Hongkiat.com: [Freebie] “ThinkJuice” Product Site PSD Template Set

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[Freebie] “ThinkJuice” Product Site PSD Template Set Posted: 24 May 2011 04:03 AM PDT This exclusive freebie is a pack of 6-page product website templates in Photoshop format. The design uses a clean, slick and professional look throughout the templates so it’s especially designed for website selling products/ services. The design is also ideal for your business or corporate needs. The design comes in 6 templates: Homepage, Pricing page, Tour page, Portfolio page, Image Popup page (lightbox) and Contact page. All pages are fully-layered .PSD files, and are neatly organized in folders for easy identification and necessary editing of logo, text and graphics. Since the templates are all ready for slicing, you can get them coded with appropriate modifications to fit your business needs. These product website PSD templates are created by GraphicsFuel and released exclusively for Hongkiat readers, so you can use them for your personal or commercial purposes. Redistribution is prohibited. Preview of "ThinkJuice" Templates Let’s take a look at what’s included: (Homepage) (Portfolio page) (Portfolio popup page) (Contact page) (Pricing page) (Video tour page) Download All 5 Photoshop PSD files are included in the following single zip file. Download "ThinkJuice" Product Website PSD templates (42.4Mb)

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Hongkiat.com: 9 Ideas for Building Great Websites With Less

