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Fantastic Wallpapers That Will Blow Your Desktop Away

We love desktop wallpapers. And we love beautiful ones most. And although we monthly publish desktop wallpapers of our readers (desktop wallpaper calendar feature), we thought that it would be nice to provide our contributors with some fresh inspiration and our readers with some nice wallpaper update for a lousy Monday.

The wallpapers for this post were selected over a long period of time; they cover mainly nature, abstract and digital art (further collections will be coming if you are interested). We've tried to pick only the most beautiful ones and hopefully you won't be disappointed.

Below we present a showcase of over 50 fantastic wallpapers that will blow your desktop away. Most of them are in HD and will make your desktop look as nifty as it is possible. Because the resolutions are so high, if one doesn't fit your screen, use your favorite image editor to refine its dimensions.

You may also be interested in the following related posts:

• Really Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
• 100 Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers
• 70 Beautiful Dual-Screen Desktop Wallpapers

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: May 2009

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 60 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for May 2009?

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Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2009

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 55 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for April 2009?

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 55 free December desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe and sent to us by the designers themselves. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded and used for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what have we received for December?

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe and sent to us by the designers themselves. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded and used for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for November?

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: October 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That's why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we've decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn't it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for October?

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: September 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That's why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we've decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn't it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 30 free desktop wallpapers for September, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So which wallpapers have we received for September?

Read more...

15 Desktop Blogging Tools Reviewed

Desktop blogging tools can benefit designers-bloggers in a number of ways. They provide extra functionality that can significantly speed up the blogging process for both newbies and professionals.

One of the main benefits of using a desktop client is the ability to comfortably write a post offline, and then publish later. Many clients also come with a scheduled post feature, so you can define what time you would like to publish your articles. Some editors provide a spell checker, drafts saver, remote publishing and WYSIWYG-editor with advanced formatting options such as inserting media or structuring the post — they may be hard to deal with using standard online blogging-engines.

Let's take a look at 15 desktop blogging editors which can speed up the blogging process. Some are free and some cost a few dollars, but in the end any of these editors can greatly help a blogger, regardless of skill level.

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50 Remarkable Nature Wallpapers

When it comes to beauty nothing can beat the beauty of nature. Although we, designers, can derive inspiration from almost everything, nature often manages to provide us with beautiful eye-catching perspectives we would never have explored otherwise. We have collected hundreds of wallpapers already (see links below). In this post we would like to focus on wallpapers which emphasize the variety and beauty of nature.

This post showcases 50 remarkable nature desktop wallpapers. This post covers various themes and subjects; we have included both photographic and artistic (photo-manipulated) wallpapers. Hopefully, everybody will find something from himself / herself.

You may want to take a look at related posts:

• (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
• More (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
• Space Wallpapers and Nebula Wallpapers

Read more...

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: July 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That's why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we've decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn't it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 25 free desktop wallpapers, designed by 25 designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for July?

Read more...

40 Professional Icon Sets For Free Download

When it comes to icons, web designers and graphic artists have an excellent opportunity to showcase their craft, prove their experience and explore their creativity. A sweet, nice icon set is a perfect showcase of designer’s work and a powerful instrument to build up your reputation online. In fact, designers make use of it, creating absolutely amazing icon sets and offering them for free download.

However, designing a high-quality icon set isn't an easy task. It takes time, patience and resources and it requires professional skills and experience. We are regularly looking for talented artists and creative designers and we are happy to support them as much as possible — e.g. by showcasing their work in our magazine. If you are going to create an icon set and experience any problems releasing it or spreading the word — let us know, we may figure something out.

In the overview below we present 40 excellent, free and professional icons for desktop and web design. Some of them can be used for both private and commercial projects. You may always use them for fre in your private projects. Nevertheless, it is always worth to take a look at the license agreements — they can change from time to time.

You can also scan through the icons-related articles we’ve published before:

• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
  to spice up your posts with some nice illustrations or enrich your desktop with outstanding dock icons,
• Icons For Your Desktop and Icons For Your Web Designs
  with fresh high-quality free icons which you can use for your desktop; we also showcase free professional icon sets, buttons and vector graphics you can use for your web designs,
• 20 Free And Fresh Icon Sets
  with over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries,
• Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates
  with fresh high quality icons, buttons, vector graphics, templates and layouts.

This time you'll find quite many tasty snacks. Literally.

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More (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers

Desktop wallpapers are always nice to look at and to draw inspiration from. They may provide with some fresh perspective and offer you some eye-candy for tedious coffee breaks. We are regularly hunting for free high-quality icons, fonts and wallpapers and present them to you, so you don’t need to search for them. As long as we find something beautiful, interesting or useful, we let you know in our posts. And now it’s time for some sweet wallpapers designer’s toolbox.

In this post we present more (really) stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, photography, illustrations, HDR as well as some abstract and fantasy-related wallpapers. Hopefully, everybody will find something interesting for his or her desktop. All wallpapers can be downloaded for free.

