The Internet is a place where it can be very difficult to compete for attention. But fortunately, there are also an increasing number of ways that websites can increase their visibility. Owning a business always includes some risk, so business owners should try to reduce this risk as much as possible by looking into business insurance plans at BusinessInsurance.org.
Monthly Archives: February 2012
30 Examples of Some Really Creative Flash Websites
Flash brought a platform for designers to create interactive websites. And interactivity is the thing which makes flash website different from other websites. It comes with a few downsides, for example, it isn’t much SEO-friendly, takes a longer period to load and have some plug-in requirements but overlooking these shortcomings, flash website can be the best option of you want to make your website interactive and interaction by the visitors is what development is all about. Here we are with 30 Examples of Some Really Creative Flash Websites which can help you have ideas to create your own. These websites are amazing and are very creative. I’m sure you will love them. Let’s take a look.
Gotmilk
Vobnedir
Guitar
Lotie
Scruffs Game
Sam Broadbent
Skodayeti
Wonder Wall
HL Fragrance
Home Digital
GT3 Creative
knutselwereld
Mooo You Win !!
Cloudy With a Chance of Meat Balls
Mercedes Benz
Prism Girl
See Blue
The Eco Zoo
Rodrigoqueiroz
National Grid Floe
Coca Cola Happiness Factory
Water Life
Corny Kurier
Aris Labs
SL Dimension
Magnivate
2Advanced Studios
Monoface
Get The Glass
Babybel
20 Tutorials to Build Really Useful WordPress Plugins
The infrastructure of WordPress is incomplete without plugins. With API and the use of hook, WordPress has made the job of writing plugins quite easy and that is such a relief for the users of plugins. Although there are a huge number of free and paid WordPress plugins that are available for you to use in any way you like but we have brought you 20 Tutorials to Build Really Useful WordPress Plugins that are the best around and also the most basic. You can use these or take ideas to build more of your own. So check these out and see how much of help they are to you.
Ten Things Every WordPress Plugin Developer Should Know
Easy WordPress Plugin Development
How to Write Your Own Easy-Administration WordPress Plugin
How to write a WordPress plugin that I’ll use
Create your first WordPress Plugin with custom icon
How to create a “Recent Posts” WordPress Plugin
Create Database Tables for Your WordPress Plugin
How to create your own WordPress functionality plugin
How To Create A Simple WordPress Plugin
Creating a custom functions plugin for end users
Building a WordPress plugin: Tweetable
Writing Your First Plugin for WordPress: A Primer
Create your Own Widget for Displaying Recent Tweets
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Plugin Development
Blank WordPress Plugin Tutorial
Create WordPress Plugins with OOP Techniques
A Crash-Course in WordPress Plugin Development
How to Build a WordPress Plugin
Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch
Writing a Plugin
40+ Amazing Illustrator Tutorials and Gadget Photoshop
Designing for gadgets is an excellent way of improving your general Photoshop skills which will take you to perform bigger tasks and creating designs of your own. And every time you work on these designs, you will learn something new and creative to use it for yourself. I have brought you a collection of 40+ Amazing Illustrator Tutorials and Gadget Photoshop so that you can learn some new tricks and use them to create some of your own. This is one of the most popular and growing graphic software pieces that the design world is moving rapidly to. This post has covered most of the important ones so dig in and have fun designing!
