Archive for February, 2010
50 Frightening (But Inspiring) Digital Illustrations Of Dragons
This would be one of the most stunning ferocious post on our website that demonstrates the charm of imaginative and furious creature i.e. Dragon which are basically the imaginary creatures of fairy tale and fantasy books. Although they are the fabled creatures, but still have created the unexplained magic of their own and this is the reason why designers from around the globe have created their own interpretation of such an amazing creature. So here we are presenting 50 amazing Dragon Illustration Artworks to let you boost your imagination and creativity. I am very much sure that you’ll like it and learn how to perceive your own image of these feared monsters. Just have a look at them.
You are welcome if you want to share more digital arts and illustrations that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.
Dragon prince cover by Nebezial
Golden Dragon by Venator-Somniorum
Dragon Mountains by Higherdepths
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by kerembeyit
Far in the direction by EastMonkey
Dragon of Ice-Fire by Bobbie-the-Jean
A Dragon Awakens by chrisscalf
Dragon Reign Wall Paper by JonHodgson
Dark dragon lord by VampirePrincess007
DRAGON: To Soar the Skies by TheGuardianDragon
dragon version 2 by el-grimlock
Steampunk Dragon by Kerembeyit
Dragon Mountains by Higherdepths
Waiting for snow to fall by ShadowUmbre
DRACONIS INFERNVS by deligaris
The Final Challenge by Adonihs
Photofont WebReady: A Revolutionary Font Converter
Photofont WebReady is a revolutionary technology for website typography. Fontlab’s Photofont WebReady can be called a font converter meant for Windows and Mac OS X systems, which can help you customize the fonts on a web page. Since the main technology lies in the conversion of texts into Flash objects, this technology can be best applied to comparatively shorter texts. Like headlines, just as has been done with the title heading above. Be it your blog or a web site, you can enhance the web pages with your own custom fonts of your choice.
WebReady is basically a software solution based on Flash and JavaScript. With this sIFR 2 compatible solution, you can customize the headings or main headlines of your website using any photofont, any TrueType or OpenType font by converting it into an embedded type web font. (See our headline? That’s not your usual Times or Georgia. Can you guess the font?) This embedded type web font is further rendered on the web page by using Flash technology. And the best part of it is that the standards compliance and search engine friendly feature of the page is still retained. With Photofont WebReady, you can simply change the typographic appearance of your blog or website and give it a new direction.
Main Benefits of Photofont WebReady
Following are some of the major benefits of using Photofont WebReady over the traditional fonts available. There’s a free video demo tutorial offered by the company to help you know its features in depth. Click here to view the Free Demo Video Tutorial.
- Featured with a simple wizard interface that guides the user through simple step-by-step processes, which is easy to understand.
- On your website or blog the use of new, interesting fonts can bring in dramatic change by increasing the attraction of the web page.
- The use of custom fonts can also help you give a corporate branding to your website or blog on the web, which is very important.
- If typographic effects are applied to create headlines and the results are saved as a PNG or GIF, these in many cases are not visible to search engines. You can’t copy/paste that text either. However, the web fonts created by WebReady are search-engine friendly and compliant with the standards. They are SEO visible like other HTML text. Try selecting/copying/pasting part of our headline above. You can’t do that with a bitmap!
- The web font text created by WebReady is independent of browser used and is always visible to search engines and is search-able too.
- Using photofonts you can display text with multiple colors and transparency. A translucent headline could overlay your logo or masthead. Or you could have a rainbow font. Or both! See photofont.com for some examples.
- Visitors to your website using older browsers that do not support Flash or JavaScript are also capable of viewing the text, but in the web font that is mentioned in the CSS stylesheet and considered as default.
Photofont WebReady Solutions
Using the Photofont WebReady font converter, a TrueType font (.ttf), a photofont (.phf) or an OpenType font (.ttf, .otf) has the following possibilities;
- Convert into an embedded type web photofont, which is a Flash object that is bitmap based and can be consistently used in any website. The text is rendered dynamically in the typeface of your choice, while maintaining the compliant standards and searchability of the page.
