Another Blog

Downtime 2.0

2009-03-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.greyreview.com/downtime-20/

15 Tutorials for Recreating Authentic Photo Effects

2009-03-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/15-tutorials-for-recreating-authentic-photo-effects

Photoshop effects usually bring up thoughts of vibrant swirling lines and abstract pieces of stunning artwork, not to mention the not so cool Photoshop filters that have been the cause of eye-wrenching design choices for years. There are, however a range of effects that not only look great, but stay true to the traditional photographic techniques the effects originally evolved from. Here are 15 tutorials for recreating authentic photo effects such as Lomo photography, HDR and Cross Processing digitally in Adobe Photoshop.

Pinhole Photography

A pinhole camera is created using a small box with a tiny hole, the overall form is extremely simple with no lens. DIY pin hole cameras are often made from shoe boxes and photographic paper. Check out this tutorial from theartofmypetskeleton to easily create an authentic pinhole effect in Photoshop.

Cross Processing

Cross processed photographs are recognisable from the unusual colours and tones in the final shot. The effect was originally produced from developing the photographic film using the wrong mix of chemicals. Nowadays, a cross processed style can be simply achieved in just a few steps. Photoshop Support shows us how.

Street Photography

One of the most recognisable street photography shots is ‘Homeless Mike’ by Leroy Skalstad. The gritty, high contrast style of the image really emphasises the nature of street life. Recreate a similar image with this Dramatic Gritty Effect by Photoshop Frenzy.

Split Toning

The technique of split toning was originally developed from the printing process of a photographic image, using various toners to produce a subtle, multi-tone effect to the final photograph. Photoshop Essentials shows us how to use the Photoshop channel mixer and adjustment layers to produce the effect without the use of chemicals!

Rock Photography

Although not quite a photo effect itself, the style of rock photography has become a recognised approach to creating portraits of long haired rockstars. This overview from Computer Arts Magazine takes a look at some of the post-processing steps taken to give a classic rock feel.

The Dave Hill Look

Professional photographer Dave Hill has become highly acknowledged for his unique style of post-processing that gives a very strong and impactful effect to his portrait images. Many sites across the web present tutorials on how to create ‘the Dave Hill look’ yourself, this article from Flickr is one of the best.

Lomo Photography

The Russian made Lomo LC-A camera was manufactured a cheap alternative to the higher quality Japanese rivals. It was poorly made and the photographs it produced were just as bad, however as time passed popular culture brought the mis-coloured shots from the Lomo camera into a whole new light, which is now a very sought after effect. Not everyone has the opportunity of trying out the original camera model, but Digital Photography School has some great tips on mimicking the effect in Photoshop.

Infrared Photography

Infrared film used alongside an infrared filter allows the camera to block out the usual spectrum of light, allowing only infrared light to expose the film. The result is a false colour or black and white effect, the effect is particularly stunning with shots of foliage, where the reflections from leaves and grass are made visible and give the impression of a dream-like scene. Photoshop Essentials outlines some of the techniques used to create the Infrared effect.

The Velvia Effect

Fujifilm Velvia film created highly saturated, largely contrasting and extremely sharp images, which made it particularly popular with nature and landscape photographers. PSHero takes a look at using modern day Photoshop techniques to recreate the Velvia effect.

Dark Grunge Photo Effect

The term grunge has evolved from the music genre also known as Seattle Sound, characterized by stripped down sounds and heavily distorted guitars. The term grunge also made its way into photo post processing, where the key features are muted colours and large areas of texture and grain. PSHero has this excellent tutorial for creating your own dark grunge photo effect.

HDR Photography

High Dynamic Range Imaging is a photography technique that produces an image with a much larger range of luminance between the darkest and lightest areas, making it much closer to the spectrum seen by the human eye. More recently the effect has been pushed to the max, with heavy tone mapping producing an abstract and highly stylised photo effect. The genuine effect is created with various RAW images and processing software, but the Nill Photoalbum has this great tutorial for producing a similar style directly in Photoshop.

Soft Focus Photography

The effect produced by soft focus photography is actually the result of a flaw in the lens, although lenses with a specific soft focus feature have since been produced. Soft focus lenses create a slightly blurred image that retains sharp edges, often described as a dreamy or glamourous style. Photoshop Talent has this great overview of reproducing the effect.

Movie Photo Effect

Alongside post processing, the video filming of movies often involves a range of camera filters. Ebin has this fantastic tutorial for creating a polished movie-like effect complete with diffusion glow and temperature tweaks in Photoshop.

Vintage Photo Effect

With limited technology the early colour photographs often had poor colour reproduction, with shots having an obvious colour casts and inaccurate tones. Today the effect can transform a photograph, instantly sending it back in time to give the impression of an aged effect. Veerle takes us through some techniques for producing a vintage style photo using a few simple Photoshop tweaks.

Tilt Shift Photography

Tilt Shift is a photographic technique where the image plane is rotated, giving a very shallow depth of field but maintaining sharpness in a specific area of the shot. One of the popular post processing effects related to tilt shift photography is known as miniature faking, where the depth of field manually added to a shot gives the illusion of tiny model figures and sceneries. TiltShiftPhotography.net has this fantastic overview of creating the effect yourself.

500+ Space Brushes for Photoshop

2009-02-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

http://designm.ag/resources/photoshop-space-brushes/

Graphic designers love free Photoshop brushes, so I decided to put together a collection of the best brushes for creating space scenes. This includes brushes for stars, planets, moon, galaxies, nebulae, and more.

Galactic Brushes (14 brushes)

Galaxy Set (5 brushes)

S.P.A.C.E. Brushes (5 brushes)

Star Brushset (20 brushes)

Free Cosmic Brushes (13 brushes)

Planet Renders (10 brushes)

Star Brushes (6 brushes)

StarScape Brushes (18 Brushes)

Moon Brushes (9 brushes)

Galaxies Brushes (12 brushes)

Flares (6 brushes)

Big Star Fields (16 brushes)

Stardust (20 brushes)

Stars Brushes (25 brushes)

Digea Deep Space Brushes (33 brushes)

Starlight Brushes (8 brushes)

Lost in Space Brushes (39 brushes)

Space Brushes (22 brushes)

Bash Space Brush Set (14 brushes)

NASA Deep Space Brushes (25 brushes)

Planets II Brushes (9 brushes)

Moon Brushes (45 brushes)

Deep Space Brushes (7 brushes)

Spacy Brushes (12 brushes)

Night Sky Brushes (5 brushes)

Starfield Brush Set (17 brushes)

Starry Brushes (22 brushes)

Nebula Brushes (50 brushes)

Digea Moon and Stars Brushes (18 brushes)

Flash Stars (17 brushes)

Awesome Hidden Google Pages

2009-02-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.pctipsbox.com/awesome-hidden-google-pages/

There might be some rare human being around who has surfed Internet but hasn’t used Google in some way or the other. Still there are some great works of Google that are known but to a smaller community of people. They are worth looking. Today I came around a Google page where Google pays tributes to moms around the worlds. That made me search on for something more. Here is the compiled list. Worth a look for all the Google lovers/critics.

Google Moms

Google’s way of expressing love.

Rare Google Beta Logo

They really have improved.

Google Heart 1 & Google Heart 2

Google's way of expressing love on valentines day.

Google’s Metaplex

Google's way of saying “April fool”

Google Newsletter
You have read Google blog, but did you read this. It contains there progress from the day it was launched to till date.

