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Tips for Choosing You Color Scheme

• Use a design program to help you out. Colorlovers is a good one to try out. You’ll be able to get professional advice on your own designs and a load of inspiration too.
• Check out the background psychology of “color marketing“. Your company has a personality and the colors you pick to represent it can impart that personality to your visitors.
• Use your logo to set your tone. Your company logo should always appear on your website. If you don’t have a logo then a website is a great place to build one. Brand your company and pick a color from your logo to set the theme for your site.
• Don’t use too many colors. Three is a good number. Use one main color, with an offsetting color and a background color. In almost all instances the best background color for a site is white or grey.
• Shade. You can use different shades of the same color to keep your palette complementary without making your site look like it was designed 15 years ago. If you shade your colors you can pick two complementary colors and use varying shades of each to give depth and life to your site.
• Use an analogic color scheme: pick one base color, one neighbor color and one complementary color. Use the base and its complement for the main colors in the site and spread the neighbor sparingly throughout to bring some extra life and interest to the page.
• Never use colors that make it hard to read the text on your site. The moment your website becomes difficult to use, your visitors leave. Think of your color scheme as a setting for your content – it’s a backdrop designed to draw the user in, rather than the be all and end all of your site.

Nilanjan is a Website Designer at TemplateKingdom, He is a regular blogger of the Templatekingdom.com where he writes about web design inspiration, photography and Internet Marketing

Images used are courtesy of Shutterstock

Get the stock images and vectors you need for your designs on Stutterstock

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It’s also completely free.

Sponsor

While anyone is invited to try out the new service, it’s clearly being pitched to the SMB crowd, with pre-built templates for restaurants, local businesses, lead generation, eCommerce and one called “Social,” which lets your customers engage with your business on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social services.

If none of the included templates suit your particular needs, a “custom” template is also available.

Adding text to the website you create is as easy as creating a document – there’s no HTML code required. Integration with Google Checkout is provided through the eCommerce template and traffic on all sites can be tracked through Google Analytics.

There isn’t a whole lot of customization you can do on these basic websites beyond adding text and choosing a background color, but, for many businesses, something basic is “good enough” to meet their needs, especially when the alternative is not having a mobile site at all.

For those already happy with their current desktop-sized website, there’s no need to switch over to Google Sites entirely for both desktop and mobile. The mobile sites service works as a standalone product. It can be your mobile site in addition to a separate, professionally designed main website or it can even be your only site, if mobile is all you need.

Discuss

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With their increasing popularity, we are seeing more and more CSS sprite generators everyday.

Sprite Cow is another one which is open source and works very effective by auto-recognizing the different elements inside a single image.

So, you design the sprite image in your favorite imaged editing application, upload it to Sprite Cow and simply click (or click + drag) on each element to get their width, height and background-position as a CSS rule.

The application can select items in any size and also gives you the option of changing the background color.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
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What can you use the application for?


42tasks helps users stay organized and get things done. The application will soon be available for iPhones, iPad, Ubuntu and Android phones. Users can create tasks for just about anything, from everyday commitments to professional tasks. The user is given management tools so they can organize each task into the right category. Users can also add notes to go with their tasks for greater control and more detail. 42tasks provides custom reminder alerts and allows users to schedule tasks for a specific time. Each day, users can view their tasks and update them as they are completed or changed. The application also gives users a number of ways to access their account, which is web based, so all data is always up to date and stored in one centralized location.

What is the history and popularity of the application?


42tasks is a London based company that was founded in December of 2010. The creators wanted to build an organizational solution that required minimal effort to set up and use. The current features enable users to completely control, customize and manage their tasks with an estimated set up time that takes less than one minute.

What are the differences to other applications?


42tasks offers a service that many other applications also provide. What makes 42tasks stand out is the stylish, clean design and the simple yet effective features it includes. Users can set up custom alerts and schedule tasks. The flexible accessibility is another unique upcoming benefit, which will allow users to access their 42tasks account from Android phones, iPhones or any computer with an internet connection.

How does the application look and feel to use?


The 42tasks website has a very relaxed grey and blue design that uses a white background. Color images provide users a glimpse of the application as well as the devices it is compatible with. Task lists are kept minimal so the user can get the most vital information from them. Stars and check boxes allow the user to edit and mark tasks as they are completed. Navigational icons and tabs at the top of the dashboard allow the user to view completed tasks, starred tasks, daily tasks and all tasks at once.

How does the registration process work?


A new user can sign up for a 42tasks account by clicking the blue “Sign Up” button along the right hand side of the homepage. A pop up box appears with the registration form which requires a name, email address, password and time zone. After filling out their information, the user can click the blue “I’m ready to organize my life” box at the bottom of the form. 42tasks takes the user directly to their dashboard.

What does it cost to use the application?


42tasks is currently available to all users for free. There are no subscription fees or other charges for creating an account or managing tasks. The application does not currently include a premium paid membership, either. The iPhone and Android versions are not yet available, and no price has been listed for these. 42tasks welcomes all users at no cost.

Who would you recommend the application to?


42tasks is a great tool for anyone who wants a simple yet effective way to organize their lives. The application is ideal for professional and personal tasks and even gives the user category tools so they can keep each separated.

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A large amount of Internet users come to their computer looking for specific information, and most of the time they will use a search engine to find it. It stands to reason, therefore, that if you have a website related to their topic of interest, you can benefit by having your own web pages show up at the top for what they are searching for.

However, if you commit any one of these following three search engine optimization sins, you run the risk of having your website deleted from the search engine listings and you minimize the amount of Internet users that your website will be visible to.

Since search engines first acquired their widespread popularity, people have been trying to figure out the ways to outsmart them, and today there is a reliable list of the strategies that will most definitely get your website banned from the search listings. Some of these techniques might have experienced limited success in the earlier days of the Internet, but today using any of the following three techniques can do much more harm than good, and they should be avoided like the plague.

The first way that you can get banned from the search engines is to create something called a doorway page. This is when you build a web page filled with keywords about one topic in order to garner a good listing in the search engines about that topic, but then automatically redirect the visitor to a different website with a totally unrelated topic. This is a practice that makes a person’s Internet viewing experience unpleasant, and it is easy to understand why such behavior can get you banned from the search listings.

The second way to prevent your website from being listed in the search engines is to use invisible text on your web pages, where you set the font color the same as the background color and fill it with keywords that are only visible to search engines but not to people. This trick is easy to spot, and it will not be of any real benefit to your website if you try and use it.

The third way to get your website banned is something called keyword stuffing, where you create a web page filled with keywords for the search engines but no real content for your visitors. You can tell that such a behavior is ethically questionable, and while it might work for a short time, the long-term losses it can cause means that it is not worth doing.

It is important to view your search engine ranking with a long-term perspective, instead of looking for a quick search engine optimization shortcut that can end up doing damage. Since having a high ranking for a competitive and popular keyword can deliver a large amount of visitors to your website, make sure you take the time to do it right so that you can reap the rewards.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Three Great Ways To Get Your Website Banned From Search Engines

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The plugin doesn't require any images as it makes use of SVG or VML.

Its color can be defined and, considering the indicators generated support transparency, they fit perfectly to any background color.

There are multiple options offered for customizing it like: number of segments, size (width, length, space), speed of the animation and more.

Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
ScheduledTweets

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Psd to Xhtml
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Download Skeptical for WordPress

Custom Typography
Almost every text element can be changed in the options panel, and even has full support for Google Fonts in the font selector.

Alternative Sidebar
The standard sidebar pulls posts from the same category as the post. You can easily switch to use a widgetized sidebar in the options panel.

Custom Footer Area
The footer has an optional area for related posts and Flickr, and also 4 widgetized columns at the bottom.

Custom Widgets
The theme has 4 widgetized areas in the footer, and one optional widgetized sidebar, and as always comes with custom Woo Widgets (Ad Space, Blog Author, Embed, WooTabs, Search, Flickr, Twitter).

Alternative Styles
The theme includes 4 alternative color styles which you can preview in the demo, but also has styling options for background color/image and setting link color.

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YouTube will begin testing a new feature Wednesday evening that gives users the ability to explore broad topics and search terms through suggested searches.

YouTube Topics, which will be available in TestTube, is essentially a dynamic cloud of suggested topics to explore based on your searches. For example, if you look for “supersonic,” YouTube will deliver a string of related topics at the top of the page. In the case of “supersonic,” you might get “fighter jet” or “sonic boom.”

The feature appears as an “Explore” on every search engine results page, just below the search box and above the search results. It displays a list of approximately a half dozen related topics, most with a very faint background color. When you hover over a topic, you are given the option to perform a search. Clicking on it initiates the search.

One other interesting feature of YouTube Topics is the “addition” button. A plus sign is next to all of these related topics. Clicking on it will add that search term to your current query and initiate a new search.

Google cited “fighter jet” as an example of when you might want to use this feature. One of the related search queries is “Bugatti Veyron,” due to the popularity of several YouTube videos where the two machines race each other. Clicking the plus button will initiate a search for “fighter jet bugatti veyron.” It’s a more advanced way to explore and customize your searches.

The problem YouTube is trying to solve is the issue of discovery. What if a user types in “lol” or “cars” as his or her search term? Both are very broad topics, making it unlikely that YouTube will deliver the right search results on the first try. That’s where Topics is supposed to help; it utilizes algorithmic data from tags, YouTube comments and more. YouTube engineer Palash Nandy calls it “conceptual autocomplete,” a system that helps complete your search by suggesting the topics you most likely wanted.

YouTube Topics is intriguing as a concept, and we think it has the potential to be very useful. However, this type of feature might be a bit too advanced for the average user who just wants to browse, which may be something the online video juggernaut has to address in future releases. The current interface (a line of suggested topic at the top of the page) might not be the ideal way of delivering information to these casual users.

It’s still unclear who this feature was built for; I don’t even think YouTube knows quite yet. The company just knows it needs to give users a better way to explore broad topics. YouTube Topics is a good start.

More About: Google, Search, youtube, YouTube Topics

For more Web Video coverage:

• Follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Web Video channel
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

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Blogum is a simple, grid based WordPress theme, designed in a modern and minimalist style.

Clear Line is a clear and very lightweight theme.

Codium is simple and minimalist, but fully customizable: change the background color, incorporate a background image, and add automatic post thumbnails on the homepage.

DocOut Historical is a child theme of the default Twenty Ten theme with a great document outline.

Fresh and Clean is a super minimal yet very elegant and modern WordPress theme.

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Suppose you want to view the context each search item is used in. You would have to jump from one highlighted search item to another. This can be a problem especially if the results are many and spread out far over the webpage.

A solution to this is presented by “Find All.”

Find All is a browser add-on for Firefox. With the add-on installed, the “Highlight All” option changes to “Find All.” This “Find All” option lists all the search results in an easily navigable view which helps you compare the results.

This view also eliminates any special formatting and displays the results in simple text, making the comparison much easier.

You can access the add-on’s options to modify the font size in which the results are displayed.

The options also let you change the highlighting color, choose to alternate the row background color, and display the “Highlight All” option along with the “Find All” option.

For people who use Firefox’s search feature a lot, “Find All” will prove itself to be a very useful tool. Get “Find All” Firefox Add-on.

