In this short tutorial you will learn what layer masks are and how to utilize them for working faster and more efficiently in Photoshop. Lets consider what masks do: They hide or show things. Masks in photoshop work the same way: they can hide or show parts of images. In general filling a layer mask with black hides a part of the image. Filling a layer mask with white shows a part of an image. Filling the mask with gray will show the part of the image with varying opacity based on how light or dar the gray is.

Step 1: Select two photos that you want to combine and place them in your Photoshop document. I just selected two random photos that I found on the internet for the purposes of this tutorial. Photo 1: A giant wall of bananas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myszka/2241313997/ Photo 2: A nice comfy living room setting: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208339 Make sure the banana photo is below the living room photo:

Step 2: Select the living room photo in the layers palette and click on the mask icon at the bottom. (if you cant see it go to view>Layers) This creates the layer mask. You should notice a white box next to your layer with a little link.

Step 3: Select the couch area of photo 2 using your selection tool of choice.

This is the area of the photo we are going to hide. After this area is selected Step 4 With the banana layer selected fill the couch area with black.

Filling the mask with black tells Photoshop to hide this part of the photo. The banana background should now show through. Your image should now look like this:

With a few simple tweaks you can show the texture of the wall and the shadows by setting the blending mode of the banana layer to soft light.

Such lovely wallpaper.
Download the PSD Simple Layer Mask PSD (zip) By Niki Brown – author of The Design O’Blog. Follow me (@nikibrown) on twitter!

It doesn’t matter whether you are a designer, a developer, an artist or an amateur learner – at some point you need to improve the quality of the original picture or video. You may want to retouch and enhance his or her photographs and videos, make it look better, more spectacular and more original. It could be for personal or commercial use. Most of us know how to edit and enhance the digital photographs using our favorite image editing software. But when it comes to videos, the techniques are completely different from that of classic image editing. In this post we present best tutorial for visual effects in movies (with Adobe After Effects, 3DSMax etc.) that will (hopefully) teach you how to create impressive videos which can be used for your presentations or websites. Visual effects are used in post production which involves integration of live-action footage and computer generated imagery. You can use it to enhance or manipulate videos, just the way you usually do with image processing tools. Best Tutorials For Visual Video Effects The 007 Intro This tutorial shows you how to achieve the classic introduction of James Bond films using only basic After Effects plug-ins.

Create a MoGraph Urban Jungle Use 3D Match moving to create stunning Urban Jungle effect where vector graphics are perfectly tracked to a city footage.

Energy Create a complex energy scene with CC particle world in Adobe After Effects. Also learn to animate particles in 3D with multiple instances.

Droste Effect This tutorial demonstrates the use of new Pixel Bender plug-in to obtain “Droste Effect”.

Light Streaks This tutorial shows you how to create light streaks inside live action footage

Car Racing Scene Create a scene of cars racing down a road towards camera. This can be added to your car chase footage. Although the title states the use of photographs, it can be also used with your moving footage as well. Part 1 and Part 2

3D Shadows Learn how cast 3D shadows onto live action footage.

Disintegration Build a furious procedural disintegration effect in Adobe After Effects.

Futuristic HUD Create 3D interface display in Adobe After Effects inspired by Iron Man’s helmet.

Underground Blast Simulate a dramatic underground explosion that ripples and dislodges the ground.

Aurora Borealis Learn how to create the Northern Lights.

The Juno Opening Credit Look Adobe After Effects tutorial to create famous handmade juno opening sequence.

Artistic Look Creating an Artistic Look with Minimax and Overlay in After Effects .

Realistic Camera Move with Parallax Need to add realistic camera moves? This tutorial will help you to achieve it. Also you can refer to “Virtual 3D Photos” tutorial to get more deeper into it. “Virtual 3D Photos” tutorial will teach you to create a video footage from photos with “realistic camera move” effect.

Historic Naval Battle Scene This is another tutorial that will teach you how to create a VFX naval battle scene from an ordinary footage.

3D Crater Create a realistic crater into a live footage. This tutorial has been divided into 3 parts - 3D Crater p1, 3D Crater p2 and 3D Crater p3.

Creating an interior scene This tutorial shows you how to make an interior scene using 3dsmax with realistic rendering in Vray. It could be used with your green screen video footage later.

Better Compositing with Particles This tutorial shows you a technique for placing layers inside the middle of a particle system - crucial to truly integrating your CGI effects with your live action footage or motion graphics.

Realistic Car Hit

Old Film look

Particle Half-tone Effect

3D Rain This tutorial will teach you how to turn an aerial video footage into a cold nighttime storm with torrential rain and lightning.

Lightsabers Apple Motion tutorial for creating lightsabers.

Healer Adobe After Effects tutorial to create a realistic self healing effect.

Time Freeze Adobe After effects tutorial to a create illusion of frozen world around a person.

Breathtakingly Awesome Rain Scene Adobe After Effects tutorial shows how to create the dramatic slow motion rain drops falling scene. Part 1 and Part 2

Slow Motion Create a slow motion video footage without use of high speed camera.

Car Light Trails Create car light trail effect in Adobe After Effects with help of 3d stroke effect.

Instant Freeze Adobe After Effects tutorial will explain how to add instant freeze effect to a footage. Also shows how to add camera lens frost over and crack to give it a realistic look.

Futuristic Floating Hologram Effect This tutorial will show you how to make a futuristic floating hologram over a cellphone.

Track Live Video to a Postcard This tutorial shows how to track video to a Postcard using scripts which are freely available. Also shows how to recover highlights from the tracked footage and apply them back over the moving video for a very convincing effect.

Compositing Fog Daniel Broadway shows the correct way compositing fog elements in a video footage.

War scene This tutorial shows you how to create a realistic war movie from a video footage shot using only one actor and a camera man. This is an advance tutorial in which color correction and effects like realistic camera shake and bullets hitting the ground are used to give it a realistic look. Part 1 and Part 2

Soul Removal Create soul removal effect using particle system in Adobe After Effects. This tutorial also shows you to add facial Distortion and handy expressions to make it more realistic.

Object Removal In this tutorial you will learn techniques for removing unwanted objects from the footage.

Body Shatter Effect This shows you how to create a body shattering effect.

Meteor Crash Create ground destruction using 3D Max and Adobe After Effects. Tutorial has been divided into 2 part Meteor Crash 3D p1 and Meteor Crash AE p2.

Simulated Lighting Make explosions and muzzle flash.

CE ColorCorrection Adobe After Effects tutorial will teach you to change the look and feel of your footage easily with Color correction plug-in.

Kamehameha Learn how to make a kamehameha using Adobe After Effects with Trapcode’s Shine.

Day to Night Conversion Tutorial to transform daylight footage to night footage along with artificial lights and illuminate windows.

Bleach Bypass Effect This tutorial shows you how to get bleach bypass look to your footage in Adobe After Effects. You can also have a look at similar tutorial which uses color correction filters available with Final Cut Pro.

Lava from dry field image This tutorial shows you how to create lava from a dry lava field image.

Sky Replacement One of the most useful tutorial for your everyday videos, to fix blown out sky.

3D Eyeball Tutorial for creating a 3D eyeball that can look around the room, using CC Sphere to create a material of the eyeball.

Demon Face Very useful tutorial if you want to create a horor film. You can also have a look at the similar tutorial Vampire fang growth.

Water Drops This tutorial will teach you to create water droplets on the camera lens with DOF.

Old TV Footage Effect

Skin Displacement Simulate the look of bugs crawling under the skin using Adobe After Effects.

Turning to Skittles Tutorial is quite detail (but no explanation) which shows how to create those skittles using 3D Max and compositing it in Adobe After Effects. It makes use of many techniques like rotoscoping, tracking etc. The final output it similar to Hilarious Skittles Commercial. This tutorial is split into two parts Part 1 and Part 2

Sin City look Tutorial for adding sin city look to a footage. This tutorial makes use of Silhouette Roto plug-in.

Blemish Removal You must have gone through several skin enhancement Photoshop tutorials before. But when it comes to video, the technique totally differs to that used for digital photos.

Blood Splatter Learn how to make blood stick to things.

Assisted Suicide Tutorial for compositing digital blood burst and a muzzle flash.

EarthQuake Tutorial to add earthquake effect in a video footage.

Flashback Effect This tutorial shows you how to add flashback look to your footage, like in the film “The Bourne Ultimatum”.

Set Extensions This tutorial will help you to customize or extend a live action set with custom matte painting. You will also learn to link several motion trackers into one null object.

Frosty Breath Create the illusion of cold breath on a warm day.

Orbing and Beaming Effects

Talking Head The fastest way to create talking creatures without the use of keyframes.

Invisible Effect

About the author Vailancio Rodrigues likes to learn new things and share them with others. He likes to work in the creative field and is constantly improving his skills. You can follow Vailancio on Twitter. Related posts You may be interested in the following related posts:

Adobe Illustrator Video Tutorials Best Adobe Photoshop Video Tutorials

© vailrodrigues for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 56 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine

Post tags: adobe, ae, after effects, effects, Tutorials, video

Today, we will take a look at an interesting photography technique, manually adding a sunburst to photographs. This can be a great way to liven up images, and it can be a lot of fun to play around with. Look at the image below; this shows what will be creating.

The Original Image Here is the original image from Flickr.

1: Creating the Gradient First, we will need to create a gradient. Start by opening the Gradient Editor. Change the gradient type from “Solid” to “Noise.” This will create the lined effect that will eventually by the rays of light. Play around with this until you get a gradient similar to the one below. We will be desaturating the layer soon, so the colors actually don’t matter too much. However, make sure that you keep the color range small and that the two end colors are similar. You can click the Randomize button to easily find a gradient, then play around with the reds, greens, and blues.

Then, like shown above, select the Angle Gradient. Make the gradient extend from the top right of the image and fan out. If you are using a different image, stretch the gradient from the light source of the image.

2: Desaturate and Layer Options With the gradient layer selected, select Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. This will remove the coloring but keep the contrast and light differences for our rays.