You can also scan through the following posts:

• (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
• (Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos
• 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures

Don't forget: until 21th of May you can participate in Smashing Texture Contest, take a photo, send it to us and win a professional digital camera. We have received over 200 entries so far.

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Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: May 2008

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why since April 2008 we supply you with fresh desktop wallpapers. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 17 19 free desktop wallpapers with calendars, created by designers across the globe for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded and used for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?
• Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2008 features desktop wallpapers from the last month.

So what wallpapers have we received for May?

Read more...

(Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers

Desktop wallpapers always come in handy. The more inspirational, beautiful and elegant they are, the better they can challenge our imagination and provide some fresh perspective in a rather tedious and monotonous workflow. However, desktop wallpapers sometimes can go far beyond offering colorful eye-candy; sometimes desktop wallpapers include calendars, funny cartoons and logos of favourite tools, services and companies. The latter is particularly true for Apple-fans and Microsoft-haters as well as for Google, Twitter and Firefox-users.

In this post we present stunning desktop wallpapers related to typography, art, technology, photography and abstract themes. Among other things we review calendar wallpapers, minimalistic wallpapers, wallpapers-illustrations and themes for Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Google-fans. Each of the links leads to huge wallpapers archives where you can find even more excellent wallpapers. All screenshots are clickable and lead to the pages where they can be downloaded.

Please notice that you might want to take a look at the posts

• Selected Wallpapers For Your Desktop which covers wallpapers, devkits, Flickr pools, Widescreen and HD-monsters and even wallpapers-related social communities and wallpapers for gamers,
• More Creative and Beautiful Wallpapers which covers fresh, original and creative wallpapers and
• Selected Wallpapers: For Desktop & Web-Design which covers web design-related wallpapers and has dozens of references for Mac-fans.

Read more...

Productivity Boost: Key Stroke Launchers

Productivity is a tricky thing. Once you've found your way to get things done, you aren't likely to change anything until the system (your workflow or your tools) doesn't work any more. For instance, many developers tend to use the very same versions of applications they've been using over years. After all, you get things done and you've got used to it — so why should you introduce any changes? "Never touch the running system" is the principle which is often followed in such situations.

However, this approach has its drawbacks. For instance, you might simply be not aware of some useful tools which would save you many headaches, a lot of money and dozens of sleepless nights. Using them, you can become more efficient, more productive and consequently minimize the time you spend on tiring, monotonous daily routine tasks.

Over the next months we are going to cover a number of useful tools, services and applications which might help you to improve your workflow and increase your productivity. Most of them will turn out to be life-savers in practice, as they help you to accomplish some tasks automatically and you would need to do them manually otherwise.

In this article we present some free key stroke launchers — desktop-applications which you can use to start some other applications without a single mouse click.

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Screensavers - Best Of

Long, long time ago screensavers have been used to prevent the so-called screen-burn-effect — a permanent disfigurement of areas on a CRT display caused by non-moving text or graphics being displayed continuously for long periods of time. To avoid this effect, screen savers have been used to blank the screen or fill it with moving images or patterns when the computer was not in use. Today, screensavers don't serve their original purpose and are primarily used for entertainment.

In fact, we don't need screensavers any more, however we tend to use them as eye-candy for our coffee breaks. Particularly complex and colourful 3D-screensavers are extremely nice to look at. But also if you'd like to lift your spirit with some calm and relaxing animations screensavers can definitely be just what you are looking for.

However, if you are tired of the default screensavers brought to you by your OS you might start searching for the fresh ones in the Web. And you'll quickly find out: the choice is enormous; freeware is usually supplied with adware, and there are literally thousands of commercial solutions. What screensaver to choose? Most companies have limited demo- and shareware-versions, but they are almost always rather disturbing than helpful and will only get on your nerves.

In fact, there are only few pearls - amazing screensavers you'd be really ready to pay for once you've tested them. We've downloaded and installed a hell of a lot of them, we've had many problems (mostly adware) with them, but in the end we've tested all of them. And we've selected the most beautiful, interesting and unusual screensavers for you. Among them Flickr-, RSS- and time-screensavers - in the overview below both free and commercial solutions are presented.

Please notice:

• in the overview below you won't find enormous screensaver collections such as Screensaver.com (10 points for the first user mentioning this site in our comments). We've also tried to avoid sites filled with advertisements, pop-ups and hidden ad blocks. We also ignored cheap "discount screensaver providers" — mostly they offer just image galleries, and not real screensavers;
• screensavers are executable programs. Therefore: caution, Windows-users! We've tested the software presented below, still: use them at your own risk.
• some screensavers don't work properly on dual-monitors;
• you might also be interested in Selected Wallpapers For Your Desktop we've presented few weeks ago.

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Selected Wallpapers For Your Desktop

• Selected Wallpapers: For Desktop & Web-Design 60+ selected posters, wallpapers, galleries and background images.
• More Creative and Beautiful Wallpapers 42 more galleries of wallpapers and posters.

Read more...

Google Gadgets, Widgets and Moduls

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More Creative and Beautiful Wallpapers

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Christmas Wallpapers

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