Create your own website easily

Create your own website easily without code and using well designed simple templates some options:

instructions for converting all of your DRM’d Kindle books into a non-DRM format that you can read on any number of devices.

Migrating from Kindle to iBooks I started off reading eBooks from the Amazon Kindle store. As time has progressed, I’ve found myself using my physical Kindle less and less. Partly because I forget to charge it, and partly because I can never get the lighting in my favorite reading locations quite right. And at night? Forget about it. So I’ve converted all of my Kindle purchases to ePubs for use in iBooks. I could use the Kindle app for iOS but I’ve found iBooks to be faster at syncing read position, and it feels a lot more natural to use. Read more

The CryptoParty Handbook

This 392 page, Creative Commons licensed handbook is designed to help those with no prior experience to protect their basic human right to Privacy in networked, digital domains. By covering a broad array of topics and use contexts it is written to help anyone wishing to understand and then quickly mitigate many kinds of vulnerability using free, open-source tools. Most importantly however this handbook is intended as a reference for use during Crypto Parties. Download HTTP Direct Download You can download the 392 page book as a free, 28Mb PDF here About this book The CryptoParty Handbook was born from a suggestion Read more

easily make an animated gif

CREATE a new file:  72 pixels/inch 1 >go to navigator on right > add layers by clicking on small square with turned up edge 2 >create your images on each layer (rem to click eye on left pic to view individual layers) 3 >click window in top toolbar > click animation, a box will appear at bottom of page >create new layers in this box to correspond to your layers in navigation box. eg: click the layer icon (small square with turned up edge) to duplicate selected frames 4 >rem to apply each layer to your image layer using the Read more

free seminars on web development and digital publishing

Noble Desktop has been teaching courses in web development and digital publishing since 1991. They offer comprehensive day and evening classes and certificate programs in web design, web development, digital publishing, print design and photo retouching. Check out their free seminars on web development and digital publishing. Just this month they have seminars on state of the art web design techniques, as well asresponsive web design.  

HTML Symbol Entities Reference

HTML Symbol Entities This entity reference includes mathematical symbols, Greek characters, various arrows, technical symbols and shapes. Note: Entity names are case sensitive. Math Symbols Supported by HTML Character Entity Number Entity Name Description ∀ ∀ ∀ for all ∂ ∂ ∂ part ∃ ∃ ∃ exists ∅ ∅ ∅ empty ∇ ∇ ∇ nabla ∈ ∈ ∈ isin ∉ ∉ ∉ notin ∋ ∋ ∋ ni ∏ ∏ ∏ prod ∑ ∑ ∑ sum − − − minus ∗ ∗ ∗ lowast √ √ √ square root ∝ ∝ ∝ proportional to ∞ ∞ ∞ infinity ∠ ∠ ∠ Read more

Get a Free Software PDF reader

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a popular format to publish formatted text and documents. There are several different versions of it, some qualifying as an Open Standard, some certified by ISO and some encumbered by software patents. You might want to promote the versions that are Open Standards, because Open Standards guarantee interoperability, competition and choice. Read more… There are many programs to read and write PDF documents. All of the PDF readers in the following list are Free Software, respecting your basic four freedoms to use, study, share and improve them. This gives you control over your computer and helps protect your privacy. Read Read more

How to Make an Interactive Network Visualization

Interactive network visualizations make it easy to rearrange, filter, and explore your connected data. Learn how to make one using D3 and JavaScript. Networks! They are all around us. The universe is filled with systems and structures that can be organized as networks. Recently, we have seen them used to convict criminals, visualize friendships, and even todescribe cereal ingredient combinations. We can understand their power to describe our complex world fromManuel Lima’s wonderful talk on organized complexity. Now let’s learn how to create our own. In this tutorial, we will focus on creating an interactive network visualization that will allow us to Read more

Habari is next-generation blogging.

Habari is next-generation blogging. Download Habari or try the demo and help our community design the future of blogs. Habari is different While there are a number of technical reasons that highlight the differences and advantages Habari has over other blogging packages, a major component of what makes Habari different is its community participation model. Users who demonstrate a level of quality contributions to the project are granted more privileges within the project.  