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I was recently visiting MooTools Developer Christoph Pojer’s website and noticed a sexy link hover effect:  when you hover the link, the the link animates and tilts to the left or the right.  To enhance the effect, the background color of the link is changed.  I scoped out his JavaScript file to see how he created the effect but there were no link effects in it — the effects were being created with just CSS!

The CSS

.cpojer-links a	{
	display: inline-block;
	padding: 4px;
	outline: 0;
	color: #3a599d;
	-webkit-transition-duration: 0.25s;
	-moz-transition-duration: 0.25s;
	-o-transition-duration: 0.25s;
	transition-duration: 0.25s;
	-webkit-transition-property: -webkit-transform;
	-moz-transition-property: -moz-transform;
	-o-transition-property: -o-transform;
	transition-property: transform;
	-webkit-transform: scale(1) rotate(0);
	-moz-transform: scale(1) rotate(0);
	-o-transform: scale(1) rotate(0);
	transform: scale(1) rotate(0);
}
.cpojer-links a:hover {
	background: #3a599d;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #fff;
	-webkit-border-radius: 4px;
	-moz-border-radius: 4px;
	-o-border-radius: 4px;
	border-radius: 4px;
	-webkit-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(-1deg);
	-moz-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(-1deg);
	-o-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(-1deg);
	transform: scale(1.05) rotate(-1deg);
}
.cpojer-links a:nth-child(2n):hover {
  -webkit-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(1deg);
  -moz-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(1deg);
  -o-transform: scale(1.05) rotate(1deg);
  transform: scale(1.05) rotate(1deg);
}

Christoph utilized the transition functionality of each browser (since each has their own prefix.)  The transition duration is set to 250 milliseconds and the scale/rotate is given to a default setting.  The hover state is given a background color (and rounded corners to enhance the effect) and the scale/rotate are changed to tilt the link.  Lastly, even links are rotated the opposition direction just to add a bit more style!

Christoph’s link effect is very creative, requires a small amount of code, and isn’t an over-the-top-effect.  It’s exciting to know these effects can be done with simple CSS!

Follow Me! Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | MooTools Forge.

Full David Walsh Blog Post: Sexy Link Transformations with CSS

Related posts:

1. Rotate Elements with CSS Transformations
2. Sexy Opacity Animation with MooTools or jQuery
3. MooTools Link Fading
4. Create an Animated Sliding Button Using MooTools
5. Create Twitter-Style Buttons with the Dojo Toolkit

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Take Icon Creator for instance. Icon Creator is an Opera widget that lets users create a simple icon of different colors. After installing the widget, you might need to open up the widgets sidebar and access Icon Creator from there.

You will notice that Icon Creator will open in a new window with its own entry in the Windows taskbar.

Closing Opera will not close Icon Creator as it will operate independent of Opera. This is what Icon Creator’s window looks like:

The buttons in the top left let us choose the overall style of the icon.

The bar below these buttons let us change the background color and symbol color of the icon.

The shape of the icon can be changed by a small arrow button in the middle pane.

Clicking on this button presents us options of other shapes.

Using all these options we can create custom icons. Then we can port them to the sizes available in the right pane.

Available sizes include 128×128, 64×64, 32×32, and 16×16. The resultant file is in PNG format.

In conclusion, Icon Creator is a great a widget for Opera that helps create custom icons in a very user friendly way. Get Icon Creator from here.

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I love that JavaScript toolkits make enhancing web pages incredibly easy. Today I’ll cover an effect that I’ve already coded with MooTools: creating a Twitter-style animated “Sign In” button. Check out this five minute tutorial so you can take your static buttons to the next level!

The HTML

<!-- left version -->
<div class="button_wrap">
    <a class="button_aLeft" id="button_aLeft"><span>Use your Twitter ID</span></a>
    <a class="button_bLeft slidebttn" id="button_bLeft">Sign <span>in</span></a>
</div>
<!-- right version -->
<div class="button_wrap">

    <a class="button_aRight" id="button_aRight"><span>Use your Twitter ID</span></a>
    <a class="button_bRight slidebttn" id="button_bRight">Sign <span>in</span></a>
</div>

The “button” consists of one DIV with two sets SPANs wrapped by A elements.

The CSS

.button_wrap{ position:relative; width:225px; height:36px; overflow:hidden; font-weight:bold; font-size:11px; margin:10px; }
.button_aLeft{ width:70px; height:36px; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; background-color:#093d6f; color:#fff; top:0px; right:0px; position:absolute; line-height:36px; text-align:left; }
.button_aLeft span{ z-index:200; padding-left:20px; color:#fff; }
.button_aRight{ width:70px; height:36px; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; background-color:#093d6f; color:#fff; top:0px; left:0px; position:absolute; line-height:36px; text-align:right; }
.button_aRight span{ z-index:200; padding-right:20px; color:#fff; }

.button_bLeft{ width:64px; height:30px; background-color:#fff; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; color:#000; position:absolute; top:3px; right:3px; text-transform:uppercase; line-height:30px; text-align:center; cursor:pointer; }
.button_bLeft span{ color:#008ddd; }
.button_bRight{ width:64px; height:30px; background-color:#fff; -moz-border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; color:#000; position:absolute; top:3px; left:3px; text-transform:uppercase; line-height:30px; text-align:center; cursor:pointer; }
.button_bRight span{ color:#008ddd; }

.button_c{ background-color:#008ddd; color:#fff; text-transform:uppercase; }
.button_c span{ color:#093d6f; }

The CSS code is a mess — lot of CSS goes into styling the button. As always, style however you’d like. Be careful with this set though — I recommend sticking to just changing colors.

The Dojo JavaScript

dojo.addOnLoad(function() {
	dojo.forEach(dojo.query('.button_wrap'),function(wrap) {
		var a = dojo.query('a',wrap)[0];
		var span = dojo.query('span',a)[0];
		var button = dojo.query('a',wrap)[1];

		dojo.anim(span,{ opacity:0 },1);

		dojo.connect(button,'onmouseenter',function() {
			dojo.addClass(button,'button_c');
			dojo.anim(a,{ width:200 });
			dojo.anim(span,{ opacity: 1 });
		});
		dojo.connect(button,'onmouseleave',function() {
			dojo.removeClass(button,'button_c');
			dojo.anim(a,{ width:70 });
			dojo.anim(span,{ opacity: 0 });
		});
	});
});

The first step is to collect each “button” DIV and sift through the its child elements to get links and SPAN elements. When the user’s mouse enters the “Sign In” link, the first link within the wrapping DIV grows in width and shows the supporting text.

It’s little enhancements like these that take a website from a 6 to an 8, transforming the website from static to dynamic. Can you think of any other small enhancements like this? Share!

Follow Me! Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | MooTools Forge.

Full David Walsh Blog Post: Create Twitter-Style Buttons with the Dojo Toolkit

Related posts:

1. Create an Animated Sliding Button Using MooTools
2. Skype-Style Buttons Using MooTools
3. Create Twitter-Style Dropdowns Using MooTools
4. Create Twitter-Style Dropdowns Using jQuery
5. Create a Simple News Scroller Using Dojo

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Whether you’re new to Twitter or are a veteran Tweeter, chances are you give more thought to the content of your Tweets than your profile page. But optimizing your Twitter page is fairly simple and there are a number of tools to help you get the job done.

We’ve showed you how to create a better profile picture and how to organize your Twitter account, and now we’re going to show you how to make the most of your Twitter profile page.

Add your own favorite tips and tools in the comments.

Write a Great Bio

You get 160 characters to wow the world with your bio. Use them. And we mean use as many of ‘em as possible. Don’t overlook the importance of a bio. You know you rock, your mom knows you rock but the wider world might need a little more persuasion. Your bio shows up in the new(ish) box that people see when they hover over your name or image so it needs to sell a Twitter user enough to make them want to click through and hit that follow button.

Think of Twitter as a giant people-based search engine and think of key search words you’d like your profile to appear for, the first of which might be your full name. Other key words that could be relevant to you might include “mom,” “developer,” “entrepreneur,” or “musician”, write those down and use them as the basis for your bio. Finally, don’t be afraid to add at least one personal element, preferably one that’s funny — people do this to great comedic effect and it will make you less of a “tweople” and more of a real person to viewers.

One of the things Twitter gives you total control over on your profile page is the color of your text, but be mindful of the color your choose. You want to make sure it matches your background color and isn’t so bright that it’s not readable.

Choose a Rockstar Picture

A fair amount of research has gone into what makes a great social networking profile pic but it’s still an area that generates great debate. The accepted wisdom is that a face shot, with eye contact and a smile is the best way to go.

Bear in mind that Twitter profile pictures are displayed in a square (so make sure your picture is cropped without chopping off any vital features) and only measure 48 pixels by 48 pixels (so make sure it also works small). Although the picture will be shown small in most instances, don’t forget that if people do click through to your profile and click the picture, the full size will display.

Create a Funky Custom Background Offering More Info

Although longer than a Tweet, 160 characters is a very small space in which to convince the world of your awesomeness. If you’re struggling to get your message across, or if you want to be contactable via other methods than Twitter (especially considering you have to be following someone to send a Direct Message) you can use your Twitter background to display more info about yourself.

Services like TwitBacks (along with others) specialize in helping create customized Twitter backgrounds with a left-hand panel where you can not only expand on your bio, but provide links to other social networking profiles.

If you don’t want to add more info then, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, consider changing Twitter’s default background to something that is more you.

Make Use of the Web Link

Use the web link that Twitter offers. Aside from being about the only place on Twitter where you’ll find full fat, unshortened URLs, it’s a vital way to tell people more about yourself. Additionally, because Twitter shows full URLs here, it’s probably the one place you don’t want to use a URL shortener, especially if you have your own branded domain that someone might identify with.

If you don’t have a personal website to link out to then why not link to another of your social networking profiles, such as Facebook? Better still, use free, super-easy, templated blogging services like Posterous or Tumblr to create a one page “about me” microsite – it’s as easy as picking a design and chucking up some words and there’s no hosting or domain name hassle.

Pay Attention to Those Last Few Tweets

While a great Twitter profile can tell you a lot about a person, their actual Tweets are a vital indicator of the kind of content you can expect if you’re to follow them. You should be aware of the last few Tweets you’ve sent out, as those show up first on your profile page and those are the ones people are likely to look at when deciding to follow your or not.

Use Lists to Broadcast Your Fascinating Interests to the World

Twitter is all about engagement and creating lists shows that you are interested in more than just broadcasting your own bon mots. In addition to showing how community-minded you are, lists are yet another area in which you can tell people something about yourself.

Are you really into music? Then list your favorite artists that Tweet. Do you work in marketing? Then create a rockstars-of-marketing Twitter list. Whether the areas you cover with your lists are personal or professional they will go some way to building up a picture of who you are and just what it is you’re all about, which, let’s face it, on one level is what Twitter is all about.

You can further explore and add your own lists on Listorious and Mashable’s own Twitter List Directory.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Raycat

Tags: better profile series, how to, twitter, twitter image, twitter profile

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Below you will find three more info-graphics for designers.