- Convert into a Simple photofont web headline, which is a Flash object that is bitmap based and static in nature. In this case, the text that has been specified during the conversion is displayed.
- Converted into a plain bitmap image, where the text that has been specified during the conversion is displayed
Photofont WebReady Formats
The Import font formats of Photofont WebReady include;
- OpenType PS (.otf)
- OpenType TT/TrueType (.ttf) and
- Photofont (.phf)
The Export font formats of Photofont WebReady include;
- Embedded Web Outline Font (Adobe Flash .swf, CSS, JavaScript and optionally HTML)
- Embedded Web Photofont (Adobe Flash .swf, CSS, JavaScript and optionally HTML)
- Simple Outline Web Headline (Adobe Flash .swf)
- Simple Photofont Web Headline (Adobe Flash .swf)
- Plain Bitmap Image (PNG, JPEG, TIF, BMP) and
- It is capable of modifying HTML documents too, but that is optional
However, please note that before going ahead with the conversion of any type of fonts into embedded web outline type, you must read the terms of the font End-User License Agreement (EULA) provided by the font vendor. This is only because EULA is actually responsible for governing font usage. To know more about it, please check out with Details About Font Licensing.
Software Requirements
For Windows version of Photofont WebReady, your system must have the following minimum software requirement;
- Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or Win7
For Mac version of Photofont WebReady, your system must have the following minimum software requirements;
- Mac OS X 10.4 or higher version recommended
- PowerPC or Intel
To help the users with the entire process and details, a free copy of user manual is provided online for both Mac and Windows versions of Photofont WebReady. To get the user manual downloaded into your system, all you need to do is right click on the following link and choose any of the options between – “Download Linked File” and “Save Target As”. And you get a free copy of user manual in PDF format saved in your system. To get a copy, click Download Photofont WebReady User Manual for Mac and Windows Version.
Purchase Photofont WebReady 1.0
The Mac OS X version of Photofont WebReady 1.0 is available at $79.95 USD, but there is always a demo version available, which can be downloaded for free. It is indeed a great offer where you can actually get a chance to evaluate the software before purchasing it.
Download Demo Version of Photofont WebReady 1.0 for Mac OS X
The Windows version of Photofont WebReady 1.0 is also $79.95 USD, and there is also a free demo version available where you can evaluate the software before purchasing it.
Download Demo Version of Photofont WebReady 1.0 for Windows
Limitations
If you want to create dynamic web headlines using the demo mode, the font selected by you will not be used. Rather, a default font will be used in this case, which can be considered as the only noticeable limitation of it. To get full functionality access, you have to buy the product and enter the serial number that will be provided to you.
Service And Support
- Fontlab Ltd. provides free technical support to all its registered users. However, for exceptional cases like if the Serial Number or Installers are lost, a nominal service fee is charged.
- At the first instance, it is advised to check the free user manual provided online in PDF format that can also be downloaded, before contacting the support team.
- There are also online FAQs for instant help to the users. For any immediate technical inquiries, users can always check with the Frequently Asked Questions. Furthermore, if the answer to your problem is not listed in the FAQs, you can contact the support team by filling a simple Problem Report Form.
- If you have any technical as well as non-technical queries prior to purchase,
you can directly join the Online Forum
of Fontlab or contact directly.
Breathtaking Masterpieces Of Creative Photography
Today, we are showing you another great collection of Breathtaking Masterpieces Of Creative Photography. I appreciate to all those talented photographers who taken these excellent photos with their efforts, imaginations and creativity to give us a chance to see these photographic wonders from their creative eyes. This list is not long in numbers but I promise you that when you start browsing them in details it will surely refresh you. These are the wonder creations of photographers who use their creativity with a different angle and approach to get the result that makes a difference.
You are welcome if you want to share more creative photographs and images that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.
A Love For The Arts by Delacorr
Stairways to Heaven by Anton Chekalin
Bright side of life by Lidija Zizic
Love Hate Relationship by Delacorr
Window to the Soul by Stephen Poff
Why You Should Have A vCard And Examples Of Personal vCards To Inspire You
Some of you may actually be wondering what a ‘vCard’ is. It is an increasingly popular ‘mini’ one-page website that basically acts as an online business card; an online hub focusing completely on you. I say a vCard is one-page, but in actual fact that’s not entirely true. A lot of these modern virtual business cards use jQuery effects, allowing you to automatically scroll to the rest of the cards content which is usually hidden from the human eye. So, a hub, eh? There are actually several good reasons why you should have a vCard website.