Google’s Search Statistics For 9/11/01
… and there tribute (a rather general one)

Google Zietgeist
What you see here is a cumulative snapshot of interesting queries people are asking – some over time, some within country domains, and some on Google.com – that perhaps reveal a bit of the human condition.

Google’s Help To Build Better Query
Some useful sets of tips from the makers themselves.

Google Doodles

Few more: UncleSam, Microsoft, Mac, Linux, BSD. Google remembers all.

Google’s Languages Which Only Google Can Understand (This Link Is For Ewmew Fudd)
More for you. Bork, Bork, Bork!, thlngan Hol, H4×0r, lgpay Atinlay. Did you understand any one of them? I did not.

A real cool real time collection of how people go wrong with spelling while searching for Birteny spears aaa Britney spears
That’s bad. Most of you Britney fans never even cared to know about Britney’s original spelling?

Google’s Librarian Central Newsletter
They do take care of everyone.

And last a non Google page but worth a look.

Jim Jarmusch On Stealing From Everywhere

2009-02-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

50 best websites to download eBOOKs FREE

2009-02-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.bestonlinetools.org/50-top-websites-to-download-ebooks/

The world is becoming more and more digitized and mobile, it has now become easy for us to carry a lot of information with us which can be browsed during free time. Ebooks are a favourite source of consuming information in digital form. Though ebooks need to be generally bought, there are many places from where a variety of ebooks can be downloaded. We are listing here 50 great websites which we feel are the best places to download free ebooks from the net.

1. Download Any stuff : Once again comes on the top as a favourite because searching ebooks is very easy here. Just search for any name/author (alongwith word ‘ebook’) and get the links to download pages. To get better results,click on the category ‘eBooks’ on the results page. You may also find some audio books/mp3 etc on that topic during the search.

2.Gutenberg: has over 27000 free ebooks to be downloaded from their online catalogue.

3.Arvix : Download over 500,000 e-books in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science,

Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics from the Cornell University Library.

4.Internet Archive: A huge(possibly the largest) collection of open source etexts on the net. Just make a quick search and reach the description page and on the left panel get the links to download the ebook in various formats.

5. Scribd :Scribd has a huge database of files uploaded by members. A large number of them are ebooks. Just search for “x-y-z ebook” and check out the results and download.

6. Online books page :The Online Books Page was founded, and is edited, by John Mark Ockerbloom, He is a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.The site is maintained by the University and has a very large database of free ebooks which you can read online also.

7.Ebookhood: Basically the site allows you to convert text and webpages to formats readable on the iPod and other reader devices, share the ebooks and reviews with other readers in the neighborhood.The files uploaded by members are downloadable and hence a good collection of free ebooks is generated.

8.Hotfilms : don’t be mislead by the name. There is a good collection of ebooks also on this site in the ebooks section.

9.GetfreeEbooks: This site provides free and legal ebooks with some books available for download immediately and some are linked to other sites.

10.Franklin Free Library: One of the largest online electronic publishers, they have a good collection of free ebooks as well. Just follow the link given. Downloads are quite easy from the link given against each title.

11.Freebookspot: Have ebooks on varied topics and the links to download the same are provided at the bottom of the page. These links and descriptions are also uploaded by the members on the site.

12.Booksshouldbefree:Taking cue from their own name, they are offering free downloads of books in Text and Mp3 formats(audiobooks).

13.AcrobatPlanet: As the name suggests, plenty of Pdf files for download available here for free. Browsing is easy

14. Free online Novels:Provides download links to a collection of novels.

15.Filebook:They have shared files links to over 2000 ebooks for download.

16.ebooksPdf :Free Online Library- contains Ebooks, primarily in PDF format .

17.Fullbooks: A collection of (thousands –they claim) ebooks which can be read online . However, since the books are divided in a few pages, the individual pages/chapters can be downloaded.

18.Globusz: It is a e-book publishing house and tries to promote the works of lesser known authors. Most of the works are available for free download.

19.Memoware: MemoWare has a collection of thousands of documents (databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, etc.) formatted to be easily added to PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device.99% of documents are free and some are shareware for which you have to register after downloading as Zip.

20.Diesel ebooks:Though Diesel Ebooks is an online retailer of books, it has a free download section where a number of titles are available for free . Follow the link.

21.Manybooks:Search for thousands of ebooks on this site and download .The option to download in multiple formats increases the usefulness of the site.

22.MyEnbook:They provide downloads of ebooks, magazines, newspapers, reports, documents, essays etc.

23.Harckerz: Hundreds of free books related to hacking and other computer related topics. Just click on the links of the books and download.

24.Mobipocket:Search for over 11000 free ebooks on topics ranging from literature(max no.) ,economics ,history etc from Mobipocket (Amazon.com)

25.Free tech Books :This site lists a large number of technology books and provides links to other webpages which have the download links of those books. A good collection.

26.Computer books :A collection of free ebooks on computers related topics.

27.Filmsdown: Another site which may not look like a likely place to find ebooks. But their ebooks section has lot of cool ebooks with their download links.

28.Ebook Space: another cool ebook site which details mainly Technology related books and provides their links on shared files.

29.Freeinsociety: They have an ebooks section which can be searched for a number of free ebooks (mainly pdf) under 16 categories.

30.Pdf Search Engine:Necessarily it is a search engine which searches PDF files. Just enter search term and search to find if there are any pdf files for that term.

31.eBook3000 :They provide details of ebooks and links to their location in shared files servers.

32.Free-eBooks:This site has a good collection of free ebooks. But you need to register to download the same.

33.2020ok.com :Has hundreds of categories under which ebooks are listed with their links to their download pages on other sites.

34. Onlinebooks4free :This site has listed ebooks under about 20 categories and provides links to their downloads. However, beware of many broken links that you will find.

35. Authorama : Rather than exactly providing download, it lets you read their ebooks online . The chapterwise browsing is easy and each chapter can be downloaded separately to get complete ebook.

36. University of Adelaide library :The university of Adelaide has a large collection of free ebooks online. Just browse by Author or Title the classic works of Literature, Philosophy, Science, and History.

37.e-Books Directory :E-Books Directory is a free web resource which contains links to free downloadable e-books, technical papers, documents, as well as user contributed content, articles, reviews and comments.They have about 1200 ebooks .

38. Networkgood :An ebooks blog which posts links to download ebooks regularly.

39. eBooks Canada :Has a small collection of ebooks on about 20 topics. However, the data does not seem to be updated very regularly. Still the ebooks are worth checking.

40.Witguides: Another good site with range of titles on Computers, Health, Business,Self Improvement, Cooking and more. They claim to have their files fully checked for viruses.

41.Freebooks: The site has listed a good collection of ebooks with links to the webpages where download links are there. Some of these links were found broken.

42.TechbooksforFree :Mainly links to Techbooks downloads.

43.Feedbooks: It provides an easy way to find, publish and download e-books in a large number of formats.

44.Audiobooksforfree: Mp3,iPod,DVD audiobooks on adventure, detectives, horrors, classics, children, philosophy etc. Listen to the book sample and download in different bit rates.

45.Planetebook: Focusing on Classics, this site provides downloads for the same in Pdf format.

46.PdfOO :Register free and search for ebooks and download.

47.Divine Life Society :Offers free books on Yoga,Religion and Philosphy.

48.ByGosh :Free illustrated kids stories,poems,novels etc . Can be read online or downloaded as individual chapters.

49.BooksinMyPhone:This site formats and packages books so that you can read them on a java enabled phone. Search books by Author,Titles,’All time classics’ or by tags.

50.Sharewarefreebooks: In about 60 categories, this site has a cool collection of over 1300 ebooks which can be downloaded .

