For a long time the minimalistic look has been prevalent in web design, which has made use of monochromatic color schemes quite popular.

The use of monochromatic colors is especially successful to use if you are seeking to create a toned down expression that stands out. As monochromatic colors are just using the shades of a color you will be able to find a large number of variations of one color and mix and match them into a perfect harmony that undauntedly will work wonders in a web design.

Especially for business that seek to have a professional businesslike expression using monochromatic colors can help to lighten up the design yet be true to the expression. Check out some simple WordPress themes if you plan to build a minimalistic website and want to kick start the process. I collected some of the best themes available right now in this article.

When it comes to colors, it is often easier to look at examples than to describe it in words. For that reason, I have found a great portion of different monochromatic website designs you can browse through and get an idea of how other businesses have used monochromatic colors with success. Enjoy!

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Author : Anne-Sofie

Lars started tripwire magazine back in January 2009. He is really passionate about web design, web development, SEO, social media and loves to look into new technologies, techniques, tools etc. and to write articles for tripwire magazine readers.

“

(Via tripwire magazine.)

If you are concerned about how your WordPress website present itself on different mobile devices, you are not alone. Recent statistics show that close to 9% of internet users is using mobile devices, and over the last year this number almost doubled. Because of the continuous development in mobile technology, virtually all mobile phones in the market today offer Internet access. As a result, we see a rapidly increasing number of people accessing websites through mobile phones. This creates a need for webmasters to optimizing their websites for online visitors, and this is not a straightforward task in most cases.

It is time to take action! Using a WordPress mobile plugin to address certain issues on mobile devices is worth considering. Another possibility is to make page elements responsive by implementing jQuery plugins for responsive layouts. This is, however, not the only way to make you website more mobile friendly.

Depending on the situation you can choose from a couple of mobile website approaches when considering how to address the mobile browsing demand. Some websites choose to implement a mobile WordPress theme designed specifically for mobile phones. This way they build a new mobile version of website only for mobile browsing. Other websites choose to implement a responsive theme to make it adaptable to different screen sizes of various mobile devices. It is, however, also an option to design a native or hybrid mobile app that will integrate and use the mobile phone features such as the camera, navigation etc.

As you will see in this article, WordPress plugins can also help you solve a lot of issues when your website is going mobile. The best solution will always depend on your needs, your budget and of course your time frame.

With that consideration in mind, I have compiled a list of free mobile WordPress plugins. Please tell me what you think of the list by adding your comments below. It will be much appreciated if you share this post with your friends, as well.

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Mobile Detection

Any Mobile Theme Switcher – MORE INFO

This popular plugin detects all the mobile browsers and loads the mobile theme selected in the admin settings. You can select a different mobile theme for each mobile browser.

Mobile Detector – MORE INFO

This is a lightweight plugin that detects mobile devices, browsers and operating systems, which will allow your WordPress site to change to a mobile theme when mobile devices are detected. If the visitor is using a mobile device, the plugin will provide you some vital information on the device being used such as OS, browser and device type.

Mobile Device Detection by 51Degrees.mobi – MORE INFO

This is a complete mobile plugin pack that will help you mobilize your blog and website. The plugin includes a mobile device switcher and detector that will allow you to choose themes according to the kind of device that is visiting your site. Quick and easy implementation is made possible by an admin tool and a collection of mobile themes.

Mobile Client Detection Plugin – MORE INFO

This plugin will allow you to overload theme directories and template files via the detected platform. At present it can detect Android phones and tables, iPad, iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, Kindle, IE Mobile, GoogleBot Mobile, webOS, PalmOs and SymbianOS.

Mobile Website Builders

Duda Mobile Website Builder – MORE INFO

This plugin will allow you to convert your WordPress site easily into mobile friendly one. It is straightforward, fast and free. DudaMobile is also compatible with every WordPress theme, including blogs and websites.

MobileChief – Mobile Site Builder – MORE INFO

This is mobile site builder plugin that is both extendable and powerful. It allows you to make mobile sites and landing pages easily using a drag and drop interface. MobileChief will not optimize your WordPress site for mobile devices. Instead, it will allow you to create new contents in new mobile websites.

UppSite – Go Mobile – MORE INFO

Install this plugin to enjoy an easy, fast and advanced way to convert your WordPress site into fully-functional and customizable iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone native applications, as well as a HTML5, native-style mobile web application. It’s free to get started with your apps.

Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress – MORE INFO

Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress is a plugin that allows you to mobilize your website or blog. It will detect all mobile devices and the aspects of your website are tailored to the visiting handset. Any theme you’ve installed and have styled for web will be carried across to mobile giving you a consistent look and feel for each and every one of your visitors.

WordPress Mobile Pack – MORE INFO

WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help you mobilize your WordPress site. It has a mobile switcher, themes, widgets, and mobile admin panel.

Verve Mobile – MORE INFO

Verve Mobile automatically detects standard and advanced mobile devices and displays a compatible WordPress mobile theme. It automatically formats content and resizes images. Verve includes two pre-installed mobile themes and you will have access to advanced mobile statistics including unique visitors, visits, and more!

WordPress Multi Site Mobile Edition – MORE INFO

WordPress Multi Site Mobile Edition is a conversion of the famous WordPress Mobile Edition plugin suitable for WP3+ in both normal and multi-site mode. It will make WordPress use the Carrington Mobile theme designed for mobile devices when visitors come to your site or any site on your network with a mobile device.

Other Useful Mobile Plugins

WordPress Mobile Admin – MORE INFO

WordPress Mobile Admin is a fully featured WordPress control panel for your mobile. It works on every device, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have an iPhone, a BlackBerry or another smartphone.

It uses Wapple’s advanced web services to produce perfect markup whilst at the same time maintaining the familiar look and feel of WordPress. You can write and edit posts, moderate and reply to comments as well as updating and managing tags, categories and pages.

MobiCow Mobile Ads – MORE INFO

This is an ad plugin that will allow you to feature mobile full page ads on your WordPress websites, without altering the template files. You do not have to add banners to incorporate the pages. You will have to sign up for a MobiCow account.

Shopp + Mobile Notifications – MORE INFO

This plugin will allow you to add a text message notification for new orders. After checking out, the merchant will get new order information via text message. The user doesn’t need to do anything as the process happens in the background.

SMSGlobal SMS Plugin – MORE INFO

The SMSGlobal SMS Plugin enables you to increase your traffic to your WordPress site and an increase your post read rates by keeping your users informed via SMS alerts when new posts are added. The plugin also allows you to send SMS manually through the Send SMS tab on the control panel.

Google XML Sitemap for Mobile – MORE INFO

Sitemaps are a way to tell Google, Bing and other search engines about web pages, images and video content on your site that they may otherwise not discover. The Mobile Sitemap plugin will generate a sitemap for your WordPress blog with URLs that serve mobile web content.

Author : Anders

Anders started writing on Tripwire back in 2010. He is into WordPress topics, Web design, Web-development and also interested in SEO and Online Marketing. He’s also writing for other blogs and he is a passionate blues musician and a family-man as well.

”

(Via tripwire magazine.)

In past years a Flash-based media player in more than sufficient for streaming on the Web and this technology is still necessary to support legacy browsers. But thankfully modern standards have advanced and the inclusion of HTML5 video opens doors for dozens of new opportunities.