Then, set that layer to “Vivid Light.” Play around with opacity and fill to find an appropriate level for the image you are using. For this image, I kept it at 100%.

3: Light Center Gradient The final step is adding the light source, which in this case happens to be the sun. In the actual image, the sun is actually off to the left outside of the frame, but by keeping our rays off to the left side we are keeping the lighting relatively consistent. So, create a white to transparent gradient. Stretch it a fair distance out, originating from the center of or rays.

There you have it! To intensify the light source, you should copy the white to transparent gradient. Not too hard, huh?!

CSS Sprites are not new. In fact, they are a rather well-established technique and have managed to become common practice in Web development. Of course, CSS sprites are not always necessary, but in some situation they can bring significant advantages and improvements – particularly if you want to reduce your server load. And if you haven’t heard of CSS sprites before, now is probably a good time to learn what they are, how they work and what tools can help you create and use the technique in your projects. What Are CSS Sprites? The term “sprite” (similar to “spirit,” “goblin,” or “elf”) has its origins in computer graphics, in which it described a graphic object blended with a 2-D or 3-D scene through graphics hardware. Because the complexity of video games has continually increased, there was a need for smart techniques that could deal with detailed graphic objects while keeping game-play flowing. One of the techniques developed saw sprites being plugged into a master grid (see the image below), then later pulled out as needed by code that mapped the position of each individual graphic and selectively painted it on the screen. Sprites were displayed over a static or dynamic background image, and the positioning of the sprite was controlled simply by the hardware controllers. The term was coined because the sprites seemed to “haunt” the display and didn’t really exist in the graphic memory.

The Pokemon Sprite Sheet, consisting of over 1000 graphic objects. Found here. You can click on the image for the larger version (thanks, Ryan!). Time passed, and at the beginning of the 2000s, when progressive Web designers started to seek alternatives to JavaScript-based rollover menus (with onMouseOver and onMouseOut effects), sprites saw a renaissance in Web development. With CSS, the simple implementation of sprites was possible, and it was much easier and clearer than its JavaScript-based predecessor. In 2004, Dave Shea suggested a simple CSS-based approach to CSS sprites based on the practice established by those legendary video games. In this case, multiple images used throughout a website would be combined into the so-called “master image.” To display a single image from the master image, one would use the background-position property in CSS, defining the exact position of the image to be displayed. Any hover, active or focus effects would be implemented using the simple definition of the background-position property for the displayed element. When the page is loaded, it would not load single images one by one (nor hover-state images per request), but would rather load the whole master image at once. It may not sound like a significant improvement, but it actually was: the main disadvantage of the onMouse effects is that JavaScript-based hover effects require two HTTP requests for each image, which takes time and creates that unpleasant “flickering” of images. Because the master image is loaded with the whole page only once with CSS sprites, no additional HTTP requests are needed for hover, active or focus effects (because the image is already loaded), and no “flickering” effect occurs. Consequence: CSS sprites reduce HTTP requests and the loading time of pages. This is the main reason why CSS sprites are often used on websites with heavy traffic, where millions of page impressions would need “only” a tiny fraction of what could otherwise be 30,000,000. Hence, CSS sprites are commonly used, particularly for navigation (such as for hover effects), icons and buttons. Where Are CSS Sprites Used? CSS sprites can be used in various settings. Large websites can combine multiple single images in a meaningful manner, creating clearly separated “chunks” of the master images – the purpose being to keep the design maintainable and easy to update. The large empty space between the images is often used to make sure that the text resizing in browser doesn’t cause side effects such the display of multiple images in the background. In fact, sprites usually work well in a pixel-based design, but they are hard to use in elastic (em-based) designs due to the restricted background-position-property. Essentially, the structure that sprites take depends on the trade-off between maintainability and reduced server load; thus, it varies depending on the project you are working on. Here are some inspiring (and not so inspiring) examples: Xing Xing uses various icons and buttons, as well as its logo, in the sprite.

Amazon Large, shiny and compact CSS sprites on Amazon.

Apple Apple uses CSS sprites for various states of its main navigation menu.

YouTube YouTube takes a vertical approach to its buttons and icons. The whole sprite is 2800 pixels in height!

CNN CNN uses a modest CSS sprite with its social icons.

Digg Digg has quite an esoteric sprite, with small arrows and brackets. The large empty space between the images is used to make sure that text resizing doesn’t display multiple images as the background image. You can explicitely define width and height in pixels, so that this problem does not occur – however, in this case the resized text will never break out of the defined box, thus possibly making the text unreadable. Consequently, you must be cautious when using spriting for buttons with variable text labels. For those buttons, you should define font size in pixels also. Or just use the large empty space in the sprite (thanks, daftie!).

Yahoo Yahoo has nice icons in its sprite, spread out equidistant from each other.

Google Google sticks to its minimalist design principle with its minimalist CSS sprite.

Dragon Interactive A design agency with a colorful, vivid CSS sprite for the navigation menu.

TV1.rtp.ptA huge colorful and qute chaotic CSS sprite on a site of a Polish TV-channel (thank you, António Manuel Cardoso!).

CSS Sprites are used to combine many frequently used graphic elements, such as navigation elements, logos, lines, RSS icons, buttons, etc. Conversely, they are not used for any kind content that is likely to change frequently upon release. Articles About CSS Sprites CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death The legendary introductory article about CSS sprites on A List Apart.

CSS Sprites: What They Are, Why They’re Cool And How To Use Them An illustrated article about CSS sprites by Smashing Magazine author Chris Coyier.

How Yahoo.com and AOL.com Improve Web Performance With CSS Sprites Some of the busiest websites on the Web use CSS sprites to save on HTTP requests. This article shows how Yahoo! and AOL use sprites to improve performance. Note: some devices (the iPhone being the most notable) apply sprites in a memory-intensive way, which slows the device to a crawl. What Are CSS Sprites? An introduction by Jason Cranford Teague.

Sprite Optimization Dave Shea ponders whether it actually makes sense to create large CSS sprites, combining all elements into a single image and then displaying them with the background-position property in CSS. Answer: No, do not over-complicate things. Instead, find a good compromise between quick loading time and maintainability.

Creating Easy and Useful CSS Sprites A detailed introduction to CSS Sprites by Ignacio Ricci. All files can be downloaded as well.

Fast Rollovers Without Preload A practical example of implementing fast rollovers.

CSS Sprites + Rounded corners Another example from practice, this one explaining how to display rounded corners using CSS Sprites.

CSS Image Sprites An extensive tutorial with examples, tips, suggestions and best practices. Optimize Your Website Using CSS Image Sprites This very detailed tutorial by Andrew Johnson explains what CSS sprites are, why they are important, how they work and how to implement them.

Animated GIF For CSS Sprites This article discusses one of the more bizarre uses of CSS sprites: as an animated GIF.

Image Sprite Navigation With CSS Learn how to create a simple menu with the hover effect.

Advanced CSS Menu Implement the hover effect with CSS sprites.

Creating and Using CSS Sprites A very basic tutorial about CSS sprites by David Walsh.

Screencasts about CSS Sprites How to Use CSS Sprites David Perel explains the basics of CSS sprites and how to use them in your website design. 10 minutes. Creating Rounded Buttons With CSS Sprites Continuing the above sprites tutorial, David shows how to create dynamic rounded-corner buttons with CSS. Exactly How to Use CSS Sprites In this screencast, Andres Fernandez shows how to use CSS sprites to improve loading time and decrease HTTP requests. How To Use CSS Sprites This screencast, Smashing Magazine author Chris Coyier shows how to use CSS sprites in practice, by taking what would have been eight different images and combining them into one. As an added bonus, he then expands on the idea with jQuery by building a little accordion widget. Faster Page Loads With Image Concatenation For complex web apps, the quantity and resulting latency of icons and images used can greatly affect page load times. And developers usually try to reduce, rather than increase, page load times for their sweet Web apps. CSS Image Sprites In 10 Minutes Another screencast that explains how to use CSS sprites for a navigation menu. CSS: Using Percentages in Background-Image This article explains the background-position property, which is essential to implementing CSS sprites. CSS Image Maps With CSS Sprites With CSS Sprites, the hover effect doesn’t have to be applied to the whole element. Using a negative background-position value, you can create pure CSS-based image maps. Below, you’ll find some techniques in which CSS sprites are used for this purpose. CSS Image Maps Using Sprites A basic example of a CSS-based image map with a negative background-position value. Try hovering over the image. Compare this with the classic example without CSS sprites.

City Guide Map Using Sprites Another example, with horizontally positioned hover areas.

Advanced Map Using Sprites A more advanced technique by Frank Manno.

CSS Sprites Techniques CSS Sprites 2 Dave Shea expands on the classic CSS sprites technique with jQuery. His technique allows for animation between link states, while still being fully degradable for visitors who do not have JavaScript enabled. CSS Sprites2 Refactored: Building an Unobtrusive jQuery Plug-In Joel Sutherland describes his jQuery plug-in, which cleans up Dave Shea’s function and allows for more control over the animation with less initial configuration.

Background Repeat and CSS Sprites CSS sprites are a great way to improve the loading speed of your pages. One of the problems you might face with sprites is how to deal with cases where the background repeats. The rule is pretty simple: if you want the background to repeat vertically (top to bottom), place the images in the sprite horizontally (left to right) and make sure the individual images in the sprite have the same height. For the opposite case, when you want to repeat horizontally, sprite vertically. CSS Sprite: Photoshop Script Combines Two Images for CSS Hover This article presents a simple JSX Photoshop script for creating image sprites, and you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to it.

Extending CSS Spriting Jennifer Semtner extends the classic CSS sprites technique to non-background images and discusses what to consider when using CSS Sprites for the design. Sliding Doors Meets CSS Sprites Combining the ideas behind Dave Shea’s CSS sprites and Douglas Bowman’s sliding doors technique, this post assumes you have a good understanding of Bowman’s article “Sliding Doors of CSS.” How to Preload Images When You Can’t Use CSS Sprites This article addresses the problem that occurs with CSS sprites when the user resizes text. The idea is to combine the images into two images, rather than one. Then you place the image being shown on hover as the background image of another element (preferably a containing element), positioned just off screen. JavaScript Sprite Animation Using jQuery Alex Walker combines visual jQuery effects with CSS sprites to achieve the “page turn” effect.

