Discover The Best Of The Web In April 2008

We are always in the search of great free resources, tips and tricks etc for our readers. Everyday, we works hard to find new resources and show them here for you. Today, we are starting another great‚ section Discover The Best Of The Web on SmashingApps.com. In this we will find and make a list for the best of the web for the whole month. Maybe, we can not cover all of the best from around the web but we will try our best to cover as much as possible.

So, this is the first post to Discover The Best Of The Web for April 2008.

Design Tips, Tricks and Tutorial
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Awesome Photorealistic Coloring Techniques
In this tutorial we will color a black and white photo using gradient maps, solid colors, and the “color” blending mode. Using these techniques, you will be able to hand color any black and white photo in a way that looks photorealistic.

16 awesome Aviary tutorials
This post presents 18 tutorials on how get started with Aviary. Aviary is a suite of web-based applications (RIAs) for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for artists of all genres.

63 Impressive Website Background-Images: Trends, Resources and TutorialsÂÂ
They have hand-picked background image resources and tutorials one can use to create amazing background images for the next website design.

Swirl Mania in Illustrator & Photoshop
In this tutorial he will show 4 ways to create swirls, and by mixing them you will learn some very powerful techniques that will allow you to easily make tons of different styles of swirls and crazy sperm vectors.

7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
If you want to create effective icon designs, then you should take a holistic approach to issues such as: audience, size, simplicity, lighting, perspective, and style. This article gives you a good starting place for creating icons that work well together and fit seamlessly within your designs.

Build a Sleek Portfolio Site from Scratch
In this tutorial they are going to take that PSD file and build it with some nice clean HTML and CSS.

Create Abstract Backgrounds
Abstract backgrounds are easy to create in Illustrator with a couple of simple techniques. Using Gradient Meshes, Steps Blends and Opacity Masks you can quickly create an abstract background.

Awesome HOT TIPS for YOUR WEBSITE in 2008
Fadtastic, have secretly been trawling the best websites and breaking down what’s good about them all. They’ve conveniently made a list of these unmissable golden nuggets of advice below. Use with caution – you don’t want to be too hard on your competition!

Artwork, Digital Photography and Inspiration
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Packaging design inspiration
A beautiful and attractive packaging can boost the selling and stands out from the rack of competitors. In this article you will find some coool packaging deisgns to inspire yourself.

(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos
In this post, you’ll find 50 brilliant photos and stunning pictures &  some pictures tell stories, some are incredibly beautiful, some are funny and some are very sad.

Illustration Design Inspiration
Few really inspiring design illustrations from various designers.

Cool Web Characters ‚Part
I have compiled another list of Web Characters, thanks to all your suggestions and comments, I felt that there were so many more online.

Propaganda Design & Aesthetics: Soviet Retro Posters
One of the great aesthetic legacies of the Soviet Union is the great wealth of magnificent propaganda posters it left behind. In this post, Lars Hasvoll  present some personal favorites.

30 Must See Comment Designs Showcase
This list shows 30 blogs where the web designer didn’t just throw together the same old comment design and put extra effort into their comment design to make it fit with their blog design.

Best of Wallpapers Made in Russia
An amazing collectin of some impressive wallpapers designed by Russian designers.

Javascript and Ajax
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Custom JavaScript Dialog Boxes
A lightweight (~4.5kb) JavaScript dialog box library. The script currently offers four dialog styles: alerts, warnings, prompts and success.

51+ Best of jQuery Tutorials and Examples
There are stuffs all over the Web about jQuery, but finding the best tutorials to get you started can be tough. Here are Examples and tutorials from jQuery masters to keep you on the right track.

Ajax Image Sliders Part 2: Intervals with On Demand
We want to make this look as if the slider is actually changing the image while we scroll it.

41 of the Best MooTools Ajax Example Downloads
A collection of MooTools examples that you can freely download and learn or use from.

xHTML and CSS
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30 Exceptional CSS Techniques and Examples
In this article, I’ve pieced together 30 excellent CSS techniques and examples that showcases the capabilities and robustness of CSS. You’ll see a variety of techniques such as image galleries, drop shadows, scalable buttons, menus, and more – all using only CSS and HTML.

Web to Print: Restyling Pages on the Fly with CSS
Matthew shared the experience he has gained writing a print stylesheet for Bits O’ NewMedia.

CSS do’s and dont’s Part 1: CSS Selecting
Css Globe is starting a series of lightweight articles named “CSS do’s and don’ts”. This series is aimed at pointing out some of the bad habits when it comes to css and web standards in general.

Using captcha without displaying it
Does the user have JavaScript enabled?
If yes, he’s ok. Let him comment.
No? He’s a suspect. Read him his rights and give him the ultimate “are you human?” test.

Miscellaneous Articles
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All 120 Crayon Names, Color Codes and Fun Facts
Here we go down crayon color memory lane with all 120 color names and hex codes, fun facts and photos.

60+ Unusual WP Blog Designs
Tak a look at 60 Creatively unusual WordPress blog designs that are a little bit more distinctive from the regular WordPress Blog designs.

Incredible Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts Which You Probably Don’t Know About
Abhijeet came across some excellent keyboard shortcuts for Firefox that he is discussing here .

The Graphics Design Resume Guide
In this you will find everything you need to know regarding putting together a successful graphic design resume

42 Must-Bookmark Resources for Web Designers – Inspiration, Design, Color, Fonts and More
Design inspiration, CSS resources, web design guides, color tools, free fonts and more

12 Practical Ways for Freelance Designers to Increase Leads
There are plenty of different ways to find potential clients, and in this article we’ll take a look at 12 things you can do to increase the number of leads you receive.