Big Ideas

The mail man delivered my copy of Design Meltdown's 'The Web Designer's Idea Book' just the other day. I ordered a copy to check out all of the amazing site designs as well as to see the spots where elixir sites were listed.



I originally thought our sites would be merely shown as thumbnails like most in the site and didn't expect much more. Boy was I surprised. Not only did elixir and CSStux make it into the book, but both were touted in the introductions to their respective chapters. The elixir site leads off the Icons section on pages 172-173 and CSStux begins the chapter relating to Shine on pages 205-206.

I was really honored by Patrick's kind words.

One of the funny, but great things, I thought was that on the same pages that list and tout elixir the e-junkie site is listed. Patrick compares elixir's use of icons to that of e-junkie's. What's great is I designed them both.

'The Web Designer's Idea Book' is a great book and a must have for designers looking for a lot of inspiration.

All that's fit to print

Next time you're sipping your latte and browsing your local bookstore be sure to look us up. We're currently being featured in Peppin Press' 'Web Design Index by Content 03.' (Take a look below). We're also due to be featured (both elixir and CSStux) in the upcoming Design Meltdown book 'The Web Designer's Idea Book.'

New theme: Gallery

A work of art!

This new theme has been in the works for quite some time. We put a lot of love into this one, and I hope that it shows.

Gallery is a stylish, classy theme with a professional touch. A perfect theme for a small business, portfolio, blog, application site and much more.

This theme provides a very large number of theme variations and options for customization.

The basics

Here's a quick rundown of our Gallery theme's variations. More details are covered on product page.

• Header type
• Content width
• Sidebar location
• Sidebar border
• Sidebar shine
• Sidebar backgrounds
• Site search toggle
• Site title shadow
• Site title size
• Site slogan size
• Menu font size
• Blog post spacing
• Footer divider

Color Variations
Our Gallery theme makes use of RapidWeaver's Color Picker, allowing you to very easily change the appearance of your site with a couple clicks of the mouse. You can edit these parts of the theme with the color picker:

• Body background
• Site title
• Site slogan
• Links
• Body font
• Sidebar font
• Sidebar title
• Blog title
• File sharing background
• Sidebar border
• Menu bar - Unselected
• Menu bar - Selected
• Menu bar - Hover

Headers

Our Gallery theme has a huge selection of page headers. Thirty to be exact.

They range from stylish wood backgrounds to metal, patterned fabrics, gradients and many more.

More information

There is a lot more to learn about our new Gallery theme. Hop on over to the product page and read all about the theme, as well as check out the live preview site and the walk-thru video.

Freebies

RapidWeaver allows you to display EXIF information for each of your photographs. Inspired by MultiTheme's PageMix theme we have created our own set of icons to dress up the EXIF information in the Gallery theme. We thought it might be nice to offer these icons up to everyone as a free download. You can get them at our sister site Icon Lab. Feel free to use them on your web site, in your application, blog, RapidWeaver theme, or for whatever other use you can think up!

Some random, useful stuff

I've run across some useful, new sites lately that have been a big help in web design and development. I thought it might be helpful to everyone if I listed some of these new finds for everyone. I've also thrown in some old favorites as well. Hopefully you'll find them useful.

Feel free to let everyone know about your favorites (whether they're on the list or not) in the comments below.

BgPatterns
A great site for creating semi-custom, tiled background patterns. It allows a lot of freedom in creating your background pattern and is simple and straightforward to use.

Some other great background pattern sites include: Stripe Generator, bgMaker, Pattern 4 U



Colour Lovers
This site hosts a huge selection of color swatches and groupings. It also provides a look at color trends on the web. The site's forums section is packed with color gurus.

Some other great color related sites: kuler, Color Schemer

With a heavy heart

I will be away for a few days coming up and wanted to give everyone a heads up in case I am not as quick as usual in responding to e-mails and such.

