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You're reading UX Best Practices for Using Search on Your Website, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! When a website contains a lot of content, your viewers are often not sure how to find the information they would like. As a result, they often use the search bar to look for a specific fact or ask a … View the full article

This morning, Amazon officially announced that Prime Day 2018 will start on 16 July. The 36-hour event, which runs from 16 July 12pm PT/3pm ET through to 17 July, is an amazing opportunity for designers to grab the best deals on tools and equipment. The extended 36 hour event promises to be the biggest Prime Day yet. In an Amazon statement, it's claimed that: "Prime Day 2018 will feature 50 percent more Spotlight Deals and more than one million deals globally. Prime members will enjoy the biggest deals yet on Alexa-enabled products, including Echo, Fire TV, and Fire tablets this Prime Day — and starting today, members can save $100 on the Echo Show. "New this year, members can shop Prime Day Launches – exclusive new items, content and special-edition products from hundreds of well-known and emerging brands." More hours means more chance to snap up deals Amazon's CEO Worldwide Consumer, Jeff Wilke, had this to add: “Prime members will enjoy a day (and a half) of our best deals, with 36 hours to shop more than one million deals worldwide. New this year, members can shop exclusive Prime Day Launches from hundreds of brands worldwide, enjoy exclusive savings at Whole Foods Market and experience surprise entertainment events unboxed from giant Smile boxes in major cities. More than 100 million paid Prime members around the world will find our best Prime Day celebration yet.” With Amazon's own products taking centre stage, plus the opportunity to grab a discount on monitors and laptops, Prime Day 2018 looks set to be an event designers won't want to miss. To help you make the most of Prime Day 2018, we'll be rounding up the best offers on the day itself. Remember, if you want to enjoy the exclusive Prime Day deals, you need to be an Amazon Prime member. Fortunately, you can grab a free 30-day trial which will set you up nicely for the sale and give you access to other benefits such as Prime instant video streaming and free super fast delivery. Related articles: The best video editing laptops for 2018 The best drawing tablet: our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2018 8 best external hard drives and SSDs for Mac and PC users in 2018 View the full article

Graphic artists know how important Adobe Creative Cloud is. This collection of software features tools that all graphic artists should have in their arsenal, and you too can become a pro with Pay What You Want: The Adobe CC Lifetime Mastery Bundle. Learn how to make your photos look so professional with Photoshop that they could be in a magazine. Master InDesign for creating newsletters, flyers, newspapers, and more. Find how Illustrator can increase your abilities as a graphic artist by tenfold. Best of all, you name your own price, and that will be what you pay for the bundle. With a list price of $383.93, we'd say you're getting a pretty good deal. Related articles: Adobe to drop Creative Cloud price to $5 for K-12 schools How to use Adobe Capture CC 5 top Creative Cloud features View the full article

You're reading All Start-ups Should use Jamf Now, the Ultimate MDM for Apple Devices, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Do you know that feeling, when you have an idea, and you know that it’s the next best thing, right? And then, your idea becomes a start-up. The sky is no longer the limit.. until you fail. Most tech start-ups fail at … View the full article

More companies are looking to adopt "safe harbor" language in their bug bounty programs to build trust with participants. View the full article

Here is a look at what exploit kits, CVEs and other web-based threats are keeping security professionals working overtime in 2018. View the full article

Having studied zoology, animals and wildlife have always been a great passion for me and I never tire of painting them. We’re lucky enough to live in the Lincolnshire countryside and have limitless inspiration right on the doorstep. In this tutorial, I’m going to offer a step-by-step guide to painting a running hare. In it, I’ll share some advice for how to draw animals as well as plenty of watercolour techniques to help you bring them to life. I must have painted hundreds of hares over the years and it’s a real passion for me. Each painting unveils a new character, which reveals itself as the painting progresses – I always find it an exciting process. 01. Make a sketch Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Starting with a blank sheet of paper can seem pretty daunting, and the first marks can often feel the hardest. I want to paint a running hare, and getting a sense movement and energy into a piece of work is quite challenging. I’ve started with some quick pastel sketches – this approach is useful for experimenting with different compositions and poses. My sketching tips are to avoid parallel lines and introduce as much contrast as possible in the lighting and colour palette to stop the final piece feeling too calm. 02. Create the outlines Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The sketching stage takes a while. I keep changing things, and then leaving it for a few hours before coming back to reassess. For me, it’s really crucial to get the elements right at this stage to save a lot of wasted time later on. Once I have a composition I'm happy with, I move out of my sketchbook and create an initial drawing in HB pencil. For my final piece I'm using Winsor & Newton Classic watercolour paper (300gsm, cold press). This paper has a nice toothy texture and handles the paints well. 03. Put down the first wash Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I’m giving the painting its first wash using a mix consisting of Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre, along with a touch of red. I want the red to show through subsequent layers of paint and provide the painting with a warm base. I tend to use pans rather than tubes of paint, because I find them more convenient. Because I'm just putting down a wash at this point, Ill use a large brush – perhaps size 16. One of the key points of this stage is to eliminate any white in the painting that will not remain white in the finished piece. In this case, the only white of the paper will be the glint in the hare’s eye and a little patch on the tail. 04. Find the shadows Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The next stage is to establish the light source and work out where the shadows will fall. This instantly starts to give the hare some form and make him look three dimensional. I’m using violet, French Ultramarine and a tiny bit of Burnt Umber. This mix contrasts well with the warm wash and introduces a cooler element. 05. Start work on the fur Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Now I want to build up the areas of shadow while introducing the appearance of fur. With watercolour, I like to give the impression of fur rather than painting each individual hair. For this effect, it helps to use a dryer brush, in contrast to the wet washes we’ve been using up to this point. I’m still working fairly quickly across the whole painting here, rather than focusing on a small area – this helps me build it up with consistency. 06. Move on to the ears Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image For some reason, when painting hares and rabbits, I always start with the ears when it comes to focusing on the detail. I think it’s because you get a good range of colour and light contrast within the ears due to the way they fold, creating a deep shadow in the centre. Hares' ears also have lots of colour variation. Their black tips act as a good benchmark for the rest of the work – you can ask yourself 'is the shadow on the foot as dark as the shadow on the ear' etc, it helps to make the final piece coherent. For more detailed work like this, I'll move to a much smaller brush (I go right down to 00 for the very fine details). Because I go through a lot of brushes, especially the finer grades, I tend to use synthetic sable brushes. These are an excellent alternative to standard sable, and less expensive. 07. Develop the fur Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image I now add layer upon layer of fur. There is a huge variety of colour within fur and building up the layers helps to make it look more realistic. I’m sticking with oranges, purples and browns and always being mindful of where the shadows are and where the light would be hitting the animal. 08. Take a break Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The form is really starting to take shape now and I’m happy with the way the fur is looking. I like to take a bit of a break at this point and come back to the painting with fresh eyes. It’s a good time to view it through a mirror, which will help reveal any areas needing a bit more attention. 09. Check the shading Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Make sure the balance of the piece is working, and the darkest and lightest areas are in the right place. It’s really important to make the final piece coherent and ensure the whole range of shading, from white to black, has been used in all the right places. Adjust the warm and cool highlights to make sure there is good colour contrast as well. 10. Focus on the eyes Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Often the most daunting part, the eyes, can make or break a piece and really give the subject its character and personality. This painting is of a lively brown hare, full of energy and mischief. The eyes must reflect this. I spend quite a bit of time building up the shading, and the whole colour palette and tonal range is used within this small space! I think this is key to a successful eye – the very lightest and very darkest part of the painting exist right next to one another. 11. Add some finishing touches Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Nearly there now – I just need to make the final tweaks to the shading, and add the whiskers. I also include some splatters, which help to amplify the movement and energy of the piece. I focus these around the back feet, as if he is kicking up mud as he goes along. It was my original intention to paint more detail in the grass at the bottom, but on reflection I don’t think it needs it. I like the way it sits there like a full stop at the end of the outstretched foot, anchoring the painting nicely. Read more: How to draw a cat Add digital colours to pencil drawings Create a simple colour chart View the full article

As Migrant Journal's six-volume mission to change the way we view migration passes the halfway mark; it's not just the stark, black and silver cover that feels subdued. "Night, the moment of illegitimacy and illegality," warns the opening editorial. "Drama, sins, crimes. The time for desperate actions and bad decisions. Surrender." While previous issues have traversed physical and political borders, issue four travels down, both literally and psychologically, to identify the human casualties of fake news (Abyssal theory), black money (Hundi & Hawala), "kamikaze" oil smuggling (Essence du Bénin) and sexual exploitation (They Fuck It Up). 10 amazing examples of experimental design "We've had the desire to produce a 'night issue' since the very beginning," editor Justinien Tribillon told us. "The way people move and travel at night, the kind of activity you do then." Certainly this issue more any other highlights the fascinating dichotomy at the heart of Migrant Journal, which somehow remains optimistic and exhilarating as it uncovers a dangerous, deteriorating world. "Darkness leaves less room for humour and light topics, that's for sure," Tribillon admits. Migrant Journal's exquisite infographics skilfully translate fascinating mini-narratives of their own Scattered with footnotes and annotations, Migrant Journal is undeniably heavy going, but the pitch-perfect design, stunning photography and crisp infographics (Migrant Journal loves infographics) present stories in the clearest, cleanest fashion – there's not a pixel or point out of place. The luxuriantly weighty 152 pages all exhibit the magazine's unique aesthetic, a curious hybrid of academic journal and superior travelogue, almost an atlas with a conscience. "You can call us any way you like: magazine, book, periodical, journal," says Tribillon, "as long as you don't take these categories too seriously, we're fine with them." As with everything Migrant Journal tackles, boundaries and definitions are ambiguous and, ultimately, reductive. Black beauty Perhaps the magazine's greatest achievement is to make the future not seem hopeless. "It is always darkest just before the day dawneth," Tribillon assures us, "You just have to believe, somehow, in humanity, and remain optimistic." Migrant Journal is a favourite among designers, and even elsewhere, its superior aesthetics have probably been praised as much as its content. While opportunities for design revolution are inevitably curtailed by its part-work format, designers Isabel Seiffert and Christoph Miler – of Offshore Studio – take every opportunity for subtle evolution and refinement. Particularly outstanding this issue is the use of fifth colour, a vibrant (and emotive) acid green flouro. While most designers would be content to use this for aesthetic flourish, Seiffert and Miler brilliantly integrate the spot colour to enhance editorial content and increase emotional resonance. Pantone inks (silver and green) are never squandered; spot colours are deployed only when they can add emotional depth or serve narrative It follows, then, that the huge sacks of luggage strapped to fleeing migrants in Northern Africa are carefully highlighted in green, emphasising the weight and scale of their cargo. Elsewhere, a streetlamp outside an Amsterdam brothel glows weakly from the stark, black and white photography, while in a scorched South American desert, the desolation is accentuated by highlighted wisps of grass clinging to a rock. As well as being technically extremely accomplished – integrating fifth colours in print is notoriously difficult – the ingenuity and variety of Migrant Journal's execution is frequently breathtaking. How to master colour theory And the title's signature font – Migrant Grotesk – is still a thing of wonder. Seemingly endlessly adaptable, it has the enviable quality of looking amazing whatever the circumstances. If the glacial beauty of the magazine is still marred by occasional baffling idiosyncrasies (page numbers on the inside gutters?), the design team have more than earned the right to do whatever the hell they like. The design of Migrant Journal is as utterly unique and seductive as ever. Exit strategy Wonderfully exotic and ambiguous graphic sculptures by Anny Wang and Tim Söderström provide a real highlight in this frequently breathtaking issue. Migrant Journal's phenomenal success makes it easy to forget its modest origins. What is now an iconic indie title – with an international audience and influence far beyond its print run – began its own migration from concept to reality as a Kickstarter project back in 2016, when just 224 backers pledged a modest €11,203 to help launch issue one. As the team admitted in their initial pitch, "None of us live in the country we hold a passport of." Yet their ability to harness such a wide range of talents to create this singularly impressive publication demonstrates their own ethos: the individual and creative rewards enabled by free movement. It may seem like an obvious principle, but as Migrant Journal continues to show, the smaller the world becomes, the greater the duty to explore and celebrate – not demonise – the "new spaces" of migration. Exquisite typography, beautiful illustrations (on the back) and dreamy bespoke finishes make every (gatefold) cover an event With just two issues left before this project ends, it will be fascinating to see where Tribillon, Seiffert and Miler next direct their formidable skills, but Migrant Journal's legacy as a beacon of indie publishing is assured – whether they care for the categorisation or not. Buy the latest issue of Migrant Journal here for €20.00. Read more: 10 ways to make your magazine cover stand out View the full article

