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Symbols, Buttons and Icons For Free

By Smashing Editorial, September 3rd, 2006 in Graphics | 63 Comments

We’ve all been there: sitting in front of a new design layout, we realize that something doesn’t fit, is even disturbing, but we have no idea what it is and how we should improve the page. Sometimes, line-height can do the job and sometimes background can completely change the impression on the visitors - [...]
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Design Patterns: Badges, Tag Clouds, Huge Fonts

By Smashing Editorial, September 3rd, 2006 in Graphics | 53 Comments

Web 2.0 dominates. Everywhere and all the time. The new design trends are there, in front of you and me, on the blog you’ve come from and on the blog you are going to visit next. Every now and again we find new design elements which somehow manage to become essential for every hip, trendy, [...]
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List of CSS Tools

By Smashing Editorial, September 2nd, 2006 in CSS | 141 Comments

What can be better than simple, useful and handy tools you can use "on the fly" in the development process? Whether you'd like to test font size, generate online-forms, create rollover-navigation, create a slide-show, format CSS code or optimize your code - you can use dozens of tools to make your life easier. We've collected them. At least most of them, and compiled them in a brief and precise overview. And here what we've come out with - most useful CSS-Tools you can use developing tableless web-sites.
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Diagrams: Tools and Tutorials

By Smashing Editorial, September 1st, 2006 in Developer's Toolbox | 32 Comments

Being a web-developer means not only being able to design web-sites or program their functionality. Sometimes it also means to be able to explain complex issues clearly and be able to present to your potential customers reasonable and convincing arguments - in order to find the best compromise between the customer's wishes and the standards you respect. In fact, it is essential to make sure the customer understands which advantages you are actually offering and why this or that layout and markup are better for a given web-project. Developing web-sites over the last few years, I've been stumbling over the same problem over and over again: how can I visualize my idea easily and quickly? Since human being is used to visualize things, trying to understand the idea behind them, recently I've spent hours googling for useful tools and tutorials which would help me to create images - mostly, diagrams, charts, chart-flows etc. to visualize my personal ideas to my potential clients. I'd like to present the results of my search. If you have any further suggestions, ideas or constructive criticism, don't hesistate to comment on this article!
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