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When selecting image resolution in Adobe Photoshop, you need to know the purpose for the image use. An image with a fixed number of pixels will show the same on the computer monitor no matter what resolution it is saved as. So on a web page an image with a 72 ppi displays the same as an image with 300 ppi. The difference is only visible when the image is used for printing. A 300 ppi image is the most suitable resolution for commercial printing, whereas for photo printing, a 200 ppi would do the job and on an inkjet printer you are better to use 150 ppi.
The measure we used here, i.e. ppi, is abbreviation for Pixel Per Inch! The more pixels in one inch, the more detailed a picture can be printed without showing rough edges! The reason is when a picture is printed, the number of pixels it has is a fixed number, and so with the lower number of pictures per inch, the pixels will be blown bigger, making the pixels in the images more visible and so reducing the quality of the printing.
The rule of thump is, always start with larger image sizes, i.e. images with more pixels. Because if later on you need to enlarge an image that you have started off with lower size, you would lose the quality as the pixels are now have to enlarge to show the same image as the number of pixels will not increase.
Computer monitor sizes determine how many pixels can be displayed on the screen, for example a 19 inch monitor, typically is set to 1152x864, which means 995328 pixels can be displayed. This is irrespective of the image resolution or ppi. In fact there is no visible difference between an image of 72 ppi and another image of the same size with 300 ppi.
It is only when the images are going to be printed that the one with 72 ppi, will print larger as for a fixed number of pixels, say 400x300, the 72 ppi picture size will be 5.5 inch x 4.2 inch, although the 300 ppi picture will print as 1.3 inch x 1 inch, as you can fit more pixels in one inch of paper in 300 ppi image!
http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/processing/fluid_fire/applet/index.html
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Recently HP has revealed the first Web Connected Home Printer with built in web apps such as Google Maps and Snapfish that allows the user to access the web via printer to print photos, maps and much more.
The Printer is called HP TouchSmart Web All in One and uses the HP TouchSmart Technology.
The print quality is the same as the latest non TouchSmart model, and not all of the web apps are really to use on everyday basis. It does not allow web access, but only access to applications that are supported and built in to the model.
I personally prefer a touch screen monitor with an application to control the printer, as my PC is always on!
The video "I Will be Here" and the picture "VISIT JAPAN, LOVE JAPAN"by HARUKA OKABE - NAGOYA School- 6th Grade (from http://www.joes.or.jp/foreign/info/postercontest/honorable_mention.html) brings back good memories from my travel to Japan. Sharing them with you is a great pleasure.
When visiting Japan, I realised that people point their mobile phones to the square bar code like images on magazines, postcards and even ads on streets and train stations.
These square codes are known as QR Code and they are actually 2D bar codes. The pointing of the camera phone to these codes, will open the web page of the advertiser as the URL of their web site is hidden in the QR Code.
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http://www.typogenerator.net has a fantastic quick way to create excellent typography randomly. Visit this site and enjoy creating fantastic typography.
I have just stumbled upon website http://wakoopa.com which has links to very good software sites!
Just browser and you sure find something new that you wish you knew about before! Enjoy!
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Visit http://mehmet-ozgur.com/ to see some smoky art!
I have created this art by combining a charcoal drawing with Photoshop layers, combining patterns and a dash of colour around! I am pleased and like the way it confuses the brain.
Enhance your personal drawings by using Photoshop.
- Take a picture of your drawing
- Duplicate it and add make the duplicate layer in Multiply mode
- Play with the contrast until the lighting is right
- Save as you wish
Welcome to the magic of interactive music video. Here is where music and web technology merge together to give the user an experience to remember.
As stated in http://www.placeboworld.co.uk/newsletters/TNEW-Interactive.html
"PLACEBOWORLD, BIG EYE DEERS & KERRANG magazine have got together with Nexus Productions to bring you the next level of music video. Now you don’t just get to watch the latest PLACEBO video, you can immerse yourself and interact with the momentum of the ‘The Never-Ending Why’ world."