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9 Ideas for Building Great Websites With Less Posted: 23 May 2011 06:48 AM PDT We all know how laborious web work can be. It’s not a task for the faint hearted and generally requires a year or more of study to really grasp. As our era has progressed we’ve seen brilliant ideas and innovations ushering the online community towards open source and sharing. The construction of a website has truly evolved into a multi-layered process. You must consider the webpage graphics, coding front-end styles and layout, server hosting, and possibly back-end programming to boot. Developers have been toying with these systems for years and finally we’ve reached a point of interest, but it will be extremely exhausting if you are going to handle all these works completely by yourselves. (Image source: Shutterstock) Below I’ve shared some helpful resources for planning great website designs efficiently. These come in many forms throughout the entire creative process. Although this isn’t an exhaustive list I hope to touch upon resources helpful to experts and beginners alike. 1. Leave it to the experts From icon designers to programmers around the world we’ve all got differing skill sets of varying magnitude. We don’t frequently envision ourselves as super heroes looking to build skills beyond the point of mastery. However to become a creative artist and programmer is a true gift. For those of us focusing into a specific niche, external help should be warmly welcomed. It can expedite the process of building a website tenfold and offers a unique experience to work within a team setting. Some of the best PSD to HTML services include psd2html and xhtmlchop.com, Google "PSD to HTML services" to get more, or check out a list of 100+ services here. The physical process of sitting down to code a Photoshop document into HTML/CSS can be annoying. Especially if you’ve been coding for many years as the repetition becomes dull and almost antiquated. Many of these services promise 24 hour delivery and will even offer discounts for sub-page designs. If you’re interested in coding but fall behind with design skills I’d recommend browsing some of the digital artist networks. These include Dribbble and DesignMoo where graphic designers can post and share their latest works. Generally you’ll also find a portfolio display page for each artist including contact information such as e-mail, Twitter, or IM chat. 2. Outsourcing Solutions There are great examples of freelancers offering their services to support project studios. But with today’s current level of communication there are many instances where freelancers will be working hand-in-hand to complete project work. Even possibly from two distinct locations around the globe! With the release of so many freelance communities it’s never been easier for designers and developers to meet up and work together. A great community Programmer Meet Designer allows for both web developers and designers to message and share ideas for projects. This is a relatively unknown network and still works as a small ring of professionals. Alternatively you may be looking for work as a freelancer and finding jobs difficult. This is where the many job boards from around the Internet show their use. Such companies as Fresh Web Jobs and Krop are only a few examples of the many freelance opportunities. Each is updated daily and offer full descriptions along with contact info. 3. Utilize Open Source One of the best inventions from today’s web development community has to be open source software. There are countless efforts being worked upon every day to supplement and improve existing libraries. jQuery and MooTools are two of the hundreds of JavaScript libraries which stand out from the rest based on simple tutorials and reputation. However, JavaScript is not the only open protocol having been worked on. Literally hundreds of thousands of developers are sharing and contributing packages of code on GitHub every day. Languages include PHP, CSS, SQL, ASP, Objective-C, Java, and so many more! WordPress, a blogging platform developed by Matt Mullenweg and has grown historically over the past few years, is possibly the epitome of open-source success projects. It seems impressive looking at so many smaller packages being sifted through the web, but WordPress powers millions of websites and hosts thousands of developers working on their backend. The whole package is free to download and very simple to install. The official company website wordpress.org offers links and tutorials for developers interested in building WP themes and plugins. We’ve also sponsored an introductory tutorial on WP plugins for beginning programmers. Similarly there’s an official gallery boasting an impressive amount of free plugins for all WordPress users to enjoy. For those of you who are looking for open source e-commerce scripts, check out this post. 4. Designing Own Icons – Not required Moving towards the graphics and animation side of design we still see an open and sharing community. Web designers enjoy not only sharing their artwork into the world but helping others to promote their ideas. Graphics are some of the most complicated aspects of a website. This holds especially true since top-notch graphic designers are tough to come by. Many of the free icon sets such as FamFamFam, Wefunction, Fugue, and more, disclose their downloads as free to use upon retribution links or crediting their work. This seems like a simple trade-off for unlimited uses! Another fantastic service Icon Finder behaves as a search engine for the most popular icon sets. Often if you’re browsing through Google search results there are hundreds of web design blogs showcasing the best free icons. These have also been shared into such engines as Icon Finder to make building websites even quicker. 5. Better deal in Hosting & File Sharing We can all use some extra money these days. Even as web designers it’s important to seek out those companies which offer deals and support the freelance generation. Web hosting is just one of the many expenses to be considered. Often times you can find coupons on related websites which save money on purchases of domain names and server space. hostingcoupons.org is one of my favorite websites. Updated daily, you can check the home page for bargains on domains up to $1.99/piece and many options for server environments. File sharing has become an important part of the web designer’s lifestyle. There are paid and free services available, and if you know somebody in the business it’s not difficult gaining a membership account. For the rest consider browsing our file sharing alternatives which provides completely free support for all users. 6. Free Performance checking Website applications are the latest trend busting through the digital seams. From mobile to in-browser apps it appears almost anything can be completed on a computer these days. For webmasters it’s important to know of the many free opportunities for mechanical testing and website maintenance. If you’re like most of us then website uptime is of grave concern. Having your website go down for even a few minutes can become catastrophic to your traffic numbers, not to mention deeply confusing to your visitors. Pingdom is a free tool all webmasters should use to check response codes from their web server. This is a sure-fire way to keep tabs on your backend and monitor performance from behind the scenes. Another great service, Google Webmasters allows for developers to claim ownership of their site. This can be done with a sitemap, meta tag, or other alternatives provided by Google. If you use a Google account it’s possible to store RSS data and even track keywords for individual websites. The app is 100% free and allows you to store unlimited website connections! 7. Code Editors Can Be Cheap (or Free) Whether we like to admit it most web designers tend to dabble in some form of web development. It’s only for those truly gifted in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator who do not venture into HTML and CSS design. For programmers frontend and backend alike it can be difficult finding a comfortable work environment. Adobe offers Dreamweaver which supports code highlighting in many languages, but unfortunately will cost quite a bit of money. We’ve reviewed the top 10 free source code editors and have offered direct download links to each page. If you’re just getting started into coding I highly recommend spending some time researching into these. Your development environment is crucial and will have effects on how you write code. Many of these editors are Windows-specific, and although you may find a few Mac friendly options I recommend Panic’s Coda – a way cheaper code editors (compared to Adobe Dreamweaver) for serious web development. 8. Pick up Some Starter Kits Now that you’ve got a solid idea about the services and programs available try downloading a few starter kits to get you going. As web designers it’s important to focus our conscious attention towards creativity and spurring new ideas for layout platforms. Over the past few years designers have slowly released free packages of icons, templates, form elements, GUI components, and many similar works. Please do peruse our list of web designer starter kits to see if anything catches your eye. Photoshop layout work isn’t always the easiest to complete. Often we find ourselves doubting and re-engaging to correct color schemes and placement. The old adage “practice makes perfect” seems to hold very true in this scenario, along with many others. And these basic starter kits should get you off on the right foot! 9. Always Keep Up with Study Time As time moves on we all tend to lose interest in activities. If you’re truly passionate about web design you should keep yourself motivated and studying new topics. Consider opening your mind to a development language or practicing a new piece of software. The tools online today are more advanced than ever before in helping budding young web designers pick up the prize. The Web Design Library was originally launched under Template Monster along with Jetimpex Inc, and has continued into a catalogue of very popular tutorials. The website is updated daily with new links and showcase items for inspiration. The site also interlinks between many partner venues including Template Ninajas. This results in daily deals which you can’t find anywhere else – sometimes even demos or freebies! Website templates are a great place to get started when you’re unfamiliar with constructing a webpage layout or just need some new ideas. I would also highly recommend the Tuts+ Network created by Envato. They host thousands of tutorials ranging from Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML5, ActionScript, vector shapes, and even photography. Some of their code requires a membership to download but all tutorials are free to follow and offer step-by-step instructions to ease the learning cycle. Along with the written articles most of the comments will also offer great advice. The whole network is run by web designers and read by web designers, so you can be certain of high-quality feedback. Conclusion These methods should get you started on a thunderous path towards web design enlightenment. The best tricks of the trade have been passed down for years through the Internet community. And likewise as the amount of web designers have increased more open standards have been created. Consider some of the ideas presented above and spend some time browsing through interesting articles or tutorials. Even familiarizing yourself with fresh material can jog your brain and get you thinking into an elevated design mindset. If you’ve got similar ideas feel free to share them in the comments section below.

