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You're reading What’s New in Postcards 2.8?, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Normally we don’t write about product updates between versions, but this time we decided to tell you about Postcards 2.8 because it contains new features requested based on your requests. After the release of transaction modules, we focused on product … View the full article

You're reading Create a Beautiful and Responsive HTML Email Template with Postcards, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Postcards is the perfect tool for quickly creating beautiful, fully responsive HTML emails. It has a great drag and drop interface that makes building and customizing emails a breeze. Today, I’ll walk you through creating a custom newsletter design using … View the full article

You're reading How to Create and Verify an Email Newsletter Before Sending [Checklist], originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Need to know how to create an Email Newsletter? Every website owner has asked this question at least once. Whether you have a simple blog with occasional updates, an online magazine with stories published every hour or an e-store, chances … View the full article

You're reading Celebrate Designmodo’s 8th Birthday with a Donation, Giveaway and Discount!, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Today we turn 8 🥳. We’re proud to have been in business for 8 years, and want to thank you for your contribution to the Designmodo story. Thanks to all! Donation To start this party, we are going to donate our … View the full article

You're reading Free Absurd Illustrations for Landing Pages, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Absurd Illustrations that make sense are something completely new when it comes to modern web design. The digital era has its aesthetic standards inspired by perfection and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, Absurd Illustrations provide us with perfect imperfection. … View the full article

You're reading 7 Principles of Highly Successful Email Marketing, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! When it comes to email marketing, there are a few things that make a big difference. Email marketing can be an indispensable investment. However, that’s only when emails are well-designed, and campaigns are well thought out. Let’s see exactly what … View the full article

In a bid to take on Netflix and Amazon Prime, BBC and ITV have teamed up to launch BritBox in the UK. The new streaming service will consist of old programmes from the channels, as well as new material. What it won't have is the latest shows, which will still be available for catch-up via BBC iPlayer and the ITV Hub. As of yet, there is no information on how much this service will cost, although the announcement said the pricing would be "competitive". The service is already available in Canada and the US, but people in the UK are already wondering why they should pay for this content when they already pay a licence fee. Logo design: everything you need to know And that's not all that's causing furore on social media, as designers are also taking issue with the branding, which is... rather underwhelming. Especially when you consider the service's competitors – Netflix's new idents manage to bring some cinematic flair magic into subscribers' living rooms. No such magic here. There doesn't seem to be much fanfare in BritBox's holding website for users to register interest Some have compared the wordmark to the National Express logo, while others are riffing on the name, calling the service BirdBox, or worse, ShitBox. We couldn't possibly comment. And of course, there's also talk of Brexit (or BrexitBox), with some pointing to the red, white and blue colours as an appeal to nationalism. Others might wonder if the idea of BritBox was cooked up in a bid to warm our hearts to the joys of British TV and make us all feel patriotic. If that's the case, it doesn't seem to be working so far. This is one of those situations where you wonder what sort of branding would have pleased people. A new, shiny identity would surely have led to cries of "my licence fee money went on this!", although it does feel that more effort could have been made to at least enhance the wordmark, especially as this service is supposed to be the new "home for the best of British creativity," according to Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV. Here are just some of the reactions to the branding on Twitter. Read more: New Zara logo has been kerned into oblivion The best logos of all time 6 famous textless logos and why they work View the full article

Hoping to spice up your web properties? Allow us to introduce you to Dokyu Motion Animation Maker & media for Adobe After Effects. This image library and animation tool typically retails for $297, but is currently available for 93% off at $19. Doyku is a creative digital one-two punch, first giving you access to more than one million licence-free images to use in your projects. Never again dig around for a photo, only then to fret over whether you can legally use it. These photos are yours for the taking. Get Adobe Creative Cloud And if that wasn't enough, Dokyu Motion lets you animate your media with a massive library filled with scenes and transitions. It's the world's first one-click animation maker, making content creation a breeze. Simply combine these two offerings from Dokyu and you'll be creating eye-catching content in Adobe After Effects in no time. Get the Dokyu Motion Animation Maker & Media for Adobe After Effects: Agency Plan for $19 here. Related articles: Create storyboards for web animations The 25 greatest animated music videos Create cool UI animations with CSS View the full article

When it comes to choosing a new laptop, graphic designers often have to find a compromise between power and portability. However, with the Lenovo ThinkPad P1, you no longer have to make that difficult decision. The ThinkPad P1 is the thinnest and lightest workstations from Lenovo, weighing in at a trim 18.44mm and 1.7kg. Don't let its size deceive you though, the ThinkPad P1 manages to pack a punch thanks to its 8th Gen Intel Xeon and Core processors. Backed up with NVIDIA Quadro graphics, this is a strong Windows device that is capable of doing heavy lifting while you're out and about. Thanks to its all-round performance, 64GB of memory and 4K display with 100% AdobeRGB coverage, it's no surprise that the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 is a popular choice with high-end content creators. It's even made our shortlist of the best laptops for graphic designers. A high performance laptop comes with a premium price tag though, and the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 is no exception. That's where we come in. We've scoured the internet to bring you the best Lenovo ThinkPad P1 deals and discounts available right now. Check out the best offers below. Related articles: The best computer for graphic design The best free graphic design software 11 of the biggest graphic design trends for 2019 View the full article

