Webmasters looking to create colorful graphics for their websites need to have access to a high quality DHMTML Dynamic color picker. This is exactly what ColourMod has to offer. ColourMod has been identified as the most flexible of all color pickers out there.  

In recent years ColourMod has become even more robust. The features and flexibility that this DHTML dynamic color picker has to offer is bound to exceed the user’s imagination. The software is available in a number of different versions each catering to specific needs and desires. The enhanced ColourMod allows you to convert colors on your desktop as well as allowing you color picking on the web.  

As mentioned above, ColourMod started out as a web based DHTML Dynamic color picker. Ever since the development of OS X from Apple, ColourMod has been upgraded to serve as a Dashboard interface. This means it is fully functional in OS X Tiger and Leopard.  

With the Dashboard version of ColourMod you will have no need to open Photoshop or other graphics program anymore. Nor do you have to worry with values like RGB, CMYK and HSV. The enhanced version brings simplicity and ease of use to Mac users.  
Other unique features that ColourMod endows it users with is the ability to start off with a value and get an automatic conversion. This means you can start of with RGB, CMYK or Hex value and you will automatically get its conversion. You will have the ability to select your own colors with corresponding values in all formats.  

Currently the software gives you two methods of color selection. The first method is the Default color selection. This is a standard hue based color selection method. The other method is the Color Wheel selection. This is based on the color feel and functions exactly in the same way as OS X’s built in color wheel picker.  

Another feature that makes things incredibly easy for web developers in particular and all users in general is the “Copy Hex to clipboard” option. This feature makes the entire color picking process a piece of cake.

As a widget ColourMod was limited to Macintosh users. The new port ColourMod to Konfabulator however opens up vistas for Windows users to take advantage of this dynamic color picker as well. Compared to the Dashboard version, the ColourMod for Kongabulator is still in its infancy. Updates are continuously being developed in order to bring ColourMod for Konfabulator up to mark with the Dashboard version.

Another version of ColourMod has been developed known as ColourMod Plug And Play. This was actually the first color picker produced. ColorMod actually revolutionized the way internet users could choose and pick colors using a web browser. With the passage of time ColourMod has been advancing and is now considered to be the easiest and fastest compact DHTML color picker. This plug in for web based applications can be used with minimal technical knowledge as it utilizes few simple code inclusions only. With ColourMod you are ready to start coloring from the start.

Here are the best open source scripts that are top rated by users.They are categorized into different category as CMS(Content management system) or called as portals,Blogs,ecommerce,groupware,forums,elearning,image galleries,wiki and many more.

We have produced the 3 top ranked listing in each category.You can see more in http://www.solidscripts.com or http://www.opensourcecms.com/.

Content Management System (CMS)

Drupal

Drupal is software that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to set up scores of different kinds of web sites. Drupal is open source software licensed under the GPL, and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers.

Url – http://www.drupal.org/

Joomla

Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

url – http://www.joomla.org/

Typo3

TYPO3 has to be one of the best CMS programs I have ever worked with. While reading reviews on it I came across the people who didn’t like it. Yes, TYPO3 might take some reading, its not your standard program, also NO TYPO3 IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS. You should know about programming before attempting this software, there is a release for beginners, but it’s not the best. I really reccommend this for advanced users!

Url – http://www.typo3.org/

Blogs

WordPress

WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

Url – http://www.wordpress.org/

Textpattern

A free, flexible, elegant, easy-to-use content management system for all kinds of websites, even weblogs.

Built into Textpattern is Textile, a simple syntax for nudging plain text into structurally sound and stylistically rich web content. Ordinarily fussy text amendments such as headers, hyperlinks, image tags and tables are created with one or two simple markers. Compared to navigating the tag soup of markup, writing and revising with Textile is much more intuitive, being closer to working with ordinary text. Once you’re ready to publish, copy marked up with Textile is automatically converted to valid XHTML, and because Textpattern stores both versions of each article, revising and updating is a snap. When composing or readying articles for publication in Textpattern, you can switch between three views of the article:plain text, XHTML (the code with which a web browser renders the article), and a rendered preview.

Sites published with Textpattern can employ unlimited registered contributors, each of whom may be assigned privileges by the publisher of the site. Five levels of privileges (publisher, managing editor, copy editor, writer and designer) are provided, and each reflects different access to article creation, approval, editing and deletion, and to image uploads, page design and CSS, and of course adding more contributors.

Installing and managing plugins that extend Textpattern’s abilities is straightforward. Once installed, plugins can be turned on and off from within the Textpattern interface, where detailed help and access to parameters used by plugins is also available.

Url – http://www.textpattern.com/

b2evolution

b2evolution is probably the most comprehensive blog engine you can find! It includes almost any feature you could expect from a blog tool, and more. Plus, it’s free, it’s open-source (GPL), it runs virtually anywhere (PHP/mySQL) and it’s available in many languages!

Url – http://www.b2evolution.net/

E-Commerce

osCommerce

osCommerce is the leading Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, license fees, or limitations involved.

