Say Hello to TUTS v4
Oct 17th in News by Collis
When PSDTUTS started a bit more than a year ago it was a plain jane HTML site with three tutorials on it, a brown background and a bizarre bowl of soup and spoon image. We've come along way since then and the site now has three sister sites, two plus programs, a manager, fifty thousand daily visitors and a heck of a reputation for tutorials! It's also grown a lot in content, we've bolted a lot of improvements and features, and there are more to come as the site evolves from a humble blog into a Photoshop hub.
So I'm super proud to launch a new WordPress theme that we've developed for the sites beginning with PSDTUTS today and onto NETTUTS, VECTORTUTS and AUDIOTUTS next week.
Hello! I started Psdtuts+ because years ago reading Photoshop tutorials was how I got into design. You can find me on Twitter or on my blog theNetsetter.
The Timemachine: How TUTS used to look ...
For those readers who don't remember the old days of a browner PSDTUTS - here's a look back at where we've been!
A Design Refinement
As you have probably noticed the new design is more of a refinement than a redesign. That's because there is a lot our old theme did right - big clear tutorials, large preview images, jam packed sidebar, bold logo. The new theme takes those elements and tidies them up a bit more so we have room to expand. It also adds quite a few subtle new features:
- Tabbed Navigation
We've got tabs now so that we can grow the site and add new sections - freebies, videos, ...
- Breadcrumbs:
We've got a breadcrumb trail so you can keep track of where you are as well as where you've been.
- Author Profiles
Authors are what make TUTS great, so in our new design we've given them more prominence. When you read a tutorial the first thing you'll see is a linkup and bio of the author. This means that writing for TUTS is also now an even better way to get exposure and traffic!
- A Better User Link Feed
Our community links feature has become both widely used and widely reproduced. So a few week ago we hired ace plugin Just the Web to develop a plugin to improve the submission/approval process. Next week we'll be making that plugin freely available via ThemeForest / NETTUTS
- Visual Related Posts
I actually grabbed this idea from one of my favourite tutorial sites - Tutorial9 - as it's a great way to keep readers going when they finish reading a tutorial.
- Plus Login on the Page
We've also now added an actual plus login at the bottom of every page. You'll still need to cross into the plus system to download the files, but it's a step to better integrating the two systems.
Freebies, Videos and Expansion!
Probably the biggest change in the new theme is that we're adding a directory of free downloads to every site. Taking a leaf out of the fabulous Brusheezy and Qbrushes we've created a small directory where the site editor for each site will be adding free downloads. For PSDTUTS we'll be starting with brushes and looking at adding actions, shapes and other Photoshop add-ons. For each successive site we'll aggregate a different type of freebie.
We've also now added a Videos category. Our video plan is still fairly limited, but over time we plan to grow it so that there is a lot more viewable content on all our sites. For the moment we'll be mixing awesome web content with some of our own PSDTUTS specials.
So what are we working on currently? Well there's a lot of things we want to bring to TUTS including versions in other languages, forums (I know I've been promising that since forever), an affiliate program for TUTS+ and a batch of new TUTS sites.
Meet the TUTS Team
During these last months we've also been improving the team who run these awesome sites. So let me introduce:
- Skellie - The TUTS Manager!
We are VERY proud to have former FreelanceSwitch editor and super talented blogger Skellie managing the TUTS sites. She took over about a month and a half ago and it's been smooth sailing all the way. As TUTS Manager Skellie is working on our expansion plans, coordinating site editors and making the whole operation more and more efficient.
- Derek Herman - HTML / CSS / WordPress Commander
Everything you see before you has been coded up by the fabulous Derek Herman of Valen Designs. These days Derek and I work together a lot to build most of the Envato sites you see / will be seeing. He's the best front-end coder I've ever met and I'm very proud to have my design work chopped up by his formidable skills.
