Quick Picks: Two Must-Have Resources for Designers

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:00:49 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve actively participated in the design game, but recently, when I was doing some work for a friend, I took a look around to see if there were any new tools that would work better and more efficiently than the ones I’ve been using for ages. Because of the nature of the project, I went looking in a couple of specific areas: file-sharing and font resources. My old picks for these services were still around, but they haven’t changed much despite the passing of many intervening years, so I wanted to check out the new kids on the block.

File Sharing

Once upon a time, I used Image Shack for most of my design-related file hosting needs. That was before I had my own server space with which to play. But despite still having private server space, sometimes it’s just easier and faster to use an online file-hosting service, especially if that service is incredibly easy to use.

Sharenload is really simple, and it has an impressive file size allowance. How does 2048 MB sound? You can upload up to five files at a time that together add up to a full 2 GB. Have more you need to share? No problem. Just reload the site and do the same thing over again. Sharenload provides you with a nice progress screen, and then gives you automatically generated download and file deletion links for each file.

You can also sign up to keep track of your files if you like, or even pay for a premium account ($5-$50, for 7-180 days) to get more storage space, remove ads and get other perks. It’s a great, easy solution that your clients will also really appreciate.

Font Resource

My old typeface haunts are mostly still in operation. 1001fonts, Blambot, and FontFreak all continue to be great resources, but there’s nothing like sheer volume to put a smile on my font-loving face. A new resource put together by a group of web designers offers enough selection for even the most jaded of font geeks. Best of all, PimpYourFont.com is all hand-selected, so you don’t have to worry about duplicates and other oddities that can crop up in web crawler-generated lists.

The site is simple, but does have a variety of methods for navigating fonts in the database. By default, they’re listed in the order in which they were uploaded, with the most recent additions listed first. You can also view them alphabetically, by style, or take a look at the top 100 list. And of course, you can always search the site if you know what you’re looking for.

What new design resources have you discovered recently?

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Quick Picks: Two Must-Have Resources for Designers