As we explored in our feature on bespoke type, the branding trend for embracing a handmade aesthetic to lend your brand an air of authenticity is still going strong. However, in the onslaught of handwriting fonts taking over branding, how do you make sure your design stands out (and for the right reasons)? Here, we take a look at four creatives that used bespoke typography the right way on their packaging designs. 01. Grand Cru Mexican agency Parámetro created bespoke packaging for Grand Cru Monterrey-based design studio Parámetro was approached by chocolate brand Grand Cru’s founders to create playful branding that playfully reflected the company’s artisanal origins. The team wanted to create a feeling that emulated the world of Willy Wonka, as well as the joy of finding that golden ticket. The aim was to “capture all things magic for the packaging,” explains lead designer Debbie Kennedy. The designs use spot UV, colour foils and special Pantone inks The branding takes vintage sweet designs as a reference point. Parámetro worked closely with the printer to find the perfect finish, and used spot UV to create a glossy feel, along with colour foils and special Pantone colours. “That’s part of what gives the packaging this different and fun feeling,” says Kennedy. “Those sort of finishes help the consumer’s mind wander, and make them feel like they’re not just getting chocolate but a complete experience. The designs looked to position the brand somewhere between premium chocolate and something a little more approachable,” she continues. The process was entirely created by Parámetro and began with hand sketching before moving into Illustrator, with the type based on existing typography that was then customised “to give it the kind of vintage candy, nostalgic feeling”, by adding 3D effects and foil detailing. 02. RedLeg Kyle Wilkinson's work for RedLeg celebrates the rum's Caribbean heritage The new designs for RedLeg came about when the brand wanted to celebrate its recognition at industry awards. The brief was to showcase the brand’s provenance and Caribbean spice, so was loosely themed around a laid-back, Caribbean beach theme. Kyle Wilkinson hand-painted signs with a scripty brush type. “It’s popular and on trend at the minute, but it matched the brand and tone they wanted to send out,” he says. “We built the set and photographed the type as if it had been painted on the wood. They’re keen to capitalise on the trend of brushy script everyone loves; it’s ‘rough around the edges’ type, not too pristine and perfect.” The ongoing campaign imagery for RedLeg was created with a mixture of the hand-made, physical type, and digital solutions for the faster-paced applications, such as online campaigns. Wilkinson even sourced the wood for the project “We went out to a timber merchant and asked for the most knackered pieces of wood we could find,” says Wilkinson. “I didn’t want pretty wood that was well presented, I wanted stuff that had been soaked in the rain and had a bit of weathering to it. Then it was a mixture between painted type and some of the type being done digitally.” The project was entirely created by Wilkinson, including all typography, art direction, photography and set build. 03. Williams Sonoma Here Design created artisanal chocolate tins for a kitchenware company Here Design was commissioned by American kitchenware company Williams Sonoma to design a seasonal collection of tins for a new range of artisanal chocolates. Each tin celebrates a different traditional artisan, such as the bourbon distiller and the honey maker. The designs merge influences from vintage American packaging, Victorian chocolate designs, historical typographic designs with ornate patterns (a honeycomb design for the Pretzel Peanut Butter Honey Truffles, for instance) and specialist finishes such as stamps of approval and fine embossing. Each design was based on existing typefaces Attention to detail allowed Here Design to elevate the everyday, in the same way that each product had been crafted with a special uplifting ingredient. All type design was created using existing typefaces, which were extruded by adding textures where appropriate and the use of drop shadows to give a three-dimensional effect. “The products have really good backstories, which lent themselves really nicely to how we might use exuberant, flamboyant, typography,” says creative partner Kate Marlow. 04. Mahonia Vineyard Jessica Hische created bespoke lettering for a range of limited-edition wines Jessica Hische was approached by client Travis Henry to create something “really special” for the limited-edition wine range, and briefed to create designs that felt premium, “like a high-end gift”. The project started with two wines, a chardonnay and a pinot noir, “and I gave myself the limitation of designing with one foil colour plus 2c letterpress (black, plus a secondary colour),” she explains. “The label designs remained the same apart from the colour change and the custom monogram I created for each wine. I tried to have the monogram inform the tasting notes, to have a conceptual tie in, but also tried to make sure there was a lot of variety to each of the designs so that they all felt unique.” Each bottle featured a custom monogram According to the designer, the brief was “fully open, they just loved my work and wanted me to make some fancy labels for the limited edition clonal varietals they were releasing. I had the idea of working with their existing branding or label layout and making a custom monogram for each wine. The system ended up being really fun and easy to expand upon.” This article was originally published in Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 278 or subscribe here. Read more: How to design a handwriting font that isn't boring 20 top free brush fonts How to choose the right typeface for a brand View the full article

Want to bring your images to life in a fun way? Get a lifetime license for Next FlipBook Maker Pro for Windows. With this tool, you can use customisable templates that help you create flipbooks in no time at all. Show ideas to clients or share memories with friends by giving them the experience of flipping through a book – except that it's on an electronic device. You can create an even more visually engaging experience by embedding Youtube videos, music, charts, and more. Incorporate any PDFs or images into your flipbook, and bring those pictures to life. Try Next FlipBook Maker Pro for Windows for only $19. Related articles: The best VPN for Mac and Windows in 2018 Switching from Mac to Windows: A digital artist's guide 16 wonderful window display designs View the full article

However powerful your design software of choice, there are always ways to fine-tune how efficient and effective it is for your particular needs. That's where plugins and extensions can prove invaluable – giving you that extra boost in particular areas to become more more productive as a designer. So read on for our essential guide to 10 must-have design tools to make your creative process easier... 01. RH Hover Colour Picker Easily customise your colours with this handy tool Photoshop comes with its own Colour Picker tool, but it's complex and not all that intuitive – and if you find it frustrating to use, the RH Hover Colour Picker could be the tool for you. For a $16 one-off fee. Simple, fast and effective, the plugin enables you to easily customise your colour sliders, and take control over the process. And whereas the native Colour Picker obscures your work until you've finished with it, RH Hover Colour Picker auto-hides until you hover over it. 02. Guide Guide Guide Guide does all the grid layout hard work for you This popular plugin is a great time-saver, as it enables you to add grid layouts to your designs within Photoshop, Illustrator or Sketch. Rather than setting margins and guides manually, Guide Guide does all the hard work for you. Add guides based on the canvas, artboard, or selection you're working with; quickly mark edges and midpoints with guides; and create and share custom grids. A 14-day trial is available. 03. Fontself Maker Convert lettering into workable OpenType display fonts A pro-quality typeface can take months, or even years, to perfect using a powerful, industry-standard tool such as FontLab. Fontself Maker won't replicate that level of control, and for a £43 one-off fee you would hardly expect it to. What Fontself Maker is excellent at doing, however, is converting lettering – created in Photoshop or Illustrator CC – into a workable OpenType display font. Simply drag and drop layers to create different characters. 04. Whatfont Identify a particular font being used on a website simply by hovering over it This plugin is a godsend for web designers, but it can be invaluable for graphic designers too. Install Whatfont for Chrome (or the iOS app), and you can identify a particular font being used on a website simply by hovering over it. As well as a time-saving way to accumulate typographical references, it's also a great way to impress clients – if they identify a font on competitor's site that they particularly like, you can identify it instantly. Whatfont even detects the web font service being used, such as Typekit or Google Font API. 05. Getty plugin for Creative Cloud Get in-app access to premium videos, photos and vectors on Getty Images Adobe Stock may be neatly integrated with Creative Cloud already, but thanks to this handy Getty plugin, you can get in-app access to premium videos, photos and vectors on Getty Images too. The plugin works seamlessly with Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premier Pro and After Effects. You can search and filter images, illustrations, videos and existing boards, and automatically carry over edits when transitioning from comp to licensed version – all of which can be handled without leaving the program. 06. ColorKit This must-have tool enables you to keep track of all the colours you use in your projects ColorKit is a must-have tool that enables you to keep track of all the colours you use in your projects. It works with Photoshop CC 2014 and later. Stop wasting valuable time saving, creating and replacing your swatches in Photoshop. With ColorKit, you can collect reference colours from different sources, and link colours with your layers with a single click. The plugin is both Mac and Windows compatible, and costs just $19.99. 07. Nik Collection Nik Collection pulls together seven different Lightroom and Photoshop plugins in one essential package Pulling together seven different Lightroom and Photoshop plugins in one essential plugin package, Nik Collection used to exist as a $500 photo processing package in its own right. Google acquired it and made it free, and it's since changed hands again – this time to DxO, which plans to release an update later in 2018. Nik Collection currently includes: Analog Efex Pro, which replicates the classic look of analog cameras, film stock, and lenses; Color Efex Pro, a collection of filters for color correction, retouching, and effects; and Dfine, which allows you to process images with noise reduction. Other tools include Sharpener Pro, which brings out hidden details in pictures; HDR Efex Pro, which processes images into artistic HDR photos; Viveza, a tone and colour adjustment tool; and Silver Efex Pro, which provides darkroom-inspired controls for black-and-white images. 08. Fontea Fontea gives you access to a library of 800 fonts in a few clicks No more downloading Google fonts one by one and importing them into Photoshop to test them out. Fontea is a plugin that cuts out the middle-man, and gives you access to a library of 800 fonts in a few clicks. The plugin enables you to browse the Google fonts by category, and automatically updates with the latest additions to the library. Best of all, just like the Google fonts it provides, it's totally free. 09. Layrs Control 2 Manage your layers more effectively with Layrs Control 2 Love them or hate them, layers are likely to play a big part in your workflow. Sometimes there are so many, keeping them organised is a project in and of itself – and even small tweaks and amends take longer than they should. Layrs Control 2 adds a panel to Photoshop to help you manage your layers more effectively. Rather than tackling key tasks manually, with a few clicks it enables you to name, flatten and delete layers; remove unused effects; and rasterise and convert smart objects. And it's free. 10. ColorZilla ColorZilla is an essential addition to any frontend web designer's toolkit Our third colour tool on this list is the Chrome and Firefox extension ColorZilla, which is an essential addition to any frontend web designer's toolkit. It includes Advanced Eyedropper and ColorPicker tools, to help you easily determine the colour of any pixel on a webpage, and apply it to your projects. For more advanced users, the Color Analyzer tool assesses the overall colour palette of a website, while the Ultimate Gradient Generator is used for creating and manipulating CSS gradients, and converting images to CSS. Related articles: How to attract top talent to your agency (and keep it) 9 lessons from the world's top viral images 8 portfolio mistakes that drive clients mad View the full article

