Magento! is the eCommerce software platform, which enables you to build online stores, Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Magento the most popular eCommerce software available. Best of all, Magento is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

There are hundreds of Magento themes online waiting to be paid for. Some of them are worth it, some are not. Just because many of our followers decided to stay with Premium themes, that doesn’t mean Free Themes are ugly, cluttered, and boring.

In this showcase below, you’ll find a Excellent Collection of Fresh High-Quality Free Magento Themes Around because We all know that we’re going to use our site as a tool to promote our business, so we need to have a clean, professional, corporate look.

Please notice that these themes are not arranged in any particular order so just scroll down and find the right one for you.

Also, Please visit their respective authors’ sites, available at the “Features” Link, to learn more about each of these themes in terms of various features including good usability, organization, attractive use of graphics, cross-genre appropriateness and even search engine optimization.

You may be interested in the following free themes related articles as well.

• 60+ Latest High-Quality Free WordPress Themes
• 45+ Excellent Fresh Free Wordpress Themes Around
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Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts even if you have more reference links to other free themes that our readers may like.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates.

Creating a Minimal Blog Design Using HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery

Creating a Minimal Blog Design Using HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery

Coding a Stylish Blog Design Layout in HTML & CSS

This tutorial starts with the Photoshop stage of the blog design process, and shows how the design and layout are created to form an initial concept from which the fully coded blog will be based on.
Coding a Stylish Blog Design Layout in HTML & CSS

Touch The Future: Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3

The aim of this tutorial is to create an elegant blog/portfolio for an efficient professional (graphic and web designer or photographer), coded through two new great technologies, HTML 5 and CSS3.
Touch The Future: Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3

Build a HTML5/CSS3 Website Layout Without Images

Build a HTML5/CSS3 Website Layout Without Images

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).

  

Plenty of creative business card showcases are available out there. Many of these are beautifully done and well thought out, and they serve as inspiration for those who would like their business card to be more than the standard rectangular piece of paper. Yet little explanation accompanies these examples, and figuring out just how to bring your idea to life can be overwhelming, to say the least. This guide is meant to help you decide which technique is right for you, how to correctly prepare the files and what to look for in a printer.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

General Advice

Content Goes First

I never tire of repeating this to anyone who will listen. Don’t base your business card design on the fact that your printer has a special limited-time offer on round corners or metallic inks.

Think in terms of what the design will add to your message. Tempted to use rounded corners just because the cool kids are doing it? Maybe your card would stand out more by not using this technique.

Why do you want metallic ink? Do you think your name would really stand out in gold, even though your message is all about technology and recent code developments? You may want to rethink that. Or do you sell hand-crafted jewelry and want a design that reflects your latest silver creation? Then the silver ink might be the perfect solution for you after all.

The back of a business card is often ignored, but it can be a great place for extras that make your card even more memorable. Make it relevant to what you do, and make it useful if you can. You could include tips or a quick how-to guide relevant to your product, offer a free consultation, add a reminder for a date when you will offer discounts, or invite loyal customers to collect a stamp every time they purchase from you. Think of something that would make them want to hang onto your business card and consult it often. If you think the back should be reserved for note-taking, why not mark a few dotted lines, titled “Notes,” rather than leave it blank?

Talk to Your Printer

No one knows more about the techniques and materials available—and new ones come out all the time. Generally, printers are more than happy to give you all the industry news and advise you on techniques and materials. (If yours isn’t, you might want to look for a new printer.) If you learn a little about how they operate, they will appreciate it and be even more willing to help.

Size

While this article focuses on custom shapes and sizes, keep in mind standard sizes, too. Card holders are made to fit standard size cards, and I have often heard comments like, “If a business card doesn’t fit in my wallet, I don’t care how beautiful it is, it’s going in the trash.”

The standard sizes are 3.5 x 2 inches in the US and Canada, 85 x 55 mm in the European Union and 90 x 55 mm in Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. Or you could use a standard credit card as a reference, which about 85 x 54 mm or 3.34 x 2.25 inches.

Unless you have some other use for your cards in mind (for example, a bookstore’s card that doubles as a bookmark), you’ll want to stay within those dimensions. Smaller is okay, but anything too big won’t fit in most pockets, so consider going bigger only if you have reason to believe your cards will not be stored in wallets or holders.

Do you have the perfect idea but don’t know what to do with it? Maybe you’ve heard about die-cutting, varnishes, metallic inks, letterpressing and special materials but are unsure what they are exactly or which one is for you? Let’s jump into the different techniques!

Die-Cutting

Any card (or any printed material for that matter) that isn’t a standard rectangle or that has holes in it is created by a technique known as die-cutting. A metal template is prepared and is used to cut the paper in the given shape. The easiest way to think about this is to picture a giant hole-puncher, except that the holes are not necessarily round, but rather whatever shape you want them to be.

This means that, in addition to the artwork, you will need to provide the printer with a custom shape to “punch out” your cards.

The result can be as simple a round hole in the center of your card or as complex as a three-dimensional pop-out.

This simple and effective design makes use of the round hole on both sides of the card.

This card takes the shape of the product. Instant recognition!

Preparing the File

I’ll use die-cutting as an example, but most of these guidelines apply to the other finishes as well. The main differences are cited in the respective sections below, and I will provide links to help you read about the techniques in more detail. The guidelines below should give you a good starting point.

The best applications to prepare files for any special print finishes are the industry-standard Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. Photoshop is not suitable because it does not have the precision necessary for this kind of project.

