Free Games from Mac Games Arcade

Mac Games Arcade is giving away a game for free each day until Tuesday! Yesterday they gave away "Pangea Arcade", today they are giving away "Bullet Candy", and over the next 3 days they will be giving away "Rocket Bowl", "Platypus", and "Nanny Mania". Read this post for instructions, and enjoy your free games! :D

Free Mac apps from the Mac Giving Tree

The Mac Giving Tree is giving away several commercial apps for free this Christmas! Right now only 2 apps are available for download - Synergy and Enigmo 2 - but 2 more will be unlocked on Christmas, and another 2 can be unlocked by referring your friends. I'm really excited about getting Enigmo 2, and I can't wait to start playing! I think Synergy will also be very useful - the addition of global hot keys to iTunes means I will probably be using it much more often. I'm also looking forward to finding out what the other apps are going to be! :D Hop on over to the Mac Giving Tree to get your free gifts too! ;)

Stunning vector images at Designious

In a previous post I linked to sites where you can buy and sell vector images. Those sites have big collections of vector images made by many different artists, but this means that the quality of the illustrations are not always the best. But there are also sites dedicated exclusively to vector images made by one person, team, or company. Designious is one such site, and they have a huge selection of beautiful vectors to choose from.

Designious sells dozens of $15 themed packs with many vector images in each one. The categories include Floral, People, Nature, Buildings, Skulls, Scrolls, Halftones & Grunges, Wings, and more. These packs are also available in Mega Packs and Giga Packs, which are great if you want to buy multiple normal packs, because you can get them for half price! They also have dozens of striking T-shirt designs for $10 each.

If you want to try before you buy, you can go to their free downloads page, where you can find free vector packs, T-shirt designs, icons, and some stunning illustrations.

My favorite floral design is "Floral vector pack 19", which is filled with beautiful vines and flowers! Most of them are meant to be used as abstract silhouettes, but you can still color the vines and flowers separately with a little more work. Just copy and paste your image, and remove the part of the drawing you don't need (for example everything except a flower). Repeat until you have separate images for each part you want to give a separate color to.

I have also tried the "Cartoon girls vector pack", which contains 17 vector images of women in different poses, with different hair and clothes, and of different nationalities. My first thought when I saw them was that they would be perfect to use in personal websites and blog designs! I really love using vectors instead of bitmap images, because it's so much easier to change the colors to my liking. I had great fun changing the colors of their hair, skin, clothes, and even their make-up! Try doing that so easily in Photoshop :P

Users who don't have Illustrator might have some problems with the parts of the images that are colored with gradients - I use VectorDesigner, and some of the girls from this pack were missing clothing or hair! :P Luckily I also have ZeusDraw, and was able to get around this problem by importing the EPS file as a PDF, and then converting the PDF to objects. But if you're lucky enough to have Illustrator, you shouldn't have any problems ;)

Browsing through the Designious vector packs has given me a lot of ideas and inspiration for new designs, and I can't wait to get started! :D

RSS feed not working

Some of you may have noticed that the Bits and Pixels RSS feed is not working right now. I just wanted to let you know that I'm trying to find the problem, and will get it fixed as soon as possible. I think it might be a problem with the desktop blogging client that I bought recently, and which I used to post the last two posts (which coincidentally are the ones that have not been distributed via feed and email subscriptions). I am writing this post from the WordPress dashboard, so if it shows up in my feed I'll know for sure it's the desktop blogging client's fault ;)

If it doesn't show up in the feed, then I really don't know what's wrong, as I've had the feed validated with no problems. In this case I will have to contact Feedburner to see if they know what's wrong, but hopefully I can get it fixed soon. Thanks for your patience!

Update: Okay, I don't think it's a problem with Ecto anymore. I'm pretty sure now that the problem lies with Feedburner. I have posted in their Google group, since I couldn't find a contact form or email address, but hopefully they will respond soon. Does anyone know how to contact them directly?

Cooliris finally available for Safari!

Cooliris, formerly known as PicLens, is finally available again for Safari users! Cooliris is a browser plugin (currently available for Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer) that enables you to browse or search for images and video via a beautiful interface. The results are shown on a 3D wall that you can scroll around on and zoom-in on.

