Slidepress is just the latest offering from Dominey Design, a web development company in Atlanta. Their main focus- AKA obsession- is Slideshowpro- a quick and easy and versatile Flash-based slideshow application  available as a Flash Component and a standalone xml-driven swf. Plus they offer an web application called Slideshow Director- a database-driven image and video management application for installation on your won web server.

Dominey’s vision is vast- when you purchase any of their products they offer a number of freebie export scripts for Photoshop, various version of iPhoto, a server -side PHP XML Builder, to make the the process of creating the xml file which form the basis of these slideshow applications. They also offer a Lightroom to SlideshowPro Director upload app.

$24 for an Ounce of GOLD

That ounce of GOLD is the standalone SlideshowPro app.

They have managed to create what I consider that absolute best and versatile slideshow plugin for wordpress. Yes, I know, we wordpress people have a tendency to be cheap so the $24 investment might dissuade you BUT you will be missing out in a big way. Not only does Slidepress work with Dominey’s superb image management app SlideshowPro Director, it also works with WordPress’ native Media Library content and RSS feeds from Flicker etc.

Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column

When I first installed the Slidepress plugin I did receive a database error:

Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column ‘navThumbLinkBackgroundColor’ in ‘field list’

I re-installed the plugin, I downloaded the plugin again and manually installed it and deactivated and reactivated and it didn’t resolve itself. so I posted in the SlideshowPro forum. It seems that problem is not wide spread but definitely presenting itself for other users.

A quick google for mySQL error 1054 led me to believe that the plugin was neglecting to create the aforementioned table so, while waiting for answer, I decided to muck about and see if I could learn something.

On a lark, I opened slidepress.php in BBEdit and added   
navNumberLinkColor text NULL ,
to line 229.

The error message changed to:
Database Connection Error! 1054: Unknown column ‘navThumbLinkBackgroundColor’ in ‘field list’

SO I knew I was onto something.
I added
added navThumbLinkBackgroundColor text NULL ,
to line 233

The plugin works flawlessly now. nearest thing I could figure out was that function action_activate()  in slidepress.php is missing a bunch of table names names in the list of tables to create

Great Wiki

The Slidepress plugin is brought to you by the same guys that created the crosdomain creator so it is only right that it is so well-documented. Installation instructions are pretty easy to follow and can be found at
http://slidepress.net/installation.php

Want more installation details?
http://wiki.slideshowpro.net/SSPsa/SP-Installation

time to build a slideshow

At this point I would usually build an illustrated step-by-step tutorial on using this plugin. However, the guys at Dominey beat me to it and, to be honest, I couldn’t possibly do any better.

Find it here.
http://wiki.slideshowpro.net/SSPsa/SP-Usage

UPDATE

Here’s my version of the slidepress.php file for reference. if push comes to shove, you could test your set up by dropping this file in your slidepress folder.

Download SlidePress-php.zip

If you hurry and check out www.macfriendly.org, you can get two truly great deals. First, you can treat yourself to twelve Mac applications that are worthy of your icon bar. Second, you will be pleased to know that the funds you paid support the care and feeding of homeless animals.

First, the applications.

For photo buffs, there are three applications that you’ll enjoy.

• Calico Panorama helps stitch rows, even multi-rows, of images together with ease.
• Bracketeer takes your bracketed digital photos and merges them to form a uniformly lit scene – like HDR without the cartoon-like appearance.
• PhotoStyler is a quick and easy photo enhancer designed for the digital photographer who remembers the “good old days” of film and instant camera photos by providing tools to help your digital images take on an analog feel.

Want to make a video diary?

• The Video Diary helps you get your video captured and organizes it like entries in a diary.
• MovieSherlock can download and convert videos from the popular site YouTube.
• K Kitchen is a video burning and ripping program that converts video and allows you to burn to CD or DVD. And if you want to voiceovers or mastering of audio files, the TwistedWave audio editor is an easy to use program with powerful features.

For type geeks,

• use Veenix TypeBook Creator to take stock of your fonts… print type specimen and sample pages, and organize your fonts.

Ever want to personalize your Mac desktop?

• Berokyo does that and more. Customizable “cabinets” can hold your favorite and most used applications, documents, folders and webpages, and works in keep-visible, full-screen or auto-hide modes.

Email Backup Pro is an automated solution to making scheduled backups to of your email… hands off after setting up the configuration using the simple interface. R10Cipher encrypts email and documents – personal or business. It runs on Mac and, er, other operating systems. And if you wish to partially cross over to the dark side, CrossOver Mac Standard will help you by running Microsoft Windows programs on your Mac.

So, how exactly does this help animals?

Here is a quote from the MacFriendly website: “Your MacFriendly Bundle purchase helps initiate and support feeding programs for homeless animals. Stray and feral animals are fed in order to gain their trust, leading to their eventual rescue. Only when they are comfortable with human contact will their rescue and successful placement in an adoptive home be possible. We provide basic vaccinations, spay/neuter services, collars, and identification tags for stray animals in stable circumstances.”

