Ink Butter™ :: Fix 10 Amazing Free Stock Photography Sites Stock photography is a rapidly growing industry on the web. Sites like iStockPhoto and Shutterstock make vast sums of money just by hosting high quality stock images. However, if you’re like me, you don’t always have the resources to buy the photographs you need, particularly if you need the extended license. This is a list of 10 amazing free stock photography sites, with a bonus 11th stock photo request site. Stock Xchng Stock.Xchng is probably the most well known stock photography site out there, with over 350,000 stock photos for you to choose from. morgueFile MorgueFile is another popular stock photography site, featuring high quality stock photos that are free to use. StockVault Featuring a more modern design and interface, StockVault provides all the functionality you’d expect from a stock photography site. EveryStockPhoto Another more modern site, EveryStockPhoto boasts one of the largest free image galleries on the internet, with almost 4.5 million photographs to choose from.
Folk Ornaments and Pattern Vectors — iDiY I’ve been noticing the resurgence of European folk patterns in stationery designs of late so imagine my delight when I came across these downloadable folksy graphic beauties! The ArtShare.ru website is originally in Russian but you can do a quick Google Translate of the page (by keying in the URL) for easier navigation. Scroll down the bottom of the page for the EPS/vector download links and have fun exploring! 8 useful sites for web developers Min.us: The easiest way to upload images Any developer, designer or webmaster have to share images online with clients and co-workers. Min.us is an all new service that allow you to upload images extremely easily: Just drag and drop them into Min.us and the image will be saved on their servers. A short url will be automatically created so you can share it across the web.» Wirify: Transform any web page into wireframes Wireframes are extremely useful when designing a website. CSS Resetr: View and compare CSS resets CSS resets are a must have in any stylesheet in order to render differences between browsers. Head JS: Speed up your site with 2.30 kb of Javascript Head JS is a simple and light (2.3 kb) script that will make your site faster by loading other scripts as images. Copy Paste Character: Use special characters with ease Special characters are often a pain to deal with, because they’re not on your keyboard, and because you don’t know the related ASCII code.
Art Sponge How To Sell Stock Photos - Part 1 This article is the first part of a 2 part series in which you will learn about the basics of stock photography, the license types, what to submit and how to make money off stock photography. I’ll also cover a few insider and marketing tips that will help you get accepted and simply create better stock photos. Simply put, stock photography is a collection of photos that can be used for different purposes under strict or relatively flexible usage licenses. Stock photos include an ever expanding variety of subjects which publishers, advertising agencies or anyone can buy and use. 1. Stock photography simply works because the end user who needs photos can save time and money by not hiring a photographer. It’s a win win situation for all parties involved. 2. There are two types of stock photography marketplaces, stock (also called macrostock) and microstock photography websites. 1. 2. 3. This seems to be always the first question beginners ask… what to submit? 3.1. Example of popular photos:
Five Minute Upgrade – Making Your Design Pop | Build Internet! 1. Brighten Colors If you have a design that you just feel isn’t anything special – stop – crank up the color intensity – then reevaluate. Saturation plays a big role as far as mood goes. If you ever feel like you’re lacking inspiration when it comes to color schemes there are some great online tools, not to mention our own color series. 2. Monochromatic themes are great, there are some great black and white designs and sometimes using only a single color makes designing easier. 3. Here’s the deal, align your text and things will look better, not to mention it will increase your scannability. 4. This was discussed wonderfully over at PsdTuts a while back but there are a few key things to keep in mind. Don’t be afraid to use shadows sparingly, helps fight the flat and boring look.1px lines are great at clearly defining edges.Using faint gradients over text and backgrounds gives a subtle 3D look. 5. Overlap your images in ways that are out of the ordinary. 6. 7. 8. The Wrap Up Google+
30 Must See Web Generator for Lazy Webmasters Here’s a list of 70 hand-picked, easy to use, and free web generators that will save you tons of time and energy. I have grouped these tools into 10 categories: Color Palettes, Robots.txt, Website Screenshots, Favicons, Web Backgrounds, Webpage Elements (buttons, tabs, etc), Memes, Forms, Logos, and Dummy Texts. The best part about these tools is that they are completely free (some need you to signup though). If you are looking ways speed up your work and channel more time and energy to new content ideas and marketing strategies, I believe the list is a must-bookmark. Category #1: Color Palettes Generator Functions/Details: To generate color palettes based on image input.Allow users to compare, review, and select color combination at ease. Palette Generator Palette Generator – click image to visit online. Pictaculous Pictaculous – click image to visit online. Kuler Kuler – click image to visit online. Kuler is a cloud-based application for making color themes using an iPhone or your browser.
Laurent Nivalle Free Vintage Postcard Ephemera Brushes — iDiY This week’s all vintage-y goodness series wouldn’t be complete without featuring this utterly lovely collection of Photoshop brushes. Yesssiree, virtual ‘rubber’ stamps all FREE, courtesy of the ever fab Miss B. Go ahead. { all images from Le Blahg } 15 sites web developers and designers should know Creating a good website isn't an easy task, but there's a few tools that can definitely make your developer or designer life easier. In this article, I have compiled 15 extremely useful website that any web developer or web designer should have bookmarked. ColorCombos When designing a website, one of the firsts (and most important) steps of the process is to choose a color scheme. LIpsum Who doesn’t know the extremely popular Lorem Ipsum text? What the font? You just saw a logo or website using a particular font and you enjoyed it. ConvertIcon Favicons are a must have for any website, mostly because on modern browsers as such as Firefox, it is displayed along with the site name in tabs. BgPatterns background Patterns is definitely one of the current webdesign trends. HTML Encoder Do you display code on your website? Test Everything Sprite Generator CSS Sprites is definitely a great technique to use, mainly because it reduces the number of HTTP requests. Load Impact IconFinder TypeTester CSS Tidy
Online Training | NC SBTDC Business Startup & Resource Webinar Starting Your Business Pre-Venture Online Training Series Our 3-module series is designed for individuals who are thinking about or have begun the process of starting a business. Each session is approximately 30 minutes long. After registering, you will be able to access the webinar and view it at your convenience. Module 1: Starting Your Business: Increase Your Chances of Success This module will help you assess yourself as a potential business owner and determine the feasibility of your business idea. Module 2: Developing Your Business Plan This module will help you with your business plan. Module 3: Funding Options for Your Business This module describes potential funding options (including family & friends, angel investors, loans, specialized grants, local sources), and what the various financing sources look for from the individuals / businesses they fund. (39 minutes) SBIR/STTR Online Training Government Contracting Online Training