Favorite Swirls & Decorative Brush Sets

2008-08-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/08/08/my-10-favorite-swirls-decorative-brush-sets/

Here’s the Swirls, Swooshes and Florals List

Floral Swirl
A stunning set of high res floral swirls. Perfect for floral patterns and backgrounds.

Swirls Brush Pack
Swirl shapes courtesy of the brand new site, Brush King. Simple, but useful.

Swirls and Flourishes
More from Brush King. 23 beautiful floral flourishes and swirls. Awesome for borders and corners.

Swirl Brushes
11 decorative brushes. Interesting curved lines, dotted lines and decorative elements.

Seleneheart Flourish Brushes
These brushes are on the small side, but the are beautifully detailed. Awesome for adding flourish elements to your design.

Flourish Mask
These mix in a lot of grunge elements and could very easily have slipped into my grunge brush list. I love using these to mask out a slick looking grunge flourish border.

Swirls and Flowers
14 gorgeous flourishes, flowers and decorative elements. These are fantastic!

Floral Deco Brushes
More cool brushes that I found in the Deviant Art design community. Stunning floral decorative brushes.

Fantasy Swirls
High resolution simple swirl brushes.

Jakandara
Spectacular Japanese floral decorative brushes.

25 Beautiful Fantasy Photoshop Tutorials

2008-08-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.photoshoptalent.com/blog/2008/06/22/25-beautiful-fantasy-photoshop-tutorials/

Howdie, here’s another great collection of fantasy photoshop tutorials. They are hard to find and kinda rare (especially the good ones!)… So I selected 25 of them, some great, some not so great. Decide for yourself… If you know of any other good fantasy tuts, let me know so I can add them to the list.
Enjoy!

The 60 Best Photoshop Tutorials to Design Your Own Amazing Site

2008-08-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.photoshoptalent.com/blog/2008/08/11/the-60-best-photoshop-tutorials-to-design-your-own-amazing-site/

A compilation of 60 of the most awesome photoshop tutorials which can assist you to create an amazing, professional website.

Enjoy!

Photographer Portfolio layout

Visit Tutorial

Unique Grungy Website Layout

Visit Tutorial

Game Layout with Scratched Menu

Visit Tutorial

Wedding Layout

Visit Tutorial

Simple Business Style

Visit Tutorial

Clean Business Layout

Visit Tutorial

Old Paper Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Design Studio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Professional Modern Web Layout

Visit Tutorial

Agency Layout

Visit Tutorial

Online Photo Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Wordpress Mockup Layout

Visit Tutorial

Bar-Restaurant layout template

Visit Tutorial

Real Estate Template

Visit Tutorial

Model Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Clean Business Layout

Visit Tutorial

Graphic Design Studio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Internet Business Layout with 3D Logo

Visit Tutorial

Tech Hosting Layout

Visit Tutorial

Aqua Layout

Visit Tutorial

Professional Design Studio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Wedding Layout

Visit Tutorial

Dark Themed Layout

Visit Tutorial

Advanced Hosting Layout (web 2.0 style)

Visit Tutorial

Mobile Phone Shopping Cart Layout

Visit Tutorial

Web 2.0 Business Layout

Visit Tutorial

Funky Layout

Visit Tutorial

Company Layout

Visit Tutorial

Interior Design Layout

Visit Tutorial

Dedicated Hosting Layout

Visit Tutorial

Grunge Vector Layout

Visit Tutorial

Hand-drawn Layout

Visit Tutorial

Clean Hosting Layout

Visit Tutorial

Advanced Hosting Layout

Visit Tutorial

Dark Style Layout

Visit Tutorial

Web2.0 Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Black Layout

Visit Tutorial

Personal Website Layout with 3D Icons

Visit Tutorial

Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Another Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Real Estate Layout

Visit Tutorial

Professional Gaming Clan Layout

Visit Tutorial

Dot Mobi Layout

Visit Tutorial

Agency Layout

Visit Tutorial

Another Dark Themed Layout

Visit Tutorial

Sleek High-end Layout

Visit Tutorial

Cartoon Grunge Layout

Visit Tutorial

Design Studio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Video Broadcast Layout

Visit Tutorial

Another Dark Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Online Business Classes Layout

Visit Tutorial

Photography Portfolio Layout

Visit Tutorial

Software Layout

Visit Tutorial

Clean Hosting Layout

Visit Tutorial

Web 2.0 Vector Layout

Visit Tutorial

Real Estate Layout

Visit Tutorial

Advanced Game Layout

Visit Tutorial

Product Sales Page Layout

Visit Tutorial

Architecture Bureau Layout

Visit Tutorial

20 Best Websites To Download Free E-Books

2008-08-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/

We understand that reading is the most simplest way for human to derive and constructing meaning in order to gain a particular knowledge from a source. This tendency has been digitized when books evolve into digital media equivalent – E-Books.

It would be nice if we’re able to download free e-book and take it with us. That’s why we’ve again crawled deep into the Internet to compile this list of 20 places to download free e-books for your use. Full list after jump.

FreeBookSpot

FreeBookSpot is an online source of free ebooks download with 4485 FREE E-BOOKS in 96 categories which up to 71,97 GB.

You can search and download free books in categories like scientific, engineering, programming, fiction and many other books. No registration is required to download free e-books.
4eBooks

4eBooks has a huge collection of computer programming ebooks. Each downloadable ebook has a short review with a description. You can find over thousand of free ebooks in every computer programming field like .Net, Actionscript, Ajax, Apache and etc.
Free-eBooks

Free-eBooks is an online source for free ebook downloads, ebook resources and ebook authors. Besides free ebooks, you also download free magazines or submit your own ebook.

You need to become a Free-EBooks.Net member to access their library. Registration is free.
ManyBooks

ManyBooks provides free ebooks for your PDA, iPod or eBook Reader. You can randomly browse for a ebook through the most popular titles, recommendations or recent reviews for visitors. There are 21,282 eBooks available here and they’re all free!
GetFreeEBooks

GetFreeEBooks is a free ebooks site where you can download free books totally free. All the ebooks within the site are legal downloadable free ebooks.
FreeComputerBooks

FreeComputerBooks consists of a huge collection of free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. It is very well categorized by topics, with 12 top level categories, and over 150 sub-categories.
FreeTechBooks

FreeTechBooks lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet. Throughout FreeTechBooks, other terms are used to refer to a book, such as ebook, text, document, monogram or notes.
Scribd

Scribd, the online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats. You can download a document or embed it in your blog or web page.
Globusz

Globusz is a unique ePublishing house, specializing in free eBook downloads. They also provide an excellent Star Rating Showcase for new and evolving authors.
KnowFree

KnowFree is a web portal where users are able to exchange freely e-books, video training and other materials for educational purposes and self-practice.
OnlineFreeEBooks

OnlineFreeEBooks provides links to various ebooks (mostly in pdf) spanning in 9 big categories which are: Automotive Ebooks, Business Ebooks, Engineering Ebooks, Gadget Ebooks, Hardware Ebooks, Health & Medical Ebooks, Hobbies Ebooks, Programming & Technology Ebooks, Sport & Martial Art Ebooks.
MemoWare

MemoWare has a unique collection of thousands of documents (databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, etc.) specially formatted to be easily added to your PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device.
BluePortal
OnlineComputerBooks

OnlineComputerBooks contains details about free computer books, free ebooks, free online books and sample chapters related to Information Technology, Computer Science, Internet, Business, Marketing, Maths, Physics and Science which are provided by publishers or authors.
SnipFiles

SnipFiles offers you free ebooks and software legally by brought or attained PLR, resale or master rights to all the products on their page.
BookYards

BookYards is a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be freely to anyone who has an internet connection.
The Online Books Page

The Online Books Page is a Listing over 30,000 free books on the Web.
AskSam Ebooks

AskSam Ebooks has a collection of free e-books like Shakespeare, and assorted legal & governmental texts.
Baen Free Library

Baen Free Library is an online library of downloadable science fiction novels.
eBookLobby

Free ebooks in eBookLobby are divided into different categories. Categorys range from business, art, computing and education. Select the category appropriate to the e-book you’re looking for.