The total cost? If you add up these applications, you will find them to total about $400. Buy the bundle of joy, and get all these apps for only $49.95. That is a lot of utility and warm, fuzzy feelings for only fifty bucks.

But don’t wait… this offer ends February 26, 2010.

It’s so simple, so brilliant, why didn’t anyone think of this before?

A while back and few version ago, new preacutions were added to Flash player 7: a flash movie playing inside a browser would not be allowed to access data outside the exact domain in which .swf resides. By default, .swf files can’t even read from subdomains, or even parent domains if the swf is located in a subdomain.

With this new security measure,  Macromedia (now Adobe) added the use of the cross domain policy file, a simple xml file that gives permission to a listed domain to grab data without launching a dialog box. This files is normally placed in the root folder of any server that contains files the Flash Player may need to access. Three versions later- I still have to think it out like a Sesame Street kid; 1.) where to install the xml file, and 2.) making sure that all appropriate domains and subdomains are represented.

Slideshowpro.net, developers of my favorite image management server software and flash slideshow component, has built a “dead-simple”  online app:  the crossdomain.xml maker. The directions are clearer than anything you’ll find at Adobe’s knowledge base.

Check out  Adobe’s definition:

A policy file is a simple XML file that gives the Flash Player permission to access data from a given domain without displaying a security dialog. When placed on a server, it tells the Flash Player to allow direct access to data on that server, without prompting the user grant access.

The server can be in any location available to the Flash movie and does not have to be in the same domain. Cross-domain policy files, named crossdomain.xml, are placed at the root level of a server. When using a policy file you can use a wildcard character (*) in a domain name.

vs.

Crossdomain.xml maker’s definition:

If a SWF is embedded at A.com, and tries to load data (XML, RSS, etc) from B.com, the Flash Player (for security) will block the request. B.com can grant A.com access to its data through a cross domain policy file. This utility generates that file.

The instructions on crossdomainmaker.com are even easier to follow.

Trust me.

Since I have already sang their praises,  this is more of an introduction to Crossbrowsertesting.com than a review. Best described as a Browser Compatibility Lab, this online service offers a place to test a website on just about every browser- operating system combination. It offers two types of testing: interactive (to test ajax, javascript, and flash) and screenshots (which verifies layouts across all browsers).

The site offers three (3) pricing plans which all include access to their automated screenshot factories, interactive live testing and 1 hour free trial.  These pricing plans are  distinguished by the alloted monthly usage :

• Basic  150 minutes 19.95/Month (US$)
• Professional  600 minutes 49.95/Month (US$)
• Business 300 minutes 199.95/Month (US$)

One hundred fifty (150) minutes might seem inadequate for a web designer , and it would be, if the service was slow or unreliable. It isn’t. I managed to pull 14 screenshots in less than 10 minutes use (bumbling-around time included) and the website tracks your usage in your account section. This also makes the seeming paltry 1 hour free trial a more generous trial period than expected.

For that reason,  I chose the Basic Plan. It fulfills all of my browser-check needs and I suspect that most web designers would feel the same. Keep in mind that subscriptions are renewed automatically. Since my design work encompasses both print and web work, this might be a bad thing if the company wasn’t so customer-friendly.

When I emailed Kenneth Hamric, one of the founders of Crossbrowsertesting.com, about this, he responded:
“We have a 30 day, money back policy.  If you are not happy, you forgot to cancel, whatever the reason (or no reason at all)… and you ask for your money back, we give it back.  We are not trying to keep money from customers that do not like / want the service.  We like, and want, happy customers!“

I believe him. My recent experience with this company (described here) leads me to believe that  they will do anything to accommodate their customers’ needs, within reason. I doubt they will walk your dog for you.

I would definitely have the need to activate and cancel my subscription at will. Keeping my overhead low makes it possible to charge affordable rates. Last year, during the height of the “great recession”, I was booked solid, double-booked even, from May through November. December was dedicated to finishing some straggling details on projects and planning our holiday. So far, this January, I have booked 1 job and bid on 3 more. I suspect that is the story of most freelancers- the result being that we need flexible plans to accommodate our flexible schedules.

Automated Screenshots

The most straightforward part of the service is the automated screenshots. You check the appearance of your website by taking screenshots of a URL in just about any browser- operating system combination. The added bonus? Easily accessible list of recent screenshot tests. This is especially handy if you are checking more than one url.

Choosing which combinations can be as easy as choosing any of the default options:

• Popular browsers – default : offers 10 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• All browsers :  offers 50 combinations which can be further refined by screen resolutions.
• Select the individual browsers and operating systems

Each option has a monitor resolution option and you can save your preferences for future use. You can organize screenshots by client, grab the link to resulting screenshot for reference, download a zip file of all the screenshots for a particular URL or create a slideshow of the screenshots- all great options when presenting the results to your clients.

