Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for December 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for December 2010?

December 2010 Wallpaper

“For December 2010, illustration of myself Wishing” Designed by Benoit Chartron from France.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

Christmas Stuff

“Some of the things that come to my mind when thinking of christmas..” Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Starleaves

Designed by Fabio Toscani from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Spider web

Designed by Mohd. Aaqib from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Wicklow Winter

“Winter at the Sugar Loaf Mountain in County Wicklow Ireland.” Designed by Neil Bradshaw from Ireland.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1336×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1336×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600

Fun in the Snow

“A girl and her friend, The Snowman, being silly in the first snow I love December. Happy Holidays, everyone!” Designed by Anca Varsandan from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Peace

“Let’s give our children the greatest gift off all — PEACE! Happy Holidays to everyone.” Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1600

Christmas Past

“Christmas old style.” Designed by Carmelo Ortuso from Australia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Frosted Glass

“An illustration of someone who wiped a frosted window and is looking down on a town and lake below.” Designed by Shawn Rinkenbaugh from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Cosy Retro

“Something warm and cosy for a cold December.” Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Burnout 2010

“The Year of the matches is quite over!” Designed by Hansjoerg Schneider from Switzerland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Fresh & White

“Have a break, get out of your Design studio and go breathing. What if we raced or a had snowball fight?” Designed by Maureen Chaffurin from France.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900

Sad Waters

“Based on the song Sad Waters, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Ophelia’s myth. Photography by the author, made in Cantabria the first morning of 2010.” Designed by David Fernandez Rementeria from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

New Santa … New Gifts

“A year’s collection of happiness, wrapped inside a small gift.” Designed by Narendar . N from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Holly Light

“Warm lights sourrounding our Chritmas Festivities are like a warm touch, a hug from our beloved.” Designed by Ester Liquori from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

Christmas Icons

Designed by Davide Vicariotto from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Cosy Socks

"One of my favourite months of the year is December. The whole month feels festive and I love the reds and green’s we have everywhere. So to celebrate the beginning of December, here are a pair of cosy red christmasy socks! I have spent all of November creating the design based on the photograph and making it in red for the theme of Christmas. Have a great December everyone! " Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Snowy December

Designed by Rosanna Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

Happy New Year

"December is time for Christmas rush, presents and greetings letters! We wish you and your friends all the best and Father Frost (russian Santa Claus) will take care of the rest." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Fallen Icon Mozart

“This month of December is flooded with commercial apsects of the Christmas Holiday(Thanks Coca Cola) I want to pay homage to a fallen young icon Mozart.” Designed by Jeremiah Selengia from Tanzania.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×480, 1280×720, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 800×480, 1280×720, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Snowy Love

Designed by Brad Cerasani from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Waiting for Christmas

“I wish you a merry Christmas!!” Designed by yellowbook from South Korea.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Winter Atmosphere

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Snow White

"The falling snow, wrapped up warm in colourful wintery gloves. Have a wonderful winter everyone!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Inspiring Well

“Celebrating the new coming year.” Designed by Peter Yee from Malaysia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050

Flower Bokeh

Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from the Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

The Greatest Gift of All

“Today Christmas is all about buying presents, but actually the most important thing is to have someone to share the Christmas time with. That’s what this wallpaper is all about. The two birds – Milo and Pipita – are a wallpaper series and usually they argue about things men and women argue about. ” Designed by Nicole Bauer from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Angel

“All writers and reader of the fabulous Smashing Magazine feliz navidad y propero a–o nuevo!” Designed by Fresh&Eazy, Steffen Schmitt from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Christmas Eve

“Wishing you a merry christmas” Designed by Ray Templates from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Khaos

“Photography + Light Painting, a simple way to make design.” Designed by Jose Tenorio from Costa Rica.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Frozen

“White and blue – like a December with a lot of snow and a blue, sunny sky. Hopefully!” Designed by Lotum from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

December Dream

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Winter Wonderland

"The design was inspired by the Christmas story with charming characters that bring joy and magic in this festive occasion." Designed by Jo‹o Lima Jr. from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 2560×1440

Waiting for a Winter

Designed by Adam Piotrowski from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Learn to Recycle

"We should care more about our planet." Designed by Adam Laki from Hungary.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Casual Catwalk

Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from the Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

West Christmas

"In west, Santa Claus uses a .44" Designed by Blackjack.

