Scripts Guru

DragonArtz is presenting 94, very nice & free, background images in PNG format.
Images are very ideal to be used for any purpose including website, banner design, etc.


Images are in 4167*4167px size & in different colors / designs.
There is also full-preview of the images at the DragonArtz website.

Website: http://konigi.com/tools/wireframe-magnets-diy-kit

Website: http://www.boxuk.com/blog/the-ultimate-website-launc...

Badges are a key requirement for any basic website too. Here is a set of very cool Web 2.0 Badges for you in .PSD and .PNG formats.
There are a lot of badges out there… But the best thing to notice in these set of badges are that they are extremely customizable. Just follow the steps below…

• Open the .PSD file in Photoshop
• Choose and get into the Badge ( group ) you wish to use
• Double click on the base layer to get the Layer Style window
• Move to the Gradients section
• Choose any gradient and the badge is ready to use.
• Optional - Customize the text to be displayed on the badge ( you will find the text in the first group)

Blender is an open source 3D content creation suite.
It is an all-in-one package for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, and gaming.



User interface of Blender is formed of boxes, where all of them can be moved for the max. flexibility for not being blocked by the UI.
Advanced animations & the integrated game engine can be controlled with Python scripting which also makes developers a part of the game rather than only the designers.
A very detailed feature list can be found here.
The software has a large community & is very well-documented which makes it easier to improve your skills.

An open source game built with Blender:

Yo Frankie! is an open source game built with Blender & its integrated game engine.
The game is also like a source of information (as you can download the source files) for anyone planning to develop games with the application.
P.S. Anyone into 3D design is probably aware of Blender but this post is published considering it may be helpful to fresh 3D designers.

Favicons are one of the must-haves of websites.

They help making:

• a website unique
• easier to differenciate between tabs
• easier to find in bookmarks..

favikon is an easy to use online favicon creator.
You upload an image, if the image uploaded is bigger than a standard favikon size, you can crop it & that’s it.

Website: http://favikon.com/

LogoInstant.com is a website presenting modern & free logo designs.
There are currently 10+ logos, which is not so much, but new ones are added regularly.



Download packages include the PSD source of the logos & fonts used.
All the designs provided totally free & can be used to get inspired, in clients works & so.

deploy* is an open source web application that enables you to create your web project framework with ease.

It lets you to choose the:

• x(html) document type
• css file (blank or with resets)
• jQuery to be included or not. If yes, ask for some popular plugins
• major directories like images, includes to be added

Once the link that creates to project framework is bookmarked, same framework can be created with just a click.
The idea itself is very nice: "instantly starting a project with the preferred structure". If more libraries, CSS frameworks would be supported, it can become much more flexible (as it is open source, anyone can add these).

Requirements: No Requirements
Website: http://projectdeploy.org/

Circular is a set of 100+ quality & free icons ideal for any web application.
Icons are in 16*16px size & transparent PNG format.

The set includes icons like:

• arrows
• add-remove-edit
• folders
• currency
• play-stop-pause
• flags
• e-mail, tags & more..

Website: http://prothemedesign.com/free-webdesign-tools/circu...

Info: Every user / developer has different experiences. Any more tips that you share in the comments will be appreciated.

"Why is my website slow?" is a popular question. And it is a vital problem for a website.
Faster the website, happier & more the visitors. That’s a well-known fact.
There are several factors that may slow a website. In general, all of them can be solved. This just depends on how much effort you can spend on it.

How much time do you have?

You may not have enough time to spend on speeding up your website. Depending on your free time, you may choose the steps to apply like mentioned below:

• I have very limited time: Apply step-1, step-2, step-4 & step-5 (only the compression parts) and step-6.
• I have some time: Apply all of them except step-3 & step-8.
• I rule the time: Go with them all.

Most of the tips are the ones that you probably know. So, you can use the list as a checklist (which it normally is in my "customer notes sheet" : ) ).
Here are the tips:

1. Get A Fast & Less-Loaded Web Server

This is a must. Whatever you do to make your website faster, if it is served slow, there’s nothing to do.
Make sure that the server your website is hosted has low ping values & it is not over-loaded. Specially if you’ve a database and/or using dynamic files (like asp, asp.net, php, ruby..) server over-load can kill the performance.
If you’ve a simple website with few visitors then shared hosting is ok. For a website getting popular, think of a VPS with guaranteed RAM & CPU usage. If the website is already popular, a dedicated server will be the best performing one.

