Digital Curves

Create Forest Posters in Photoshop

2009-05-26T01:06:00.000-07:00

Create a new document of 500×700 pixels. Download Forest 5 from Stock City here. Place the forest image into your document as shown in the diagram.

Download May Queen S11 from Mjranum Stock here. Open up the image in Photoshop, go to Filter > Extract to remove the background. You may wish to visit here to check out other methods of extraction.

Download Fairy S5 from Mjranum Stock here. Open up the image in Photoshop, go to Filter > Extract to remove the background. You may wish to visit here to check out other methods of extraction.

Drag and resize the extracted May Queen into your document. Right-click on the May Queen layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Outer Glow, set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 22%, Color to #FFFFBE, Size to 46px and leave the rest as default.

Rresize the Fairy and place it on the palm of May Queen. Right-click on the Fairy layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Outer Glow, set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 22%, Color to #FFFFBE, Size to 46px and leave the rest as default. Activate Color Overlay, set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and Color to #C8FF05.

Duplicate May Queen layer. Select the lower May Queen layer and go to Edit > Free Transform. Scale the image downwards like the one shown in the diagram.

Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Set the Lightness to -100. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 5px. Erase those unwanted shadows behind the May Queen with the Eraser tool.

Create a new layer and name it as Glitter. Select the Brush tool, set the size to 15px and brush type to Star. Set the foreground color to #FFFF00. Open up the Brush Palette and activate Scattering. Set the Scatter to 330%, Control to Pen Pressure, Count to 1 and Count Jitter to 0. Draw a path around the May Queen with Pen tool like the one shown below.

While selecting Pen tool, right-click on the path you have just drawn and choose Stroke Path. Set the mode to Brush and check on Simulate Pressure. Right-click on Glitter layer and activate Outer Glow. Set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 75%, Size to 5 and leave the rest as default. Activate Color Overlay and set the color to #E9F8AC. Do the same for another new path around May Queen again.

Create a new layer and name it as Flare. Download CS4 V2 Light Effect Brushes here. Select the Brush tool and choose crismas2.psd. Set the foreground color to #FFFFFF and paint a large flare behind the May Queen layer. Set the Blend Mode of Flare layer to Overlay.

Now merge all the layers you have created so far and name this new layer as Original. Duplicate the layer and set its Blend Mode to Soft Light.

Duplicate another layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 10px. Set the Blend Mode of this layer to Screen.

Create a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Set the Hue to 0, Saturation to -50 and Lightness to 0. Colorize remain unchecked.

Create a new Color Balance Adjustment Layer. Set the Color Levels to -17, 16, -20. Leave the rest as default settings.

Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer. Set a point in the middle of the curve with Output at 120 and Input at 130.

Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer. Set the values to 20, 1, 239.

Create a new Color Balance Adjustment Layer. Set the Color Levels to 23, 0, -18. Leave the rest as default settings.

You may wish to add in more fairies to complete a more magical design like what I did below. Hope you have enjoyed reading the tutorial.

Greatly appreciate if there is a stumble or digg!

I am Johnson Koh, a 28yrs old graphic a

Burning Effects In Photoshop

2009-05-26T01:00:00.001-07:00

Create a document of size 595×842 pixels. Download the Wall Texture from ShadowH3. Place the texture into the document and align it to the top.

Create a Levels Adjustment Layer above the texture layer and set the values to 0, 0.19, 255.

Download the Jump from SXC.hu. Extract the image out, excluding the head, hands and legs like the one shown below. You may use the Pen tool to do this or refer to this post for more extraction methods. Rename this layer to Jump 1.

Download the Water Splash image from SXC.hu. Open up the stock, and remove the glass as shown in the diagram by simply painting it in black. We will only need the splash in this case.

Go to its Channels and select the Blue layer. Press Ctrl+left click on the Blue layer (this will create a selection around the white area). Go back to Layers tab, create a new layer and fill the selection with white (#FFFFFF). There you will get a nice splash without any background.

Drag the splash into your working document.

Go to Edit > Transform > Distort. Adjust the splash to fit within the hole of shirt collar. Remove those unwanted areas with the Eraser tool.

Using the same method, add water splashes to rest of the holes. The stocks used here are: Download Water Explosion from SXC.hu, Download Water in the Glass from SXC.hu, Download Droplet from SXC.hu. Face the splashes in the same directions as the holes.

Download another Jump image from SXC.hu. Extract the image out, excluding the head, hands and legs like the one shown below. Rename this layer to Jump 2.

Select the Eraser Tool and set the Brush Type to Hard Pastel. Remove several areas around the edges of the clothes as shown in the diagram. These will act as the "burned edges".

Download Satan’s Fire from LadyDeath666. Open up the image and go to its Channels. Select the Red Channel and Ctrl+left click on it. This will create a selection around the white area.

With the selection, go back to Layers tab, drag the fire into your working document with the Move Tool. Position the fire above the jump image as shown below.

Using Eraser Tool with Airbrush and 200px, fade off some fire to reveal more of the clothes.

Using the same method, extract more fire and place them around the "burned edges" of the clothes.

Create a new layer below the clothes layer. Using the Brush Tool, with Airbrush type and 300px, paint a large dot with color #FF6A10. Set the Blend Mode of this layer to Linear Dodge (Add) and Opacity to 40%.

Right-click on the clothes layer and choose Blending Options. Check on Outer Glow, set the color to #F7B12F and rest of the settings as below. Check on Inner Glow, set the color to #FB6D08 and rest of the settings as below.

Download the last Jump image from SXC.hu. Extract the image out, excluding the head, hands and legs like the one shown below. Rename this layer to Jump 3.

Download Sand from Tatertot101010. Crop the sand texture along the outline of the original jump image. May erase slightly on both legs.

Extract the same Jump image again and this time includes the head, hands and legs. Place this new cropped image in between the Sand Texture and the Jump 3 layers. Set the Blend Mode of this layer to Multiply. Use the Eraser Tool to remove details, such as the eyes and some other areas.

Using the Eraser Tool with Chalk type, remove part of the sand face as though they are breaking up.

Do the same for the hands and legs.

Download Debris Brush Set from Zigabooooo. This is one of the most useful brush I have ever downloaded! Set your foreground color to #AD9254 and paint debris around those sand breaking areas.

Download Sand Flying from tempostormzepo. Open up the image and go to its Channels. Ctrl+left click on the Red Channel to load the selection around the lighter areas.

Go back to the Layers tab, drag the sand into your working document with the Move Tool. Go to Edit > Transform and rotate it to look like the one below. Use the Eraser Tool to touch up the edges.

Create a Curves Adjustment Layer, go to its Blue Channel and key the settings as shown in the diagram.

Create a Levels Adjustment Layer, and key the values 5, 0.92, 230.

And there you have it! Finish up the design with your title and you are done Hope you guys enjoy this tutorial. Also do provide me with some suggestions on what tutorials you like to see in the next post. Cheers!

Face Shattering Effects With Photoshop

2009-05-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

		Preparations: We will need close-up image of a nice face, prefably facing front. I’m using one of Jessica Alba wallpapers in this tutorial. You will also need the Reborn Brush created by Rubina119. Click here to download the Reborn Brushes. All rights of these resources belong to their respective owners.

		Step 1 - Setting Up Background: Create a document of size 750×550 pixels. Fill the Background layer with #black Place the face at the center of the document and use Soft Eraser tool to remove the other unwanted background.

		Step 2a - Drawing Face Grids: Create a new document of size 20×20 pixels and create a new layer. Use Pencil tool with size 1px and color #FFFFFF, draw left and bottom border to form a "L". Hide the Background layer and click Ctrl+A. Go to Edit > Define Pattern. Name this pattern as Grid. Back to Jessica Alba’s document, create a new layer above the Face. Use the Paint Bucket tool and select to fill with Grid pattern

		Step 2b - Drawing Face Grids: Remove those grids that cross outside of the face area. Go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Distort the grids the way shown in the diagram.

		Step 2c - Drawing Face Grids: Set the opacity of the grid layer to 20%. Right-click on the grid layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Outer Glow and set its Blend Mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 100%, Color to #FFFFFF, Spread to 0 and Size to 5px. Leave the rest of the settings as default.

		Step 3a - Shattered Blocks: Create a new layer and name it as Holes. With Pen tool, path out several square holes according to the face grids. Go to the Paths tab, Ctrl+left click on the work path layer created. Back to Layers tab, select the Holes layer and fill the selection with #000000.

		Step 3b - Shattered Blocks: Ctrl+left click on the Holes layer to load selection. Select the Face layer and hit Ctrl+X to cut out the pixels. Then press Ctrl+V to paste and then name this new layer as Blocks. Drag the blocks to the right with Move tool. Go to Edit > Free Transform to reduce the size slightly.

		Step 3c - Shattered Blocks: Duplicate the Blocks layer. Shift the lower Blocks layer 1 pixel to the left. Repeat this for 10 times and you will get some sort of extruding effect. Merge these 10 layers of duplicated Blocks and name this new merged layer as Sides. Right-click on the Sides layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Gradient Overlay and set Blend Mode to Normal, Opacity to 80%, Gradient from #000000 to #D58761 and Angle to 180. Leave the rest as default.

		Step 3d - Shattered Blocks: Activate Pattern Overlay and set Blend Mode to Multiply, Opacity to 100% Pattern to Metal Landscape. Leave the rest as default. Right-click on Blocks layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Outer Glow and set Blend Mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 75%, Color to #FFFFFF and Size to 10px. Leave the rest as default.

		Step 3e - Shattered Blocks: Repeat Step 3a to 3d for 2-3 more times to form more blocks floating towards the right.

		Step 4 - Adding Depth to Holes: Merge all the Holes layers. Right-click on the merged layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Bevel and Emboss, set the Style to Inner Bevel, Depth to 72%, Size to 5px, Soften to 0px, Angle to 0, Altitude to 50, Highlight Mode to Screen, Highlight Color to #DCA57E, Highlight Opacity to 100%, Shadow Mode to Multiply, Shadow Color to #000000 and Shadow Opacity to 75%. Leave the rest of settings as default.

		Step 5 - Adding Smoke: Create a new layer below the Blocks and name it as Smoke. Set the foreground color to #FFFFFF. Load the Reborn brushes downloaded earlier and paint a few smoke of different sizes on this layer. Right-click on the Smoke layer and choose Blending Options. Activate Outer Glow and set its Blend Mode to Linear Dodge (Add), Opacity to 75%, Color to #FFFFFF, Spread to 0px and Size to 5px. Leave the rest of settings as default.

		Step 6 - Adding Dark Blocks: Create a new layer and name it as Dark Blocks. Using Pen tool, path out few more blocks along the face grid. Fill the shapes with #000000. Set the Blend Mode of Dark Blocks layer to Soft Light.

		Step 7 - Adding Light Blocks: Create a new layer and name is as Light Blocks. Similar to Step 6 but this time fill the shapes with #FFFFFF. Set the Blend Mode of Light Blocks layer to Soft Light.

		Step 8 - Adjusting Colors: Now we need to smooth the face a little. Select the Face layer and go to Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Set the Radius to 5px and Threshold to 15 levels. Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer and key in 10, 1.25, 244. Create a new layer and using a large Soft Brush tool with color #000000 and opacity 40%, paint some dark areas on the right to fade the blocks slightly.

		Optional: I merely added a barcode on her right arm to complete the design. This is another long tutorial and I hope you will like this effect. Click here to view the final image.

Five-color Magazine Cover using a Spot Metallic

2009-05-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Introduction

First off, you’ll export an InDesign template into Photoshop, then assemble a multi-channel, complex illustration. Then discover how to incorporate the same spot color information into your Illustrator files. You’ll then assemble all these elements using InDesign and utilize some of its’ advanced output preview features. Finally, I’ll show you how to export a printer-friendly PDF and give it a preflight check with Acrobat Professional.

Feel free to use your own images, but bear in mind the process we’ll be using doesn’t lend itself to every image type – for example the stock image of the girl is an ideal choice because of her silver dress.

Here's a list of images I used:

The large version of the girl from iStockphoto
The vector flourishes from iStockphoto
The CD from stock.xchng

Final Image Preview

Take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below.

For PSD Plus Members, the Photoshop PSD file in a directory labeled "source" that came in the ZIP file that you downloaded. You may wish to look through it briefly before we begin. You'll also find other Photoshop files to complete the illustration, along with a low resolution PDF template, the completed InDesign file. A preview of the final image is below and a video to show the metallic effect.

The Print Process Explained

Offset printing is composed of four spot colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black) commonly referred to as CMYK. Some colors are impossible to reproduce with CMYK alone, such as metallics. Nowadays many commercial printers have five or six color presses, so it's not uncommon for designers to integrate one, or even two extra spot colors. Take a look at your local newsstand and you'll see many magazines that have been printed with additional inks or special print finishes to grab your attention.

It's also vital to liaise with your printer before commencing work – he'll advise what's possible, as well as the cost implications. In this case the metallic PANTONE 8228 C ink would be printed first, then the CMYK inks would overprint – CMYK inks are slightly transparent, so for this to work properly, you need to knock-out selective areas to allow the pure metallic to show through. In other areas, such as the models' dress, we'll let the CMYK to overprint – for a subtle shimmer effect.

Step 1

Start off by creating a new portrait InDesign document that is 230mm by 297mm. This tutorial only focuses on the cover design, so uncheck Facing Pages, set the Top/Bottom Margins to 7mm and the Left/Right ones to 8mm. Now add 3mm Bleed to the Top, Bottom and Right, leaving the Left at zero.

Step 2

Ensure you're Guides (Command + Semi-Colon key) and Rulers (Command + R) are visible, then position a guide at 70mm and one at 259mm. For precision, simply highlight the guide and enter the amounts in the Y Location fields. It's also a good idea to hit Option + Command + Semi-Colon key to Lock Guides after, so you don't accidentally move them.

Step 3

Go to your Swatches palette and use the fly-out menu to select New Color Swatch, then uncheck the Name with Color Value option and label it "Shiner black." Ensure the Color Type is set to Process and the Color Mode is CMYK. Now enter 40% Cyan, 1% Magenta, 1% Yellow and 100% Black. Adding 40% Cyan to the color breakdown makes a deeper or rich black. I'll explain why it's important to add the 1% Magenta and Yellow in the next step.

Step 4

Ensure that you've got Snap to Guides enabled (Shift + Command + Semi-Colon key), then draw a block (Fill set to 100% "Shiner black" and Stroke at zero). Select the Rectangle Tool (R) and draw from the top of the document, snapping to the first guide. Now select the block with the Selection Tool (V) to accurately check its coordinates and dimensions using the Reference Point Locator. Add another black rectangle to the base of the document, checking it's position also. Note, at this stage I'm not adding any bleed, I prefer this as a final step.

If you look at the final design, you'll see that the two black solids sit over four-color imagery. The reason 1% in each of the Magenta and Yellow is a fail safe just in case the printers' RIP is not set correctly and avoids the possibility of the black panels overprinting instead of knocking out any elements that run behind it. The 1% will automatically force a knockout – this is especially beneficial for large black font sizes. Mistakes are often made for black text, as traditionally it overprints, but if the text is above a certain size you may see the image or element behind it.

Step 5

Now to create the masthead – this is the visual branding of the publication, which needs to be instantly recognizable. I prefer using Illustrator for this part.

Create a new CMYK, A4 landscape Illustrator document and label it "Masthead." Now select the Rectangle Tool and click anywhere on the artboard. In the next dialogue box enter a Width of 214mm and a Height of 40mm. The width was calculated from subtracting InDesigns' right and left guides from the document width. The depth is not critical, just a rough guess of how much the masthead should occupy. Click OK, then hit Command + 5 to Make Guides.

Now choose a font that's going to have the desired impact and shelf-presence – I used Helvetica Neue Black. Select the Type Tool (T), click on the artboard and enter your text. Next, adjust the font size to the depth of the guides.

Step 6

It's vital when using large font sizes to adjust the spaces between individual characters. This is called kerning and should not be confused with tracking which adjusts the spacing between whole words.

First make sure you've got the default Auto kerning option selected. Auto kerning uses the font's built-in kerning pairs. If the font has adequate kern pair tables (as do most fonts from major type foundries), this setting is usually the best choice. The Optical setting overrides the font's built-in kern tables so that Illustrator determines the spacing and kerning between all character pairs. This can be useful when a font has few or no built-in kern pairs, or when the overall spacing seems uneven.

Click between the characters you wish to adjust with the Type Tool. To kern in or out, hold down Option and tap the left or right arrow keys. Depending on which way you tap, you will see that the space between the letters is increased or decreased by 20 em in the Character Palette (an em is defined as a measure for 12-point type; a pica). In Illustrator's preferences, you can set the default em spacing to something lower which will increase or decrease the spacing in smaller increments if you wish.

You'll see that I've tightened up the spacing between each character by eye for a pleasing result. When you're happy, resize the text to your guides by Shift-dragging the top right corner with the Selection Tool V).

Step 7

Now add the smaller header, again Helvetica Neue but using Black Extended. I decided to range this to the r of the large header snapping it to a guide. Pay close attention to your kerning on the smaller header too.

Step 8

I like to think of a masthead as essentially a logo, so once you're happy, convert it to paths (Shift + Command + O), fill with white, then Save As an EPS file (Shift + Command + S) and name it "Masthead_outlines.eps."

Switch back to your InDesign file and with nothing selected hit Command + D to navigate and place it. Now snap it to the top margins and press Option + Command + H to enable High Quality Display. Depending on your placed file you may need to press the Fit frame to content option to tidy things up.

Step 9

Place the"Psd_CMYK_logo.eps" from the "source" folder top right as shown and Command + Shift-drag using the Selection Tool to resize (or place your own logo). Now add the strapline – I used Din Bold ranged left at 17pt, there's no need to adjust any kerning here because of the small font size. Incidentally, InDesign calls its default kerning and tracking Metrics as opposed to Auto – I used a setting of -20.

Next, add the web address in a separate ranged right text box – I used Din Light at the same size and tracking. Be selective when choosing your fonts, I've only used two font families for the entire design; both Helvetica and Din have a variety of weights/styles that achieve a polished look. If you use a mass of different font styles, your work will look amateurish.

Step 10

Add a white box, bottom left, then place the "Barcode.eps" from the "source" folder. Now add some further text as shown. You can now range/align these elements as shown and then group them.

Step 11

Drop in some more text along the bottom of the document, then divide using a 5pt lined rule. All these objects can now be selected and distributed equally using the Align palette.

Step 12

Now add the main ranged-left coverline as shown. Depending on your font usage you may notice some characters sit flush against the side of a text frame and others get inset a little, even when the text Inset values (inside Object > Text Frame Options) are set to zero. This is down to the fonts' left side bearing, also called overhang, or padding. When a font is designed, each character is placed on a grid, with the lower-left corner (the origin) at zero. The designer then has to decide how far from that origin the left edge of the character should sit.

Virtually all characters in all fonts have a little bit of a left side bearing. A few have negative or zero left side bearings and some have a fraction of a right-side bearing instead. If a font has no sidebearings, then the characters would overlap each other.