• preview
• with calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Snowy Ladybug

Designed by Tooshtoosh from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Happy Festivus

“Seinfeld in 1997 proposed a holiday, Festivus, for the rest of us. This desktop wallpaper reminds us of the non consumeristic nature of Festivus, sit back enjoy a drink and join Kramer, Frank Costanza, Jerry and Elaine in the airing of Grievances and challenge one another to feats of strength after dinner.” Designed by Jenny Heath from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Smashing Snowman

“He’s a smashing snowman, isn’t he?” Designed by Megan Burleson from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Join in next month!

Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing December, folks!

(ik) (vf) (sl)

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: december, Wallpapers

PHP 4 and MySQL 4 End of Life Announcement

Our approach with WordPress has always been to make it run on common server configurations. We want users to have flexibility when choosing a host for their precious content. Because of this strategy, WordPress runs pretty much anywhere. Web hosting platforms, however, change over time, and we occasionally are able to reevaluate some of the requirements for running WordPress. Now is one of those times. You probably guessed it from the title — we’re finally ready to announce the end of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4!

First up, the announcement that developers really care about. WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4.

For WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, we will be raising the minimum required PHP version to 5.2. Why 5.2? Because that’s what the vast majority of WordPress users are using, and it offers substantial improvements over earlier PHP 5 releases. It is also the minimum PHP version that the Drupal and Joomla projects will be supporting in their next versions, both due out this year.

The numbers are now, finally, strongly in favor of this move. Only around 11 percent of WordPress installs are running on a PHP version below 5.2. Many of them are on hosts who support PHP 5.2 — users merely need to change a setting in their hosting control panel to activate it. We believe that percentage will only go down over the rest of the year as hosting providers realize that to support the newest versions of WordPress (or Drupal, or Joomla), they’re going to have to pull the trigger.

In less exciting news, we are also going to be dropping support for MySQL 4 after WordPress 3.1. Fewer than 6 percent of WordPress users are running MySQL 4. The new required MySQL version for WordPress 3.2 will be 5.0.15.

WordPress users will not be able to upgrade to WordPress 3.2 if their hosting environment does not meet these requirements (the built-in updater will prevent it). In order to determine which versions your host provides, we’ve created the Health Check plugin. You can download it manually, or use this handy plugin installation tool I whipped up. Right now, Health Check will only tell you if you’re ready for WordPress 3.2. In a future release it will provide all sorts of useful information about your server and your WordPress install, so hang on to it!

In summary: WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4 and MySQL 4. WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, will require PHP 5.2 or higher, and MySQL 5.0.15 or higher. Install the Health Check plugin to see if you’re ready!

London Restaurant Orders Up Interactive Tables

In London, it’s hard to find a restaurant without a gimmick. And Inamo has probably the biggest gimmick of all. If you’re a hungry, tech-loving nerd, that is.

The restaurant, which just launched a new venue on London’s, tries to do away with almost all waiterly duties, apart from actually carrying plates around. A projector sits above each table and turns the table into a computer-screen (the projector is hooked up to a Windows XP machine). Using a touchpad, you can browse the menu and place your orders, and when you select a dish, a picture of it is projected onto an empty plate already on the table.

Whilst dining, you can choose various “wallpapers” (table-cloths?) to be displayed on the table, and there are even some games, although not any you’d actually play – the folks from UK tech blog Pocket Lint headed over to a pre-launch party and report that one of the games is Battleship. Really?

When you’re done, you can order up the check and call a cab, all from the comfort of your table.

