GetDeb’s web site has long been the go-to spot for Ubuntu (and Debian, and Mint) users to grab the latest copies of software not yet released by their official repositories. Now GetDeb makes it even easier with a repository.

By adding GetDeb’s repository to your Linux system, you’ll get access to pre-compiled .deb packages as soon as they’re available on GetDeb’s site. That means apps like the GIMP graphics editor, Songbird, and other software that hits a major release between Ubuntu’s six-month release cycle are available to you just as soon as someone’s nice enough to compile the newest code.

GetDeb’s repository is free to use and install. Hit the link for instructions on adding it to your 9.04 or 9.10 Ubuntu system; users of older Ubuntu systems can still grab packages at GetDeb’s legacy web site.

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GetDeb.net Repository Makes Newer Ubuntu Apps Easily Available [Linux] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 15, 2009.

High quality free WordPress Themes have become harder and harder to find in the past year, with the influx of premium themes, more and more designers and developers are selling themes (and rightly so, they do amazing work). However, the quality of freely available themes has improved as well; in fact, some themes are very advanced and professional and can serve as a solid foundation for your next designs.

There are a lot of choices out there for someone wanting to choose a WordPress theme for their blog. But, that aside, the quality is certainly there, and we are sure you will be impressed with this WordPress theme compilation.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• 100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes for 2009
• 100 Excellent Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

Free High-Quality WordPress Themes

AppCloud Theme
A nice e-commerce WordPress theme with a clean and professional look. Built upon 960.gs, with an integrated slideshow, two layouts (horizontal and vertical) for app/gadget images. The theme also includes sections “Featured products” and “Top Selling” and a categorized products view.

Berita (via ThemeCloset)
Berita is a minimalist corporate theme created for companies to prominently display their logo, but the theme could be used for any type of website. It’s a feature-rich theme with a preview slider on the front page and a robust theme administration page.

Magazeen
Magazeen is a two-column theme released specifically for Smashing Magazine readers. The theme has some subtle enhancements that encourage looking at related and new posts, like a related posts drop-down effect for the category link.

Mainstream Theme (via Wootheme)
You have the option of choosing from five different theme colors with Mainstream. Thumbnails are automatically resided and the sidebar is widgetized.

Rusty Grunge
Rusty Grunge is a simple WordPress theme yet still gives you the “destroyed” look. This theme utilizes a fully-widgetized sidebar and has been downloaded over 28,000 times and is featured as a pre-installed theme on Dreamhost’s default installation of WordPress.

Obscure WordPress Theme
A dark magazine WordPress theme suitable for any site niche; also a good fit for a community-based site.

Paper Wall
Smashing Magazine released the illustrated theme Paper Wall last month. The inspiration behind the Paper Wall theme was a designer’s desk, as designers typically put things on paper. It’s a two-column theme with many elements of paper: paper boards, peeling paper and paper “menus”.

Gallery WordPress Theme
a beautiful, free, gallery-style Thematic child theme for WordPress, designed by Christopher Wallace especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. It is extremely flexible and can be used as a starting point for design galleries and portfolios.

Cool Retro
A nice, clean illustrated WordPress theme with a retro-look and nice typography.

Life Collage
Life Collage is a child theme of the Hybrid theme framework. It’s about getting back to the roots of blogging. About sharing our lives. And, about having a little fun while we do it.

Shalom Typo
This theme was designed for the typographic template contest at Smashing Magazine by the German designer David Hellmann. This WordPress theme is based upon this layout. A clean and nice typographic WordPress-theme.

Jungleland Theme (via Theme Lab)
The stylish browns give an earthy feel to this blog making it a good choice for those blogs focused on the environment and nature. It features a photo gallery and a sidebar menu

Monkeypr Theme (via Queness)
Monkeypr is a nicely designed and fun WordPress theme.

Folio Elements Theme (via Press 75)
With its black background, Folio Elements theme will surely make your images and photographs noticed. There is no sidebar, no widgets, no list of categories, no place to comment and nowhere to search. However, if you are looking for a basic carousel-type theme with absolutely no basics, bells or whistles, then Folio Elements might be the one for you.

SimpleCart(js)
SimpleCart(js) is another child of the Thematic WordPress framework. The theme requires WP E-Commerce and is a flexible way to showcase products with the grid framework. The theme features a rich wood background and simple white content area.

Glassic
A simple clean WordPress theme with the focus on typography and simplicity. Released by Abdullah Ibrahim exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Zinepress Theme (via Well Medicatedi)
Zinepress is a two column magazine style theme. There is a nice sidebar with enough space for ads and for your widgets. It is hand coded and has valid XHTML STrict 1.0 and CSS Level 2.1. The developer has successfully tested this them with IE 6.0+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, Safari 3+, and Chrome 0.2+. Suggested WordPress version is 2.7 or higher.

Futurosity Aperio Prototype
Futurosity Aperio is a clean straight-forward blog theme built on Sandbox

Futurosity Vero (via Theme Meme)
Built on Sandbox and Blueprint CSS framework, the Futurosity Vero is a minimalist theme. Near the top of your home page, your most recent and featured post will be displayed.

PolaroidPress (via Tutorial9)
PolaroidPress, as you might guess from the name, plays on the usage of “polaroids” in the theme that display your random images. It’s a simple two-column theme with an airy feel.

H5
The H5 theme is more of a proof-of-concept theme to show designers how to show theme designers how to design with HTML5 and CSS 2.1. It’s a bare-bones theme that’s perfect as a building block for creating your next WordPress theme.

Inuit (via CSS Reflex)
Inuit makes use of a lot of whitespace and preview images for each post on the homepage. The theme also comes integrated with Twitter and Flickr.

Wu Wei
Clean, modern and minimal. The theme was based on the Taoist concept of wu wei: knowing when to act, and knowing when not to act. The theme is built on the principles of the grid system.

Modfolio
Modfolio is a child theme of Modularity, a theme framework for WordPress. Modfolio is another portfolio theme with an extremely dark layout. The theme has 10 potential homepage layout combinations with different colors and element positions.

Cardeo Minimal
A minimal three-column theme with plenty of white space and gray text.