15 Photoshop Tutorials for Creating Product Advertisements

2008-08-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/product-ad-tutorials/

The look and message of an advertisement will obviously have a huge impact on the success of the marketing campaign. Here is a list of 15 tutorials that will help you to create more attractive and eye-catching advertisements with Photoshop.

Design a Professional Laptop Advert - PSDFAN

PSDFAN is a new tutorial blog, but there’s already some high-quality work there, including this one.

Create an Energy Drink Ad Design - PSDTUTS

Of course a few from PSDTUTS have to be on any Photoshop tutorial list.

Sleek Phone Advertisement Flyer - Tutzor

This tutorial shows you how to create an attractive and creative advertisement.

Add a Fresh Splash to Your Design (for a beverage ad) - Tutorial9

Tutorial9 also has it’s own tutorial for creating a drink ad.

Design an Awesome Cell Phone Ad - Tutorial9

They also have a different style of cell phone ad.

Designing a Stylish Fashion Advert - PhotoshopStar

This tutorial from Photoship start will show you how to easily create an attractive advertisement, and how you can easily change the color.

Video Tutorial: Create an iPod Ad - YouTube

This is a nice video tutorial thrown into the mix.

Create a Mobile Phone Ad Design - PSDTUTS

Cell phone ads must be popular. The third one on our list takes a much different approach than the first two.

Make an Apple Coldplay Style Ad in Photoshop - PSDTUTS

A dark and sparkly ad tutorial from Fabio Sasso.

Stunning Print Advertisement for Cell Phone - Tutorial Notebook

This tutorial focuses solely on design for a printed publication.

MP3 Download Advertisement - Imgry.com

There are many MP3 sites and services out there. Here is an ad that can be used for one of them.

Create a Vibrant Drink Ad - PSDFAN

Another nice tutorial from PSDFAN.

Water Drops - PS Hero

This tutorial focuses on creating the water drops you see in the ad below, but the author combined it with a previous tutorial to get this end result.

Make a Perfume Ad - PS Wish

A different style than many of the ads on this list.

Designing a 3D Software Box - Tutorial9

Software boxes are not completely product ads, but they are used as a part of many ads for software.

Create a Software Box - Tutorial Blog

Another helpful tutorial for a software box.

200+ Textures, Brushes, and Fonts: Ultimate Grunge Roundup

2008-07-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

http://designreviver.com/freebies/200-textures-brushes-and-fonts-ultimate-grunge-roundup/

Grunge style is rough, rugged, torn, worn, and tattered. To most, these adjectives would describe something less than appealing, but in the hands of a talented web designer, elements possessing these qualities can be used to turn a web site into a work of art. So, if you are just getting started in grunge design or if you are already a pro, you should find the grunge freebies in this article to be very useful.

Textures

Vintage Grunge - 2
5 textures
High Res Grungy Paper Textures
4 textures
Vintage Grunge Textures
5 textures
50 Grunge Icon Textures
50 textures
Hardcore Vintage Grunge
6 textures
High Res Photoshop Brushes: Grungy Texture
12 textures
Large Paper Grunge Textures
5 textures
Color Grunge Textures
5 textures
Autumn Grunge Textures Set
5 textures

Brushes

Worn Photoshop Brushes
9 Photoshop brushes
High-Res Grunge Ink Splatter Brushes
9 Photoshop brushes
Vector-Grunge Brush Pack
6 Photoshop brushes
Tizzape Tape Brushes
20 Photoshop brushes
Ewanism Brushes- Grunge
65 Photoshop brushes
Despirited Grunge Brushes Set1
7 Photoshop brushes
Typographic Grunge Brushes
7 Photoshop brushes
Grungy Stuff
10+ Photoshop brushes

Fonts

Watercolor Roundup: 200+ Beautiful Brushes and Textures

2008-07-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

http://designreviver.com/freebies/watercolor-roundup-200-beautiful-brushes-and-textures/

Watercolor effects are a hot trend right now in web design. It seems like we are seeing at least one or two sites featuring this style show up on the design galleries every week. Adding watercolor elements to a design can definitely give it an artistic appearance, and when done well, can make a website look as if it was scanned from a canvas.

Here are some of the best watercolor brushes and textures that can be found on the web.

Brushes

Grungy Watercolor
10 Brushes
Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes
18 Brushes
Hi-Res Watercolor Photoshop Brushes Set II
20 Brushes
WaterColor .1. Brushes Pack
17 Brushes
WaterColor .2. Brushes Pack
25 Brushes
Watercolour Brushes Set 1
26 Brushes
Watercolour Brushes Set 2
25 Brushes
SimpleSmudges .2. Brushes Pack
32 Brushes

Textures

Textures: watercolors
8 textures
Free Hi Res Watercolor Textures
2 textures
Large Painted Textures
5 textures
Painted Texture
5 textures
Watercolor Textures
13 textures

19 Websites to Promote your Design News

2008-07-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.cssleak.com/news/19-Websites-to-Promote-your-Design-News.html

For any blogger, increase his website traffic is one of the primary objective. I'll explain how I proceed to promote my design News around the web. All of this websites give me traffic and strong links (about 400 per news, Google Webmaster and Yahoo Site explorer) which help for SEO and positions Cssleak on new Keyword.

I used 2 categories of websites : Digg-like, and using Community News. For each websites, I write if you need to register and an estimation of traffic on 3-4 days.

1- Digg-like :

Of Course generic Digg-like : Digg, Mixx ...

Members create accounts.

Others :

Design Float

Members create accounts.
about 10-20 visitors (if you stay in upcoming news section)
about 300-600 visitors (if your news is published)

Design Bump

Members create accounts.
about 5-10 visitors (if you stay in upcoming news section)

Dzone

Members create accounts.
about 30 visitors (if you stay in upcoming news section)

Graphic Design Links

Members create accounts.
About 50 visitors (if your news is published)

Design Related

Members create accounts.
about 5-10 visitors (if you stay in upcoming news section)

Pixel Groovy : For Tutorials

2- Community News :

Css Globe

Members create accounts.
About 800-900 visitors

StyleGala

Submit a news
about 250-300 visitors

Noupe

Submit a news
It depends : 150-1200 visitors

PsdTuts

Submit a news
about 400-650 visitors

NetTuts

Submit a news

CssCreme

Submit a news

CssLeak

Submit a news
50-200 visitors (from my estimation)

Css Drive

Submit a news

Css Elite

Submit a news (by email)

SmashingApps

Submit a news
20-40 visitors

Freelance Folder

Submit a news
about 5-10 visitors

9rules

Members create accounts.

7 Photoshop Styles (PSD)

2008-07-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/7-photoshop-styles-psd/

This a download file I made last year for my design forum, appearantly it still gets downloads, only in the forum it’s not open for viewers, only members. Here I thought I’d share it freely on this blog. All you need to do is open the psd file in photoshop, select each layer and load the layer styles, then save.