You are welcome if you want to share more vCard website or templates that our readers/viewers may like.Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well.
Why You Should Have A vCard
1. Use it to fill your personal domain.
A lot of individuals and freelancers have personal domains such as ‘firstnamesurname.com’ as a main domain name for there hosting package. These domains are quite often unused and are generally left using a blank index HTML page. Why not fill the empty space with a vCard?
2. Never run out of business cards again!
Ever met somebody who you’d like to give your business card to but then realize you don’t have any with you when you open up your wallet? A vCard is the perfect solution! It can be accessed from any internet-connected computer or even a mobile phone with an Edge or 3G connection – and lets face it, a lot of people have this luxury now.
3. A great way to talk about yourself.
They’re a great way for people to find out more about a person – what they do for a living, their hobbies, or even their pets’ name. A vCard can be as personal as you want it to be and are quite often used to replace huge “about me” sections on blogs and portfolios.
4. Use it as a hub for your networks.
It’s somewhere people can go to find you on various social networking websites and profiles across the world wide web. Searching Twitter, Facebook and Flickr for a user can sometimes be a painful task – so long as you know their name you’ll easily be able to find their vCard!
5. They’re quick, simple and affordable!
Last but not least, vCards are modern, stylish and reasonably quick to make. If you don’t have the time or skillset to make your own, there is an expanding selection of premium vCards available to purchase from less than $10.
vCard Examples
Now you know what a vCard is and just a few of the many reasons why you can benefit from having one, here are a few great examples of personal vCards.
Rogie King
vCards give you the opportunity to experiment with textures and patterns you wouldn’t normally get to use as backgrounds on full sites.
Salya Howald
Use your vCard to illustrate who you are and let others find out about your personality. Use your favorite colors, patterns and include a photo of yourself.
Samrat Mazumdar
Samrat Mazumdar clearly loves Post-It notes and uses them in his vCard design. There’s no end of designs you can come up with.
Guy Lewin
Guy Lewin is a Mac OS X user, and likes the interface so much he decided to replicate it in his own vCard design.
The Rat House
Rendian Therianto uses elegant minimalism with a noisy background to create the perfect contrast between simplicity and grunge.
Ali Bahsisoglu
The iPhone has turned up all over the web since its first release. However, this is one of the best uses I have seen for it on the net.
Eugen Busoiu
Eugen Busoiu possibly has the most simple vCard in this short showcase, using subtle gradients and shadows to make it come to life.
Lee Norris
Lee Norris uses a sleek jQuery sliding Asian-style vCard, putting across his personality very well.
Nico Kaiser
Another simple, elegant vCard, purely grayscale other than the typography based logo.
Maykel Loomans
You can use your vCard to show off some of your favorite work, such as using a piece of photography in the background.
Craig Wilson
…Or even one of your favorite sketches/illustrations such as Craig Wilson does in his vCard.
Benjamin Reid
Benjamin Reid shares some his out-of-work life with the public, revealing that he is a musician as well as a web designer and developer.
Free vCard Templates
As vCards are just finding their way in to the deep depths of the world wide web, the amount of free vCard templates available are limited. However, there are a few great ones!
Free vCard Template – View Demo
Features: Social Media links, Email link, Twitter Feed. Download!
The Digital Business Card WordPress Theme – View Demo
Features: WordPress Theme, jQuery Sliding, Social Media links, URL and Email Links. Download!
MiniCard Theme for WordPress – View Demo
Features: WordPress Theme, Ajax Loading of Navigation Links, Built in h/vCard Support, About Me section, Social Media Links and Portfolio. Download!
CSS/Ajax vCard Template – View Demo
Features: CSS and Ajax Features, About section, Portfolio section, Services/Page section, Contact Form. Download!