2. Know When To Use GIF, JPG & PNG Files. 

Playing with the quality of images will dramatically lower the sizes of them while they will still be looking good.
GIF is suitable for images with few colors like logos, text & line art. When saving a GIF file, make sure you use a small color pallette (learn more).
JPG is good for images with lots of colors & details like photographs. Decrease the quality of a JPG image before saving. It will still look good for a web image (learn more).
PNG, a format specially for websites, has great quality - both transparent & non-transparent - is specially functional when you’re in need of quality transparent images. Don’t forget that IE6 has problems in displaying them (learn more).

3. Use XHTML - No Tables

This is easy to tell but may be harder to implement for anyone that has few experience with XHTML.
The thing is, tables are rendered slower than DIVs by browsers. You can do more with less code & no need to say it is much better to be compatible with any browser (including mobile browsers), in means of SEO, etc..

4. Use CSS Smartly & Compressed

• Mention every style in CSS files.
• Find the common properties in objects, define them once & try not to repeat them.
• If using a significant amount of totally different properties for a specific page, define them in another CSS file & only include on that page. So users viewing other pages won’t need to download those properties.
• Compress your CSS file (you may try this, this or this).

5. Merge & Compress JavaScript Files

Try merging JavaScript files prevent multiple includes (see step 6).
If a JavaScript file will be used only in few pages, try to include them inside those pages only (like CSS in step 4).
Compress JavaScript files. It lowers the size seriously & doesn’t have any bad effects on your side. This & this are some of the popular compressors.

6. Manage Included Files Better

There may be several files included in webpages like CSS files, JavaScript files and other JavaScript files for statistic services, social bookmarking sites, widgets & more.
Try to decrease the number of these files:

• If using digg-reddit-like voting widgets, don’t use them in stories that won’t hit the frontpage & remove the ones that were submitted few days ago as they won’t have any help after sometime.
• Use only 1 statistic service if possible. Every web-based service requires new files to be installed & they are called each time a page is loaded.
• Host files on your side & don’t use web addresses as file paths.
  • If you’re using any JS frameworks like jQuery or MooTools, don’t call the .js files from their websites but download & upload them to your website.
  • Don’t try to call any file from a web address like "http://.." as this always requires dns queries to be done & will work slower.
• PHP Speedy (WRD post)is a very effective solution that does all the combining & compressing automatically. You may want to try it.

7. Use HTTP Compression

HTTP compression is one of the most effective step with a little effort.
Today, almost every browser & web server supports HTTP compression. Using it, your files are sent to the visitor compressed & un-compressed on their side & you can have up to 90% success for the text based files (like HTML).
You have 2 popular choices with this:

• HTTP compression: a feature of the web server (can be enabled on the server side)
• Gzip: can be enabled at the site level. Here are more details.
• Further readings:
  • HTTP Compression at Wikipedia
  • Speed Web Delivery With HTTP Compression - By IBM DeveloperWorks
    

8. Better Coding

This is for websites which does not use any ready-to-use systems like Wordpress, Drupal, ExpressionEngine or similar (if you’re using these then you’re lucky as they are already well-coded).
Besides the better XHTML & CSS coding, the dynamic coding of the website directly effects the performance.
As you can guess, this is a huge subject. But there are some major things like:

• Seperate the static & dynamic content. This will help writing less-code.
• Create smart & effective functions. For ex: if you’re going to use a user’s name & birthdate at the same page, don’t run 2 queries or functions, your function must call 2 of them. Simply, try to do everything once.
• Connect to the database as few as you can & once connected, call only the data you need.
• Try to keep database sizes small. If you’ve a large database, sometimes seperating it into several databases perform better, specially for the data which is reached not so often. From the server’s point of view: 4-250mbs of dbs perform better than 1-1gb of db.