In this guide I’d like to offer an introduction to HTML5 video for the Web. It will take some practice to understand the native in-browser player and all its functionality. And the best way to get familiar is diving in head first!

Recommended Reading: HTML5 Website Showcase: 48 Potential Flash-Killing Demos

1. Types of Media

When you’re working with a flash video player it’s all too common to associate all video formats in .flv. While this does work, most flv files cannot retain quality anywhere near the more advanced file formats/codecs. There are 3 important video types which are supported by HTML5: MP4, WebM, and Ogg/Ogv. The MPEG-4 file type is generally encoded in H.264 which allows for playback in third party Flash players. This means you don’t need to keep a .flv video copy to support a fallback method! WebM and Ogg are two much newer file types related to HTML5 video. Ogg uses Theora encoding which is based on the open-source standard audio file format. These can be saved with a .ogg or .ogv extension.

WebM is a project put out by Google which you can read more about on the WebM Project website. The format is already supported by Opera, Google Chrome, Firefox 4+, and most recently Internet Explorer 9. It’s still unknown by most web professionals but WebM is the leading video media format in the future of web video.

2. Browser Support

So which of these file types do you need for your website? Well ideally all 3 would be great as they provide the full support spectrum. Yet this isn’t realistic, and in fact, you can cover all the bases with only two of them. Here is a breakdown of what works for each browser:

• Mozilla Firefox – WebM, Ogg
• Google Chrome – WebM, Ogg
• Opera – WebM, Ogg
• Safari – MP4
• Internet Explorer 9 – MP4
• Internet Explorer 6-8 – No HTML5, Flash Only!

If you remember, earlier I mentioned that most flash video players will support MP4 files as long as they’re encoded in H.264. As such, each of these browsers will embed MP4+Flash as a final resort. This means you only need to create two different video formats to support all browsers. MP4 for Safari/IE9 and a choice between WebM or Ogg for the rest.

In my opinion I highly recommend sticking with the WebM format. It has some big names behind the project (namely Google) and has gained a lot of traction in the HTML5 community. Ogg/Ogv will be supported but will most likely lose out in popularity to WebM’s smaller file sizes. You can read a related piece on the future of video on the web written by Sean Golliher.

3. Embedding Simple HTML5 Videos

Let’s now take a look at the syntax required to embed some sample code. All we need is the HTML5 video tag to reference each movie URL.

<video width="320" height="240" controls autoplay poster="/img/scene-preview.jpg">
<source src="/mov/scene.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<source src="/mov/scene.webm" type="video/webm">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support HTML5 video.
</video>

Notice the controls and autoplay attributes don’t need to be set with any values. I also included a poster attribute which preloads an image over the video player before streaming. This is a common preview with many web players.

We offer both MP4 and WebM formats internal to the video element. If neither of these can be loaded then we display an error for the user to update their browser.

4. Offering a Flash Fallback

The example above is perfect for all standards-compliant web browsers. Yet we also need to consider that the world is not always at the cutting-edge of technology. We need to support users on older versions of Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and especially Internet Explorer.

The best way to achieve this is through a Flash fallback player. These can be added using the embed or object tags to reference a third party .swf file. JW Player and Flowplayer are two free open source solutions you can consider. But also check out premium video players on ActiveDen which can go as cheap as $15-$20.

Now let’s tweak the code above to include a fallback Flash player to support nearly every browser in existence.

<video width="320" height="240" controls autoplay poster="/img/scene-preview.jpg">
<source src="/mov/scene.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<source src="/mov/scene.webm" type="video/webm">
  <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="/mov/player.swf"
width="320" height="240">
    <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true">
    <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">
    <param name="flashvars" value="file=/mov/scene.mp4">
    <!--[if IE]><param name="movie" value="/mov/player.swf"><![endif]-->
    <img src="/img/scene-preview.jpg" width="320" height="240" alt="Video">
    <p>Sorry but your browser doesn't support HTML5 video.</p>
  </object>
</video>

5. Mobile Device Support

This topic is still highly debated since the mobile industry is so young. Apple came out with support for MP4 on Mac and iOS devices. This means you can natively stream .mp4 video files on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch in the standard video UI. This covers a lot of the market share.

Recently Android devices were having a difficult time getting to this same level of support. However Google has finally adopted .mp4 web streaming which now capitalizes on nearly all mobile users. And since Flash isn’t an option here MP4 is the best solution available. This is why you want to embed the .mp4 code first so that iOS devices can recognize the file immediately.

6. Safari User Agent

One bug that must be mentioned is one existing between Flash players and native HTML5 .mp4 streaming on Safari. Since the browser can support both files, you may have trouble getting the HTML5 video stream in place of Flash. However thanks to this great blog post on TUAW it’s easy to change your browsing user agent.

This will force your webpage to recognize the browser as running on another device. Most likely you would choose iPad, which does NOT support any Flash playback. This is the only major issue you may run into when testing MP4 native & flash playback methods.

7. Manage Player Controls

Believe it or not there are also methods you can use to manipulate HTML5 video player controls. It can all be done in JavaScript by pulling from a set of open methods. There are way too many to list out here, but try to skim through the W3C media element docs for more details.

To give you a general idea, the Opera dev blog has posted some short tutorials which are great for newbies. Even if you’ve never picked up JavaScript or jQuery before, it’s still simple to hit the ground running with this one. You can call on specific attributes of the video media such as muted or currentTime. Then you could perform actions (dim the background, display ads) based on these criteria by manipulating the DOM in jQuery.

The same developer in the Opera article provides a working demo of their scripted video player. The opportunity to customize your own UI controls is outstanding. It just goes to show how powerful HTML5 video is becoming.

8. Video Format Conversion

This is another big issue which will likely confuse less tech-savvy individuals. You just want to get your website up and streaming and now you have to deal with converting videos? Well it’s actually not all that difficult.

To deal with MP4 which is your biggest priority, you can use HandBrake which is a free, open source solution which runs on all 3 major OS. It’ll support H.264 along with a few other codecs which makes this the best option for freebie users. If you have the money to shell out I must recommend Xilisoft converter which is on the Mac App Store for only a $40 lifetime license.

It’s looking like the WebM route makes life a lot easier. Miro Video Converter is a free tool for Windows and OS X which produces great quality WebM files. It can also do Ogg Theora encoding which comes out with pretty great quality as well.

9. Building a Web Player

Video formats with HTML5 specs are still new to developers. There are open protocols just waiting to be played with to allow for custom controls, sliders, play/pause icons, etc. If you are feeling bold, check out this tutorial on how to make your own HTML5 player (published on Splashnology).

The code is a bit intense for newcomers as it requires advanced CSS targeting and a bit of formal jQuery. There are other frameworks you can build on which already offer a customized player design. Similarly this slideshare presentation is a great introduction to building an HTML5 video player.

