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!

I propose a Theme Design Review Team

Anyone who has ever submitted a theme to the WordPress.org Theme Directory has, in one way or another, run up against the theme review guidelines. I have. While it can be a pain in the butt sometimes (Why must my theme use widgets again? Hulk smash!), it’s understandable why they are there. Standards need to be maintained, or else craziness will ensue. (See also: cats, dogs, living together.)

It’s important to keep the quality of the code up, and to meet expectations when it comes to how a theme behaves on the backend. Sure, okay, I can buy into that.

But why don’t we have a set of guidelines and a review team for theme design?

First hand experience

A month or two back we launched something called Theme Finder. It’s really cryptic, what it does: it helps you find themes. We’re still improving it, but one thing that we do weekly is add new themes. Typically 50-100 each week. And our favorite thing to do is add free themes to it. After all, who doesn’t love free WordPress themes?

Like anyone else, we save hard things for last. Sue us, we’re human. And there are a few directories of themes that we put off at first, because the size was a bit daunting. One of those directories was the WordPress.org Theme Directory, which is currently sporting about 1,295 themes. That’s more themes than we have in Theme Finder right now. That’s a lot of themes.

But we’re not a group to shirk hard work (at least not forever) so recently we rolled up our sleeves, cracked open the .org directory, and…

We were completely, totally underwhelmed.

After compiling all sorts of awesome themes of all shapes and sizes, all colors and prices, we’d like to think we have a pretty good eye for solid theme design. And the themes in the directory, we learned, are mostly awful.

A special kind of awful

I’m sure the code of the themes in the directory are all top notch, or at least up to code. But I wouldn’t know, because you couldn’t make me click download on 90% of those theme pages. I won’t do it. The designs, the concepts behind the themes, are just awful.

It’s not just the design, but the originality that’s the issue. So many themes are clearly just tweaks of Kubrick, Twenty Ten, Sandbox, or another widely available (and perfectly fine) theme. Beginning theme developers should still use these themes to practice, but perhaps they should keep the downloads to only their own blogs, instead of WordPress.org.

There are a few really well done themes in there. But these are the exception, not the rule.

But maybe they should be the rule.

Maybe we need a Theme Design Review Team: a crew of highly qualified theme designers (perhaps volunteers from commercial WordPress theme shops?) to screen and approve theme submissions for quality and originality.

Just think about what that could look like.

I'm not saying this is what we need. But if we do, then I get to be the sexy one. Yes, Simon.

If it’s important that WordPress.org users can download and use themes without trouble, it should be important that the themes they are getting will give the best experience to those user’s sites as well.

A brave new world

Instituting this sort of review team and process would no doubt result in the removal of the majority of themes on the WordPress.org directory. But that’s okay.

Which would you rather have: 1,200+ themes that you couldn’t be paid to use, or 100 highly original, cornerstone themes?

Facebook for Tags plugin connects those who “like” with future related posts

Facebook for Tags plugin connects those who “like” with future related posts. You need to run WordPress with PHP version 5 or higher. Rikard Kjellberg explains:

Write your WordPress blog posts as you normally would. Define your posting with appropriate tags or assign categories. Once posted, it will have a Facebook Like button linked to it. Any reader who clicks the Facebook Like button will share the article but also receive additional updates anytime you write a post specifying the same tags or categories.

So, any Facebook fans should give this a try so instead of a one time event, you have ongoing updates and sharing from your post tags or categories.

Available at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/like-for-tags/

Introducing the WPCandy iPhone app, and our reverse-launch deal

Today’s a big day for us. After much planning and work, I’m proud to introduce you to our iPhone app, WPCandy WordPress News, available in the App Store right now.

Now you can, if you wish, take WPCandy with you in your pocket (and who doesn’t love candy on the go?). The app will bring you a bite-sized WPCandy, with tabs for all of our top-level content, with options to reorganize based on your preferences.

The new app brings you the latest posts, our most popular content, WPCandy interview, theme and plugin reviews, tutorials, and our editorial and feature posts.

It’s available right now as part of our reverse launch deal for $5.99.

Handy mobile version of the site

Reading webpages on iPhones and iPods is doable, but hardly ideal. Instead of squinting and pinch-zooming, our app serves up exactly what you’re after (the posts!) nice and big. And in your pocket.

