What’s new for designers, August 2012

The August edition of what’s new for web designers and developers includes new web apps, JavaScript and jQuery tools, Mac and Windows apps, productivity tools, tools to make it easier to work with your clients, color resources and tools, business tools, image editors, and some really great new fonts.

Many of the resources below are free or very low cost, and are sure to be useful to a lot of designers and developers out there.

As always, if we’ve missed something you think should have been included, please let us know in the comments. And if you have an app or other resource you’d like to see included next month, tweet it to @cameron_chapman for consideration.

Proof

Proof is an iPad app for collecting feedback on your designs directly from clients. Feedback is given directly on the work, making it easier for clients to use and easier for you to understand what they mean.

Frank DeLoupe

Frank DeLoupe is a new color-picking tool for Mac. You can use it connected to Photoshop (making it a lot easier to grab color from something outside of Photoshop without a lot of copying and pasting) or use it as a stand-alone color picker.

Droplings

Droplings makes it easy to turn any file on your computer into a branded download page hosted on Dropbox. Just drag a file onto the menubar icon and it will build a preview page around it, then upload both to your Dropbox and copy the public preview link to your clipboard (it’ll automatically zip a folder before uploading if you drop a folder onto the icon).

Collections

Collections is a photo and document management app for Mac OS X that supports Instagram, so you can browse right from your desktop. It also works with Google Docs, and offers both interactive mode (so you can comment or like an Instagram image or edit and collaborate on a Google Docs document) as well as offline mode so you have local access to your files.

Pagico

Pagico is a productivity app for managing tasks, files, notes, projects, and contacts on Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, or iPad that keeps everything in sync for an individual or a team. And it has a beautiful UI to boot.

Breevy

Breevy is a Windows app that works similarly to TextExpander for Mac. You can even import your TextExpander snippets into Breevy.

Upverter

Upverter is a design and collaboration app for designers, engineers, students, and pretty much anyone who makes hardware. It includes built-in collaboration tools, and is cross-platform and cross-browser compatible.

Gamedevtuts+

Gamedevtuts+ is the newest offering from the Tuts+ Network and focuses on game development across multiple platforms. They’ve already got a number of tutorials up, for both beginners and more advanced users.

Fruji

Fruji is a Twitter analytics app that lets you analyze your most powerful followers. They offer free and paid accounts, depending on your needs.

DoneDone

DoneDone is an effective, simple issue tracker for managing bugs, ideas, and more. It’s easy to use for clients while also being powerful enough for developers.

Getquantify

Getquantify is a cloud-based GTD system for small businesses that includes task management, time tracking, and organizational tools. Because it’s cloud-based, it works great for teams that aren’t all based in a single office.

Erlywarn

Erlywarn is an early warning system for your website that sends you instant notifications whenever your website responds unusually. There are plans starting at just £1 per month per site.

Booklets

Booklets is a simple way to create digital booklets that can be shared with others, either publicly or privately. It’s mobile-first, lets you embed media (including files from SoundCloud), and more.

SourceDrop

SourceDrop is a PasteBin client that makes it easy to share your code snippets. Just drag and drop your snippet on the SourceDrop icon and it will be uploaded to the configured PasteBin provider.

App.net

App.net is a real-time social feed without ads. It’s a paid platform that puts users and developers first, rather than advertisers.

Evernotify

Evernotify combines Evernote functionality with notifications. It makes it easy to structure and organize the information in your notes for better productivity.

Pulse

Pulse is now available on the web for reading your favorite sites, rather than just as an iOS app. Your favorite sites will be transformed into a colorful, interactive mosaic that’s cross-browser compatible and accessible from anywhere.

Objectiveli

Objectiveli is a free app for managing your goals. You can set goals and objectives, as well as milestones and updates for measuring your progress.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an easy-to-use photo editing app that makes it easy to do things like nip & tuck images (making people look thinner), draw on your pics, and even combine two photos.

BaseDemo

BaseDemo is a basic template for creating demos for your development projects. It’s great for GitHub Pages, and gives a nice, polished look to your demos.