10. VideoJS Library

VideoJS is probably my favorite solution to HTML5 video players. All you need is their self-hosted JavaScript and CSS stylesheet included somewhere in your document. Then you write the standard HTML5 video code with some additional classes for skinning. I added their sample code below:

<video class="video-js vjs-default-skin" controls preload="auto"
  width="640" height="264" poster="my_video_poster.png" data-setup="{}">
  <source src="my_video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
  <source src="my_video.webm" type="video/webm">
</video>

If you happen to run a WordPress blog you can also try their custom WP plugin. It will automatically include the library js/css on pages where you display HTML5 video. And you can do this from within any post or page editor using shortcodes( see here).

Conclusion

I hope this introductory guide can stir your interest in the future of web video. With more users turning to mobile it’s important that HTML5 standards are adopted for these types of media. The Web should be made simpler so that developers can produce fully-supported solutions much quicker. We would love to hear your ideas and suggestions for the future of HTML5 video. If you’d like to share please feel free to leave a comment in the post discussion area below.

Related posts:

1. 10 Unmissable TED Videos For Designers
2. HTML5 Template Generators, Frameworks And Tools
3. HTML5-Powered Web Applications: 19 Early Adopters
4. HTML5: How to Use <DETAILS> and <SUMMARY> Tags

”

(Via hongkiat.com.)

At Theme Trust when you buy one theme, you get another free. Just add any two themes to your shopping cart and then enter the code “1free“.

Theme Features

Here’s a run down of the key features included in Gather:

• Responsive Layout
• WooCommerce Ready
• Set Your Own Colors
• Theme Customizer
• Custom Background
• Filterable Portfolio Template
• Google Web Font Integration
• TouchSwipe Slideshow Shortcode
• Custom Options Panel
• Custom Post Type for Easy Portfolio Management
• Custom Post Type for More Slideshow Control
• Widget Ready Sidebars
• Archive Page Template
• WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus
• Post Thumbnails
• Upload a Custom Logo
• Upload a Favicon
• Threaded Comments
• Twitter Integration
• Flickr Integration
• Button Shortcodes
• Column Shortcodes

”

(Via Web Design Ledger.)

We’re suckers for infographics because they are a fun way to feature information. It’s like reading a comic book where the pictures tell the story. Many attribute the success of infographics to its use of colour and graphics, but sometimes it is the information it carries that closes the deal.

Today we are featuring 25 interesting infographics all to do with tech development, design and/or social media. From the technological transfer of mediums from print to digital news and ebooks, viruses and spam, music and clicks, it’s a celebration of the highly digital lives we live and the connection (in bits and bytes) we have with the rest of world. Click on the images for a clearer view.

Read Also: 55 Interesting Social Media Infographics

The Sharing Avalance. This is an infographic about the incredible rise of information being shared through social media and what happens in social media every 60 seconds. – by Voltier Digital & Plastick Media.

Ebooks Explosion. With the rise in use of ebooks through various devices like tablets and eReaders, will this infographic convince you which to get for yourself? There’s only one way to find out.

That’s Old News. How do you get your daily doses of what’s happening in the country and around the world? Are you getting it via your social networks or still on paper? Which do you prefer?

Social Media Stats that May Influence Your PR Strategy. Short and sweet. Did you know that more people own a smartphone than a toothbrush? – by Moore Consulting Group.

What is Pinterest?. Pinterest in a nutshell. For more Pinterest-related materials, click here.

Life of a Byte. What happens behind the scene when an email is sent? Read this infographic to find out.

Threat Morphosis. No list on computer technology would be complete without one about its greatest nemesis: the Virus. Note the clever use of colour to make you sit up and pay attention.

Mobile Learning Report Card. Can mobile devices replace laptops as a means of education, digitizing study matters, and connecting all aspects of studies to lead to a better result? Let’s find out, shall we?

Mobile OS Battle: Android vs iPhone. This is an infographic about the hot battle that is taking place between the two most used mobile operating systems in the world: Android vs iPhone OS – the smackdown!

From Idea to App: The Process of App Development. This infographic shows how an idea is gradually implemented using programming languages and gets converted into an app that we (laymen) use.

Get More Clicks on Twitter. The title is self-explanatory so get clicking and check out how to get more clicks on Twitter!

Twitter Vs Pinterest. In this showdown between Twitter and Pinterest profiles, we get to see how many who trends better on Twitter. #supremacy #showdown

iPhone Downloads: A Timeline Through History. This infographic is about the history of apps downloads in Apple’s iTunes store from when it was launched till now. 0 to 10 billion is pretty hard to beat.

Top Search Engine Ranking Factors. Want to know more about how to rank higher in Google’s search results? This infographic can definitely help.

State of Spam. First viruses, and now spam. Learn how spammers fool people into disclosing sensitive information and don’t be a victim.

Mobile Data Growth and What it Means for You. Everything about mobile and the data transfers that run the mobile phone industry.

Life Cycle of a Webpage in StumbleUpon. This infographic shows that StumbleUpon is a big source of social media traffic, and webpages added to StumbleUpon lasts longer than any other social media sites in the world.

You are Not Safe Online. This is an infographic about how user information are shared anonymously to different companies via the sites we use for our daily activities, and what it can lead to.

Mobile Email Marketing. Mobile marketing: will it take over from just email marketing? Get all the stats before you decide how you want to reach your customers.

A History of Graphic Design. A brief history fo the evolution of graphic design. I’ll let the infographic do all the storytelling.

The SEO Puzzle. This beats reading a book on SEO any day, don’t you agree? – by Created by Vayu media.

Facebook Recruiting. We live in the day and age when even social networks can be used for recruitment purposes. And why not? Our personalities and social presence are established on these social media sites anyways.

A Short History on Hacking. This is an infographic about the history of hacking from past to present, what kinds of hackings have been done all these years and who were the masterminds behind those hacks.

The Evolution of Programming. Even if you can’t relate to the content, you would be able to at least enjoy how each evolving programming language is described in this infographic.

Internet in 2020. This is an infographic about the internet and the ten ways in which it will change by the year 2020.

Related posts:

1. 55 Interesting Social Media Infographics
2. 13 Infographics To Understand The Blogosphere Better
3. Infographics for Web Designers: Information You Ought to Know
4. 50 Infographics About The Olympics

”

(Via hongkiat.com.)

If you’ve been a web designer for any length of time, chances are you’ve run across the mysterious “.htacess” file at one point or another. Others may ask, what’s an “ht” and why do I need access to it? Whether a beginner or pro, though, knowing what the htaccess file does and can do for you, can enhance a site’s performance, security and more.

Standing for “hypertext access,” the htaccess file is simply a configuration file sitting on the directory level of your website that lets you manage the server’s configuration. In WordPress installations, one of the file’s key jobs is simply to tell the server to recognize and run WordPress. But here’s what else this nifty little jumble of code can do for you. And beginner or pro, ALWAYS backup the file before you proceed.

1. Prohibit directory browsing

While being able to browse directories can be useful, leaving them open for everyone to browse poses some pretty big security risks. Stopping directory browsing is as simple as adding the following to your htaccess file somewhere between “# BEGIN WordPress” and “# END“:

Options All -Indexes

2. Stop Hotlinking

Text pirates who copy your website’s content are bad enough for all sorts of reasons, but image hijackers are equally bad although they don’t actually steal your graphic content, but borrow it by linking to and loading images from your site. Again, it’s a practice that gives rise to a number of security concerns and uses up your bandwidth, too. Prevent it by adding the following to your htaccess file, replacing “mywebsite.com” with your own.