Organized to give you what you care about

Only the most important categories on our site are served up, using tabs to help you find what you’re looking for.

Customizable, tabbed app

Don’t let our app boss you around. Tap “customize” and choose the tabs that you want to show up in the front. It’s your app, after all.

About our reverse launch deal

Typically, when something new launches there is a special deal for early adopters. Usually the new thing is cheaper in the first few days. We like that idea, so we’re doing it.

But we’re doing it in reverse.

Our new app is regularly available for $0.99 in the App Store. For the next two weeks, though, the app will be listed for $5.99 in the App Store.

I’ll say that again: for the next two weeks our app will cost $5.99. At the end of the two weeks it will drop back to its normal price at $0.99.

Why would we do this? We want to give you, the awesome WPCandy readers and community members, the chance to support what we’re doing here. We run an ad-free site, with regular, high quality content containing zero affiliate links. We publish things that are of community interest (tutorials, comprehensive WordPress news, editorials) and we do it every single day. Many have called us crazy for not allowing advertising. They say we can’t make any money without ads. They say a community-driven site just doesn’t work.

We want to prove them wrong.

To show support, to help fund this project, and to make it possible to do even bigger, awesome-er stuff, buy our app for $5.99 in the next two weeks.

Now, for everyone else: if the cost bothers you, please wait and grab it for $0.99. We will still love you the same. The app will still be equally minty in two weeks’ time.

Feedback welcome

Often releasing something marks the beginning of something, and not the end of anything. We’re in this for the long haul, and we have really big plans for this app beyond version 1.0. We’re open to any ideas and your feedback in general!

Be sure to check out the WPCandy iPhone app in the App Store, and let us know what you think!

Pentax Swallows Paint and Robots, Vomits Camera

Somebody at Pentax has just plain lost it. Here you see the forthcoming limited-edition K-r, a custom version of the regular 12 megapixel DSLR. It seems to have been built from eye-searingly bright children’s building blocks, and somebody has even wedged a robot-head into the hot-shoe.

Pentax has a history of colorful experimentation, from the “world’s reddest DSLR” to the rainbow-colored K-x which “requires sunglasses to use”. But with this Korejanairobomoderu, or Korejanai robot edition, Pentax has reached a new high. And I mean “high” in the drug-smoking sense.

Other than its candy-coated shell (and decapitated robot head), the camera is unchanged from the stock K-r. It does have a matching lens, though, a special-edition version of the 35mm ƒ2.4, which equates roughly to the length of a 50mm when used on a crop-frame body.

The price for this Willy Wonka camera will be ¥99,800, or $1,190, and only 100 will be made (that’s precisely 100 too many). Pre-ordering opens at 12PM on December 24th, for delivery in January.

K-r colorama [Pentax]

See Also:

• Bright-Red Pentax K-r Fails to Stir Passion
• Pentax Hides Bland New Retro Digicams in Groovy Getup
• Rainbow-Colored Pentax K-x Requires Sunglasses to Use
• Pentax K-x: World's Reddest DSLR?

Why Percentage-Based Designs Don’t Work in Every Browser

Here’s a rule any web designer can live by: Your designs don’t need to look exactly the same in every browser, they just need to look good in every browser.

It’s a maxim that will spare you many a hair-pulling hour. That said, there some things you would expect to be the same across browsers that aren’t. One such problem that’s likely to crop up more often as designers jump on the responsive, flexible-width bandwagon is percentage-width CSS rules.

According to the spec, browsers, given a percentage width, would simply render the width of the page based on the size of the container element. And, in fact, that’s what browsers do, but how they do it varies quite a bit. As a result, percentage-based widths are often displayed quite differently across web browsers.

Developer Steffan Williams recently ran into this problem when trying to create a percentage-based version of his Gridinator CSS framework. Williams created a container

with a width of 940 pixels and then wanted to create a 12 column grid within that container. Do the math and you end up with columns set to a width of 6.38298 percent.

Pull that up in Firefox or Internet Explorer 6/7 and you’ll see what you expect to see. In Safari, Chrome and Opera, however, you’ll see something different. IE 8 and 9 are also slightly off.