Colours In Cultures

What colour is happiness in China? Or good luck in Africa? Or anger in Eastern Europe? Are any color meanings universal across cultures and continents?

Colors In Cultures is a visualization of the meanings of different colours in different cultures by David McCandless and AlwaysWithHonor.com.
Colours In Cultures

So You Need A Typeface (Flowchart)

Choosing the perfect font for any project can be difficult, this flowchart certainly more than tries to help with a touch of humor.
So You Need A Typeface (Flowchart)

HTML5 and CSS3 Readiness

The browsers are grouped into color schemes based on their underlying rendering engine – e.g. all Firefox versions are shades of blue, Chrome/Safari – yellow, IE – pink. Each ray also has a different background color if it is a CSS3 feature.

Each browser is represented with a tile on the bar and gets an equal width of space, so if you see a bar that is full, that means that feature has universal support among all the 8 browsers.
HTML5 and CSS3 Readiness

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboy and speckyboy@twitter).

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An accordion is a very good way of showing lots of content in a small area. You might have five headers, each with a paragraph below it. Showing all that at once is going to go down for a long way. With the accordion, only one paragraph is shown at a time, and users can click on the headers to view the content they wish. First we will build a simple one and then we will animate it. You’ll see just how many built-in functions jQuery includes that makes our lives much easier. You can see the online demo here.

Firstly I set up the accordion itself:

<h3>Item 1
    <p>Item 1 content</p>
    <h3>Item 2
    <p>Item 2 content</p>
    <h3>Item 3
    <p>Item 3 content</p>
    <h3>Item 4</h3>
    <p>Item 4 content</p>

And then just some very basic CSS to make it look a bit clearer:

 p,h3 {margin: 0; padding: 0;}
        p {height: 150px; width: 200px; border: 1px solid black;}
        h3 {height: 50px; width: 200px; background-color: blue; color: white; border: 1px solid black;}

This leaves us with something similar to this. I’ve only taken a picture of the first two items to save space, and besides, the next two are identical.

Now we can get onto the JavaScript. Include jQuery from the google CDN, add your script tags to the bottom of your page and away we go:

var headings = $('h3'),
            paras = $('p');

All I am doing here is selecting all the heading 3 elements and all the paragraphs, and saving them to two arrays. Note the syntax, I could have done this:

var headings = $('h3');
var paras = $('p');

However I find it quicker to just put a comma between them and emit one of the ‘var’s. It’s also more commonly done that way.

Once we’ve done that we now need to hide all but the first paragraph. This is done like so, using a function eq():

paras.hide().eq(0).show();

First I hide all the paragraphs and then use eq(0) to select the ‘0th’ element of the ‘paras’ array. In JavaScript (and most languages) arrays start from 0, so 0 will select the first element. Using eq(1) would select the second element. I then use jQuery’s show() function show the first one. This leave us with something like this:

And now we can write the code for hiding and showing. Firstly, we need to add a click event to our headers:

 headings.click(function() {

 });

And we can write the code to go in it:

 var cur = $(this); //save the element that has been clicked for easy referal
 cur.siblings('p').hide(); //hide all the paragraphs
 cur.next('p').show(); //get the next paragraph after the clicked header and show it

Lets go through this line by line:

var cur = $(this);

Here we take the value of ‘this’ and wrap it in the jQuery object before saving it to a variable ‘cur’. ‘this’ refers to the current element being interacted with. In this case, it’s the heading element that has been clicked.

cur.siblings('p').hide();

The jQuery siblings() function finds all elements on the same level as the current element. Here we find all the siblings of the current element that are paragraphs and hide them. So now we know that there are no paragraphs being shown.

cur.next('p').show();

Finally we use jQuery’s next() function. This finds the next element from the one we have selected. In this case it finds the next paragraph and shows it.

And we’re done! If you try that in your browser, it works fine. However, seeing as jQuery gives us loads of animation functions, lets put a couple of those to use.

The two functions we will use are slideUp() and slideDown(). These do exactly what you would imagine, they animate an element sliding up until it’s gone, and then sliding it back down. In our click function that we wrote:

 headings.click(function() {
            var cur = $(this); //save the element that has been clicked for easy referal
            cur.siblings('p').hide(); //hide all the paragraphs
            cur.next('p').show(); //get the next paragraph after the clicked header and show it
        })

Replace the hide() function with slideUp() and the show() function with slideDown():

 headings.click(function() {
            var cur = $(this); //save the element that has been clicked for easy referal
            cur.siblings('p').slideUp(); //hide all the paragraphs
            cur.next('p').slideDown(); //get the next paragraph after the clicked header and show it
        })

And try now. Is it not beautiful?

That just about sums it up for this week. We’ve taken things discussed in the previous two weeks and put them together. We’ve also met another couple of functions to add to your jQuery repertoire.

Go to Source

Continuing from “DAY1: Horizontal Sliding Panel With jQuery“, today we would like to take a look at another effect that we can create using the .animate() function.

Today i would like to experience with you another effect that is widely used these days, the Background Color Fading effect on hover. We’ll have a block of content that when the mouse moves over the backgroundColor starts an animation where it changes to another. When the mouse is moved off, the animation to the starting backgroundColor is triggered.

Let’s have a sneak peak about what we are going to create today.

Check out the demo of “Fading Background Color With jQuery”.

1st. Step: Linking to the jQuery Library hosted on Google Code

To follow the tutorial you’ll need a copy of the latest version of jQuery UI; it can be downloaded using the jQuery UI download builder at http://jqueryui.com/download. jQuery UI is the official library of widgets and utilities built on top of jQuery; it’s very easy to use and theme.

Instead of hosting the source code yourself, you could link directly to the most recent version hosted on the Google Ajax Libraries API. This will increase the performance of your website a lot. After including this on your page, we’ll get started by creating our simlple .animate() function.

<!-- include jQuery Library From Google Code -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script>

We will also need to include the jQuery UI

<!-- include jQuery UI  From Google Code-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

Another way to do this:

  google.load("jquery", "1.4.2");
  google.load("jqueryui", "1.8.0");

2nd Step: Running The Code when the DOM is Ready

This is the first thing to learn about jQuery: If you want an event to work on your page, you should call it inside the $(document).ready() function. Everything inside it will load as soon as the DOM is loaded and before the page contents are loaded.

      $(document).ready(function() {
          // put all your jQuery goodness in here.
      });

You can read more about it : Introducing $(document).ready()

Using the .animate() Function

The fun part starts now with the .animate() function.

Demo2: Fading Background Color With jQuery

The effect that we want to create is slowly fading the background color into a different color on .hover(). It will act as some sort of transition until we get the final background color.

The Markup

<body>
<div id="container">
	<h1>Background Color Animation With jQuery</h1>
		<h2>The Box Color Animates to a Different color On Hover Effect</h2>
	<div class="content">
		<div class="boxes">
			 <div class="block">
				<h4>/ <a href="">Design</a> / <a href="">Photoshop</a></h4>
				<img src="09.jpg" alt="" />
                        </div>
                        <div class="info">
                                <h3><a href="http://devsnippets.com/article/designing-with-html5-css3.html">Designing for the Future with HTML5 CSS3</a>
                                </h3>
                       </div>
                       <p>Dolody lets you share your experiences and discover new design techniques with your friends.</p>
        </div><!-- END OF BOXES  -->
   </div>
		<p><a href="#" title="DAY 2: Fading Background Color With jQuery .animate()">Click here to return to the tutorial on DevSnippets</a></p>

</div>
</body>

Styling with CSS

Now that the slider structure is in place we’ll add some styles to hide the slidery. Overflow must be set to hidden to the block that carries the slider. This will ensure that the slider is kept hidden when the mouse is not hovered on the block carrying the slider until the position of the slider changes to fit.

body {
      background:#ccc;
      text-align:left;
      color:#333;
      width:800px;
      font-size:14px;
      font-family:georgia, 'time new romans', serif;
      margin:0 auto;
      padding:0;
}
a{
      color:#333;
      text-decoration:none
}
      a:focus {
      outline: none;
}

h1 {
      font-size: 34px;
      font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
      letter-spacing:-2px;
      color:#dff161;
      font-weight:700;
      padding:20px 0 0;
      text-shadow:0 1px 1px #333;
}

h2 {
      font-size: 24px;
      font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
      color:#333;
      font-weight: 400;
      padding: 0 0 10px;
      text-shadow:0 1px 1px #708819;
      }

h3, h3 a{
      font-size:14px;
      font-family:verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
      letter-spacing:-1px;
      color:#333;
      font-weight: 700;
      text-transform:uppercase;
      margin:0;
      padding:8px 0 8px 0;
}

p {
     color:#333;
     float:left;
     line-height:22px;
     margin:5px;
     padding:0 0 10px;
}

#container {
     margin: 0;
     padding: 0;
}

.boxes {
     background:#fff;
     border:1px solid #ccc;
     float:left;
     padding:10px;
     position:relative;
     width:510px;
}

img {
     border:5px solid #CCCCCC;
}

div.info {
     border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC;
     float:left;
     margin:0;
     padding:0;
     width:100%;
}

.block {
     color:#0066CC;
     float:left;
     overflow:hidden;
     position:relative;
     width:510px;
}

.block h4, .block h4 a{
     color:#333333;
     font-size:11px;
     padding:5px 0;
     text-shadow:0 1px 1px #DFF161;
     text-transform:uppercase;
     }

Animating with jQuery

The div element that has a class of ‘.boxes‘ is the block that we want to fade its color. The jquery code will be wrapped inside the <script></script> tag. Here it is:

<script type="text/javascript">
	$(document).ready(function(){
		$(".boxes").hover(function() {
                $(this).stop().animate({ backgroundColor: "#a7bf51"}, 800);
                },function() {
                $(this).stop().animate({ backgroundColor: "#ffffff" }, 800);
                });
	 });
</script>

There is one action in the code above. When the mouse moves over the .boxes element, the backgroundColor starts an animation where it changes to #a7bf51 over 0.8 seconds. When the mouse is moved off the animation to the starting backgroundColor #ffffff is triggered.

Using the .stop() method before the animate() fixes the animation queue buildup where the animation will loop repeatedly by moving your mouse back and forth over the item.

Another pretty easy effect, what do you think?

Check out the demo of “Fading Background Color With jQuery”.

Download Zip File.

To Be Continued on DAY 3…

Go to Source

Adjusting a site for the mobile environment is a great challenge. A lot of techniques you are used to applying on web design would not make any sense on mobile, and vice-versa.

Mobile is a great place to try new things with different limits. People using the mobile web are much less patient than those in front of a computer–cellphone screens are much smaller and the mobile internet connection, usually 3G, isn´t as fast yet.

Design Adjustments

Navigation

The omnipresent menu can´t be applied in many cases because of the screen size. The menu probably would have to be in a vertical way and it could be very uncomfortable if for every single page people would need to scroll down all the menu to see the content. So, only use omnipresent menu if your site has only three links or less on its top navigation and, because of that, it can be horizontal. The solution is to put the navigation on the first page and on the others pages use a link at the top to come back to the first page or use breadcrumbs.

Content

Your content should be the highest priority. The screen is very small so make your design as clean as possible with less images and a lot of white space. The mobile connection isn´t as fast yet to handle images, and it can make it harder to focus on the content.

Links

On mobile everything is smaller and it is not different with links. You have to make them easier to click on. That can be done with, once again, more use of white space around them and bigger font sizes. When the link is selected, instead of just underlining it or changing its color, it should change the background color, even if the link is in the middle of a paragraph. It´s much better for mobile user to see what they have clicked on.

Various Screen Sizes

Each phone has a different screen size, and the iPhone has two positions: vertical and horizontal. So, your site cannot have a fixed width with pixels. It´s much better to use percentage and EMS. This method will make your site adaptable to the various screens sizes. Also you can limit the zoom of the interface and the size of the screen using the META properties for mobiles

Cross Platforms

Don´t expect your mobile site to look the same in all mobile browsers; there are dozens out there. There are some HTML elements and CSS properties that aren´t supported by some mobile browsers or, at least, it doesn’t work the way it should. The various heading markups for example will look different from browser to browser. But if all you want is a site that works well on the iPhone and android, you won´t have too much trouble with the code as you already have with desktop browsers. All you need is to adapt the site as I said in the other topics. Check out well coded sites at Mobify, a place where you can build your mobile site. Some designs aren´t as nice but the codes are all valid. You can test it and see if it works for you. Some design blogs use it very well, others not so much. I tried it but I ended up building a mobile site all by myself. And here you can validate your code.

Great Examples

Below are some great mobile adjusted web designs, all of them and more you can find at a very useful mobile website showcase, Mobile Awesomeness.

Other Resources

Learn How To Develop For The iPhone – It shows you how to build an alternate page and style sheet for the iPhone and iTouch.

Give Your Website a Custom iPhone Bookmark Icon – This tutorial teaches you how to get your own custom icon to appear when someone bookmarks your website on their iPhone home screen.

Create a Slick iPhone/Mobile Interface from any RSS Feed – This article is about creating a web page that is formatted for the iPhone that will dynamically fill itself with content from a RSS feed.

iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals – The development of iPhone applications has recently become a hot topic. However, many of these applications are poorly designed and just don ´t become useful as it could be.

MobiSiteGalore – A free site to build your mobile site
Create a Unit Converter Application for Flash Lite Enabled Devices- Flash Lite is an implementation of the Flash runtime for mobile phones, consumer electronic devices, and Internet-connected digital home devices.

Developing with Flash Lite – Mark Doherty over at FlashMobileBlog has teamed up with Dale Rankine to produce a video tutorial series: “Developing with Flash Lite” on their Adobe Flash Lite Vimeo channel.

Doctype: jQTouch and Mobile Design – In this week’s 7 minute episode of Doctype Jim covers jQTouch, a plugin for jQuery that enables quick iPhone websites, and Nick talks about how to design for the small screen.

Go to Source

Kiss – Keep It Simple Stupid

Download

Wallpaper Resolutions:

• White Version
• Black Version

Note: The wallpaper only comes in one size. If you’d like to use it as your desktop wallpaper, please set it as your background and set your background color to either black or white depending on which wallpaper you want.

About the Quote and the Wallpaper

Earlier today, I tweeted a message asking all of my followers about which daily design did they like the best? Out of all the replies, this design got the most compliments. Also, one of my followers suggested that I offer it as a wallpaper which was an excellent idea.

If you are a designer, I’m sure you have heard of this quote. This is one of my favorite design quotes and I always try to apply in when I design. Sure, there are definitely times when my designs are complicated and busy, but really, the designs that I enjoy the most are the ones that are simple and straight to the point. To me, they are the most effective as well. That’s why I really like the work of Simon Page.

Also, I definitely applied this quote when doing the redesign of this blog. I stripped away most of the design elements that were unecessary and I tried to make the blog as simple as possible without being bland and boring. You can read more about my redesign process here. Anyway, my suggestion to you designers is this.

Keep it simple, stupid!

Quick Summary

• Estimated time: 20 minutes
• Tools: Photoshop
• Total Layers Used: 4 (KISS)

Please share your thoughts about this wallpaper on the comments section below. If you liked this wallpaper, please tell your friends by re-tweeting it. You can also subscribe to the Design Informer RSS Feed so you won’t miss a thing.

Related posts:

1. Wallpaper of the Week – Dark Tiger
2. Wallpaper of the Week – Love Color

Go to Source

Elegance Lite is a 2 Column light weight theme with right sidebar. This stylish theme has Admin Options to easily change the Header Logo and Background Color of Theme. Apart from all regular features, it also has support for Threaded Comments and Sticky Post. Comments have Gravatar Support.

Gunungkidul

Two column, widget ready grid based theme with 960.gs framework

Clear Blue Sky

A modern sky blue, two-columns theme with a clear, fresh look.

TweetPress

Two column theme to make your blog look exactly like your Twitter profile

By Louis Lazaris

The web form has been one of the most discussed elements in web design for more than ten years now. We can’t help it. Call-to-action functionality often leads users to a form; purchases are made using forms; users register or subscribe using forms — the uses for forms are endless.

While it is fairly easy to slap together a form in HTML, it’s not as easy to code, style, and design your form in a manner that makes it usable and accessible to the majority of users. Since forms play such a large role in website conversions and success rates, the tips below, as well as the resources provided at the end of this article, should prove valuable for developers creating and coding web forms.

Two-Column vs. One

This decision will generally depend on the content of the form, but it’s often preferable to avoid a two-column layout if the form is fairly simple.

Below is a good example of a simple form that places each label above its related form element.

What are the benefits to this type of form layout, as opposed to a two-column form? First, the form labels have plenty of space to allow for future changes to the text inside them. A two-column form could be limited in this regard, and might require the entire form to be restructured if changes are made. Another benefit is that the form is not as cluttered looking, having plenty of whitespace in the label areas, so it’s easy to read and easy to associate the labels with the fields. Additionally, the background color given to each label/field pairing makes the form more visually inviting.

By contrast, look at the two-column form below:

Especially because of the left-aligned text and lack of color, this form doesn’t have the same clean, visual effect as the previous example. In fact, the vertical space between the labels and the fields is somewhat distracting, giving the sense of multiple entities, when in fact a simple form like this should visually be presented as one grouped entity.

It’s not impossible, however to achieve a clean, organized look with a two-column layout, as shown by the example below from Chapters Indigo Books:

So, although there are no definite rules for the general layout of your form, effective guidelines include avoiding a two-column layout for simple forms, and aligning the text labels right if a two-column layout is used.

Use Inline Form Validation

Recently Luke Wroblewski wrote about the effectiveness of inline form validation on A List Apart. To quote directly from that article:

Our participants were faster, more successful, less error-prone, and more satisfied when they used the forms with inline validation.

jQuery Inline Form Validation, Because Validation is a Mess is a step-by-step tutorial describing how to use jQuery to add inline validation to a lengthy form.

Really Easy Field Validation

Dexagogo provides a simple script that can be used to add inline validation to your forms. The demo example is not the prettiest, but of course it can be customized to suit your needs. The script uses Scriptaculous for the fade-in effect.

Group Related Fields

With a lengthy form, you’ll be limited as to what you can do to improve its usability, but grouping related fields together to divide the form into manageable visual components will make the form a little less intimidating. Thus, the form will be perceived to be easier to fill out, even though it will probably take about the same amount of time as a form that has no grouping of fields.

To group related fields, use <fieldset> and the optional <legend> element, as shown in the code below:

<form id="form" action="register.php" method="post">

	<fieldset>
		<legend>Basic Info</legend>
		<div>
		<label for="name">Name:</label>
		<input type="text" name="name" id="name" />
		</div>
		<label for="password">Password:</label>
		<input type="text" name="password" id="password" />
		<div>
		<label for="password-confirm">Confirm Password:</label>
		<input type="text" name="password-confirm" id="password-confirm" />
		</div>
	</fieldset>

	<fieldset>
		<legend>Address</legend>
		<label for="address">Address:</label>
		<input type="text" name="address" id="address" />

		<label for="address2">Address (cont'd):</label>
		<input type="text" name="address2" id="address2" />

		<label for="zip">Zip/Postal:</label>
		<input type="text" name="zip" id="zip" />

		<label for="city">City:</label>
		<input type="text" name="city" id="city" />

		<label for="country">Country:</label>
		<input type="text" name="country" id="country" />

	</fieldset>

</form>

The <fieldset> element by default has a border, which can be changed, and is often removed in a CSS reset. Below is an example of a single form that is divided into two sections using <fieldset> and <legend> elements:

Cosmicsoda Registration Form

Unfortunately, the display of the border on the <fieldset> is not the same across all browsers, so it is usually best to disable the border in your stylesheet and create a custom border by some other means. This will also affect the look of the <legend> element, so it’s rare to see the use of these two elements nowadays. But the <fieldset> can still be used to group elements, and custom borders and headings can be included to provide the same basic effect. The <fieldset> and <legend> elements also have the added benefit of contributing to a form’s accessibility.

Clearly Indicate Required Fields

It’s common to indicate required fields by means of the asterisk symbol (*) in a different color than the rest of the text, so the required indicator stands out. Although most sites nowadays include this indicator, some still fail to use it properly.

The explanatory text that describes the purpose of the asterisk should be placed immediately above the form that is to be filled out, so the users see it before they begin filling it out. Some sites have used the asterisk character somewhat like a footnote indicator, placing the description of the asterisk below the form. The example below from the Elderluxe contact page demonstrates this poor placement of the the text that explains the meaning of the asterisk:

Elderluxe Contact Form

The example above has two problems: the asterisks are the same color as the rest of the text, and the explanation of the asterisk is near the bottom of the form. In many instances, asterisks alone would be enough, without any explanation, but if your target audience is not as computer-savvy, you will likely want to include at the top of the form a brief description of what the asterisk means.

The example below from Office Depot’s registration page demonstrates a properly-placed asterisk description:

Office Depot Registration Form

Although the example form above does have problems (left aligned text, small type, little use of whitespace), it clearly indicates required fields and explains the meaning of the asterisk before the user begins filling it out. This is especially important in this example, since the first three fields are not required, thus the user can safely skip them.

Fancier Checkboxes, Radio Buttons, and Select Elements

Forms can look awfully dull, especially since the styling of <select> elements, checkboxes, and radio buttons is limited in most browsers, and it is impossible to use CSS alone to style those elements to look exactly the same in every browser. Fortunately, there are a number of JavaScript library plugins and code that allow developers to include fancier, cross-browser form elements that degrade gracefully.

jQuery Checkbox allows you to insert custom checkboxes and radio buttons into your forms. I don’t particularly care for the look of the radio buttons in this case (they look nothing like radio buttons), but it’s one option to consider.

jQuery Image Combobox is a fully skinnable image-based replacement for the browser’s usually-ugly <select> element.

Giva Labs mcDropdown jQuery Plug-in is an intuitive, keyboard-accessible, easy-to-implement replacement for a typical <select> element that allows for nested data.

Display a Hint When a Field Gets Focus

Complex forms with many different fields can be easier for the user to fill out if some help text is given. Of course, you don’t want to overwhelm the user with one or more paragraphs of text above the form explaining what the fields are for.

