Smashing Email Newsletter Turns One Year Old: Comment and Win!
Update: the winners of the giveaway are Erica (#199), Stephen Normand (#389), Kris Van Herzeele (#634), Robert Hartland (#802), Helen Hewison (#952) and Anindya (#1155). All winners have been contacted. Thanks for participation! Comments are closed now.
As most of you may already know, every second Tuesday of a month we send out an email newsletter to our subscribers (over 50,000 at the moment). Every newsletter issue contains exclusive, short articles that present recent design techniques, freebies as well as useful resources and tools. We work hard to make every issue special and useful, interesting and entertaining, and therefore your feedback is very important to us. (Feel free to take a look at the latest newsletter issue).
Today, we’re particularly pleased to announce that our Smashing Newsletter is turning one year old tomorrow (yaaaaay!). To celebrate this special day, we’d like to give away some remarkable, must-have books. Besides, we’d like to look back at the last year and present you a selection of the most interesting articles from our previous issues. And, just for the record, the next issue is coming up tomorrow.
The Smashing Newsletter has always been free of charge. We fully respect your privacy, and we would never share your data with third parties, nor would we ever spam you. You have our word. Join us today!
How Can You Win a Book?
Easy! Just share your thoughts about the newsletter in the comment section below to this post! What’s your opinion of newsletters in general? Who reads newsletters these days anyway? Is it a useful resource? Why do you read newsletters and which ones are you subscribed to?
Please do share your honest thoughts and personal opinion on the matter. In the end, we’ll randomly choose six readers who will win the book of their choice:
- Hardboiled Web Design
by Andy Clarke
Five Simple Steps, 390 pages - Stunning CSS3: A Project-Based Guide to the Latest in CSS
by Zoe Mickley Gillenwater
New Riders Press, 320 pages - Making Ideas Happen
by Scott Belsky
99%, 256 pages - Art: The Definitive Visual Guide
by Dorling Kindersley
Dorling Kindersley Ltd., 612 pages - Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design
by Khoi Vinh
New Riders, 180 pages - The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images
by the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism
Taschen Verlag, 810 pages
Exclusive Smashing buttons and stickers. The Smashing Animals are designed by the Twitter Whale creator Yiying Lu. Large view
Alternatively, you can also pick up the exclusive bundle of limited Smashing buttons and stickers.
The “Best Of” Smashing E-Mail Newsletters
For a year now, the Smashing Newsletter has delivered 183 short articles in total, which all of our email subscribers have received regularly. The ones below were their favorites:
Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web
For most of us, the Internet is a part of daily life, even if we don’t know everything there is to know about it. For things you’ve always wanted to know about the Web but were afraid to ask, we’ve found a book for you to flip through. Built in HTML5, this guide has it all, starting from the meaning of “Internet” all the way to open source and modern browsers.
The guide 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web is a brief reminder for anyone who’s curious about the basics of browsers and the Web. The neat little red man was illustrated by Christoph Niemann. (ik)
ProCSSor: Hassle-Free, Cleanly Formatted CSS
Not all CSS mark-up is pretty and cleanly formatted. Beautiful code can make editing and maintaining a whole lot easier. Ideally, this should be done from the beginning, as you create the style sheet; but sometimes we have to work on style sheets created by other designers who format their code differently. If you’re on a deadline, spending the extra time reformatting a style sheet can be quite time-intensive and not much fun.
That’s where ProCSSor comes in. This online tool allows you to submit your CSS (either copy and paste the code, upload the file or point to a URL) and choose from formatting options. You can save options and reuse them any time you run code through ProCSSor. You can separate properties and selectors across multiple lines, indent up to four levels with either the space bar or Tab key and even sort properties. The tool also has a “Columnize” mode, which groups elements into columns, making for a more elegant style sheet; you need to deactivate “Fail-safe mode” to use it, though—keep in mind that juggling CSS properties can result in rendering problems in browsers. (cc) (vf)
What Can You Make Out of Paper?
Nothing beats paper when it comes to brainstorming, mind-mapping or simply jotting down notes. Paper, one of the “Four Great Inventions of Ancient China,” has become a vital material in many industries and cultures. No surprise, then, that many artists experiment with the resource in untraditional ways. Paper-folding techniques, such as origami, have been popular for ages. This ancient Japanese practice of turning a single piece of paper into a genuine work of art is definitely impressive.
One could go even further with paper and produce, for example, complex shapes and sculptures and models from it. That’s what Richard Sweeny does. Richard says that his objects “are simple to construct, yet complex in appearance, and efficient in the way they are produced, both in terms of construction time and material used.” We have a hard time believing that his models are not as difficult to create as they look; they are truly beautiful and captivating.
If you’re looking for more examples of paper modelling, then head on over to the artwork of Polyscene, and read the post “Masters of Paper Art and Paper Sculptures.” (cs)
Browser Details for Tech Support
As the operator of a website or online service, you know the problem: a gruff complaint to customer support because nothing works. And the customer, in his frustration, unfortunately forgets to provide further details.
Where does an admin or programmer begin when all they have to go on is “does not work” or “is broken”? You need details: about the customer’s browser and its configuration. A reasonable approach to the problem would be to start with some queries, which the non-specialist would be able to only partially answer: “Which browser? Well, uh… this Mozzarella.” “Cookies? I haven’t baked in years.”
When in doubt, send your customers to the website Support Details. Their data will be automatically read out of the browser (including Flash version, operating system, cookies, JavaScript status, screen resolution, browser size and more) and can be copied, sent directly to you via email or saved. The free service uses Flash but can also complete its task without it. (sl)
Smarthistory: Inspiration from Rediscovering Art History
Having Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker as teachers, anyone would have picked art history as their favorite subject in school. Instead of relying on the large expensive textbooks usually used in class, these two professors decided to create their own audio guides to be used in the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These podcasts are not lectures but rather discussions that take place in front of the work being discussed, on the actual premises of the museum. This innovative approach to art history is at the heart of Smarthistory, a free multimedia Web book that offers a perfect opportunity to review art history.