IE6, CSS Sprites and Alpha Transparency Julien Lecomte shows how to combine CSS sprites, PNG transparency and Internet Explorer 6 compatibility using the AlphaImageLoader hack. CSS Sprite Generators Data URI Sprites DURIS (Data URI [CSS] Sprites) is a new method to manage website’s background images. It’s aimed to replace classical CSS Sprites. The new technique allows you to apply any corrections to your make-up, allows you to minimize number of requests for design-related data that is used on the webpage and uses text (non graphic) format of image data presentation. It also solves all problems with scaling for background images and combines images of different types and axes of repetition.

Spritr This simple tool lets you upload multiple images and generates CSS code for the sprite. Sprite Creator 1.0 This tool allows you to upload an image and create the CSS code for selected areas of the sprite. CSS Sprite Generator A Drupal module for building CSS sprites. CSS Sprites Generator This tool allows you to upload multiple files and generate a sprite out of them. It also gives you the CSS code (the background-position value) for each image in the sprite. Projekt Fondue CSS Sprite Generator This generator lets you ignore duplicate images, resize source images, define horizontal and vertical offset, define background and transparency color, assign CSS class prefixes and various other things. It also supports many languages. The source code is available for downloading and is covered by a BSD license. Want to run a local copy? Well, you can do that, too.

SmartSprites A Java-based desktop application that parses special directives that you can insert into your original CSS to mark individual images to be turned into sprites. It then builds sprite images from the collected images and automatically inserts the required CSS properties into your style sheet, so that the sprites are used instead of the individual images. You can work with your CSS and original images as usual and have SmartSprites automatically transform them to the sprite-powered version when necessary. A PHP version is available as well. Open-source. Check also Chris Brainard’s Sprite Creator 1.0. Bonus: How Does The background-position Property Work? The background-position property, together with CSS specificity and CSS floats, is probably one of the most confusing and counter-intuitive of CSS properties. According to CSS specifications, the background-position takes two (optional) arguments: horizontal position and vertical position. For example: .introduction { background-image: url(bg.gif); background-position: [horizontal position] [vertical position]; } Using this property, you can define the exact position of the background image for the block-level element (list item li). You can use either % or px units (or mix both) to define the starting position (i.e. the upper-left corner) of the displayed part of the master image. Alternatively, you could use the following keywords: top left, top center, top right, center left, center center, center right, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right. Hence, in background-position: x% y%, the first value is the horizontal position, and the second value is the vertical position. The top-left corner is 0% 0%. The bottom-right corner is 100% 100%. If you specify only one value, the other value will be 50%. For instance, if you use, ul li { background-image: url(bg.gif); background-position: 19px 85px; }, … then the background-image will be positioned 19 pixels from the left and 85 pixels from the top of the list item element. As SitePoint’s reference article explains: “a background-image with background-position values of 50% 50% will place the point of the image that’s located at 50% of the image’s width and 50% of the image’s height at a corresponding position within the element that contains the image. In the above case, this causes the image to be perfectly centered. This is an important point to grasp — using background-position isn’t the same as placing an element with absolute position using percentages where the top-left corner of the element is placed at the position specified.” You can find a detailed explanation of the property in the article “background-position (CSS property)” on SitePoint. Related posts You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding 50 Extremely Useful and Powerful CSS Tools CSS Float Theory CSS Specificity

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 113 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine

Post tags: CSS, sprites, techniques, Tutorials

Ah…Linux..The pinnacle of what open source can achieve today..the brainchild of Linus Torvalds has surely come a lot further and evolved to show the world what it is capable of.As an extremely reliable Operating system, Linux  rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot.Loads of Matrix style lines scrolling down the screen are sure to drive nuts added with boot time of GUI initialization.. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look at Top 10 Speed hacks of Linux and let your linux box reincarnate with speed.  [1]. Quick Fixes - Disable unnecessary services Linux comes in various flavors bundled with a lot of applications.However,most of us don't even use Linux to its full  potential. Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services and running programs won’t be needed. And if you are using Linux just for a desktop,then you won’t be needing the default sendmail , httpd, and many other services.You can also turn off many other services if your Linux box is used as a small web server by going to Administration menu,tweaking the Services entry and deselect all of the services you don’t want to start. [2]. Free up Your Kernel - Disable unnecessary kernel modules If your Linux box is wired to the LAN/Ethernet,then you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. More services like smartcard modules and more can be disabled and the load can be taken off from the kernel.This task is a bit difficult requires recompilation of kernel, which is daunting for even the *inux geeks. To do this, you will need the kernel sources and then follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. You will be having a ride through the internals of your system just disable all of the kernel modules you don’t need. For added safety,install Bootchart which will tell you if Kernel modules are properly installed and running on your system. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig –list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don’t need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you’re at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture. [3]. Take Load Off Linux - Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE Using a smaller window manager drastically reduces graphical boot time. Instead of having to wait that extra 30 to 60 seconds for GNOME or KDE to boot up, why not wait two to 10 seconds for Enlightenment or XFCE to boot up? Not only will they save you boot time, they will save your memory and the headache of dealing with bloatware.  [4]. CUI ROKZ’ - Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login The graphical logins do two things: increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows failure.Most of Linux machines which boot to run level 3 instead of run level 5 will halt at the text-based login, where you only have to log in and issue startx to start your desktop of choice.So CUI login is the way to go. [5]. The Flying Penguin - Use a lighter Linux distribution Are You a Linux newbie ? Instead of loading the heavyweight SUSE, why not try a DSL, Puppy Linux, or Gentoo? The boot times for these smaller distributions are far faster than the more bloated Fedora (SUSE and even Ubuntu).Loading lighter linux distributions will save you from lot of headaches. Of the larger distributions,  OpenSuSE claims to boot the fastest, but between the latest Fedora and Ubuntu, Ubuntu blows Fedora’s boot times away (and that is out of the box,trust me..). [6]. Get Savvy - Use an OpenBIOS If you’re tech savvy enough to upgrade your PC’s firmware, you might consider a migration to open source BIOS which will allow Linux to actually initialize the hardware as it boots (instead of relying on the BIOS). Also, many open BIOSes can be customised to meet your machine’s specific needs. If you don’t go the open BIOS route, you can at least configure your BIOS to not search for a floppy drive that’s not there or to boot directly to the first hard drive (instead of the CD drive first). [7]. DHCP woes - Avoid dhcp If you are working on a home network (or a small business network) where address lease isn’t a problem, go with static IP addresses. This will keep your machine from having to call out to a dhcp server to get an IP address. If you take this approach, make sure you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server addresses as well. [8]. Hotplug unplugged - If you can spare it, get rid of hotplug Hotplug is the system that allows you to plug in new devices and use them immediately. If you know your server won’t need this system, delete it. This will cut down on boot time. On many systems, hotplugging consumes much of the boot time. Removing hotplug will vary depending upon the distribution you use. NOTE: udev has, for the most part, replaced hotplug. But if you’re running an older distribution, this does apply. [9]. If you are REALLY daring, you could give initng a try  The initng system serves as a replacement for the sysvinit system and promises to drastically decrease boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try. [10]. HackerPunk - Use a hack with Debian If you’re using Debian, there is a simple hack you can use to switch your startup scripts to run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times.   Shall i say “Thats All Folks..” . Yep..thats it..thats the way it is. There are ofcourse better speed hacks available but the above ones shall cover pretty much everything. So..Keep learning Folks   POSTED BY XERO.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TUX PACKAGES BROUGHT TO YOU BY CRYSTALXP.NET. Technorati Tags: hacking,Linux,top 10 linux hacks,tutorials,tips n tricks,rdhacker,prohack Thanks for your readership.

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A very simple tutorial submitting HTML form values without refreshing page using jQuery and Ajax. Just implement this and enrich your web applications.

Download Script     Live Demo

JavaScript Code: jQuery and Ajax script take a look at dataString

An overlooked aspect of websites is the formatting of HTML and CSS documents. This affects validation, SEO, and visual ease of use. Visual ease of use is the last thing most authors tend to keep in mind, but it’s still very important. If you’re building a template for a client, or to sell on ThemeForest, it is important that it’s visually formatted properly. Here are some examples of well formatted HTML and CSS. HTML Use the Strict DOCTYPE (DTD) whenever possible. If you’re beginning a new project, don’t use Transitional. You won’t be using tables for layout; so Transitional isn’t necessary, and the Strict DTD is up to standards.

You’ll notice that I’ve moved the meta http-equiv charset above the title. The title should go above everything else and W3C even puts this meta tag below the title in their example template. This meta tag however, should be above the title so that the browser knows what charset it’s working with before reading any other content to be displayed (such as the title).

Encoded Characters Make sure you use HTML encoded characters, including URL’s.

Alt Tags Make sure you’re using the “alt” tag in your images. The “alt” tag stands for alternative text and is displayed if your image is unavailable; it’s used by search engines for image descriptions and accessibility.

Properly Nest Tags Make sure your tags are properly nested. Inline elements, for things like links, should go within block elements - such as headings.

Tags should also be closed in the order they are opened as well as contained properly.

External Assets Make sure that your CSS and JavaScript is external. Try to keep your HTML files simple and free of any unnecessary code. For JavaScript, it isn’t as big of a deal - especially for a small block of code - but if it’s becoming complicated, just put it in an external .js file. Also make sure that your JavaScript files are linked after your CSS files. You want your styles loading before your JavaScript runs. * Manager’s Note: If possible, consider placing your Javascript file just before the closing body tag.

Indentation Indent your markup so that it’s easy to navigate and read. When other people look over your files, it can be much more work to navigate through markup that has no indentation. Your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for whoever may be editing or reading your markup. This is a major pet peeve of mine as I typically find myself spending far too much time fixing poorly formatted markup from someone else’s project.