As a simple alternative, you can write some JavaScript (or use a customizable plugin) that will display a custom tooltip-style message to explain form elements that might be confusing, or that require a certain type of input (for example, a username that only allows letters or numbers and must have at least 6 characters).

jQuery Input Floating Hint Box is a simple plugin that displays a fully-customizable floating hint when a field gets focus.

DHTML Goodies Form Field Tooltip is another variation of the form field helper text that displays the helper text based on what is entered in the form field’s title attribute.

Be Generous with Whitespace

As mentioned earlier, forms can look ugly and cluttered if the elements in the form are not displayed in a clean, usable manner. We generally think of the use of whitespace in our overall site design, but the same principle can be applied within a form, even down to the smallest details.

You can improve a form’s design by adding appropriate amounts of space around field elements, giving the elements themselves a larger and more usable size, and also allowing plenty of space inside text fields by using padding in your CSS. For example, try typing some text into the two fields below.

With just a small difference in size and padding, the second input field has a more usable feel. When multiple text fields appear in the same form, this can make quite a difference in how the overall experience is perceived, even though technically it might not make a whole lot of difference as far as how long it takes the user to fill it out.

It also helps to allow text fields to have plenty of visible characters. A name field especially should have plenty of space to allow for longer names. Overflow of characters will start pushing the text out of view, so it’s best to have enough space to accommodate longer names so that the user can more easily spot mistakes. The example field below demonstrates how a longer name would be cut off.

A text field that is similar in size to the ones in the previous example would be more appropriate and would allow for longer input to be entered without the risk of cutting anything off. The same principle would apply to a search box that may potentially receive long queries as input.

Make Your Forms Accessible

The topic of accessible forms could easily encompass an entire article and much more, but here are just a few tips to ensure your forms are more accessible and usable to a diverse audience.

• Use the title attribute for inputs, to assist those using screen readers
• If a label doesn’t wrap around the field it is associated with, use a for attribute that matches the accompanying field’s id
• Set a tab order using the tabindex attribute on each element
• For the tab order, increment the tab numbers by large amounts (e.g. “10, 20, 30…” instead of “1, 2, 3…”), to allow for later additions that don’t require rewriting all the tab indexes
• For radio buttons and checkboxes, put the label after the associated element so screen readers read the item first and the word “checkbox” or “radio button” second
• Use the <optgroup> tag to group <select> items
• Use the accesskey attribute on form elements, to allow keyboard access

Further Reading

• Creating Accessible Forms
• Beautiful Forms – Design, Style, & make it work with PHP & Ajax
• HTML Forms and Input on W3Schools
• 25 Web Form Optimization Tips
• Accessible Forms
• Web Form Design: Modern Solutions and Creative Ideas

Go to Source

Chris Coyier authored a post titled Better Pull Quotes: Don’t Repeat Markup a while back. In his post he created great-looking pull quotes without repeating any content — instead he uses jQuery to dynamically create the pull quotes. The following is the MooTools method for doing so.

The HTML

<p><span class="pull-me">As a MooTools "insider", however, I'm excited for what the MooTools team will bring to the table during 2010.</span> We'll be launching the Forge (our public plugin repository), releasing MooTools 2, continuing to grow MooTools More, featuring more community work, and much more. MooTools FTW!</p>

The HTML above features a paragraph of content with a SPAN tag wrapping what I’d like to be the pull quote.

The CSS

.quote { padding:20px; margin:0 0 20px 20px; font-size:20px; font-style:italic; background:#eee; color:#999; display:block; width:200px; float:right; }

You may style the quote any way you’d like. These elements are traditionally large in text with italicized text and a different background color.

The MooTools Javascript

window.addEvent('domready',function() {
	//grab all quotes
	$$('span.pull-me').each(function(span) {
		//inject styled quote into page
		new Element('span',{
			'class': 'quote',
			text: span.get('text')
		}).inject(span.getParent(),'top');
	});
});

We find each element with a “pull-me” CSS class and generate a new element with our “quote” class. We then inject the new element into the original element’s parent. That’s all!

Chris did a great job with the execution of his idea. This is a technique that will likely be used well into the future.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and be sure to visit Script & Style for the best Javascript and CSS articles around!

Sponsor the David Walsh Blog and get your brand in front of several thousand users per day!

Better Pull Quotes with MooTools

Related posts:

1. Highlight Table Rows, Columns, and Cells Using MooTools 1.2.3
2. Bold Web Predictions for 2010
3. MooTools HTML Police: dwMarkupMarine
4. Method Chaining in MooTools and PHP
5. dwImageProtector Plugin for jQuery

Go to Source

Step 1 – Download the 960 Grid System Template

The designs I create are nearly all based on the 960 Grid System. So, before we begin we need to download the grid system Photoshop templates. You can
find them on the 960.gs official website. Simply unpack the zip file and look for PSD templates. You will see that there are
two different types of templates: one is 12_col and the other one is 16_col. The difference between these two are, as the name suggests, one is made with 12 columns and the other one with 16 columns. To explain it a bit more, if you have 3 boxes in your design you would choose the 12_col grid, because 12 is divisable by 3; or if you have 4 boxes in your design, you would choose either 12_col or 16_col grid because 12 and 16 are divisable by 4. If you follow this tutorial, you will see this in action.

Step 2 – Defining the Structure

Before we open our PSD grid template and begin drawing, we first need to define the structure of our site. This is a bit more of a complicated structure because we have a layout inside a layout. You can see this exemplified in the image above.

Step 3

After we’ve defined our site structure we’re ready to move on. Open your 16_col.psd template. Go to Image > Canvas size . Set the canvas to 1200px wide and 1700px high. Set the background color to #ffffff.

Step 4

Now pick the Rectangle Tool and draw in a rectangle the full canvas width and about 80px high. Fill it with the color #dddddd.

Step 5

Create a new layer above the rectangle and set Layer mode to Overlay. Ctrl+click the rectangle layer. Now the rectangle will be selected. Choose a 600px soft brush, set the color to white, and click a few times with the edge of the brush just a bit over the selection, like shown on the image. This way you create a nice, subtle light effect. Additionally you can link these two layers.

Step 6

New layer. Choose the Rectangle tool again and draw in a thin dark grey rectangle, as shown in the image.

Step 7

With the Rectangle tool selected, draw in a big box around 500px underneath the top rectangle. Make it 575px high and give it a Linear Gradient overlay from #d2d2d0 to #ffffff, direction -90, Scale 100%.

Step 8

Now we are going to create the same light effect as described in Step 5. We will be using this technique a lot; so next time I will just refer you to Step 5 for the effect.

Create a new layer above all the current layers. Ctrl+click the big rectangle. Choose a 600px soft brush, set the color to white, and click a few times with the edge of the brush just a bit over the selection, as shown in the image.

Step 9

Create a new layer and draw in a big rectangle about 400px high. This one is used for our header. Fill it with a nice blue gradient from #2787b7 to #258fcd.

See how subtle the color change is?

Step 10

Add a dark blue 1px line on the bottom of the header box, apply the Drop shadow effect. For drop shadow use Blend mode: Multiply, Opacity: 65%, Angle: -90, Distance: 1px and Size: 6px. Next, create a new layer above and draw another 1px white line under the dark blue one. This way we create sharp edges for our content box. Basically you can apply this border technique on every box in your design just with different colors.

Step 11

Create a new layer, and with the Rectangle Tool, draw a 50px high rectangle in the top part of the canvas, just as shown in the image. This will be used for our navigation.

Apply a Drop shadow. Use the values shown in the image.

Step 12

Time for the navigation. Use the Rounded Rectangle Tool and set the radius to 5px. Draw a rectangle, fill it with #f6a836, and apply the following effects:

• Inner Shadow – color: #ffffff, Blend mode: overlay, Opacity: 60%, Angle: 120*, Distance: 7px, Size: 6px.
• Inner glow – Blend mode: normal, color: #ffffff, Size: 4px. Everything else leave default.
• Stroke – Size: 1px, Position: inside, color: #ce7e01.

Now select the rectangle with Ctrl+click. Go to Select > Modify > Contract and enter 1px.

Create a new layer above, set the Blend mode to Overlay and create the same effect described in the Step 5 using a smaller brush size this time. Then add the navigation text. I used Arial for navigation links, all caps and Antialias set to “none”.

Step 13

Now let’s create the search box. With the Rounded Rectangle Tool, radius 5px, create a search box positioned on the right side of the grid layout and in the middle of the top gray stripe from Step 4. Add these layer styles:

• Inner Shadow – color: #000000, Blend mode: Multiply, Opacity: 9%, Angle: 90*, Distance: 0px, Size: 6px.
• Stroke – Size: 1px, Position: inside, color: #dfdfdf.

I added the “search” text and a light gray “GO” button. This is how it should look.

So far we have a lot of layers and need to organize things a bit so we will create a new Layer folder and name it “search”. Select all layers that make the search field and just Click + drag inside the new folder. Later we’re going to organize other content inside the folders so we have a nice organized layer palette.

Step 14

Now create a new layer and draw a “Sign Up” button the same way we created the search field – just half the width. Place it under the search field in the middle of the navigation stripe.

Again we’re creating the effect from Step 5.

Use a smaller soft brush size. In this case it was 45px.

Step 15

After adding the logo and the Tagline this is how our site should look like now.

Step 16

Now we’re coming back to our layer organization mentioned a few steps earlier. Create a new empty layer folder and name it “top_bar”. Move all graphics from the top of the layout inside this folder (logo, tagline, search field, sign up button, navigation and backgrounds).

Create another empty layer folder and name it “header”. This is where we will put our header graphics. This is how it should look.

Step 17

Our header looks a bit plain right now so we’re going to add the same light effect everywhere else on the site. Select the header box (blue). Create a new empty layer above and set the mode to Overlay.

Pick a large soft brush 600px, color #ffffff and click a few times in the area under the navigation. Furthermore, to gain more depth, we can switch the color to black and do the same thing just in the bottom part of the header. Give it a try!

Step 18

In this step I will explain to you how I created the reflection for the header images. Take two images of your choice, I used Safari screenshots of my two other templates, scale one down and place it behind the bigger one. Copy both layers, and with the Free Transform Tool, flip the first image and then the other one. Shift both images a few pixels down. Now make a selection from outside the bottom part to middle of the first flipped image with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Go to Select > Modify > Feather and type 30px or more. You should have a selection similar to the shown in the image. Press the delete key a few times and you will create a nice faded reflection from the original image. Repeat this step for the second image.

Now to make those two images stand out a bit, create a new layer and set the mode to Overlay. Create the effect described in Step 5.

This is how our header should look after adding a nice tagline and some buttons. Don’t forget to put all these graphics inside the “header” layer

folder to keep things organized here

Step 19

If you look at the final image preview, you can see that we have nice tabs in the content area. In order to create these tabs we’ll need to perform a few extra steps, but it’s definitely worth it. First, create a large rectangle shape with the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Make it 70px high and a radius of 10px or more if you wish. Now we have to get rid of the bottom radius and make a perfect corner out of it. Pick the Direct Selection Tool and click on the shape path. Click the vertical point and drag it down while holding the Shift key until it reaches the same level with the horizontal axis. So far so good but it’s still deformed. You see the little handle. Click on it and move it upwards to the point of the path.