Infinite-social-wall

Infinite-social-wall is an infinite social stream based on RSS feeds. It officially supports Google Plus, GitHub, Pinterest, Twitter, Stackoverflow, Reddit, and Instagram.

iosSlider

iosSlider is a touch-enabled jQuery slider plugin that’s cross-browser compatible and customizable. It can be used as a content slider, carousel, scrolling banner, or image gallery.

Termsfeed Privacy Policy Generator

Termsfeed’s Privacy Policy Generator makes it easy to generate a professional privacy policy for your website quickly and easily. Just fill in the form and grab your policy.

stickyMojo

stickyMojo is a sticky sidebar jQuery plugin that’s lightweight, fast, and flexible. It works with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE8+, and will gracefully degrade in older versions of IE.

Chibi

Chibi is a tiny JavaScript micro-framework that’s only 5KB minified and 2KB gzipped, meaning it’s small enough to use inline on single-page web apps.

JustGage

JustGage is a JS plugin for creating and animating clean gauges, based on the Raphael library for vector drawing (so it’s resolution-independent and self-adjusting). It’s pure SVG, so it works in almost any browser.

Mousetrap

Mousetrap is a stand-alone library for handling keyboard shortcuts in JavaScript, even the Konami code!

Express

Express is a web application framework for node that provides a robust set of features for building both single and multi-page web applications.

CSS3 Code Snippets

CSS3 Code Snippets from WebInterfaceLab is a collection of open source UI components built in HTML, CSS, and Sass. You can search or browse by tag to find what you’re looking for.

Opera Mobile Emulator

The Opera Mobile Emulator is a free emulator for testing your designs and apps in the mobile version of Opera from your desktop. It also pairs with Opera Dragonfly for more advanced debugging.

Mission Script (name your price)

Mission Script, available through Lost Type Co-Op, was designed by James T. Edmondson. It’s a condensed, sweet, sincere script font perfect for signs and other display uses.

LiebeKlara ($29.90)

LiebeKlara is a pretty hand-drawn script font with tons of contextual alternates and gorgeous swashes. Itw as designed by Ulrike Wilhelm for LiebeFonts.

Ashemore ($60)

Ashemore is a super family of fonts, containing 36 fonts with more than 60 alternate character forms. It was developed as a result of travels in Spain, Germany, and North Carolina. It blends Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts with more strict sans serif styles to create a very usable font.

Garvis Pro ($90)

Garvis Pro is a family of four typefaces (Book, Italic, Semibold, and Bold) inspired by neoclassical forms and Dutch Fleischmann Type. It’s a sturdier version of the original forms, though it maintains the same character.

FM Bolyar Ornate ($29)

FM Bolyar Ornate is a royal, majestic typeface with a wide set of alternates, swashes, ligatures, and ornaments that make it excellent for packaging and other display uses. It was designed by Jordan Jelev and Vassil Kateliev for The Fontmaker.

Valuco ($50)

The Valuco font family contains five different typefaces that can be layered and combined for more effects. Combine a base, a midtone (there are fine and course versions), and a shadow (also in fine and course versions) for typography with a retro 3-dimensional feel.

Colfax ($250)

Colfax is an oval sans serif font with origins in the last century but the sensibilities of this one. It’s a refined typeface that includes six weights and accompanying italics from Process Type Foundry.

Che’s Bone (free)

Che’s Bone is a fun display font reminiscent of dog bones, but with a modern feel and sensibility. It has round edges and skinny, condensed forms, and was designed by Filiz Sahin.

Nikodecs (free)

Nikodecs is a free sans serif typeface from Gluk Fonts. It’s released under the OpenFontLicense and includes three styles.

Citizen Slab (free)

Citizen Slab is a modern slab serif typeface with vintage sensibilities from Joel Felix Design. It’s a very usable display font, inspired by a trip to Boston and a feeling of patriotism.

Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a freelance writer and designer from New England. You can visit her site or follow her on Twitter.