The web is full with texture images, and let’s face it, it’s hard to find high quality textures for free.

WDB wants to help you out and today releases for all its readers a mega lists with so many textures that you can’t handle (at least this is what we hope :p )

Because of the high resolution of the textures and the huge size on every image we have grouped the textures by category and will offer separated downloads for every texture pack.

Direct download links, with no wait time can be found at the bottom at the post.

Remember to follow @Garcya on twitter or subscribe to the feed for free if you haven’t done that yet.

You can also visit us on Facebook for extra insights.

Also, I am not going to force you, but if you want to hit that Digg badge, Re-Tweet or share where you want, I’ll love you forever and ever!

5 Free Wooden Textures

You will find in the pack: 5 JPEG files | up to 5479×4316 | 80,8 MB – Download now

18 Walls Textures

You will find in this pack: 18 jpg | 4000*3000 pix | 300 dpi | 57.5 Mb – Download now

27 Brick Wall Textures

You will get in this pack:  27 JPEG | ~ 3000×2000 px | 102 mb – Download now

8 Stained Paper Textures

You will find in this pack: 8 jpg | 2417*3416 px | 300 dpi | 9.7 Mb – Download now

27 Grunge Textures

You will find in this pack: 27 JPEG | ~ 2400×1600 px | 58 Mb – Download now

612 Mixed Textures Bundle Pack

You will get in this huge pack: 612 JPG | 1024×1024 px | 191 mb – Download now

100 Mixed Textures Bundle

You will get in this big pack: 100 Jpeg | 2912×4368 – 4368×2912 | 212 mb – Download now

Direct download links for each bundle pack can be found below:

DIRECT download links are available to premium members only.
Login or Become a member for only $9.99 / month so you can download all the vector graphics directly + free + commercial use included!

Related posts:

1. 7 Free High Quality Grunge Textures
2. 39 free vector images
3. 25 Mixed Vector for FREE

---

Do you like what you see? Any help is welcome! It keeps me working and provide YOU with Free Vector Graphics. Thank you!

© Garcya for Web Design Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post tags: free textures, hq textures, texture images, textures, wooden textures

There are many techniques in CSS to achieve certain results in different ways, CSS sprites being one of them. CSS sprites is a technique used where you can have a large single image containing a set of images that can be broken down using CSS to separate the image into multiple.

To better understand this concept, let us look at the following example image:

As you see in the example image, there are three top bars of different colors all separated by some whitespace between them. Instead of having each of these bars as individual images, you can join them into one as shown above, and with CSS, you can separate them so they seem as separate images.

Moreover, let us say you just wanted the left and right corners of the blue bar instead of the entire thing for an aspect of your website, using the CSS sprites method, you can do exactly that without the need of creating separate images.

Who Uses CSS Sprites?

Many people have the understanding that most major companies do not like to use certain techniques and would rather use generic methods. However, this is not necessarily true, and in fact, major companies such as Ask.com and Facebook use the sprite technique as it is the smarter to move.

Now that you understand the concept of CSS sprites and how they work, we dive right into four advantages of using CSS sprites along with a few tips on usage.

Cut Back On HTTP Requests

One of the main advantages of using CSS sprites is that it cuts back on HTTP Requests. When a user visits your website, the browser requests the data from the server, by having fewer images you cut back on those requests, which in essence, cuts back on load time as well. Remember, the fewer HTTP Requests, the better, and using this technique is one-step forward.

Saves Time

By merging relative images all into one larger image, you are saving yourself time from creating individual images. Additionally, it also makes it easier for you to locate the images you may want to edit as it may be grouped with others, instead of the need to flip through a basket of files to find what you may have been looking for.

Flexibility

By utilizing CSS sprites, you are giving yourself more flexibility over your website’s design and or layout. For example, if you are not using CSS sprites and you have some gradient bars that you use across your website, grabbing a corner of that bar would mean creating a separate image for the corner and to deal with its hassles.

Instead, by using CSS sprites, you can easily slice the corner you want from the image without modifying the image or creating a new image, giving the flexibility you need while saving time.