I just hope the bosses at Inamo have some fallback plans. Tech has a way of failing in the catering industry (I was in the game for 15 years), and that’s robust, purpose-built gear. Imagine the poor customer trying to place an order and getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. On the other hand, at least a PC can’t come to work drunk.

Inamo hi-tech restaurant hands on [Pocket Lint]
Photos: Paul Lamkin / Pocket Lint

See Also:

• 'Table Connect' Turns iPhone into (Fake) Big-Ass Table
• Microsoft Surface
• Video: Command and Control Robots with Microsoft Surface
• D&D + Microsoft Surface = Unheard-of Levels of Radness

Competition Rules: UK iPads From £200, 15GB Per Month

Over in the UK, something is happening that will bring cheer to the miserable, heavily-drinking denizens of that gray, cold land: Competition. To be precise, competition in iPad plans.

3G operator “3″ has entered the iPad subsidy game, going squarely up against Orange, which announced its own plans earlier this week. The prices for the iPad itself are the same as Orange is asking – £200, £250 and £350 for the 16, 32 and 64GB models. The difference is in the data plans. 3 offers a massive 15GB per month, or around 500MB per day. To get these prices, you’ll need to sign a two-year contract.

When I’m not trapped in my elevator-free apartment by a broken leg, my iPad is in constant use on my own 3G data plan. Even then, I have never come close to hitting the 2GB cap. So unless you watch a lot of streamed video, 15GB may as well be unlimited.

This is what happens when you have a lot of equally good operators all chasing the same customers. In the US, a Verizon iPhone can’t come fast enough.

iPad Plans on 3 [3 via Pocket Lint]

Ear Mounted iPhone Camera Is Like Tivo for Your Life

Looxcie, the ear-mounted, sci-fi styled video-camera now works with your iPhone. The Bluetooth camera is like a Tivo for your real life. When running, it is constantly filming. When something happens that you might want to keep, you hit a button and the last 30 seconds of video are dumped into your iPhone.

The only problem is the quality, a rather poor 480×320 at just 15fps. This is no Canon 5D MkII. But that’s hardly the point. The idea is that you don’t have to sit back and observe. You can join in the action and shoot clips after they happen.

The companion app, which first cam to Android, can be grabbed at the App Store. With it you can view the live video streamed from the Looxcie, and organize, edit and upload clips. This is the part we like the most: why carry yet another screen around when you already have a perfectly good one. The Looxcie also doubles as a Bluetooth headset, although really you should never use one of those anyway.

The app is designed for the small-screen of the iPhone, but you can also use, pixel-doubled, on the iPad. That makes this one way to add a camera to Apple’s tablet.

The app is free, on Android and iOS, and so it should be: the camera itself is a crazy $200.

Looxcie product page [Looxcie]

See Also:

• Wearable Camera Not Quite Ready For Its Close-Up
• Looxcie, A Futuristic Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder
• Concept Case Adds Camera to iPad

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?

Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.

Rose Petal

"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200

Infinite Space

"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Flying

"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pink Morning

"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

UX cake

Designed by WitFlow from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Symbian World

"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

Favourite Pair

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Fall into Place

"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Enjoy the creative process

"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Thanks For Giving

Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Bon Voyage

"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Fallen Leaves

"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Heavy Equipment

"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Reprieve

"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

High Treason

"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

One Big Heart of Ours

"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

November Tree

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Autumn with gecko

"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Mechanical Month

Designed by Lemonsquash from france.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

Lonely White Guardian

"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Calaca for El d’a de Muertos

"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Autumn Fun

"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200

Expectation

Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November Rain

"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography

"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Remember, Remember

"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Stereo is better!

"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Diwali Greetings

"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.

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• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Friendship

"Day of National Unity." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

A Myriad of Stars

"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Speaker Bird

Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

November Girl

Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Autumn Afternoon

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Racing Incident

"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Ghost Friends

"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.

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• with calendar: 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1920×1200

Picturesque November

"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Transitions

"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Life Thougths

"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.

