Online Image Resizer »

(Announcer voice)”How many times has this happened to you”? You signup as a member of a web site and you start to create your profile. You notice that the website allows you to upload an image to serve as your avatar. “Sweet”, you say! You browse your computer, find the image you want to use as your avatar (you know – the one you spend hours crafting in Photoshop… oooo its so clever ), and you click “upload”. But wait – the image is too large! Now you have to resize it. “Aww man – lame”, you moan.

Well, Quickthumbnail to the rescue! Go to the site, browse your computer and upload the image. Select your resize options – percentage, fixed size or standard size. Click “Resize it”. And – poof – done. Very nice. Give it a shot.

Shout out to Wendy at Lifehacker for this great find!

Color Palette By Image »

Wow, could I have used this tool in the past. Trying to map the colors of a specific image so that you can duplicate them on the client’s website… what a pain.

Now, that will never happen again. Bruno at css4design.com posted about this great tool that will tell you the exact color palette of an image and all you have to do is provide the URL. Score! I am hooked!

DeGraeve.com has it on a page of their website – The Color Palette Generator. Very nice. I think it is a “must-have” for every web design toolbox.

While you are there, check out some of the other great tools Steve has. Kudos to Bruno for posting about this

What is Web 2.0? »

How many times have web developers heard that question? I actually had one client ask if that meant they were coming out with a new version of the Internet 8O. Well, Pixel Acres to the rescue. Jonathan wrote a nice post attempting to define Web 2.0. But how do you define something that has no set of standards? I don’t know, but I guarantee that if you read his post, you will have a good grasp of the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Shout out to Joy at cleverhack.com for posting about this too!

Free Web Development Software »

“If its free, its for me.” If that is you mantra, rejoice for you are a moocher. But, the Internet makes it sooo easy these days that it is hard NOT to be a moocher. I proudly mooch with the best of them; I would rather chug an Ex-Lax milkshake than pay $500-$1000 for some software (despite the fact that I have to sometimes – pay the money I mean – not chug an Ex-Lax milkshake). So, it is in that spirit that I notify you of more free goodies.

In fact, we have created some new categories, all starting with “Toolbox”. So, fellow bottom-feeders, stay alert to posts that populate those and you may find a sweet little program for FREE.

First up – an awesome post from Pixel Acres. Jonathan grouped several nice programs to lighten your web development load without lightening your wallet:

• Write a ton of PHP code? Check out PHP Designer. As Jonathan says,
  

  [It] includes a code debugger, syntax highlighting, code tips, and a number of shortcuts for adding common PHP statements and HTML tags to your documents. Think of it as a text editor on speed.

• Need an FTP program? Check out SmartFTP. We use it – very nice…

There are plenty more listed on his blog so check it out. Make sure to check back with us as we have more goodies to post about and they are all free.

CSS Cheat Sheets »

With many web designers moving to CSS layouts or at least making more use of CSS in their designs, a handy-dandy CSS cheat sheet (or 2) might be nice. So, we ran across a few listed by Simonne over at alltipsandtricks.com:

• Leslie Franke provided a nice CSS cheat sheet
• Then there is the sweet PDF version CSS cheat sheet from I Love Jack Daniel’s blog

Nice grouping, Simonne!