• The costs were too exorbitant and a lot of people didn’t want to take chances with pirated versions.
• The interface is too distended having some very rarely-used features to make learning it simple and straightforward.
• A user actually requires installing the programs onto a machine having specifications which are complied with the program and suffer through many unwanted DRM malware which may also come along with the software.
• The website understands the needs of artists as they are artists themselves.

There are two versions Beta and Alpha:

In the Beta release:

• Phoenix, layer-based image editor
• Peacock, visual laboratory for creating amazing effects and visualizations
• Toucan, color palette coordinator

For the Alpha testing, it is only available to members of the Blue plan:

• Raven, vector editor
• Talon, Firefox extension that lets users to perform screen capturing.

There is additional extensions available too called the Talon on the browsers Chrome and Firefox. With this extension one can perform:

• Complete and partial screen capturing of any webpage.
• Just one click editing and saving any image on the internet.
• Prompt searching of Aviary creation library.

List of tools available in www.aviary.com are given below:

Phoenix Image Editor

With Phoenix Image Editor one can perform from essential image retouching to composite effects, Phoenix offers the key features of a desktop image editor with ease and user-friendliness of a web-based application.

1. Rich editing toolset

One can easily edit images with undo and redo, brushes, magic wand and blend modes available.

2. Powerful layers

To be able to work with layers, groups and masks is easy with Phoenix image editor. It also has instinctive drag and drop interface.

3. Share and learn

Work together with other users. Follow step-by-step tutorials provided to learn innovative skills.

4. Import from well-liked photo-sharing sites

One can easily get to import images from popular sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.

5. Complementary collection of creation tools

Make use of Phoenix creations in other Aviary tools.

Peacock Visual Laboratory

Peacock is so beautiful and does so many amazing things that it was decided by the website to be called “Visual Laboratory”. A user can easily experiment with the pixel-based images in totally new ways. One can also check out the latest user-created wiki for in-depth documentation.

1. Node-based UI

A user can drag, drop, and connect generators, effects, resources, and controllers.

2. One smart bird

Artists can easily get to combine terrains, patterns, computational effects, and a lot more to form spectacular art.

3. Share and learn

With aviary.com one can team up with other users. They can also follow step-by-step tutorials to study new skills.

4. Import from well-liked photo-sharing sites

One can easily get to import images from popular sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.

5. Complementary collection of creation tools

Make use of Phoenix creations in other Aviary tools.

Toucan Color Palettes

This can either be used alone or in combination with the other creation tools present in aviary.com, Toucan offers the features you require to inject color into your creative process.

1. Choose and examine

The artists can get to choose up to 20 colors per palette by means of color association rules or an uploaded image.

2. Color associations

Toucan understands everything on the subject of color theory, and a user could even see a color deficiency preview.

3. Share and learn

Team up with other users and follow step-by-step tutorials to learn fresh skills.

4. Import from trendy photo-sharing sites

Users can also get to import images from Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.

5. Complementary set of creation tools

Make use of Phoenix creations in other Aviary tools.

Raven Vector Editor

Make use of Raven to build completely scalable vector art suitable for logos or tee shirt designs. It is guaranteed that one won’t be able to find a comparable tool on the web.

1. Powerful path engine

Work with paths, lines, curves, and objects. Control stroke, fill color, and gradient.

2. Powerful layers

An artist can easily work with layers, groups, and layer masks. Import scalable vector graphics (SVG) files.

3. Import from trendy photo-sharing sites

Users can also get to import images from Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.

4. Complementary set of creation tools

Make use of Phoenix creations in other Aviary tools.

5. Share and learn

Team up with other users and follow step-by-step tutorials to learn fresh skills.

Myna Audio Editor

Artists can make use of Myna for remixing music tracks and audio clips. One can also apply sound effects and record their own voice or instruments!

1. Powerful Clip Editing

Artists can trim, Loop, Stretch and Reverse the audio clips, width editable loop points, and interactive time stretch capabilities.

2. Automation

Effortlessly add fade-ins, fade-outs, pan from left to right, and alter gain over time, with editable control points.

3. Effects

Include non-destructive effects to the audio clips including Pitch Change, Reverb, Delay, Parametric EQ, and more.

4. Files Import / Export

Artists have also got the provision to import their own audio files, or search one of our provided libraries. Mix it down and export directly to the desktop or publish back to your account.

5. Share and learn

Team up with other users and follow step-by-step tutorials to learn fresh skills.