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www.)?mysite.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .(gif|jpg|swf|flv|png)$ /feed/ [R=302,L]

3. Display a custom error page

There are all sorts of reasons for displaying custom error pages. While many WordPress themes let you easily set custom pages, you can also quickly do it in your htaccess file by adding one or more of the following:

ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
ErrorDocument 403 /403.html
ErrorDocument 500 /500.html

Of course, you’ll also need to create and load the custom pages as well.

4. SEO optimized 301 permanent redirects

Anytime you change the URL structure of website during a redesign or server migration, you may need to redirect old pages. Just add the following with the old address followed by the new address to preserve a page’s SEO rank.

Redirect 301 http://www.mysite.com/article.html http://www.mysite.com/archives/article

5. Block unwanted visitors from referring domain

While no webmaster usually wants to block traffic to a site, there are times when it’s necessary. The following added to the htaccess file will block traffic from a specific domain.

RewriteEngineon
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} wearespammers.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} subdomain.wearespammers.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} baddomain. [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

The first line checks if the referrer is wearespammers.com, the second for subdomains, and the third for any domain extensions such as .org, .net., etc.

6. Block visitors from specified IP addresses

You can also block specific IP addresses or blocks of addresses. The following, for instance, blocks traffic from 145.177.12.119 and subdomains of the IP block 012.43.4.

allow from all
deny from 145.177.12.119
deny from 012.43.4.

7.Allow accessonly from certain IP addresses

Use the following to allow visitors from specific IPs or a range.

orderdeny,allow
deny from all
allow from 128.338.488.011
allow from 496.742.011

This code denies access to everyone except users with an IP address of 123.456.789.012 or in the range 496.742.011.xxx.

8. Changing a directory’s default page

Need something other than index.php or index.html to be the default page of your website? Then add this line to your htaccess file

Directory Indexnewpage.html

9. Specify upload limit for PHP

If you’ve ever run into issues with large files being uploaded to your site, use the htaccess file to set parameters. The first value in the following refers to the maximum file size that can be uploaded, the second the maximum size of post data, the third the maximum number of seconds a script can run before being terminated, and the last the maximum time a script can parse input data.

php_value upload_max_filesize 30M
php_value post_max_size 30M
php_value max_execution_time 400
php_value max_input_time 400

10. Force file caching

Speed up your website for repeat visits by telling visitors’ browsers that content won’t change for a set period of time. The following sets three different time spans for different type files (all times in seconds).

# 1 year
<filesMatch ".(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
</filesMatch>
# 2 days
<filesMatch ".(xml|txt)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=172800, public, must-revalidate"
</filesMatch>
# 2 hours
<filesMatch ".(html|htm)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200, must-revalidate"
</filesMatch>

Note that the revalidation prompt forces browsers to check for changes after the initial period.

11. Add a trailing slash

Some experts say a trailing slash helps SEO while others say it doesn’t. But since it doesn’t hurt:

<IfModulemod_rewrite.c>
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /+[^\.]+$ 
RewriteRule ^(.+[^/])$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

12. Add expires headers

Like forced caching, expires headers tell browsers files won’t change for a certain time, meaning those browsers don’t have to reload them each time.

<ifModulemod_expires.c>
ExpiresActiveOn
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 2 days" 
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 60 days"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 60 days"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 60 days" 
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 60 days"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 60 days"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 360 days"
</IfModule>

While the default time is specified in seconds, you can also use minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.

13.Password protect directories

You’ll need to first create a text file called “.htpasswd” and place it above your root directory so it won’t be accessible at http://mydomainname.com/.htpassword. In this file you’ll add password information for your site with the username followed by the password:

username1:password1
username2:password2

Next create a new “.htaccess” file and upload it to the directory you want to protect with the following:

AuthUserFile /path/to/htpasswd/file/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "name of directory"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

The first line is the full server path to your htpasswd file. If you want a specific user only to have access, you would replace the last line with:

require user username1

14. Password protect individual files

To block an individual file, you’ll need to create or add to your existing htpasswd file and create and upload an htaccess file to the directory in which the file you want to protect resides:

AuthUserFile /path/to/htpasswd/file/.htpasswd
AuthName "Name of Page"
AuthType Basic
<Files "thepage.html">
require valid-user
</Files>

15. Protect htaccess files

For an added layer of security, protect your htaccess file with the following:

<Files .htaccess>
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</Files>

A 403 error file will be displayed. The file name can be changed to whatever file you wish to protect as long as it is in the same directory as a specific htaccess file.

16. Disable display of download request

If you don’t want visitors to have the option of viewing or downloading certain file types, add the following so files automatically download:

AddType application/octet-stream .pdf
AddType application/octet-stream .zip
AddType application/octet-stream .mov

17. Compress with mod_deflate

Speed up downloads and loading times for visitors with Apache mod_deflate module that compresses output by as much as 70%.

<ifmodulemod_deflate.c="">
<filesmatch ".(js|css|.jpg|.gif|.png|.tiff|.ico)$"="">
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</filesmatch>
</ifmodule>

18. Remove category from a URL

Want to shorten a url like http://yourdomain.com/category/apples to just http://yourdomain.com/apples? Add the following:

RewriteRule ^category/(.+)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

19. Google Text Translation

Need certain pages on your site to translate to another language? The following redirects pages ending in “.fr,” “.de,” etc., to the Google translation for that language.

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngineOn
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(.*)-(fr|de|es|it|pt)$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=$2&sl=en&u=http://site.com/$1 [R,NC]

20. Use a different file extension

Want to change your file extensions from .php to .wow or anything else for that matter? Add:

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngineOn
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.zig$ /$1.php [NC,L]

21. Delete file extension

This example removes the .php file extension

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngineOn
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php –f
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /$1.php [L,QSA]

”

(Via instantShift.)

When did technology begin? No one has the answer to that. However, people know that technology is constantly changing and the world is adapting to these changes. New firms are coming up with more innovative ideas and creativity is at its peak. Internet is the key element of the change in technology and has been the most affected factor so far.

From search engine optimization to social networking, technology is affecting anything and everything that is on the internet. The change brought internet to mobile phones and the current change in technology eased up the internet use on mobile phones. First, Nokia used to work on GPRS. Now, blackberry has an unlimited internet service. This is how these changes come and affect us in a blink of the eye. From politics to business and to economies, technology changes how everything operates and brings about a more efficient and effective way to do things.

What is Facebook All About?

Facebook is one of the biggest social networking sites on the internet used by millions of people in the entire world. It is an essential need for a lot of individuals out there. It is also one of the most typed links on the internet. Facebook and technology are co-related and have a direct relationship. Basically, technology was the element that brought Facebook in this world. Recently, the site has introduced a new news feed ticker as well as a new translation function. We can see that the site is including all the technological elements from outside, including the Bing powered translator, to stay pro-active to any potential changes in technology.