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Hongkiat.com: HTML5-Powered Web Applications: 19 Early Adopters

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HTML5-Powered Web Applications: 19 Early Adopters Posted: 20 May 2011 04:08 AM PDT HTML5, rumored as Flash killer, is a brand new web technology that raises a revolution lead by Apple in web application development. It contains canvas element for images and animation drawings, support video and audio embedding, and includes storage database for offline web applications. Most important of all, you don’t need a plugin to get all these features, your latest browser supports that. Sounds pretty cool, but what HTML5 can do actually? Well, this post is going to satisfy your curiosity about the power of HTML5 by showing you a series of practical HTML5-powered web applications such as drawing application, chart creating application and time management application. So there’s no technical document anymore, let your eyes witness the true potential of HTML5! 19 HTML5-Powered Web App DeviantART muro Muro is HTML5-based sketching app that works in all modern browsers, and you can dive in and start drawing on a blank canvas, all without Flash or any other plugin. There are several brushes available to everyone, but to access more advanced features, you’ll need a DeviantArt account. HootSuite HTML5-based social media dashboard with some great features: geo-location tweet searching, choice between new and old style retweets, connection to Google Analytics, drag and drop editing, custom interface and much more. Perfect online tool for professional brand management. X-Worlds Something cool and interesting for kids of all sizes. You can submit a drawing of your character and watch it transform into an awesome illustration. Be the next X-world superhero! Aviary’s Image Editor HTML5-powered photo editor which is easy to use and surprisingly powerful. Beyond its use of HTML5 (as opposed to Flash, Silverlight or other RIA frameworks), what sets this app apart is that it’s designed to be portable so developers can directly integrate it into their sites or apps. CSSWarp CSSWarp is online tool that allows you to attach any text to a curved path or a circle, then create warped text with pure CSS and HTML. Flickr Browser Flickr Browser is an unique HTML5 app for browsing Flickr photos with cool approach. CSS3.0 Maker A great app for developers. It makes use of sliders and even a live preview area to generate cross-browser markup. Coolendar A HTML5-based calendar web app. Simple and clean interface and useful features for effective time management. Twimbow Twimbow is a colorful, HTML5 and CSS3 based Twitter client with a focus on filtering. The interface looks similar to TweetDeck and Seesmic, but its main distinction lies in its colourful interface. You can assign different colours to different users and groups, and also change the colour of tweets by adding a color tag! Sketchpad Sketchpad by Mugtug is a Pixelmator-like application that has desktop-like tools, colour selection, patterns, swatches and much more. CloudCanvas Cloud Canvas is a free HTML-5 based cloud image editor. This is a fully featured online image editor that allows you to create and save digital media. All content saved will be in PNG and XML format and stored in Google Documents. Lislis Painter Another interesting web app based on HTML5. Basic tools, layers and other features make this app an useful sketching tool online. Scribd This version of Scribd is a Flash and HTML5-based web app that provides in-browser access to all sorts of documents and e-books uploaded by users. Google Body Browser Google Body Browser is a cool web app powered with WebGL for study use. WebGL is a cross-platform low-level 3D graphics API that is designed to bring plugin-free 3D to the web. It uses the HTML5 Canvas element and does not require Flash, Java or other graphical plugins to run. LucidChart LucidChart is a great online tool for creating charts and diagrams. It works very fast and smooth, a perfect tool for team collaboration online. Diagramo Diagramo is an interactive online application, which allows you to make diagrams and flowcharts from within a web browser. It also allows you to create, edit and share diagrams, organizational charts, network diagrams and graphs. The diagrams can be saved for a lifetime. Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator Colorzilla has designed this very easy to use CSS3 gradient generator. It uses sliders and color pickers just like Photoshop and is highly recommended. Citicles Citicles is an experimental HTML5 visualizator that aggregates basic information about a city and displays it in a simple circle design. Each circle encloses the city’s population, temperature, time, elevation, latitude and longitude. Tiny Fluid Grid This grid generator with great design lets you generate a grid framework using simple options and even includes a preview page for you to make sure your grid looks perfect.