The attack allows malicious applications to break out of their sandbox and access the entire operating system, giving an adversary complete control of the targeted device. View the full article

The attack allows malicious applications to break out of their sandbox and access the entire operating system, giving an adversary complete control of the targeted device. View the full article

As the champion of designers everywhere, we at Creative Bloq are keen to encourage work opportunities for the creative community. But there are limits. Some logo designs are so beloved, so iconic, that as long as we live, we simply never want to see them radically redesigned. That doesn't mean we're opposed to tiny tweaks or subtle refreshes, every now and again, to adapt these assets to modern style sensibilities and the demands of new devices. And we're not opposed to new, adapted versions to give these logos life in new arenas such as motion design, stereoscopic 3D, virtual reality and beyond. But when it comes to the underlying design of these decades-old logos, it's a case of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. And anyone who tries will have to come through us first. 01. Coca-Cola Coke's cursive wordmark is instantly recognised the world over Coca-Cola has undergone a lot of changes since it first launched its trademark in 1887, from the removal of cocaine as an ingredient in 1893 to its distribution in Burma in 2012, making the drink officially available in every nation except Cuba and North Korea. But one thing has stayed pretty consistent throughout, and that's its instantly recognisable logo. This classic cursive was introduced on May 8, 1886, and has remained largely unchanged since, attracting only minor tweaks and a colour change (black to red) along the way. Its ubiquity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries means that today it's one of the most easily recognised pieces of writing on the planet. This fact was made evident by a billboard campaign in 2000 which featured zoomed in, closely-cropped sections of the logo. Even with only these tiny portions of the logo visible, it was still instantly recognisable as Coca-Cola. 02. Nike Nike's super-simple emblem sings with positivity Whenever huge amounts of time and budget are being spent on the tortuous process of creating a big brand's identity, it's instructive to remember that some of the world's best known logo designs came from much humbler origins. Take the world-famous Nike tick (or 'swoosh'), which was sketched by Portland student Carolyn Davidson in 1971, and for which she was paid the grand sum of $35. 7 iconic logos and what you can learn from them Later on, in 1983, she received a gold swoosh ring embedded with a diamond and an envelope containing Nike stock... and rightly so. Now one of the world's most recognisable emblems, this symbol embodies an upbeat and positive feel that can be extended to literally every sport, proving that it's often the simplest ideas that are the best. 03. Playboy Playboy's logo has become its biggest asset Another relic from the days when logo design was cheap and cheerful, the Playboy rabbit took half an hour to draw in 1953, according to Art Paul, the magazine's art director at the time. In fact, he believes if he'd spent more time finessing it, the logo might not have turned out so well. This stylised silhouette, wittily playing on the virility of the rabbit species, hasn't just survived half a century of sexual revolution and counter-revolution intact, it's more or less moved from representing the business to becoming the business. In short, Playboy's licensing of its logo – from clothes and beauty products to bars and clubs – is now one of its main sources of income. And though rumours that the magazine is to close have been flying in particular since Hugh Hefner's death, in 2014 Playboy was ranked 42nd on a list of the top 150 global licensors. Not bad for a quick sketch that was originally envisioned as an endnote for the magazine's second issue. 04. Shell Shell's vivid, minimalist logo is a real keeper Founded in 1897, The Shell Transport and Trading Company's first logo was a mussel shell lying on its side. Seven years later, that got swapped for an upright scallop: a more confident design, suggesting a sunrise and bright new future, which has in large part survived to this day. Shell's first service stations arrived in California in 1915. Wanting them to stand out, the firm picked bright red and yellow colours due to the state's Spanish connections. These colours became incorporated into the logo in 1948. Then in 1971 French-born designer Raymond Loewy simplified the logo, removing some clutter to create a cleaned-up design that remains virtually unchanged to this day. Who wouldn't want to design something that lasted four decades and counting? Above all, the Shell logo proves that crisp minimalism isn't just something that's trendy right now, but an approach that's potentially timeless. 05. Disney A little bit of Disney magic in logo form Walter Elias Disney's signature must surely have become one of the most famous in history, thanks to this everlasting design. His looping script was said to have inspired this logo, which has gone relatively unchanged since the 1930s. But did it? The internet is packed with claims that Walt's actual signature was nothing like this jolly script, along with plenty of photographic evidence to back this up. Others insist the wordmark was actually based on the signature of the Disney employee authorised to sign autographs on the great man's behalf. Whatever the truth, this friendly logo does its job, and does it well. Instantly conveying a sense of childlike joy, it's become a byword for family fun and entertainment worldwide, as well as being incorporated into sibling logos such as those of Walt Disney Pictures and the Disney Channel. 06. Volkswagen The logo that became a fashion accessory in the 1980s Volkswagen's logo has changed remarkably little in the 75 years since its inception, largely due to the simplicity of the idea: a V above a W, encapsulated in a circle, representing the straightforward and unambiguous nature of the original German 'people's car'. But while it's done sterling service to the car maker, its popularity became a problem for some in the 1980s. After Mike D of rap group the Beastie Boys appeared on TV wearing a chrome Volkswagen emblem, attached to a chain-link necklace, Detroit area dealers reported a sharp increase in the disappearance of four-inch hood and grille emblems. While a true design classic, the VW logo does continue to evolve. The most recent version, in 2012, has seen the shadowing and highlighting effects become distinctly more pronounced, with extra bevelling on the letters enhancing the 3D effect. A new logo to reflect a new era of electric cars is also expected soon. 07. Ford Even Paul Rand couldn't better this design When it comes to logo design, Paul Rand (1914-1996) might be considered the heavyweight champion of all time. The American art director and graphic designer was known for his logo designs for IBM, ABC, Westinghouse, UPS, NeXT Computers and (ahem) Enron. And in 1966, he was even asked to rethink and modernise the much-loved Ford logo. The radical new design Rand created was an impressive piece of work. But ultimately Henry Ford II couldn't bear to part with the familiar scripted oval logo, which had been used on its cars since 1928. Originally drafted by Childe Harold Wills, an engineer and one of Ford's first executives, this iconic logo, which remains largely unaltered to this day, is rendered in Spencerian script, which is coincidentally also used in the Coca-Cola logo. And much like that iconic asset, it's now almost impossible to think of Ford's logo ever being changed dramatically – however cool the designer. 08. McDonald's These golden arches speak of calories and capitalism As familiar as the Statue of Liberty, and equally imbued with political and cultural significance, McDonald's iconic Golden Arches logo has virtually become a symbol of fast food itself – for hungry consumers and angry protesters alike. The arches themselves were originally designed to be part of the building that house Richard and Maurice McDonald's first franchised outlet in the 1950s. Ultimately, the brothers instead brought in a sign-maker, George Dexter, to design two giant yellow arches that were added to opposite sides of the restaurant. It wasn't until a decade years later, after entrepreneur Ray Kroc had bought the business, that the distinctive arches were combined into an 'M' to form its new corporate logo. The logo now appears on more than 36,000 McDonald's restaurants in 120 countries worldwide, with more branches opening every year. 09. Penguin The Penguin emblem is beloved by bookworms everywhere Think of publishing and you'll probably think of Penguin, thanks in part to the friendly flightless bird that adorns everything it publishes. Since its first iteration, this charming mascot has become a globally recognised symbol of good reading and good breeding. It was originally created in 1935, when Allen Lane of the publisher Bodley Head decided to produce a new range of cheap but good-quality paperbacks, apparently inspired by the lack of decent reading material while waiting for a train in Exeter. Lane decided on the name Penguin Books at the suggestion of his secretary Joan Coles, and dispatched 21-year-old designer Edward Young to London Zoo to sketch some penguins. (He came back with the observation: “My God, how those birds stink!”) Staring the reader straight in the eye, the emblem is so iconic, it's easy to assume it hasn't been tweaked at all over the decades. It has, however, been redrawn a handful of times, most recently in 2003 by Pentagram partner Angus Hyland, who actually made the bird 15 per cent slimmer. 10. Firefox Firefox's emblem symbolises a web browser for everyone Another animal logo, the symbol of Mozilla's popular web browser is the most recent on our list, but no less deserved of long-term protection. This detailed yet dramatically effective design was originally created in 2004 by Jon Hicks, based on a concept from Daniel Burka and sketched by Stephen Desroches, which Hicks then rendered using Fireworks MX. A fiery fox encircling a stylised earth, the emblem has been subtly simplified over the years, enabling it to remain clear even at the tiny sizes demanded by mobile devices. But its essence remains: symbolising Firefox's twin aspirations for global reach and a speedy internet, it's truly deserving of the title 'modern classic'. Related articles: 5 big brands that pass the silhouette test Best World Cup logos ever Famous logos redesigned as fonts View the full article