Supported sites include Amazon, YouTube, Flickr, SmugMug, Google, Yahoo, deviantART, Photobucket, Picasa, Facebook, and MySpace. For the full list click here. It is also possible to enable Cooliris on your own website or blog.

I have been waiting a long time for Cooliris to be compatible with the new version of Safari, and now that it has been released I am suitably impressed. The images don't completely load until you click on them, so when you select an image to enlarge it's a bit blurry at first, but the loading time is quite fast - and I have a terrible connection! It also considerably speeds up image browsing and searching, as there's no need to load a new page after every few images, and it only fully loads the images that you are interested in.

To see everything Cooliris can do, just hop over to Cooliris.com, and watch the introductory video. You need to see it in action to fully understand how great it is! ;)

36,000 credits up for grabs!

I'm a sponsor of the EntreBlast Summer Credit Splash contest, so go sign up if you want a chance to win part of the 36,000 credits!

1st Prize - 17,000 ECs
2nd Prize - 10,000 ECs
3rd Prize - 6,000 ECs
4th Prize - 2,000 ECs
5th & 6th Prizes - 500 ECs

Good luck! :D

New direction

Sorry for the lack of updates lately - I've been having some problems with my internet connection.

It made me realize, though, that trying to come up with posts to write all the time is quite stressful, and decreases the fun of having a blog in the first place. I know that everyone says you have to post every day to have a successful blog, but it kind of defeats the object if blogging starts to become a chore.

So I have decided to not stress about it anymore, and just post when I have something interesting or helpful to say. This might mean less posts - although I've always tried to post interesting or helpful things, I won't be actively trying to think them up anymore. So if you don't want to check back often and would rather be notified when I update, you can subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe via email.

Also, I was thinking of focusing a bit more on what this blog was originally going to be for: graphic resources, links, tutorials, downloads etc. for the cheaper Mac graphic programs like Pixelmator, VectorDesigner, ZeusDraw, Drawit, Gimp, and Inkscape.

But I will still post any interesting info I find about blogging, and any other pixelly subjects ;)

Earn $50 for writing just one post!

Did that title get your attention? :P It's true, but there are more reasons to sign up with RevResponse than just the $50. Read on as I tell you about my experience with them.

The offer
I had signed up with RevResponse a long time ago, but I've been so busy lately that I hadn't gotten around to setting up my page (or mini-site) yet. I finally logged into my RevResponse account yesterday to set up my page, and saw that they're offering users $50 in the month of July just to write a post about them! For those of you who don't know what RevResponse is, it's a company that has a wide range of ebooks, whitepapers, software downloads, etc. to offer for free on your site, and you get paid every time someone downloads something.

Help a cause and win a Nintendo Wii or Flip Mino!

The contest & sponsors
Thanks to The University Kid and Market Leverage, you can help raise money for cancer research and win a Nintendo Wii or Flip Mino!

The University Kid is a young entrepreneur blog that I recommend you all check out - it's not one of those "make money online" blogs that try to sell you everything under the sun just to get their cut of the sales. A day or two ago Jason even gave me a tip that would have saved me money and lost him an affiliate sale!

Jason has a straightforward, humorous style of writing that is a pleasure to read, and he's also very helpful. You can also check out his blogging forum, Blog Premiere, and meet a whole lot of great bloggers.

Market Leverage is an affiliate network characterized by their great customer service. The staff is friendly and helpful, with a great sense of humor too! (check out this post)

The cause
Two Market Leverage affiliate managers, Debby Phillips and Jen Fluker, are training for a 60 mile walk to raise money for breast cancer, and have entered the Blogging Idol challenge in an effort to win and collect more money.

How to help
Gaining the most subscribers out of all the Blogging Idol contestants will win them the cash prize, so subscribing to their blog will help and get you entered into the competition. You can also help by spreading the word to help them get more subscribers, by donating money to the cause, or by donating Entrecard credits so they can advertise on more blogs. You could also buy a spot on their Scratchback widget for $5, or display their 125x125 banner on your blog.