3D pens only hit the mainstream relatively recently, but the technology has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. The result is an affordable yet high-tech device that is small enough to hold like a pen but advanced enough to print as you move. In this buying guide, we've rounded up the best 3D pens on the market right now. 3D pen extrude liquid plastic, which quickly cools and solidifies, effectively allowing you to draw in mid-air to create a new kind of 3D art. As a result, they have become hugely popular amongst designers, artists and hobbyists. Unlike traditional 3D printers, these 3D pens let you move naturally to create and change designs as you go for maximum creativity. They're also cheaper to buy, take varying types of filament (including some that are eco-friendly), and nowadays are even comfy to hold and use. So which are the best 3D pens for artists and designers right now? Let's take a look... The best 3D modelling software right now The Tecboss 3D Pen is a real winner when it comes to sheer specs for the super low price. You still get an LCD display, a choice of eight speeds and temperatures, and compatibility with both PLA and ABS plastics – only at a fraction of the price of the pro targeted products. The pen is contoured for comfort, is lightweight and has finger protectors to stop you burning your digits, too. The XYZprinting da Vinci 3D pen is an affordable option that keeps things simple. This pen is designed for everyone, even children, so it has a minimal design aesthetic. It's designed with safety in mind, and should enable you to get working on a project quickly and without worry of injury when you get into the zone. There are temperature controls and a stop-start button for continuous flow if you need. The lack of display may annoy some, but it does help you stay focused on what you're doing. The 3Doodler Create+ is a brilliant all-in-one 3D printing pen. It's not as feature-heavy as its hard-to-find PRO version (number 5 on our list), but the design is clean, it's easy to use and the pen itself is tiny compared to the competition. Support for PLA, ABS and FLEXY plastics is useful, although they do need to be 3Doodler ones. There are 70 colours to pick from and you get 75 filaments included with this package. Dual speed and temperature controls mean you can use this for detail work. Overall, this is a 3D pen that just works well. The AIO Robotics 3D Printing Pen is a premium feeling device with its all metal build and OLED display. You can adjust the temperature by single degree increments, so it's ideal for perfectionists. While it is PLA filament-compatible, it'll have to be AIO specific stuff. Customer service is also good here, which is a nice reassurance to have when buying a device that can be fiddly. As the original mainstream 3D pen creator 3Doodler has taken all its experience and created a pen specifically for professionals – the result is the 3Doodler Pro. This offers deep levels of control over speed, temperature and power as well as an LCD display to make everything clear. The grip and weight are perfected for ease of use and the filaments vary widely for things like wood and copper as well as bronze, polycarbonate and nylon finishes. The only downside is that it's not cheap. The 3Doodler Pro is, for our money, the best 3D printing pen available right now. The reason it's so far down our list is that it seems to be extremely hard to get hold of at the moment. Read more: Switch from Mac to Windows: A 3D artist's guide The best free fonts for designers The best computer for graphic design View the full article

A known vulnerability combined with a weakness in bare-metal server reclamation opens the door to powerful, high-impact attacks. View the full article

SHAREit has fixed two flaws in its app that allow bad actors to authenticate their devices and steal files from a victim's device. View the full article

The spam campaign is being used to spread a malicious .exe file, taking advantage of a vulnerability in WinRAR which was patched in January. View the full article

If periods could ever be said to be having a 'moment', this must be it. A documentary about menstruation – Period. End of Sentence – has just won an Oscar, and the stigma surrounding periods is being challenged left right and centre, as advertisers shake things up with new types of period product ads, and issues such as period poverty are discussed in Parliament. New educational board game The Period Game aims to engage the next generation with menstruation, and it's currently well on the way to meeting its Kickstarter target. It's designed by Daniela Gilsanz and Ryan Murphy – two industrial designers who have spent years testing out the game at schools – and has already won a Red Dot Design award. The game is designed to teach players about puberty and the menstrual cycle, including topics such as PMS and different flows. There's pretty much no way you could play it without engaging with the topic, and the idea is not just to educate, but to make talking about the subject more natural. The best free graphic design software The centrepiece of the game is two giant ovaries, which the player has to twist to release a marble. This is probably the oddest part of the game, as we don't think anyone should be advocating twisting organs. Different coloured marbles denote whether the player has their period or not, and which card they get to play as they move round the four sections of the board – corresponding to a typical monthly cycle. The counters are also pretty cool, there's a pad, two tampons, menstrual cup and a pair of period pants, and we like the fact that it's not just all pads and tampons. The Period Game's bright and fun approach encourages players to 'go with the flow' Overall, this looks like a fun game to teach people about menstruation, and we applaud that. We also like the bold design and clear illustrations, despite the colour scheme being very pink and red, as products about periods are want to be (see our analysis of the problem with period product branding). We don't like the twisty ovaries, though. But if teenagers are playing this instead of 'guessing who likes them' by talking into a giant pink phone (we're talking about you, Dream Phone), that can't be a bad thing. And you never know, they might even learn something. You can back the project on Kickstarter here. Read more: Typography meets Tinder in this type dating game How to launch a successful Kickstarter 7 great examples of branded content View the full article