Commenting Use HTML comments to indicate important notes, sections, or the end of an element. At first, the extra comments appear to clutter the basic markup, but once you load in all of the content, these comments can be a major time saver and help others who may edit the files later.

Markup Order Place your markup in a logical order in relation to the design. If your sidebar is on the right and your main content is on the left in your layout, put the markup in that order.

Validate Your Files Validate your files! Okay, this isn’t a formatting tip but this seems to be forgotten far too often. A store doesn’t sell products without quality assurance; so why would you sell your work (the files you created) without double checking to make sure you’ve done it correctly?

http://validator.w3.org http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

CSS Just as you would with HTML, use CSS comments to indicate important notes and sections. You might also want to separate your CSS pertaining to layout from your typography. For simple sites, this may not be necessary, but when you begin getting into more complicated sites, it can be a huge time saver.

There are several ways to format CSS; much of it comes down to preference. When I work with CSS files, I use the majority of the width of my screen - so I prefer single-line formatting. Many others prefer multi-line or a cross between the two. Many applications have built in features or plugins that allow you to change the formatting of existing CSS documents with relative ease. Here are some examples of the formatting types which also include proper indentation. Single-Line This is single line formatting (what I prefer). When you use shorthand CSS this method of formatting works out quite nicely I think.

Multi-Line This is multi-line formatting.

Mixed This is a cross between multi-line and single line formatting. The short rules are on a single line while the long rules are on multiple lines.

Short-Hand CSS Use shorthand CSS to keep your CSS slim and clean. The first example is normal CSS and as you can tell, it takes up a lot of space. The second example is the shorthand version of the first CSS example. Then there are three more examples showing different options. The first, on line 77, means a margin of 10px on all sides. The second, on line 78, means a margin of 10px on the top and bottom but 15px on the left and right. The last one, on line 79, means a margin of 10px on top, 15px on the left and the right, then 12px on the bottom. This rule can be applied to many more CSS rules as well. If you’re not familiar with it, set aside some time and learn, because it will greatly reduce your CSS bloat and work time. I also want to point out that if you have a value of “0px”, you don’t need to include “px”, just use “0″.

Conclusion The key to beautifully formatted markup is organization. Just like you would organize the files in an office, for school or for something else, you should organize the markup so that you can find and edit sections quickly. Use visual formatting as well as logical separation, placement, and naming. This way, the work you do will be high quality and ready for anyone else. Your clients and buyers will thank you - and you’ll be thankful yourself. Also, remember to validate your files!

http://validator.w3.org http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

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Adding textures to your designs are fundamental, they bring digital art to life and without them they would be flat and, well, boring. Creating intricate textures can be time consuming and often difficult, it is now time to learn from the experts.

To help, we have compiled a list of the most sought after Photoshop textures tutorials, not only useful as resources, but, also good means to learn new skills. Realistic Grass Texture

Glass Texture

Leather Texture

Honey Texture

Red Slate Texture

Rust Texture

Brick Texture

Leather Type Texture

Flower Texture

Wood Texture

Realistic Stone Texture

Metal Texture

Leopard Skin

Alabaster Texture

Dry Wall

Wood Texture

Asphalt Texture

Wave Texture

Lava Texture

Plaid Texture

Brushed Aluminum Texture

Grungy Metal Texture

Rust Texture

Rock and Stone Textures

Dirty Screen Texture

Jeans Textures

Stone Texture

Dots Texture

Fence Texture

Technodots Texture

Wood Texture

Liquid Blood Texture

Wrinkled Paper

Gold Texture

Marble Textures

Desert Texture

Water Texture

Dragon, Snake and Reptile Scales

Grungy Paper Texture

Military Style Texture

On a project at work this week, I was creating a form that needed to have word limitations for each textarea. I found a ton of jQuery character counters, but not many word counters, so I decided to create my own.

Planning it all out I really love how when you type more than 140 characters in Twitter; it doesn’t prevent you from typing anymore, it just warns you that you have too many characters.

I definitely wanted to add in that kind of functionality, and here were a couple of things I needed to account for when creating this for the project:

Ability to add in maximum number of words Ability to add in minimum number of words Ability to add in minimum and maximum number of words

I wanted it to be easy to apply the word count to the textarea, so I just wanted to be able to add a class to each textarea and the functionality would be applied. Examples

Maximum of 50 words: class=”count[50]“ Between 50 & 100 words: class=”count[50,100]“ Minimum of 50 words (no maximum): class=”count[50,0]“

That seemed easy and flexible enough to get the job done, so let’s get started on the script. The jQuery First, once the document is loaded, we will use an attribute selector to target each textarea that has a class that starts with count[

$(document).ready(function() { $("[class^='count[']").each(function() {   }); });

Next, we are going to create some variables to use later on:

var elClass = $(this).attr('class'); var minWords = 0; var maxWords = 0; var countControl = elClass.substring((elClass.indexOf('['))+1, elClass.lastIndexOf(']')).split(',');

The first 3 lines should be pretty straightforward, just assigning the class value of the textarea to a variable, and defining our minimum and maximum variables. The fourth line may look a little crazy, so let’s walk through that. First, we want to take a substring of our class variable. The start of that substring will be the location of the open bracket, [ (+1 so we don’t actually include the bracket). The end of the substring will be the location of the closing bracket, ]. Then, we want to split the substring on the comma and assign it to an array named countControl. Next, we are going to assign values to our minWords and maxWords variables:

if(countControl.length > 1) { minWords = countControl[0]; maxWords = countControl[1]; } else { maxWords = countControl[0]; }

Then, we want to add in the information about the number of words after the textarea, and if there is a minimum number of words required, assign a class of error:

$(this).after('<div class="wordCount"><strong>0</strong> Words</div>'); if(minWords > 0) { $(this).siblings('.wordCount').addClass('error'); }

In the stylesheet, we also need to add a a style for the error class. Here is what I used:

.error { color: #f00; }

Here is where get into the meat of the script, where we actually do the counting of the words:

$(this).bind('keyup click blur focus change paste', function() { var numWords = jQuery.trim($(this).val()).split(' ').length; if($(this).val() === '') { numWords = 0; } $(this).siblings('.wordCount').children('strong').text(numWords);   if(numWords < minWords || (numWords > maxWords && maxWords != 0)) { $(this).siblings('.wordCount').addClass('error'); } else { $(this).siblings('.wordCount').removeClass('error'); } });

Ok, let’s go through this piece by piece:

$(this).bind('keyup click blur focus change paste', function() {

This is where we are binding functions to the textarea. I didn’t know you could bind multiple functions in one statement like that, but I just thought of as many actions that a user could take that could trigger a change of words. So basically what this says is that anytime any of those events are triggered, we fill execute the function that we defined. Next, let’s look at this section:

var numWords = jQuery.trim($(this).val()).split(' ').length; if($(this).val() === '') { numWords = 0; } $(this).siblings('.wordCount').children('strong').text(numWords);

Basically, we are just counting the number of spaces and updating our wordCount div that we appended as a sibling to the textarea. If there is nothing in the textarea, we assign a value of 0. This is necessary because if you type words and then go back and delete them all, it still thinks there is 1 word. I have no clue why. Finally, let’s look at this section:

if(numWords < minWords || (numWords > maxWords && maxWords != 0)) { $(this).siblings('.wordCount').addClass('error'); } else { $(this).siblings('.wordCount').removeClass('error'); }

If the number of words is less then the minimum number of words or greater then the maximum number of words (and the maximum number of words is not zero), then we add the class of error to our wordCount div. Otherwise, we remove the class of error. Take a look at the demo to see it in action. That’s it! Nothing too crazy going on and could be customized pretty easily. Anything you would want to add? Done differently? Let me know in the comments.

The other day I was looking around for some nice Illustrator tutorials to satisfy my need for the creative process. I discovered that there’s surprisingly few tutorials covering cartoon character drawing in Illustrator. Despite it’s superior usability when it comes to working with “Illustrations”. I looked around for a while and at the end of my rope I found, in total, 25 really nice ones. I think some one should really start doing some cool Illustrator tutorials covering Cartoons and Characters. Would be such a great concept for a tutorial site. Anyways, here are the 25 I managed to find that is really good and showcases the awesomness of Illustrator.

If you’re an avid PHP developer, you are probably aware of the GD library extension. For those who are unfamiliar, the GD library allows you to alter, manipulate, and create images quite simply. Today, we’ll learn the basics of using PHP and the GD library. First Things First You will need to make sure the GD library is installed and activated on your server. Don’t know how to do this? No worries, just create a PHP file on your server and type in:

<?php echo phpinfo(); ?>

Now access the page in your browser and you’ll see a giant list detailing the features of your version of PHP. Scroll down a bit and look for the ‘GD’ heading to make sure it is enabled. If it is not, you will need to contact your hosting company. Luckily, most servers I have worked on already have the GD library installed and activated. If you would like to read more about the GD library, be sure to check out the GD manual introduction. The Basics Let’s go over some basics to get us started. Firstly, we will want to make sure we report all errors to the browser. We can do so by entering the following at the very top of our php file:

<?php ini_set("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL); ?>

Be Square Let’s start off simple and use PHP to create a blue square for us - nothing amazing but we need to know the basics first. To achieve our square, we need to do the following:

Set our content type as an image so the browser can properly interpret the script. Create a new blank image canvas with a certain width and height. Set our background color to blue. Save the final image and output it to the browser. Clear up any memory used to create and store the image. Call the image from our index.php file to be displayed.

Now that we have our steps and process for the square worked out, we can start to code. I did my best to comment each step of code, and will go through any specific functions or processes after the code snippet. That said, here is the code for our square. Once pasted in, save this file as ‘basic_square.php’:

<?php //Report any errors ini_set ("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL);   //Set the correct content type header('content-type: image/png');   //Create our basic image stream //125px width, 125px height $image = imagecreate(125, 125);   //Set the background color $blue = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 255);   //Set up another color just to show how the first color declared is used as the background color when we use imagecreate() //Notice how blue is applied to the background, not red. $red = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 0, 0);   //save the image as a png and output imagepng($image);   //Clear up memory used imagedestroy($image); ?>

Let’s go through each function and step in the code above so we can better understand what is going on here.