Entrecard's next target: Comments for your blog!

First Entrecard formed a Digg community to help Entrecard bloggers get more exposure and traffic to their blogs. Now Entrecard has formed a partnership with SezWho to help increase the amount of quality comments their users receive and submit on other blogs!

I think it's a great initiative - and not only will it help increase quality comments (which I absolutely adore receiving, by the way ;) ), but it should also help reduce the bounce rate that was the only downside to using Entrecard.

I say quality comments because SezWho has a rating system, so if users post spammy comments then they will see their rating fall quickly. I haven't gotten spammy comments on Bits and Pixels, but I know they're a problem on many bigger blogs. SezWho also has an optional filter system that can be used to show only comments with a certain rating, so you can choose to read only the highest quality comments - this is great for blogs that routinely get dozens (or hundreds) of replies on each post.

But the best thing about SezWho is that you can find all comments and blog posts left by other commenters all over the web - so for example if you find someone who writes great posts, you can check what other blogs they have been commenting on, and maybe find more great content!

This will also be a way of getting more traffic: Person A leaves a comment on your blog, then leaves a comment on another blog. Then Person B reads Person A's comment, and decides to check out their other comments. He then finds your blog thanks to Person A's comment!

To read more advantages of using SezWho, see JoeTech's post, and to read all the details of how it works, see Entrecard's announcement post. You can also participate in the contest to earn up to 5000 EC!

WordPress 2.6 released!

WordPress 2.6 has been released, and has some great new options that will increase usability. Check out the video:

I love the new "Press this" feature, and I really hope "Gears" for Safari will be available soon - I need all the help I can get with my slow connection! The word count and image captions will be very useful, and the new image control and drag-and-drop reordering of the galleries will make orgainizing things much easier. The ability to select a range of checkboxes by shift-clicking was a good idea, but unfortunately I noticed that it only works if the checkboxes you select after the first one are below it, and not above it. You can read more about the new features at the official post.

Before upgrading to the new version, be sure to create backups of your posts and database. You can use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, or the WordPress Database Backup plugin if you want to upgrade manually. But be warned - I have used WordPress Automatic Upgrade twice now, and both times it has failed to reactivate my plugins. So before upgrading, also make a list of your activated plugins so that you can quickly reactivate them if WAU fails to do so.

Upgrading to the new version of WordPress will also replace your smilies with the default ones, so if you have replaced them with custom smilies, be ready to reupload them after the upgrade.

To enroll or not to enroll - that is the question!

I'm not sure how it started, but these last few days I've been going from one "make money online" site to another, subscribing to newsletters and downloading a few dozen free ebooks. I've got so many now that I don't know where to start reading them!

I've also found quite a few offers for courses or software to make money online with affiliate marketing and niche stores, and they look so good! But with my recent experiences (that's not the only one, but I'm hoping the other will still work out before I post about it), I'm hesitating to enroll. It's also difficult to find honest reviews on the internet - everyone is promoting the products because they want their cut of affiliate sales!

The thing is, the 2 offers I'm most interested in are both on sales that are going to be ending soon (like in a few hours or less), and while I know many people say that and then don't actually put the prices up, these 2 seem to have a solid reputation, and so will probably keep their word.

I've decided to wait until my parents come home and talk it over with them; after all, if I do decide to go for it, it will be their money I'll be spending! :P And if the offers aren't available anymore by the time they get home, then it just wasn't meant to be.

Either way, I think it's a good idea to learn more about affiliate marketing and niche stores, and I've downloaded a lot of ebooks on these subjects now. If I find any good ones, I'll let you all know! ;)

Choosing a webhost

I chose Dreamhost to host my blogs because a popular site recommended them. Since then I have learnt not to trust people just because they are well-known. If you've read my previous posts or are following me on Twitter, then you know that I've had problems with the loading speed of my blogs, and am looking for a new webhosting company.

I found a very useful site called Web Hosting Geeks, which has reviewed many web hosting companies and lists the best ones and their features in a handy chart. I especially like the fact that they allow customer reviews too -  it satisfies the (relatively new) pessimist in me, that worries that the hosting companies might have payed review sites to give them positive reviews. :P

So before choosing a host for your blog or site, remember to check Web Hosting Geeks before you make your decision. You can never do too much research if you want the best for your blog!

