What’s new for designers — January 2012

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January 16, 2012

The January edition of what’s new for web designers and developers includes new web apps, frameworks, jQuery plugins, color tools, and a number of great new fonts. Many of the resources below are free or very low cost, and are sure to be useful to a lot of designers and developers out there. As always, if we’ve missed something you think should have been included, please let us know in the comments. And if you have an app or other resource you’d like to see included next month, tweet it to @cameron_chapman for consideration.

Cuepoint JS

Cuepoint JS

is an open source plugin for adding subtitles or cue-points to HTML5 video. 

jRumble

jRumble

is a jQuery plugin that makes any element you choose rumble, vibrate, shake, and rotate. 

Circle Menu

Circle Menu

is a jQuery plugin that emulates the menu in the Path application, and includes various animation options for opening and closing menus. 

Hovercard

Hovercard

is a free jQuery plugin that lets you display related information when you hover over a link, label, or any other HTML element. It includes Twitter and Facebook hovercards, and uses minimum CSS and no external stylesheets. 

Sharrre

Sharrre

is a jQuery plugin for creating widgets for sharing for Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and more. It includes Google Analytics tracking, and is highly configurable and personalizable. 

Flow Slider

Flow Slider

is a jQuery plugin that lets you slide HTML content in a variety of ways. It’s cross-browser compatible, customizable, and easy to set up. 

Gitview

Gitview

is a JavaScript widget for listing Github repositories. It includes asynchronous loading of all data, a canvas element for the participation graph, and many other features. 

Leaflet Maps Marker

Leaflet Maps Marker

is a WordPress plugin that lets you pin your favorite places with markers, use integrated address search for finding your places, and much more. 

Initializr 2 Responsive Template

Initializr 2

is now offering an HTML5 responsive design template generator. You can create slightly customized and highly customized templates in under a minute. 

AntiMap

AntiMap

is an open source toolset for recording and visualizing your data. There’s a smart phone app for data capture, as well as desktop and web applications for analysis and visualization. 

Kinzaa

Kinzaa

is a web app that lets you create infographic resumes that will set you apart from other job seekers. 

HexHelp​.com

HexHelp​.com

is an easy-to-use app for getting hex codes for any color. 

Visual Heap

Visual Heap

is a visual aggregator for designers that pulls images from all over the web for inspiration and ideas. 

accentColor

accentColor

is a JS script for grabbing the main accent color from any website. 

Croply

Croply

is a fast, secure, free online image cropping service. Just input the dimensions, upload your image, and that’s it. 

Revolver.js

Revolver.js

is a new content slider that’s equivalent to a boilerplate or framework for creating your own slider. It’s easy to use and completely customizable. 

Scrollorama

Scrollorama

is a jQuery plugin for doing various scrolly stuff”, like transitions. 

Tmpltr

Tmpltr

is a tool for rapid web iteration, using JSON, HTML, and CSS

Standard International (free)

Standard International

is a modern sans serif font with slightly retro stylings. 

Poly (free)

Poly

is a traditional serif typeface suitable for text or display use. 

Sofia (free)

Sofia

is a feminine script font with lots of character. 

Brix Slab ($174.30)

Brix Slab

is an extended family with 24 fonts. It’s a robust slab serif font with subtle detailing, optimized for longer texts and readable in smaller sizes. 

Rosarian ($55.10)

Rosarian

is a beautiful brush serif font with curvy stems on many of the letters, designed by Laura Worthington. 

Blanch (name your price)

Blanch

is a display typeface that comes in six weights. It was designed for the Fruita Blanch brand, and is traditional but with a contemporary feel. 

Cubano (name your price)

Cubano

has rounded corners and wide strokes, and features 167 glyphs. 

Hexa (free)

Hexa

is a blackletter typeface that has a modern look and feel. 

Haiku’s Script (free for personal use)

Haiku’s Script

is a hadwritten script font, created by Poemhaiku. 

Gaunt (free)

Gaunt

is a varying-width, uppercase font. The varying widths can be mixed together to give it a more unpredictable, non-uniform effect. 

Garamond Serial ($14.99)

Garamond Serial

is a traditional serif typeface with seven widths. 

Bad Script (free)

Bad Script

is a script font designed with a tablet to resemble casual and neat handwriting.  Know of a new app or resource that should have been included but wasn’t? Let us know in the comments!

Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a freelance writer and designer from New England. You can visit her site or follow her on Twitter.

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