Top brands paring back their logos to their simplest, most iconic form has been a big trend in recent years. Ownership of a graphic shape can be a powerful visual shorthand that commands global brand recognition and transcends language – but it takes an extra layer of confidence to strip out your company name altogether. Pentagram recently took its already pared-back Mastercard rebrand a step further by dropping the wordmark and leaving only two overlapping circles to do the heavy lifting, and at first this seemed like a bold move. But it's just the latest in a string of household-name brands that are recognisable enough to get away with it. Pentagram recently dropped the company name from Mastercard's logo, leaving just two overlapping circles When a wordless symbol is familiar enough, it can help a global superbrand appear more personal and less corporate. Without a company name shouting its presence, a 'visual shorthand' logo design can also evoke a more immediate, impulsive reaction. Read on as we explore six more huge brands that, like Mastercard, made the decision to drop the company name from their logos... 01. Apple Apple's original logo featured the company name alongside Ronald Wayne's depiction of Isaac Newton Apple has proudly sported a wordless brand mark for decades – you have to go all the way back to 1984 to find its name anywhere near its logo. Ronald Wayne initially chose to represent Apple Computer Co with a woodcut-style illustration of renowned apple enthusiast Isaac Newton, sitting underneath the tree where he reportedly received his fruity inspiration for gravity. To say it didn't last long, in branding terms, would be an understatement – the following year, Rob Janoff's iconic bitten apple replaced it. The rainbow apple retained the wordmark until 1984 when it finally became wordless. While it has also since lost its rainbow stripes, that silhouette has remained constant through thick and thin. Now, it's almost unthinkable for this trailblazing champion of minimalist design to write its company name next to its logo. Why would it need to? 02. Starbucks A mermaid may be an unlikely association with coffee, but Starbucks established it firmly enough to drop its name Seattle's world-conquering coffee chain boasts a fascinating story behind its logo. The company was named after Captain Ahab's first mate in Moby Dick, so the original logo designer Terry Heckler decided to draw on a 16th-century Norse woodcut of a two-tailed mermaid for inspiration. Starbucks' siren has been re-crafted several times since the company was founded in 1971, but it wasn't until Lippincott's 2011 rebrand that she was trusted to shoulder the lion's share of the global chain's branding equity. Dropping 'coffee' from the name reflected diversification, but dropping 'Starbucks' entirely showed true confidence in the iconic mark's instant familiarity to coffee lovers around the world. 03. Shell A shell to represent Shell – what could make more sense? It's always going to take time for punters to link a two-tailed mermaid with a caffeinated beverage – but the fact that there's no logical link there gives Starbucks a distinctively ownable association to create from scratch. Sometimes, however, a brand's name lends itself perfectly to symbolic representation – making that visual shorthand much easier to establish. Apple is one example, and Shell is another. In fact, it's something of a trailblazer in the world of wordless logos: from 1900 until 1948, a realistically drawn black-and-white scallop shell did all the work. Shell's realistic scallop shell in 1900 (far left) became more stylised in future iterations in 1904, 1909 and 1930 The red-and-yellow colour scheme was gradually introduced into Shell's service stations – and was finally incorporated into the logo itself, alongside the company name, in 1948. The shell became increasingly bold and stylised, and by 1999 it had accumulated enough brand equity to stand alone once again. 04. McDonald's McDonald's distinctive Golden Arches once incorporated the company name – they now have the power to stand alone Once a prominent architectural feature of its restaurants, the Golden Arches first made their way into McDonald's logo in 1961 – before that point, the fast food chain's text-heavy logos incorporated taglines such as 'McDonald's famous barbecue' (1940) and 'McDonald's famous hamburgers... buy 'em by the bag' (1948). In 1968, the Golden Arches adopted their modern-day form – with the company name overlaid at the bottom. This approach was refined further in 1975 with the distinctive red background, and many other variants were introduced in different contexts. The tagline 'I'm lovin' it' made an appearance in 2003, and went on to replace the company name across many brand touchpoints. Decades of ubiquity had given the Golden Arches symbol all the brand equity, confidence and global recognition it needed to stand alone by 2006, without the company name, any accompanying slogans, or any graphic treatments to speak of – just a pared-back, flat-colour 'M' that is unmistakably McDonald's. 05. Target Target has experimented with various relationships between symbol and wordmark over the years Like Shell and Apple, Target has the good fortune to have visual shorthand baked right into its company name. In fact, the brand mark functioned without the company name as far back as 1968, when the US retailer refined and simplified its original six-ringed target, which had the company name overlaid across the centre, to the pure three-ringed symbol we know today. However, the company name was re-introduced in 1975, and while the distinctive target was retained, it was shrunk to a much less dominant scale and was scaled to match the height of a chunky black all-caps wordmark. The emphasis was reversed again in 2004, when the wordmark was scaled to match the diameter of a much larger target symbol which, since 2007, has been widely used in isolation, just as it was in 1968. In this case, the brand equity in the logo was there all the time – it just took the confidence to bring it back. 06. Nike Locked up with a wordmark until the mid-90s, the Swoosh now stands alone as one of the world's most iconic brand marks When design student Carolyn Davidson sketched the Nike Swoosh in 1971 for the princely sum of $35, little did she know it would go on to become one of the world's most instantly recognisable textless logos. Until the mid-90s, an italicised all-caps wordmark in chunky Futura Bold accompanied it, but the Swoosh ultimately became such an iconic mark in its own right that the need to state the brand it represents became redundant. Of course, the common factors that all of these examples share is a huge marketing budget and global ubiquity, so building layers of meaning and brand association into a textless graphic symbol may seem comparatively easy for them. But even the world's biggest brands had to start somewhere – and their success stories prove the long-term value of any brand investing equity in its mark. Related articles: Then and now: The evolution of 3 iconic logos Where to find logo design inspiration 6 huge logo trends for 2019 View the full article