The problem is not a new one; developer John Resig pointed this out years ago. But as Williams notes, it’s odd that browser behavior when rendering percentage-width grids is still so inconsistent across vendors, especially given how much today’s browsers tout their CSS 3 support.

The problem isn’t necessarily a simple case of Firefox and IE being right and the others wrong. As Opera CTO and CSS creator Håkon Wium Lie tells Webmonkey, the problem is “the CSS specification does not require a certain level of precision for floating point numbers.”

This means browsers are free to round your carefully computed percentages up or down as they see fit. According to Lie, Opera considers the result of Williams’ experiment to be a bug. Same with the WebKit project, the engine that handles rendering in both Safari and Chrome, though in Webkit’s case the bug has been unassigned since 2006. But really, there is no right or wrong here, just different ways of rounding.

Fortunately, for most of your stylesheets, the differences in each browsers’ floating point precision will not result in visible differences on the screens of various devices. However, as Williams’ experiment shows, it’s easy to write a page where those very small differences in rounding become visible when compounded — like a grid-based layout.

What irks Williams and others is that these problems are old and well-known, and yet most browser vendors have still made no move to fix them. Instead, they focus on supporting the shiny new features in CSS 3.

We certainly wouldn’t want to suggest that browsers should stop innovating and supporting the latest and greatest standards-based tools, but sometimes it’s worth postponing playtime with the newest toys to make sure the foundations are solid. In this case, Opera, Safari and Chrome have some cracks showing, and it’s high time they fix them.

Until they do, we suggest you learn to live with the slightly different rendering behaviors in those browsers. After all, pixel-perfect cross-browser support is never going to happen. Given that the web of the future will have even more mobile phones, tablets, and small screen laptops, responsive designs and fluid grids are a trend we expect to grow.

There are also some workarounds. For example, you can use ems instead of percentages, which render much more consistently across browsers. Opera’s Lie also points out that the CSS Working Group has several specifications in draft to address the need for grid-based design, including multi-column text and the CSS Template Layout Module, though neither are widely supported at the moment.

iPad photo by Jim Merithew/Wired

See Also:

• Make a Big Splash on Tiny Screens With Media Queries
• Slide Show Time: Rethinking the Mobile Webhttp://www.webmonkey.com/2010/09/slide-show-time-rethinking-the-mobile-web/
• A Guide to Internet Explorer 9’s HTML5/CSS 3 Support

New Flash Player 10.2 Goes Easy on the CPU

[Updated, see below] Adobe has released the first beta of Flash Player 10.2, an update that focuses primarily on speed and performance improvements. New in Flash 10.2 is something Adobe calls “Stage Video hardware acceleration,” which the company claims will “decrease processor usage and enable higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.” And the hardware acceleration technology does do all of these things, though your mileage will vary depending on what kind of hardware and software you’re using.

To try out the new Flash Player 10.2 beta, head over the Adobe download page. Be aware that, while 10.2 appears to be relatively stable, it is a beta release and there may be bugs.

The Stage Video hardware acceleration means that Flash Player 10.2 can leverage your graphics card for not just H.264 hardware decoding (which works in Flash Player 10.1) but also color conversion, scaling, and blitting.

Adobe’s press release makes a rather bold claim: “using Stage Video, we’ve seen laptops play smooth 1080p HD video with just over 0% CPU usage.”

Sadly, we have not seen such results. While we won’t argue with the smoothness of the playback in this new release, Flash is still going to use quite a bit of your PC’s CPU. Based on my testing (done on a Macbook Pro laptop using both Firefox 4b7 and Safari 5, and a Mac Pro tower using the same browsers — Wired is an all-Mac office), while CPU usage is down in Flash 10.2, it’s still a long way from zero.

Update: Since this article was published, we’ve been hearing from you, our awesome readers, in the comments and over e-mail. Some things to note: The new beta performs much better on Windows computers than it does under Mac OS X. Also, full hardware acceleration on Mac OS X requires Snow Leopard or later, otherwise it falls back to using software rendering in the CPU. Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming!

