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When we need to clip an irregular shape from an image and use it on the web, PNG is the most common answer as it is the only image format used by all web browsers that support alpha channels.

However, PNG images come with a penalty of size (if the source is a photograph) compared to similar sized JPEGs.

polyClip.js is a script, built on jQuery, that allows us to clip any image with imagemap coordinates using HTML5 Canvas.

For implementation on many images, "how practical would it be to use polyClip.js" is open to discussion however, for only few images, it can be a huge byte-saver.

And, it is supported in most browsers including IE7 (with Excanvas).

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WordPress offers a huge space for creativity and flexibility when designing and developing new websites.

Any type of website can be built on top of it: from blogs to newspapers, corporate websites to landing pages and even social networks. All you need is a theme coded to handle that functionality.

Yes, WordPress theme development. That is an easy process for experienced hands who knows the capabilities of the application and familiar with its functions and "not too hard" for others.

To simplify developing new themes, there are awesome WordPress theme frameworks and starter themes that you can use as a base for skipping the repetitive steps and begin with an optimized playground.

Here are the 34 free and good-quality ones that will save your time from searching them. And, in the bottom, you can find a comparison table for these WordPress theme frameworks.

Roots

The main power of this framework is its extremely clean WordPress code output, clean head and URLs (even for the head, CSS and JS paths).

Upon its activation, it automatically applies many useful customizations (like creating a homepage, defining the permalink structure, etc.).

Roots has 2 widget areas and it includes Blueprint CSS, 960.gs, the 1140px Grid, Adapt.js, Less Framework 4, Foundation by Zurb, and Bootstrap by Twitter.

Skeleton

It is a theme aimed at helping you build simple, uncluttered, useable, and mobile-friendly websites.

Skeleton has styling for typography and form elements + includes simple tabs and accordions.

The theme is based on and inspired from Skeleton Responsive Boilerplate, Theme Options Framework, Thematic Framework, Formalize and TwentyTen Theme.

P.S. There are also optional styles for bbPress and Jigoshop.

Bones

Bones is a theme following the mobile first approach that has a detailed + organized CSS, in-depth documentation with tutorials and details on every level.

There are 3 versions:

• classic
• responsive
• HTML version for projects

Many useful features exist including page navi, breadcrumbs, related posts and HTML5 video with fallback.

It is based on 960.gs, 320 and Up Extension, HTML5 Boilerplate.

Gantry

Gantry has a detailed admin interface with 65 base widget positions and 38 layout combinations that provide a huge space for customization.

There are lots of built-in features including the CSS and JS compression, speed-optimized codebase, several widgets and gizmos such as font-sizer, Google Analytics, to-top smooth slider, IE6 warning message, etc.

Starkers

Starkers is a completely naked  WordPress theme built to be a starting point for theme designers.

It’s a stripped-back version of the ‘Twenty Ten’ theme that is bundled with each WordPress download.

The theme is based on YUI Reset and it is totally unstyled.

Wonderflux

Wonderflux is a solid, easy to update and flexible platform you can use for any WordPress project.

It has location-aware template parts that allow you to concentrate on the content, not the code.

The framework comes with a fully dynamic CSS grid system, simple administration controls and over 100 display hooks.

Reverie

Reverie is a HTML5 WordPress framework based on ZURB's Foundation and HTML5 Boilerplate.

It can almost be used out-of-the-box. There are 2 widget areas; sidebar and footer and 2 menus (top navigation menu and footer information menu). Also works with bbPress 2.0.

Thematic

Thematic is a good option for using as-is or as a blank WordPress theme for development.

There are built-in with styles for popular plugins and many theme filters + hooks are available.

The theme has 13 widget areas + multiple layout options and it is strongly advised to use a child theme for customization.

Whiteboard

Whiteboard focuses on simplicity and includes only the core WP functionality.

it supports WordPress features such as manageable menus, background, and header image besides featured images, several widget areas, and more.

The framework uses LESS for mobile support and responsive outputs. The code is lightweight + well-commented and there is support for child themes.

Presswork

The big thing that separates this PressWork from others is its unique front-end editor.