The website covers a wide variety of the artwork usually found in art history classes, ranging from ancient cultures to post-colonialism. In addition to the audio and video, Smarthistory contains articles and images organized by style and chronology. As a bonus, the user interface itself is worth looking at. The appealing design and intuitive navigation (which allows you to browse by era, style, artist and theme) makes this experience not only educational but enjoyable. (jb)
Insert a Layout Grid in Web Pages With #grid
While Photoshop and Fireworks are still the convention for designing websites, some designers are taking an alternative approach: creating mock-ups in actual mark-up (designing directly in the browser). In fact, many tools built into the browser can help you either prepare a quick mock-up or polish a nearly finished design. In particular, if you often do grid-based designs, you may find #grid extremely useful for adapting layout widths and alignments and for creating vertical rhythm on the page.
#grid is a little tool that inserts a grid onto the Web page. You can hold the grid in place and toggle it between the foreground and background. To display the grid, just press a hot key on your keyboard, and you can set your own short keys to switch views. #grid comes set up with a 980 pixel-wide container, with 20-pixel gutters, and assumes one lead of 20 pixels. You can download the source code (JavaScript and CSS) and use classes for multiple grids. (vf)
Free High-Quality HTML Email Templates
Designing HTML emails is tricky. Because of the lack of proper CSS support in many email clients, Web designers often have to resort to nasty coding techniques or restrict their emails to simple layouts. But emails — whether newsletters, corporate memos or communications based on generic templates — don’t have to be ugly and boring.
The Gallery of HTML Email Templates proves just that. The page presents 38 free HTML email templates (including PSD and HTML files), created by talented professional designers. Every template has been tested in more that 20 popular email clients, including Outlook 2010, Gmail, Lotus Notes, Apple Mail and the iPhone. All of the Photoshop documents are layered and ready to be tweaked. You can download all of the templates for free (320 MB) and use them for any private or commercial project. (vf)
Creating Dynamic Footnotes With CSS and jQuery
In body copy, footnotes can be a nice solution to hide content that is not directly relevant; for examples, linking to a citation source, explaining a particular term in detail or discussing something off-topic. In these situations, footnotes let readers jump to this information when they need it, while allowing the writer to focus on the important things and not get lost in details.
But in their simplest implementation – using sup tags and linking within the page – footnotes aren’t very user-friendly. They interrupt the experience, requiring the user to click the link, read the information and then return to the page with the browser’s “Back” button.
Lukas Mathis has come up with an elegant solution to improve this user experience: his jQuery script shows the content of footnotes as soon as the user indicates that they are interested in it – i.e. when they move the cursor over the footnote symbol.
If the user’s browsing device doesn’t support mouse hovering, they can still jump to a footnote via its link. The script works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer 7+. Alternatively, you could try the accessible footnotes technique or BrandSpankingNew footnotes script. (vf)
LaunchList: The Designer’s Ultimate Website Check List
Every design project has many little details that one has to take care of before it goes live. Have you checked your content for spelling errors? Did you design a 404 page? What about the print style sheet? LaunchList helps you review important items before the big launch.
By default, the tool provides 28 items to be checked, but it also allows you to add custom items to the list. Each item can be commented on or crossed out. Once you’re done, you can send the report along with project’s details to multiple recipients via email. The email does not contain a direct link to the check list, but it has a plain text review of the things you have checked (along with your comments). If this tool is not flexible enough for you, you may want to look at the Ultimate Website Launch Checklist, which is also available as a PDF download. (vf)
Getting Creative… With Money
Paper money has been around for over a thousand years. The currency is familiar to us; we trust it, and we humans are creatures of habit, often hostile to change. But that hasn’t stopped designers and illustrators from experimenting with their own versions of these monetary staples.
Many designers dream of being offered the chance to redesign the banknotes of their local currency or even contribute new kinds of legal tender. With all of the currency types in the world today, some more intricate than others, there is certainly no lack of inspiration to draw from. But when designers let their imagination run loose and try their hand at designing money, there is no telling what they come up with. For example, Xavi García has created a banknote by hand that reminds the user of the effort that went into its creation, replacing the currency value with the amount of time the note took to create.
And Dowling | Duncan has proposed a complete revision of US currency. You can see this and more impressive money design submissions at the Dollar ReDesign Project website. (ks)
Rounded Images With CSS3 and jQuery
Have you ever tried to apply the border-radius and box-shadow properties to images? If you have, you probably noticed not only that modern browsers display corners differently, but that the corners look a bit unfinished and broken. Webkit displays rounded corners but does not support the inset box shadow. In Firefox, the border-radius doesn’t display at all (see the image below).
Nick La has come up with a solution to this problem. The idea is simple: wrap a span tag around the image element. Then, put the original image in the background with the background-image property, and then hide the original image by applying opacity: 0 to it. Or to make it easier, just embed a jQuery code to generate span tags for images on the fly (which you’ll find in his article).
The technique works with any image dimension and works even if the width and height attributes are not defined. Obviously, the user has to be using a modern browser to see the effect. (vf)
Unsuck It: Rebel Against Marketing Jargon
Have you ever read a company’s “About” page and were left wondering what exactly the company did? Or read a page that talked about all the features and benefits of a product and that tried to convince you that the product was the best thing since Wikipedia… but that didn’t really tell you a thing? Marketing and business jargon is confusing or meaningless at best, and completely unintelligible at worst.
That’s where Unsuck It comes in. Enter any jargony word, and the online tool deciphers it and returns the true (unsucked) meaning. It’s useful for figuring out what a company is actually trying to say or for rewriting the horrible copy that a client has handed to you for its website. (cc)
Exposing Deceptive Design Patterns
Plenty of bad website designs out there are hard to use and serve only to frustrate users when one thing after another doesn’t work as expected. In many cases, these websites are designed by people who don’t follow common usability guidelines and best practices. Some websites out there, though, are purposely unfriendly. The designers who created them were perfectly aware of the effect their decisions would have. In fact, they designed the interfaces to deliberately guide users to do things they wouldn’t normally do.
