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Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios) It doesn’t matter how big your pipeline is, how small your toolkit may be, or how experienced you are: chances are that if you’re into 3D art, there’s a copy of the real-time PBR renderer Marmoset Toolbag on your system. Where Toolbag 2.0 was all about showing off the model, 3.0 lets you dive into scene workflows with much greater ease, taking you from baking to animating, with shader, fog, lighting and rendering improvements in-between. This makes it very easy to achieve anything from good-looking portfolio renders to rapid character or look development output. The standalone viewer and direct upload link to ArtStation don’t hurt, either. New baker outputs Starting with the baker, the workflow is easy: simply click the Loaf icon in the menu, set up your high and low-poly mesh, tangent space options and cage settings, then define your output. As of version 3.04, Toolbag has image quality improvements and now supports multiple texture and material groups, enabling you to bake items with different UV layouts, although it doesn’t support UDIM yet. The baker output is on par with the likes of Quixel or Substance If you’re new to Toolbag, note that the materials of an item are ‘hidden’ in the group items in the object list on the left, and they’re not always visible. Also, if there’s a shared material group across groups, you may need to duplicate them in the baker for your bake. This is fine on simple models, but can quickly turn into a drag-and-drop pain on more complex models with lots of groups and materials. One solution could have been a search and select function similar to 3ds Max or other applications, and then with the ability to drag the results to the respective bake groups. Bar this, it’s a robust addition to Toolbag and its output is fully on par with that of other applications like Quixel or Substance. Shader improvements The native baker complements the new shaders: Toolbag now supports material groups in the UI, meaning your groups and material groups don’t need to have the same name any more, something that could get annoying in 2.0. In addition, Toolbag now comes with some excellent shader improvements, like custom shaders, tiling, material animation, Substance 2018 support and the updated SSS (skin) shader. The custom shader enables users to code their own shader setups by letting them override the native Marmoset ones. Based on HLSL and GLSL you can create and load the exact shaders and inputs you need for your projects and renders. The SSS overhaul in Toolbag 3 is a huge improvement over the 2.0 Skin Shader The SSS shader is equally easy to use, just remember to set up decent lighting to show off your shader and Marmoset’s new advanced translucency options. This is where the baker came in super handy: I’d forgotten to bake a thickness map, and now I did not have to switch apps to bake one out. Together with the ability to load SBSARs from the Extra tab and the fact that you can now animate your textures, the shader overhaul also opens for one of the main features of the 3.0 release: animation. Animation toolkit Whereas Toolbag 2 only had turntable options, version 3.0 came with an animation and keyframe editor in 2016. The latest version 3.04 improved on this, and now also makes animation life easier on users by allowing animated meshes to be stored in the TBSCENE file, as well as some serious performance enhancements. Keyframes are only applied to the currently selected object While a toolkit like this won’t ever provide the entire range of animation features like Max, Maya, Houdini, iClone and the like, it will let you animate small to medium scenes, and excels at it, meaning you can do anything from dioramas, interiors, exteriors and single to multiple figure animations. It’s pretty intuitive as well – you can import your animation or set one up from scratch, and if you’ve animated in any of the mainstream animation packages, you’ll feel right at home in the editor. It also has a cool little feature that lets you hook up your turntable to the animation you’re working on, in effect allowing for multiple turntables at various speeds in your scene. Add to that the fact you can now import TBSCENE formats into Unreal, a glTF exporter, lots of lighting and shadow improvements, not to mention fog, a shadow catcher and a good, standalone 360 WebGL viewer that works with anything from WordPress to ArtStation, and you have a crazy solid PBR rendering package at a fraction of the price of KeyShot or Clarisse. Despite its limited functionality compared to other applications, it should be taken into account that whatever Toolbag does, it does it very well. With this attention to detail and user requests, Marmoset Toolbag 3 is a steal. Toolbag is a staple in my day-to-day workflow. I’d have given it a 5 rating if it weren’t for some of the clunkiness in the baker UI. But with that speed, ease and long list of features, I’d heartily recommend it to anyone in need of a speedy and intuitive PBR real-time renderer. Buy Marmoset Toolbag: $189 (freelancers/academics) / $379 (studios) Read more: How to create a video game character View the full article

About a month ago, we learned that plugins were in the pipeline for prototyping tool Adobe XD, and over the weekend, details of the first extensions started to emerge. One of the stand-out plugins comes courtesy of Adobe's partner of twelve years, Astute Graphics – its slick new tool promises to make the lives of anyone who works with vector art much easier. The 17 best Adobe Illustrator plugins Named Smart Point Removal, or SPR for short, this core vector technology reduces the file size of vector assets to help slash download times and increase rendering speeds. This will be music to the ears of artists and designers working to tight deadlines. At the same time, SPR converts imported artwork into assets that can be edited and manipulated more intuitively. The tool does this by stripping back the number of path nodes on vector assets so users can achieve desired results more easily than ever before. With just one tolerance slider control, dubbed 'strength', SPR is as straightforward as it gets. Having previously created vector tools for Illustrator CC, Astute Graphics was able to carry over plenty of hard-won expertise into this extension. Check out the focused vector prototype tool for Adobe XD in action via the GIF below. SPR is part of Astui, a brand new subscription service on offer from Astute Graphics. Powered by AG Tech, the Atsui service includes other vector artwork optimisation, editing and manipulation tools such as Outline Strokes, Offset Path, Vector Brushes and Boolean. Seeing as the core SPR technology is based in servers, the XD plugin will become available as soon as Adobe launches the XD plugin APIs. Other users will also be able to examine and extend the XD plugin codebase upon launch. Related articles: Adobe reveals exciting new Illustrator update Adobe XD integrates with Photoshop CC and Sketch Adobe XD CC updates make workflows seamless View the full article

There are currently no mitigations for the Firefox attack, a researcher told Threatpost. View the full article