Google fonts selector is integrated to this front-end editor to easily select your fonts. A PSD file is included to customize the design and it has 2 widget + 2 menu areas.

Constellation Theme

The Constellation theme is a great base for any WordPress-powered website.

It has the styles for creating responsive pages, has a HTML5 code and comes with a flexible grid system.

The theme is based on the HTML5 Boilerplate.

TwentyTen Five

This theme is an HTML5-powered version of the default WordPress TwentyTen theme.

It is cleanly coded, using the theme and integrating new features on it is pretty easy.

Elastic

There are several important stuff behind Elastic: a visual theme editor, a theme engine, and a set of protocols that link these two.

It aims to bring a new approach to editing and creating themes which both developers and end-users will find easy to work with.

Flexible

Flexible is a carefully-coded child theme of the default Twenty Ten theme and built-with any browser size in mind.

It has a Facebook FanGate integration and packed with Themekit (which is a plugin for plain simple customization via WordPress editor).

WP Paintbrush

WP Paintbrush comes with a built in front-end editor that enables anyone willing to quickly create a unique design for their website.

The editor has a drag 'n' drop interface for placing theme sections, comes with fixed or fluid layouts and much more.

Html5 Shell

mimoYmima has implemented an improved body tag that includes many valuable information about the page loaded.

There are smart sidebar disabling methods which could come handy, several @font-face examples and dynamic sidebar + custom template examples packaged with the framework

The code is commented clearly for easing the production process and it uses Modernizr + HTML5 reset css

Gantry is based on 960.gs.

Hybrid

This framework has many custom widget areas, widgets, hooks, shortcodes, page templates and many options to easily customize your website.

It is being improved continuously and has a community growing around it.

HTML5 Reset

This blank theme focuses on making a solid HTML5 compatible starting point for WordPress theme development.

It also has some additional features such as built-in analytics and starter CSS declarations for basic WP elements.

HTML5 Reset is based on digwp.com's Blank WordPress Theme, Modernizr and HTML5 Reset.

The Buffet

The framework has many SEO features including breadcrumbs and jQuery improvements such as comments form validation, SuperSleight for IE6, superfish menus or jBreadcrumb.

It is also compatible with many plugins and fully localized, ready for translation.

The theme includes 960.gs and Blueprint CSS.

Simon

This framework includes useful options such as free icons, typography, breadcrumbs and form designs.

There are also multiple post formats to ease theme customizations.

It has support for widgets, child themes and comes with a clean code.

Handcrafted WP

This one may not count as a framework, but it is an almost-naked starter theme with many useful features such as cleaner head code, integrated analytics, support for menus, post formats and custom post types.

The theme also has a widget-ready sidebar and dashboard.

Handcrafted WP is based on Toolbox Starter theme and HTML5 Boilerplate.

ToolBox

If you want to make your own theme and want it to be ready for HTML5, ToolBox may satisfy your needs.

It is a blank theme in plain and semantic HTML5 markup with almost no CSS.

Thematic-html5boilerplate

This is a WordPress theme using HTML5 Boilerplate and based on Thematic ToolBox (and other Thematic themes).

H5 Theme Template

H5 includes a full pack of theme files and folders with each file having all the latest WordPress functionality.

It is built with easy customization and personalization in mind and serves as a solid starting point for your next HTML-5-based theme.

Brave New World

This theme has no layout and styling except the modified version of Eric Meyer’s reset CSS and a baseline typography.

Although it is such a plain theme, it is built with HTML5, WAI-ARIA in mind and supports hCard + hAtom microformats.

1140 Fluid Starkers

This theme is the combination of Starkers + the 1140 CSS Grid and great for anyone looking for a responsive naked theme.

Indeziner

Indeziner is a starting point for creating websites using WordPress with no hassle.

It has a fully customizable homepage, almost every section can be enabled/disabled and bundled with a slideshow, gallery page and Flickr integration.

Blank Themes

Blank Themes offer 1, 2, 3 column blank themes to start from with the variations of sidebar locations.