What does a rainbow taste like, anyway? As we all know, a rainbow's merely a colourful effect caused by the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight through tiny water droplets in the air, so it's unlikely to taste of anything unless you have a particularly rare form of synaesthesia. We doubt that the people at Skittles have lost much sleep over this, to be honest. What we're much more interested in right now is Skittles' treatment of its logo and packaging design for a new campaign supporting the LBGT+ community and raising awareness for this year's London Pride parade. For the past two years, Skittles has done its bit for Pride by dropping the rainbow colours from its logo so that Pride has the rainbow to itself; in 2016 it brought a completely monochrome float to the Pride parade and handed out black and white packets of sweets; this year it's selling limited edition black and white packs to raise money for Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline. And to help get the message home, campaign organisers adam&eveDDB have commissioned a set of fun animated shorts from assorted animators, showing various ways in which Skittles might lose their trademark rainbow colours, with beavers, piranhas and even a Wagnerian opera singer finding ways to drain the rainbow. The various shorts were directed by Chris Bristow at Blinkink. If you need a little less colour in your life and fancy supporting a worthwhile cause, you can find the limited edition packs of Skittles for sale in branches of Tesco. Related articles: Rainbow flag designer commemorated with free font family The stories behind Pride flag designs 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging View the full article

Applying for a job in the design world can be a frustrating business. You’re certain in your own mind that you could ace this role; why can’t employers just take you at your word? In reality, nobody is ever going to take you on, or even invite you in for an interview, until you’ve first wowed them with a knockout design portfolio. But what if you're already pretty happy with your portfolio and creative resume and you're still not getting interviews? What you're probably looking for is that extra something that makes you stand out from the crowd. To find out what the people doing the hiring want, we asked two experts: Eddie Opara, partner at Pentagram, and Lou Hunter, creative director at Superunion, about what they are looking for in a portfolio, and how you can transform yours from good to great. Eddie Opara Eddie Opara is a partner at Pentagram. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art What do you look for in a portfolio? There are some fundamental things. I’m looking for craftsmanship. Are the fundamental aspects of craft there, in terms of typography, composition, art direction, and so on? And equally importantly, I’m looking to see whether your work has solved the challenge you were presented with. Beyond that are the added plusses; the things that take your work to another level. That you’ve extended your approach in regards to that composition, in a different way than people might have expected. That there’s a sense of energy and dynamic to the work, depending on what the work is and what the context was. And from my point of view, I’m also looking for experimentation; the idea that you’re not scared to take a leap of faith. Eddie Opara led the rebrand of real estate brokerage firm, Halstead I’m not looking for every portfolio I see to tick every one of these boxes. Some designers are just ‘anchors’, with a very degree of high craftsmanship. They may base their principles on minimalism, simplicity, function before form, and you really need these kind of designers. But then you have that other kind of designer, who can bring an entirely different aspect to it. I believe you need a balance between the two; I call it the rough with the smooth. As long as I get the balance in the end, then that’s fine. Is there anything that's generally lacking in the portfolios you see? There’s a key element that I don’t really see any more, and that’s process. How did you come up with the work? Did you write about it, did you query yourself, where’s the research towards it? I was always told to show my workings, how I plied everything together, the rationale behind it, and you don’t get that any more. Or at least, I haven’t seen it for quite some time. So I want to know: what were the failures? What were the successes? Why did you choose this particular approach over another one? I want to see that you have really thought about these things, especially if you struggled with it but then found a solution. That tells me more about you than just a final piece of work. A spread from Eddie Opara's book, Color Works It’s not that designers don’t think about these things, it’s that they don’t seem to write about them in their portfolios any more. When I actually sit down and have a conversation with people, they usually do start talking about process. I can settle for that, but I’d love to see more of that in the portfolio. I want to see the great narrative that one can show; that graphic design is not just this ‘Instagram’ piece of work. There’s a lot of shit that went into this. Did it instantaneously arrive there? Of course it didn’t! So what was the process, what are the challenges, what are the conversations you had? How did you fundamentally get there? What about the design and layout of the portfolio? What’s problematic is that everybody’s using the same system. Where’s the fun in every portfolio having the same look and feel? I find that to be quite upsetting. Is there another way you can think of to show your work? Right now, we live in a time of image. It’s a cacophony, it’s imbued our retinas and our brains, and to a certain degree we’re tired of it, but it keeps coming. So I do notice the homogenisation of work that’s occurring. I’m not the only one who’s talked about this. If I see that in your portfolio, I worry: is this particular designer going to constantly do that? So I’d advise people: even if it was an idea that was rejected, show it. Show who you are rather than what you want people to think that you are. That’s really important. We always say that design is about solving problems, you constantly hear this. Graphic design is an artistic, creative profession. So use your portfolio to express yourself. Try, anyway. Any more advice for a great portfolio? When I’ve done portfolio reviews at conferences, or schools, I’ll ask: have you travelled? Have you left your home town, county, city state, country? If so, did you go to any studios to hang out and talk to people? If the answer’s no, that’s one of the things that you’ve got to do. You’ve got to stretch your mindset. It’s a diversity of thought; that’s what makes a good designer. Lou Hunter Lou Hunter has worked within a wide range of disciplines including visual identity systems, strategic brand creation and live events How should you approach the design of a portfolio? The work is the hero, so you’re showcasing the projects that you’ve done, and you want that work to sing. But that said, you want that work to sing in a beautiful way. If you’re applying for a design job, you want people to feel like your portfolio has been designed, rather than, ‘Here are some images and here’s some copy.’ You want it to feel a bit more crafted, because that’s your craft. You don’t want it be overdesigned, of course. The majority of portfolios we see are fairly clean and simple, which normally works best. But you need to pay close attention to detail. For example, if you have a paragraph of copy with a little widow – one word on its own – and then you talk about having a passion for typography, no one’s going to believe you. It’s little things like that which make the difference. A new identity for the International Chamber of Shipping by Brand Union (which has since become Superunion) Should you include personal work? I think that’s a great idea, I really do. Because often you’ll have a fantastic idea, but in the world of commercial design sometimes it doesn’t end up the way you first imagined it, for any number of reasons. So, yes I think showing personal work in your portfolio that demonstrates how you think about ideas, your approach to work and so on, alongside your client work, is a great way to show off the other things that you can do. You don’t want it to dominate, but including some personal pieces can be a nice way to talk about things you enjoy, and demonstrates you’re someone with a bit of passion. How can you make your portfolio stand out? When I get a portfolio, I want to feel that the person who’s sending it loves their portfolio. Because it’s something that represents you as a person. If I look at something and I get that sense that someone’s proud to share that, that’s what I’m looking for, essentially, whatever level you’re at, whether that’s at the junior level or at the design director level. How do you achieve that? I think it’s largely about putting in the time and effort. In truth, people can tell when a designer has lavished care and attention on a portfolio, rather than just chucked some work in a layout and that’s it. There’s a consideration to the length and the projects that are included, it’s not too dense, and it’s almost like you’re telling the story of yourself. If a portfolio has that feeling, it definitely becomes more engaging. Lead image by Thomas Burden. This article originally appeared in issue 279 of Computer Arts, the world's best-selling design magazine. Buy issue 279 or subscribe here. Read more: How to curate a creative portfolio 8 great graphic design portfolios for 2018 The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios View the full article

Getting to grips with colour theory can seem a little bit too much like learning maths or science. You may feel you just want to be creative and express yourself, not work out calculations. 3 huge colour trends for 2018 But colour theory is one of the fundamental art techniques you need to learn in order to progress and grow as an artist. Read on to create a colour theory chart that will transform your creative life. 01. Grab some pencils You can use any medium you want, but pencils are easiest The following exercise can be completed with acrylic, oil or watercolour paints, but colouring pencils are best. Not only do you just need the pencils themselves – there's no need for water, spirits, brushes or a palette – but they're are also a lot less messy than other mediums. And they're so portable – this exercise can be completed on the bus if needs be! If you're not sure which pencils are right for you, read our post on the best pencils. 02. Draw a square Start with a square then divide it horizontally and vertically I recommend using an A2 piece of quality cartridge paper, but you could scale the exercise down. Draw a square of 300x300mm (12x 12in). Then divide that square up into 12 equal parts (the squares should be 25x25mm or 1x1in). Starting from the bottom left corner, mark 1–12 running horizontally and vertically as shown in this image. 03. Choose your colours Pick out 12 colours to represent your spectrum The wonderful thing about the spectrum is how the colours all work together. Understanding the relationships between the colours is key to getting great results while mixing. Using the lovely Derwent Procolour pencils, I chose the following 12 colours to represent the full spectrum: Ultramarine (31) Midnight Blue (40) Racing Green (44) Grass Green (49) Primrose Yellow (02) Buttercup Yellow (03) Middle Chrome (08) Spectrum Orange (10) Primary Red (12) Plum (15) Imperial Purple (26) Dark Violet (27) 04. Pure colour Add your first square of pure colour Start with the bottom left corner (square 1–1) and shade it in with the Ultramarine (31) pencil. If you're using good quality pencil, a light touch is all that's needed. This will be one of our 'pure' colour squares. There will be a line of 'pure' colour squares running in a diagonal from bottom left up to top right as the two sets of colours converge. 05. Extend your lines Now fill in all the squares in the corresponding row and column Now it's time to extend the Ultramarine line out horizontally and vertically. Still try to shade each square as an individual though, it will help keep them consistent and stop you from making some much darker than others. Don't worry about going over the lines, just give it a nice relaxed feel. And don't get too uptight whilst laying down your colour, it should be fun. 06. Add another colour Now start doing the same with other colours Then move to colour 2, square 2-2, colour in this square as one of your 'pure' colours. Then add Midnight Blue in squares 1-2 and 2-1. Continue with the rest of the colours, colouring in the 'pure' square first and then the surrounding colours. As you're starting off with the blues and greens, the initial effect of mixing won't be obvious at first, but stick with it. 07. Build up your chart Repeat until you've completed your chart As you move into the oranges and reds, the effects of the 12-step colour mixing wheel becomes more apparent. See how the colours that are opposite each other on the 12-step wheel seem to 'cancel' and 'grey each other down' when mixed together. This effect of desaturating the colour is one of the cornerstones of effective colour mixing. This article originally appeared in issue 11 of Paint & Draw. Related articles: 21 outstanding uses of colour in branding 10 sketching tips for beginners Generate endless colour palettes with Khroma View the full article

Voice interfaces are one of the hottest user experience trends in recent years. New figures reveal that one in 10 Brits now owns at least one of these devices. But how are we really using them? Code Computerlove polled over 1,000 smart speaker owners, and turned their findings into this top infographic. And if this inspires you to put together your own data visualisation, take a look at our list of the best infographic tools around. Read on for some surprising facts about how UK residents are using this amazing new smart speaker technology. That's right, a fifth of us are using our clever invisible friends to make sure we don't overcook our eggs in the morning. It's a task that can be accomplished using a normal clock, but, hey, where's the fun in that? In fact, mundane tasks lead the way when it comes to smart help – 65 per cent of owners used their assistant to play music or the radio, and over half use it to check the weather forecast. Furthermore, Alexa still rules the roost in the voice assistant space, with Amazon Echos making up 70 per cent of the devices owned. There are other good options available though (take a look at our sister site TechRadar's guide to smart speakers for more info). The big question with any new technology is: is it just a fad? Perhaps not, judging by the fact that 25 per cent of owners chat to their smart assistants every day, even taking it to bed with them. However, a further 30 per cent have forgotten they even have a voice assistant in the house. Less encouraging. For more interesting finds – including our deep-seated fears about voice assistants – take a look at the full infographic below. Click on the infographic to see the full-size version. Read more: The 5 biggest UX design trends for 2018 How to create amazing infographics How to design a chatbot experience View the full article