- Chris Moyer - PHP Pathfinder
From setting up our Plus programs to keeping the sites up under the ridiculously heavy traffic loads to building new writer / editor infrastructure, Chris Moyer's keyboard controls all and without him we'd be lost! You can find Chris at InaRow!
- Sean Hodge, Joel Falconer and Jeffrey Way - Editors Extraordinairre!
And of course the guys you are most familiar with, our Site Editors - who bravely face the trials of WordPress day in and day out to bring us our daily TUTS fix. Thanks guys!!!
- And me
I don't get to write tutorials anymore (though I keep hoping that's going to change soon) but I did design this new theme - that is if you like it. If you don't like it ... then ... erm ... it was someone else pretending to be me ...
So enjoy the new theme! May it house a thousand amazing tutorials and a hundred cool articles! If you notice any hiccups - comment them here and we'll be working on fixing any little issues :-)
User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Daniel October 17th
Wow! Really nice! I love this
( )Paul Davis October 17th
I like it. =]
( )Buzz October 17th
AWESOME
I only expect great things here.!!!!!!!!!!
( )love the new layout
Tom Sinclair October 17th
Nice subtle design changes
Definite improvement!
( )Grant Friedman October 17th
Looks great! I remember the brown site! It was cool then and even cooler today!
( )Tyler October 17th
Very Nice work here. Love the new look. Also, love the blog work as always
( )Howard Pinsky October 17th
Looking great! Great job, guys!
( )Brian October 17th
Damn I’m impressed. You didn’t change the entire design, instead made simple improvements. It is the small details that count, and you guys have knocked it out of the park. Props to whoever worked on these updates – it looks absolutely amazing.
( )Matt Trimarchi October 17th
Collis, you annoy me. But in a good way.
Great work on the new design, neat and to the point, very refreshing.
( )Alex Coleman October 17th
Looking good!
( )crazyhunk October 17th
really good design m8…. I really like it…
( )Collis October 17th
Yay! Everyone likes it! I always get nervous when rolling out a new design
( )Ali October 17th
Looks really nice, love the new look!
( )Drew Douglass October 17th
Im very turned on by the new design, I need to take a few deep breaths
( )Adrian Quevedo October 17th
Nice improvements! but I miss some kind of text in addition to the image… anyway, nice work!
( )David October 17th
Seriously, this is awesome! Totally fresh and clean. Good work Collis!
( )Bjørn Endre October 17th
Great and slick design! I’m looking forward to see the site in Norwegian
( )Gilbert October 17th
Wow. Really nice. You guys are great. Keep up the good work.
( )pavs October 17th
I like the fact that the new design loads so much more faster. I am not a big fan of the spoon (the design not the idea) but overall a great redesign, so congrats on that!!
( )Tonamel October 17th
The redesign apparently broke the RSS feed, since I’m only getting the videos through it now. Still, the update looks good!
( )OpenSourceHunter October 17th
nice, cant wait for version 5
greetz
( )http://www.opensourcehunter.com/
Jeffrey Way October 17th
Looks fantastic, Collis. I can’t wait to see it on NETTUTS in the coming weeks!
( )cawlin October 17th
new version is so much faster. Love it.
( )Ange Chierchia October 17th
Hi, awesome redesign!
I must say that the fact you just add some stuffs to the old design is very great. And at last, the site content is center! Love that way, now there’s no useless blank zone on the right of the content and it’s much cool.
Good job!
(Sorry if my english is bad, I’m french but really like this site)
( )James De Angelis October 17th
Overall, awesome redesign.
Yet a nagging problem you’ve always had however is the placement of the search field. Why, why why do you put it in such a random position? It’s just bad usability
( )Daan October 17th
Very Nice Work!
It looks way cleaner like this, keep doing this
( )Sean Hodge October 17th
I feel energized. I’m super psyched with the new design, and new content sections.
( )mp3 October 17th
Everything is great now except i think i liked the footer better in v3, but over all its awesome.
( )Joefrey Mahusay October 17th
This is AWESOME! I love your work Collis!
( )DVQ October 17th
The new site is awesome.