Download the PSD with layer styles (477 kb)

Download Glossy Caramel Layer Styles

2008-07-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/download-glossy-caramel-layer-styles/

This is one of the first tutorials I was making when I tried to promote Lorelei Web Forum. It’s a very nice style, looks like it was caramelized and it has a lot of depth. You will certainly going to enjoy this file but please remember that this is my material and must not be redistributed without permission.

Download Caramel Style Effect (250 kb)

Do’s and Dont’s of Great Web Design

2008-07-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/do%E2%80%99s-and-dont%E2%80%99s-of-great-web-design/

When followed, this guide will prove to be quite a valuable web design resource. From the inexperienced to the experienced, this guide has something for everyone.

The Process of Great Web Design Just to make sure we are all on the same page, lets begin with the basic definition for “web design”. According to Wikipedia, web design is:

“a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media delivery via Internet in the form of Markup language suitable for interpretation by Web browser and display as Graphical user interface”.

The process of web design can be compared to the process of writing a research paper. In the conceptualization/planning stage, flowcharts (the outline) are created which illustrate the navigational structure of your website. In the modeling stage, static wireframes are created (the rough draft) which illustrate the skeletal layout for each section of your website. After the wire frames are created, graphics, colors and text are used to create the design of your web pages based on the layout of the wire frames. In the execution stage, your design is converted into a format supported by web browsers, text and content are added, and finally, your website is published live to the Internet for the world to see (final draft).

All three stages of the design process are equally important. Many web designers skip a stage in order to save time or because they don’t think that is is necessary. However, all three stages are necessary if your goal is to create a successful design and respectable website. Even if the three stages are used, there are many mistakes that web designers can make that will lead to poor-quality, non user-friendly websites.
It’s time to clean out the cabinet of bad web design practices and restock it with the good ones.

Stage 1: Conceptualization and planning
This stage is skipped more often than the other two stages. Most writers don’t enjoy creating outlines for research papers, and most web designers don’t like creating flowcharts either. Don’t be lazy. If you put forth the effort and plan out your website, then you will find the web design process to go smoothly with fewer mistakes made along the way.

There are a few things that you will need in order to effectively conceptualize and plan your website:

-a brain
-a pen and paper
-(optional) flowchart software
-a general idea of the different sections of your website

To begin, grab your pen and paper or launch your favorite flowchart software. We use OmniGraffle Professiona for Mac OS X which costs $150 per license but is well worth it if you create websites on a regular basis. If you’re on a PC, then SmartDraw is a great FREE piece of flowchart software that you can use. A pen and paper work just fine, though.

There are many methods to creating flowcharts. We are going to show you the most basic way to do it for the sake of time and the length of this article. If you want to learn more about flowcharts search for flowcharts on Google or Yahoo.

View the flowchart that we created when conceptualizing Chromatic Sites. (1) At the top of the flowchart we list the name of our website. (2) Next, we include each primary section of our website: Home, About, and Services. These sections are the main navigation for your website. What the names of each section will be is entirely dependent on the content of your website. Try to use as few sections as possible so that your visitors are not overwhelmed when navigating through your website.

(3) Next, add all of the secondary pages (subsections) that will be listed on each of the primary pages. For Home, we have included Professional Web Design, Web Development, and Search Engine Optimization. The secondary navigation needs to be more descriptive than the primary navigation. The deeper your websites’ navigational hierarchy goes, the more descriptive each label should be.

The Dos
-Less is more; keep the number of primary sections to a minimum. We use 6 sections on our website which is more than enough -Whether you use a pen and paper or flowchart software, keep things as clean and organized as possible. Although you (and anyone working with you) are the only ones that will be using the flowchart, it still needs to make sense -Your primary sections should use broader terms, while secondary and tertiary terms should be more descriptive

The Donts
Creating a flowchart is pretty straight forward; however, there are a few mistakes that can easily be made:

-Don’t use very descriptive terms in your primary navigation unless your entire website focuses on one narrow topic -Don’t try and lump multiple topics on the same page. Create a general section for these topics and from that section create subsections. This will make the subsection (descriptive) web pages more likely to have better rankings in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask) Once you have created a concise and descriptive flowchart, you’re ready to move on to the second stage of the web design process:
modeling.

Stage 2: Modeling
In the modeling stage, static “wireframe” mock ups are created. Each mockup illustrates a bare-bones skeleton of the layout for each of the web pages that will be included in your website. This stage is important because it gives us an idea of where different elements will be placed in our design. Some of these elements are:

-logo
-navigational menu
-content
-images, videos

To create these mockups, you can use a pen and paper or your preferred mockup software. In the past we have used Photoshop, but lately we have been using OmniGraffle Professional. OmniGraffle is not as resource intensive as Photoshop is and it allows us to assemble our wireframe mockups much quicker.

In addition, make sure that you have the flowchart(s) that you created nearby as you will need to reference these from time to time to make sure that you are mocking up all of the pages that will appear on your website.

Here is our example of how a wireframe mockup should look. As you can see, there are no colors or graphics included. This is exactly how a wireframe mockup should be - a skeletal layout of your design. The purpose is to be able to have a general idea of where each of the web page’s elements will be placed.

We usually begin from the top left and work our way down to the bottom. There is no specific way that a wireframe should look. Use your imagination. However, make sure that when creating your wireframes you don’t forget to include the most important elements of a website (logo, navigational menu, content placement, images/video placement).

If some of your pages will be using the same layout, then it is not necessary to mock all of those pages up (although you certainly can).
Just be sure to mockup any unique layout that your website will have.
You’ll thank yourself later.

The Dos
-mockup all unique pages
-include important elements (logo, navigation, content placement, images/video placement) -start from the top and work your way down -reference your flowchart created in stage 1 to make you don’t forget to mockup any pages -save, save, save - like with anything on the computer, save your mockup(s) every 10 minutes or so
-focus on clean, user friendly layouts -label your elements so you don’t forget what they are when you reference them in stage 3, execution -use other web sites as inspiration; there is nothing wrong with taking elements from other sites and making them your own (see “donts”)

The Donts
-don’t include graphics or colors (that’s for the next stage) -don’t make your mockups too “busy”; focus on clean, well organized, user friendly layouts -don’t skip this stage; it is just as important as the first and the last -if you take elements from other websites, make sure you don’t plagiarize; there is a difference between being inspired by another website to create certain elements of your design and blatantly ripping off their layout and colors

Stage 3: Execution
In the third and final stage, execution, the planning from stages 1 and 2 are combined to assist in creating a live, interactive website.
The third stage is by far the most time intensive since you will be 1) creating the graphics 2) creating the content, and finally, 3) converting the web designs from images into code that web browsers use to present your website to the world.

By the time you reach the third stage, you should have a clear idea of:

-how your visitors will get from one place to another (stage 1, flowchart) -how your web pages will be laid out (stage 2, wireframe mockups)

If you don’t have a clear idea of these two things, go back to the first and second stagees and continue to develop them. You will find that the third stage is easiest when you have constructed a clear, concise battle plan for designing your website.

Ditch the pen and paper
In stage 3, you need to be using Photoshop or another image editing program since you will be using colors and graphics to create the layout for your website.

We usually begin creating the “home” page (index) first. Use your wireframes that you created in stage 2 as a template for each of the pages you create. However, instead of using solid boxes, use graphics, colors and text instead. Each page must look exactly how you want them to look on the Internet since this is the final stage of the design process.

Be sure to include the background for your navigation (but don’t actually add the text to your image). When converted using CSS (cascading style sheets), your navigation should be in the form of text and not images. Images are not crawl-able by the search engines (the keywords used in your navigation won’t be indexed in the search engine results pages, meaning fewer people will be able to find your website).

