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10 Must Read Free Ebooks for Web Designers

Alice — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:00:07 +0000

Web design trends are constantly changing and so is the way information is shared over the web. There are plenty of free e-books that web designers can download to sharpen their skills and stay on top of their game. So, instead of paying for hardcover books, you should first take a look at the free resources available on the web. You might be surprised of how useful these e-books are and of how much great information you can find inside.

Since there are a lot of free e-books available on the Internet, here’s a list of the top 10 free e-books that think all web designers should download and read.

1. Introduction to Good Usability by Peter Pixel

An accessible guide to good usability and design for beginners and intermediates. These 21 pages include some classic problems of usability that you might encounter and the solutions to handle them.

2. Web Designer’s Success Guide

If you’re planning to start your own freelance web design business, then you should definitely go through Kevin Airgid’s start-up steps. His e-book offers insights into the business and you’ll find out how to go from having a full-time job to being a freelancer, how to promote your services, how to manage projects and, very important, how to set the right price for your services.

3. Design Your Imagination

This guide is very useful for beginner web designers that want to learn how to get started and how to feed their creativity. It includes 28 chapters of information ranging from web design principles to planning a layout, and much more. Every tip is illustrated by practical examples.

4. Integrating Accessibility Through Design

Find out how to improve the design of your website by keeping an eye on accessibility. What makes this resource great is the fact that the author, Shawn Henry, is a promoter of web accessibility for users with disabilities.

5. Faster and More Secure WebFonts

Great e-book to find examples of fonts you should use on the web to make a website more secure and to improve its loading time.

6. A Practical Guide To Web Typography

This guide is a must-have for any web designer that respects himself. It’s a classic! It walks you through all the web design principles and the available techniques that can help you design a better website.

7. Why Design?

“Why Design?” is a booklet that explains the role of web design in a business strategy. You will learn why strategy in designing is so important and how you can add more value to your projects when working for clients.

8. The Design Funnel: A Manifesto for Meaningful Design

The author of the e-book – Stephen Hay – explains how there is a process that can help you get into the mind of the clients and figure out what exactly they want their designs to look like, even if what they tell you is not so clear for you.

9. Access by Design Online

Being a web designer means to create thinking of users at all times. The goal is to make the site as accessible and easy to use as possible. This e-book explains the process of usability and the principles of a web that works for all users.

10. Building Accessible Websites

Accessibility is the keyword to design nowadays. This e-book shares some insights on how to design a site so that’s it’s easier to access and use by all visitors.

If I missed any great resource, don’t hesitate to mention it in a comment below. Thanks.

60 Free Social Media Icon Sets

flashuser — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:00:19 +0000

The popular social media integration is a must have feature for every blog or website today. It’s part of our daily life as internet users. If you want to share content, easy bookmark something that you find useful and discuss with your friends a certain subject of interest the social media websites are the key. So to facilitate the conection between the subject of interest and the rest of the world is good to have on your website icons such as RSS, Facebook, Twitter, +1 Button from Google, Stumbleupon and more. But do not always you find the icons that match your website.

I’ve taken my time, researched the web and I present to you 60 Free Social Media Icon Sets that you are free to download and use the icons you like. Below will find the best free icons from Twitter birds, to hand-drawn icon packs, vintage icons, special year events, 3D or modern look.

Rounded Social Media Icon Sets

1. Free High Quality Icon Set

2. “Buddycons” – Vector Social Media Icons

Included in the set are PNG versions of all 126 icons in both circular and rounded variations as well as a vector source file for easy resizing.

3. White Button Social Media Icon

4. Extended set of social icons

5. Social Media Circles Icon Set

Included: 1 zip file containing 222 png icons.

6. Grunge Peeling Stickers Social Media Icons

Each icon is in .png format sized at 128x128px with transparent backgrounds. The pack comes with a .PSD source file so that you can customize your own icons.

7. Page Peel Social Icons – Version 2

8. Simple Circular Social Media Icons Pack

These icons come in really handy when integrating social media sites to your blog.

9. Nurture Social Icon Set

“Nurture” is a Social Icon Pack that was designed for digital creatives who want to add a unique, lively, and green touch to their blogs and other web-projects. The set includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites.

10. 28 Social Media Icon Badges

A fun set of 28 social media icons done in a hand stitched vintage badge style.

11. Old Bottle Crowns Icon Set

12. 108 Red Pearl Soc. Media Icons

13. Neon Social Media Buttons

14. 154 clear bubble icons

154 crystal clear bubble Social Networking/ Social Media.