As mentioned, we report any errors to the browser so we can fix any bugs. Next we use the header() function to set our content type to a png image. We store the image in a variable named ‘image’ and create our basic image stream and declare our width and height. See imagecreate() for more information. Next up we use the imagecolorallocate function to store the color blue in our ‘blue’ variable. Also notice how the first color declared will be set as the background using imagecreate. So blue will be our background color, not red. We use imagepng() to save our final image, it takes additional parameters if you would like to save it to a directory. Lastly, we clear up the memory used by calling imagedestroy().

We can access and view our blue square by going to blue_square.php, or even better, we can link to it on our index.php like so:

<img src='http://themeforest.s3.amazonaws.com/65_gd/basic_square.php' alt='' />

Assuming all went well, you should see a blue square like the one below:

Hello World Now that we have the very basics of creating an image, let’s create an image with some text and a font of our choice. We can use any font we wish, as long as the font is a TrueType Font (.tff). For the next few examples I will be using the font ‘Advent’ which you can find here. We will create the string ‘Hello World’ on a dark gray background square. Let’s take a look at the source code first and then go over each step.

<?php //Report any errors ini_set("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL);   //Set the content type header('content-type: image/png');   //Create our basic image stream 300x300 pixels $image = imagecreate(300, 300);   //Set up some colors, use a dark gray as the background color $dark_grey = imagecolorallocate($image, 102, 102, 102); $white = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);   //Set the path to our true type font $font_path = 'advent_light';   //Set our text string $string = 'Hello World!';   //Write our text to the existing image. imagettftext($image, 50, 0, 10, 160, $white, $font_path, $string);   //Create our final image imagepng($image);   //Clear up memory imagedestroy($image); ?>

Save the code in a file named ‘hello_world.php’ and access it using the same technique as we mentioned above. So what is different here?

We set the dimensions to 300×300 pixels and used a dark grey background. Notice how we declared a variable named font path and used the name of our font as the value? This is because later in our script we need to know the path to our font so we can use PHP to draw our text. Also take careful note of how there is no extension. To quote the manual: Depending on which version of the GD library PHP is using, when font file does not begin with a leading / then .ttf will be appended. This means since the file to our font does not have a ‘/’ in front of it, .tff will automatically be appended. Next we set our string, ‘Hello World!’, and store it in a variable for later use. The main function to note here is next, imagettftext(), which takes 8 parameters. Resource $image, float $size, float $angle, int $x, int $y, int $color, string $fontfile, string $text (in that order).

Save this page and access it however you wish; you should get an image that looks like the one below.

Angle it! Did you catch that one of the parameters of the imagettftext function is ‘angle’. This means we can angle our string for some unique results. Let’s revisit our code from above and angle our ‘Hello World!’ text.

<?php //Report any errors ini_set("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL);   //Set the content type header('content-type: image/png');   //Create our basic image stream 300x300 pixels $image = imagecreate(300, 300);   //Set up some colors, use a dark gray as the background color $dark_grey = imagecolorallocate($image, 102, 102, 102); $white = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255);   //Set the path to our true type font $font_path = 'advent_light';   //Set our text string $string = 'Hello World!';   //Write our text to the existing image. imagettftext($image, 50, -45, 30, 70, $white, $font_path, $string);   //Create our final image imagepng($image);   //Clear up memory imagedestroy($image); ?>

Notice how we have added an angle of -45 degrees to the function instead of zero (as well as reposition our text some)? This is all that is needed to angle some text onto an image; you should see something like the image below.

Are you having fun yet? No? Well, then let’s use a more practical approach and create something that could prove useful. What’s the Date? Not only can we create images from scratch, but we can create images from existing images! With a little work we can easily create a small ‘calendar icon’ that displays the current date (month, day, year). A simple Google search for ‘blank calendar icon’ brought up a free .svg icon that I resized and converted to a .png. So you have an idea of what I am talking about you can view the blank ‘calendar below.

Now that we have a canvas to work with, we can use various GD and PHP date functions to make this all come together. Disclaimer: I am not the worlds greatest designer, a better blank icon and choice of fonts would probably be a good idea if I were to be using this ‘calendar icon’ on a real site. I will leave the designing to all of you. That said, let’s look at the final code and then review it.

<?php //Report all Errors ini_set("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL);   //Set content type header('content-type: image/jpeg');   //Store the values of our date in separate variables list($month, $day, $year) = explode('/', date('F/jS/Y'));   //Load our base image $image = imagecreatefrompng('calendar_blank.png'); $image_width = imagesx($image);   //Setup colors and font file $white = imagecolorallocate($image, 255, 255, 255); $black = imagecolorallocate($image, 0, 0, 0); $font_path = 'advent_light';   //Get the positions of the text string $pos_month = imagettfbbox(13, 0, $font_path, $month); $pos_day = imagettfbbox(25, 0, $font_path, $day); $pos_year = imagettfbbox(8, 0, $font_path, $year);   //Create Month imagettftext($image, 13, 0, ($image_width - $pos_month[2]) / 2, 40, $white, $font_path, $month);   //Create Day imagettftext($image, 25, 0, ($image_width - $pos_day[2]) / 2, 80, $black, $font_path, $day);   //Create Year imagettftext($image, 8, 0, ($image_width - $pos_year[2]) / 2, 100, $black, $font_path, $year);   //Create final image imagejpeg($image, '', 100);   //Clear up memory; imagedestroy($image); ?>

So what is going on here? What is this list() function? All good questions, and we will discuss them all step by step:

As always we set the header type so the image will display correctly. On line 10 you will see we use the list function. We assign the values of the date array (converted to an array via explode()) to the variables inside the list function. This is a handy way of taking array information and assigning it all at once to multiple variables. We can now access the $month, $day, and $year variable individually. On line 22-24 we use imagettfbbox() function to retrieve the bounding box of our strings (in a nutshell, the size or length), the function returns an array of values, so to access the lower right corner we could use $pos_month[2]. We need this information so we can automatically position our text correctly no matter the size. Lastly we create each string and use some basic math to position the x coordinate of our string.

Assuming the universe did not implode, you should get an image like the one below (except the date should be whatever the current date is on your server, below is a static image of the outcome). Also, thanks to catpin for the help with the script.

Cats and Image Filters The last thing we will touch on today is the very fun imagefilter() function. The imagefilter function takes a pre defined image and applies a specified filter to the image, such as changing the image to grayscale. Let’s look at the image we will be working with, completely untouched.

Now let’s convert this crazy kitty to a grayscale image using the imagefilter function.

<?php //Report all errors ini_set("display_errors", "1"); error_reporting(E_ALL);   //check to see if a source image is set if(isset($_GET['source'])){ //Perform some very basic sanitation of string $image = filter_var($_GET['source'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);   //Load image from source provided $image = imagecreatefromjpeg($image);   //Change the image to a grayscale image imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GRAYSCALE);   //Set content type header('content-type: image/jpeg');   //Save image with 90 percent quality imagejpeg($image, '', 90);   //clear up memory imagedestroy($image); } ?>

I have made the above script a little more flexible, so as to give you the choice of turning any image into a gray-scale image by referencing it like below:

<img src='http://themeforest.s3.amazonaws.com/65_gd/grayscale.php?source=cat.jpg' alt='' />

Obviously, you could fill in the ’source’ with the path to any image you wish to have it converted to gray-scale. Furthermore, please implement further security measures if you plan on using this on a live server. Also the script above expects to receive a .jpeg image, you can get creative and have it accept all type of images if you wish. Your cat should now look like the image below.

More Filters To wrap up this lesson, let’s take a quick look at other filters that we could use and the results they produce. Brightness Filter Adjusts the brightness of a given image, third parameter adjusts the brightness.

<?php header('content-type:image/jpeg');   $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('cat.jpg'); //3rd parameter accepts the brightness level. imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_BRIGHTNESS, 40); imagejpeg($image, '', 90); imagedestroy($image); ?>

Gaussian Blur Gaussian blurs the image, no parameters accepted.

<?php header('content-type:image/jpeg');   $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('cat.jpg'); imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_GAUSSIAN_BLUR); imagejpeg($image, '', 90); imagedestroy($image); ?>

Contrast Third parameter accepts the contrast level.

<?php header('content-type: image/jpeg'); $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('cat.jpg'); imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_CONTRAST, -15); imagejpeg($image, '', 90); imagedestroy($image); ?>

Mean Removal (sketch effect) No parameters accepted.

<?php header('content-type: image/jpeg'); $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('cat.jpg'); imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_MEAN_REMOVAL); imagejpeg($image, '', 90); imagedestroy($image); ?>

Colorize Accepts value of red, green, blue, and alpha channel (optional) in that order.

<?php header('content-type:image/jpeg'); $image = imagecreatefromjpeg('cat.jpg'); //alpha channel parameter omitted below as it is optional. imagefilter($image, IMG_FILTER_COLORIZE, 50, 0, 0); imagejpeg($image, '', 90); imagedestroy($image); ?>

Until next time… I hope this gave you some insight to the PHP GD library. In part 2, we will go over some more advanced techniques, and, of course, have some more fun. Get creative with the GD library and let me know what you end up with!