As a workaround you can trick InDesign by inserting a space before the first character, then placing the cursor between them and tracking backwards – I used a value of -290.

Step 13

Go in and track/kern your heading text as required, then add another text box filled with "Shinner black." Add some white-out text and select Align Center in the Paragraph palette. Now open the Text Frame Options (Command + B) and select Center under Vertical Justification drop-down menu. You may need to add a fraction of Baseline Shift – I used 0.8pt.

Step 14

Add another block of centered text as shown, then Shift-drag a circle and send to the back by hitting Shift + Command + Right Bracket key. Now align both objects centrally, then group and rotate 10 degrees. Finally, position just under the coverline.

Step 15

With the design almost complete, you can now color up some of the elements and text for greater impact as shown. Ultimately we'll be using a metallic silver ink, but for now make a CMYK representation by creating a new swatch labelled "Mock-up metallic" using 25% Cyan and 40% Black. Next, add another swatch labelled "PSD red" that matches the logo – I used 20% Cyan, 100% Magenta, 100% Yellow and 12% Black.

Step 16

Draw a rectangle, or any shape filled with the "Mock-up metallic" swatch and then Cut it (Command + X). Now highlight the "Masthead_outlines.eps" within the links palette, then click the Edit Original icon to open it in Illustrator. Now Paste (Command + V) the object, select the word "Creative" and click on the block to recolor the lettering using the Eyedropper Tool (I), delete the block, then Save. This is a quick way to color objects between the two applications. Finally, back in In Design click on the Update Link icon.

Step 17

Let's add some small red chevrons next to the bottom right text – we'll be adding a CD graphic later to attract the readers' attention. Start by creating a rectangle filled with "PSD red" that's precisely 14mm Wide by 22mm High. With the shape selected press Option + Shift + Command + D to bring up the Transform Each dialogue box and use the following settings: Horizontal = 0, Vertical = 22mm, Distance = 22mm and Angle = -90 degrees, then press the Copy button.

Now select the original object, double-click on the Shear Tool (O), then give it a Shear Angle of -35 degrees and an Axis Angle of zero degrees. Finally, select the duplicated shape and apply an opposite Shear Angle, of 35 degrees.

Step 18

Select both objects, then click on the Add icon in the pathfinder palette to create a compound shape. Now duplicate the shape by Option + Shift + dragging to the right. Group both shapes, resize and align to the text bottom right as shown.

Step 19

We're now going to generate a PDF which will serve as a template for the Photoshop illustration. Press Command + E and select High Quality Print in the Preset drop down menu. Next, select just the Crop Marks giving them a Weight of 0.50pt, then add 20mm Bleed all round and click Export.

Step 20

Import the PDF into Photoshop selecting Bleed Box in the Crop To drop-down menu and checking Anti-aliased. Ensure the Resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch and in RGB Mode, then click OK to open it in Photoshop and name the layer "Template." Ultimately, we'll be converting to CMYK mode for print, so hit Command + Y to enable CMYK preview – this will avoid any unexpected color shifts when it's changed.

Step 21

At this point you're probably thinking there's way too much bleed, but from experience it's always good practice to add too much rather than too little. It leaves more room for maneuver when placing into InDesign, especially as additional coverlines are sometimes added at the last minute.

Add a group folder below the "Template" and label it "BACKGROUND." Now open the "Stained_paper.jpg" from the "source" folder and Shift-drag its thumbnail into the folder as a new layer and name it "Paper." Add a Color Balance adjustment layer above the "Paper" setting the Midtone Cyan to +41, Green to -12 and the Blue to +5. Next add a Levels adjustment setting the Input Level midpoint to 1.03 and the whitepoint to 246.

Step 22

Drop in "Wash.jpg" from the "source" folder above the adjustment, then set the Blending Mode to Multiply and label it "Watercolor 1." Duplicate, then go Edit > Transform > Flip horizontal and name it "Watercolor 2." Now position both layers as shown.

Step 23

Add "Splat_1" and "Splat_2" from the "source" folder above the watercolors. Position as shown, then set their Blending Modes to Color Burn and label them "Paint 1" and "Paint 2."

Step 24

Set the illustration file to one side, because next we need to isolate the model. Open the girl image, then use the Pen Tool (P) set to Paths to carefully plot around the figure ignoring the hair (1). Now set the Pen Tool to Subtract from path area to draw the two inner paths (2). When you're done, double-click and name the path "Clipping."

Remember, when creating paths to zoom in and use the Option, Command and Shift modifier keys as you work. Plus you can always fine-tune your path by pressing Command to access the Direct Selection Tool and adjust individual direction/anchor points as required.

Step 25

Command-click the path thumbnail to generate a selection, then add a new channel by clicking on the Create new channel icon at the foot of the palette. Double-click the new channel thumbnail and ensure the Masked Areas option is checked. Now with black set as your foreground color and hit Delete to fill the active selection with white.

Step 26

Now to mask the hair. Duplicate the Blue channel (which holds the most contrast) by dragging its thumbnail into the Create new channel icon. Increase the contrast of the duplicate channel by pressing Command + L to access Levels and set the Input Level blackpoint to 56, the midpoint to 0.45 and the whitepoint to 143.

Step 27

Command-click the "Alpha 1" thumbnail to generate a selection, then target the "Blue copy" channel and hit Alt + Delete filling the selection with black – don't deselect just yet.

Step 28

Inverse the selection (Shift + Command + I), then select the Brush Tool (B) and use a hard-edged, white brush to remove any background areas.

Step 29

Zoom in and use the Burn Tool (O) set to Midtones and an Exposure of 53% to darken the edges of the hair.

Step 30

Generate a selection from the channel, then target the top RGB composite channel. Now switch to your layers palette, then hit Command + J to float the selection as a new layer. Finally, disable the visibility of the underlying layer to ensure the channel mask has done a good job.

Step 31

Drag/drop the layer into your illustration file and label it "Girl normal." Create a new folder, named "GIRL" below the "Template" and place the layer into it. Now hit Command + T to Transform. Also, lowering the Opacity of the "Template" layer will help you position it as shown.

Step 32

Duplicate the "Girl normal" layer by dragging its thumbnail into the Create new layer icon. Set the Blending Mode to Soft Light, drop the Opacity to 63% and label it "Girl soft light." Add a Hue Saturation adjustment layer and use the Edit drop-down menu to set the Reds, Yellows and Cyans as shown. Next, set the adjustment layers' Opacity to 70%, then click between the layer thumbnails to clip the adjustment to the two underlying layers.

Step 33

Command-click the "Girl normal" layer to generate a selection. Switch to your channels palette, add a new channel, fill the selection with white and label it "Girl."

Step 34

Add the metallic channel by selecting New Spot Channel in the top-right fly-out menu. In the next window click on the color chip, which opens another dialogue box. Select PANTONE metallic coated from the drop-down Book menu, then PANTONE 8220 C (which is a blue/silver metallic), then click OK.

At this point it's a good idea to save – as it's important to check the Alpha Channel and Spot Color options are selected. Also refer to a metallic PANTONE swatch book when choosing your spot color, don't just rely on its on-screen representation. If you don't have one, ask your printer. Remember there's a whole spectrum of metallics – you don't need to limit yourself to just silver or gold.

Step 35

We now need to duplicate selective parts of the figure into the metallic channel. A straight Copy and Paste will not align correctly, because there's image information extending beyond the canvas. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M), snapping to the canvas edges to add a couple of temporary black blocks on opposing corners on the "Girl normal" layer. Next, Select All and Copy, switch to the channels palette, target the “PANTONE 8220 C“ channel and Paste..

Step 36

We only need the models' dress and eye information in the metallic channel. Begin plotting paths around the hard-edged area as shown, generate a path-based selection and fill with white.

Step 37

Continue erasing areas with paths until it looks something like this. We'll be refining areas where the hair meets the dress in the next few steps.

Step 38

Go to Select > Color Range, then click on the image as shown, setting the Fuzziness slider to 43 and clicking OK.

Step 39

Paint within the selection to remove the hair using a white brush. To achieve a soft edge you can also paint directly on the channel after deselecting. As the CMYK inks will sit over these silver areas, it's best if the midtone areas contain 30% or more and the darkest areas contain no more than 90%. This can be checked using the info palette and hovering over the image with the eyedropper. You can always apply a Levels adjustment if your percentages are higher.

Step 40

The eyes now need a little more work. Use a soft-edged white brush to remove the dark pupil area. Now toggle the visibility of the composite RGB channel to see the effect of the metallic channel. You can now adjust the channels' appearance by double-clicking its thumbnail and dropping the Solidity setting – I used 10%. Modifying this setting does not alter how the ink will print, it's purely for previewing – and the percentage used gives a pretty good indication of how the ink will sit.

Step 41

Image A shows the channels' visibility disabled and image B shows it enabled – see how the metallic slightly darkens the models' dress and eyes.

Step 42

Open the vector flourishes in Illustrator, then duplicate your chosen shapes. Fill some of the smaller shapes with the CMYK equivalent of the metallic (25% Cyan and 40% Black). Now fill selective areas on some of the larger swirls. Don't go overboard, these areas will eventually become metallic, so it's good to have some CMYK areas for contrast.

Step 43

Start to Copy and Paste (as Smart Objects) the smaller objects into a new folder labelled "SHAPES" positioned below the "GIRL" folder. You can drop the Opacity of the "Template" layer to help with positioning.

Step 44

Continue to add the larger flourishes around the model. Feel free to transform them to fit the layout. I've avoided placing any metallic areas near to the main coverline to keep it prominent, as later this will print metallic.

Step 45

Add masks to any layers where objects overlap.

Step 46

Allow some small flourishes to overlap the girl by generating a selection from the chosen shape. Target the "GIRL" folder, then go Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection.

Step 47

Add a new channel (not Spot Color), then double-click its thumbnail and check Selected Areas and name it "Metallic shapes." Now generate selections from your smaller shape layers and fill with black on the new channel.

Step 48

Make selections from further shape layers and fill with white to chop away any overlap areas. Also generate selections with the Magic Wand Tool, set to Contiguous to add further black areas.

Step 49

When you're done adding the black areas, generate a selection from the "Girl" channel and fill with white on the "Metallic shapes" channel, don't deselect just yet.

Step 50

Ensure your "Metallic shapes" channel is targeted, then Inverse the active selection and Copy. Now target the "PANTONE 8220 C" and Paste. Disable the visibility of the other channels and it should look something like this.

Step 51

Next we'll knock out some of the "PANTONE 8220 C" channel by generating a selection from the overlap shape layer and filling with white.

Step 52

Delete the smaller shape layers that were completely filled with the CMYK metallic (see Step 43). Now generate a selection from the "Metallic shapes" channel, target each of the remaining shape layers in turn and go Layer Mask > Hide Selection – this has now revealed the "PANTONE 8220 C" channel areas.

Next, make a selection from the "Metallic shapes" channel again. Add a new layer at the top of the stack within the "SHAPES" folder and label it "Knockout," now fill the active selection with white. If you toggle the visibility of the "PANTONE 8220 C" channel and the "Knockout" layer you'll see RGB areas have been punched out, allowing the metallic to show through.

Step 53

The illustration is almost finished, but as a final tweak drop the Opacity of the girls' Hue/Saturation adjustment layer down to 30%.

Step 54

Be sure to Save, then delete the "Template" layer. Now flatten all layers and convert to CMYK (Image > Mode > CMYK). Delete the "Metallic shapes" and "Girl" channels and Save As "Cover_illustration.tif" ensuring Spot Colors are checked.

Step 55

Switch to your InDesign file and add a new layer called "Main image" beneath the default one. Add another layer at the top and label it "Graphics." Now select all your artwork except the black bars and move them to this layer with the pointer icon (located right of the layer thumbnail). Rename the original default layer (which should now only contain the black bars) "Solid blocks."

You can now Place the illustration on the "Main image" layer setting both coordinates to -20mm (remember we gave the illustration the same bleed in Step 19). Also get into the habit of locking layers you're not working on to avoid accidentally moving objects.

Step 56

Drag/snap the corners of picture box to the document bleed using the Selection Tool, then check the coordinates again. Now if you examine the color palette, you'll see the placed illustration has also imported the "PANTONE 8220 C" swatch.

Step 57

Open the "Masthead_outlines.eps" in Illustrator using the links palette, then load the same PANTONE metallic swatch library. Now recolor using the same "PANTONE 8220 C" swatch and Save.

Step 58

The linked file should now update automatically, if it doesn't click the Update Link icon. Now drag the "Mock-up metallic" swatch into the trash, in the next window select "PANTONE 8220 C" to replace it. Now all instances of that swatch have been updated.

It's also a good idea to get rid of any unused swatches by choosing Select All Unused in the palette pop-out menu (located top-right) and trashing them too.

Step 59

Open the to CD image and select the Ellipse Custom Shape Tool (U) set to Paths and Shift-drag a circle. Don't sweat if you don't get the size and position right, you can reposition it by selecting with the Path Selection Tool (A) and pressing Command + T to scale it. Next set the path option to Subtract from path area to draw the inner circle.

Step 60

Shift-click both paths with the Path Selection Tool, then click both central align options. We now need to add some central guides. A quick tip to do this is to generate a path-based selection and snap guides to it. Now snap the Crop Tool (C) to the guides, then drag in central guides which again snap to the crop. Finally, you can cancel the crop prompt.

Step 61

The CD looks a little bland, so let's add some more color. Select the Gradient Tool (G), then load the "Special Effects" library from the fly-out menu. Choose the "Russel's Rainbow" gradient and using the Angle Gradient preset drag a gradient from the center on a new layer, then set the Blending Mode to Overlay. Add more gradients, again in Overlay mode on separate layers to build up the effect.

Step 62

Disable the visibility of the gradients, then make a selection from the base layer using Color Range. First, set the Fuzziness slider to 56, click on point A, then select the Plus eyedropper icon and click on point B to add to the selection.

Step 63

For some metallic sparkle, add a spot channel using the same "PANTONE 8220 C" as previous. With the selection still active and the new channel targeted, hit Shift + F5 to bring up the fill options and select 50% Gray under the Contents menu.

Step 64

Knock back the strength of the channel by adding a Levels adjustment, setting the midpoint slider to 1.35.

Step 65

Enable the visibility of the gradients and flatten. Now go to Image > Mode > CMYK, then hit Shift + Command + I to check the resolution is set to 300dpi. Finally, save a version as "CD.tif."

Step 66

Place the "CD.tif" on the "Graphics" layer, then resize and position as shown. Now hit Option + Shift + Command + K to access the Clipping Path dialogue box and select the embedded Photoshop Path.

Step 67

We now require a separate Photoshop file of the girl, so her head and left hand can encroach into the header bar. Open your layered "Cover_illustration.psd" and delete all folders/layers apart from the "GIRL" folder. Now press Shift + Command + E to Merge Visible, then convert to CMYK and delete all the extra channels leaving just the CMYK.

Step 68

Generate a selection from the layer, then use the Clone Tool (S) to carefully fill any transparent gaps around the top of the hair.

Step 69

Select the Eraser Tool (E) and use a small, hard edge to give the top of the hair a definitive edge. Now Save As "just_girl_illustration.psd," ensuring it's in the native Photoshop (PSD) format.

Step 70

Back in your InDesign file, select and Copy the "Cover_illustration.tif." Add a new layer at the top of the stack and label it "Cut out," then " Press Option + Shift + Command + V to Paste in Place.

Step 71

Pull the handles of the picture box in as shown, so just the required areas break the header bar.

Step 72

Now make chosen elements of the design pop – such as a shadow on the main coverline. Cut and Paste the black text into a new text box (we only want the shadow on the metallic text). Now press Option + Command + M to access the Drop Shadow dialogue box and use the settings shown.

You can now save the effect by selecting the New Object Style in the fly-out menu in Object Style palette and label accordingly.

Step 73

Select the red circle with the Direct Selection Tool (A) and apply the same drop shadow style. Feel free to use the same settings on other elements. But remember these effects can be problematic if not understood correctly.

Every time you apply such an effect it creates an area of transparency that will rasterize surrounding elements such as text. To avoid such issues, always move these objects to a new layer. You can see all mine have been moved to an uppermost layer named "Drop shadow graphics" – except the top black header bar which is fine where it is.

Step 74

InDesign has a cool feature to check your artwork will print correctly – hit Shift + F6 to open the Separations Preview window. Then select Separations in the drop-down View menu and toggle the visibility of the CMYK and spot inks.

Step 75

Now select the Flattener Preview tab in the same window and select All Rasterized Regions in the Highlight drop-down menu. This will highlight any areas for concern mentioned in step 73. From this information I saw I'd missed a problem with the two lines of text directly beneath the masthead.

Step 76

These lines were moved to a new layer at the top of the stack and labelled "Tag lines."

Step 77

The often misunderstood concept of trapping is a complex one, and best left to the experts. As a golden rule lithographic printers will ignore any frame settings applied to your job – they'll apply their own framing on the RIP using specialist trapping software. You're always best checking with the printer to ensure that they will take care of the framing. After all, this is what you're paying them for.

If a printer asks you to do your own trapping it should immediately ring alarm bells! They may not have bothered to purchase the framing software, or even worse they'll pass the blame onto you if the job goes wrong. Either way, it is a sign of a substandard printer or pre-press house.

Step 78

Another precaution is to hit Alt + Shift + Command + F to open the Preflight window. From here you can check fonts; modified or missing links; that there's no RGB images (a common mistake), as well as your four-color and spot inks. Once you're happy, hit the Report button to create a TXT file to accompany your artwork PDF to the printer.

Step 79

To cover yourself further, ask your printer to supply you with their preferred PDF preset. These can easily be loaded into InDesign by choosing File > Adobe PDF Presets > Define, clicking Load and navigating.

The example below shows an example supplied to me that's never thrown up any problems!

With your PDF preset loaded hit Command + E to Export, choose Adobe PDF from the Format drop-down menu, then hit the Save button.

If you're following this tutorial without using a supplied PDF setting, I suggest using one of the "PDF/X" presets.

Step 80

When the Export process has completed, you can open the PDF with Acrobat Professional for a final check. Select Advanced > Overprint Preview, then Output Preview. You'll now see a window very similar to InDesign's Separation palette. Check the Separations box and you'll see the CMYK, plus the metallic inks.

Step 81

Now toggle the visibility of the Spot Plates to make sure everything has exported as it should.

Step 82

Finally, check Color Warnings, as well as Show Overprinting and Rich Black. As long as all your transparent areas are on separate layers, your fine. Now all that's left to do is send the PDF off to print, relax and go and make a coffee!

Step 83

If you incorporate a lot of special inks or print finishes and want to give your client the wow factor – it maybe worth investing in a Esko Visualizer which I used to create the video file shown below. Esko Visualizer allows you to quickly create and share ultra-realistic on-screen mock-ups and soft proofs of complex print finishing effects such as metallics, spot varnishes, foil blocking and embossing by simply loading a PDF.

