Three Stream » Office Productivity http://www.threestream.com Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:10:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The best (free) way to optimize your images for the web http://www.threestream.com/blog/the-best-free-way-to-optimize-your-images-for-the-web http://www.threestream.com/blog/the-best-free-way-to-optimize-your-images-for-the-web#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:46:48 +0000 Michael http://www.threestream.com/?p=679 We’ve all seen it… an image on a website that looks small, but takes forever  to download (even on a high speed connection).  The problem?  They are not optimized for the web!

Oftentimes the clients that we deal with at Three Stream are small to medium sized businesses, and are not too enthusiastic about dropping $600 for Adobe Photoshop.  Never fear, business owner!  You too can have the power to easily compress quality images to a size that will make your website load faster – before your customer moves on to somewhere else.  Here is my recommendation on a free way to save your images for the web.

Introducing… drum roll please… Web Resizer  http://www.webresizer.com

So here is all you have to do:

  1. Go to http://www.webresizer.com
  2. Click the button marked “Resize Photo Now”
  3. Browse to find the image on your computer and upload it
  4. Make your changes (crop, resize, etc.) and click “Apply Changes”
  5. Download the image to your computer

Among the optimization features for this web app are cropping, image enhancement, resizing, rotating, and adding borders.  There are also great help features that tell you what each option does.  You can even make images black and white (for all you purists out there).

Now you might be wondering… what happens to my images?  Who are these people who own the program? Do they now have a copy of my image?  According to them, they are photographers who created the tool for their clients who want to update their own websites.  The web app temporarily takes your images for a 60 minute session, and then deletes it off their server, never to be shared or distributed except by you.

]]> http://www.threestream.com/blog/the-best-free-way-to-optimize-your-images-for-the-web/feed 0 Primo PDF: simple and free PDF printer (and why you need to use it) http://www.threestream.com/blog/primo-pdf-simple-and-free-pdf-printer-and-why-you-need-to-use-it http://www.threestream.com/blog/primo-pdf-simple-and-free-pdf-printer-and-why-you-need-to-use-it#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 14:06:10 +0000 jayson http://www.threestream.com/?p=431 I have had too many occasions recently where I have had clients who need to convert a document to a PDF and did not know how, nor did they have the software.  All you small business owners listen carefully: a PDF is a safer and more professional method of sending documents. It is safer than simply sending a MS Word document because the person receiving the document cannot easily change it.  Also they can almost certainly open the document regardless of which word processing system they are using (as most everyone has Adobe Reader installed).
Rather than going over it on the phone with client after client, here is the step-by-step on how to install and use Primo PDF (one of several free PDF printers).

  1. Click this link to go to the download page for Primo PDF
  2. Download and run the file
  3. Go through the setup wizard
  4. After setting up Primo PDF on your PC, you may now choose Primo PDF as one of your printer options when you go to print a document.

Next time you send a word doc via email, especially on your company letterhead, use a PDF format to make it look more professional.

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