Now we have created a perfect corner. This is how it should look. Repeat this step for the right bottom corner.

Step 20

Pick the Line tool and set it to 1px.

Step 21

Draw in gray separators while holding the Shift key.

Step 22

Place some icons, headings, and a description for each tab. I used Ray Cheung icons available from – WebAppers.com. Usually one tab is always active and the others are inactive. To make this clear in our
design, we need to find a way to accomplish this. I desaturated the other icons and reduced the opacity for the headings and text while keeping the first active tab colorful and bright.

Step 23

To make the active tab more obvious, we’re going to give it a faded white background. To do this first select the whole object and then subtract from the selection to get only the first tab selected.

This is what your selection should look like.

With a smaller soft brush, paint in a white background.

Step 24

Add the shadow. Create a dark gray rectangle behind the tabs, as shown in the image.

Add a vector mask by clicking the little icon in the bottom of the layer palette.

Set the color to black, pick a large soft brush, and start deleting parts of the rectangle. As a result, we get a nice fake shadow effect behind our tabs.

Finaly the attention to detail. Draw in a 1px gray line on the bottom of the tabs. Mask the layer again like described earlier and with a big soft brush delete the left and right end of the line. Now we get a nicely faded line that follows our shadow behind the tabs.

This is how our tabs should look.

Step 25

It’s time to design the content for our first tab. We need a featured design image, a nice heading and some text. First we
will create the featured image. I thought that it would be nice to break the edginess of the design by creating a nice stacked photos effect for our
featured design image. To do this, draw a white rectangle with a 1px light gray border, and a very subtle drop shadow effect.

Now copy that layer and rotate it slightly with the Free Transform Tool. Do this one more time.

Import your featured image and place it over the white rectangles. Don’t worry if the image is flowing outside the boxes, we will fix that. Make a selection from the top rectangle, go to Select > Modify > Contract and insert 5px. With the featured image layer selected click the Quick Mask icon on the bottom of our layer palette. You will get nicely bordered image effect like shown in the image here.

This is how your layer order should look like.

Step 26

Don’t forget to keep things organized. So create more layer folders and organize your palette. This is how I have done it.

By adding a nice heading, some text, and bullet lists, our web design work is finished. Let’s move on.

And again some layer organization.

Step 27: Testimonials

I thought this one should be huge; so I’ve put this in a big box right after the main section. First draw a big light gray rectangle about 220px high. Give it a 1px gray border.

Then draw in another brighter rectangle by 10px smaller on all sides. Also add a 1px light gray border.

Finally add some text and we’re done!

Step 28

It’s time for the footer. Draw a big 400px high, dark gray rectangle.

Step 29

Add some light effect the same way as described in Step 5.

Step 30

Next, draw a 10px high rectangle above the footer and add some subtle effect by adding two more lines on top and bottom like shown in the image.

Step 31

Create the very bottom part where the repeated navigation will be placed. You can copy the rectangle from the top where the navigation is
placed, move it down and make it about 40px high. Place it at the very bottom of your canvas. Please note that you may need to expand your canvas at this point so that all your graphics fit. If you need to do that, then go to Image > Canvas size and set the height to fit the entire layout.

Step 32

Attention to detail again. Add a 1px white line above the footer navigation box to give it a nice border effect.

Step 33

Add some footer content and separate it nicely within your grid.

Step 34

Finally organize all your layers inside the layer folders. This is how I’ve done it.

The Design

So there we go, the final design, with a couple of variations for different pages. The final PSD designs are, of course, on sale at ThemeForest.net.

Final Thoughts

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and have learned a few new techniques. Now, it’s your turn to create more great designs. Remember, with attention to detail you, will be able to design beautiful websites with just two or three Photoshop tools. What do you think?

• Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to the NETTUTS RSS Feed for more daily web development tuts and articles.

Lola Rodrigues aka Loleia, is an awesome Illustrator from Spain and decided to share with us her ticks to a basic painting in photoshop, the tutorial is very simple and well explained so you can learn to paint your own drawings, check it out.

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Make sure you check out the gallery of works of Loleia here loleia.deviantart.com and thank her for the tutorial.

So, the first think I need is a line art. This nice girl here volunteered, so we’re going to be coloring her.

The first thing I always do is name the layers, because I am kind of a neat freak and I need everything to have a name and be in its proper place. I call the line art layer –wait for it- Lineart.

Next, I create a layer underneath the Lineart and choose a background color to fil it with. I call the layer Background (tadaaa!)

Having a colored background is very useful when it comes choosing the color palette for the drawing itself because it makes you use a range of colors that are all similar, giving the final piece a consistent look color-wise.

I tend to choose pastels tones. Here I have picked yellowish ochre.

The next thing I do, neat as I am, is create a folder for the flat colors and call it Flats. Flat colors are colors without shadowing or light. They make the base of the coloring in my drawings. Inside the Flats folder I then create a layer for each different area of color’ the Hair, the Face, the Skin, the Shirt, the Shoes etc.

Now that I have layers, I can start coloring the drawing. I always start with the skin but you start wherever you want. To choose the skin color I just slid the arrows down from the yellow to the orange. The result is a skin tone that matches the background perfectly and is not too pale, nor too tan. You can play with this all you want; make it a bit pinker, or more orange if you want the skin to look more tan etc.

When I have chosen the color, I pick the Paint Bucket Tool, make sure the box “All Layers” is checked and I start filling in all the parts of the drawing that have skin in them.

I repeat this step with all the parts, but as you can see the Paint Bucket just fills the “easy parts”, it doesn’t go into the small places of behind the black lines of the drawing.

Make sure to add the colors in the appropriate layers this will be important later when we add the shadowing and need to select every individual color.

When we’re done filling in the colors, it’s time to fill in the little blank space with your tablet (or your mouse) and a round, hard brush. Zoom is love!

When I’m done with the flats I usually add any patterns or details I want the clothes to have. In this case the clothes are based on my own, so it will be easy to copy all the patterns using flat colors again.

The arm-warmers have big horizontal stripes and the shirt has pink vertical and horizontal stripes.

So I create a new layer inside the Flats folder on top of all the other ones and I call it Patterns. That’s where I’m going to draw all the details on the clothes. A lot of times I like to add textures to clothes as well, but I don’t add them until shadowing has been added.

It’s now time to start with the Shadows. The fist thing we have to do is decide where the source of light is. If it’s on the right, then the shadow will be on the left. If it’s behind, then the shadows will be on the front etc. I have decided that the light is going to be coming from the right, so the shadows will generally be on the left side.

The first thing I do now is create a new folder and call it Shadows. This time I will ad the shadow layer as I go (instead of adding them all at once, like we did with the flats). The reason for this is that I usually use more than one layer for each part of the drawing (for the skin or the hair I use at least three).

As I do with the Flats, I always like to start adding shadows on the Skin. So I create a new layer inside the Shadows folder and call it Skin. I set it to Multiply. Then, using Eyedropper Tool I sample the flat skin color choose a color slightly paler for the Shadow.

Here on 1 you can see the result of the first layer of shadow on the skin, set to Multiply. As you can see, most of the shadow is located on the right side of the face and torso, leaving the left side lit.

For this kind of shading I always use a regular default hard round brush. Applying more or less pressure on my tablet I can control the size of the brush, but the important thing here is that the brush’s edges have to sharp. Of course, depending on the brush you can use and the settings on that brush you’ll get incredibly different coloring and painting styles. But for this one, as I said, we’re going for the “sharp approach”.

A Little trick: go to the Flats and select the layer part you want to shadow (eg. Skin) using Ctrl (select the layer while pressing Ctrl). Then go back to the Shadows and you’ll be able to apply the shadow only to the selected part without fear of coloring “outside the lines”.

I add shadows to the rest of the skin on the girl’s body and then I create a new layer, also called Skin, and also set to Multiply. I then add a more detailed level of shadow, still using the same pale color as before. The result 2. You can see the first layer of shadow and then another one that goes around the eyes and on the outer edge of the right side of face and torso. Just add as much shadow as you feel like, and when you’re done, go on the next part, which for me is always the hair.

I basically repeat the same steps as with the face: I create a new layer called Hair and set it to Multiply. I then pick a color paler and lighter than the one I used for the Hair layers as I need and I add shadows as I see fit.

You can see a progression of the Shadow layers below. I repeat the same process on the rest of the parts of the drawing, each time creating a new layer and each time selecting a color lighter and pales than the one used for the Flat. In the case of the shirt, I chose to use the gray instead of the pink.

Now that I’m done with the Shadows, it’s time for the little details (blush etc) and some light. I create a new folder, this time on top of the Lineart layer, and I call it Lights etc.

I’m going to start with the blush, but first I’m going to get rid of the bit of light on her right cheek (you can see it above), or the blush won’t look good (try it, it looks weird).

When I’m all ready to go, I create a new layer inside the Lights etc folder called Blush, and I set it to Multiply.

I choose a red (in this case I used a pale shade of red as well), and then I pick a brush. The best brush for the job is the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow. I set the Hardness to 0% and the size to 35 px more or less. (see below).

The Great thing about this brush is that its opacity responds to the pen pressure, which means that if I push hard with my pen, it will be opaque, but if I don’t, it will be translucent. So I picked the brush and I start applying the blush gently. I also like to give a little blush to the nose, jus to give more volume.

It’s time now to add a bit of light to the face. I usually add glow to the eyes, the lips, the cheeks and the nose.

For the eyes and the lips I use a small round hard brush (like the one I used to apply the shadows).

For the cheeks and the nose I however I use the same brush I used to apply the blush, only with more Hardness (50%) and much smaller (10 px or so).

A lot of times I also add a bit of shine to the hair, but this time just doesn’t look right so I will leave as it is. I will however add a bit of light on her left side, where the light source is hitting her.

For simply pick a small round hard brush and I paint a line inside the lineart along her right side as you can see here.

And it’s finally time for the finish touches! When I’m done adding the light, I create a last folder called Finishing Touches. In here I usually add a few Adjustment Layers, to tweak the color a bit, make it more vibrant, in this case I have added two Color Balance layers, one Selective Color and Curves layer to adjust the brightness a bit.

At this point I will usually add a Texture on top of everything and set to Multiply, just to make it a bit more gritty. The texture here is mine.

Before the Adjustment Layers

After the Adjustment Layers

+ Textures Set to Multiply

TADAA!

And that’s pretty much it! Of course I sometimes do more stuff, like add light and shadow to the background, or make a thick black outline or add a different texture to each layer of clothing, but the basics are these.

Hope it helped!

About the author

Hi! I’m Paulo Canabarro and I’m here to post some really cool stuff for you, if you have any ideas or any requests please get @ me – paul0v2@abduzeedo.com you can also Follow me on twitter!

visit my new website www.iloveteedesign.com

Sponsored Links:

Cssround creates a text page with round corner in 10 seconds.You can define your own options : Corner radius value, Round color, Background color, Text color and size of round content you want.
After Generating it, you will get all the 4 corners pictures, the html and css code into a ZIP file.

http://cssround.com

The Imagery

Facebook uses a funky sprite for their modal box. Pretty cool though.

