From Facebook to ATMs, our passwords are digital locks to keep our confidential information secure from unwanted access. There are two types of passwords: pronounceable passwords which makes it easy to remember but no less effective, and random passwords, which are infinitely more difficult to crack.

If you’ve tested your password strength, but you don’t feel like installing desktop tools to generate passwords, then you’ve come to the right place.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

In this post, you’ll find 25 online tools to help you generate pronounceable and random passwords quickly and easily. What’s awesome is that all the online password generators featured on this list are not only free; we don’t even need to sign up or subscribe to any of them.

Pronounceable Password Generators

Pronounceable passwords may not be as strong as random passwords, but sometimes it’s better to be able to remember than to risk forgetting your passwords and having to go through all the trouble of retrieving them, isn’t it?

Pass Creator

A simple, straightforward password generator, which requires you to specify the exact password length you want, and whether you want it pronounceable or hard-to-crack random. Customize your random password by ticking any of the 7 options (you can select more than one).

Automated Password Generator Online

The APG Online can generate up to 999 passwords according to your customization with just one click. It also allows you to save the customizations until your next return for new passwords.

Password Boy

Password Boy is a user-friendly password generator that is very quick and easy to use. Simply choose random or pronounceable, and the character set you want included.

Random Password Generator

Arguably the easiest to use, this online tool is for those looking for a quick password with the least hassle. Available in 14 languages, simply tap "Generate new passwords", and there you have it!

Designeus Pronounceable Password Generator

This two-step generator lets you select the password template you want, then churns out passwords based on the pattern chosen. You can only choose to include uppercase, lowercase letters, numbers and/or symbols, but if it’s a pronounceable password you want, you will get a pretty decent one.

Vint.ca

Vint.ca lets you select the "level of pronouncability" you want in your password. Less pronounceable passwords are harder to crack, but more pronounceable passwords are easier to memorise. After all, how difficult can it be to remember ‘maliLulu’?

Random Phonetic Password Generator

This generator only creates pronounceable passwords made of lowercase letters. All you get to pick is the password length (maximum 64 characters) and how many passwords you want generated (maximum 1000).

xkcd Password Generator

Xkcd’s idea of an excellent password is a phrase of four common words jumbled up. Careful though: It is also believed that even the most obscure words aren’t good choices as passwords consisting of "dictionary words" can be quickly hacked. That aside, it’s actually fun to try what the generator can come up with; they actually gave me the phrase, "little old bean history". There’s even a comic strip explaining their unusual take on passwords:

Phonetic Password Generator

OK, this one seems like a straightforward one. Consonants will remain, but the vowels might be replaced by numbers and symbols.

DinoPass

Get a simple, catchy password with only lowercase letters and numbers (not so recommended) or a stronger and yet pronounceable password, like ‘sc@ryLeaf92′.

Random Password Generators

Unlike pronounceable passwords that may be based on your personal information or common dictionary words, random passwords are simply a bunch of meaningless characters that hackers would not be able to guess, and could only resort to "brute force". Some of these generators also allows the option to exclude ambiguous characters, which are characters that look confusingly similar, such as ‘i’, ‘I’, ’1′ or ’0′, ‘O’ and ‘o’.

LittleLite Password Generator

LittleLite Password Generator is direct and quick. Just tick any of the character sets you want in your password, specify the password length, and generate.

Hugh’s Secure Password Generator

Hugh’s tip to an easy-to-remember random password was to come up with a memorable phrase, or better, a song’s name; snag off the first letter of every word, spice it up with some punctuations and replace letters with look-alike numbers. Generator or no, it would be fun to come up with this kind of passwords manually, aye?

Random Password Generator

Allowing you to limit ambiguous characters, this makes the generator a nice, quick choice if you’re tired of having your Wi-Fi being hacked, and your friends complaining that they kept mistyping your passwords because it’s hard to tell between ’0′ and ‘O’. Even better, the generator offers to display output phonetics, helping you to memorise your passwords.

Password Bird

Password Bird basically creates passwords by combining parts of words and numbers meaningful to you, so it can be random and yet uniquely memorable for you.

