So, how many times have you found yourself needing some silly graphics thing that you can do in 3 seconds on your computer, but can't figure out how to do with the computer you happen to be on right now?

Boy are you lucky! Here's a couple of stupid graphics tricks you can use to save the day. Sorta like stupid pet tricks, but better.

Need a contact sheet of your graphics or pics? Don't wanna download a contact sheet program?

Well, if you have any graphics program with a thumbnail viewer (PS & PSP come to mind) you have a built in contact sheet, all you have to do is use it.

Open your thumbnail viewer. Adjust the size of the thumbnails to suit your purpose. Now, simply do a screen grab of the thumbnail sheet. Violá!, instant contact sheet. Crop as needed. Add/modify pic labels if required.

Find yourself without a color gradient tool? Or, do you find the color grad tool to be a little user unfriendly? Well, sometimes I do. I was seeking a easier way to create a color grad, and that's how I came up with this tip.

Open a new graphic, in this example 400x25. Select and fill one part (half-n-half in this example) of it with a contrasting color. It should look something like this:

Now, go to the menu and select Image|Blur|Gaussian Blur. Select a large setting. I used 25 for this effect:

And this is what it looks like using a setting of 50:

And here's a setting of 100 applied to the original graphic:

I find that I get more consistent results using this method than I do using the grad tool. It seems like I have to apply random noise to the grads I create using the grad tool and it isn't necessary using this method.

You can apply Gaussian Blur more than once to alter the effect. Obviously, the grad tool has more versatility, but this works for my mostly simple needs.

But Bimjo, I don't have a Gausian Blur tool! Well, use whatever blur tool you do have. You may have to apply it 43 times or something to get the effect you want, but you gotta do what ya gotta do, ya know?

Feel the need to communicate with His Grand & Exalted Bimjoness hisself?? Well, here's where ya do it! Don't be shy. If you have something you'd like to see here, just let me know and I'll see what I can do about getting it on here.