Art has been a huge gift for me and I’m grateful to my past self for taking the chance to pursue it. I didn’t try to make a career in art until I turned 30, and I didn’t get my foot in the door until I was 33. Because of what I considered were my limitations, I didn’t take this opportunity for granted. I was pretty fearless early on because I felt as though I had nothing to lose. It was a tough road filled with self-doubt. I believe that a majority of my growth as an artist came to me not just by practising and learning art techniques, but through analysing my mindset during that process: looking at why being an artist was so appealing; where my motivation and drive were coming from; and how that motivation and drive continues to evolve. How to draw: the best drawing tutorials While some of these tips may seem basic, I still revisit them to understand why they work so well for me when I’m stuck creatively. These tips are the foundation for getting clear about how to motivate yourself to create for longer periods and be excited to do so. I hope they’re helpful to you as much as they were for me. 01. Set goals and challenges Mel Milton set himself a challenge to draw different takes on Wonder Woman for a month You need two things to get where you want to go: a starting point and a destination. Leave out either one and you’ll end up feeling frustrated and believing that your efforts are pointless. Goals are the best way to start setting a destination for improvement. For many years I just wanted to get better. The problem was that I didn’t take the time to define what it really meant to 'get better' – it’s such a vague concept. Having small-, medium- and long-term art goals helps solidify a sense of purpose to your work. One approach that helped me was to limit most goals to about 30 days each. Thirty days of doing a task usually makes it easier to turn it into a habit that stays with you while you tackle other subjects. Make your first few challenges more about having fun. Connect them to something you geek over (I spent a month drawing different takes on Wonder Woman). Eventually, the 30-day habit will feel natural. You can then move on to challenges that are geared towards areas of weakness. For me, that’s handling colours. Carry out small studies and learn one new facet of that subject each day. After 30 days you’ll have a strong understanding in that area. 02. Give yourself a 'why' When I was younger, I liked being told I was good at art because I was a failure in pretty much every other aspect of my life. My 'why' I drew was easy to see and the results were enough to make me happy with where I was with my art. When I met my wife, my 'why' changed to 'I want to take care of my wife and family'. Up until this point I had never tried to become a pro artist. This new 'why' took over and I set off to do something I didn’t think I could do but now, in my mind, I actually had to. It helped me identify previously unseen opportunities. It also made me focus less on the obstacles and more on the solutions. The easiest thing to say is, 'I want to be a good artist'. However, having a meaningful reason for why you want to be a good artist helps you reach that goal much more easily. 03. Set aside time for doodling Doodling without any constraints or pressures can help your artwork Practising specific subjects or techniques can be draining after a while. So when I’m stuck and not motivated, I’ll spend 15 minutes just doodling. This is a chance to experiment with shapes, sizes, colours and so on that I don’t normally tackle. There’s no pressure to learn anything from them and I usually go over the results on a day that I’m in the mood to draw, to see if I can take something from them. I doodle both traditionally and digitally. Some days I challenge myself to make mistakes on purpose, do as many things that I think don’t have appeal, and then laugh about them. Those kind of days give me the ability to not take things so seriously. They’re reminders that it’s okay to be messy, make mistakes and go a little out there just for kicks and grins. You never know what you’re gonna bring back. 04. Have a day of brainstorming Come up with a list of things that pique your interest. This can be everything from films, video games, books, animals and foods to favourite holiday locations, sports, and inspiring people and places. With films, books and video games alone, there’s a plethora of genres and characters to pull from. I usually do this at the beginning of the week to be consistent throughout that week. Making brainstorming a long- term habit will get your mind looking into areas that you wouldn’t have normally thought of, as well as give you a library of topics to work from when you’re lacking motivation. 05. Explore a topic that excites you Milton focuses on getting the anatomy of the female form correct I usually paint female portraits (see tip #6), and have been working on just that subject for about 18 years now. It had nothing to do with work or making money. It became more of a long-term challenge. I always felt I wasn’t clever enough to understand anatomy. So I hid that weakness by drawing monsters, where I could make up my own anatomy. I then settled on portraits because I thought if I could capture the subtleties of the female face and form, I would have more control over lines and shapes. All my art heroes could draw women well and make them strong in nature, yet retain the feminine appeal. What I learned (and still learn) from just the one subject is that I may have a better understanding after all this time, but I know I’ll never learn everything on that subject. It’s helped me to see things I wouldn’t have to known to look for when I first started. I now take those observation skills into other areas of study, which has helped me to be excited to learn things I normally wouldn’t have attempted to tackle. 06. Work from big to small Milton refines his image over three stages When I’m motivated, it’s hard not to just jump right into the polishing stage. Yet by holding off as long as I can, I’ll get more done in less time. Observe the three pictures above. As in the first image, going large with strokes I usually grab my local colours and apply generous-sized strokes that indicate where the main features are, such as the direction of the lighting, large shadow shapes and warm/cool areas. It was tricky for me to work this way early on because I had a hard time looking past all the ugliness. In image two, I start to refine facial features. I begin blending colours by softening edges. I also add some slightly smaller shapes and refine others to further refine features like the eyes and nose. This is the stage where you can get caught up in doing the details, but I find it easier to make major changes if necessary during this stage. Lastly, I dive into the details. Everything I add now is to encourage the viewer’s eye to travel around the image. I don’t go too crazy and make sure everything supports those elements that are important to the picture. If you have a solid image going into this stage, the details become the icing on the cake. 07. Deconstruct paintings and reference Looking at reference work isn't 'cheating'. Eventually you'll learn to put your own spin on reference images Copying other people’s work or references was taboo early on in my journey to become an artist, so I tried to steer clear of it. But when I started my first studio job, I noticed that there was a lot of reference usage. My co-workers would gather inspiration pieces, deconstruct them and then come up with something new. I felt betrayed because I thought everything was done without reference! Being able to access so many great artists these days can be overwhelming and make you feel as though you’ll never make your mark on the art world. Yet if done properly, using reference and emulating your favourite artist can give you some great insight into the creative process. Especially when you set aside the original artwork and apply the techniques you’ve learned in your own way. You’ll achieve the right results with the knowledge that it’s all your own work. 08. Meet with like-minded artists Meeting with fellow artists can be a great source of inspiration There were days when I wondered if anyone went through the struggles I experienced. It was tough because I didn’t have a lot of peers who were into art. I always felt that it had to be easier for others. Once I decided to become an artist, I reached out to as many creatives as I could, meeting them for lunch to pick their brains. I wasn’t after technique advice – instead, I wanted to know how they handled mental challenges and to see what they were like as people, rather than artists. I’m lucky to have such a huge pool of creatives in my life. I usually do a weekly draw lunch at the local mall’s food court. It’s nice to be able to see a variety of challenges that life can throw at an artist in varying fields and at different stages of careers. It’s a great way to be educated, connect, to nurture and be nurtured. 09. Remember to dream big Don't stop dreaming I’ve been a dreamer my whole life. I believe it’s the reason why I’ve stuck with art for as long as I have. I would imagine all kinds of grand experiences that being an artist would enable me to have. Yet once I made art my career, I noticed that I didn’t dream as I once did. I lost some of the sparkle that I had as a beginner artist. It became harder to bring the dreamer out. I didn’t want him to get hurt. It’s sometimes easier to just go through the motions and play it safe. When my daughter was born it challenged this approach to life. I realised that it’s the dreamer who keeps me at it – even when I don’t like what I’m producing. It’s the dreamer who gives me the ability to move forward with my art in a positive way. It’s the dreamer’s imagination that makes it possible to glimpse at the artist you want to become and feel the joy of it now. Take a chance on nurturing that dreamer. 10. Keep a journal A journal is a great way to see what’s on your mind before you draw. For example: 'I didn’t sleep well last night and had a lot of things that I needed to get done. Man, I’m irritated today!' I noticed I would take these types of aggressive moods into my drawing time unintentionally. By writing them down before I drew, I learned not be as harsh a critic after I had finished a drawing. It was understandable that when I was irritated, I didn’t produce the same quality compared to when I was in a good mood. I could show myself some compassion, much like I would with a friend going through a tough time. After a while I learned to look for things that could improve my odds of having a better learning experience – to get into the zone. Another benefit comes if you keep a journal for a long time. You’re able to go back and see how different your thought process was and find out what was successful and what negative patterns were showing up that you hadn’t noticed before. Writing down my thoughts before drawing warmed up my hand. But it also helped me make more mindful decisions and gave me a boost in my self-confidence. 11. Set a time limit Sometimes when you have less time, you can create more, or create better When I chose to stay at home and raise my daughter, I limited my art time so I could focus on being a dad. I always felt guilty when I did some art. Quick bursts while she was eating breakfast or napping became the norm. A benefit from doing this was my inner critic went from saying, 'Your art will never be good enough' to 'Come on! Fifteen minutes? You can do more than that! I’ve got exciting ideas you can try if you go just a little longer!' My keenness to fit in my limited drawing time kept growing and became quite cherished. Stopping short also helped me to carry that excitement into subsequent sessions. I noticed that I didn’t suffer art burnout as often and that my mind worked on what I could do the next day more easily. Nowadays, I have a bit more time to dedicate to my art, but most of the time I limit it to short sessions and find myself more inclined to be excited every time I pick up my pencil. 12. Get to know your feelings Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours and composition can help you produce and consume art Most of my tips revolve around the mental process. Emotions dictate how we make decisions. Not only as artists, but as human beings. Look at how many artist are insecure with their art! I know I’m one of them. I thought it would go away once I turned professional… nope! Learning how to express emotions through shapes, colours, composition and so on has helped me see both sides: producing as well as consuming art. When you’re working on the basics, take some time to understand why you feel a certain way. When you’re working for someone, they’re the ones who dictate what they want the end product to represent. It can be overwhelming to create this way because we can’t really feel what the other person is thinking, and we tend to make assumptions based on what they say. So when we build a large library of techniques for expressing ourselves in our minds, we have a better chance at hitting the target for someone else’s vision. 13. Don't be afraid to tackle the basics (again) Don't think you're too advanced for the basics. You're not In my rush to become better at art, I skipped the basics. My mind would say, 'Yeah yeah, I know that.' Well, I learned that you don’t really know something until you can apply it properly – and more than once. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know anything. This is a great mindset to have as a creative. Early on, everyone wants to be the master of their craft. It’s mainly where my drive was coming from. The focus becomes this destination we want to arrive at as an artist. I’ve come to realise the magic doesn’t come from the achievement, but from all the things it took to get to that place. When you retain the student mindset and stay eager to learn, you can revisit the basics with a degree of excitement. From there, you can flourish in so many different ways and gain the confidence to bend the basics to your will. 14. Be okay with failing Bad drawing days are actually good... honest Bad drawing days are bound to happen. As long as I’ve been at it, I’ve learned that my biggest growth came from those bad days, especially when I looked at them properly. Being an artist, you can be your worst critic, but that’s not really the case. We just make it sound that way. When we have those bad days, we tell ourselves how terrible things are, and that we’ll never amount to anything. What’s really being said is that you’re not where you want to be. That voice wants you to become the artist you want to be. If your goal is to become better at what you do, then dissatisfaction is a ruler on which to measure your progress. Take time to look over how the journey is going for you at that moment of frustration. I think all my work isn’t where it could be – more so than when I first set out to be an artist. I’m grateful for this feeling. I get excited through my failures because I know each one is a lesson that’s needed for me to grow and improve. 15. Have a hobbyist mindset Thinking of your art as a hobby can help you view your work differently I know when I decided to make art my profession, I got serious about it… a little too serious, to tell you the truth. I loved toys, Saturday morning cartoons, video games and comics as a kid. When I wasn’t enjoying those things, I drew. By starting late with my career, I spent the early years excited to have finally arrived. Soon, however, I started seeing it as just a job. I never imagined I’d think of it that way. Especially because I’d never thought I’d get the opportunity. I was doing enough to get my work done, but was missing the love that pushed me to improve. Adopting a hobbyist mindset helped me cherish the time I get to 'art it up'. Even when I actually take on clients, I try to come from this place. I’ve conditioned myself to get excited at the thought of art. This has made me more productive and excited to learn new things, which could be beneficial to my creative workflow. It’s the foundation of why I 'keep on keepin’ on!' This article was originally published in issue 162 of ImagineFX, the world's leading digital art magazine. Buy issue 162 or subscribe here. Related articles: How to draw a dragon: 16 pro tips Why 2D artists need to learn 3D How to make social media work for you View the full article

