4Shared and viruses!

I'm sure you have heard about it over the last week or so.. but apparently 4shared has more in store for you than just free kits and quickpages! Read More Here

I personally have seen my anti-virus program stop 2 trojans in the last month. I do run 2 anti-virus programs (updating daily) and a malware program every day so I know my system is safe, but it sounds like these new ones are getting by and into other's PCs.

My husband is planning on reformatting my HD this week (we were on planning it anyways) and I have moved all of my important stuff to the extra HD I have.

I don't want anyone to be scared of DLing from me, so I have made an account at box.net (I suggest you do too). Like the posters above, I too believe it is coming through ads at 4shared and not through DLing. I have had that one ad pop up that pretends it is an anti-virus program more than once (I simply shut down my PC) and some other really strange (and pornographic) ads have popped up there. Box.net has no ads (at the moment).

I also do not want to be responsible for wiping out my husband's PC! My PC is one thing.. but if it happens to his he will be really angry!

Anyways.. be safe. I would recommend not DLing anything from 4shared and moving your stuff to another place. Also run your AVs and even have grisoft check yours out online.

Please note: I have had no complaints with any of my things, this is simply a preventative measure!

PS: another good thing to do is to make sure your popup filter is ON!

EDIT 3/3/09: apparently there is a bandwidth limit on box.net so I will include the 4shared links. Use firefox if you dont want troubles (although Ive not had any in the last week from 4shared).

Brush Viewer/Converter

There are lots of wonderful brush sets for photoshop in the web... too many to install them all just to see what they look like! now you can have the preview of a set without having to install it... without having to run photoshop! You can even adjust thumbnails size and you can have the preview of the actual size of the brush… you can also try it out!
people who publish brush sets on their personal websites need to provide users with previews. This software is able to generate images for every single brush and can also generate the general image from the panel of the thumbnails you have visualised. I think it's great, don't you? ;)

Luigi made this wonderful program called abrviewer. Download it, unzip it and run it. Then upload your brushes. Now when you click on your filename you can see mini previews of the brushes without actually opening any programs.

(If your program can't use abr extensions, try Ro's tutorial )

Luigi's program can also convert these abr files to png. Check out this nice little tutorial on importing photshop brushes to Corel Photopaint. All you need to do is export the brush file (using Luigi's program). ABR Viewer automatically exports in png format.

I like this program because I keep all of my brushes on another hard drive. I simply load them into PSE as I need them (Scrap Girls has a nice tutorial too). I can open abr viewer and actually take a look at a brush before loading it.

I'm so excited, thanks Luigi.

Installing Fonts

ok.. I'll admit. I love fonts.

I just found out about them this week.. strange I know, but being new to scrapbooking I just never had an idea that this was possible.

Here's the deal: once you install a new font, it will be available to any program that lets you choose fonts. Stellar!

Still not sure if you want to do this? Check these out:

Fonts for Kids
Movie Fonts

Ok, on to the tute!

1) download the font. Save the download in a folder on your desktop and extract it if it's a zipfile. most fonts should be .ttf, .otf or .fon extension.

2)Goto: Start > Control Panel. Choose the Category View and click Appearance and Themes in the right pane, then Fonts in the left pane.

3) Choose Classic View. double click Fonts. Select File > Install New Font. Now from here you can drag and drop the extracted file into your fonts (the icon should look like the other font icons.. double TT or an O type of picture) or under folders goto the folder that has your dl, highlight the font and click OK to install.

Once it's done installing, you'll have a brand new font to play around with!

Have fun!

Edit on 2/05/09: ok here it is a year and a half later! I don't actually install many fonts now. That really takes up a lot of space on the main HD. I do install a few here and there that I want to make permanent, so the above tutorial is still useful.

What I do is use a program called Font Xplorer (MAC version here). It lets you "..easily manage, activate and organize your existing font collection as well as find and experiment with new fonts". It allows me to view my font (in text mode), install it or temporarily load it.

Temporary loading is much better for me as I like to keep my fonts organized on another hard drive (with my brushes, textures etc). It's so easy. I open Font Xplorer, find the font I like (it organizes them based on your folders and favorites) and right click. Font Xplorer gives me the option to install or load. Click load and the next time I open PSE my font is waiting for me.

The only downside I see to this program is that if you are in the middle of a project and load a font, you can't see it. You actually have to restart your program. Otherwise, this is a gem!