2 More Tools for Creating Engaging eLearning Graphics

The video below was created using Voice from Adobe. I highlighted it in Tuesday’s blog post. It only took me about 10mins to create.

I can’t just give your a cool tool on Tuesday and not give you any more cool tools. So, let’s just make this week the week of graphics tools. Today I’ll give you not one but TWO COOL TOOLS that I’ve been using lately.

canvascreenshot onlaptop

Canva.com

placeit-screenshot on laptop

Placeit.net

Canva makes it easy to create graphic images that combine text, imagery, and stock photos. Businesses around stock photo collections have been around for many years now. And while stock images shown full screen in a presentation have become quite popular, there is often a need for additional imagery and text elements to help tell the story. Creating those advanced images required significant design skills and a natural talent for the craft. But with Canva an unskilled user can end up with some pretty nice graphics utilizing the templates/layouts that have been predesigned in canva.

Placeit is like magic! Truly saving you hours normally spent in Photoshop. They offer hundreds of predesigned photographs of laptops and mobile devices with the screens left as a sort of fill in the blank style interface. 1) Drag n drop an image and Placeit snaps it onto the screen exactly fitting the image orientation. 2) Just enter a URL and Placeit puts the web site page onto the screen. Magic! They even have video templates that will blow your mind! Oh yeah, and even INTERACTIVE templates so that your web site will be clickable on the image. Did I say amazing and like magic, yet? Seriously cool stuff!

These 2 tools alone can make you look like a superstar. Jump in and get started playing around. Low-res versions of the images you create are free but you’ll pay a few bucks for high-res. Considering the hourly wage of a skilled graphics designer, the fees are MORE than reasonable…and so worth the cost. But just remember that a tool can never replace the talent of a skilled designer. These tools just might take a few tasks they find boring off their plate so they can focus on bigger projects requiring their expertise and time.

So, like I mentioned on Tuesday’s post, show me what you’ve done. Use the social media, or twitter template in Canva.com and tweet your creation too me @bschlenker.