As with any other print document, set up your file to the printed dimensions (i.e. whatever size you want your card to be, whether rectangular or a non-standard size), at 300 PPI resolution, using CMYK as the color space for all the elements of the artwork.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about DPI, PPI, CMYK and RGB. Preparing a file for printing with either Illustrator or InDesign is actually very simple.

In Illustrator, when creating a new document, click on the “Advanced” options tab (in some versions this is already visible). This brings up the options for both the resolution and color space. Set the resolution to 300 PPI and the color mode to CMYK.

Note that PPI, or pixels per inch, is often confused with DPI, or dots per inch. The latter refers strictly to printer hardware and its capability to reproduce dots on paper. When preparing files for printing, don’t worry too much about the DPI. 300 PPI is the magic number. Remember that and you’ll be golden. If you would like to learn more about DPI and PPI, see the link at the end for an article that explains it in much more depth.

InDesign documents are automatically created at 300 PPI. The only thing to make sure of is that the elements you insert in the document (such as photographs) are also at 300 PPI and use CMYK. Check this by selecting your image and bringing up the info window (hit F8).

For example, the image below uses the RGB color space; it should be changed to CMYK:

Even though you can use RGB images, it doesn’t mean you should. Yes, both InDesign and Illustrator are perfectly capable of converting the output to CMYK when you export a file as PDF, but if you ever have to submit your source files to someone or use the images for something else, this extra step could save you hassles.

And please-double check the resolution. Print out the card to check for pixelation. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but so many people forget to check the printed result. What you see on the screen is not what you will see in print.

Another thing to check is your black text and line art, if you are converting any of them from RGB. They should be 100% K in CMYK color mode to avoid a muddy effect and color halos.

When your artwork is ready, create a new layer above the artwork. Call the layer something like “dieline.” You could be even more specific and name it “Dieline – DO NOT PRINT,” which would be especially helpful if you are not able to speak with the printer before submitting the file (say, if you are using a Web order form or your client is the point person for the printer.)

Now, create the guidelines for how your card should be cut. Make sure your outline for the die-cut uses a custom spot color, not CMYK; this allows the printer to extract the die-cut template when printing separations. To create a custom color, click on the little arrow in the swatches palette, and click to make a new swatch. In the dialog box that appears, choose any color that will stand out in your artwork, and then select “Spot color” from the drop-down menu next to “Color type.” The color can be anything you want. 100% magenta is quite popular because it usually stands out, but saving it as a spot color is important.

Also, remember to set the stroke (if it’s a custom crop shape) and/or fill (if you are cutting out holes) to “Overprint” to avoid knocking out the art below. You can bring up the options for Overprinting in InDesign by going to Window → Attributes, or in Illustrator by pressing F11 to bring up the “Attributes” window.

Let’s say your logo is a cloud, and you want the card to be cut in a cloud shape (not a very creative example but easy to explain). Your file in Illustrator would look something like this:

And your finished card would look like this:

If you wanted to cut out the cloud shape, it would look like this:

And the finished card would look like this:

Notice how the logo has moved from the artwork layer to the dieline layer and is now also filled with the custom spot color.

Make sure your artwork has enough bleed (i.e. it extends well past the edge of the document if the shape is regular or past the die-cut guidelines if custom). Usually 0.125 inch, or about 3 mm, is enough, but I tend to add more to be safe. Both InDesign and Illustrator allow you to add bleed in the “Document setup” options.

I won’t go into too much detail here, because bleed is a rather complex subject that deserves its own guide. For those of you interested in learning more, a couple of links are at the end of this article that explain it more thoroughly.

On the same note, do not put any important elements (such as logo or text) too close to the edge. Leave a buffer margin (again, about 0.125 inch or 3 mm) around the dieline or document, to avoid the risk of something getting cropped.

Usually, either a native file (AI, INDD, EPS) or high-resolution PDF is acceptable as the final file for printing. (Always check with the printer before preparing the final file.) If you prepare a PDF, make sure your custom fifth color is kept as a spot color and is not converted to CMYK. You can check it in the “Ink Manager” window (Export as PDF → Output → Ink Manager):

You can double-check that it appears in the Ink Manager list in the PDF itself (Acrobat Pro) by clicking Advanced → Print Production → Ink Manager:

Printing It

Most big print shops have die-cutting equipment. Check first if you are printing locally. The best way to make sure everything goes according to plan is to ask questions, explain your requirements and look over the proofs in person. Small printers outsource die-cut jobs. If you want more control, look for one that does it in-house.

If you are unable to print locally (for example, because your client is remote), you have two options. One is to find a printer local to your client. Usually, the client will already have one lined up, but I strongly recommend you get in touch with that printer yourself, rather than just pass the files to the client and let them handle it. Ask questions, send over mock-ups, get a proof sent back to you—do what you can to make certain that the job prints the way it should.

Alternatively, you could find an online print shop that offers die-cutting. Again, get in touch with them personally, rather than just submit the file via an online form, and make sure all your questions and concerns are addressed.

Printer Checklist

Need help choosing a print shop and communicating with it? Here are some things to keep in mind.