Album Theme (by Brian Gardner)
Album theme is one of the many beautiful templates offered by StudioPress. Some included features are SEO optimized, widget ready, automatically sizes images for thumbnails, and ad ready. This theme is not free, but they do include the PSD file.

Album Theme (by Allan Cole)
Auto-focus is a blog theme designed for photographers to showcase their work.

Mystique (by Digital Nature)
This sleek one column theme has a flexible-width, threaded comments, and an adjustable header.

Manifest
Manifest is a straight-forward one column blog. It has no widgets or sidebar, but gives you a nice clean approach that focuses on your content.

Debug Theme (by Joost de Valk)
When your WordPress installs fail and you need more information, the debug theme is perfect. On the home page, it displays the important URL’s, editor, memory setting, etc. On sub pages it shows the page type, all the query vars that are set and the SQL query for that particular page.

Calmdream WordPress Theme
A very clean and simple layout for magazine layouts.

Portfolio Theme (via WPESP)
Portfolio is a two column blog theme which can be described as a minimalist. This modifiable design will make your own portfolio look great!

Blog Theme
The Carrington Blog-style theme is filled with advanced features like widgetized sidebars, AJAX loading of content, stylish galleries, customizable headers and colors.

Mobile Theme (via Carrington Themesl)
The Carrington Mobile has a beautiful design supporting advanced touch browsers )Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Pre)./p>

Pyrmont V2 Theme (via WP)
Pyrmont V2 is a two-column theme with a black background that could very well make your photographs and designs stand out.

Destyle Theme
Destyle is a magazine-style WordPress theme. This is another theme packed with useful features such as: multi-level superfish dropdown menu, ad management, predefined CSS styles, customa page templates, Twitter and Flick badges on sidebar and automatic image resizing.

ImpreZZ
A dark, three-column theme that gives the second column a third dimension.

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM?

Your opinion is very important to us. There are literally hundreds of similar lists on various design blogs. We are trying to do our best to present you only the best of the best, collecting useful links over months. Would you like to see more similar lists in the future? Or should we drop lists altogether and focus on more original content?

Would you like to see more similar lists on SM in the future?(polls)

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 30 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: themes, wordpress

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40 Free High-Quality WordPress Themes originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time.

Since the invention of the internet, programmers have been using it to discuss software development techniques, publish tutorials, and share code samples for others to learn from and use online. If you’re curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources.

First Things First: Don’t Get Hung Up on Choosing a Language

A common pitfall for beginners is getting stuck figuring out which programming language is best to learn first. There are a lot of opinions out there, but there's no one "best" language. Here's the thing: In the end, language doesn't matter THAT much. Understanding data and control structures and design patterns does matter very much. Every language—even a simple scripting language—will have elements that you'll use in other languages as well and will help you learn. In classes I took to get my degree in Computer Science, I programmed in Pascal, Assembly, and C—languages I never actually got paid to program in professionally. I taught myself every language I've used in my career, reusing concepts I already knew, and referring to documentation and books to learn its syntax. So, don't get hung up on what language to learn first. Pick the kind of development you want to do, and just get started using one that works.

There are several different kinds of software development you can do for various platforms, from the web to your desktop to your smartphone to a command line. In this article, we’ll outline some of our favorite starter tutorials and resources for teaching yourself how to program for each major platform. We’re going to assume you’re a savvy user, but a newb when it comes to wrangling code snippets, so we’ll keep things at the beginner level. Even just following through a beginner programming tutorial, you’ll be happy to see how far you can get.

Desktop Scripting

The easiest way to try your hand at programming for your Windows or Mac desktop is to start with a scripting or macro program like AutoHotkey (for Windows) or Automator (for Mac). Right now hardcore coders throughout the Lifehacker readership are yelling at their monitors, saying that AHK or AppleScript are not "real" programming. That may be true—technically these types of tools just do high-level scripting. But for those new to programming who just want to get their feet wet, automating actions on their desktop, these free tools are a fantastic way to start—and you'd be surprised at how much you can do with them.

For example, Adam developed the standalone Windows application we all know and love, Texter, using AutoHotkey, so this scripting language is capable of far more than just small-scale automation projects. To get started with AutoHotkey, check out Adam’s tutorial on how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut using AutoHotkey. (Then, check out the source code for Texter to see the innards of a full-fledged AHK-based Windows application.)

Web Development

Instead of being bound to specific programming languages and the look and feel of a particular operating system, you can put your killer application in the browser and run it in the cloud, as a webapp. Welcome to the wonderful world of web development.

HTML and CSS: The first thing you need to know to build any web site is HTML (the page markup that makes up web pages) and CSS (the style information that makes that markup look pretty). HTML and CSS are not true programming languages—they're just page structure and style information. However, you should be able to author simple HTML and CSS by hand before you begin building web applications, because a web page is the frontend to every webapp. This HTML tutorial is a good place to start.

JavaScript: Now that you can lay out a static web page with HTML and CSS, things get fun—because it's time to learn JavaScript. JavaScript is the programming language of the web browser, the magic that makes dynamic in-page effects go. JavaScript is also the stuff of bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Ajax, so it’s the key to making all sorts of web goodies. Start learning JavaScript here.

Server-side scripting: Once you're good at making things happen inside a web page, you're going to need to put some dynamic server action behind it—and for that, you'll need to move into a server-side scripting language, like PHP, Python, Perl, or Ruby. For example, to make a web-based contact form that sends an email somewhere based on what a user entered, a server-side script is required. Scripting languages like PHP can talk to a database on your web server as well, so if you want to make a site where users can log in and store information, that's the way to go. Excellent web development site Webmonkey is full of tutorials for various web programming languages. See their PHP Tutorial for Beginners. When you’re ready, check out how to use PHP to talk to a database in WebMonkey’s PHP and MySQL tutorial. PHP’s online documentation and function reference is the best on the web. Each entry (like this one on the strlen function) includes user comments at the bottom which are often as helpful as the documentation itself. (I happen to be partial to PHP, but there are plenty of other server-side scripting languages you might decide to go with instead.)