DarkPatterns.org aims to expose these black-hat designs whose sole aim is to misdirect and deceive visitors. Anti-usability design patterns that are currently identified on the website include the “Roach Motel,” “Bait and Switch,” “Privacy Zuckering” and “Forced Information Disclosure,” among others. Examples of each are included, and visitors can add their own in the comments on each page. It’s a great website to show clients when they ask you to implement a questionable “feature” on their website. (cc)
The Grammar Cheat Sheet
Creating and publishing content has never been easier. Many of us have stumbled across useful and inspiring websites, only to be shocked by the lack of even the most basic grammatical competency on the part of the author. Following a few simple pieces of advice to improve your copy does not take much effort. The Grammar Cheat Sheet by Alexander Ross Charchar serves as a great guide in the language jungle.
Never mix up your dashes again; learn how to set quotations marks; and remind yourself to keep paragraphs short and topical. Overall, it’s a nice little catalog of suggestions that would help every content creator meet the expectations of their audience. Take five minutes to peruse the sheet; your visitors will appreciate it! For a closer look at what else might go wrong, check out “The Trouble With EM ’n EN (and Other Shady Characters)” by Peter K Sheerin. (sp)
WordPress Admin Toolbar Bookmarklet: Blogger’s Little Helper
Small yet efficient, the WP-Toolbar bookmarklet will save a lot of clicks as you edit or update posts on your WordPress-powered blog. The bookmarklet gives you quick access to the entire administrative back-end directly in your browser’s window.
Just drag and drop the bookmarklet into your bookmarks toolbar. When visiting your website, just click on the bookmarklet, and the script will add a graphical toolbar menu to the top-right corner. The menu has icons for all of the back-end menus, including Dashboard, Pages, Media and Users. To make it disappear, just re-click the WP-Toolbar button.
Say you are reviewing a post from your blog and want to quickly add a picture: you don’t even have to navigate to the back end. Just click on the Media button and start directly uploading the image. (If you are not already logged in, you will need to do that first.)
The tool does not give you access to anything you don’t already have. And unfortunately, the WP Admin toolbar doesn’t allow you to edit a post or page that you have loaded in your browser: you will need to select it from the list of articles on the “Edit posts” page. Still, this tool will save you a couple of clicks by giving you quick access to the most important back-end options. There is also a GreaseMonkey script that automatically loads the toolbar when you visit a particular website. (mm)
Baker eBook Framework: Better eBooks for the iPad
The iPad has become the digital reading device of choice for many people, thanks in part to its iBooks app. However, how would one go about creating an eBook for iPad? Of course, there are many possibilities: you could just use InDesign, OpenOffice or Apple Pages to generate the book in the ePub format, however you may run into formatting problems.
Baker eBook Framework is a nice new alternative. Based on HTML5, Baker makes creating a book for the iPad as easy as coding a basic Web page… even easier, considering it comes with a full framework for you to use. The idea is to give designers a set of templates to build HTML5 pages with a fixed width of 768px and use the power of WebKit for styling and animations. The format of Baker is HPub, which is basically one folder, book/, that contains all of your HTML files, all enumerated . It even comes with information on how to get your book into the App Store. It’s all free and BSD-licensed. You can download a sample book made in Baker for free. (cc) (vf)
Friends of Type
Friends of Type helps you discover great fresh visual content. Four creative fellows are responsible for the project which features type artwork from artists around the world, yet mainly their personal work. The project values typographic design and serves as a sketchbook, archive as well as dialogue.
All the creative posts are mainly meant to log ideas and aid you with daily inspiration. The posts are sketches and ideas around visualized language: a habit born out of the real-time collaboration among type artists. Don’t forget to drop by every last week of the month, when a guest designer is featured. (ik)
Responsive Images and Context-Aware Image Sizing
Since Ethan Marcotte coined the term, responsive Web design has gained a lot of attention in the Web design community, mainly due to its remarkable potential for flexible layouts that respond to the browser’s viewport for the best user experience. The main problem with such designs, however, is figuring out how to serve small images to mobile devices and tablets and large ones to desktop displays. At the most basic level, using fluid images and browser scaling to adjust the size of images would be fine, but it raises performance and speed issues.
You could swap out different scaled images for different display sizes or use .htaccess files and some JavaScript to serve up different sized images based on the screen width. Another option is to use a service like TinySrc: merely prefix all large images in your source code with a TinySrc URL, and the tool does the rest.
Rumpetroll Experiment: Ever Wanted to Be a Tadpole?
Yeah, me neither. But that’s what Rumpetroll (Norwegian for “tadpole”) lets you do. The project is a multi-player experiment created with HTML5, Canvas, JavaScript and WebSockets. Rumpetroll lets you be a tadpole that swims around in a gigantic virtual pond. You can even chat with the other tadpoles.
While Rumpetroll doesn’t seem to have a real point, and we have no insight into why it was created, it is a very good example of what can be built with modern technologies such as HTML5 and Canvas. By the way, it’s a Github project, if you’re interested in diving into the code (pun totally intended). (cc)
Pop-Up Ping Pong
Developers are coming out with innovative games on what seems a daily basis. And sometimes we just need to take a break from our work and do something fun for a few minutes. Playing a quick game online is a great way to do this.
This new version of Pong is different from most online games. Rather than working in Flash or JavaScript, it works in pop-up windows. You get three pop-up windows to start. Two of the windows serve as sliders for the two players (you can play against another person or the computer) and one is the “ball.” You control your slider using the arrow keys or the A and Z keys. Other than that, it works just like an old-fashioned game of Pong. One tip: holding down a key to move seems to work very slowly (or not at all, at least on a Mac running Firefox); tapping the key repeatedly is better. Warning: sounds starts automatically. (cc)
Star Wars, Episode IV: Retold in Icons
Images can say more than words alone, and they can be a powerful tool for storytelling. Images engage and involve, they visualize data, and they condense large chunks of information in a compact and memorable way.
