Resources articles

Google Fonts may be the single most significant contribution Google has made to the evolution of the web — yes, more significant than search, advertising, or analytics. Google Fonts gives every business access to a visual voice with which to distinguish itself. Fonts can be downloaded for use in design software and then embedded using best practices for a consistent experience on the web. If there’s anything wrong with Google Fonts,...

In my experience, the biggest challenge that freelancers face — more than winning clients or setting prices — is project management; take on too much work, and you’ll start missing deadlines, take on too little, and you’ll start missing your rent. Some people are naturally organized; they rock up at their desk at 08:59, fully confident in what they will spend the next 8–12 hours working on. Let’s be kind and say that I am not one of...

Since school is back in session, this month’s roundup has a learning focus. In addition to tools, many of the resources include guides, tutorials, and cheat sheets to help make design work easier. Here’s what’s new for designers this month. ScrollingMockup.io ScrollingMockup.io generates high-definition, animated scrolling mockups in minutes. All you have to do is paste your website URL, select from the expanding template gallery,...

It’s almost time for another season of change. Although the temperatures might not reflect it, this is the time of year where most of us start thinking about what’s next. This collection of tools and resources for designers is just the spark to propel you forward with work as you think ahead. Here’s what’s new for designers this month. Gradient.Art Gradient.Art is a CSS-based gradient generator that’s packed with functionality...

The best free online coding websites for beginners are hubs of education and insight, designed to take your knowledge and career to the next level. For years, technical careers have been gaining more attention among innovative individuals. In a digital world, people capable of speaking computer language often have the widest selection of job opportunities. However, before you can start leveraging the blossoming job market, you need to...

Craft CMS is increasing in popularity, and as it does, the previously relatively scant range of plugins is growing rapidly. There are plugins for Craft ranging from simple field utilities to the full ecommerce solution provided by Pixel & Tonic — the makers of Craft. An early decision that has borne fruit for Craft has been the plugin licensing model. Paid plugins for Craft charge an initial license fee and then a reduced annual renewal...

The dog days of summer are here. From vacations to pool time, you might not be thinking about work that much. But there are still plenty of new tools and resources popping up to help you become a better or more efficient designer. Here’s what new for designers this month. Haikei Haikei is a web app that you can use to generate SVG shapes, backgrounds, and patterns in a web-based editor that you can use with any design tool or workflow process. Everything...

With the widespread acceptance of web standards, and the resulting deprecation of browser prefixes, there has been a noticeable change in the browser market. Where once browser manufacturers would try to lure users in with promises of feature support, now the focus is on privacy, speed, and developer tools. When it comes to web development, you should really be testing on every browser and device you can lay your hands on; you’re probably...

Welcome to a new series of articles, in which we round up the best new fonts released from some of the top designers on the Web. In this inaugural edition, the collection includes fonts released or expanded over the last few months. Many of the fonts have free weights available. If you use any of them in your work, be sure to let us know! Cedar Cedar is a unique angular serif built by wrapping vector shapes around calligraphic structures. It has its...

This month’s new tools and resources collection is a mixed bag of elements for designers and developers. From fun little divots to tools that can speed up development, you are sure to find something usable here. Here’s what new for designers this month: June’s Top Picks Codewell Codewell is a service to help you learn, practice, and improve HTML and CSS skills with real templates. The benefit here is pretty obvious. When working with...

Every designer has their own preferred strategy for collecting resources. Some pluck brushes, fonts, and templates from different “stock photo sites” and public marketplaces. Others collect graphics from swipe files and forums around the web. The never-ending desire for themes, visual content, and graphical components has prompted an influx of “design packages” to appear around the web. These all-in-one bundles, ranging...

Want to know which of the top blogging platforms you should consider using this year? Blogging is still one of the best ways to draw attention to your brand, generate thought leadership, and build your credibility. Research suggests that US internet users spend 3x more of their browsing time on blogs than on email. Additionally, people view about 20 billion blog pages on average each month.  So, how do you join the blogging revolution? You’ll...

Are you thinking of building a website with a site builder but find yourself confused by the dizzying array of options? Well, puzzle no more because we’ve put together this great infographic to cut to the heart of the question: Which is better for you, Squarespace or Wix? Each of these site-building giants is ideal for a particular type of person, but which is best suited to your next project? Do you need total creative freedom? How about a large...

From dev tools to productivity to a little bit of fun with sudoku, this month’s collection of new tools is packed with something for everyone. Here’s what new for designers this month. May’s Top Picks Am I FLoCed? Am I FLoCed? Is a tool to see if you are part of a Google Chrome origin trial. It tests a new tracking feature called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). According to Google, the trial currently affects 0.5% of users in selected...