Every now and then I come across some text whose style I find attractive and I wonder what font they are using. I grab a shot of it and slip it into the “What the Font” website which usually can (90% of the time) identify the font. I don’t know if there is a better identifier but this free one works for me. — KK

If you’re in the newsletter business, Really Good Emails has a huge database of marketing emails and newsletters that you can search for inspiration. You can “collect” designs that you like, view code, and see examples of how it looks across different email clients and devices. I was not surprised to see Food52 emails on there, because I always feel compelled to click (and sometimes buy) whatever they send me. — CD 

There are about 1,000 very classy fonts available for free on Google Fonts. These are fonts you would actually want to use in your book or on your website. Some are commissioned by Google and designed by world-class typographers, such as the font Roboto used in Google maps. Many of these fonts come as families with different weights, italic, bold, extra glyphs, etc. This set of open fonts is also offered by Adobe and Monotype; what Google Fonts offer is a very nifty web interface for navigating through the collection, including good search and filter. I particularly like their font “pairing” function, which suggests good combinations of fonts (like text and captions pairings). All the fonts are license-free. — KK

Believe it or not, Flickr is still around, and I hope it stays because it’s a great place to store and share images. One of my favorite Flickr folks is designer James Vaughan, who has amassed a gallery of over 20,000 images from decades past, including advertising illustrations, paperback book covers, movie posters, LP covers, and more. I frequently get lost here. — MF

I frequently need to convert a photo or scan into vector art. I typically use Adobe Illustrator’s Trace function, but it’s finicky. Illustrator is also very expensive. Recently I discovered this $19 app called Super Vectorizer 2 that does just one thing – converts raster images into vector images. I’m impressed with the results. Here’s a before and after of a sketch I drew, and here’s a before and after of a photo I found in the JumpStory image library (which I recommended a couple of weeks ago). — MF

SketchUp is a general-purpose 3D design software for makers that is free in its basic version, and is very popular. There are dozens of other programs for precision parts, or organic shapes, but SketchUp scales nicely between 3D printing to woodworking to architecture, and is super easy to learn. By far the best tutorial on how to learn SketchUp (a skill transferable to most other 3D apps) is this free YouTube series, SketchUp Tutorial by April Wilkerson. She is an ace teacher, with the kind of practical hints I needed.  — KK

I produce one or two books per year. I use a print-on-demand (POD) service so the books are printed one at a time when needed. The best/easiest print-on-demand is KDP (formerly CreateSpace), owned by Amazon. Their quality is indistinguishable from a bookstore book (in fact many books from NY publishers are printed POD), and they have the added virtue that you can sell the books on Amazon, and it integrates with making digital books for the Kindle at the same time. I can have a standard softcover book printed in B&W at KDP for around $4. Small run books make ideal gifts. — KK

The Noun Project is a huge searchable database of icons you can use in PowerPoint slides, websites, signs, or for any project requiring symbols. As a test, I searched on the word “chicken” and got hundreds and hundreds of chicken related icons. Most of the icons are free under a Creative Commons license, and if you pay a small fee, you don’t have to credit the creator. — MF

I recently came across a subreddit called r/proceduralgeneration. Here, you’ll see examples of amazing artwork, animated lifeforms, game environments, fantasy maps, and more, all created from algorithms (as opposed to being created directly by a human). If you doubt that software can produce beautiful and original art that surprises even the people who write the programs, this subreddit might change your mind. — MF

I loved the first season of Abstract on Netflix. Each episode playfully explores a field of design by closely following the work of a key designer in that field. Toys, cars, costumes. To investigate typography, they follow the efforts of a type designer as he tries to design a new specialty font, explaining how all fonts work. That goodness was exceeded by the new Season 2, which has even more brilliant expositions. Since each episode is crafted by a different director, the format of the show is innovative and creative itself. Every minute is a joy. — KK

I’ve waited all my life for a tool that would create art for me. It’s here. Artbreeder is a website that breeds new visual images from existing images. Using deep learning (AI) algorithms it generates multiple photo-realistic “children” mutations of one image. You — the gardener — select one mutant you like and then breed further generations from its descendants. You can also crossbreed two different images. Very quickly, you can create infinite numbers of highly detailed album covers, logos, game characters, exotic landscapes. I find it fiendishly addictive. Wanna see the zoo of unearthly creatures I found/made? (Note: If Artbreeder is not out of beta use Ganbreeder, it’s predecessor.) — KK

Using an image or photo on a website or social media without permission of the copyright holder could turn out to be an expensive mistake. This YouTube video covers best practices for using other people’s images. The best part of the video is the list of five excellent free stock websites. Many of the images on these websites are in the public domain, which means you can use them without even crediting the creator. Here are the sites: https://unsplash.com, https://pexels.com, https://pixabay.com, https://barnimages.com. — MF

I have Photoshop and I’ve taught myself multiple times how to make a transparent png, but then in a pinch I always forget. So now I just go to this website (Online PNG tools) to quickly convert images into transparent pngs. It’s so simple and fast and I don’t have to use any brain power. — CD

Future Fonts is a website where type designers offer early versions of beautiful typefaces at low prices ($5 and up). Some are not 100 percent finished but work for many applications. If you buy a typeface, you are guaranteed to get free updates. — MF

I live close to the Art Director’s Guild headquarters in Los Angeles, which has weekly evening figure drawing classes. My daughter and I go there occasionally, but I recently discovered a site called Line of Action that has a useful figure drawing practice system. It shows you a series of figure models posing for specified periods of time, just like a real figure drawing session. The hands-and-feet tool is especially useful (and challenging) for me. — MF

I collect visual reference books to provoke me when I make things. I recently discovered the work of the prolific illustrator Charley Harper, who in part created the graphic look of the 1950s and 60s. His illustrations are witty, spiffy, and timeless. Many hundreds of his designs have been gathered into a nifty book called Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life. It’s not nostalgia: I get at least 10 new ideas each time I open it. — KK

I’m spending hours studying this coffee-table book celebrating the typography and design used in science fiction movies. What do we see on screens “in the future”? More broadly, this dense picture book, Typeset in the Future, is a roundabout way to examine where the interface design of technology is headed. — KK

This new website became an instant hit, and for good reason. Just upload any photo of a person, animal, or things, and it will erase everything in the background, replacing them with transparent pixels. It even works well when the person in the foreground has wispy or curly hair. — MF

I love the old large format Golden Books about science, math, and technology. The color illustrations are stunning, and the text is accurate and still valid, decades after they were originally published. You can get “The Human Body: What It Is and How It Works” from 1959 for about $6. — MF

Some of the best modern art on my walls are geological maps. These graphics are bright and cheerful while boasting scientific integrity. Geology from around the world can be used, but I favor geologically extreme places like this sample from Utah. For maximum of both art and science I highly recommend the Geologic Atlas of the Moon maps. Last printed in 1977, these Pop Art gems are now available as downloadable PDFs. (Crop and save as a jpeg.) I print mine on a 20 x 30 inch Costco poster board for $25. — KK