Inspiration Station: Pinteresting

Pinterest continues its fast growth as a social photo-sharing service that allows its members to “pin” – or share – images, videos, etc. of the things they love, follow the boards of other people whose content they like, and comment on what they see. For example, I always pin a new card of mine once it’s approved to start generating buzz about my new designs, which might otherwise not be noticed for a year or two.

Caution: When you dive into the Pinterest pool, don’t spam your followers. A varied mix of pins on different subjects is much more attractive than metaphorically jumping up and down shouting, “hey, look at me! I make greeting cards!” and splashing water in people’s faces to get their attention. 🙂

I know Pinterest remains somewhat controversial. Not everybody likes it or wants to use it. That’s fine. This post is directed at those artists who do like Pinterest and enjoy using it.

In this Inspiration Station, I’m letting you know about web services that have sprung up to make Pinterest even more fun and/or convenient to use. The last one is very, very neat!

Url2pinit
Normally, when you want to pin an image from a website, you’re asked to choose one image from all the images on that page. With Url2pinit, you can pin an entire page. Just enter the URL of the site, and Url2pinit will make a screenshot of the webpage which you can then pin.

Pinterest Right-Click
Got Firefox? Use this add-on to create a “pin image” to the content of the right-click menu. While browsing the web, you can use the right-click menu to pin images. Easy!

Pinterest Pro
For Chrome users, Pinterest Pro is an add-on that gives you three features in one go.

1) Adds “Pin to Pinterest” to the right-click menu.
2) Gives you a “hover” feature that works on Pinterest thumbnails. Hover over the thumbnail, you get a full sized image instead of having to click the link to view at 100%. You have the option of disabling this feature.
3)  For real Pinterest addicts, the Popular Pin Dropdown provides immediate access to the most popular pins through a Chrome button so you don’t have to visit the website (unless you want to, and you know you do).

ShareAsImage
This one’s really interesting. Suppose you read something on the web that you think is a great quote, and you want to share it (pin) with your followers. ShareAsImage lets you highlight text on a website and converts it into an image which you can share on Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook. Cool, no? The free version lets you do this in black and white with one font choice. There’s a PRO version, too, for $2.99, that lets you add color, lots more font choices, and a live preview.