• Before you do anything else, get their phone number or email address and get in touch. Tell them about your project, and ask about technical specifications and any other questions you may have. (This is a good time to request a cost estimate as well.) If you have more than one candidate, rinse and repeat.
• Ask to see samples of similar pieces they have printed. Examine them. This could lead to more questions—or inspiration to make your project even better.
• The main criteria I use in choosing a printer is how responsive and knowledgeable they are. You want someone who will actually check your file and contact you if there are any problems or questions; because no matter how great a printing deal you find, if your file has an error, that’s money thrown down the drain.
• To save some money, you can often do this by asking the printer for advice. Would making the file layout slightly smaller allow them to fit more cards on one sheet? Could you adjust the shape so that there is less wasted paper? How about using fewer colors? Your printer should know the options; just ask!
• In my experience, PDF is one of the safest options for prepress. Native Illustrator files work well too, but be sure to check which versions of Illustrator your printer accepts. Always check which versions of any Adobe software your printer uses if submitting native files.
• Ask the printer if they have .joboptions files. These files can be imported into Adobe applications and will give you presets for exporting to PDF or EPS. This is the easiest way to make sure that your final files are exactly the way your printer needs them. If they don’t have these files, both InDesign and Illustrator have presets for saving in PDF. Just make the necessary adjustments; for example, you will have to add the bleed to these presets manually (see the links at the end for step-by-step instructions).
• If you are not able to speak with the printer, add an email message or a file with instructions. Don’t forget to include your contact information so that they can call or email you if they have any questions!

You’ve probably noticed that most of these tips emphasize the importance of communicating with your printer. I cannot stress this enough: every project is different, and communication is the key to getting the best result possible.

How Much Will It Cost?

While pricing depends on many factors, there is usually a set-up fee when using a die-cut or other special finishing technique. (Remember the giant hole-puncher mentioned above? They need to make one of those, just for you.)

The fee will be the same whether you print 50 or 500,000 cards, so printing larger quantities is much more cost-effective.

This may not be the case with certain popular formats (for example, rounded-corners business cards) because the printer would reuse the same template for multiple jobs, hence the special offers.

Special Finishes

I’ve devoted a big portion of this article to die-cutting because the file preparation and printing process described here is similar to many other techniques. But let’s look at some of them.

Spot UV Coating

This special finish is achieved by applying a clear varnish to an area of the card defined by you. The effect is a slightly raised design element, with a glossy, matte or satin finish. The example below shows a glossy finish:

File preparation is done the same way as for die-cutting, but instead of specifying a stroke, you specify a shape or area to apply the varnish to. This is still done by filling it with a spot color and, in this case, setting the fill to overprint.

Letterpressing

Letterpressing is done by inking a raised surface and then pressing it into the paper, giving the design both color and depth. This technique is suitable for vector images and text, using solid Pantone inks. An article linked to at the end of this article provides more technical detail. Here is an example of a business card done with this technique:

Embossing

Similar to die-cutting, a die is used to press the paper up, creating a three-dimensional raised effect.

Foil stamping

With this technique, a layer of thin foil is applied to an area of the card you specify.

File Preparation for Special Finishes

File preparation for all of these effects is similar to that of die-cutting: you have to define the area to be coated, embossed or whatever the effect is. But you might need to submit two files: one with the artwork, and another with the area to apply the effect to.

Make absolutely certain these two files line up perfectly. The easiest way to do this is to use a file with separate layers: one or more for the artwork, and another for the special finish guidelines (as described for the die-cutting file preparation above). Then, simply save them as separate files by first hiding one layer and then the other.

When using photos for a special finish, create a clipping path in Photoshop before placing the photo in Illustrator or InDesign. Then you can use this same clipping path as the mask for your effect either by choosing to export the clipping paths to Illustrator or by right-clicking (PC) or Control-clicking (Mac) on the clipping path in InDesign and converting it to frame. (You might want to check the options first if it isn’t showing by going to Object → Clipping Paths → Options.)

For example, you can use different masks with this image:

This mask will apply the effect to the entire photo:

While this one will apply it only to the foremost apple:

Special Inks

Additional inks can be used to make your card stand out even more. Metallic, pearlized and fluorescent inks can produce interesting effects. (To better preserve metallic inks, consider putting a varnish on top.) The even more common Pantone colors give a different and more solid effect than their process equivalents because they are opaque.

This one is simple: just find a custom color you like by looking at the Pantone swatches, and add it to your document. Prepare your artwork as you normally would, but make absolutely certain that your output does not convert to CMYK if you are preparing a PDF (as described above).

Note: the easiest way to prepare photos with a special ink is to convert your image in Photoshop first to grayscale and then to duotone. Choose your ink(s) from the Pantone library, and tweak your settings as necessary. (Working with color channels is a complex way to get more control over the result, but I don’t recommend this to Photoshop beginners, and Photoshop experts probably already know how to do this.)

Duplexing and Triplexing

This technique is about using two or more sheets of paper glued together. The effect achieved is commonly referred to as edge-painting or edge-tipping, because a different-colored sheet of paper that is inserted between the two main ones produces colored edges “inside” the card (triplexing), as seen here:

Using only two sheets (duplexing) gives a two-color edge—one on the front and one on the back:

It adds a touch of elegance and makes your card thicker than the standard stock. Combining this technique with die-cutting—budget permitting—gives an even more interesting result.

Scented Inks

You won’t find many examples of this technique on the Internet because it doesn’t exactly translate as a photo. Still, it is an interesting way to make your business card jump out.

Available scents range from chocolate to mildew. If that is not enough (and money is no object), you can create a custom scent for an extra fee.

Special Material

This is a vast subject because the options are countless. We will only touch on this topic. To see and feel the different kinds of material available, visit your printer!