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has taken some of the mystery of working with spot colors and metallic inks. I'd also like to thank pre-press expert Richard Ainge for his technical support and checking my files were error free!

How To Create Grass Text Effect in Photoshop

2009-05-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Part 1—The Background

This tutorial is made up of three parts—the background, the text itself, and some final extra effects. So first of all we're going to make a background. To do this we create a new document in Photoshop. I made mine 1920 x 1200 because I want this image to sit on my laptop background.

We start by drawing a Radial Gradient with the Gradient Tool (G) going from a light yellow-green (#adbf41) to a mid-range green (#328a26). I wonder if I've ever written a tutorial that doesn't start with a radial gradient. :-)

Step 2

Now for this image we want to create a really textured background, faintly resembling paper. So the first thing we need is ... a paper texture!

Happily you can grab some really awesome grungy paper textures from Bittbox and they are nice and large too, which is good because this is a huge canvas.

So I can't remember which texture I used first, but grab one, desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U) and stretch it over the top to fit the canvas.

Step 3

Now we set the layer to Overlay and 70% Opacity to blend the texture with our nice green background.

Step 4

Now to get a really distressed look, I then copied this layer, spun it around 180' and set it to 20%. Then I brought in a few more layers of paper texture (using different textures, mostly from Bittbox) and set them all to faint overlays, one on top of the other.

This was partly for the extra distress, but also because I realised that the textures looked a bit grainy and not small and sharp. So by combining extra textures and then fading it all back, I can get a nicer, sharper overall look.

Anyhow as you can see in the screenshot there are six layers here. Don't forget if you are a Plus member you can download the PSD file for this tutorial and take a look in there yourself!

Step 5

Now I duplicated the original background gradient, placed the duplicate layer above all the textures and set it to 40% Opacity—this tones back the texture so it's not quite so grungy!

Step 6

Now we create a new layer over the top and using a large, soft, black brush, add some black to the edges. It's worth toning back the opacity to about 30% and Overlay. You can then duplicate the layer and run a heavy Gaussian Blur over it (set to about 32px). That way the edges really soften out.

Step 7

OK, we now have a nice background!

Part 2—Grass Text!

OK, we are now ready to make some grass text. To do that, we're going to need some nice pretty grass to cut. After a lot of searching, I finally found this lovely photo on Flickr of grass.

So download the image at full-size and copy it on to your canvas.

Step 9

Next we need some type. So select a font you want to cut out with. I chose Swiss 924BT, which is fat and condensed type. I thought it looked nice and grand. And I've written the text "EARTH". That's because I'm making five of these wallpapers—earth, water, fire, air, spirit ... it's like that cartoon I used to watch as a kid, Captain Planet!

Anyways, so just set your text out in white and set it to Overlay and like 50% Opacity. This layer won't actually show in the end, it's just a guide layer.

Step 10

OK, so here's the text on top of the grass we got earlier.

Now a bit of planning! To make text out of grass, it's not going to be enough just to stencil out the grass. Rather we need it to look all rough, with bits of grass sticking out the edges. To do that, we're going to use the letter shapes as a rough guide and then trace roughly around them and periodically jut out to trace around blades of grass.

I'll warn you now, it's very tiresome!

Step 11

OK, so here we are tracing. You should use the Pen Tool (P) and frankly, if you're not handy with it before you start, you will be by the end!

Notice how in the parts where my path juts out, it sort of follows individual blades of grass. That way when you have the final cut-out they will look like pieces of grass sticking out.

Step 12

When you've finished your path, it's best to save it in the Paths Palette. You can do this by switching to that palette and then clicking the little down arrow and choosing Save Path. That way if you need the path again later, you can grab it.

Anyhow, double-click the path to get the selection and go back to your grass layer. Duplicate the grass layer so you still have more grass for the other letters, then invert your selection (Ctrl+Shift+I) and cut away the excess grass. In the screenshot I've faded back the duplicate grass layer so you can see the cut out "E" part.

Step 13

OK, so here we have our "E" on the final bakcground. As you can see, it looks only slightly better than if we'd just used the letter to stencil out the grass without bothering to trace. But that's OK, what it needs is a bit more depth. After all, if that letter was really sitting there, we should see some shadow and sides to it.

Step 14

First of all though, we'll add some layer styling to give it a bit more of a three dimensional look. The styles are shown below.

Layer Style

Here's the first set of layer styles...

Step 15

Now duplicate that layer, then clear the layer style off the duplicate, so we can add some more styles. This time add the styles shown below...

Layer Style

Here's the second set of layer styles... (Note that it's 51% Opacity so it'll blend in with the previous layer)

Step 16

So this was all just experimental, and it kinda looks OK, but obviously has a long way to go. Now we'll add some shadow. For that we'll use a technique that I demonstrated in a previous tutorial, Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

The idea is to make a three dimensional look. So Ctrl-click the grass layer and then in a new layer below, fill it with black. Then press the down arrow once and the right arrow once and fill it again, then repeat over and over until you get an effect like that shown. I think that was about 15 steps of filling.

Step 17

Now we run a Filter > Blur > Motion Blur on our shadow with a 45' angle and a distance of about 30. Then set the text to a low opacity of about 50%. You should have something that looks like the screenshot below.

Step 18

Now move the shadow layer down and to the right and magic happens! All of a sudden it looks like the letter is casting a shadow. Pretty neat!

Step 19

Now I duplicated this layer three times. Each time I erased a bit of it away so that as the shadow is closer to the text it gets darker. I set these layers to Multiply.

Step 20

So this text is looking pretty cool, but for that extra bit of depth we should add some bits of grass in the background/shadow area. Rather than cutting out more grass, we can just use this current letter transformed about so that it's not obvious that we're hacking it together.

So as you can see below I created a few pieces of grass. They are just cut up bits of our main letter.

Step 21

Now by moving those pieces into the shadow areas, we can make it look like there is grass sticking out and it's a real 3D object made from grass!

Because these new grass bits are in shadow, you might want to use the Burn Tool (O) to darken them appropriately.

Step 22

So yay, one letter down ... four to go! Good thing we didn't choose a long word like erm I don't know ... laborious!

Step 23

Using the exact same technique ... here is the A;

Step 24

and the R and T ... you get the picture.

Step 25

And finally, the whole word! The only extra thing I did here was to move the letters apart a little. Each letter is in its own Layer Group which makes moving it around much easier.

Part 3—The Finish!

Now nice as it's looking, our text is a little lonely and monotonous. So in this last section we'll add a few more elements to the design. Note we don't want to overdo it, though, because I want this to be a desktop background, so space it is important (for all my icons!).

So first up, let's add some extra text. Here I've placed a nice quote about the earth and unity taken from the Baha'i faith (that's my religion!). I love quotes, because it means we get three parts to decorate—the quote, the quotation marks and the source.

The text is in a variation of Swiss which is thinner, but still condensed. Using multiple fonts from the same family (heavy, light, etc) is a good, safe bet for keeping your type looking coherent.

So here I've set the quote to Overlay and 50%, then duplicated the text and set it to Screen and 50%. Then I've added quotation marks in the same Swiss font, but made them extra large and a bright shade of green. Finally, the source of the quote is in teeny letters and centered vertically. And, of course, the whole quote has been measured out so it's exactly the length of the main "EARTH" text.

Step 27

Next we'll add a bit of a highlight to the scene. To do this, create a new layer above all the rest, and using the Gradient Tool (G), draw a gradient of white -> transparent towards the top left. Then set this layer to Soft Light and 50%. This will turn it into a nice subtle bit of lighting.

Step 28

Now we'll add two eye-catching elements to offset all the green. These will be a brilliant blue butterfly and a little red ladybug. I used the excellent everystockphoto Web site that searches a ton of free stock Web sites for you to find two awesome images to use: Ladybug | Butterfly

Step 29

Placing the images is pretty easy. First the butterfly. We just open up the image in Photoshop, use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select all the white area, then go to Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by 1px to make sure we've got it all. Then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection and copy the butterfly over to our main canvas.

The ladybug I selected needs to be cut out of it's image. To do that I used the Pen Tool (P) and traced around the little guy and then just cut him out that way.

Step 30

So here are our two extras. As you can see, the lady bug looks a bit weird actually because I did a quick'n'dirty job of cutting him out. But that's OK because he's going to be tiny so you won't be able to see the details anyway.

So paste them in and then shrink them down and place them appropriately. It's best if they aren't close together, because that way they'll balance each other.

I added a drop shadow to each. With the ladybug it's a very close shadow because he's small and walking on the grass. With the butterfly, I set the distance to about 10px because he's hovering in the air and therefore the shadow lands a little ways away.

Finished!

And there we have it, one neat little composition featuring text made out of grass! (Click for the full-size version)

Create a Flaming Skull in Photoshop

2009-05-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

Step 1

For this tutorial, I used Photoshop CS3, a skull from Designious.com (you could choose to use a free skull though, such as Skull Vector Pack 1) and some hi-res flames images. The high-res image files are available to Psd Plus members in the download pack. Though non-members are certainly welcome to shoot your own flame photos or find some stock to use here, so you can follow along.

To get things started, create a new document 210mm by 290mm with a 100% black background.

Step 2

Copy (Command + C) and paste (Command + V) the vector from Illustrator to Photoshop as pixels.

Step 3

On a new layer create an ellipse filled with dark red (#4c0400) that surrounds the skull. Next, apply a Gaussian Blur of 250px (maximum value), and place that layer under the skull.

Step 4

Let's prepare the skull for the flames. Select the white color from the skull. (Select > Color Range) and fill it with an orange-yellow color(#f9ae31), except the teeth and mandible that will be filled with light red (#e82b19).

Step 5

Select the red area using Select > Color Range and then contract using Select > Contract > with 4 px, then and Delete.

Step 6

Select the yellow color. Next use a Brush with Toll on 250-300 px, Hardness of 0, Opacity at 10-15%, red for the color (d02207), and gradually color from the interior towards the exterior, until you get a skull with a bit of glow.

Step 7

Lets try to add some volume to the skull. Use the Eraser Tool with a diameter of 200px, Hardness of 0, and Opacity of 70%, and erase some of the red. Here we establish the lighter and darker parts of the skull so we can see some volume.

Step 8

Now double the Skull layer. Select the skull closest to the background and apply a Gaussian Blur of 8-10 px to create a glow.

Select the area under the nose including the teeth. Now grab a 80px Brush with a color of red (#d02207). Brush color on the right and left sides creating a soft gradient that ads depth to the lower part of the skull.

Step 9

Now that we have a hot skull on our screen, let's start the fire! Open the files with the flames and prepare each of them to be used on our image as follows:

A. Open the flames files.

B. Go to Select > Color Range, and select the darker area of the background. Next, Invert the selection (Command + Shift + I).

C. Go to Select > Modify > Feather, and set to about 20px. Then drag and drop them into our main skull document.

D. Set the blend modes to Screen or Lighten.

E. For the flames that will have other flames on top of them, we'll need to adjust the color Balance. You can do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance (Command + B).

Step 10

Use the Free Transform Tool (Command + T) to arrange each flame into the desired position and the desired proportions.

Step 11

Notice that the teeth area looks a bit darker than the rest of the skull so using the Brush Tool(B) and yellow (d02207) you lighten some parts of the teeth so they can blend better with the flames.

Step 12

Use the Smudge Tool (R) on the flames near the eyeballs to make them touch the skull so that you create a smooth transition from the skull to the flames.

Step 13

Use the Smudge Tool (R) to make the yellow parts of the skull blend with the base of the flames.

Step 14

Use the Smudge Tool again in the red areas from the shadow where you try to draw a contour going towards the dark areas.

Step 15

Use the Dodge Tool (O) to enhance the glowing effect on the edges of the skull.

Step 16

Use the Burn Tool to work on the shadow areas of the contour so you can smoothen the passes from light to dark.

Step 17

Now for the smoke. To create the smoke, use the same flame images and apply the same techniques you did in Steps 10 and 11 to them. The difference here though is that you'll need to desaturate these images to make them look like smoke. You can do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > Desaturate (Command + U), then set it to -100 for Saturation, and -16 for Luminosity.

Step 18

Now lets apply a 2px Blur filter on the smoke so it blends better. Do this by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Create a Sparkling Fantasy Photo Manipulation

2009-05-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

Step 1

The first step is to create a background for our image. This time we'll use a simple combination of different textures using the blending modes. Just open the first texture and the second one over the first. Now change the mode of this last one to Multiply and the Opacity to about 40%, then Merge them.

Step 2

Now duplicate your layer, Desaturate the upper one and use the Eraser Tool (E) to delete parts from the upper left zone. Use the Motion Blur in this layer like in the sample image below, merge the layers, and finally add some magenta and blue using Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.

Step 3

Now grab this image of a woman. Cut her out from the original picture and paste in the center of the new image. We are going to modify her color and light using the blending modes again.

From the beginning we have in mind that we want the light falling from the upper-left corner of the image, so we have to show this in the girl and her lights and shadows. First, let’s go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and add some more saturation to the image.

Now duplicate our layer with the girl, and with the upper layer selected go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and add more brightness. Change the mode of this layer to Screen and the Opacity to 58%. Finally, you can delete (using a blurred brush and a Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool) the darker parts (under her arms and hair).

Duplicate our first layer with the girl again and move it over the other. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and make it darker. Pay attention to the shadows in her dress, don’t be worried by her face or others zones at this point.

When you have some good details in the shadows of the dress change the Layer Mode to Linear Burn and use the Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool again to delete the zones that you don’t need to be dark, like her face, the light zones in her arms, etc. Now merge the Layers of the girl.

Finally, use the Burn Tool (O) to make the zones darker than you need. I retouched her hair and some details in her face.

Step 4

The face in our image doesn’t look too big, but it still seems a little pixelated, we can fix this using the Smudge Tool (R). Select it with a small brush (about 16 px) and the strength set to about 30%, and use it on her skin with small strokes in the direction of her features. You can use the Blur Tool (R) to help with this process, but use it carefully because we don’t want the face out of focus.

Step 5

Now let’s duplicate our girl layer and add some Cyan, Green and Blue to the lower one. Go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and change the settings to those shown below.

Change the Layer Mode in the one on the top to Hard Light, the Opacity to 40% and use the Layer Mask or the Eraser Tool to delete most of the image, just leave some of its warm tones on the left side, where the light is falling over our model. Merge the layers with the girl and finally go to Image > Brightness/Contrast and add a little more of brightness.

Step 6

We’re going to create the shadow of the girl in the easiest way. Just create a new layer over the girl and use the Brush Tool (B) with black selected to draw some uneven horizontal lines under her feet and her back.

Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and use a horizontal blur with about 760 px. If you need some more shadows over the girl just supplicate the layer, erase the shadows that you don’t need, and merge the layers.

Now let’s add a transparent shadow falling over the background. Just duplicate the "girl" layer, fill it with black (for example, go to Levels and make it dark) and move it to the position shown below. Then make it a little smaller using Free Transform (Command + T) and add a Gaussian Blur (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur) of about 21 px.

Change the Layer Mode of the shadow to Soft Light, the Opacity to 75%, and finally erase the lower part of the shadow.

Step 7

Now create a new layer, select the Brush Tool (B) again with black selected and a blurred blush, then draw some dark zones, as shown below.

Go to Filter > Motion Blur and add the settings shown below. You can use the filter twice or more if you prefer.

Change the Opacity to about 70%, erase some parts if you consider it necessary and change the Blending Mode to Multiply. If you want to add more shadows in some parts just repeat the process painting in other places.

Step 8

Now, in a new layer use a smoke brush with a white color selected and put it behind the girl. You can use Gaussian Blur to make it out of focus.

Step 9

Now we’re going to create some subtle rays of light in the corner of our image. You can draw some lines and use the Motion Blur, but we can do it with the same brush that we´ve used for the smoke. Just duplicate some of these layers and apply the Motion Blur (Filters > Blur > Motion Blur) with the settings shown below.

Now move the layer to the corner and repeat the previous step with another brush. Use Free Transform (Command + T) to change the angle of the rays. I used three different layer for the light to get a good result.

Step 10

Now grab an image with ribbons in it. Open the new image and select the ribbons, as shown below.

Copy and paste them into our image and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Modify the settings as shown below.

Finally, use the Burn Tool (O) to make darker the zones in the ribbon that are not touched by light. You can adjust levels or other settings to get a perfect color and light.

Grab some more ribbons from another similar image. Select them and paste them into our image, then change the color/saturation, and use the Burn Tool (O) in a similar way as in the previous step.

Add the shadow for this last ribbon falling over the girl's dress. There are a lot of ways to make it. For example, draw a black stripe, use Gaussian Blur, change the opacity and the blending mode to Multiply, much like we did in previous steps.

For the shadow of the second ribbon, duplicate this layer, fill it with black and apply a Gaussian Blur.

Change the blending mode to Soft Light and erase the parts that you don’t need.

Finally, I add a new ribbon and a new layer of shadow under the model.

Step 11

Now let’s add some flower imagery. This is a simple cut and paste process. The only important thing is that you change the levels or colors little in the images as needed.

Use some stock images of flowers to add behind the girl. You can download these images: 1, 2, and 3.

The only remarkable details are some shadows added using the brush and some Gaussian Blur, then change the color in one of the images. To make this just go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, select yellow colors, and change the Hue bar as shown.

Add a flower image in the hand of the girl. To integrate it in the image select the layer of the flower and draw a black shadow in the upper part, then use the Gaussian Blur again (Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Now change the opacity of the layer if it's needs. Create a new layer under the flower and paint two little shadows, use blur again using a subtle Gaussian Blur, and change the opacity as needed.

The system to add the other flowers are always the same. It’s easy and it only requires that you choose good stock images. For example, it’s important that the light in the flowers is logical and respects the light source of our image. If light come from left, don’t use images with the shadow in the right. It’s really simple, you just need cut them, and correct them a little with Levels as needed.

Step 12

Now let’s add some rays of lights flowing from the hand of the girl. To make this, select the Brush Tool, select a hard brush with a size about 8 px and white as the foreground color. Now select the Pen Tool (P) and select in the upper part the option of Paths.

Now draw a curve similar to the one in the image and press the right button on your mouse, then select Stroke Path. In this new menu select Brush and check the Simulate Pressure box.

Press OK. Now press the red button on your mouse again, and select Delete Path. In this layer, select Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay. Add a gradient from black to blue as shown below. Then select Outer Glow and add a blue glow.

Now add a Gaussian Blur to the layer. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add 2,5 px.

Now duplicate the layer and change the position of the new one.

Select the Brush Tool again and use the smoke brush with a white color. Draw some of smoke and select Edit > Transform > Warp to adjust the curve of the smoke as needed.

For the other ray of light I’ve used the same steps as those above.

Step 13

Now create a new layer, use a brush with a white color to draw a stripe, and then use a blur on it. Finally, change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay. Then you can move it over the ribbons to simulate shine.

For the rays behind the girl use the same system. After you’ve created one of them, duplicate it and move until you’ve done something similar to the sample below. Finally, add the smoke as you’ve done previously.