I cannot stop interacting with this fantastic video. Can you? Try now! Watch it by visiting the URL link below: http://theneverendingwhy.placeboworld.co.uk/
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Create amazing combinations using Photoshop CS4.
Here I have combined two photos, one from the shore and its colourful pebbles, and the other is a picture of a cat ornament.
I have then layered them in Photoshop and used a combination of layering modes to get the desired effect.
Put your text on fire by following ten easy steps:
- Write your text with white on a black background, and Flatten Image.
- Change the canvas orientation by turning 90 CW
- Use Filter > Stylise > Wind from the Left.
- Use Ctrl (Command) a few time to make it more intense.
- Use Filter > Distort > Ripple
- Rotate the canvas back to original 90 CCW
- Add two new layers and make them one with red background and one with yellow background.
- Make sure they both use Blend Mode "Overlay"
- Add any desired pattern.
- Save as jpeg and share with friends!
An abstract work - free style - using Photoshop!
Do you Spotify? Music has never been more free and more fun!
Spotify! Simple access to numerous number of songs that have never been free before! Simple interface, clear sounds, organised by decade and genre! What else you want and yes, you can search for your music and see what is available on free version.
You can also buy daily or monthly pass to listen to more recent premium music!
Discover music the way you have never done it before! Spotify!
Download it here: https://www.spotify.com/en/
Once upon a time, Alice went down the rabbit-hole to meet her anthropomorphic rabbit. No need any more for the sinking experience. We now can have an anthropomorphic 3D animated character on our TV screen to interact with.
Could this be our answer to best friends? Could we open our hearts to this?
If Facebook forces us to tell them about our lives via interaction of our fingers with the keyboard, the Project Natal for Xbox is ready to catch a bigger fish as they would recognise our body language and our emotions.
So how much we can trust this new anthropomorphic friend?
Please visit http://www.paerconsultancy.com to see how my pear is cleverly placed with nice related colours to create this amazing website.
Just a note that I did not design the site. Only the pear graphic is done by me.
When we think of erasing, what comes to mind is removing the unwanted pixels from our work, but Photoshop works in an alternative way.
When you set the Photoshop Eraser tool to work in the Brush Mode, the eraser actually adds pixels using a brush set to your background colour.
Doing this creates an illusion that pixels are being removed.
To use this feature:
- Select Erase Tool
- Set Background colour to be the same as the background colour of the canvas
- In brush mode, select your brush tip and size
You can also select Pencil mode or Block mode
Play with the eraser tool and enjoy your experience!
Spring is approaching and nothing is more refreshing than seeing flowers coming from their winter journey to say hello to sky and sunshine.
So I fancied to do something flowery in Photoshop today. The idea is to select your favourite flower image of a painting or photo and create a pattern that goes with it.
- Open an image of a photo in Photoshop
- Double click on it so it a normal layer
- Create a new blank layer by going to Layer > New > Layer ... and called it Pattern Layer
- Fill it with a colour. I used dark blue.
- Draw a picture of a flower or use a pattern or brush to repeat a shape. I used a yellow flower pattern
- Move the Patten Layer behind your photo
- Select your Photo Layer and right click to select and open Blending Options
- Play with Blend Mode ( I used Hue) until you get a desired result
Well, if you are a web surfer, you would know You Tube, but it is interesting to know that the competition is on:
Here is a list of some other video sites:
"How does he take his sugar" was the phrase used on those days, where the facilities and conditions available for disable people were minimum.
On the century that we live, accessibility is a very important factor of any design and when it comes to web design, it has become very important and part of many legislations that the sites have to be as accessible for able users as they are for disable users.
There are some simple design rules that any designer can follow to make their sites accessibility maximised.
One is when using links, do not just say, "click here", but actually have a readable link in English or whatever language the site is written in.
Do not use pictures without using the relevant tags, i.e always use the description tags for all the images used on the site.
Do not rely on colour or text format to give away information. For example don't say, click on the blue text, or hover over the left side picture!
Always separate the contents from the view, so that if the style is turned off, the site HTML is available.