The goal of the osCommerce project is to continually evolve by attracting a community that supports the ongoing development of the project at its core level and extensively through contributions to provide additional functionality to the already existing rich feature set.
Everything you need to get started in selling physical and digital goods over the internet, from the Catalog frontend that is presented to your customers, to the Administration Tool backend that completely handles your products, customers, orders, and online store data.

Url – http://www.oscommerce.com/

Zen Cart

Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart system. The software is being developed by group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce could be and should be done differently. Some solutions seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users’ needs, Zen Cart puts the merchant’s and shopper’s requirements first. Similarly, other programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree, Zen Cart can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic computer skills. Others are so expensive … not Zen Cart it’s FREE!

Zen Cart will deliver the ultimate online shopping experience to your customers. Navigating through your merchandise offerings is a breeze with Zen Cart, the program provides several “Spotlight” lists in addition to the traditional category to product links. Once a product is added to the shopping cart, secure checkout is a simple 3-step process. After providing the billing information, your customer chooses the shipping method. (multiple shipping methods including real-time internet shipping quotes are built-in) Next, a payment type is chosen from one of the popular payment modules. (PayPal and AuthorizeNet are just 2 of the included modules) Last, the customer reviews the order, shipping and payment choices, and confirms the order. You are immediately notified of the order and your customer automatically receives an e-mail confirmation.

Zen Cart gives web designers a robust and customizable electronic storefront that’s easy to keep up-to-date with new features. It provides usable, intuitive and unobtrusive purchase flows right out of the box based on proven industry best-practices – there are no major revisions required to get things right for your clients!

One of the secrets behind its power lies in our robust template system that “abstracts” the look-and-feel from the code and logic behind Zen Cart. This enables you to give clients a truly custom solution that integrates quickly and perfectly with their existing marketing websites.

Url – http://www.zen-cart.com/

phpShop

phpShop is a shopping cart application. The goal of the phpShop development team is to provide a stable web application platform that allows for additional development.

phpShop has been used by hundreds of web sites for selling online.

Url – http://www.phpshop.org/

Forums

PhpBB

phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable Open Source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ. Based on the powerful PHP server language and your choice of MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers, phpBB is the ideal free community solution for all web sites.

Url – http://www.phpbb.com/

PunBB

PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be faster, smaller and less graphically intensive as compared to other discussion boards. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller, semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages.

Url – http://www.punbb.org/

SMF

Elegant. Effective. Powerful. Free. SMF is all of the above. SMF is a next-generation community software package and is jam-packed with features, while at the same time having a minimal impact on resources. And, yes, it is free.

Url – http://www.simplemachines.org/

Image Galleries

Coppermine

Coppermine Photo Gallery is a picture gallery script. Users can upload pictures with a web browser or Windows XP Web Publishing Wizard (thumbnails are created on the fly), add comments, send e-cards, rate pictures and have their own gallery. The admin can manage albums/pictures/comments and batch add pictures that have been uploaded by FTP. The script has a theme system and is available in the following languages : Bosnian, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (standard and Brazilian), Russian and Spanish. The script use PHP, a MySQL database and the GD library (version 1.x or 2.x) or ImageMagick to make the thumbnails. An install script makes the installation very fast and easy.

Url – http://coppermine.sourceforge.net/

Gallery

Gallery is a web based software product that lets you manage your photos on your own website. You must have your own website with PHP support in order to install and use it. With Gallery you can easily create and maintain albums of photos via an intuitive interface. Photo management includes automatic thumbnail creation, image resizing, rotation, ordering, captioning, searching and more. Albums can have read, write and caption permissions per individual authenticated user for an additional level of privacy. Give accounts to your friends and family and let them upload and manage their own photos on your website!

Url – http://gallery.menalto.com/

Plogger

Plogger is the next generation in open-source photo gallery systems. A web application not bloated with superfluous features or complicated configuration settings. Plogger is a simple yet powerful tool — everything you need to share your images with the world. Plogger is your photos integrated into your website, a fully featured photo sharing package with an attractive and easy to use administrative interface that makes managing your galleries a breeze. Integrating our gallery software into your website is as easy as inserting three lines of PHP code.

Url – http://plogger.org/

The CSS style sheet is a progressive breakthrough for the advancement of web. Today, more and more browsers are implementing style sheets, opening authors’ eyes to unique features that allow influence over presentation while preserving platform independence. The advantages of style sheets have become – apparent — and the disadvantage of continually creating more HTML tags — galore — for presentation effects with the gradual development of CSS. 

Let’s understand CSS in the right perspective.

Style sheets in retrospect

Style sheets have been around in one form or another since the beginnings of HTML in the early 1990s.

As the HTML language grew, however, it came to encompass a wider variety of stylistic capabilities to meet the demands of web developers . With such capabilities, style sheets became less important, and an external language for the purposes of defining style attributes was not widely accepted until the development of CSS.

Teething problems with implementation of CSS

Many implementations of CSS are fraught with inconsistencies, bugs and other Authors have commonly had to use hacks and workarounds in order to obtain consistent results across web browsers and platforms.