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• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November in Africa

"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November Fire

Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Remembering George

"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Lawka

"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Rustic Flower

"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Tiramisu

"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

November

"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Simple Sunflower

"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Movember

"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Knitting Fall

"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Channel 11

"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

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• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Expanse

"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.

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• with calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200
• without calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200, 640×960

Join in next month!

Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!

(vf)

© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?

Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.

Rose Petal

"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200

Infinite Space

"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Flying

"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pink Morning

"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

UX cake

Designed by WitFlow from Poland.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Symbian World

"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

Favourite Pair

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Fall into Place

"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Enjoy the creative process

"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Thanks For Giving

Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Bon Voyage

"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Fallen Leaves

"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Heavy Equipment

"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Reprieve

"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

High Treason

"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

One Big Heart of Ours

"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

November Tree

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Autumn with gecko

"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Mechanical Month

Designed by Lemonsquash from france.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

Lonely White Guardian

"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Calaca for El d’a de Muertos

"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Autumn Fun

"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200

Expectation

Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November Rain

"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography

"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Remember, Remember

"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Stereo is better!

"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Diwali Greetings

"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Friendship

"Day of National Unity." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

A Myriad of Stars

"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Speaker Bird

Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

November Girl

Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Autumn Afternoon

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Racing Incident

"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Ghost Friends

"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.

• preview
• with calendar: 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1920×1200

Picturesque November

"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Transitions

"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Life Thougths

"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November in Africa

"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November Fire

Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Remembering George

"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Lawka

"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Rustic Flower

"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Tiramisu

"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

November

"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Simple Sunflower

"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Movember

"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Knitting Fall

"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Channel 11

"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Expanse

"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200
• without calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200, 640×960

Join in next month!

Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!

(vf)

© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers

How to create a kick-ass CSS3 progress bar

Please note: The original CSS3 progress bar shown in this tutorial has been created by Ivan Vanderbyl, which hereby gave me the right to reproduce and document his work.
The following tutorial and the demo works best on Chrome and Safari, correctly on Firefox and very badly in Internet Explorer (eh…I’m sure you hadn’t guessed that).

The Demo

Click on the image to view a live demo. You can also get the source on Github.

Getting ready

Let’s start by organizing our work. To achieve the effect of this tutorial, we’ll need to create 3 files:

• progress.html

  , which will contain our markup.

• ui.css

  which will contain our CSS styles.

• progress.js

  which will contain some additional jQuery animations.

Create a directory on your webserver (or hard drive) and create the files.

The HTML markup

Here we go. Open your

file and paste the following markup in it:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<title>Pure CSS Progress Bar</title>

	<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/ui.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/ui.progress-bar.css">
</head>
<body>
	<div id="container">
		<div id="progress_bar" class="ui-progress-bar ui-container">
        	<div class="ui-progress" style="width: 79%;">
				<span class="ui-label" style="display:none;">Processing <b class="value">79%</b></span>
      		</div><!-- .ui-progress -->
    	</div><!-- #progress_bar -->  

		<div class="content" id="main_content" style="display: none;">
	    	<p>Hello, World!</p>
	  	</div><!-- #main_content -->
	</div><!-- #container -->
</body>
</html>

Let me explain the code a bit: On line 1, I’ve declared a HTML5 doctype. Then, lines 12 to 16 contains the markup for the progress bar itself. If you save the file and view it in your browser right now, you’ll see that nothing appears. Don’t worry, we’re going to apply so CSS3 magic in a minute.

Diving into CSS3

Open your

file and paste the following code in it. There’s nothing fancy there, just some basic styles (that I’ve simplified from the original source) for the layout.

body {
  background:#eee;
  padding: 30px;
  font-size: 62.5%;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  position: relative;
  margin: 0;
}

#container {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 460px;
  padding: 2em;
  background: #DCDDDF;

}

.ui-progress-bar {
  margin-top: 3em;
  margin-bottom: 3em;
} 

.ui-progress span.ui-label {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  line-height: 33px;
  padding-right: 12px;
  color: rgba(0,0,0,0.6);
  text-shadow: rgba(255,255,255, 0.45) 0 1px 0px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

Once you are done, we can finally get into more serious things. The code below will make your progress bar come to life. I’ll explain it in details in a minute. For now, copy it and paste it in your

file.