Web frameworks: Over the years, web developers have had to solve and resolve the same problems and rewrite similar code to build dynamic web sites. To avoid making everyone reinvent the wheel for every new web development project, some programmers have come up with development frameworks that do some repetitive work for you. The popular Ruby on Rails framework, for example, takes the Ruby programming language and offers a web-specific structure for getting common web application tasks done. In fact, Adam used Rails to build his first serious (and impressive!) web application, MixTape.me. Here’s his take on how to build a web site from scratch with no experience. Other popular web development frameworks include CakePHP (for PHP programmers), Django (for Python programmers), and jQuery (for JavaScript).

Web APIs: An API (Application programming interface) is a programmatic way for different pieces of software to talk to one another. For example, if you want to put a dynamic map on your web site, you want to use a Google Map instead of building your own custom map. The Google Maps API makes it easy to programmatically include a map in a page with JavaScript. Almost every modern web service you know and love has an API that lets you include data and widgets from it in your application, like Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Maps, and the list goes on. Integrating other webapps into your web application via API’s is the final frontier of rich web development. Every good, major web service API offers thorough documentation and some sort of quick start guide to try it out (here’s Twitter’s, for example). Go crazy.

Command Line Scripting

If you want to write a program that takes textual or file input and outputs something useful, the command line is the right place to do it. While the command line isn’t as sexy or good-looking as a webapp or desktop app, for rapid development of quick scripts that automate processes, you can’t beat it.

Several scripting languages that work on a Linux-based web server also work at the command line, like Perl, Python, and PHP—so learning one of those baddies makes you conversant in two contexts. My path never took me too far down the Perl road, but I taught myself Python using the excellent and free online book, Dive into Python.

If becoming a Unix ninja is one of your programmer goals, you absolutely must get good at shell scripting with bash. Bash is the command line scripting language of a *nix environment, and it can do everything from help you set up automated backups of your database and files to building out a full-fledged application with user interaction. Without any experience writing bash scripts beyond a dozen lines, I wound up developing a full-on personal to-do list manager in bash, Todo.txt CLI.

Add-ons

Nowadays, modern webapps and browsers are extensible with with bits of software that bolt onto them and add features. Add-on development is gaining in popularity as more developers look at existing software, like Firefox or WordPress, and think “But if only it could do THIS…”

You can do a whole lot in any web browser with just a mastery of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Bookmarklets, Greasemonkey user scripts, and Stylish user styles are created with the same bits of code that make regular web pages, so they’re worth learning even if you just want to tweak an existing site with a small snippet of code.

More advanced browser add-ons, like Firefox extensions, let you do more. Developing Firefox extensions, for example, requires that you’re conversant in JavaScript and XML (markup that’s similar to HTML, but way more strict in format). Back in 2007 I ran down how to build a Firefox extension, a skill I picked up after I stumbled upon a free tutorial.

Many free and well-loved web applications offer an extension framework as well, like WordPress and MediaWiki. Both of those apps are written in PHP, so comfort with PHP is a prerequisite for getting started. Here’s how to write a plug-in for WordPress. Developers who want to ride the cutting edge of Google Wave can get started writing gadgets and bots in HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python. I wrote my first Wave bot following this quick start tutorial in one afternoon.

Web Development for the Desktop

The best part about getting started programming in one context is when you can take those skills and apply them elsewhere. Learning web development first is a great way to start because now there are ways to put those skills to work on desktop applications, too. For example, Adobe AIR is a cross-platform run-time environment that lets you build your app once and release it to run on the desktop for every operating system AIR runs on. AIR apps are written in HTML, Flash, or Flex, so it lets you apply your web development skills in a desktop context. AIR is a great option for deploying desktop apps like one of our top 10 apps worth installing Adobe AIR for.

Mobile App Development

Mobile applications like the ones you run on your iPhone or Android smartphone are all the rage right now, so you may have dreams of striking it rich in the iTunes App Store with the next killer app. However, for the new coder, diving headfirst into mobile development can be a rough learning curve, since it requires comfort with advanced programming languages like Java and Objective C. However, it’s worth checking out what iPhone and Android development looks like. Check out this simple iPhone application development example to get a taste of what iPhone developers do. Android apps are written in Java, and here’s a friendly video tutorial of what building a “Hello Android” application workflow looks like.

Patience, Elbow Grease, Trial and Error

Good coders are a special breed of persistent problem-solvers who are addicted to the small victories that come along a long path of trial and error. Learning how to program is very rewarding, but it can also be a frustrating and solitary experience. If you can, get a buddy to work with you along the way. Getting really good at programming, like anything else, is a matter of sticking with it, trying things out, and getting experience as you go.

This article is just one self-taught programmer’s top-of-mind recommendations for beginners. Experienced programmers: What did I miss? No matter your skill level, add your thoughts and recommendations for beginners to the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, thinks the best programmers are self-taught. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

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Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code [Programming] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

There are people all over the internet that are willing to give away their work for promotional purposes or because they want to spread their design talent to other people.

For this reason we are lucky enough to have a wide variety of free PSD website templates for your use and enjoyment. I have collected some of the best ones I found from around the web to bring to you, already split up into layers in Photoshop. Enjoy!

1) Design Studio PSD Template

2) Orange PSD Template

3) SanduneBiz PSD Template

4)Cambridge PSD Template

5) Crisp Presentation PSD Template

6) Citrus Square Burst PSD Template

7) Audryhipburn PSD Template

8 ) MyTwoCents Property PSD Template

9) Old Victorian PSD Template

10) Bright Colors Radio PSD Template

11) Blackboard PSD Template

12) Colorful Video PSD Template

13) Shape PSD Template

14) DelliStore PSD Template

15) Midnight Sun PSD Template

16) Environmental PSD Template

17) Smashing Multimedia PSD Template

18 ) Slideshow PSD Template

19) Fresh PSD Template

20) 5 Webdesigns PSD Template

21) 3 Free PSD Template

22) Organic Conference PSD Template

23) Summer of Love PSD Template

24) Herbal Treats PSD Template

25) Solitude PSD Template

About the Author
Tyler Denis is a part-time freelance designer from Ashland, New Hampshire. He is also the creator/writer of the design blog Denis Designs/blog, a website dedicated to bringing quality tutorials and inspiration. You can follow him on Twitter or at his personal site, Denis Designs.