WordPress 5.0 is slated to bring the biggest change to the CMS in a long time. With the rollout of Gutenberg, a block-based content editor, WordPress is taking a huge step towards bringing easy, responsive layouts into content editing. It’s the first step in a three-stage plan to revolutionise content, templates and eventually WordPress site-building as a whole. WordPress 5.0 introduces an all-new Twenty-Nineteen theme and updates to the previous WordPress themes. Suffice to say, the WordPress landscape is going to change massively in the next few years. In this article, we take a closer look at Gutenberg, and the other updates set to change the way we build WordPress websites. 01. New, block-based content editor Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The main change with WP 5.0 is the introduction of Gutenberg, a new-look content editor based around responsive blocks. For an in-depth guide, read our introduction to the WordPress Gutenberg editor. In essence, content is split up into different types (paragraphs, lists, images, quotes and so on), and editors can insert, move, remove and swap blocks of content around the post or page. It is also possible to create reusable blocks, which can be saved and used anywhere, with updates being rolled out automatically across all instances of that block. 02. Twenty Nineteen theme Embodying the whitespace, the new Twenty Nineteen theme is a type-driven layout and fully supports Gutenberg. It showcases what the new editor has to offer, embracing block layouts. The styles between editor and page are almost exact, so you can see what your page will look like as you edit. It’s designed to work for a variety of cases, from bloggers to small businesses, and has a minimalist menu and fullscreen featured image area (like the Twenty Seventeen theme). It has a two-column widget area in the footer and no sidebar. The theme comes with the option to change the primary colour for buttons and links etc. and the option to filter the featured images using the chosen primary colour. The inline menu is bold and minimalist, with the logo, title, tagline, menu and social menu sat together at the top. The theme adapts well to tablet and mobile sizes, although content in multiple columns looks a little cramped on medium-sized screens before it breaks down and stacks on smaller screens. 03. ClassicPress ClassicPress is a pre-Gutenberg spin-off of WordPress 4.8.9 aimed at business websites that want to maintain the original editing experience. The founders of ClassicPress fear that Gutenberg will disrupt the power and popularity of WordPress and launched the push-back initiative after the announcement that Gutenberg would become part of WordPress core. It’s a community led project and so no new features are added without the vote of the community. The casual admin bar greeting ‘Howdy’ and other colloquialisms have been stripped in favour of formal language better suited to more serious websites. This open-source fork is gaining traction and could actually be a valid resource for WordPress users looking for a more ‘business-style’ version of WordPress. 04. Keyboard shortcuts Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Keyboard savants will find the new Gutenberg editor to be a haven of time-saving shortcuts. An entire post can potentially be written without the use of the mouse. The WordPress team have been working hard to make the editor accessible for everybody. Inserting blocks, swapping between blocks and editing block settings can all be done with keyboard shortcuts. Use Tab and Shift+Tab to skip up and down the page options, and use enter to select. To open the block type chooser, start a line with / or select any of the + icons with Tab. You can swap between page sections with ctrl+’ or cmd+’ and see all the OS-native keyboard shortcuts with Shift+alt+H. 05. Content structure and block navigation Gutenberg comes with some handy tools for content information and navigation. In the top left, the ‘Content Structure’ icon shows you the wordcount of your content, and how many headings, paragraphs and blocks it’s split up into. The block navigation (Shift + Alt + O) gives a table of contents for easily skipping to blocks without having to scroll up and down looking. This is particularly helpful for keyboard-only users, who won’t need to tab through every block to get to the end of their content. The only downside is you can’t currently name blocks, so there’s some guesswork involved when you have a lot of blocks of the same type. 06. Editor views Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image The new editor has a few different views to cater to every editor’s preferred writing environment. By opening the options in the top right, it enables you to choose between the visual editor and the code editor (ctrl + Shift + alt + M). The code view will display the block syntax denoted by HTML comment tags (i.e. <!-- wp:example -->). Be careful when editing the syntax – broken tags will trigger your blocks to be changed into the ‘classic’ block. Each editor can choose one or more view options; ‘Top Toolbar’ (move all the block options to the sticky top menu), ‘Spotlight Mode’ (grey out the blocks you’re not working on) and ‘Fullscreen Mode’ (hide the rest of the site options). 07. REST API updates The REST API caused a hubbub at its conception but until recently has not been used extensively in WordPress core. Now, with Gutenberg relying on the API to fetch and save content, the REST API is starting to be used more heavily, as it was intended. Many updates have been made to the REST API for 5.0, and importantly the same hooks have been used for saving and retrieving content with the API as were used in the original editor, to maintain integrity across plugins that work with the editor. The Gutenberg editor’s seamless editing experience is powered by the REST API, saving and publishing without having to reload the page. What happens to old content? When you upgrade to WordPress 5.0, your old content will not be lost or broken. When you go to edit the page, it will be displayed as the full article without blocks in the ‘Classic’ block type. You have the option to use the ‘Convert to Blocks’ tool to automatically update your old content into the new blocks format, or manually create blocks if the tool doesn’t act as expected. There are even ‘Shortcode’ blocks to handle your old shortcodes if that plugin does not yet support blocks. Or you can leave your content as it is; the ‘Classic’ block editor gives you the option to create and manage content with the familiar TinyMCE format. Can I still use TinyMCE? TinyMCE – the current tool for editing rich text in WordPress – is not being replaced. Instead blocks will use TinyMCE for editing their rich text with boundaries, such as limiting formatting to bold, italics and links. Most of the TinyMCE options will be extracted into their own unique block types. Formatting like paragraphs, lists, media, blockquotes, code and headings etc. will be split up into block types and inserted into content as self-contained sections. The original editing experience will still exist, however. The Classic block will be very familiar to WordPress users, acting exactly like the current WordPress editor and adding a fallback for users who are not sure where to find the format type they are looking for within the myriad of new blocks. If Gutenberg or blocks really aren’t for you, the Classic Editor is available as a plugin to completely replace the new editor or to be there as an optional alternative, and will be supported by WordPress until 2022. Is WordPress 5.0 better than its predecessors? With such a drastic change to the beloved content editor, Gutenberg has encountered resistance and negative feedback, so opinion on whether it’s an improvement or not is highly contested by certain factions. However, the future of web design is dependent on change, and as Matt Mullenweg said, “It’s worth a little discomfort to change the world.” WordPress 5.0 is a huge step towards improving content creation for the layman, as well as enabling developers to maintain content unity. It makes it easy for editors to create content in different layouts without giving designers a headache, and is likely to be a boon for developers who have had trouble in the past adapting user content to fit nicely into their themes. The difficulty arises with the initial release; most if not all themes will need to be updated to utilise the new Gutenberg block styles. Overall, opinions may be mixed in the early stages, but WordPress 5.0 should pave the way for a more flexible and user-friendly experience all round. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 283 or subscribe. Read more: Use WordPress as a headless CMS Top tips for building a WordPress theme How to start a blog: 11 pro tips View the full article

Bookworms, listen up! Imagine having access to an unlimited number of books every month, but paying one very reasonable monthly price. If you're ready to devour hundreds of books (plus per-use countless magazines and newspapers) this year-long Scribd subscription can be yours for just $80. That works out at around $6.66 a month – less than the cost of most paperbacks. Be the envy of your book club with instant access to new releases, bestsellers and the classics. This year-long subscription instantly puts over a million books at your fingertips, ready for you to access any time and anywhere. Want to escape to an alternate universe during your morning commute or at home to unwind after a long day? Just use the Scribd app to get access on your smartphone, or pull up Scribd on a web browser. And if you're hoping to give your eyes a rest, just pop in your headphones and relax while listening to one of thousands of audiobooks. There's even a vast collection of sheet music if you're so moved by your latest read that you feel like making music. And you can personalise your library by saving your favourites, creating collections and bookmarking titles for later. Snag a year's Scribd subscription for $80 here. Related articles: The 10 best drawing books How to self-publish a book 11 books that changed designers' lives View the full article