15. 34 Wood Social Media Icons

Square Social Media Icon Sets

16. Free Social Media Icon Set

17. Social Media Icons – Volume 2

18. 1,540 inFocus Simple White Social Media Icons

19. Hand drawn social media icons

Download this icon set for free for bloggers or anyone else.

20. SocialClean- Free Social Network Icons

It’s a set of 12 icons delivered as PNGs in 4 different sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 48×48 and 128×128 covering various social networks like Digg, Delicious, Facebook, Google Buzz, Linked In, Mixx, MySpace, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati and Twitter.

21. Vector Social Media Icons

This free set includes 80 icons of the most popular social media networks on the internet. The icons are designed in 32px and 16px vector format.

22. Gorgeous Mini Social Networking Icon Set

23. 24 Free Exclusive Vector Icons: “Handy”

“Handy” is a set of 24 free and exclusive vector icons that can be used on websites, logos and more.

24. Mac style social icons

25. Vintage Icon Set For Bloggers

26. DarkSocial: A Free and High-Quality Social Media Icon Set

27. Free Furry Cushions Social Icons Set

28. 12 Creative Wooden Social Networking Icons

29. Woven Fabric Social Media Icon Set

Although not suitable for every type of site, these icons will look wonderful on websites that use texture and have an organic approach to their design.

30. Handycons 2 – another free hand drawn icon set

31. Pixel perfect Social Media Icons

81 Pixel perfect Social Media Icons free for personal and commercial work. Each icon is hand crafted and available as a large share button, 32 pixel and 16 pixel icon.

32. Free glossy social icons

Glossy social is an icon set which consists of 20 icons for the following services: YouTube, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr, RSS, Feedburner, Skype, Last.fm, Gmail, Linkedin, Yahoo, Facebook, Delicious, mySpace, reddit, Friendfeed, WordPress, Vimeo and a generic “Favorite” icon.

33. Set of social icons no.2

34. 25 Free Social Networking Icons

The set includes 25 amazing web 2.0 style social networking icons with transparent backgrounds.

35. Vector Social Media Icons

36. Free social media icon set

Special Social Media Icon Sets

37. Cheers: A Free “Social” Icon Set

38. Social Trucks Icons

Ten social icons depicting spacious trucks to deliver your tweets, links and status updates across all major social networks. No traffic jam can stop them!

39. Latte Art Social Icons

There’s no best way to invite your readers for a social coffee than to use these beautiful latte art icons on your blog!

40. Free Vector Icons: Panda Social Network Icons

The Panda Social Network Icons is a free package containing 12 sweet panda animals, 128×128 pixels each, that have social network marks on their stomach.

41. Heart v2: Free Social Iconset in Heart Shape

This iconset contains 39 social media icons in three different resolutions (64×64, 32×32 and 16×16).

42. The Leaves Fall: A Social Icon Set For Bloggers

This set contains 11 social icons, designed in an autumn-style. The set includes icons for Twitter, Technorati, RSS, Reddit, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Digg.

43. Icons Cloud

Social icon set shaped cloud. All most famous social network. 60×60 pixel. png files.

44. Thinking Networks Icon 2

For this release i’ve improved the design of icons with a fresh glossy effect for the icon and some new features for the thinking man.

45. Bulb Social Media Icons

46. Jive Social Media Icons Set

Jive is a set of 10 social media icons which represent various cartoon illustrations dancing.

47. Free Social Media Icons: Tricons

In the pack, you will find 12 triangular wooden icons of popular social media sites.

48. Social Media Bubblicons: Icon Pack

49. Icon Set

50. Social Puzzle Icon Pack

3D Social Media Icon Sets

51. Social Buzz Icon Pack

52. Yammy Social Media Icons Set

53. 3D Social Media Icon Pack

54. Dellifeed: A Free Icon Set

55. High detail social icons

56. Free Vector Social Bookmark Icons

57. Free Icon Pack: Vector 3D Social Icons

The icons we created for you are clean and simple, ready to be used in websites, blogs, web applications, and everything else that you can imagine. There are 10 icons in the set for popular web services like Twitter and Facebook.

58. 20 Amazing 3D social icons

A brand new set that consists of 20 3D icons in PNG format (64×64 & 128x128pixels).

59. Social Media Icons

60. Isometrica (Volume 1): A Free Social Media Icon Set

FREE Image Scroller Gallery XML AS2

flashuser — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:16:52 +0000

Great free flash file released by Flashtuning. It’s a flash image gallery that can be used horizontally or vertically depending on your needs. Take a look at the preview and download it. Enjoy!