Online Password Generator

Lets you choose whether to completely exclude ambiguous characters (i,I,1, etc) or even include specific symbols. Although the password generated would not be easily pronounceable, if you want something that is easier to remember, you can tweak the pronouncing options to ‘Normal’.

New Password Generator

If you’re opting for something you can memorise easily, all you need to do is decide how many letters and numbers you want in the password, and if you want the digits before the letters. Otherwise, customize your password further with upper-case letters and symbols.

Techzoom Password Generator

Not sure what options to go for? Check out this generator’s handy guidelines. Your best bet is always to go for an at least 14-characters password, and of course, don’t forget to include mixed case letters, digits and symbols.

Norton Identity Safe Password Generator

Norton is not only protecting users against viruses and malwares now, they’re even protecting cyber users from getting their passwords hacked. Apart from the regular features, you can also make sure the passwords generated will not contain any similar characters.

Password Chart

The Password Chart is a witty way to generate secret codes like how we did it back in high school. Firstly, generate the password chart by typing in a phrase (preferably a funny one you’ll remember). Then, you can either print out the chart and do it the (fun) manual way, or save time and convert it again using the generator; see your password convert to utter gibberish, which only you’ll remember.

SafePasswd

Not only does it generate passwords for you, it also tells you if yours is strong or weak.

Free Password Builder

The Free Password Builder allows you to increase the chances of or entirely omit certain characters from the passwords generated.

Random Memorable Password Generator

It can cook up as many passwords as you want with just one click, then tell you how you can remember the password.

Secure Password Generator

All the basic features plus the extras like limiting ambiguous characters and displaying phonetic pronunciation in this one tool.

Random Password

Random Password conveniences the indecisive folk by offering only two customizable options: password length and non-alphanumeric characters.

Secure Password Generator

Lets you choose if you want to generate the password locally (to be more on the safe side).

More

Other than the 25 awesome online password generators we’ve shared with you in this post, here are another 9 handy tools you may want to check out:

1. Free Password Generator – Generates password instantly online in a clean, minimalistic design.

2. MakePassword – Generates your password and lets you know how strong your new password is.

3. Rumkin Password Generator – Good for generating secure WEP key quickly.

4. MIStupid Password Generator – Generate passwords without those confusing, ambiguous characters.

5. Free Random Password Generator – Simple and straightforward. Can generate up to 500 passwords at a time.

6. Random Password Generator – Strengthen your password with this convenient online generator.

7. Random.org Password Generator – Another straightforward generator, just pick the length and amount of passwords you want generated.

8. Strong Password Generator – Simply choose your password length and if you want to include punctuations; the generator will do the rest.

9. Quick Password Generator – Automatically excludes ambiguous characters.

Related posts:

1. 20 Desktop Tools to Generate and Manage Passwords
2. Golden Rule to Internet Security: Change Your Passwords
3. 17 Online Data Backup & Synchronization Tools
4. Online Meeting and Web Conferencing Tools – Best Of

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Addison Duvall, author of Food Identities, a blog that explores the crossroads of food, design, and culture. She’s written some things, designed other things, and eaten a whole lot of food.

There are two types of designers in this world: those who are in high-demand, and those who aren’t. Most of us start out in the latter category, and, unfortunately, some of us remain there for the duration of our careers.

(Image Source: Visual.ly)

But there’s a way to cross the gap between being in high demand and low demand that isn’t always obvious. It’s not easy, otherwise, everyone would be doing it. But I’m going to assume you’re a designer interested in improving the quality of clients you get, so I’m going to give it to you straight.

Here are several steps you can follow to boost your appeal to your potential clients, and climb the ladder from mediocre performer to becoming a high-demand superstar designer.

Recommended Reading: Tips to Getting More Design Projects

Do the Thinking

The most important asset a designer can have is his or her thought process. High-level clients – the kind you want to go after as a high-demand designer – are far more interested in what you were thinking about when you created the work in your portfolio, rather than just the visuals.

Before you meet with a high-level client, it’s helpful to arrange your portfolio so that it tells a story. When you do present your portfolio to a potential client, don’t just show a bunch of pretty pictures, explain the thought that went into your decision-making process.