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Hongkiat.com: Showcase of Dazzling Light Painting Artworks

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Showcase of Dazzling Light Painting Artworks Posted: 18 May 2011 07:07 AM PDT It can be said that light is the source of all art. It’s because you see an artwork by not only using your eyes, but also rely on the light that makes the art visible. But the situation is gonna be different in this post as the light is not only something that makes the art visible, but the main focus of beautiful artworks with help from light painters. Yes, it’s called light painting, a cool photographic technique which aims to utilize light into something that can be drawn, mainly by lower shutter speed of the camera that captures the artwork. Painters then use different kinds of light sources like flash light, cathode, LED keychain or even candle to ‘draw’ the light, thus pushing it to become a beautiful artwork. So how does it look like? Witness it by your eyes. We’ve handpicked 35 light painting works from creative authors using different kinds of light sources to show you what light painting is capable of. Enjoy these works and make sure you won’t be blinded by the beauty of light itself! Painting With Light Angle Grinder. Amazing shot with perfect lighting, the environment really adds up the beauty of light painting. Ballin’ In School. Gorgeous shot on this one. This piece offers a close view to the light orb, which is rarely seen in most similar works. Bat(man) On Fire. Batman is back… with light painting. Both expression and use of lighting are badass. Best Nest. Creative work with unique environment, I like how the ‘fire’ adds up the the epicness of this work. Bike. Nice use of color and lighting that brings out cinematic feel. Blue Peter – 05. What a badass worm with badass lighting. Awesome! Body Stretching. Overstretched, dude! Very unique approach used on this work, this painter got some creativity. Cécile Frémont. Perfect combination of body art and Arabic calligraphy light painting, simply wordless. dENiZEN – 05. Fantastic shot with cute artworks. The light streaks seem like they’ll taste good! dENiZEN – 08. A great example of showing how simple lines can create beautiful light painting artwork. Electric Guitar. Very nice shot and fantastic use of lighting, probably one of the most beautiful piece in this series. Electric Guitar 2. How distorted it is! Perfect use of light waves that brings out the electric feel to the guitar, the messy bed background does add up the effect too. Fabia Light. I believe even the ugliest car in the world can look epic by adding in this effect, cool work! Fire Dragon. The legendary twin-headed fire dragon. My god this work is freakin’ hot! Fire Fish. I had a LOL moment on this piece, great color choice and well drawn fish. Ghost Performer. Although this is just an experimenting work, it turns out very well with ambient lighting that carves out a glamorous feel around the performer. A sensational work indeed. Home Is Where the Light Is. I like the meaning of this work, and what makes this photo worthy is the large ‘O’ word synced up perfectly, which requires lots of effort and muscular memory to achieve that. I Want My Cookie Crisps. Boom! Very well executed work, also a nice example on how adding small effect will greatly enhance the entire feel of the photo. Inferno Horse. Another freakin’ hot work done by the same author who did the ‘Fire Dragon’. You got the epic nerve, dude. Light Girl Taking A Break. A fiery work with fiery technique, hat off to the painter. Light Graffiti Car. Perfect angle and proportion of the light car, impressive work. Marion Guillauteau. Another stunning combination of body art and Arabic calligraphy light painting. Max Ophuels Preis – 02. Charming neon-like effect. I’m wondering which kind of light tube is used to create this beautiful piece. Moon Set. A close look on the Arabic calligraphy light painting, simply awesome. Omen. An inspiring shot, and great creation of light orb with eastern feel, which is very rare among light orb painting. Paradise. ‘Such a badass photo. Perfectly executed.’ Poésie. This is probably the best artwork to show off the beauty of Arabic calligraphy, I believe it can’t be done without the love and passion to the Arabic calligraphy. Starwars Vs Startrek – 01. I love this, with only 2 dots and 2 lines, they made the entire photo different. Steps. Astounding use of light painting, which signifies the elegance of the temple. Still Got the Blues. Rock on, skeleton! ‘Wicked’ is the best word to describe this production. The Angel. The sparkling effect is so pleasing that it brings out the angel’s feel, amen. Thermodynamic Engineering. May the fire be with you. Phenomenal work. Tunnel Orb. Probably the most epic tunnel ever. This is also personally the best piece I saw among hundreds of light orb painting, bravo! Unknown. The ‘light eyes’ greatly adds up the feeling of insanity to the portrait. Very creative approach on painting wings, reminds me of the wings of angel Tyrael from Diablo 2. Working Late. Elegant shot. Loved the color used in light painting, which suits the envinronment very well that I can literally feel some warmth from this artwork. Reflection If you ask me which is my favorite piece of these artworks, I will probably say all. Light painting requires extreme effort and perseverance to create stunning works, not to mention that the artist has to recreate the artwork completely if he failed on first attempt. This is what I can see during the collection, and made me respect them all. We enjoy to showcase you inspirational artworks, but we enjoy more by knowing your favorite artworks in this post, so please do let us know about it in your comments!

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