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25 Slick PSD Website Templates Free for Download originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

The need to update websites faster to keep content fresh has been ever growing. Ever since the first business owner wanted their Web designer to update their website faster, content management systems have played an important role on the Web. Why does this matter to you? How do you know if your company is ready?

In this article, we will look at how to tell if your organization needs a content management system. We will also give you information on the abilities of content management systems to help you better understand what they can do. While content management systems may seem complex, their entire purpose is to streamline your workflow and make your life easier.

A content management system allows you to create, manage, store and edit massive amounts of content without any HTML programming skill. Because you are able to edit your content from any computer with an Internet connection, you no longer have to rely on third-party developers or companies to keep your website up to date. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Every company would like to reduce costs and increase productivity.

Also consider our previous articles:

• 10 Things To Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS
  Goes over what features to look for when choosing a content management system.
• 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites
  Explains the mistakes we all make when running our websites. The nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes of large organizations.
• Developers Toolbox
  Offers tools and resources to help you achieve your goals at a more hands-on level.

1. What Is A Content Management System?

If you have never heard the term before, a content management system (CMS) is a Web-based solution that makes it easy for a company to manage website updates internally. For many companies, updating a website is not something to look forward to because it can be a lengthy and, over time, expensive process. Most companies search for easier means of accomplishing their goals. The solution that many large and small companies have found is a CMS. The easy-to-use application allows your company to control its online identity with little to no knowledge of Web design.

Do I Need a Content Management System?

While you know your business better than anyone else, if you answer Yes to any of the following questions, your company would likely benefit from using a CMS-based website.

• Does your company update its website content frequently?
• Does your website contain over 10 pages?
• Do you constantly outsource simple website updates to third parties?

Although building your website with a CMS may not save you money up front, if you need to be able to manage your own content in a timely manner, you will certainly be cutting costs in future. You will increase your organization’s speed while reducing its effort. With a CMS accessible from any computer with an Internet connection, you will speed up the process of approving, publishing, and updating.

Some CMS’ have in-page buttons to speed up the process of editing content, while preventing users from accessing the admin interface.

Because a CMS has built-in organizational features, content is easier to find and nearly impossible to lose (unless you delete it by accident). You no longer have to spend a lot of time on simple tasks or duplicating your efforts. All of your content is created, managed, published and edited from a single location with very simple, easy-to-use tools. Because using these tools requires very little training, you can start managing your content almost immediately.

If you have identified your business goals and recognized that your website will play a role in them, you should begin the process of implementing your own CMS. There is no set list of requirements for a content management system because each organization has unique needs. Keep your requirements to a minimum, but be sure to allow for the future growth and demands of your company. Enlisting the help of a Web design and development company to assess your needs is a good idea.

2. Essentials Of A CMS

Three key elements that every CMS has, one way or another, are templates, content and meta data. Understanding how these three elements interact with the other CMS features is important: the template is the graphic wrapper of your website; without the actual content, you would have no need for a website; and the often over-looked meta data helps with search engine optimization.

An example of a CMS theme that has the same look and feel on every page.

Templates control how your content looks on the page and are extremely helpful when you have to produce a lot of pages (10+). The template is a graphic wrapper that usually looks the same on every page of the website, regardless of the content. It makes your website’s look and feel consistent. When you want to change the template (say, the color or an image), you have to make the change only once and it will be reflected on every page of your website. Popular CMS’ such as WordPress and ExpressionEngine have many free or premium templates available online that can reduce the cost of and help you customize your system.

This is the typical layout of a WYSIWYG editor, which has features that are standard in word processors today, such as bolding, italicizing and justifying paragraphs.

Content is created, managed and edited independent of all other CMS elements. Content could be anything from the text on your “About” page to the photo on your company press release. All content is normally managed through a WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) that has integrated photo uploading tools. This helps you create new pages on your website, manage and edit existing pages and assign pages to multiple areas without having to copy them.

Facebook does an excellent job of pulling an external page’s title and description meta data when you post a link to it on a fan page or wall.

Meta data plays a key part in search engine optimization (SEO). The great thing about a CMS is that it makes it nearly impossible for you to forget to add this information, thus helping your website’s search and index ranking on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Meta data contains such information as category, author, publishing date, title, brief description and keywords.

One great use of meta data is for automatically adding a title and description to links posted on social media websites such as Facebook. This not only saves you from having to retype this information but keeps your content relevant as well. This information can also be pulled by search engines and any other website where your website is listed, so make sure to put some thought into writing it.

3. CMS Features And Functions

Content management systems come with many standard features to help you create, manage and edit your content. In addition to standard features, additional features can be added to the flexible system framework. These additional features are often referred to as add-on modules or plug-ins. Because a CMS is very flexible, you can use it for a simple website with little content or expand the features to support a complex website with a lot of content. Here is a nice list of high-profile companies that use a CMS for their websites, which will give you a good idea of how far you can expand these systems.

Standard Features

These features are what make your content management system so extensive and highly flexible. They allow you to publish, edit and organize content and manage members, and they contain a variety of built-in security features.

With these straightforward tools, you can see how easy creating and managing your content is.

Publishing is made easy with the in-depth features of a CMS. Without any knowledge of HTML programming, users can create, manage and schedule content with ease. These powerful tools help free up time within an organization by streamlining the whole process. A user can create content, set the category (i.e. the section in which it will be published) and then set it as a draft for later review.

Once the content is reviewed, it can be scheduled to be published, say, seven days from then. Once you have reached that step, the rest of the process is automated. You can write and complete a week’s worth of articles ahead of time and take a vacation without having to worry about publishing new content, because it will publish itself (if you have done your part).

Typography often causes headaches for writers, especially if the writers are not HTML savvy, but the task is made easier with built-in text editors. With most CMS’, your text can be automatically formatted to produce XHTML-valid typography. This saves you the hassle of hand-coding every piece of content and leaves the “fun” bits to the system itself. If you paste disallowed characters, such as curly quotes, bullets or accents, from text editors like Microsoft Word, they will automatically be converted into an HTML-valid equivalent.