Star Wars is a legend. The story has been used for decades in a variety of ways: be it theatre performances or monochrome LEGO bricks, it still has a large and growing fan base. So while some fans are waiting for a new 3D version, there is now a convenient short form of the first part (which is the episode IV). And the best thing: it actually fits in this newsletter.
Wayne Dorrington’s Star Wars: Episode IV presents the whole story of Star Wars: Episode IV in… icons! Not a single word is used in the design. A nice example of vivid, creative and original artwork. It’s also just fun to remember a great movie this way. (sl), (vf)
Subscribe Now!
As mentioned, our Smashing Newsletter has always been and will remain free of charge. Our main goal is to keep our readers up to date on the latest trends in this ever-growing world called Web design.
Join us today and become a member of the Smashing family!
Subscribe to the Smashing Email Newsletter Now!
(sl), (ik), (al)
yaluna
March 2nd, 2011 6:57 amI generally hate newsletters. Somehow I don’t consider my inbox a place where exploration starts. But when Smashing newsletter was announced I decided to give it a try and unsubscribe if it does not live up to my expectations. Well, i’m happy I did so.
You guys have proven that newsletter can be catchy and interesting, that newsletter can make you leave it unread in the morning so that you can fully enjoy it during lunch break because you know it’ll have something there that’ll make you click and explore and share and think about.
Great job and great addition to the magazine!
Marc Friederich
March 2nd, 2011 6:57 amI got a filter to add a label and skip the inbox so I usually read newsletters later but I made an exception for yours ! You rock !
Oh and I like it because it’s a kind of backup or a resume of what is happening on twitter network (what web worker discuss about). You provide good content and you write your point of view not only reposting existing news.
Amy
March 2nd, 2011 6:59 amHi SM!
Happy birthday. My birthday present to you is my subscription! I’d love a book!!
-Amy
Renee Ferguson
March 2nd, 2011 6:59 amCongratulations on your anniversary! I read the Smashing Newsletter because I don’t want to stay in school forever, but I want to keep learning. I always find new perspectives and new information. There is always a dazzling array of creative magic that others produce that inspire me, and new ideas that are likely to be the newest alchemy of design and coding. I would love one of the randomly selected, lucky six.
Mary Howe
March 2nd, 2011 7:02 amI love the magazine and I love the newsletter. I just wish I had more time to explore it. The newsletter is an excellent way to get a high-level view of what’s new.
How do you guys keep up and produce so much excellent content? Thank you for your wonderful work!
Nathan B
March 2nd, 2011 7:04 amI like it because it isn’t just a rehash of content I’ve already seen at the site; it gives me more useful links and articles to check out.
Hamichok
March 2nd, 2011 7:05 amI am subscribed for some deals and special offers from online retailers, but yours is the only newsletter I am currently receiving. I love the fact that I get it first thing in the morning and I at least skim through every article before starting my work day. It goes great with my coffee and it is an excellent source of knowledge and inspiration. I have always been skeptical about newsletters, but you guys made me realize that just like with any other media, there is something for everyone, you just have to find it.
Drew
March 2nd, 2011 7:09 amOpening up a Smashing Newsletter is always a great way to start my work day. I open it up and always have something interesting/informative and educational. There is always a great combination of technical and visual inspiration. Congratulations and keep on rockin’!
Laura Riegel
March 2nd, 2011 7:09 amYour newsletter is the only one I read consistently. I like the content. In particular, I love any coding tricks/insights. Recently I read the article by Jon Raasch about coding for mobile. I then ended up purchasing the book “Mobile Design for iPhone and iPad.” What great resources!
Elizabeth
March 2nd, 2011 7:09 amMy problem is that, though I love newsletters (especially ones with actual content), I just leave them in my inbox, meaning to get back to them, for-like-ever… That’s probably my issue though, not the actual newsletters’….
Marc Lemaire
March 2nd, 2011 7:09 amIt’s only recently that I discovered the value of Smashing Magazine to all things related to web technologies. It’s challenging and inspiring at the same time because I have so much to master technology-wise and the Smashing team is doing a top job to keep us informed of the latest and the greatest.
murphsy
March 2nd, 2011 7:11 amI’ve been a subscriber since smashing e-mail newsletter numero uno (1, one, één, you get the point) and I’ve only got one point to make:
It’s just too big! I love all the information you guys manage to cram in the newsletter and I really love reading it. But sometimes I open the newsletter, I think ‘I don’t have time for all this right now – I’ll read it later’ and I’ll completely forgot about it.
All that information never reaches me if that happens. It’s not all the time, but certainly 1 out of 4. So I’m missing 25% of the valuable information you send me because the newsletters are just so long :)
Ben Gemborys
March 2nd, 2011 7:11 amThank You!
I love Smashing Magazine. It has always been my favorite resource. It’s my most reliable starting point for whenever I’m working on a new project or researching a topic. . . And now all of that and more can be summed up in a useful collective newsletter.
I look forward to the Newsletter. It helps me to stay on top of things in the Web Design and Development industry; which can be a daunting task these days. Not only does the newsletter review the articles of the recent weeks, but it also features tools and other inspiration from around the web. The simplicity and strength of this newsletter are truly unmatched, and I am forever grateful for the SM Team’s work.
Happy Anniversary! Keep up the fantastic work!
Brittany Johnson
March 2nd, 2011 7:14 amSmashing Newsletter is by far my favorite newsletter to read because you do focus on giving your readers something they can actually use and get value out of, not just something they can read and/or speculate. You also choose your content carefully, in that you ensure it speaks to your audience by focusing on web design, user experience, etc.