Statistics show that in 2010, there has been a 480% increase in the internet users in less than 11 years. Social networking is one of the parts of the internet and Facebook is the most visited social site. In 2009, the site had around 50 million users which went to more than 350 million users by 2011. The reason is that more and more people are using the internet now and social networking has become something essential for most of these people. Communication is easier than ever with the use of technology. Facebook is one of those sites that is looking for ways to improve the service so that it cannot be matched by any other potential social networking site. Orkut is a good example for this. The site failed to cope with the technology, and the result saw Facebook take over the entire social networking industry. Therefore, the site needs to adjust with frequent changes. The days when the most popular social networking site was just a site for posting on friends’ walls is long gone. Now, you can see a new Facebook. You can easily see the difference by comparing the Facebook, today with the Facebook that came out 6 years ago. The changes have been massive which led to a massive number of users. You can see advertisement options, brand pages, school and university pages/groups, promotional strategies and various other things on Facebook.The main thing that needs to be understood is that Facebook is no longer just for simple one-to-one communication. It has gone away from that. Now, businesses can interact with their customers, schools can interact with students and artists can interact with their fans. Campaigns can be launched and support can be gathered on Facebook. These are a lot of changes that have been made in several years and clearly, technology is playing a vital part in this.

You can see the increase in the number of users, from 2004 to 2010, in the graph above.

Let’s Focus on The SWOT Analysis of Facebook Now

Here is a Facebook SWOT analysis that will determine the potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

One of the weaknesses is that the site makes a lot of constant changes and people cannot adapt these changes. Initially, there was the normal wall feature which was used to interact with other users. However, this simple feature changed and a new wall appeared with photo previews and other additional options. It took time for people to adjust with this but in the end, all of them did. The new timeline has been the most controversial feature up till now and not many people are in favor of it. Basically, the wall has disappeared and there is a timeline which displays an individual’s history. Timeline, as the name suggests, shows what the user has been up to at different times on Facebook.Another problem is that there are massive advertisements which distract the users. Even though a lot of users have complained about these advertisements, this is not something that Facebook will look into.

One of the strengths is that it is a free and easy way of communication. All social networking sites offer an easy way of communication and Facebook is still one of the best ways to communicate with someone due to the activeness of users. Secondly, the target audience is massive. Facebook is available for everyone. There are certain sites which are specially designed for teens and others for businesses; however, Facebook targets everyone including adults, businessmen, teens and even children.

One of the opportunities is that the site can be a path for business surveys. Businesses need opinions from people in order to improve and Facebook is the perfect platform. The traditional way is to go for interviews but using Facebook means a cheaper and yet more effective way of finding out the preferences about potential customers. Also, Facebook can start buying and selling services similar to Ebay and Amazon. People on Facebook are doing it and with the massive technological improvements, Facebook can easily have its own store for selling goods and services. Apart from that, it can easily turn in to a global phone and address book. The number of people who are on Facebook is massive and not only do they have accounts, but they are active on the site. The wide audience can lead to Facebook becoming the ultimate world phone and address book.

Facebook also has several threats as well. One of these is competition as new social networking sites are setting up. It is already facing competition from twitter and now Google Plus. Another potential threat might be boredom due to low quality applications. Application development on Facebook has been poor and the site needs to focus on creating high quality applications for users. Lastly and most importantly, there are privacy threats. This is probably the biggest threat as there have been problems before and people are still facing privacy issues. One of the major privacy problems is the photos being leaked of different individuals.

But how is technology changing the way Facebook operates?

The effect of technology on the social networking site has been tremendous. Many still don’t believe how everything changed from what it used to be. You can literally see people promoting their products on Facebook.

Business Use and Advertising

Online Selling

Online selling and promotion and E-business has not been this easier before. To get a target audience was the most difficult thing back then. With the use of Facebook, millions of users are directly targeted for marketing purposes. Businesses have been one of those groups that have been most affected by Facebook. They have seen a lot of new options for growth and promotion using the social networking site. Literally, every multinational company and every decent local firm will have an official page on Facebook. They need to have it! It’s a necessity if they want to stay in the market and to stay competitive for competitors. These businesses have benefited a lot using Facebook and they continue to see a rapid increase in their sales.

Promotion

Promotion has been one of the key parts in which Facebook is most used. Basically, it is free advertising and targeting millions of people all around the world. What would this mean? Out of a million, at least some WILL be attracted to the service or the product. The promotion strategies used by the businesses include creating business pages, uploading pictures of the product, uploading videos, stating all the relevant information about the product on the page and online selling. You can see that the existing businesses keep on uploading pictures and introducing new products. They get several likes and comments on the Facebook page and hence, the mission gets successful, i.e. to attract potential customers. A lot of people gave seen businesses that have literally started on Facebook.

What are people selling on Facebook?

There are a huge number of businesses doing so and several of these are T-shirt selling companies, home-made food sellers and even bakeries. Basically, what these new businesses do is that they start with an idea and then they make a Facebook page. Friends and relatives ‘like’ the page and this is how they get popularity. They upload several pictures of their products with the specific prices. The customer can then order the product. The most famous example is in cake baking. These home-made cakes are sold using Facebook and these individuals get to target an audience. It seems and is easy for these businesses to just set up these pages and upload decent pictures to attract potential customers. This guarantees them a decent number of customers.

How users spend 20 minutes on facebook (Facebook Statistics For 2011)

How Businesses Interact with Customers using Facebook

Not only, can the site be used to advertise and promote the products, it can also be used to interact with the customers. Facebook has seen a lot of multinational companies setting up their Facebook pages including giants like Blackberry, Sony and Nike. These are the companies that do not sell online using Facebook. You will never find people buying a genuine mobile phone using Facebook. However, there is another tactic that these multinationals use Facebook for. Every customer is loyal to the brand if he/she thinks that they have a certain say in the company’s product or if they think that the company values them. This basically means a Company to Customer relationship which is made easy by Facebook. This interaction used to be the major problem that was lacking in this field. However, technology, along with Facebook, has changed the entire foundation of this. The site has brought in a new technique for the companies to get potential customers as well as to make the existing customers more loyal. Even if the businesses do not implement what these customers say on Facebook, these people feel themselves to be important to the company is the firm replies to their wall posts or comments.

The New Facebook Polls

The new Facebook Polls have been really popular and these businesses are taking full advantage of it. These pages, which have hundreds and thousands of likes, start up several questions. For example Blackberry might ask ‘what do you think should be included in our next phone?’ Thousands of fans are likely to answer these questions with what they think should be included in the phone. This way, the company benefits by conducting a free survey and the fans feel that they are valued by the business. These businesses also regularly update their statuses. People like these statuses and comment on them. If the business replies back, then it shows that there is a relationship between the business and the customer. A good relationship between the 2 is a vital part in making an ordinary customer in to a loyal customer.

The site has also been used by politicians. 6 years back, no one knew that technology is going to help politicians in their campaigns. Today, you can clearly see the politicians update their supporters using the social networking site. Also, people confirm their attendance at different events by responding to the invitation of an event on Facebook. The Egypt revolution was one of the biggest revolutions in the world and Facebook and Twitter were the key elements. Basically, everyone used to be informed about several rallies on Facebook. Statuses were updated regarding the number of people who have actually showed up. Therefore, the social site was the biggest reason why the Egyptians could easily communicate with each other during the revolution.

What More to Expect?