Make a Realistic LCD HDTV from Scratch (Photoshop)
Creating a MacBook from Scratch (Photoshop)
LG LCD Monitor Icon (Photoshop)
Create a Slick Black iMac (Photoshop)
Create a Detailed Camera with Photo Icon (Illustrator)
Create An Aperture Style Camera Lens (Illustrator)
Designing a Canon Digital Camera (Photoshop)
Design a Stylish Retro Game Boy Poster (Photoshop)
How to Create a Super Retro Style Game Controller (Photoshop)
Create a Super Retro Game Cartridge Design (Photoshop)
Designing a Wii Mote Controller (Photoshop)
Design a Nintendo DS Lite (Photoshop)
How to Draw a Microsoft Xbox 360 (Photoshop)
Create a Playstation Portable (Photoshop)
Create a Sony Playstation 3 (Photoshop)
How to Create a Realistic Game Boy (Photoshop)
Create an iPhone Style Vector Phone Illustration (Illustrator)
Create a Sidekick LX Styled Vector Illustration (Illustrator)
Design a Sleek Nature Themed Phone Advert (Photoshop)
Create an iPhone from Scratch (Photoshop)
Draw a Realistic Transparent and Neon Phone (Photoshop)
Design a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (Photoshop)
Create a Realistic Blackberry Style Mobile Phone (Photoshop)
Create a Strawberry Mobile Phone (Photoshop)
Create a Sony Ericsson W800 (Photoshop)
Design an Apple iPhone Mobile (Photoshop)
Create a Mobile Phone Styled like the HTC Touch Diamond (Photoshop)
Draw a Realistic Cell Phone (Photoshop)
Designing a Loox Pocket PC (Photoshop)
Create a Nokia 5300 Cell Phone (Photoshop)
How to Create a Realistic iPhone (Photoshop)
Create an Old TDK Cassette Tape (Illustrator)
How to Create Stereo Headphone Plugs (Illustrator)
Design a Vector Audio Speaker (Illustrator)
How to Make a Bangin’ Woofer Embedded in Wood (Photoshop)
How to Create a Stylish Pair of Headphones (Photoshop)
Creating a CD Player (Photoshop)
Create a Skin for MP3 Player Zune (Photoshop)
Create an MP3 Player Illustration (Photoshop)
Create an MP3 Player Interface (Photoshop)
Design an MP3 Player (Photoshop)
Creating a Custom MP3 Player (Photoshop)
Create a 3D MP3 Player (Photoshop)
Designing a Black Zune 2 (Photoshop)
How to Create a Zen Mosiac MP3 Player (Photoshop)
How to Make Successful Debut in Business Card Designing
When you start out in the professional field, it is the business cards that acts as your identity and also something to give away your impression to the person you are giving the card to. So to give a lasting impression with your business card, it should be a properly designed one from all aspects. It is quite possible that you are not as much experienced with the print world as you would require seeing that how different a business card can seem when it’s actually printed from the one designed and edited on Photoshop. The smart move in this regard would be to take this first print as simply a proof and take this chance to edit and correct stuff in the card and then send it for final printing so that you can be sure that the turnout will be successful.
And here I have brought you some tips that might come useful to you as you set on designing and printing your business card. Let’s have a look.
Keeping in View the Size, Unit and Resolution
The standard business card size is the best option in all cases, with an exception of a few. You surely wouldn’t want someone to leave your card within the depths of their drawers just because it doesn’t fit in their wallet, would you!
The basic settings are to use 1134*720 pixels, that is, 9.6 cm in width and 6.1 in height and the color mode as “CMYK Color”. If you are a Photoshop user, here is what you can do:
- “Edit > Preferences > Units & Rulers
- Change Rulers unit to “cm”
- Type units to “Points”
- Set Print Resolution to “300 pixels/inch”
CMYK – A Better Option than RGB
Most of the web designers who are not involved in print are much like to use RGB color mode. The colors we see on paper are different than what we set on the monitor. Monitors take the additive RGB color mode method which takes the three colors; red, blue and green to produce all the other colors. Whereas we need subtractive colors instead of additive for paper as the light emitted by the monitor is absorbed by the paper.
That is where CMYK color mode comes to use, which is a subtractive method. CMYK uses yellow, black, magenta and cyan to cancel the effect of the blue, green and red to produce other colors so use it for best results.
Saturation
Sometimes the color on print comes out dull and it gets disappointing. So if you want to set it right, you can increase the saturation and hue either by adding a layer of color adjustment or by choosing to add colors to all the elements of your design separately. The final look will seem a little brighter but it will be just fine on paper.