I believe many people still read e-newsletters because they are easy to access. I also think it is important to have an RSS because e-readers are also popular (which you also have).
Other newsletters I subscribe to are Search Engine Guide, WordTracker, and Jakob Nielsen. I find Jakob’s Alert Box and Smashing Mag’s newsletters the most useful and my favorites to read! SM especially because you are not trying to sell me anything or make me pay to download a case study, but rather pushing useful info out.
Thank you SM!
Brit
Laura L-S
March 2nd, 2011 7:14 amI love Smashing Mag because it is chock-a-block full of great tips, information, inspiration and ideas. Best of all is the presentation of it. Cleanly designed, your website is a joy to read. I’m sad to say that I did NOT join the newsletter service before this posts nudging. But as of yesterday, I am a subscriber and I’m sure it will be a decision I won’t regret! Thanks, Smashing! Oh and Happy Birthday!
p.s. That “Star Wars, Episode IV: Retold in Icons” item is brilliant!
Victoria Shearer
March 2nd, 2011 7:14 amI keep all of my SM Newsletters because they are such an awesome resource! I often forward them to friends too.
Geraldine Scott
March 2nd, 2011 7:17 amOne of the best and most anticipated e-newsletters in my inbox!
It has given me so many ideas and the confidence to build websites that are more dynamic and useful. Thanks for that.
Congratulations Smashing Magazine!
Kristoffer Kjelde
March 2nd, 2011 7:18 amI Really enjoy to read your newsletter. Nice and very inspiring stuff. Congratz with the first year!
Lisa
March 2nd, 2011 7:18 amNot sure if it’s laziness, jadedness or simply lack of time (probably a mixture of all those things!) but I find it really hard to stay abreast of web development issues – the Smashing Email Newsletter is something I can keep in my inbox and spend a couple of hours with when I get a bit of downtime. I love it.
Monie
March 2nd, 2011 7:26 amI always spent sometime reading the newsletter. Whenever I opened up my email and saw the newsletter, I’ll make sure I have extra time to spent for that. Not to mentioned the blog magazine itself has been my favorite “must-read-blog” list everyday.
Wish me luck with the book giveaway!
Kelley
March 2nd, 2011 7:26 amThere are some great resources and ideas in these newsletters. Thanks for creating a wonderful resource that we can use to help make us better at what we do. Keep up the good work and thanks for all of your hard work!
Mikael
March 2nd, 2011 7:28 amI like the newsletter because I know I missed some of your posts, be it on twitter (I’m not on constantly) or even on your website (I use your RSS feed on iGoogle via feedburner, and it doesn’t update nearly often enough to keep up with your posts).
Left Pinky
March 2nd, 2011 7:33 amI don’t subscribe to TOO many magazines, but I DO subscribe to Smashing Magazine. Always informative, helpful tips – and not too frequent (but just frequent enough!). Keep up the good work!
evalica
March 2nd, 2011 7:34 amI love the newsletter. Is great when it arrives in the inbox and give me a general view of the things that happened. Great as a general view.
rachel
March 2nd, 2011 7:35 amTHANK YOU! Thank you for teaching me so much about coding, art, tips, tutorials, typography, print and web design and so much more! It takes me a long time to go through each email because I read pretty much every single article, which then of course links me to related articles, and so on. I currently have you open in 3 out of my 6 tabs in my browser! If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
You, Smashing Magazine, are my go to website (and my archived emails) when I’m researching anything for design or coding (whether it be inspiration or tutorials), which is a lot. And how can I forget, you’re also my monthly desktop background.
Thanks for being so smashing.
Matt Webb
March 2nd, 2011 7:35 amI really like the newsletter. I look forward to every issue and I never have enough time to just read you blog everyday so its great that you guys have a summary of the best of the best from Smashing Magazine and its Networks. I only wish you guys could send it out more frequently.
Kemal Delalić
March 2nd, 2011 7:35 amI actually ignore newsletters totally, deleting them right after opening, but I noticed that I use sites which I get newsletters from a lot more often than others.
(if I get to win a book, please make sure it’s not “Making Ideas Happen” as I already bought one and got another one as a present :) )
DaveB
March 2nd, 2011 7:37 amI honestly didn’t sign up before for the newsletter b/c i though it ‘would be like the other’ newsletters i’ve received in the past. Boy was I wrong!
This newsletter has great stuff, that complements the website (not a dry boring version of it like most newsletters are).
Like the website, the newsletter is part of my daily read.
Please keep up the great work!!!
David
Alan Brand
March 2nd, 2011 7:37 amThe Smashing Email Newsletter is a must-read in my inbox. You are a major contributor to my transformation from programmer to web designer. Thank you.
Andy
March 2nd, 2011 7:38 amGreat newsletter. Congrats on 1 year!!
Tina
March 2nd, 2011 7:39 amI’m apart of the camp that feels over-saturated from newsletters about everything from clothes to code in my inbox, but I have to admit I can’t say no to quality content. This is a reminder to actually unsubscribe from fluff everytime i subscribe to something new.
dkosarek
March 2nd, 2011 7:40 amI love getting the newsletters because they are full of great ideas and resources. I’m always looking for inspiration and this newsletter has tons of it. I use the site regularly as well. Congrats on a Year Well Done!
Rodrigo Neves
March 2nd, 2011 7:41 amHappy birthday Smashing Newsletter!
I am a very lazy guy, when searching for information other than the needed at a given moment, so I really love bundles that I can digest slowly and at any time. Newsletters are perfect for this kind of information consuption, and SM’s is probably one of the best out there at the moment. This is mostly due to the efforts put by the team on quality selection, writing and editorial.
I believe that newsletters have a huge potencial when compared to other (more realtime) technologies like twitter and RSS for instance. That is, the fact that they just stay there waiting for you to be available to read them (instead of being lost in the timeline if you are not paying attention). In a world that moves at light speed, it is nice to, at least that once in a week, take some time to calmly read through the most interesting articles. (good) Newsletters provide exactly that, a perfect summary for your weekly/monthly zen reading period.