Premium vCard Templates
There is a growing amount of premium vCard templates you can purchase and download, all at a very reasonable and affordable price. Here is a great a selection…
Plasma Card – $11 – View Demo
Features: Ajax Contact Form, jQuery Lightbox and Fade Effects, Social Media Links. Download!
The Virtual Business Card – $10 – View Demo
Features: Ajax Contact Form (with validation), Gallery, Social Media Links, jQuery Animations, Google Map Integration. Download!
Introducto – $10 – View Demo
Features: 5 Colors, jQuery Lightbox, Scroller and Slider. jQuery Social Media link animations, Contact Form. Download!
vCard Site Template – $14 – View Demo
Features: jQuery Animations, Contact Form, Mini Portfolio, Social Media links. Download!
Strokes! Personal Website Template – $10 – View Demo
Features: Single Page (does not require page refresh), Social Media links, jQuery Animations. Download!
Pixel Portfolio – $10 – View Demo
Features: jQuery Powered, Social Media links, Mini Portfolio, Contact Form. Download!
DotMe – $12 – View Demo
Features: 3 Themes, Mini Portfolio, Social Media links, Contact Form. Download!
Professional vCard – $12 – View Demo
Features: 2 Styles, Navigation Left or Right, jQuery Sliders, Tooltips, Lightbox and Animations, Contact Form (with validation), Google Map Integration. Download!
Card Portfolio Template – $10 – View Demo
Features: jQuery Lightbox and Animation, Social Media links, Contact Form. Download!
vCard Professional Portfolio – $17 – View Demo
Features: 6 Backgrounds, jQuery Tooltips and FancyBox (Lightbox), Flickr Integration, Social Media links. Download!
vCard Professional Template – $10 – View Demo
Features: 8 Colors Variations, jQuery Animations and Lightbox, CSS Liquid Menu, Social Media links. Download!
Fancy vCard Theme – $9 – View Demo
Features: 2 Scrolling Effects, jQuery Tooltip and Lightbox, Social Media links. Download!
Slick vCard – $9 – View Demo
Features: jQuery Powered, Highly Customizable, Mini Portfolio, Social Media links, Contact Form. Download!
So Simple vCard – $12 – View Demo
Features: Mini Portfolio, jQuery Lightbox and Interactive Animations, Social Media links. Download!
45 Best Places You May Visit To Get Or Create Free 3D Models
3D models are being in used in a wide variety of industries with great popularity and fame. 3D Models are basically the representation of 3 Dimensional objects by using a compilation of points in 3D space and associated by different geometric entities. Free 3D models have been in use primarily because they can save your budget and deadline. So, keeping this in mind, we decided to prepare a post about some astonishing 3D models and open source 3D modeling applications for that we crawled into internet for several hours and compiled this for you. Just drop us a line here and tell us which one you like most. You can download these Free 3D models but keep in mind that some of them have limited rights. So it is always better to first check out the rights before using them for commercial purposes.
You are welcome if you want to share more free 3D model websites that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.
Free 3D Model Websites
Free 3D Modeling Applications
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite.
K-3D is free-as-in-freedom 3D modeling and animation software. It features a plugin-oriented procedural engine for all of its content, making K-3D a very versatile and powerful package.
Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. Many of its capabilities rival those found in commercial programs. Highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.
TopMod3d is a free, open source, portable, platform independent topological mesh modeling system that allows users to create high genus 2-manifold (watertight) meshes.
Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like.
Seamless3d is open source 3D modeling software free and available for all under the MIT license.
3DPlus is the amazing 3D design software that enables you to create stunning 3D graphics for your home, school or business – no experience required!
Blink 3D is an authoring tool for creating 3D environments. The 3D environments are immersive, just like today’s modern games and can be viewed using the a Blink 3D Viewer on the Web or locally.
FreeCAD is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. It is suitable for anyone interested in learning 3D CAD and Motion Simulation for free before using more sophisticated packages.