Tips

Now that you know the benefits of using CSS sprites, we discuss three tips on improving your CSS “spriting” experience.

Plenty of Space

While it may sound jolly to cram in many images into one to benefit from CSS sprites, it is generally not a good idea to leave small gaps between each image. The reason for this is that sometimes content expands quite a bit which sometimes causes other images to appear within the image you selected from the main image or sprite image, this is caused by having your images close to each other initially in the sprite image. Instead, leave some good spacing between each image to eliminate this issue, even if the images may be icons.

Left to Right, Right to Left

No, we are not talking about languages, but rather image placement in your sprite. If images in your sprite are to be used to the right of an element, place the image to the left of the sprite and vice versa. This helps prevent other images appearing in the background of the image you selected from your sprite, which is usually caused by moving the background image by CSS.

To better understand this concept, let us have a look at the sprite below:

Let us say we wanted to use the green book from the sprite, because we intentionally placed it on the right, we will be using it to the left of an element like so:

Using this concept, if we wanted to use the warning symbol on the left, we would have placed it on the right as well instead of on the left within the sprite.

Repeating Images Should Consume Less Pixels

Many people stick some images intended for repeating across the screen in a sprite. When doing so, there is no reason this repeating image should take much space unless designed in a certain way. With that said, your repeating images should be only a few pixels wide as they will be, well, repeating. This not only saves space within the sprite itself, it also saves bandwidth and indeed, time.

To conclude, using CSS sprites may or may not be the way to go for you as it really depends on the type of application it will be used for. If you are considering using the technique for one of your mainstream websites or services and or for your portfolio site, it will definitely be a great advantage for you to use it accordingly.

One of the key things you need to look at before choosing this technique is what browsers the majority of your users use to visit your website. The reason this question sometimes arises is that it sometimes may be very difficult to make your CSS sprites compatible with many of these browsers depending on the techniques you use.

However, if major companies as mentioned earlier use the CSS sprite technique, it sometimes is a good idea to review how they implemented the idea as they may have found a workaround to have it work across many browsers and platforms. I am not saying you should take their code and implement it on your site, but rather get ideas for your implementation by overlooking what they have done or achieved.

The basis for this weeks Answers reader discussion is essentially a chance to share what you feel are the best graphic design standards for an inhouse design agency.

What do you think? Is there set standards and guidelines for graphic designers in inhouse agencies? You can leave your comment below, or you can leave your answer on the original question on here: What are the best standards and guidelines for graphic designers who work for inhouse design agencies?

What are the standards and guidelines for graphic designers who work for inhouse design agencies?

This question was originally asked by an Unregistered User, and you will find the best answer below:

The Best Answer came from aPablo G:

Thanks to everyone who asked a question, but most importantly thanks to everyone that took the time and effort to offer helpful and useful answers.

Not so long ago we released another huge pack of vector flowers and now we are back with another major release with these beautiful designs that are so common in vector art, websites, etc.

We will be featuring over 500 stock flowers vectors and flower related designs (180 mb download)

Scroll down and see all the 500+ previews of what you will get in this pack.

PS: Click on every image for a full view of the preview.

DIRECT download links are available to premium members only.
Login or Become a member for only $9.99 / month so you can download all the vector graphics directly + free + commercial use included!

Related posts:

1. Free vector packs from FREE-VECTORS.COM
2. Super Mega Collection of Vector Flowers
3. Free vector packs from stock graphic designs

---

Do you like what you see? Any help is welcome! It keeps me working and provide YOU with Free Vector Graphics. Thank you!

© Garcya for Web Design Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: flower artwork, flower eps, FREE VECTORS, Premium, vector flowers

Koray Birand is a great photographer that does amazing work as you will see in the photos attached to this article.

In this article we have featured 73 of his beautiful work, some… NSFW :)

You can visit his website for more info – photo works.

Simply click on any image to view it in full using a nice javascript.

PS: you can also download all the images on your pc using the download links at the end of the article.