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All too often, I see a great design concept with a poor choice of colors. Part of what makes a great web design “great” is layout, typography and color. When each of these aspects work to compliment each other, great design is born. RGB vs CMYK If you’re an experienced designer, but are new to web design, you’re most likely a print designer. When I made the move from print into web design, I was fortunate that I was such a web geek and already new what I needed to know in terms of RGB vs CMYK. Unfortunately, I know far too many print designers who have troubles. This section is for you! Red Green Blue (RGB)

When you look at your computer monitor you’re looking at colors generated using red, green and blue light. This is called an additive color model because varying percentages of red, green and blue light create the variety of colors your monitor produces. Note that the key word here is light. 100% red light, 100% green light and 100% blue light added together will create white on your monitor. Creating black however, is a little more tricky. In order to create black you must turn the RGB light sources down to zero. This gets much more complicated to explain because of the differences in computer monitors, tv’s and other electronics. For what this article is trying to cover we’ll keep it simple. When you create black in say, Photoshop, you’re removing all color (0% red, 0% green and 0% blue) but that isn’t technically true black. So how do we express RGB colors on the web? We use a three-byte hexadecimal value such as FFFFFF (white) or 000000 (black). Each color (red, green, blue) is represented with a byte consisting of two digits ranging from 00 to FF. The first two digits set the color intensity of red, the second two digits set the intensity of green and the last two set blue.

So for example the color red expressed in a three-byte hexadecimal value would be FF0000. This is because the first byte in the value is FF which means red is set to 100%. If you wanted 100% green the value would be 00FF00 and if you wanted 100% blue the value would be 0000FF. Cyan Magenta Yellow Black (CMYK)

I won’t get into CMYK too much since it doesn’t really apply to what we want to talk about. What you need to know about CMYK is it works on a subtractive color model. The more color you add, the darker the color you achieve. In CMYK however, you can’t achieve black with only CMY (cyan, magenta and yellow). That is where “K” comes to the rescue. “K” is black ink, which is used to achieve a more true black. So why do you need to know the difference between RGB and CMYK? Well, for one, as a designer it’s just good to know. For two, you want to be working with colors intended for their destination color space. RGB has more colors than CMYK and more importantly, more vibrant colors. Photoshop Color Settings & Browser Embedded Color Profiles For as many designers as I know that don’t know the difference between RGB and CMYK, I know twice as many that don’t know what color profiles are let alone how to use them properly. Color profiles haven’t mattered so much in web design in past years but with ever advancing web browsers, it’s more important to know what to use.

What is a color profile? A color profile is used to manage colors across multiple devices so that each device will have the same appearance. They are a set of data tables that describe the properties of a color space (sRGB, Adobe RGB, etc.). Images such as Tiff, Jpeg, Png, Eps, etc. can have a color profile embedded but it isn’t required. Browser Embedded Color Profiles? Say what?! Have you ever run into a situation where Safari displayed an image differently than other browsers? This is because Safari 3 (and the new beta 4) support embedded ICC (International Color Consortium) color profiles. If you don’t save the image with the correct color profile embedded, it will display differently than in other browsers and could make your website look odd. Firefox 3 also supports embedded color profiles but it’s disabled by default. What I see most often is a few images or even just a single image that has been saved for the web incorrectly and displays colors differently than other images in the website. This problem especially stands out when images that are supposed to blend together use different color profiles and display differently because they no longer blend like they appear to in Photoshop. Below is a screenshot of a section of the ThemeForest website using two different color profiles in Photoshop. If you had two separate images that used these separate color profiles, most browsers would display both images like the right section of the image below. However, Safari would actually show the color differences because it can see the embeded color profiles.

So how do you setup Photoshop when designing for web? Open Photoshop but without any images open. Navigate to Edit > Color Settings Use these settings for Working Spaces:

RGB: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 Gray: Gray Gamma 2.2

Use these settings for Color Management Policies:

RGB: Convert to Working RGB CMYK: Off Gray: Off Profile Mismatches: Check off Ask When Opening

Then navigate to View > Proof Setup and change it to Monitor RGB. When working on a web image make sure View > Proof Colors is checked.

So what did we do here? First we set our RGB working space and our Gray Gamma to the standard for the web and viewing on monitors. This way we’ll be using the same color space as pretty much all computer monitors. Then we made sure to tell Photoshop to view the images being edited in this color space correctly. If you don’t tell photoshop how to view (proof) them then when you save the image for web, it could look different than what you were editing. Ok, so now we understand the difference between RGB and CMYK and have our workspace setup to view, edit and save images for the web correctly. Onward with color schemes!
Color Schemes A color scheme is just a planned combination of colors (or the lack of color). There are several different kinds of color schemes but these are the 6 classics.

monochromatic analogous complementary split complementary triadic tetradic

To get started we’ll need to establish a base color that fits the subject and purpose of the project you’ll be working on. It’s important to note that white, black and shades of gray are not technically colors.

Monochromatic Color Scheme A monochromatic color scheme is based on one color and uses multiple shades of that color. Monochromatic color schemes can be powerful in design if used properly. We’re so used to seeing designs with several colors that the simplicity of a monochromatic color scheme and make a very strong impression.

Sometimes using a “color scheme” without the use of color will catch people off guard because we live in such a colorful world. Black and white photos are a good example of this but it can easily be applied to web design. Technically, using black, white and shades of gray is not a monochromatic color scheme as it doesn’t actually contain any color. It is actually called achromatic color scheme but still qualifies as a monochromatic color scheme, just more specific. Analogous Color Scheme An analogous color scheme is created using colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. You’ll need to be careful when using this color scheme because if you choose colors farther apart than 1/3 of the color wheel, things will start getting ugly.

Complementary Color Scheme

A complementary color scheme is created using colors on opposite each other on the color wheel. This type of color scheme tends to be high in contrast but the colors should complement each other nicely. You must be careful when using this type of scheme however, as you don’t want to encounter simultaneous contrast in the wrong way. Simultaneous contrast means that the colors make each other look more vibrant and strong. If you use this in a situation such as foreground and background, it’s painful to look at. A good example is text on a background where the text and the background are complementary colors but cause simultaneous contrast. Split Complementary Color Scheme A split complementary color scheme is where you use two colors adjacent to the complimentary color of your base color. So pick out your base color, find it’s complimentary color (the one directly opposite on the color wheel) and pick two colors adjacent. See, not as complicated as it sounds! Triadic & Tetradic Color Schemes A triadic color scheme is created by using three colors that are each 1/3 of the color wheel apart from each other. A tetradic color scheme is created by using four colors where each pair of colors is complimentary to each other. Generating Color Schemes and Palettes As simple as the color schemes might sound it can actually be pretty difficult to come up with a really nice color scheme on your own. Most web designers don’t have the time to experiment with colors and figure out what looks great and there’s really no reason to unless you need something truly custom for a client or project.

Generating Color Schemes Instead of generating color schemes the hard way there are tons of online resources with some awesome color schemes freely available as well as apps that you can use to create color schemes based on certain colors. My personal favorite is Adobe Kuler and Color Scheme Designer but there are many available that you can easily find by Googling “color scheme generator”.

Generating Color Palettes Color palettes? What?! I thought this was the same as a color scheme? It sort of is, but it really isn’t. When you design a website it’s unlikely that you’ll only use 1-5 colors which is what you’ll get with a color scheme. There are so many elements and element states that go into a website that you’re bound to use many different colors. Instead of coming up with slightly different shades for different element states as you go, it’s best to come up with a color palette first while you’re figuring out your colors. A color palette only needs to consist of your color scheme and a few different shades of each color that you might use for other purposes. For instance, you might use a color from your color scheme for your text links but what about the hover, active, and visted states? You might want to use different shades of that same color for the other link states.

In this article we take a closer look at the nature of drop-down navigation menus, analyze situations in which they should or should not be used, discuss various implementations and finally showcase a couple of bad and good examples of such menus. The article also includes various tips and suggestions to help you work with your drop-down menus.

Many rejected templates here on Themeforest suffer from the same few common mistakes: typography (font, line-height, letter-spacing, color), alignment (grid), and spacing (padding). In this tutorial, we are going to take a closer look at how to avoid these common errors. Typography

You must understand how fonts affect the design of a page, and your readers. Unfortunately, you are restricted to using only a few web safe fonts that are available on most operating systems. Even with this small list, it can be challenging to manage them in the right way for the best user experience.

Don’t mix too many fonts

Choose one font for headings, and another for the body. DO NOT use more then two different fonts in the body text! Consider this to be a general rule. For example, you could use “IMPACT” for headings and then “ARIAL” for the body. Keep in mind that every font is designed with its own baseline, x-height, cap height etc. You can compare fonts with Typetester. It’s a really nice and useful tool developed by my fellow croatian Marko Dugonjic. Go check it out.

BAD

GOOD

Don’t mix sans with serif fonts

Ok, now this is not a rule; but for the beginners, I strongly suggest not to do so. It’s not as easy as it might look. A great example where these two type of fonts are used properly is A list apart.

Choosing the right font size

We usually determine our font size with CSS by either using percentages, ems, or pixels. I usually define my body’s font-size as 62.5%; and from there I use ems. 1 em is equal to 10 px when using it this way. When choosing the font size, pay attention to the overall balance in your design and readability. For more readability, you can go with 14px or 1.4em. Some parts of your design, such as the tagline or headings, will need to be set with a greater font-size - like 18px or even 24px.

BAD

GOOD

Adjusting the line-height

The line-height property sets the distance between lines. When designing the layout in Photoshop, I usually set my font-size to 12px and the line-height to 16px or 18px. Also all body text is set with “antialias: none” - so we get a real pixel preview of how it will look like in the browser.

Choosing the right font color

The main thing to watch here is that your text is readable enough on any background that’s set. Contrast is key.

BAD

GOOD

The problem can appear in choosing the wrong color palette. This is how it might look when doing so.

BAD

To solve the problem, utilize some online tools that may help you choose the right colors: Adobe Kuler, Colorlovers etc. Alignment Alignment is the adjustment of an object in relation with other objects, or a static orientation of some object or set of objects in relation to others. Alignment provides the structural framework of a design. The alignment can affect the mood of your page as well as how effective it is at getting its message across. Use a grid system

Using a grid system will help you to align your elements better. I recommend using the 960 Grid System, as it offers both design and coding templates (.psd, .ai, .css, .html etc.).

Be sure to watch “A Detailed Look at the 960 Framework” screencast on nettuts+.