The complete freeware DesignWorkshop Lite software package provides all you need to build your own 3D models for home design and visualization of architecture, landscapes, exhibits, or any kind of spatial design. With DesignWorkshop Lite you can view and walk-through ready-made models of any size, like the free 3D building models in the Great Buildings Online, in DXF, DesignWorkshop, or 3DMF format, with amazing live 3D speed.
trueSpace7.6 is a fully-featured 3D authoring package that will let you model, texture, light, animate and render 3D content. As well as traditional images and movies, you can also make 3D content for online shared spaces, and for Virtual Earth.
3DVIA allows you to find, upload & create your 3D models and content online. Join the 3D community and share your creations today!
Rush Now To Enter In Logo Redesign Contest For Smashing Apps And Get A Chance To Win $200
Now a days we are in the process of our makeover with more stunning features, robust content and creative design. So we are starting this process with logo design. For this reason we would appreciate the involvement of the community who loves Smashing Apps and we were in the search of better ways to get this event successful. Now we have found cullogo.com that is involved in bringing designers and companies together so they can look for a number of alternate options for their upcoming design projects.
With cullogo, designers and companies discover opportunities they can easily interact on the “identity” project with the platform made ready by Cullogo. The process at Cullogo is really simple. You post a project and determine how much you want to pay as reward. Their community of designers then gets to work and submit their design proposals. You can then choose whose idea best suits your needs. Here is our logo redesign contest page at cullogo or click here to see the logo gallery for checking out the logos submitted so far. The contest was started on February 19, 2010 and will end on March 4, 2010.
Our Target Audience: Our target audience can be categorized as designers, developers, tech gurus, IT beginners, programmers, photographers, creative artists and people related to these technology professions.
Our Requirements: Actually we have no specific requirements but we would like our new logo meet all the design standards and should be a competitive business identity for Smashing Apps. It may be sleek, it may be bright, it may be colorful, it may be single color, it may be elegant, it may be corporate-style or it may be of any other type but it should be attractive and eye-catching with symbolic identity.
If we are unlucky to select a satisfied logo to become the official identity of Smashing Apps, we still won’t discourage the designers and will select and appreciate the winner at Cullogo with the promised reward. Moreover, we’ll also publish top 10 proposed logos at Smashing Apps as reward for those who couldn’t win the contest but participated with their creative ideas and efforts.
Important Update : This contest is just to involve our community for making Smashing Apps better and everybody is free to decide whether he/she wants to participate or not. Your logo will be your property and we will never use any OR all logos without owner permission. Our decision will be final for selecting official logo of Smashing Apps. In either way, winner will be rewarded with $200 and we will feature Top 10 designs in our opinion with credits to original designer.
35 Truly Stunning Examples of HDR Photography
High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. Today, we are showing you 35 Truly Stunning Examples of HDR Photography. I appreciate to all those talented photographers who captured these excellent pictures with their efforts, imaginations and creativity to give us a chance to see these creative wonders from their creative eyes. This list is not long in numbers but I promise you that when you start browsing them in details it will surely refresh you. These are the wonder creations of photographer who used their creativity with a different angle and approach to get the result that makes a difference.
You are welcome if you want to share more beautiful examples of HDR Photography arts that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well. Click on the images to go from where the images has been taken and learn more about their creators and to appreciate them.
Shellon groyne, Dawlish Warren by soco
London City Hall and Tower Bridge by martinsoler
Jetty HDR Photo by Ricketty Jetty
Downtown Los Angeles Night HDR
The Storm at Granite Park by triarch23
Reflected Beacon by *wreck-photography
Beirut Downtown 3 – HDR by =Ageel
Modern Art Museum – Fort Worth, TX (2) by triarch23
Knocking On Forbidden Doors by `werol
Capital Christmas by abodsford
Countisbury, North Devon, England by mattcollins
Intercontinental by *mysterious-one
Christ Church Cathedral (HDR) by T.Morris
Helsinki. Railway Station. by #Cityscapes-Club
Auckland SkyTower – 1. by #Cityscapes-Club
Happy 99th Birthday Hawthorne2 by =niel4
Old House at a Lake in Winter 2010 by ruhri
Like a small Paris by =ScorpionEntity
Aurora Harbor in the snow by lincolnfarabee
Haytor on Dartmoor by the-hdr-gibbon
St Andrews – Ruins 1 – HDR by =violetsteel
7 Operating Systems You Probably Never Heard Of
This is one of the very best list of its kind where you can find out of the box operating systems that you probably never heard of and these would be great enough to bookmark or just for knowledge. I hope everyone of you will like this list, you can try these whether you are an office worker, a manager, a supervisor, a student, a home user, etc.These are really amazing in respect to their features. This is the list of 7 Operating Systems You Probably Never Heard Of. Just take a look at them and share your thought’s here.