Facebook has been widely used and will always be widely used if the people stay pro-active. Technology is one of the things that world cannot stop in this world. It will grow and there will be changes. It has changed the global world by making communication easier using social networking sites such as Facebook. It is, however, not just a sight for basic communication. It is used for other purposes as well. Facebook is the site which connects millions of users. The site is likely to take some opportunities in the future with newer technology. The latest video chat feature has been successful but who knows maybe a Facebook shop is in the works or maybe it’s turning into a global address book?

The site has affected the entire world from individuals to huge multinational companies. The billion dollar company keeps on changing the layout and the options on the site in an attempt to give better options and preferences to its users. With the use of technology, Facebook changes from time to time and bring about all the changes to rise up to the level. We have seen how people have been able to do things that they couldn’t even dream of using technological changes and with the use of social networking sites like Facebook. Businesses, politicians, groups and event organizers, all, use Facebook. This is the site that has made communication a lot easier and is going to make it even easier as we see the changes in technology. With Facebook, no one is alone anymore!

”

(Via instantShift.)

From time to time, we observe, find and collect high-quality photoshop tutorials and feature them in lists such as this to keep our readers abreast with the latest and greatest tutorials around. We’ve previously showcased a number of text effect tutorials, as well as tutorials on photo effects, and retro and vintage effects, but if you’re more into text effects, then today’s article will more than likely help you kick it up a notch.

I’ve put together more than 20 fantastic Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials that give you cute, creepy, festive, fun and even legendary results. If you like what you see, check out the tutorials via the links provided below. Which of the tutorials did you like best? Tell us your thoughts.

3D Skyscraper Text Effect

Stack up your text in 3D skyscraper style using Photoshop CS5. [View Tutorial]

3D Ribbon Wrapped

Create a 3D ribbon cutout text effect in Photoshop from scratch with this detailed tutorial. [View Tutorial]

Cinematic “Sergeant America” Text Effect

This tutorial focuses on how to create a marvelous “Sergeant America” metallic text in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Retro Folded Typography

Put your text through the folds, with an awesome folded coloured paper text effect in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Super Glossy 3D Typography

This is a tutorial based on how to create a super glossy and colourful text effect with reflection in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

“Real Steel” Inspired Text Effect

Ever wanted that metallic and super cool text effect as inspired from the “Reel Steel” movie poster? Now you can build your own from scratch in Photoshop and this tutorial. [View Tutorial]

Ice Cream Type Treatment

A cute and delicious way to treat your text. [View Tutorial]

3D Text Effect with Abstract Brush

This tutorial shows how to create a wonderful 3D text effect with beautiful brush decoration and lighting in Photoshop from scratch. [View Tutorial]

Colourful Aura Text Effect

This is a tutorial based on creating a colourful aura text effect in Photoshop from scratch with detailed steps. [View Tutorial]

Realistic Folded Paper Text

Create a realistic folded paper text effect in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Lost in Space Typography

This tutorial is based on creating an abstract composition of colours and lights, and applying that created texture in a text layer in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

3D Text Effect Using Layer Styles

This is a tutorial on how to create a 3D text effect with metallic and shiny edges and inside light effects in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Smoke Text Effect

Learn how to create a realistic smoke text effect in Photoshop, easy and simple, with detailed guides. [View Tutorial]

Colorful Text Design

This is a tutorial which shows how to create marvelous and splendid colourful text styles with different layers in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Grungy Style Text Effect Inspired by “Infamous 2″

This tutorial is based on how to create a grungy and superb text effect as inspired by the game Infamous 2, in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Baseball-Inspired Text Effect

This is a tutorial based on how to create a realistic baseball inspired text effects with stitches around the corner in Photoshop, made from scratch. [View Tutorial]

RAWZ Light Effects

This tutorial shows how to create superb RAWZ light effect text style with carbon fiber background in Photoshop from scratch. [View Tutorial]

Candy Cane Text

A tutorial to create a modern, colourful and delicious candy-like text effect in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Broken Plate Text Effect

This tutorial illustrates a wonderful and realistic broken plates text effect in Photoshop from just a blank Photoshop document. [View Tutorial]

Colourful Rainbow Text Effect

This tutorial is based on creating a marvelous rainbow text effect with different effects in Photoshop from scratch. [View Tutorial]

Realistic Stitched Text Effect

Create a realistic fabric stitching text effect in Photoshop from zero. [View Tutorial]

Steam Powered Typographic Treatment

This is a tutorial which focuses on creating an awesome steam-powered text effect in Photoshop from scratch. [View Tutorial]

Abstract Layered Text with Decorative Lighting Effect

Learn how to render an abstract layered text effect with wonderful lighting effects in Photoshop. [View Tutorial]

Editable on Screen Text Effect using Smart Objects

This is a tutorial which focuses on creating an LED pattern type text which you can see in normal LED displays, in Photoshop using Smart Objects. [View Tutorial]

More Photoshop Tutorials

Here are more Photoshop tutorials we’ve previously published:

• How to Draw Realistic iPad2
• How to Draw Realistic Samsung Galaxy S2
• How to Draw Apple iCloud Icon
• The Avengers Text Effect With Illustrator & Photoshop
• More..

Related posts:

1. 28 Fresh Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials
2. 25+ Water Effect Photoshop Tutorials and Brushes
3. Realistic Smoke Effect Photoshop Tutorials
4. Creating The Avengers Text Effect With Illustrator & Photoshop

”

(Via hongkiat.com.)

Social Media has taken more evolutionary leaps in the past two years then it has in the time since cave men adorned their spears and clubs with rocks and bones to differentiate their awesome possessions.

Hope everyone are familiar with the current social media dearie. Yup it is Pinterest! Gentlemen who were once making gag on Pinterest as a social media site used by ladies just to share cooking recipes, are now damn bully users of Pinterest. So, what is there in Pinterest to make them turnaround? Before coming into that, let me quickly crack out few facts about Pinterest.

• Pinterest, in just two years from its emergence has reached the world’s top 3rd biggest social media networking site.
• It has an average of 11.7 million unique visitors per month.
• User’s attention is longer in Pinterest when compared to Facebook and twitter. Pinterest users spend on an average of 15.8 minutes, whereas a Facebook user spends 12.1 minutes and twitter user spends 3.3 minutes on an average.
• Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and Linkedin (even if these three are combined).
• Almost 70 percent of Pinterest users are females, among which those under the age group of 25 to 35 have their major participation.
• One third of all Pinterest users have an average annual household income of $100,000.
• 50 percent of Pinterest users have kids.
• 97 percent of Facebook fans on Pinterest page are women.

Why Pinterest?

Pinterest, being today’s hottest social media network has taken away the hearts of millions. So, why this Pinterest crush? The one best reason to-be is, Pinterest keeps you visually engaged. With its amazing photo sharing facility, people can anytime pin photos and videos to their boards. Another best thing with Pinterest is, you can upload ‘n’ number of photos to ‘n’ number of albums. Pinterest lets you to pin photos either from your computer or web. If you are pinning a image taken from web, there is a Pinterest Bookmarklet to pick up the source of the image and set it as the click through link. You also have the option of sharing the pins simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter. This unique way of pinning photos and videos has led users to keep showered with Pinterest.

WordPress

Gone are the days where you hire designers to design, build and develop your websites. Now is the trend to design your own website / blog with WordPress. WordPress is absolutely free and hence it is not needed to spend dollars on designing websites. WordPress is simple to use. With a WordPress site, you can easily drive traffic to your page, since WordPress is wholly SEO- friendly. Therefore, your site can be ranked well on Google and other search engine result pages.

WordPress Pinterest Themes

So, now coming to our topic. What is a WordPress – Pinterest theme? There are a plenty of WordPress themes that lets you to add videos, photos, content and other customization options to your WordPress site. The most interesting thing about Pinterest that attracts all visitors is its excellent design and layout. Several Pinterest like WordPress themes have come out to make your WordPress blog shine like a Pinterest page. These WordPress Pinterest themes make you feel as if you are working with a social media network, while the truth is you are in your WordPress site.
Though there are several Pinterest like WordPress themes, I have picked you the best ten themes that comes with some extraordinary features.

WP Pinterest Theme by Apptha

Developed by Apptha, this theme stands for its stylish and flexible home page design. The theme comes with a multi column layout that helps you to add any number of images to the pinboard. This template is SEO optimized and when integrated with third party plugins like Feedburner email widget or Social Share Network will look like an absolute Pinterest website. Pinterest WordPress Theme comes with a fast loading feature that keeps your site visitors completely fascinated.

With this Apptha theme, you can upload logo and images easily. It features table less design and is compatible with IE7+, IE8, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. The content gets loaded as you scroll. User can comment on any image uploaded by the admin. Admin has access to upload logo, set infinite scroll or standard scroll and set featured image.

Features Live Demo

PinBoard by Themify.me

PinBoard is a Pinterest like WordPress theme that comes with a responsive and auto stacking layout. PinBoard gives you the option to choose infinite scroll, with which the new posts gets loaded automatically as you scroll to the bottom of the page. PinBoard works well with desktop and mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Android. The major features that comes with Pinboard theme are lightbox gallery, social media icons, custom header / footer menu, 3 post layout options, custom welcome message, custom footer text, 7 theme skins, optional RSS and search form, animated back to top button, and child theme support. PinBoard is coded with HTML5 and CSS3.

Features Live Demo

Pinpress

PinPress is a WordPress theme that comes with the exact design of Pinterest. The theme is wholly social and the apt one for displaying visual arts. Pinpress features an amazing responsive design, search engine optimized and easy customization. The theme can be used on all devices and browsers, whatever the screen resolution may be. It has an excellent compatibility with smartphones, tablets and big screen monitors. PinPress can be a valid choice for designers, travelers, personal bloggers, photographers, and corporate bloggers. Pinpress is a premium theme offered at $69.

Features Live Demo

Gridnik

Gridnik is a Pinterest like WordPress theme, which is completely unique. This theme comes with a flexible layout that fits on any screen size. Gridnik is WizyPanel powered and enfolds six videos with a built-in documentation to get you started. It comes in 9 slick color schemes with 15 font options served by Google Fonts Directory. Gridnik supports WordPress 3. The theme also includes a powerful portfolio, built-in ShareThis plugin, built-in Wizylike WordPress plugin, updates notifier and individual galleries for projects. There are 10 custom widgets that come with Gridnik. These include Flickr, Twitter, Video widget, popular projects, recent projects, most liked projects, project’s tags, project’s categories and many more. Gridnik is offered at a premium price of $30.

Features Live Demo

DailyNotes

Daily Notes comes with $39 for a whole of 84 themes. This is a Pinterest like WordPress theme that can be used to share your day-to-day life’s experience with your friends. Daily bloggers, ladies and mummies who spend their time leisurely at home can best prefer this theme to decorate their WordPress site. DailyNotes is so simple and comes in a layout that tempts you to write something like in a personal diary. It comes in four different colors. Daily notes is compatible with all type of browsers and screen types. This WordPress theme is also multimedia integrated.

Features Live Demo

Graphic

Graphic is a WordPress theme that is developed by Dessign team. It is exclusively a free theme with modern style. There is a featured section on the middle, to where the posts are aligned in an amazing way. Graphic designers, illustrators and photographers will find Graphic to be an excellent platform for their career. This theme is compatible with WordPress 3.1. It includes a valid XHTML and CSS. Graphic is compatible with IE7, IE8, Safari and Firefox. Another best thing with this theme is that, Graphic is search engine optimized and hence by using this theme on your WordPress site, you can get your site rank good in search engines.

Features Live Demo

ecoStrips

EcoStrips is a dynamic theme offered at a premium price of $25. This theme comes with a dynamic wall to arrange your posts in a dynamic way, based on your screen size. There is also a dynamic filter plugin that allows you to filter your posts dynamically with a single click. EcoStrips make use of the latest HTML5 and CSS3 technologies.

Features Live Demo

Reflex

Reflex is a dynamic Grid / Portfolio WordPress theme, which is offered at a premium price of $35. It comes with a powerful theme management tool and a filterable dynamic grid layout. This theme includes 9 page templates and 9 color schemes. There are over 40 font replacement options, which also include selections from Google Fonts API and Cufon. Reflex features the ability to change thumbnail and module sizes on the fly. The theme also comes with typekit, fontsquirrel, Google fonts support, lightboxes, galleries, slideshows, shortcodes and traditional blog templates. There is also an optional widget overlay area at the footer. YouTube and Vimeo videos are supported in the lightbox and inside page templates.

Features Live Demo

AutoFocus

Autofocus is an elegant WordPress theme that comes with Dynamic Flickr Integration, by which you can transfer images directly from your Flickr account. Autofocus is a premium theme offered at $25. It features, front page image crop editing, lightbox effect for shortcodes, support for WordPress 3.0 and custom menus, custom admin styles for an improved WYSIWYG experience, widgetized sidebar areas, and two additional & optional ad-spaces for banners & widgets. This WordPress Pinterest theme is designed on a 800 pixel / 8 column grid. Autofocus is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. It also has an optional portfolio style layout with squared images.

Features Live Demo

Shaken Grid

Shaken Grid is a powerful portfolio theme with a fluid grid layout. The theme is extremely easy to use and customize. Post a video by simply copy and pasting the video’s URL from Vimeo or Youtube, or create an entire gallery by just uploading all of your images and hitting “Publish”…it’s that simple! Advanced post options include; changing the post box size, hiding post elements (title, content, slideshow), and changing the post’s individual page to be more minimalistic. It brings you the exact look of Pinterest, but more a classy look. It has a built in theme options panel from where you can upload your own logo and customize the look.

Features Live Demo

iPhoto (Free Theme)

iPhoto theme is for photo blogs, photographers or personal bloggers. The theme is an awesome WordPress theme like Pinterest. iPhoto theme comes with full width homepage layout section, a responsive sections like views, photos and comments included homepage thumbnails, WordPress 3.31 overviews ready for auto included and resizing thumb image options, sweet drop down navigation menu and more much. The theme is a best of clone for Pinterest!

Features Large Preview Download

“

(Via instantShift.)

I can’t speak for the iPhone users, but as an iPad owner, I know that there are only 4 editing features in the camera app: rotate, enhance, red-eye, and crop. These are nice features to have, but they’re nothing special and they don’t actually change your photos.

So what should you do if you want to have fun with your photos and add interesting filters, effects, and enhancements – besides the basic features that the iOS camera offers? Well luckily, there are many apps for that and we’re going to cover the best ones in this list.

