Incredibly Useful Resources for Web Designers and Graphic Artists
Incredibly Useful Resources:
The Stuff I Couldn't Live Without
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Software | Books | Web Pages
Software:
Graphics:
Adobe Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com), THE tool for graphics creation and editing.
Unfortunately, it's also quite expensive. If you plan to get serious about
graphics, though, it's definitely worth the investment. And if you're a college
student, chances are you can get a BIG discount by purchasing Photoshop through your
university. Adobe also now offers Photoshop LE, a small, affordable
(less than $100) version of Photoshop. It has most of the basic Photoshop tools,
lots of filters and plug-ins, etc..
Ulead SmartSaver (http://www.webutilities.com/ssaver/), the very best utility I've ever seen for optimizing
web graphics. SmartSaver functions as a stand-alone application or as a Photoshop
plug-in.
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Text Editors:
NotepadPlus (http://www.xs4all.nl/~theroge), a freeware, multi-document replacement for
Windows Notepad.
NoteTab Lite (http://www.notetab.com/snt.htm), another freeware, multi-document replacement for
Windows Notepad. This one features an HTML tag library, a "smiley" library, a tag stripper, and miscellaneous utilities.
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Code Editors:
1st Page (http://www.evrsoft.com/products/), the very best freeware code editor I've found. It's very easy to use, with tons of features and 400+ pre-written JavaScripts.
SynEdit (http://www.syned.com), a freeware syntax editor for
programmers. Features keyword libraries and color coding for dozens of languages including HTML, Java, Perl, and Visual Basic.
HTML-Kit (
http://www.chami.com/html-kit/), another free, feature-rich HTML code editor with color-coding and HTML 4.0 validation.
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Utilities for Hand-Coders:
Stringshot (http://www.getsoftware.com/acctech), an incredibly useful little
program that allows you to store lists of text
and then drag-and-drop them into any application.
I use it to store my HTML tags. (This one is shareware.)
img2html
(http://www.jetlink.net/~andv/htmltools.html), a tiny, free little program
that automatically writes image tags and copies
them to the clipboard.
Color Picker (
http://junior.apk.net/~jbarta/), a free color tool that runs in a browser window. It lets you test combinations of browser-safe colors and then copy the corresponding BODY tag to the clipboard.
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FTP:
FTP Explorer (http://www.ftpx.com/), a free FTP client with a Windows Explorer-type interface.
FTPEdit (
http://www.mwc.edu/~khenr29j/FTPEdit/index.html), a free FTP client that allows you to directly edit the files on your server without having to download/upload.
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Books:
Although I have about a dozen computer books and manuals on my desk at any given time, there are only three that I couldn't live without. All three are published by O'Reilly and Associates (http://www.ora.com), publisher of the very best computer books on the market.
HTML: The Definitive Guide, the BEST HTML resource in existence. Well-written and easy to understand without unnecessary technical jargon. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Web Design in a Nutshell. A rare combination of thorough and concise, this book tells you everything you need to know to be a Web designer without forcing you to plod through a lot of stuff you DON'T need to know. Find out how many pixels of screen space are taken up by scrollbars, how to tell if a hexadecimal color is browser safe, and exactly which tags are supported by which browser versions...
Photoshop in a Nutshell. This one isn't for beginners, but it's amazingly useful for people who already understand the basics of Adobe Photoshop and want to become advanced users. This book shows you how to use every menu, every command, every options box, and every filter.
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Web Pages:
Font Addict (http://www.fontaddict.com), a HUGE archive of free fonts.
No Nags (http://www.nonags.com). This is the first place I look when I need free software. No Nags tests and rates each piece of freeware before putting it on the site, and they have mirror sites all over the world.
FreeCode.com (http://www.freecode.com), a great source of free CGI scripts.
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