What’s new for designers, February 2013

The February edition of what’s new for web designers and developers includes new web apps, jQuery plugins and JavaScript resources, productivity and project management tools, CMS’s, CSS and HTML frameworks, web development tools, 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.

Dropzone.js

Dropzone.js is an open source, simple drag and drop file uploader with image preview. It’s easy to set up (especially if you use Component, as you can add it as a dependency) and implement as either a form or programmatically.

Flowtime.js

Flowtime.js is a framework that makes it easy to create HTML presentations or websites with full page fluid layouts, multiple navigation controls, transitions, parallax support, and more.

Notism

Notism is a great tool for working on visual content with a team. You can upload, stack, and review visual project ideas, create working prototypes of static templates, discuss drafts, and more. There are even tools for signing off on layouts.

Dropify

Dropify makes it easy to make files available for download on your Facebook fan page. There’s a free plan available (which doesn’t offer Like-gating), as well as premium plans. It’s great for artists, authors, creatives, brands, and small businesses.

Onepager

Onepager lets you easily build simple websites for small businesses. The resulting sites work great on both desktops and mobile devices, are cloud-hosted, include custom form capability, and are search-engine friendly. Starter sites are only $8/month, with more robust plans available.

Cashboard

Cashboard makes it easier to run your business. It includes project management tools, tracking of time and expenses, invoicing, and even payment acceptance. The free plan offers support for one employee and two active projects, while the premium plan offers more features.

Kirby

Kirby is a file-based CMS that’s easy to setup and use, and incredibly flexible. It uses your design and your templates, doesn’t require a database, and supports Markdown syntax, among other features. It’s just $39 per site.

QuoteRobot

QuoteRobot makes it easy to create professionally designed proposals, invoices, and quotes. It works well with Highrise, FreshBooks, SalesForce, Google Apps, and Xero, and only costs $10/month after the 30 day free trial.

Dispatch

Dispatch is a tool for organizing teams and projects. It works with the things you already have in Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and Box. It includes full previews that stay up-to-date within Dispatch so you don’t need to download or update manually.

Reamaze

Reamaze is a cloud-based helpdesk that works through email, Facebook, or Twitter. It includes support for response templates, has collision detection, and conversation tagging.

Hint.css

Hint.css is a SASS tooltip library which uses only HTML/CSS (no JavaScript) for creating simple tooltips using data-* attribute, pseudo elements, content property, and CSS3 transitions. It degrades gracefully without any transitions in browsers where CSS3 transitions aren’t supported.

Mueller Grid System

Mueller is a modular grid system based on Compass that works for both responsive and non-responsive layouts, with full control over column width, gutter width, baseline grid, and media queries.

Extra Strength Responsive Grids

Extra Strength Responsive Grids is a grid system that includes a fluid percentage-based layout, media queries, easy alignment, nested grids, and more. It’s great for prototyping and is SASS-enabled.

Ink

Ink is an easy to use toolkit for creating web interfaces. It uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for building layouts, displaying common interface elements, implementing content-centric interactive features, and more.

Top Drawer

Top Drawer uses CSS3 transitions to smoothly reveal menus, rather than JavaScript animations. It uses Modernizr to detect browser compatibility for CSS3 transitions, and uses JavaScript as a fallback.

Cool Kitten

Cool Kitten is a beta framework that includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that’s responsive and includes parallax scrolling support.

scrollUp jQuery Plugin

scrollUp is a lightweight jQuery plugin that lets you add “scroll to top” functionality to any website.

Mobile Chief

Mobile Chief is a free mobile site plugin that includes custom elements and Font Awesome integration, and is built on HTML5 and CSS3 for a consistent experience across mobile devices.

Textillate.js

Textillate.js is a plugin for CSS3 text animations that combines a number of awesome libraries to provide an easy-to-use plugin. All you have to do is include it and its dependencies in your project and then start creating awesome effects.

Flight

Flight is an event-driven JavaScript framework that maps behavior to DOM nodes, from Twitter. It uses ES5-shim and jQuery, as well as an AMD implementation like loadrunner or require.js.

Chime

Chime is a Google Chrome extension that aggregates all of your notifications across various social media channels, including Reddit, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and more.

Cloudship

Cloudship is a task management and note taking app that lets you easily collaborate with your team. It’s simple to use, with support for nested tasks, attaching files, time tracking, and more.

Conditionizr

Conditionizr is a JavaScript utility that detects your browser and pixel ratio to serve conditional JavaScript and CSS files. It’s been rebuilt so that it’s 50% faster than its jQuery predecessor.

Behave.js

Behave.js lets you add IDE style behaviors to plain text areas so that writing code is more enjoyable. It requires no dependencies, supports hard and soft tabs, and auto opens and closes characters like parenthesis, brackets, braces, double, and single quotes.

Free Travel Icon Pack

This Free Travel Icon Pack from Obox includes a lighthouse, ski goggles, a camera, a bus, a tent, binoculars, and many more travel- and geography-themed icons.

MFG Labs Icon Set

MFG Labs Icon Set was created for their own internal use, but has since been made available for public use. It’s a simple, minimalist set with icons for everything from social media sites to video/audio players.

RoughDraft.js

RoughDraft.js makes it easy to prototype interactive HTML mockups without duplicating a bunch of code. It also eliminates the need for faking content (like lorem ipsum text or filler images).

Toolbar.js

Toolbar.js lets you set up tooltip-style toolbars for web applications or websites, and can be customized with Twitter bootstrap icons.

Attitude + (free)

Attitude + is a display typeface inspired by Japanese pop culture and American hip hop subculture, and is influenced by geometric fonts with ornaments.

Higher (free)

Higher is a geometric display font with an Arts & Crafts vibe. It was created as a student project, and is available in TTF and OTF formats.

Salt & Foam (free)

Salt & Foam is a beautiful unicase display font in two styles, with a subtle 3D effect. It was designed by Anna Karatcheva, inspired by her first time surfing.

Apollo ($5)

Apollo is a rounded sans serif typeface designed as a student project by Kevin May.

Zerb (free)

Zerb is an abstract geometric display typeface that’s available for free for both personal and commercial use. It comes as an Illustrator vector file.

Fassade Display ($10)

Fassade Display was inspired by lettering on 1930s travel posters, with exaggerated graphic elements similar to geometric Art Deco lettering.

Roccia ($10)

Roccia is an experimental sans serif typeface with two styles and all uppercase characters.

Faux Tangram (free)

Faux Tangram is a tangram-inspired font that makes great use of basic geometric shapes and negative space.

Niewe (free)

Niewe is an abstract display font that comes in four different weights, free for personal use. Commercial use requires permission from the designer.

FM Ephire ($30)

FM Ephire is a retro, hand-drawn script type family with five weights and compliment italics. It’s great for banners and posters, greeting cards, and more, and even holds up well at smaller sizes.

Know of a new app or resource that should have been included but wasn’t? Let us know in the comments.

Cameron Chapman

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