Antiques in Wichita? Wichita Antique Free Fonts!

Loyal readers will remember last fall when the Cave Creek Geek Dined at Auntie Mae's Cafe. Of all the videos I've posted so far, that is one of my favorites since the restaurant is named after my mom. This week would have been her 85th birthday so it seemed an appropriate time to post the link again.

What the video doesn't tell you is that Auntie Mae's started as a consignment antique store in Wichita. Today's free font is WichitaAntique in five different weights. I couldn't think of a better time to choose this family of fonts. Get your free copy and start antiquing!

Not sure how to download and install these free fonts? Make sure to read Downloading Fonts, Installing Fonts and Spam Filters for detailed instructions. For those of you using Internet Explorer for your browsing, please read Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 Is Evil and How To Fix It! so you don't have any problems when getting your free fonts. If you get an error message when trying to login, Internet Explorer is the problem!

• 1 year ago, the free font was Boston.
• 2 years ago, the free font was Tangle.
• 3 years ago, the free font was Tara Bulbous.

WichitaAntique

WichitaAntique Light

WichitaAntique Medium

WichitaAntique Bold

WichitaAntique XBold

Heartbleed Bug and Graphics Unleashed

There is a lot of talk in the last few days about the Heartbleed Bug. It is a coding error in the OpenSSL protocol that can leave a hole for hackers to steal information. If you want to read all of the technical details, you can visit The Heartbleed Bug Web site.

The Graphics Unleashed Web site does use SSL (secure socket layer) encryption on pages when payments are involved or with other information that should be protected. We do NOT use the OpenSSL library on our site and therefore our site does NOT have this vulnerability.

As with most sites on the Internet, we are connected with many other sites and services. For example, many of you receive our blog posts or newsletter via the FeedBlitz service. We can happily report that FeedBlitz does NOT have this vulnerability either. To date, we are not aware of any service we use on our site that is affected.

This doesn't mean that you won't visit sites that are affected. Those sites aren't bad guys, they just happened to use a programming library with a vulnerability in it. Many sites have already installed a updated version of OpenSSL to resolve the vulnerability. Until it was patched, there was a slim possibility your data could have been at risk. In short, be aware and vigilant, but no need to freak out about this issue.

One thing you should consider is changing your passwords, especially if you often use the same password. For example, you may have your login credentials stored at site A which had the vulnerability. If those credentials were compromised and you used the same login credentials at another site that didn't have the vulnerability, the bad guys could still login to the site without the vulnerability. I can't stress enough that you shouldn't be using the same login credentials at every site. It is extremely important to have unique (and strong) passwords at each site.

I wrote a detailed post entitled Choosing Strong Passwords and Remembering Them Easily last year so I encourage you to read it immediately. It is not hard to create unique and strong passwords. You can also remember them very easily if you use a tool like Roboform. Of all the utilities I use on a daily basis, it is one of my favorites.

Spend a little time investigating sites you visit where your information may have been at risk. Then go change your passwords! If you are ever worried about the password you are using in the Graphics Unleashed Shopping Cart, go to My Account and click the Change Password link in the Account Information section. Just please use a strong password and let Roboform remember it for you!

Kurt Reviews HTC One Max Smartphone

Most of us are on our second or even our third smartphone at this point. Others may be investigating their first one. I know that I will soon be trading in my current phone for what I find to be the latest and greatest.

Kurt von Behrmann has reviewed the HTC One Max, one of the top entrants in the world of phablets. They are so named because their large screens make them a mix between a phone and a tablet.

In my mind I have gone back and forth between a "phablet" and a large phone as far as what will next be my mobile communication device. I think the only way for me to decide is to hold both in my hands to see what feels right.

Give Kurt's review of the HTC One Max a read to determine if it might be the right smartphone for you. For more reviews, go to Kurt's page where we've archived all of the reviews he's written.

Blood Moon, GodMode Folder, Clipart on DVD? and Seamless Textures Collections

I wanted to share some of the posts that have appeared on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page in the last week. If you are reading via e-mail, you'll have to click on the posts. Each of the Facebook posts is fully embedded if you are reading this post on the Web site.

We had a beautiful clear sky in Arizona last night to watch the lunar eclipse and the blood moon. I love to take pictures, but my camera equipment pales in comparison to what NASA has available. Rather than post the pictures I took with the moon as a dot, we shared a series from NASA showing the blood red moon.

Post by Graphics Unleashed.

I was recently reminded of a post I wrote for the blog more than four years ago about a special folder available on Windows 7. Just a reminder that it definitely does not work on previous versions of Windows and we have not yet tested to see if it works on Windows 8.

Post by Graphics Unleashed.

Hopefully you've all heard that Corel released CorelDRAW X7 a couple of weeks ago. Just a reminder that we have a page on our site where we include all information we have on it. One of the decisions Corel made was to not include any clipart, fonts, photos and other content on the DVD. We asked for your thoughts on this decision.

Post by Graphics Unleashed.

It is a decision I find very disappointing as users have often shared how much they enjoyed received artwork with each version. I'm still a firm believer in providing DVDs of artwork to users and that's exactly what we deliver with our Bonus Content Packs. You might find you get a better value with our CorelDRAW Unleashed Bonus Content Mega Pack 1 as it contains more than 4200 pieces of clipart, 496 seamless textures, more than 2000 seamless stripes and more than 400 fonts along with some other goodies.

One of my favorite types of artwork to use in designs is seamless textures and thumbnails of all seamless textures from one of our collections was posted on Facebook.

Post by Graphics Unleashed.

Of course those are thumbnails from just one of the 13 collections (with more coming soon). If you haven't looked at these collections, please download the free PDFs showing all textures included in each collection. We have collections of wood, metal, more metal, stone, terrain, fire & ice, ground & plants, floor wall & bricks, fiber, tile & path, marble, crystals and technology. In short, there is a collection for everyone!

