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Theming Like a Pro - free tools for compelling custom themes

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with vFlyer Inc.

Custom themes are what set your listing apart from the competition. With the vFlyer Theme Editor, you can create dynamic and beautiful custom themes quickly and easily. We have an in-house design team that produces lovely themes for our clients, but vFlyer has always been about doing it yourself. To that end, here are some resources to help you create your own stunner theme.

Let’s face it - only so much design goes into a custom theme. Most of the visual design is confined to the 754 x 82 pixel branded header. So it’s important to not only make this image as compelling as possible, but to choose colors that support this header and unify your flyer’s content.

Here are some tools for building beautiful branded headers.

Fireshot

Fireshot browser add-on for enhanced screenshots

Fireshot is a free add-on for Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. Fireshot allows you to take screenshots and instantly edit them within your browser. The best feature here is the cropping capability; select the piece of the screenshot you wish to save and edit its dimensions, all in a single process. Use Fireshot to capture a header image and crop it to the appropriate size. Save the image file to your computer, then add to it with other tools.

Pixlr

Pixlr - a web-based image editor

Pixlr is a free web-based image editor. If you don’t have access to Photoshop (the undisputed and very expensive king of image editors), try Pixlr - an application that opens right in your browser. With layers, shapes, brushes, and other powerful tools, Pixlr is a great free alternative to Photoshop.

Picnik

Picnik - a web app for enhancing images

Picnik is a powerful online image enhancer with a very functional free version. Picnik’s broad selection of dynamic fonts are perfect for adding text to your branded header. Crop and resize your image, add filters, textures, and frames. Then in the “create” mode you’ll find some wild and exciting fonts to give your header a distinctive look. If you have something simple in mind, Picnik can make it elegant.

Once you have a header image that you love, build the rest of your theme around this image. The following tools will help you choose the right colors for your theme.

Colorcop

Color Cop - a free color picker

Colorcop is the indispensable tool for unifying your theme. vFlyer’s default color swatch has 63 different colors to choose from, but if you want a different color - maybe from your website - use Colorcop. Simply drag the color picker over any color displayed on your computer screen, and Colorcop generates the corresponding 6-digit color code. Copy and paste this code into the color swatch for any section of the vFlyer Theme Editor, and press “Apply”.

Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer - create a color palette

Create a beautiful color palette for your theme with Color Scheme Designer. Some folks have an uncanny sense of color - they know just which colors go well together and which ones don’t. For the rest of us, color scheme designer is a great free tool that allows you to create a dynamite color palette with a few simple clicks. Pick a main color, and a whole bunch of complimentary and contrasting colors are automatically generated, complete with 6-digit hex codes. Be sure to hit the “adjust scheme” tab to adjust color saturation.

Color Hunter

Color Hunter - create a color palette from an image

Color Hunter is another fun tool that generates sweet color palettes based on images. Upload your own image, or choose from stock photos to find some really fresh color sets.

Background Images

Custom background images can add some real flair to a custom theme. When choosing a background image, look for something that is big enough to fill the entire width of the background, or small enough to “tile” in an appealing fashion. GR Sites offers thousands of background images organized by color, each one designed to seamlessly tile. There are some really ugly ducks here, but plenty of appealing and unique background options as well.

Custom themes can be a fun, creative way to make your listings stand out. As the holiday season approaches, we hope you’ll try out some of these tools to make your themes appropriately festive. As always, send ‘em our way when you’re done - we’d love to see!

Comments (2)

David Gibson CNE, 719-304-4684 ~ Colorado Springs Relocation
Colorado Real Estate Advisers LLC - Colorado Springs, CO
Relocation, Luxury & Lifestyle residential
These are great tools that I look forward to using. I have subscribed and will be combing your blog for more tips.
Oct 16, 2011 06:02 PM
vFlyer Blog
vFlyer Inc. - San Francisco, CA

Thanks David! I'm glad you'll be following us.

Oct 20, 2011 02:21 AM