Useful tools and sites for message board users (updated 6 November 2011)

[Dan]

If any links in this list are invalid or lead to placeholder pages, please let us know by sending an email to forums@cyburbia.org.

The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org) - GNU Image Manipulation Program. It's a poor man's/woman's Photoshop; it's notorious for having an awkward interface, but it does just about everything the Adobe program does, and for free. Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS 10.

Gimpshop (http://www.gimpshop.net) - The Gimp with a user interface that resembles Adobe Photoshop. Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com) - Good lightweight freeware image viewing program. Resizes, optimizes, and converts images, and sets transparent GIF colors. It can also capture a screen image or program window, and save it to a file. The quality of resized and saved JPEG files leaves a lot to be desired, even at higher quality levels. Windows only.

Paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net) - Image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000 and XP. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful tools.

PhotoPlus (http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/sof...us/default.asp) - Image editing software that enables users to create, manipulate, and enhance photographs, bitmap graphics, and web animations. Windows only.

Pixlr (http://www.pixlr.com/editor) - Online image editing tool. From the site: The pixlr services is built for both non-professionals, the users that have basic editing needs like editing web images to be posted on social networks like Facebook, Myspace Bebo, image sites like Flickr, Fotolog, Photobucket etc.

[Dan]

A screen capture utility may also be required to save the images from some generators. Avatars may need to be resized to 80x80 and <3K for the Cyburbia Forums. Remember, animated avatars aren't allowed on the Forums, except during the occasional animated avatar week.

Most of the following generators do not overlay unwanted watermarks onto the image. The few that do place them in a location where they can be easily edited out.

Abi-Station (http://abi-station.com/) - Popular, easy-to-use online portrait avatar and illustration maker.

Acme Heart Maker (http://www.acme.com/heartmaker/) - Online candy heart generator.

Acme License Plate Generator (http://www.acme.com/licensemaker/) - Creates US and Canadian license plate images from various years.



Avatar Generator (http://www.avatar-generator.com) - Fetch an image from Google automatically with the provided tool or upload your own image. Crop and resize the picture in your browser. Choose from a selection of borders, fonts and colors to decorate your image. Download the result as a PNG, GIF or JPEG.

Aviary (http://www.aviary.com) - Now free! The avatar generator is at http://aviary.com/blog/posts/creatin...tars-in-aviary .

DoppelMe (http://www.doppelme.com/) - Create an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image.

eLouia Doll Maker (http://elouai.com/doll-makers/candybar-doll-maker.php) - Create those big-eyed doll images you've seen on girlie Web sites.

Facemaker (http://avsquad.fateback.com/facemaker/) - create a face from a variety of stock hairstyles, ears, eyes and so on. Screen capture required to save the created image.

Face Maker (http://www.freegames.ro/robot/) - Police sketch-artist style face maker, allowing you to pick and choose from hundreds of facial features. Screen capture required to save the created image.

Froogle (http://froogle.google.com/) - Google's online shopping price comparison guide. If you really want to have an avatar showing a car infant seat or electric razor.

Gaia Avatar Simulator (http://www.gavsim.net) - Very customized anime-style avatars, based on those used by the extremely busy Gaia anime roleplay message board. Avatars can be saved as .png files.

Mad Men Yourself (http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/madmenyourself/) - Create a Mad Men-style avatar. (Wait until the end at the "Download Yourself" stage.)

Metros From Around the World (http://metro.b3co.com/) - 76x76 public transportation logos from around the world.



Mojizu (http://mojizu.com/) - a "contemporary character design community" devoted to creating, sharing, and discussing little creations called "Mojis". Thousands of cute 75x75 characters.



MyPictr (http://mypictr.com/) - Upload your picture, enter your desired dimensions, and drag around the zoom and crop tools until your avatar is perfect.

MySpace Avatar Generator (http://www.degraeve.com/avatars/) - So sad. So emo.



Noble Avatar Generator (http://www.nobleavatar.com) - Screen capture required to save the image.

Portrait Illustration Maker (http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml)

Powerpuff Girls Portrait Studio (http://www.nephco.com/powerpuffgirls/ppps.html) - Generate Powerpuff Girl-style characters. Screen capture required to save the image.