What about you? What hosts have you tried, and how was your experience with them?

Don't be fooled by free "bonuses"

I enjoy reading and listening to self-improvement and motivational books. I particularly enjoy reading and listening to Jim Rohn's books and CDs, and own several of them. One of his DVDs was of a seminar with many other motivational speakers, and I subscribed to several of their newsletters.

Yesterday I received an email from one of these speakers, announcing the release of his latest book. The email also stated that if I bought the book in the next few days, I would get over 20 bonuses! So I went to the website to see what  the bonuses were, and they included ebooks and mp3 recordings of other self-improvement and motivational speakers, all with a "valued at" amount beneath them. Some of these bonuses looked really good, and some were valued at quite high amounts, so even though I wasn't very interested in the guy's new book I decided to buy it anyway for the bonuses.

Bits and Pixels accepted at PayPerPost!

Bits and Pixels has been accepted at PayPerPost, a paid blog reviews site! I've been hearing about all these people who earn a ton of money from their blogs, and I really wanted to start earning some money too so I could help my parents pay the bills.

So I signed up with a few paid-to-post sites, but my blog has not been accepted yet because it either doesn't get enough traffic or it's page rank is too low (Google hasn't assigned me a page rank yet). I also signed up on Social Spark, but my blog wasn't accepted because apparently I had too many sponsored posts, when in fact this post is actually my first sponsored post! I have resubmitted my blog, but they take a while to answer, and so I thought I'd sign up with PayPerPost in the meantime.

PayPerPost is owned by the same company as Social Spark, so I thought I'd have to wait a while for a response from them too, but they actually answered me the very next day! Granted, it was to reject my blog, but it was still an answer :P This time the reason was because my posts are truncated, and advertisers want their posts fully visible on the front page.

Now, I had decided to truncate my posts for three good reasons:

1. To make my blog faster to load. This helps especially when there are images in my posts.
2. So my readers could find posts that interest them faster and more easily.
3. To keep accurate statistics of which posts are the most read. This is also needed for the "Popular Posts" plugin I'm using.

I wrote back to them explaining why I truncate my posts, and asking if it would be okay if I left just the advertisers' posts full-length, and they sent me an email the next day agreeing. So far PayPerPost is the paid-to-post site with the most prompt customer service!

Something else I like about PayPerPost is that advertisers can also specify the tone in which the post must be written (positive, neutral, etc.), so bloggers can choose whether they agree or not. I have often wondered if certain posts I read on other blogs are sponsored, because they sound fake and positive, with no objective comments. This makes me trust the blogger less, so I'm glad I won't have to do that to earn from my blog. If that was the only way then I don't think I'd do it.

However, there aren't many opportunities I can take, because my blog hasn't been assigned a page rank yet. I would also prefer to only take opportunities that my readers would be interested in reading about. Hopefully I will get a page rank soon, and then I can take more offers!

With my first payment, I think I will buy a new domain name so I can start a personal blog - I often have things to post about, but I can't because they have nothing to do with Bits and Pixels! :P

So stick around or subscribe to my RSS feed, and I'll let you know when my new blog is up and running! ;)

Bloggers at risk

Bloggers and other people who use computers all day, whether for work or play, run a risk of injuring themselves or getting headaches. Yesterday I woke up with a terrible migraine - a result, I think, of working too much on the computer.

I often switch on my Mac to check my mail as soon as I wake up, and then start using the computer after I've finished my chores, but sometimes even while I'm eating breakfast. I then use the computer practically all day long - posting on my blogs, gathering info for the posts, dropping Entrecards, entering contests, and looking for ways to earn money. Then there's always making graphics, reading ebooks, and I could go on and on - there's just so much to do!

So yesterday I woke up with this terrible migraine, and any light made it worse - when I switched on the computer the pain immediately spiked up and I even felt nauseous. I tried to bear it because I had to fix up my new blog, but after a few minutes I had to give up and go lie down again.