9. Cache Webpages

Caching is a superb way of decreasing the stress on the server by running more static files & less queries. It simply saves a static, HTML version of the page to be displayed & displays that file rather than the dynamic one.
For CMS applications like Wordpress, there are already ready-to-use caching plugins (like WP-Cache). For PHP, here is a great article from SitePoint.
A small note, caching can also be done at the web server level. But if you’re on a shared hosting account, you better be lucky to have it on.

What Do You Suggest?

Besides the tips mentioned above, what are your tips to make websites faster?

http://www.freshtemplates.com/
http://www.zerodollartemplates.com/
http://www.effex-media.com/
http://www.templatesbox.com/
http://www.mastertemplates.com/free-templates.htm
http://www.templateyes.com/
http://www.templateworkz.com/
http://www.4layouts.com/
http://www.templatehunter.com/topsite/in.php?id=4layout
http://www.freetemplates.ca/templates/
http://www.freephotoshoptemplates.com/index.html
http://www.freewebtemplatesnow.com/
http://www.zymic.com/
http://www.adesdesign.net/
http://www.notemplates.com/
http://www.freepsd.com/
http://www.zeroweb.org/
http://www.entheosweb.com/

For easier & realistic iPhone application interface designs, 320480 presents a free iPhone interface PSD file for download.


This iPhone PSD file consists most iPhone screen elements & has sensible layer sets.

Website: http://www.320480.com

This is the video version of the tutorial I’ve presented you in a last post about creating a Sin City style image with Photoshop. This is also created with photoshop, but for most users seeing it done is easier than reading a tutorial. What do you think ?

As a graphic designer, the practice of prowling the web for the latest trends, tips and tricks is a common one. Here we have composed a list of common resources we use. The primary focus of this list is inspiration, it can come from a photograph, font, or a website. The secondary focus is improving your design skills, which can be done by keeping up to date with tutorials and reading other graphic design blogs. We hope you enjoy our personal list of great sites, and we will be adding to this list in the coming weeks and months as there are a lot of great new sites coming online every other day now.

Free Font Downloads

Free Fonts and Other Resources: Web Page Publicity
Huge Collection of Free Fonts: Da Font
Nice Selection of Free Fonts: Urban Fonts
Fonts and Other Freebies: Simply The Best Fonts
1001 Free Fonts for Download: 1001 Free Fonts
Over 9000 Free Fonts: Creamundo
A Small List of Free Fonts: Best Free Fonts

Paid Font Sites

A Large Selection of Fonts for Purchase: My Fonts
Quality Fonts for Purchase: Veer
Information and Fonts for Purchase: Fonts
Font Resources and Sales: Font Haus

Stock Photos and Vectors

The Best Stock Photo and Vector Website: iStockphoto
Quality Photos for Purchase: Shutterstock
Stock Photos and Other Pay Downloads: Veer
Quality, Affordable Vectors for Purchase: Vector Stock
Stock Photos With a Great Selection: Jupiter Images
Stock Photos and Photography Network: Stock Vault
Quality Stock Photos: Corbis

Free Photos and Vectors

Submit Vectors or Download Others for Free: Open Source Vector Art
Tons of Great Free Vectors and Photos: Deviant Art
59 Pages of Free Vector Art: Free Vectors
Large Gallery of Free Vectors: Vecteezy
Quality Vector Downloads: Vector 4 Free
Neat Collection of Free Photos From Around the World: Free Stock Photos
Great Collection of Free Vectors and Resources: You The Designer
Great Free Stock Photos: Free Foto
A List of Free Downloads: Bittbox
700 Free Stock Photos: Free Picture Click

Website Templates

A Few High Quality Wordpress Themes: Evan Eckard
Over 2000 Free Web Templates: OSWD
A Small Selection of Nice Templates: Open Source Templates
A Large List of Free Templates: Free CSS Templates
Nice Wordpress Templates for Download: Free CSS Templates
A Combination of Free and Pay Templates: Free Templates Online
Affordable, Quality Templates: Templamatic
Free Blog Templates: Blogging Themes