Congratulations Collis and Co.
( )Mabu October 17th
I love this one, very clean and neat.. your awesome! great job
( )VertigoSFX October 17th
Gorgeous! I really like it and I like how it is more of a site now at the top where we can browse tutorials, articles freebies and the new search function!!! I love it!!! I hated going back to a tutorial from a long time ago wondering…where did that thing go to!
Very nice upgrade…much appreciated, keep up the good work guys.
( )John October 17th
Very nice! V2 Was pretty awsome too though to be honest
( )Afrix October 17th
Looks very nice I like this website soo much thnx
( )http://afrix99.deviantart.com/
Kris October 17th
Not bad at all! Why wouldn’t you roll out the redesign across the board (i.e. vectortuts, etc.)?
Either way good job.
( )btorbo October 17th
It doesn’t render all that well in Safari (3.1.2.). Things are out of position and/or proportion and some lines are not lining up properly. Some buttons are higher than their respective text fields (”Search” for instance). It would look nice if the rendering gets fixed though.
( )ShooBee MC October 17th
Really great redesign,all the best wishes to the whole team
Keep posting great tutorials and spreading the community.
( )Nicolás October 17th
Great job, I really like it!
Bye
( )Craigsnedeker October 17th
Total awesomeness! I LOVE it. Three cheers for the awesomeness of the new layout (and on my birthday!!
)
HIP HIP HURRY!
( )HIP HIP HURRY!
HIP HIP HURRY!
Muffenz October 17th
I liked the first one, its had style
( )Diego chavez October 17th
look Pro, slick design, Mama mia
( )Javid October 17th
Who ever said V1 was bad? This site looked great even from the beginning, it’s only gonna get better!
( )Fabio Sasso October 17th
Awesome design, love the details and the comments.
Congratulations
( )Garro October 17th
there is no spoon!!!
great!
( )Freddywang October 17th
Awesome, I like the comment section. And this form, you guys seem to have think a lot about repositioning. I can say this is a great job in Realigning instead of Redesign the whole things up.
( )Anthony Woods October 17th
Nice improvement, much faster aswell!
( )skut October 17th
Nice redesign, I hope can get more web design tutorials here.
( )homie October 17th
its still a shame that if your looking for a certain tutarial there is not such list that you cna actually select it. not going through all the pervious post to just find that tut. i only seen that in tut pulse but the list of tut is not avaiable here for everyone, it just a shame and u guys really need to add that shit.thank you!!!!!!!!
( )Mustardamus October 17th
Hands up, lovin’ the new theme!
( )5ivedance October 17th
Hope more design tutorials could be sharing.
( )Jimi Ninja October 17th
Lookin even better. And nice to see that there is becoming more integration into the plus system, it’s annoying going back and forward.
( )loswl October 17th
This is AWESOME!!…I love the subtle changes, when I saw the site down today I knew you guys were coming with something great, but you all surpassed my expectations!!…Great Job!!
)
( )Alvaro October 17th
I really love the new design! clean and usable, one word, perfect!
( )Rickey October 17th
You guys really have come a long way. I’m glad I stumbled upon this site, it’s a fountain of great information and inspiration. Looking forward to future productions.
Cheers,
( )Rickey
Zair Abbas October 17th
Awesome!
( )good work! (Y)
Justin - YGG October 17th
Very Snappy!
( )Joel Falconer October 17th
Excellent improvements! Good work, Collis and Derek.
( )Johnson Koh October 17th
This is a great layout! Very neat in both design and functionality.
( )I love this site even more now
insic October 17th
When someone says. Check Collis new design, I expect it would be awesome, and here it is. Really awesome theme.
( )solwyvern October 17th
Truly awesome,… quite amazing how fast the site grew in so lttle time. XD
( )Dilip October 17th
looking very clean but at same time this one is better then last. Gr8 work.
( )Ajmal Eylia October 17th
Looking good, awesome interface!