@-webkit-keyframes animate-stripes {
  from {
    background-position: 0 0;
  }

  to {
   background-position: 44px 0;
  }
}      

.ui-progress-bar {
  position: relative;
  height: 35px;
  padding-right: 2px;
  background-color: #abb2bc;
  border-radius: 35px;
  -moz-border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 35px;
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #b6bcc6), color-stop(1, #9da5b0));
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(#9da5b0 0%, #b6bcc6 100%);
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
  box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
}        

.ui-progress {
  position: relative;
  display: block;
  overflow: hidden;
  height: 33px;
  -moz-border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 35px;
  border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-background-size: 44px 44px;
  background-color: #74d04c;
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 44 44,
    color-stop(0.00, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.25, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.26, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(0.50, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(0.51, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.75, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.76, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(1.00, rgba(255,255,255,0))
  ), -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #74d04c), color-stop(1, #9bdd62));
  background: -moz-repeating-linear-gradient(top left -30deg,
    rgba(255,255,255,0.17),
    rgba(255,255,255,0.17) 15px,
    rgba(255,255,255,0) 15px,
    rgba(255,255,255,0) 30px
  ), -moz-linear-gradient(#9bdd62 0%, #74d04c 100%);
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  border: 1px solid #4c8932;
  -webkit-animation: animate-stripes 2s linear infinite;
}

Save your

file and view

in your web browser, and you’ll see your gorgeous progress bar, done without using any image.
So, what’s inside? Let me explain the code a bit.

First, we have two CSS classes:

and

. The first is the container, and the second is the green progress bar.

• Lines 1 to 9: These lines define a webkit-specific animation, which allows us to move an element from a pint to another.
  For more details about webkit animations, see http://webkit.org/blog/324/css-animation-2/.
• Line 16: The
  border-radius

  CSS3 property allows you to define a radius and get rounded corners.

• Line 17: Mozilla specific property for
  border-radius

  .

• Line 18: Webkit specific property for
  border-radius

  .

• Line 19: The -webkit-gradient property allows you to add a gradient to an element. It works only on Webkit, other browsers will ignore this property.
• Line 20: Mozilla specific property, similar to
  -webkit-gradient

  with a different syntax.

• Lines 21 to 23:
  box-shadow

  (and its browser specific alternatives) allows you to add a shadow to an element.

• Line 34: Webkit specific property, based on the standard
  background-size

  property, which allows you to specify the size of a background image.

• Line 56: Triggers webkit animation defined on line 1.

Final touch: Using jQuery to animate the progress bar

A pure CSS3 progress bar is a very cool thing, but progress bars are here to show progress, so we have to animate it. We’re going to use jQuery to do so.

Open your

file and paste the two line below just above the closing

tag.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="progress.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

This code will load jQuery from Google (Which I recommend to do instead of loading your own copy) as well as your

file, which will contain the required code to animate the progress bar.

Now, paste the code below in your 

file:

(function( $ ){
  $.fn.animateProgress = function(progress, callback) {
    return this.each(function() {
      $(this).animate({
        width: progress+'%'
      }, {
        duration: 2000, 

        easing: 'swing',

        step: function( progress ){
          var labelEl = $('.ui-label', this),
              valueEl = $('.value', labelEl);

          if (Math.ceil(progress) < 20 && $('.ui-label', this).is(":visible")) {
            labelEl.hide();
          }else{
            if (labelEl.is(":hidden")) {
              labelEl.fadeIn();
            };
          }

          if (Math.ceil(progress) == 100) {
            labelEl.text('Done');
            setTimeout(function() {
              labelEl.fadeOut();
            }, 1000);
          }else{
            valueEl.text(Math.ceil(progress) + '%');
          }
        },
        complete: function(scope, i, elem) {
          if (callback) {
            callback.call(this, i, elem );
          };
        }
      });
    });
  };
})( jQuery );