Interactive Live Testing

Sometimes static shots are not enough. Interactivity errors are difficult to track if you cannot experience them through various browser/operating system combinations. While the monitor sizes are limited, the combinations are not. The list of combinations are comprehensive enough to instill confidence in the results.

Bookmarklet

One extremely handy amenity is the bookmarklet- simply drag the button marked “DRAG ME” to your toolbar. Visit a webpage that needs checking and clik on the CBT Launcher Button for a dialog box where you can choose either automated screenshots or an interactive live text with a list of options ready to go.

For those much smarter than me, there is also the option of accessing all this data through their API which is documented here.

The company policies are clearly delineated:

• No minimum contracts, signup fees, or cancellation fees.
• You can change packages at any time.
• Free trial limited to 1 hour usage, 1 per person.
• Usage of services is tracked to the second.
• No question asked 30 day refund policy.

I am a fan.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Browser Compatibility Testing Guide: The Best Tools And Services To Check How Others See Your Web Site (masternewmedia.org)
• How to Test Websites in Different/Multiple Resolutions Without Changing the PC Resolution (techie-buzz.com)

After a couple of years of faithfully using Dean’s FCK Editor, we changed over to Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin- mostly because we wanted to take advantage of the new timthumb auto-thumbnailer coding of our new Arthemis Premium theme. (Though if I had read this post by Justin Tadlock, Boy Genius, I would have probably stuck with my Studiopress theme…)

Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin

This plugin adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE, WordPress’ wysiwyg editor- Advanced hr, Advanced Image, Advanced Link, Context Menu, Emotions (Smilies), Full Screen, IESpell, Layer, Media, Nonbreaking, Print, Search and Replace, Style, Table, Visual Characters and XHTML Extras- pluss allows you the flexibility of choosing the layout and options for the post editor tool bar. Another nice things about this plugin is that it can import all css classes or you can choose to add inline css classes (which comes in handy when you want to use other plugins like Javascript Pull Quotes)

-Click on any thumbnail to see a larger image-

One of the drawbacks is the image library management. If you use the Tiny MCE image insert button- it asks for a url. This means that you would still have to use the native wordpress media upload functions. Dean’s FCK Editor could upload and organize your image files in appropriate folders- a great help when your blog is as image heavy as ours.Tiny MCE Advanced Plugin couldn’t match that function.**

Uploads Folder Plugin by Semilogic

The problem of stuffing uploads folders with images and files in some orderly manner was solved by the Uploads Folder Plugin by Semilogic. This plugin organizes your images in folders linked to the post name and publishing date. These folders are created automatically and will be recreated if you change the publishing date. If there are plugins which are squeamish with this new setup, I haven’t found them yet.

Enable Media Replace plugin

I think everyone who publishes articles with a lot of images and illustrations should consider the Enable Media Replace plugin.  It is a great problem solver. In the event that you need to change an image in a post, or many posts that use a particular image, this plugin makes it possible to update the image without having to ftp an image with the same name in the right folder or uploading a new image and inserting it into the post.

**If you are having any issues with TinyMCE adding br/ lines, see this post. If they still appear I suspect the culprit is the use of an image caption. Need a quick fix? Delete the image caption. To follow the discussion, see comments here.

I was looking at a 112mg error log last week and i discovered that almost all of the errors were related to long gone ping services. I was googling to find the lastest working ping list.

It can be most frustrating trying to hunt down a list of current ping services. As of today, these are working.

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.twingly.com/
http://www.bloglines.com/ping
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/

Feel free to add to this list.

Arthemis Premium Wordpress Theme

Some time last fall, i decided that i wanted to change the DigitalAppleJuice theme to Arthemis Premium wp theme by Colorlabs Project. I am still a huge fan of the Revolution- Studiopress themes- all my client themes are based on them including all previous Digitalapplejuice themes. for my clients, i have incorporated an auto thumbnailer code i culled from the web. that autothumbnailer code would not work for digitalapplejuice since we have been using dean’s fck editor plugin- bypassing the built-in wordpress image handler. The process of posting a new article used to be every story has to have an “articleimg” custom field containing the url of the 250×250px image and a “Thumbnail” custom field. I had heard wonderful things about the latest timthumb thumbnailer code which has recently been incorporated into a number of Studiopress themes – Agent and Magazine to name two. a recent install of the agent theme made me realize that i would be trading in 2 custom filed headaches for another one so i began looking for other themes with autothumbnailing capabilities when i ran across the Arthemis Premium wp theme.