With these simple ideas I’ve created different points of lights marked in red in the next below. With a mark in blue you can see another ray of light that I’ve drawn using the previous steps.

Step 14

Now that we’re finishing the image, we just need to add details to make it more attractive. For example, let’s use some petals to decorate the image here and there. Use some flowers too and put them in our image as if they’re flying. To make the movement effect just go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Cut another ribbon, paste it in the right corner of our image and add a Motion Blur. Then go to Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Drop Shadow and add the setting shown below.

Add another ribbon in the bottom of the image and repeat the Motion Blur.

Step 15

Finally, let’s add some Adjustments Layers. Go to your upper layer and then to Layer > New Adjustments Layer > Levels. Modify the settings as shown and repeat the process with Color Balance and a Gradient Map. Then change the opacity in the Gradient Map layer to 9% and in the Levels layer to 75%.

Conclusion

The final image is below and I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Have fun applying these techniques in your own work!

Ink Drops Fx In Photoshop

2009-05-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

Step 1

The first and probably most fun part of this tutorial is to photograph the ink drops. Get some Indian ink and any type of clear container (I used a food container). Fill the container with water, then drop in the ink and snap away.

Tips: Constantly take pictures while the ink drops, as the shapes will change considerably over time. Photograph the ink drops in front of a white background to produce clearer pictures. Experiment with dripping the ink using pipettes and any other device you can get your hands on.

If you don't have access to ink and a camera then check out these images: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Feel free to experiment with the ink drop images, but do pay attention to the usage license.

Step 2

Open a new document, set the background to black, and import the main image you want to use. I used a self portrait that I photographed myself. Cut out the image you'd like to use in your composition. After removing the background, we'll be able to focus on integrating the ink into the design.

Step 3

Adjust the levels and colors of the image using the Adjustment Layers (Layers > Create New Adjustment Layer). Using Adjustment Layers gives us greater freedom in case we need to undo something later on. Make sure all the Adjustment Layers are just above the "Man" layer. Then select them all, and create a Clipping Mask by right-clicking on them, and selecting it from the menu.

Use Levels to help create a darker, more subtle image. Also, use Hue & Saturation and Color Balance to subdue the colors and give the "Man" a tone with more yellow. Don't worry if the image looks dark at this stage, just make sure the hands stand out.

Step 4

To give the image a more defined look, we are going to add highlights. Put the "Man" layer and its Adjustment Layers into a folder. Then duplicate it. Change the Levels on the new Adjustment Layer so that the edges of the man's jacket are well defined.

Step 5

Add a Layer Mask to the layer of the "Man" by clicking on the Add Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. Make sure the Layer Mask is black (which will make the layer disappear).

We are now going to bring out the highlights we want, which is mainly the prominent edges of the coat. Select the Layer Mask and draw over the parts you want to make brighter with a soft white brush.

Step 6

Its now time to select the ink drops we want to use inside the "Man." This can be as intricate as you want, however try to have a good idea of what you want the final piece to look like before you start. Once you have found an ink drop you want to use, copy and paste it into the current document.

Color doesn't matter at this stage; just pick the ink drops that have the best shape. Press Ctrl+I to invert the image, as the ink drop image will be on a white background. Then in the Layers Menu, change the Blending Mode of the ink drop layer to "Lighten", and resize the layer as necessary.

Step 7

Once you've placed all your drops, make two folders called "Ink drop - Front" and "Ink drop - BG," as we want to give some simple depth to the ink drops. Carefully choose the ones you want in the foreground and the ones you in the background. Then put the layers in the corresponding folders. Now select the "Inkdrop - BG" folder, and set the Opacity to 60%.

Step 8

We are now going to color the ink drops we have introduced. Use the Pen Tool to draw around the inside of the "Man," not including his hands or his face. Set the color of this layer to black. Then set the Blending Mode of this newly made layer to "Color," which will desaturate the ink drops.

Step 9

Duplicate the previous layer, and double-click it to bring up the Layer Styles Dialogue. Click Gradient Overlay and change the style drop down to Radial. Make the left hand color #cf2727 and the right hand #652727. Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Multiply. This step will create the impression of a glowing center in the image.

Step 10

You may find that the ink drops look quite flat now, so we need to add a bit more texture. Select one of your more intricate ink drops, desaturate the whole picture (Image > Adjust > Desaturate). Import it into your main image. Then resize it to cover your red ink drops.

Step 11

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Multiply and the Opacity to around 20%. Ctrl-click on the previously made Layer Mask on the Color Layers. Then click back onto your new texture layer. Click Add New Layer Mask at the bottom of the Layers Panel. This will create a Mask around the image just in case you went over the edges.

Step 12

Now that we have the inkdrop sorted, let's start on the background. I used a stock image from Stock.xchng to give the background a bit of texture. You can download it here.

Desaturate the image and import it into Photoshop below the other layers. Change the Opacity of it to around 30%. Resize the photo so it touches the edges of the document. I also blurred the image slightly using Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).

Step 13

We are now going to Add a tinge of blue to the background. Add another 'Colour Balance' adjustment layer (Layer > Create New Adjustment Layer) and and a hint of both blue and green.

Step 14

To help give the piece some mood, use a large soft black brush to draw a vignette around the outside of the image. Then use a soft white brush to add a glow behind and above the "Man." Make sure to be subtle at this stage, as you want it to look as natural possible.

Step 15

We are now going to produce the inkdrop background. First, draw a black triangle, as seen in the image below.

Step 16

Next, paste the ink drops in you want to use. Change the Blending Mode of the layers to Multiply, so we are left with just the black of the images. This again is about choosing the right drops for the best composition.

Step 17

We are finally going to add the red inkdrop falling from the top. Choose the image you want to use. Then import it to the main document, using the same techniques as in Step 6.

Create a layer, and using the Rectangular Marquee tool drag a rectangle that covers the single inkdrop. Draw a rectangle over the inkdrop you just chose. Fill the rectangle with the color #912020. Then change the Blend Mode of this layer to Overlay.

Step 18

Now it's time to do a few finishing touches to the image. Add a few final white ink drops to the main background using the same techniques as before. However, make sure that the layers are desaturated, faded, and the Blend Mode set to Color Dodge.

Step 19

Decide whether you need to darken or colorize any parts of your main image. Then create layers accordingly. I decided I wanted the man's hands to glow from the red ink, so I drew over the hands with a soft red brush. Then set the Blend Mode to Multiply. Also, I added a few shadows and blue hues.

Step 20

Finally, adjust the brightness and color of the overall image by using an Adjustment Layer at the top of the document (Layer > New Adjustment Layer). Then I added a Brightness/Contrast to lighten the image, as shown below.

Final Image

The final composition is below.

Create a 3D Box

2009-05-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Create a Shiny 3D Box

In this rather lengthy tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a cool, semi-realistic cardboard box icon. We’ll cover creating the basic shape of the box, as well as texturing, shading, and adding shadows to it! You can use this box icon almost anywhere: In site logos, applications buttons, the list goes on.

The canvas size doesn’t matter too much, but I’d recommend starting off with a larger size, then scaling the icon down. This helps hide any errors you might make during the creation process.

The first step in creating your box, is to make it’s basic 3d shape. To do, we’ll grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and make a square that’s slightly larger then one side of your box. Create a new layer, and fill it with a color. At this point the color doesn’t matter, because we’ll be painting over it later. Then, grab the Distort Tool (Edit -> Transform -> Distort), and distort it to be one side of your box - If you want a template for distorting your box sides, get it here.

Next, we’ll want to create the other sides of the box. Grab the Rectangluar Marquee Tool again, and repeat the same step from above. I recommend choosing a different color for each side, just so it’s easy to tell where each layer ends and another one begins.

Now we need to add the box flaps. This follows the same procedure as the sides, but instead of adding one to all four sides, only add flaps to the front two.

Alright, we have the basic shape of our box, it’s time to add some shading, shadows and texture!

The first thing we wanna do is decide on the color of our box - I’m going to go with the normal everyday brown, but you can pick whatever you wish.

Alright, Select one of your flaps (Select -> Load Selection), and then grab the Gradient Tool. Set the foreground and background to #e6c19a & #d2a77a respectively, then, with the Gradient Tool, drag from the bottom to the top of the flap, so there’s a nice gradient on it.

Next, with the layer still selected, go to Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise, and add 1% Monochromatic noise to the flap.

Next, repeat this on the other flap. Make sure you keep the gradient in the same general direction to maintain the look of a single light source.

Now that the flaps are done, we obviously need to finish the rest of the box. Set the foreground color to #ba976c, and the background color to #b08555. Select the front of the box via Select -> Load selection, and grab the Gradient Tool again, but this time set it to a radial gradient. Place the tool near the right side of the layer, and drag it over so it’s over the left side. Now we have one shaded side. Follow the same routine with the noise as we did earlier.

Follow the same routine with the left side of the box, except this time move the center of radial gradient more towards of the center of the layer. Once you’ve added the gradient, you know the drill: Add some noise.

Ok, We’re almost done with the shading, we’ve just gotta do the back! Select a slightly deeper palette of colors (I used #a7825f & #825f3e), and repeat the same steps as we’ve been doing on the other sides and flaps.

Great, we’re all done the shading. Time to add the shadows to the box flaps. To do this, duplicate one of the flaps, and fill that duplicate with black. Next, apply a 6px Gaussian blur, and then Edit -> Transform -> Distort the shadow so it looks like the one shown below.

Once you’re happy with the position of the shadow, Select -> Load Selection, Select -> Inverse the side of the box of which it covers. Hit delete with the shadow layer selected. Next, set the Opacity to about 30%.

Now, repeat the same steps, but on the other flap that doesn’t have a shadow.

Ok, time to add a shadow to the bottom of the box. To do this, grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and make a selection around the front two sides of the box. Then, create a new layer below all the others, and fill it with black. Then, apply a 5px Gaussian Blur to the shadow. You can also grab the eraser tool to “fine tune” the edges of the shadow.

Ok, now it’s time to add some shine to our cardboard box. You can skip this step if you don’t want any shine, but I find it adds a little bit more “pop” to the final result.

Create a new layer on top of your box sides, but below your flaps. Next, grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, and draw a circle over the top 1/4 of the box sides, Next, create a new layer, and fill it with White. Finally, Select -> Load Selection on one of the sides, then Select -> Load Selection, Add to Selection on the other box side. Finally, Select -> Inverse on the selection, and hit delete to remove the excess “shine” from around the box sides.

Then, apply a 5px Drop Shadow to the layer, and set it’s Opacity to about 7%.

If you want a bit more shine, you can repeat the same technique on the box flaps, like I have here. Note, the opacity on this layer is closer to 14%.

We’re almost done, just a couple more steps! Well, a box wouldn’t be much without something in it, would it? Well, let’s fix that. Go find your favourite icon or object, and drag it into the image. Make sure it’s behind all the layers, except for the two back sides of the box.

Next we gotta add a bit of shadow to the front of the icon, because, well, it’s in a box, so it’s darker! To do this, select the triangle-shaped area in front of your icon.

Create a new layer above the icon. Now, grab the Gradient Tool again, and make a Black to transparent gradient in the selected area, like what is shown below. We’ve created our shadow!

Ok, this is the final step, I promise! We’ve gotta put a label on our box, so people know what it is, duh. To do this, create a new layer, and make a rectangle selection in it. Next, fill that layer with black. Finally, select the inside of the rectangle, and delete all but a 10px border around the edges.

Then, with the Text Tool, pick a font you like, and add some text in the center of the rectangle layer we just created, then Merge the two layers (Select them both, then hit Ctrl + E).

If you want, you can grab your favorite grunge brush, and delete some areas on the text & rectangle, to make it look more like a stamp.

Ok, now Edit -> Transform -> Distort the layer, and make it fit onto the box like you see below. As you can see, I’ve created a second stamp and placed it on the right side of the box, in much the same way I made the first stamp.

Yay, we’re finally done! I hope you find a good use for this tutorial, as the box concept can be adapted to many different icons, such as download, unzip, archivers, the list goes on and on.

Free Wordpress Themes & Wordpress Templates

2009-05-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. (More than most commercial platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune 5 web site without paying anyone a license fee.

RedLight

[Preview] [Download]
FREEmium

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WaterColor

[Preview] [Download]
Agregado Lifestream

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Infinity

[Preview] [Download]
WP CODA

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Snapshot

[Preview] [Download]
Versatility Lite

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CHARA

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Vintage

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Blues

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Deskspace

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Maasahan

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Notepad Chaos

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Web 2.0

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Zinmag Futura

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Mahusay

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Majapahit

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AutosSlug

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NewsTheme

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Hamasaki

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Small Magazine

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The Stars

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Malawak

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Androida

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Colourise

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Arthemia

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WP Gold

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WP Newsmag

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Brightness

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Irresistible

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DesignMagz

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Alivapress

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Remedy

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Comfy Magazine

[Preview] [Download]
iPhone Creative Magazine

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ZenFresh Magazine

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SohoMag

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Nature Gift

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CorporateMag

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Magazeen

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Create a Business Web Page Layout

2009-05-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

First i want to thank you for visiting this tutorial. In this tutorial i will create a business layout. If you come regularly to my blog you will see how easy is to create great looking designs or websites.
In this blog you will find mainly layout tutorials.

Are you curious why ?
I am working with photoshop from a long time, and since then i have earned a lot of money creating websites for my clients. I want to teach you how to create websites because you will earn more money creating websites then creating a simple photoshop effect
If you want to start earning money on internet, then it is time to create websites for your future clients

I will give you an example. How much do you think you can charge for a logo, or for a simple photo effect ? Maybe 50 - 100 $ ?
In my entire life i have created a few thousand logos, and a few hundreds big websites, and my earnings are bigger for my layouts, that’s why i think you should start creating websites

I will try to be as simple as possible, and i am sure you can create great looking layouts with my methods

So let’s start creating or first layout. In this tutorial i will create a business layout

You can download the layout from the following link : ...

Please create a new document

Please use the following settings:

Set the foreground color to : #2b2724

Select The Paint Bucket Tool, and press on time on your canvas.
Select The background layer

Press on CTRL+J ( this shortcut will duplicate the selected layer )

Select ” layer 1 ” and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise

Then use the following settings:

Select Rounded Rectangle Tool, and on the top of your screen, set the following settings

On your layout create two shapes for our navigation. I will change my foreground color to #e84502 , then i will use Rounded Rectangle Tool

Duplicate these 2 orange shapes. To duplicate the layer, first you need to select it, then press on CTRL+J
After you will duplicate the orange shapes, change the colors to white. To change the color you need to double click on the layer thumbnail, then you can chose the white color

this is what i have so far

Now i will select the Move Tool ( V ) , and i will move the white shapes to the top of the layout

I will place some stock images on my layout

With Type tool, i will add some text

With the same tool, add another text on the navigation bar

Select Line tool, and be sure you set the line Weight to 1 px

Create a vertical line between the navigation buttons

Now it is very important to rasterize the layer. to do this you need to right click the layer in your layer palette

Select Eraser tool, and change your brush to 60 Soft Mechanical 60 pixels

And try to delete the top and the bottom part of the line

Duplicate this layer ( to duplicate you need to have the layer selected, then press on CTRL+J )
Select Move tool, and place the duplicated line on the right side between the other text buttons

On the top of our layout, i will create a simple text logo. in my future tutorials i will show you how to create great looking logos

Create a new layer right above the layer 1

Select Brush tool ( change the brush to Soft Mechanical 60 pixels ), and with white color make a simple dot, under the text logo

To create a nice effect, please reduce the opacity for this layer to 25 %

This is my result

I hope you like my end result. This Layered PSD file is available only for VIP members

Create Blue Black Navigation Bar

2009-05-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

Design a beautiful navigation bar in Photoshop. This tutorial will teach you how to combine several layer styles to create a beautiful yet simple navigation bar.

Preview of Final Results

Blue on Black Navigation Bar Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Firstly, create a new document - the size I've used is 540 by 220 pixels. Now for the background I've filled it with a black colour. To do this go Edit > Fill with the colour #0d0d0d.

Step 2

Secondly, we'll be making the background for the navigation buttons to go inside. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and select the rounded rectangle tool. Make fixed size selection of 480 by 50 pixels with a radius of 5 pixels in the middle of the document.

Fill this selection with a linear gradient from the colour #151515 to #050505 using the gradient tool. Deselect - Ctrl + D. Set the fill of the layer to 60% (the setting underneath the opacity in the layers window). The difference between opacity and fill is simply opacity changes the opacity of the entire layer and fill changes the opacity of everything except the layer styles.

Step 3

Now we'll be adding a couple of layer styles to this navigation background.

Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow

Layer > Layer Style > Stroke

Now your document should be looking something like this.

Step 4

Next up we'll be adding in the buttons. Create a new layer and using the rounded rectangle tool again make a selection of 150 by 40 pixels (with a radius of 5 pixels again) on the left side of the navigation bar.

Fill this selection with a linear gradient from #323232 to #161616 using the gradient tool. Set the fill for this layer to 50%.

Step 5

I've applied three layer styles to this button to give it some depth and make it look cooler.

Layer > Layer Styles > Inner Glow

Layer > Layer Styles > Gradient Overlay

Layer > Layer Styles > Stroke

Your navigation bar should now look something like this.

Step 6

Select the text tool and add in some text - the font styles that I have used for the text are Bell Gothic Std, Bold, 20 pt, Crisp, #ffffff.

Step 7

Now repeat the button steps so you have two new buttons - I've decided that I'd make the middle one a different colour to stand out (this can be like a mouse over effect or something if you decided to code this navigation bar for a web layout). The blue colours I used for that are #14b9ef and #054573.

Step 8

Because we have set the fill of the layers to 50-60% we can adjust the background and it can be half see through - below I've put a radial gradient with colours used in the vista theme.

Create a Stunning Vista Inspired Menu

2009-05-21T00:11:00.000-07:00

This tutorial will show you how to make a semi-transparent Vista-inspired menu using gradients, shadows, and blurring to produce a stunning modern effect.

Step 1

Open a new canvas that is 600x335px. Begin by showing rulers (View>Rulers), then create two guides similar to the image below. Create one at 285px and the other at 310px.

Step 2

Create a Rectangle (U) that fills the lower ruled area and label the layer "lower bar." Open up the Effects Menu for the layer. Navigate to the Gradient Overlay property and apply a gradient between #000000 and #0c0c0c at 90 degrees.

Now create another rectangle in the upper rules area and name the layer "upper bar." Again open up the effects menu and apply a Gradient Overlay between #35393d and #787b7d at 90 degrees. Select the two rectangles created so far and change the Opacity to 90%. When a background is added later, this will provide a nice effect, as it allows the background to slightly show through.

Step 3

The next step is to add a highlight to the menu using the Line Tool (U). Select the Line Tool and change the weight to 2px. Draw a line across the bar and change the color to #9fa2a4. Rename this layer to "lower highlight." Now draw another line directly above the previous and change the color to #484b4d and change the name to "upper highlight." Group these layers with bar layers in a group called "bar." This stage completes the basis of the menu.

