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Tag Archives: design

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Free online resources for making graphics

The PolyBlog
March 24 2020

I culled a bunch of different sites, but here are the main ones. For most of them, they allow you to upload your own photos or use stock ones, let you add text, some have video options, etc.

To get a feel for them, one of the best ways is to assign yourself a specific sample project. For myself, I have a book challenge that I do every month, and the members want book badges. I have no real skill in doing this. I did my first two months in Powerpoint using existing clipart and the covers of the books we were reading. Kind of cheesy, but hey, they got book badges.

  • spark.adobe.com — Adobe’s free tool, although of course they also try to upsell you on Premium templates. Didn’t thrill me.
  • https://www.canva.com — There’s a pro version, but not needed. This was more of a business card design, but it had potential.
  • https://getstencil.com/ — Simple layouts (text and stock graphics). I’ve seen worse, certainly, and it did give me some ideas.
  • https://www.remove.bg/ — Remove backgrounds, add different ones

This was a totally random try on something. It auto-removes backgrounds from pictures. Gave it a go. I took a photo I pulled from an episode of Continuum in Season 1 that looked like this:

Continuum-Season-1-TVR00009b

One upload and a click or two later, it let me remove the BG and gave me options for a totally different one. Sweet work.

  • https://snappa.com — Like Canva with a bit better interface, designed to add text to stock images. Meh.
202003223-05-snappa

But perhaps that wasn’t a fair test since I’m really looking for something more like a logo than a graphic post.

  • https://www.freelogodesign.org/ — predesigned options, hard to edit
  • https://hatchful.shopify.com — clean tool, decent but limited options, I didn’t try editing it too much to change colours.

There were a long list of other ones that I tried, and it was all free right up until you went to download the logo. At that point, it was $20-$80 but they promised “high-resolution” files. Hmmph.

Most of the sites did well for stock photos and some text, but that is easily done in just about any program, including Powerpoint. Not sure it really added anything for me. The logo makers were nice but ultimately unfulfilling.

Posted in Computers, To Be Updated | Tagged computers, design, logos | Leave a reply

So you want your own website…

The PolyBlog
December 4 2018

Since a lot of friends know I have my own website, it isn’t uncommon to get questions about how they get their own website, dipping their toe in the vast sea of having their own presence online. Usually I frame the discussion around three questions. A. Do you want your own domain? This is almost always a no-brainer for people as they often think in very specific terms and have some domain names in mind. My domain, polywogg.ca, is registered to me and only me. It is the same for every company on the planet that has a site, usually. … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers | Tagged advice, blogger, design, dynamic, static, website, Wix, WordPress | 2 Replies

Version 4.0 of my website

The PolyBlog
July 2 2017

In my last post about the server side of my website (Version 3.3 of my websites: the technical side of things and Version 3.3 of my websites: the software side), I talked about a problem I was having with GreenGeeks that they couldn’t solve. It was a lot more complicated than just one problem, or even their laissez-faire approach to changing settings on my site without telling me, it was more of a governance issue and I finally had to bail on them. I’m still using them for one site that has low traffic, just until the prepaid balance is … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers | Tagged computers, design, hosting, website | Leave a reply

Looking for data visualization tools in all the wrong places…

The PolyBlog
January 9 2017

So I confess that once upon a time, I paid for some of my living expenses through the fact that I knew how to work a computer for things like graphics and formatting. No, seriously, back in the early 90s, it made me stand out from other people, the fact that I knew how to work Lotus 1-2-3, Word and WordPerfect, dBase IV and, drumroll please, Harvard Graphics. At the time, I think it was version 3.0, and while people could do very basic graphs in Lotus, the real trick was to choose a variety of simple graphs in Harvard … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers | Tagged charts, computers, data, design, Excel, software, website, WordPress | Leave a reply

WordPress, missed schedule, and why I don't run my own server

The PolyBlog
January 4 2017

The other night, I was browsing my posts list in my admin panel on the website and noticed something odd — my scheduled post for yesterday morning didn’t actually post. And right next to it in the internal WordPress admin panel was a nice little red warning called “missed schedule”. I had seen this before and thought it was just a glitch, no biggie — just click publish now and it goes live. No problem with the post, it just didn’t go live when it should have. I don’t often schedule future posts when I’m writing detailed posts, although I … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers | Tagged computers, design, error, missed schedule, software, website, WordPress | Leave a reply

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My Latest Posts

  • Deadlines, dominoes, and delaysJanuary 30, 2023
    As most people who have read this blog from time to time already know, I’m big on time management techniques, various options for to-do lists and tracking tasks. I like to set ambitious annual goals, and then monitor them throughout the year. Some years turn out better than others. Whereas many people set resolutions and … Continue reading →
  • Curated: We Need To Talk About Professional Jealousy – Electric LiteratureJanuary 20, 2023
    I occasionally like to share online articles that I like, and you’ll see sporadic posts entitled “Articles I Like” throughout the blog. But honestly, Curated is probably a more accurate title. I recently found an article by Benjamin Schaefer on the website Electric Literature, although I was led there by ThePassiveVoice website. The article is … Continue reading →
  • Schrodinger’s computer purge (part 1 / 3)January 15, 2023
    So, I’m a techno-wannabe-geek with elements of hoarding in my DNA. I find it hard to dispose of working computer parts, long after I’ve outgrown the need for them. Some “saves” are practical and some are not. And like Schrodinger’s cat, my computer purge is both real and theoretical at the same time. A. Network … Continue reading →
  • Some more reading ideas…January 15, 2023
    Chapters/Indigo has their Reading Challenge for the year too. They do it up like a bingo card, but the headings are: I’ll have to go through some of the links to see if there’s anything I want to add to my long list. 🙂
  • 11 years, a gig platform, and a chequeJanuary 13, 2023
    Somewhere in this universe, if life after death exists, my father is rolling over in his grave. Or rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, throwing up his hands…whatever the ghosts do when they see their descendants doing stuff that they think is ridiculous. And it is NOT my father’s fault. Let me be clear. He … Continue reading →

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