Web Design & Layout News

Cutting-Edge Conference for Print and Digital Publishing

Whether you're looking for the latest tips on publishing to tablets and ebooks, want details on the upcoming Adobe Creative Suite 6, or just need tips to optimize your print workflow, PEPCON is the place. The conference takes place in San Francisco on May 14-16.

What's That Web Font?

WhatFont is a free tool that works with your Web browser to identify webfonts.

European Design Conference Comes to America

The first TYPO conference held in the United States will be in San Francisco on April 5 and 6, 2012.

Photoshop Plug-in Adds Google Webfonts

The Extensis WebInk Web Font plug-in for Photoshop expands its offering with 288 webfonts from Google.

Free Guide to Email Marketing

MailChimp, the email newsletter service with a sense of humor, is giving away another guide that's handy for anyone who uses emailing for marketing (or designs those marketing messages).

Use Webfonts in Photoshop for Free

Do you use Photoshop for website mock-ups? If so, check out the new Web Font plug-in for Photoshop from Extensis. It works with the company's WebINK webfont service to give you a trouble-free (and legal) Web-design workflow from start to finish.

Add Rare Wood Type Faces to Your Digital Designs

Wood Type Revival finds old wood type, prints them, turns the results into fonts, and sells the digital typefaces for very reasonable prices.

New Font Creates Charts and Graphs for You

With the Chartwell OpenType fonts, you can create custom pie charts, bar graphs, and line graphs as easily as typing "1, 2, 3".

New Adobe App Promises Web Design without Coding

"Muse" is the code name of an app now in free public beta. Adobe says that Muse lets you design fully functional modern websites, but without the need to know complex HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.

Create HTML5 and Flash Content Simultaneously

If you're designing interactive animation that may be viewed on platforms that don't support Flash (for example, the iPad), it's beneficial to be able to generate two versions: one that relies on HTML5 for motion, and one that's Flash-based. Aquafadas's MotionComposer is a new tool that can do just that.

New Adobe Tech Gives You HTML5 Edge

"Edge" is the name of a tool for creating interactive animations based on HTML5. Edge is not yet in beta, but because Adobe is seeking user feedback, it's made a free preview release available on its Labs site.

Fire Up FontDropper 1000 and Test WebINK Typefaces Online

For a quick and free way to preview any WebINK web font, try the new FontDropper 1000 bookmarklet.

Make Websites from Photoshop Files

If you're more comfortable in Photoshop or Illustrator than Dreamweaver, check out this two-part webinar. It's designed for people like you who need to create websites but don't know HTML and CSS. But hurry! The first webinar is this Thursday, August 4, 2011.

New Mac OS, Lion, Causes Problems with Many Adobe Apps

Adobe has published a list of known issues its software has when running under the new Mac OS 10.7 (Lion).

Temporary Tattoos Go Designer

They're not just for kids anymore, at least not if you get your temp tats from Tattly, the brainchild of designer and entrepreneur swissmiss.

Introduction to Web Design: A Free Webinar

On July 19, 2011, from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM Eastern time, noted designer, author, and speaker Chris Converse will introduce the concepts necessary to design and create successful websites. The online webinar is free.

Google Improves Its Web Fonts Interface

Google is about to roll out a major change to its Web fonts library interface. Currently clocking in at 180 fonts, the interface changes will make it much easier for you to find the fonts that are the best fit for your needs.

Google's Swiffy Turns Flash SWF to HTML5

Try the free Swiffy online service on simple SWF files (Google recommends SWF 5 for best results). The resulting HTML output can display in modern Webkit browsers, including Google's own Chrome and Apple's Mobile Safari.

Online Tool Critiques Your CSS Instantly

Unless your CSS is impeccable, it probably has a little code that doesn't need to be there--a little lint, if you will. The CSS Lint website will check your code for free and tell you what could be better.

New ePublishing Training

The two-day conference will be in Chicago and online, September 13-14, 2011, and will cover several aspects of epublishing, including digital magazine and eBook preparation.