There is also a blank portfolio theme that can be easily customized and used for your own portfolio.

rtPanel

rtPanel has a developer centric framework which is useful for developers willing to tweak codes with hooks and functions.

The framework also provides control over content and design for anyone who is not so familiar with coding and web-development.

Sandbox

Sandbox and various other themes from plaintxt.org provide a strong and clean structure with rich semantic classes powered by dynamic functions and microformats.

The themes are minimal and can be good starting points for new themes.

Suffusion

Suffusion is a cross-browser theme with a bunch of options.

It has 19 widget areas, one/two/three column, fixed-width and flexible-width formats, 10 pre-defined templates, 18 pre-defined color schemes, 2 customizable multi-level drop-down menus, featured posts, a magazine layout, tabbed sidebars, widgets for Twitter, social networks, Google Translate and more.

Foundation

Foundation is a blank starter theme that has all the core features needed to creating a new theme.

It is a nice kit for developing responsive websites, uses Orbit as a content slider and based on ZURB's Foundation Framework + HTML5 Boilerplate.

StartBox

StartBox is a theme framework that makes rapid web development and WP theme creation simple for both designers and developers.

It comes pre-loaded with customizable theme options, several widget-ready areas and custom widgets, 6 pre-defined layouts and a comprehensive documentation.

Yoko

Yoko is a modern three-column blog theme and it comes with a custom social links widget and shortcodes for text columns, info boxes and highlighted text.

It also provides various post formats and uses Google Web Fonts.

Comparison Of WordPress Theme Frameworks

Themes	Capabilities
	HTML5	Responsive	Mobile	SEO	Admin Int.	Micro formats	IE Hacks	Basic Styles
Roots
Skeleton
Bones
Gantry
Starkers
Wonderflux
Reverie
Thematic
Whiteboard
Presswork
Constellation Theme
TwentyTen..
Elastic
Flexible
WP Paintbrush
Html5 Shell
Hybrid
HTML5 Reset
The Buffet
Simon
Handcrafted
ToolBox
Thematic-html5boil.
H5 Theme Template
Brave New World
1140 Fluid Starkers
Indeziner
Blank Themes
rtPanel
Sandbox
Suffusion
Foundation
StartBox
Yoko

 

Author: Devrim Vardar

Devrim Vardar is a talented web developer who also writes fiction and non-fiction besides code.

He can be found at Stild.com and via Twitter.

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HTML5 Please is an interactive compatibility chart of HTML5/CSS3 features to find out "in which browsers they are supported (or not)".

Using a smart search bar, it is possible to filter the results with browser or device support, type (HTML5 or CSS3 elements/properties) and more.

Every item is described shortly and an opinion on whether they should be used with fallbacks or polyfills (with links to them) are shared.

The site is simply a must-bookmark for anyone designing with the new web technologies and need a guide for quickly checking the support for each property/element.

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App Icon Template is an icon design toolkit for creating iOS application icons faster.

The kit includes a .PSD + .ATN (Adobe Photoshop Action) file where the .PSD comes with useful layers like the rounded corners, gradients and even various background textures.

Smart objects are used to automate the generation of multiple sizes and, once the design is saved, the template instantly displays the same icon in multiple sizes.

The PS actions included generate every needed file, both in squared (no transparency, to be used in the app) and in rounded versions (for other design uses). The files are automatically named after the Apple HIG so they’ll be good to deliver instantly.

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There is always a new challenge for web designers and developers.

One of the latest is definitely responsive web design; the art of serving the same web page to multiple devices which look good on all of them.

It is a getting-popular approach. As always, there are questioned parts (like the increasing number of screen sizes and the difficulty in setting breakpoints) but these are minor and creating a responsive website is nothing difficult.

Thanks to talented people out there that there are great resources simplifying development of such websites. Many tricky stuff can be handled easily with the right tools.

For jQuery users, there are a good number of responsive design plugins and here is a carefully collected and well-categorized list to bookmark and hit back when you are about to design responsively : ).

Layout & Tools

Response JS

The plugin has the mobile-first approach and enables us to dynamically arrange code blocks based on breakpoints + serve media progressively using HTML5 data attributes.

