The Graphic Mac

If you’re on the lookout for stock photography on the web, you certainly have plenty of options. Over the last few years, microstock sites have been popping up all over. But one thing that sets Photocase apart from most competitors is that while they pride themselves on the simplicity of microstock (low prices, royalty-free licenses, easy to use), they push the creativity and ideas with their photos. You’re not likely to find the typical group of racially mixed business people sitting around a conference room table at Photocase.

I’d like to take the time to welcome Photocase as a banner sponsor to The Graphic Mac. I must admit that until they approached me, I had never heard of them. But after exploring the site for a while, I like what I saw and bookmarked them for future use.

First, they make purchasing images easy. Photocase uses a credit-based purchasing system, and offers most features you would expect to find on a stock photography site; such as lightboxes and image searching. You can also upload and sell your own photos if you wish.

But the one thing I really loved about the site is that it loads fast. When I searched for “sky,” I was quickly greeted with a page full of thumbnails, with over 800 more pages to look through if I chose to do so. Fortunately, I quickly found a nice image to use before I finished looking through page three, made easier by the larger preview images you get when you roll over the images with your mouse. Flipping through pages was speedy, a fact I appreciate when I’m busy and in need of a photo quickly.

If you’re searching for new stock photography resources, be sure to give Photocase a try.

The Graphic Mac on Twitter

I recently updated the background image on my Twitter page, and almost immediately got a private message from a follower commenting about it. He also asked how much I use Twitter in my day to day work. The answer made me sit back and think about it for a while. My usage has changed quite a bit over the last year or two.

There was a time, when I was freelancing full-time about a year ago, when I was Tweeting a dozen or so times a day. I was working from home, and often found interesting ideas from other people, or simply used it as an excuse to take a break from my work. Once I started working full-time again, my Twitter habits changed. I don’t Tweet nearly as often anymore, but I found it to not be such a bad thing for me, and hopefully a more useful thing for my followers.

My Tweets now consist mainly of two things. First, you’ll see a quick Tweet announcing the latest article when it appears on The Graphic Mac. Second, I share interesting links to articles and resources as I come across them. Many of these links also appear in the sidebar off to the right, but many do not – so it’s worth checking both places.

Occasionally I do interact directly with followers if I have an answer to a question, or can provide a link to help someone out. But you’re not likely to see me Tweeting about my travels, or taste in coffee.

So in short, think of The Graphic Mac on Twitter as an extension of this site, not an extension of my social life. I would also like to say thank you to everyone who follows me, and who have supported this site over the years!

Every once in a while I have the need to provide a design in a language other than English. With a global economy and the Internet, I suspect the need arises more often than it ever used to. In the past, local translation services generally yielded a Word file full of unformatted text, or an Illustrator file with the fonts converted to paths. Fortunately, document translation services have greatly improved and make for a powerful addition to your design arsenal.

I’m happy to announce The Graphic Mac’s latest advertiser, WorldAccent. If you need a document translated to another language, WorldAccent can surely help.
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE.

Fraction-to-decimal chart makes conversions easy

You can download the free fraction-to-decimal chart here.

Why?

One of the reasons I made the switch was so that I could focus more on the content, and much less on actually getting the content posted; as well as making the site something I actually enjoyed looking at. The new design isn’t going to win me any awards, but it definitely puts more focus on the content. Gone are the seldom used features from the old site, such as dedicated discussion forums. The forums never really caught on, instead I was fielding dozens of emails a day from readers. At first I felt bothered by the fact that people weren’t using the forums. But after a while, I began to appreciate the one-on-one interaction with readers. The contact form is up at the top, and I welcome the emails! READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE.

As Christmas day approaches, I want to thank everyone who has visited The Graphic Mac – and wish you all a safe and joyous holiday. I hope you all get everything from Santa that you had on your wish list!

The Graphic Mac was one of the many Twitter users featured over at Smashing Magazine this past week in their article Effective Twitter Backgrounds. The article discusses different ways you can brand yourself, your company or your product on Twitter via the use of the background image customization on your Twitter page.

Effective Twitter background images

For no reason whatsoever, I decided to throw together a collection of Apple-themed desktop wallpapers, titled Apple Chrome, and make them available for download. READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE.