It was a strange conversion. University had me thoroughly set on all things printed. I took a short course in book-making and was hooked on the idea of hand-made, limited edition design work. There was little about the online world that caught my attention and the back-end side of things stopped me from getting my hands digitally dirty. When the need for a portfolio site reared its head, a friend showed me the brilliance of the comprehensive tutorial website w3schools and I began teaching myself HTML and CSS basics. These days I see the web full of possibility rather than put off by it’s dry, linear coding languages. What helps though is a good set of tools. There are so many useful design tools on the web it’s easy to lose track. Here, we have compiled some of the most useful websites for web designers or those with a keen eye for web visuals. It’s worth mentioning that while the sites themselves might not be beautiful, it’s what they offer that you’ll learn to love (or love to learn).
Let me start by introducing the marvel of w3schools. The sheer wealth of educational resources available here is astounding. With clarity and simplicity the foundations of HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP (to name a few) are given comprehensive tutorials to work your way through. No doubt you will be back again and again.
These days typography online is changing quicker than ever but understanding the basic web-friendly roster is still vital. Typetester allows you to compare fonts for screen with all the useful leading, tracking and word spacing options in one place. “How useful!?” I hear you cry, and you’re not wrong. Bookmarked.
Next the simple charm of Lipsum.com might just bring a tear to a designers eye. Picture yourself with that blank letterhead in Photoshop or Illustrator. You’ve got typography to simulate, and fast! Don’t fret. When copy text is a pipe dream and the placeholder text of In-Design plays hard to get, Lorem Ipsum is your best friend.
Boxes Boxes Boxes. Save the web from giant backgrounds that load like twitchy waterfalls with smart, Subtle Patterns. Tiling was never so cool. I tried to choose some favourites for you, but it simply wasn’t possible, there are so many great options to choose from.
Freebies! Orman Clark creates useful, attractive web objects that are free for use personally and commercially on Premium Pixels. Handy PSD files galore, it’s brilliant for helping speed up the creation of those web objects that come up again and again. Big thanks to Clark for his generosity and hard work!
Finally, What The Font is what it says on the tin. Amazingly this service identifies fonts within images which you upload or link to. If the need arises Identifont compliments this service well by taking a different approach: “Identify a font by answering questions about key features.” Sherlock Holmes meets the world wide web of typography, and it’s unbelievably accurate.
We hope you find the above insightful. We’re always finding handy new sites and we’re happy to share them with you. Let us know if there’s any we’ve missed.