Step 4

Now that the menu bar is complete, we can create a set of dividers to go between the text. Select the Line Tool again and leave the weight at 2px. Draw a vertical line from the center ruler mark that stops a few pixels before the highlight. This does not need to be exact and can easily be adjusted later. Open the effects menu and apply a Gradient Overlay at 90 degrees between #676a6d and #4d6672. Label this layer "upper divider."

Draw another vertical line from the center ruler going down and stopping the same distance from the edge as above. This section does not have a gradient, so change the color to #43474b. Rename this layer to "lower divider." Group the two sections of the divider and name the group "divider."

Step 5

Select the Type Tool (T) and change the color to white (#FFFFFF). The font I chose to use for the menu is called Segoe UI because it is the font used in the Vista user interface. However not everyone has this font, so as a replacement Arial will do. Set the size to 11pt and type your links out, spacing them evenly. Group them together and name the group "links."

Now copy your dividers and space them in between the links. You should end up with something similar to this.

Step 6

Now the menu bar is basically completed, so you can add a background of your choice. The background I chose is a photograph of grass. Anything colorful or scenic will do.

Copy your background into the menu and rename the layer Background. Make sure this layer is at the back in your layers palette. Note the transparency in the menu allows the background to show through without overpowering.

Step 7

This step will create the blurred rounded rectangle that is behind the text. This effect is quite common in Vista and is a good technique. It takes the focus of the background and places it on the text, but still shows the beautiful scene behind.

First of all, duplicate the background. This layer is not permanent, but we will be cutting a selection out of it. Then using the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U), draw a shape that starts past the left edge of the canvas. This means that the shape only has two rounded edges.

Rasterize the layer and then using the Magic Wand Tool (W), select the rectangle and delete the color while keeping the outline. Now select the background copy and cut from that layer. Delete the background copy layer and add another new layer called "blur."

Paste the shape in the layer called "blur" and then apply a Gaussian Blur of 5px (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur). Then apply a Drop Shadow as shown below.

Step 8

Now add your text inside the blur. Using the same typeface as the links (Segoe UI) type your name and tagline. Select some of the text and make it bold and keep some normal, apply a Drop Shadow, and a Gradient. This produces a modern-looking text that has a striking look.

Step 9

This step is optional, as it will produce the blue highlighted glow that will become our hover effect. Draw a large Ellipse (U) that fills the area between the dividers. Change the color of the ellipse to #5c94c5 and apply a Gaussian blur of 10px. The shape has now become a raster layer, and you can clean up the excess blur by using the Marquee Tool (M).

Protect Your Computer

2009-05-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

A lot of people look to try to spend a lot of money when they buy a computer. Their frame of thought is that they have to buy a "name brand" computer so that it will last. But I'm here to tell you that all of that isn't necessary. If you take care of your computer... it will take care of you.

You are better off taking the time and trouble to look after your computer on a regular basis, than to have it crash or freeze up on you. If that happens, it would be quite possible that you could loose everything that's on you computer, Then you'll end up spending a great deal of money just to TRY to get it repaired. That's right, I said TRY. I don't mean to scare you... but sometimes not taking small ans simple precautions can result in long term headaches.

So let's take a look at some tips that can help you avoid some disasters:

Scan your computer daily when you finish working on it.

If on a certain day you happen to download many pages, software, programs, zipped files, exe files, etc., immediately after downloading everything, scan your computer. This way, just in case a virus existed in anything you downloaded, you will catch it in time before it infects your entire Hard Drive.

Use your online scanner to scan your computer once a week

A virus can duplicate itself to everyone on your address book and send itself out by email, without you even knowing that this has been done

Use your adware/spyware checker once a week

Set your virus checker to update itself automatically. This way, it is always updated with the latest protection.

Do not open any attachments in emails from people you do not know.

Do not open any attachments even from people you do know, if you are not expecting anything from them.

Do not download free music on the Internet – these free sites are always infected. ( Your kids will hate me for that tip)

Do not download any free games from the Internet ( They will hate me for that one too)

Back up all your data on a daily basis. Use floppy disks, flash drives, memory sticks, zip disks, CD-Roms, etc.

Adult sites are particularly prone to viruses.

Print out contracts, payment forms, agreements and all legal documents and file them away in a ring-binder. Try not to keep anything to do with your finances, payment details, payment processor passwords, credit card details, etc. on your computer. A hacker could easily access all these details, if they are anywhere on your computer. And with today's online WiFi technology, it becomes possible for hackers to at least attempt to get at you.

Increase Photoshop Speed

2009-05-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

As every knows that Application softwares like photoshop takes a bit long time to load as well as to work during multi processing. So here i came out with an solution for working smoothly with adobe Photoshop. Initially open the Adobe Photoshop by clicking the Photoshop icon in your desktop, now click the Edit option from the menu bar. Then select the preference option at the bottom of the edit menu, a new window open, so that you can see some preferences related to photoshop such as File handling and Performance preferences. Now open memory handling option from the list and increase the availability of RAM to your wish. Now apply the settings.

Photoshop

Interface

File Handling and Performance Preferences

This set of preferences determines basic aspects of file saving and performance.

Note: Performance preferences not available prior to Photoshop CS3.

File Handling

Image Previews: To save previews or thumbnails with your images select Always Save in the Image Previews drop-down menu. You will see these thumbnails when you open and single-click images stored in a directory using Photoshop's Open command and in other applications that support it. To save disk space, select Never Save. Select Ask When Saving if you want Photoshop to ask if you desire a thumbnail or not whenever you save an image. You may also select saving the preview as a Macintosh and Windows thumbnail.

File Extension: Select Use Lower Case to force Photoshop to save files with lower case file type extensions. Lower case extensions have become the de-facto standard and are recommended. Unix servers are case sensitive, so consistent character case (upper or lower) is important to maintain when using your images for the Web.

File Compatibility: These options allow for you to select the level of backwards compatibility in the .psd file format or enabling advanced file saving alternatives in the TIFF file format like ZIP and JPEG compression.

Recent Files List: You can set how many recent files you would like Photoshop to remember.

Performance (Photoshop CS3 only)

Photoshop CS3 includes a new and improved Performance preferences dialogue, which allows for better control over how Photoshop handles things like memory usage and image cache.

Memory Usage (this setting is found under Memory and Image Cache in earlier Photoshop versions): This allows you to either manually set a number for the maximum amount of your computer's RAM you'd like to allow Photoshop to use, or to drag the slider to adjust this value percentage wise. The default is usually 55 percent.

Scratch Disks (this setting is found under Plug-Ins and Scratch Disks in earlier Photoshop versions): Scratch disks are different hard drives or partitions on your computer that Photoshop uses for memory when physical memory (your RAM) is full. An image in Photoshop can take approximately 3-5 times its file size. For instance, if your file takes up 10 MB of your hard drive, Photoshop could require 40 MB or more of RAM when working with it. As you work on multiple images or lots of changes and multiple layers, RAM requirements increase and Photoshop will begin to use your hard drive for virtual (rather than physical) RAM. It is recommended that free space on your hard drive for the scratch disk equals at least the amount of physical RAM in your system. If you have 128 MB of RAM, you should have at least 128 MB on your hard drive for the scratch disk. The greater the RAM and free space, the better Photoshop performs. Photoshop can have up to 4 scratch disks. By default, Photoshop will use your Startup hard drive. If you plan on using Photoshop for a large files (ie: print), or many smaller files at once, it might be a good idea to get a second (more more) hard drive for your computer.

Cache Settings (this setting is found under Memory and Image Cache in earlier Photoshop versions): The cache is an area of memory Photoshop uses to store low-resolution versions of your images to help with screen updates or refreshes. A higher value will update the screen faster, but the image, as far as display is concerned, may be of lower quality. Note that this does not affect the file in any way.

History States (this setting is found under General preferences in earlier Photoshop versions): Allows you to choose the keystroke that invokes the Undo or Redo command. You also set the number of History states that Photoshop will record for one single image.

File Handling and Performance Preferences Summary

File Handling Preferences set options for saving files.
Image Previews lets you decide if you'd like to save thumbnails of saved images.
The File Extension option determines whether file name extensions are upper or lower case.
File Compatibility determines the backwards compatibility of a .psd file as well as certain .tiff file compression options.
The Recent Files List option lets you set how many recently opened documents you would like displayed in the Recent Files list.
Memory Usage allows you to allocate how much RAM Photoshop will use.
Scratch disks are areas of your hard drive Photoshop uses for memory when physical memory (your RAM) is full.
The cache is an area of memory Photoshop uses to store low-resolution versions of your images.
History states are the number of states that Photoshop records for a single image.

Digital Curves

2009-05-15T01:47:00.001-07:00

Welcome To Digital Curves!!!

Digital Curves is an blog which is an environment for the W3 Graphix to promote our works to all over the Internet.

How to Save Orkut Images

2009-04-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

As the orkut images are blocked with an specials java scipts we were not able to save the orkut images. But a simple technique which i was using was printscreen to capture the images. That was not so much satisfied because proper images size cannot be gained through this method. So i came out with an alternate method which is very simple as well as we can get the original image from the orkut profiles with out using the print screen button.

Requirements

Mozilla firefox

Now when you come across the profile images in orkut. Select the image which you need to download. Then right click on the image or outside the image. Select Page Info, now a new window occurs named as Page info. There are different tabs like General, media,permission..etc. Select the media option, Now you can seen that menu occurs below media option mentioned Address. Check the different addresses by pointing it with your mouse pointer now you can see the image you need to download in one of the address. Then click he save as button at the bottom right of the address menu. Now your image is downloaded form the orkut profiles.

How To SpeedUp Webpage Loading ?

2009-03-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

The websites or blogs what ever it is. The most problem regarding these are the loading time of the sites. At broadband internet connection the speed of webpage loading takes place very fast. But in the slow or medium internet connections like Dial Up or some thing like that the loading time takes very long, this is an important disadvantages for the webmasters as well as their websites or blogs. Do you ever experienced such situations? And ever thinked about it why it take long time to load.

Here is the answer for this questions.
The important reason for this fact is due to the high graphical contents and unproper alignment for the page elements like widget and banners etc. So if the site is not properly planned and not maintained without an webmasters methods. Your sites or blogs will also be behaving the similarly.

I knew that not every one can get the webmasters help, So i have posted this stuff in order to help and guide other bloggers facing this problem in" webpage takes long time to load".
So don't worry about this problem here i will give you some important and best idea to resolve this problem on your sites as well as your blogs.

Have you seen some picture takes long time to view, this is only because it is well defined an size of the image is also large. So simultaneously the loading of the picture take very long time to download an to be viewed. So when these types of images are posted or added to your site the same problem in loading appear on your site too.

You should check the different image formats i mean .jpeg, . Tif, .Png,..etc.

GIF vs JPG vs PNG

Personally on new sites I design I tend to go for optimized pngs. They have lossless compression (unlike jpgs and can be used without worry (gifs have the potential to have copyright issues) and load fast! With all that said, if you still want to use gifs and jpgs, here's a bit of fast info... If you don't need sharp resolution, choose GIFs over JPEGs, as GIFs generally load quicker. JPGs are generally best for photos, GIFs for anything else.

(I'd add a rant here about how Microsoft had held up the web's development with not making IE6 support png transparency... but *sigh* I've ranted about this already to anyone who will listen. Firefox, Opera and other modern browsers however have been able to show alpha transparency in png for years... oops, sorry, that was a mini rant after all!)

Faster Images? Reduce Their File Size

There are many totally free, online image optimizers so you don't even have to install anything and it's extremely easy! Online Image Optimizer will greatly reduce the file size of your gif, jpg, or pngs and neither you or your visitors will be able to see the difference other than a page that loads a heck of a lot faster. They also keep the transparency and animations in gifs! For another JPEG reduction, try JPEG Wizard, also free, this one will only work with pictures in your hard drive not ones from the net. You can also choose some simple effects to be done (flip, mirror and rotate).

Remove Excess "Whitespace"

Whitespace is the spaces between your coding, removing the unneeded tabs and spaces can help a lot! Doing this will take a lot of extra bytes off the total size of your page and will speed up load time quite a bit. (Careful using automatic squishers, I find they often squish too much and makes it rather hard to edit later.)

Use CSS For Faster Pages

Even if you decide to use tables, CSS can greatly improve your web sites load time! With your styles in an external .css file, the browser can cache all the formatting and stylizing for your pages instead of having to read each and every single tag all over again. Also it cuts down on long drawn out tags and replaces them with smaller class styles instead.

That way the browser already has it in it's cache and won't have to read it each time another page loads. This one saves a ton of load time, specially for larger scripts!

Remove Anything You Don't Really Need

OK, while this might sound obvious sometimes the hardest thing about creating a website is not using every fancy trick that you know. Images, flash and sometimes even sound files are very impressive.. but do you really need to showcase all your talents on one page?

Embedded sound files are something many people just find annoying anyway. You'd be surprised how many are surfing at work ;-). The last thing anyone wants is a loud music or sounds announcing to their boss that they're surfing. Also many people have their own music playing... hearing a song over top of what we're listening to is less than pleasant. As for Java applets, try to ditch them or if you want those effects, JavaScript unusually loads faster and can do just as much or more. Stand back and take a critical look at your website, you may see a few special effects that can be let go of for the sake of faster load time.

Blogger Or Wordpress

2009-03-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

As every knows that the blogs are the one of the best ways to spread your thought as well as your works easily. So the blogging platforms which i am using now are blogger and wordpress platforms. After a long research in blogging i have come out with a best result in which platform is best for blogging. The Important platforms which we recommend are Blogger and Wordpress.

Blogger:

Blogger is an free service from the Google. As i speak frankly the Blogger is the best for the beginners to learn about the blogging, Blogger was the first platform which i have choosed when i entered in to the world of blogging.

Advantages Of Blogger:

It is easy and anyone can try it.
It is free of a cost.
It is highly SEO compatible.
It is easy to post and insert the media's
It supports custom domain.
We can earn Money using the Adsense Ads by integrating to the blog.
More gadgets can be used.
The most significant factors is we can design our own website templates with HTML.

Disadvantages Of Blogger:

It is not unlimited.
We cannot used more pages.
It is very simple and cannot be used for professional purpose.

Wordpress:

Wordpress is an best blogger platform for blogging as well as sites. The wordpress is a vast blogging platform which is an best for professional uses. The wordpress provided two types of services one is free blogs . Next the blogs which can be hosted on your own personal servers.

Advantages of Wordpress:

Higly SEO optimized
More Options.
Adding Pages
Adding Categories
More Plug ins
Inbuilt Themes
Custom domain.

Disadvantages

Free blog cannot be modified on wordpress
Not easy to learn fast.
More advanced options which we don't even know.
Not recommended for beginners.

W3 Inspiration Added Features

2009-03-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

W3 inspiration is an online technology magazine which has been serving the blogger, webmasters, and other visitors. We have upgraded our system to serve you better. To increase our service we have added different additional features like Mobile version, Forum to discuss with the authors of w3 inspiration. The mobile version is one of the best features of W3 Inspiration, it is now possible for the visitors by blog this site form your mobile itself. The forum is an main workbench for the visitors as well as the authors. So don't ever miss these features use these unique feature to be comfortable and easier to blog within this Technology Magazine.

So start subscribing to our daily feeds and always be connected to the W3 Inspiration.

Best Laptops In India

2009-03-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Laptop computer are now common to all kinds of peoples like Businessmen, Students, Designer...etc. The Laptops had made much difference in our society, and made their works reach were ever they move. India is an country which has an variety of climatic conditions. It differs from the state to state and districts to districts. So to withstand the extreme heat and extreme cold climatic conditions, the laptops are manufactured according to the countries climatic conditions. So for Indian climates not all Laptop computers can withstand. So I have made an research about this factor and came of out with an result which is 100% accepted by the consumers too. According to India best Laptop Computers are,

Compaq
Hp (Hewlett Packard)
Lenova
Dell
Toshiba

These five brands are much more compatible with the India. This is approved by the customer.

Compaq:

Compaq is the best laptops which i have every experienced. Very good sound, good performance, high speed.

HP (HEWLETT PACKARD):

HP is also an best performance laptop with a good sound system. It is an highly satisfied product by the customer.

Lenova:

Lenova is an complete solution for the businessmen, but the sound system is not much considerable.

Dell:

Dell Laptops are outstanding performers in our present scenario as well as it is famous for the performance. Highly recommendable.

Toshiba:

Toshiba is also an outstanding performer. The performance is his unimaginable....

Author : Robbins

Online Engineering Degree Program

2009-03-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Online Engineering Degree Programs

Engineering is the application of math and science to real world, technical problems. Specialists in this broad field tackle everything from manufacturing to construction to nanotechnology. Almost every aspect of modern life bears the imprint of engineering insight, from indoor plumbing to GPS systems. Engineers test, develop, create, repair, and maintain the products and systems that ensure the convenience, safety, and reliability of modern society. (cont)

Although you can specialize in any number of branches, the two main branches of engineering are civil and material. Aerospace engineers work with aircraft and spacecraft. Biomedical engineers develop new medicines to help people live healthier lives. Computer engineers design software and hardware. Electrical engineers design electrical systems for residential and commercial buildings. And mechanical engineers work with machines. Common to all of these branches, however, is extensive training and education.

Engineering Degrees and Coursework

A bachelor's degree is usually the minimum requirements for entry into the field, with some employers requiring a master's degree. Engineers who work on public projects must also obtain certification and licensing before they can go on the government payroll. One major reason for this extra caution is engineers don't have much wiggle room when it comes to errors. Poorly wired office buildings, weak bridges, and faulty gadgets can all have disastrous consequences. So in addition to math, physics, computer science, information technology, computer aided design, and engineering, expect to take courses in regulations, legal issues, business ethics, and safety guidelines. It's also not uncommon for engineers to pursue apprenticeships and internships both during and after their studies. In this way, they can apply theoretical training to practical engineering problems while under the watchful eye of more experienced professionals.

Online Career Training in Engineering

Many engineers enjoy the freedom and flexibility offered by online degrees. From the comfort of a home or office computer, you can master the essentials of this broad field. If you do decide to pursue online career training, however, be sure to include on-the-job training in your education. The more practical hands-on experience you bring to the table, the more attractive a candidate you can be for future employers.

Career Opportunities in Engineering

Job growth for the entire engineering industry is expected to keep pace with the national average for all other industries (11 percent from 2006 to 2016). Competition within each engineering discipline, however, varies considerably. Biomedical engineering is expected to grow by as much as 21 percent, while electrical engineering might only enjoy 6 percent growth over that same ten-year period.

Salary Projections for Engineering

Salary potential also varies considerably within engineering. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median incomes ranged from $75,000 (agricultural engineers) to $107,000 (ceramic engineers) in 2007. Additional education and super-specialization can potentially improve your earning potential.

For More

Create Free Advertising Site

2009-03-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

Now you can create your own free advertising blogs. This blogs are powered by blogger .
Do you want to know more the trick? Follow the complete discussion below.