The CSS

/* from facebook */
.generic_dialog { height:0; left:0; overflow:visible; position:fixed; /*dw*/ top:0; width:100%; z-index:101; }
#generic_dialog_iframe { left:0; position:absolute; top:0; z-index:3; }
.generic_dialog .generic_dialog_popup { height:0; overflow:visible; position:relative; }
.generic_dialog div.dialog_loading 		{ background-color:#F2F2F2; border:1px solid #606060; font-size:24px; padding:10px; }
#generic_dialog_overlay { display:block; left:0; position:absolute; top:0; width:100%; z-index:100; }
.dialog_body .dialog_content_img { float:left; margin-right:15px; }
.dialog_body .dialog_content_txt { float:left; padding-bottom:5px; width:300px; }
.dialog_body .dialog_content_body { padding-bottom:13px; }
.dialog_body .form_label { padding-right:5px; }
.dark_dialog_overlay { background-image:url(facebook-overlay.png); background-repeat:repeat; }
* html .dark_dialog_overlay { background-color:transparent; background-image:url(blank.gif); }
.full_bleed .pop_dialog_table td.pop_content .dialog_body { padding:0; }
table.pop_dialog_table { border-collapse:collapse; direction:ltr; margin:auto; table-layout:fixed; width:465px; }
td.pop_topleft, td.pop_topright, td.pop_bottomleft, td.pop_bottomright { height:10px; overflow:hidden; padding:0 !important; width:10px !important; }
td.pop_topleft { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) no-repeat scroll 0 0; }
td.pop_topright { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) no-repeat scroll 0 -10px; }
td.pop_bottomleft { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) no-repeat scroll 0 -20px; }
td.pop_bottomright { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) no-repeat scroll 0 -30px; }
td.pop_top, td.pop_bottom { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) repeat-x scroll 0 -40px; }
td.pop_side { background:transparent url(facebook-pop-dialog-sprite.png) repeat-y scroll -10px 0; }
td.pop_content { background-color:white; direction:ltr; padding:0; }
.pop_dialog_rtl td.pop_content { direction:rtl; }
td.pop_content h2.dialog_title { background:#6D84B4 none repeat scroll 0 0; border:1px solid #3B5998; color:white; font-size:14px; font-weight:bold; margin:0; }
td.pop_content h2.dialog_loading { background:#6D84B4 url(facebook-indicator_white_small.gif) no-repeat scroll 400px 10px; padding-right:40px; }
td.pop_content h2 span { display:block; padding:4px 10px 5px; }
td.pop_content .dialog_content { background:#FFFFFF none repeat scroll 0 0; border-color:#555555; border-style:solid; border-width:0 1px 1px; }
td.pop_content .dialog_body { border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC; padding:10px; }
td.pop_content .dialog_summary { background:#F2F2F2 none repeat scroll 0 0; border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC; padding:8px 10px; }
td.pop_content .dialog_buttons { background:#F2F2F2 none repeat scroll 0 0; padding:8px; text-align:right; }
td.pop_content .dialog_buttons input { margin-left:5px; }
td.pop_content .dialog_buttons_msg { float:left; padding:5px 0 0; }
td.pop_content .dialog_footer { background:#F2F2F2 none repeat scroll 0 50%; }

/* david walsh custom */
#fb-modal	{ display:none; }
#fb-close	{ cursor:pointer; }
.info		{ width:280px; float:left; font-size:11px; color:#666; }
.info b	{ color:#000; }
.image	{ width:200px; float:left; margin-right:10px; }

Most of this CSS was copied straight from Facebook’s stylesheets. You’ll see a bit of custom CSS at the bottom but that’s just me customizing the content in the modal box.

The MooTools Javascript

window.addEvent('domready',function() {
	/* hide using opacity on page load */
	$('fb-modal').setStyles({
		opacity:0,
		display:'block'
	});
	/* hiders */
	$('fb-close').addEvent('click',function(e) { $('fb-modal').fade('out'); });
	window.addEvent('keypress',function(e) { if(e.key == 'esc') { $('fb-modal').fade('out'); } });
	$(document.body).addEvent('click',function(e) {
		if($('fb-modal').get('opacity') == 1 && !e.target.getParent('.generic_dialog')) {
			$('fb-modal').fade('out');
		}
	});
	/* click to show */
	$('fb-trigger').addEvent('click',function() {
		$('fb-modal').fade('in');
	});
});

Fade in. Fade out. Too easy with MooTools!

Just because Facebook has more resources than you doesn’t mean your site can’t look as good as Facebook!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and be sure to visit Script & Style for the best Javascript and CSS articles around!

The extensive amount of roads you can take in web design, specifically in navigation. Here, we will talk about one specific navigation technique, tab-based navigation. If properly carried out, tabbed navigation can be very clean and organized within a web layout.

So what is tabbed navigation? Well, it is essentially a set of buttons most often set horizontally. Tabs generally follow numerous different styling guidelines. First, a tab set usually is attached or purtrudes from a container, like in the example below. Also, notice how the open tab matches the background color of the container, and the other buttons are darker. This is one more common styling guideline.

When you look at tabbed navigations, you will also notice many styling trends. First, many tabs will have rounded corners on buttons. This helps to create a clean look. Also helping to make a clean look is the use of separation between buttons. Most well use space to separate buttons, but a bevel, single line, or background color contrast will also look nicely.

You will also see the use of hover effects, which is a common usability characteristic of all navigation. Gradients, radial and linear, are a good hover effect that brings dimension to the button that is that the user is selecting. Actually, you will notice many tab buttons, selected or not, will use a slight gradient to add depth and demension to the button. This is a very easy detail often used to bring extra styling to many different user interface elements, such as buttons.

So, with all of that in mind, take a look at these 50 excellent tabbed-navigations shown below. Look for the trends, and follow the link to further inspect the usability of the tabbed navigation and how it looks with the rest of the design.

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• Designing Drop-Down Menus: Examples and Best Practices
• 50 Beautiful And User-Friendly Navigation Menus
• Navigation Menus: Trends and Examples

Good Tab Based Navigation

ExpressionEngine
This tab set is beautifully styled. It uses a bevel to seperate tabs, large buttons, and clean typography with icons.

Astratos
Another tab navigation that is clean because of rounded corners and use of a gradient to style.

WorldCat
Rounded corners and clean separation.

Veer
These tabs have beautiful styling. Notice the use of different colors and a drop shadow for separation purposes.

365 Days of Astronomy
Use of different colors and a drop shadow to separate the tabs not in use.

Wire & Twine
This is some excellent texture use with a clean layout.

Komodo
A good example of tabs used in a module.

Inkd
Good styling and usable because of size and separation.

Jepco Storage
This button set uses dark colors to fade out the tabs not in use, and a great border on the buttons.

Kinder-Aktuell
Good gradient use and separation.

FidesVita
Tabs used with a sub navigation.

Apple Movie Trailers
Excellent styling and a strong example of a vertical tab layout.

PBwiki
Simple yet clean tabs.

Fancast
Another vertical tab set up, this time used in a slider instead of content navigation.

College Park Church
Nicely styled tabs with good colors and a sub navigation.

One Button Mouse
Excellently designed buttons in a simple tab layout with good icons as a visual support.

Mint
Tabs used in a very content heavy module

District Solutions
Vertical tabs are used very rarely. But they can look good!

23andMe
Good coloring and use of a border to differentiate the tabs from the body background.

Tumblon
Very clean tabs with a border.

STUDIO7DESIGNS
This tab styling uses a gradient for a cool fading appearance, and a sub navigation is included.

WWD
A simple yet usable tab system with a sub navigation.

Ministry of Sound
On this tab system, a gradient is used to add depth to the selected button.

Disambiguity
Use of rounded corners and a strong color difference to separate the tabs not in use.

Fontcase
A clean tab layout in a very nice design.

Mixx
This tab system uses a different size, color, and styling to bring out the button selected.

Concentric Studio
A very simple and usable tab navigation.

Domestika
A vertical tab layout with coloring.

crowdSPRING
A simple tab system. This one uses a large size as well as a different color to make the selected button pop.

Ready Made
A well-styled tabbed navigation.

The Mindset Game
Another very simple and easy tab navigation that works perfectly.

nclud
A little bit different tab setup that only styles the selected button.

The Invoice Machine
The navigation below uses a strong color difference, usable buttons, and borders to separate tabs from the rest of the design.

FreeAgent
A good example of the background of the container flowing with the button.

Web Notes
This is very organized, and it appears to tab down instead of up like most.

Magpie
Doesn’t get much more simple than this, but still a good example.

Two December
Nice styling that works perfectly with the rest of the layout.

Lanbruck’s
Another very beautiful tab layout, notice the slight hover effect that can be seen on the second tab over.

LittleLines
This is one of the better examples of styling in this showcase because of the gradients to add dimension to the buttons and strong borders.

Thuiven
A very nice color harmony and contrast between the selected tab and the others.

Headscape
Another button that uses a gradient to fade out, creating an awesome appearance.

Space Collective
Very simple but functional at the same time.

Jobs on the Wall
More brilliant styling, these tabs fit perfectly with the other elements on the site.

Designsensory
Very basic styling with strong colors and a sub navigation.

Ad Fed
Here is another smooth and visually appealing tab navigation set.

OS Communications
Basic color-based styles with a pointer to show the selected tab.

Hoefler and Frere – Jones
Use of slanted sides instead of rounded corners makes this tab-based navigation interesting and unique.

Track My People
These buttons use gradients for depth, and a drop shodow to add demension to the tabs behind the selected one.

Revolution Drviving
Brilliant button backgrounds that aren’t over the top make these tabs really great.

City of Grace
A good example of tabs that work nice colors into a usable layout.

Related Posts

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• Designing Drop-Down Menus: Examples and Best Practices
• 50 Beautiful And User-Friendly Navigation Menus
• Navigation Menus: Trends and Examples

About the author

Matt Cronin is a freelance web and graphic designer as well as developer. He is the author and owner of Spoonfed Design,a design blog with great tips, how-to, inspiration, tutorials, and more. Spoonfed Design is part of the VAEOU Creative Network, a new startup in progress with new services coming soon.

© Matt Cronin for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: design, navigation, showcases, tabs

In the old days, we depend a lot of on developers and programmers to help update the website, even when it’s just a minor one. Thanks to the CSS and it’s flexibility, styles can be extract independently away from the codes. Now, with some basic understanding of CSS, even a novice can easily change the style of a website.

Whether you are interested in picking up CSS to create your own website, or merely to tweak your blog’s look and feel a little – it’s always good to start with the fundamentals to gain a stronger foundation. Let’s take a look at some CSS Tips we thought might be useful for beginners. Full list after jump.

1. Use reset.css

   Be default, browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer have different ways of rendering styles. reset.css basically reset all fundamental styles, so you start with a foundation with settings that looks exactly the same cross browsers.

   Here are some of the commonly used reset.css frameworks – Yahoo Reset CSS, Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset, Tripoli

2. Use Shorthand CSS

   Shorthand CSS gives you a shorter way of writing your CSS codes, and most important of all – it makes the code clearner and easier to understand.

