Friedbeef’s Tech

Whether it’s deciding on the colors of my room, web page, or posters, I find that coming up with a color scheme can be quite a challenge.  For all you design-challenged-individuals (like me!), here are 5 free tools which will help you make the right decisions when it comes to colors.

1. Derive a color scheme based on any image

Designing a poster and want to make sure your background matches your pictures well?  You can upload your the image to Color Palette Generator and come up with a set of colors that matches it perfectly.  Alternatively, if the image you have is already on the web, you can point to it using another similar tool, or use Colr.org for Flickr images.

2. Search for color schemes based on text searches

Want a color scheme based on a concept and need a starting point?  Just type in your idea and let yahoo pick a color scheme for you.  

3. Discover and discuss color schemes with other people

Kuler is an online community for designers set up by Adobe which focuses on one thing - colors!  Here you’ll find a lot of interesting color schemes that stand out from typical palettes.  With the community aspect in place, you’ll be able to discuss, comment on and rate themes as well.

4. Come up with safe colors for your web page

Not every color scheme you come up with may be fully supported by all systems and browsers.  4096 Color Wheel lets you pick the color you need, then comes up with ‘web-safe’ HTML so you can implement it properly.  Also, if you want to make sure the text on your web page stands out or goes well with the background without compromising readability, use the Accessibility Color Wheel to help you find the perfect blend.

5. Test web page contrast by converting it to grayscale

Relying on colors to determine page visibility and contrast can be misleading.  Converting the colors to their grayscale equivalents is a more reliable method. By removing color’s influence, you’ll better find true visual contrast.  To do this, you can convert any web page into grayscale using Graybit.

What other design tools do you like?  Tell us in the comments!

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If you’ve ever done a thorough cleanup of your Outlook inbox, you’ll find that permanently deleting files or emptying your recycle bin gets rid of the file - but doesn’t really do much in terms of saving space. 

To reclaim your hard disk, what you need to do is to compact your PST file.  If you’re not sure what exactly to do, within Outlook just go to Tools –> Options –>  Mail Setup –> Data Files –> Select your outlook PST file –> Settings –> and click ‘Compact Now’. 

The process may take some time if you have a large uncompacted file, so you may want to leave this running overnight.  The net result though - is an optimized outlook file, and potentially LOTS more free hard disk space!

What other hard disk tips do you have?   Let us know in the comments!

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Press right-click inside windows and you open up a typical context menu which looks something like this…

Install Lopesoft.com’s FileMenuTools (free or course) and your menu will look something like this…

More than just shortcuts, this neat piece of freeware has some really powerful functions built in.  Here are a few of my favourite features:

1. Advanced file renaming - allows you to bulk rename files, add file sequencing, append text to filenames
2. Advanced file deleting - where you get to quickly filter and delete files which match a certain naming criteria
3. Synchronize folders - to ensure that two directories are in constant sync
4. Enhanced visualization of size of folders - where on top of the size of the folder you get a quick chart showing you how your space is allocated
5. Shred files - delete your confidential files permanently and make them irretrievable

…and the list goes on an on.  Give it a try and your right mouse button will never feel the same again :)

What other mouse tips do you have? Let us know in the comments!

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