How does this free advertisement blog work? The owner of this blog provides message form to fill out by visitors of the blog, the content of the message will automatically be posted and displayed on the blog; so how to create such blog?

In Blogger, to publish posts, you will have some alternatives, directly write on post editor in blogger, by using the third party such as Windows Live Writer, blogger, scribe fire and many others. Besides that, you can also post by email. With this alternative of email, we can create a blog for automatic posts.

Another thing that you should consider is a tool that can send message automatically to the email address, and it must be refereed to Contact Form, as you know that this contact form can deliver messages to our email. Are you still confused? Make it clearer by following below steps.

Create a new blog

To apply what I have explained above, please create a new special blog of free advertisement media.

Setting Email in blogger

We have to create a unique email address for such blog, below are the steps:

Login to Blogger with your ID
Click Settings
Click Email tab. Find the words Mail-to-Blogger Address and fill the box beside those words with your own words e.g. myads. Give the sign to radio button beside the words Publish Emails Immediately, and click SAVE SETTINGS. Look at the illustration:
In the illustration, you can see that my address will be Templateforyou.myads@blogger.com. Record the email address to be used later (the email address you have created)
Done

Create a contact form

To create contact form, you can use any providers on the internet such as http://www.zoho.com, http://www.emailmeform.com, http://kontactr.com and many more. Kang Rohman have discussed at http://www.emailmeform.com that you can read at the article Making a contact form. Please read the article anymore, because Kang Rohman won’t discuss it again.

One to be noted that when you create contact form at http://www.emailmeform.com, when you fill out the form: Recipients Emails, you should fill it with email address in Blogger that we have created, as an example of this discussion is: Templateforyou.myads@blogger.com.

Install Script of contact form in Blogger

Now I assume that you have created email address in Blogger and have has Script of contact form to be installed in Blogger. Below are the steps to install it:

Login to Blogger
Click Layout
Click Page Element.
Click Add a Gadget
Click the sign plus (+) for HTML/JavaScript
Copy and paste script of contact form you have. Click SAVE
Move or Drag element (gadget) you have just made to the desired place (it would be better above post element)
Click SAVE
Done

To be in fact, it is very easy to create a free advertisement blog in blogger, right? To see the example of that blog, you can observe this blog http://netvertisement.blogspot.com.

Do you want to try? Just Do it!

Free Web Hosting And Free Domain

2009-03-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

Every one has their own websites and blogs now a days. Because it is an media of reaching the world wide customers only being from homes as well as your working places. So to help out these customers now a day lots of services are provided free of cost as well as paid services. One of the paid services are Web Hosting and Domain hosting. So it was not reachable for all the classes of peoples due to the high cost but now there comes an solution for this aspect "Web Hosting" as well as "Domain Registration".

Here Get the Free Web Hosting services for hosting your websites as well as your own blogs. The service provider of this hosting services is 000Webhost. The 000Webhost not only provided free web hosting but also Free Website Templates through their services. So if don't have an website what are you waiting for get your personal website and start exploring to the world of internet.

Initially get the free hosting services from the 000WebHost just by signUP.

Then start your website now. Build the site according to your taste. You can use the templates form the 000webhost account to build your own free website.

Now the next thing which you need is an Domain. Because the domain provided with the 000WebHost will be like this for eg(http://grapixlay.comli.com/ ). So here is an main technique to reduce the large domain name with sub domain name to small domain name like for eg(co.cc, ..etc).

Signup for the free domain service like CO.CC. And customize your domain name to co.cc. For example if your domain is (www.computer.comil.com) you can easily change it into (www.computer.co.cc) using this free domain service.

To start this service just signup with Co.CC

A small Technique

Free Website + Free Domain = more visitors+ Earn Money.

So what are you waiting for awail this offers before they expire
000WEBHOST
Co.CC

Earn By Viewing the Advertisements.

2009-03-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

On the world of internet there are different ways to earn online. Like as we seen on the older post like Google Adsense, Chitika, Commission Junctions. Here is an best program which has been done by different users across the world. Even though the potential of earning is low these earnings are in dollars. Why i mention this line is because while your are registering an domain or any other services like web hosting...etc. You need the dollars as well as credit card to pay for the services. But on this program you can withdraw the cash to your PayPal or Alertpay account directly. And you can pay those services risk free. If you do not have any of those accounts. Just open an account free of cost PayPal.

NeoBux this is the program which pays the user for just viewing the advertisements on their account. NeoBux is an program which is easy to work with because there is no need of any blogging or selling any products. It all about how you work. This program is entirely free to join. So every one can join this program without any investment.
Another method of earning from the NeoBux is by referring the new user via the banners provided inside your account.

How does the Rent-a-Ref feature works?

Sometime in mid-June they will implement the rent-a-ref feature and the cost of investment are as follows:

Golden Members: $0.20 per referral / month
Pioneer Members: $0.25 per referral / month
Standard Members: $0.30 per referral / month

Let's calculate the possible earnings:

Say we rent 100 refs @ 5 ads per day for 30 days = 15,000 clicks

Investment = $0.20 x 100 = $20 since I'm a Golden member

As a golden member you get $0.01 per referral click ($.005 for Standard)

Earnings: 15,000 x $0.01 = $150 per month

Net earnings is $150 - $20 = $130 Wow that's a whooping 650% return....

SEE... we only calculated it at 5 ads a day, there are days that it can reach up to 10 ads.... and that is for renting 100 refs only.

Here's the maximum quantity of refs you can rent per month:

Golden Members: Maximum of 1500 referrals
Pioneer Members: Maximum of 300 referrals
Standard Members: Maximum of 100 referrals

What are you waiting for JOIN NOW

Thank you very much and enjoy earning with NeoBux

How To Earn From Google Adsense

2009-03-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

What is AdSense?

Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages. All this is managed through a program they call AdWords.

Now you can earn a share of the revenue that Google earns from AdWords by displaying these same text ads on your site. In other words, you're helping Google advertise and they pay you a percentage of what they earn.

This program is called AdSense.

Every website owner should at least consider the program. Even if your site is just for information purposes, you can still participate and make decent money with AdSense -- or at least enough to fund your website.

So if you are one of those people that don't like the idea of paying for a site, this is an excellent way to earn your money back and then some.

How AdSense Works

This is an video of an Successful person who succeeded a lot with her website and Google Adsense

Watch her 4 minute video and get an idea about what is an adsense and how to earn from Google Adsense.

Here is your Offer of the day. Download it and digg your websites or blogs to get the six figured checks for Google adsense

Untold Facts About AdSense you need to know in order to succeed with the program!

Yes, the money can be great, but if you don't learn how to build a site that attracts targeted traffic then you won't make much from AdSense.

Don't pay a cent for these "Get Rich Quick" books on AdSense. Many of them are all hype. Learn all you need to know for free.

Right click and "Save As" to download this book.

Online Tech Magazine-W3 Inspiration

An End To Pirates At theaters

2009-03-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Camcording pirates pose a serious threat to the profits of Hollywood, according to the MPAA at least. In order to stop the cammers in their tracks, theater owners have been equipped with night-vision goggles. That’s not all though, the latest Hollywood blockbusters may soon come with watermarked audio that can pinpoint a pirate’s seat number.

Hindering piracy is priority number one for theater employees nowadays, and there is even a &500 award for those who manage to catch one. In dealing with a tiny minority, theater owners are slowly alienating their customers and even go as far as using metal detector and night vision to track down movie cammers. Everyone is treated like a pirate these days.

The pirates causes huge loses to the film field by spreading the pirates CD's in the market and making the people more depended on the Pirated Cd. This process was killing the entire cine field. The people arriving to see the film comes with the hand held Digital cameras and starts capturing the screen play and make copies of the captures video's and sell's in the market for cheap cost. So the people most easily prefer for pirated CD's rather than going to theaters and watching the film.

The New Technology arrived in our scenario today to stop the pirates of theaters are "Audio Digital Watermarking". This technology has been inspired by our online tech magazine "W3 Inspiration". This article is from a tech site.

How to write good blog cotents

2009-03-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Blogging is an online journalism which is similar to a daily newspaper or weekly magazine. Some of the beginners in blogging will be having thousands of doubts regarding blogging or some don't even know what is an blog. Still they signup with blogger account. As an beginner in blogging environment i was also having lots of doubt about what is an blog about, and what will a blog do?
But after visiting lots of other blogs i slowly can to know what is an blog and what is an blogging. Initially i started an blog which was an demo blog to do different tests regarding it settings and design. After an lots of struggles and mistakes i came out with my own design blog themes with some of knowledge's in photoshop, dreamweaver and flash. They i started filling the contents in that blog. After a long time i just visited the blog, i was disappointed by seeing none of the visitors had visited my blog that was an hectic situation. Then i was planning to stop blogging. But when i came across an blog i saw an article about how to get good visitor and traffics to our blog. Then i have noticed some important points. Those points were

The name of the blog should be an good keyword which should be simple as well as it should give an clear picture to the visitor's about what is the blog about.
Regularly post atleast one articles and keep the blog updated.
The contents should not be copied from the internet directly.
The Title of the post's should be really simple and good keyword like an headlines on the daily newspapers.
The theme of the blog will make the visitors visit daily.
The post should have maximum keywords.

After following these step, i started to reconstruct my blog and filled unique contents to my blog. Finally as an result my blog got indexed in Google search engine, and i got unique visitors to my blog daily.

Simple Gate Alarm

2009-03-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

In the growing technology sector different gadget had been coming on and shining in the different fields. So W3 Inspiration had started a new category named Gadgets for providing best and simple electronics gadget in this same Tech Magazine site. We not only want our readers and visitors to be benefited by the technology updates but we are interested to provide best simple and useful electronics gadget and projects which you can also try to assemble your self. As an initial step this is our first gadget.
Visit our site daily and get technology updates as well as get good gadget for you. You can keep us in touch by subscribing to W3 Inspiration

Simple Gate Alarm:

Description:

A cheap and simple gate alarm made from a single CMOS Integrated Circuit.

Circuit Notes

Figure 1 represents a cheap and simple Gate Alarm, that is intended to run off a small universal AC-DC power supply.

IC1a is a fast oscillator, and IC1b a slow oscillator, which are combined through IC1c to emit a high pip-pip-pip warning sound when a gate (or window, etc.) is opened. The circuit is intended not so much to sound like a siren or warning device, but rather to give the impression: "You have been noticed." R1 and D1 may be omitted, and the value of R2 perhaps reduced, to make the Gate Alarm sound more like a warning device. VR1 adjusts the frequency of the sound emitted.

IC1d is a timer which causes the Gate Alarm to emit some 20 to 30 further pips after the gate has been closed again, before it falls silent, as if to say: "I'm more clever than a simple on-off device." Piezo disk S1 may be replaced with a LED if desired, the LED being wired in series with a 1K resistor.

Figure 2 shows how an ordinary reed switch may be converted to close (a "normally closed" switch) when the gate is opened. A continuity tester makes the work easy. Note that many reed switches are delicate, and therefore wires which are soldered to the reed switch should not be flexed at all near the switch. Other types of switches, such as micro switches, may also be used.

Google Apps at PSG Tech

2009-03-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

What is Google Apps at PSG Tech?

Google Apps is a package of online applications that facilitates efficient communication and good collaboration amongst students and teaching staff at PSG Tech. The cornerstone of Google Apps is Gmail, Google’s web-based email program, which integrates with Google Docs, for creating and sharing documents, and Google Calendar, for coordinating schedules.

Now you can have Google powered email, calendar, document-sharing and IM, all from your [you]@gapps.psgtech.ac.in account.

Mail

Use your PSG Mail account to access Google's advanced email interface. Comes with a powerful spam filter and 7 gigabytes of storage (so you may never have to delete a message again) and an inbox which organizes itself.

Calendar

Organize your life - keep a calendar for yourself, share calendars with your friends and subscribe to public calendars to stay on top of events on campus.

Docs

Create and Share Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations online, and download them to your favorite desktop applications. Great for collaboration projects, in and out of class.

Talk

IM with friends and classmates, or make free voice calls to anyone else with Google Talk, anywhere in the world.

Earn From ClickBank

2009-03-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Clickbank is an online open marketplace of advertisers and publisher. You know that lots of peoples earn from Clickbank affiliates account. Earning from Clickbank is not an difficult task because here only thing which you have to do is getting the affiliates link visible to all the visitors which the click bank provided to you. We can make the affiliates links more visible to the visitors by plotting the links on your web blog or websites or by email marketing. The best thing which is recommend you is to get an very good banner regarding your product on the clickbank and plot it on your sites more visible places. So when the visitors visit your site and see the banner ads they will click the banner and future the visitors will be directed towards the advertisers websites and if the visitor make any purchase from those sites. You will get the commission for your advertisers websites.
To earn more put lots of best affiliates links of different niche items on your website and start earning a very good commission from your advertisers for promoting their products via your websites or blogs.

Note: Now a days lots of scams are coming to my point of view done by lots of gurus. So please find best advertiser from the Clickbank and start your online business.

Remove Autorun Virus From Your Pen Drives

2009-03-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

One of worst situations arises now a days with the USB Memory Sticks that is the pen drives are the autorun infections. These are virus which is generated automatically by the pen drives named as "autorun". These malicious viruses are spreading very fast in laptops, public computer like internet cafes, and Desktop PC's. These viruses are very much affecting the security level of the system and drastically infecting the system file which end at system malfunctioning. So most of the antivirus applications are not even able to heal these malicious virus. But now there comes and end to these viruses.

How to Stop the Autorun PC Virus Infection ?

The free Panda USB Vaccine allows users to vaccinate their PCs in order to disable Autorun completely so that no program from any USB/CD/DVD drive (regardless of whether they have been previously vaccinated or not) can auto-execute. This is a really helpful feature as there is no user friendly and easy way of completely disabling Autorun on a Windows PC.

way of completely disabling Autorun on a Windows PC.

Panda USB Vaccine is a 100% free utility. Its tested under Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1-SP3, and Windows Vista SP0 and SP1.

Download : Click Here to get Panda USB Vaccine

Create An Simple Canvas Art

2009-03-12T07:24:00.001-07:00

Canvas artworks are classic in the interior design world. Because of their elegant and attractive nature, they are always stylish. Commissioned classical artworks, however, can be very costly. Photos mounted on canvas are wonderful alternative to this. Not only do pictures on canvas give the same look and feel of a commissioned artwork, they also easily brighten up any living space and bring a burst of colour and life in to the room.

A few clicks of the mouse and you can turn your own pictures into your own masterpieces. Let your creativity spark into life by playing with Photoshop's various filtering effects. You can render your photographs to look like traditional artworks. Add textures to your photos, play with its colours and saturation, have it distorted and even transform it into an abstract art.

Artistic Effects. Have your photos edited as if it has been painted in water colour or in oil paint. You can even convert them into a coloured pencil drawing and charcoal sketches. Most photo editing software allow you to play with these effects through various options such as brush strokes length and strength, the amount of light and shadows, and even paper brightness.

Distortion. Distortion effects include 'diffuse glow', 'glass' and 'ocean ripple'. Diffuse glow gives your photographs a fog-like effect. You can edit the amount of graininess and glow to your preference. Glass effect gives your photos a look as if you're looking at it through a glass panel or even through an ice block. Ocean ripple creates an ocean-like surface on your photograph.

Textures. You can add various textures in your pictures to make it look as if it had been printed into various textiles. Such textile includes craquelure, grain, mosaic tiles, patchwork, texturizer, and stained glass.

Colour. There are many options you can use to enhance your pictures' colours. Edit your pictures' hue and saturation, turn them as a classic black and white picture using the desaturate option, or transform them into pop art through the use of colour variations. You can even give them an antique feel by applying sepia tone.

Blurring. You can easily change the depth of field of your picture by playing with the various blurring and smudging tools on most photo editing software. Soften your subject's features by using the different blurring effects, like 'radial blur', which gives a hazy circular blur on your photo and 'motion blur', which gives off movement effects.

By experimenting with various effects and filters, you can come up with an artwork worthy to be mounted on canvas and displayed for everyone to enjoy. What's more, your beautiful canvas art can not only be used to decorate your walls, but it can also be a wonderful gift to family and friends

Earn From Commission Junction

2009-03-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

CJ is a company that offers you affiliate programs related to your niche. Before I start even reviewing them, I want to tell you that Affiliate Advertisement only works with specified niche. It doesn’t do very well on general websites. Commission Junction is my number one earner on this blog. I have embedded a lot of commission junction affiliate links through out my posts that tends to get me a lot of sign ups and referrals. Out of all the affiliate programs, they have the most offers available for you. The minimum payout is $25 which is not that hard to get at all. Heck I passed it within the first few days, and after that my revenue stream picked up as grew. They pay you via Direct Deposit. Which is perfectly fine with me. Some offers are auto approved, while others you have to wait for approval. All to all CJ is the #1 affiliate program in my list as of now. They offer you HTML and java script option to display the links, so it is entirely upto you. They have higher payout from companies. For instance, if you join host gator affiliate program directly via hostgator you will get $50 / referral, but if you sign up through CJ then you get $100 / referral. So join CJ now and try your luck.
As Commission junction is an market place of the advertisers we can see lots of products of different categories. You can make use of the important events like Christmas, Easter, New Year and other festivals to make a huge amount of income from the commission junctions. For example on the month of Christmas you can get the products banners of Gifts, Greetings, Cakes ..etc from the Commission Junction website because on those month more visitors searches for the Christmas greeting etc. So you can a good sales through out the month and get and good income from those niches. Not only they provide you the income but also each products are highly SEO optimized.

As an proof you can see the checks given by the Commission Junction and Google Adsense for some bloggers.

Join CJ Now

Elearning Project of W3 Cert

2009-03-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

What is Elearning?
Elearning is nothing but learning through electronic media. Now a day people are more preferring to getting the degrees from being seated at their home it self. It is not that they are lazy. But moving to a new method of learning much as well as doing their jobs simultaneously. So due to this lots of Universities are providing Online Degree Programs for the Arts, Science, Commerce and Engineering too. So the only requirement you need is to have the desire to do the Degree with your full interest. You can set your own time of learning and be comfortable at the home. For doing such Degrees you need an Multimedia PC (Personal computer) and an High Speed Internet connection.

As such degrees program W3 Cert an Online Elearning Project

A Project started to provide Free and Paid Computer Based Certification Programs. Initiated on 06-05-2007 to provide Free and Paid Computer Certification Courses especially to students in various Domains also for Private Organizations. This site is completely dedicated to I.T. and Security, and its fully supported, maintained and used by Ethical Hackers and Security Professionals world wide. We strive to give you the best possible insight into the field of Security. This website will help you to know how hackers think, work, which tools they use and things that you should know to protect your privacy as well. Our aim is to provide you the valid information and the concept of security. The team strength is our secret of success. We and NAG(National Anti Hack Group,New Delhi) working together to bring Computer Courses in blended Elearning Format which makes learning easier and comfortable. Satisfaction Guaranteed for any course that you Enroll. This site is an creative common licensed so just go ahead an get the maximum security updates from W3 Cert

It is most valuable project so don't ever wait for anything else just Join now it self...

