August/September 2010 Software Closet
Click the links below to download each individual item.
Helpful Utilities
MenuMeters 1.4b4
Sometimes when transferring data across a network or the Internet, it's difficult to tell if anything's happening. MenuMeters (free) adds a small display to your menu bar that can indicate several things, including the speed of current uploads and downloads. We use it to see how fast our data is being transferred over AirPort, and whether something is communicating with our Mac, such as a backup program.
It has several other useful features, such as monitoring FireWire, Bluetooth and Ethernet data transfers, keeping track of the Peak Rate and Total Data transfers for each one.
Optional features (available in its System Preference pane) include: a CPU meter, which is helpful when you suspect that an application is eating up your processor cycles; a Disk Activity meter, including a menu of your mounted volumes that lets you Open or Eject them at will; and a Memory meter that can not only show you how your RAM is being used, but also its history of use.
Note: while this version is a Beta release, it works on Snow Leopard -- we use it every day.
PosteRazor 1.5
PosteRazor (free) is a utility that helps you print posters by splitting your high-resolution image into smaller sections, each the size of a sheet of standard paper. You then print those sections and put them together to create the full image. PosteRazor uses a clear, five-step process to split your image into the number and size of pages you choose.
Sponge
CreativeBe's Sponge (free) is a utility to reclaim your disk space by safely removing applications, finding large files and directories, and tracking down and deleting duplicate files. Sponge will show you what applications are installed on your system, and how much space they occupy on your disk. Once found, Sponge allows you to safely and completely remove installed applications. Sponge makes finding duplicates on your Mac a breeze: simply point Sponge to a directory or disk and it will show you any redundant files and allow you to remove them from your system.
Think Design Template Pack
Nick Pagano's Think Design Template Pack is a set of templates for standard print documents such as flyers, business cards, billboards (to scale), letterheads, CD covers, brochures, and posters. Each includes bleed, trim, and safe lines. Where folding is necessary the also include score lines. The files are in both Adobe Illustrator native and EPS format, so they can be used directly in a vector drawing application, or placed into an InDesign and QuarkXPress document to guide your design. If you have clients who may be able to use these templates, you are free to distribute them.
Thought and Speech Bubbles
MediaMilitia's free Thought and Speech Bubbles Pack includes 104 thought and speech bubbles ready for use in personal and commercial projects. All 104 styles are available as vector EPS and 4,000-pixel, 300ppi PNG images with transparent backgrounds. The styles include comic book, 3D, hand drawn, modern, and more.
InDesign Script
Number Lines by Style in InDesign
If you ever need to have all of your text lines numbered in InDesign, this free script from In-Tools just might do the trick. The Numbered Lines by Style script takes advantage of paragraph styles and anchored objects to automatically number the lines in an InDesign story. As opposed to using the built-in paragraph numbering, this script allows you to have numbering outside of the text frame, as well as individual line numbering. The script is best run after all text adjustments have been made, since actions such as resizing the text frame can bring unwanted results.
Free Fonts
Clementine Sketch
Most Wasted
Tooney Noodle
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