The ultimate collection of horizontally tileable web 2.0 backgrounds for web design, blogs and software. Ideal structure for ” header + navigation bar + body bg ”. This is an absolutely massive download as not only you get so many ready backgrounds, but also detail stylized PSD files with all the layer styles for each and every layer individually. 50 variations with very neat and mild gradients to choose from, different web 2.0 style combination, colors for any web site, both dark and light color scheme backgrounds. I am sure you are going to love them! Here is a partial preview of some of the backgrounds that will be included in this huge download…

The file includes:

• 50 ready-to-use .PNG files (optimized for fast loading, 2 kb each)

• 50 fully layered PSD files (detailed layer style for each segment

If you have any questions, please contact me in the profile form. Comments and ratings are appreciated!

Typography is important for any web page as well as all other type of medium.  Everything that is put into making a page look interesting tot read and enjoy all comes down to typography. There is a lot of competition for viewer numbers and it is important to make your site look inviting to readers.

There are no excuses when it comes to typography and if your page shows poor design you may already be behind the game. Here we will explain some of the some of the fundamentals that will allow you to create a page that is not only attractive but different than the rest of your competition. If you’re a web designer, you will be able to take comfort in knowing that much of your competition has poor design and this fact will put you ahead of the game. Web designers have to use the typography techniques and tools along with other media choices that will be aimed specifically at the audience you want to attract.

There are a set of unique problems for someone designing a web page because not only do you on your screen, you have to make all of your choices discreetly due to other computer platforms, sizes of screens and the communication needs of all of your viewers. You will need to work with the impact you want to have on viewers, the style and text of corresponding properties that are involved with the typeface it uses.

Typography means – If your audience is children, you will not use the same design as if you were typing for a political audience, and if your target is the political audience you would not choose the same formatting as you would for a page designed for a financial website. So as you can see your typography wants to be intertwined with the context and background that is best suited for your audience.

Text alignment – If you align to the left it will allow the viewer to read faster because it will give a focal point for the eye when starting to read the next line of text.

Line length – If you allow about 9 to 10 words per line it will give the viewer a higher reading speed. If your concern is in performance then you will want to use a longer line length. Viewers read at a faster rate when the lines are long but most prefer the shorter length.

Heading – You should make your heading about 130% of the text. But the longer the length of the line, the bigger the heading should be. For instance, a newspaper article is short in line length therefore they can have a smaller heading and they use the smaller font to fit as much information in the article as possible.

Font – the font needs to fit the subject matter. If you start to use more than one font it distracts the reader. Your heading should be in a bold Times new roman and the text is normally written in times new roman normal font. The cleaner looking the article or information the better the reader will comprehend your text. Mixing fonts is not advisable and does not look good.

Italics - If you must use them, use them sparingly because it does not translate well and is especially harder to read in a smaller sized text letter. Try not to use them on larger areas of your text and it will greatly improve the overall look.

Capitol letters – The use of Capitol letters is not recommended for all of your text, it makes it more difficult to read and the uniformity can throw a viewer off, even in the heading it is better to stay away from using full upper case letters. If using capitols in your heading, use them on the first letter of the word and it will allow an easier flow for the reader.

Contrast – The best contrast is a light background with dark words and vice versa, so keep this in mind when choosing your contrast colors.

Underscore links – it is a good idea to underscore all of your links so the viewer can easily identify what is and is not a link you should not be depending only upon a mouse over to highlight your links.

Scanners – You should know that most people when visiting a web page only scan through them so offer bold type on your headings and fill the first paragraphs with as much useful information as possible. It is better to use bullets and lists too as to break up the text and make it more inviting for the viewer. This is especially important if your website is offering a service.

Now that we have gone over some of the fundamentals you need to keep in mind how you use typography to better exploit your website content. It is done in a well thought out manner and with an objective eye. You will either gain or loose just by the typography you use so be careful in selecting the right combinations that will best fit your target audience and you will be pleased with the final results.

I often stress about the importance of logo design when getting your business or online website started, however year after year I notice that some people still under estimate the significance of branding and identity, so this post is going to be dedicated for logo design, and how to chose one wisely.

First off, forget about free logos that you can download online, the last thing you want to see is some other company chasing you with Trademark violation complains. You need professionals to do this for you, in order to guarantee this will be your unique, one-of-a-kind design you can start branding, register trademark for and promote as your own brand. If this is what you are after, go with LogoBee. This Canadian company has been online for 10 years, and has won multiple awards for the logo designs they have created. If you need professional branding and business identity for your website, The guys behind LogoBee won’t only supply you with a remarkable logo design, but also be able to provide you with web design, stationery and other related products, for affordable prices, with money-back guarantee and lifetime logo design support (who else will offer THAT?).