But headaches are not the only things bloggers are risking - RSI is also a common problem with people who work on computers all day. My uncle even had to get his arms operated, because they had become almost unusable from the pain - he is now slowly starting to regain strength in them.

I bought an application called "MacBreakZ 4" to help prevent RSI - it monitors my keyboard and mouse activity and warns me when I'm putting myself at risk. It also pops up a window periodically with exercises for me to do that should help prevent RSI. The problem is, I often get irritated by it and switch it off! Then after a few hours I start feeling pain in my arms and I switch it on again, but I really have to learn to leave it on all the time and take breaks when it tells me to.

How much time do you spend in front of the computer every day? And do you do anything to prevent yourself from getting headaches, burning eyes, or RSI? Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your answers!

Prizes I won in June 2008

To everyone who never enters contests because they don't think they'll win: if you don't enter, you can be sure you won't win! Since I started my blog I've run across many contests with great prizes, and often the only requirement to enter is subscribing to the blog via email! I haven't won any of the BIG prizes yet, but I have won a ton of Entrecard points and quite a few high quality WordPress themes.

I'd like to send out a big thank you to all the sites that held these contests, and to all the sponsors that donated the prizes! Here's what I've won since about the beginning of June, when I started entering these contests:

• PhotoshopStar contest
  Blog Perfume - Blubs theme
• Entreblast - 554 EC
• BloggerJesse - 2050 EC
• WPThemeDesigner contest
  WPelements - TV.Elements theme
• Blog Premiere contest
  PowerTheme - MagPress theme
  PremiumThemes - Ecstasy theme
• Rockfuse - 3100 EC

Thanks to all of you, I really appreciate the prizes! As you can see, I'm using the Blubs theme on Bits and Pixels, and I'll be using the two themes I won in the Blog Premiere contest on blogs I'll be opening soon (subscribe to my RSS feed to stay updated!). The TV.Elements theme, on the other hand, will have to wait a while before I can use it - I have some great ideas for a video blog, but I'll need a camcorder first! :P

The Entrecard credits will also be very useful for promoting Bits and Pixels and my other new blogs once they're up and running. I have also donated 1000 EC to Entreblast's "Summer Credit Splash" contest that will be starting soon, with at least 20,000 EC up for grabs!

What you don't know can hurt you

A couple of weeks ago I clicked a link to a blog post that was announcing a contest with some absolutely fantastic prizes - and almost hit the back button! The reason? The content of the post was written in huge, red writing - even bigger than the title of the post! Not only was it ugly, but to read the whole post you had to scroll and scroll and keep on scrolling down the page.

It was reminiscent of those pages you find all over the net trying to sell you the secret to becoming a millionaire, and my first impression was that the blogger either didn't know what he was doing, or that his blog was a scam. The only reason I stopped myself from immediately leaving the site was because I had read the list of prizes on the referring blog, and I had nothing to lose by entering the contest.

So I subscribed to his blog to enter the contest, and was pleasantly surprised by the posts I received in my inbox. So I went back to his site and looked around, and found it was full of useful info on the blog's subject. This guy obviously knew his stuff, so why the horrible design? Couldn't he see how bad it was?

A few days later I was checking the contest post again to find out how many entries everyone else had, but this time in Firefox - I  have no idea what made me use Firefox that day, as I greatly prefer Safari. And surprise surprise, the text was now black and the usual size! It turns out that there was an error in the code of his theme, just a </h2> after the post title instead of </h1>. The page was a mess in Safari, but the blogger didn't know it because he hadn't tested his blog in different browsers. I don't know how long he had that layout, but he probably lost a whole lot of potential readers because of that one little mistake.

So the moral of the story is, always check your websites in as many browsers as you can - and if you can't check them in the browsers like Internet Explorer or Safari because you don't have the right operating system, then use an online service like BrowserShots, which will show you a screenshot of what your site looks like in the different browsers. Remember to check not only your homepage, but your other pages and individual posts as well.

Laptops shock barefoot users

The other day I was typing on my MacBook Pro when suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my wrist. I got a huge fright, but I didn't know what it was so I just carried on typing. Then it happened again, and when I cautiously touched the casing of my Mac with my hand, I felt an uncomfortable tingle.