1. Falcon Image Markup

Artists can use Falcon and Talon to promptly capture images and web pages from the browser and crop, resize or mark them up.

2. Screen grab the web

With Talon, Aviary’s Firefox extension, one can screen grab and edit in Falcon instantaneously.

3. Quick cropping

Artists can simply resize, rotate and crop images easily. It’s an ideal tool for bloggers and designers.

4. Snag web colors

With this tool one can click any part of a picture to immediately get its color. Great way for matching designs and files.

5. Blazingly fast

Loads immediately, even on slow connections. Hop right inside without irritating wait times.

6. Simple visual markup

Draw arrows, rectangles, text and doodles on any type of image. Alter colors, outlines and size according to the needs and wants.

Changing the Twitter background or the profile icon automatically can never get easier than this. With the professionally designed and the simple user interface that is provided, you can make the necessary changes you want iwithin minutes! You don’t have to take the pains of Registering that may otherwise take your precious time. Nor do you have to go to the Twitter settings!

By uploading your photos, icons, background wallpapers, patterns, avatars, designs, advertisements, they will help in changing the Twitter´s background automatically that instant. And for all this, there is absolutely no need of going to the twitter settings to change or to refresh the background or the icon.

Mainly three simple steps are to be followd for using the TwiBack. Firstly, click on the button Sign In. Secondly, upload the background or the icon images to the Twiback or just use the predefined ones. Thirdly, set the time and date for the required updates. Then simply sit back and relax as the Twiback will do the rest!

Some of the few options given include – you can set the Twitter background or the icon for your birthday date. This will appear right on the selected date and time.You can also upload your photos to the Twiback (no matter what the count of photos be!) and they will be loaded automatically, each day, month, week or even each hour! This surely means that you wont have to waste your time on doing this anymore. Another option is that you can set the Twitter background for each season. At the start of the next season, it’ll appear automatically.

What more??.. you can sell your Twitter background space for advertisements. All you have to do is upload the AD images to the Twiback and set the desired time and date that you wish them to be loaded on your Twitter profile’s background. And if you are a user who runs a company and corporate Twitter feed, then there is an option where you can upload and promote your products on the background. You can also upload portraits. Aren’t all these features amazing??!!

The main features of this site includes Unique and Professional Design where you can give a unique and professional touch to your twitter background, Personal Photos and ArtWork where you personalize your background with the photos and artwork, Social Media Profile Integration- here you can have your followers to connect with you on the other Social Media Networks, Optimized Screen Resolution which ensures maximum background visibility on the site visitor’s screens, Matching Colour Scheme & Palette where you can enhance the look or your background of the site with a matching colour scheme and lastly Excellent Support & Service- here you can get help concerning the installation and account setup for free.

You can start working on BrandmyBackground by following three simple steps- initially Give a Feedback. That is, after you place an order, they will send you a design questionnaire to tell them what you would like to see in your background, you can also specify the minute features like which colours you would like to have, photos, links, text etc. Secondly, the Design Starts. Once your questionnaire is received, you will be assigned to a design expert who will start your project immediately. Finally, install your Background once it is complete. In case there are any changes to be made, you can inform them.

What more would you want when you can have a background of your own. This feature becomes essential or rather a status especially if you are representing a brand! It might be a little expensive but it definitely is worth to have a look particularly by the professional Twitters.

The most interesting feature of this site is that the creation and design process is not an automatic one. This means that you can have a real interaction with a designer who will be asking you all the relevant questions at the start and as work progresses. Once this is done, you can also request for any changes that are to be made. So what are you waiting for? Go stand out and impress your followers and prospects while personifying your brand and reflecting who you are.

There are mainly three areas of interest given from where you can choose from. They include Architecture and Engg, Mechanical and Geospatial. In Architecture and Engg, you can open a sample AutoCAD Plan and elevation drawing. In Mechanical, you can open a sample AutoCAD Part drawing and finally in Geospatial, you can open a sample AutoCAD geospatial drawing.

So in short, Project Butterfly allows you to edit, co-edit and review the designs using your browser. Though it is possible to save your design as local drawing file, if you have it via the cloud then you can leave it in the cloud itself. Hence, it helps in collaboration with the others who are staying far away to transmit the files easily.

