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Free Photoshop Shapes: Download Custom Shapes Sets

Barbara Holbrook — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:00:41 +0000

Photoshop shapes are different than Photoshop brushes, although some people use the terms interchangeably, they refer to completely different tools. Both tools will allow you to easily add custom elements that be stamped out over and over again, used to create patterns, transferred from one design to another, and stored in your Photoshop library for use on your next project.

The big difference between custom brushes and custom shapes is that brushes create a bitmapped element that is permanently painted onto a layer. Custom Photoshop shapes will add an editable vector shape on it’s own layer. This is especially useful because it makes it easy to change the color or size of your custom item should you change your mind while working on the design.

Adding custom brushes and custom shapes to your Photoshop presets is an invaluable timesaver. Today, we’ll help you start your collection with this list of 10 Places to Download Free Custom Shape sets for Photoshop. (...)
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10 WordPress Plugins to Monetize Your Blog

Spencer Spellman — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:00:36 +0000

With the increase in people blogging, and especially the increase of blogs becoming authoritative sources of information, people now want to know how to make money blogging.

Before trying to make money from your blog, it’s important to first start gaining a following. Once you’ve got a strong following, you can begin finding ways to bring in a profit.

Below I’ve listed 10 WordPress plugins that can help you make money from your blog.

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25 Places to Find Awesome Stock Photos — Free and Cheap!

Joel Reyes — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:00:33 +0000

Whether you’re designing an artistic website or searching for images to post on your blog, sites that carry not only free but awesome stock photos may very well come in handy. Utilizing the correct set of photos for any project is key, especially if you’re designing an ad for a client, you should always put in your best effort as well as the best images you can find fit for the job.

Many of the designers I’ve come across like to download most of their images from 2-3 of the largest sites containing stock photos, however as creative artists I believe we should play the mix and match game that allows us to choose from wide variety of stock images instead of the same “old” set of photos we may be fond of.

Giving a project that requires stock images your best should include photos that are not only sharp, but clear as well. Here we’ll have the pleasure to visit a few awesome (25 to be exact) sites that’ll provide all the needed images to fuel any project, job, or site requiring stock photos. (...)
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Web Monitors Uncover Top 100 Blogs and Platforms

Michael Alexander — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:31:40 +0000

Pingdom, a service that monitors Web sites and servers on the Internet, looked at the top 100 blogs on Technorati to find out which blogging platform is used most often. Pingdom distinguishes between blogs that are self-hosted and blogging-service hosted.

The top two self-hosted platforms are Wordpress (27 percent) and Moveable Type (12 percent). The top two platforms that sit on a service are Typepad (16 percent) and Blogsmith (14 percent). When hosted and self-hosted are combined, the top two blogging platforms are Wordpress (32 percent and Typepad (28 percent).

Pingdom compiled the following list of the top 100 blogs, starting with the largest first:

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Cross This Line and You’re Dead and Other Writing Tips

Michael Alexander — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:44:10 +0000

My first writing job was for a small small publishing company that published magazines for consumer electronics and major appliance retailers. Writing for trade magazines is not as glamorous as writing for consumer magazines but the pay is a heck of a lot better.

It was one of those places where the writers did the work of two times as many people. We pounded copy like crazed monkeys including nights and Saturdays when deadlines were on top of us. I wrote my ass off and I learned a lot, thanks to my working for a particularly skillful editor. I also learned to write quickly.

I’ve been banging out copy since and not a day goes by that I’m satisfied with my work. I know I can always do better. It’s a disease.

I’m sorry to be so long winded. I’ve already violated one of rules I learned about writing and that is get to the point quickly. I’m in a reflective mood. If you want to go read someone else’s blog, I’ll understand.

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CSS Frameworks To Consider

Philip Beel — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:00:47 +0000

CSS frameworks may seem like overkill, but more and more support has been given to this ever improving science. Aimed at improving website turnaround time, frameworks aid designers in the build process. This tutorial will show you why CSS frameworks are worth using, along with some possible solutions you can try for yourself — all for free, and easy too.(...)
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Fluid, Fixed and Elastic Web Design, Explained

Philip Beel — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:00:56 +0000

When using CSS to style a website there are three primary layout types available to web designers. This tutorial aims to arm you with the information you need to know to help make a more informed decision when choosing how to design your website projects.

The Options

The three primary layout styles for determining the width of websites — Fluid, Fixed and Elastic. All have their own merits. There are also drawbacks to these design patterns, so it’s important to know the best situation in which to use each type of layout.(...)
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Using Symbols in Illustrator

Carma Leichty — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:00:45 +0000

Symbols can potentially save you a lot of time. Illustrator comes with hundreds of symbols, and there are hundreds more available on the Internet. Before we discuss how to incorporate symbols into our illustrations, let’s define a symbol.

A symbol is an art object that can be used over and over. Each time a symbol is used within an Illustration, it is referred to as an instance of that symbol. An instance of a symbol can be added one-by-one, or can be sprayed onto an illustration via the Symbol Sprayer tool. And, since the original symbol is stored in the symbols panel, one can make a change to the original symbol and that change will be applied to all instances of that symbol. If you are a Flash user, and this is starting to sound very familiar, it is! The use of symbols in Flash is very similar to using symbols in Illustrator.

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Photoshop: Make Everyday Photos Look More Professional

Joel Reyes — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:00:29 +0000

Just about every household has some sort of digital camera laying around. This makes it super simple to take snapshots of everyday events. Using this tutorial, you can make almost any photo look professional — or at least better than amateur. With this simple photo retouching process, you’ll be able to put a professional polish on any photo you take.(...)
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Follow Through on Your Web Design Media with Search Engine Optimization

Michael Alexander — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:00:09 +0000

You don’t have to be an athlete to appreciate a pro golfer’s drive off a tee, a designated baseball hitter’s swing or an Olympic gymnast’s agility on the high bar. Whether it’s distance, power or grace, it all comes from properly following through.

Web designers also need to follow through textually on their designs–whether they’re simple photographs or sophisticated Flash animations. It’s those final steps in the design process that ensure your design is found by searchbots and people alike.

Here’s the big idea: Searchbots feed on keywords. Although they’re tuned to go after formatted text, filenames, HTML tags, captions, multimedia and so on, its all about the keywords you use. Keep that in mind as you read further.(...)
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