Another great feature that many CMS’ include is automatic linking. This feature saves you from having to manually link URLs that you add to your content. All of these features are useful because they make your workflow more efficient when you create a lot of content. And if you prefer to enter your own HTML code every time because you don’t trust the automated process, you have that option as well.

Organization is a key part of maintaining a website. With a CMS, all of the content is stored in one place, only once, and is accessible from any location with an Internet connection. Content can be saved in a number of states, such as draft, published and archived. So you can keep unfinished and finished content in separate places, with different attributes. This is especially handy if you like to write content ahead of time and want to be able to easily find it when it comes time to publish.

• Draft: this is work in progress and is not visible to the public.
• Published: content that is visible to the public.
• Archived: previously published content that is tucked away in a safe place, away from the main navigation. Typically used with blogs.

Member management helps you control all aspects of your website’s users. As an administrator, you have full control over how many people can access your website and how much control they have themselves. This can be extremely useful for a large company, where many people (author, editor, publisher, etc.) are responsible for creating and maintaining content. You control how many hands are in the cookie jar at each stage of the creation process.

• Administrator: has complete control over all users and access to all of the website’s administration features.
• Editor: can publish and mange their own content as well as other people’s content, etc.
• Author: can publish and manage their own content.
• Contributor: can write and manage their own content but cannot publish it.
• Subscriber: can read content, view and write comments, receive newsletters and so on, without being able to edit anything.

Build-in security measures give you one less thing to worry about. You no longer have to worry about session management, robots trying multiple passwords to hack your account or losing data when processing forms. Almost every CMS has different session management configurations, so you can set the preferences that fit your security needs.

With the built-in “multiple password denial” feature, you can make sure that multiple users cannot access your system simultaneously with the same log-in credentials. In addition, you can automatically lock out users after several incorrect password attempts and allow forms to be submitted only once. This helps prevent loss of data and attempts to hack your system via password.

Additional Features

You can integrate add-on modules, or plug-ins, into your CMS to add value, improve accessibility and increase functionality. With the right combination of features, you can create a website that fits your business plan and helps your company achieve its goals. While the number of additional features that you can add is endless, we will focus on the major ones here.

GoMediazine is a great example of blog integration.

Company blog functionality helps keep your website fresh and can be a very useful marketing tool. While CMS’ have evolved into complete website solutions, they were originally intended to manage blogs. Most blogs were used as personal diaries or breaking news outlets. Adapted to business use, they can be very useful for letting customers and clients know about what’s new and exciting with your company. If you sell products, you can announce new items or sales. Some businesses, such as GoMedia, use their blog purely as a community-building tool to publish educational information.

The Electrorack website is a great example of seamless e-commerce integration.

E-commerce integration makes the user experience on your website a very comfortable one. Being able to sell products and services from within your website would be ideal for any business. Some companies, including Electrorack, have seamlessly integrated their e-commerce solution into their CMS. The user doesn’t even notice that they are jumping from one platform to another because the look and feel are so consistent.

The DesignByHumans website has a great integrated user-based community.

Discussion forums are a complete community-building solution that helps your website’s visitors exchange ideas. Users can create topics, offer feedback on existing topics and interact with other users. How you use a discussion forum depends entirely on your needs. Design by Humans uses its forum to post company news and to let their artists and customers interact for free.

This website has a photo gallery set up on its system for album postings.

Photo galleries are used by millions of people around the world. Online photo sharing is becoming this era’s scrapbooking. With the increase in social media use, people can easily send everyone they know a link to their latest photo gallery. The Memory Museum can display photos easily through the customized gallery on its photography blog. Businesses can use this feature to showcase recent events or feature products. By organizing and displaying photos from within your CMS, you can have all of your content in one location.

National Geographic has an intuitive integrated video management system to help users view their video content through the Web.

Video management helps you organize, edit and distribute video content. You no longer have to upload videos to YouTube or Vimeo and then manage them separately. You can manage your video content just as you manage your website’s pages. You can upload almost any kind of video and then share your albums and videos on your website and on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Digg.

CMS’ vary in the video management features they offer. But most let you upload multiple files at once (in batch) and automatically create thumbnails. Once videos are in the system, you can track viewer behavior as well as feature content based on popularity. National Geographic integrates videos into its articles and offers them separately for others to embed on their own websites.

Apple offers extensive multi-language support and uses multiple URL extensions to differentiate content.

Multi-language support lets you offer content in multiple countries within a single CMS, allowing visitors to choose their preferred language. While most small companies do not need this feature, it can be helpful. The support features may not actually translate content (and if they do, they won’t do an accurate job), but they do let you feature content in multiple languages, which is extremely useful for corporate websites that operate globally. Because Apple operates in many countries, it offers its website in many languages.

RSS feeds typically show excerpts of content and images (if any), as shown above.

RSS feeds are a really simple way to syndicate the content on your website. With the explosion of RSS readers, which constantly check a user’s favorite websites for new content, RSS feeds have become essential. It does not matter whether you update your website daily or monthly, your readers will be sure never to miss an update. Millions of websites publish RSS feeds on a regular basis, and yours should not be an exception. With people’s attention spans shrinking along with their free time, letting users choose the content they want to read through an RSS feed is helpful.

A newsletter can be a great way to reach out to users who are interested in your content, especially if yours is designed as well as TV Guide Daily Scoop’s.

Newsletters/mailing lists are an extremely helpful feature, especially if you have a lot of users or want to expand your base. Many mainstream users still do not use an RSS reader, and some of them may prefer to receive your content in their inbox rather than by visiting your website every few days. You can integrate newsletters into your system and set the feature’s functionality. Usually, you will be able to manage subscriptions, create a template, compose the newsletter in a WYSIWYG editor, manage your archive and track open/click results.

Google Analytics shows detailed information on your website’s visitors, at no charge.

Statistics/tracking is an essential feature for any website. To effectively run and market a website, you need to know as much as possible about your visitors. Analyzing whatever data is available prepares you to achieve company goals, focuses your marketing initiatives and converts visitors into regular users. You will have information on how many people visit your website, where they live, what content they view and much more. Google Analytics is one of the most widely adopted analytics programs that are available for CMS’. Its popularity is partly due to the immense amount of information it provides about your visitors for free.