Illustrations can make or break a design brief, as these stand out examples of illustrated ad campaigns demonstrate. Beyond their striking visual appeal, there are plenty of reasons for using illustrations over photography. But picking the right style for your brand, campaign, or marketing materials can be challenging. Should it be trendy, timeless, or something completely original and unique? It all depends on your needs. Another consideration is whether you can create your illustration in-house or if you need it commissioned. Whatever you decide, it will cost you either a lot of time or a lot money. The best solution is selecting a budget-friendly, time-saving alternative through platforms like iStock by Getty Images. While it's possible to create striking brand imagery using stock photography, iStock is also full of ready-to-use, easily editable stock illustrations. And, it’s never been easier to find and integrate illustrations into your work, thanks to thousands of readily available stock illustrations, featuring categories ranging from business to backgrounds, and everything in between. Read on to see five examples of versatile, high-quality stock illustrations that look premium – without the steep price tag... 01. Geometric vector patterns Bold, vibrant geometric patterns, such as the one above, can bring a design to life by making it pop in ways that grab your customers’ attention, and keep them engaged with your brand. When searching for patterns, try to find ones available in varied selection packs. They provide the opportunity to try out different options quickly and easily – without wasting time and money. Once you've chosen the right pattern, you can ensure it feels unique and fresh by editing the scale, trying different colourways, or manipulating the design. 02. Useful graphic icons Smart and stylish icons do double-duty on apps and websites. They bring in much-needed character and ease of usability, which creates an inviting and uncomplicated digital environment for your audience. Many are simple, neutral vector line drawings, often in themed packs catered to your needs. Others have more depth and personality, like the example above. Remember, you can always explore different colourways to match the scheme of your project once they’ve been chosen. Developing a whole suite of illustrations in the same style can be hugely time-consuming and expensive if you approach it from scratch. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of premium-quality icons to be found on stock libraries such as iStock by Getty Images. 03. Hand-drawn textures and backgrounds Don’t worry if clean graphic shapes don't suit the style of your project. There are also an increasing number of high-quality, hand-drawn stock illustrations available. But for relatively generic backgrounds, textures, and patterns that still feel customised, stock illustrations will do the trick. The exotic example above is just one of a series of different colour combinations in the same style and tiles. Together they seamlessly make a distinctive background pattern. Despite having a hand-drawn look and feel, it comes in vector format for infinite scalability and repurposing in a variety of different projects and sizes. 04. Matching sets of playful characters Character design is a niche, personality-driven art form that stock illustrations often struggle to replicate. This is particularly challenging if you're looking to depict something specific in terms of style, tone, or content or if unique characters take centre stage. Fortunately, iStock by Getty Images has thousands of exclusive stock character illustrations that are ready to be featured in your campaign. Playful stock character illustrations can prove invaluable when integrated as part of a bigger scheme or playing a secondary role as in the example above. They add much-needed charm and personality to your marketing materials, whether interacting with other elements in an app or introducing a section on a website. 05. Stylised design elements Premium stock illustrations can also be used for highly stylised and thematic applications, like an '80s themed flyer – for which the example above would be ideal. With such high-quality stock, the creative possibilities are endless. Just because you don’t have the budget or resources to create your own illustrations, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of this unique, eye-catching visual medium. With high-quality stock, you’ll still achieve that premium look and feel with relatively minimal effort and expense. What’s not to like about that? On the hunt for top-quality illustrations for your next design project? iStock by Getty Images is the perfect solution. The original resource for premium, royalty-free stock imagery, iStock offers million of assets including its own exclusive imagery. iStock is currently offering new customers 12% off everything: use code 12CBLOQNEW at checkout. Related articles: 4 stock images that would cost a fortune to shoot yourself 5 ways to create stunning brand imagery using stock 10 killer examples of illustrated ad campaigns View the full article

Want access to more than 80,000 stock images? That's exactly what you'll get with The Stock Photo Mega Bundle. For only $29.99, you can use any of these photos, completely royalty free. The photos cover a wide range of themes, from travel to even drone footage, and they come in both JPEG and PNG format to give you flexibility. Feel free to use them in almost any medium you wish, and bring your webpages, newsletters, and advertisements to life. Best of all, you'll get all these photos for the low price of only $29.99. That's 94 per cent off the regular price! Related articles: 18 top stock photo libraries The 13 best photography websites Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos View the full article

In the ever-growing and competitive creative industry, being a digital artist isn’t easy - or cheap. But whether you’re a professional or new to the world of digital art, there’s certain tools every artist should have in their toolkit. And it may surprise you to know they’re not as pricey - or certainly don’t have to be - as you might think. The key is working out where best to spend your hard earned cash and where you can afford to hold back a little. Here, we’ve listed four essential tools for digital artists, the majority of which won’t leave a gaping hole in your wallet. Pencil and paper Never underestimate the power of these traditional tools The cheapest toolset imaginable is a pencil and paper. Yes, even if you’re working as a digital artist, a good supply of pens and paper is invaluable. Building up a solid art foundation is key to creating original digital artwork as it means not simply relying on the capabilities of the software alone. By using these traditional but timeless tools, you can not only hone your artistic skills, you can also ensure all your creative ideas are captured with a quick sketch without the worry of technical limitations. Not only is a pen and paper much more reliable than a digital device, it’s often easier - not to mention safer - to carry around. A good artist, whatever the chosen medium, should always carry a pen and some paper. Quality monitor BenQ’s PD monitor range allows artists and designers to fulfill their full potential Working as a digital artist, the one thing you can’t scrimp on is a decent monitor. After all, how else are you going to really see how great your artwork is? Designed for designers, BenQ has a seriously impressive line-up of monitors in its PD range, all of which deliver absolute colour precision and ultra-high resolution to help designers fulfil their creative potential. Empowered by BenQ’s exclusive AQCOLOUR technology and 4K UHD resolution, each monitor in the PD range equips designers with extraordinary clarity of fine details and depth of subtle textures optimised for visually intensive work in animation, visual effects, graphic and photography. It’s hard to believe the BenQ PD range starts at just £255. Incredible quality without the hefty price tag - what more could you possibly want? Software Affinity Designer is one of the best digital art apps around This may seem like a no-brainer, but with so much creative software available, how do you choose which is right for you? First thing to do is work out your budget and intended use. If you’re new to digital art or a hobbyist, using free digital art software like Krita or Gimp might be the best option. However if you’re a pro or aspiring to be, a more powerful, comprehensive application like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Designer might suit you better, with both of these professional creative apps offering all the power and tools you could ever possibly need. Drawing tablet Hook your tablet up to one of BenQ’s amazing PD monitors for extraordinary clarity Drawing tablets have come a long way since the only option in town being a Wacom Intuos. Today there are options to suit all budgets – from powerful, feature-packed pen displays with high-resolution touchscreens, to mid-range and cheap drawing tablets that balance price with power. There are also three different options to suit workflow choice: Graphics tablet, which you draw directly onto with a stylus Pressure-sensitive pen displays, which are hooked up to a monitor Tablet computers, which can be adapted for drawing with an app Make sure to check our best drawing tablet buying guide to help decide which product is best suited to your needs and bank balance. Lead image courtesy of BenQ View the full article

Cisco has patched vulnerability in its video surveillance manager software that could give an unauthenticated, remote attacker the ability to execute arbitrary commands on targeted systems. View the full article

Microsoft said that it's working on a fix for a zero-day flaw in its JET Database Engine. View the full article