On our Macs, we tested several 1080p videos on YouTube in Flash Player 10.1 and found that on average the 10.1 plugin used between 44-48 percent CPU. Watching the same movie in Flash 10.2 did drop the CPU usage down to the 18-22 percent range, but definitely not zero.

Worse, running the same tests on Adobe’s Stage Video optimized demos, Flash 10.2 actually performed worse than than it did on normal 1080p movies with the cpu usage varying widely between 5 and 60 percent (the 18-20 percent range appears to be the norm).

The short story is that, while Flash 10.2 does offer decreased processor usage, it doesn’t quite live up to Adobe’s claims. While Flash Player 10.2’s performance falls short of the hype, there’s no question that it’s a huge leap forward in terms of performance. The smaller CPU footprint alone is well worth the upgrade, provided you don’t mind running beta software. So far Adobe has not set a final release data for Flash 10.2.

One other thing to keep in mind: to take advantage of the new Stage Video tools, sites like YouTube and Vimeo will need to alter their video players. So, it may be some time before the full benefit of Stage Video’s improvements makes it to your day-to-day web browsing.

As for other new features in this release, there’s Internet Explorer 9 GPU support and support for fullscreen mode with dual monitors — meaning that you can have a movie on one screen and keep working on another.

Custom cursors get some love in this release, too, with Flash Player 10.2 handing off the job to the operating system rather than using resources to manually draw custom cursors. The beta also improves text rendering, adding sub-pixel rendering enhancements that should make your typography look a bit nicer and more readable.

It’s worth noting that the Flash Player 10.2 beta does not replace the Flash Player “Square” preview release — in other words, Flash Player 10.2 still isn’t 64-bit native. If 64-bit support is important to you, stick with the Flash Player “Square” preview.

See Also:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Arrives
• Adobe Revamps Flash Player for Netbooks, P2P, Private Browsing
• Adobe Fights Off HTML5 Threat With New Flash Player 10.1

Mining Flickr to Build 3D Models of the World

Microsoft’s PhotoSynth tool is jaw-droppingly awesome. But, because it’s a Microsoft project, the technology is unlikely to appear on some of your favorite non-Microsoft online apps, like Google Maps or Flickr.

However, our friends at ReadWriteWeb stumbled across a very similar tool — at least in terms of the end result — developed by the University of North Carolina in conjunction with Swiss university, ETH-Zurich.

The team has developed a method for creating 3D models by pulling in millions of photographs from Flickr and using some fancy algorithms to generate 3D models of local landmarks. Perhaps even more impressive the results can be generated using a single computer in under a day.

Project lead Jan-Michael Frahm touts the project’s efficiency saying, “our technique would be the equivalent of processing a stack of photos as high as the 828-meter Dubai Towers, using a single PC, versus the next best technique, which is the equivalent of processing a stack of photos 42 meters tall — as high as the ceiling of Notre Dame — using 62 PCs. This efficiency is essential if one is to fully utilize the billions of user-provided images continuously being uploaded to the internet.”

While the results are cool and would make an impressive addition to any number of geo-based services, more serious use cases include helping disaster workers get a better idea of where they’re headed and the extent of damage.

So far the researchers have released a movies demonstrating the technique on landmarks in both Rome (get it? built in a day…) and Berlin, and the results are impressive. For more information on how the process works, check out the UNC website.

See Also:

• Photosynth Returns With More Mind-Blowing Photo Tricks
• New Flickr Is Bigger, Wider and Uncut
• ‘Unwrap Mosaics’ Take Video Editing to a New Level

Can WAI-ARIA Build a More Accessible Web?

Accessibility in web design has come a long way since the days of table-based layouts with single-pixel .gif spacers. But even current best practices are far from perfect.

Today, we’ll tell you a bit more about these accessibility troubles as they relate to dynamic web apps — fitting, as today is Blue Beanie Day. For four years now, design guru Jeffrey Zeldman has encouraged web authors to wear a blue beanie on November 30 to show their support for web standards. Also, you’re encouraged to take a picture of yourself wearing a blue beanie and upload it to a Flickr pool. So, with standards quite literally on the brain, we’ll tackle the topic of rich web apps.