You are welcome if you want to share more unknown operating systems that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter , follow us on Google Buzz and do not forget to become our fan on facebook as well.
Slax is a modern, portable, small and fast Linux operating system with a modular approach and outstanding design. Despite its small size, Slax provides a wide collection of pre-installed software for daily use, including a well organized graphical user interface and useful recovery tools for system administrators.
openSUSE is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server. You can surf the web, manage your e-mails and photos, do office work, play videos or music and have a lot of fun. It includes new versions of GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, the Linux kernel, and many more updates and improvements. In 11.2 you’ll find more than 1,000 open source desktop applications. openSUSE also includes a full suite of server software and a rich selection of open source development tools.
ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows-NT® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture. In short, ReactOS is designed to be powerful and lightweight. You can think of the term “lightweight” in the good old fashion of Win95, a consistent user interface and small bundle of very common and useful tools. Although lightweight, ReactOS offers a lot in comparison to Windows 95, with an up-to-date experience as well as built from scratch on a rock solid NT core.
MonaOS is a free operating system. It’s new, small, simple, open source and well structured. So, MonaOS may be suitable for education of operating system and program at school.
FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC compatible systems. FreeDOS is made of up many different, separate programs that act as packages to the overall FreeDOS Project. FreeDOS is distributed under the GNU GPL.
MINIX 3 is a new open-source operating system designed to be highly reliable, flexible, and secure. It is loosely based somewhat on previous versions of MINIX, but is fundamentally different in many key ways. MINIX 1 and 2 were intended as teaching tools; MINIX 3 adds the new goal of being usable as a serious system on resource-limited and embedded computers and for applications requiring high reliability.
Haiku is an open source operating system currently in development that specifically targets personal computing. Inspired by the Be Operating System, Haiku aims to become a fast, efficient, simple to use, easy to learn and yet very powerful system for computer users of all levels.
Why designers ought to flag 123RF.com
Multitasking is the way of the web. Why do you think a spider needs eight legs? Savvy designers these days look for sites with great content for their projects, and which allows them to interact with fellow peers from around the world, gain recognition plus earn rewards – all these at one go. Oh, and the catch is… it has to be hassle-free. Crazy? You betcha!
Most would already have a list of sites up their sleeves which they would regularly fall back on. But, if you’re feeling short of a couple of aces in your card deck… then, it’s worth a flick in the wrist to check this site out. You’ll find that this is a site that should be right up your alley as it represents excellent value as a Royalty Free image library – for not only does it save you money, it also offers money-making opportunities for the creative among us.
When the going gets tough…
The after-effects of the 2009 worldwide economic downturn is projected to take a longer time to recover. But budget crunch shouldn’t be reason enough for designers to cramp their style. In fact, the opposite ought to happen and that’s why go-getters dig 123RF.com. There, members play multiple roles i.e. buyer, seller, student, mentor.
123RF.com constantly upgrades itself to facilitate its community, but I’d grouped them into three main areas where members can generally benefit from:
1: Image Search & Purchasing Options
(a) Industrial wide analysis have shown that 123RF.com is indeed the cheapest stock image library in the market now in terms of the credits or subscription packages it offers.
(b) Its library is a reservoir of visual/vector designs for the picking – Be it choices for creative advertisements, marketing collaterals, website designs, blogging, editorial articles, etc. Plus, choices come with extended licensing options to suit the usage.
(c) Contents are contributed by professional photographers, and undergo a stage of strict Quality Control by 123RF’s content team. So the benchmark for quality is pretty high.
(d) FREE images are offered by fellow contributors and will appear for as long as 30 days for registered members to download from when they log-in.