For More Details Visit W3 Cert

Easiest and Cheapest Internet Connection

2009-03-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Do you ever heard about this aspect?
Yes its true !! Now a days people more depends upon the internet resources. So there are different service providers. Here we are going to use the Airtel Internet connection. Now Airtel provides an best service than any other service providers, that is the "Airtel Mobile Office". This service can be accessed by using an Mobile with GPRS.
Next What to do?
The Mobile Office is of three different tariffs

One day pack Rs20/-
One Week Pack Rs 75/-
One month Pack Rs 365/-

This is an best service which i had experienced a lot. Now activate the mobile office on taking any one of the tariff. To activate one day pack just send an sms mentioning "GPRS" to "56789" by maintaining a balance of more than Rs 20/-, For activating seven day pack send an sms mentioning "GPRS7" to "56789" maintaining a balance of more than Rs 75/-, after sending the sms immediately you will receive an reply message as Thank you for subscribing Mobile Office. Then shortly you will receive an settings message for your mobile, save it as default. Now switch off the mobile and switch on it. Start browsing using your mobile. The same connection can be established on your personal computer by just connecting the mobile with your computer with data cable, infrared or bluetooth. The speed of the internet will be 115kbps, but you can increase it by changing the speed of the modem by entering into your connection setting and set the speed at the maximum.
I have an speed of 916kbps on my laptop Pc
I have downloaded upto 512mb through this service. This is the perfect solution for getting the cheapest internet.
Connect to the internet with cheapest and easiest ways.
If you have any doubt regarding this contact me at w3inspire@gmail.com

Holi Greeting Scarp and ecards

2009-03-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

"Holi" The festival of colors brings you happiness through out your Life Now and forever. It's the time to spend time with our loved ones and have fun playing with colored powder, water balloons and sprinklers... A time to come together and spread joy...

Happy Holi

Save The Flash Files From any websites!!

2009-03-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

As every one visits a lots of websites every day. You may come across static sites as well as dynamic web pages. So lots of visitors are more attracted to the design or the theme of the sites. A good theme is the one of the main aspect for the success of the site. Most of the web pages are made more attractive now days.
How they make web pages more attractive?
The answer for this questions is "Flash"
Flash is nothing but an animated images. They are created with "Macromedia Flash", this is an 2D animation software used to create cartoon as well as flash websites, flash banners.
So the flash files on the website can be saved on to our computer without any extra software. The requirement of downloading flash images are Mozilla Firefox Browser and a good internet connection.

Initially enter the site which has flash images using Mozilla Firefox.
Right click on any part of the web page.
select the view page info.
Now a new window opens names Page Info.
Select the media button option on the new window.
Now see the address below the media button .
Click any of the address mentioned with "WWW" .
Now go down by pressing arrow keys when you find the flash images you want down on the media preview frames.
Next click the Save As button on the page info window.
Then now you can save it on your computer Hard disk.

The same method can be also used for Orkut too......

Withdraw money from PayPal to Indian Banks

2009-03-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

Now you can add your Indian bank account to your PayPal account, so you can withdraw your money directly to your bank. It saves you time and gives you faster access to your PayPal funds! On top of it there is no charge to withdrawal amounts over INR 7000* However if you withdraw an amount less than 7000 they will charge INR 50.

This is a great feature now in PayPal which will pull down many services like xoom and others who used to charge a lot of transaction. Login to your PayPal account and click on Withdraw money. Now you will see option of bot withdrawing to an Indian account and us bank account as well. So if you are in America and want to transfer money to any Indian bank, Its a simple process now. Finally the discussion of transferring money to Indian debit cards have to come to an end now

The Listed Indian Banks which are included in PayPal withdrawal list for Indians

State Bank of India.
Bank of India
Canara Bank
Union Bank Of India
HDFC Bank
ICICI Bank
ING VYSYA Bank
Axis Bank
Standard Chartered Bank
HSBC
Citibank

These bank are 100% integrated with PayPal. So now leave the tension and start withdrawing the PayPal money through these mentioned banks. If you don't have account on any of these banks. Don't wait start an account immediately.

privacy : Technospot

Add Paypal Buy Now Buttom To Posts

2009-03-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

How to add an Paypal Buy Now or Donation Button to blogger post. This was an aspect which i was looking for a long of times. Because we can sell our digital goods through our own personal blogs. So to sell our goods and recieve the payment an best source is Paypal. Paypal is nothing but an online broker service in which we can get the money as well as drop the money into our account. So the paypal provides the merchant tools which consist of Buy Now Button, Donate Button, Add to Cart Button. Your can create an button from your paypal account by mentioning your product details like Product name, Product type, cost of the item...etc. After creating the Button you will get the code of the Buy Now button. Copy the code, Login to your Blogger Account and go to Dashboard, Then Create Post, when your enter the post contents and finally switch to HTML mode, then place the Button code after the body tag any where your like to place. Next Publish the post.
Finally to Button will appear on the blog post.

note: After switching to HTML mode never go back to compose mode, it will change the code and future ends with the errors.

Earn From Third Party Advertisers

2009-03-07T03:51:00.000-08:00

As everyone knows that peoples earning from online incomes from different sources or different programs. For example like Google Adsense, Commission Junction, Chitika...etc.
But apart from this we can even make huge lump of income through your personal blog or your websites. That is advertising the third party company banner ads.

How?

To Advertise on your site/blog, the advertisers will just take some survey about your sites content, page rank, Traffics or visitors to your site. This is done because if your site has an good traffic then there will be more visitors to your site. So there is more chance of visitors clicking their banner ads on your site. So they too get the same valuable visitors to their sites also. Future they get a good traffics to their sites. Even some advertisers publish their products through banner ads an make a good sale through these blogs and site.

Most of the bloggers do the same step to get an good income through their blogs/ sites.
BDV-357924-BDV

GoldMine International

2009-03-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Gold Mine International | Together We Grow!

GoldMine International is an registered network marketing company.(GMI)

Welcome to Gold Mine International. GMI helps you build a profitable home based business. Currently, there's a vast amount of interest in work at home programs, so now is the time to get in and start building your business.

In GMI, the work you do now will provide residual income for you and your family for years to come. Once you've chosen a business plan, you'll need to promote it. Please feel free to use the resources on this site and good luck with your business.

If you're looking for an honest online business opportunity, GMI is the best choice.

Join Now

W3 Magazine Template For Sale!!!!!

2009-03-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

W3 is the technology magazine . The template of this magazine has been inspired by the readers and bloggers. This is an specially designed magazine templates for the blogger platform. We can seen lots of request from the bloggers to provide this templates for them, so to help the bloggers we have decided to sell these types of templates for those who really need it.

This theme is highly SEO friendly we were doing some research while developing this templates to not only give an professional look but also to get good traffics to the site.
So don't ever wait just pay the amount and get the premium blogger template an boost your traffic and rate of your own blogger blogs.

Get More Traffic From Social Networking Sites

2009-03-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

As every knows about the social networking sites like orkut, facebook, twitter, ...etc, gets a good traffic only because every online users are aware of it. So like these Social Networking site your sites or blogs can also get traffic from these sites. As you know that there are different services the social network sites provides like scrap, Graphical presentations, text greetings..etc. Here are some of the websites which get an real traffics for these social networking site.
www.zangygraphics.com
www.123orkut.com

When you visit these site just check the page rank of these sites. These site get the traffic only because they have good, unique contents which millions of peoples like to have on their sites or blogs. So when the users use the graphical or flash greetings to send to their friends from these above mentioned sites. Then his friend receives the graphical scrap and he clicks then automatically he will be directed towards the those scraps providers sites. In this method they get an good traffic.

For example

Just Post this Scrap to your friends through orkut or any other social networking sites.

Copy the code inside the text box below and scrap it to your friends through orkut or other social sites.

<a href="http://www.w3india.co.cc" target="_blank"></a> <center>W3 Inspiration - <a href="http://www.123orkut.com">Orkut Image Scraps!</a></center> <code></code>

Select All code by pressing ctrl+A
Paste it on your orkut friends scrap book

Author:Robin

Disable Right click On Your Site

2009-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

Do you ever notice that some websites and blogs cannot be right clicked? This is an method which is very helpful for most of the site owner and bloggers protecting their contents being directly copied or reproduced in any other media. So by disabling the right click option we can protect our sites images and valuable articles being copied.

How to disable Right click option?
This is not an tough task at all

Login to your site account
Insert the below mentioned code into your site HTML code or Blog Html Widgets.

Get The Code From
here.

Getting a Bee in Genetic Algorithms

2009-03-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

Creators Of Genetic Algorithms--- those that, over time, move to an optimal solution by randomly mutating or intermixing the data they operate on --want to reach the best solutions as fast as possible. A Hansung University(Seoul, South Korea) researcher decided this might be better achieved by having the data breed only with the best, and reproduce like bees rather than birds. just as the queen bee is the only bee in a hive that breeds with the others, the best solution in the pool of solutions is selected to crossbreed with a random set of others. Thus the algorithm aims to retain the best solutions in the "gene pool," and achieve a better answer. This differs from the traditional approach, which selects both parents randomly from the whole poll.
Queen-Bee Evolution for genetic algorithm.

Author : Robin
Administrator

Earn Online Income

2009-03-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

Earn Online Income this aspect is known to all and still some don't know this. Earning from online is an easiest way as you spend time on it. Initially I was also a person who was doing lots of research on how is it possible to stay at home and getting an handful of income from the internet. After an year on research i came to know there are different sources for getting income online. The sources are

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is an service which has been launched by Google. This is an CPC (cost per click) program. Google Adsense is serving as an initial income for most of the bloggers today. It is very easy working with Google adsense. Then main aspect of this program is if you signed for an Google adsense account its entirely free. The Google will provide ads to put on your website or blog. When you place the ads at appropriate place in your site which is more identifiable by the visitors. Then the visitor click the ads on your site. When they click the ads they will be diverted towards the advertisers website and you will get some revenue out of it.

So what are the requirements of getting Google Income?

The first thing you need is an blog or your own site will work. I know it is not possible for everyone to own their own websites, but you an get an blog for free. As far as me a blog is more suitable for Google Adsense program. Do you know that?. So get an blog from Blogger .com. Now select a good topic which your are more interested in sharing to everyone through your blog. for eg( health tips, beauty tips, cooking tips, or journalism...etc). After you fill good contents. Next get the traffic to your site or blog. The traffic means the visitors to your site by advertising in classified sites, through emails, the important method of get the traffic is by adding maximum keywords while writing your articles. Then submit your blog to different blog directories on the internet. This will get visitors through these. Now SignUp for adsense account using your gmail account. And get the ads from adsense an display it on your blog.

This method gets you a good income online.

SFI AFFILIATES

This is another best an genuine method of getting paid online. In this method we get paid by referring new users to SFI website.

SignUp for an account at SFI
When you complete the online registration form your account will be created.
Next activate your account by checking the mail sent by SFI.
Then Login to your SFI account.
Click Eye earner button.
You will be given a website links which your account number at the end of the link.
Copy the link and send to your known friends through email or display it on your site.
We a new user clicks the links
The SignUp registration form appears.
So when the user fills the form and opens a new account at SFI.
He will come under your downline
Then You will get paid for referring the new user.

Commission Junction

Commission junction is an website in which the different products from different companies are kept for sales. So when you get an account at Commission Junction. Select appropriate products for the list and you will be provided with an products banner. Add the banner to your site or blog. When some one makes purchase through your site you will be given 50% commission.

Chitika

Chitika is also similar to commission junction. Get an account from chitika. Select appropriate products for the list and you will be provided with an products banner. Add the banner to your site or blog. When some one makes purchase through your site you will be given 50% commission.

Successful Bloggers.

2009-03-01T01:53:00.000-08:00

Problogger

This site is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium.

It was started it in September 2004 mainly a record of what the blogger was learning about blogging for money. Since added over well over 3500 articles, tips, tutorials and case studies.

Mr. Darren Rowse time Blogger making a living from this new and dynamic medium from blogs like Digital Photography School and TwiTip. He is the owner of the blog Problogger.

From Hobby to Profession

Back in 2002 he upon an article about ‘Blogging’. Darren didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed his life. He know that statements like that belong on those cheesy ‘buy my book’ sites (don’t worry I’m not selling anything) but it is actually true.

Within 24 hours of reading the article He had started his own Blog - a personal blog where he explored issues of Pop Culture, Spirituality and Blogging ever since. Darren learnt so much from the experience and he started many other blogs.

As his blogs have grown in popularity and have begun to generate income Blogging has grown from a hobby (some would say an obsession), to a part time job through to a fully fledged business in recent times. He have slowly built his blogging into a income source that has enabled Darren to dedicate more and more time to the medium to the point where Darren is currently a full time blogger - a ProBlogger.

Author : Robbin
Administrator

Blogging Beginners

2009-02-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Beginner Bloggers Before Starting an blog you should know about these topics
* What is an Blog?
* What niche topic will suits you?
* What kind of blog is good for you?
* Choosing a blog platform
* Choosing an Domain name for your blog
* Blog Tools
* How to add good keyword to your content
* How to upload images to an blog
* How to write good contents for your Blog
* What are feeds?
* How to get traffic for your blog
* How to convert your new reader's to your regular readers
* What kind of theme should fit your blog
* How to organize a blog

These are only a few topics to get the some benefits of an blog. The blog is not only an live journal but also it is an source of income to the bloggers. How to post contents on blogger platform.

Login to blogger.com with your Gmail account
Go to Posting option from the Dashboard
Select New Post
Initially give an Good keyword for the content
Enter the Articles or contents into the large text area
Select the Category for your article
Next finally click the Publish Post

Author: Robbin
Administrator

What Is An Blog?

2009-02-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

What is a Blog anyway? I am asked every week via emails, conversation and Instant Messaging chats to define: ‘what is a blog’. If you’re reading this you may well be asking the same question.

There are a number of ways I could answer this question ranging from the broad to the highly technical.

Before I define the ‘what is a blog’ question - here are a few definitions from other much wiser people to get us started:

‘A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.

'A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently'.

Confused yet? Don’t be - its really quite simple. To put it as simply as possible - a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.

Blogs are usually (but not always) written by one person and are updated pretty regularly. Blogs are often (but not always) written on a particular topic - there are blogs on virtually any topic you can think of. From photography, to spirituality, to recipes, to personal diaries to hobbies - blogging has as many applications and varieties as you can imagine. Whole blog communities have sprung up around some of these topics putting people into contact with each other in relationships where they can learn, share ideas, make friends with and even do business with people with similar interests from around the world.

Blogs usually have a few features that are useful to know about if you want to get the most out of them as a reader. Lets examine a couple briefly.

Archives - You might look at the front page of a blog and think that there is not much to them. A few recent entries, some links to other sites and not much else. However its worth knowing that there is a lot more going on under the surface that might initially meet the eye. For example in addition to the main page of this blog - at the time of writing this post there are over 520 other pages or posts below the surface that I’ve written over the past few months.

When I write a post like this one it goes to the top of the front page. As it gets older and as I add more current posts it begins its journey down the page until it disappears from it. This is not the end of its life however, because it goes into the ‘Archives’ of my blog. It sounds like a dusty dark place but its really just like a filing cabinet that is easily accessible in a couple of ways. You can read my ‘archives’ simply by looking on the ’sidebar’ (over on the left of this blog) at the ‘archives’ or ‘categories’ section. There you will see links to all my old posts which you can access either by category. You’ll see a category for ‘Advertising’ - click that link and you’ll see all my old posts on the topic of Advertising with the most recent at the top and the oldest at the bottom.

So from were can i get an Blog?

At present there are different Blog service providers like Blogger, Wordpress. You can get the free blogs from these sites.

More Over you an customize and develop your own blog designs. You can also order for your templates according to your taste designed by the designers.

Author : Robbin
Administrator

Google Webmaster Tools

2009-02-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Google is an best search engine which has been used by the several user across the world this only due to the sportive support and services. The Google has launched different facilities for the online user from Mail to Sites. The Google's Facilities are Gmail, Google Pagecreator, Blogger, Google Adsense, Google Adwords, Google Search Engine which is very much familiar to us, then Google checkout, Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytical...etc. One of the significant facility is the Google Webmaster Tools which has opened the door to all the website, blog owners to register their sites and blogs in the Webmaster tools. Webmaster Tools is nothing but the Search engine optimization.

First add good contents to your site or the blog.
Next Give an unique content to your site/blog
Then now login to Google Webmaster Tools
Use your Gmail account Id and Password
Next Submit Your site to the Google Webmaster Tools.
Now You have to verify the site
Then Webmaster will provide you with an verification option like meta tag (or) HTML code.
Select the Meta tag and paste the tag after the head tag in you site
Then save the template
Click verify button
Now your site is verified by Google Webmaster Tools

After a day you can see that your site has been indexed in the Google Search Engine.

What is Google Adsense?

2009-02-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Google Adsense is an service provided by Google. It is an CPC and CPM program in which the blogger and site owners can participate and Earn lots of revenue out of it. Google Adsense has provided some of the daily users an High life style by giving rest for their professions and converting the users to an professional bloggers. From India a person who earns Lakhs and Lakhs of Rupees through the Google Adsense with his blog Labnol.org. His name is Mr Amit Agarwal. He is an Engineering Graduate in Computer science from IIT. He was working for a software company and he left his jobs a started blogging. After a months, he completely resigned his job and started his career as an professional blogger. His blog had won lots of award. His main source of income is from the Google Adsense. He says that his blog started earning income only after a year of hard work. So according to Agarwal to become an blogger one should post good contents atleast three post a day and give something which makes the reader pleasure in reading the articles.

AdSense for content automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers text and image ads that are relevant to your audience and your site content.

So the important key to success is "Patients"

Author:Robbin

Windows Ultimate Extras

2009-02-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

Anyone with Vista Ultimate installed has access to even more tools and utilities, including additional backup facilities, better security and a direct pipeline to further useful features via Windows Ultimate Extras. Downloadable through Windows update, Ultimate Extras are exclusive features that can be added for free. Extras currently available include Dreamscene, which allows video files to be used as a desktop background; Bitlocker Drive Preparation Tool, which can be used to automate preparing a partition for encryption; and card game Hold 'Em Poker. Ultimate Extras has been the subject of derision due to the small number of tools released, but this is set to change. One still in the pipeline is Group Shot, a photo-editing tool that can be used to create a perfect photography by picking the best bits out of a series of shots. There's currently no release date, but it is certainly one to look out for.

Author : Robbin
Administrator

Privacy Policy

2009-02-26T03:20:00.001-08:00

Privacy Policy for Digital Curves

The privacy of our visitors to Realtrix is important to us.

At Digital Curves, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit Realtrix, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on Realtrix to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART cookies
We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers.