Check the preview for the FREE Image Scroller Gallery XML (Actionscript 2):

Features

Horizontal & Vertical versions
Roll over image coloring & scrolling
Image titles, descriptions & mirrors
Scrolling speed adjustment & Mouse Wheel support
Set URL links when pressing big images in the XML file
Optionally set the XML file with FlashVars

Download file from here

License

You are free to use this flash gallery files in any project personal / commercial as long as you not redistribute / resell the functionality provided with the downloaded product without the author’s written permission. You may modify its content in case you want to use the product for a custom project.

X-Treme Dock Menu XML FREE

flashuser — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:41:26 +0000

We are happy to announce you that Flashtuning supports the community by offering you free versions of its flash components. The freebies may have some limitations and don’t include the application source file, but you can easily configure them through the XML file.

Check the preview for the X-Treme Dock Menu XML (Actionscript 2):

Features

No Flash Knowledge required to insert the Dock Menu SWF inside the HTML page(s) of your site
Fully customizable XML driven content
Unlimited number of images / swf support
Customizable width, height, position and item size
AutoPlay ( AutoScroll ) with global or individual timer for each image
Both horizontal and vertical menu orientation support
Dynamic image reflection with transparency, distance and direction settings
Image ToolTips with automatic text wrapping, font embedding, background and border color / size support
…and much more

How to use it

1. Download the FREE X-Treme Dock Menu XML and put all the files in the same directory. Now to insert the SWF file inside the HTML page(s) of your website copy / paste the following code in your HTML page(s) and adjust the param and other values with your own values:

where:

#version=8,0,0,0 -> represents the minimum required Flash, can be 8, 9 etc.
yourSWFWidth -> a numeric value in pixels representing the width of your movie
yourSWFHeight -> a numeric value in pixels representing the height of your movie
yourSWFName -> represents the SWF file name (without the .swf extension)
yourSWFURL -> represents the URL location to the SWF file on your sever (eg: http://www.mysite.com/myflashfolder/myMovie.swf )

For using JavaScript integration follow the second part of this tutorial.

2. To configure the dock menu general settings, like autoplay, menu width and height, border, use tooltips and much more, open up the dock-settings.xml file. To adjust each item individually, you must open the dock-contents.xml and modify image and text effects as you like.

3. If you want to specify a different XML configuration filename you can use FlashVars. Edit the HTML source file and go to the tag where your SWF resides and add the following code to the object tag:

Make sure you to add the FlashVars=”xmlFile=myXMLFile.xml” also to the < embed > tag.

If you want to use the dock menu in a Flash project (FLA file needed) check out the commercial version available at FlashTuning.net.

License

You are free to use the files inside the FTDockMenuXMLFree.zip in any project personal / commercial as long as you don’t try to hide Flashtuning logo located in the bottom left corner of the dock menu. If you don’t want to have the logo, you must purchase the commercial package that is available on FlashTuning.net. If you want to use the dock menu in multiple websites you’ll have to purchase a license for each website. Read more on the X-Treme Dock Menu XML page.

XML Image Scroller Gallery AS2

flashuser — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:04:13 +0000

Check the preview for the XML Image Scroller Gallery (Actionscript 2):

Features

Easy to use XML file for images / titles / descriptions and links
Scroll Bar component support for the text description box and image menu
Multiple big images / banners support, you can use SWFs and/or image files
Big images / banners width / height adjustable from XML
AutoPlay / Previous / Next with timer and adjustable focus symbol
Image titles, mirror and roll over coloring support
Optionally set the XML file path in HTML using FlashVars

How to use it

1. Download the FREE XML Image Scroller Gallery and put all the files in the same directory. Now to insert the SWF file inside the HTML page(s) of your website copy / paste the following code in your HTML page(s) and adjust the param and other values with your own values:

where:

For using JavaScript integration follow the second part of this tutorial.

2. To configure your gallery open up the config.xml file and adjust the parameters according to your needs. You can set the autoplay to run or not, the width and height of the gallery, the thumbnails dimensions, the description box to show or hide and much more. To add a new image add the following code:

hyperlynks support. Members of the Liliaceae family, two allium varieties are commonly used by today's florists. ]]>

Make sure you to add the FlashVars=”xmlFile=myXMLFile.xml” also to the < embed > tag.

If you want to use the gallery in a Flash project (FLA file needed) check out the commercial version available at FlashTuning.net.

