And it is time again for some cool visual communication tools me and Robin have selected this week for you. If you want to do effective screen capture, arrange your images in online slideshows, search and download videos from major sharing video sites, I think we have gotten something for you.

Photo credit: Hypermania

Here the visual communication tools we have hand-picked for you this week:

1. Rapidpik: Upload images, share them or arrange them in Flash slideshows
2. Glinkr: Create mind maps online and embed them on your website
3. Mobile Photo Enhancer: Enhance your mobile phone pictures and save them in multiple formats
4. PicArtia: Use Flickr galleries to create photo mosaics online
5. Cropper: Capture any part of your screen and export it in different formats
6. Blow Up: Enter a Flickr username, and display pictures in full-screen slideshow mode
7. Vidslib: Search for videos on major sharing sites from one single place
8. ExtractYouTube: Download and search YouTube videos easily

Here all the details:

Visual Communication Tools

1. Rapidpik
   
   Rapidpik is an image sharing website that lets you share pictures and create slideshows with them. Without even registering, you can upload as many pictures as you want, give them a title, and decide whether to share them one-by-one, in multiple sizes, with a download link, or to create a Flash slideshow that you can embed anywhere on the web. Free to use.
   http://rapidpik.com/







2. Glinkr
   
   Glinkr is a free mind mapping tool that you can use to create your maps online. You can add items to your map, and link them with arrows and color boxes. Each item can have a title, a description, and also a bunch of links that can be displayed with one click. When you're done, you can embed the map on your website so that people can easily browse through it. Free to use.
   http://www.glinkr.net/







3. Mobile Photo Enhancer
   
   Mobile Photo Enhancer is a Windows only software that you can use to enhance your mobile phone pictures. It can be used to correct and adjust JPEG compression artifacts, vignetting (darkening of the corners around the image), color reproduction, contrast, sharpness and noise. Images can be saved in JPEG, BMP or PNG formats. Free.
   http://www.vicman.net/mobilephotoenhancer/index.htm







4. PicArtia
   
   PicArtia is an online application that allows you to create photo mosaics in three easy steps. Upload a picture from your computer or URL, select a Flickr gallery and the number of pictures that will compose the mosaic, enter your email address and click create. You picture will then be processed and will be available for you to download or embed anywhere. Free to use, no reigistration needed.
   http://www.picartia.com/






5. Cropper
   
   Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C, that makes it fast and easy to grab parts of your screen. You can capture any part of the screen by resizing a semi-transparent window that will appear on your desktop and, after right clicking it, by deciding the output image format and settings. Cropper is free to download and use.
   http://www.codeplex.com/cropper







6. Blow Up
   
   Blow Up is a Flickr slideshow service that anyone can use to display Flickr pictures in full screen mode. Just type a Flickr username into the box, click view and wait until the albums load: you can then browse all the pictures of that particular user in full screen mode as if it was a slideshow. You can also download the service and integrate it in your website, with customizable CSS. Free to use.
   http://blowup.bondartsciencefair.com/link.php

Video Publishing Tools

1. Vidslib
   
   Vidslib is a video search engine that searches videos on the web on major sharing sites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Yahoo, Veoh, Metacafe and more. Just enter keywords in the search box, click search, and start browsing results without ever leaving the site. Videos can then be shared through a link or embedded on your site. Free.
   http://vidslib.com/







2. ExtractYouTube
   
   ExtractYouTube is a web site that not only allows you to download YouTube videos, but also allows you to search for YouTube videos all from the same page. To download a video, either copy the YouTube URL of the video into the box or search by keyword just like you would on YouTube. When you have found your video, just click download and save the file in FLV format. Free.
   http://www.extractyoutube.com/

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi and Robin Good for Master New Media and first published on August 3rd 2008 as "Visual Communication And Video Publishing - Selected Tools And Web Services - Sharewood Picnic Aug03 08"