Paper and Cardboard

There are so many varieties that I wonder why most people still use the same white or off-white cardboard stock for their business cards. From soft-as-cloth finishes to cold-pressed textured paper, there are enough options for everyone’s needs. The options are rather hard to describe; I recommend you make a trip to the printer (and give yourself an hour or so to ponder the choices)

File preparation is no different; except with colored paper stock, keep in mind that the colors will not display the same way in your software. To simulate the effect, use a layer of a similar color below the artwork, and set the artwork layer to multiply; or to about 70% opacity with darker color stocks.

Plastic

Transparent, frosted, stretchy—there are plenty of options for a plastic stock.

Plastic is usually printed with a different process, such as screen printing. Check with your printer to see what colors you can use. Special printing processes usually require that you use Pantone inks. Remember to account for any special effects, such as transparency and stretch. Giving general advice on this one is hard, because each material has its own requirements.

Metal

If your service or product is related to a metal, you might want to consider using metal as a material. You could simulate a credit card or computer. Keep the design minimal for a more striking effect.

Again, check with the printer before preparing your artwork to find out what process they use to print on metal and which colors you can safely use.

Other Material

Other options are wood, plexiglass, cloth. You could combine these and use a special finish as well. Hopefully this article has given you some ideas, and you will know how to start researching: by speaking with your printer.

Customizing by Hand

Sometimes, printing a highly customized card is simply not worth it, especially if you need only a small quantity. Does that mean you should dismiss your creative idea and stick with a standard solution? Not necessarily.

All you need is some imagination and a lot of patience. An appetite for crafts or having crafty friends or relatives can be a big plus, too.

You could print a standard card as the base of your idea and then customize smaller quantities by hand. I recommend doing this with fewer than 500 cards, or you will be overwhelmed. If you have crafty friends or relatives who are willing to help, you could tackle more.

Again, keep it relevant to the content. For example, colorful hand-stitching to underline a key phrase or “stitching” your design would be fun for a textile or fashion business:

Gluing on an element would work for crafts stores. Or you could glue a piece of fabric or something else that characterizes your service:

Incorporating something relevant to what you sell is a great idea, and there are plenty of ways to do this. Here is an excellent example:

A paper clip would work for a business supply store or even a business consultant, while a dried or plastic flower would work for a flower or gift shopt. Just about any kind of business can find something relevant to add on.

You could even invite the recipient to customize the card themselves; for example, by including cut and fold lines that transform your card into a unique shape. Simple examples are a paper doll for a children’s store or origami for a stationery store. Just make sure it’s relevant and fun, otherwise your recipients are unlikely to go through the trouble of cutting out and folding the card.

Hopefully this article offers enough information and inspiration for you to make business cards that are as creative as your imagination allows, and on any budget.

Want To Know More?

Here are a few articles that go into more detail on some of the topics covered:

• Living in a Die-Cut World
  An in-depth article on die-cutting from GoMediaZine.
• Display, Printing, DPI and PPI
  If you are really curious about the differences between DPI and PPI, this article by Photo.Net is for you.
• Brand Spanking New Colors: Making Custom Spot Colors in Illustrator
  A step-by-step guide with screenshots.
• Page Bleed: What Is It, How Much Is Needed and How to Fix It
  An easy-to-understand explanation of why bleed is needed and how much you need.
• Adobe InDesign Tips
  Tips on setting up bleed and exporting to PDF in InDesign.
• Illustrator Tips Tips
  Tips on setting up bleed and exporting to PDF in Illustrator.
• TheStandard: Prepress
  A very thorough guide from TheStandard on preparing your artwork for printing.
• PDF Basics: The File Format and Its Use in Prepress.
  Everything you need to know about preparing PDFs for prepress.
• How to Choose a Printer or Prepress Specialist
  Excellent tips from the printers themselves, put together by BoDo.
• New Uses for Old Clipping Paths
  A detailed explanation from Adobe on using clipping paths as frames in InDesign.
• Combining Metallic Inks With Color
  Useful tips on using metallic inks.
• Creative Business Cards: Uses of Various Shapes and Materials
  A showcase of different techniques and materials.

Related Posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Business Card Design: Better Than A Plain Ol’ Business Card
• Business Card Design Starter Kit: Showcase, Tutorials, Templates

(al)

© Lisa for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: business, card, Design, print

In image-editing programs such as Photoshop, changing the opacity of a layer is easy but not always precise.

Setting a layer to 50% opacity  makes all of its pixels half-visible. If the situation calls for variable visibility, then layer masks are the answer.

A layer mask can give individual pixels different opacities. A layer mask is like a light cast onto a layer.

When the light is on, or white, the image is visible. When the light is off, or black, the layer can’t be seen.

Applying a layer mask to a photo hides certain parts. Photoshop uses a grid to represent “nothing” (i.e. completely transparent regions). Unlike areas modified by the eraser tool, areas hidden with layer masks can be restored even after the file is closed.

Shades of Gray Mean Variable Opacity

Opacity isn’t always on or off. Using shades of gray allows pixels to be partially opaque. The lighter an area of the mask, the more opaque it will be. For example, an 80%-white mask will be 80% visible, while a 20%-white mask will be 20% visible.

A mask with a dark-to-light gradient hides the top and shows some of the center and most of the bottom. Gray areas in the mask reveal or hide the pixels but don’t change the layer’s pixels.

Straightforward Examples

The image above shows how layer masks can be used to change a face.

1. The original image sets a cut-out head on a beige background.
2. Laying a happier face on top of the head doesn’t work; the lighting is slightly off.
3. A soft-edged brush on the mask blends the face and head together.

