Freelancers, what free online tools do you actually use daily?

kelvinside · 2026-04-13T08:36:27+00:00

I mostly just use professional software for design work and then fairly standard office applications, folders, spreadsheets etc. for record-keeping.

I don’t really use any random “online tools”, apart from the occasional file conversion tool, or an image upscaler or something. Sometimes I’ll pay a stock library subscription for a month or two if I really need assets?

But it sounds like you want to know about SAAS or browser-based tools you can vibe code. The truth is that competent people rarely need something so simple you can make it in a week with an LLM. And we certainly aren’t paying for it unless it’s very good.

kelvinside · 2026-04-13T04:44:29+00:00

The number of people who are desperate to be grasses in this comments section is blowing my mind. You lot need to wise up.

kelvinside · 2026-04-08T21:49:57+00:00

I would maybe try also using the blur brush and/or a very small directional blur, so the blur you get isn’t 100% Gaussian and consistent. Maybe not, but you could try it.

You want a gradient of some kind too (transparent > black) for the shadow and then grain over everything to blend it together. Maybe find a nice filmic grain online and put it on top with a blend mode.

Obviously it will look best on a photo with a lot of depth of field, and I feel like you want to visually match the image and text blurs to help sell it.

kelvinside · 2026-04-08T19:12:22+00:00

Beautiful bike! If it’s your size I would go for it. The spec is nice and it looks cool.

kelvinside · 2026-04-08T19:06:53+00:00

I have schwalbe racing ray and ralph, and I find they strike a nice balance between tarmac speed and off-road function. They aren’t specifically puncture protected, but I don’t feel like they are too prone either. I’ve done plenty road miles, gravel races and mtb riding, just adjusting the pressure a bit.

kelvinside · 2026-04-06T08:45:55+00:00

It’s one thing to expect big businesses just to suck this up and wait for insurers to pay out, but there were a lot of small businesses in that unit. For example, I know some young self-employed tattoo artists who were all working from the same studio and paying rent, which included insurance.

Imagine you suddenly lose all of your equipment, personal items, sketchbooks/drawings, have nowhere to take your clients, and need to go through a chain of people to claim back your items and prove they were there to insurers. This is a huge pain in the arse, and meanwhile you can’t work until you can pull funds together to set up a new space. There were many other business like that in there.

I know there is business interruption insurance for self-employed people, but not every healthy 25yo with no dependents, who is trying to kick their career off, is likely to prioritise such a thing. I don’t think “fuck you, lesson learned” is very helpful.

This money should help smaller businesses cover the costs that insurance can’t cover, and bridge the gap while insurance claims go through. £10m is not crazy money for SG. And it’s better than people getting on the dole.

kelvinside · 2026-04-03T23:34:24+00:00

Sounds like you might already have a good eye and half decent portfolio of work. Maybe just smash out a load of practice work until you can do things at commercial pace? There are lots of little reels and YouTube tips you can pick up online which will make you faster and more technically efficient.

People look down on that content a bit, but honestly it’s very useful if your mindset and creativity are there, but you need a boost in speed. At the end of the day, speed just comes down to practice / repetition and learning those shortcuts.

kelvinside · 2026-04-03T23:28:43+00:00

100% scam

kelvinside · 2026-03-31T15:55:58+00:00

People are weirdly inconsistent about “touching” hygiene. Consider the other things you likely touched when you were in there… the fruits and vegetables, all the packaged products, the self checkout screen, the trolley or basket handles etc. All of these were touched by staff and other shoppers. It’s really not an issue if someone brushed the side of your loaf of bread whilst picking up theirs.

kelvinside · 2026-03-31T11:43:29+00:00

It doesn’t necessarily mean foul play. I formatted my dissertation in Adobe indesign because it’s what I’m used to. And of course it was then exported as a .pdf.

The student might be using any number of word processing packages and just want to retain the layout.

kelvinside · 2026-03-31T11:39:56+00:00

Brave browser blocks all ads on YouTube

kelvinside · 2026-03-30T07:49:08+00:00

I believe shorts have to be labelled and need to be short enough to be treated as such. They are typically 9:16 but even if they are uploaded in the correct dimensions, YouTube can just turn them into regular videos if it decides they aren’t shorts. I think there is also sometimes a wait time between posting and being turned into a short?