The Arthemis’ top featured story section is an impressive alternative to the Featured Content Gallery slideshow  plugin incorporated in the Studiopress themes. The only real question for em was whether the integration of the timthumb code would make the Arthemis theme a viable choice for us. After I found a huge discount offer for the Arthemis Premium last fall,  I decide to make the purchase knowing that, if it didn’t work for DigitalAppleJuice,  I could at the very least use it on a client’s site and re-coup my investment. Then I got booked on 4 projects back to back and testing Arthemis on DigitalAppleJuice was quickly forgotten.  Months later, right after Xmas, I decided to tackle the Arthemis Theme tweaks and install when I realized I had no idea where I had placed the Arthemis Premium Theme zip. I emailed the designer and within hours had a response. I was very happy to find that the Arthemis Premium Theme  was able to render thumbnails and preview images from the first image within a post with very few exceptions. The choice was made.

My quick list of tweaks:

1. Ad Column: 125px ad bar to the right of the main body – normally an easy tweak: 2 additional DIVs and 6 lines in the style sheet. Add a thumbnail for the latest tao and desktop theatre
2. Author’s Page: change code author img
3. Change coding from Adsense to Adbrite.
4. SIngle.php:  widening of the single post to 600px so i wouldn’t have to resize every image in 700+ posts archive. Add tags, add link to author’s profile.
5. Footer.php: replacing the video in the footer gallery with the latest panel of The Tao Of IT Al, resized to fit

time to check the browsers

i have learned so much about CSS in the last year or so, embracing the doubling of margins in certain IE circumstances and tricking DIVs to expand without content. Even so, browser checks are a must.  Way back in 2008 before I knew anything, I wrote about the consequences of a non-conforming web and suggested Browsershots.org and NetRenderer as solid resources. I have been using Browsershots regularly these last 18 months – even signing up for priority service when booked on more than one job a month. So it was only natural that when it came time to check the Arthemis Premium tweaks I should turn to my old standby- Browsershots.org. I spent two days trying to get screenshots for IE 6, 7, 8 on any Windows platform with no joy. I thought I would have better luck if I signed up for priority service (at $29.95/month). Still no joy. I emailed Jack Zhao from Browsershots to ask if there was a problem with the renderers.

In the meantime, knowing that at any time one of my bids could turn into a solid job with a deadline, I googled for an alternative. I found Crossbrowsertesting.com I signed up for Crossbrowsertesting almost immediately as it  looked very attractive at $19.95/month with a 7 day trial. As luck would have it, the system was resistant to my  screenshot requests – implying that i would have to provide a url ending with .html. If .html extensions were required for an URL, then this service would incompatible for any wordpress sites (which are the bulk of my gigs). I cancelled my account and contacted crossbrowsertesting’s support to confirm that this was the case. I received a response from not one but two people- tom and kenneth- within hours.

The Polurnet Blacklist

In a flurry of emails  and checks and tests we determine that the Crossbrowsertesting.com and Browsershots.org  server IPs were blacklisted. Polurnet’s tech support kindly volunteered to remove them from the blacklisted. This was easy enough when it came to Crossbrowsertesting.com but Browsershots.org was unable to provide me with IP addresses since it has more than 100 factories around the world (most in US and Europe) taking screenshots which are then uploaded to a central server. They suggested we change webhost.

My issues with Browsershots were isolated to the Windoze IE renderers but I wasn’t going to push the point. I don’t know how and why these particular screenshot factories ended up on Polurnet’s blacklist. It could have been just a security response triggered by the number of screenshots I requested in such a short time, but I was NOT going to change webhosts.

Polurnet has set the webhost standard for me,  especially since not a single one of my clients hosted on Polurnet was hacked during the great wordpress 2.7 hacking season of 2008. All my clients hosted on Hostgator were infiltrated.

I decided to stick with Polurnet and asked for a refund from Browsershots. It was done immediately. No question asked. Thanks Mr. Zhao.

Customer Service In A Nutshell

crossbrowsertesting.com

• immediate response from support; answered questions quickly, took an honest appraisal of the situation and proposed ideas & solutions
• during discussion of my problem, offered to extend free trial due to issues and offered a refund in the event i was unable to cancel service in time

browsershots.org

• quick response to support request
• refunded fees without argument

polurnet.com

• I love these guys. I could go on and on about what great service Polurnet provides
• quick response to any email request for support
• i have yet had an instance where they told me “not our problem” as so many other web hosts have been known to do.
• not a single one of my clients have been hacked

arthemis wordpress theme

• their integration of timthumb code meant that i didn’t have to do anything to get most of the thumbnails for our articles to work.
• customer service is responsive and the theme is well documented and the forum is available for additional questions.

Disclaimer: Madbadcat and DigitalAppleJuice are in no way associated with Colorlabs Projects, Crossbrowsertesting.com or Browsershots.org, nor have we received consideration for this review. Madbadcat and DigitalAppleJuice are proud to be part of Polurnet’s affiliate marketing program and standby our endorsement of Polurnet.