It also offers useful methods for easily testing screen properties that are important for creating responsive websites.

jquery responsive web

This plugin adds dynamic classes to the <body> depending on the operating system, browser and window size so that you can use a single CSS to change every aspect of your design.

When you resize the window, it automatically changes the window size related class. There are also two functions called, one on init, and the other on resize, so that you can make design manipulations accordingly.

breakpoints.js

Using this plugin you can define breakpoints for your design, and Breakpoints.js will fire custom events when the browser enters and/or exits that breakpoint.

Heads-Up Grid

jQuery powered grid gives you chance to set different grid options including padding, columns, page-width (percentage or px), margins and gutter width. With it, you can define different grid experiences depending on the platform and/or window size.

jQuery Masonry

This is a dynamic grid layout plugin for jQuery. It differs from CSS floats, whereas floating arranges elements horizontally then vertically but Masonry arranges elements vertically, positioning each element in the next open spot in the grid.

The result minimizes vertical gaps between elements of varying height.

Isotope

If you like jQuery Masonry, you will definitely love this. Isotope enhances what Masonry does, and adds filtering and sorting possibilities, as well as few more enhancements with the layout modes and animation engine.

scrolldeck.js

With this plugin, you can easily make responsive slideshow / presentation / landing page websites. It includes the nice simple animations that scrollorama provides.

FitText

The plugin makes font-sizes flexible. Use this plugin on your fluid or responsive layout to achieve scalable headlines that fill the width of a parent element.

It is not advised for use on paragraphs, but its good-looking for headers especially with font-replacement.

Slideshows & Galleries

jQuery Responsive Thumbnail Gallery

The plugin allows us to define each image in 2 different sizes, just set a breakpoint width and it decides which image to display according to the size of the screen.

FlexSlider

This is a fully responsive jQuery slider plugin. It has a simple and semantic markup, supported in all major browsers, comes with various slide and fade animations, multiple slider support, callback API and hardware accelerated touch swipe support.

You can use any HTML elements in the slides.

Elastislide

Elastislide is a responsive jQuery image carousel that will adapt its size and behavior in order to work on any screen size.

Inserting the carousel’s structure into a container with a fluid width will also make the carousel fluid. It uses the jQuery Touchwipe plugin to obtain the wipe event on mobile.

Responsive Image Gallery with Thumbnail Carousel

This plugin will help you create a responsive image gallery with an option to show or hide thumbnails.

There is also keyboard navigation and it also uses the jQuery Touchwipe Plugin to obtain the wipe event on mobile.

Dynamic Carousel

This is a dynamic carousel with sliding divs (with any content inside) that can adapt to any layout. Previous-next links, auto-advance, pagination and keyboard support are available.

wmuSlider

This is an easy-to-setup responsive image slider plugin. It has navigation and pagination controls, animations and touch support.

Blueberry

This resource uses unordered lists to generate a responsive image slider. It has pagination controls, animations and keyboard support.

supersized

As it is a fullscreen background slideshow, supersized is a responsive plugin by default. The latest version will help you create a very nice background for your responsive web page or a nice responsive powerful image gallery.

Photo Swipe

This is a jQuery Mobile plugin for creating image galleries specifically targeting mobile devices.

It provides an intuitive interface that makes it possible to interact with images on the mobile website. It can also be used as a stand-alone javascript library, aside from the jQuery implementation.

ResponsiveSlides.js

This is a tiny jQuery plugin that creates a responsive slideshow using images inside a single container. It works with wide range of browsers including all IE versions.

It automatically fades the images, or operates as a responsive image container with pagination to navigate/fade between slides.

Image Montage Grids & Effects

Automatic Image Montage

With this plugin you can automatically create a montage, either for a liquid container or a fixed size container (including fullscreen), with the option to fill all the gaps.

The last image of the montage can fill the left space, so that the montage will not have any white space in the end.

Seamless Responsive Photo Grid

In order to display multiple images getting them edge-to-edge on the browser window without any gaps you can use this plugin. All images can be of different sizes.

When resized, images will maintain their aspect ratio, while rearranging to fill the gaps.