You want to take potential clients through your market research covering unique selling points, and all that is relevant that goes into creating a marketable, effective design.

Know who you are designing for

With new clients, take the opportunity to explain your choices that make up your past designs. Why and how did your choices work with your target users? Get the answers to these questions, and you can do that by pulling data from the people you design for the most often.

Interview your users, start an email list, make polls or surveys whenever appropriate. Don’t just listen to what people say, but also look at their activities and reactions to the designs you’ve created. Observe the clicking, reading, or buying habits of your clients. Cross-reference those habits with what you get from the horse’s mouth to get a better, more complete indication.

Show the process behind the visuals themselves. Why these colors or that logo concept, and most importantly how did your choices improve the effectiveness of the design? Go deeper into the psychology of your ideal clients and the markets they serve. High-demand designers do this every day.

Think for your client

Every design client loves to have a designer who can think for them. Someone who knows their exact needs before they even voice them, and who can intuitively draw out their true desires for a successful project.

(Image Source: Proteus Documents)

How do I know this? Because I’ve been a design client as well as a designer. Even though I’m a designer myself, I love it when a freelancer can seemingly "read my mind" and figure out what I really want before I even say it. If you’re thinking that no designer can accomplish this reliably without the use of a magic wand and sparkly cape, think again.

Learning to quantify the needs of your target market is a very learnable skill in any industry. However, it does require you to be ultra-specific about the exact industry or industries you want to serve – you can’t read everyone’s minds, after all.

Choosing to Specialize

If you’re after true high-level clients, you can’t be an "all-purpose" designer. Unless you’re really, truly strapped for cash, it makes no career sense to take on just any design job you can find, regardless of your level of expertise.

(Image Source: Visual.ly)

This dilutes the strength of your personal brand and takes away valuable time that you could be using to focus your attention on the markets you genuinely want to serve. It can be hard sometimes to walk away from lucrative jobs that you have no apparent interest in. But you need to free up time to conduct the proper research into the kinds of design jobs you really want to take; the kind that will make you a high-demand designer.

By having a target market, high-demand designers will automatically know what their clients want, because it’s the same thing that they themselves want. This has a bonus effect of giving one more experience with one’s niche market, which is something all clients want.

Not Good Enough

A lot of designers when faced with less-than-appealing work, approach it with a lackluster attitude. This inevitably affects the quality of the finished project. It is an unavoidable fact that there will always be work that’s not going to have your steadfast attention. In those cases, you may be tempted to do work that’s merely ‘good enough’, and not put your full effort into delivering a quality piece.

This practice is detrimental to your path to becoming a truly high-demand designer, because it creates dark spots in your portfolio. Every mediocre project you put into your portfolio is taking the place of a potentially awesome project. But if you do each project like it’s the most valuable one in your entire career, you’ll eventually have a portfolio full of amazing work that any client will salivate over.

It’s also important to do side projects which show your thought process to potential clients. Many designers don’t really understand how important this is, because they think that all an art director or freelance client wants to see is the result. But high-level clients aren’t paying you for your design skills. They’re looking for people who show a superior thought process from initial sketches to the final solution, and their ability to interpret demands and demonstrate them in the results.

Get Out Of The Kiddie Pool

One of the advantages of becoming a high-level designer is that it eliminates requests for spec work – the bane of every designer’s existence. Except for a small set of very special circumstances, high-level designers never get asked to do spec work. And when they do, it’s for a very specific, mutually beneficial purpose.

If a client is confident that you can deliver their needs and wants unsupervised, it won’t even occur to them to ask you for spec work. Spec work for me is quite unnecessary, it doesn’t show your problem-solving side, just your designing skills, and everybody has that.

High-level clients want their high-demand designers to go beyond designing, they want designers who know how to think and connect with their target audience. Remove yourself from the kiddie pool, do your research into the target markets of your cliens and create opportunities for yourself.

Related posts:

1. 13 Steps to Being the Worst Web Designer on the Planet
2. 10 Tips to Invoice Your Freelance Clients Professionally
3. 11 Signs Of Problematic Clients You’ll Meet in Freelancing
4. 5 Ways to Tame Difficult and Problematic Clients