I did a search on Google to find out why my Mac was suddenly emitting shocks, and found many results not only for MacBooks but other laptops as well. They were all complaining about getting shocked while their laptops were charging - apparently it's a common problem with the grounding, and can be fixed by using a grounded plug.

But I was only getting shocked when my MacBook wasn't charging. I wondered what I was doing that day that was different from every other day I had used my Mac and never got shocked, and then I realized it - I was barefoot! Sure enough, if I lift my feet off the ground and touch my Mac I don't get shocked, and if I put them down again - zap! Click here to read a forum thread in which this problem is discussed.

I bought my Mac in the winter and have been wearing shoes all the time, so I only noticed the shocks now that it's summer and I go barefoot around the house. My Mac could have had this problem since the beginning :(

Does anyone else have the same problem?

P.S. If you're wondering why my little vetor portrait is a bit on the grey side, that's supposed to be ash from the "electrocution" :P

The Dream Job

Oh my gosh people! Check out this video:

A bunch of great prizes for bloggers

Blog Premiere is giving away a whole bunch of very useful prizes for bloggers! Check out these fantastic prizes:

Breaking it up - making your posts easier to read

Two days ago I wrote a post about earning money by video blogging. I enjoyed writing it, but when I was finished I looked at it and realized that if I was a reader browsing my blog, I wouldn't even read it. Why? Because it was just a long page of uninterrupted text, and it didn't encourage me to read it at all. I had of course divided it into paragraphs, but the spaces between them seemed hardly bigger than the usual spaces between lines.

So I thought, "What could I do to make this look better?" First I inserted subheadings to divide the text up a bit more so that it didn't seem so long to read. It already looked better, but there was still a lot of text to read, and there was nothing that would immediately grab the readers' attention and induce them to read the post. So I found an image relevant to the article and inserted it into my post. I was even lucky enough to find an image in a color that matched my layout! :P

With just these 2 modifications, the article already looked so much better! On the left is a screenshot of how the article looked before I divided it up, and on the right is a screenshot of how it looked afterwards. It would have looked even better if I had added another image further down.

Always make sure your posts look good enough that you would read them if they were on someone else's blog ;)

Win premium WordPress themes at WPThemeDesigner

WPThemeDesigner is giving away 30 premium WordPress themes in a contest ending on June 30. Among the themes they're giving away is "Blubs", my new theme that I won from another competition a few weeks ago! I'm hoping to win a theme for one of my soon-to-be opened blogs :doeeyes: See under the cut for a complete list of included themes.

Earn money by video blogging + win a Creative Vado camera

The contest
Click Consultants and The University Kid are giving away a Creative Vado video camera, perfect for video blogging! What I love about this camera is that it has a rechargeable battery, which is also removable so you can swap it for a fully charged one when it runs out. This is exactly what I was looking for after my disastrous experience with my old HP photo camera that would switch off after 10 seconds on fresh AA batteries. Seriously, it was that bad! :mad:

Why videos?
Personally I prefer reading written posts because of the terrible internet connection we have in our area, and since I read quite fast it's usually quicker for me to read a post than to wait for a video to load. On the other hand, the majority of internet users have a fast connection and so this is not a problem for them - viewing videos is much quicker and more entertaining than reading plain boring old text. Also, have you ever written about something you saw or experienced and found that words just cannot describe it adequately? Using videos solves this problem - your audience sees exactly what you see. Another advantage is that it's much quicker to record a video than to type your whole post out, especially if you're like me and still haven't learnt to type properly! Right now I'm typing with four fingers plus my thumbs for the spacebar :blush:

Where to buy and sell vector illustrations

You probably know that there are sites in which you can buy and sell stock photos, but did you know there are also sites in which you can buy and sell vector illustrations? There aren't as many as the stock photo sites, but there are still a lot of great illustrations available.

Site announcement: changing layout

Over the next day or two I'll be changing my layout and moving things around, so please excuse any glitches, color clashes, or other random funny business that might ensue - I will get everything fixed as soon as possible ;)

Must-have filters and plugins for graphic applications

Here is a list of great filters and Color Picker plugins that work in multiple applications, including Pixelmator and VectorDesigner. The essential ones are free, so you can power up your favorite graphic apps without having to spend a cent!