How to get started?

• First of all, go and see their impressive portfolio, to get an idea of what they are capable of.
• See what other have to say about their work. Testimonials from happy clients really speak for themselves! I was really impressed to see Kendra Todd, winner of  “The Apprentice”, being among LogoBee’s clients; she sought logo design services for her real estate firm.
• Have a look at their special offers, various packages (each one has its own advantages), and — place your order and become yet another satisfied client!

LogoBee accepts payments from all major credit cards together with paypal, making it extremely easy and flexible for anyone to avail of their service. Contrary to most online competitors, LogoBee’s designers are working in-house, you can reach them by online chat, fax, phone and even use their toll-free line in order to get in touch.

Important Information for affiliates and site owners: you can earn money referring clients to LogoBee, as they also run an affiliate program, which will help both parties benefit from new clients. Register today to start earning on new referrals! You might be a bit hesitant about joining the referral program, but rest assured, referred clients will have a great motivation, because they also receive a $20 discount on their logo design purchase, and additionally, when ordering a stationary design, the client gets 500 business cards printed in CMYK for FREE. That’s a great way to start a brand-able business you can trademark, don’t you think?

You really should not think twice, as LogoBee is a place where you get everything done under one roof, which means paying less to 3rd party companies who handle separate requests (like web design or printing your business cards out).

12 Incredibly useful and handy HDR ready-to-use Photoshop actions for instantly improved photo effects. After you have successfully loaded the actions, just play around and enjoy! All the 12 actions are stored in 1 folder called “HDR pro”, click the arrow to collapse the menu with all the actions. Fix dull, lifeless and dark photos in seconds! As you can see from the preview file, some actions give higher contrast HDR effect (designed for particularly dark photos), others add an artistic touch such as outline, noise here is a brief overview of what’s included in your download:

• Action 1 – Mild HDR effect, fix shadows and dark areas, enhances colors
• Action 2 – Classical, intense HDR effect
• Action 3 – Moderately mild HDR effect with sepia colors scheme.
• Action 4 – Very mild HDR effect, fixes shadows and unlit areas, adds artistic light noise.
• Action 5 – Very intense HDR with extreme colors enhancement, designed to fix extremely dark and colorless shots.
• Action 6 – High contrast B/W HDR with mild glow / blur effect
• Action 7 – Colorful HDR with semi-visible noise (less visible noice and more colors, compared to action 4)
• Action 8 – Highly artistic HDR with dark outline and vertical strokes.
• Action 9 – Highly artistic HDR with overall dark blue scheme and emphasis on light areas. Fixes shadows enhances colors.
• Action 10 – Vintage-HDR. Add stains and spots to your HDR effect, get artistic and very beautiful result.
• Action 11 – Intense HDR , and very visible glow / blur effect
• Action 12 – HDR + Noise + light sepia + even shadows, last action is once again classed as a more of an art-HDR, makes the tones even adds a vintage-style color

I am also enclosing 2 sets of examples, based on photos I took myself, together with the original images (unprocessed). Feel free to use them as a base or use them anywhere else, crediting me is You will notice that, just like any HDR photo effect, it works best for dark, dull and lifeless photos, particularly – landscapes, however, I tried them out also on portraits and other photos – in any way the result is incredibly impressive.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line.

I remember when I was still a freelancer, a few years ago, I often faced these typical freelancer’s problems — tight deadline and the design for a client isn’t yet ready. Go find a designer who will do the job for you just 1 day before the deadline… Sometimes it ended up in losing a client, sometimes in staying up all night. These days are definitely history, not only because I am not a freelancer anymore, but also because today we have a website called DesignCrowd. This is probably the ultimate place for outsourcing any part of your job as a designer or developer, from whole and complete web design PSD to small graphics, logos, illustrations, business identity design and more. This business model allows you not only to outsource parts of unfinished jobs when you are unable to complete the task on time, but also visit DesignCrowd on a regular basis, looking for designers who will compete against each other, bringing you the best possible design, which you can proudly to show to the client. Not only you won’t need to work hard, question is — do you need to bother working at all?

I have already mentioned that Design Crown is the ultimate place, and allow me to explain why. First of all, there are currently over 12 thousands of designers and web design companies registered with the website, which means you will have a very big variety of top quality designs to choose from, and they all will try their best to impress you (of course you won’t have to work though 12k submissions, but just imagine how many ideas and possibilities it opens in front of you!) Average project gets between 50 to over 100 creative  submission –  naturally, depending on the price you offered.