The Project Butterfly offers many features as follows- you can edit and store the drawings online. The advantage of doing this is that there is no need of back up then. Similarly no copies, no need of walking with data are needed. Data integrity works on any machine regardless of its platform and performance. Another main feature is that it is accessible from anywhere and hence there is no need for any software. All you need is a Web browser. It can also be used with the “non-CAD” users. This helps in reducing the gap between the designer and the client, designer and the outside contractors etc. The participants are also given an option to edit. Thus there is no need to redraw all the changes that are made by the participants to the original drawing file. It also features Timeline. In this, there is no need of creating any periodic backups. Hence you can quickly compare the versions and there is no need to dig up the old emails. Email notifications are sent. By doing this, you can keep yourself updated with the activities of the Project Butterfly. Other features include Share. Hence there is no need of sending files such as DWG, xref etc. Syncing between various DWG files is also not needed.

You can also introduce your avatar to games. A high resolution image or mesh can be created. There is an easy to use Avatar Builder. Here you can build your custom avatar in the real 3D. Since all the work takes place on their servers, there is no need for any softwares, plugins or special graphics cards.

Initially you will have to select from a list of the Avatars given. Then mould the Avatar’s face and body. After this, choose the skin, hair, eye color and finally clothing. Now you are done!

The Evolver is a solution to bring together the complex 3D modelling, ease of use and fully inter-operable avatars. The Evolver provides an entrance to design, manage and transport the digital avatars that can be made use of in the virtual world, online games, video clips, mobile apps, professional animation, pre-visualization projects, social networks, greeting cards and so on.

The Evolver produces 3D characters that are designed for wide range of uses. Due to the site’s simplicity and user-friendly interface, it makes everything easy for anyone to create a 3D avatar or clone. All this can be done very quickly and all for free! Moreover these avatars are exportable for use in any destination.

With the Evolver any no. of men, women, children and various creatures can be created by simply combining and morphing the physical attributes that are derived from a “virtual gene pool” of the pre-built characters. The features from these pre-built characters can be blended in a number of ways to create a totally unique character. The facial features including the overall face, eyes, ears, mouth, chin, nose and cheeks and physical attributes includes the overall body, arms, shoulders etc. This can be customized with the skin tone, eye colour and hair. You can also upload a photo to create a customized 3D clone of yourself or of other people. The clothing option gives each of the characters with an individual style.

Tagul is absolutely free in beta. Alex monetized Tagul. He claims it to be a mix between embedded in the clouds ads and a paid subscription. He might leave it for free for non-profit usage.

In the first month of its release its been observed to make a record of 5,567 people who have visited from 83 countries and virtually a thousand users are done with their registration too. New fonts are available in the website and what more…many more features will be coming soon!

There are several simple steps that you should follow to get your cloud working. Initially Sign up to the service. Then create a cloud and choose its core options that includes the data source (rss feed, html web page etc.), tags url pattern (e.g. http://google.com/search?q=$tag), cloud shape, fonts to render tags and also the tags rotation angles. Next, click the “Build it” button and wait until the cloud is done. Then customize its appearance by choosing the tags and background colours and the rollover colors and effects. Finally save it, choose rebuild interval and embed the cloud into your web page using the html code that is provided. Now your cloud is ready. Since then, the Tagul will automatically rebuild your cloud based on the chosen rebuild interval.

You can create your cloud using “My clouds” pane that is placed on the right side of the website. Every user can have up to 10 active clouds. The remaining amount can be tracked on the “create” link. The first thing that you should be doing is to get your cloud working to fill the “Core Options”. Choose your cloud name which can range from 1 to 50 characters and proceed by providing the source URL. Specify an URL that will be the source of your tag cloud. This URL can be any html or a rss link starting with “http://” (e.g. http://news.google.com). You can also use the API mode by providing a specific XML file as the source. Choosing the API mode is optional. Incase you are not going to use the API mode then leave the corresponding checkbox empty.

There is a confusion these days that the Wordle is similar to the tagul. Well, it is very different says Alex. According to the sources, Wordle clouds cannot be used similar to the tag clouds that are being used like embedded on a web page and serving as navigation units. The Tagul clouds are not toys. They are designed to be used on the blogs, web pages or any kind of sites as a replacement of the usual tag clouds. Each tag in the Tagul cloud is linked with an URL and is “clickable” that allows the visitors to use it for navigation. The Tagul also utilizes the widely used flash platform instead of the less common java platform in Wordle that is light weight and it stores the clouds on a CDN to deliver the clouds to the users instantly. Tagul has some unique features such as custom shapes selection and multiplying the fonts usage in one cloud.

The iPhone UI icons are 24-bit PNG images with an alpha channel that are used as a mask to generate the selected and unselected button states. The dimensions should be 30×30 pixels for the tab bar icons and about 20×20 pixels for the toolbar and navigation icons.