Sarah Brenner
March 2nd, 2011 7:44 amI actually just signed up to receive the newsletter – so I look forward to receiving it and poking around it. I can tell you that I signed up because I was noticing that several of the stories that I was picking up on others’ feeds were bringing me back here. Clearly, I had to see what you have to offer.
I have to say that I’m impressed so far!
Happy Anniversary!
Kisan
March 2nd, 2011 7:46 amI love your newsletter. It talks a lot about latest happenings in the design world and makes my life easy to surf around and get to know the latest.
Now about these lovely books as giveaways. Worth having all of it.
Samantha
March 2nd, 2011 7:47 amHappy Birthday SM!
I’ve been a long time subscriber to your newsletters and honestly they really are some of the most interesting creative I’ve ever seen. You’ve always have the greatest content on the web.
I hope that the next year will be just as good to you guys and I wish your writers well! The web industry wouldn’t be the same without you guys
Jeff Christiansen
March 2nd, 2011 7:47 amEnjoy the newsletter especially the mobile design tips.
Megan
March 2nd, 2011 7:50 amLove the newsletters… Thanks for all you do!
Toomas Arula
March 2nd, 2011 7:51 amThere exist some sources, from where I have subscribed regular-basis e-newsletters.
I’m not all-info-collector, but it is sometime helping me to reread some useful articles again from my own “repository” which is independent from original (usually web-based) sources life-cycle.
Working with my e-mail in one place is sometime more effective to organize and maintain than surfing in wide internet. The last one needs some free time… And my laziness suggests to leave the machine work to machine…
Actually I use both methods (surfing and e-mail managing)…
XeBii
March 2nd, 2011 7:53 amJust Subscribed to your News Letters
Lets see :P
Niko Halink
March 2nd, 2011 7:55 amI don’t know how they do it but every time I receive the newsletter it amazes me, almost every article seems to peek my interest.
Keep up the good work!
Cari
March 2nd, 2011 7:55 amI’m just beginning to explore web and design options and can be overwhelmed with all of the information available. Smashing Magazine is a must-have resource, helping me stay focused with new ideas and never-boring information! Thank you for providing the essentials and congratulations!
Jason
March 2nd, 2011 7:55 amLove the newsletter. Have been reading it from the beginning. There is ALWAYS good information to be read. Keep up the good work! Love it!
Jessica
March 2nd, 2011 7:56 amI have just signed up for the newsletter, but everyday for the past year I have come to smashingmagazine.com to keep up with all the articles and inspiration. This site has been one of my best resources and I thank you for your diligence in keeping up with it.
Jeff Chew
March 2nd, 2011 7:56 amHey Guys,
I’ve really loved getting your news letter. I didn’t know it was only 1 year old! I must have been getting them from almost the start then.
Your website and e-mail newsletter have been invaluable to me over the past year as I started my freelancing career. In the beginning I had time to sift through all of the Smashing Network articles and choose which ones to read, but as time went on I had more client sites to design and less time to read. The newsletter’s “Smashing Network Highlights” has been really useful to me and I find it does happen to turn up some of the ones I’d be most likely to read.
Thanks again guys and girls, and keep it up!
Alex Graham
March 2nd, 2011 7:57 amI think they are a great tool to offer if the content is strong enough. Normally I dont ever subscribe, but I am subscribed to you and 1 other site. The information and freebies here are invaluable, for years. I think people like the idea of newsletters when its something they care about – hence my addiction to Smashing (I have you, drudge report, and facebook open on my browser every morning when I start up the computer). I read newsletters because I aim to take whatever information is offered.
I would chooooooooose Stunning CSS3: A Project-Based Guide to the Latest in CSS please :)
Dave
March 2nd, 2011 7:57 amYou guys seriously offer a wealth of knowledge. I would still consider myself a beginner, but with the tutorials and inspiration you guys offer I am constantly able to grow and make better sites for my company and side projects.
AJ LaPorte
March 2nd, 2011 7:57 amYou Newsletter is a great resource that helps to supplement your site. Often I find myself going back to your previous versions in my inbox because I remember an article that deals with the current situation at hand that I am dealing with. Keep up the good work smashing team and thanks for everything!
Nicky
March 2nd, 2011 7:58 amHappy Birthday to a Smashing newsletter. I read it to keep up-to-date with all the latest happenings in the web world. I like the fact that the articles are varied – even though I’m a developer I still enjoy reading about design stuff. Keep up the good work :)
Karen
March 2nd, 2011 7:58 amI love this subscription. So many fantastic ideas out there. Truly inspirational!
I have added these books to my must-check-out list. Would love to win one!
KariK
March 2nd, 2011 7:59 amI love receiving the Smashing newsletter! Sometimes it takes me a while to catch up on all of the content on the website, but the newsletter highlights articles and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t click on an article in the newsletter.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Paul Sturrs
March 2nd, 2011 8:00 amSmashing have more than often come to my rescue with the latest trends within our industry whether topics on usability or mobile their findings have made a great impact in my life as a designer. Thanks and a happy birthday :)
A Low
March 2nd, 2011 8:00 amNewsletters have lots to learn and lots to try
Mel
March 2nd, 2011 8:01 amI like your newsletter because it’s both quickly skimmable and often has information worth reading. I usually only skim newsletters – with SM’s I actually click on the links and read. It’s usually a good mix, too, between tech and aesthetic subjects.
AJ
March 2nd, 2011 8:02 amI never subscribe to newsletters because if I do then I get excited about them for the first 2 or 3 letters then they become junk mail and sit in my inbox for a few days with my intentions being to read them before I finally just throw them out. Smashing Mag’s newsletter on the other hand is one that I have never gotten tired of, it is the one newsletter that actually offers great information throughout the letter every single time. Thanks for putting together a newsletter worth receiving and saving for that matter!
