(Via .)

Ever wanted to let your users draw in a form field?

InputDraw lets you do just that, saving the results as SVG for you to include in a form field. It’s based on Flash and is easy to use

Pretty cool, look out Lance and Rush, JS is on the hunt….

(Via Ajaxian Blog.)

While a lot of people are out to optimize their sites/blogs, most everyone seems to skip over CSS.

I have been spending some time looking at CSS Optimization tools today. I wanted something free, online, and easy to use. And of course, something that worked. There are actually quite a few websites that fit the bill, and some of them are easier to use, produce more friendly code, and others are a bit harder to use, but can produce amazing results.

I tested the CSS Optimizer, Icey’s CSS Compressor, Flumpcakes CSS Optimiser, and CleanCSS to see which one could compress some default CSS files from popular websites the best.

Well worth looking at if your css is getting LARGE….

(Via Blogging Pro – Blog News, Tools and Hacks.)

Pete Freitag has put together an amazing list of cheat sheets for web developers – everything from JavaScript to CVS.

Linked to this before on my personal blog, a great uselful list

(Via Vitamin.)

Sometimes it’s the little things that drive you nuts. As many of us have probably noticed during this season of holiday shopping, usability problems in online forms can be infuriating. Brian Crescimanno helps solve the problem with a checklist of form-usability recommendations.

Good Points

(Via A List Apart: for people who make websites.)

CSS has broken the manacles that kept us chained to grid-based design…so why do so few sites deviate from the grid? Molly E. Holzschlag says that the answer has something to do with airplanes, urban-planning, and British cab drivers.

hey it’s words from Molly so you know its’ good

(Via A List Apart: for people who make websites.)

Richard Rutter’s Bringhurst-inspired “practical guide to web typography”. Rutter introduces it on his weblog. (Via Jason Santa Maria.)

#

This is a good read, and worth studying. I read it and though it for the most part seems obvious the thinking is worth it. Can’t wait to revisit it as it grows…. I with more apps had this kind of thought. (Even Client apps…)

(Via Daring Fireball Linked List.)

Frustrated by the limitations of both fixed and fluid layouts? Well, we can have our cake and eat it too with dynamic resolution dependent layouts. Kevin shows us how we can change 3-column layouts to 2-column layouts on the fly, provide appropriate font-sizes to increase legibility, and even reward higher resolution viewers with extra content and larger images.

Ok this is a cool layout concept as well, check out the example, nice!

(Via Particletree RSS Digest.)

Alex Robinson is In Search Of The One True Layoyut. A great read, even if it’s been a bit over-hyped by some people. His simple description of how to create a less crufty 3 column layout is nice, but not as original as some people seem to think it is, and not without its own issues. However the rest of the article is top notch stuff, and pulls together some techniques I’ve seen around into one elegant tutorial and example. High quality reference material for all of us. (Hat-tip: Eric Meyer)

I agree withe the above comments, but it is a fairly complete look at many of the issues for a css nincompoop like myself. It seems like there really should be an evolution to some common set of layouts that can be used as a starting point, but it seems like everyone still feels the need to solve the problems in their own way. Of course the biggest issue is that standards application in web browsers is not Standard

(Via Twilight Universe.)

Derek Powazek argues that footers are a better place for important content than sidebars.

It’s time we designers start thinking about page footers as part of the experience design of a complete site. The bottom of a page is the kiss at the end of the date – and we’re making sites that end without even a handshake.

(Via Signal vs. Noise.)