Over the past two years, there has been an explosion in interest surrounding VR and AR technologies. The latest big thing in experimental design, AR has also arrived on the web, but with this new technology comes new skills, and right now it feels like the Wild West with no major standards to follow. The ability to display 3D on the web is nothing new, but if you’ve been avoiding it, then you need to jump into technologies like three.js or A-Frame (take a look at our roundup of AR tools to try for a full list). Whatever skill level you are at, it won’t make much difference if you don’t have some decent content. Think about appropriate use cases for AR before jumping in. In this article, we’ll show you how to create a multi-marker AR experience. By using multiple markers, it’s possible to show different stages of a process or any unique content based on that marker. In this example, our app will explore the water cycle. Jump to page 3 to learn how to create a custom AR marker. 01. Get started Open the start folder in your IDE and inside the index.html page find the script tags. All the code in the tutorial will go inside these. To test the app you will need to have a server and if you want to test on a phone you will need to host the files on a HTTPS server. Add the initial variables in the script tags: 02. Load the model Use the icon in the top right to enlarge the image To make the AR scene work, a model will be loaded. You will see that once loaded it is stored in the variable model1. This is then scaled and cloned twice for the three steps. Rather than load three different models, all the adjustments to one model will be done in code to make it load quickly on mobile. 03. Set up the tweening On the first model, the cloud is going to be found in the scene and this will be tweened to a new position so that the cloud rises out of the sea. This is set to repeat forever and it will take eight seconds for the tween to animate up and show a cloud forming. 04. Scale it up The cloud is scaled down to be almost invisible. Another tween is added to the cloud and this scales the cloud up to its normal size. With the movement and the scaling, it will give the illusion that the cloud is rising and forming out of the sea as the first step in the process of the water cycle. 05. Set up the second cloud A second cloud will sit above the mountain The next cloud from the second model needs to be positioned where the first cloud finished its animation as a formed cloud in the sky. This is given a tweened movement to position itself over the land, rising slightly above the mountain. This will take 12 seconds to animate as it’s a bigger move. 06. Make it rain The key to making this illusion work is allowing the cloud to rain. The water cycle has the cloud rain as it moves higher over land. To get the effect, a particle system will be used. Here the amount of particles and the particle material is created, using a rain drop image. 07. Create raindrops Using a for loop, 1500 raindrops can be created with a random x, y, z position that will be between the cloud and the ground. Each raindrop is given its own random velocity to make the rain look more natural. The particle is pushed into the correct vertex of the geometry. 08. Work on the particle system Now the particle system is created out of the geometry and the material. The particles are set to be sorted so that the z-order is correct and then the rain particles are made a child of the second cloud. Anywhere the cloud is tweened, the rain also follows, so no need to animate the rain following the cloud! 09. Set the final model positions In the final model, the cloud is repositioned to the ending spot of the second cloud animation cycle. This new cloud is just going to sit in the sky and not animate. Instead the river is going to animate, so the river model is stored in a variable, ready to add the tween to it. 10. Fill up the river Water levels in the river need to rise In the third step of the water cycle the water runs off the hills, filling rivers and lakes as it returns to the sea. This is the most subtle movement as it will just entail moving the height of the river so that it appears to fill up. Everything is preloaded now, so the init function is called. Next page: Add AR functionality and markers 11. Initialise the AR scene The init function is mainly about setting up the Three.JS scene and then making that scene respond to the position of the marker detected in AR. In this case the renderer is set up and the various attributes set. It’s positioned in the top left of the browser screen. 12. Add the camera The renderer is appended into the HTML document and then a new array is created that will contain all the elements that need to be updated in the scene for animation – more on this later. A 3D scene is created and a camera added to the scene which will be from the position of the user’s camera. 13. Add AR functionality The source to track for AR markers is set up now and you can see in this code that it is set to track the webcam. This will be a phone or tablet’s camera if on those devices. If for any reason the window resizes, the onResize function is called and this is also called at the start. 14. Resize the screen Now the code creates the onResize function that is called from the previous step. This ensures the webcam image is set to be resized to fit inside the renderer. If you inspect your page, the renderer is actually a HTML5 Canvas element. 15. Add the first marker The next few steps all take a similar approach. A new variable is created and this becomes a group. Inside this group the marker is told to respond to a ‘pattern’ marker and the type of pattern is defined in an external file. For more information on how this was created see the separate tutorial. 16. Add the second marker Now the second marker is created with a different variable name. This references a different pattern so it will respond to a different marker held in front of the camera. This way holding up different markers will trigger different responses. 17. Add the final marker and models Each variable needs the correct marker added to it Once more, another variable is declared for the last marker and it references another pattern file. After this you will see that each marker variable group gets the correct model added to it that we set up in the first 10 steps. These will display when the marker is placed in front of the camera. 18. Update the particles The rain particles need to change every frame You may have forgotten about the rain particles created earlier, but they need updating every frame. So here a for loop moves through each particle in the array and updates its position, resetting it if it moves below the ground. This totally makes the rain effect work. 19. Remove the preloader This needs to disappear when the scene is ready While all of this set up has been going on, there has been a message over the screen that is asking the user to wait patiently for the content to load. Here that content is removed and the scene is rendered through the camera. 20. Continuously update The requestAnimationFrame is the browser’s built-in loop that tries to run as close to 60 frames per second that it can. Here the frame rate is worked out so that the animation is divided by 60 frames per second to work out the interval, to create a delta of time that has passed. Mobile CPUs will run at a different speed so frame rate will not be an accurate time counter. 21. Finish up Now the tween engine is updated and every element added to the onRenderFct array that will be updated at the correct speed. Save the file and make sure you look at this on a server, it must be HTTPS if you want to serve to mobile devices. Place the markers supplied in the project files folder in front of the camera to see the different stages. Next page: How to create a custom marker When creating your own AR experience, you will probably want the marker that you are using to either be branded to a client logo or customised in some way to reflect the nature of what your user is doing with the AR application. This is very easy to do. The main part to make this work is downloading the pattern file, placing this within your project folder structure and referencing this in your JavaScript code. Here's a quick step-by-step guide. 01. Make the pattern First create your marker's design In your image editing application make a square image and ensure the background is set to white. Now create a custom shape on the screen. Make sure this is black as this is the easiest to be read. Save the file as a PNG as this will be uploaded to a website to convert into the pattern code. 02. Upload and download Upload the design into AR.js Go to the pattern marker training page and click the upload button. Your marker will appear on the screen. Click the download marker button to get the marker file for your code. Click the appropriate download PDF button to get a printable marker. 03. Place it in the code Add the file to the data folder Place the downloaded pattern-marker.patt in the data folder. You can name it anything you like. Look in your code and change the line shown below to be the name of the pattern that you have downloaded. Now hold the PDF up to the camera to trigger the AR content to appear. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 274 or subscribe. Read more: 5 future web design job titles The future of design: AR will be bigger than the internet AR.js is bringing augmented reality to the web View the full article

It’s not just beginners who need to take web design courses; in this profession, you’re always learning. Firstly, new techniques and technologies are emerging constantly, and so it’s important to keep up. And secondly, the more general your skillbase becomes, the more in demand you’ll be. So even if you’re a JavaScript wonderkid, adding another string to your bow, such as user experience or web VR, will really help you get that dream job or freelance client. Overall, in our view, the best provider of web design courses is Treehouse. That's because they offer high-quality video training, as well as clever touches to keep you motivated and actually finish your course. And, perhaps most importantly, in a rapidly changing environment, their classes are always kept super up-to-date with the latest techniques and technologies. 7 things they don’t tell you about the web industry But there may be other course providers who may suit your specific needs better, whether that's in terms of your budget, preferred teaching methods or subject areas. So in this post, we’ve brought together the best of the best. (Note that we're focusing here on services that provide a wide range of web design training; if, however, you just want to learn a specific language, you may prefer our list of online coding courses. ) 01. Treehouse Best all-rounder: Treehouse is known for constantly updating its video-based lessons, so you're never left behind PROS: Up-to-the-minute training. Sole focus on web design and development. CONS: Subscription may not suit. Videos only downloadable on pricier plans. Founded in 2011 by well-known web designer Ryan Carson, Treehouse offers more than 300 video-based training courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development, from beginner to advanced levels. These are professionally shot, the quality of instruction is first-class, and everything is constantly updated to take newly emerging technologies into account (new content is released weekly). While online training lets you learn at your own pace, that often makes it difficult to motivate yourself to finish the course. Treehouse, however, has found a clever way to square this particular circle. That’s because after watching its videos, you then take interactive quizzes and challenges to test that you’ve understood it correctly. Once you complete these, you’re awarded badges, which get displayed on your profile. These ‘rewards’ might sound a little cheesy, but they really do help spur you on to keep going (anyone who’s ever sat up all night playing a game trying to get to the next level, or binge-watching a Netflix show to reach the end of a season, will understand this instinctively). Also note that many companies now actively recruit new employees via Treehouse based on the number of badges they have. You won't need any special hardware or operating system (other than a Mac if you’re learning iOS), and you can even write code inside the Treehouse App using a feature called Workspaces. Subscriptions, which offer you access to all the training courses on the site, start at £20/month, and there’s a seven-day free trial if you want to check out the training first. Also note that there are special organisation rates for companies, non-profits, schools, organisations and businesses. 02. LinkedIn Learning (previously Lynda.com) LinkedIn Learning offers high quality video training within a career networking environment PROS: High quality training. Videos are downloadable. CONS: Categorisation could be better. Not much here for advanced levels. Lynda.com could be described as the godfather (or perhaps godmother?) of training on the web. Founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman, it’s been running high quality courses in software, creative, and business skills for decades. And if anything its purchase by, and integration into, LinkedIn in 2015 has made it even more focused on helping you improve your career prospects. For example, when you're logged into LinkedIn, you’ll find training content that’s relevant to your needs will automatically surface. Plus when you learn new skills, the system makes it super-easy to highlight these on your LinkedIn profile. There are currently more than 500 courses in web design and web development to choose from, largely focused on beginner to intermediate levels, and taking in everything from PHP and React to more nuanced topics like ‘Moodboards for web designers’. So unless you’re looking for something very niche or advanced, you’re likely to find the exact training you’re looking for. However, you’ll have to do a bit of searching, as the courses are not particularly well categorised on the website. And there doesn’t seem to be the same concerted effort made by Treehouse to ensure students progress from course to course to slowly but surely build their skills; there’s more of a ‘pick and mix’ feel to this learning environment. All the courses are available on a subscription, which costs £19.99 per month on an annual plan or £24.98 on a monthly basis. A month-long free trial is also available. 03. Udemy Udemy offers a wide range of courses, although quality may vary PROS: Subscription-free. Lots for beginners. CONS: Variable quality. Can be costly if you take lots of courses. If you’re not keen on taking out a subscription, then Udemy might be a better bet for your online web design training, as you only pay per course. Note, though, that while Treehouse and LinkedIn Learning carefully curate their courses, Udemy is basically a marketplace where anyone can post a course and try their luck at turning a profit. That means that unlike the latter, employers are unlikely to see you completing a course on Udemy as a ‘proper’ qualification. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some excellent courses on this site. While Udemy courses are less likely to be as professionally shot as those on Treehouse or Lynda, that can make them more authentic and relatable. The website handily includes customer reviews so you can see which ones are hitting the right notes with students. And with courses starting at £11.99, you could save a fair amount of money as a result. You can download Udemy's videos for offline viewing via the mobile app, and there are a large range of web design topics covered, with a particularly strong emphasis on WordPress, HTML, CSS and Photoshop. Note, though, that most of these courses are beginner level. 04. Bloc Bloc promises to take you from a beginner to job-ready web developer. PROS: Career-focused. Help from mentors. CONS: Expensive. Serious time commitment. Launched in 2012, Bloc describes itself as an “online coding bootcamp” that aims to take you from being a beginner to job-ready web developer. Learning materials are a combination of written and video lessons, but Bloc’s special sauce is an apprenticeship model that pairs you with an experienced mentor, who provides support and guidance throughout the course via 14 hours of live Q&A per day. There are also weekly group discussions and daily group critiques. They don’t sugar-coat it: in their view “learning to code requires a lot of hard work. You can’t learn by osmosis, you have to build. You have to bang your head against problems and work your way out.” In other words, these structured learning programs are not for the faint-hearted, but aimed squarely at highly-motivated students who are determined to carve out a career in web design and development. Courses are full time and start at $7,500 for eight months’ instruction. You’ll need a webcam because with each module you’ll face an assessment by a person who’s not your mentor; this will be similar to a real-world technical interview. You’ll find a great personal account by Kasey Markham of his experiences taking a Bloc course here. 05. Udacity Learn high-end skills through Udacity's vocational courses for professionals PROS: Cutting-edge training. Tech industry involvement. CONS: Expensive. No use for beginners. Founded in 2011, Udacity was originally focused on offering university style courses, but now focuses more on vocational courses for professionals, which it calls 'Nano Degrees'. These courses typically walk you through building a project, and then you apply what you’ve learned to a project of your own. These are long-term courses and there are set times for lessons. To give you a flavour of how that works in practice, Bilal Tahir has written an excellent account of the React Nano Degree he took here. Aimed at “lifelong learners” rather than beginners, Udacity is firmly focused on teaching specialised skills to help people in the tech industry get to the next level of their career. Courses are focused on high-end topics such as autonomous systems, AI, machine learning and full-stack web development, and are built in partnership with Google, AT&T, and Facebook. You pay per course and as you might expect, it’s not cheap; this September’s Blockchain Fundamentals course, for example, costs £799. 06. Launch School Launch School offers a way of learning web design based on first principles PROS: Based on fundamentals, not software. Follow at your own pace. CONS: Expensive. Huge time commitment. If the full-on, intensive pace of a bootcamp scares the pants of you, then Launch School offers the very opposite: in its words, “The Slow Path for Studious Beginners to a Career in Software Development”. There are two main courses: Core Curriculum and Capstone. The first teaches you the fundamentals of software development; so it’s not about learning how to use a specific language, such as React or Rails, but about slowly building up your understanding of basic principles, so you get how higher level abstractions work from the bottom up. It takes approximately 1,200-1,800 hours (8-16+ months) to complete and costs $199 a month. After that, there’s an admissions-based course focused on helping students acquire career-launching opportunities. This involves a three months’ full-time study and, intriguingly, an Income Sharing Agreement where you only pay after you get a job offer. 07. Pluralsight Pluralsight sets you a special test to help you choose the right web design course for you PROS: Huge number of courses. IQ test helps you choose the right one. CONS: Subscription model may not suit. Not specifically focused on web design and development. Founded in 2004, Pluralsight offers a variety of quality video training courses by IT specialists. Web development is well covered here, with courses in CSS, JavaScript, Angular, React and HTML5 and more, ranging from beginner to advanced levels. Most notably, Pluralsight has an innovative way to check that the course is right for you: the ‘Pluralsight IQ’ test, which promises to test your skill level in just five minutes. The service also offers 24/7 support, you can download courses for offline viewing, and subscriptions start at $35 per month or $229 per year. 08. Skillshare Skillshare has lots of decent web design courses at low cost PROS: Cheap. Wide range of topics. CONS: Quality of training varies. Videos can be quite short. Like Udemy, Skillshare is an online marketplace for video-based courses of all kinds, including web design courses, mainly for beginner and intermediate levels. While the quality may vary, it’s all cheap and cheerful, although it may be stretching things a little to call them ‘courses’ when some videos are less than an hour long. Still, there’s a wide range of topics on offer, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UX/UI design, responsive web design, web development and WordPress. And so if you need to plug a specific knowledge gap, this might be a good place to come. You can unlock unlimited access to thousands of classes from just £7 per month for an annual subscription. Read more: 12 inspiring ecommerce website designs The 29 best iPhone apps for designers Which is the best CSS preprocessor? View the full article