How features such as infotainment and driver-assist can give others a leg up on car owners. View the full article

A Threatpost reader poll examined risk, vulnerabilities, 2FA, the human element, attitudes on spreadsheets and more when it comes to password managers. View the full article

The attack threatens users with location-tracking, DoS, fake notifications and more. View the full article

Gutenberg is a block-based content editor that is being introduced with the WordPress 5.0 update. Gutenberg is going to reinvent the way we write and display content on the web, bringing powerful tools to the hands of all WordPress users, from editor to developer With the rollout of Gutenberg, WordPress is taking a huge step towards bringing easy, responsive layouts into content editing. In this article, we take a look at the game-changing new tool, and what it means for those building WordPress websites. Top WordPress tutorials for designers What is the Gutenberg editor? Gutenberg enables users to form their content out of responsive blocks – similar to website builder tools like Squarespace – to create posts and pages that mould easily with their theme to any screen size. Theme editors can style block types to match their templates, and non code-savvy users will find it easy to add elements like columns, cover images and social media embeds without the need for unwieldy WordPress plugins. It’s even possible to embed widgets in posts and pages. Gutenberg aims to negate the need for shortcodes and custom fields by standardising the content creation process. It makes publishing faster and more powerful, giving editors all-new tools to write and publish more efficiently than before. You can even write your content in other editors like Google Docs or Microsoft Word and paste into the Gutenberg editor, and it will translate your content into blocks automatically. How does Gutenberg work? Blocks are the foundation of the new Gutenberg editor. By splitting content up into different types – such as paragraphs, lists, images, quotes and more – blocks enable editors to insert, drag and drop, remove and swap parts of the post or page with ease. Compared to the previous TinyMCE editor, it may be somewhat alien to users who have never seen a block-based editor or page builder before, but after a little practice the benefits far outweigh the learning curve. So don’t lose heart if it seems daunting at first. The default blocks are split into different sections, including inline elements and common blocks The default blocks are split into a few different sections; inline elements, common blocks, formatting, layout elements, widgets, embeds and reusable blocks. There’s even a ‘Classic’ block, if you miss TinyMCE, with the option to convert it later into Gutenberg blocks. Plugins can add blocks too, making integration of new blocks easy and streamlined, and reducing the amount of clutter on the editor where you have multiple plugins weighing in. Updating code will no longer require any update to content, because developers can target surrounding block behaviour Theme and plugin developers will have some work to do to bring their code up to date to make full use of the new update, but it should be worth it to see users creating content that is not only easy on the eye, UI-friendly and theme-matching, but composed of valid code too. Page-breaking user code will be a thing of the past. Writing with blocks is a breeze, with new keyboard shortcuts to help you tab between existing blocks, insert, duplicate, move and delete blocks on the fly. Blocks also include a wide variety of default embed blocks, living up to the WordPress.org Gutenberg promise that content editing will support multimedia and content side by side. With such a comprehensive set of blocks right out of the box, Gutenberg is ready to tackle content of all flavours. Blocks are going to standardise the way content is put together. Plugins, custom post types, meta boxes and shortcodes will be able to utilise the same UI, making the process of putting it all together seamless for every user. It also means code and content is finally completely separate. Updating code will no longer require any update to content, because developers can target the surrounding block behaviour. Reusable blocks Reusable blocks are a new integral function that enables you to save a block and reuse it in any content. When a reusable block is edited, it updates automatically wherever it has been used, without the need to manually edit every page where it appears. Reusable blocks can be updated inline or from their own administration panel by clicking the ‘Options’ button in the top right of any content editor and going to ‘Manage All Reusable Blocks’. Creating a reusable block can be done from there, or by clicking the ‘Options’ button on any block menu and clicking ‘Add to Reusable Blocks’. You can also save multiple blocks into one reusable block by highlighting content, clicking the ‘Options’ button that appears in the top left of your selection and selecting ‘Add to Reusable Blocks’. Blocks for text formatting Heading block The heading block (#1) formats headings from H1 through to H6. Inserting a heading block into the content will by default select H2, which is ideal for steering content editors into maintaining the content’s waterfall heading structure and avoiding multiple H1s on a page. Twenty Nineteen’s default settings enables editors to change heading alignment (left, centre or right-aligned) and add a HTML anchor for linking directly to a section on the page. Paragraph block The paragraph block (#2) will make up most of your content, it is the ‘building block of all narrative’. Each paragraph has its own block, and Twenty Nineteen comes with the default text settings for text size, drop caps, background and text colour. It can be transformed easily into a quote, heading, list or verse. As you’re writing, pressing enter will create a new block, ready for the next paragraph. Text formatting is limited to inline styles like bold, italic, links and strikethrough. Lists Lists (#3) are separate blocks to paragraphs, which can cause some confusion at first because you could mistakenly look under ‘paragraph’ instead. List blocks by default have simple options, such as ordered (numbered) and unordered (bullet-point) lists, as well as a tool to nest lists underneath other list items. Basic text formatting, like the paragraph block, includes bold, italic and links. Quote blocks Quote blocks (#4) format blockquotes with the option to add an easy citation. This used to be difficult for the non tech-savvy in the classic TinyMCE editor, as adding a citation would require additional coding in HTML view. Default options include quote text alignment, as well as regular or large quote styles. There is a separate Pullquote block option for featuring quotes in left or right-floating blocks, or full width spreads. Swapping between the two is easy and can be done with a single click. Other formatting options Other default formatting options (#5) include ‘Classic’, code, pre-formatted, table and custom HTML blocks. There should be a block for every occasion, even with just the default block types in 5.0, while the addition of the custom HTML block along with the original TinyMCE Editor-like ‘Classic’ block should cover most of the edge-cases. Blocks in columns Perhaps one of the most powerful new blocks for content layout is the column block type, enabling users to create up to six columns and insert paragraphs, lists, images and more in a responsive format. With the option to make the column block full width, the page’s space is well-utilised and content can flow as the user likes. There’s a bit of a knack to find the column settings again once you’ve created and edited the block, but using Tab and Shift+Tab will help if it’s proving difficult to bring up the options menu with the mouse hover. Beware, reducing the number of columns after filling them up will delete the content in the removed columns, so make sure to move your blocks out of the column structure before editing the column block. As long as the theme supports it, the columns will stack on smaller screen sizes, maintaining responsive design. Why should I use the Gutenberg editor? 01. It’s easier than it looks New things can be daunting, but Gutenberg is surprisingly easy to pick up. Within a few minutes of using the new content editor, you’ll be creating content quicker than ever. 02. It encourages new types of content With all-new block types and support for things you never knew you needed, Gutenberg will encourage editors to create content that breaks out of the mould and discover new ways to display content and engage with viewers. 03. It brings developers and users closer together Because blocks standardise the way content is crafted, developers can get a better handle on what editors might be creating and predict how their themes and styles might be utilised to avoid disastrous user code clashes. 04. WYSIWYG is really WYSIWYG Going forward, with a little dedication from developers and their styling, Gutenberg will more accurately represent what really appears in the published post. Editors can build their content in real time without having to rely on the preview. 05. It's the future The world of web content is changing fast, and what better way to keep up than to ride on the wave of new technology? Gutenberg is paving the way for exciting things to come. This article was originally published in creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 283 or subscribe. Read more: Use WordPress as a headless CMS 8 essential WordPress security secrets 25 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