License

You are free to use the files inside the XMLImageGalleryBannerRotatorAS2_Free.zip in any project personal / commercial as long as you don’t try to hide Flashtuning logo located in the top left corner of the gallery. If you don’t want to have the logo, you must purchase the commercial package that is available on Flashtuning.net. If you want to use the gallery in multiple websites you’ll have to purchase a license for each website. Read more on the XML Image Scroller Gallery page.

Eyes following mouse cursor AS3

flashuser — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:50:16 +0000

A simple and easy tutorial for you to know how to use the mouse interactivity in Actionscript 3. We’ll create the eyes for an alien character that will follow the mouse. Also we’ll hide the mouse and change it with something else. All this is done in a general Movie Clip so you can drag it in your project.

Here’s the final result:

1. To create an alien eye draw a white circle that will represent the cornea. Convert it to a Movie Clip that has the registration point centered. Inside this clip draw 2 circles that will represent the iris and convert them to a Movie Clip. Position it right over the cornea. Give an instance name of eye1 for the parent Movie Clip. Drag other two eyes (instance name of eye2 and eye3) and position them on the alien’s body.

2. Now that we have obtained the eye let’s create the interactivity. The basic idea is that we’ll have to rotate the eye according to the mouse position. To do so we’ll calculate the angle from the eye position to the mouse position and rotate it. To obtain the angle we’ll use the atan2 function from Flash, that will have as parameters the Y and X position of the mouse.

radians1 = Math.atan2(a1, b1);

3. The angle obtained from the atan2 function is in radians. To convert it in degrees paste this line.

degrees1 = radians1 / (Math.PI / 180);

4. Now rotate the eye by the angle obtained in degrees.

eye1.rotation = degrees1;

5. In order to change the mouse with something else use this code:

        Mouse.hide();
	cookie.x = mouseX;
	cookie.y = mouseY;

6. All code:

stage.addEventListener("mouseMove", eyesFollow);

cookie.visible = false;

function eyesFollow(e:MouseEvent):void {

	var a1 = mouseY - eye1.y;
	var b1 = mouseX - eye1.x;
	var radians1 = Math.atan2(a1,b1);
	var degrees1 = radians1 / (Math.PI / 180);
	eye1.rotation = degrees1;

	var a2 = mouseY - eye2.y;
	var b2 = mouseX - eye2.x;
	var radians2 = Math.atan2(a2,b2);
	var degrees2 = radians2 / (Math.PI / 180);
	eye2.rotation = degrees2;

	var a3 = mouseY - eye3.y;
	var b3 = mouseX - eye3.x;
	var radians3 = Math.atan2(a3,b3);
	var degrees3 = radians3 / (Math.PI / 180);
	eye3.rotation = degrees3;

	Mouse.hide();
	cookie.visible = true;
	cookie.x = mouseX;
	cookie.y = mouseY;
}

Download the source file

Freebie: Scrolling Image Menu

flashuser — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:22:02 +0000

This free flash file is a XML driven menu built in ActionSript 3. Each item from the XML file has two attributes: the path to the image and an url address. You can set the menu to work horizontally or vertically according to your needs. Probably supports unlimited number of images.

Use this free flash file as you like and don’t forget to give us credits for this if you intend to use it.

Horizontal Example:

Vertical Example:

Download Source

Free Flash Template – Paper

flashuser — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:00:49 +0000

We like to keep you up to date with fresh designs and inspiration so for today we posted a free flash template that will save you some quality time in your development. It’s very easy to use, flexible for your needs and has a design that will emphasize your content.

It’s build in ActionScript 3.0.

Download Source

Freebie: 3D Walker Gallery XML

flashuser — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:24:15 +0000

Here’s an application build with the Flashtuning 3D Scene component that I presented to you a few days ago.With this flash file you can create photos, CDs, magazines, products navigation, all you have to do is change some parameters in the XML file.

You can check this article too Freebie: Flash 3D Scene AS2

Features

XML configuration file easy to setup
Left/Right buttons/keys camera rotation speed adjustment
Up/Right buttons/keys movement speed adjustment
Support for external URLs and browser window resize
MouseWheel support

Download Flashtuning 3D Walker (click on the Free Download link above the example)

Freebie: XML News Viewer AS2

flashuser — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:13:37 +0000

New freebie file arrived. It’s a XML driven, expandable news viewer Flash file with fading text effects, create in Actionscript 2.0. For changing the news all you have to do is configure the XML file according to your needs.

Use this free flash file as you like and don’t forget to give us credits for this if you intend to use it.

Download Source