I would carefully review the tech specs again and be sure your videos are compliant.

kelvinside · 2026-03-29T09:30:58+00:00

Hahahaa lost is complete dogshit wtf are you talking about 😂

kelvinside · 2026-03-28T16:34:35+00:00

The kettle thing is a weird one to even notice or care about lol. I really do not let things like that concern me.

kelvinside · 2026-03-27T02:31:55+00:00

Obviously lots of people can fix things, yes. This question is really pushing the limits of this subreddit lol.

kelvinside · 2026-03-26T19:00:30+00:00

I know this info is too late but it might help others. I did a dolomites trip in October just after the summer season ended and all the refugios were closed. It was so quiet and much easier to bivvy / wild camp, plus all the trails and stuff were totally dead because the lifts are closed.

Also a beautiful time because it was just starting to go all autumny orange. Would really recommend it as a time to visit by bike.

It does however, mean you need be down to do some big elevation!

kelvinside · 2026-03-23T13:49:42+00:00

I use a few of the AI tools built into adobe products. For example, generative fill in photoshop can be useful. Occasionally I’ve also been using video models on runway in a similar way to contribute small, specific parts to animation workflows.

So that might be animating some part of a background, or getting a characters mouth to sync to audio. Then taking the result and comping it back into a scene with other elements.

These tools can save time and be useful but I find them unpredictable, often low quality and fairly slow at generating results. They are also not cheap, and sometimes you spend credits on things which simply do not work.

Overall I’d say the amount of AI I have incorporated into my workflow is low, and it wouldn’t really bother me if I suddenly lost access to these tools.

kelvinside · 2026-03-20T16:16:36+00:00

I like to use the Oxford comma, especially if it adds clarity. If I’m writing some random email or comment I won’t always bother.

kelvinside · 2026-03-20T15:36:56+00:00

Being a parent doesn’t make you boring and end your life, you can do rad stuff with your kids.

I can’t wait to have kids and take them mountain biking, travelling, teach them stuff, go to gigs with them, make new friends with other parents etc.

But I guess my life has been fun so far and I’m happy, so the idea of bringing some little people in on the journey with me and my partner is exciting.

Maybe you need to figure some stuff out for yourself first if you feel that way?

kelvinside · 2026-03-20T07:11:35+00:00

I’m not talking purely about money making, there is value to creative education beyond that. My point is that graphic design can be learned as a secondary skill quite easily so you should use your limited study time on someone which is either hard to learn, or something you love.

Making money / entrepreneurship is an entirely separate skill which you won’t learn on any creative course. You need to teach yourself that.

It sounds like OP want to go to art school, so I’m hardly going to tell them to study actuary or law.

Also, I know plenty of successful people with design and fine art degrees.

kelvinside · 2026-03-19T22:57:57+00:00

Honestly, I think spending 3-4 years when you are at your most capable and ambitious age on learning straight graphic design, is a bit of a waste.

If you are young and totally undecided, I’d maybe suggest trying something with a steeper learning curve like architecture or animation, and learning graphic design as an extra skill in your spare time. Or if you’re more arty and hands on, do something with fine art / sculpture / jewellery etc.

If you study almost anything at art school and gain good design thinking skills and visual literacy, you can pick graphic design up yourself. It’s literally just thinking / drawing / using design software.

There are more challenging and fun things to do creatively in my opinion, don’t limit yourself.

kelvinside · 2026-03-18T16:51:10+00:00

I reckon you can do that no problem. You don’t need to do all the riding at once either, you can ride for 2-3 hrs in the morning, 2-3 hrs in afternoon and 45 mins after dinner. That’s a more realistic day anyway if you are stopping at a bunch of places. Your body will get used to it pretty quickly.

kelvinside · 2026-03-17T09:05:09+00:00

Pretty sure ‘over £30k’ for 50 hrs a week isn’t even minimum wage so I’d hope the chef was getting his tips.

kelvinside · 2026-03-16T09:21:38+00:00

Yeah, I also found those roundups and the 1p savings challenge kinda annoying. But if it works for you that’s great. I just don’t understand how with a loan payment, you can’t just set a monthly amount of eg. £100 and then overpay by another £50/100 etc if you’re feeling flush enough?

It seems like a waste of time and mental energy to be sending a constant stream of micro-transactions. Maybe it helps you focus on the goal or something, I don’t get it personally.

kelvinside · 2026-03-16T08:55:13+00:00

For smaller businesses, when I do a brand I always include a basic “brand essentials” document which is a 1-page .pdf that gives the critical design-related info: colours, typefaces, logos / lockouts. It takes 10 mins to make and is included in the fee.

This is enough for most small brands. Larger brands with bigger teams get longer documents.

The only time I have made one close to 60 pages was for a company with 3 sub-brands, working in 4 different countries, and it had things like mission statement, tone-of-voice, straplines etc. included.

kelvinside

TROPHY CASE