Mike on TAP

Freelancers often overlook the resources available to them at their local library. This is a shame, because most library resources are free to library cardholders.

You may remember the library as the place where you did research for your school assignments, but there’s a lot more to most libraries these days.

In this post, Laura Spencer shares a few free resources from the library that freelancers will find helpful. Most (but not all) local libraries offer these resources to local residents and/or library cardholders.

Resource #1: Books and Publications
Resource #2: Free WiFi
Resource #3: Classes and Meetings
Resource #4: Borrow eBooks
Resource #5: The Reference Librarian

Source: Freelance Folder | The Blog For Freelancers And Web-Workers

Photoshop Product Manager Jeffrey Tranberry answers questions about the various upgrade options to CS6:

Can I upgrade to CS6?
Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 ExtendedYes. Owners of a CS5 or CS5.5 qualify for upgrade pricing to CS6. There is a special offer – good through the end of the year- which allows CS3 & CS4 owners an opportunity to upgrade to CS6. Owners of CS2 have one last chance if they purchase CS5 from a reseller in the next 30 days (to receive a free upgrade to CS6).

I just bought CS5 (CS5.5) – Do I qualify for a free upgrade?
If you purchased through Adobe.com on or after March 26, 2012, you are qualified to receive an upgrade to the equivalent Creative Suite 6 version of your product at no additional cost when CS6 ships. A one-time coupon will be sent to the email address associated with your order approximately 10 days after CS6 becomes publicly available.

If you purchased an eligible Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 or a Creative Suite 5.5 component through an Adobe authorized reseller on or after March 26, 2012, you are qualified to receive an upgrade to an equivalent Creative Suite 6 version of your product at no additional cost when CS6 ships. Details and instructions for submitting your claim.

Additional Info: Upgrade policy after product announcement
Please Note: This upgrade policy is in line with our 30-day return policy – which is in line or better than most retailers in terms of returns, refunds and price matching guarantees.

Source: Adobe

With more and more workers turning to freelancing, you may wonder whether you should freelance. Are you ready? What is the best path to take to become a freelancer?

Over at Freelance Folder, Laura Spencer has a post about different paths people take to becoming freelancers.

Laura identifies five different routes people take to freelancing and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. I’ll list them here but you might want to visit the site for more details.

Which one are you?

1. Right After College
2. After Working for Someone Else
3. As a Part-timer
4. Job Loss
5. A Need for Flexibility

Source: Freelance Folder

I found these nice links that I think will be very help for many of you over at Photoshop Support.

Photoshop CS6 Buying Guide – Product Comparison Chart
Photoshop CS6 Buying Guide – Version Comparison Chart
Photoshop CS6 Buying Guide – Upgrades Chart
Photoshop CS6 Buying Guide – Subscriptions Chart

You’re welcome. Har har.

Source: Photoshop Support

Here is a video from Design Panoply about the new Blur Filters in Photoshop CS6. This tutorial will show you the basics of the new Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt-Shift filters in Photoshop CS6. The blur tools are much improved upon in the new version of Photoshop, and with a little ingenuity you can use them to create some simple, good looking effects.

Source: Design Panoply

Here’s a neat website I’d never seen until five minutes ago. It’s called Digital Telepathy written by Jessica Moon and I found it because I was looking for more Photoshop content to post. This is about some nifty tricks you can use in Photoshop to make things go faster. Some of them are pretty straight forward things but read on… they get niftier.

Source: Digital Telepathy

David Ponce at OhGizmo! has a nice post about how our brains interpret images…

These images of the Leaning Tower are actually identical, but the tower on the right looks more lopsided because the human visual system treats the two images as one scene. Our brains have learned that two tall objects in our view will usually rise at the same angle but converge toward the top—think of standing at the base of neighboring skyscrapers. Because these towers are parallel, they do not converge, so the visual system thinks they must be rising at different angles.

Source: OhGizmo!

Smashing Magazine has a nice article titled: Drop Caps: Historical Use And Current Best Practices With CSS

Don’t that sound exciting? I thought so. Head on over there and read a short history about drop caps then top it off by learning HOW to make some drop caps of your own. Do I need to whip out the gangsta drop a cap reference? Good.

Source: Smashing Magazine

Jameel Khan over at Speck Boy (one of my favorite blogs) has a some nice links on CSS Menus and Navigation.

Here’s the short list:
Creative CSS3 Animated Menus
CSS3 Animated Dropdown Menu
Creating a Cool CSS3 Dropdown Menu
CSS3 Minimalistic Navigation Menu
CSS3 Animated Menu
CSS3 Multi-Level Drop-Down Menu
Circle Navigation Effect with CSS3

Be sure to swing by and check them out.

Source: Speck Boy