, but the real beauty is the clean and simple interface that anyone can understand.

Link: www.dropboks.com

diino logo

11. Diino is "your internet desktop" where you can store up to 2 GB of files, free of charge. Then you can share them or just access them from anywhere you have an internet connection. Other features include free email, a free blog, collaboration space, and the ability to run scheduled backups.

Link: www.diino.com

esnips logo

12. eSnips offers a cool 5 GB of free storage plus custom playlists, widgets, and a "social DNA" feature that compares you to other users based on the files you upload. If you are looking for community features to go with your file storage, eSnips could be for you.

Link: www.esnips.com

driveway logo

13. Driveway is for sharing individual files and offers a generous 500 MB file-size limit, not to mention a selection of widgets. You can even share files straight from your desktop with just a right-click.

Link: www.driveway.com




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Now playing: Enigma - Enigma - Silence Must Be Heard
via FoxyTunes