MDE Pro Web

ColourLovers is known for palettes of color, with sets for every season. Here is a beautiful set of Summer Color Palettes for Inspiration. The palettes cover a variety of light and fun colors, reminiscent of summertime themes, like beaches and pool parties. The rest of the site also has a trove of other color related resources, from patterns to an active discussion forum. They even have a section of the website dedicated to upcoming trends in color.

If you’re looking for the very best in open source software, check out Open Source Living. They provide a comprehensive archive of the web’s best open source software. Multiple categories are provided, like web, graphics, video, audio, and many more. Open Source Living also provides opportunities for developers to contribute and share their own software. And in true Web 2.0 fashion, a selection of OSLiving badges and buttons are provided.

When a programming project is underway, it’s helpful to have resources at your disposal if problems arise. Whether you’re coding in CSS, HTML/XHTML, AJAX, XML, or using new MicroFormats, here is a web development cheat sheet guide for various programming languages. Having quality resources like these at your fingertips increases efficiency and productivity. And while browsing these programming guides for information, new tips and techniques may be learned along the way.

For those looking to be inspired by top notch design aesthetics, check out this Design Inspiration Gallery. It’s full of designs for Logos, Business Cards, Flash Websites, and CSS Websites. All designs can be voted on, and the highest rated ones are given prominent placement and credit is always given to the designer. FaveUp is the name of the site, and their mission is to take design inspiration to a whole new level. This looks like a great start for both web and print media designers as well.

Here is an amazing website full of more than 10,000 free fonts. The font preview and navigation may take some time to load, but once it does, this is one of the easiest fonts sites to peruse. Typeface previews are available in a list format, without excess clicking or separations between 10 or 20 fonts. Just select the font or typeface you want, and download any that you would like to keep. The selection is varied, and quality is acceptable considering the quantity and free download feature of all the fonts.

Sawse has posted a very helpful list of sites to visit for those needing some inspiring web site designs or design inspiration. They’ve categorized the list into 3 sections; inspiration, guides, and resources. The ever popular CSS Zen Garden is first on the list, but there are many more sites for professional and amateur designers alike. These resource web sites are great for browsing and picking up new tips and techniques. They also cover a variety of design styles and offer free fonts, stock photographs and vector images as well.

Smashing Magazine has done a great job again by putting together a fantastic list of 20 free icon sets and graphics. Icon sets are always helpful for designers, especially when you have them on hand, and don’t have to go searching the far corners of the web to find high quality work. Icons are also very useful in web design because they can highlight or draw attention to important aspects of a website or article. They even point out icon libraries available for further exploration, and an entire other post dedicated to free graphics, including icons, buttons, and templates. Just make sure to verify the project the icons are used for follow their respective license agreements.

Zend Developer Zone has a great set of tutorials on the programming language PHP. These are intended for anyone without any prior knowledge of PHP, but have an interest in learning how to program web applications with PHP. Even experienced programmers may find a useful hint or snippet of code. There are even sections covering the use of MySQL, XML, and RSS news aggregators. The tutorials are both educational and entertaining, so if you’ve ever been curious about PHP, this is the perfect place to start your training.

Vandelay Design has a recent post filled with Web 2.0 Design Resources. Website design has become a very complex industry, with multiple sub-industries working together to create increasingly interactive features. However, the aesthetic design of a website has taken on a distinctive style in “web 2.0″ themes. Notable features of the style include the use of buttons, gradients, backgrounds, badges, rounded corners, speech bubbles, and even code based tips and hints. You’ll find more than enough to get started on a custom Web 2.0 design, and experienced designers may even find some traditional ideas worth revisiting.

Smashing Magazine consistently makes pertinent posts with numerous resources for designers. If you can handle the scrolling and load time, check out their list of 80 Beautiful Typefaces for Professional Design. They discuss a range of font or typeface choices for designers and web developers to use for a variety of projects. The classic fonts are listed, like Helvetica, but they also break new ground by featuring typefaces that are more popular within the design industry. Sources and examples for use are also included.