Reasonably Clever.com Mini-Mizer (http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/index.htm) - Online Lego man generator. Screen capture required to save the created image.

Simpsons Character Generator (http://www.simpsonizeme.com/index.php) - Upload your photo, and create a Simpsons character that resembles your face! Screen capture required to save the created image.

South Park Create-a-Character (http://www.southparkstudios.com/game...id=16&sid=2167) - Generate your own South Park-style character. Screen capture required to save the created image.

South Park Studio (http://www.sp-studio.de/) - Another South Park character generator. Screen capture required to save the created image.

Sportslogos.net (http://sportslogos.net/index.php)
Not really a generator, but rather a library of thousands of sports team logos, past and present, that you can download and resize.

[Dan]

This is just a sampling of the many image hosts online. The following image hosts do not require registration nor an email address. (Registration may be required for extra features on some sites.)

BAYIMG (http://bayimg.com)

eHo.st (http://eho.st/)

Free Image Hosting (http://www.freeimagehosting.net)

ImageCloset (http://imagecloset.com)

Image Socket (http://www.imagesocket.com)

Image Venue (http://imagevenue.com/)

ImgCake (http://www.imgcake.com/)

ImgPlace (http://www.imgplace.com)

imgur (http://imgur.com)

ImageVenue (http://www.imagevenue.com/) - Upload up to five images at once.


kimages (http://www.kimag.es/) - Image and PDF hosting; 2 MB

Minus (http://min.us/) - Very simple drag-and-drop interface.

PaintedOver (http://paintedover.com) - Will display thumbnails only

PutPic (http://www.putpic.com/)

SaveFile (http://www.savefile.com/filehosting)

Upload Engine (http://uploadengine.com)

xs.to (http://xs.to)

[Dan]

Gmail (http://www.gmail.com)

Hotmail / msn.com (http://www.hotmail.com)

GMX (http://www.gmx.com)

k.st (http://k.st) - "Shortest email address around."

Lycos Mail (http://mail.lycos.com)

mail.com (http://www.mail.com)

Yipple (http://www.yipple.com)

[Dan]

Anyhub (http://anyhub.net/) - 10 GB limit, no registration.

Filedropper (http://www.filedropper.com/) - 5 GB limit.

Filesocket (http://filesocket.com/) - 20 MB limit.

ifile.it (http://ifile.it/)

MediaFire (http://www.mediafire.com)

Megaupload (http://www.megaupload.com/)

Rapidshare (http://www.rapidshare.de) - No registration required. File deleted if there is no download for more than 30 days..

Sendspace (http://www.sendspace.com/) - 300 MB limit, no waits.

Savefile (http://www.savefile.com) - 60 MB limit, registration required.

Tindeck (http://tindeck.com) - Share non-copyrighted audio files.

YourFileLink (http://www.yourfilelink.com) - 5 GB limit, no registration required.

[Dan]

Cyburbia can be viewed with almost every browser released since 2005.

Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) - Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X (Intel), Linux. Also check out the daily Chromium builds (http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots) if you want to be on the cutting edge, and Iron (http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php), based on the Chromium source but including some privacy enhancements.

Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox) - Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X (Intel), Linux, FreeBSD. A safer, more flexible and extensible alternative to Internet Explorer. Wikipedia article.

Opera (http://www.opera.com) - a stable, fast alternative to Internet Explorer and Firefox. Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Wikipedia article.

K-Meleon (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net) - Extremely fast, customizable, lightweight browser for Windows.

Apple Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari) - Available for Windows, too. Somewhat buggy on some Windows installations, but fast when it works.

TenFourFox (http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox) - Firefox 4 compiled to work on older PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) Macs.

Camino (http://caminobrowser.org) - Lightweight Mac OS X browser (universal binary) using the same Gecko rendering engine as found in Firefox.

OmniWeb (http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniweb) - Fast Mac OS X browser (universal binary) using the WebKit rendering engine.

[Dan]

BugMeNot (http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/02/07/bugmenot/) - Use pooled username/password combinations to bypass compulsory registration for newspaper sites.

Rainbow Text Generator (http://www.tektek.org/color/) - BBcode color gradient generator. Obnoxious..

LolCat Builder (http://kscakes.com/LolCats) - Make image macros.

Roflbot (http://wigflip.com/roflbot) - Another image macro generator.