1. Bowl; 2. Stem; 3. Counter; 4. Arm; 5. Ligature; 6. Terminal; 7. Spine; 8. Ascender; 9. Apex; 10. Serif; 11. Ear; 12. Descender; 13. Crossbar; 14. Finial; 15. Ascender height; 16. Cap height; 17. X-height; 18. Baseline; 19. Descender line Typography is, in essence, the art and technique of arranging type. It's central to the skills of a designer and is about much more than making the words legible. Your choice of typeface and how you it works with your layout, grid, colour scheme and so on will make the difference between a good, bad and great design. There's a lot of jargon in the discipline of typography – covering everything from the correct names for the different parts of your letterforms to the terms relating to how you arrange them within a design. In this article, we present a comprehensive glossary of typography terms. Jump to page 2 to take a look. On this page, we'll cover the basics you need to know to get started working with type. Can't find what you're looking for? Explore our roundup of great typography tutorials. 01. Font selection There is a vast selection of typefaces for you to choose from Font design is a long and involved process. Typefaces are created by craftspeople over a substantial period of time, using talent honed over many years. The best, professionally designed fonts come with various weights and styles to form a complete family, plus carefully considered kerning pairs, multi-language support with international characters and expressive alternate glyphs to add character and variety to typesetting. So while there's an astonishing array of free fonts to choose from online, you'll need to check the one you choose includes all the options you need to create a great design. Even within the paid-for options, so much choice can be overwhelming. It can be tempting to stick to the classics. If you want to branch out and are in need of some inspiration, take a look at these inspired alternatives to Helvetica, or explore these perfect font pairings. 02. Size All typefaces are not created equal. Some are fat and wide; some are thin and narrow. So words set in different typefaces can take up a very different amount of space on the page. The height of each character is known as its 'x-height' (quite simply because it's based on the 'x' character). When pairing different typefaces, it's generally wise to use those that share a similar x-height. The width of each character is known as the 'set width'. This spans the body of the letter, plus the space that acts as a buffer between one letterform and the next. The most common method used to measure type is the point system, which dates back to the 18th century. One point is 1/72 inch. 12 points make one pica, a unit used to measure column widths. Type sizes can also be measured in inches, millimetres, or pixels. 03. Leading Leading describes the vertical space between each line of type. It's so named because, in the days of metal typesetting, strips of lead were used to separate lines of type. For legible body text that's comfortable to read, a general rule is that your leading value should be anything between 1.25 and 1.5 times greater than the font size. 04. Tracking and kerning Kerning is the process of adjusting the space between characters to create a harmonious pairing. For example, where an uppercase 'A' meets an uppercase 'V', their diagonal strokes are usually kerned so that the top left of the 'V' sits above the bottom right of the 'A'. Kerning is similar to tracking, but they are not the same thing. Tracking is the process of adjusting the spacing of all characters in a word, and is applied evenly. 05. Measure The term 'measure' describes the width of a text block. If you're seeking to achieve the optimum reading experience, it's clearly an important consideration. If your lines are too long, your reader can easily get lost, while a too-short measure breaks up the reading experience unnecessarily. There are a number of theories to help you define the ideal measure for your typography. One rule of thumb is that your lines should be 2-3 alphabets in length (so 52-78 characters, including spaces). 06. Hierarchy and scale If all the type within a layout looks the same, it's difficult to know which is the most important information. Size is one key way in which typographers create hierarchy and guide their readers. Headings are usually large, sub-headings are smaller, and body type is smaller still. Size is not the only way to define hierarchy – it can also be achieved with colour, spacing and weight. Next page: Glossary of typographic terms Aesc Pronouced 'ash', this is a ligature of two letters – 'a' and 'e'. The aesc derives from Old English, where it represented a diphthong vowel, and has successfully migrated to other alphabets including Danish and Icelandic. Aperture The constricted opening of a glyph, as seen in the letter 'e'. Varying the size of the aperture has a direct effect on the legibility of a letterform and, ultimately, readability. Apertures can be 'closed' (shown in orange here) or 'open' (green). Apex The point at the top of a character where the left and right strokes meet. The example might be the top point of an uppercase 'A'. Arm A horizontal stroke that does not connect to a stroke or stem at one or both ends – such as the top of the capital T. Ascender The part of a lowercase letterform that projects above the x-height of the font. Ascenders are important for ease of prolonged reading, though the combination of too much ascender-height and not enough x-height can cause problems. Baseline The baseline is where the feet of your capital letters sit. Below this line are descenders and loops. Bowl A bowl refers to the shapely, enclosed parts of letterforms. They appear in both lowercase (b) and uppercase (B) characters. Beak The curved terminal at the top of letters such as 'a', 'c', 'f' and 'r'. So named because they look a bit like a bird's beak. Bicameral Bicameral refers to alphabets that have upper- and lowercase letterforms. For example, Roman and Cyrillic alphabets are bicameral. Hebrew and Arabic do not have lowercase and uppercase letters, so they are referred to as unicameral. Bracket A wedge-like shape that joins a serif to the stem of a font in some typefaces. Shown in orange in the image above. Cap height The height of a capital letter above the baseline. Copyfitting The job of adjusting point size and letter spacing in a bid to make text occupy its allotted space in a harmonious fashion. Counter The enclosed – or partially enclosed – portion of letterforms such as 'c', the lower part of 'e' and 'g'. Shown in orange above. Be careful not to mix up counters and bowls. Crossbar The crossbar connects two strokes, as in 'H'. Not to be confused with the cross-stroke, which cuts through the stem of letterforms such as 't'. Cursive These are typefaces that imitate handwriting. Take a look at our roundup of the best free cursive fonts for some examples. Descender The part of the letterform that falls below the baseline. In lowercase terms, this means 'p', 'y' and 'q', and sometimes applies to uppercase 'J' and 'Q'. Diacritical Is it so critical that you might die? No. Diacriticals refer to accents applied to letterforms in languages including French, Czech and German in a bid to enhance the function of the glyph. Dingbat Once known as printer's flowers, dingbats are decorative elements. They can vary from simple bullets to delicate fauna and flora, and are often collected into themed sets. Display font Any typeface intended to be used in short bursts – rather than for blocks of text – can be defined as a display font. Display fonts are often created just for use at large point sizes, as with headlines and titles. Drop cap An oversized letter, typically used at the start of a paragraph. It 'drops' into two or more lines of text, but can also climb upwards. The above example is taken from Jessica Hische's Daily Drop Cap series. Ear A small stroke extending from the upper-right side of the bowl of lowercase g, as shown in the example. It can also appear in a lowercase 'r'. Ethel A ligature of the letters 'o' and 'e'. Em dash Em is a long horizontal dash (—), equal to the current point size of text. Sometimes referred to as 'Mutton' to distinguish it from the very similar-sounding En. It's the width of a letter 'm'. En dash 'Nut' to its friends, the En (–) is a horizontal dash one half the size of an Em (—). It's the width of a letter 'n'. Eye The eye is similar to a counter, but instead refers specifically to the enclosed part of the letter 'e'. Finial A tapered or curved end, which appears on letters such as 'e' and 'c'. Fleuron A subcategory of, or the precursor to, the dingbat. Fleurons are floral marks dreamed up by printers of the past to help decorate text. <font-face> The HTML5 tag that brings typography to the internet with typefaces directly embedded in web pages. For more information, take a look at our guide to web typography. Glyph Any singular mark that makes part of a font, whether a letter, number, punctuation mark or even a dingbat. Glyphs are the building blocks of typography. Grapheme Very similar to glyph, but possibly a bit broader. A grapheme is a fundamental unit of language, such as a Chinese pictogram, an exclamation mark or a letterform. Gutter The spaces between facing pages of a book or magazine, or the vertical gap between two columns of text. Justified In a paragraph of justified text, the words are spaced so there is no white space at the end of a line – each begins flush left and finishes flush right. This means the spacing between words will vary depending on how many are in that line. Kerning The art of adjusting the proximity of adjacent letters to optimise the overall visual appeal and readability. Kerning will depend on the shapes of the letterforms within each pair. In the example above, the top pairs of letters have not been kerned. In the lower pairs, the spacing between the letters has been narrowed to suit the shapes of the characters. For more info, take a look at our 10 top tips for kerning type. Leading Leading describes the vertical space between each line of type. In olden times actual strips of lead were used to separate lines of text vertically; the naming convention persists. Legibility The ease with which one letterform can be distinguished from the next. It feeds into, but is not the same as, readability. Loop / lobe The lower part of the letter 'g' is known as its loop or lobe. It can be open (above right) or closed (left). It's also sometimes called the tail – a term that also takes in the lower portion of letter 'y'. Logotype The lettered part of any marque or identity. The logotype can be taken separately from its graphic companion. Ligature Ligatures pull two forms together to produce a new glyph. Manicule A pointing hand symbol ☞. Also known as the bishop's fist (stop sniggering at the back), or an early emoji. Monospace Monospaced type is distributed evenly Fonts in which every letterform occupies the same horizontal space. OpenType Designed by Microsoft and Adobe, OpenType is a font format. It supplanted and improved upon TrueType and PostScript fonts. Oblique or sloped roman To be distinguished from italics, in which the letterforms are purposefully drawn to be different to their upright cousins. Oblique letters are merely slanted versions of the standard roman form, often arrived at by mechanical means. Orphan The first line of a new paragraph stranded at the bottom of a page. This is presumably considered to be as bad as abandoning a child. Pica One sixth of an inch in length, the pica is associated with line-length and column width. There are 12 points or 16 pixels in one pica. Pilcrow The paragraph symbol (¶). It now marks the presence of a carriage return but at one time is thought to have denoted a change of theme in flowing text. Point A standard typographical measurement equal to 1/12 of a pica or 1/72 of an inch. Readability Readability refers to the ease with which a block of text can be scanned by eye. Serif A flare or terminating flourish at the end of a letterform's strokes, believed to originate from the Roman tendency to paint letters onto marble before chiselling them out. The serifs are circled in the left hand text in the image above. On the right you can see a sans-serif font. Serif fonts are typically used for printed matter, while sans serifs are more suited for screen-based type. Sidebearing The horizontal space to either side of a letterform, separating it from other letters. Spine The main curved stroke of a lowercase or capital 'S'. Squoosh This is the inadvisable process of squashing or expanding a typeface digitally either to fit a space or for visual effect. If you do it, make sure you keep it to yourself. Spur A small projection from the curve of a letterform, sometimes known as a beak or a beard. G provides a good example. Stem A vertical, full-length stroke in upright characters. TDC The Type Directors Club is a typography organisation based in New York. Tittle The brilliantly suggestive name for the dot above letters 'i' and 'j'. Terminal A type of curve at the end of a stroke that isn't a serif. Examples include the teardrop shapes in: 'finial', 'ball', 'beak' and 'lachrymal'. x-height The height of the lowercase x in any given typeface. This delimits the size of the glyph's detail and therefore also of its ascenders and descenders. Read more: The best free web fonts Great places to download fonts for free 20 typography terms you might not know View the full article

