Web typography is something unique. Over the years, it has suffered because of a comparison with printed typography. And despite numerous and obvious similarites, it is the fundamental differences between the two disciplines that have caused problems. It's time to recover the control of your typography.

Read more...

Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

Packt Publishing is a modern, unique publishing company with a focus on producing cutting-edge books for communities of developers, administrators, and newbies alike.

What happens when you mix both? You get a free eBook titled "Building Websites with Joomla!".

Read more...

Web design isn't 100% about design, we know that. It's a complex mix that requires several ingredients to be effective. In every webdesigner, there should be a graphic expert, a useability guru and a marketing specialist. That's a lot of things to combine.

In their neverending quest for excellence, our friends from Smashing Magazine wrote two extremely interesting articles over the basic principles of effective web design. These articles do not discuss implementation, code or design per se, but rather focus on the theory, the principles, the heuristics and the approaches for an effective web design.

Keep in mind that there's no magical receipt; creating a website with an high value requires a lot of work. You won't become the next "big man" after you've read those articles. But you'll better understand some key concepts like avoiding to squander users' patience, make use of effective writing, using fluid and minimalistic designs, and adressing the user's needs and expectations — certainly the most important one, and also the least implemented one...

» Article #1: 10 Principles of Effective Web Design
» Article #2: 5 More Principles of Effective Web Design

Photoshop Lady is a new online repository for graphic designers and graphic artists, that aims to provide the best existing Photoshop tutorials in one single location.

This repository is updated daily, and categorizes the tutorials into 3D Effect, Abstract Effect, Drawing Effect, Photo Effect, Text Effect, Texture & Patterns and User Interface Design. You can also bookmark your favorite tutorials easily and create your own private tutorial collection.

» Visit Photoshop Lady

Web design is a complex discipline that involves a wide range of skills. Often, some of the most basic skills are lacking in many web site designs. Those basic skills are quite simple, but can be hard to gain because of a lack of teaching material.

Read more...

The folks at Smashing Magazine are a perpetual source of inspiration for the webdesign community, as they continuously provide quality references on design, coding techniques, resources, and much more.

Always searching for the best tutorials out there, we found in their columns a very interesting article on the CSS Float Theory. It might not be the latest one, but it's extremely well documented and very informative.

» CSS Float Theory: Things You Should Know

We all love vector art, but we might not all master the essentials of vector drawing. In order to unleash the creative beast in us, n-Design Studios, a well-known player in the web industry, has released several free, step-by-step Adobe Illustrator tutorials. Make sure you take a look at these, you'll be amazed how easy certain things can be after all...

» n-Design Studios Illustrator Tutorials