Blog Archives

YourFonts Turns Your Handwriting Into a Personlized Font [DIY]

YourFonts is a web-based service that turns your handwriting into a TrueType font for free. If you have a printer and scanner, nothing can stand between you and the awesomeness of your own script.

We’ve covered a similar service before, but the handwriting-to-font process at Fontifier costs $9 per font you create. YourFonts has a software package for making personalized fonts that runs $49, but the web-based tool is entirely free. The process is straightforward: download the provided PDF template, print it out, and fill in each number and letter blank with your own hand writing. When you're done you upload the template back to YourFonts, preview it to make sure it looks like your own calligraphic gift to the world, and then download it as a monitor-friendly font. Additionally you can use the service without actually printing the PDF out and using a scanner—if you've ever wanted to create your own set of crazy wingdings, you can load up the PDF in an editing application like Adobe Illustrator and fill in the font-grid with anything you wish—hand writing or otherwise.






Save Money by Making Your Own Ringtones [Cellphones]

Web application Make Own Ringtone creates ringtones from your own music files with an easy to use interface and optionally sends them directly to your phone via SMS or email.

Using the application is as simple as uploading your music files in MP3, WMA or OGG format, dragging the sliders to the point of the song you want to cut, and clicking the Make a Ringtone button. You can choose to download the files, send them to your cell phone directly, or even download them through your phone’s mobile browser. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer you might want to try using the email option, which allows assigning the files as ringtones; everybody else should consult their manual on how to actually activate the ringtones on your specific phone.

For an alternate method with a little more control, check out Gina’s guide to creating a ringtone from any MP3. iPhone users have it easier, as they can use GarageBand on the Mac or previously mentioned iRinger on Windows. Got a favorite ringtone maker of your own? Let’s hear about it in the comments. Thanks, Trish!






Build a Hackintosh for under $240 [Hackintosh]

Industrious tinkers at eclectic technology blog UselessNinjas have put together a guide to building a sub-$240 computer to run Mac OS X.

Last year Adam showed you how to build your own Hackintosh, the build at UselessNinjas continues in that spirit of installing OS X on non-Apple hardware. They use an extremely small desktop computer from MSI, the same manufacturer that built the hackintosh friendly MSI Wind Netbook we looked at a few months ago. For the details on their build, check out the full article. Even if you aren’t in the market for a mac-clone, the specs and size on the mini-desktop unit they use for the project look promising for a Linux based XBMC project.






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