Handsome Logic

The situation often arises where you need web design work done, but can not justify paying a professional designer. Not having the necessary software or a background in design can make DIY web design a real pain. Fear not — here are 10 free web design tools for non-designers.

1. Synthasite

Synthasite is a free, 100% browser-based web application that makes web design and publishing a breeze. With a library of design templates, drag-and-drop widgets, and write-in HTML capabilities, full sites can be created in minutes.

Synthasite has come a long way since launching in June, and the $5 Million cash-infusion they recently secured from Columbus Venture Capital ensures a bright future.

2. Screenalicio.us

Screenalicio.us is a daily-updated showcase of website screenshots featuring excellent designs and artistry. They currently host over 9,500 searchable and browse-able screenshots of live sites that you can visit for further inspiration. RSS feeds of gallery updates are also available, as well as comments and a 5-star rating system

3. OSWD.org

Open Source Web Design hosts over 2,000 free web templates, many of which include separate designs for interior pages. You can search their database by keyword, designer, validation, contrast, color, image presence, CSS usage and number of columns. There are also almost 300 links to live sites that are currently using templates and designs downloaded from OSWD.org. Should you decide to use one of their designs, you can put a non-nofollow link to your own site on those link pages.

4. Open Design Community

The Open Design Community (TODC) at OpenDesigns.org is similar to OSWD, but with a more active community and better organization of updates and new designs. The search functionality is similar, but TODC has an active forum community and an RSS feed of new open source web designs available for download.

5. Adobe Kuler

If you’re like me (and by that I mean colorblind), you will benefit from the use of a color scheme tool such as Adobe Kuler.

Although Kuler desktop and API are designed for integration with Adobe AIR, their free web-based tool is still extremely helpful. User-created color schemes are shared and available for use, download, and editing using the web tool’s robust set of features. There is also an active user community and tag search functionality.

6. Typetester

Typetester was sent to me some time ago by a web design firm that I farmed out some work to. Type tester is a feature-rich web tool that allows you to apply every conceivable variation and style to the font of your choice and preview it with instant updates in your web browser. Very useful for anyone who has been thwarted in the past by the way Photoshop handles text and anti-aliasing.

Typefaces are sorted into Safe, Win Default, and Mac Default. You can enter your own sample text or use the greeking (aka “lorem ipsum”) that is provided. Once you have your sample text and typeface, you can adjust the size, leading, tracking, color, word spacing and more across three independent columns.

7. Stock.xchng

SXC is my favorite destination for free, hi-res, quality stock photos. The galleries are home to over 340,000 photos, with new ones being added daily. Now and then you may come across a photo that requires download credits, but in the time I’ve been using them, all I’ve ever needed was my free account. If you have quality photos of your own, you’re encouraged to share them with other SXC members or enter one of their many photo competitions.

8. Browsershots

It’s a terrible thing to spend lots of time fine-tuning the design of a site, only to realize that the entire thing falls apart in other web browsers.

Browsershots is a free tool that will test your site in 24 different browsers across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. You can also test screen size, javascript support, flash, and other variables. Your submitted pages are entered in a queue with other free users, though the wait time is seldom more than a few minutes. You can bypass the queue and get priority processing, however, with a premium membership.

9. Favicon Generator

Now that you see your site in all those different browsers, what’s missing? A favicon.ico file, of course!

The favicon.ico file, hosted in your site’s main directory, is the icon that displays on your browser tab, shortcuts, or on your bookmarks. But generating icons isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially in “.ico” format. Favicon Generator lets you upload a 100 x 100px graphic from your computer and automatically generates the file for you. You can then download the file, put it on your site, and add the following code in the <head> section of your site:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico”>

The favicon will work without that code as well, as long as it’s uploaded properly.

10. Wordpress Theme Generator

Nobody is hurting for a source for free Wordpress themes, but this tool is too cool to ignore.

The Wordpress Theme Generator allows you to build, edit and live-preview themes for Wordpress with little to no need for HTML or CSS knowledge. Change colors, element sizes, sidebar locations, tag cloud displays, number of columns and more. Then simply download your valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Wordpress theme.