One of the coolest things about web apps is that elements refresh inside the browser without reloading the page. But most screen readers used by those with disabilities can’t parse these changes, so users who rely on them will remain unaware of any dynamically refreshed elements on the page. That’s just one of the many problems that WAI-ARIA, an emerging specification for Accessible Rich Internet Applications from the W3C, is hoping to solve.

At its core, WAI-ARIA is a means of annotating page elements with the roles, properties, and states that define exactly what those elements do. Take a navigation element as a simple example. In HTML5 we might do something like this:

<nav>
    <ul>
        <li>Home

        <li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
        ...etc...
    </ul>
</nav>

While it might seem that the

tag would defining the nav element’s “role,” not every browser will understand it (just because the browser can display it, does not mean it understands the tag). Also, the purpose of a navigation element may be obvious to most users, but to a screen reader being used by somebody who can’t see, the navigation strip could be just a jumble of words. Leveraging WAI-ARIA’s syntax, we can double up to ensure screen readers will know that this chunk of code is navigation:

<nav role="navigation">
    <ul>
        <li>Home</li>
        <li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
        ...etc...
    </ul>
</nav>

The

attribute is what’s known as a landmark role and is designed to let non-visual browsers know where they are.

It seems simple, and indeed when the spec is finished and fully supported by all the major screen readers, WAI-ARIA promises to make the web more accessible without overly complicating your markup. Unfortunately, there are numerous problems with WAI-ARIA at the moment, which make support uneven and can be confusing for web authors trying to do the right thing.

Our friends at A List Apart recently waded into the confusion and uneven support with two great posts on WAI-ARIA and how you can use it (and not use it) on your sites. The first article, The Accessibility of WAI-ARIA, dives into what WAI-ARIA is, what it’s trying to do, and why it’s not yet a panacea.

The second piece is more hands-on. ARIA and Progressive Enhancement looks at how ARIA fits within the progressive enhancement approach to web design. That is, when starting with valid HTML and enhancing it with CSS and JavaScript, how can you also work the WAI-ARIA attributes into your code?

The ARIA and Progressive Enhancement article also has a very informative table listing the varying levels of support in the latest versions of popular screen readers. Unfortunately, one of the main problems with WAI-ARIA today is that there’s no way to know the level of support a user agent has. Unlike CSS or JavaScript, there’s no reliable way to test which features a user agent supports (if any).

As Derek Featherstone writes in his ALA piece:

The problem that we have right now is that ARIA is an all or nothing deal. And writing scripts that respect both an ARIA supported methodology and a non-ARIA methodology is going to be incredibly difficult, because we have no reliable way of knowing the status of a user agent’s support for ARIA—it depends on something we can’t detect: the right combination of browser, assistive technology, and full ARIA implementation.

For more information on the various levels of support in screen readers and web browsers, have a look at Accessible Culture’s article, HTML5 plus ARIA “Sanity Check.” The post highlights some of the bugs, pitfalls and gotchas in current screen readers, as well as some workarounds and other non-ARIA solutions.

As Detlev Fischer writes in the first of the two ALA articles, “as long as older screen reader/browser combinations incapable of interpreting WAI-ARIA still constitute a significant part of the installed base, web designers who care for accessibility should use WAI-ARIA markup only to enrich their sites.”

In other words, use WAI-ARIA, but don’t rely on it. Make sure you have fallbacks in place until the spec is finalized and browser/reader support more widespread.

Unicorn photo from Wikimedia Commons/CC

See Also:

• Microdata: HTML5’s Best-Kept Secret
• W3C’s Unicorn Validator Checks Multiple Standards at Once
• Using Microformats in HTML5
• Add Semantic Value to Your Pages With HTML 5

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.

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One Big Heart of Ours

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

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November Tree

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

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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.

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Mechanical Month

Designed by Lemonsquash from france.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Expectation

Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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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.

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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.

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Remember, Remember

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

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Stereo is better!

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

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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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Friendship

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

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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.

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Speaker Bird

Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.

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November Girl

Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.

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Autumn Afternoon

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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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.

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Ghost Friends

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

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Picturesque November

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

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Transitions

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

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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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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.

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November Fire

Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.

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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.

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Lawka

"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.

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Rustic Flower

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

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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.

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November

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

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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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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.

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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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Channel 11

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

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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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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