Stripe Generator 2.0 - If you’re looking to add a striped background to an element on your page, you can use this tool to customize the look you want.

Stripe Designer - Easily create striped images.

Tartan Maker - Create a tartan background image.

Texture Generator - Creates textured images that you can use as a background.

All Free Backgrounds - Choose the background you want.

COLORS

The Colors of Web 2.0 - Are you looking to match the color of a popular web 2.0 site?

Web 2.0 Color Pallete - Popular web 2.o colors.

Color Schemer Gallery - Having problems choosing a color scheme? Find one you like in this gallery.

COLOURlovers - More samples of color combinations.

Website Color Picker - Test color combinations quickly.

I Like Your Colors - Get the colors used by a particular site.

NAVIGATION

CSS Menu Generator - Easily create attractive CSS menus.

Listamatic - Collection of CSS menus.

List-O-Matic - Create your own CSS menus.

List-U-Like - Another tool to create your own navigation bars.

Tabs Generator - Create tabbed images for navigation.

Flash Buttons - Create navigation menus with flash buttons

CSS Play - An extensive collection of CSS menus.

Exploding Boy - Tabbed CSS navigation menus.

CSS Navigation Menu Generator - A tool to help you create your own menu.

FAVICONS

Favicon Generator - Create your own favicon from an image on your computer.

Favicon from Pics - Create a favicon from a photo.

Favicon Editor - Upload a photo, create a favicon.

Favicon.cc - Another option for favicons.

Photoshop Tutorial - Creating a favicon with Photoshop.

CHARTS

PHP/SWF Charts - Create attractive charts.

amCharts - Flash charts.

OTHER

Avatar Maker - Create and edit an avatar.

Shrink Pictures - Create an avatar from your photo.

ScaleNine - Collection of skins and themes created for Flex and Adobe AIR.

VectorMagic - Converts bitmap images to vector art.

Templatr - Create a layout.

PsycHo - Blog template generator.

Web 2.0 Generator - Creates layouts.

Typetester - Compare fonts on-screen.

BlogPoll - Create a free poll for your blog.

RSSxl - Convert an HTML page to RSS.

Meta Tag Generator - Easily create meta tags for your pages.

URL Rewrite - Create search engine-friendly URLs for dynamic pages.

.htacces generator - Quickly create an .htaccess file.

Thumbnail Generator - Create thumbnails for a large amount of images.

Reflection.js - Adds reflections to your photos.

Drop Shadow - Improve your images with a drop shadow.

CSS Sprite Generator - From Website Performance.

Vecteezy - Stupid name. Cool vectors.

Brusheezy - Photoshop brushes.

PSBrushes.net - More Photoshop brushes.

deviantART - Photoshop brushes at deviantART

Favorite design resources : inspiration or ideas

There are thousands of design resources on the web which can lead to an overwhelming experience when looking for inspiration or ideas, so I created a list of resources that I use on a regular basis. Here is a list of 50 design resources that can be helpful to any designer or marketer.

CSS Galleries

Sometimes it can be hard to come up with design inspiration. CSS galleries are a great place to get design inspiration and they can also be leveraged as a great source of traffic. If you can get your design on these galleries it can drive thousands of visitors to your website.

Unmatchedstyle

cssBeauty

cssvault

Stylegala

CSS Drive

css thesis

Styleboost

CSSElite

CSS Import

Web Creme

CSS Mania

DesignShack

Web Standards

Designing with web standards is a great way to keep your code clean and search engine friendly. Why design a site with a 1000 lines of code when it can be done in 100 lines of code.

Developing With Web Standards - This document explains how and why using web standards will let you build websites in a way that saves time and money for the developer and provides a better experience for the visitor. Also discussed are other methods, guidelines and best practices that will help produce high-quality websites that are accessible to as many as possible.

Roadmap to Standards

Web Standards Project - The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.

Web Standards Checklist

Importance of Web Standards

Validators

Now that you know all about web standards, here are some tools that can help check if your site is compliant. These tools will also help you find errors in your code.

HTML & XHTML Validator

CSS Validator

Usability

Usability is probably the most important factor in a website design. Making your website usable can help improve the experience for your visitors as well as help improve your conversion rate.

What is usability

Usability First - An approach to web design which emphasizes usability.

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes - Blogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

Web Design & Usability Guidelines - An 18 part online book that goes over usability and design guidelines.

Web usability - the basics

The Culture of Usability - How to spend less and get more from your usability-testing program.

90% of All Usability Testing is Useless

Ten deadly sins of web design - A list of ten huge mistakes no web designer or developer should be caught making.

Information architecture resources

Usability Views - Usability with a twist.

Blogs/Resources

Blogs are a great resource for up-to-date information on design and usability. Here is a list of blogs that you may want to subscribe to or read on a regular basis.

Stopdesign

Signal vs. Noise Blog - A design and usability blog by 37signals.

Digital Web Magazine - Digital Web Magazine is an online magazine intended for professional web designers, web developers and information architects. The magazine consists primarily of work contributed by web authors, as well as by others who occasionally delve into the web realm. We put emphasis on and provide recognition for contributed work. The Magazine is recognized by nearly all of the major web design agencies in the industry.

A List Apart - A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

456 Berea Street - This is a site by Roger Johansson who writes articles on web standards, accessibility, or usability in one way or another.

mezzoblue - A semi-daily expository and exploratory on all things web, design, and typographic. It is also a personal portfolio site with works in any creative discipline the owner feels fit to publicize.

Adaptive Path

Jesse James Garrett - The blog of the founder of Adaptive Path.

Jeffrey Veen

Your Total Site - YourTotalSite touchs on a wide range of subjects that include usability, accessibility, visual design, online marketing, (X)HTML & CSS, JavaScript, Information Architecture, and more.

