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Tools for Creating Blog Posts

Tools for Creating Blog Posts

While I am waiting for an answer from support about a blog post I am working on, I decided that I should write up a post about the tools that I use to create my posts. I do work, both on Windows and Linux, so there are a few differences in tools, but I keep the tooling really similar.

Screenshots

I like to take all kinds of screenshots, so a tool that gives me the ability to select an area, a window, or full screen is nice. I also like my screenshot tool to be able to do some light editing and markup. This makes it quick to get what I need to be done.

On Windows

On Windows, I use the fantastic Greenshot tool. It is an OSS tool that works really well and provides nice markup and editing capabilities. It is installable using Chocolatey, this allows automation of configuring your box.

On Linux

On Linux, I have tried several different tools. The XFCE screenshooter tool is pretty nice, it doesn’t provide the markup and editing capabilities I need. Shutter has been a good tool and has the functionality that I like, yet it isn’t available for Ubuntu 18.x currently. This leads me to try Deepin Screenshot which has been my favorite tool. It is available in the Ubuntu repos and is easy to use.

Image Editing

It is laughable that I am writing about doing image editing as this is out of my wheelhouse. I do need to blur some data and resize images so I have a need. I have found that I really enjoy one specific tool and it is available on Windows as Paint .NET. On Linux, the Pinta was heavily inspired by Paint .NET and feels just like it. This tool provides most of the functionality that I would use from Gimp or PhotoShop so that is why I use it.

Image Optimization

Since I am creating images for a blog and I would like to keep the performance of my site up, I use image optimization on my images. It is always a good practice to use these compression tools in tandem with your photo editor. I have found I can always save an additional percentage even after optimizing in a photo editing tool.

On Windows

On Windows, I use PNGGauntlet to perform the task. It isn’t the newest of tools, but it works for my needs.

On Linux

On Linux, I use Trimage Image Compressor to do it. I stumbled upon this tool and it behaves similarly to PNGGuantlet. So far it has been meeting my needs.

Conclusion

This is just a quick post listing out what I am using to make content for my blog. I am planning to get into more types of content so there will be a follow up to this one in the future.

If you enjoy the content then consider buying me a coffee.