( )q October 17th
Very impressive update on the site. The new tab navigation makes looking for things easier. The update gave it more of a clean and simple look and sometimes thats the way to go with websites. There was one thing I had trouble finding and that was the plus login. I was a bit used to looking for it at the time. Had to look a little to find it but I found it. Maybe switch colors on the font to black and have the “learn to the max” the color of the login font. Just a suggestion. Overall, very effective and clean update compared to other sites who undergo the same makeovers. 2 thumbs up
( )Johan October 17th
Its getting better and better, remember your first psdtuts hehe whole brown but I actually liked that one too.
Are the any special reason you centre the site this time or was it just an design decision?
( )Bugsy October 17th
i look at it this way…. the previous design was like a big bowl of mint chip ice cream.
this design is like a big bowl of mint chip ice cream with gourmet dark chocolate chunks.
( )Conrad Gorny October 17th
I like it. The first one looks like a shocker! Hehe. I guess its time to get used to this one now.
Conrad Gorny
( )Freelance Graphic Designer
http://www.conradgorny.com
macias October 17th
good work Collis !
( )Ben October 17th
Wow ! This theme looks cool, Well organized for a big site with loads of contents. Articles looks nice here now. And centering of the theme brought my attention to the elements of the theme, last time I forced to look left for things..
( )This is just great !
Zane October 17th
I like the new design, how’d you do the random link on the bottom of the page?
.Zane
( )BogDinamita October 17th
COLLIS you rock
( )Tom October 17th
Awesome new theme ! Congrats ! And nice retrosepctive of all the differents themes.
( )Long life ton PSDTUTS !
Qbrushes October 17th
well the site is a great visual improvement over the old design but I was hoping for more community like features and better usability in the way tutorials are viewed as well as comments…
I know wordpress is pretty limited in this regard that’s why i suggested a while ago that PSDtuts.com try drupal for there next design..
Maybe next time
( )Tuguldur Baatar October 17th
V.4 does looks polished and I’m sure there are many under the hood changes.
( )One thing that really annoys me is the breadcrumb / subnav.
Steve Forbes October 17th
Awesome work guys! I like the new comment boxes, kinda funky!
Look forward to seeing more advancements with the TUTs sites!
Keep up the great work!
( )Dan Harper October 17th
Fantastic design, Collis! I still remember v1 haha
( )Jammin October 17th
Love the new site! One tiny, very picky mistake! But it would bug me!
Look at the ‘Copyright & Usage’ section in the footer –
“The effects and techniques demonstrated in tutorials on the TUTS network can be used in whatever manner you wish withoutattribution.”
Notice anything? Again it is very picky.
( )Hellboy October 17th
Excellent!
( )Can’t wait to see all the tuts family with this new layout
Patrick October 17th
You guys rawck! The free download thing Improve the site quite significant.
( )Marco October 17th
Wow, really like the new design! Does have a little error on top (2 px margin or something, FF3 on MacOSX).
I like the “Oh my god, it even has a watermark”! at the bottom (For those who don’t know: Check YouTube)
Keep on going guys!
( )Sandeep October 17th
Looks really nice….
( )Constantin Potorac October 17th
Wow… new update. I love it.
( )John Deszell October 17th
I like the subtle changes, can’t wait to see what you guys do with the other sites.
( )John Deszell October 17th
I just noticed something.
Under the “User Feed” the “Subscribe” button is misspelled. And its kinda shifted over in FF3.
( )gNcWebmaster October 17th
Woow wonderfull theme. Good Luck
( )homeryulo October 17th
Nice layout here. Light and crisp. This is website usability and user experience at its best, web standards compliant with an awesome design that makes me want to use it even more. Cheers for the great re-design.
( )BroOf October 17th
SOOOO GREAT! It looks wonderfull!
( )andi October 17th
How come there’s a TON of new tuts on the RSS feed today, but none of them show up on the homepage?
And why did I get a 500 error first time I went to post this?