Need inspiration for your next graphics assignment? Or access to thousands of royalty-free photos? A lifetime subscription to Stock-Graphics has you covered. For just $19, you can have access to thousands of stock photos and vector graphics, and enjoy unlimited downloads, year after year. Whether you're a graphic design professional, an entrepreneur, or an art hobbyist, you'll find good use for the 13,500+ photos and 2,900+ vectors available on Stock-Graphics. You'll find hundreds of images across multiple categories, including icons, people, and a whole lot more. Take your newsletters, web pages, banners, and flyers to the next level for only $19. Related articles: The ultimate guide to image resolution 5 tips for better image manipulation How to use reference images: 8 essential tips View the full article

Introducing effects to text and typography can add a whole new perspective to the user experience on a website. But text is to be read, and getting too smart or clever with an effect can defeat the purpose of it. So be smart, be clever, but make sure that your kinetic typography effect actually works, just like it does on Patrick Heng's website – featured in the image above. Read on to find out how... 1. Create the intro text Open the project files and you will see that there is the velocity.js and blast.js library. Blast splits text up, while velocity is a tween engine. There are three offset variables to make each piece of text move at different intervals. 2. Split the text Using blast, each of the text characters are split into their own span element. Then the top layer of text is looped through and the offset is increased for each letter so they animate independently. 3. Add velocity Now the velocity library adds the movement and opacity so that the letters move up and fade in. Each letter is offset, and the duration and easing are set for each of the letters. 4. Call the action Now the ‘anim’ function is called and this triggers the animation to begin. A ‘setTimeout’ function now staggers the second block of text that will be yellow. Again, it is triggered using velocity as in the first example. 5. Move on The delay, duration and easing are set so that the second yellow text moves correctly. Then the last piece of text which is orange is controlled in the next ‘setTimeout’ function to delay this moving a little longer before starting. 6. Add final letters Now the final letters are moved into place. This gives the same effect as Patrick Heng’s site, which has layers of text moving. Patrick actually uses WebGL to move the text but this is a simpler way with DOM elements. Learn more at Generate London See Richard Rutter, Sarah Parmenter and Bruce Lawson, and more talk at Generate London 2018 Richard Rutter has a love and fascination for typography and co-founded Fontdeck, a pioneering web font service. As a self-appointed web typography evangelist, Richard is chief organiser of Clearleft’s Ampersand web typography conferences. At Generate London 2018, his workshop will help you create websites with engaging, appropriate, distinctive, expressive and readable web typography, which adapts for screens of all shapes and sizes. You will learn how to combine centuries-old craft with cutting-edge technology – including variable fonts – in order to design and develop the best experiences for your readers. Over the course of a day, you will participate in hands-on activities, applying each new technique to a detailed example site which you can take back with you. This will form the perfect resource for you to refer to in the future. And if that’s not enough, every attendee will walk away with a free electronic copy of Richard’s acclaimed Web Typography book. Don't miss out, get your ticket now Related articles: Perfect JavaScript in 1,000 projects Pro digital type tips for graphic designers 7 great web type resources View the full article

With cyberattacks on the rise and growing ever more sophisticated, it's vital to ensure your devices are protected from the latest online threats. That's why we've put together this list of the best antivirus software for both PC and Mac. Staying safe and secure online is especially important for freelance and employed professionals: the consequences of an attack could be disastrous. Could you cope if ransomware encrypted all digital content across your network, for instance? Yes, hopefully, as long as you run regular backups, but even if that's true, you could still spend an age cleaning up your systems. You're less exposed if you use a Mac, but that doesn't mean you're entirely safe. There is some Mac malware around – and even if you avoid this, it's important that you don't pass on an infected PDF or other document to clients (horror of horrors) or colleagues. Installing a quality antivirus is a good first step in staying safe online, and it could be cheaper than you think. Although single user, one-year licences typically cost £20 ($26) to £30 ($39), most companies give you discounts as you add more devices and years. For example, Kaspersky can protect five devices for less than £8 ($10.40) each per year. Free antivirus software is another option. You need to be careful here as some packages are worse than useless (we're not kidding) but others do deliver top-notch protection. Experts can go further and build their own multi-layered security suite, maybe with a free antivirus package and a separate antiransomware app to shield your documents from harm. Whatever you're doing, there's a lot of choice available. Which is right for you? In this guide, we'll point you at five of the best antivirus software options around. Founded back in 2001, Romanian-based Bitdefender is now a top-rated security giant which protects more than 500 million users worldwide. How did they do it? Checking the specs for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 gives one indication: it's absolutely crammed with high-end features and functionality, more than some of the competition offer in their full security suites. There's accurate antivirus, for instance. A password manager to manage your logons. Web filtering prevents you accessing malicious URLs. a file shredder securely deletes confidential or personal files, and a vulnerability scanner spots outdated software and missing Windows patches. That's just the start. Multi-layered ransomware protection keeps your digital content safe from hackers. A VPN protects your connection over insecure public wifi (though beware, there's only a tiny 200MB daily traffic allowance), and a secure and isolated browser keeps your banking, shopping or other personal activities safe from snoopers. For all its feature overload, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 is generally very easy to use. It doesn't hassle you with alerts or baffle you with complicated settings; mostly you can leave the program to handle everything itself. And whatever you're doing, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 keeps you safer than most. The company is loved by the independent testing labs, and for example AV-Comparatives' July-November Real-World Protection report) [https://www.av-comparatives.org/comparison] saw Bitdefender ranked second out of 21, with a protection rate of 99.9%. If you've more devices to protect, check out Bitdefender TOTAL SECURITY 2018. It may look expensive at £34.99 ($45.50) for year one, £69.99 ($91) on renewal, but that gets you protection for up to six Windows, Mac, iOS or Android devices in any combination. US prices: Best value deal Total Security 2018 (5 devices, 1 year for only $44.99) Internet Security 2018 (3 devices, 1 year for only $39.98) Antivirus Plus 2018 (1 device, 1 year for only $19.99) UK prices: Save 50% Total Security 2018 (5 devices, 1 year for only £35) Internet Security 2018 (3 devices, 1 year for only £24.99) Antivirus Plus 2018 (1 device, 1 year for only £14.99) Eugene Kaspersky began developing antivirus as a hobby in 1987. It proved a very smart choice, as he went on to found Kaspersky Labs in 1997, and the company now helps to secure more than 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients. Kaspersky Anti-Virus can't match the feature set of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018. There are a few extras – an on-screen keyboard cuts the chance of typed data being intercepted by malware, while a Vulnerability Scanner looks out for problems with Windows – but mostly it focuses on the security essentials. This simplicity keeps the program easy to use, though. A straightforward interface has just four main buttons, and you can be running a full system scan in a couple of clicks. But there's also some flexibility, with options to run quick scans of commonly-infected areas only, selective scans of particular files and folders, or external device scans to uncover threats on USB keys or other external drives. Reports from the independent testing labs show Kaspersky is more accurate than most. AV-Test's April 2018 Windows test as one of only six vendors (from a field of 18) to be certified as a 'Top Product', with a 100% protection rate in both test months. AV-Comparatives May 2018 Real-World Protection Test results weren't quite as impressive, with Kaspersky ranking ninth out of 18, but it still blocked a creditable 99.6% of threats. Kaspersky Anti-Virus is a PC-only product, but upgrading to Kaspersky Total Security adds protection for Macs, iOS and Android devices. It's fractionally more expensive at an initial £27.99 ($36.40) for a 1 year, 1 device licence, but if you've plenty of hardware to cover, there are savings to be made. You can buy a 5 device, 2-year licence for £76.99 ($100), for instance, around £7.70 ($10) per device per year. US prices: 1 year and 3 devices - $29.99 2 years up to 3 devices - $59.99 UK prices: 1 year and 1 device - £22.49 2 years up to 3 devices - £69.99 Kaspersky made the headlines recently for the wrong reasons, with both the UK and US governments banning some departments from using its products . This must be a concern, but the government statements are mostly about areas of national security, and the UK says its recommendations don't apply to home users. As we've seen no evidence that Kaspersky has done anything wrong, we're not going to allow this to affect our views. Security powerhouses like Bitdefender Antivirus Plus have their place, but many professional users are looking for something simpler, more lightweight, which doesn't hog system resources or require any attention or management. If that sounds like you, it might be worth taking a look at Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. The package is so tiny - just a few megabytes - that it installs in seconds. It grabs the absolute minimum of RAM and doesn't soak up your network bandwidth by downloading antivirus definition updates, as Webroot handles its detection in the cloud. System scans are very, very fast. The Webroot website claims an average of 20 seconds, our tests say closer to 60, but that's still a huge improvement on the 10, 20, maybe 30-minute system scan times of other products. Despite the apparent simplicity, SecureAnywhere isn't lacking in features. As well as antivirus, the package blocks attempts to hijack your webcam, protects you from identity theft and blocks access to phishing and other malicious sites. There's a major highlight in Webroot's anti-ransomware technology. SecureAnywhere not only tries to block threats before they can cause any damage, but if something gets through anyway and encrypts some files, the program can often recover them. If there's an issue here, is that Webroot isn't often assessed by the independent testing labs, making it more difficult to get a feel for how accurate it is. SecureAnywhere was included in MRG-Effitas Q1 2018 online banking test, though, where it blocked 100% of financial malware, and our own small-scale tests also suggest it performs very well. A 14-day free trial makes it easy to sample SecureAnywhere's abilities for yourself, and an exceptional 70-day money-back guarantee suggests Webroot is confident you'll be happy with the product. US prices: 1 year and 1 device - $19.99 1 year up to 3 devices - $29.99 UK prices 1 year and 1 device - £22.49 1 year up to 3 devices - £37.49 The world is full of free antivirus tools, especially for Android, but these aren't always what they seem. In March 2018 AV-Test tested 204 Android antivirus apps and found that 131 of these – a chunky 64 per cent – missed at least half the test threats. Avira products are very different, fortunately. The company has been around for years and it's built a great reputation for accuracy and reliability. Don't just take our word for it. Avira Antivirus generally scores well in independent testing, most recently ranking first out of 18 in AV-TEST's May Real-World Protection Test with a perfect 100% protection score. Although Avira started in the Windows world, it now has free products for Mac, iOS and Android. These have all kinds of tools, depending on the package you get - antivirus, ransomware, VPN, password manager, anti-theft and more - and they're all very usable, with few of the annoying ads and stupid restrictions you'll often see with other freebies. Avira's Connect system even allows you to check and manage all your Avira-enabled devices from one central console. That's good news for businesses with several employees, or if you just want to keep an eye on what the rest of the family are doing. Avira Antivirus Pro is a commercial version which looks a little pricy at £29.99 ($39), but also adds some very important features, especially for business users. You get separate layers of email and network protection, Device Control helps define which devices can be attached to your system, secure browsing enables protecting shopping, banking and other confidential internet activities, and there's email and phone support if anything goes wrong. Avira Free Antivirus for Free per month Avira Pro: 1 device / monthly subscription - £2.99 Windows Defender used to be a security joke, an underpowered antivirus with such a low detection rate that in 2012 independent lab AV-TEST refused to certify it. Microsoft has continued to develop the product, though, and the results are becoming clear, with Defender's detection rate is now comparable with some big-name commercial products. For example, AV-Comparatives' last Real-World Protection summary report (July November) placed Microsoft 13th out of 21 with a creditable detection rate of 99.2 per cent. There's clearly work to do, but Microsoft isn't lagging too far behind Avast's 99.6 per cent, and it's already beating names like ESET (99 per cent), Emsisoft (98.8 per cent) and Adaware (95 per cent). There are some bonus features, including a firewall, basic parental controls, and even simple ransomware protection with the new Controlled Folder Access. Windows Defender is ultra-lightweight, too. There's nothing extra to set up, hog your system resources or conflict with other applications. For the most part, Defender just works, leaving you to get on with what really matters. Let's be clear: Windows Defender still can't quite match the best of the competition. If you're after a single program which delivers the best possible detection rates, you're looking in the wrong place. If simplicity is top of your priority list, though, or you'd like a decent baseline antivirus which you can easily extend with other security apps, Windows Defender deserves a place on your shortlist. Microsoft Windows Defender for Free per month You can download Windows Defender here View the full article

When you need to design a brand identity, you’ll find plenty of expert advice on this site; from how to create a logo design to stunning packaging design to great examples of cannabis branding. But there are also some less obvious places to get branding inspiration. Fictional brands may be largely created for laughs, or to avoid legal entanglements. But the best of them highlight deep truths about what makes a successful brand. Indeed, some have even gone on to become real products in their own right, to varying degrees. We’ve picked our favourites to delight and inspire you... 01. Chumhum (The Good Wife/The Good Fight) Chumhum offers a beautiful parody of Google's branding and business practices If you haven’t watched The Good Wife and its follow-up, The Good Fight, then where have you been? The legal/political TV drama set in Chicago is smart, witty, and likely to be remembered as one of the most iconic shows of the 2010s. That’s partly because it hoovers up both current events and the online zeitgeist and reinvents them as captivating storylines. And whatever labyrinthine plot is unearthed in any particular episode, its nexus can often be found in a barely disguised equivalent of Google, called Chumhum. The reason Chumhum works so well as a fictional brand is that, unlike on other shows, these writers actually understand the intricate workings of the online economy, from Bitcoin to fake news. Parody only ever works well if it comes from a place of respect for the subject matter. And from its MailChimp-style mascot (‘Chummie the gopher’) to its simplified colour palette, to the multiple brand offshoots (such as the allegorithmically discriminatory Chumhum Maps), this fictional brand nails the look and feel of a modern web giant perfectly. Recently, Chumhum has even started popping up in other CBS shows, such as the US reboot of Israeli crime drama Wisdom of the Crowd. Not surprising then that real-life versions of the Chumhum search portal are now appearing online everywhere, from the UK to China. 02. Pizza Planet (Toy Story) Pizza Planet restaurant design is both beautifully minimalist and gloriously epic Kids love pizza, and kids love aliens, so what child wouldn’t want to go to Pizza Planet? Especially when the fictional fast-food chain, which appears in Toy Story and Toy Story 3, offers cool attractions like Alien Slime dispensers, a Whack-a-Alien game, and a ‘Claw’ challenge where you can win the most loveable alien toys ever. (Not to mention robot bouncers at the entrance that look suspiciously like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.) The design of the restaurant building itself is both beautifully minimalist and gloriously epic. Shaped like the planet Saturn, and crowned with a retro-cursive ‘Pizza Planet’ logo, it combines the best of 1950s Americana with futuristic optimism, plus the rocket launchpad at its side is truly Las Vegas-grandiose. The brand also seems infinitely extensible, appearing on everything from the Pizza Planet-branded season schedule on Andy’s wall to the Pizza Planet truck, which has made cameo appearances in every Pixar film to date besides The Incredibles. Strange to consider, then, that in earlier versions of the Toy Story script, Pizza Planet was actually going to be a miniature golf course called Pizza Putt. Pizza Planet fans will also be pleased to know that a real-life version of the restaurant is reportedly coming soon to Disneyland in California. 03. Acme (Roadrunner) The Roadrunner cartoons made the Acme brand a household name One of the reasons that the Roadrunner cartoons, most of which were made between 1949 and 1966, still resonate today is the simplicity of the concept. In every single episode, Wile E. Coyote hunts a roadrunner using absurd contraptions that consistently fail or backfire catastrophically including anvils, fold-out roadblocks and stick-on tunnel entrances. The viewer is always alive to the gag, because all these products are made by the same failing company, ironically called Acme (which means perfection in Greek). Surprisingly, though, there were actually many real-life ‘Acme’ companies throughout the 20th century, because the name meant they would appear at the top of alphabetical telephone directory listings. As far as we know, none of these got upset by the defamation created by the Roadrunner cartoons, and nor does it seem to bother the many companies with Acme in their name today, such as Acme Markets, a division of Albertsons. Perhaps a sign that as an element of the branding mix, strong name recognition counts for more than anything else? 04. Oceanic Airlines (Lost) Oceanic Airlines' logo had Lost fans scurrying to look for hidden messages Anyone who got hooked on Lost around a decade ago (and who didn’t?) will be familiar with Oceanic Airlines. The company was central to the twisty-turny plot of the hit drama, in which Oceanic Flight 815 crash-lands on a mysterious island, stranding its passengers. And as viewers struggled to guess what exactly was going on, the branding of the airline itself became the subject of frenzied debate. The colourful, stylised logo depicting an Australian Aboriginal dot painting was wildly speculated about by fans, who saw it as symbolising such things as a nazar, a bullseye, or the island itself. Meanwhile, back in the real-world, the fictional branding played a large part in ABC’s real-world marketing, with fake billboards for Oceanic placed in cities around the world as part of the Find 815 alternate reality game. Fictitious TV ads for the airline also aired on ABC and on the web, including one made in an alternate universe where flight 815 did not crash and Oceanic has a "perfect safety record" (see below). This was only the latest in a long-running screen-life for the Oceanic Airlines brand. It’s also appeared in multiple TV shows, including Alias, Castle, Chuck, Flash Forward, Diagnosis Murder, Fringe, Futurama, The Goldbergs, Once Upon a Time, The X-Files and Grey’s Anatomy. 05. Stark Industries (Iron Man) Marvel's fictional multinational is more valuable than anything in the DC Universe, claims Forbes Stark Industries first appeared in April 1963, in the Marvel comic Tales of Suspense #40. Owned and run by businessman Anthony Edward ‘Tony’ Stark, aka Iron Man, it’s been a central plot device in its comics, TV shows and movies ever since. Nowadays, Stark Industries represents the world’s largest tech conglomerate within the Marvel universe, and according to a slightly tongue-in-cheek analysis by Forbes, had a lower net revenue in 2007 than Wayne Enterprises in the DC Universe (which made $31.3 billion, in comparison to Stark Industries $20.3 billion, in case you were wondering). With bases in New York and Los Angeles, Stark Industries also benefits from superlative branding, with a heavy-set, bold-italic logo that combines a vintage feel with a forward-thrusting sense of progress. It’s all very reminiscent of real-world corporate behemoths such as Lockheed Martin, and perfectly conveys the confidence and cocky vision of its fictional owner. Featured in more than 10 movies to date, this cool and distinctive branding appears on everything from airplanes to factories, and of course, the iconic Stark Tower. Given Marvel’s cinematic productivity of late, expect to see it in at least a dozen more films and TV shows before the decade is out. 06. Cheesy Poofs (South Park) Cartman's uncontrolled addiction to Cheesy Poofs is a warning to parents everywhere What South Park fan hasn’t at one time found themselves craving a packet of Cheesy Poofs (or 10)? For the uninitiated, this is the fictional brand of cheese-flavoured snack beloved by the adult cartoon’s anti-hero, the gluttonous misanthrope Eric Cartman. And its brightly coloured, upbeat packaging style perfectly parodies the way food companies entice children to eat unhealthy snacks. It can also lay claim to one of history’s most memorable jingles (“I love cheesy poofs/You love cheesy poofs/If we didn't eat cheesy poofs/We'd be lame”). In fact, South Park’s animators did such a good job that the show’s maker Comedy Central has actually released real-life Cheesy Poofs as limited editions on two occasions. The first they sold via their website in 1998, then in 2011 they teamed up with Frito-Lay to repackage real-life brand Cheetos Puffs under the name at Wal-Mart stores. 07. Stay Puft Marshmallows (Ghostbusters) Even when he's destroying civilisation as we know it, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man makes you crave squishy treats The makers of iconic 1984 comedy Ghostbusters weren’t satisfied with creating iconic branding for the film itself (one of our five favourite fantasy logos). They also created one of the most memorable in-movie brands of modern cinematic history, in the form of Stay Puft Marshmallows. This fictional brand’s memorable 1950s-retro mascot, a boyish figure made of conjoined marshmallows in a sailor’s uniform, combines the best qualities of the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy. And so even when, at the end of the film, he comes to giant life and destroys most of Manhattan, he remains a fun and friendly figure that any child would be drawn to, the gleeful grin on his face perfectly evoking the joy of an indulgent sugar rush. It’s not surprising, then, that not only has the Stay Puft Marshmallows brand appeared in numerous Ghostbusters sequels and spin-offs, but in 2010 and 2012, real-life Stay Puft marshmallows were released as official movie merchandise. 08. Duff Beer (The Simpsons) The Simpsons may be mocking mass-market beer drinkers with Duff, but you still want to drink it Even if you’ve never watched The Simpsons, you can probably guess from the name that Duff Beer is a satire on the kind of mass-market beverages popular with working-class Americans. But it seems that irony sells, because companies around the world have attempted to sell their own beers under the Duff branding (a practice known as 'brandjacking'), resulting in numerous legal battles. Finally, in 2015, Simpsons producer 21st Century Fox relented and began selling its own licensed Duff beer in Chile. A version of the beer is also sold at Universal Studios. To an extent, Fox has only got themselves to blame, because the fictional brand of Duff is relentlessly and superly marketed within the show, from its spokesperson Duffman (a parody of Budweiser's '70s-era mascot Bud Man) to the Duff Gardens theme park ride through a brown river of beer ("Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you, I'll have a Duff, You have one too") and the ever-present Duff beer blimp. Is it any wonder we’re all craving Duff? Sorry Family Guy, but Pawtucket Patriot Ale just doesn’t get a look in. 09. Wonka Bars (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) The 1971 Willy Wonka film was accompanied by the first actual production of Wonka bars Whether you discovered Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory through the original book, the 1971 movie, its 2005 remake, or the 2013 West End musical, generations of kids have been drawn to the magical lure of Willy Wonka’s magical candies. And in this case, not just in the imaginary world but the real one as well. The first company to license the brand for real chocolate was Quaker Oats, which financed the 1971 film and released its own Wonka candy bars in the same year, although they unfortunately had to be recalled from stores due to production problems. A subsidiary called Breaker Confections later developed the brand, releasing a variety of Wonka products through the 1970s. This company was later acquired by Nestle, who continue to produce Wonka branded goods for local markets around the world to this day. Although real-world Wonka products do not have the magical properties of their fictional counterparts, they do take inspiration from them. Nestle’s everlasting gobstopper, for example, is composed of several discrete layers, which allow for the colour- and flavour-changing effects described in the book. In a triumph of branding over the Trades Description Act, however, they are not actually everlasting. 10. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company (Forrest Gump) This fictional restaurant chain has become a worldwide success in real life The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has to finish our list because it’s arguably become even better known as a real-world brand than a fictional one. Featured in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, the fictional seafood restaurant inspired a real-life chain which had 40 branches by 2015, in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, London, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Marianas and the Philippines, generating around $400 million per year in revenue. The company is based in Houston, Texas, and has been a division of Landry's Restaurants since 2010. As in the film, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.'s menu consists mostly of seafood dishes inspired by Southern and Cajun cuisine. Movie memorabilia is on display throughout the restaurant, and customers are given a “Stop, Forrest, Stop” sign to catch the waiter’s attention. Why has this fictional restaurant brand been so successful, when the world is still bereft of a Jack Rabbit Slims (Pulp Fiction), Stan Mikita's Donuts (Wayne’s World) or Mos Eisley Cantina (Star Wars)? There are many factors but perhaps most important is that, rather than just appearing as a movie backdrop, the restaurant chain plays an important role in the plot. In the film (spoiler alert!), Forrest’s Vietnam War buddie Bubba suggests getting in the shrimping business and, ultimately, Forrest pursues this idea after Bubba's death. In this modern era where brand storytelling is crucial to the marketing mix of restaurants, it seems that even a fictional back story can help make the difference between success and failure. Related articles: 5 ways to create better brand imagery 7 great examples of branded content 9 embarrassing branding blunders View the full article

Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the icons Illustrated icons can be a super addition to your design portfolio, whether you include them to reach a new group of potential clients, or to add more elements to an illustrated scene. In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial I'll show you how to create icons simply and easily, so you can create large volumes of them in no time at all. I’m going to design two icon sets: a set of digital phone/tablets and a set of coffee-making items. 01. Know what you're representing Real-world products need a good level of research Whatever your set of products is, do your research! A client would want all the products to be correct, and you should too. Even if it’s a personal project, you can’t accidentally add a camera button to an original Nokia 3310 or put a two-pin plug on a British kettle. If you’re illustrating a product for a client, ensure you know how it looks all the way round, so you understand it as a real-world object. 02. Draw it in pencil Break the object down into simple lines You can start off however you wish – I always draw everything in pencil, but for many products you can trace a photo. If you have a tricky shape to draw and it happens to be symmetrical – for example a lightbulb – you can just draw one half of it (I’ll come to that later!). 03. Get rid of kinks Stick to straight lines, perfect angles and smooth curves When creating linework, always keep lines and angles straight and clean. Your illustrated product icons may be used quite small on the page or screen, and unnecessary kinks or curves can confuse the eye and make things unclear. There are two main tips for this. First, with the Shape tool, hold down the Shift key to get perfect circles and squares or polygons that sit straight. And second, with the Pen tool hold down the Shift key to only draw angles at 45 degrees or 90 degrees to an axis. 04. Make use of symmetry Symmetry can make your workflow more efficient Many products are perfectly symmetrical, which makes things nice and simple. Once you have the linework, select it all with Selection tool (cmd+V) and you’ll see a range of Alignment buttons appear in the top bar. Click either the horizontal or the vertical Align Centre button, depending on what you need, and everything will snap into symmetry. You can also group objects together, and then align them with other objects or groups. 05. Reflect more complex objects A simple copy and paste will keep your objects nice and tidy For symmetry on more shapely objects, illustrate one half perfectly, then select these halves and copy and paste them all in one go by holding down shift+alt and hitting the right Arrow key, this will keep these lines level with their originals. Still with the copied objects selected click Object > Transform > Reflect from the main menu, select the Vertical option and click OK. Place this side of the object to get the width correct (using only the left and right Arrow keys so they stay aligned with the other half). Using the Direct Selection tool (cmd+A) join up the two sides of each line by selecting the two line ends and clicking cmd+J. 06. Maintain consistency All products go through evolutions; show how one relates to the next If you’re working on a collection of products, make sure you're always considering the other items in the collection. If buttons are the same across products, then copy and paste them, if the curved corner is always the same size, then make sure you’re using the same corner. Often (with tech products especially) you can make one device, then copy/paste it and simply adjust the proportions to make the next icon, which can really speed up your workflow. 07. Add some colour Using grey for metal can get boring, so experiment with blues With your linework complete, move on to colour. Generally, you want to get the tones as close to reality as possible, but there are some exceptions. For example, most metals are a mid-grey, which is boring for everyone! Instead, I use a variety of blue-grey tones (light or dark) and usually stray into turquoises. Try using a transparent blue for glass, too, as white can feel cold. I also recommend oranges and yellows for wood surfaces to really bring some warmth. 08. Explore gradients Even a subtle colour gradient can make a real difference to an icon As we’re creating illustrated icons, you don’t want to go too far on minor details and textures. However, you can really sell the surface of a product with a gradient. To get the best out of Adobe Illustrator, don’t create gradients from one colour to the next (it often results in banding when printed). Instead, choose a flat colour for an object/shape, select the shape and duplicate it (in the layers panel), then add a gradient to this top object going from an opacity of 100% down to 0%. 09. Try including shadows and highlights Create your own highlights and shadows, and develop your own graphic style When I'm not using gradients, I often duplicate an object and then cut it at a corner. I use the Pen tool (again holding down the shift key) to create a shape cropped at a 45-degree angle, which I then colour in a lighter or darker shade to add a simple but effective shadow or highlight. 10. Add extra details Bring your products to life by adding extra details Finally, if the size you’re using the icons at allows, you can really bring them to life. A tech device looks uninspiring with nothing on the screen, so use this space to demonstrate its functions or sell an app. Graphic product illustrations used within a bigger illustration (for example, if these coffee facilities were part of a wider scene) will draw the viewer in. Related posts: How to create repeat patterns in Illustrator The best premium and free Illustrator brushes Create a consistent set of icons in Sketch View the full article