Júlio Vasel
March 2nd, 2011 8:09 amI’m a newer subscriber of the Smashing newsletter, but an older visitor of the blog. I have all the two Smashing Books, and my name are in the #2! haha. It’s so cool to make part of this family. Thanks SM
Russ
March 2nd, 2011 8:10 amI’ve always appreciated the newsletters, particularly when they contain new information not found in your posts. They always provide useful links, too!
Thanks!
Kyle
March 2nd, 2011 8:13 amI am always awaiting the next newsletter! I have always enjoyed reading them and what they have to offer. I am a loyal fan of Smashing Magazine and regularly browse and search the site.
This is about the only newsletter that I read now a days. All the other ones are just crap in my opinion. Smashing Mag has the best of the best at what to offer in their newsletters. That is what brings me back to them!
TonyF
March 2nd, 2011 8:13 amGreat newsletter! One of the few that I really look forward to receiving. I always find something new and interesting. I don’t know how you manage to keep coming up with such great stuff but keep up the good work!
Marlon Renan
March 2nd, 2011 8:15 amHi everyone,
congratulations for the great job you’ve done,
I’ve learned a lot of things reading your newsletter. And now, I wish to learn even more if I earn these books :D
really intersting information
keep in these way
hugs
Damien Harrison
March 2nd, 2011 8:16 amI love how the smashing newsletter only comes out monthly meaning I feel less spammed which equates to me visiting smashingmagazine.com a lot more throughout the month.
Keep up the good work.
Angelique
March 2nd, 2011 8:16 amThe Smashing newsletter is always a worthwhile read; it’s a great way to make sure I’ve not missed anything useful on the Smashing Magazine site or in the Smashing network. A great source of info and inspiration.
Shannon
March 2nd, 2011 8:16 amI love the smashing mag newsletter. There is always one or two really unique things that I learn that make me look cool among all my design friends. :)
kricklin
March 2nd, 2011 8:16 amThis newsletter is one of the few I look forward to getting.
Really.
With over 20 years of programming background and practically none in design I’m glad the Smashing Newsletter and Smashing website are available to help me design better websites.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Michael
March 2nd, 2011 8:18 amI love the content provided by this site and newsletter and have been using it as a resource and tool for almost a year.
Anne
March 2nd, 2011 8:20 amI always look forward to the smashing magazine newsletter. My favourite ones are those that include web apps for developers and designers that I would NEVER have found out about otherwise.
Keep up the good work!
Jess H
March 2nd, 2011 8:20 amI’m a new Smasher (did I just make that up?), and absolutely love all the super high-quality content you deliver. I’m a web/graphics/interface/whatever designer kinda on the side, and subscribe to your feed. Almost every day has something useful or at least interesting. With the popularity of RSS feeds, in some cases a newsletter isn’t even needed anymore, but I think it serves a purpose to pull together the best articles during the time period, even for RSS subscribers. And it’s certainly useful for those who don’t subscribe to a feed. Keep up the good work!
Jennifer C
March 2nd, 2011 8:20 amI find the Smashing Magazine to be the only newsletter that I receive that I read on a regular basis. It’s just full of really useful information that I wouldn’t find on my own. I go to it for inspiration, as well as techniques to simplify my work. Thank you SM, you’re awesome!
Krysti
March 2nd, 2011 8:24 amI enjoy the in depth way your stories are developed through the newsletters. Although I am hooked like a crack addict for the RSS feed. Smashing Magazine has been one of my best resources for inspiration and information. Thanks for all the wonderful news and info that you post.
Wendy
March 2nd, 2011 8:25 amI just subscribed now, so I can’t really comment on the newsletter itself. I love Smashing Magazine and read it almost daily during my lunch break. It’s chalk full of great tips, inspiration and articles that I not only find incredibly useful, but often pass them onto colleagues and friends to catch-up on the latest trends, etc. LOVE IT!
Lindsay McComb
March 2nd, 2011 8:25 am“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Appiness” — I’m always pleased to see Christoph Niemann’s illustration’s popping up in the strangest of places. I really enjoyed ’20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web’ and (admittedly) learned a thing or two.
Emily
March 2nd, 2011 8:26 amI’ve been introduced to several great resources by the Smashing Newsletter. Typically I’m not a fan of newsletters, but I don’t have time to check out the website every week and this provides a nice highlight.
mono77
March 2nd, 2011 8:28 amI always read smashing magazine newsletter especially for the excellent advices, great inspirations for a new freelance like me. Thanks a lot!
Dennis
March 2nd, 2011 8:30 amMaking/sending newsletters is one of my core business.
Nowadays, it’s very important that you know what the audience wants, html mails, mobile versions of the mail,…
Grtz,
D.
Adam Smith
March 2nd, 2011 8:31 amI subscribe to only a select number of newsletters, simply because most of my information is gathered via RSS or Twitter.
But I can honestly say your newsletter is one of the few that I always read, and almost always find something new and noteworthy in.
I don’t have many changes simply because I already like it. Perhaps you could offer special deals for newsletter subscribers? For example, offer discount codes for new web apps.
augusto
March 2nd, 2011 8:33 amone year! i just noticed it existed! well..
by now i only read the last edition and i liked, so to me, good news are that i got a full year of newsletter to read ;-)
cheers!!
Ericka Seastrand
March 2nd, 2011 8:34 amI didn’t know that Smashing even had a newsletter, but congrats on the one year anniversary! I just signed up, but also wanted to comment on the question about what keeps me reading newsletters. One of my favorite newsletters to receive is from MyFonts because I stay current with the industry and see who the top leaders are. In addition it sparks my creativity to see what others are doing. If you guys aren’t showcasing the pros and even getting background information on them (doesn’t have to be an interview), I think this is something that would be a great supplement to your already very comprehensive and informative blog. I look forward to the next newsletter so I can see what it’s all about!