Size of the Text and Logo
A small thing like size of the text and logo holds much importance in making a business card attractive as these are the two things you want the card holder to read the first and remember. The minimum standard size that you can use is 6 points. Put your address and name bigger than other text and bold it to emphasize on it, ½ a point bigger than the rest should do. And about the logo name, it should be at least 12 points to make it distinctive from the rest of the elements.
There are also some other points that you need to pay attention to while designing a business card. The major ones are:
- Make sure that you use the font that is designed exclusively for print otherwise your print will come out to be smaller.
- Common sense implies that a thing as important as a business card needs proper testing and proofreading before sending for the print so that it can save you from the trouble of any inconvenience or loss.
- Keep a balance between your text and the background so that it’s clearly readable.
- You can have fun using your creativity for the business card, however, keep the design simple. As creativity and simplicity combined can do wonders. And ‘keeping simple’ rule is not only applicable to designing a business card but also to print design, programming and web design.
Final Words
A business card may seem just a little piece of card but there is a lot of effort that has to be put to design it to make it impressive. From the size of the font to the type of font; from the color adjustment to the balance between the background color and font and from proofreading to having a test, all this should be done with care and attention to reach at a final result that should be perfect.
60+ Astute Illustrations that Can Give Goosebumps
Illustrations have always been fancy to a lot. It attracts many because of the creativity embossed in them and the thoughts of creator which has been perfectly featured in every illustration. Similar to such qualities Kikariz has created some of the very fine illustrations. They are capable of please you in a way that can match your fancy about illustrations. Ranging from dragons, characters or minimal art everything is in the list of these astute illustrations. So, have a look and feel the power for creativity that has been induced in the art by creator.
30+ Wonders of Digital Art – Visual Delight From Michael Oswald
It is not simple to use ultra modern tools and gadgets to create something unique and aspiring. However, we are lucky to live in times of creative people with brilliant ideas which they translate by using the modern tools. Photoshop is one of it but an amateur cannot think of creating something like what Michael Oswald has done in the given list.
The digital artistic skills are high in demands because they can help you in creating the desired ambiance as compare to putting up sets and all the lighting. In the list you will see how an original picture has been transformed to a completely different outlook. It is amazing and super creative. Let us know if you like it.
19 Required Tutorials to Start Drawing Like An Expert
Ok yes today is not so web design geeky stuff but rather artistic and creative list of tutorials. I thought of planting something people might willing want to do other than their nerdy technical web designing. The art of drawing once was the basic qualification of a designer or artist but today it has been changed. The more photoshop expert you are it means more artistic or creative you are. It is not wrong but isn’t right either.
Drawing has its own unique importance which is not going to go away any time soon. You can make a booklet printing from photoshop but golden touch of a true artist’s hand has its own significance. So, have a look at today’s tutorials they are useful and detailed for those who still have aspirations to become an artist.
How to Draw a Car
Tips for drawing hands
How to Draw Ninja
Traditional Sketch Rendering
How to Create a Three Color Wolf Skull in Illustrator
Inking and Coloring the Comic Strip “The Brads”
Draw the Human Eye
Comic Book Style Graphic Design
Sketching Figures with Lines
Marilyn Portrait Tutorial
Facial Aging
How to Draw Optimus Prime From Transformers
Pet Portrait
Hair drawing tutorial
Drawing a Rose
A Pseudo-Sugar Skull: From Start to Finish
The Dragon Tutorial
Graphite Portrait
Dance of Spring Tutorial
35 Expert HTML5 Tutorials Using Functional Methods
Websites are rapidly changing from HTML to HTML5 which is more advanced in terms of usability and features. HTML is the code language for constructing a website and HTML5 is the fifth entry in the list and has brought forward maximum possibilities to design a website. Most of the ambitious web designers nowadays are trying HTML5 and understanding the possibilities of codes so that they can avoid the use of other not-so-helpful platforms. We have brought 35 Expert HTML5 Tutorials Using Functional Methods for you in our post today so that you can know of this latest advancement and can find ideas and help to use it for your own website. I hope you will benefit from the post.
