Category: Mac & OS X

Voila: The ultimate screen capture, editing and organizing utility for the Mac

Voila

I’ve been taking screen captures for decades. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve been using Snapz Pro. It’s simple, effective, and does exactly what I need it to. At least, I thought it did, until I tried Voila from GlobalDelight

I’ve been giving Voila a try for the last month or so, and I must say that I’m quite impressed. It’s not perfect, but it packs a pretty powerful punch for $30 compared to Snapz Pro X at $70. At $15 though the end of September, it’s an outright bargain!

Voila bills itself as the ultimate screen capture solution for your Mac. At first I wasn’t convinced, but after a month of use, I’ve removed Snapz Pro from my Mac and have been using Voila full time; I love it! (more…)

Pasting text completely unformatted in OS X

Paste without formatting

It happens a lot in the design business. You’re taking copy from one document and using it in another. The problem is that when you copy your text and paste it in your new document, the formatting comes with it. All the fonts, all the colors, all the special text treatments. You’re stuck “un-formatting” only to have to reformat it in the new style. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Mac OS X offers a simple way to paste text from any document into another document completely unformatted. Simply copy the original formatted text as you normally would using Command + C. Then, instead of pasting the text normally, paste it using Command + Shift + V.

Support Ending for Suitcase Fusion 3

ExtensisAs of September 15, 2013, support will be discontinued for Suitcase Fusion 3. To continue to receive support, you must upgrade to Suitcase Fusion 5, which I reviewed last week.

Upgrade pricing up to 50% off the full product price for Suitcase Fusion 5 is available for Suitcase Fusion 3 users.

Reasons to upgrade to Suitcase Fusion 5:

  • Adobe Creative Cloud Support
  • QuickComp™ prototyping templates for quickly experimenting with fonts
  • Windows 8 and OS X (10.8) Support
  • Upgraded QuickMatch™
  • Expanded Web Font Access

    • If you’ve been holding on to Suitcase Fusion 3, now is the time to upgrade.

    Airy: A simply elegant YouTube downloader for Mac (30% discount)

    Eltima Airy

    I can’t tell you how many browser extensions I’ve used over the years who’s sole purpose was to download YouTube videos. Every single one of them was either a miserable experience, riddled with ads, or stopped working after each YouTube or browser update. Most get abandoned by the developer after either happens.

    Stand alone apps aren’t much better. Most look horrible, and nearly all are overly complicated for accomplishing the single job I task them with; downloading YouTube videos.

    I recently had the need to download a YouTube video, and of course, the app I had installed didn’t work anymore. Purely by coincidence, the developer of Airy reached out to me to see if I had tried it. I hadn’t, but I’m glad I did. (more…)

    Suitcase Fusion 5: Ready for takeoff!

    Suitcase Fusion 5

    When I reviewed Suitcase Fusion 4 in May of last year there was plenty of new features that made for a sexy upgrade. With Suitcase Fusion 5, Extensis has chosen to focus on improving existing tools and stability, rather than adding to an already stellar feature set.

    Existing users will find Fusion 5 quite comfortable. New users should read my previous review for a complete breakdown of all the features and know that Fusion 5 is a solid upgrade.

    The biggest selling point of Fusion 5 is full compatibility with Adobe Creative Cloud as well as Creative Suite 6. This is a big selling point, more for Adobe than Extensis, if you ask me. Life is generally ok with an older version of Creative Suite, but if your Font Management app isn’t compatible with your design app of choice, life is miserable. (more…)

    Alien Skin updates Eye Candy

    Alien Skin Software announced the immediate availability of an update to its Eye Candy 7 graphic design effects plug-in. The update adds the capability to store presets in a cloud storage folder so that they can be synchronized between multiple computers.

    Perspective Shadow

    Cloud preset sharing is available to all users of Eye Candy 7, not just users of Photoshop CC. It works with multiple cloud storage services, including Dropbox.

    I’ve done a visual review of Eye Candy 7 in the recent past, and I love the plugin!

    The update also adds compatibility with the new Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud.

    Get control of your Function keys in OS X

    Palua iconMac OS X and Apple’s keyboard offer some useful keyboard shortcuts via the use of the F-keys across the top of the keyboard. You can adjust screen brightness, activate Mission Control, control iTunes and volume, and more. The problem is, it’s pretty much all or nothing. You either turn them all on, or turn them all off. The Keyboard Preference panel allows for slight customization, but it’s a real pain to work with.

    Palua

    Enter Palua, from Molowa. Palua allows you to customize WHEN and HOW the F-Keys are used. For instance, you can set Palua to use the standard F-Keys just the way Apple intended when you’re in the Finder, Safari, iTunes and iWork—but automatically switch to standard F-Keys when you’re working in certain apps. And it switches automatically.

    For instance, I have Photoshop set up to perform a number of custom actions when F-Keys are pressed, but switch back to the regular controls when I switch back to the Finder or other apps. The beauty of Palua is that the F-Key mode is switched automatically for specific apps you set, or can be manually switched with a keyboard shortcut or clicking the menubar icon.

    I’ve been using Palua for quite some time, and it’s one of my favorite utilities. Palua is available in the Mac App Store for 99¢.

    Take control of OS X’s clipboard

    Take control of OS X’s clipboard

    Mac clipboard

    The clipboard is one of the most basic and essential pieces of every operating system. You no doubt understand the basics: cut, copy and paste, but have you ever explored further? Do you know about kill and yank? Can you access multiple items in the clipboard history or paste with special formatting? If not, Mac Tuts shows you how to take control of your Mac’s clipboard.

    Some great shortcuts and a list of apps that can further customize the basic clipboard.

    Wordify turns images into works of art

    Wordify

    Wordify turns images into beautiful typographic artwork using words. You’ve probably seen this technique used all over the web. With Wordify, you can do it yourself.

    Wordify produces high-quality, fully vectorized PDF output that allows you to further edit the result with professional tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. That makes Wordify infinitely useful, in my opinion.

    I can’t imagine the app would get a ton of use, but if you need to produce something like this for something you’re designing, it’ll pay for itself with one use. And of course, it could be a really fun way to customize family photos.

    Wordify is available in the Mac App Store for $3.99.

    About The Graphic Mac

    The Graphic Mac
    Connect with me on:
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest