ANZAncestryTime Cemeteries and Graphics

ANZAncestryTime is a Twitter chat each Tuesday evening see details here.

In week 3 we discussed cemeteries and I proposed a geneameme for bloggers.

So far three bloggers have posted responses.

Please visit these blogs to read the posts

Pauleen Cass on Family History Across the Seas 

Fran Kitto on TravelGenee

Jill Ball on GeniAus 

and mine is at Earlier Years

If your post is still in the writing or I have missed seeing it, please add to the comments below and I will list it here.

Made in Canva

This week I commented on using graphics in blog posts. If I do not have an appropriate photo to add to a post I use a variety of apps to generate an image.

Canva is a well known tool and has free and paid versions. It is available on the web and on both iOS and Android devices. The free version allows plenty of scope, a wide variety of templates for various platforms as well as the ability to set one's own dimensions. 

Looking back through my designs, all of which the free account retains, I see I have been using Canva at least since January 2014. The tiled graphics for the local group's website were all designed in Canva and I can easily update any design as needed. One's own photos can be uploaded and used in a graphic as above and the downloads are high quality pngs.

Made in Photofunia

PhotoFunia is another place for quick effects. This can be used without the need for an account. If you choose Halloween you will see the cemetery gates, all I needed to do was type in the text then download the resulting picture. Enjoy exploring the Vintage and Books sections. An app is also available for iOS and Android devices.

Made in PhotoMapo on iPad

Made in PhotoMapo then vintage effect applied in Pixlr

Photo Mapo is an iOS app which gives geographic context to your photos with a variety of templates to add explanatory text.

Another favourite I use regularly is WordSwag which is another free app for both iOS and Android. 

Lots of backgrounds and text varieties in WordSwag

Made in WordSnag with one of my photos on iPad

Made in WordSnag with a screen clipping behind text

Have fun trying a new option for your blog images.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Graphics goodness

Made with Photofunia

Generating images

I enjoy playing around with graphics programs whether it be on computer, ipad or phone. Recently I introduced some folks to Canva a powerful design tool for posters and web graphics. Today I am highlighting a couple of other favourites.

Photofunia is just that, a place to have fun with photos and images. choose from a wide range of backgrounds, posters and situations to add your own text or photos.

No, I've not really been doing enough research to write these impressive tomes, all I've done is add a title and author to the already existing picture.

Insert your own picture at Photofunia

Next I took an early photo of two of my siblings and inserted them in this book. No authoritative sources here, but fun to lighten up your blog or presentations. Photofunia is also available as an app on all platforms.

Another on my list is PicMonkey the easy to use shape cut-outs and multiple banners provide a quick method of producing graphics for posts. No particular skills needed but if you prefer some tutorials, there are plenty of useful hints.

This is a graphic for a story that had a particularly rocky ending when some little girls were not allowed near a fast flowing creek again for quite a while.

These ones have been around for a long time. All four are useful for to generating signs or titles.
Big Huge labs for billboards, magazine covers and badges
RedKid sign generator
ImageChef
Spell with Flickr

Meanwhile back to my research!

Make a quick logo in PicMonkey

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2015/01/graphics-goodness.html