$(function() {
  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress .ui-label').hide();
  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').css('width', '7%');

  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').animateProgress(43, function() {
    $(this).animateProgress(79, function() {
      setTimeout(function() {
        $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').animateProgress(100, function() {
          $('#main_content').slideDown();
        });
      }, 2000);
    });
  });

});

Save the file, and view

in your web brower: Wow, the progress bar is now animated. How cool is that?

This Javascript code makes the progress bar go from 0 to 100, and then, it displays a message, which is simply “Hello World” in our tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have fun with CSS3!

Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!

How to create a kick-ass CSS3 progress bar

How to easily create charts using jQuery and HTML5

Step 1: Preparing files

Here we go! The first thing to do is obviously to create a directory on your Mac (or PC, nobody’s perfect ). You should name it chart for example. Once done, download the required Javascript and CSS files and save it on your hard drive.

Now, create a new html document, named charts.html. Copy the html structure below, and paste it into your newly created charts.html file.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
	<title>Charts!</title>       

</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

Did you notice that I used the <!DOCTYPE html> doctype? It is the right doctype to use, as the javscript code we’ll add later will turn a html table into a HTML 5 canvas.

Step 2: Adding data

Now that we downloaded the javascript files and created an html document, it’s time to add data. Copy the code below and paste it within the <body> and </body> tags of your charts.html file.

<table>
	<caption>Visits from August 16 to August 21</caption>
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<td></td>
			<th scope="col">Monday</th>
			<th scope="col">Tuesday</th>
			<th scope="col">Wednesday</th>
			<th scope="col">Thursday</th>
			<th scope="col">Friday</th>
			<th scope="col">Saturday</th>
			<th scope="col">Sunday</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>

		<tr>
			<th scope="row">CatsWhoCode.com</th>
			<td>12541</td>
			<td>11204</td>
			<td>11354</td>
			<td>10058</td>
			<td>9871</td>
			<td>8254</td>
			<td>5477</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th scope="row">WpRecipes.com</th>
			<td>9855</td>
			<td>8870</td>
			<td>8731</td>
			<td>7488</td>
			<td>8159</td>
			<td>6547</td>
			<td>4512</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th scope="row">CatsWhoBlog.com</th>
			<td>3241</td>
			<td>2544</td>
			<td>2597</td>
			<td>3108</td>
			<td>2114</td>
			<td>2045</td>
			<td>950</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

Of course, feel free to add your own data to make the example more interesting for you.

Step 3: Let the magic happen

Alright, now we have a bunch of downloaded files and an html document. It’s time to merge them all together and finally generate the chart.
Unzip the downloaded file and open the extracted directory. Copy the following files into your chart directory.

• charting/css/basic.css
• charting/css/visualize.css
• charting/css/visualize-light.css
• charting/js/visualize.js

Once done, we obviously have to link the css and javascript files to our document. Paste the following after the <title> tag of the document:

<link href="basic.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="visualize.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="visualize-light.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="visualize.js"></script>

It’s time to give life to our chart. Paste the final piece of code after the script calls:

<script type="text/javascript">
	$(function(){
		$('table').visualize();
	});
</script>

Once you saved the file, your HTML table should be displayed along with a good looking chart. If you don’t want the table to be visible, simply hide it using the display:none css property.

Additional explanations

Generating bar charts is definitely great, but what if your preference goes to a pie chart? No problem, visualize.js allows 4 different type of charts: Bar, area, pie and line.

