Where can I get high quality stock images for free?
In many cases my clients don’t have the budget to hire a photographer to shoot their own website images so affordable stock imagery is a great fallback option when you need high resolution images for impact on your website. Here are a few of my favorite free (and affordable) resources for stock images: Unsplash (recently purchased by Getty images)Pixabay.comPexels.comStockSnap.io Death to Stock – This site has a paid subscription model but if you scroll down to the bottom of the homepage, there is a place to sign up for occasional free photo packs. I have accumulated several of these photo…
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Spam Alert! Contact Form message recommending SpellScan.com
I’ve seen several notifications recently like the one below posing as a “helpful” website comment: “It looks like you’ve misspelled the word “compacity” on your website. I thought you would like to know :). Silly mistakes can ruin your site’s credibility. I’ve used a tool called SpellScan.com in the past to keep mistakes off of my website. The misspelled word varies per email and is never a word I have found anywhere on my sites. The names have included Karen Allen, Beth Collins, and Randy Shields and all are accompanied by fake email addresses. Ignore this message – it’s spam.
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Sharing passwords securely
When working with clients, I often need access to hosting accounts, domain registrars, premium plug-in sites, and other password-protected accounts. Sending these logins over email and text is not recommended but sometimes a phone call isn’t feasible as passwords can be long and complicated and too easy to write down incorrectly. I use LastPass to manage all my user names and passwords but what if my client doesn’t have an account with them? I recently discovered a free website service called Reveal It! that can be used for exactly this purpose. Simply type your message into the box and the…
Typeface x-height vs. point size
I came across an article recently from MyFonts.com that helpfully explains the differences between ‘point’ size – which includes the ascenders (e.g., d, f) and descenders (e.g. q, p) – and x-height which is the standard height of the main letters (e.g. a, e, o, s). The x-height variation among font types can greatly effect the readability of a specific font at certain sizes – which has important outcomes for site design. Download the PDF below to read more. Download the PDF.
Something a little different: online catering order forms
Last week I was contacted by a Golden Corral franchisee owner to create online order forms to help them bring in some much needed revenue as the restaurant has been closed for eat-in dining for several months due to COVID. My client didn’t need a complicated or expensive online ordering system, they wanted to keep it simple with downloadable PDFs for each day of the week with variable menu options and specials. I used Adobe InDesign to create the PDFs with clear instructions and plenty of space to hand-write names and contact information. If you are in the market for…
Read more… Something a little different: online catering order forms
Cupcake Ipsum text!
I use Lorem Ipsum text all the time as fill in for client projects when the copy isn’t quite ready before the layout is done. Typically I use Blind Text Generator to create interesting fill copy but I learned of a new option today – Cupcake text! How cute is this?!?