Free Website Tools
Free Website Tools

You see the perfect font on a website or in print and you’d like to know what it’s called. How can you identify that font without having to browse through hundreds of fonts? At identifont.com you can identify your font by answering a few questions about its characteristics like serifs, position of the upper-case ‘Q’ tail, the centre vertex of the upper-case ‘M’ and so on.

At every step through the questionnaire it gives you popular fonts that match the given characteristics. We’ve tried it with some popular fonts and it was right on. When you have less common fonts it seems that the tool gives you more accurate answers if you skip a question here and there. You can also search for fonts alphabetically, by similarity or picture, or by designer or publisher.

Most of us think of WhoIs first when researching a domain, but there is a domain service more elegant and ultimately more useful, DomainColeta.com. Besides reverse WhoIs search, this service will research information about server location, backlinks information, outgoing links, hosting service, reverse IP lookup and more. It also searches for domains with the same Adsense ID. Just like other services that provide website information, traffic and visitor numbers are wildly inaccurate for sites with less than 100,000 visitors per month.

Over half of small businesses in the US don’t have a website, yet over 90% of consumers look online first for local products and services. Now businesses can get a free website and attend free seminars on how to set up their own site and get online without having any expense. How? Visit AmericaGetOnline.com, pick your state and you’ll be presented with a listing of free events in your area. You can also view free learning videos and print a work book at their Learning Center.

Why? This service is offered by Google in conjunction with several sponsors. Google is perpetually working on improving their search results and getting relevant local results is a big part of it. If they help small businesses get online, it will also help them provide better search results. The examples on the site include small businesses like someone offering a private music lessons, a second hand store, a bee keeper etc.

Start your own question and answer site easily with free open source software at osqa.net. Use this software for homework sites, product support or as a help desk feature. This question and answer engine features a voting system, social networking functions including private messaging, search, the ability to import data from a Stack Exchange site, support for widgets, themes, the ability to embed videos, audio and images, automatic site activity reports, export data and more.

Get great functionality through a minimalist interface with this CSS3 generator at CSS3Generator.com. Get help with rounded corners, transitions, box sizing, columns, RGBA and more.

If you’re wondering where Apple’s designers got their inspiration from, take a look at the the appliance company Braun’s 1970′s designs. White housing, minimalistic design, clarity. If you take the time to watch the video with Dieter Rams, former Braun’s head designer, you’ll see a couple of other designs from the 50′s to the 70′s that still look great today.

Good design, like good music, never loses its appeal. Use Google translate to read this interview with Rams. He talks about receiving a letter from Jonathan Ive (Apple designer) and a little bit about Apple’s and Braun’s design principles. Another Q&A with Rams on Designboom.com.

Get the open-source PHP CAPTCHA script “Secureimage” at PHPcaptcha.org. Generate complex images and CAPTCHA codes with a script that can be easily added into existing forms on your website to provide protection from spam bots. All you need to run it is PHP and GD support within PHP. The Securimage script generates the CAPTCHA images and validates the typed code. Audible codes can be streamed to the browser with Flash for the vision impaired. It requires no configuration after downloading. PHP 4 and PHP 5 versions available for download.

The printables designs on OhHappyDay may be ideal if you need some outside of the box marketing or design inspiration. How can you adapt these tangible project ideas to your own projects? Choose from photo props, ideas for greeting card designs and more.

If you’re trying to promote a brand, or just trying to reserve your preferred username on any of the social media sites, click over to KnowEm to do all the search work for you. Simply key in your desired username and the site will check dozens of social media websites at a time. Categories include blogging, bookmarking, business, community, design and more. You can sign up for paid service as well and have them set up all the accounts for you.

If you have a project that requires pictures of traffic signs with accurate colors and proportions, why not go straight to the source at the Federal Highway Administration’s website instead of just googling for traffic sign pictures. You’ll get diagrams of all traffic signs along with measurements, arrows used, spacing, borders, letter styles and design guidelines.