UPDATE:

I received this note from Polurnet Tech Support offering a solution to issues described in this article:

“By the way, if you needed us to disable the firewall temporarily while you process your screenshots, that’s fine. Also, while Browsershots don’t need to provide the exact IP addresses they use, if they can tell us a range, we can whitelist it as well.

Hope that helps

Regards,
Administrative Representative
PolurNET Communications”

And that is why I love these guys.

I just found a Shareware program that had me reaching for my credit card within fifteen minutes of first downloading it to try out. From mooSoftware.com is TABLETDRAW® a simple drawing program that uses the pressure sensitivity of the various Wacom tablets to allow you to draw freely. It’s a sketching and drawing program with the look of pencil, pen, or felt marker. It runs on Intel-based or PowerPC Macs and requires Mac OS X version 10.4 or later. Sorry, PC users, this one is Mac only.

What makes it different than some other pressure-sensitive drawing programs is

1. cost—it’s only $35.00 US
2. given most modern computers, it will have no trouble staying up with the freely-drawn variations in curving lines.

The MENU BAR has most of the things that you would normally expect, but there are a couple that should be noted. Under the FILE MENU is an EXPORT FOR PHOTOSHOP function that exports an image as a .psd file. Under the MODE menu the increase and decrease pen size do not require a modifier key and are simply “[ "(decrease) and "]” (increase). The VIEW menu allows you to access a COLOR PICKER to pick intermediate colors rather than simply BLACK, RED, BLUE and YELLOW, and the HELP menu has the SHOW KEYS function that brings up a complete listing of the key combinations available. I include the SHOW KEYS listing further along in the tutorial.

“Finally, a drawing program for artists,” that’s what mooSoftware calls their program. Here’s the TOOLBAR outlined in red below. The first row has the pencil tool that allows you to select a Pencil, Pen, or Marker from the TOOL PRESETS column. New is the Eraser which allows selection of the Small Soft Eraser or Big Firm Eraser.

The second row gives us a Lasso to select a portion of an image, and next to it is the Move tool that allows you to move the selection.

The tird row gives us a Marquee Rectangle or Oval to select an area in an image, and there’s also a Hand tool that, like in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP® allows us to move the whole image within its frame.

Last row is a bit different in zooming in and out of an image. Select the mangifying glass and then while holding shift and spacebar use your pen and draw a line upward on your image. This will zoom in an image view. Holding the shift and spacebar and drawing the line downward will zoom out the image view. Finally, that circle with the arrows allows you to rotate the image to allow you to work on the image as though it were a sheet of paper that you rotated to allow your pen to make strokes that are natural to your hand.

I’ll insert all the keyboard shortcuts here to get you thinking about your shortcut keys.

If you are drawing a freehand image then the screen size can be chosen beforehand and is a matter of choice. Obviously, if you are opening another image it will determine the screen size because the image will try to open at the native size of the image which may be much too large for the computer screen and it may be necessary to zoom out on the image to bring the size down to a workable view. I’ll explain how to zoom a bit later.

If you are drawing a feehand image the height and width of your image can be set in Inches…

…or Centimeters, Millimeters, Picas, or Points.

The tool presets give us a PENCIL (very light in tone) a THIN BLACK LINE or a THICK BLACK LINE or the effect of a MARKER. Remember changing the size of the selected tool is simply a matter of using the “["and "] “keys for decreasing on increasing the tool size by 1 pixel. Adding the shift key decreases or increases by 5 pixels.

BLACK is the default color of the PEN tools while the MARKER can be BLUE, RED, or YELLOW. The ERASERS can be decreased or enlarged in size as well. If BLACK is not your choice to draw with, go to the VIEW MENU of TABLETDRAW® and choose COLOR PICKER; it will appear above your working image and will allow you to point and click on a new color choice.

Notice that in the TOOL PRESETS that there is a small arrow to the left of each tool. If you check that arrow you will find that there is an adjustment set that allows you to adjust the minimum and maximum size of the tool, the color of the tool, opaciy and an ink mode.

The LAYERS menu can create an infinite number of LAYERS which can be manipulated in all the customary forms for anyone familiar with ADOBE PHOTOSHOP®. NEW layer, COPY, MERGE, FLATTEN and DELETE are possible…

…and the LAYER BLEND MODE allows BLEND MODES similar to other programs which use LAYERS.

Here’s a picture of myself sitting in a coffee shop. This image was made with the camera in my 17″ MacBook Pro notebook computer. Let’s take it through the drawing process so we can get a look at the way the tools work in TABLETDRAW®. Remember, we have a WACOM® TABLET attached to our computer.

Here’s the same image processed with Akvis SKETCH®. Remember Akvis SKETCH®? I wrote a review and brief tutorial for it only a few weeks ago. For my purposes there is too much background visible in the image and the lines tend to be the same in weight in too many places. There is not enough variety to the lines to give the image the kind of “life” that is commonly associated with a hand-drawn image. But, it’s somewhere we can start.

