twodegree blog

Freebie Friday: Envato’s March Picks

2ds — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:51:45 +0000

This month at Envato (Themeforest, Graphicriver, Codecanyon, etc.) there is a strong line-up of free files available to download today.

PHOTOME – photography and portfolio template – Features two skins, AJAX and JQuery effects, web gallery, built-in typography styles, a PHP mailer script and a pack of free icons. The theme is normally $15, but is free for the month of March. A WordPress version is also available with video support.
Get Minimal – Resume 01 – A slick resume form designed in Adobe InDesign. Includes the original source Illustrator and Photoshop documents, 5 color gradient variations and JPG/PDF files for preview.
HoverMe – Collection of CSS3 Hover Effects – A collection of 21 hover effects that have been tested in all major browsers. Browsers that support CSS3 transitions include an extra dose of eye candy.
The Beginner’s Guide to Web Design – Learn the basics of HTML5/CSS in this 3-part tutorial series on basic web design.

Theme Thursday: FlipBlog by ThemeBlvd

2ds — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:48:43 +0000

FlipBlog by ThemeBlvd is one of the most complete WordPress themes I’ve come across. The theme is full of features and extremely customizable.

From the Theme Options in the WP dashboard you can change a number of settings including header/footer location, light/dark styles, header/footer colors and an accent color.

The front-end sports a widget-ready drop-down panel for social networking and other features, a JQuery slideshow, full lightbox integration and 10 custom widgets that can be used in all 6 dynamic widget areas.

If FlipBlog sounds too complicated, don’t worry. ThemeBlvd has also provided a half-dozen video tutorials to showcase the theme’s features and functions.

Check out FlipBlog for yourself on Themeforest.net. As of the time of writing FlipBlog costs $35, has been purchased 576 times and has an impressive five-star rating.

WordPress Wednesday: Update to WP 3.1

2ds — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:01:38 +0000

Last year WordPress updated to version 3.0, arguably one the largest and best updates in WordPress history. A few days ago the company released the latest version update, 3.1. The new version of WordPress includes a ton of changes, including:

Internal Linking – click a button for an internal link and it allows you to search for a post or browse a list of existing content and select it for inclusion.
Admin Bar – contains various links to useful admin screens. By default, the admin bar is displayed when a user is logged in and visiting the site and is not displayed in admin screens for single blog installs. For multisite installs, the admin bar is displayed both when visiting the site and in the admin screens.
Streamlined Writing Interface – new users of WordPress will find the write screen much less cluttered than before, as more of the options are hidden by default. You can click on Screen Options in the top right to bring them back.
Post Formats – meta information that can be used by themes to customize presentation of a post. Read more in the article Post Formats.
Network Admin – move Super Admin menus and related pages out of the regular admin and into a new Network Admin screen.
List-type Admin Screens – sortable columns for list-type screens and better pagination.
Exporter/Importer Overhaul – many under the hood changes including adding author information, better handling for taxonomies and terms, and proper support for navigation menus.
Custom Content Type Improvements – allows developers to generate archive pages, and have better menu and capability controls. Read more in the article Post Types.
Advanced Queries – allows developers to query multiple taxonomies and custom fields.
Refreshed Blue Admin Color Scheme – puts the focus more squarely on your content.

Check out the full notes at the WordPress Codex.

As always, before you update WordPress, take a minute to check your theme and plugins for compatibility. Also, it’s recommended that you back up your files and database just in case. (I never do, but I’ll likely regret it someday.)

Fotofolio – Free September 2010

2ds — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:06:05 +0000

Free this month on Themeforest is Fotofolio by bitpub. The theme features a gallery, contact form, lightbox and tty ooltips, CSS font replacement and layered PNG files. Fotofolio looks like a great deal for $12, but between now and September 30, you can download it for free.

Check it out!

Browsershots – Test browser compatibility

2ds — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:55:43 +0000

Browsershots allows you to test browser compatibility for your design project across over 100 browser versions on all combinations of Linux, Windows, Mac or BSD OS’s. You can toss that old iMac with the outdated browser now. They’ve got you covered.

Visit browsershots.org

Free icons courtesy of graphicriver.net

2ds — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:48:56 +0000

graphicriver and Turbomilk have created a set of 25 slick web icons that are available to use for free in personal and commercial projects (that will be posted on themeforest.net or flashden.net). All that is required is a link back to the page, here.

Iconix – Maybe the most flexible blog layout on the planet

2ds — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:42:40 +0000

Unbelievable. I think that’s the best word for this WordPress theme by Quarterpixel. This is a massive, super-customizable, fixed-width WordPress blog/CMS theme that boasts (just to name a few of it’s features):

35 styles featuring different layouts and colors
4 animated sliders with over 30 transition and easing effects
6 widget-ready areas that support 54 layout variations
54 ready-to-use page icons that can be added simply from the WordPress admin panel
Multiple pre-built portfolio page layouts
10 pre-installed fonts for CSS font replacement
and much, much more!

I used to wonder with all the free WordPress themes out there, who would pay for a commercial theme? But Iconix looks like it’s well worth every penny.

Check it out for yourself at themeforest.net ($37)

Top-quality stock photos, audio and video at iStockPhoto

2ds — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:36:30 +0000

iStockPhoto isn’t exactly cheap, but they do offer some of the highest quality images on the web. They offer a variety of photos and illustrations, at various resolutions. The cheapest images start around a couple of bucks, but a good print-quality image could set you back more than $20. The licensing is fairly restrictive, but this is what you’d expect from a top-tier commercial photo merchant. All content is provided by iStock’s many users, but the company has a pretty strict guideline to ensure that only the best images are listed for sale.

Check out iStockPhoto to see what we’re talking about

Rating: 4 out of 5

iStock’s sister-site Stock xchng offers many free royalty free images of a lesser quality generally best for web use, not as much print. Just watch out, as they also feature photos from iStockPhoto at the top and bottom of most pages – which can be a blessing and a curse.

It’s also worth noting that iStockPhoto offers a free weekly download in each of their top categories (photo, illustration, audio, video and Flash).

Fusion by digitalnature (Free)

2ds — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:25:28 +0000

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of free WordPress templates out there. But few are of the quality I’ve seen from digitalnature. His work is featured in the theme of this blog (Mystique). Fusion is another great looking template for WordPress or Pligg. The theme offers a bunch of options, including two or three column design and fixed or fluid width. My favorite part is that the largely monochromatic design will stay out of the way and let your content be the feature. Always a good thing.

Download it free from digitalnature.ro.

Sexy Slider JQuery Slideshow

2ds — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:13:41 +0000

I’m not sure how a JQuery plugin can be sexy, but this snippet is pretty slick. It really seems to include all of the features I’d expect from a professional slideshow script including auto start, continuous repeat, cool transitions and most importantly (in my opinion) buttons to navigate the slides manually – so your user doesn’t have to sit through a whole cycle because they just missed the slide they needed.

Grab it today at CodeCanyon – just $9