Again, one major advantage here is the ability to correct mistakes. Layer masks can be edited as often as needed. This benefit is more evident in the process than in the result.

The edges of a layer are no different than the center, in terms of editing.

A grid-like texture is interesting, but it makes text hard to read. By darkening a mask on the texture layer, the text becomes legible; the texture loses strength and improves the text’s readability.

A Range of Transitions

Layer masks lend themselves to two types of transitions: hard edges and gradual blends. Gradual blends create a fade over a certain area and are easy to apply with the gradient tool. Hard-edged transitions work best with the natural “seams” in an image.

Above, two images are combined with a gradual blend and natural seams. Where there is pronounced contrast in an image, this is a seam; seams include the edges of objects, the sides of letters and numbers and abrupt changes in the depth of field. Natural seams are usually the most visually satisfying places to combine images, but detecting them takes some practice.

With some imagination, we can use the natural seams in the eyeglasses frames in the image above to show the sky image in different ways. Is the sky behind the glasses, inside the lenses, between the frames or somewhere else? The answer depends on the artist’s creativity.

The effect doesn’t have to be all or nothing. By painting with shades of gray (or using Image → Adjustments → Curves or Image → Adjustments → Levels), the glasses can appear to reflect clouds, rather than become portals to the sky. Sometimes this requires more precise control—or a better view of what the mask looks like.

How to See What’s Going On

To see the mask as a grayscale image, Option-click (Mac) or Alt-click (Windows) its icon in the Layers palette. Click the layer icon to return to the “normal” view. One advantage of Option- or Alt-clicking the mask is that it gives you the ability to paste.

Switching between the layer and its mask is a simple click, and the reasons to do so are two-fold. First, it shows exactly what’s going on and sometimes reveals mistakes. Secondly, it enables users to paste bitmaps into the mask.

Any image that can be copied—a layer, part of a photo or an illustration—can be pasted into the mask. The mask above was created by copying a solid shape, Option/Alt-clicking the mask icon and pasting. From here, the mask can be edited with any painting tool.

Editing the Mask, Not the Layer

Viewing the layer isn’t necessary, but it’s easy to forget which mode Photoshop is in. The key is a set of brackets around the appropriate icon.

A layer with a mask has two icons in the layers palette. When brackets surround the left icon, Photoshop is editing the layer’s pixels. When brackets surround the right icon, Photoshop is editing the layer’s mask. The difference is subtle but important. When painting a mask, be sure to click on the mask first.

Shortcuts

When editing a mask, a few keyboard shortcuts will come in handy. Type the letter “D” (Mac or Windows) to set the working colors to their defaults (black and white). Typing “X” switches the background and foreground colors. This toggles between reducing opacity (black) and restoring it (white).

The keyboard shortcut “X” makes switching between the two very easy, and the layer masks make removing and restoring opacity useful.

Conclusion

Layer masks are a flexible tool for creating complex illustrations, buttons, graphics, icons and logos. Any image that combines elements would benefit from layers, and designers would benefit from the ability to edit as they go.

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Ben Gremillion. Ben is a freelance writer and designer who solves communication problems with better design.

What techniques do you use to control opacity in a Photoshop layer? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Textures can add visual interest to an otherwise-minimalist design, or can add that extra bit of detail that really makes a design pop.

Paper textures are by far the most common, but other regularly-seen textures include stone, concrete, rust, and fabric. And they’re not just used for backgrounds, either. Some sites incorporate textures into every aspect of their design, while others just use them for accents.

Below are more than thirty great website designs that make use of textures. Feel free to share your favorites, whether featured here or not, in the comments…

Kohette WebDesign

A stone-textured background is set apart with subtle coloring in the header. The texture repeats throughout the background.

Hugs for Monsters

Hugs for Monsters uses a bold stone texture throughout the background on their site. Incorporating it into the header adds a sense of cohesiveness to the site.

Forest Edge Music Festival

The Forest Edge Music Festival site is a striking and colorful grunge design, with multiple textures used throughout. A cardboard texture is the most prominent, though there are also more subtle paper textures.

GO Mammoth

The grungy paper texture in the background here is echoed in other page elements, including the navigation menu. It adds visual interest to what would otherwise be very modern aesthetically.

Pigeon & Pigeonette

The heavy textures used here almost resemble a sponge-painted wall. Heavy use of textures like this should be done with caution so as not to overwhelm the content. Here it works because the content is very minimal.

Benestar

The Benestar website uses a mix of paper, fabric, and wood textures, along with a variety of subtle patterns. It creates a very rich, multi-layered design.

Marie Catribs

Repeating similar textures across a site, as is done here with handmade paper textures in various colors. The hand-drawn elements further accent the paper texture.

Crush + Lovely

Subtle textures like those used here can have a very rich effect on a minimalist site design. Mixing textures while maintaining a monochromatic color scheme enhances that effect.

Think. Do. Create.

Textures don’t have to be used throughout a site to make an impact. Here, paper textures are just used in the header and sidebar, leaving the bulk of the background white.

Wearable Print

When subtle textures are combined with subtle patterns, the end result is refined and elegant, with that extra something that makes a design stand out.

Coastal Connection

A heavy paper texture, like the one used here, makes a big difference in the aesthetics of a site. Without the texture, this would be a very minimalist site.

Sibling Rivalry

Another example of a grunge-style site that makes heavy use of paper textures.

What Katie Does

What Katie Does is another site that combines a subtle paper texture with a repeating pattern (both in the background and header). Other design elements echo the paper motif.

The Hipstery

The Hipstery uses a paper-textured background behind their main content, as well as behind the background pattern. It adds to the vintage feel of the site.

Doublenaut

This background combines a pattern and a texture, in the form of what looks like weathered graph paper. It adds extra interest to a site that is otherwise very minimalist.

Digital Podge 2009

Another site that uses a paper texture for its background. Subtle but effective.

Infinitum

A light, stone-textured background is subtle enough to be used directly behind text. Be careful using bolder textures in such a manner, though.

TypeFaces

Another graph paper-textured background that’s subtle enough to have type placed directly on top of it.

Duchy of Cornwall Nursery

Using different shades of color on effectively the same background texture adds depth and interest to a design.

Questionable Characters

The concrete-textured background here adds a ton of visual interest and is a bit unexpected considering the rest of the site utilizes paper-themed elements.

Sky’s Guide Service

Here’s a site that utilizes a number of textures, including wood grain and paper. They’ve added elements like staples and water stains to further accentuate the textures.

Bermon Painter

A slightly different ruled paper background, complete with water stains and weathering. It’s subtle yet adds a lot of aesthetic value.

Paul Bennett

Another site that uses a subtle paper texture for the background with text placed directly on top.

Matthew & Sara Are Getting Married

The textured wallpaper-style background here is something a bit different than is normally seen. It’s sort of a combination of a texture and a pattern, and works brilliantly.

The Waiting Room

Vintage-style sites gain a lot by using weathered, antique-looking paper for their background.

Christopher Calicott

Another textured background that also adds a bit of a pattern in the form of subtle squares. The transparency in the main content area further highlights the texture.

Design Development & the Pursuit of Happiness

Another fantastic example of a paper-textured background, this time with a more gray tone than many of those seen above.

Amy Herndon Photography

The background here is a monochromatic canvas texture. It adds to the natural look of the site, and has a very organic feeling.

Rhett Canipe

Rhett Canipe’s site uses a variety of textures for a grunge look. Mixing watercolor effects with textures makes for a much richer design.

Fiore Designs

Fiore Designs incorporates a variety of textures: the background is a grungy linen and paper textures are used throughout the main design elements. It’s a very visually interesting result that feels very elegant and exclusive.

Every Time I Die

The bolder stone texture used throughout the Every Time I Die site adds to the overall grunge look. Stronger textures like this should be used with caution, as they can be overwhelming if not incorporated properly. Here, the bold colors and graphics compensate for it.

Evan Stein’s Internet Studio

A grungy, layered paper texture in the background here is another example of a strong texture. The simple color scheme here, though, keeps it from being overwhelming.

InkByte

The InkByte site uses a stained paper texture for its background, which looks great without overwhelming the content.

Kathryn Thurman

A variety of paper and cardboard textures throughout the design of this site give a vintage and grungy feeling to the design.

Francesco Molezzi Design & Multimedia

Another subtle paper textured background, which makes the entire site appear more retro, despite the fact there’s only one really retro-looking graphic on the page. Notice also that other textures are subtly incorporated, including a denim texture in the header and more paper in the top navigation.

Written exclusively for WDD by Cameron Chapman.

Have your own favorite website designs that use textures well, or maybe some tutorials that talk about good use of textures? Please share them in the comments below!

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: H0Oa9C

This collection will help you to feed your imagination with fresh and creative ideas from furniture design range. Some of the listed examples are very creative and you’ll be surprised that bookshelf could look so impressive and be functional in the same time.

1. T.SHELF

2.  “Krea” bookcase

3.  Saba Italia

4. Twin Shelves

5. The Swollen Wall

6. WisdomTree

7. Cardboard Bookshelf

8. Digitally Fabricated Bookshelf

9. Toboga Bookcase

10. Domino Expo

11. The Laica Bookshelf

12. Bibliotheque Tree

13. MYDNA Twist Bookcase

14. Books on the wall

15. Curly bookshelf

16. Circle

17. Elfa desk

18. “M40″ wardrobe and bookcase

19. Yellow

20. Bookshelf

21. Ideas for the office

22. TOTO

23. MDAY bookcase

24. “Krea” bookcase

25. Sfuggenti scaffali

26. Libraryland

27. Celebrity Equinox: Library

28. A bookshelf designed by Ron Arad

29. Wall of books

30. OBA

31. Max

32. Circle

33. Sinapsi

34. Cebunext

35. Bookcase

BonBon Buttons – Sweet CSS3 buttons

These sexy looking flexible CSS3 buttons have been styled with the most minimalistic markup as possible.
BonBon Buttons – Sweet CSS3 buttons

iPad Actions for Photoshop

These Photoshop Actions will allow any UX/UI designer or App developer to quickly create a gorgeous rendering of their app as it would appear on an Apple iPad. All that is required on your end is your final designs (and a copy of Photoshop, obviously).
iPad Actions for Photoshop

Selectivizr – CSS3 pseudo-class and attribute selectors for IE 6-8

selectivizr is a JavaScript utility that emulates CSS3 pseudo-classes and attribute selectors in Internet Explorer 6-8. Simply include the script in your pages and selectivizr will do the rest.
Selectivizr – CSS3 pseudo-class and attribute selectors for IE 6-8

HTML5/CSS3 Cheatsheet

Here are some simple cut-and-paste examples of HTML5/CSS3 features that are currently (mid-2010) usable across a number of web browsers, chief among them Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.
HTML5/CSS3 Cheatsheet

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).