Ben den Hartog
March 2nd, 2011 8:35 amDidn’t know the Smashing Newsletter was only 1 year! I’ve been a subscriber quite long, must be somewhere from the beginning then..
I like the Smashing Newsletter, it got a number of sections each with a short and simple description on what it’s all about. Really useful and interesting stuff!
Keep them comin’ I’ll keep on reading ;)
Ejaz Siddiqui
March 2nd, 2011 8:35 amI love reading smashing newsletter because the quality of content. We also find some interesting apps (e.g. ProCSSor) to improve our work flow.
Manan Saini
March 2nd, 2011 8:36 amFrankly I told you guys, I am quite regular visitor of smashing magazine, But today I susbscribe the newsletters of smashingmagazine.
Because one of the reason is my mailbox always full of spams. From thse sites also whom i never visited. That’s why I usually subscribe very less these days only trustable and knowledgeable. And smashingmagazine is one of them.
Have a nice Day folks!
Renee
March 2nd, 2011 8:37 amI’m an editor and a graphic designer at a small public relations firm. Performing two different jobs simultaneously can be challenging, but Smashing Magazine usually has loads of helpful information for both of my roles. My entire department subscribes to the e-newsletter. My favorite tips so far have included font pairings and free vector graphics.
Stay classy, Smashing Magazine!
Erick Thompson
March 2nd, 2011 8:43 amI am a fairly hardcore developer, and had the opinion that design was something done “over there”. After reading a couple of Smashing posts, I decided that I need to subscribe to the email newsletter. It has opened up new ideas, and helps me write code that will work better with a good design. Plus, it is just plain cool.
Todd Spitz
March 2nd, 2011 8:43 amOne of the few newsletters I still subscribe to. I love Smashing Magazine, but I’m too busy to remember to visit the site regularly. The newsletter is a perfect way to remind me to spend some time thinking about design and learning best practices!
Lisa
March 2nd, 2011 8:44 amI love the newsletter and all the freebies it highlights. Articles are easy to read for beginning/intermediate designers like me. Love your tongue in cheek sense of humor on many of your articles.
Beth Ryan
March 2nd, 2011 8:45 amI love the newsletter because it reminds me to keep coming back to Smashing to learn more about design and be inspired by great work.
Seth Waite
March 2nd, 2011 8:46 amI have absolutely loved the Smashing Newsletter so far. It’s been fun, extra value, and essential to getting the latest news from Smashing Mag. I don’t always have time to shoot over here so its great when I can get a summary list of the recent articles in email form. Thanks!
Anthony Clark
March 2nd, 2011 8:46 amI love the newsletter, it’s one of the few I still read, I bookmark most of the sites mentioned in the article.
Sam
March 2nd, 2011 8:51 amI whip my hair back and forth
I whip my hair back and forth (just whip it)
go smashing magazine newsletter go!
Joe C
March 2nd, 2011 8:53 amThe Smashing newsletter, like everything Smashing produces, is an amazing resource, always providing interesting and immensely helpful articles. I love it.
Lyn
March 2nd, 2011 8:55 amThis newsletter is something I read every word of and always find something new and amazing. I always appreciate the work y’all put into the site and newsletter. Keep up the great work!
Nic
March 2nd, 2011 8:56 amEven though Smashing Magazine is a design website, I really appreciate that the focus of the newsletter is providing good content, rather than focusing on a fancy-schmancy design.
Ricardo Correia
March 2nd, 2011 8:56 amThanks to Smashing Magazine for the special prize we receive every month. BTW, I would really like to have this book “Hardboiled Web Design” :P
Regards,
Ricardo Correia
Amanda Z.
March 2nd, 2011 8:56 amThanks for the inspirational journey. xoxo
Al
March 2nd, 2011 9:00 amI LOVE Smashing Magazine but until this article was unaware of the newsletter. Nevertheless, I just signed up and cannot wait to start receiving some extra goodies in my inbox!
Uri
March 2nd, 2011 9:00 amThere are a lot of newsletters out on the net.
This one stands far above the rest and has me always looking forward to the next issue. The articles and information are well thought out and always relevant to both my work and interest. There isn’t one issue that has passed whereby I did not bookmark another resource or great find. Thanks for putting this all together and please keep up the great work!
Jose M Nunez
March 2nd, 2011 9:01 amI don’t actually subscribe in newsletter, but since a knew about this page i did it. Love to receive the newsletter form you guys because it maintain me with new information and tricks to know about web design and other arts. Specially that is organize and with a sneak peak of description for next week. I’ve learned a lot thanks to your newsletter.
AHHP
March 2nd, 2011 9:07 amI think including Twitters highlights and Facebook highlights is very nice.
It can be useful for users who are not active in Twitter and/or Facebook (or other communities which smashingmagazine is active there).
Accessing Twitter and Facebook is not as easy as you may know in my country!
Thanks
AHHP
Chad
March 2nd, 2011 9:08 amI love all your information. I following you on Twitter, follow your RSS, buy your books. I’m a big fan. Just keep doing what you are doing and go bigger.
domdesignz
March 2nd, 2011 9:08 amSmashing Magazine is a little bit of “all right”. Good job on the articles. The latest stuff on Isotope is awesome. What a great proof of concept. Gets the creative flowing. Lets face it… Star Wars in Icons. Can’t wait for Jaws.
Mihla
March 2nd, 2011 9:08 amI subscribe to 30+ newsletters in a variety of subject areas, including web design, writing, marketing, photography, memoir, crafts, diet, and cooking. If the content is more than 5% self-promotional, I quickly unsubscribe. I prefer concise articles, with subheads and bullet points. Although I enjoy reading about other people’s personal opinions and experience, it must be followed by practical information suitable for clipping into Evernote.
Many years ago I made a living designing, editing, and producing printed newsletters for businesses, organizations, and non-profits. Those days are long gone, but newsletters in electronic format live on as a valuable marketing and communications tool.