Best of the web for Design and Web Development February 2018
- March 1st, 2018
- News
The second month of the year has came to an end. Where looking back at the past month by collating together the very best Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials. The roundup also includes web and design articles a good read about the infamous myth about how users don’t scroll on websites, and how fix burnout as a web developer. This is another great monthly roundup you’ll really enjoy reading through the posts featured in this monthly roundup.
Photoshop
Working with Photoshop’s Quick Mask Mode
In this video tutorial, Go Media’s Lindsey Meisterheim will be using a kind line illustration to show you how to work with the quick mask mode in Photoshop.
5 Ways To Create a Matte Effect in Photoshop
The topic I wanted to talk about in today’s Photoshop video tutorial is creating the trendy ‘matte’ look within your photos. The thing is, creating the effect literally takes seconds. So instead, I’m going to show you FIVE ways to create a matte effect in Photoshop! There’s a range of tools you can use, each with a slightly different workflow, so hopefully by showing all these different techniques you’ll be able to take home the one you find the most straight forward or memorable.
How To Create a Color Font in Photoshop Using Fontself
Last month I posted a brief overview and roundup of Color Fonts, the latest development in the world of typography. Unlike traditional fonts, Color Fonts contain full colour graphics for each character, which means creative text styles can now be typed out directly in Photoshop and Illustrator, without the need for any additional effects to be applied. The people behind Fontself reached out to me and asked if I’d like to try out their tool for creating custom Color Fonts, so in today’s tutorial I’ll take you through the process of how I created my first Color Font with ease, using the Fontself extension for Adobe Photoshop.
Create Simple, Sparkling Gold Text Effect in Photoshop
In this tutorial, we will be creating a simple, sparkling gold text effect in Photoshop. We will use just one gold nugget stock image for all texturing effect over the text, with lots of layer blending applied along the way.
Illustrator
Create repeating patterns for skate deck art
Skate decks are a mini art canvas on wheels – and some of the hottest designers around have honed their talents in pursuit of the status of design legend in the half-pipe circuit. Yet creating deck art is more than recreating yet another urban art scene and slapping it onto a strip of maple. This speedy canvas should be home to more imaginative renderings,.
How to Create a Shopping Basket Icon in Adobe Illustrator
In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a simple shopping basket icon in Adobe Illustrator.
How to Create a Hiking Backpack in Adobe Illustrator
Are you ready for our next adventure? This time we’ll be creating a flat backpack for camping using geometric shapes, Stroke panel and various tools and functions of Adobe Illustrator. 
How to Use Envelope Distort with Warp in Adobe Illustrator
In this tutorial you will learn how to use envelope distort with warp in adobe illustrator.
Web and Design articles
People Don’t Scroll (and Other Page Length Myths)
Have you wondered, “How long should this page be?” A quick Google search gives you answers ranging from “300 words” to “5 paragraphs” to “as long as necessary — but not too long!”
The Ultimate Guide to DNS for WordPress
DNS can be a headache. It’s one of those aspects of website management that can either be a breeze or take days to sort out.
“My Developer Ruined My Site’s SEO”: Three Huge SEO Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
It happens far too often that a web developer comes in to “modernize” a site—to improve the mobile experience, or the color scheme, or the fonts, or whatever—and ends up wrecking a thriving online business by ruining the site with SEO mistakes.
My Accessibility Journey: What I’ve Learned So Far
Last year I gave a talk about CSS and accessibility at the stahlstadt.js meetup in Linz, Austria. Afterward, an attendee asked why I was interested in accessibility: Did I or someone in my life have a disability?
Shipping system fonts to GitHub.com
I’m finally publishing this blog post I drafted over a year ago. It was incomplete when I started to revisit it months ago, but I figured it’s better to share it now than sit on it forever. I’ve called out the additions and edits I made since that original draft. Some details are fuzzy, but the core remains intact.
HOW WORDPRESS SHAPED MY PATH AS A DEVELOPER
After six years of crafting WordPress themes within the Pixelgrade crew, I feel the need to share some of the takeaways I gathered during this journey. Today, I’m still excited about what I do as a professional and happy I have the chance to pay it forward.
How to Fix Burnout as a Developer
Burnout is something that happens to the best of us. First, how do we even determine if we are burnt out versus just tired? There are many factors.
Common Pitfalls of E-Commerce SEO: Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is one of the most common SEO pitfalls that many e-commerce sites struggle with. And with the growth of a business riding partially on organic success, both regular assessment and proactive SEO work are imperative to give the business its best chance to succeed.
