Aviary has just launched it's easiest feature yet!
You can capture any webpage at all, from any browser, by simply putting Aviary.com/ in front of the URL!
For example, say you want to capture Google's homepage:
Just change http://www.google.com to Aviary.com/http://google.com.
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In our never ending quest to personalize the internet, today we bring forth to you another way of using Aviary that you may not have thought of.
You can personalize your iGoogle homepage with Aviary
Here are some examples:
For a tutorial on creating custom themes, visit the creating iGoogle themes in the Aviary forums.
Aviary is proud to release Falcon, our image markup editor. Falcon is a blazing fast visual markup tool that was designed to work with Aviary's new Firefox Extension (Talon) for screen capture, as well as for stand-alone image preparation.
Launch URL:
http://www.aviary.com/launch/falcon
Full feature list and FAQ after the jump...
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Thanks for all the volunteers who offered to translate Aviary into different languages! Translating languages for different Aviary tools is easy. Just follow these steps:
DIRECTIONS
Step 1. Download a free application called Poedit and install it.
Step 2. Download the Aviary translation files (.po).
Step 3. Just unzip and open any .po file in Poedit, click on a row to translate the English terms and enter your translation at the bottom. You can translate as many rows as you like.
Step 4. When you are done, Save the .po file and simply email it back to support@aviary.com and we'll approve it and add it to the Aviary tool you translated (and send you a nice thank you gift).
Please include the following in your email to support@aviary.com:
* The name of the tool you translated
* The name of the language you translated
* Your Aviary username
* Your name and shipping address (we will not publish this anywhere).
* The saved .po file. :)
Thanks!
Did you know you can create Twitter backgrounds in Aviary?
If not, I have something to tell you.
Hey guys, you can create Twitter backgrounds in Aviary!
AviaryTwitter.egg by meowza on Aviary.
There are a few points to keep in mind when creating your Twitter background image.
1. Real Estate -- The center of your image will be obscured by the actual content on Twitter, so putting elements of importance in the middle will not be optimal, as it'll be partially, if not completely, covered by all the juicy, can't-miss tweets.
2. Resolution -- Monitors of different resolutions will display background Twitter images differently. Creating images too small will cause abrupt cut-offs in your design or the need to use undesired tiling of your image on monitors of higher resolution. A good practice to remedy this problem is to create your image large enough so that it'll work on monitors of large resolution and by keeping elements of importance contained approximately in the upper leftmost area of the image. Note, that background images will be nearly unidentifiable on monitors of 800x600 resolution, as the twitter content covers most of the screen. And also, if you're still using a monitor at 800x600 resolution... duuude.
3. Alignment -- It's also worth noting that your background image will be aligned to the LEFT of a viewer's screen. If you create an image suitable for large resolution monitors, remember that any excess of your image will be cut off on the right and bottom on monitors of smaller resolution. Many people choose to create background images which fade to a solid color on the right to prevent undesired cropping of background images or unwanted tiling.
How big??
"I need space!"
As I mentioned, it's good to begin with a larger image to display on monitors of varying resolutions. I find starting with a canvas size of 1680x1200 pixels covers the majority of resolutions out there.
Remember to keep space available at the top of your design to incorporate the Twitter logo and navigation bar.
Also, a lot of people choose to include a sidebar on the left. This allows you to include additional information about yourself including links to personal sites, your email address, or pictures of your dog that nobody cares to see. Again, it's worth mentioning that you're probably going to want the sidebar to be viewable on monitors of varying resolution. A good way to ensure this is to try to keep your sidebar around 200pixels wide, so as not to be obscured by the content in the middle on smaller monitors.
Here are some examples of Twitter backgrounds that can be created in Aviary.
Feel free to open up any of the creations to see how they were made.
TwitterCoffee.egg by meowza on Aviary.
TwitterBackgroundSwirls.egg by meowza on Aviary using Mario's Seamless 3 pattern as the base.
Abstract Wire Twitter.egg by meowza on Aviary using mpeutz' Abstract Wire Wallpaper as the base.
FireShapeBackground.egg by meowza on Aviary using underwatercolor's fire shape as the base.
TwitterBGAviaryluvr.egg by meowza on Aviary.
Create your own twitter backgrounds and post 'em here! Let's see what you're doing!
Having troubles getting started? Check out this tutorial on creating Twitter backgrounds from start to finish!
YAY! We won the CNet Editor's Award for Technical Achievement in the 2009 Webware100 competition.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for us. A special thanks to Rafe and Josh and the rest of the Webware crew for bestowing this awesome honor upon us.
This is probably one of the best video reviews, if not *the* best review, for Aviary.com I've ever seen. Thanks so much to Kevin and Olivia for this awesome in-depth review and welcome to the thousands of viewers joined our community (and pushed us to the #1 spot in Google Trends last night)!
From their blog:
"A new way to edit images online and for free? Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn explore the all new Aviary Image Editing Suite with four different applications to use--all through your web browser. Whether you want to juxtapose images together, or learn how to use a color pallette, Aviary lets you do it all."
Like what you saw? Create a free Aviary account now!
Now its super easy to find your friends on Aviary!
When on your dashboard page you will see the option to find your friends. 
Now just choose which email contact list you want to check. 
Enter your email username and password. (We will not store your login or password (or any of your friends). Any data retrieved is solely to let you find your friends and will not be stored by us.)
Then like magic we will let you know which of your friends are on Aviary. Giving you the ability to keep up to date with their latest creations.
If for some reason they don't have an Aviary account yet, you have the option to invite them to join the fun.
If you have multiple contact lists just rinse and repeat the previous steps.
Now wasn't that easy?!
Congrats to the winners of the Spreadshirt X Aviary Contest
The winners will each receive:
* A t-shirt with your winning design. [$30 value] (includes free shipping)
* A Premium Shop Membership at Spreadshirt. [$100 value] (limited to North America)
* An Aviary premium account. [$99 value]
With out further adieu, the followings artists had the most votes.
Fly Solo by nnizzle
the awkward years- even sharks have them by playing4square
is the princess having a bad day? by lregenold
Defend Minas Tirith by fitzroy
I Never Finish Anyth by hhoj66
Prehistoric Fly Hunting by Jiggafroob 
LAZY GENIUS by foxy groutstuff
Flippin The Bird by hhoj66
pubics cube by carneydaz
We recently updated Phoenix, Aviary's image editor, so anyone can use all the fonts on their computer (and open other people's files, even if they dont have the font).
This was particularly tricky because our site is collaborative and we didn't want anyone to have a bad experience when they were opening a shared file that contained a font missing on their computer.
Want to learn more? Here's the full discussion in our forums.
< view newer posts | view older posts >
Try Out Aviary»
Aviary is a powerful suite of browser-based design tools for people who create. Head on over to the Aviary homepage to try the applications out and learn more. It's free to try our tools or sign up!
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