Recommended Reading: Top 20 Android Photography Apps

AR Pho.to Cartoonizer

Augmented Reality Pho.to Cartoonizer lets you add various effects to your photos including a cartoon effect. One of the unique things about this app is that you can apply realistic emotions to a face and then animate them. You can even turn yourself into an alien, troll, and other weird things just for fun. [Free]

PhotoSketch

PhotoSketch is a quick and easy way to turn your photos into real-life sketches. You can also add other effects like cartoon, gray scale, alien skin, and more. [Free]

SketchMyPhoto Mobile

SketchMyPhoto Mobile is another app that turns your photos into realistic sketches. There is no limit to the number of photos you can convert. This app is actually an extension of their website Sketchmyphoto.com. It doesn’t state whether or not you can access images saved on the Web via the app, but that would be a great feature to have. [Free]

Cartoonize

Cartoonize allows you to quickly add a cartoon effect to your photos with one tap; you can continually increase the cartoon effect until you’re satisfied. Just upload a photo from your library or take one with the camera and you’re ready to get started. [$0.99]

Cartoonizeme

Cartoonizeme lets you add funny elements to your images such as mustaches, eyebrows, hair, accessories, and dialogue balloons (which can be customized with your own text). You can also rotate and scale your images and change the colors of elements to match your photos. [$1.99]

Photo to Toon

Photo to Toon does just that: turns your image into a cartoon version. Additionally, you can adjust the toon lines and add a frame around your image. [$0.99]

ToonPAINT

ToonPAINT doesn’t just convert your images and apply filters, it also lets you color in your images by painting with your fingers. This allows you to create different variations of the same image and also lets your creativity run wild. [$1.99]

Photo360

Photo360 includes many different tools that allow you to edit your photos by adding frames, cropping, rotating, changing the colors, and adding text. You can also add various filters like sketch and cartoon. The unique thing about this app is the ability to add your image to 3D models such as soda cans and cubes. [$0.99]

Paint FX: Photo Effects Editor

Paint FX is an advanced app with filters, effects, enhancements, and more that can be applied to any parts of your images with just a tap or swipe. Meaning, you don’t have to change the entire image at once, you can pick and choose which parts you want to change. You can also apply more than one effect to each part. This gives you an unlimited amount of possibilities to play with your images. [$2.99]

FX Photo Studio

FX Photo Studio is the ultimate photo editing app and includes almost 200 effects and filters. Much like Paint FX (mentioned above) you can also apply effects to only parts of your images. On top of that, you can create postcards using your images and send them anywhere in the world, add text, important images from Facebook, share images on various social networks, and much more. [$0.99]

Sketch+

Sketch+ is a simple app that converts your images into realistic looking hand sketches. You can create both color and gray scale sketches. [$1.99]

Picture Sketch Pro

Picture Sketch Pro turns your photos into sketches with just one tap. The sketching effect is random, so no matter how many times you transform an image, you won’t get the same sketch twice. It includes three color modes: color, sepia, and black and white. [$1.99]

Fast Sketch

With Fast Sketch you can create colorful sketches from your images in minutes. It includes three pencil tools that you can use to change and add things to your images. [$0.99]

Sketch Camera Pro

Sketch Camera Pro is another simple app that comes with three filters: sketch, gray scale, and negative. Photos that you transform can also be shared on Facebook. [$0.99]

SketchMaster

SketchMaster gives you the best of both worlds; you can create images that are part sketch (basic, sketch plus, or black and white) and part original color. This makes for an interesting mixture and variation of images. You can also add captions and frames and use your finger to change or erase parts of your images. [$2.99]

SketchMee

SketchMee will sketch any photo from your library into a pencil sketch, right before your eyes. You can save your images in resolutions from 480×320 for Web use, up to 2880×1920 for use as backgrounds or to print out. [$1.99]

Sketch Me!

With Sketch Me! you can apply up to 7 different effects to your images and it also includes a split screen mode. This means that you can have half of your image sketched and the other half in its original form. [$0.99]

Sketch Camera

Sketch Camera includes 6 conversion patterns and can add illustrated effects to your images. You can save your images in resolutions from 320×240 to 1024×768; plus you can post directly to Twitter and share your creations. [$1.99]

Camera Sketcher

Camera Sketcher is a simple app that lets you take a photo or video as a line drawing. Of course, you can also transform images already in your library to sketches as well. [$1.99]

BeFunky Photo Editor Pro

BeFunky comes with over 50 high quality photo effects and 40 photo frames to add to your images. When you take a photo or upload one from your library, you’ll get real-time preview thumbnails showcasing each effect. This gives you a chance to decide which effect will look best. [$1.99]

PhotoToaster

PhotoToaster is a an advanced, well-designed app for iPhone and the iPad. It gives you total control over your images and includes 60 different presets that can be used to change and enhance your photos. Its “sophisticated noise reduction” feature is what makes PhotoToaster stand out from the rest; this helps to greatly enhance photos that were taken in low-lit areas. [$1.99]

Photo Power

Photo Power is a powerful tool that includes numerous filters, color adjustments, and other advanced features. You can also flip, crop, and rotate your photos with ease. Photo Power also supports sharing on Facebook and Twitpic, so that you can share your edited images with friends. [$2.99]

PicoBoo

PicoBoo is a photo coloring and sketch book app for the iPad. You can use it to convert any photo into a pencil sketch, and then use your fingers to color it in for a unique look. It has Flickr integration so that you can import your images from there. Once you’re done with your image, you can frame it and share it on Facebook, Twitter, or by email. [$0.99]

Pholeido

Pholeido for iPad lets you add all kinds of special effects to your images with the tap of a button or by using your finger. You can convert colors, blur your images, transform them into sketch drawings and cartoons, change the contrast and saturation, and more. You can also share your images on Pholeido, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr – all at once. [$1.99]

RoughSketcher

RoughSketcher for iPad, is for those who are looking for a very simple and easy to use app. Simply put, it turns your photos into rough pencil sketches and then allows you to save or email them. There is also a “shade” button, which lets you change the shade of your images from light to dark. [$1.99]

Kromatik Pro

Kromatik is a color effects app that lets you use your fingers to retouch your photos and add color to different areas. You can apply various masks for different effects, such as converting to a black or white sketch or applying a sepia effect. You can also share your images on Facebook. [$1.99]

Artwork Studio

Artwork Studio isn’t just about sketches, you can also transform your photos into oil paintings, comics, and pop art – in just one click. If you have an iPhone 4, you can use the VGA button to output your images to an external monitor or projector. [$1.99]

My Sketch

My Sketch lets you turn your images into realistic, high resolution sketches; there are 20 different sketch styles to choose from. They use a “complex algorithm to achieve realistic and near perfection sketches”. You can also share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, or by email. [$1.99]

What is your favorite app for adding effects to your images? What is your favorite photo filter?

Related posts:

1. 40 Useful iPad Apps for Web Designers
2. iPhone Photography: Beautiful Photos Taken With iPhone 4
3. 20 Useful iPhone Apps for Developers & Designers
4. How to View Website Source Codes on iPad / iPhone [Quicktip]

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(Via hongkiat.com.)