The second advantage of designcrowd.com is that you have everything under one roof; you can outsource whole job, or small bits (for example, you need an original and unique vector, so instead of paying for a non-unique license in any of the stock sites, you can simply order one and have it custom made for YOUR needs). Everything here is designed to make your life easier, all you need to do is post your project, view the submissions, provide feedback and when you chose the right entry — complete the payment and download your source files. Yes, it’s that simple.

Creating a post costs only $30, you decide on the reward for the winning entry and the best part is — you can keep your post private, so your client will never know you have, actually, outsourced the design.

This business model also, now that i think of it, is very beneficial to designers who don’t have clients queuing up behind their door; there are dozens and dozens of new contests — enter and make hundreds of extra cash. This is really a website where everyone benefits, thumbs up to the creators for useful and creative way to make everyone’s life easy. Have a look!

Occasionally I get to see how successful, apparently professional websites, undervalue the importance of logo design and branding. Let’s face it, it’s almost the year 2010, and you absolutely can’t build your name and your business without a highly memorable, elegant and professionally pit-together logotype. However, I can understand the business owners, most web design companies charge a great deal of money for unique design, and not only you have no ideawhich company to turn to, you also cannot know what sort of design will they come up with and in case you are unsatisfied, you are likely to still be charged for wasting their time.

This is why logo contest campaigns are gaining more and more popularity. Today, if you need a logo, all you need to do is launch a contest, announce a prize and see dozens of world’s top designers working for you. During the contest you will have over a hundred of entries to chose from, and the best advantage is that you can preview all the designs, give feedback, request modifications, communicate with all the designs altogether or personally. the winner with the prize… get it tweaked, fixed and polish before you pay; or in other words — award. Minimum prize amount is set to $200, while the  max prize is $1000. Now, if you are a designer reading this, just imagine how many extra hundreds you can make per month, simply entering a few logo contests weekly — you might be luckier than you think! Let alone joining is free so you lose nothing by trying.

Logo My Way dot com is the ultimate place to get started. With new contests created every day and option to hide your contest from the www viewers, you can have your logo designed fast, discreetly and professionally by any of the leading designers in the industry. I highly recommend to have a look at their website and bookmark it, because this business model allows you to save money and hassle, as well as participate in plenty of daily opportunities to earn money with your skills, if you are a designer.

A while ago I finally got my business cards printed, since I run a few types of business activities, one online and the other — offline, I needed quite a lot of material to be printed, from simple cards to business identity. I used another very well known printing service, who are really great and professional, but there is also their competitors, who offer business cards printing EVEN cheaper.

The October special deal currently going on PrintPlace.com — 10% off your already cheap business cards printing. their service is cheap, reliable and fast.

Enter above coupon code at checkout to receive discount on Same Day, 1, 2 and 3 day products. Discount excludes taxes, shipping, postage, and mailing services. Offer only valid 10/1/09 – 10/31/09. Offer valid for New Customers only and cannot be combined with any other offer or discount.

Hurry, because there is no reason to pay double price again in November!

So, kids are back to school soon and adults are back from a vacation, but we here at toptut.com stayed and are glad that you read our first edition of “Weekly Roundup”, which will be published every weekend on toptut.com. So, here are the most notable posts that were published on the web over the last week, hope our readers will enjoy these resources:

32 Trashy And Distorted Fonts For Your Next Grungy Design

Over the past couple month/years we’ve seen grungy-looking websites and designs popping all over the place Of course using patterns and textured backgrounds can help give a website a dirty and grungy feel, but let’s not forget about typography.

5 Sliding Content Techniques, Examples & jQuery How to

Today we would like to focus on sliding effects and how i can change the structure of a page in a truly unique and creative way. There are many transition effects that can be used to slide different contents, such as fading, horizontal sliding, vertical sliding, the list goes on. Try to pick the transition that best captures the style of your website

35 Original and Creative Free Twitter Icon Sets

Most Twitter “Follow Me” buttons and icons are boring (look at mine, very dull),souless and cliched. How about something with some creativity, originality and a little bit of charcter. In this post that is exactly what you will find, 35 Original and Creative Twitter Icon Sets.

20 Useful Resources To Download Free Website Templates

Free Website Templates (HTML based) are always great for inspiration and valuable for people who don’t know much on coding a personal website. There are numerous websites which offer free website templates, downloadable and easy to edit via Frontpage, Dreamweaver and many other popular softwares.

40 (NEW) High Quality Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

In today’s post, you’ll find an assortment of new & high quality Photoshop tutorials that others have freely contributed to the design community for making your next photoshop effect.