Where Can I Find A Content Management System?

You know the size of your organization and how much you can spend on a CMS. These factors are good indicators of where to start your search. Actually finding one can be a daunting task, but if you have a clear idea of what you are looking for, you can quickly weed out the options that don’t fit your needs. Finding a solution that helps your business achieve its goals is important. Many businesses, large and small, use all kinds of different CMS’ to manage their content. Start your journey by using the resources listed below.

Further Resources

Check out the following related articles and resources:

• 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires
  You are much less likely to overlook important aspects of your website if you follow this checklist, which covers content, usability, accessibility, standards and more.
• 15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website
  Lists some important things to check before taking your website public.
• 10 Designer’s Checkpoints To Be Aware Of
  A list of things every designer should know about their website.
• List of Content Management Systems
  A list of notable content management systems that can be used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation. Many of them are built on top of other content management frameworks.
• Compare Multiple CMS Solutions (technical)
  This is a community service for anyone looking for a means to manage website content.
• Many useful resources on how to design and develop for these CMS’, including many free templates:
  • Joomla Resources
  • WordPress Resources
  • Expression Engine Resources
  • Drupal Resources
• How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
  Branding experts speak the truth when they say that a winning brand communicates why you are your prospect’s only solution. If you can’t achieve that, at least convey why you are your prospect’s best solution.

(al)

© Robert Hartland for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: CMS

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Getting Started With Content Management Systems originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 8, 2009.

Filed under: Security, Blogging, Web services, Web

WordPress has become a victim of its own popularity. The blogging-based content management system powers a huge amount of websites, and has become a target for hackers. Site hacks have been around for a long time, but recently they seem to have evolved.

In the past hackers would gain control of a site just to prove that could, then typically post a quasi-incoherent message on the site to prove their hacking prowess and illiteracy. Now hackers have become more advanced, and hacking has become financially motivated. Hacks include embedding links (some hidden, some not) for the purposes of gaming search engines, and instead of crowing about their conquest, hackers are now trying to hide and cover their tracks as much as possible.

This means that site owners are losing their confidence that their sites have not been compromised. With recent highly publicized exploits that allowed hackers to take control of out-of-date WordPress installations, it became even more important to make sure your site is clean.

If you’re running a WordPress site on your own server, one step you can take to make sure that it is clean is to install and run the WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin. Beware, the exploit scanner is very thorough, and it will likely report a lot (and I mean a LOT) of false positives. It essentially reports any hiding behavior, which some of the plugins on your site might be doing for very normal reasons.

Even with the false-positives, the WordPress Exploit Scanner is a useful tool in any blogger’s toolbox.

WordPress Exploit Scanner helps you keep your install clean originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WordPress Exploit Scanner helps you keep your install clean originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 5, 2009.

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Apple Purchase of Placebase Confirmed: Goodbye Google Maps? originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 1, 2009.

Over the last couple of years, mobile devices have managed to gain mainstream popularity. With iPhone, making mobile Web applications finally usable by broad masses, web design can now be applied to mobile applications as well. In this post we are focusing on designs that are specifically optimized for mobile devices, in particular iPhone.

Though iPhone’s Safari browser is able to render any website just like you would see it on a desktop browser, the available screen area is much smaller than in common “classic” displays. This poses a new challenge for designers and developers who now can reach millions of users that use mobile Web. Websites that are specifically optimized for the iPhone utilize the screen to the fullest extent, and use less bandwidth (which is necessary, because the connectivity is not always optimal).

The iPhone browsing experience is quite different than the regular browsing experience. The buttons and hyperlinks have to be bigger because our fingers are not as sharp as the mouse pointer. Optimizing a website for iPhone is not rocket science. It’s the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript that you already know. The only major difference is the screen size.

In the showcase below we present some of the interesting, interactive and beautiful designs that are optimized for the iPhone. You will also learn about some handy tools that will help you optimize your website for the iPhone.

Also consider our previous articles:

• How to Create Your First iPhone Application
• iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals
• 100 (Really) Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers

1. News / Entertainment

Sevnth Sin
The unique navigation makes this site very interactive. Nice concept, nice colors.

Blip.tv
Perfectly suits the theme: video entertainment! Clean and clear typography.

NBC
The YouTube-style design makes it very easy to navigate and find shows.

Zinio
That’s a kit of magazines, all one-touch away!

Spin The Bottle
A simple bottle spinning game. Good use of graphics.

Daily Wallpaper
Similar to Zinio, but 2 thumbnails in a row make it more easy to navigate around.

AOL Horoscopes
Very well designed for a horoscope site. Matching color scheme throughout.

Yahoo Omg!
Fresh look, vibrant colors and lively typography make this design fun to browse and easy to read. The design also matches the celebrity gossip theme.

2. Business / Corporate

DPTO
Different tones of red make this design look very attractive on the iPhone. The 3D menu looks very nice — perfect for a marketing and design agency.

Mind Medium Creative
The use of gradients make the overall site look very shiny on the iPhone. The menu is very to-the-point. A nice composition and execution.

Redhawk Investment Advisors
This design has a very corporate feel to it. Good use of colors.

Nike Lab
Just what to expect from Nike. Sporty and energetic design.

Procab Studio
Procab studio showcases their work portfolio and other information about the agency. Well placed content. The font size is a bit too small, though.

Hotel Monterilla
The design makes you want to go there for a vacation. The design has a very comforting feel to it. A perfect color scheme.

Viget Labs
A blue background, appropriate padding and rounded corners make this simple design look vibrant and attractive.

Batali Associates
This is one of the good examples of design optimization for the iPhone. It clearly looks like it was really made for the iPhone, not just duplicated.

Ready For iPhone
A company that provides iPhone optimized website solutions. The finger on the “Go” looks intuitive.

Element Fusion
Another showcase website that provides design services. Looks like a cut-down version of the actual website.

Volkswagon
A showcase gallery for Volkswagon. Easy to navigate around. Clean and clear content.