BASIC HTML & CSS for NON-WEB DESIGNERS

Are you a print designer, photographer, fine-artist, or general creative person? Do you have a shitty website that you slapped together yourself in Dreamweaver in that ONE web design class that you took in college? Do you not have a site at all because you’ve been waiting two years for your cousin to put it together for you? Well, we’re here to help. We know that you have little to no desire to do web design professionally, but that doesn’t mean that you want an ugly cookie-cutter site or to settle for one that hasn’t been updated since Hackerswas in theaters. Read more

Litho/digital commercial printers for books, magazines, etc

Here are some commercial printers I have worked with for a variety of jobs, and personally recommend. They have different specialities. Please remember, these are commercial printers aiming at trade business (namely book, publishers or graphic designers). That is to say, not only will they expect perfect PDFs/artwork, but when costing a job, they would expect a fairly firm specification to quote to. While everyone I’ve worked with is very helpful and generous, please be considerate of their time when asking for quotes. Do your research first and ask for staff advice if you have never worked with a commercial printer before. The possibilities are as infinite as all the different books you have seen, so firm Read more

A Comprehensive Checklist To Creating The Perfect WordPress Website

There is no doubt that WordPress is the best content management system (CMS) for your website. Sure, countless CMS’ are available, ranging from open-source to paid, and you’ll hear evangelists on all sides swearing that their choice is the best. But Drupal, Joomla or any other CMS doesn’t hold a candle to WordPress for its ease of use, security and reliability. It’s no wonder that Web developers have built over 50 million websites on its sturdy back, or that so many designers would never dream of using anything else. For the sake of this article, let’s agree that WordPress is the Read more

Data visualisation tools

visualization.ch put together a selection of data visualization tools that they use the most and that they enjoy working with. It includes libraries for plotting data on maps, frameworks for creating charts, graphs and diagrams and tools to simplify the handling of data. Even if you’re not into programming, you’ll find applications that can be used without writing one single line of code. They will keep this list as a living repository and add / remove things as technology develops.

Virb create a website easily

Whether you’re a novice or a pro, a photographer, a band, a small business, or anything in between, Virb is perfect for building your site—quickly and easily. Everything you need for $10/month You don’t have to be a web professional to have a professional-looking site with Virb. Our simplified site builder eliminates all the coding and over-complicated web jargon. Just choose a theme, add your content, customize and launch! It’s (nearly) instant gratification.      

THE LONDON BOOKSHOP MAP

96 independent bookshops Independent bookshops fill the gaps in the high street, stocking thoughtful and idiosyncratic selections rather than market-driven choices of books. They sustain local interests and offer different ways for communities to participate in a range of cultural activities. They are crucial platforms for alternative publishing. MAP

Ebook Cover Design and Optimum Size Specifications for Amazon, Kindle, B&N, Nook, iBookstore, and iPad Formats

QUICK AND HANDY GUIDE All images should be RGB and not CMYK. Lulu will reject sRGB, if you want to use them to get into the iBookstore, but other retailers accept it. Again, always go for the correct file size first, at the cost of resolution if necessary; not the other way around. EC = Embedded Cover (give to ebook formatter to embed) CC = Catalog Cover (you’ll upload separate from ebook) n/s = Not Specified Format Size in px Resolution File Size Kindle CC JPG, TIFF min 500px max 1280px 72 dpi n/s Kindle EC JPG 600 x 800 Read more

types of book cover in epublishing

COVERS   P-COVER The cover of the printed book. There may further be paperback p-covers, hardback p-covers, trade paper p-covers, etc. “Anybody can do p-covers. They’re not even interactive. BTW, what’s “ink coverage” mean?”     E-COVER PAGE The big splashy first page of an ebook; its primary visual identity. “I accidentally applied the “cover” semantic to the acknowledgments page instead of the e-cover page in Sigil, so now I get to learn TextWrangler! Yay!”     E-COVER GRAPHIC The graphic displayed on the e-cover. (eg, e-cover_graphic.jpg is displayed on e-cover.xhtml.) “Wow, lots of colors in your e-cover graphic! Yeah! Read more

Apple iBooks Author review and how-to

Apple’s much-hyped iBooks Author came out a while back, and Cupertino hopes the free app can become the iTunes for the self-publishing textbook world. Available solely through the Mac App Store at a healthy 320MB, I’ve been putting iBooks Author through its paces in the hopes that the interactive iBook will bring me some added sales of a recently self-published e-book. I wanted to get this review out sooner, but you can’t really know how well this program works unless you actually have something to publish. A bird’s-eye view of a publishing tool doesn’t do it justice—you have to use it Read more

Colour system convertor tool

Nice tool for converting between colour systems, such as RGB to RAL http://www.easyrgb.com/index.php?X=SEEK   Many other tools on the site Color calculator Converts color data to different color standards (RGB, CMYK, L*ab, L*ch, L*uv, Hunter, XYZ etc.). All the math implemented in this calculators is available in the math/formulas page. Create color harmonies From your RGB colors it creates colors complements, harmonies and themes. It can be used to easily create a Web site color theme or to select good trim and accent colors for your home decorations. From RGB values to commercial tints Matches your computer generated RGB values to Read more

HD TV streaming (industry level solution)

The RayV Grid is the worlds first telco grade HDTV Delivery Network over IP. Designed specifically to serve the world’s most sophisticated content providers, we stream for telcos and networks tens of millions of hours of HDTV every month to millions of viewers in over 150 countries. RayV is the most robust, scalable and secure network for delivering high quality video on the web.