When you’re happy with your designs and feel that they are ready to be put on the Internet, it’s time to break apart the designs so that you can create a CSS based layout. For more information on converting your layouts to CSS or marking up your website in CSS, visit w3schools.com. After looking around the Internet, we couldn’t find a decent image-to-CSS tutorial - so expect one from us in the coming weeks. Converting your designs into CSS is extremely important since table layouts are a thing of the past.

Here is an example of a nearly-completed website of the layout we mocked up in stage 2. This was taken directly from our web browser and as you can see, there is now a logo, colors, a pretty navigation system, a footer, and a most importantly, a clean, organized layout.
Thanks to the planning in stages 1 and 2, our layout is well-organized and easy to use.

The Dos
-reference your templates that were created in stage 2; though it is fine to deviate from your original layout, you shouldn’t need to -do some research before creating your actual design; get ideas from other sites and make them your own (without plagiarizing) -include color and graphics to create the final look for your web pages -use CSS (cascading style sheets) to convert your designs from images into markup understandable by web browsers -reference your flowchart from stage 1 when coding your pages with hyperlinks; it is better to use a drop down menu that includes all (or the majority) of the links in your website on every page; this will allow for easier navigation and also make your pages easier to crawl when the search engine spiders stop by; a great place to get CSS drop down menus is at DynamicDrive.com -finalize your design while working in Photoshop or whatever image editing software you use; it can be a pain to make changes to your design once it is converted into markup (code)

The Donts
-don’t include the text in your navigation menus when converting to CSS; instead of using image text, use regular text that is readable by search engine spiders -don’t use tables when converting; even if you need to buy a book on CSS, it will be worth it; tables are dead -don’t skip the first two stages just to save time; your website WILL be better if you start from the beginning of the web design process (instead of at the end) -don’t forget to compress your images when they are cut apart for CSS; there is nothing worse than a slow loading website because of large image files; Photoshop has a “Save Optimized For Web” option (CS3 - “Save for Web and Devices”)

Process Makes Perfect
By following a web design process such as the one illustrated in this article, you increase the chances of creating a website that is well-organized, easily navigable, and very user-friendly. Lets face it - if visitors get lost or become confused while attempting to surf your website, they might hit the back button and look for a more user friendly website. People do not like to think when it comes to finding their way around websites. Don’t make them think. You do the thinking by planning out your website from stage 1 to stage 3 and you will find that more people will enjoy visiting your website.

Best Free Interface PSD Downloads

2008-07-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/best-free-interface-psd-downloads/

To fine a good PSD file that will be available freely online is not very easy. Some websites charge a small fee for downloading a PSD file, others just don’t offer them in the first place. Here are some really good PSD recourses that can help you to sharpen your skills.

Incredible free.psd file by Manicho fromdeviantART. This is an iPhone image with all it’s features and highest quality file. Download here. Tis fine is free for any sort of use, however you should link to the author’s page if you decide to use this image.

This is a very nice Orb created by Paul Willocks back in 2005. Even though this PSD file is rather old and quite small (when you will download, you will see it’s hardly a big avatar size), it’s has a few very interesting effects and interesting metal-like frame. Download this file here. If you like artist’s style and want to see more of his works, take a look at his another psd orb here.

Last year, Psychopulse, one of my all-time favourite Mac-style designers made this PSD file available for a free download. This zip folder includes 5 files that can be used either for a stylish signature, or (the original idea) for posting our desktop screenshot in a sort of thumbnail in the forums. Particularly widely spread technique in Aqua forums, but in any case, you are going to love the styles and learn from them. If you want to use them for anything else, you must ask for author’s permission. Grab the file here. If you like his style, I recommend to also check out his other downloads, snapshot 05, chalkboard, wood and frame.

As the so-called desktop design is gaining popularity, you might find this PSD file to be especially useful. it includes a few badges, note and photo effect. The author of this download — Deluxive, definitely made a lot of web designer’s life easier. Get the file here, you are going to love it.

Aero Vista. The word says it all, we all want that glossy sleek look and those semi-transparent frames. FastNFurious from deviantART made this fantastic PSd file available for download. You will find a frame in a format of avatar and one longer frame, perhaps for signature or snapshots preview. Pretty useful for desktop or web design, download the file and comment on author’s page if you like it.

Other PSD files Worth Attention:

.JPG vs .GIF - What Should You Use?

2008-07-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/jpg-vs-gif-what-should-you-use/

Do you oftentimes feel confused what to use for your web images– GIFs or JPEGs? And more importantly why? Great. You deserve kudos as confusion leads to comprehension. Here is what you have been looking for all the way! Essentially, they are formats in which web images are created in. Any file with a .jpeg or .gif extension is recognized, by a browser, as an image file. A good web site is partly one that will load quickly into a browser. Agreed? Well, for this to happen, your web page has to be small in file size. The GIF and JPEG file formats compresses images so that it is web worthy.

This is vital for you that you don’t mess around when it comes to decide what to use when. Here’s what you need to know (a subtle reminder and congrats for tech guys who know it)

GIF ( Graphics Interchange Format)

GIF was the first-ever image format created for use on the web. This implies that all browsers of all versions can read images in the GIF format.
GIF can icorporate transparency . This is great. Isn’t this ? Especially so when you wish your graphic to blend in with your background.
GIF compresses an image using LZW compression . Confused? Simply put, this means that the quality of your image does not degrade when it is compressed. Deterioration in image begins to crop up only when it is having more than 256 colors.
Good results can be had using GIF when there is a large area of flat color in the image. And when it uses fewer colors. The fewer colors, the better.
GIF can be animated . All animations, barring the more advanced Flash movies, are GIF files.

JPEG ( Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEG uses a lossy compression schem. This means that you will, in fact, lose some data during compression. The more you compress, the more quality you lose. You will, therefore, have to strike a right balance between image file size and quality.
JPEG compression rate can well be controlled . The higher the compression rate, the lower the size of the image. And as you have guessed, eh? The lower the quality.
JPEG is optimally used for photographic images . The more colors and subtle gradients an image has, the better.
Browsers take a longer time to display JPEGs.

Demarcating features of JPEG and GIF

One of the worst mistakes (hopefully you won’t make any longer) a web designer can make is to opt the wrong format for a particular type of image. As a thumb rule, for images with few flat colors, choose GIF. Images with lots of colors and gradients, you may go for JPEG.

Simple enough. Here is your turn to appreciate a couple of somewhat tricky tech understanding with regard to JPEG and JIFF’s. Pertaining to JPEG, if the horizontal rows of pixels undergo change frequently without patterns, then a JPEG may allow for a smaller file even if it is having few colors only. For designers if they can save a few kilobytes on each image, it can drastically improve the loading time of image-loaded pages intended for users with slow connections.

Further, though you can have animated GIFs, this is rarely a good idea in terms of design.

There are a few things you can do with GIFs that you can’t do with JPGs. The best way to get the smartest web images and graphics is up to you: technology is at your disposal only to be selectively used for spectacular results. So get going to harness tech understanding! People who work with a Web Design and Development always know these little tricks, now you do also.

Photoshop Brushes - Top 10 Releases for Summer 2008

2008-07-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

http://pswish.com/photoshop-brushes-top-10-releases-for-summer-2008/

There are quite a few trends in web design right now. Some still use a lot of twirly flowerly ornaments, others, following the trends dictated by psdtuts.com abduzeedo.com have proceeded to glowing lines and starry psychedelic effects but the problem remains with creating the shape in the first place. While some designers, like myself, prefer working with Photoshop shapes, it looks like brushes are still a far more popular and accessible tool for many, so here are the top 10 brushes releases for Summer 2008, which can help you greatly in your artwork or web design.