Converting Photoshop .abr brushes to .png using Gimp

Although it's not mentioned anywhere in the documentation, Gimp is able to use Photoshop .abr brushes. This means that we can save the brushes as .png images, which can then be used as brushes in Pixelmator.

PhotoshopStar giveaway

PhotoshopStar is celebrating their 2nd birthday by giving away some great prizes - to enter just leave a comment here!

ZeusDraw review

ZeusDraw is a vector application that I found a few days ago on MacZot. At first glance it didn't seem interesting, but I took the time to watch the demonstration videos and was blown away by the simplicity and intuitiveness of it's brush and color controls. I'm no expert with graphic applications, but brush capabilities are something even I have found sorely lacking in the cheaper (i.e. not made by Adobe) graphic applications for Mac. They all allow you to paint with a brush, but usually the only things you can customize are the size, color, and softness. With ZeusDraw, on the other hand, it's a different story entirely.

ZeusDraw on MacZot

ZeusDraw, a vector drawing application, is on special this weekend at MacZot. At first glance it didn't interest me much, but after watching the videos I was blown away by it's brush and colour controls! Stay tuned for a full review ;)

Interview with VectorDesigner developer Marco Pifferi

Marco Pifferi of TweakerSoft is the developer of VectorDesigner, a vector application for the Mac and winner of the Macworld Best of Show Award in January 2008. In this interview we will find out how VectorDesigner was born, and where it's going in the future.

Coming soon: interview with VectorDesigner developer!

Soon I will be posting an interview with Marco Pifferi, the developer of VectorDesigner.
Subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you don't miss it!

Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman released

It seems today is the day for graphic application releases - earlier today VectorDesigner was updated, and now the much-awaited Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman has been released too! The updates include curves, grids and rulers, a masks palette, a polygonal lasso tool, a more in-depth help file, and many more Automator actions.

The masks palette makes working with selections and masks much easier, and the help file is great for beginners or for finding out the use or shortcuts of a tool. The images illustrating the effects of the filters and other tools are a very useful learning aid, enabling you to see what effects they will have without having to test each one. Unfortunately there aren't previews for the Quartz Composer filters, but I guess we can't have everything ;)

All in all I'm very pleased with Pixelmator Draftsman, and the regular updates give me confidence that Pixelmator will keep improving steadily. Keep up the good work, Pixelmator team!

VectorDesigner updated to version 1.2.0

Today VectorDesigner was updated to version 1.2.0. The core updates are:
- Smart snap on elements, points and intersections
- Export selection
New video tutorials have also been added to their website.

Unfortunately the Path Tips that pop up now every time you put your cursor over a line, point or intersection can get quite annoying and distracting - hopefully they will soon add an option to turn them off.

Update:
The option to disable Path Tips has been added. Thanks Marco for the super-fast addition!

Download: workflows to batch convert Pixelmator brushes

In a previous post I explained how to manually convert .png brushes for use in Pixelmator. After many trials and errors, I was finally able to make an Automator workflow to convert batches of brushes automatically. As Pixelmator doesn’t have the actions I needed in Automator, I had to use the new “Watch Me Do” feature, so these scripts probably won’t work in Tiger.

I was unable to get Pixelmator to apply the specified actions to each images in a batch, so I got around this by having it repeat the actions multiple times. Unfortunately it will continue repeating these actions the specified number of times even if there are no more images, so I made multiple scripts to enable you to choose the one closest to the number of images to convert: this way you won’t waste too much time waiting for it to finish. Read under the cut for step by step intructions.

How to convert brushes for use in Pixelmator

Most brushes available for download are offered in both the .abr format of Photoshop brushes and in .png format, the latter of which Pixelmator should be able to use. However, if you've ever tried using these brushes in Pixelmator, you know that all you get is a solid block of color. The reason for this is that brushes in Pixelmator need to have a transparent background to work. Unfortunately Pixelmator doesn't yet have the ability to turn white backgrounds transparent - but it does have a "Mask To Alpha" filter, which makes black transparent. We can use this filter to manually convert brushes:

$10 discount on VectorDesigner for Mac

Tweakersoft is offering a $10 discount on VectorDesigner for all ScreenCastsOnline readers, subscribed or not. Just click here to got to the ScreenCastsOnline VectorDesigner page, and follow the link. The offer ends on 23rd May.

