Resources articles

Stock images are an essential tool for anyone working with clients who can’t afford to hire a photographer for a bespoke shoot, and with the cost of photography shoots running into thousands of dollars, that’s most clients. Last month we looked at the 10 Best Free Stock Image Sites for 2021, and this month we’re focusing on the premium end of the market. Paying for stock doesn’t guarantee that you’re getting a higher quality product...

When photographers take images to sell commercially, like every other business, they want to maximize their returns, so they adapt their ideas to meet commercial trends. As a result, stock always looks like stock, and that minor deception introduces a small amount of doubt in users. But the rise of camera phones, and the increasing affordability of DSLRs, has led to a growth in people who aren’t monetizing every shot. What that means is if...

This article is brought to you by 4Kdownload.com, a suite of video tools that help you make the most of YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, and many more popular resources. YouTube isn’t just for videos of cats snowboarding; it’s also a treasure trove of design tips, freebies, how-tos, career advice, and all-around creative inspiration. Whether you’re a seasoned design veteran or just taking the first steps along a creative career, there...

When you think of installing analytics, you probably reach for Google Analytics. And you wouldn’t be alone. The platform’s tight integration with SEO and the implication that using Google products is beneficial to ranking means that Google Analytics is the most commonly installed analytics solution globally. Google Analytics isn’t a bad choice: it’s free, it’s fairly comprehensive, and it does indeed tie most SEO efforts...

We’re going to try something a little different this month; with this roundup of tools and resources for designers, we’re going to pick a few of our favorites and group everything else in a manner that makes it even easier to find elements that will work for you, and your projects, right now. Here’s what’s new for designers this month… February’s Top Picks Pika Pika is a new Mac app that is an open-source color picker. It helps you find...

Welcome to our roundup of the best plugins for popular CMS, this month. We’re going to cover plugins built to enhance WordPress, Shopify, Craft CMS, and Joomla. Enjoy! WordPress Tutor LMS Elementor Addons Tutor LMS Elementor Addons is a useful plugin that adds 25+ add-ons to the Elementor page builder. The plugin allows users to create custom styling and layouts for Tutor LMS courses. For this plugin to work effectively, you will have to...

It’s never been easier to set up an ecommerce store and start selling. There are a dizzying array of ecommerce solutions available in 2021, and most are feature-rich and competitively priced. Ecommerce sites are notoriously difficult to migrate from platform to platform, so more often than not, you’ll be committed to your chosen solution for years. The key when choosing an ecommerce solution to maximize your return on investment, is...

The new year is often packed with resolutions. Make the most of those goals and resolve to design better, faster, and more efficiently with some of these new tools and resources. Here’s what new for designers this month. Radix UI Radix UI is an open-source UI component library for building high-quality, accessible design systems and web apps. It includes examples and guidelines for all kinds of user interface elements that provide guidance...

When creating a website, it’s vital to remember that not only does it need to work and look great on the device you are creating it on, but on all the other devices, it might be used on too. Mobile and tablet optimization is important not only for the user journey but from an SEO point of view too, and badly created mobile sites just don’t cut it anymore. With more and more devices entering the market, you need to check any website you create is compatible...

Google Fonts is one of the most useful tools designers have, with hundreds of amazing fonts provided for free. But if you just grab one of the top ten suggestions, you’re missing out on a vast wealth of typographic gems. Just about every font on Google Fonts is worth trying out, but the very best designs — designs that engage, inspire, and delight — combine two or more fonts. It’s the same principle as sweet and sour; two competing tastes...

Looking for the best new CMS plugins to take your website to the next level? Well look no further.  In this post, we’ll cover a list of the best new CMS plugins for December 2020. This article will include useful plugins for WordPress, Shopify, Craft, and Joomla. Let’s get started… WordPress OptiPic images optimization OptiPic is a simple WordPress plugin that allows users to easily optimize and compress images. The plugin also returns...

Jumpstart your next design project or speed up a workflow with some of these new tools and resources. With so many new tools being developed all the time, you are almost certain to find something that can help you with projects. Here’s what new for designers this month. Everypixel Patterns Everypixel Patterns solves a common design problem: Creating seamless patterns with graphic editors is such a long and exhausting process. That's why...

Since there are so many CMS plugins out there, it can be overwhelming to choose the best ones for your website. We’ve done the research for you; this list contains the top new CMS plugins for November 2020. You’ll find useful plugins for WordPress, Craft, Shopify, and Joomla. Let’s get started… WordPress 404 Page Editor 404 Page Editor is a simple WordPress plugin that helps you add custom text to the default 404 page on your website....

In the spirit of fall feasts, this month’s collection of tools and resources is a smorgasbord of sorts. You’ll find everything from web tools to icon libraries to animation tools to great free fonts. Let’s dig in. Here’s what new for designers this month. The Good Line-Height The Good Line-Height is the tool you won’t be able to live without after using it a few times. The tool calculates the ideal line-height for every text size in...