Who do you think you are?
Especially when trying to decipher server access or other issues, your IT person might ask you for your IP address or other information. Visit our IP info page to see your IP address, your current browser window size, and lots of other information that your browser shares with websites you visit.
Style Guide
Unless our client provides one, here is the style guide that we use for the content that we produce: Miller & Mattson Style Guide
Using AI images
We are very definitely not anti-AI, but companies need to take great care when using it. We urge our clients not to use AI-generated graphics except as “rough first drafts” that must be edited. Here’s a list of references to answer the question of why, at least as of 2024, we suggest our clients do not use AI-generate images in their marketing or other content. Read it here.
PDF fixes
PDF is the ubiquitous file format, but it is finicky as hell. We can get much done on a problem PDF using Acrobat Pro, but when we need to resize a PDF and don’t have access to the source files, we have had great success with the free DocuPub online utility.
Fonts
Kathleen is a bit of a font junkie, although some might say she is a font snob. Her favorite place to browse and buy quality fonts is MyFonts. And check out their fantastic What the Font service for identifying fonts you spot in the wild: upload a screenshot are chances are pretty good that they can tell you that font is.
Print-on-demand books
Whether for self-publishing clients, our own books, or for client booklets and reference guides — we use both Lulu and KDP (formerly Createspace) for our print-on-demand (POD) book needs. We use Lulu for projects where we will print in quantity ourselves, and we use KDP* for projects that will be put on Amazon.
(*However, if your book has more than 800 pages you’ll need to find a different solution: watch this space for when we find our next POD vendor.)
Tech editing reference
It’s very niche, but we find the collection of tech writing and tech editing topics on the Write The Docs site to be a good resource. It’s maybe a bit over technical for many writers and editors, but if you are working on technical specs or engineering docs, this may be just the place for you.
Shirts and other merch
When we want shirts, hats, notebooks, lanyards, or other such merchandise (merch) for tradeshows and other events, our go-to vendor is Tryad Solutions. We have never been disappointed by their quality, and our rep there practically feels like a part of our event team. From time to time we have sent bids to other vendors just to compare prices, and are always happy to see that our tried-and-true Tryad is the best option for our budget. If you need merch, Tryad is the company you should contact.
(Send an email to Tryad rep Amy Martin and tell her Kathleen sent you!)
Color Scheme Designer
There are many free color scheme generators available online. After trying quite a few, we like the Per Bang Color Scheme Generator the best. Its UI isn’t as slick as some others, but we think it is the most intuitive and useful, and they have an impressive array of additional color and other tools.
(Kathleen also sometimes uses these: Color-Hex and ColorHexa)