Review: Aviary and the screen grabbing function

Posted on by msmlska

aviary1.egg on Aviaryaviary1.egg on Aviary.

This online image editing tool, Aviary, was found in the results of a google search for a chrome browser add on that would provide me with the uncanny ability to do a screen grab of a selection of any web page yielding me with some sort of .jpg file.

I thought it would be helpful for blogging.   So far, it is.

  • Installation on my already open chrome browser was quick.

  • No restarting my browser.

  • Start screen grabbing/editing right away.

  • Saving provides a url to embed/share in blogs, social networks and chat rooms

  • Leaves an “Aviary” watermark that is tricky (but so far not impossible) to remove

***I went from screen grab to this post without saving any files to my computer.  The editing mode (beta) keeps tabs on bandwidth usage.  Also, a flash prompt will eventually appear in the editor asking if you will allow/deny Aviary to store information on your computer while it runs.  I assume this is to ease the heavy bandwidth usage from transferring image information between Aviary’s servers and your computer while editing.


***You need to sign up for an account in order to save.  Creating an account gives you an “artist” profile on avery that displays all of your “creations” (screen grabs and other images made and altered with Aviary).  Aviary is a Flickr-like slightly-passive-social network that lets you favorite images and keep tabs on your contacts’ and groups’ images.  It also publicly ranks you by how often you use Aviary (after my first image, I am ranked as a “fledgling,” and the bird imagery continues to appear throughout like Easter eggs…)


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2 thoughts on “Review: Aviary and the screen grabbing function”

  2. Strangely, the watermark appeared on the blogspot post appeared when I revisited the next morning, but after refreshing its gone…. dunno what to say, aside from the watermark being a big drawback to Aviary

    Reply

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Published by msmlska

Born in Kailua, Hawai`i during a nurses strike in February of 1984, Micah, a bald new born with slight 'dumbo' ears, was called a "potato head" by the first man to set eyes on her: her doctor. This set into motion insecurities that would last well into puberty, highlighted by a year of wearing her hair down over the two flapjacks upon each side of her not so potato-like head. In perhaps an attempt to compensate for the lack of hospital staff, Micah's parents felt it necessary to overcompensate in names on her birth certificate. In the end, 34 letters and a hyphen would make up her full name, requiring more space than is available on class rosters and leaving professors guessing at her name. Micah, the daughter of a hustling Jewish father and a Dharma School teaching Buddhist mother, was promptly put into a Catholic school (complete with nuns, priests, and rulers). At age 9, she received a 35mm SLR camera. Eventually, she assimilated into public school and attended the oldest school west of the Mississippi River: Lahainaluna High School, est. 1831. This period of Micah's life is hazy. In 2002, shortly after her 18th birthday, Micah became violently ill with island fever and moved to Los Angeles. With nothing else to do, she did what all the other kids were doing, and enrolled in a college (one that didn't require an essay or any plan in general). After spending 3 years at a 2 year college, Micah felt that it may have been time to move on and transferred to USC. The next 3 years were full of photos, writings, delayed bus transfers, and some mean spills while trying to navigate her longboard around the fractured sidewalks of downtown. Eventually, Micah got a BA degree and left her name on the wall in the library at USC. Across the Pacific, in Aotearoa New Zealand, Micah watched TV for her Masters, thanks to a Fulbright Grant. She then wrote a paper on connecting through popular media, aided by new media.