Always use correct headings, such as h1, h2, h3. This will make it easy for navigation, if the user decides to tab through the headings to choose the desired one.
And finally try to access our site without mouse and if you cannot do it, it is not accessible!
I will write more about accessibility soon.
There is a free service at http://www.yourfonts.com/ provided by YourFonts, where you can create your own handwriting True Type fonts for free.
All you have to do is to follow some simple steps, to download a
template, fill in all the required letters and characters, and scan it
back.
This service is completely free at this site.
While searching on the web, I came across Flickr search tool. This tool is developed by Nathan Siemers http://fiveprime.org/, and you can access it via http://fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cgi.
This picture search tool, uses Flickr API to search images by date, user, category, tag, text and more. You can also log into Flickr via this page.
Go to Hive Mind and enjoy a beautifully designed web page with powerful search capabilities.
It is too good to be true! One box to do it all! Google Chrome browser Auto Search, URL and suggestion as well as having all your favourites in hand! And so this box does do it all and does more!
If you have not turned the auto suggest off(on by default), then whatever you type in the box, will be saved into the Google's server, likely along with the ip address of your machine!
This means if you are searching for asset, the search engine omnibox, may save your ip address along with the word ass if you decide not to bother with typing asset and stop half way through to start type something else!
Site http://www.citywestwater.com.au/calculator/ has used Google Chart APIs to show the result of the calculation, made by answering a series of questions regarding the amount of water used in a household, to display the result by a pie chart.
Have a look and calculate your water usage! There will be tips produced at the end to help you save water too.
2008 was the year of many technical learnings for me and what made it possible?
1. Google Search Engine
2. Good browsers like FireFox and Google Chrome
3. Gmail that made it possible for me to keep in touch online and read so many rich electronic newsletters such as Computer Weekly, Oracle Magazine and SitePoint
4. YouTube which made it possible to watch seminars, trainings, talks and interviews and travel the world from your desktop
5. Google Earth.. this one is fantastic combined with Google Sky
6. Google Analytics, which allowed me to measure traffic trends and visitor details such as browsers used, or keywords search to reach my sites
7. Alexa, which gave me three monthly trends to my web sites traffics
8. Adobe, with its Dreamweaver and Photoshop CS3
9. Windows Live
10. And finally my recent start on Twitter!
Recently I had a problem with Dreamweaver CS3 crashing whenever I wanted to open a form. Delete the WinFileCache-7A9586CB.dat, MacFileCache-BFE7CE2E.dat, or FileCache.dat file from the Dreamweaver user configuration folder. It is recommended to delete the FileCache.dat file if you are experiencing a JavaScript error related to "dwscripts" or if you are receiving a "translators were not loaded" error message. The string of characters after "FileCache-" may differ on your machine. The location of the FileCache.dat file depends your operating system and your version of Dreamweaver. Note that on Windows, the Application Data and AppData folders are hidden by default, so verify that your Windows Explorer folder options are set to View Hidden Folders.
Googling this, I found out that the problem is created by a corrupt cache file. Deleting this file removed the issue and I now can open and amend my forms without crashing.
There is a very good knowledge base page on Adobe website for troubleshooting all sorts of issues. Click here to see this url.
Section 4 of this file was what I found to be the solution to my troubles. Here is the section entirely copied from the above knowledge base link in Adobe's website."4. Delete FileCache.dat files from the Dreamweaver user configuration folder.
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration
Dreamweaver CS3 on Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Adobe\Dreamweaver 9\Configuration
Dreamweaver 8 on Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration
Dreamweaver 8 on Windows Vista:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Dreamweaver 8\Configuration
Dreamweaver CS3 on Macintosh:
Mac HD/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver 9/
Dreamweaver 8 on Macintosh:
Mac HD/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Dreamweaver 8/"
2009 started for me with experiencing of taking photos from our flat screen TV. I tried to take pictures realistic enough to convince the viewer that they have been taken live at the place.
I used the Aquarium setting of my Canon Powershot G9 to take the above photo.