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

Contact Us

2009-02-26T03:20:00.000-08:00

SFI Affiliates Program

2009-02-26T02:57:00.000-08:00

The N#1. home based business for webmasters
and online business opportunity seekers

Are you searching for an online business to start in your own home? Maybe you are not exactly sure how to begin. This is where we can help. Join The SFI Affiliates Program

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Affiliate marketing allows you to break out of the time-for-money trap. If you join the SFI affiliate program, both passive and residual income can be yours if:

You are able to learn and be taught.
If you are willing to work hard to get ahead.
If you have a burning desire to be a highly successful individual.

If these things sound like something you would be willing to do, you will be highly successful in at SFI Affiliate program.

Why Join SFI Affiliates Program?

You won't be a success on talent alone or because you are in the right place at the right time. It is necessary to be ready. Ask yourself this question, "Am I ready?" If the answer is yes, then it's time to take that important step. Visit the SFI Affiliate Program and check out Affiliate Marketing to find out what it can offer you. Some key benefits are:

A permanent residual income that increases annually.
and complete financial freedom.
The opportunity to be provided with long-term stability.

What is the SFI Affiliate Program?

SFI Affiliate Program is a business opportunity that will make you a success.
You basically refer customers to an online company that sells products and/or services. Any person or company can take part in an affiliate program.

How it Works?

You earn a commission on any products or services that result from one of your referrals. You also earn a commission when you refer active affiliate partners. They are also classed as customers and are part of the system of Affiliate Program.

Benefits of an Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is much more affordable than running an land store or land store network. It is also less expensive than running a business website where there are no partners involved.

Other benefits include:

Being your own boss and working for yourself.
ability to promote products and services without limit.
fact that there is no overhead for a warehouse in which to store products and supplies.
A customer network that is global and allows contact with millions of prospective partners and customers on a regular basis.

There is no involvement on your part in ordering, deliveries, customer service or refunds. The merchants take care of all of these issues.

The start-up costs are minimal. All you need to invest in an affiliate marketing program is a reliable computer and an Internet connection. Of course you will need to start as an Executive Affiliate in order to make more money, but once you become an affiliate partner, you will quickly meet your goals.

Hurry Up !!! Join Now

What is Alexa Rank?

2009-02-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

What is Alexa Ranking? Well, after thinking the questions, it seems interesting to talk about it in this blog. Besides increasing my vocabulary of keywords for uncle Google, this topic is also good for killing my boredom after playing with script or template codes almost everyday.

The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users). The three-month change is determined by comparing the site's current rank with its rank from three months ago. For example, on July 1, the three-month change would show the difference between the rank based on traffic during the first quarter of the year and the rank based on traffic during the second quarter.

Because the definition is directly from Alexa.com, so it is very accurate and trustable.

How does Alexa.com know the number of traffics or visits in our blog?

As the definition above, the information of visitors or traffics number in our blog is taken from Alexa toolbar which has been installed in internet users. If the alexa toolbar is installed in the browser we use, then, alexa.com will identify how many visitors and page view in our website or blog. After the data is collected, then the Alexa machine will automatically make ranking in that website or blog.

Alexa rank starts from 1 and the best ranking is of, course one (1), the same as the ranking in school. The boy with ranking one is the most diligent student in the class. The smaller Alexa rank a website or blog has, the better alexa ranking a website or blog gets or it means that ranking quality of the website or blog gets better. It is extremely opposite with Google Page Rank, if the page rank is high, it means the website or blog is good and has a lot of traffics or visitors. The bigger, the better.

How important is Alexa rank for a website or blog?

For those or blog owners who do not make their web or blog to look for money in the internet, Alexa rank is not important and useful. However, having a web or blog with good Alexa rank could be a prestige for the owner because it shows that their web or blog is very popular. Am I right? Well. It depends on us.

For those or web or blog owners who become their web or blog to look for money, Alexa rank is very important. Why is it very important? Because money giver websites, such as; Texts Link ads, Sponsored Review, Review Me, ask2link and others become Alexa rank as the standard. Better Alexa rank your web or blog has, more advertisers want to advertise in your web or blog. It means that $$$ will come to your wallet easily.

How can we increase the Alexa rank?

Because Alexa rank is very important for you who is looking for some money online, so you must make the Alexa rank in your blog or web better and better. There are many ways to increase the Alexa rank, but it seems that I will post about increasing the Alexa rank in the next posting.

One of the most effective ways is by putting Alexa widget in your blog or web, as Robbin does in my present blog. For you who want to add Alexa widget, just visit this website! You only type the URL address of your web or blog and then pick up the scripts and add into your web or blog.

Author : Robbin
Administrator

Advertise On W3 Inspiration

2009-02-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

W3 Inspiration is an online technology magazine started newly.W3 Inspiration is dedicated to computers, software reviews, how-to videos, web applications, productivity tools and social media. Rate are less due to the initial stage any time it can rise.. so hurry up!!!!

How to Advertise on W3 Inspiration

Available ads slots:

728×90 Leaderboard

300×250 Medium Rectangle

336×280 Large Rectangle

468×60 Banner

234×60 Half Banner

125×125 Button

180×150 Rectangle

120×600 Skyscraper

160×600 Wide Skyscraper

Ad Requirements & Guidelines:

You can submit ads in either JPG, GIF, Flash or HTML formats.
Ads may not contain nudity or content that is not family safe.
The maximum file size of an image or HTML ad should not be more than 40kb.
Your RSS banner image ad or text ad will be inserted at the bottom of feed articles.
RSS Feeds do not support iFrames, Javascript or Flash based ads.
Expanding Flash adverts must be user-initiated by mouse over or click.
We do not support text links anywhere on our site.
All audio must be user-initiated with “mute” and “stop” functionality.
Please send us your image or Flash ads at least two business days before your campaign’s start date.
Ad placement locations shown in the picture are only approximate. Actual placement location can change due to editorial content length.

**Rate Card (w.e.f. March 1, 2009)**
Ad Unit	1 week	2 weeks	1 Month
728×90 Leaderboard	$5	$10	$20
300×250 Medium Rectangle	$4	$8	$16
336×280 Large Rectangle	$5	$10	$20
120×600 Skyscraper	$3	$6	$8
160×600 Wide Skyscraper	$8	$10	$10
468×60 Banner	$8	$10	$16
125×125 Button	$2	$4	$6
180×150 Rectangle	$4	$4	$8
Text Ad (RSS Feed)	$2	$2	$2
468×60 Banner (RSS Feed)	$2	$2	$2

Payment

You can make payments through credit card or PayPal.
Advertisers based in India can also pay through check or online bank transfer.
For future details contact the Administrator

Nano At its LaunchPad

2009-02-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

Tata Motor is all set to launch the world's "cheapest car"- Nano. Though officially the company is still to announce the launching date, sources said Nano was likely to hit the road next month probably on March 03, the birthday anniversary of Tata groups founder Jamsetji Tata. Initially Nano is likely to be offered to "select customers, including celebrities, sports persons and leading politicians as the part of Tata Motors Plan to recreate the hype and excitement which were when the Rupees 1 Lakh car was first unveiled before the world in the auto expo 2008. Tata Motors is still trying to recover from the set back it suffered due to the singur land row that leads to the scrapping of it production facility in west Bengal, which was then shifted to Gujarat. Now it wanted to make the launching event memorial an historical through the grand launching, it also wanted to erase the bad publicity that the company and the nation got int the world media due to the land dispute that delayed The Nano Launch. Through the mass production of Nano will takes some time as the new manufacturing facility at Sanand near Hyderabad will take months to complete, the Tata Motors has been gearing for small scale production of Nano form its new plans pantnagar (Uttarakhand) also from pune. The company had already completed field trails of Nano in the Kumaon hills in Uttarakhand while its senior officers are busy these days taken Nano to various places of region important to seek divine blessings. The sources said Tata group head Rathan Tata, the brain behind the ambitious project, has instructed officers that Nano be taken to all important shrine across the country before the launching. Tata Motors had already taken the Nano to the Golden Temple in the Amritsar and also to Khawaja Moinudeen Chistis Dargha in Ajmer. Nano car was driven hundreds of Km to these places of pilgrimage. The booking amount for Nano is likely to be Rupees around 70,000 the company has launched the price of Nano between Rs 1 Lakh and Rs 1.3 lakhs. Initially the company would take booking of just 1 lakh as the mass production vehicle could be possible only by 2010, and till then only 3,000 car a month like to be manufactured.

Author: Robbin
Administrator

What Is Good Web Design?

2009-02-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

Even if we can agree that the development of Websites requires many talents and a balance between form, function, context and purpose, it is the difficult pin point what is meant by good web designing. If you believe that a web project has four aspects that are offered at odds with each other,as illustrated by the pyramid, it is not hard to guess that what is consideration approximate design will vary from project to project, and even person to person this is a common sense. In software development , the designing challenges for a video game are very different from those corporate client/server application. This does not change suddenly for the web. The designing issue for marketing sites building to support a well know name branded are very different form an a intranet. Despite the obviousness of this statement, many turn to guiding claiming knowledge of how to build "killer", "cool", or "sizzling", sites then blindly apply these ideas to their sites. While many of this ideas are corrected for the sites describing, obviously not all sites will have the same issue as those that the killer rules were derived from. What is cool or clever for one site may be an a absolute disaster for another. A great example is the splash page.

A splash page is the term used to describe entry page to a site---one that comes before the actual home or core of the site.
A splash page is often used to set tone for the site an may constant of an interesting animation. A splash page may also serve to warn user about what technologies are required to view the site. What is interesting is that while in many cases the splash page can be used to lure users in, it can just as easily constitute a barrier.

Author: Robbin
Administrator

Slumdog wins its eight oscars

2009-02-23T09:43:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON: Just before 9 p.m. Pacific time (10.30 a.m IST), Slumdog Millionaire lived up to its pre-Oscar hype and expectation and picked up its

eighth and final Academy Award for the night, this time for best picture of the year.

A horde of people associated with the film ambled on stage and milled around as the producer Christian Colson accepted the big prize. There were the slum kids, Azhar Mohammed and Rubina Ali, wearing a mini-tuxedo and a swish dress, gawking excitedly at the star crowd in the audience. Diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, whose book Q & A inspired the movie, chatted animatedly with a technical guru. Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, the films adult co-stars, were beside themselves with thrill.

They were Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Malayali, Punjabi, Goan, Tamil, Brit-Indians, Indophile Brits, rich, poor...there was tuxedo, bandhgala, sherwani, sari, salwar... It was multi-hued India's day in the Oscar sun, even if the movie was made by a Brit under an international banner.

Throughout the evening there were copious references to India and Mumbai, whose pulsating energy and optimism was felt over and above its problems and misery.

There have been occasional spells and splashes of India at the Academy Awards (Gandhi's eight Oscars in 1983, Shekhar Kapur and M Night Shyamalan in 1999/2000), but never in such a sustained manner as on Sunday night.

Critics will continue to rage that the film is not truly Indian and the westerners who made it simply exploited the dark underbelly of Indian poverty to provoke foreign sensitivities and win awards. But that's like arguing that a match-winning innings was scratchy and marred by dropped catches. History will simply record the bottomline — a movie inspired by an Indian story and a largely Indian cast and crew took home eight Oscars.

If anything, producer Colson and director Danny Boyle were reduced to footnotes to India and the Indian crew, and they graciously deferred to it.

The hero of the evening was A R Rahman, the understated god of music. Many actors and composers have won multiple Oscars (notably the maestro John Williams, who has won five Academy Awards from 45 nominations), but seldom two on the same night. As India's national treasure walked away with awards for the best score and best song (with Gulzar), the world got to see why he's the epitome of India's peerless plurality.

In a loaded comment that may well have been aimed at those who tore India asunder and seek to do the same even today, Rahman, who transcends both religion and region in India, said, "I always had a choice between love and hate in my life. And I chose love and I am here." Hollywood, which has known its share of bigotry and hatred and dealt with it, responded with warm applause.

Earlier, on receiving his first Oscar for best musical score, Rahman joked that the last time he was so excited and terrified was when he got married.

An evening of honours for Slumdog began with it bagging the award for the best adapted screenplay for Simon Beaufoy, for which he thanked the diplomat Swarup, whose debut effort at fiction resulted in a finale he had never anticipated. Swarup, now the No.2 at the Indian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, journeyed to Los Angeles with his wife Aparna for the Oscars, much to the delight of his many colleagues and peers.

Golden statuettes for cinematography, sound mixing, and film editing followed as Slumdog won eight awards from nominations in ten categories. Accepting the sound mixing Oscar with his fellow awardees Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty fought with his emotions to thank the Academy for honouring India. It was a signal moment for a country whose massive film industry seldom recognizes technicians while idolizing its stars.

While Slumdog swamped Oscar night, there was another victory that brought a smile to documentary fans. "Smile Pinki," director Megan Mylan's portrait of a young girl in Uttar Pradesh who is treated for a cleft lip, won the Oscar for best documentary short.

Slumdog wins its eight oscars

2009-02-23T09:43:00.000-08:00

A.R.Rehman The Legend brought Oscars to India

WASHINGTON: Just before 9 p.m. Pacific time (10.30 a.m IST), Slumdog Millionaire lived up to its pre-Oscar hype and expectation and picked up its
eighth and final Academy Award for the night, this time for best picture of the year.

A horde of people associated with the film ambled on stage and milled around as the producer Christian Colson accepted the big prize. There were the slum kids, Azhar Mohammed and Rubina Ali, wearing a mini-tuxedo and a swish dress, gawking excitedly at the star crowd in the audience. Diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, whose book Q & A inspired the movie, chatted animatedly with a technical guru. Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, the films
adult co-stars, were beside themselves with thrill.

They were Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Malayali, Punjabi, Goan, Tamil, Brit-Indians, Indophile Brits, rich, poor...there was tuxedo, bandhgala, sherwani, sari, salwar... It was multi-hued India's day in the Oscar sun, even if the movie was made by a Brit under an international banner.

Throughout the evening there were copious references to India and Mumbai, whose pulsating energy and optimism was felt over and above its problems and misery.

There have been occasional spells and splashes of India at the Academy Awards (Gandhi's eight Oscars in 1983, Shekhar Kapur and M Night Shyamalan in 1999/2000), but never in such a sustained manner as on Sunday night.

Critics will continue to rage that the film is not truly Indian and the westerners who made it simply exploited the dark underbelly of Indian poverty to provoke foreign sensitivities and win awards. But that's like arguing that a match-winning innings was scratchy and marred by dropped catches. History will simply record the bottomline — a movie inspired by an Indian story and a largely Indian cast and crew took home eight Oscars.

If anything, producer Colson and director Danny Boyle were reduced to footnotes to India and the Indian crew, and they graciously deferred to it.

The hero of the evening was A R Rahman, the understated god of music. Many actors and composers have won multiple Oscars (notably the maestro John Williams, who has won five Academy Awards from 45 nominations), but seldom two on the same night. As India's national treasure walked away with awards for the best score and best song (with Gulzar), the world got to see why he's the epitome of India's peerless plurality.

In a loaded comment that may well have been aimed at those who tore India asunder and seek to do the same even today, Rahman, who transcends both religion and region in India, said, "I always had a choice between love and hate in my life. And I chose love and I am here." Hollywood, which has known its share of bigotry and hatred and dealt with it, responded with warm applause.

Earlier, on receiving his first Oscar for best musical score, Rahman joked that the last time he was so excited and terrified was when he got married.

An evening of honours for Slumdog began with it bagging the award for the best adapted screenplay for Simon Beaufoy, for which he thanked the diplomat Swarup, whose debut effort at fiction resulted in a finale he had never anticipated. Swarup, now the No.2 at the Indian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, journeyed to Los Angeles with his wife Aparna for the Oscars, much to the delight of his many colleagues and peers.

Golden statuettes for cinematography, sound mixing, and film editing followed as Slumdog won eight awards from nominations in ten categories. Accepting the sound mixing Oscar with his fellow awardees Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty fought with his emotions to thank the Academy for honouring India. It was a signal moment for a country whose massive film industry seldom recognizes technicians while idolizing its stars.

While Slumdog swamped Oscar night, there was another victory that brought a smile to documentary fans. "Smile Pinki," director Megan Mylan's portrait of a young girl in Uttar Pradesh who is treated for a cleft lip, won the Oscar for best documentary short.

author: Robbins
w3inspire@gmail.com

Increasing Visitor with Meta Tag

2009-02-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

Free SEO Ebook : Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

2009-02-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

Want to get 1 top ranking at Google Search? Need ton traffic to your site? Optimize your site or blog. Don't know what should be do with your blog? Download this SEO e-book and read how to optimize your blog. The creator of this free e-book is Brad Callen. I'm loving this e-book because very simple but complete, good tips and trick. So, don't waiting until tomorrow, go a head to download this e-book. File size to download is only 1.66 MB.

Become an Member

2009-02-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

W3 Inspiration is an online magazine hosted mainly for the authors as well as to other professions too. To be an member of W3 Inspiration you must join the online team of the administrator. You should send your email Id to the administrator with the subject "Interested to be an Member of W3 India" to "Administrator". After joining this team you will be added as an genuine author of this online magazine. You can host any kinds of articles, tutorials, beauty tips, health tips, online tips, Technology news, Inventions, cookeries shows, ....etc. The article should not be directly copied from the internet. It is not compulsory that you should post daily, you can post at your free times or at weekends.

Offers to the authors
The authors who joins the W3 team and providing an best articles will be provided with an Professionally designed website with an domain on their interest for free.
This offer will be given only after six months after we rate your articles.
So don't miss this opportunity

Start an account as an author in this site
Post some unique articles with good keywords
wait till we rate your work
Get your own professional and secured website

So what are you waiting for contact the administrator Now Itself!!!!
Lots of offers yet to come only after your active participation!!!

Robbins
w3inspire@gmail.com

What is CSS?

2009-02-23T06:25:00.000-08:00

CASCADE STYLE SHEET
• CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
• Styles define how to display HTML elements
• Styles are normally stored in Style Sheets
• Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem
• External Style Sheets can save you a lot of work
• External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files
• Multiple style definitions will cascade into one

Styles Solve a Common Problem
HTML tags were originally designed to define the content of a document. They were supposed to say "This is a header", "This is a paragraph", "This is a table", by using tags like h1, p, table, and so on. The layout of the document was supposed to be taken care of by the browser, without using any formatting tags. As the two major browsers - Netscape and Internet Explorer - continued to add new HTML tags and attributes (like the tag and the color attribute) to the original HTML specification, it became more and more difficult to create Web sites where the content of HTML documents was clearly separated from the document's presentation layout.
To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the non profit, standard setting consortium, responsible for standardizing HTML - created STYLES in addition to HTML 4.0.
All major browsers support Cascading Style Sheets.

Style Sheets Can Save a Lot of Work
Styles sheets define HOW HTML elements are to be displayed, just like the font tag and the color attribute in HTML 3.2. Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in your Web, just by editing one single CSS document!
CSS is a breakthrough in Web design because it allows developers to control the style and layout of multiple Web pages all at once. As a Web developer you can define a style for each HTML element and apply it to as many Web pages as you want. To make a global change, simply change the style, and all elements in the Web are updated automatically.

By : Robbins
w3graphix@gmail.com

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