Whether you're a freelance designer or a fully-fledged creative studio, you wouldn't have a business without your clients. Sometimes there can be hurdles to overcome, however, in order to maintain a smooth, mutually beneficial relationship. Managing difficult situations with clients can be one of the most challenging parts of life as a designer. Whether it’s chasing up overdue invoices, dealing with lots of amends or just good old-fashioned creative differences, it can get frustrating at times – but fear not, there are ways to smooth over even the rockiest terrain and keep everyone happy. So read on for five common hurdles that you may face when dealing with clients as a designer, and how to overcome them... 01. You need to chase late invoices Hopefully your client’s Accounts department isn't like this This happens more than you'd expect, and everyone’s heard the horror stories of chasing invoices months or even years after their due date. But putting the right framework in place from the outset can work wonders. For a start, you're within your rights to ask for a deposit upfront – ideally 50 per cent. For big, long-term projects, get a schedule in place for staged payments, so everyone knows what’s expected when. People are busy, and sometimes things fall through the cracks. Rather than panicking and chasing on (or after) the due date, drop a friendly reminder a week or so beforehand to make sure things are on track. Over time it becomes easier to spot the early warning signs from late-paying clients, such as requests for additional time, elaborate excuses, and promises of the money coming 'soon'. But remember, not all unpaid fees are the work of invoice-dodgers. You might have a great relationship with a client who always pays on time, but if they run into financial difficulties, you may feel the knock-on impact. If a client can't pay you, arrange a meeting to try and resolve things before doing any more work. 02. Your job falls through last-minute Before you shoot ahead, check the foundations are firm Winning a big new project is exciting, but don’t abandon other prospects until things are set in stone. If you clear your schedule to make way for work that hasn't been confirmed with a written contract, you could end up out of pocket if it falls through. Things can change at a moment's notice in this business, and it’s not always the client’s fault – they’re probably just as frustrated as you are, if not more so. Face-to-face meetings are a great way to build stronger relationships and are much more personal than an email or phone call. If a prospective client is reluctant to let you visit them in person, or confirm anything in writing, that could be a warning sign. Likewise, if there's a high turnover of people and your point of contact keeps changing, that’s an alarm bell too. Trust your intuition: if something doesn't add up, don't be afraid to ask questions. Stay in constant communication with your potential client, and make it clear that while you’ve pencilled the time in for them, you’ll have to keep your options open until the work is officially booked in. They should understand, and may also respect you more for it. 03. You have too many amends to deal with Sometimes a list of client amends can feel overwhelming No two clients are the same. Some are very hands-on and want to be involved at all stages of a project; others prefer to give you a brief and let you get on with it. It's important to get a sense, early on in a job, which kind of relationship is going to work best. Hands-on clients can be great if it's a healthy, two-way collaboration – but if they struggle to communicate what they want, it can be counterproductive. You may have encountered clients who keep contradicting themselves with their tweaks and amends, or even change the brief entirely. That can delay the project, which affects both of you, and may have a knock-on effect on your other clients too. But before you get angry, remember they may be out of their comfort zone. You can help manage this process from the outset before it gets out of hand. Take the time to explain the creative process to the client – don’t just assume they know what the different stages are. The more transparent and understanding you can be, the better, as it’s put your client at ease and make them feel more involved. Decent T&Cs can help manage the time you spend on amends, as well as your client’s expectations from the outset. These could include, for example, restricting how many rounds of amends you include before charging extra. If a last-minute amend comes through too late, however, it pays to be using digital print and design company moo.com for your print work. According to the MOO Promise, if there's any kind of mistake – even if it's your fault – they'll fix it for free. 04. You struggle to maintain boundaries If you’re taking client calls in bed, something has to give To a reasonable degree, it's important that you're available when your clients need you. You should respond to queries promptly, and make time for meetings and conference calls. By involving your clients at all stages of the project, and talking them through your workflow, you'll strengthen any studio-client relationship and avoid any nasty surprises. But there's a fine line between being flexible and sacrificing your personal life. It’s not a healthy client relationship if they call you at every hour of the day, and you drop whatever you're doing to cater to their needs immediately. Don't be afraid to calmly explain your normal working hours if you feel your work ethic is giving your client unreasonable expectations. Keep it friendly, rather than confrontational. Even if it's a mutually beneficial relationship and you love working on the project, if one client accounts for a high percentage of your business or time, you're on shaky ground if that falls through. Generating new business should be an ongoing process, regardless of how well things are going – never let the demands of one client stop you seeking new ones. 05. You start to get complacent Don’t just put your feet up and expect the work to come to you If you can prove yourself indispensable, and become an integral part of your client's business model, you should be rewarded with a constant stream of business. Investing in a strong client relationship means long-term security, right? Well, possibly. But don’t get complacent and just assume repeat business. Even if a project has gone brilliantly, both you and the client are happy and it was completed on time and under budget, more work is never an absolute certainty. Make it clear how you can continue to help their business moving forward, and look to establish yourself as the first port of call for design projects big or small. There isn't a studio in the world that hasn't lost a client along the way. Your contact might leave, a rival studio may undercut you, or your differences may prove unresolvable despite your efforts. Don't be disheartened. Take what you can from the project and move on. But if you take the above advice on board and invest time and energy in fostering a strong, healthy client relationship, it should pay off. Even the strongest client relationships have to start somewhere – so get your business cards out and spread the word. Digital print and design company moo.com can help you make a great first impression, and they've even provided some advice to improve your client relationships on their blog – so pop over and take a look. Related articles: 10 steps to go freelance this year Pro's guide to creating memorable business cards How to project your work onto the global stage 6 sure-fire ways to build your creative network Nail the art of networking and get more from events 4 brilliant personal logos – and why they work 3 tips for crafting stunning print promo materials Create better business cards in less than 5 minutes 5 ways to earn more as a freelancer View the full article