( )andi October 17th
OK you get a 500 error if you don’t enter an email address, even though it doesn’t say you need to
( )Grafiko October 17th
you guys have done a great job with sites not only with their content, but how you have positioned them and their branding.
( )SKmaTt October 17th
thanks for all and this is a good job.
I’m from france, and U’re the best tut’s for photoshop
Thank’s again
( )Craigsnedeker October 17th
If you want a better video host, go to http://www.viddler.com
Their video players look better, and full screen quality is almost crystal clear.
I would go to them for your video tutorials. Seriously. From personal experience on my own screencasts, I know they rock!
( )Dan October 17th
I think I most enjoy the new comments area
( )James October 17th
I’m a fan of the site. In fact, I just wrote an article for Macworld on my favorite Adobe CS tutorial sites, where PSDTuts and VectorTuts were included in the list. Article here: http://xrl.in/io1
Keep up the great work!
( )Surr October 17th
No search bar, that’s not good
( )Owain October 17th
Great work Collis, The sublte changes have only added to what was already a great user experience…
How you fit everything in to a working day i’l never know.. keep up the good work..
Also a small special mention to Jeffrey Way. Watched all his screen casts this week.. Was very impressed and even managed to incorporate some of the techniques into my own site…
thanks again
Owain
http://www.icomcreative.com
( )Spyece October 17th
This is cool. Thanks mate
( )kidlizard October 17th
Looks great, Im glad its all up and running wonderful…. I was going thru withdrawls yesterday =)
( )Lawrence77 October 18th
My birthday’s treat two posts today…
October17th
laranz.joe@gmail.com
PSDTUTS looks nice…
LAWRENCE 
( )Alex Beltechi October 18th
Just another one mentioning the obvious: it’s a great improvement! Good work, guys.
( )Adam October 18th
incredibly good! I have the urge to say I don’t like it, but I know I do – it’s just it will take some time to get used to!
Good job Collis + co
( )Ryan October 18th
I love the direction the site has taken and am very interested in how the video channel comes to life. Your sites are an inspiration. Keep up the good work!
( )ViniMan October 18th
I’m liking it. Good job dudes!
( )Nate October 18th
Very hot indeed. I love it collis. Keep the good stuff comin.
( )Max October 18th
Looks good fellas, aside from the insanely small font size of course. God this is hard to read.
( )Mukarram October 18th
Talented Peoples + Excellent work…..
btw i want to know the name of the last guy i.e. introdusing the whole team !!!!
thanks alot for making such a usefull website.
( )B October 18th
A step backwards in my professional opinion. Why use such a small font that doesn’t look crisp for your navigation? The tab design looks very amateur. I really like the layout of the site, but the interface design is very weak. Does no one believe in constructive feedback around here? Most of you say how great it is without any solid feedback.
( )Dainis Graveris October 18th
I love what You are doing..great improvements!
( )GaGa October 18th
Great update , but i only have one request regarding the Tutorials and Interviews images inside of those , Plz use small .Gif files or make them as a clickable thumbnails cause they take a very long time to load and a single image can reach 400 kb , cause not everyone has a very fast Internet Connection
thanks.
( )Josh Drake October 18th
Wow, really awesome design, guys! You’ve done it again…
( )Connor October 18th
This is really amazing! Nice Job. It’s amazing & inspiration, the growth of this site and it’s network.
( )Seraphim Collective October 18th
I love the upgrade, you did a great job.
( )Stelios October 18th
I still love V2 I have to say. Great work though.
( )dlv October 18th
awesome
extreme beautiful, no way !
congrats
( )Shadowfax October 18th
Hi,
Brown was nice, Clean is better. But two together hurts the eyes.
Very soothing design except the dark strips above and below. It hurts. Please take note. Cant they be changed too. Other readers/ designers/ wellwishers ….. suggest!
( )Mr_LeE October 18th
I think this site needs more spoons.
( )Tom Ross October 19th
This is such a sweet theme! Really clean, professional and easy to use. Well done Collis!