These websites will show you a good portion of all the good design that is available out there. It’s all about trying to think a bit outside of the traditional look and using your creativity and imagination.

Enjoy!

1. Splendour in the grass – 2010

2. Forest Edge music festival

3. World design capital Helsinki 2012

4. Pieoneers

5. GO Mammoth

6. 8th Continent Soymilk

7. Silly poems

8. Xhtmlcafè

9. Carbonmade

10. Bibliofaction

11. AdaptD

12. PopCap games

13. IGC Enterprises

14. Potzytywka

15. Vacation in Supetarska Draga

16. NineFlavors

17. Veerle’s blog

18. Giraffe restaurants

19. Mikii

20. Twittground

21. Jeff Sarmiento

22. Realmac software

23. Good

24. Organic grid

25. Matt Mullenweg aka Photo Matt

26. Lebloe

27. Danny Halarewich

28. Andrea Cima Serniotti

29. Rucksack

30. Rareview

31. F5

32. ReservoirBuzz

33. The House Media

34. Colourpixel

35. Open atrium

36. Willians Fernandes

37. Getmefast

38. Getting crazy on the waltzers

39. Sitesquared

40. Huxley prairie fest

41. FeedStitch

42. Pally giraffe

43. Mooolah

44. Herbal essences

45. LePushMail

46. Radium labs

47. Revolucao etc

48. Chapolito

49. Sound and show

50. Design slurp

51. ilovecolors

52. Green Any Site

53. Gisele Jaquenod

54. Claire Baxter

55. Mooty

Those were our 55 picks. We hope you’ve found some inspiration here.

Remember to share the article if you’ve enjoyed it – and leave us a comment!

As you’ve already seen in our previous posts about Single Page Website Designs that showcasing your work in single page design is a hot trend now days. It’s kind of ironic to see what designers can do with single pages as modern age designers love to experiment with things and observe how people interact with their work. Even though this is not a common trend to follow but still as the new design styles come up, and as more and more designers notice them and make use of them in their work, this kind of trends emerge.

In this presentation, you’ll find a variety of highly-creative, beautiful and most importantly inspirational designs which is following the same trend of single page designs.

The main purpose here is to stimulate your creativity and to inspire your imagination to create your own design trend because your website represents you and your brand.

You may be interested in the following modern trends related articles as well.

• Single Page Website Designs For Design Inspiration – Part I, Part II
• 55 Excellent WordPress Site Design for Design Inspiration
• 99 Creative And Beautiful Looking Portfolio Designs
• 60+ Amazing Examples Of Illustrative Web Designs
• 50+ Beautiful Website Designs Using Office Stationery
• Grid Style In Modern Web Design: Showcase and Resources

Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts even if you have more reference links related to other trends that our readers may like.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates.

Well, the results are in and we’ve got some pretty interesting feedback from the test – you can get directly to the test results yourself, or read on for our analysis and verdict.

Over the days we’ve been running the test, we had north of 300 people take it, and we think the numbers are a pretty good sample. Based on our analytics data, I could see that we had participants from 64 different countries, and it took the average user 2:56 to take the test.

So what did we learn from all that? Read on and find out:

Part one: Learned behaviors and conventions

Grids: The first three questions used a grid to discover users expected behaviours. When you overlay the grid over the different UIs you can see how the designs fit in with peoples perceptions.

Learned conventions tend to show through in this kind of area, but conventions are often an important standard for designers to follow (as you will see reflected in the results later on)

1) Where would you click to logout?

As you can see from the results, by far and away the majority of people expect to find the log out button on the top right hand side of the page. This is the most common location for a logout button across numerous websites (have a look for yourself), and so something people are very familiar with. If you want to put your logout button in a different location, you should make sure there is a good reason for doing so.

When overlaid, we can see both Gmail and Hotmail follow this convention, but for some reason, Yahoo! Mail locates their logout button in the middle of the page. What’s worse, it doesn’t render properly in the browser I’ve been using for this test – Safari 5.

Yahoo! Mail 0; Hotmail 1; Gmail 1

2) Where would you click to write a new email?

The results for this are fairly obvious – as you can see from the heatmap, more all less all users clicked in the top left hand corner to compose a new mail – this is the location for all three services we tested, and the most common location across more or less all webmail services.

Yahoo! Mail 1; Hotmail 2; Gmail 2

3)Where would you click to reply to an email?

Some interesting results for this one – there is really quite a spread all over the screen, which shows perhaps there aren’t quite so many learned behaviours for this. There is a concentration towards the top-middle and top left of the screen however. Lets overlay this over the different services and see how they compare:

Each of the services seems to have ever so slightly different locations for their buttons, and the users of each seem to have learnt these. I don’t see that one or the other is ahead in this test.

Personally though, I do like both the Hotmail and Gmail interface for having reply buttons at the bottom of messages, so you can easily reply after you’ve finished reading. What’s more, the Gmail message reply is the box you can see at the bottom of the messsage. Just put your cursor in there and you can begin typing. Pretty straight forward.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 3; Gmail 3

4) Which interface do you prefer?

This is a bit of a popularity contest, but evidence shows all things being equal people have a better experience with nicer looking interfaces. Stands to reason. You can see the results here.

The numbers were:

• Yahoo! Mail: 20%
• Hotmail: 16%
• Gmail: 59%

The remaining 5% is people either skipping the question or clicked the side of the interface. Regardless, these numbers are pretty defenitive, and Gmail is well ahead.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 3; Gmail 4

5)Do you prefer your email threaded or non-threaded?