IxDG Resource Library - A repository of information about interaction design.

Apples to Oranges - A blog by Ryan Nichols.

Demystifying Usability - A blog by Frank Spillers, a usability consultant.

Color Resources

Color is an important factor in design. Color can separate your site from your competition and it can also convey a specific message to your visitors. If you provide a personalized service you may want to choose colors that are soft and personal or if you want a corporate look and feel you may want to pick hard colors. Here are several resources that I use to help me make color decisions.

Color Schemer - Online color scheme generator.

Color Meaning - An article that explains the symbolism and meaning of different color types.

The Meaning of Color in Web Design - How colors influence audiences when marketing products through the Internet.

Symbolism of Color

Color Matters - Explore how color affects emotions, appetite, vision, sexuality, design, and art.

Typography

There are many different types of fonts and they can greatly affect how readable your site is, so choose wisely.

1001 Free Fonts - A large selection of true type fonts for Windows and Macintosh.

The Anatomy of Web Fonts

Typetester - Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its' primary role is to make web designer's life easier.

Innovative and Experimental CSS Examples, Techniques and demonstrations

CSS doesn’t always have to be serious business. In this article, you’ll see 25 fun, novel, and experimental CSS techniques and demonstrations.

Note: some of the techniques and examples discussed here may not validate, cannot be rendered correctly by some browsers, and may not conform with standards-based design and development. Many of the techniques shown here are for exploration only.

Best CSS Magic and inspiration web design gallery list

Below you’ll find a brief overview of css-galleries you can explore inspiration from.

CSS Beauty
CSS
Beauty focuses on providing its audience with a database of well
designed CSS based sites, as well as news and happenings on the CSS
Design Community. It showcases designers work and serves as inspiration
for those looking to build CSS based websites.
CSS Blast
Russian CSS Showcase
CSSBloom
CSS Gallery with Blog’s and Online Portfolio’s
CSSGreen
CSS Gallery Of Great Design and valid Web Sites
CSSBrain
CSS gallery with comments.
CSS Clip
Web Design Inspiration and Gallery
CSS Collection
CSS collection web sites without tables
CSS-Demo
CSS Showcase
CSS Design Yorkshire
A gallery of CSS web design in Yorkshire UK
CSS Drive- Categorized CSS gallery and examples
CSS gallery, code samples, tutorials, and moreCSS Collection
CSSelite
We
are glad you like our site, that’s why we save every single entry we
make so you can get real inspiration from the best of the bests!
CeeSeS
CSS Gallery - We are the BalkaniCSS!
CESKO
CSS Showcase - Slovenia
Creative-Pakistan
Creative-Pakistan.com is a platform to showcase web and CSS designs of creative Pakistani web desginers
CSSFill
CSSFILL provides free CSS based layouts and templates
CSS Galaxy
CSS Gallery with voting and comments.CSS Hazard
CSS Inspiration and Gallery
CSS Heaven
CSS
Gallery - submit your own css design and view a gallery full of
creative design inspiration. The submitted designs can be rated
CSS ImportCSS
The no-frills CSS Gallery
CSS-Mania
CSSmania, the most updated css showcase all over the globe
CSS Princess
CSS
princess is showcase gallery of beautiful css sites. You can find web
sites primarily done completly with css , without tables.
CSS Reboot
CSS
Gallery - The CSS Reboot is a community event for web professionals and
enthusiasts. This November 1st at 18:00 GMT Rebooters from all over the
world will launch their web standards-based redesigns
CSS Remix
A Fresh Blend of the Best CSS Web Design
CSS smooth operator // Tite site collection
Tite site collection, conforms to Web Standards and designed with CSS
CSS Thesis
A Gallery of CSS based web sites, ranked by votes.
csstux - The best dressed sites on the web
A gallery of inspiring web site design and resources, focused primarily on sites using cascading style sheets.
CSS Vault - The Web’s CSS Site
A repository of sites using cascading style sheets and a list of resources
CSS Website
Gallery of Css Design Website. Submit your site.
CSS Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design
A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design. Classic!
Data Tables and Cascading Style Sheets Gallery
The CSS Table Gallery is a showcase of how CSS and data tables can work together to create usable and pretty results.
Design Shack - Inspirational CSS and Blog Design
Design
Shack offers regular examples of great CSS, standards based design to
help inspire and create. We feature any website which shows off some
flair, and doesn’t fit into the standard pattern we come to expect from
CSS design.
Liquid Designs
Liquid Designs is a gallery of websites designed with liquid layouts using XHTML and CSS
Piepmatzel
collecting best practice web standards design examples
Proestilo
CSS/XHTML Gallery all standard complient.
showcase GR
The best of Greek CSS web design
Standards Reboot
Standards
Reboot is all about the use of standards in web design. This site was
built to take a back seat and showcase your talent.
Style Crunch
StyleCrunch is a css and standards websites gallery
Stylegala - Web Design Publication
Stylegala
is an online resource and inspiration guide for web agencies, designers
and developers who take interest in websites that combine the powers of
design, web standards and CSS.
Submit CSS
Submit your own css design and view a gallery full of creative design inspiration
Unmatched Style
Unmatched
Style is a constantly growing community dedicated to acknowledging
those who have made exceptionally gorgeous web sites using Cascading
Style Sheets and web standards. By recognizing these exceptionally
beautiful designs, other designers and businesses can get inspired and
find a direction they may wish to take with their own web sites.
W3 Compliant Sites: Sites designed to comply with W3C Web Site Standards
A collection of web standards compliant web sites and their designers
Webdigity
CSS gallery
Web Standards Awards
Awarding web sites that successfully combine form and function
Well Designed CSS Sites
Andy Budds List of well styled sites.