Be consistent

Be consistent with your alignment. Don’t align one element to the left and another to the right; this will only cause more confusion. If you align all of your text to the left, then align the headings, and other elements in the same manner. Once you’re more skilled, you can break these rules; but if you want to play it safe, then stay with one alignment.

BAD

GOOD

Spacing (Padding) According to the W3C, the CSS padding properties define the spacing between the element’s border and its content. Spacing, padding, or even white space helps you to create a balanced layout. Don’t squeeze elements

Give your elements space. Allow a minimum of 10px padding between content boxes or individual elements - as a rule of thumb.

BAD

GOOD

Don’t stretch elements

Also, try not to distance elements too far from each other - as you can end up having holes in your design. Your layout should look full and consistent.

BAD

GOOD

Be consistent with spacing

If you choose to give all your elements padding of 10px, then great. But do not give your sidebar 10px padding, and the main content 30px padding. Again, if you use the 960 grid system, it will automatically space your elements in a pleasing way. Let’s have a look at some examples.

Further reading

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Making and Breaking the Grid Grid Systems Thinking with Type The Golden Ratio in Web Design Using Adobe Kuler to Enhance your Photoshop Color Workflow

Designing Posters is very interesting to do with Photoshop or Illustrator. If your fun of creating Posters, here are some cool list of tutorials that could improve your skill more and better.

This article is a 30+ Photoshop Tutorials in Creating Amazing Posters. Some of this tutorials are a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop.

I’ve been away for the last week. My wife and I bought a flat in North London and finally moved in on March 16th. So I’m currently without the internet and won’t have it until the end of March which is frustrating when I want to update my blog but simply can’t so please excuse my infrequent posts over the next few weeks. Here’s a quick piece of code to simply display your feedburner stats on your blog. I’m yet to post my stats publicly on my blog but have seen numerous blogs with the standard feedburner badge which I think is quite ugly. So here’s how to just get the stats using PHP and CURL. You can then style it how you like.

$ch = curl_init(); //set the feed url and options plus a timeout value $timeout=5; curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,'https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=AshleyFord-Papermashupcom'); curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1); curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout); $result = curl_exec($ch); // get just the subscriber number using the regex function $subscribers = get_match('/circulation="(.*)"/isU',$result);

echo 'Papermashup.com has <strong>'.$subscribers.'</strong> subscribers';

//close connection curl_close($ch);

function get_match($regex,$result) { preg_match($regex,$result,$matches); return $matches[1]; }

A few days ago I was looking around the internet for a solution on how to add Gravatar avatars to my Wordpress comments section, and I found out that its easier than I originally thought! I thought there might be quite a bit of code to implement but found out that it requires just one line of PHP. So here are the steps to adding user Gravatars to your comments. Step One The first thing to do i log into your blog and under ‘Settings’ click ‘Discussion’ scroll down to ‘Avatars’ and make sure that you have avatars turned on as shown below.

Once the you have chosen your setup as above you are ready to add the code into your comments template. Step Two Now under ‘Appearance’ select ‘Editor.’ In the right hand column you should see all the files that refer to your current theme. Select ‘Comments comments.php’ the template code for the comments section of your blog will now load in the main window where you can make changes and edit the code. Dependent upon how your theme is structured you should be able to roughly work out where the comments are pulled in as in the image below. I have highlighted where i have added the line of code to pull in users avatars, each comment is placed in a list item. The Gravatar code is then added straight after the opening list item tag. Add this single line of code.

<?php if(function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar($comment, '40'); } ?>

And that’s it! Want to see a demo? then leave a comment below and you’ll see the avatars. You will need to style the position of the avatars, size etc which is controlled by the class .avatar

Adobe Illustrator is a versatile vector illustration application that’s preferred by many professional artists and designers. Its robust and powerful set of tools coupled with its intuitive interface makes it the go-to app for vector work. Illustrator excels in allowing designers to craft stunning and realistic-looking 3D artwork. In this collection, you will find 40 useful and informative tutorials and techniques on creating three-dimensional artworks in Adobe Illustrator. 1. Create an Open Book with Illustrator’s 3D Extrude & Bevel Tool

Learn a technique for illustrating a three-dimensional book by reading through this Adobe Illustrator tutorial. 2. Use the power of Illustrator to create cool 3D infographics

Learn a process for creating an infographic piece from conceptualization to finalization using a variety of Illustrator tools and techniques such as the Gradient Mesh Tool. 3. Create a Can of Beans by Mapping Vectors to a 3D Object

Craft a tin can (perfect for product design models) using a host of Illustrator tools and techniques such as the Extrude Tool and Image Mapping techniques. 4. Design Gift Boxes Using Illustrator’s 3D Tools

Discover a method for creating 3D gift boxes in Illustrator which can later be adopted for designing packaging and software boxes mockups. 5. Fun with AI’s 3D tool

Explore the tools, options, and techniques available to you for making 3D objects in Illustrator. 6. Let’s Make a Playful yet Robust 3D Letter Design

Investigate a way for composing a three-dimensional letter art piece by reading through this tutorial on VECTORTUTS. 7. 3D Blue LCD Alarm Clock

Illustrate an LCD alarm clock using an assortment of Illustrator tools such as the Rounded Rectangle Tool, gradients, and the Blend Tool. 8. 3D Objects and Transparencies to Make a Vector Cola Bottle Design

Create a realistic-looking Cola bottle design by skillfully using 3D objects and transparency options in Adobe Illustrator. 9. Creating Omspace 3D cylinder graphic in Illustrator

This tutorial shows you how to create cylindrical shapes using the Extrude & Bevel Tool with Map Art options. 10. Create an Animated 3D Poker Chip and Part II

This two-part series on AiBURN shows you how to render a poker chip in 3D using the 3D Exclude and Bevel Tool in Illustrator. 11. How to Make 3D Vector Vintage Stars

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create 3D vector stars in Illustrator. 12. 2D Spark Plug Diagram from 3D Components in Illustrator

Diagramming is one of Illustrator’s strong suits – learn a method for creating three-dimensional diagrams (i.e. for instructional brochures) in this tutorial. 13. 3D Effects in Illustrator CS

This tutorial series explores your 3D options in Illustrator: Part 1 discusses Extrusion & Bevel basics, Part 2 covers custom bevel creation, Part 3 talks about the Revolve Tool, and Part 4 discusses lighting and transparencies. 14. 3D Charts in Adobe Illustrator CS

Create professional charts in Illustrator that will impress: learn how in this tutorial that utilizes the Pie Graph Tool. 15. Design a Business Report Cover

Design a professional and captivating business report cover that has 3D buildings as a graphics component. 16. Create a Rotatable Globe in Adobe Illustrator

This tutorial gives you a quick walkthrough on creating a 3D globe using some stock vector files and the 3D Revolve Tool. 17. 3D Bowl

See how to construct a realistic 3D fruit bowl in Adobe Illustrator in this tutorial that walks you through the entire process. 18. How to Map Artwork onto 3D Objects with Illustrator

Learn the concepts behind mapping images onto 3D objects in this insightful tutorial. 19. Create a Checkered 3D Chess Figure Scene

Construct a 3D chess scene using gradient meshes and the 3D Revolve Tool. 20. 3D Isometric Vector Icon Tutorial

Create a simple and beautiful 3D icon using a variety of Illustrator tools such as the 3D Rotate Tool. 21. Create a 3D Push Pin and a Paper Note in Illustrator

In this simple tutorial aimed at beginners, you’ll witness a method for composing a 3D push pin and paper note illustration. 22. 3D Graphs

Learn another technique on how to use Illustrator to generate impressive but quick-and-simple 3D graphs. 23. Making of an Abstract Artwork

See the process of an Illustrator artist’s method for composing this abstract and three-dimensional work of art. 24. 3D Chess Board, King, and Pawn

Create three-dimensional chess pieces by reading through this step-by-step Illustrator tutorial. 25. Make a 3d Red Blood Cell Button

This Illustrator tutorial walks you through the process of crafting three-dimensional blood cells. 26. Halloween Pumpkin

Read this tutorial to discover a method for illustrating a realistic-looking Halloween pumpkin. 27. 3D Flower Pot

Learn about a quick-and-simple way of rendering a three-dimensional flower pot; as a finishing touch, use the Symbols Library to add some flowers in the composition. 28. 3D Dice

In this short, 7-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to compose a 3D die using the Map Art option in the Extrude & Bevel Tool. 29. 3D Hammer using Illustrator

Craft a three-dimensional hammer using a variety of Illustrator tools and options by following along this helpful tutorial. 30. Drawing a Vase in Illustrator

Here is a method for creating a set of realistic-looking 3D vases using Adobe Illustrator. 31. Make 3D Yet Flat Looking Shopping Basket Icons

In this creative take on three-dimensional objects, you’ll see a method for creating a 3D/2D hybrid shopping basket icon. 32. 3D Logo Tutorial

Craft a beautiful 3D logo in this simple but informative Adobe Illustrator logo design tutorial. 33. Disco Ball

This short but helpful Adobe Illustrator tutorial, you’ll learn a process of constructing a disco ball. 34. Cool 3D logo

This tutorial shares another method for creating a 3D logo using Illustrator. 35. Gradient Meshes Introduction

To create 3D objects with accurate shading, you’ll need to understand the Gradient Mesh Tool; this tutorial gives you a perceptive look into gradient meshes. 36. Translucent IM Style Illustrator Icon Tutorial

Recreate the MSN icon in Illustrator by following along this Illustrator tutorial that utilizes the Gradient Mesh Tool. 37. 3D Vector Calendar Icon

Create this beautiful 3D Vector Calendar icon in Illustrator by reading through this step-by-step tutorial. Illustrator and… Here are a few tutorials that use Illustrator in combination with other tools. 38. Colourful 3D Text Explosion Using Illustrator and Photoshop

Combine Illustrator and Photoshop to create this stunning art piece. 39. Merge 3D with Illustrator and Photoshop

Use Illustrator and Photoshop to merge compose a futuristic art piece. 40. Using Swift as a Powerful 3D Illustration Tool

Use Illustrator and Swift3D (a modeling and animation software) to create 3D illustrations. Related content

20 Exceptional Websites for Learning Adobe Illustrator Excellent Logo Design Tutorials Using Illustrator Beautiful Photoshop Illustration Tutorials

Quite a bold statement, Learn Photoshop in 24 hours. Its simple and you can. Stepping into Photoshop at first can be quite daunting, were do you start? With these 20 tutorials we have given you some direction, you will start of with some very basic techniques and build towards the more advanced. By the end of it you will be an expert.

