5 tech bits I use daily.
The life of a freelance illustrator is a strange one, I'll admit it.
This month, in it's first 10+ days I've worked on learning how to Snapchat, drawn a moose for a kid's t-shirt, finished a coloring book for a wedding, created a bachelorette party invite that includes a flamingo in a sleep mask, finalized a logo for a French pop duo, had a custom stamp made for my 80 year old buddy Lou and enjoyed a Key Lime Chobani flip for breakfast nearly everyday.
While sometimes I don't understand it all, tech tools and apps make my job easier, daily. Here's a list of 5 that have changed the way I do business.
Scanner Pro
I sometimes feel like a walking commercial for Scanner Pro. Need to scan a deposit before you hit the bank? SP that thing. Need to scan a drawing so you can add a lil next to the photo for your mom's birthday card? SP that thing. Need to scan and send a contract via your phone? SP that thing. I honestly use this every single day. It's easy to use (if you can take a photo on your phone, you can Scanner Pro) and I can scans straight to my Google Drive via interweb magic. It's changed my business. (And that's note hyperbole.)
If you only take one thing away from this lil post: get out into the App Store and get Scanner Pro.
You can thank me later.
Adobe Capture
Adobe Creative Cloud is part of my everyday life.
I draw it all by hand, yes, but once I Scan that thing into the interwebs, I pop it right up in Photoshop.
What Capture does that SP cannot: Vector. I'm a very PaperMate and sketchbook kind of gal, so I'm not going to try to explain what a vector image is. Here's a very helpful explanation. What I do know: Vector Images can be BIG, and that I can get a vector image with the touch of a screen using Adobe Capture.
Who isn't up in the Twitter all the time?
I heard Morgan Spurlock and Tim Ferriss (on his eponymous podcast) saying Twitter is basically their newsfeed. (Making me feel so much better for using it similarly)
[Side note about Mr. Spurlock: If you haven't checked out "Inside Man," head over to Netflix and give it a go. We're currently indulging in the National Parks episode and loving it.]
I'm a super fan. Just a super fan.
So I check it all the days, all the time.
It's a visual delight. Daily.
Dropbox
The honest truth: I've lost EVERYTHING on my laptop not once, but twice. This is not something I'm proud of, but now that my computer houses every file I use to pay my bills (like that turtle up there), it's more important than ever to BACK THAT STUFF UP. For just $9.99 a month, I have 1 TB of Dropbox space that I can access anywhere. And I feel secure, ish. It would obviously help if I understood the internet, the cloud, and all that nebulous stuff.