SlideMagic Blog

Pixabay offers a large database of free stock images. The site has become increasingly useful over the past years. In 2020, free images are now often better than paid stock photos, simply because the designer/photographer tries less hard to add effects and edits to the original photographs. (This is all written from the perspective of a corporate presentation designer, there are probably other people out there who value edited images).

Each free image site has its own profile. Unsplash has better aesthetics, more natural images. Pixabay has more functional images.

I have now added the ability to search Pixabay images in the desktop app. (Unsplash images, and the Noun Project icons were already present). All implementations are still beta features, as I finalise the approval for the API. (But I am confident I checked all the right boxes).

In-app image search is not just a “lazy” feature. It can greatly improve your presentation design workflow. Especially when it comes to copying, pasting, cropping and positioning images. In SlideMagic, this is just a few clicks. And, because of SldieMagic’s rigid slide grid, every image will always line up neatly with the other elements of your slide.

You can download the latest version of SlideMagic here (2.3.6). Integrated image search requires a pro subscription plan.

Even presentations not made in SlideMagic can look like one. Have a look at “Standing on the shoulders of giants” by analyst Ben Evans:

The design approach:

• One strong accent colour
• Lots of variations of grey
• Calm slide layouts
• Clear grid structure

SlideMagic does not like these circles (yet) though and makes you fit into that boxy look :-).

For your next presentation, put the slides in slide sorter view, and take a step back. Do things look consistent in terms of layout, colour, and the balance between white space vs used space? If you struggle to stick to the discipline, SlideMagic is here to help.

Version 2.3.5 of SlideMagic went up this morning. The interface for searching images from within the desktop application now looks a lot better in a grid layout that takes into account portrait or landscape aspect ratios of photos.

I will further improve the in-app image search soon, with a preview ability to test the image in your slide, and combining more than one image bank provider. A lot is changing in the world of online stock images at the moment, to the extend where I often find free images to be of better quality than paid ones.

Business presentations are different from ads or consumer graphics design projects: picking the right image and getting the credits right is what matters. More to come soon.

The image search API calls are still a beta feature with limits on the amount of searches per hour and/or the image resolution, as I need to make sure my (unusual desktop) app gets the back linking and credits done in agreement with the image bank provider.

One more feature was added: tool tips for the app icons after feedback from a user. Leave your mouse stationary for a second, and the app will suggest what you can do here. Most icons and actions are obvious, but while placing them, I realised that indeed a few things were hidden and/or unclear.

You can download the latest version of SlideMagic here.

I changed the “try a search” page on SlideMagic as I am finally getting around to paying attention to the home page. Now you get a random set of 25. Pressing the link a few times reveals the big variety of slides that are now available in SlideMagic. All for free when searching from within the desktop app.

When repositioning images in SlideMagic, there used to be the slightly lag when dragging the mouse. I spent days and days over the past year trying to fix this, but got to a point where I gave up after reading posts of other developer who compromised on a “fudge” approach for the exact same issue (in a different software of course).

Well, no longer. As of version 2.3.1, images follow the mouse button precisely. Deep, deep, down in the world of CSS was a weird way of calculating things, that combined with how I keep track of a slide coordinates made this one particularly tricky to solve, but it is done.

Also in 2.3.1 you icons are no longer “flattened” when you copy paste them, but you can now still change their colour and appearance, just as in the original.

The new version should automatically install in the background, or you can force the upgrade by visiting the SlideMagic app download link and pick your version for either Windows or Mac OSX.

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

I am uploading lots of slides now to SlideMagic everyday. Where possible, I create multiple layouts of slides, often depending on the underlying image I use. For example, see the juggler below.

There are lots of degrees of freedom:

• Image in a frame, or bleeding of the the page
• Line up text with the balls, or not
• Different colour options

As a SlideMagic user, you can pick one of these basic layouts and add or subtract boxes easily without messing up the overall of the slide.

Try it out for yourself, the search for juggler slidesis here. For the moment, I have made access to the entire slide database from within the desktop app free, so you can experiment with presentations in .magic format. PowerPoint conversion and/or downloads require a pro subscription.

A new version of the SlideMagic app is now available for download with very detailed improvements to how the app responds to clicks. These are not earth shattering new features, but are incredibly important to make the app workflow even better. You can visit the download link to force a new install, otherwise, your app should update in the background.

UPDATE: Make that 2.3.0, now with direct full access to the entire slide database from within the app. (PowerPoint conversion and downloads require a pro subscriptions)

Photo by Harpal Singh on Unsplash

You can now access entire slide decks (“stories”) from the home page of SlideMagic. A few days ago I added a slide deck template for a startup Board update. As I upload the new slide decks, individual slides will get added with the right tags to the slide database as well so they will pop up when you search for relevant layouts.

More slide decks to follow. Let me know if you have any special requests.

Here is a sign that says “elevator 6” down in the parking lot of the building I live in. The designer took the functional approach: squeezing the words “elevator”, “6”, and an icon for an elevator and an arrow all in one line. That resulting graphic had an aspect ratio that did not match the sign. Solution: stretching and distorting the text so that now, it does fit all the available space.

Other solutions:

• Use a sign with a longer aspect ratio
• Leave white space above and below the text
• Leave out information that is not required: the word “elevator” is not needed when you put a logo, the arrow does not add much if the sign is straight next to it.

Why does Merkel’s explanation of the virus “R0” (basic reproduction number) work so well?

She makes abstract mathematical concepts very tangible. Instead of talking about R0 being 1.0 or 1.2 and the resulting number of patients, she explains:

• If that ratio is 1, it means that every patient infects one other, hospitals are full in October
• If that ratio is 1.2, it means that out of 5 patients, 4 infect another one each, and one infects another 2, we are out of beds in July

No graphs needed.