Check Here For 40 Amazing MooTool Tutorials and Plug-ins
To spice up the beauty of your website and to make it more interactive, there is MooTools which is a framework of Javascript, written in Javascript. MooTools has provided the designers with a light-weight and user-friendly setup which they can use to enhance the functionality of their website. A well-built user interface is what renders a website successful and Javascript, AJAX and CSS are the tools to build it like that. All of these give a designer liberty to build his website with the best of creativity and smoothness that he wants. Check Here For 40 Amazing MooTool Tutorials and Plug-ins we have gathered for you to take help if you are plunging in the world of MooTools. Enjoy!
Checkbox Filtering Using MooTools ElementFilter
This tutorial will use MooTools ElementFilter to make a checkbox filter, for example if you are making a search box, when you type your search in the box, elements with matching text will automatically be checked!
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create a Simple News Scroller Using MooTools
News scrollers are very common on internet because of their effectiveness. In this tutorial you will learn to create a simple news scroller using MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
FancyUpload – Swiff meets Ajax
FancyUpload replaces unobtrusive, queued and multiple-file selection with a fancy animated progress bar. It is very easy to set up and completely customizable using CSS and XHTML.
Download
SqueezeBox – Expandable Lightbox
SqeezeBox is an overly which is designed getting inspired from LightBox. It will display the images in the full size in the same window like LightBox.
Download
Demo
Facebook-Style Modal Box Using MooTools
This tutorial will teach you to combine CSS, Facebook’s imagery and MooTools to create a stylish and lightweight Facebook like Modal Box.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Using MooTools to Instruct Google Analytics to Track Outbound Links
Google Analytical provides important information about your visitors and where they are coming from, and if you want to see what are the exit links then by using MooTools you can direct Google Analytic to track outbound links.
Using CSS and Mootools to simulate Flash horizontal navigation effect
This tutorial explains how to use Mootools and pure CSS / HTML code to simulate a Flash (follow mouse) horizontal navigation effect.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Two CSS vertical menu with show/hide effects
This is a simple tutorial which will teach you to create two vertical menu with hide/shoe effect. One example will use Simple JavaScript and other will use MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
TableGear
TableGear is a software package for working with data on the web. It is designed get your data into a web page, and let you work with it quickly and easily, the way you would in powerful desktop applications like Excel.
Download
Demo
Smooth Scrolling with MooTools Fx.SmoothScroll
Learn to create smooth scrolling effect using MooTools Fx.SmoothScroll.
Sliding Labels Using MooTools
This tutorial will teach you to create sliding labels using little jQuery code. Luckily the effect doesn’t require much MooTools code either!
Download
Demo
Sexy sliding JavaScript side bar menu using mootools
A sliding menu can help you to save a lot of space on your website. This tutorial will use MooTools to create a sexy sliding side bar menu with very smooth sliding effect.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Sexy Animated Tabs Using MooTools
If you have less space and more content to display then you can use tab systems. This tutorial will show you how to create sexy and animated tabs which can handle lot of content in little space.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Morph Effect on mouseenter/mouseleave with Mootools
In this tutorial you will learn to add an elegant morph effect on unordered list on mouseover. Demo can elaborate more about this tutorial.
Tutorial
Download
Demo
MooTools Zoomer Plugin
Zoomer provides an elegant method for zooming in on large images.
Original Link
Demo
MooTools Kwicks Plugin
MooTools Kwick Plugin will enable you to have a hidden detail of an image displayed when you take your cursor on that image.
Original Link
Demo
MooTools CountDown Plugin
I assume every one have used rapidshare at least for one time and had to wait for some seconds for the downloading starts. Using MooTools you can make a similar CountDown plugin by the use of which you can implement the same system that rapidshare is using.