Tutorial 1: Combining Two Photos for New Effect - Basic Tutorial running time : 10 minutes. We’ll start with something basic. In this tutorial you will learn how to use the Marquee Tool, how to adjust the Opacity, working with Layers, creating Paths from a Selection and using the Text Tool. Let’s get your feet wet.

Tutorial 2: Grass Texture - Basic Tutorial running time : 15 minutes. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a nice-looking grass texture. This tut covers Filters, Rotating an image, Brightness and Contrast and working with Hue and Saturation.

Tutorial 3: Underwater Effect - Basic Tutorial running time : 15 minutes. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an underwater scene from scratch, using Gradients, Transform and Filters. As well as getting started with Brushes.

Tutorial 4: 2d Mirror Effect - Basic Tutorial running time : 10 minutes. In this tutorial you will learn how to Duplicate, Flip Horizontally/Vertically, Feathering and Blending. Simple, yet effective.

Tutorial 5: Sony Ericsson Logo - Basic Tutorial running time : 20 minutes. This is your first tricky tut. You will learn how to save your time, changing layer styles and using the copies of your initial effect or form. Shapes, Layer Styles, Drop Shadows, Filters, Color Overlay are used very well in this tut.

Tutorial 6: Paint Graffiti on Wall - Basic Tutorial running time : 30 minutes. You will be using custom brushes to recreate the graffiti wall, and working with multiple layers.

Tutorial 7: Team Fortress 2 Sprays with Transparency - Basic Tutorial running time : 30 minutes. This tutorial will show you how to create quality Team Fortress 2 Sprays with transparency using Photoshop.

Tutorial 8: Google Chrome Logo Design - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 45 minutes. Similar in concept as Tutorial 5, as in you are creating a logo, but a little more difficult using trickier techniques.

Tutorial 9: Star Explosion Wallpaper - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 45 minutes. Create your first wallpaper using textures, glows, and blurs.

Tutorial 10: Graffiti Wall II - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 45 minutes. If you felt comfortable with Tutorial 6, then this will be easy for you. Slightly more difficult, but the effect is far better .

Tutorial 11: Spectacular Grass Text Effect - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. This tutorial is made up of three parts — the background, the text itself, and some final extra effects.

Tutorial 12: MP3 Digital Player Icon - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 60 minutes. Create a Photoshop MP3 digital player logo icon, using intermediate drawing  .

Tutorial 13: Cubite Logo - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 70 minutes. Cubite logo design, similar in concept as Tutorial 12, but having a more realistic finish.

Tutorial 14: Digital Illustration Using Birds - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. This tutorial is your first step into illustration. T Tutorial 15: Amazing Photo montages - Intermediate Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. This tutorial provides step-by-step guidance on how to make a stunning, dynamic effect that recreates the look of a figure dissolving in water.

Tutorial 16: War Movie Poster - Advanced Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. In this tutorial you will create a great movie poster, using some simple but efficient techniques.

Tutorial 17: Recycle Vintage Images to Create a Photoshop Collage - Advanced Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. Learn all about how to assemble a collage in Photoshop and give it a unique retro feel.

Tutorial 18: Portable Gaming Device Poster - Advanced Tutorial running time : 90 minutes. In this Photoshop tutorial you will be walking through the making of an interesting, creative advertisement poster.

Tutorial 19: Creating a stylized male portrait - Advanced Tutorial running time : 100 minutes. In this advanced tutorial you will learn how to create a stylized portrait.

Tutorial 20: Amazing 3D Text - Advanced Tutorial running time : 100 minutes. In this advanced tutorial you will learn how to create very 3D text (using 3d software) and give it life in Photoshop. The final result is amazing.

Are you a Photoshop Expert yet? Don’t give up! download these two indispensable reference PDF files, to help you on your way: Photoshop CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows or for MAC. Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Morris Official Photoshop CS4 Free Help Ebook Watch this video to learn about Photoshop CS4s features: Photoshop CS4 Interface Overview This video will bring you up to speed with Photoshop CS4 and all its features. By Paul Andrew

Everyone seems to be creating WP themes for public consumption. Make yours stand out among the rest!

A note from the author Creating themes for WordPress seems to be the “in” thing to do right now but with the sheer number of themers out there, you need to make sure your themes offers more than the others. You can differentiate your theme in 2 ways: in the visual department and in the feature set. I am going to concentrate on the feature set for today. More specifically, on the features a lot of users crave for in themes but few themes actually have.

Internationalization

Stock image from SXC One could assume all WordPress users are English and add no internationalization feature. But with the explosion of Internet connection and users recently you’ll be glad you added this feature.
Since we are talking about the theme alone, I am only going to cover the internationalization part and not the localization part. Step 1 Open the functions.php file of your theme. If the functions.php file isn’t present, create one and add the following bit of code.

<?php load_theme_textdomain('customname'); ?>

Replace the “custom name” bit with your own text.

Step 2 Now comes the repetitive but easy part. You need to edit all the files so all the text printed must be inside gettext functions which are WP’s internationalization tools of choice. Don’t worry you’ll understand this in a bit. Consider the following piece of code. You’d see this in a normal theme.

<li>Home</li>

Now change it to the following

<li><?php _e("Home", "<span class="&rdquo;php&rdquo;">customname</span>"); ?></li>

There! That wasn’t so hard was it? Since the emitted text is normal HTML we use the _e function after opening a PHP tag. In case where the text is emitted directly inside a PHP tag we use the __ function. Let me show you. Below is a piece of code you’d see in a normal theme.

<?php the_content('Read more...'); ?>

This now changes to:

<?php the_content(__('Read more...', "customname")); ?>

What’s more you ask? That’s it. Your theme is internationalized, ready for the plugin of your choice or WP to translate it to another language. Dynamic Sidebars and variations

Stock image from SXC Users love sidebars and the act of adding a million little things to it. In the face of that, it seems almost a crime to not add support for this. Here is how. Step 1: Registering our sidebar Open the functions.php file of your theme. If the functions.php file isn’t present, create one and add the following bit of code.

<?php   if ( function_exists(’register_sidebars’) ) register_sidebar();   ?>

Step 2: The actual markup Here is a bit of the sidebar markup in the default theme

<ul id="sidebar"> <li id="about"> <h2>About</h2> <p>This is my blog.</p> </li> <li id="links"> <h2>Blogroll</h2> <a href="http://nettuts.com">Net Tuts</a> </li> </ul>

Now add this following snippet before any text is actually printed i.e after the unordered list is opened.

<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')|| !dynamic_sidebar() ) : ?>

Your markup is now supposed to look something like this.

<ul id="sidebar"> <?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar() ) : ?> <li id="about"> <h2>About</h2> <p>This is my blog.</p> </li> <li id="links"> <h2>Blogroll</h2> <a href="http://nettuts.com">Net Tuts</a> </li> </ul>

2 lines. Your theme is now widgetized. Users can now start adding and editing widgets straight from the admin CP. Variations You can do some nifty things here. What if you want to display your recent posts and comments on single pages alone? You can then register multiple sidebars and then contextually add them. Registering more than one sidebar is just as easy.

<?php   if ( function_exists(’register_sidebars’) ) register_sidebar(); register_sidebar(’2'); register_sidebar(’3');   ?>

Why do you have to use integers when you can use actual names? This way you need not run to the admin CP or look into the code every time to find out which sidebar is displayed where.

<?php   if ( function_exists(’register_sidebars’) ) register_sidebar(); register_sidebar(’single'); register_sidebar(’footer');   ?>

You can then add them to the page like so.

<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')|| !dynamic_sidebar('single') ) : ?>

Theme Options page

Game Press options page Letting the user set various options directly through the admin panel is a huge plus for any theme. I had my own, albeit limited, tutorial worked out when I saw the tutorial written by Dan Harper over at ThemeForest. Its much more comprehensive and feature laden than mine so I’ll just be linking to the tutorial in question. You could do a lot of very user-friendly things using this feature. You could let the user set the number of posts returned in a search result. Or let them choose whether a welcome message is displayed in the home page. Your imagination is the limit here. There are lots of ways this could improve your theme. You could include a lot of bells and whistles and then let the user enable/disable the features he/she wants through the control panel instead of sifting through your source code. Gravatars

Stock image from SXC The Gravatar page says A Gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. And users do like a persistent identity across all the blogs they read. So lets go implement this in our WordPress theme.
In the pre 2.x days, implementing Gravatars used to be a chore. Now that Gravatars are built-in, you need not mess around with plugins just to get it working. It is as easy as calling a single function.

<?php echo get_avatar();?>

The function returns an img tag so you need not add anything else. You can hit the Wordpress Codex to read up on all the parameters you can pass to the function. Custom Fields

Stock image from SXC Custom fields is another of these things which people seem to rave about and yet I am completely unable to grasp why. Never-the-less, our one true love WordPress [Did I mention how much I love WP?] includes support to store and display custom fields out of the box. However, it is up to the theme developer to actually code it into the theme. Here is how. Just like with the Gravatars, you only need a single function to display the user’s custom fields.

<?php the_meta(); ?>

Of course, there is more to custom fields and their implementation than can be covered in a part of a small article. Developers serious enough should hit the WordPress codex to get themselves acquainted with this particular part of the API. Since the custom fields are stored as a key/value pair, its trivial work to search for a specific key and if present, print its value. This isn’t everything These are just some of the features I see my users requesting the most. And of course, there are a ton of features I imagine I must have missed. Hit the comments section to let me know. I am all ears.

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