   Instead of creating CSS like this

   .header {
         background-color: #fff;
         background-image: url(image.gif);
         background-repeat: no-repeat;
         background-position: top left;
       }

   It can be short-handed into the following:

   .header {
         background: #fff url(image.gif) no-repeat top left
       }

   More – Introduction to CSS Shorthand, Useful CSS shorthand properties

3. Understanding Class and ID

   These two selectors often confuse beginners. In CSS, class is represented by a dot "." while id is a hash ‘#". In a nutshell id is used on style that is unique and don’t repeat itself, class on the other side, can be re-use.

   More – Class vs. ID | When to use Class, ID | Applying Class and ID together

4. Power of <li>

   <li> a.k.a link list, is very useful when they are use correctly with <ol> or <ul>, particulary to style a navigation menu.

   More – Taming Lists, Amazing LI

5. Forget <table>, try <div>

   One of the greatest advantage of CSS is the use of <div> to achieve total flexibility in terms of styling. <div> are unlike <table>, where contents are ‘locked’ within a <td>’s cell. It’s safe to say most <table> layouts are achievable with the use of <div> and proper styling, well maybe except massive tabular contents.

   More – Tables are dead, Tables Vs. CSS, CSS vs tables

6. CSS Debugging Tools

   It’s always good to get instant preview of the layout while tweaking the CSS, it helps understanding and debugging CSS styles better. Here are some free CSS debugging tools you can install on your browser: FireFox Web Developer, DOM Inspector, Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar, and Firebug.

   

7. Avoid Superfluous Selectors

   Sometimes your CSS declaration can be simpler, meaning if you find yourself coding the following:

   • ul li { ... }

   • ol li { ... }

   • table tr td { ... }

   They can be shorten down to just

   • li { ... }

   • td { ... }

   Explanation: <li> will only exist within <ul> or <ol> and <td> will only be inside <tr> and <table> so there’s really not necessary to re-insert them.

8. Knowing !important

   Any style marked with !important will be taken into use regardlessly if there’s a overwriting rule below it.

   .page {	background-color:blue !important;	background-color:red;}

   In the example above, background-color:blue will be adapted because it’s marked with !important, even when there’s a background-color:red; below it. !important is used in situation where you want to force a style without something overwriting it, however it may not work in Internet Explorer.

9. Replace Text with Image

   This is commonly practice to replace <h1>title</h1> from a text based title to an image. Here’s how you do it.

   h1 {
   text-indent:-9999px;
   background:url("title.jpg") no-repeat;
   width:100px;
   height:50px;
   }

   Explanation: text-indent:-9999px; throws your text title off screen, replaced by an image declared by background: {...} with a fixed width and height.

10. Understand CSS Positioning

    The following article gives you a clear understanding in using CSS positioning – position: {...}

    More – Learn CSS Positioning in Ten Steps

11. CSS @import vs <link>

    There are 2 ways to call an external CSS file – respectively using @import and <link>. If you are uncertain which method to use, here’s few articles to help you decide.

    More – Difference Between @import and link

12. Designing Forms in CSS

    Web forms can be easily design and customize with CSS. These following articles show you how:

    More – Table-less form, Form Garden, Styling even more form controls

    

13. Get Inspired

    If you are looking around for nicely designed CSS-based website for inspiration, or just simply browsing to find some good UI, here are some CSS showcase site we recommend:

    • CSS Remix
    • CSS Reboot
    • CSS Beauty
    • CSS Elite
    • CSS Mania
    • CSS Leak

    

    Need more? Here’s a round up of 74 CSS Galleries.

14. Rounded Corners in CSS

    This following article gives you an idea how to create cross-browser compatible rounded borders with CSS.

    

15. Keep CSS Codes Clean

    If your CSS codes are messy, you are going to end up coding in confusion and having a hard time refereing the previous code. For starters, you can create proper indentation, comment them properly.

    More – 12 Principles For Keeping Your Code Clean, Format CSS Codes Online

16. Typography Measurement: px vs em

    Having problem choosing when to use measurement unit px or em? These following articles might give you a better understanding on the typography units.

    More – Units of Measurement in CSS, CSS Font size explained, Using Points, Pixels, Ems, or Percentages for CSS Fonts

17. CSS Browsers Compatibility Table

    We all know each browser has different ways of rendering CSS styles. It’s good to have a reference, a chart or a list that shows the entire CSS compatibility for each browser.

    CSS support table: #1, #2, #3, #4.

    

18. Design Multicolumns in CSS

    Having problem getting the left, middle and right column to align properly? Here are some articles that might help:

    • In Search of the Holy Grail
    • Faux Columns
    • Top reasons your CSS columns are messed up
    • Litte Boxes (examples)
    • Multi-Column Layouts Climb Out of the Box
    • Absolute Columns

    

19. Get a Free CSS Editors

    Dedicated editors are always better than a notepad. Here are some we recommend:

    More – Simple CSS, Notepad ++, A Style CSS Editor

    

20. Understanding Media Types

    There are few media types when you declare CSS with <link>. print, projection and screen are few of the commonly used types. Understanding and using them in proper ways allow better user accessibility. The following article explains how to deal with CSS Media types.

    More – CSS and Media Types, W3 Media Types, CSS Media Types, CSS2 Media Types

Overview of the Tutorial

It’s impressive how quick and simple it is to create realistic drawings in Photoshop through the use of textures, layers and gradients. This tutorial explores some of these techniques while designing a realistic chalkboard.

The Files

Step 1

Fire up Photoshop and create a new document (I sized mine at 1000×609). Now we need to a background for the chalkboard. Create a dark-green to mid-green radial gradient and fill the background layer with it.

Step 2

Now let’s dirty up the board a bit by adding some noise. Click ‘Filter->Noise->Add Noise’. Change the amount to 1.6%, the distribution to uniform, and make sure monochromatic is checked.

Step 3

In the next few steps we’re going to work on the wooden frame for the chalkboard. In an effort to create it in only a few steps, I decided to use the Fibers filter. I couldn’t find a setting within the filter to change the direction of the fibers, so I created each part of the frame in a separate document, and then placed them into the original chalkboard image.

First off, we’ll make the top part of the frame. Create a new document that’s the same height as the original chalkboard document’s width. Set the width for what you’d like the width of the frame to be. For my tutorial, my original document was 1000×609 so my new document for the top part of the frame is 45×1000. Change your foreground color to a very light gray and your background color to a dark gray. Then click ‘Filter->Render->Fibers’. Change the Variance to something around 3 and the Strength to around 21. Then rotate the document by clicking ‘Image->Image Rotation->90 Degrees CW’.

Step 4

We then need to add some color into our wood grain so click ‘Image->Adjustments->Hue/Saturation. Check on colorize, then change the settings to something around: Hue to 19, Saturation to 33 and Brightness to -20.

Step 5

Add some noise to the wood by clicking ‘Filter->Noise->Add Noise’. Make the amount 1%. Then with the move tool selected, click and drag the top frame to the original chalkboard drawing to place it there. Move it into the correct position. You should have something like what is pictured below.

Step 6

Repeat these steps for the other 3 borders, until you have a simple wood frame. Place the frame layers in an order so that the left and right sides are at the top.

Step 7

Highlight all the wood frame layers, then right click and choose ‘Merge Layers’. Double click on your newly merged layer to bring up the Layer Style window. Add a drop shadow and an inner glow with the following settings.

Step 8

Now that we have a frame, let’s bring our focus back to the chalkboard; it needs to be a little more grungy and textured. I used the Grunge Corner Brush Pack to help me accomplish that. Download that set or use a favorite that you already have. Add a new layer between the background layer and wooden frame layer. Use the eye dropper tool to sample the darkest green color, then paint the four corners with a little grunge in that color. Lower your opacity on this layer to something around 40%.

Step 9

Let’s add a little more color variance to the chalkboard background. Add a new layer above the grunge corners. Change your foreground color to black and your background color to white. Then click ‘Filter->Render->Clouds’. Now blur those clouds by clicking ‘Filter->Blur->Motion Blur’. Change the Angle to 18 and the Distance to 100. Lastly, change that layer’s blend mode to ‘Multiply’ and the opacity to around 30%.

Step 10

In the next two steps I wanted to add the feel of old eraser marks on the board. So create a new layer above the cloud grunge you made in the previous step. Grab the brush tool and set it to the ‘Watercolor Loaded Wet Flat Tip’ brush. Change the brush color to black and the brush opacity to around 30%. Make a bunch of strokes as if you were erasing the board. Release the brush periodically then go over areas again, to darken some areas more than others. Lastly, lower the opacity on the layer itself to around 10%.

Step 11

Add another layer and repeat the same techniques as the last step, but this time make the brush color white and the layer opacity around 5%. You will end up with a result like the one below.

Step 12

Grab a cool hand-written font for the writing. I’m using a font called Christopher Hand. Write a couple of large words on the board. These will serve as some old writings on the board that weren’t quite erased fully. Drop the opacity of your text layers to around 2%.

Step 13

Think of something clever to write on the board with a hand-written font. This time change the layer opacity to 70%. Then grab some of your favorite grunge brushes. I’m using Subtle Grunge Textures and Effects from Function for my design. Add a layer mask by clicking ‘Layer->Layer Mask->Reveal All’. Then, with a black grunge brush, paint on the mask layer to reveal some of the board underneath. This will help give the impression of the inconsistency that chalk creates. Be careful not to overdo the effect.

Step 14

I thought the chalkboard would benefit from a little depth and perspective so I added a couple of extra design elements. First off, design a bottom ledge where some chalk and an eraser could reside. Use the same wood techniques you learned before. Be sure to add a drop shadow and outer glow.

Step 15

To design the eraser, grab the rounded rectangle tool and draw a small rectangle with an edge radius of 1px. Now convert the object to a smart object by clicking ‘Layer->Smart Object->Convert To Smart Object’. This will give you the flexibility to alter the filters we are going to add. First off, add some variation of light and dark by changing your colors to black and white, and clicking ‘Filter->Render->Difference Clouds’.

Step 16

The eraser still needs some help with light and texture so I decided to add a couple more filters. First click ‘Filter->Brush Strokes->Sprayed Strokes’. Then click ‘Filter->Noise->Add Noise’. Refer to the images below for suggestions on the settings you can use. Remember the good thing about working with smart objects is you can always go back and alter your filter settings later.

Step 17

With the bottom of the eraser complete, it’s time to work on the top portion. Select the rounded rectangle tool again and draw a dark gray shape above the bottom of the eraser. Just like in the previous step, convert this shape to a smart object, then add a little noise.

Step 18

In an effort to keep the consistency of the light source be sure to add a slight drop shadow to both layers of the eraser. You should now have something similar to the image below.

Step 19

To polish of the chalkboard I added a couple of pieces of chalk by using very similar techniques to how I created the eraser. Here is my final result.

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap for this tutorial. It’s awesome how simple it is to create a realistic drawing with just a couple of filters, brushes and gradients. I hope you learned a few tricks along the way. Drop me a comment below, and let me know what you thought of this tutorial.