Dealing with grids in Photoshop is a pain

With GuideGuide, it doesn’t have to be. Pixel accurate columns, rows, midpoints, and baselines can be created based on your document or marquee with the click of a button. Frequently used guide sets can be saved for repeat use. Grids can use multiple types of measurements. Best of all it’s free. Honestly, if you haven’t started downloading it by now, you’re probably a masochist. Weirdo… Grid Tab Fill in the fields and click the GG button to create your grid. Negative margin values will place the guides outside your selection. Hold the clear guides button to clear all input fields. Clicking the Read more

Start Developing iOS Apps Today

Creating iOS apps is fun and rewarding, and if you’re a new developer you might be wondering where to begin. This road map provides the perfect starting point for iOS app development. On your Mac computer, you can create iOS apps that run on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Follow this road map to learn where to get the tools you need, understand the major concepts and best practices, and see where to find more information. As you proceed through the road map, you will use Xcode and the iOS SDK, Apple’s tools for app development. You will learn the Read more

Enlargement software for digital images

There are a range of Photoshop plugins to assist with enlarging image files. Attached Mac User article article discussing the most recent versions of these plugins. The conclusion to draw is the type of enlargement software used, really depends on the file you start with. The plugins mentioned make a noticeable difference to enlargement of web-graphics.

Packaging Styles, Templates for boxes and packaging

key book: Structural Packaging Designs Forms, Folds and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Can Never Find but Need to Know Chapter 9: Packaging Styles (PDF) iStockPack http://www.korthalsaltes.com/ http://designerstoolbox.com/designresources/ http://www.selfpackaging.com/ http://www.livesurface.com/ http://www.nicepapertoys.com/profiles/blogs/1905839:BlogPost:6188 http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/    

Colour Laser Printing at UCL

Colour Printing Colour Printers are Located in the following cluster room areas: (Cluster Room Map) Christopher Ingold (G20, Ground floor, 20 Gordon Street) Cruciform (B12 and B.1.3, Basement, Cruciform, Gower Street) DMS Watson (Ground floor, Science Library) Foster Court (B24, Basement, Malet Place) Torrington Place (Room 113, 1-19 Torrington Place) It will cost you 25p per page to print in colour. You’ll need to choose print queue “ClusterColour”.  

eBook conversion tools

gut or txt2html for text -> html. PHP-PDB for Palm Doc. Pyrite Publisher. (might be gone – seeFreshmeat project page for some information.) Plucker. iSilo386. makedoc. rbmake for RocketBook format. makeztxt for ztxt format. htmldoc for HTML -> PDF conversion. HTMLtidy for fixing up the automatic HTML generated by “gut”. TCR. makelrf 0.3 makebook for eReader format. methods originally developed by Daniel Durisfor iPod Notes conversion. Apple’s textutil command for RTF. Desktop Connection Library for Newton Paperback format. Mobigen.exe for Mobipocket format. Wine to run mobigen.exe on OS X. Componnents of mjBook for cellphone “.jar” files HAWHAW toolkit for the WAP sitehttp://mnybks.net. Calibre for Read more

ManyBooks.net – catalogue of free eBooks

Browse through the most popular titles, recommendations, or recent reviewsfrom our visitors. Perhaps you’ll find something interesting in the special collections. There are more than 29,000 eBooks available for Kindle, Nook, iPad and most other eReaders, and they’re all free! If you still can’t decide what to read you might want to browse through some covers to see what strikes your fancy. Or try the Recent Additions to the library, with genre filter. Many of the etexts are from the November, 2003 Project Gutenberg DVD, which contains the entire Project Gutenberg archives except for the Human Genome Project and audio eBooks, due to size limitations, and the Project Gutenberg of Read more

O’Reilly Safari subscription

A Safari subscription gives access to a huge library of technical books and videos. This is invaluable to someone learning a new programming language or trying to write the next big iPhone game. Safari’s monthly subscription cost is less than the price of a single printed programming book. I’ve had access to Safari at a few jobs, and the large selection of searchable books made jumping into a new project much less daunting. Price: $28/month (Link)  

VPS Hosting – Linode

We’re a VPS hosting company built upon one simple premise: provide the best possible tools and services to those that know what they need — better hosting. A Linode VPS means freedom. You get everything from the kernel and root access on up. All managed by our simple yet very powerful control panel. Discover why Linode may be right for you. Features Full ssh and root access Guaranteed Resources 4 processor Xen instances Out of band console shell Dedicated IP address, premium bw Six datacenters in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific HA and Clustering Support Bandwidth pooling Managed DNS with API website: http://www.linode.com/ Read more