Download from rapidshare.com

DIRECT download links are available to premium members only.
Login or Become a member for only $9.99 / month so you can download all the vector graphics directly + free + commercial use included!

Related posts:

1. 995 Free Vector Icons, Graphics and Art
2. Photo Inspiration #3 – Work by Raya
3. New feature – Submit

---

Do you like what you see? Any help is welcome! It keeps me working and provide YOU with Free Vector Graphics. Thank you!

© Garcya for Web Design Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: awesome photo work, beautiful photography, koray birand, photo artwork, Photo Inspiration

There are not many iconsets that can match the quality nor the quantity of icons that we feature in todays design news roundup. The first set, released this week by WPZOOM, has over 500 icons for every social network service you could possibly think of. And the second set, also released this week, has over 170 crafted icons perfect for web design brought to you by WooTheme.

500 Free Icons Social Networking Icon Set from WPZOOM

This awesome icon set includes 100 icons of popular social networking websites. Every icon from WPZOOMs Social Networking Icon Set is available in 5 different sizes: 64×64, 48×48, 32×32, 24×24 and 16×16px (PNG & PSD format), which means you get 500 beautiful icons!

You are allowed to use these icons anywhere you want, however WPZOOM would appreciate linkback.
500 Free Icons Social Networking Icon Set from WPZOOM

WooCons – 170 Free Web Icons

This huge icon set, designed by Janik Baumgartner exclusively for WooThemes, consists of 170 icons, sized at 32×32px and are in PNG format.

This icon set has been released on the GNU General Public License.
WooCons – 170 Free Web Icons

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).

A major problem with many new websites today is that their content is geared toward a different topic from what their site initially started up as. For example, let us say a website starts up geared toward gadgets and technology reviews. For the first few months, you are getting exactly what you came for, technology and gadget reviews.

However, as time progresses the reviews begin to widen to internet technologies such as web development, emailing, and the likes immediately.

As a reader, you will not necessarily be interested in reading about web development or emailing as you visit the site for gadget and technology reviews, thus, you will probably begin searching for a new website to call home for your gadget and technology review source. Going back to being a webmaster, we will touch base on six tips that help you produce content geared towards your audience as well as tips to introducing new content away from the initial category or categories.

Content That Meets Your Audience’s Standards

When creating content for your website, you need to make sure it meets your audience’s standards, such as comprehension level, topics in their interest, and the likes. Let us continue with the gadgetry and technology example mentioned earlier. Let us say you own a gadgetry and technology review website and your audience range from teenagers to young adults interested in the technology world.

So for example, the content on your website should be written in a rather casual style without much sophistication based on the information provided about your audience. The content should as well be fully geared towards useful gadgetry and new technologies that your audience can make use of or fit right in their alley.

Due to your targeted audience being a young group in addition to the category you cover, your content should not generally be composed in a business-like manner but rather casual as mentioned earlier. With that said, by approaching your audience in a different monotone than expected, your audience will lose interest in the content and or website altogether.

Complimenting Your Website

Your content should compliment your website, which means that your content should be relevant to and or supplement the topics you cover. Think of your website as the introduction to, or the summary of, a book. The introduction gives the reader a general idea of what to expect throughout the book.

However, if the introduction does not compliment the contents of the book, it leaves the readers unhappy and rather confused about the entire book. Thus, your content should supplement or compliment your website to assure it is user friendly.

Skimmable Content

Most users never read your content thoroughly or completely but rather skim through it to get to where they may find it interesting and applicable to what they were searching for. Furthermore, by breaking down your content into short and understandable paragraphs or bullets, you make it easier for them to find what they were possibly looking for.

Additional enhancements to making your content skimmable are to highlight keywords that may possibly be in their interest or to create separate titles for several topics throughout. For example, let us say you have an article on the top ten friendly dog breeds.

To make the article easier to skim through, you would highlight the ten dog breeds you mention so users can easily find the breed they want to read more about or you can provide a title to each paragraph you mention each individual breed in.