One of the most well-known CSS bugs is the Internet Explorer box model bug; box widths are interpreted incorrectly in several versions of the browser, resulting in blocks which appear as expected in most browsers, but are too narrow when viewed in Internet Explorer. The bug can be avoided, but not without some cost in terms of functionality.

This is just one of hundreds of CSS bugs that have been documented in various versions of Internet Explorer,Netscape Mozilla , and Opera, many of which reduce the legibility of documents. The proliferation of such bugs in CSS implementations has made it difficult for designers to achieve a consistent appearance across platforms.

Currently there is strong competition between Mozilla’s Gecko layout engine, Opera’s Presto layout engine, and the KHTML engine used in both Apple’s Safari and the Linux Konqueror browsers – each of them is leading in different aspects of CSS. Internet Explorer remains the worst at rendering CSS by standards set down by World Wide Web Consortium as of 2005.

Some breakthroughs …

These problems have preisely led the W3C to revise the CSS2 standard into CSS2.1, which may be regarded as something of a working snapshot of current CSS support. CSS2 properties which no browser had successfully implemented were dropped, and in a few cases, defined behaviours were changed to bring the standard into line with the predominant existing implementations..

What makes style sheets significant enough?

Style sheet represents an enormous step forward for the Web. With the separation of content and presentation between HTML and style sheets, the Web no longer needs to drift away from the strong ideal of platform independence that provided the medium with its initial push of popularity. Authors can finally influence the presentation of documents without leaving pages unreadable to users

A style sheet is made up of style rules that tell a browser how to present a document. There are various ways of linking these style rules to your HTML documents, but the simplest method for starting out is to use HTML’s STYLE element. This element is placed in the document HEAD, and it contains the style rules for the page.

Functionality and Usage of CSS

CSS is well-designed to allow the separation of presentation and structure. Prior to CSS, nearly all of the presentational attributes of an HTML document were contained within the HTML code; all font colors, background styles, element alignments, borders and sizes had to be explicitly described, often repeatedly, in the midst of the HTML code.

CSS allows authors to move much of that information to a stylesheet, resulting in considerably simpler HTML code. The HTML documents become much smaller and web browsers will usually cache sites’ CSS stylesheets. This leads to a reduction in network traffic and noticeably quicker page downloads.

For example, the HTML element h2 specifies that the text contained within it is a level two heading. It has a lower level of importance than h1 headings, but a higher level of importance than h3 headings. This aspect of the h2 element is structural .

Customarily, headings are rendered in decreasing order of size, with h1 as the largest, because larger headings are usually interpreted to have greater importance than smaller ones. Headings are also typically rendered in a bold font in order to give them additional emphasis. The h2 element may be rendered in bold face, and in a font larger than h3 but smaller than h1 . This aspect of the h2 element is presentational .

Prior to CSS, document authors who wanted to assign a specific color, font, size, or other characteristic to all h2 headings had to use the HTML font element for each occurrence of that heading type.

Moreover, CSS can be used with XML, to allow such structured documents to be rendered with full stylistic control over layout, typography, color, and so forth in any suitable user agent or web browser.

CSS has its share of inconsistencies as wellCSS may at times be misused, particularly by the author of web documents. Some developers who are accustomed to designing documents strictly in HTML may overlook or ignore the enabling features of CSS. For instance, a document author who is comfortable with HTML markup that mixes presentation with structure may opt to use strictly embedded CSS styles in all documents. While this may be an improvement over using deprecated HTML presentational markup, it suffers from some of the same problems that mixed-markup HTML does; specifically, it entails a similar amount of document maintenance.

Discrepancies compared: CSS vs programming languages

CSS also shares some pitfalls common with programming languages. In particular, the problem of choosing appropriate names for CSS classes and identifiers may afflict CSS authors. In the attempt to choose descriptive names for CSS classes, authors might associate the class name with desired presentational attributes; for example, a CSS class to be applied to emphasized text might be named “bigred,” implying that it is rendered in a large red font.

While such a choice of naming may be intuitive to the document author, it can cause problems if the author later decides that the emphasized text should instead be green; the author is left with a CSS class called “bigred” that describes something that is green. In this instance, a more appropriate class name might have been “emphasized,” to better describe the purpose or intent of the class, rather than the appearance of elements of that class.

In a programming language, such a misuse might be analogous to using a variable name “five” for a variable which contains the value 5; however, if the value of the variable changes to 7, the name is no longer appropriate.

CSS in a nutshell

CSS is used by both the authors and readers of web pages to define colors, fonts, layout, and other aspects of document presentation. It is designed primarily to enable the separation of document structure (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation (written in CSS).

This separation provides a number of benefits, including improved content accessibility, greater flexibility and control in the specification of presentational characteristics, and reduced complexity of the structural content. CSS is also capable of controlling the document’s style separately in alternative rendering methods, such as on-screen in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and on braille based, tactile devices.

CSS allows complete and total control over the style of a hypertext document. The only way this can be illustrated in a way that gets people excited is by demonstrating what it can truly be, once the reins are placed in the hands of those able to create beauty from structure.