( )Reezy October 19th
The new theme looks amazing. The top breadcrumb isn’t rendering well in ff3. I think you just need to adjust the height to 4.1ems instead of 4.3ems. That’s just what Firebug is telling me. Other than that, i love the site! Keep up the good work.
( )MrHeli October 19th
Simple lovely theme, keep working!
( )Mac Tyler October 19th
I have never seen a site redesign that the moment I saw I instantly loved it. You really are an extremely talented individual collis!
( )Can Ata October 19th
i like v2
( )andi October 19th
I like V2 best too.
When you gonna fix the RSS feed?
( )Mukund October 20th
Excellent update Collis.
Only thing I don’t think the blank space between the logo and the tabs looks good. I guess it’s for ads in the future. Otherwise excellent theme, very easy on the eyes.
Also I’d second Qbrushes’ suggestion to consider Drupal next time round.
( )Anders October 20th
It looks great! Nice site btw.
( )Pristine October 20th
Ah, those were the days. I really miss Version 2. I know how you said the contrast between colours wasn’t strong enough, but I still miss it.
( )User October 20th
v2 best
( )Videos and clips October 20th
Congrats with the new layout
( )Michael October 21st
old ones better
( )Shane October 21st
Nice design Collis. All the best to PSDtuts in the future.
( )Az October 21st
nice
( )David Leggett October 21st
I’m a bit late, but wanted to be sure and let you know that PSDTUTS v4 is looking outstanding! Very happy to see the site growing as it is. Also glad to see the adaption of the related posts!
Great work folks!
( )Angela October 21st
Nice work
( )Sohaib October 21st
the present version is not bad but v1 and v2 were the best …
( )Luke Faccini October 21st
cool!!! like it alot!!!
( )John October 21st
I would MUCH prefer the search box ABOVE the ads!
( )James October 22nd
Really nice! In fact, all the versions look super! Collis, your sites have always been the best when it comes to design/layout!!!
One tiny thing – I don’t think it’s a good idea to have the “related posts” section only showing thumbnail images… It’s not that easy to tell at a glance what they are!!
( )Tanaka13 - Créations du Net October 22nd
strong design here! congrats!
( )David Millar October 22nd
I like it! It’s not too different from the last version, but it has some nice changes that make things easier to use. (The phrase “progressive enhancement” comes to mind for some reason…) Great job!
( )ositaka October 22nd
I remember the PSD tuts in the beginning and was already nice layout, but now, in my opinio this is the best.
Cheers
( )K3v October 22nd
Very subtle but nice improvement
( )Julien L October 22nd
Oww, i really like this new theme, perfect integration of new features. Good work !
( )Miha O October 23rd
Nice work, but I have to agree with John – search box should be above the ads…
( )Takumi86 October 23rd
I’m looking forward for this, i have been for a while in your site and i’ve seen so many good (or should i say superb) tut so good luck in your newest ver
( )Justin Shattuck October 23rd
@COLLIS:
Definitely appreciate the super-shout back out to Just the Web, we are more than thrilled to see the new user-link-feed plugin put to great use.
@DEREK:
You dig great incorporating the plugin and such, way to go boss.
From everyone at Just the Web, thanks for the kind words mates.
( )Phil October 23rd
Just Awesome!
( )Mark Cuda October 24th
GREAT REDESIGN! I’m loving it man! Looks even better than v3, and v3 was quite awesome.
( )Julien L October 24th
Just want to add something, i’m agree, the search box should be above the ads like you did on NETTuts, it’s more user-friendly.
( )freshness October 26th
awesome
( )NetOperator Wibby October 26th
Wow … version 1 was bleak! But the progress is undeniably great. Keep up the good work guys.
( )Derek Herman November 7th
Hello PSDTUTS community, thank you for all the great comments and to answer a few of the most important questions.
The comments form was fixed and works the way it should now, the search is going to be moved shortly and will be much more accessible, and all of your great comments are very much appreciated.
( )