Bloated Content

Your content should flow off the tongue naturally as if you are addressing the viewer personally. What this means is, your content should not be stuffed with “filler text” or bloat in order to address your message, but rather be direct and to the point to keep the readers interested in the topic rather than leave or skim through it due to useless and unneeded text.

Strengthen Your Argument

Whether you are reviewing a product, talking about methods to saving time, or how to properly mow your lawn, they are considered arguments, whether you have intended them to be or not. Arguments need to be backed up by other sources or facts.

A lot of times arguments are backed up by imagery or referencing facts your viewers may have never heard of which causes your reader to sometimes doubt about the contents authenticity or correctness.

Therefore, you should occasionally link to outside sources to back your argument to have your readers assure that your facts were not whipped up in a few minutes, but are rather backed up by other reputable sources. Not only does this strengthen your contents correctness, it also assures users that they have chosen the right place to read about certain topics.

Consistent Voice

From page to page, article to article, quote to quote, you want to assure your voice is consistent throughout your website and not contradictory. If users are finding out that you and your content are falling into contradictions throughout your website, it builds a mental image in your viewers mind that your website is covering topics its editors do not quite fully understand which leads to making your website an untrustworthy source to many.

In order to avoid contradictory content, go back and check the content you currently have that relates to what you want to publish, this assures that your voice is consistent and strong throughout.

While making your content user friendly may sometimes be a tricky challenge, it should be something that comes natural if the topic your website covers is something you enjoy and or experience. Additionally, users always tend to love to throw feedback whenever they can, whether be it on the topics you offer, topics you do not offer, your website layout, or even the frequency of how many times a week you post content or the length of the content.

Moreover, taking your users’ feedback and applying it is the best solution to making your content user friendly and targeted while showing your users that you care about their feedback and that your website is built around them rather than for them.

WDB has reached number 16 of the series of vector mix packs. Available for premium members / supporters of WDB these are top quality vectors, available in EPS format and high quality “hand made”.

Today we’ll be featuring some great signs, welcome signs, bonus plates, sticky notes, fountain pens, realistic old fashion pens, home decors, walls, windows, stone columns, wooden columns, boards for advertising and more.

You can get these and many more with commercial license included if you are kindly enough to support WDB. Read more if you’re interested.

DIRECT download links are available to premium members only.
Login or Become a member for only $9.99 / month so you can download all the vector graphics directly + free + commercial use included!

Related posts:

1. 66 EPS Vector Mix Volume 14
2. Vector Mix Volume 16 – Music
3. 84 EPS Vector Mix Volume 13

For todays news we have four fresh-out-of-the-oven web apps and resources that we think will simply blow your socks off. There are a couple of HTML5 tools which have taken the design community by storm this past week, there is also a new jQery framework for smartphones and tablets and, last but not least, the coolest web-based digital drawing app you would have seen in a long time.

HTML5 Boilerplate

HTML5 Boilerplate is a professional base HTML/CSS/JS template for fast, robust and future-proof web design. It has taken more than two years to develop and build all of its awesome features: Cross-browser normalization, performance optimizations, even optional features like cross-domain ajax and flash and much, much more.
HTML5 Boilerplate

HTML5 Reset

Like a lot of developers, you probably start every HTML project with the same old set of HTML and CSS templates. You've been using these files for a long time and you've progressively added bits and pieces to them as your own personal best practices have evolved. Now that modern browsers are starting to support some of the really useful parts of HTML5 and CSS3, it's time for an update.
HTML5 Reset

jQuery Mobile

jQuery Mobile is a unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. Its lightweight code has been built with progressive enhancement, and has a flexible, easily themeable design.
jQuery Mobile

deviantART Muro

From start to finish, deviantART Muro allows users to create complete works of art in ways never before realized by web-based digital drawing programs. It already boasts standard and interactive brushes, full-blown layer capabilities, and the ability to upload directly to your deviantART account, but they’ve also left room for expansion. You can expect to see many more features and functions added in the coming weeks.
deviantART Muro

By Paul Andrew (Speckyboyand speckyboy@twitter).