Thursday, November 20, 2008

PDF Creator

Whenever posting documents to the internet (or emailing them) it is always best to use PDFs. Using a PDF ensures that the document will look exactly like you intended it. If you use Word or Excel or something similar, there is always the chance that someone else wont have the same version or same fonts and that the end result will look very different. And, not everyone has the same software programs--Microsoft Office is expensive. But, Adobe Acrobat Reader is free! Also, it is generally more professional to send documents in PDF, such as invoices or proposals.

So, how do you create these PDFs without dishing out all the cash for Adobe Acrobat, the not-so-free version? I have been using the free PDF creator PrimoPDF for some time now. I really like it and it has not given me any problems. It creates great looking PDFs very quickly. It installs a new printer on your computer so that you can create a PDF from any program. But instead of something being printed physically it creates a PDF file that you can save.

Works great and it is free. Two things I value, as is apparent by previous blog posts. :)

Friday, November 7, 2008

Images

Images are very important to the construction of an appealing website. I wrote before about the use of great image software, like GIMP. But, we still need to get those great stock photos to round of a site.

There are some great sites for this, even for free pics. Flickr, for instance, is one of these free picture sites. But not all pictures are available for all purposes. Use Flickr's advanced search to find those that you can use. On the bottom of their search page, you'll see options for creative commons licensed images. You can search multpile sites at once using everystockphoto.com. Or, if you want the easy and high-quality route and are willing to pay a small fee, check out iStockphoto.