3. Shopping / E-Commerce

Torn Robes
A nice example of a mobile e-Commerce site. Just touch your favourite design, have a look at it and buy it. Looks very vibrant.

Coosh
A single-product e-Commerce site. Branded very well.

Walmart
This design doesn’t really meet the expectations from WalMart — however, the design is still in beta. The usability is good, though: it is very easy to search for products and stores. You can also create shopping lists.

4. Portfolio / Blog

World Ending Blog (Japanese)
Although we did not understand a word there, it is very well designed for the iPhone. Every page is optimized and provides a good browsing experience.

Signal Element
Simple and clean design: just 3 pages, but very well designed.

One Crimson Splash
This is the portfolio of James Finley. The choice of colors and content placement are very good.

5. Education / Content

MIT
What else to expect from MIT? Simple, clean, user-friendly.

101 Cook Books
Not really a fancy design, but it’s the simplicity and clarity of content that makes it appear in this showcase.

Please Fix The iPhone
A good design that provides the desktop browsing experience. It is very easy to find what you are looking for.

1881
The Norwegian telephone directory online. The combination of bright blue, orange and white looks really good.

AOL Food
Heaven for those who love to cook. Just keep your iPhone with you in the kitchen, and let this nice design help you make a delicious dinner.

Deviant Art
A nice way to browse art on the iPhone. The color scheme is good, and it makes the artwork look prominent. Very easy to navigate and search. Also, appropriately sized thumbnails.

Last but not least, some words of wisdom…

Tools to design a website for iPhone

There are some libraries and kits available to help you iPhoneize your design.

• iPhoney
  iPhoney gives you a pixel-accurate web browsing environment—powered by Safari—that you can use when developing web sites for iPhone. It’s a perfect tool to see how your web creations will look on iPhone.
• Test iPhone
  A web browser based simulator for quickly testing your iPhone web designs.
• iWebKit (Demo)
  iWebKit is a file package designed to help you create your own iPhone and iPod Touch compatible website or webapp. Comes with various ready-to-use themes.
• iUI
  iUI is a framework consisting of a JavaScript library, CSS, and images for developing iPhone web designs. It makes your web designs look and feel like iPhone’s native applications.
• Intersquash (Demo)
  Not really a helpful tool for designing, but you can instantly create an iPhone compatible site from your RSS feed url.
• WPtouch
  For WordPress users: WPtouch transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone or iPod touch.
• Jaipho Gallery (Demo)
  If your website features a photo gallery, Jaipho will optimize it for iPhone users.

Further Resources

Don’t stop here. Check out these other great tutorials and guidelines.

• iPhone Reference Library
  Apple’s official iPhone reference library for developers. It has everything you need to get started: guidelines, code-examples, tutorials, etc.
• How to build a website for iPhone
  This step-by-step tutorial includes everything you need to do when building a website for iPhone. Instructions for orientation direction also included.
• iPhone Compatible CSS layouts
  Free website layouts which work in all the common web browsers including Safari on the iPhone and iPod touch.
• iPhone Interface Samples
  This includes samples for iPhone interface elements like buttons, fonts, text, design patterns, hacks 6 more.
• iPhoneWebDev Examples
  Very helpful examples for alot of things. Direction change, events, fonts, compression, etc.
• iPhone Application UI Design Patterns
• cssiphone.com
  A showcase of designs optimized for iPhone.

About the author

Adeel Raza is a young entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience on the web. He specializes in user interface, user experience and beautiful design. He loves finding gems out of dirt and showcasing them on his gallery Inspire Mix. Follow him on Twitter to say hi!

© Adeel Raza for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Showcase of Designs Optimized for iPhone originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on September 27, 2009.

Learning is a process which continues throughout the life of an artist, graphic designer, and illustrator. Along the way, designers find the task of mastering Adobe Illustrator a large obstacle which requires practice and experience in using the vector-based application. Practice comes in the form of tutorials, which offer tips, tricks, and artistic styles from other designers who have mastered certain techniques based on their experience.

From these tutorials, a designer can polish their skillsets on a variety of topics which will strengthen their own artwork. Sometimes a simple tutorial has tips which may have been overlooked based on the subject of the tutorial. By looking past the subjects of the tutorials, an endless array of learning opportunities exist. Essentially, the tutorials become not only a teacher but a “class” which a designer can repeat as often as necessary to refine their skills.

This post presents 40 excellent simple to complex Illustrator tutorials and presents the overall techniques of each tutorial, summarized in a brief overview. The purpose is to pick and choose among the tutorials based on the areas that need improvment. Whether a seasoned professional or a designer just starting out, these Illustrator tutorials offer a way to brush up on one’s skills.

Illustrator Tutorials

Gradient Mesh Bell Pepper Tutorial

• Use multiple smaller Meshes to create a realistic object
• Learn to use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to sample colors from a reference photo

How to create a Television Icon

• Using Offset Path on an object
• Learn to use Gradients to create surface texture and depth
• Create a reflection using an Opacity Mask

Working with 3D Objects and Transparencies to Make a Vector Cola Bottle Design

• Learn to “cut” up an image in Pathfinder and use the pieces in 3D Revolve to create solid objects
• Map art (symbols) onto a 3D object

Create a Stylish Colorful Text Effect in Illustrator

• Learn to use Offset Stroke on text
• Apply a Pattern Swatch to text

Illustrate a Malevolent Skull in 8 Steps

• Working with a sketch and outlining with the Pen Tool (P)
• Use Outline/Preview modes during design process
• How to use the Reflect Tool (O) to save time

Create A Wood Grain Texture

• Use Raster Effects, Live Trace, and Expand to create a texture
• Learn to use the Warp Tool (Shift +R) to customize a texture

Illustrator ring shape via overlapping crescents effect

• Create abstract geometric shapes with Linear Gradients, Align, and Pathfinder
• Learn to use Smart Guides (Cmd/Ctrl + U)

How to Illustrate a Brain Icon for OSX and Vista

• For faster coloring, use the Live Paint Bucket (K)
• Bonus Lesson: How to turn art into an icon

Create a Realistic Candy Bar in Illustrator

• Tips on stacking order for the Layers Panel when using a sketch
• Create realistic creases in paper
• Where to place shadows/highlights and why

