03/07/2009
This isn't a very exciting post, but it took me ages to figure it out, so I wanted to write it down somewhere.
I wanted to use a one line ImageMagick command to:
- Take four pictures
- Resize, centre and crop them to be square thumbnails
- Arrange them in a 2 by 2 grid
Here is the command for ImageMagick on Windows:
convert -size 300x300 xc:transparent
-page 150x150 ( "image1.jpg" -gravity center -resize 150x150^^ -extent 150x150 )
-page 150x150 ( "image2.jpg" -gravity center -resize 150x150^^ -extent 150x150 -repage +0+150 )
-page 150x150 ( "image3.jpg" -gravity center -resize 150x150^^ -extent 150x150 -repage +150+0 )
-page 150x150 ( "image4.jpg" -gravity center -resize 150x150^^ -extent 150x150 -repage +150+150 )
-flatten composition.jpg
This all needs to be on one line. If you're using Linux ^^ should be ^ and brackets need to be escaped with a backslash.
You also need to be using at least ImageMagick version 6.3.8-2.
23/05/2009
Firstly I'd like to introduce The Jam Jar Collective. I started working with Dave Lynch and Stuart Childs on FriiSpray and it sparked so many new ideas that we decided we wanted to do more stuff together. When you create things together you need a collective name, so we became the Jam Jar Collective.
When you've got a name, it turns out you also need business cards, so that people won't forget your name after you've met them. I get really excited about playing with the idea of business cards to make them a bit different and more memorable. I came up with the idea of using real jars of jam. Dave then insisted that we should make our own jam as this would be more personal.
Jam making turned into a bit of an adventure in itself, which I may write about one day. Till then, it's enough to know that so far everyone loves our new business jars.
26/04/2009
I've been working on an exciting project recently with the wonderful Deb Urbanwide Bassett. We launched recently, but I've been too busy to blog about it. The idea started when my back started to hurt. I'd gone freelance and was using my laptop far more than I ever had before. I was using it at client offices, at home and at the coworking space in Old Broadcasting House. Using my laptop so much was making my back hurt.
The great thing about working in a coworking space, rather than working by yourself is that you can complain discuss the issues you're having. It turned out that my back laptap issues were quite common and several people had laptop stands to make using a laptop more comfortable. I met Deb at Geek Up, but got chatting to her at Old Broadcasting House. She had a really nice portable laptop stand, but it didn't work with my laptop and was really expensive. I looked around for a laptop stand that would be portable and wasn't expensive, but I couldn't find one. So, inspired by Deb I made my own out of the cardboard box my laptop had been delivered in. I was really pleased with it and I had a laptop stand that was portable and worked even better than I thought it would. My problem was solved.
Deb liked my laptop stand so much that she wanted one herself. We talked about it and thought we'd have a go at making more and selling them. We got really excited about the idea. I love the feeling when you feel inspired by an idea and all the possibilities. Then the actual work began. Well it did for Deb. I did all the fun jobs like designing the logo and drawing diagrams. Deb did all the hard work like finding a manufacturer and sorting out the online ordering. We also had a lot of fun together making and testing new prototypes that improved on my original design.
This has been a side project alongside our freelance work, so it's taken us a while to get here. We've learnt loads while we've been doing this and it's been a lot of fun. It's nice to be making a physical product, it's a change from my normal digital projects. There's still lots to learn and lots to do. Like learning how to export stuff. It should be easy, but it seems really complicated. I made the product website very quickly; we just wanted to get things rolling. So improving the website is one of the things high on our to do list.
You can see our cardboard laptop stand at www.cardboardlaptopstand.co.uk. We hope you like it, and if you need a strong, light, portable laptop stand then I'd recommend you buy one.
22/04/2009
I created Font Picker to solve a problem I had and released it in September 2009 hoping that other people would find it helpful. Since then 15,000 people have downloaded it and its page has had 57,000 unique views. That makes it by far my most successful personal project so far.
Font Picker is a simple AIR app that helps you choose a suitable typeface for a project. It's down to word of mouth and the wonders of the Internet that so many people have found it. I got my first peak in traffic when it was mentioned in a Boag World podcast. I'm really greatful for that as it the break that lead to everything else.
It's now been featured in several articles, including ones on:
It's been really exciting to watch my web traffic and see all the spikes. I've really appreciated everyone's feedback. It's helped improved the program and given me ideas of how to improve it further. I'm really pleased that people are finding Font Picker useful and hopefully even more will too. I'll let everyone know if it reaches 30,000 downloads. I'd be over the moon if that happened.