How to create PDFs using Inkscape and Drive

For those of us starting out in the design world Adobe products are not always instantly accessible out the gate. 

While they do a great job creating high quality content for print and the web, the initial investment in these products can be steep.  

In my home design process I often use Inkscape to do layout and design work.  The ways you are able to interact with images, typography and filters are pretty familiar for people who have used illustrator in the past.

Though exporting my designs from inkscape as PDFs has been frustrating  maddening  worse than shooting myself with a staple gun difficult for me.

As I was researching this topic I saw many options that are doable using other freeware and plug-ins.  But, for me, I like to keep my process simple.

I realized in 5 quick steps I could go from design to PDF using drive.  I can't say that this moment was transcendent, but the skies did seem a little bluer.

Here are my steps to simply get a PDF from Inkscape:

1. Export png of design from Inkscape (tutorial)

2. Open a new doc in google drive.

3. Set doc margins to .25" to give a buffer (tutorial)

4. Paste png in doc.

5. Download doc as pdf (tutorial)

Hopefully this helps.  My monitor can tell you it saved it's life (why do we always get mad at the monitor?)!

How to keep track of your projects using google forms

In my journey to learn ux (user experience) design and philosophy I find that I have quite a few free educational resources available at my disposal and many opportunities to do professional projects for friends who own small businesses.

With so many opportunities for exciting projects I've realized that keeping track of everything I'm doing can be daunting. 

The solution that works for me is building a google form and then using it's output spreadsheet as my task tracker.  If you are unfamiliar with google forms check out the video on their support page. 

The reason I chose this to use forms for this task is because they are easy to create and very pleasant to use and the possibilities of what you can do with their output spreadsheet is amazing.  

Though, my number one reason for using this was that I knew I would be a great interface that I could easily use to keep myself organized.  

I'm a big fan of simple designs which are functional and easy to use across platforms.  Making a form that works for my needs was relatively simple.

Here's what I did:

1. Created google form

For this project I chose a simple template because I would be the only one seeing it. However, it other templates suit you feel very free to choose whatever you like.

The actual form I created is set to private because only I will be using it.  This form can also be shared with project collaborators very easily.  I regularly use google forms for crowdsourcing information from friends and clients.  It is a very versatile tool. 

2. Wrote questions:

I based my questions on my freelance content creation model.  The great thing about google forms is I can always update the questions to meet my needs if I ever decide I want to enter more questions to the form at any time.

3. Entered a project

I chose to do my first entry on this blog.  It made sense to be the very first entry in the list (and I like being a little meta too).

4. Reviewed data

The familiar spreadsheet interface of google forms gives us many options with what we can do with the data.  Though, for a project like this I will probably just highlight the tasks as they are completed. 

I hope this was helpful to you.  Please email me if you have any questions, suggestions or opportunities for us to work together.

Software used to create this post:

Photo Editing: PicMonkey/Photoscape
Graphic Design: Gliffy
Blog Platform: Blogger