In the image below, which I have opened in mooSoftware’s TABLETDRAW® I have begun to erase the background with the BIG FIRM ERASER chosen from TABLETDRAW®’S tool presets.

Now I continue to erase the background of the image. Like a real eraser, the BIG FIRM ERASER does not erase everthing in one pass; it takes several passes to erase the majority of the background, and we don’t have all of it yet. We’ll get all the rest as we clean up later. Right now, we’ll just lighten up the overall background so we can concentrate on my head and shoulders.

OK, I didn’t quite stop erasing above; I decided to remove the figure who was behind my shoulder on the right.

Now I’ve added a blank layer above the image and selected the MEDIUM BLACK PEN from the tool presets and using the presure-sensitive quality of my pen with my WACOM® tablet, I have begun to draw on the blank layer on top of the image, and by varying the pressure with which I push down with the pen I begin to try to add character to the lines that represent the most dynamic parts of the image.

Now I start to pick out the most important parts of the image that I want to emphasize. I’m trying to find parts of the image that represent stresses in the fabric of the shirt and vest and places that represent bumps and creases in my skull, mouth, neck and ears. The glasses get some work as well.

More bumps and creases in the skull follow; and then some defining of the beard line. Finally a touch or two in the shirt will give it a bit more form.

Look closely at the diagonal strokes done in the beard using the light touch and pressure sensitivity of the WACOM® pen.; there are a few strokes on the neck and in the shirt collar starting to show up now. We’re closed to finished; there are only a few more things to do.

To finish up our transition from a stylized and somewhat artificial shetch-looking image to something closer to a hand-drawn one, I went back with a smaller eraser–the SMALL SOFT ERASER from the tool presets–and lightened places in the vest and shirt on the lower layer, and I also finished erasing the background. I had to lighten the area seen through the eyeglasses on the left where the background had produced a dark area, and a few diagonal swipes were made through the face and beard to increase the hand-drawn look. Oh, and I lightened the bump in the top of the skull.

If desired there are still two things I could have done. One, would have been to “turn off” or make invisible the original image. REMEMBER, we are working with two layers at the moment. Turning off the original image layer would have left a black-lined image with very little of the gray tones showing through. That was not what I wanted, but it could have been done. Secondly, I can export this image to ADOBE PHOTOSHOP® if I wanted to. That is an option that can be selected from the FILE MENU in TABLETDRAW)r). I haven’t chosen to do that either, so we’ll simply stop here with a drawing that looks much more hand-drawn and natural than we had where we started. You can’t do this with a mouse; only with the pressure-sensitivity of a pen and tablet can you achieve this effect.

Granted, you could have done this same effect using the LAYERS in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP® with a pressure-sensitive WACOM® TABLET and PEN.

But, and here’s the “Big But…”.TABLETDRAW® only cost $35.00 US and ADOBE PHOTOSHOP® costs hundreds. Take a look at mooSoftware.com and download the trial version; it works completely correctly except LAYERS are limited to two instead of unlimited, and undo’s are limited to five instead of unlimited.

How’s that for a chance to see what you could do with it? I could have done this image with the trial version, but at $35.00 Shareware, it is too good to pass up, so in the interest of the new Federal Regulations about disclosure I BOUGHT IT for myself; so go try it out for yourself; I suspect you’ll have to buy yourself a copy.

I wouldn’t normally go for pimping my desktop but I happen to be reading DesignSponge’s Blog and found a desktop wallpaper I couldn’t live without.

The problem is that my desktop folders blend into the background now and, even after changing the label colors on the folders, its still all a little too much. Trying to find anything in any app using the Open> window would just make the use of label colors maddening. Not the right answer.

There are clear and concise instructions online for changing folder icons but I wanted to change the system icons so that, by default, my folders would be some eye catching color.

The 12 mg DMG for LIteIcon is available for download onFreeMacSoftware’s website. The installation is a very straight-forward drag-and-drop and the interface is self-explanatory. (See imgs in slideshow)

The process is really too simple to explain. Just drag and drop. I happen to download icns files from the Icon Archive but I assume that pngs will work as well.

It took some experimenting before I figured out which folder to change. Thank goodness it is so easy to revert to the mac system default. So easy , in fact, that i can experiment with various choices without REALLY wasting too much time….

My final choices:

Some resources for cool folder icons:

Apple’s Icon and Screensavers Downloads

Icon Archives

But I am going to rave about Acorn’s ability to serve in preparing lessons or tutorials from it’s screen capture abilities as well as its serving as a image editor. As a workshop instructor I often get asked two questions: "What is an INEXPENSIVE image editing program?" and "How did you prepare the tutorials that are on the workshop tutorial CD’s that you hand out?" I’ve been using Acorn in its 1.0 version pretty much since it appeared; and having the new additons to the application has made it a really good bargain as an image editor and made it even more useful to do tutorials. The only thing that it can’t do (so far) that I would like it to do is allow me to draw an arrow to point to something.