Great results for this one, fairly overwhelming:

• Threaded: 73%
• Not Threaded: 12%
• Don’t know/care: 12%

At the present time, Gmail is the only provider that offers threded messages to all its users. Hotmail is currently rolling out threading on a limited basis, but by no means to all users (our test account doesn’t have threading), and Yahoo! Mail offers no threading at all. Results:

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 3; Gmail 5

6)Do you prefer to reply on a new page or the same page?

Another comprehensive result as you can see from the image below:

The numbers were as follows:

• Reply on a new page: 11%
• Reply on the same page: 81%
• Don’t know/care: 5%

Again, Gmail is the only provider of the three that enables you to reply on the same page – a behaviour prefered by 81% of users tested.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 3; Gmail 6

7) Do you prefer banner ads or text ads?

I was slightly surprised by the results of this test – banner ads are evidently more popular than I thought, and although the results were comprehensively in favour of text ads, it seems there is life for banner ads yet. The results were:

• Banner ads: 17%
• Text ads: 68%
• Don’t know/care: 13%

Again though, seeing as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail both use banner ads, and Gmail text ads, it looks like Gmail is the winner here.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 3; Gmail 7

8) Do you prefer a site with or without a landing page?

I was surprised when testing Yahoo! Mail that they used a landing page when you log into your mail. This got me thinking as to whether or not this was the prefered behaviour of users. The results are:

• With landing page: 7%
• Without landing page: 82%
• Don’t know/care: 3%

Yahoo! Mail is the only one of the three that uses landing pages – and obviously this isn’t very popular with users. Score:

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 4; Gmail 8

Part two: Usability comparison

For the next series of questions, the success criteria are less than 10 seconds to complete a task – thus giving the user time to read instructions and to ensure a usable interface – and a success rate of over 75% – to make sure most users are completing the task satisfactorily.

9) Where would you click to change your settings? (Yahoo! Mail)

As you can see in the results, the success rate here is 75%, but what we also need to pay attention to is the average time to complete this test – in this case, 27.58 seconds.

This shows us that while users can indeed find the settings area, they are taking too long to do in. In this case Yahoo! Mail could try to make the text more prominent or more visible in order to make this area more usable.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 4; Gmail 8

10) Where would you click to access your calendar? (Gmail)

These results are a bit of a fail for Gmail – it fails on both fronts. There is only a 69% success rate, and it took the average user just under 14 seconds to complete the task.

If they wanted to make the calendar more visible, they could try moving it’s location, or featuring it in more than one location. The fact that 16% of people clicked on the left hand side indicates that adding a calendar button in that area would be beneficial.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 4; Gmail 8

11) How would you mark a message as spam? (Hotmail)

And at last we have a task that meets our criteria. 76% of users (or 87% if you count the ones marking the messages) successfully completed the task with an average time of 9.16 seconds. This could still be improved upon, but isn’t a bad result.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 5; Gmail 8

12) Where would you click to access your calendar? (Yahoo! Mail)

As you can see here, a pretty poor result. It took an average of 17.73 seconds for people to click, and after that, there was still a success rate of just 54%.

Yahoo obviously needs to put a lot more consideration in to the placement of the calendar button. The ammount of people clicking in the upper left hand side tends to suggest that many people look to this area, so perhaps by offering a link there they would increase their success rate.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 5; Gmail 8

13) How would you mark a message as spam? (Gmail)

As you can see from the results, there was an 85% success rate, and an average click time of 6.38 seconds. This is obviously well inside our success criteria, and a strong result for Gmail.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 5; Gmail 9

14) Where would you click to change your settings? (Hotmail)

Another good result for Hotmail here – an 80% success rate, and an average click time of 7.54 seconds. I think this makes a lot of sense as this is a very common location for a settings/options link to be.

Yahoo! Mail 2; Hotmail 6; Gmail 9

15) How would you mark a message as spam? (Yahoo! Mail)

A much better showing for Yahoo! Mail in this case, an 87% success rate, and a click time of just 4.13 seconds. This really shows the value of following conventions – bear this in mind when designing.

Yahoo! Mail 3; Hotmail 6; Gmail 9

16) Where would you click to change your settings? (Gmail)

A 91% success rate, and an average click time of 6.01 seconds show that Gmails setting page location is working very well – these are very good numbers.

Yahoo! Mail 3; Hotmail 6; Gmail 10

17) Where would you click to access your calendar? (Hotmail)

And another success to round out our tests. 5.5 seconds average click time, and a 78% success rate. Quite a spread on this page though, so it shows people still aren’t quite sure where to look for calendars.

Yahoo! Mail 3; Hotmail 7; Gmail 10

Conclusion

This was a pretty interesting test, and created some interesting results. It shows the value of following conventions and observing user behaviours when developing or reworking your designs. If you’d like to browse through the whole test results, you can go here.

The final scores were: Yahoo! Mail 3; Hotmail 7; Gmail 10.

While Gmail was ultimately ahead in these tests, all three of the services have areas they could improve upon.

Hotmail was also a reasonably strong contender, and with updates which they are currently rolling out, the usability of their service should continue to improve.

Yahoo! Mail was lagging far behing in third place, and really needs to pick up its game if it wants to remain competitive. They are probably relying on people who have been using their service for many years, and I would be surprised if they are still signing up many users.

How does this compare with your actual experience of these different webmail services? Are there any other sites you’d like see compared in the future? Be sure to let us know in the comments!