What’s the best printer for home use? Whether you’re a freelancer who needs to print, scan and copy documents, a keen photographer looking for a photo printer, or an artist or designer after an A3+ printer that will give accurate test proofs of your designs, you’ll find the best laser, inkjet and all-in-one printers available here. As you'll see in the list below, we think the all-in-one Canon Pixma TS8050 inkjet is the best printer for home you can get right now. Its six-ink system produces vibrant, crisp and professional-looking colour documents and photos, and the space-saving design will fit in a desk drawer. The best chair for your home home The best desk for your home office For the best balance of quality, speed and cost, the Epson EcoTank ET-3600 (at number 03) scores highly too. It’s one of the cheapest printers to run – and it comes with a two-year supply of ink cartridges. Bargain. Choosing the best printer for you Of course, the best printer for you depends on what you’ll be using it for. Anyone looking to print professional-quality photos, prints or banners, for example, will need a high resolution inkjet model like the Epson SureColor SC-P800 A2 printer (number 06), which boasts stunning detail from its nine-ink jet system. If you'll be doing high-volume business printing instead, a laser printer might be better-suited. And look out for Duplex printing – automatic double-sided printing, which will save time, paper and money if you do a lot of printing. Jump to: How to choose the right printer Happily, most printers today have all the mod-cons, including AirPrint (which lets you print wirelessly from Apple iOS products), Google Cloud Print (wireless Android device printing) and SD card readers. The main thing to remember is that a cheap printer doesn’t always mean a good value printer, so check the ink technology and costs of cartridges before you make a purchase. If you print a lot, it can be worth purchasing a more expensive printer to buy into a cheaper line of cartridges. Whatever you need though, we’ve got you covered here. Read on for our list of the best home printers available now. The Canon Pixma TS8050 is a versatile inkjet printer that packs a surprising range of useful features into a relatively compact body. For home-workers, it offers all the standard functions – high-res printing, copying and scanning – plus three in-trays that let you print onto envelopes and any-sized paper. However, the main attraction is its cutting-edge six-cartridge ink system, which gives the Canon Pixma TS8050 an edge when it comes to printing professional full-colour documents and stunning photos. Connectivity-wise, it's also impressive: alongside an SD card slot and USB ports, it connects via Wi-Fi to Android, iOS and Windows – making it simple to print pictures or documents directly from your phone. And while it isn’t the fastest inkjet printer you can get, print speed is impressive and the touchscreen software responsive. Throw in its desk-friendly design, and the Canon Pixma TS8050 is easily one of the best printers for home-workers, freelancers, photographers and creatives. With impressive print resolution and a raft of features on top of the usual scan, copy and print functionality, the HP Envy 5540 is one of the best budget all-in-one printers for home use you can buy. Print quality is excellent, and although it can only hold one cartridge at a time, the ink it takes is cheap and, says HP, could save you up to 70 per cent on your printing costs. There’s also no faffing around with this model: it features AirPrint and e-printing, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity to print from any of your devices. The compact design makes it a popular choice for home offices, and while it isn’t designed for demanding workplaces, if you print a modest amount of documents and photos the HP Envy offers you the best of both worlds. For under $75 / £70, it’s great value for money: this is one of the best budget colour inkjet printers on the market right now. The Epson EcoTank 3600 is one of the most highly praised printers on the market – by both tech geeks and technophobes alike. It earns its place on our best home printer list because it comes ready to use and supplied with two years’ worth of ink – that's enough for up to 4,000 pages in black and white, and 6,500 pages in colour. It’s also incredibly cheap to run, with Epson claiming you can save up to 70 per cent in printing costs with its duplex system. Of course, you’ll need to print enough to justify the higher purchase price, but if you do then this printer offers fantastic value. Design-wise, the EcoTank is sleek and professional (albeit a little noisy) with an LCD display. We'd have like to see a touchscreen display too, but for anyone printing on a daily basis, the EcoTank 3600 is one of the best printers for home you can get. The Epson Expression Premium XP-830 is one of the most versatile home printers out there. As you'd expect, it can print, copy, scan and fax, and it's able to print instantly from both wired and wireless connections on a variety of mediums, making it a top choice for home use. You can print directly onto card, thick papers and even CDs, while two media trays let you print in a range of sizes as well. Apart from some initial teething issues with Apple connectivity and limited paper capacity, the Epson Expression Premium XP-830 is a great-value, well-rounded home printer that delivers decent print quality, although it's better for photos (where it excels) than for text (where it’s beaten by Canon and HP’s thermal inkjets). The Ricoh SP150 is a compact A4 mono laser printer that quietly and efficiently proves there’s still an argument for lasers over inkjets. Despite the running costs being a little higher than some models, the low initial price of the SP150 is what makes it an attractive buy – and why we’ve included it in our list of the best printers for home. It’s also incredibly small and looks smart, too; and whether you’re printing or scanning documents or images, it’s quick and reliable in terms of connectivity. In short, if you're looking for a fast, high-quality printer that's primary for black-and-white documents, this is the best-value printer you can get. The Epson SureColour SC-P800 is a professional A2+ printer that’s particularly well-suited to illustrators, artists and photographers who need to produce large, limited-edition prints for exhibition or sale. Print quality is superb – its nine-colour UltraChrome HD ink cartridges deliver impressive detailing and vivid colours – and the model can handle card. In addition, not only does the SureColour SC-P800 print at A4, A3 and A2 sizes, it features a paper roll unit as well so you can print large banners. Connectivity is good: you can print wirelessly from your phone or any other device. And the touch screen system is intuitive to use, but bear in mind that you’ll need a fair amount of desk space to allow room for the large paper trays. For us, the two biggest downsides are that the print speed isn’t overly impressive (still 3ppm), and it’s expensive. But with a wide range of features and professional colour calibration on offer, the SureColour SC-P800 is one of the best printers you can buy if you make a living from your images. Brother printers are loved for their speed and reliability, and the workhorse Brother MFC-J5330DW is no different: when it comes to printing documents on mass, it’s one of the best A3 printers out there. Well-suited to small businesses or busy freelancers working from home, the MFC-J5330DW boasts a deep 250-sheet paper input, rapid duplex (two-sided) print speeds, a 50-page automatic document feeder and zero warm up time, so you can print a high number of pages with no hassle at all. It’s larger than some models but not unreasonable for a printer with A3 capabilities, and once it’s set up, it’s super easy to print your documents from any device using Wi-Fi. This is a four-colour inkjet printer, so it can handle graphics and photo prints as well, and cost of running is average. You can expect excellent quality photos with the mid-range Canon Pixma PRO-10S, which boasts a 10-ink jet system. Able to print at a whole range of sizes, from 10x15 to A3+, the printer produces grain-free, gallery-worth images in your home. Ink can become expensive, and it doesn’t come with a scanner – so this printer is best-suited to a photographer or artist who mainly wants to use it for large print jobs. Speed is impressive: you can have an A3 borderless image in front of you in less than four minutes. The Pixma PRO-10S is also incredibly convenient to use, with AirPrint letting you print directly from any Cloud-based platform – think Facebook, Dropbox or Flickr – saving you both time and storage space on your desktop. How to choose the best printer for you The printer marker is bursting with different options. If you’re not sure exactly what you want, it can be confusing. Here, we’ll answer some typical questions to help you make sure you’re investing in the right printer for the job. What’s the difference between a laser and inkjet printer? The main difference between laser and inkjet printers is that inkjets use ink, while laser printers use powdered ink (toner). Laser printers are generally quicker, and designed for more frequent and demanding office use. They work by melting the toner in the paper so the print is less likely to smudge or run, and are best suited to black and white documents and high-volume printing. Inkjets produce better quality colour prints, and even the budget models can print decent photos. They’re usually initially cheaper too (although ink cartridges can need replacing more frequently than laser cartridges) and in recent years have become a lot faster. If you’re looking for an all-round printer for home, an inkjet is a solid bet. Which ink type is best? For inkjet printing on paper, the main choice is between dye-based and pigment-based inks. Dye-based inks are traditionally cheaper, brighter and offer a wider range of colours, while pigment-based inks are more expensive and fade-resistant. Both will run when wet. Where it can become confusing is that printer specs don’t always highlight which ink the model takes. As a rule, black inks are usually pigmented, and colour inks dye-based - the best photo printers will use pigment-based inks, though, so that the photos don’t fade. Do I need an all-in-one printer? All-in-one printers offer a scanner, copier and printer – and occasionally still a fax – to give you everything you need for home printing. Higher-end printers will also have duplex printing, where the printer is able to print on both sides of the paper. You can get both inkjet and laser all-in-one printers. Whether you need one or not depends on what you need it for. Are you just looking to print documents or photos, or do you have a range of office needs you could hit with one purchase? Illustration: Which extra features should I look for? Network connectivity - via a cable (Ethernet) or Wi-Fi - is the most useful extra feature to consider when you’re choosing your printer. Wireless printing in particular is handy, letting you connect your laptop or computer to your printer using your home WiFi network and access it anywhere in your house, so you don’t even have to be in the same room to print. If you want to wirelessly print from your tablet or smartphone, you’ll need to look out for a printer that features: AirPrint – lets you print directly from Apple iOS products Google Cloud Print – lets you print from Android tablets and smartphones Email printing – provides wireless printing from any email-capable device, and is available on selected HP printers A card reader, too, is handy for anyone looking specifically for a photo printer. And if you choose printer with PictBridge, you’ll be able to talk directly to certain cameras. What paper do I need? Paper plays an important role in determining print quality. With the right kind of premium papers, even a basic printer can produce good results, so if you’re planning on printing your CV, say, choose better quality, thicker paper. If you have a lot of black-and-white documents, a basic paper stock will normally do the job; or for photo printing, choose a glossy photo paper. Manufacturers tailor their paper stock to their printers, so using own-brand paper is a simple way to guarantee good results. However, using printer profiles allows you to achieve equally good results with paper from different manufacturers – useful for more creative projects for which you need a special stock. I'm an artist/designer/photographer – what printer features should I look for? If you're looking to produce professional-quality prints of your work, or generate accurate proofs, then the larger and higher-quality your printer, the better. Larger printers let you reproduce a wider range of work, and also give you the option to produce art prints on canvas to order (selling these is a good way to help the printer pay for itself). Also, the higher the print quality, the more accurately you will be able to reproduce fine details – and, crucially, colours. Colour reproduction is the single most important aspect of print management. Proofs must be as accurate as possible, and contain the widest possible range of colours. This is particularly important for projects using Pantone or similar standardised colour-matching systems. It isn't always possible to achieve perfection, as anyone who has had a run-in with a commercial print shop knows, but some of the newer Epson printers achieve 98 per cent Pantone colour coverage, certified by Pantone itself, so look for this in the specs. In practice, for really accurate proofing, you will probably need a 12-ink system capable of generating at least A3 prints: ideally, A2, A1 or larger. While high-end printers represents a significant initial outlay, the more you use a printer, the better value it becomes. Paper and ink typically become cheaper when bought in volume, so if you use your printer heavily every day, it may be cheaper in the long run to buy a larger unit – even if you never use its maximum print size. Some printers now track the cost of each job using built-in cost-management software so you can calculate your ROI, but realistically, you won't get a good estimate of running costs until you've been using the printer for a while. Ask around. If studios, designers or photographers similar to you have a printer they like, find out which model it is and how much it costs them to run. Finally, remember to check whether you have space for the printer you're thinking of buying: models capable of generating A2 or larger take up a fair amount of room. Check the printer's dimensions with all the extras fitted, including roll feeders and trays. Remember that a big printer can be noisy too, and weighs around 50kg. Also read: The best A3+ colour printers 5 things every creative needs to know about print design How to colour-match your print projects View the full article

WebAssembly (wasm) is different to other web APIs you might have played with. It’s a standard that defines a binary executable format for client-side applications on the web, which can be run in the browser while taking advantage of the speed and low-level hardware capabilities of machine code. While it’s a relatively new standard only now gaining attention, it’s already supported in all major browsers, and has a budding ecosystem of tools. This represents a major change for the web, where JavaScript (or abstractions of it such as TypeScript) has been the only language available for coding. The introduction of WebAssembly means that there is now a platform to enable C, C++ and other code to be written and compiled to run in the browser. In essence, if you write a wasm module, you compile it to a bytecode format, which can be executed on any platform that supports WebAssembly. This is similar to Java bytecode running on the JVM. You wouldn’t typically expect to write wasm code directly. WebAssembly benefits This is interesting for two reasons. First, it enables coding in languages other than JavaScript for the web. This is compelling to many developers who have stylistic preferences or experience in other languages. WebAssembly was originally designed to focus on C and C++ development, and it enables features of these languages, such as low-level memory management. There’s support available for Rust, another language developed by Mozilla. However, it’s also expected that a wide range of languages and compilers will become available, and it will at some point introduce support for garbage-collected languages such as Java. You’ll find experimental compilers for other languages starting to become available. Experiments show that WebAssembly code can be parsed significantly faster than JavaScript The second benefit is performance. Experiments show that WebAssembly code can be parsed significantly faster than JavaScript (up to 20 times). This opens up the opportunity to develop more complex software for the web – things like 3D graphics engines, image processing and more. As a result, one of the early emerging practical-use cases for WebAssembly is games developers looking to produce high-end games that run in browser. Epic Games has demonstrated a version of the Unreal Engine that runs in-browser as a wasm module. WebAssembly is also designed to integrate with existing JavaScript engines, which mean the two platforms’ modules should be interoperable. Wasm modules can be imported into JavaScript code, which can then take advantage of its functionality. Currently WebAssembly cannot access the DOM or web APIs directly, but it can use JavaScript to do so. Also, there’s nothing constraining WebAssembly to run only in-browser, and it’s expected it will be ported to other platforms. This could make it significantly easier to build cross-platform apps that support web and native environments. Security implications You might be wondering about the security implications of WebAssembly, since this is a general concern for low-level languages. Rather than being true native machine code, however, wasm is designed to execute in sandboxed environment, and adheres to the same security constraints as JavaScript does in browser. If you want to get started with WebAssembly, Emscripten is a compiler that supports C and C++ compilation and conversion of existing applications. You won’t find too many production applications using it yet, but it represents another step to bridging the gap between browser and native software. This is definitely one to keep an eye on, and if you’re not building wasm modules, you could well be consuming them soon. Web design event Generate London returns on 19-21 September 2018, offering a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. Read more: Everything you need to know about WebGL Beware the cutting edge of web design 9 amazing PWA secrets View the full article