It’s always been tough to make money from art. But for big-city artists and curators, the cost of real estate for galleries and studio space has made it even tougher to build a sustainable practice. The growing popularity of art fairs has also had an effect, by creating destination experiences that might be great for bringing people in, but not necessarily for actually selling art. But artists willing to embrace digital technology and take charge of their own destinies have never had it so good. Social media, online platforms, transactional ecommerce platforms and mobile apps have made it possible to reach global audiences, build personal brands, and sell art on more favourable terms than ever before. In this article, we take a look at the art apps that are shaking things up for creatives. Selling art online The artist’s digital journey often starts on social media, with artists using tools like Instagram to promote work and build an audience. Now there are also digital platforms to monetise creativity, and a new breed of digital-first players are building unique connections between artists and collectors, creating markets that simply didn’t exist in the pre-digital age. 16 great places to sell your design work online Alongside this is an explosion of new channels to reach art lovers, whether it’s using Snapchat to provide behind-the-scenes looks into the creative process, or engaging with storytellers on podcasts to help spread the word (check out this playlist of great art podcasts). With the global online art market worth around $4.22 billion in 2017, up 12 per cent from the previous year, these new digital tools and platforms are already revolutionising the world of fine art for artists and art-lovers. Here are five apps and platforms that are leading that revolution, creating new ways to make fine art profitable. 01. Artsy The art on sale on Artsy ranges from design items such as ceramics to sculpture to photography Artsy has a vision to transform the art world through technology, and it’s executed on that vision from day one, delivering an online platform that connects art lovers to galleries and artists in a global community. Its library encompasses a dizzying breadth of art, from Old Masters to contemporary artists. Under the hood, Artsy has built relationships with galleries and art fairs, combining their understanding of art markets with its deep technological expertise to provide gallerists and curators with tools and data to promote the artists they represent. 02. Patreon Get direct support for your work using Patreon Patreon is rethinking how artists and creators can finance their work, by enabling direct funding appeals to patrons and supporters. A digital spin on an age-old model, the San Francisco-based platform gives emerging artists control over their careers, without them being beholden to the existing gatekeepers of the art world. Patreon enables artists to garner financial support for their work directly from the people who love it the most. The platform enables both the discovery of new artists and support for established artists, while leveraging learnings from ecommerce and crowdfunding to help artists make direct appeals to support their creative efforts. 03. Artfare Artfare connects potential patrons to artists Launched in February 2019, Artfare puts a new spin on the art fair model, using a mobile app, in-house curators and local pop-up shows and fairs to create connections between artists and collectors in local art scenes, starting with New York. Artfare promotes vibrant local art scenes by bringing artists and collectors together through messaging, studio visits and sales of art works. Using Artfare’s listings, artists can promote works for sale on social platforms such as Instagram (where they’ve often built big followings). In addition they can monetise them through online sales using the Artfare app – it gives them more control and effectively tilts the economics of art-buying in their favour. 04. Paddle 8 Paddle 8 is a bit like eBay for art Paddle 8 is a curated auction platform that enables a global community of buyers to discover and bid for art in real time. By digitally enabling the auction mechanic, it helps to promote artists’ work and drive sales, creating a global, digital spin on a market dynamic that was previously often limited to those with privilege and access. 05. Uprise Art You can talk to one of Uprise Art's personal art advisors if you're not sure what you're looking for This one isn't an app, but a platform. The team at Uprise Art are driven by a mission to enable a new generation of digitally savvy collectors to discover and buy art from emerging artists. Uprise Art is effectively a digital gallery, working online and via pop-ups, collaborations and booths at art fairs to showcase the work of a roster of talented artists. By creating a digital-first gallery experience and constantly innovating the model – connecting with high-flying tech start-ups to provide art for their offices or working directly with interior designers – Uprise Art gives emerging artists new opportunities to have their work discovered and purchased. Read more: The 10 best drawing books How to succeed as a designer-maker The best online art classes View the full article

