Make a website for free #2
This entry was posted on October 11, 2007
In the first part of this series I introduced you to three pieces of free software you can use to start designing and building your own websites. In this part I’ll cover some of the very useful online tools you can use. Yes, it’s entirely possible to use websites to build websites. Nifty, eh?
This extremely addictive website allows you to create striped patterns for use in your designs. Recent upgrades to the site now give you eight different angles to choose from. You can have gradient backgrounds for your stripes, as well as use up to five different colours in one pattern. If you’d like some inspiration, you can always look at one of the 184 stripes I’ve created.
The makers of stripegenerator.com bring you their tab maker - an invaluable tool when it comes to making rounded corner tabs for your navigation. This tool allows you to make tabs in all directions (up, down, left, and right), any size up to 100pixels high by 240pixels wide. You can adjust the radius of the corners as well as put a border on the tabs.
This site provides blank CSS templates for you to use in your work. There’s a total of 40 templates, but here’s where the good part is: every single template uses the same HTML. The only differences are in the CSS. Layout Gala really shows the power of CSS when it comes to making your layout.
With Picnik you can edit your photos online. Even though free registration is required to get the full benefits of the service, I managed to do what I needed to do using the demo version. Don’t get me wrong, this is no replacement for GIMP, but it allows you to crop and resize your photos, as well as add shapes, text, and frames. Add that to the ability to apply filters and save your photos once you’re all done, and you’ve got yourself one very useful tool.
When you need dummy / sample text for your projects, “Lorem Ipsum” really is the way to go. There are several generators out there you can use to get dummy text, but this is one of my favourites. You can choose to add punctuation to the text, as well as have the text translated into different languages should you so wish.
This site is what I like to call “the bee’s knees” of colour. It’s a large community of colour lovers (hence the name) who share colours and palettes. There’s literally a colour palette for every need. If you need inspiration for which colours to use in your designs, this is the place to come.
So there we have it. Using the above tools you can find a colour scheme for your design, make your navigation tabs, add some stripes, edit any layout pictures you’re using, find a structure for your layout, and add sample text to it, though if you’re in a rush and need a hot Web 2.0-style layout, I’d recommend web20generator.com/ , a fun site which generates a stereotypical web 2.0 site for you.
8 lovely people have commented
Stripes are indeed awesome. I’m actually their “top striper” when it comes to the number of stripes shared.
Glad to be of service.
This was a really useful article, thanks. 
Very handy tools. Thanks for sharing them :). I wish it was as easy to come up with a nice layout design.
This links are so great! I haven’t given stripes a try, but maybe I will later on when I decide to go all web 2.0. The rounded tabs gen is amazing, I think I will use it right now. Heh.
This reminds me of the fact that I need to write some GIMP stuff. And dig up my other resources.
I can has some different ones, too nao!
I heart colour lovers. I use it all the time!
Congrats on being top striper! With that said, you need new hobbies 
I’ve actually never seen a few of those before. The layouts of Web20Generator aren’t bad, actually…
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Smith said:
These tools are so helpful!
I like the Stripe Generator. Stripes rule!