Searching for the best graphics card? We can help. Whether you prefer the grunt power of Nvidia or the driver stability of AMD, in this list we’ve selected the very best graphics cards right now – for all budgets. Right now, we think the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti is the best graphics card you can get, offering the best balance of power, cost and support for a wide variety of tasks. At a touch over £400, it still offers great all-round performance, and with 8GB ram, 2432 cores and running at 1607ghz, it's powerful enough for intensive tasks, including VR. But it's worth pointing out that the RTX 2080 is on the way. And don't forget that the right graphics card for you depends on what you want to use it for. Jump straight to: How to choose the best graphics card In recent years, the search for increased computer power has moved away from the central processing unit (CPU) and towards the graphics processing unit (GPU), located on plug-in graphics cards. Graphics cards were traditionally used for powering your display. And while that's still the case, now – even with multiple 4K monitors – GPUs can also be used to render realtime raytracing, run physics simulations, work with huge files in Photoshop CC or After Effects CC, and more. Capable of doing all the heavy lifting in record speed, a GPU is a vital asset to artists and designers. Here are the 10 best graphics cards around right now... The 1070 ti is not the newest card on this list but it still packs a punch, with 2432 cuda cores, 8GB on board ram and a base clock speed of 1607Mhz (some versions can be overclocked to 1683Mhz with additional cooling). This card is a favourite among digital artists who like to stack them for economical extra power, which works well for rendering super-fast with software like Octane. The 1070 ti is also a solid GPU for those users looking to get started with VR as it will work well with both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. This card is the best all-rounder, balancing cost with power and functionality, and is perfect for creatives using heavy duty software. Although mostly aimed at gamers, this card also has a large following among 3D designers and video enthusiasts. If your budget is limited, the best bet for you to get the most bang for your buck is the 1050 ti. The little sibling to our best overall still has a to to offer and will happily play full HD games with it’s 3GB ram, 768 cores and clock speed of 1392Mhz. You won’t be able to run a VR rig with this card, but you should get frame rates around 50-60fps, rivalling that found in the latest consoles. This card is best for budget conscious artists and gamers who can sacrifice total power to make a saving. You may need to pull back on the highest games settings and real-time shaders in 3D work to get the best frame rates in software like Battlefront or Maya. If money is no object and you want the best that’s on offer, then look to AMD and its best performing GPU ever. The Vega 64 is a hugely capable GPU, with 8GB ram, 4096 cores and a speed of 1546. On paper this is pretty close to NVIDIA’s 1080 Ti, but the AMD pips it to the post with excellent 4K gaming support, offering close to 60fps. It also has plenty of power for running multiple displays, even if they are ultra wide 21:9 monitors, with HDMI and three display ports. While the 1080 might just edge past in some areas, or for some games, the Vega 64 offers superb results. The impending arrival of Nvidia’s RTX 2080 might shake things up again but we can revisit this list when they are available. Whether you are playing the latest triple A-game, or crunching billions of polygons in Clarisse, you will find this card caters to all your creative needs. The Quadro line has long been at the top of the pile for high-end workstations and the P6000 is the best of the bunch (at least until the RTX version comes out in late 2018). With a huge 24GB of super-fast RAM on board and a total of 3840 cores, this 384-bit GPU is fit to take on any digital content creation task you might throw at it, from photorealistic retraced rendering to 4k video editing. There's also a DVI and four display ports, so you can power multiple 4k monitors and your VR rig all at once. You will need to spend a small fortune to get hold of this graphics card, but considering the power on offer and the market it’s aimed at the price seems justified. This card offers blisteringly fast performance for creative content creators. If you are looking for a graphics card specifically for gaming, then a good bet comes in the form of the 8GB AMD RX580. At just under £300, this graphics card offers better than average performance, courtesy of the 2304 cores and clock speed of 1257. You will also get frame rates of 50+ even in 1440p mode. The DVI, HDMI and driven by 6.2 TFLOPS of power make for a versatile card that could suit many gaming rigs. How to choose the best graphics card When hunting for your next graphics card, start by thinking about its purpose. For example, if you're a graphic designer wanting to boost the performance of Photoshop, you're going to have very different GPU requirements to a hardcore gamer wanting to work with extremely high-resolution or multiple displays. Key things to consider when you're choosing a graphics cards include: - Cores: the higher the number of cores, typically the faster performance overall. For intensive graphics tasks, 1500 cores and above will stand you in good stead. - Monitor and motherboard compatibility: Since graphics cards attach directly to a monitor, it's important to know that not all monitors and video cards have matching ports. You also need to check that the motherboard in your PC supports the graphics card you've chosen before parting with your hard-earned cash. - Power supply: make sure that your power supply has the correct wattage to support your chosen graphics card. - RAM: While more RAM is better, don't necessarily let this affect your decision on graphic card choice as having more RAM than the software can use does not yield much (if any) performance advantages. - Clock (or memory) speed: The speed of the graphics card's RAM is typically reported in MHz, the number indicating how fast the card can access the data that is stored on the RAM. So the quicker the data can be accessed, the less time you have to wait. In short, the faster the clock (or memory) speed the better. One thing to note is that you’ll often see two speeds quoted, so check to see if your choice can be boosted or over clocked, which can give you a little extra performance. View the full article

Knowing how to build an app is only half the battle in app design. If your creation doesn't stand out in the app store, it doesn't matter how good it is; no one's going to buy it. A beautiful, identifiable and memorable app icon can have a huge impact on the popularity and success of an app. But creating that one, singular piece of design that users will interact with first each time they see your product can be an intimidating task. So how exactly does one make a 'good' app icon? What does that even mean? Fear not, I've put together some tips and advice to help answer these questions, and guide you on your way to great app icon design. There's also a video to accompany this tutorial, which you'll find below too. What is an app icon? The first things you need to understand when setting out to create your icon is what exactly an app icon is and what job it has to perform. An app icon is a visual anchor for your product. You can think of it as a tiny piece of branding that not only needs to look attractive and stand out, but ideally also communicate the core essence of your application. The word 'logo' is thrown around carelessly these days. Icon design and logo design are not the same thing. While they certainly share branding-like qualities, app icons are under a lot of different restrictions. While they certainly share branding-like qualities, app icons are not the same as logos It's an important distinction for the designer to make: logos are scalable vector pieces of branding designed for letterheads and billboards. Icons are most often raster-based outputs customised to look good within a square canvas, at specific sizes and in specific contexts. The approach, the tools, the job and therefore the criteria for success are different. From a practical standpoint, what you are creating when you're making an app icon is a set of PNG files in multiple sizes – ranging from 29 x 29px all the way through to 1024 x 1024px – that needs to be bundled with your app. This set of carefully crafted designs will be used in the many contexts of the OS where users encounter your application – including the App Store or Google Play, Settings panel, search results and your home screen. App icons can essentially be made in any application capable of producing raster files, but common choices are Photoshop, Illustrator and Sketch. Free tools like appicontemplate.com offer clever PSD templates that can help you get off the ground quickly. Now let's take a look at some of the best practices of app icon design. 01. Make it scalable An app icon needs to retain the legibility across a range of sizes One of the most important aspects of an icon is scalability. Because the icon is going to be shown in several places throughout the platform, and at several sizes, it's important your creation maintains its legibility and uniqueness. It needs to look good on the App Store, on Retina devices and even in the Settings panel. Overly complicated icons that try to cram too much onto the canvas often fall victim to bad scalability. A very big part of the conceptual stages of app icon design should be dedicated to thinking about if any given design scales gracefully. Working on a 1024 x 1024px canvas can be deceptive – make sure you try out your design on the device and in multiple contexts and sizes Embrace simplicity and focus on a single object, preferably a unique shape or element that retains its contours and qualities when scaled Make sure the app icon looks good against a variety of backgrounds 02. Make it recognisable An app icon is like a little song, and being able to identify it easily in amongst all the noise of the store or your homescreen is a key component in great icon design. Like the verse of a song needs to resonate with the listener, so do the shapes, colours and ideas of an app icon. The design needs to craft a sense of memory and connection on both a functional and an emotional level. Your icon will be vying for attention amongst thousands of other icons, all of which have the same 1024px canvas to make their impact and secure their connection with the viewer. While scalability is a huge part of recognisability, so is novelty. The search for a balance between these qualities is the very crux of the discipline. Bland, overly complicated icons are the enemy of recognisability. Try removing details from your icon until the concept starts to deteriorate. Does this improve recognisability? Try out several variations on your design. Line them up in a grid and try to glance over them, seeing what aspects of the designs catch your eye Try to deconstruct your favourite app icons and figure out why you like them and what methods they use to stand out 03. Keep it consistent There's something to be said for creating consistency between the experience of interacting with your app icon and interacting with the app it represents. I feel like good icon design is an extension of what the app is all about. Making sure the two support each other will create a more memorable encounter. Shaping a sleek, unified image of your app in your users' minds increases product satisfaction, retention and virality. In short: making sure your icon works harmoniously with the essence, functionality and design of your application is a big win. One way to ensure consistency between app and icon is to keep the colour palette of your interface and icon in line, and use a similar and consistent design language – a green interface reinforced by a green app icon, for example Although it's not always possible, one way to tighten the connection between your app and your icon is for the symbolism of the icon to directly relate to the functionality of the app 04. Aim for uniqueness Icons can be detailed or simplistic, just make sure that they’re creative, interesting and accurately convey your intentions This almost goes without saying, but try to make something unique. Mimicking a style or a trend is perfectly fine, but make it your own. Your app icon is constantly competing with other icons for the users' attention, and standing out can be a perfectly valid argument for a design. Uniqueness is a tricky part of design, because it not only relies on your skills but also on the choices of others who are trying to tackle a similar task. Consider what everyone else is doing in your space, then try a different direction. Always do your research – the world doesn't need another checkmark icon A singular glyph on a one-colour background can be a tricky route to go down if you want to stay unique. Play around with different colours and compositions, and challenge yourself to find new and clever metaphors Colour is a great and often overlooked way of repositioning a concept 05. Don't use words This is one of my all-time top pet peeves. Only in the rarest of occasions is it OK to use words in app icons. If you have to retreat to another tool of abstraction – the written word – I'd say that you're not using the full force of your pictorial arsenal. Words and pictures are separate representational tools, and mixing them in what is supposed to be a graphical representation often leads to a cluttered and unfocused experience, which is harder to decode. Is there really no better way to visualise the application than with dry words? Whenever I see words in app icons, I feel like the designer missed an opportunity to more clearly convey their intentions. There's no need to include the app name in the icon – it will most often be accompanying the icon in the interface. Instead, spend your time coming up with a cool pictorial concept "But Facebook has the 'f' in its app icon", I hear you say. If you're using a singular letter and you feel like it's a good (and unique) fit, then the letter loses its 'wordy' qualities and becomes iconic by itself. However, this is more often the exception than the rule Your company logo and name in a square is never a good solution. Do you have a mark or a glyph that works well within the constraints? If not, you're probably best off coming up with something new. Remember, icons and logos are not the same, and shouldn't be forced into the same context 06. Make it stand out On the App Store and on Google Play, there are many examples of bland and unopinionated icon designs. Your icon is the strongest connection you'll have with your user. It is what they'll see first when they meet you in the App Store. It's what they'll interact with every single time they use your app. It is what they'll think of when they think of your app. Anything short of a well thought-out, fitting and attractive solution is a failure to utilise your greatest visual asset. Your app icon should not be an afterthought, it should be a working part of the process. App icons are tiny little pieces of concentrated design, and there's something really appealing about that process of creating one. Whether they're detailed or simplistic, conventional or creative, these icons have one unifying property: they all grasp for people's attention within the same limited amount of space, on a completely level playing field. It's a specific challenge, and the answer is always within those same pixels. There's no doubt it can be intimidating to crown your application with a singular piece of graphic design, but I hope the tips I've outlined here will make you more confident in taking on the challenge. Now go forth and make a fantastic app icon! This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Subscribe here. Read more: How to name your app Create sets of product icons in Illustrator 33 stunning iOS app icon designs View the full article