Hoverizr

A tiny responsive jQuery plugin that outputs manipulated images on top (or below) of any targeted images and has 3 built-in effects: grayscale, blur and color inversion.

Navigation

TinyNav.js

This is a tiny jQuery plugin that converts your "navigations created with lists" into select dropdowns when browsed on small screens. It also automatically selects the current page and adds selected="selected" for that item.

Responsive-Menu

This is also a simple jQuery plugin to convert list-based navigations into a select element for mobile devices and low browser widths.

Lightbox

fancybox 2

The powerful fancyBox is a tool that offers a nice and elegant way overlay images, html content and multi-media on your webpages.

The new version is now responsive so that your lightboxes will resize with the browser and it is completely rewritten with new features and updated graphics.

P.S. It is only free for personal and/or non-commercial use.

rlightbox

rlightbox is a jQuery UI mediabox that can display many types of content such as images, YouTube and Vimeo videos. It has unique features like Panorama and live re-size.

Like other jQuery UI widgets, it is ThemeRoller ready. The plugin can adapt to browser size, and it is great for responsive design.

Adaptive media

FitVids

This is a lightweight anf easy-to-use jQuery plugin for fluid width video embeds.

Its power lies in its ability to automate the "Intrinsic Ratio Method" by Thierry Koblentz to achieve fluid width videos in your responsive web design without black spaces anywhere around the video.

Doubletake

This plugin dynamically updates the src of your images based on the browser width by using a defined set of breakpoints.

You can resize images on the fly or simply host multiple copies and then set the Doubletake breakpoints to the sizes you have created.

Adaptive Images

Adaptive Images detects your visitor's screen size and automatically creates, caches + delivers device appropriate re-scaled versions of your web page's embedded images.

In order to do that it uses a PHP and .htaccess file with a cache-folder on your server.

Author: Devrim Vardar

Devrim Vardar is a talented web developer who also writes fiction and non-fiction besides code.

He can be found at Stild.com and via Twitter.

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Fbootstrapp is a base HTML-CSS template for quickly developing Facebook iframe apps.

It is built on Twitter Bootstrap, has styles for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation and much more which are all styled to fit Facebook's classic design.

The template supports both 520px + 760px sizes and includes JavaScript plugins (provided by the original Bootstrap) that would help providing Facebook-like interactions.

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Flow Slider is a jQuery image slider plugin which reminds us the once-popular Flash sliders that respond to mouse interactions.

It works by converting an unordered list into a slider and can be browsed by hovering to the right or left side of it.

The plugin can be completely customized in means of design and functionality. There are options for transition type and speed, acceleration, starting position and much more.

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If you own an e-reader, you probably agree that it is easier and less tiring to read there compared to devices without e-ink screens.

dotEPUB is a free-to-use web application (and it is open source) for converting web pages into e-books with a click to read them offline.

The application creates the e-books in EPUB format and comes in 3 flavors:

• bookmarklet to be installed on browsers
• a chrome plugin
• widget for integration into websites

For further customization or any custom implementations, dotEPUB has an API as well.

P.S. The e-books created are supported in all major devices and e-readers.

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jQuery Geo is a plugin for the popular framework that provides an easy-to-use API for map/geolocation related actions.

The plugin uses the open source map servers like Open Street Map, WMS and Esri ArcGIS (Open Street Map by default) for pulling the map data and can:

• show mapping data and handle direct user interaction with the map
• use geospatial functions like calculating bounding boxes, measuring the distance between geometries, etc.

The maps created are mobile-friendly and have lots of built-in methods for customization.

jQuery Geo is very well-documented and supported with a bunch of examples.

Special Downloads:
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jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
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AMPPS is a software for quickly installing Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl and Python and creating a web server environment.

What differentiates it from other similar solutions is the built-in Softaculous package which makes 1 click installations of popular web apps possible.

There is a huge list of installable apps (250+) including WordPress, Joomla, Magento, phpBB and much more.

Using the AMPPS panel, the server resources can be configured and all the installations can be managed.

It has versions for Windows + Mac OS X and also installs phpMyAdmin + SQLite manager for controlling databases.

Special Downloads:
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