1. Twirly Glowing Lines Photoshop Brushes

2. Abstract Glowing Lines Photoshop Brushes

3. Scanlines Photoshop Brushes

4. Da Vinci Tarot Cards Photoshop Brushes

5. Old Maps Texture Photoshop Brushes

6. Victorian Botanical Photoshop Brushes

7. Enchanting Flowers Ornaments Photoshop Brushes

8. Slightly Oriental Ornament Photoshop Brushes

9. Halftone Grungy Photoshop Brushes

10. Bubbles Brushes for Photoshop

11 of the Highest User Ranked Free Fonts

2008-07-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

http://creatingdrew.com/2008/07/11-of-the-highest-user-ranked-free-fonts/

There are an infinite amount of resources and lists for great free fonts. Today, we will have a look at the current highest ranked font from a list of 11 quality font websites. The result is a fantastic list of 11 quality free fonts.

1. Jellyka Castle’s Queen Font | DaFont.com

First on the list is a superb font named “Jellyka Castle’s Queen Font”, currently ranked number 1 on DaFont.com.

Font Artist: Jellyka Nerevan.
Download: Get This Font

2. Aenima Font | UrbanFonts.com

Next up is a similar style, the calligraphy reflects the current font styles being used today. Ranked number 1 on UrbanFonts.com.

Font Artist: Billy Argel.
Download: Get This Font

3. Green Pillow | 1001fonts.com

Billy Argel brings us our number 3 font, which is the highest ranked font on 1001fonts.com.

Font Artist: Billy Argel.
Download: Get This Font

4. Amaze Font | SearchFreeFonts.com

Amaze is a simple and elegant font ranked #1 onSearchFreeFonts.com.

Font Artist: Amaze.
Download: Get This Font

5. El Gothic | FontReactor.com

El gothic font is a unique font by Jerome Delage, it features a grunge feel and is ranked #1 on FontReactor.com.

Font Artist: Jerome Delage.
Download: Get This Font

6. Arcade Font | HighFonts.com

If this font doesn’t remind you of space invaders and other classic arcade games, nothing will. Regardless, it is a highly ranked font on HighFonts.com.

Font Artist: See Page.
Download: Get This Font

7. Achafexp | FontManiac.com

Strange name, nice font. This font is the top downloaded font on FontManiac.com.

Font Artist: See Page.
Download: Get This Font

8. Bradley Hand | FontStock.net

The “Bradley Hand” font goes great with any designs using the “paper” theme that seems to be very popular this year. This font is the top downloaded font on FontStock.net.

Font Artist: Galapagos Design Group.
Download: Get This Font

9. Fertigo! | Fawnt.com

Fertigo! is a lovely and unique font by Jos Buivenga. This font dominates the top downloaded list on Fawnt.com.

Font Artist: Jos Buivenga.
Download: Get This Font

10. Callejera | AbstractFonts.com

Another Gothic type font which seem to be very popular lately. Callejera is a font by Juan Acosta and is the most downloaded font on AbstractFonts.com

Font Artist: Juan Acosta.
Download: Get This Font

11. Scriptin’ |FreeFonts.co.in

Scriptina is an elegant font that is currently the most downloaded font on FreeFonts.co.in and can also be found on 1001Fonts.com.

Font Artist: See Site.
Download: Get This Font

12. Bonus Font Delicious | Josbuivenga.demon.nl

For our final and bonus font, I have chosen one of my favorite fonts, again by Jos Buivenga. Delicious is a very modern font that comes with an entire family character set including: Roman, Italic, Bold Italic, Bold Heavy, and Small Caps.

Font Artist: Jos Buivenga.
Download: Get This Font

The above fonts were not put into a single zip file as to respect the artists and their copyright terms. Enjoy the fonts!

Top 10 Sites for Free Stock Photos

2008-07-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.webinade.com/web-design/top-10-sites-for-free-stock-photos

Okay, well maybe top 10 is a bit of a misnomer, since these are just 10 free and public domain stock photo sites that I find useful from time to time, but the list still applies. Everything on these sites is free at no cost to you, though please do check the rights on each image, as they may be licensed under a Creative Commons license that requires you to give credit to the photographer.

Public-Domain-Photos.com
Has both photos and clipart, for apparently almost any use - personal or commercial. They have a decent sized portfolio to choose from, and all photos are categorized pretty well
Image * After
Contains a ton of free images, as well as textures. Everything’s categorized well, and they have a unique “Color Chooser” that picks out photos that match the color you choose.
Stockvault
Stockvault touts over 8,000 high resolution images free for download. If you feel like sharing your own photos, you can sign up for their revshare program which allows you to put your own Google Adsense on the pages they feature your photos on. Nifty!
Stock.xchng
Boasting over 250,000 images and 25,000 photographers, I believe Stock.xchng is one of the biggest free stock photo sites on the web. They have a great layout and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Personally, I start here.
Yotophoto
If you know what you’re looking for, Yotophoto might be the place to find it. They have a simple, easy to navigate layout and a powerful search tool to find just about any free photo you’re looking for. Also a big thumbs up.
Flickr’s Creative Commons Directory
This is the big one, folks. Flickr’s one of the biggest photography related sites on the internet, and everyone can have an account (<3>share their images with the world under various Creative Commons Licenses. Take a look, I guarantee you’ll find something worthwhile.
FreeRange
FreeRange is a bit like Yotophoto in that it’s primarily for people who know what they’re looking for. The search works, but perhaps a little cleanup on their results page would be nice (better details would be helpful in any case).
Flickr’s Stock Repository Group
Leave what you can, take what you need. Make sure to give the photographer a heads up when you use something, but otherwise go for a browse - there’s some good stuff here.
morgueFile
While it doesn’t seem to have an incredible number of images, what photos it does have is high resolution and requires very little cleanup. Take a look - they might have what you need.
PerfectPixelDigital
Very much like morgueFile, this one doesn’t have a ton of images, but the layout is clean, easily navigable, and they have some really nice shots.

40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark (Part 2)

2008-07-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

1. beFunky - Awesome web app that turns images to cartoonized paintings and videos to cartoons.

2. DisplayWars - Incredibly simple tool that helps lots of people. Want to buy a new screen? DisaplyWars lets you compare screen sizes by mapping one display size on top of the other. For smaller items see SizeEasy.

3. DocSyncer - Synchronize office documents in your ‘My Documents’ folder with Google Docs account.

4. JotYou - By using this service you can send messages to others so they get them only when they are in the area you specify. [Video]

5. Keybr - Online keyboard to practice your touch typing skills.

6. Mint - The simplest way to manage your finances. More about Mint.

7. Numbr - Free disposable phone numbers.

8. PDFHammer - Merge, edit and rearrange PDF documents online.

9. PhoneSpell - Ever wondered if you phone number spells something memorable ? PhoneSpell will find it out.

10. SecondRotation / BuyMyTronics - Want to cash in on your old iPod ? Or mobile phone ? Both of these services will buy your old (broken) gadget, regardless of its condition.

Other

11. BeamIt - Send pictures, music, videos, docs or any other file to your cellphone.

12. BooksInMyPhone - Download and read copyright-free books on a mobile phone. Comes with its own book reader.

13. CallTheFuture - Schedule text messages and get them delivered (as a voicemail) on any desired date in the future.

14. CameraSummary - Extracts so called EXIF data from the images. Shows what model of digicam was used, image creation date and time, resolution settings, location and so on.