CSS Galleries

The Best Sites on the Web: CSS Remix
A Frequently Updated Gallery of Sites: CSS Mania
An Organized List of Nice Sites: Most Inspired
CSS Gallery of Quality Sites: CSS Design Yorkshire
A Selection of Only Nature Based Sites: CSS Nature
A Selective List of Well Designed Sites: Web Creme
High Quality CSS Showcase: CSS Tux
Nice CSS Websites: The Designed Tree
A CSS Collection Organized by Category: CSS Elite

Inspiration

A Great Site About Everything Type: I Love Typography
An Incredible Illustrator: Burst of Beaden
A Great Designer and Illustrator: Fully Illustrated
Customizable List of Design Resources: Cork Dump
The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada: GDC
Freelance Advice Blog and Resources: Freelance Switch
Amazing Collection of Logos: Logopond
Stunning Desktop Wallpapers: Desktopography
A Graphic Design Magazine: Computer Arts

Tutorials

The Best Photoshop Tutorials: PSD Tuts
A Talented Photoshop Designer: Abduzeedo
Photoshop Tutorials and Web Design Resources: Web Design Library
Tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator and More: Tutorial Vault
A Few Neat Illustrator and Photoshop Tutorials: Design Spice
Great Photoshop Tutorials and Downloads: PS Wish
Tutorials for Every Computer Program: Tutorialing

Free Photoshop Downloads

A Couple Free Patterns for Download: Design Spice
Free Photoshop Brushes: Design Fruit
Free Photoshop Actions: Visual Blast
Tons of Free Photoshop Brushes: Brusheezy
A Few Nice Free Photoshop Brushes: Obsidian Dawn
Great Grunge Brushes and Others: Photoshop Brushes
Free Background Patterns for Photoshop: Free BG
Over 150 Free Background Patterns: Squidfingers

Design Blogs

A Frequently Updated Design Blog: Veerle’s Blog
A Design Magazine and Blog: Smashing Magazine
A European Design Blog: Design In Europe
A Unique Nerdy Blog: Design You Trust
The Personal Blog of a Graphic Designer: Larissa Meek
A German Design Blog: David Hellmann
The Blog of a Canadian Geek/Model: Mostly Lisa
A Graphic Design Blog: Bittbox
A Blog About Freelance Graphic Design Advice: Freelance Switch
A Design Blog Full of Resources: You The Designer
A Popular Design Blog: Fazai 38

Colour Palettes

A Flash Site of User Generated Colour Palettes: Adobe Kuler
Using Colours From Photos: Colr
Colours, Palettes and Patterns: COLOURlovers
A Colour Palette Generated From Your Images: Color Palette Generator
See The Results of Your Palette on a Website: Color Spire
Create and Email Colour Palettes: Color Blender

Tips and Tricks

Vector Do’s and Dont’s: iStockphoto
The Web Design Polish: PSD Tuts
Promote Your Design Business: Freelance Switch
How To Increase Web Traffic: You The Designer

Coders

Quality Programming: XHTMLized
Professional Web Slicing: PSD Slicing
XHTML in 24 Hours: We Use Scissors
Affordable, Quality Coding: PSD2HTML
From Design to Code, Quick and Cheap: Front Enders

Designer Geek Merch

Great Nerdy Clothing and Accessories: Veer
Nice T-Shirt Collection: Design Loot
Graphic Design T-Shirts and Accessories: Cafepress
Geek Merchandise For Everyone: Think Geek
Graphic Design T-Shirts: Zazzle
Unique T-Shirt Designs You Can’t Find Anywhere Else: Allmightys

BgPatterns is a pattern library where you can find, create & share patterns.

You can create the patterns from ready-to-use images by changing the colors & canvas and scaling or rotating them. And this process is done with a slick interface.

The pattern design interface lets you preview them easily.

And, you can also check the recently created and popular patterns.

Website: http://bgpatterns.com/

Icojoy has beautiful free icon sets including web development icon sets, pixel icon sets, rss icon sets & smiley icons.

This is the 4th part of their web development icon sets. Click here to find their all free icons.Package: 60 icons
Sizes: 24×24
File Types: .png, .ico, .tif, .gif, .bmp
Colors: Colored with and without shadows, with a subtle gray shade and transparent. .Bmp, .gif formats are optimized for lighter backgrounds

Website: http://www.icojoy.com/articles/26/

80 HQ JPG | 143 MB | RS