I’ve extracted a bit of the data off the FlyingMeat.com website (http://www.flyingmeat.com) for a quick look here and I encourage you to go to the website and download the two week trial version of Acorn and see for yourself how useful it can be.

Some Highlights of Acorn’s capabilities:

• Layers and Blending Modes allows for easy placement of text
• Brushes that let’s "you draw, scribble and sketch right on your image"
• A great selection of filters and the additon of vector shapes makes this app a robust image editor as well as great screen grab software.
• Magic wand and other selection tools
• Web export
• Python-based plugibn architecture

New in Acorn 2.0 according to their website:

• Improved Screenshots You’ve now got a new preference to have every window on its own layer when making a screenshot.
• Rulers Bring up rulers for your image.
• Raw Image Import Open up your Raw images and adjust exposure, temperature, tint, and more.
• 64 Bit Support Acorn is ready for the future.
• New Dodge, Burn, Clone, and Smudge tools Some important photo retouching tools have been added to Acorn.
• Layer Groups Organize your layers into hierarchical groups.
• Perspective Transform A new Perspective Transform tool, along with much improved Transform and Crop tools.
• Render Clouds Filter Render Clouds has long been a staple in the designer’s toolbox, a great starting place for textures.
• JSTalk Support Script Acorn using JavaScript, by way of JSTalk. * New UI and Performance Improvements It’s faster, and it looks better to boot.
• Use for Free After the trial period is up. Acorn will disable some advanced features, but you can keep on using it anyway. Find out more.
• And Plenty More! Check out the release notes for all the details.

Let’s activate Acorn and see what will open the first time.

If you have not previously told Acorn NOT to give you a splash screen, it will ask you whether you want a NEW IMAGE, OPEN IMAGE, or ONLINE HELP AND DOCS? Almost as important, it will remind you that Acorn can take screen shots. This is kind of hiding on the page and, of course, is really only useful if you intend to do some tutorial preparation.

PREFERENCES will tell you that CMD>Shift>6 is the default key combination to take screen shots; but more importantly check USE LAYERS WHEN TAKING SCREEN SHOTS and you will find that every element on the screen will be on a separate layer which can be turned off to hide it and thus eliminates the necessity of retouching much of the page as you are working on a tutorial or shot where you desire to give instruction.

Even more exciting is the fact that Acorn does not have to be foremost in order to activate the screen shot function. Just have it open and sitting in the background while you work in another program if that is your choice. Take a screen shot via CMD>Shift>6 and the screen shot will automatically appear and bring Acorn to the foreground at the same time. This will work no matter what application you happen to have on top when you use the screen shot command. Selecting the screen shot brings it to the front and makes Acorn’s tools available at that point. If they don’t appear, then go to WINDOW to make them visible.

Here’s a screen grab of the monitor. If you look closely you realize that Photoshop CS4 is open and Acorn (now active) shows us the multitude of layers that comprise the desktop and Photoshop and the image being worked on and the Photoshop toolbars (hidden under the Acorn tools).

.		Here’s a layer breakdown of everything visible on the desktop with each item saved to its own separate layer. This way you can turn off all system readouts you have added to the top of your computer (battery, monitors, time machine, clock, airport, Growl, etc.) and isolate any single item on the monitor screen while preparing a tutorial
	Moving on to the working part of Acorn and examining the menus we can see that the menus available will remind you of most image editors, but you may have to hunt for a few things that occur in menus positions that are not quite what you expect. Note the key commands.
	The EDIT menu is quite normal in appearance. Note the key commands.
	The VIEW menu has the ability to zoom in and out and show rulers and full screen in a conventional manner; however, you may also increase and decrease the brush size as well as Select, Reset, and Swap colors. The TOOL menu (see below). Note the key commands.
		The tool menu allows you to directly select the tools that can be otherwise selected from the toolbox. Learning the key commands from this menu will measurably speed up the artists’ workflow. Note the key commands.
	The IMAGE menu is standard except there is the direct ability to get an image from the Apple iSight camera without the necessity of returning to the desktop to do so. Note the key commands.

LAYERS menus gives you more key commands that speed up operations, though some items such as New Shape Layer and New Group Layer can only be accessed from this menu or the bottom of the Layers palette. Most of this palette can be considered conventional to someone comfortable with the usual image editors.