Passionate about a topic? Maybe it's time to start your own podcast! With the podcast industry booming, now is a great time to delve into this new frontier. And if you're unsure where to start, we've got the perfect solution – The Beginner's Podcasting Bundle. These courses are currently available for just $39 – an astounding 95 per cent off the usual price. The Beginner's Podcasting Bundle arms you with everything you need to succeed in the podcasting industry – all you need to add is your voice! You'll learn how to create, brand and grow your podcast from the ground up thanks to these five useful courses. First up, The Podcast Master Class: A Complete Guide to Podcasting, which is geared towards getting you up and running. Learn how to start, record, edit, publish, grow and monetise your podcast over five hours of instruction. From there you'll get some tips on talking and getting your point across thanks to the courses Mind Mapping For Smart Speaking and Persuasion Master Class: How To Powerfully Influence Anyone. Finally, the bundle includes courses on how to market yourself with Branding You: How To Build Your Multimedia Internet Empire and The Online Personal Branding Hacking Guide. Get your podcast up and running with The Beginner's Podcasting Bundle, currently available for just $39 here. Related articles: 10 amazing podcasts for digital artists 18 great web design podcasts The 10 best graphic design podcasts View the full article

Threatpost talks to HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos on the EU's funding of open source bug bounty programs, how a company can start a program, and the next generation of bounty hunters. View the full article