With a smartphone in your pocket, you have a great camera with you at all times (and there are some really great camera phones for creatives on the market). Smartphone photography is becoming more and more impressive – and is sometimes indistinguishable from photography taken on professional-grade DSLRs. However, if you want to move beyond selfies and random snaps, you'll need a bit of training. With The Quick Guide To Smartphone Photography & Video, you'll learn how to take better pictures – everything from sprawling landscapes to meaningful portraits. Plus, you'll learn everything straight from the horse's mouth; Chase Jarvis is a successful, award-winning photographer who will teach you everything from posing to lighting techniques. Check out The Quick Guide To Smartphone Photography & Video for only $9. Read more: Is iPhone XS the best camera phone for designers? Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos 45 best photo apps and photo editing software View the full article

The launch of the D&AD Annual is always an exciting event. Creatives get to discover who designed the prestigious book and how they have put their spin on the annual, and also see all the winners of the year's D&AD Awards collected in one beautiful volume. The annual is always a masterclass in how to design a book, but at last night's launch party D&AD revealed that its 56th Annual contains something extra special. This year's Annual was designed to not only celebrate Pencil-worthy work from across design and advertising, but also create something that would stimulate and inspire young creative talent. Who designed 2018's D&AD Annual? Step in Magpie Studio, who designed this year's Annual. Known for its playful spirit, award-winning London agency Magpie Studio experimented with the format of the Annual, and cut the front cover in half to make space for a new addition: the Manual. The Manual is detachable from the main Annual, and is aimed at young designers and creatives who are just entering the industry. It features creative tasks, such as reimagining a doughnut or cutting out and rearranging a series of flags, as well as nuggets of inspiration and wisdom from industry heavyweights such as Michael Johnson (Johnson Banks), Bjorn Stahl (INGO Stockholm) and Alice Tonge (4creative). The Manual describes itself as a "guide for the dreamers and the idea-havers", and the front page encourages Annual owners to detach their Manual and pass it on to "someone with big ideas". It uses the same typeface as the Annual, Timmons NY, in order to give the titling impact in a modern and utilitarian way. An inspiring Annual/Manual for budding creatives “Ever since college, the Annual has been a hallowed source of inspiration for me," says Magpie Studio's creative partner Ben Christie. "Whilst other awards schemes come and go, D&AD has always been the best of the best. Year on year it’s by far the greatest collection of creative work in the industry. It’s a vital way to spread the word of creativity and hopefully the Manual will help take that reach wider.” "There have been so many beautiful and interesting Annual designs over the years that I thought this year we use the book to give a bit more back to people just starting out," explains outgoing D&AD President Steve Vranakis. "One of my predecessors, Andy Sandoz, was actually the first to introduce the idea of the D&AD Annual acting as a 'manual' for creativity and I thought what better way to deliver against my manifesto of opening up the creative industry to more people especially those coming from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds than to revive this.” The Annual is available to buy now from D&AD. Related articles: How to win a D&AD award D&AD offers free night classes to young creatives 8 up-and-coming designers to watch from D&AD New Blood View the full article

You're reading Google Announces a New Governance Model for AMP, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Just a few days after adding ads scenarios to AMP attracting a new wave of critiques, Google dropped the bomb and announced the transition to an open governance model. “[…]we want to move to a model that explicitly gives a … View the full article

So you're looking for the best Canon EOS 800D deals? (Or Canon EOS Rebel T7i deals, if you're in the US.) We've searched the world's most reputable retailers to find the cheapest Canon EOS 800D price possible. Scroll down for today's best offers... The best camera in 2018 The Canon EOS Rebel T7i / EOS 800D is a great pick for any budding photographer, thanks to its great range of features for shooting both photos and video. The 24.2 megapixel sensor combined with a super-sharp 45 autofocus points makes for remarkably impressive pictures that belie the entry-level price-tag. With considerably more cross-points than the likes of Nikon's D5600, many photographers are heading over to the Canon camp. We're big fans of the live-view autofocus and image stabilisation, which is particularly useful when shooting video footage and trying to refocus on new elements. There's no 4K shooting on the EOS 800D, but that helps keep the price down. You do get 1080p recording at a silky smooth 60 frames-per-second though. There are multiple image transfer options available on this entry-level DSLR, with Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth all on call to get your files onto a mobile device or laptop – anything that keeps those pesky USB cables at bay works for us. Most users shouldn't have a problem getting a full day's use out of the Canon EOS 800D as the battery is good for around 600 captures. We're quite surprised to see a handy vari-angle screen on this DSLR too. This is an incredibly accomplished and user-friendly beginner's DSLR camera. Scroll down for more of today's best Canon EOS 800D prices. Read more: The best camera for photography The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras The best camera phones in 2018 View the full article

Looking for the cheapest Nikon D850 price? We're here to help. Our team is constantly searching for the best Nikon D850 deals possible – and we've collated our findings below. Scroll down for today's lowest Nikon D850 prices... The best camera for photography The Nikon D850 is a professional camera – as you'd expect given its price. Unlike many of its rivals though, this DSLR doesn't compromise on resolution or shooting speed: you get excellent performance from both here. You can shoot incredible 45.7 megapixel images at a slick seven frames per second. And if you need a little more, then a battery grip will boost that to nine frames per second. You won't find any other cameras offering such high performance levels for this price. In fact, these Nikon D850 deals make the camera considerably cheaper than the likes of the Nikon D5 – but it comes with the same 153-point autofocus, making it even more tempting. We’re actually struggling to find any cut corners to explain how Nikon is achieving this at this price. You’ll get an incredible 1840 shots from a single charge on the Nikon D850 to ensure plenty of time and images before heading back to the studio. You won’t find another Nikon DSLR with a viewfinder capable of such a high level of magnification either. This excellent camera can handle pretty much anything you might throw at it, including the elements as there’s a sturdy weather-resistant shell. The secondary LCD screen on the top of the camera also illuminates, making it great for shooting in darker conditions. This is one of the best professional cameras suited to multiple disciplines in the field – and you'll find more of today's best Nikon D850 prices below. Related articles: The best camera for photography The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras The best camera phones in 2018 View the full article

There are some fantastic Nikon D5600 deals to be found right now. One of the best cameras a beginner can invest in, the Nikon D5600 is a feature-rich and extremely capable entry-level DSLR – and it does a little bit more than the D3400, so it'll grow with you as your photography skills improve. Here are the lowest Nikon D5600 prices out there right now... These days, entry-level DSLR cameras are incredibly user-friendly. Indeed, the Nikon D5600 could be considered close to enthusiast level, given its excellent image quality and extra features. With a 39-point autofocus system and 24.2 megapixels, image quality is high – and even more so when you consider it's nowhere near four-figure territory in terms of pricing. The stand-out feature of the Nikon D5600 is its intuitive vari-angle touchscreen. We’re simply not used to seeing them on cameras around this price. Not that we’re complaining: the adjustable screen angles make shooting in various conditions and positions much easier. Budding photographers will also appreciate being able to tap the area of the screen where they’d like images to focus, too. Nikon’s SnapBridge feature is a handy (if not always particularly smooth) process where you can transfer images directly to your phone or tablet via a Bluetooth connection. From there, you’re free to upload your images to social media, cloud storage and so on without having to get the laptop out and dig out your USB cable. With images this good and an incredibly helpful touchscreen, this really is a fantastic value DSLR camera. You'll find more of the latest deals and the lowest Nikon D5600 prices below. Related articles: The best camera for photography The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras The best camera phones in 2018 View the full article