		One of the coolest filters was the last one in the list with NEW IMAGE WITH CURVED DROP SHADOW. This produced the effect of a slightly curling image rising on either end on a flat table and casting a slight shadow. This effect is very subtle but seems to add a very faint white space around the image along with the slightest suggestion of a shadow.
	The SELECT menu has the expected items but it also contains the important Inverse and Feather functions. These functions will be available any time an area of an image has been selected with one of the selection tools. Note the key commands.
	The WINDOW menu gives us access to Tools, Colors, Fonts, and the Brush Designer. Note the key commands (OK, I won’t mention Key Commands again).
The HELP menu does not require that you be on line in order to access many of the topics. Typing a phrase or question in the Search window accesses online help almost as fast as you can type. Typing a word such as "transform" will open a window with several related words or topics. Choosing one of them will open another window with a floating arrow pointing to the particular tool.
	Looking at the TOOLS menu we can begin with the move tool which allows us to move any selected item including text.
	As you would expect, the magnifying glass signifies the ZOOM tool. It defaults into magnify and selecting the OPTION key shifts the zoom from "+" to "-" and makes the image smaller. I, personally, like the message that a space is intentionally left blank; this keeps me from wondering if there is something that I am missing at this point.
	The CROP tool allows you to select a part of the image to be saved with the external parts to be lost after double-clicking on the selected portion of the image.
	The PAN tool is the equilivant of the hand tool in Adobe Photoshop where you can shift up/down/left/right on the image when it is too large to be wholly visible on the monitor screen.
	Selecting the BRUSH/PENCIL tool drops you into the DRAW mode and gives access to various sizes and opacities of brush and pencil lines. These are readily adjustable and as Bit-Maps they can have Anti-alias edges and be controlled by tablet pressure if you are using a Wacom or other pressure sensitive tablet.
	The SELECT menu can define rectangular, oval, free or polygon select points, or be configured as a magic wand. When in the magic wand mode the threshold or sensitivity can be modified. Holding down SHIFT allows you to add to a selection and holding OPTION allows you to subtract from a selection.
	The ERASER size can be adjusted as well as the opacity of the erasing stroke. The eraser can be a block or a circle (anti-alias) and be controlled by tablet pen pressure with a Wacom or similar pressure-sensitive tablet.
	The TEXT tool will allow a text block to be drawn; this may be a horizontal or vertical block depending on the drag-click of the mouse or tablet pen. Text color will be the default of the foreground color and the type Family, Style, and Size as well as the baseline spacing, the character space, line space, and left, center right or forced alignment can be chosen. Type defaults to a new layer when the type tool is chosen.
	GRADIENTS can be Linear or Radial and are determined by the foreground colors already chosen.
	FLOOD FILL will fill any area that is selected, or if nothing is selected then it will fill the entire image or layer area.
	The CLONE tool window also gives access to Smudge, Dodge, and Burn as well as the clone tool itself. Option-clicking with the Clone tool defines the clone source, and the size of the cloning brush can be increased (right bracket) or decreased (left bracket) as is found in other editing programs.
	The SHAPE tool acceses a stylus that can define a circle or a rectangle with either fill or stroke capabilities, with the corner radius definable as well as the stroke width. A stroke can be solid or a dash with the gap in the dotted line also definable. A straight line can be drawn with the narrow pen-like shape but there are no arrowheads available. The color is set by the color choice in the foreground color sample. Shapes default to a new layer above the original image when they are selected.
	The FOREGROUND COLOR is the upper circle and the BACKGROUND COLOR is the lower circle; however, these can be reversed with the two headed arrow or black and white rectangle seen below. The eydropper clicks to a set of cross-hairs that can be placed precisely on an image to select that exact color
	LAYERS can be stacked above one another and an upper layer can be moved below another layer without the necessity of changing or modifying (renaming) the lower layer. All those blending methods normally found in an image editing program are available. The opacity of each layer can be individually adjusted as well.
	New layers can be added or a layer modified or deleted via symbols at the bottom of the layer palette.

	The COLOR PICKER is standard, and is made visible by selecting COLOR in the WINDOWS menu at the top of the page.
The FONT selection is also made visible by choosing it in the WINDOWS menu at the top of the page.

Accessing a RAW file will result in a frame with adjustments available for Exposure, Bias, Boost, Shadow Boost, Color Temperature, Tint, and scale. Sharpening may be chosen, but the amount is not defined, and Progressive Chromatic Noise Tracking may be chosen as well.

Choosing "OK" will result in the image opening…

…if the TOOLS window is selected in the WINDOW menu it will open with the image. If it was not previously selected you must select it and COLOR and possibly TYPE if needed.

Acorn is a lot of product for a reasonable price and I am quite taken with it and make tutorials with it as I have mentioned. But I did have to use another program to add the arrows. If Mr. Mueller gets around to adding arrows it will simplify my workflow. Version 2.0.3 is available for Snow Leopard. This review is written for version is 2.0.1 but the advanced versions correct a couple of bugs and make Acorn happy with Snow Leopard.

While you are at the FlyingMeat.com website take a look at two other of his creations: VoodooPad and FlySketch. Both are extremely creative products as well, but we can discuss them another time, right now I’m still learning new things to do with Acorn.