HTML5 and CSS3 are great languages to start off learning with, and I’ve always thought that one of the best ways to start learning is to just dive in and manipulate the code. As you could probably tell, this is where generators step in. They are a great way to generate some code, play with it, and learn.
Not only that, they are incredibly useful because often times as a developer or designer we find we are doing things over and over again. Well, generators can take off that edge and do those small things for you each time.
As an example, I have a text-expander snippet that creates an HTML5 template that I wrote about here. Now, text-expander is great but it doesn’t solve every need, and in this case there is a big need for generators so I took the time to find 20 of my favorite and describe why I like them.
I will say that most of this list is going to focus on CSS3 generators, simply because they are in demand more than HTML5 generators, and we will learn why. Note: click on the images to open the websites.
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…
318 Shares
/
/
Apr 28, 2012
Friday freebies are back with The SC iPhone UI Kit, a simple and slick Retina ready user interface for iPhone design.
The kit includes slick headers, search bars, menu bars, buttons, list items and lots more.
It as designed by Kristof Orts who loves the web and specializes in creating beautiful websites and great mobile experiences. You can follow him on Twitter or check his Dribbble account.
Redistribution is not allowed, so if you’d like to share this one with your friends, please direct them to this page so that they can download their own copy from here.
Free for personal and commercial use… see the full preview and download after the jump!
Optimization and organization can mean many things, but what does it mean to you? Doing things faster, better, or more efficient? Does it mean doing things more programmatically, simplistically, or using tools that are more suited to the job?
Well, in all likelihood it means a little bit of all of these. You probably are a person who works as a developer or designer, and are constantly trying to optimize your workflow — and well, these things could certainly be what you are looking for (at least, a bit).
But do keep in mind that however many tips and techniques you embrace, it actually means very little unless you actually do your work. So, with that in mind, I would like to offer some of my favorite workflows and methods for organization and optimization.
515 Shares
/
/
Apr 26, 2012
Knowing whether your website is working properly is the first step in making sure you nip problems in the bud.
And unless you want to go check your site every five minutes (who has time for that?) or wait until one of your visitors tells you about a problem (very unpleasant), you need some kind of monitoring service.
Monitor Scout is a FREE web-based monitoring system that lets you know when your website is experiencing problems, 24/7/365.
You’ll be notified of issues before your visitors even notice, so you can fix them before they cause real problems.
In this tutorial we’re going to be designing an iPhone user interface for a forum and chat based mobile application.
The app involves a handful of everyday touch interface elements, such as buttons, input fields and touch gestures.
We will be covering various Photoshop tools, layer styles and of course tackling any design constraints; as well making the design pixel-perfect and beautiful enough to be worthy of a place on an iPhone screen.
The design was put together using Photoshop CS5.5, however all recent versions of Photoshop will work wonderfully.
Obviously you are reading this blog. Why? You learn something that helps you become a better designer is the popular answer. Blogs inform, educate and entertain. Then there’s The Oatmeal, which is just weird but people love it.
Webdesigner Depot is just one of the top design blogs and, as I tell the editors for the blogs for which I write, “get this article published quickly before it’s covered in another blog!”
Sometimes I submit an article just as the same subject is published elsewhere. Usually, I just write something so different, there’s no chance anyone else will cover the same subject.
That’s why I have a growing, albeit sick, following. You can have the same following, too!
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…
Today we bring you a great icon set from Inventicons! It includes 200 free icons that you can use for personal and commercial uses.
If you love these icons as much as we do, you can get this deal which includes another 198 vector icons and 9 useful photoshop actions (for only $11).
Want more? See this Mighty Deal where you can get the entire Inventicons collection of 1,000 vector icons for only $25, instead of $50 (for a limited time only!)
For more vector and PSD graphics check out InventLayout. The full preview appears after the jump… File provided is a single PSD file containing raster images. Enjoy!
593 Shares
/
/
Apr 20, 2012
As web designers, we spend most of our time praising web designs for their sleek interfaces and their awesome typography or even just the random design work, but truly, the unsung hero of design is the pattern. The pattern is popular, not just online, but offline too—we love a good pattern because it’s design in its purest form. Patterns allow us the ability to interpret good designs and rely on a little consistency.
When we talk patterns in web design, we often automatically think about backgrounds, but patterns are much more useful than that. Your favorite pattern set can be used as a wonderful texture or even a great border for your photographs. Whatever your usage for patterns, they are extremely important in good, solid web design.
Picking the right pattern is important. There are a ton of free ones out there for sure, that aren’t always in your best interest. Fortunately, we’ve decided to put together some of the best, highest quality pattern sets we could find to help you in your pattern filled endeavors.
Haha no problem! I love your generator. Such an inspirational product, just in terms of UI alone.