Tools & Resources articles

It’s hard to stay focused this time of year. With vacations coming up (or having recently passed) it’s easy to get distracted from work-related tasks. For that reason, this month’s roundup is full of design tools plus a few design diversions that you can have fun with. 404 Illustrations Have you ever wanted to create a cool 404 page but didn’t have the time or inspiration? 404 Illustrations takes all the work out of it for you with funky...

Back in April, jQuery 3.4 was released with all the pomp and ceremony of a British monarch on the 4th of July (happy Independence Day to all our American readers). There have been a flurry of minor releases since then, with the current version being 3.4.1. We’ve had a few weeks to poke around, and check out the new features, and more importantly the now deprecated features. What we found was a modern library that defied a few of our expectations....

It’s that time of year when everyone’s mind is less on work, than on vacation. So, we’ve tried to round up a few new tools and resources for designers that can make projects seem a little more like play. Enjoy! Fontanello Fontanello is a Chrome browser extension that lets you see the type styles of text just by right-clicking it. This tool takes all the hassle out of looking for font styles by showing the name, size, leading, and color of a typeface...

Drawing is one of the most common and fun past times. Nowadays, with the release of new and powerful Android tablets and iPads, you don’t even have to break out your drawing pad and favorite drawing utensils. There are dozens of drawing apps that allow you to draw digitally and hone your artistic skills. The only problem is, which drawing app to pick? To help you answer that question, we’ve rounded up the best drawing apps for Android and iPad....

Saving color palettes you find online or as you’re working on a design is not always an easy process. You could use the browser’s Inspect tool to grab the hex code or grab a screenshot and use Photoshop later on to pull the colors from it. Or you could simplify the process and grab a dedicated color picker tool that will allow you to grab color from any website, on desktop or on mobile without having to leave your browser window. Here are 10 best...

There are plenty of cool new tools and resources available for designers this month, and you’ll be especially happy if you are looking to find photos with ease, increase productivity or even create better documentation. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered! Creative...

WordPress is the most used CMS across the world today. It has attained the number one position because it is so simple to use and maintain, not only from a designer’s point of view, but also from the end user’s perspective. In this article, we will look at a few different questions people have about WordPress. Some may seem downright silly, some a little technical, and some questions will be the ones that you yourself always wanted to ask! How...

Web design gets broader everyday, with new technologies entering the field on a seemingly weekly basis. As a web designer, you need to stay on top of these technologies, and upgrade your skills, or you’ll become obsolete. But it’s tough to keep up when you’re reading countless Medium posts, and scouring the latest ebook for tips. That’s where podcasts come in. The (usually) short episodes are like talk radio for the web, and are a great...

We’re all about learning tools this month in our round of up new resources and tools for designers. From games to books to tutorials, there’s something new for everyone to learn and enjoy. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered! CSSBattle Jump to the top of the CSSBattle...

There are so many decisions you have to make as a web designer and it can sometimes be a tricky balance trying to put all the right elements into place. When you add the ecommerce piece, it gets even more complicated. According to this infographic by Subscriptionly.net, consumers have very high expectations for ecommerce websites. But if you design it right, there’s a lot of up money up for grabs: We’re talking trillions of dollars in sales...

This month we are all about tools that make life easier. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this roundup of new things for designers – from color tools to workflow enhancers to code snippets to fonts that will make you smile, everything here can make your design life easier. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured...

The WordPress community officially has Gutenberg fever. While there has been some grumbling (and not without some cause), the blocky little editor that could, has gone mainstream. People have been building, writing, collating, and generally just adapting to the changes, and I’m here to show you some of what they’ve done… Enjoy! Plugins As is usual, the WordPress community has gone wild, and has already developed loads of plugins...

Get ready to create a new list of bookmarks! The new tools featured this month are perfect for saving; some of them you’ll want to come back to over and over, such as a security checklist, cool background maker and a season-specific typeface. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to...

For many designers, Photoshop is the number one tool for editing images, but for many other designers, Photoshop is an expensive, bloated, and inefficient tool. In the last few years, the number of apps coming to market and taking a bite out of Photoshop’s fanbase has grown. Photoshop has so many built-in features that few apps can match them all. But few designers need them all. The key to finding a good alternative to Photoshop is finding...