How to Create a Vector Smiley Icon

• Working with Radial Gradients
• Copy design elements for symmetry
• Learn how to use the Isolation Mode

How to Create a Radial Mesh in Illustrator and Make a Vector CD

• Create a radial mesh from a Radial Gradient and the Mesh Tool (U)
• Learn the finer points of selecting mesh points
• Create a Clipping Mask

Illustrator full spectrum spirograph

• Using the Rotate Tool (R) to create abstract shapes
• Learn to use Transform Again to save time

How to Make a Cartoon Style Cereal Box Logo in Adobe Illustrator CS3

• Effectively use Strokes, Align Stroke, and Selection Tool (V) to modify fonts
• How to use 3D Extrude & Bevel Options to Create 3D Text

How to Create a Gearbox Settings Icon Using Simple Shapes

• Use the Rotate Tool (R) to rotate shapes relative to another shape
• Create a metallic texture using shapes and Radial Blur
• Design a perforated metal backing using Gradients

3D Effect Extrude and Revolve

• Learn to use simple shapes to create a 3D object with Extrude & Bevel

Illustrator Tutorial: Realistic Orange

• Learn to use Plastic Wrap Effect and Sponge Effect to create an orange peel texture
• Effectively use Opacity in an illustration

How to Create Semi-Realistic Scissors in Illustrator

• Using shapes and Gaussian Blur, create an aged metallic texture
• Learn to add highlights on metal contours

How to Create a Hippy Van Vector in Illustrator

• Trace a photo with the Pen Tool (P)
• Expand strokes to add Gradients

Illustrator Quick Tips #1 – Complex Symbols with Pathfinder

• Use the Gradient Tool (G) to create a 3D effect
• With the Pathfinder Divide, create abstract shapes
• Learn to use the Blending Mode Multiply

How to Make a Vector Diamond Ring in Illustrator

• Use Pathfinder to create a compound shape
• Create a metallic finish with Gradients
• Create a diamond with Linear Gradients

Create Fun, Eye-catching Text with Adobe Illustrator

• Use the Free Transform Tool (E) on text to create depth and perspective
• Highlight and shadow placement on text

‘Women and Cats’ How-To Advanced Tutorial

• Learn about shading/highlights in vector portraits
• Use of Transparency and Opacity Masks

Turn Any Font Into a Sketch Font

• Learn to use the Scribble Effect and Roughen to create a font
• Create a custom Graphic Style

How To Create A Realistic Pendrive in Adobe Illustrator

• Learn how to align objects to the Artboard
• Create a realistic metallic surface using Linear Gradients

How to Create a Rainy Window Vector Background

• Create an abstract background with the Mesh Tool (U) and circles
• Use Gradients, Inner Glow, and Warp to design raindrops
• Learn to make a Symbol from artwork

Draw a Cute Purse Using Simple Shapes

• Modify shapes using the Warp Tool
• Use Pathfinder Exclude to create new shapes
• Learn to design a simple pattern
• Quick Tip: Horizontal Align to align anchor points

Make a Christmas Light Bulb in Illustrator

• Create a quick glossy orb using Gradients and the Blend Mode
• Add an image to a round surface using Pathfinder

How to Create Shiny, Vector Dice in Illustrator

• Learn to use the 3D Extrude & Bevel
• Create highlights on a 3D object with the Gradient Mesh Tool (U)

Create a Cute Vector Monster from a Pencil Sketch

• Learn to rough in a character using the Pen Tool (P)
• Use tapered brushes to create a sketch style

Drawing a chinese fan

• Create symmetric shapes using the Rotate Tool (R) and Ctrl+D
• Overlay images using Symbols and Color Burn

How to Draw A Realistic Vector Light Bulb From Scratch

• Create a metal thread contact with Effects and Gradients
• Use the Zig Zag Effect to create wires

Create a Character Mascot with Adobe Illustrator CS4

• How to set up an Adobe Illustrator file to trace with a sketch
• Create a Custom Art Brush

Hit the Mark with a Realistic Vector Dartboard

• Using Transform Effect to create segments
• Save time with Live Paint
• Learn to create bent wire numbers

The Shane Harper way to go Lineless!

• Add details to a drawing with the Pencil Tool (N)
• Alter shapes quickly using the Knife Tool

Illustrator Tutorial: How to Make an Icy Cocktail

• Simulate “glass” using Color Burn and Gradients
• Create Water Drops quickly

Create a Simple Vector Creature in Illustrator

• Learn to use Guidelines effectively
• Use the Reflect Tool (O) for symmetry
• Change end caps on Strokes to alter paths

Create an easy landscape scene in Illustrator

• How to use the Crystallize Tool to create shapes
• Learn to use the Free Transform Tool (E) to create perspective

How to Create a Killer Chainsaw Bunny Character

• Learn to trace with vectors
• Block a character in using the Pen Tool (P)

Blueprint-Style Text in Adobe Illustrator

• Use Scribble Effect to create a hand drawn font
• Learn to use an Opacity Mask with a Gradient

Create a Cute Lipstick Tube

• Working with shapes and Pathfinder
• Learn shading tips for 3D Objects
• Design a Reflection on a shiny surface

Conclusion

These Adobe Illustrator tutorials are just a sample of some of the free learning opportunities available online. Learn to look past the tutorial subject and find what skills the tutorial covers. After all, it’s never too late to go back to school!

Further Resources

• 22 Very Useful Adobe Illustrator Tutorials
• 125+ Ultimate Round-Up of Illustrator Tutorials
• 15 Really Great Illustrator Tutorials
• 16 Design Blogs For Learning Illustrator
  
• Illustrator and Vector Tutorials
• 10 best Illustrator Tutorials

About the author

Melissa Scroggins is a freelance graphic designer who loves designing icons, creating vector illustrations, and playing survival horror video games. Follow her on Twitter where she posts on a regular basis.

© Melissa Scroggins for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: illustrator, Tutorials

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Back-to-School With 40 Excellent Adobe Illustrator Tutorials originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on September 23, 2009.

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iPhone OS 3.1 Update Causing Crashes On iPhone 3G’s originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on September 14, 2009.