Original Link
Demo
mooSlide
mooSlide replaces common lightbox with Ajax one. You can have any type of content in it like HTML or FLASH, it can slide from top or bottom. It can be very handy to create beautiful sliding login panel.
Download
Demo
mooRainbow
MooFlow
MooFlow give you a completely awesome browsing experience on your website, almost same as you get on apple.com for viewing the products.
Download
Demo
Milkbox
Milkbox is a simple and sleek lightbox clone written for MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Kroppr
Kroppr is an image cropping tool for your website that allows users to rotate, re-size and crop images with minor changes to your site.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
JavaScript drop down menu using Mootools
Drop down menus are very important for any website layout and beauty. So in this tutorial you will learn to create a very easy and unobtrusive drop down menu using MooTools Core Build and the Fx.Slide.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
iPhone-Style Passwords Using MooTools PassShark
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a iPhone-like password field, showing the most recently typed character and hiding previous per normal password fields.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
FancyForm
FancyForm script replaces old checkboxes with the new interactive and flexible checkboxes with Tick being the sign for checked option and cross for the unchecked option.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Facebook Sliders With MooTools and CSS
This tutorial will explain how to create Facebook-style sliders that control the height, width, and opacity of an image.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create Twitter-Style Dropdowns Using MooTools
Well, everybody must have seen the drop-down login menu to twitter. This tutorial will teach you how you can duplicate that functionality of twitter like drop-down menu using MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create Snook-Style Navigation Using MooTools
This tutorial will teach how you can use an image and Mootools to create a slick mouse-over effect.
Create an Animated Sliding Button Using MooTools
Every website should have attractive and good-looking buttons to gain the attention and attraction of readers. If you want to be a successful website owner you need to be creative and should not use the old style boring buttons. In this tutorial you will learn to create an animated sliding button using MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create a Sprited Navigation Menu Using CSS and MooTools
In this tutorial your will learn to create a sprited navigation menu using CSS and Mootools
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create a Spectacular Photo Gallery with MooTools
In this tutorial, you will learn to combine many of MooTools’s features to create a nice and simple photo gallery.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create a Simple, Powerful Product Highlighter with MooTools
In this tutorial we’ll be creating a flexible tool for highlighting the products or services available on your website using the MooTools; a JavaScript framework.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Create a Quick MooTools Slideshow with Preloading Images
This code will let you learn how to create a simple image slideshow using MooTools with the feature of pre-loading the images; which looks more elegant and enhance the pleasure of viewing the images.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Better Pull Quotes with MooTools
This tutorial will use MooTools to create a great-looking pull quotes which will automatically display quotes without repeating any content.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Background Animations Using MooTools
Mootools a JavaScript framework made animation very easy. This tutorial will show how you can use animated effect in your website.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
AutoGrow Textarea MooTools Plug-In
This MooTools plug-in expands a text-area as the user types something in it. This version is based on the jQuery plug-in developed by Chrys Bader (www.chrysbader.com).
Read Download Plug-in
Demo
AutoCompleter
You must have noticed Google giving suggestion about your search queries in a drop down. This Auto-completer script provide the same facility for text suggestion and completion using MooTools.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
AJAX Username Availability Checker Using MooTools 1.2
Almost every website offering membership to its readers needs username availability checker to facilitate users in a way that they know if their desired username is available or already registered on the specific site. So here is a tutorial on how you can implement a username availability checker using MooTools 1.2.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
Sexy Alert Box
Sexy Alert Box replaces old fashion and abruptly appearing alerts with good-looking ans smoothly appearing Alerts using MooTools 1.2 or up.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
How to Auto Caption Images Using MooTools
In this tutorial your will write a simple script that will select all images with the class of captioned, Take its title attribute or alt attribute and Display it right below the image.
Read Full Tutorial
Demo
This tutorial will teach how you can use an image and Mootools to create a slick mouse-over effect.