I’ve been surfing the design sites for hot new web resources for the D.I.Y. Designer. Here are 3 hot links I wanted to share. In honor of Earth Day we’ll start with one that’s environmentally friendly too.
PrintWhatYouLike.com
You know the drill. You find a stylish website full of gorgeous graphics, a few ads on the sidebar, and most importantly an article you’re dying to share. And by share I’m talking old school share, like ripping-it-out-of-the-newspaper style share. In other words, you have to print it. So you click the printer icon with great hesitation knowing that 10 minutes later you’ll be sorting through 5 pages of photos, ads, weather bulletins and html confusion to find the one golden nugget you wanted in hard copy. After you recycle the extra pages, shaking your head in frustration over the wasted ink and screaming at the one line of text that ruined an entire pristine sheet of copy paper, you realize there must be a better way.
Here's the article I want to print, with all the graphics I don't
After I selected the text and removed photos, here's what's going to print.
Ah-haaaaa (golden ray of light shines down upon your computer) there is! I just discovered printwhatyoulike.com, a website that let’s you do just that. And it couldn’t be easier. Copy and paste a URL into their window and up pops the webpage you’re looking for. Then you can choose exactly what you want to print on the page, eliminate what you don’t, and print. I condensed a 5 page article into 2 with a few simple clicks.
Voila! Earth friendly printing, and a simple interface, all for my favorite low, low price: FREE.
MyFontbook.com
It’s funny how sometimes you find just what you need when you actually need it. I was just having a conversation with one of my clients, who has jumped on the D.I.Y. Design train and handles some of her graphics internally. As our discussion entered the realm of typefaces she mentioned a growing frustration in attempting to select just the right one from the huge scrolling list filled with meaningless names and numbers. And I’m not talking about searching through Myfonts for a new resource (one of my favorite inspiration sites). Sometimes you just want to work with what you have…only you don’t know exactly what you’ve got.
It's an online font viewer for your own fonts.
That’s where MyFontbook.com comes in handy. This online font viewer allows you to see exactly what fonts are available on your computer, organize them, sort them and test them out to pick the perfect one. Maybe you’re looking for a handwritten font, but you don’t know a slab serif from a slab of beef. Their font viewer give you a sample text window for side-by-side comparison. Or maybe you’re looking for just dollar sign, or a font with old style figures. Use the glyphs window to find exactly what you need.
Type in any words and see them typeset in all your fonts
While there is software available that allows you to manage all your fonts, that’s a bit more complicated than the average D.I.Y. Designer needs. Myfontbook.com doesn’t require downloads, installation or fees for basic use. And if you get really into it, there are advanced options available for a fee.
Yourfonts.com
Since we’re on the subject of fonts I couldn’t resist telling you about this one, even though I haven’t tried it out yet.
Turn your handwriting into a font.
Have you ever wanted to get your handwriting turned into a custom typeface? Or maybe you’d like a special font that includes custom characters for your line of work, and a digital signature for approving files via email. Well this may be the perfect place for you.
Yourfonts.com makes it easy to hand-write a custom alphabet and turn it into a font for less than $10. I can tell you that’s much cheaper than most professional fonts out there. And this would be uniquely yours.
Simply download and print their 2-page template, fill in the squares with each letter indicated, scan and upload it back to them. The website creates a custom open type font that can then be installed on your computers, Mac OS X or PC.
I’m definitely going to try this one. I’ll keep you posted on the results.
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