What Can Designers Learn From Spammers and Scammers?

Yesterday I told you about all the extra junk you'll often receive when you install free software. As designers, we can all learn something from the tactics used by the scams involved in getting you to install the extra junk. These lessons can also come from the spam that floods our inboxes every day.

Let's focus on how you are tricked into installing extra junk. Obviously the product you desire is marketed as free and that is the magic price.

The first thing you see on the Web page is a big green button with "Download Now" or some other verbage that is just begging you to click the link. Even though there is a text link just below the button where you can get the same software without the extra junk, very few users see it.

So if you are designing something and you want a specific action to be taken, make it as obvious as that big green "Download Now" button. Don't hide the desired action in the small print.

Even after you download the version of the free software with all the extra junk, you still go through several dialog boxes where you can choose not to install it. Except these dialogs are designed to convince you to install the stuff you don't want. How many times do you read the text in a dialog box with an "I agree" button at the bottom? Rarely does anyone read this stuff. The freebie software dialogs are designed so that you'll click I agree even though you have the option to click Decline.

People don't generally click Decline because they think it means they won't get the free software they desire. Yet if they read the small print, they'd realize Decline was the correct answer. I can tell you that even if the answers are provided, most people won't read the answer in front of their face. And those who do read often, often misinterpret to get the meaning they desire.

I'm not suggesting any of you create designs that will trick customers into doing something as scammy as with the free software installing extra junk or the spam that promises who knows what. The key is that even legitimate companies with legitimate products and services can create a design that guides their customers to the desired outcome.

On the note of designing to help potential customers, we've recently made a few changes to our Web site that we hope will simplify things for you. At the top of each page is a toolbar with three items (along with our name). First, a button that takes you to a page where you can get free subscriptions to our publications. We want you to subscribe and it truly is free. Next is a language selector. For those who do not speak English as a native language, this allows you to translate the page into the language of your choice. On the right is a search box where you can search our site for the answer you desire.

Along with the bar added at the top of the page, we also redesigned the drop-down menus at the top of each page to give you an easy way to navigate to the most popular pages and sections of our site. I hope that these two changes are both helpful to you. Of course we also hope that you find some products that will help you and that you purchase those products.

Free Software Often Has a Much Higher Cost Than You Think

There are a handful of messages that I hear from users on a regular basis:

• My computer is slow
• My computer crashes way too often
• If it isn't free, I'm not interested as I refuse to pay for anything online
• I never install anything dangerous

Now I'd like you to read a post explaining what you really get when you download free software from some of the most popular "legitimate" sources of software.

• Download Wrappers and Unwanted Software are pure evil

We've all heard the saying "there is no such thing as a free lunch." Everything has a cost to produce and distribute. Therefore if it is provided to you for free, there often is some sort of a hidden cost. In the case of many of the popular "free" software, they are going to do everything possible to get you to install extra junk you don't want and don't need. Why? Because they are being paid when they are able to get you to install this junk!

Let's now go back to those four common statements above. While many users may not feel they are installing anything dangerous, it is possible they are doing it quite often. Installing all that extra junk can slow down your computer drastically and cause it to crash. Lastly, sometimes it is best to pay even a small price directly so a company doesn't feel the need to include all this extra junk to recoup their development costs.

Your Designs Will Bloom With Collection of Flowers Clipart

I'm lucky to live in the desert where there isn't really much of a winter. So while it has been warm here for quite a while now, the warmer temperatures of spring are finally making it to more of you. Along with spring comes the bloom of flowers and I wanted to celebrate the arrival of flowers with a collection of clipart. The latest collection of value-priced clipart has 50 different flowers each in three popular file formats. It costs less than a bouquet of real flowers and will never wilt! Get your copy of this new collection now!

Flowers Unleashed Volume 1 is the latest member of the Clipart Unleashed Family. All files (thumbnails are shown below) in this collection are supplied in CorelDRAW X5 and CorelDRAW 9 format. There are also files in Adobe Illustrator CS format. So no matter your choice of design software, we've got files that work for you. The CorelDRAW files are filled with keywords so they can be easily searched using Corel CONNECT or the ROMCat utility.

If you are looking for a big bundle of heavily discounted vector artwork and more, make sure to check out the CorelDRAW Unleashed Bonus Content Packs.

 

Twitter Header Template Updated for 2014 Redesign

Less than two weeks ago, I made available an updated Facebook Fan Page Cover Template for 2014 Redesign. The new layout has not yet been introduced on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page, though we've already uploaded our new cover photo in preparation.

Now it is Twitter's turn to redesign their pages. If you create a new Twitter account, you'll get the new design immediately. Those of you who already have an account will have to wait to get the new design. It is slowly rolling out so it shouldn't be too long until it hits your profile. It hasn't made it to my profile yet, but make sure you are following me so you can see my new header photo when I have been upgraded.

Most users feel the new look is very similar to Facebook and that is true. The header photo goes across the top of the page and your profile photo sits at the lower left of the header. Twitter recommends you upload a graphic 1500 x 500 pixels though in most cases only a portion of that graphic will be shown. Below you can see a sample of how it will look as we've stored it in our free template.



Just as we did with our Facebook template, the elements Twitter will overlay on your header photo are stored in the CorelDRAW file on a separate layer that is visible but not printable or exportable. The template file is stored in CorelDRAW X5 format because saving it to any older version would mean leaving out important features. As you customize the template for your header, remember that some of the file could be hidden when viewed in a lower resolution window and keep the most important elements nearer the middle of the photo.

I'd love to see the header graphics you create with the template so feel free to tag me (@fostercoburn) in a tweet or post your header on the Graphics Unleashed Facebook page.