Glyphish was created by Joseph Wain and is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You can follow on Twitter to get the updates when the new icons are published or you can also send a message to get in touch.

The Glyphish has posted some royalty-free images that you may use in your applications. Some of the applications that use these icons are Groceries 2.0 by Syphiestication, Birdbrain, Harvest by Sean Murphy, iGrarageSale by Performant Design and much more.

The features and advantages of this site are that you can save time and money. That is, you can decide what is to be build before sinking the resources into it. The Mockingbird makes the necessary planning required very fast and effective and thus keeps your project on the right track. It also satisfies the clients by communicating with the clients and presenting it to them using clear mockups. You can eliminate the costly back and forth and deliver exactly just as what the clients want. There is also a provision to focus your team. For this, you can brainstorm using the Mockingbird. Then use your mockups that are going into the building stage inorder to make sure that your team is on the same page. You can also ensure better building of products. The Mockingbird makes the wire framing frictionless and thereby helps you to try new and innovative ideas and iterate rapidly before getting settled on a design that works.

In this website you can Mock it fast by dragging and dropping the UI elements to the page and then rearranging and resizing them. You can also make links. That is, you can link multiple mockups together and then preview them interactively to get a feel of the flow of your application. Share with a click is another feature where you can share the mockups with your colleagues or clients. It is as simple as sending a link. This indicates that there is no need of emailing folders of big images.

The Mockingbird has all the UI elements that you need. As the Mockingbird is a website that is created for web app wireframing, it has the elements that you use the most. It also has multiple pages as you can mock up as many pages as you need, link them together and rearrange them with ease. The Mockingbird is fully web-based. It has nothing to install or download. Both you and your clients can access your mockups from anywhere at any time. It also has smart text sizing. You can resize an object and the text in it will automatically resize and thereby making the wireframing faster and hence making life much easier. There are also clean and clear mockups that are provided. They produce the results that look clean and professional without being bogged down in unnecessary detail. It ensures a better user experience. The Mockingbird has plenty of small touches like the snap-to-grid that is meant to make the mocking hurt less.

Also, in addition to giving consent to you in getting feedback from your clients this tool also helps in online collaboration with your colleagues.

This application itself is web-based and also unlimited members are supported. It means that you can get your entire team online and also collaborating in a way that is simply effortless. That is very true if we are taking into account that an unlimited amount of notes could be shared and even saved.

Features:

• Apollo is an image annotating tool which is free and is designed for architects and graphic designers.
• There are no complexities, since it is designed in a way so that for the client it is easy to use it for collaborating with the designer or even for teams to work together on an image with ease.
• All you have to do is create an account, then upload a proof and you can invite a client. Then you can freely place notes on the image and also invite an unlimited amount of people.
• It is all based on the browser so that you will have your data backed up constantly. And so you don’t have to worry about losing your data hours before it is meant to be delivered.
• It offers easy online image proofing.
• People who face design tasks daily will be finding it quite practical, owing to the amount of effort and time they could save through it.
• It is a better way to work together.
• You can get accurate feedback from your clients. You can also give feedback easily to your colleagues.
• There is nothing to install.
• It is secure and backed-up daily.
• It is web-based. Work could be between towns or continents.
• Members are unlimited in number. You can put your whole team together.
• It is very secure. Unlike email attachments, clients won’t be able to save the image.
• You will be able to see all of the documents you and your team are working on.
• Every note that has been added is logged for accountability.
• You can store as many documents and notes as you want.
• You can invite any number of people to comment.

Many new icon sets are being added regularly. These includes the Cute Blogging Icon Set. It contains about 10 high quality blogging icons in the PNG format. These icons can be used on your blog. The cute blogging icon set includes Design, My Blog, Download, About Me, Part-time, Freelance, Not Available, Hire Me, Services and Contact. Almost all the icon set usage is free for personal and commercial projects. The icons can be of any sizes like 128px, 64px, 48px and 32px.

Another type of icon set is the Application Icon Set. This set contains Register, Login, Users, Settings, Database, Chat, Add, Edit, Delete and invoice. All the application icons are professionally designed .

The Blogging Icons Set consists of 12 modern icons for your blogs that includes Author, Theme icon, Article, Blog Roll, Comment, Email and RSS. It comes with 3 sizes such as 24×24, 36×36 and 48×48 in the png format.

The e-commerce icons, payment icons and mobile icons are coming soon! Concluding, this site is worth while to take a look and download these icons to make your webpage and your desktop unique and attractive.