15. CanYouRunIt - One-click web app that inspects your PC’s hardware and software settings to determine whether or not it meets gaming requirements for a game of your choice.

16. CellSwapper - Transfer your current mobile contract to someone else. Or get a free plan with only a short term contract.

17. CivilAnswers - Free legal assistance.

18. ControlC - This small cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) monitors your clipboard and saves everything online.

19. Definr - Incredibly fast online dictionary. It takes abt 14 ms to lookup a word.

20. Drop.io - By far the coolest service for private file collaboration and transfers. Add files by email, send voice messages from phone, etc.

21. File-Destructor 2 - Generates files (Doc, PDF, … ) that look genuine but won’t launch properly. Basically, it’s a tool that helps you put all the blame on your “faulty computer”.

22. File-encryptor - Secure encryption tool to freely encrypt/decrypt sensitive files online. Quite handy for sending over sensitive files.

23. FlashPhone - Free flash-based SIP-softphone. Simply add your SIP account and you’re good to go. No need to install anything.

24. Google Mobilizer - Makes your fav. websites mobile friendly. Must-have for your mobile bookmarks.

25. GetMyFBIfile - Here you can generate letter templates that you can use to request for a free copy of your FBI file.

26. LetterMeLater - Offers one feature that your email doesn’t have, ‘the ability to schedule when an email should be sent’. Coolest part about, you can use it directly from your email program (GMail, Outlook, etc.).

27. Mailbucket - Finally, a tool to help you forward emails to your feedreader.

28. Mobical - Over-the-air mobilebackup and restore service. Backup phone contacts, calendar, bookmarks and settings.

29. MoDazzle - Access Facebook, LinkedIn and dozens of other web services (weather, stock quotes, etc.) via email or mobile text messaging. Update Facebook ’status’, get un-read messages from Facebook inbox, get someone’s profile info from LinkedIn, and lots more.

30. Nanoscan - Super fast yet compehensive online virus scanner.

31. OhDon’tForget - It does only one thing, but does it really well: Schedule text message reminders to any phone.

32. ProQuo - Reduce junk mail by removing your personal data from telemarketing lists.

33. PPCalc - Comprehensive Paypal fees calculator.

34. Rondee - Fast, easy and free way to arrange phone conference calls with as many people as you want.

35. SpokenText - Convert PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, ,RSS news feeds, emails and web pages to speech.

36. Sullr - Obtain information about telephone lines in reverse mode. Get address, location, owner’s name etc.

37. WakerUpper - Schedule wake-up phone calls. Lots of useful features.

38. WebMarkers - Adds additional option to your ‘Print’ menu that lets you print documents (or webpages) directly to the web. [Screenshot]

39. WhatShouldIReadNext - Book recommendation service. Simply enter the author and title of your latest book and it will give you a list of recommended readings.

40. WorldTaxiMeter - Calculate the cost of a taxi ride in a number of top cities worldwide (London, New York, Rome …). Accessible both from the web and mobile phone.

40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark

2008-07-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/40-unusual-websites-you-should-bookmark/

1. BugMeNot - instantly get disposable login details for any popular website that forces you to register.

2. DailyLit - read your favorite books by email (on your PC, mobile, etc.).

3. FranceRadio - neat MP3 Search Engine that lets you Find, Play and Download favorite MP3s for FREE.

4. Google SMS - provides mobile users with a quick access (via SMS) to a wide range of practical information and tools (i.e. business listings (pizzerias, shops, etc.), weather, movie listings, driving directions, currency converter and lots more.

5. Podlinez - listen to your favorite podcasts from any phone. Just enter the RSS feed URL for the desired podcast and get a free-toll number to access it from a phone.

6. RetailMeNot - locate fresh discount coupons for thousands of web merchants and services right from your browser toolbar. Video demo.

7. SoLow - on a daily basis SoLow auctions 4 different items (iPhones, HD Screens, etc.). Anyone with a mobile/PC can participate in the auctions by placing their bids via text-messaging. The user with the lowest unique bid wins the auction.

8. TeleFlip - auto-forward your emails to your cellphone as text messages. Video demo.

9. UrbanDictionary - hilarious (and practical) 100% user-maintained dictionary where users provide and vote on definitions for urban words (slangs).

10. Yak4Ever - make free international calls from US, UK and Ireland to 50+ countries.

=== Mobile - related ===

11. Bitbom - schedule free text message reminders to your phone. Schedule online or using mobile. (Similar PingMe.)

12. Flurry - follow up on your emails (send, receive) and receive latest articles from favorite blogs/websites on your mobile.

13. Foonz - place group calls and send messages to multiple people for free (from your mobile or any other phone).

14. GameJump - lots of free games for mobile phones.

15. GrandCentral - single phone number for all your phones and a web-based centralized voicemail system. (Similar: YouMail, GotVoice)

16. IQzone - post your classified ad to a number of online and print classified networks directly from your mobile.

17. Jott - simple and convenient service for leaving yourself notes and ToDo reminders using your mobile.

18. Mosio - text any question from your mobile phone and shortly receive up-to 4 answers.

19. mShopper - instantly check up on the bargain deals for any product (or even order) right from your mobile phone. Video demo.

20. NoPhoneTrees - simple phone directory that lists direct human access numbers to support employees in hundreds of companies.

21. Nutsie - takes a copy of your iTunes library file and creates an online copy of your library. Access this library from PC or mobile phone.

22. Google SendToPhone - forward anything you find on the web (maps, address, text, etc.) to any mobile phone for free (US only).

23. Qipit - take quick document pictures and turn them into properly formatted PDFs. Save online, email, or fax documents right from mobile.

24. Soonr - handy application that lets you access your PC remotely using your mobile or any other PC (work, school, etc.). Video demo.

25. TelePixie - quickly schedule and receive daily (or one time) wake up phone calls, reminders, weather forecast calls, jokes, and more.

26. TellMe - free local directory service for business listings (Car Repair Shops, Pizzerias, Restaurants, etc.), maps, and directions.

27. PhoneZoo - convert your MP3s to custom-length ringtones and forward them to your phone. Plus 1000s of free ringtones from other users.

=== Other ===

28. BossBitching - fun and active community where people can bit*h about their bosses anonymously.

29. eSnailer - send free postal mail letters (to anywhere in the US) right from the desktop. From Canada? Check out EasyPost.

30. Yapta - get a refund (or credit) from the airlines on a purchased ticket in case its price drops.

31. ListenToaMovie - lets you ‘listen to a movie’, i.e. stream the audio part of various movies and some TV-shows.

32. OpenDNS - provides a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. More details + video demo.

33. PodioBooks - search, subscribe and browse through a variety of totally free audio books (100% legal).

34. PriceProtectr - tracks the price of items you bought online and notifies in case of price-drops, so you can request a refund.

35. RateMyDrawings - excellent place to draw, share your drawing creations, learn to draw, and watch other people drawing. Video demo

36. SwitchPlanet - cool and active marketplace where you can switch (or trade) used DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books. Video demos.

37. Scribd- search, browse, rate, share various types of documents (jokes, facts, stories etc.). It’s like Youtube for text documents.

38. ViaTalk - make up-to 10 minutes long free phone calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. You don’t even need to sign-up.

39. VideoSift - popular Digg-like voting community for user-submitted videos.

40. Wordie - make lists of words (words you love, words you hate, or whatever) and share them with others.

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