Archive for the “Smashing Magazine Tutorials” Category

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Photoshop users are able to benefit from the vast amount of high-quality resources that are freely available to the community. Brushes get a lot of attention, but custom shapes are also extremely useful in the right situations. Finding a custom shape that has already been created can save you some time and headaches in your design, and fortunately there is a very wide variety of custom shapes available.

This post highlights 80 different sets of custom shapes (over 2,500 individual shapes) in several different categories. If you plan to download and use any of these shapes be sure to check to terms and conditions set by the creator of the shapes.

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Dual displays come in handy when you are working on several projects at the same time. They allow you to separate everything, organize and work efficiently. Dual displays are highly suitable for Web designers, Web developers and graphic designers and they are rapidly gaining on popularity in last years.

We presented hundreds of fullscreen and widescreen wallpapers in our previous selections; however, we did not cover dual screen wallpapers so far. It’s time to change that. In this post, we present 70 beautiful dual screen desktop wallpapers, collected from around the Web. Each screenshot is clickable and linked to its source. You can find even more excellent wallpapers at the sources themselves.

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We love useful stuff. For months, we have been bookmarking interesting, useful and creative CSS tools and related resources. We have been contacting developers, encouraging them to improve their tools and release their handy little apps to the public. Last year we prepared and published some of them in a series of smashing posts about CSS. Now again is the time to give these tools the attention they deserve. Big thanks to all designers and developers who contributed to the design community over the last months and years. We — our community and the design community — truly appreciate your efforts.

Below, we present 50 extremely useful CSS tools, generators, templates and resources. We did not include “traditional” CSS tools, such as Firebug or the Web Developer extension, but tried to focus on rather unknown tools that are definitely worth a look. Some tools are new and some are old, but hopefully everybody will find a couple of new useful or at least inspiring tools.

We strongly encourage you to develop these tools further, build on the ideas presented here, release new tools for the public and let us know about them. We would love to feature your handy tool in our next review.

Please take a look at the following related posts:

• Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding
• 53 CSS Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without
• CSS: Techniques, Tutorials, Layouts
• 75 (Really) Useful JavaScript Techniques

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Because we have published several other comprehensive resources for developers of other content management systems (CMSs), we didn’t want to forget Movable Type. Like the other CMSs we have featured, Movable Type is a popular choice for bloggers, website owners and those developing websites. Over the years, Movable Type has made many advancements and had many changes in its system. The current version is even capable of creating social networking websites with many users.

The most recent version, 4.21, is available open source for developers. Individual bloggers (those who are not incorporated) can download Movable Type for free, while there are a few different licensing options for businesses.

This post provides you with a large collection of resources for working with Movable Type, whether you’re just getting started or have plenty of experience. We’ll feature some official resources, such as documentation, as well as plenty of tutorials, sources of inspiration, the best places to find plug-ins, resources for working with templates and styles and more.

For similar resources related to other CMSs, please see:

• WordPress Developer’s Toolbox
• Drupal Developer’s Toolbox
• ExpressionEngine Developer’s Toolbox
• Textpattern Developer’s Toolbox

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Nowadays, typefaces are a dime a dozen; there’s certainly no shortage of free fonts. But as in any artistic field, the standouts are rare, and understanding why they excel takes gradual experience.

In this yarn, we’ll take a closer look at inspiring stories behind the design of typefaces that you may have seen or used but didn’t know the history of. We’ll explore the nooks and crannies — both literal and figurative — of the evolving printed word. By the end, we hope you come away with a better appreciation of how things came to be.

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Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for digital-image editing and graphics creation. Photoshop’s versatility makes it a popular choice among Web designers, graphic designers, digital media artists, print designers, photographers and other professionals in design and image-editing. Whether you’re designing a business card or website or digitally enhancing an image, you can rest assured that Photoshop will give you the necessary tools to get the job done.

In this article, we focus on tutorials on digital photography. You’ll find an assortment of top-notch tutorials that deal with applying post-production techniques and effects, color correction, enhancement and photo retouching. So fire up Photoshop and try out some of these wonderful tutorials on your own photos!

Without further ado, we present you with 50 Excellent Photoshop Tutorials for Digital Photography.

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In computer graphics images can be represented in two ways — using raster graphics (or bitmap) or vector graphics. The former is the representation of images as an array of pixlels, and the latter uses paths, points, lines, curves and shapes or polygons (which are all based upon mathematical equations) for the same purpose. Raster images are based on pixels and thus scale with loss of clarity, while vector-based images can be scaled indefinitely without degrading. In other words, vector graphics are resolution-independent and thus can remain the highest quality at any scale.

Vector graphics drawing software is used for creating and editing vector graphics. It provides graphic designers with the ability to create precise, scalable and layered images. Both 3-D graphics and CAD (computer-aided design) technology rely heavily on vector graphics.

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On content-heavy websites, the search box is often the most frequently used design element. From a usability point of view, irritated users use the search function as a last option when looking for specific information on a website. If a website’s content is not organized properly, an efficient search engine is not only helpful but crucial, even for basic website navigation. In fact, search is the user’s lifeline to mastering complex websites. The best designs offer a simple search box on the home page and play down advanced search and scoping.

In practice, websites tend to grow over time, adding new content and, more importantly for us, adding new navigation options, such as additional content sections. However, these new content islands do not necessarily fit the whole information architecture that was well-designed and thoroughly structured when the website was initially designed. The consequence is a poor navigation scheme that is more irritating than helpful, because the content appears to be scattered all over the place instead of contained in separate, very distinct folders (in fact, this is a problem we encountered here at Smashing Magazine recently).

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In recent years, advertising has become a major revenue source for many websites. Not too long ago, online ads were often met with disapproval from visitors, and advertisers were unsure about their value or effectiveness. Today, most visitors have come to expect ads on commercial websites, and advertisers have recognized the potential of various online ad opportunities. Ads have long been a part of print publications, such as magazines and newspapers, and now they essentially have the same role in online periodicals and publications.

Although advertising is a concern for website owners and those pushing products or services, it is also has an impact on Web designers, because they have to be able to design and develop websites that can produce ad revenue and still meet the needs of visitors. Clients with websites that depend on ad revenue need a design that provides the necessary screen space and a proper layout for selling ads, and advertisers need placement that will get them the exposure they seek.

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Today we are glad to release Innocent Invaders Photoshop Brushes Set, a set that features a curious cast of characters who are ready to infiltrate your creative projects. Inspired by designer vinyl toys, this high resolution set includes a collection of 15 different creatures accompanied by 10 background illustrations. These brushes are designed by Katie Canada and Jason Gaylor of Mediaslap. This set was designed exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. You may not use these brushes on designs for sale on stock photography sites. You’ll find installation instructions in the package. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.