Changing the default type is pretty easy: Just add the type parameter as shown below:

$('table').visualize({type: 'pie'});

Cool, isn’t it? Visualize.js accepts even more parameters to make sure your chart will look exactly how you want. Here are the parameters which can be used:

• type: string. Accepts ‘bar’, ‘area’, ‘pie’, ‘line’. Default: ‘bar’.
• width: number. Width of chart. Defaults to table width
• height: number. Height of chart. Defaults to table height
• appendTitle: boolean. Add title to chart. Default: true.
• title: string. Title for chart. Defaults to text of table’s Caption element.
• appendKey: boolean. Adds the color key to the chart. Default: true.
• colors: array. Array items are hex values, used in order of appearance. Default: ['#be1e2d','#666699','#92d5ea','#ee8310','#8d10ee','#5a3b16','#26a4ed','#f45a90','#e9e744']
• textColors: array. Array items are hex values. Each item corresponds with colors array. null/undefined items will fall back to CSS text color. Default: [].
• parseDirection: string. Direction to parse the table data. Accepts ‘x’ and ‘y’. Default: ‘x’.
• pieMargin: number. Space around outer circle of Pie chart. Default: 20.
• pieLabelPos: string. Position of text labels in Pie chart. Accepts ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Default: ‘inside’.
• lineWeight: number. Stroke weight for lines in line and area charts. Default: 4.
• barGroupMargin: number. Space around each group of bars in a bar chart. Default: 10.
• barMargin: number. Creates space around bars in bar chart (added to both sides of each bar). Default: 1

That’s all for today. Have fun with the charts

Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!

How to easily create charts using jQuery and HTML5

Watch Out, Big Cable: Xbox Live Now Bigger Than Comcast

Microsoft is making a play to get its users watching more video through its Xbox 360 game console, and could soon pose a clear threat to cable operators. Unlike big cable, it’s actually gaining subscribers who are eager to watch video services available through the service.

Microsoft has sold more than 42 million game consoles worldwide, but the more impressive stat is that its Xbox Live subscription service now has more than 25 million users. That’s more subscribers than Comcast, which earlier this week, reported its subscriber count had actually decreased by 275,000 over the most recent quarter, ending at less than 23 million for the first time in years. While many Xbox Live subscribers are clearly international, with the service available in 26 countries, Microsoft clearly has some scale and a huge audience it could leverage.

After all, it’s one thing to have a lot of subscribers to your gaming network — and many Xbox owners only sign up for the service for multi-user gaming — but Xbox Live users are increasingly turning to the service to watch live and on-demand video. According to Microsoft, users spends an average of 40 hours a week on the service, and over the past year, the amount of time those users have spent watching TV and movie content has grown 157 percent. Not just that, but Xbox already makes more money from media sales than through its Xbox Live subscription revenues.

The console currently has video content from its Zune marketplace, Netflix and ESPN3, and early next year, will also have video content from the Hulu Plus subscription service. That range of content has 42 percent of Xbox Live subscribers watching an hour of TV and movie content on average per day, or 30 hours of video per month.

So far, Xbox has played nice with pay TV providers, and some of its features are only available if you’re a subscriber to cable or IPTV services. The ESPN3 service, for instance, only works if your ISP has struck an affiliate deal with ESPN; that means Comcast and Time Warner Cable subscribers will have access to ESPN video on the Xbox, but customers of some smaller ISPs may not. Microsoft has also been working with AT&T to allow U-verse subscribers to use their Xbox 360 consoles as digital set-top boxes, instead of leasing one from the pay TV provider.

The day could come when Xbox might think about using its massive audience to roll out its own pay TV service, and that day may come sooner than you think. Earlier this year, Microsoft was reportedly in talks with former News Corp. President Peter Chernin to create an Xbox-only TV network. At the same time, based on its audience numbers alone, it wouldn’t be unheard of for Microsoft to approach existing cable networks about cutting out the cable providers and offering up distribution directly through Xbox Live.

Want to know if the Xbox 360 can help you cancel your cable now? Check out the second episode of our new show, Cord Cutters, in which Janko reviews the game console’s possibilities as a cord cutting device.

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