Free glass buttons for your website (PNG format)

Bittbox has an illustrator file with 72 free vector glass buttons that can be coloured and customised for your website.

Aviary - free online design suite

Aviary is a free online design suite with the following tools:
- Phoenix: an image editor (similar to Adobe Photoshop / Gimp)
- Raven: a vector editor (useful for logos / and clothing design)
- Toucan: a color editor
- Peacock: an effects editor

Free online Photoshop clone

SumoPaint is a great free online Photoshop interface for you to make simple adjustments to your photos.

Free iPhone GUI Photoshop file (PSD)

Teehanlax blog has a great free iPhone interface for you to use for your Photoshop concepts.

Free online photoshop tutorials

100 Photoshop Photo effects is a list of great tutorials to help you improve your photo-editing ability in Photoshop.

Also check the following sites for great tutorials:

• http://psdtuts.com/


• http://www.tutorialsphere.com/


• http://pshero.com/


• http://www.tutorial9.net/


• http://psdlearning.com/


• http://photoshoptutorials.ws/


• http://photoshopcontest.com/tutorials/photoshop-tips.html


• http://luxa.org/


• http://www.good-tutorials.com/


• http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/

Free SuperPNG Photoshop Plugin

SuperPNG is a free Adobe Photoshop plug-in for using PNG ("ping") files. It is faster than Adobe's own PNG plug-in and saves considerably smaller PNGs.

PNG is an open source file format that supports tight lossless compression. It can be read on any platform by most graphics applications and is fully supported by all modern web browsers.

How to edit photos online for free

Pixlr is a free online retouching photo editor. Uses a similar interface to Photoshop, very simple to learn and fast.

Free website templates

FreeWebsiteTemplates.com has a range of free templates which include the original Photoshop (PSD) files in the package. This means you can use the layout as a start off point for your website, and will give inexperienced Photoshop users a head start. Freelayouts.com also has a selection of HTML layouts for you to peruse.

Freeware HTML link creator

HTML link creator - Quickly and easily create links to HTML pages with titles for use in blog or forum posts. Have a look at the rest of the freeware offerings on the site which include a a HTML color picker, an ascii character utility, an ASCII to hex converter and a Photo Resizer. (Freeware, PC)

Update (27/12/07): I have also found a useful Text to HTML converter, which allows you to put a list of files and output them as clickable links. Definitely useful for rapidshare/megaupload.com users who frequent download forums. (Free, all platforms.)

Photoshop tutorials/tips

Here are some links to Photoshop tutorial websites I have used before:

• Photoshop Support
• Tutorialized
• Good Tutorials

Check out Trevor Morris' site for a set of useful guide to the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts as well as a downloadable set of alternative keys that add keyboard shortcuts for many common menu functions (such as cropping, level adjustment etc.) The site also features a Photoshop cheat sheet for all versions from CS through to CS3.

Shutterbug has a 2 page article on how to speed up Photoshop loading time by modifying settings to perform optimally on your computer.

Those who have recently upgraded to Photoshop Cs3 will benefit from the use of the "Highlight new features" workspace. Click "Workspace" then "What's new in CS3" to have Photoshop highlight all new menu items and options available. n.Design studio has a guide to the new features of Photoshop CS3 and documents some of the capabilities such as the new smart filter and the auto-blend filter.

Free image vector converter

 

VectorMagic - VectorMagic is a free online image vectorizer. In other words, it allows you to upload any image and it will provide a vectorized version for you to download. Definitely useful for design projects where you need to scale images to a larger size.

Free image host

ImageShack - ImageShack.us is a fast and free image host service. They also provide a slideshow generator for use on Facebook/Myspace profiles. Also see below post for the ImageShack Firefox addon.

Freeware clipboard utility

ClipX is a freeware Clipboard extension for Windows. It allows you to view your previous clipboard entries (text and graphics). It also features a search function for older entries. Definitely useful for web designers!

Open Source vector graphics editor

Inkscape - Is an open source vector graphics program. This can be used to create logos, graphics and layouts for your websites. The interface is similar to Illustrator and is available as freeware for Mac, PC and Linux.

Another interesting program I have discovered is called Artweaver which is a graphics editor designed to simulate natural brush tools. (Freeware, PC)

Freeware image viewer

Irfanview - One of the first programs I recommend to people who design for the web. This small, fast Windows freeware can view almost any image format (including Photoshop PSDs and other high-res image formats) and has plugin support to enable it to open video and document files. Irfanview also has in-built image editing tools such as a sharpen filter, colour adjustment and colour correction, which come in handy for last minute adjustments to images. Click here to see the full list of supported file types. (PC, freeware)

Resize pictures online

PicResize - Pic Resize is an online tool that allows you to resize your photos. It has features such as preview and cropping and also allows you to add some simple effects to your final image. Also try ResizR which is another similar service.

Free web photo album generator

WebAlbum - An easy to use web generator to create HTML files for your website. Features automated resizing of images as well as thumbnail creation. (Freeware, PC)

Identify fonts used in images

WhatTheFont - WTF is a service that lets you upload an image to have the website identify the fonts used. The accuracy is high and often can suggest similar freeware alternatives to commercial fonts. I also recommend DaFont for free fonts for use on your website or designs.

Freeware Photoshop alternatives

Paint.NET - Paint.NET is a Windows based freeware graphic editor. It is referred to as the "Open Source Photoshop." Recommended for those beginning in web design. Also try the GIMP hack "GIMPShop" which is available for PC and Mac.

Free stock photos

stock.xchng - One of the best free stock photo galleries I've found. Simply sign up and once confirmed, you have access to a large library of free stock images. The terms of use state that you can freely use the images: "in digital format on websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones."