For web developer

FontCapture is a simple & free web application with an impressive function: it turns any handwriting into a font.

It does not require any software and works in few steps:

download (PDF) & print a special template
fill it with your handwriting
scan & upload the template

The service automatically creates your font & presents you the download file.

Also, just before downloading the generated fonts, you can see a full-preview & decide to re-create a new one or not.

P.S. The service is currently in beta status.

Requirements: A printer & a scanner

EasyImg, to mention at first, is a very different kind of web service which can be very powerful under the creative hands.

It is a highly customizable web-based graphics engine that enables anyone to insert "instantly created custom images" to their websites.

How it works?

EasyImg works by sending a formatted query to the service as the source of an image. An example will describe it better:

<img src="http://images.easyimg.com/fd592fce/h-60/w-480/bw-2/r-15/bc-e0dede/fc-fcfbdc/c-fc2671/font-Tahoma/size-30/banner.png?text=WRD Test Banner" />

will return:

 where:

fd592fce = is the token for my account
h-60 = height is 60px
w-480 = width is 480px
bw-2 = border width is 2px
and you can possibly guess the rest easily..

Besides the standard image properties, it is possible to use various fonts, rotate the final image, add gradients & more.

And, as it doesn’t use any JavaScript or CSS hack, it is totally compatible with any browser.

EasyImg can be set to re-create the image every time it is called or use caching for faster usage.

Also, it is not a must to host every image generated at the system. They can be downloaded as a single ZIP file anytime.

Where can I use it?

Primarily, it is a great fit to be used in websites where images must/can be customized like:

users customizing the look & feel of their accounts (you may need to create rounded corners with different colors)
usage of rotation
usage of custom fonts
no image editing software (ideal for customers who are not into webdesign but want to update the look of websites – can be integrated into CMSs)

And, it is a perfect fit for special cases like dynamic barcode generation (just use the barcode font).

EasyImg comes with different plans where a free one exists as well.

You can see how powerful it can be with the options it offers & from the samples. Or, you can play with the online canvas.

P.S. This post is a sponsored review.

Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Browsers

Online image editors have evolved so much in the last few years & became very mature + functional for designers at every level.

They generally offer a similar interface with the popular image editing softwares which lowers the learning curve so much.

Almost all of them are Flash-based (no extra installations -like plugins- are required) & load/work very fast.

Why To Use Them?

You may be asking yourself why to use a web-based one when there is a powerful image editing software installed on your computer like Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, etc.?

Portability

There is no need to have a software other than a browser to run such applications. Also designs created with them can be saved instantly online.

This function is specially handy for anyone working at different locations/computers.

The Price Factor

Most popular image editing softwares, except GIMP, are generally not cheap & every new version requires a new license.

Online image editing platforms are free or come with cheap subscription plans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Concept Feedback is a free-to-use web application for getting feedback from a professional community about designs, concepts we created.

The feedback points are collected under several categories like design, purpose, engagement & originality. Also, you can read the written feedbacks of the community & discuss with them.

It works so simple:

become a member (free)

upload your design (website,advertisement, logo, etc.)

receive the fedback from the community

improve your design, get feedbacks again & compare with the previous one

And, as a member of the community, you can send feedbacks to the works of other users.

SVG-edit is an open source & web-based vector graphics editor application that is built with JavaScript.

Every image drawn generates a SVG output which makes integrating SVG-edit into any application & displaying the results easier.

It comes with a lot of features like:

free-hand drawing
lines, polyline, rects/squares, ellipses/circle, polygons/curved paths
stylable text, align
raster images
select/move/resize/rotate
undo/redo
color/gradient picker
layers
draggable dialogs

The application is very handy for anyone who is looking for a customizable solution to enable users draw online where the output can be saved.

Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Major Browsers

CSS3, Please! is a web-based & simple-yet-effective cross-browser CSS3 rules generator.

As every browser may require different prefixes for the CSS3 properties, this tool makes it so easy by providing them all with an editable & well-commented way where the output can be seen instantly.

Currently, it helps you write the rules for: border-radius, box-shadow, linear-gradients, rotation & @font-face. Some other transforms like skew & scale will be added soon.

For some transforms, that Internet Explorer can support via IE filters, they are mentioned too.

Instant CSS Code is a free web-based tool that enables us to quickly create a web project framework with valid HTML/XHTML and CSS.

It asks you a name for the project, the document type, JavaScript library to be used, whether it'll be compressed or not, page character set and few other questions.

Once submitted, the project folder is ready to download which is a fast way for starting coding.

A nice feature is that, it also asks the IDs to be used in the CSS file for creating the empty rules (time-saver).

Lorem Ipsum is the most popular placeholder text used in graphic and web design.

If you're bored of it, here is another alternative named Fillerati that has texts from various books.

The website lets you choose the source of the text, whether it will be a paragraph, list or a title and how long it will be with the help of a slider.

And, once the slider is clicked, the text is automatically copied to your clipboard.

It is usually a good idea to share your thoughts about a website visually in order to make the details clear.

MarkUp is a free web application that, with the help of a bookmarklet, enables you to draw on any web page.

Once the bookmarklet is clicked, the menu with the options of shapes (circle, rectangle, free drawing, etc.) appears and it becomes possible to draw + take notes (with the color you prefer).

And, once the drawing is complete, you can select it to be published which is actually a unique URL generated -that displays the output-  to share.

Requirements: No Requirements

Gridulator is a free web application for creating totally custom grids in .PNG format for using with the image editing applications, inside CSS files, etc.

It simply asks the overall width and the number of columns. Once they are selected, any possible grid variations are automatically displayed.

You can instantly preview how the grid will look like or download the full-size PNG file for it. Simple and handy.