Walters and Walters (markers and chalk)

Walters & Walters Ltd. We are the UK’s only factory dedicated to the Manufacture of Industrial Crayons including WWL Warehouse Crayons for general marking, WWT Timber & Metal Crayons, also for Lumber, Stone & Masonry and Street and Road Marking, WRL Rubber Crayons for all Rubber Surfaces including Tyres,  WGL Glass Crayons and WRB Heavy Duty Crayons for all surfaces. We are also the main UK Importer of Engineers French Chalk Sticks and Flats (Welders Chalk) and Distributors of Markers and Marker Pens for all surfaces.  We supply most brands but you will find the entire range of Edding Markers, Read more

Typography Tutorials

Step-by-step methods for getting the most out of your fonts and graphic design software. FontBook, A New Way Of Combining & Comparing And Sharing Typefaces A little tutorial to get you acquainted with the new functionalities of the new FontBook app for iPad. Tutorial: Glowing letters Use this Photoshop technique to create electric glowing type sprinkled with pixie dust. Tutorial: Festive Engraved Type This tutorial shows how to create delicate shadow lines and shaded engraved type. Tutorial: Photorealistic Perspective Sometimes, flat just doesn’t cut it, and we need to find other, more attractive ways to present designs to our customers. Read more

Typography Basics

Refresh yourself with the terminology and fundamentals required for sound typesetting. Learn How To Kern Like A Pro With KernType An online game in the Method Of Action series aims at showing the importance of balanced distribution of space between characters. Figuring Out Numerals – The Sequel In this sequel to “Figuring Out Numerals” we look at some special cases. Figuring Out Numerals In this first instalment of our examination of numerals we look at the different figure sets available in OpenType fonts. Making Books In The Days Of The Linotype A vintage short documentary produced by Encyclopædia Britannica Films Read more

Tools to Make, Manage and Publish Your Creative Portfolio Online

Tools to Make, Manage and Publish Your Creative Portfolio Online Presenting your work online—be it art, design, photography—can be tough. Equally tough is building and updating your online portfolio. Here’s a starter list of tools that help creative practitioners share their work with ease: 4ormat Behance ProsSite Carbonmade Cargo clickbooq Coroflot Portfolios design:related Fluid Galleries Gallerytopia A Good Portfolio Icompendium Parade PopSlice Qfolio Tank Tasty CMS The Web Therapist Viewbook Virb   Weebly is a San Francisco, California based company that was founded in 2006 with the mission to help people put their information online quickly and easily. We enable Read more

Adobe Kuler: Explore, create and share color themes

Discover Adobe® Kuler® — the web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you’re creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community. DID YOU KNOW… Adobe Kuler is now available as a tablet app The Adobe Kuler app, an extension of the full Adobe Kuler service, enables you to generate and view color themes on the go. Initially available for Android only. Kuler is available online at no charge Explore, create, and share color themes. Try Kuler now Kuler is accessible from your favorite Read more

Fuel RCA – developing an art or design related career

Our Basics section covers some of the most common issues that you might come across while developing an art or design related career, from gaining confidence to sorting out your taxes. We’re expanding this section all the time so keep checking back. The articles here are intended as informal guidance, giving you an overview of some important topics. For in-depth advice, always consult a lawyer, accountant or other relevant professional. You can also get one-to-one guidance from our free helpline service, Fuel Line, plus there are lots of helpful books on business matters and career development in the FuelRCA library collection. Website: http://fuel.rca.ac.uk/

Learn HTML and CSS – book – Jon Duckett

A NICER WAY TO LEARN ABOUT HTML & CSS A book about code that doesn’t read like a 1980’s VCR manual… It’s not just for programmers, it’s written and presented to make it easy for designers, artists, bloggers, content and e-commerce managers, marketers to learn about the code used to write web pages… Learn how to: Read and write HTML5 and CSS3 Structure and design web pages and sites Prepare images, audio and video for the web Control typography and layout You will also find lots of helpful hints and practical advice alongside the code A NICER WAY TO LEARN Read more

Web fonts – Jonathan Hoefler

An excellent 26-minute talk by Jonathan Hoefler of the Hoefler & Frere-Jones about how they think about designing typefaces and webfonts in particular. Today, as webfonts are buoyed by a wave of early-adopter enthusiasm, they’re marred by a similar unevenness in quality, and it’s not just a matter of browsers and rasterizers, or the eternal shortage of good fonts and preponderance of bad ones. There are compelling questions about what it means to be fitted to the technology, how foundries can offer designers an expressive medium (and readers a rich one), and what it means for typography to be visually, Read more