MacHeist- 12 apps for $49, plus great prizes to be won!

MacHeist will be selling a new bundle for $49 over the next month, containing 12 of the best applications from their previous Heist bundles. For those of you who missed the previous bundles, this is the perfect chance to get these great apps at a low price! The 12 included applications are:

• Awaken (valued at $12.95)
• Cha-Ching (valued at $40)
• CoverSutra (valued at $14.95)
• DEVONthink Personal (valued at $39.95)
• iClip (valued at $29)
• Overflow (valued at $14.95)
• Wallet (valued at $14.95)
• Writeroom (valued at $24.95)
• Xslimmer (valued at $11.95)
• Enigmo (valued at $19.95)
• Bugdom 2 (valued at $29.95)
• Nanosaur 2 (valued at $24.95)

That's $278.50 worth of Mac software for just $49! Furthermore, there is a referral system which could earn you great prizes, including iPods, iPhones, iMacs, etc. Of course those prizes will probably only be given to people with a great many referrals, but for those with a smaller amount there are also great prizes like VoodooPad (valued at $29.95) up for grabs. If anyone feels like helping me out, my referral URL is https://www.macheist.com/buy/referral/93198 ;)

Free Mac utility apps that make life easier

I thought I'd share a list and short description of Mac utility applications I use that have made my Mac experience a little easier. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments ;)

Pixelmator tutorials

Last updated: 3 June 2008

Pixelmator is a relatively new but very promising image editing application. You can click here to read the Pixelmator user manual, or you can check out the following links to tutorials I have found:

Text & image tutorials

My tutorials:
Converting .png brushes for use in Pixelmator
Converting Photoshop .abr brushes to .png using Gimp
Batch converting brushes for Pixelmator

Wooster's tutorials:
Blueprint and Sketches
Reflection and Gloss
Disco Effect
Using the Color Picker
Using Automator with Pixelmator
Manga Scanlation

Other tutorials:
Abduzeedo.com

Video tutorials

Sebastiaan's tutorials:
Creating a Graduated Neutral Density filter
Removing red eyes
3 ways to sharpen images
Making a realistic drop of water
Creating rounded corners and a reflection
Creating a Badge

Other video tutorials:
JustinSeeley.com
Bernskiold.com
ScreenCastsOnline.com
Expert Village
Smokey's Video Tutorials
Agupoli on YouTube (Spanish)

The sites in the "Other tutorials" and "Other video tutorials" categories have links to their various tutorials on their own sites.

Abduzeedo has tutorials for creating some stunning effects, but unfortunately they are all missing some steps, and the author doesn't seem to answer questions in the comments. You can still learn new things by following the tutorials though, even if you aren't able to exactly replicate the effects.

The video tutorials mostly just walk you through basic features of Pixelmator, but check through them to see if there's anything useful to you.

If anyone knows where to find any other Pixelmator tutorials, please leave a comment! ;)

60 free stock photos from iStockphoto

For those of you who have never heard of iStockphoto, it's a site that sells quality photos, vector illustrations, flash files, and videos for use in websites, advertising, screensavers, etc. If you're a photographer or illustrator, you can sign up and sell your own work too.

While looking for some photos to use in graphics, I found the following links which I thought I'd share with you:

StockLayouts Promo - 10 free photos from a selction of 50

HP Promo - 10 free photos from a selction of 50

Scoopt Promo - 30 free photos from a selction of 60

iStockphoto Camera Hunt - Find the 4 hidden logos to get 5 free credits, which can be used to buy anything on iStockphoto

Free Weekly Photo - There's a new free photo every week, and at the bottom of the page are links to the previous 3 free photos

Free Monthly Vector - There's a free vector illustration every month, and at the bottom of the page is a link to the previous month's illustration.