Searching for the lowest Nikon D3400 price? Our team is continually searching the internet to dig out the very best Nikon D3400 deals – and you'll find today's best offers right here. The excellent entry-level Nikon D3400 is one of the best cameras you can buy if you're just starting out. Read on to find the most competitive Nikon D3400 prices there are right now... The Nikon D3400 is one of our favourite entry-level DSLR cameras. It’s more than capable of taking a great picture, but comes without the huge price tag many rival cameras wear. We’d go for this model over the older ones thanks to the D3400's excellent battery and SnapBridge. The Nikon D3400 will last for a few days from a solitary charge for most users, with the capacity to take up to 1,200 shots before needing topping up. SnapBridge is a neat system that enables you to transfer images via Bluetooth to your mobile phone – making it a lot easier to back your pictures up on a secondary device and enabling you to upload them to social media before you get home and transfer them to your laptop. With these Nikon D3400 deals, you get some impressive specs for your cash. You can shoot 24 megapixel images at five frames per second, and this small camera is an excellent video recorder too. As you would expect at this price, there’s no 4K recording, but 1080p recording remains of excellent quality for most entry-level users. If you’re just getting into photography and the world of DSLRs, then you’ll appreciate the Nikon D3400’s built-in guide and user-friendly controls. This is one of your best options if you’re serious about taking pictures but can’t justify splashing four figures on a camera. Here are the lowest Nikon D3400 prices out there right now... Related articles: The best camera for photography The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras The best camera phones in 2018 View the full article

Adobe has been releasing teasers of the most exciting changes you'll find in the upcoming release of Illustrator CC, and here's one we're particularly excited about: soon designers will be able to customise their toolbars. 60 amazing Illustrator tutorials With over 80 tools on offer, finding the ones you want hasn't always been easy. And let's face it, your most-used tools often differ from project to project. Thankfully, there's a clever new way to manage your tools coming your way in the next major Illustrator update. Adobe has created a new tools menu, accessible from the bottom of the Illustrator toolbar, in which all available tools are grouped logically by function. Designers will be able to drag and drop the tools they need into their main toolbar, and the ones they don't out of the main toolbar and into the complete menu. See it in action in the short video below. Users will also be able to create different custom toolbars for different projects. It's a fairly simple update that promises to have a big impact on workflow, making Illustrator much more user-friendly. You can read more on the Adobe Blog. Read more: Create sets of product icons in Illustrator The illustrator hotlist 2018 How to create repeat patterns in Illustrator View the full article

Vulnerability allowed an unauthenticated remote attacker to log in to a device at the time the system initially boots up. View the full article

With a quarter of US malls predicted to close by 2022, many retailers are wondering how they can survive the approaching apocalypse occurring in the commercial world. While the value proposition of retail destinations has become obsolete, physical shopping is far from dead. In fact, behind the doom-laden headlines and against all odds, stores are continuing to open, innovate and succeed. 12 inspiring ecommerce website designs In the US, retailers announced more than 3,000 store openings in the first three quarters of 2017, and between 2014 and 2018, surveys showed that the percentage of consumers shopping at brick-and-mortar stores weekly increased from 36 to 44 per cent. But in order to continue evolving, physical stores must embrace technologies that have helped their online counterparts succeed. At present, many retailers only think of a physical store as hardware – the architecture, the layout, the products within – but it's crucial that they combine this with an invisible layer of technology: the software. The biggest mistake most traditional retailers make is treating e-commerce as a separate channel, in turn creating siloed experiences. The Storefront Salvation Game places users in the shoes of a new British high street brand's managing director As they break down these silos, retailers need to rectify the metrics they use for defining a store’s success. Metrics such as sales per square foot and year-on-year sales are from a pre-Amazon era. In the future, measures such as impact on brand impression, digital purchase intent, inspiration per square foot, return on friction, convenience for associates and customer experience will play a much more crucial role. The Future Laboratory believes that future stores will not simply be experiential hubs without products, nor will they be screen-filled fulfilment centres. They will be the best of both worlds and catalyse a relationship with the consumer that transcends the store. In the game, you are tasked with making the many crucial decisions that brands of the future will need to make in order to stay afloat To accompany The Future Laboratory's recent Storefront Salvation report, we created a free game to put the public in the shoes of future brand managers, so they can experience what decisions need to be made to help stores survive the so-called retail apocalypse. Have a go now. Will you go bust, break even or break the bank? After you’ve played, share your score @TheFutureLab on Twitter. Good luck! This article originally appeared in issue 284 of Computer Arts, the world's leading graphic design magazine. Buy issue 284 or subscribe here. Related articles: 8 business tips for selling design goods How to succeed as a designer-maker The future of branded cities View the full article

There are some exciting web design tools out this month. September's picks include an AR reality system for Shopify, a huge UI wireframing kit, a collection of sounds for your apps and some great colour tools. Read on to find out more... 01. Microcopy Inspirations These examples of great microcopy will hopefully inspire you to write better copy on your own site Hitting the right tone with your microcopy makes a huge difference to how people feel about you and what you’re offering. To help you strike the right note, Sridhar Rajendran has curated this online collection of good bits of copy that demonstrate how to communicate well while adding some personality to your site. They’re divided into helpful categories such as 404 pages, cookie consent, newsletters, error messages and so on, and will hopefully serve as inspiration for writing your own entertaining and engaging copy. 02. Picular You can try typing in things that aren't colours, such as 'pig', to get some typical pig hues Here’s an alternative way to get started on your colour schemes: Picular is a search engine for colours. Just enter any colour and get a range of swatches. It’s useful because we’ve all got a slightly different idea of what we mean by ‘fuchsia’, ‘vermilion’, ‘dusky lavender’ and so on, so Picular helps to get everyone on your team speaking the same language. The swatches come up with hex values that you can click to send to the clipboard. 03. Scale Use the sliders to adjust light and dark colours separately This is another really great tool for making colour palettes. Unlike other palette tools, this one is focused on making palettes out of colour scales. The RGB values at the top control the overall colour theme, and once you’ve set that you can further tweak things using the sliders underneath. The palette is divided into light and dark colours, so you can play with either end of the scale without affecting the whole thing. You can use this to create scales that go from very dark to very light, or stick to a middle range. 04. Shopify Augmented Reality It's now easy to give your customers a 360-degree view of your products One advantage that bricks-and-mortar shops will always have over online retailers is that they give customers direct access to products for close inspection. Now Shopify is closing the gap a little with Shopify AR, which enables retailers to easily create augmented reality experiences for customers using Safari in iOS 12. This gives users a chance to closely examine products from every angle and get a much better sense of what they’re buying. Check out Shopify's blog to see what some online shops have already done with it. 05. Dense Discovery Kai Brach, publisher of Offscreen magazine, curates a weekly collection of the best web design things Don’t miss out on this one: it’s a wonderful newsletter put together by Kai Brach, publisher of Offscreen magazine, which contains an excellent selection of useful tools, apps and sites, as well as the most interesting and inspiring design-related podcast episodes, articles and conversations. If you’re trying to wean yourself off Twitter a bit, you can use newsletters like this one to reduce FOMO – all the best bits are in here so you don’t need to worry about missing out on something by reducing the time you spend on social media. 06. Ship 2.0 Get your product off the ground with this suite of tools Product Hunt has released a major update to its Ship tool, which is a toolkit to help you with all the things you need to do to get your digital product off the ground. There are tools for making a landing page, building an email list to stay in touch with your users, conduct surveys, A/B test your website and much more. The new version has improved customisation features, as well as the capability to add a chat room to your homepage. 07. Image Performance by Mat Marquis Top advice for optimising images and speeding up your site No matter how much effort you’ve put into the design, if your site is slow it’s going to be a frustrating experience for your users – so speed should always be a priority. Image optimisation is a low-hanging fruit in this situation. Mat Marquis is chair of the Responsive Issues Community Group, so he’s an expert on these matters. In this e-book, he guides you through everything you need to know to get your images up to scratch. 08. PDFShift Get a PDF from an HTML document with minimal fuss Sometimes the simplest tasks can be frustratingly difficult to accomplish, and converting HTML documents to PDFs surely fits into that category. PDFShift offers a decent solution to this problem: with a single POST request it will generate a PDF of the required HTML document, and it provides plenty of options for customising the output – you can add a header/footer, a watermark and customise the CSS. There’s a free option which gives you 250 conversions per month, or you can pay to get more. 09. UI Sound Kit 2 This is a great collection of UI sounds from composer and sound designer Roman Zimarev, which you can use to give a nice tone to your app or website. The sounds are arranged into categories for notifications, alerts, complete and success, cancel and errors, and miscellaneous – but of course you can make your own judgement about which sound goes where. There are 130 sounds and it’s $38 for the lot – not bad for a good library you can use for multiple projects. 10. iOS Wireframing Kit Drawing interface screens from scratch probably isn’t worth your time; this kit has over 240 fully customisable screens for Sketch that you can use to put your app together at top speed. All the common purposes are there such as registration, user profiles, settings and so on, and the designs are divided into categories so you can find what you’re looking for easily. It’s easy to adjust colours and typography to put your own spin on the designs and avoid a cookie-cutter look. The library is $39, which sounds like a good deal to us. Related articles: 7 game-changing web design tools for 2018 10 fantastic web design tools for July 2018 The 6 pillars of great UX View the full article