Create huge panoramas with Hugin

As an amateur photographer, I absolutely love this program.

I am sure you have come across the situation whereby you wanted to take the picture of a beautiful landscape or building but it just didn't fit in. Well just take loads of pictures and use "hugin" - the Free downloadable Panorama photo sticker to join up all your photographs into one whole complete panorama.

The latest version is version 0.7 beta 4 and is available for Linux, OS X and Windows.

Download Hugin here.



Here is a screenshot of the software in action from the Hugin site.

Screen capture software - ScreenHunter

ScreenHunter is a great software to take screenshots. The latest version is 5.0.125 was just released on Sep. 02, 2007. It is totally free unlimited personal and business use.

Bit confusing to use at first. To capture screenshots, all I had to do was click the F6 key on my keyboard and the image is saved on my desktop (you can select where the images are saved to). Saves me a quite some time as compared to my usual method of capturing screenshots - using the Print Screen key on my keyboard + a Photo editor.

Generate a logo for free with CoolText.com

Have you noticed my new logo?

At first I was thinking of getting a Web 2.0 style logo but then changed my mind - Almost everyone has a so called "Web 2" logo now. So I decided to get something different, simple and nice.

In case you are wondering how much time I spent to make it, you might be surprised to learn that I created in less than 5 minutes.

You can create one for yourself as well on the Cool Text: Logo and Graphics Generator site. You don't need any photo editing skills to generate a logo.

First of all, choose a logo style by clicking it.
Then specify your text, font size, etc.
Click the "Render Logo Design" button and you are done.

Get a free Web 2 badge

You don't need Photoshoping skills to get a Web 2 badge. Just go over to the Web 2.0 Badges website and create one in a few minutes. Chose the shape of the badge. Change Text you want on it, Font, Font Size and Font Color.

So far they have only a few designs and only 6 fonts to choose from. Plus the size of the badge is quite small so you can't create a high resolution version. But what am I complaining about. It's totally free.

Here's one I created for my blog. What do you think?



Got the link from Eches' blog.

Irfanview Plugins

One of my all-time favourite free photo editor is Irfanview (pronounce "EarfanView"). The current version ihas a better improved Vista compatibility.

Irfan Skiljan, the creator of Irfanview has released the new set of PlugIns 4.00 for the software. Several of the previous PlugIns are changed/updated. This includes fixes to the IFF loading bug.

Free image hosts

Check the list below if you are looking for a place to host your images for free. I am listing only a few because these are the ones I have used myself.

1. Flickr. This is got to be my favourite free photo hosting site on the net. It is owned by Yahoo! You can download up to 100MB of photos each calendar month with a restriction of 5MB per photo. Your photostream (the visible photos) views is limited to the 200 most recent images.

2. ImageShack. Allows you to uploads as many pictures as you want. Can also direct link to the pictures as well the thumbnails (recommended) from your blog or website. Each image uploaded should be less than 1.5MB.

3. Photobucket. It is said to be the largest photo-sharing site in the world. You are allowed up to 1 GB multimedia hosting and up to 25 GB of monthly traffic. The size of uploaded Image files is limited to 1 MB or less.

Free website headers

One of the things that really makes your site stand out from others is a nice looking header. I know I need one too.

If you are artistic or know a graphic designer, you can have one custom made. Or you can go the Freebies way. Check out the two links below. They have loads of free website headers.

1. Free Web Page Headers
2. Free Header Images

Got the links via Azlynne

Blend images with Merge 2.0

Blending two images has never been easier. Merge 2.0 (1.34 MB) is a free graphic software that allows you to blend two images in several ways.

You can also batch merge files from a directory with a single image file. Useful for adding a watermark to your image collection.

It has been tested and found to be completely spyware and ad-ware free.

the latest version has two new features:

1. A try button to view text in the source window before closing the text entry dialog box.
2. Loaded images from the MRU, File-Open or directory scroll buttons will automatically size themselves to fit in the window.

JPEG enhancer

Have you ever wanted to enhance those jpeg images taken by a camera phone but didn't want to or didn't know how to use Photoshop to enhance them, then you might want to try Jpeg Enhancer 1.8.

This freeware from VicMan Software is 5.19MB and is spyware free. It removes "JPEG artifacts" and blotchy look from JPEG images. I tried it in the default option with an old scanned picture and the resulting image does look slightly better.

before

after

New version of Irfanview out

One of my favourite image viewer and minor editing is Irfanview (pronounced Earfanview). It is free for non-commercial use. The latest version irfanView 4.00 was released on the 23rd last month.

Here are some of the improvements:
- Improved Vista compatibility
- New display option: Center image in window (Menu: View->Display options)
- Toolbar skin option added (Properties->Toolbar)
- New Properties->Video option: Use DirectShow for playing (good for MJPG AVIs)
- New advanced batch option: Auto adjust colors
- New EXIF dialog button: Show in Google Earth (if GPS data available)
- The EXIF dialog can stay displayed on screen
- Several new plugIns are changed/updated.
- The bug fixes: Start folder, RLE BMPs and ANI loading

Make your own slideshows

Fliptrack is a great site that allows you to create FREE slideshows of your photos with special effects and a soundtrack.

You create Fliptrack Music Slideshows by picking your choice of popular music from a catalog. You then upload your photos and they are matched and synchronized to the music. The final result is like a music video or movie soundtrack. You can also add video effects and text to make the show more exciting.

The great news is that, it is perfectly legal in case you are worried. You can then share the slideshows with friends and family or with anybody on your blog, Friendster, Myspace or any other social networking site.

XP Icons

If you are a web designer or software developer, you definitely would require icons. Now you have three choices, either make them yourself (which might not be a good idea if you are not into graphics) or download those available for free on the net and finally to buy them from professional graphics designers.

The second option might be Ok if you are not looking for high quality icons. However, if you are a software developer of commercial applications, you should take a look at Iconplant.com. Their XP style icons are really professional looking and adher to Microsoft's style guidelines. Even if you don't find something you like from their vast list, for example, say you are looking for custom made Vista Icons, you are in luck. Iconplant.com even offers full icon customization services. Their normal production schedule is five icons per day but they are ready to work with you to meet your deadlines.

Icons are provided in three formats, namely, gif, ico, and png with each purchase. Vector icons are also available on request. The prices are quite reasonable for the quality of work.

Of course, as regular readers of my blog are aware, I won't be putting up a link to a site unless there is something free. Well, you can download a zipped file of free icon samples from their site to test out.
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