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

Killed by clothes - Trove Tuesday

Image courtesy Boston Public Library

Hidden Killers

The BBC TV program More Hidden Killers of the Victorian Age revealed fascinating discoveries of the era along with attendant dangers. Of particular interest to me was the invention of celluloid and the many products manufactured with this new compound.

The program revealed that ladies' celluloid hair combs would catch on fire. The celluloid cuffs worn by clerks so that they could write on them to do calculations were a danger near fire, as indeed were the long dresses enhanced with celluloid.

A quick Trove search indeed revealed that celluloid in clothes was a potential death trap. Here's a section of an aptly named article  "Killed by Clothes" detailing the dangers of clothing of 1903.

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1903 'KILLED BY CLOTHES.', The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), 31 January, p. 18, viewed 30 December, 2014, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128456355

First cousin twice removed

On a more relevant note, this reminded me of a sad story found while searching Trove for ancestors and relations. In 1917 this poor woman, Mary Kitschke, a first cousin twice removed, i.e. first cousin of a grandfather was wearing a hessian apron while attending the clothes in the copper.

SAD BURNING FATALITY.

Canowie Belt, December 19.

Mrs. Anthony Kitschke, of Canowie Belt, was washing, and was wearing a hessian apron. Whilst she was at the copper the hessian ignited, and her other clothing caught fire. She tried to roll a table cover round herself, but this also caught fire.Except for a small portion about her shoulders, her clothing was all burnt off. She had no one near to aid her. When Mr.Kitschke came home shortly afterwards he found her on the verandah, terribly burnt. Strange as it may seem, after the burning she got water from the tank and put out the burning fragments lying about the verandah. A neighbor did what she could to relieve the poor sufferer, who lived for 48 hours and was conscious to the last. Possessed of a cheerful, generous disposition, she was highly respected by all.

A sad ending to life. I well remember my father and uncle fighting grass fires using dampened hessian bags. Old grain bags were put to many uses around the farm.

This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2014/12/killed-by-clothes-trove-tuesday.html

Beat the Blogger blues

Getting the most out of Blogger

A couple of recent posts on blogs I follow have prompted me to remind myself and others about making the best use of Blogger's inbuilt tools. I've been benefiting from the expertise of those sharing their knowledge on Worldwide Genealogy  where I have noticed some Wordpress contributors struggling with the unfamiliar to them platform.  I hope some of these hints may be useful.

Another blog A Family Tapestry post Scraping: the bottom of the barrel reminded me of the need to check that each post had an originating link embedded at the end of the post. This can be enabled through the dashboard in Settings. I usually edit the embedded address to the exact post address which can be located in the sidebar under the Links heading. The link can be customised or left on automatic.

When I copy the exact link address from the sidebar in the editing mode and paste it on the bottom of the post it appears thus http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2014/12/beat-blogger-blues.html  complete with blue background. One of the handiest tools in the Blogger editing bar is the Tx symbol. Highlight any text and use this to remove formatting that has been carried over from copy and paste actions.

The address now appears in the normal font and colour dictated by the template used and I can further refine it by highlighting and selecting Link from the menu bar as well as using the TT tool to reduce the size of the text  http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2014/12/beat-blogger-blues.html .

If you write your posts in MS Word or any other program, always highlight all the text then use the Tx symbol to rid it of unwanted formatting. This is particularly useful for family historians copying text from old newspapers and other sources.

Next I add a Search Description in the Post settings to give my post a chance of being found and read!

Today I became aware of a feature I had not previously used, the ability to predate a post. Whilst I have previously used the Schedule function for posts to be published in the future, I had never considered its usefulness for resurrecting earlier web content published elsewhere. This post by +Chris Betcher made me realise the value of being able to manipulate the dates to earlier years in Blogger. He has brought previously defunct webpages covering 20 years of his family history into a new blog using the Set date and time function under the Schedule menu.

Before I publish a post, I spell check! This tool  ABC/ is located on the far right hand side of the Blogger toolbar. It can be used on posts and all static content pages.

Finally, if you have copyright details on your blog, it is now time to update for 2015. Now back to checking my own blogs for errors!


This post first appeared on http://librarycurrants.blogspot.com/2014/12/beat-blogger-blues.html