(e) Members can view their own profile to see their downloads, credit balance, and reward points when they sign in. It also has a nifty credits calculator which helps members decide which plan suit their budget best i.e. either credits or subscription packages, depending on their needs.
(f) What sets 123RF.com apart from the rest is that they reward loyal customers for repeated purchases with shopping vouchers and gadgets – even extra credits or subscription packages.
(g) Members are able to safely purchase images online with ease via credit card, Paypal or Moneybookers.
2: Easy access to a large, and interactive network of creative resource
(a) Fellow members are instantly launched into a worldwide network of peers who speak the same lingo. Each equipped or provided with a wide array interactive tools such as personalized avatars, blog/comment posting areas. It also has a site mail feature which allows other members to contact each other directly in private.
(b) Members are able to publish and share their lightboxes to the public. This makes it easier for peers to review an image or illustration voted most popular within the community. Viewers can also rate images by adding the image as their favorite item.
(c) Photographers from all backgrounds are featured through it’s monthly Hear-It! segment on the website. Members are exposed (no pun intended) to respective individual’s comments and experiences about their views on the industry, photography, working traits and style.
(d) Visitors can also enjoy free access to the latest Adobe Photoshop tricks and know-hows from 123RF’s team of Photo Retouching experts in their Tutorial Blog section.
(e) Blogs are published on site each month comprising musings, recommendations, interesting topics for discussion to whet its community’s appetite for information relevant to their trade and industry.
(f) If you’re feeling particularly creative, you may also join the 123RF community as a contributor and submit your own creative designs or photographs to be sold under a Royalty Free or Editorial License. Nothing like earning cash whilst doing something you’re passionate about. Just nip down to the “Make Money” section to find out how you can start referring friends and family to 123RF.com.
3: Additional sales support available
(a) 123RF.com reaches out to its customers via Twitter, Live Chats and phone calls 24 hours daily from Monday through Fridays.
(b) The site also provides FREE image research services when your creative team is running on noose-tight deadlines.
If the above are not reasons enough, the 123RF.com community is more than glad to hear out new members that can bring fresh constructive ideas to the table. Register at 123RF.com here.
*A special deal for Image Buyers: Use promotion code “123RFSmashApps” to receive 10% extra credits or an additional 10% discount on any Subscription Package purchased! Valid till end 2010.
Summarized Facts & Background
123RF.com is an RF stock photo library & community-based website that provides an avenue for the creative community. Its platform provides photographers, illustrators and designers a chance to showcase their photographs, vector illustrations and design talent, allowing the community to promote and sell their creations to a worldwide audience. Since its debut in June 2005, 123RF.com today hosts over 6 million royalty-free stock photographs and vector illustrations with over 10,000 photographers and illustrators.
| Web address | www.123rf.com |
| Approximate size of photo collection | 6.2 million and growing (8,000+ new content added daily) |
| Cost of a standard blog size image | 1 Credit |
| Cost of 1 Credit (basic) | From $0.68 to $1.00 per credit depending on number of credits purchased |
| Loyalty Program | Yes – Get shopping vouchers, gadgets, extra credits or afree subscription as you accumulate Rewards Points with every purchase |
| Licenses | Royalty Free (including Editorial) Extended Licenses:
- Multi seats; - Items for resale - printed items (books, mugs, t-shirts, canvas) - electronic items (mobile apps, software) |
| Payment Methods Supported | Credit Card, Paypal, Moneybookers, Checks & Electronic Transfers |
Now Use ClickMeter For Real-Time Click Tracking Of Your Link
ClickMeter is an essential tool to track results from the small blog to a full-fledged marketing campaign. This is versatile, scalable and easy to use tool to track how many clicks you have got on your external links. You can enjoy reliable real-time statistics over suspect click-fraud activity: filter per campaign; customize fraud-detection parameters and compare results for multiple campaigns in a single chart. The best about this tool that it has absolutely FREE plan with huge list of amazing features.
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Salient Features
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- Social media measurement
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- Link sorting by most clicked, date and alphabetical order
- Link-tracking duplication tool
- Scalable service configuration
- Support via email and telephone
- Video guides