Liz and I will be traveling to Pennsylvania Wednesday to attend her grandmother's funeral. She passed away this past Saturday, August 23. I wish that I'd had the opportunity to meet and get to know her as I've heard wonderful stories about her. Liz and I had talked about visiting her on a few different occasions, but we never got the opportunity to do so, which makes me sad. It also saddens me immensely to see Liz and her family so filled with sadness over their loss.

With my father having only passed away last December (also on the 23rd) I'd hoped that there would not be such pain and sorrow in either of our families for some time to come.

We will return from our trip on Friday, so by the weekend or early next week I should be able to catch up on e-mail correspondence. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Stuff in the works

It has been a little while since my last post and just wanted to give everyone an update on what is going on behind the scenes.

Aside from our custom projects for clients I have two new themes in the works. The next theme that we release will contain a good deal of features and customization options. It will also have some styling of the EXIF data for the photo pages. In the past this has been overlooked and not styled much.

With the recent release of MultiTheme's latest project, PageMix, they truly showed that this is an areas we as developers should pay attention to. I was inspired after seeing MultiTheme's latest theme to develop some icons for the EXIF data in our future RapidWeaver themes. When we release our next theme we will also be releasing this series of 30 icons through our sister site Icon Lab. These icons will be free and can also be used by other developers to help in dressing up their own themes as well.

Speaking of our sister site, Icon Lab -- We recently released a set of free, 3D icons that you may be interested in for use on your RapidWeaver designed sites. We also have a huge collection of other free and pay stock icons available through Icon Lab that will help in dressing up your site. So stop by and have a look.

New theme: Cosmic

Out of this world

I've been working on this new theme for some time now, and am happy to finally show it off...

Cosmic is a stylish, unique theme with universal appeal. A perfect theme for a small business, portfolio, blog, application site and more.

This theme provides a huge number of theme variations and options for customization, including the ability to modify headers with the third-party application RWmultitool.

Let's not beat around the bush any longer, let's get acquainted with our new theme, Cosmic —

The basics

Here's a quick rundown of our Cosmic theme's variations. More details are covered on Cosmic's product page:

• Header style
• Sparkles Style
• Sparkles' Position
• Sidebar Location
• Content Background
• Content Width
• Menu Style
• Menu Text Alignment
• Title & Slogan Alignment
• Title Font Style
• Slogan Font Style
• Body Font Style
• Blog Title Font Style
• Menu Font Style
• Site Search Visibility
• File Sharing Background
• Blockquote Background

Color Variations
The Cosmic theme makes use of RapidWeaver's Color Picker, allowing you to easily change the appearance of your site with a couple clicks of the mouse. We also provide built-in color schemes. You can edit these parts of the theme with the color picker:

• Title
• Slogan
• Links
• Sidebar Title
• Body Type
• Sidebar Type

Headers

Cosmic has a lot of different page header styles. Eighteen to be exact.

We've also set the page headers up to be easily accessed and edited via RWmultitool so that you can customize them. In addition to making it easy to edit the page headers in RWmultitool, we've also included five blank headers that you can also modify with RWmultitool.

For instructions on using RWmultitool, please see their site at www.rwmultitool.com.

A trial version of RWmultitool is included with our theme thanks to Michaelangelo from MultiThemes.

More information

There is a lot more to learn about our new Cosmic theme. Hop on over to the product page and read all about the theme, as well as check out the live preview site and the walk-thru video.

Short vacation

Liz and I will be heading out for a short vacation tonight. We'll be back on July 7.

If you need to reach me during this time, drop me a message via the contact form. I will try to check my e-mail via the iPhone a few times while we're gone and will try to answer the most pressing e-mails that way.

Collage 2 release

YourHead Software has finalized their beta testing for their new Collage 2 page plug-in.

I could ramble on and on about this plug-in, but you'd really rather that not happen. Trust me. Instead check out Isaiah's latest blog post about the release and all of the new features.

The one thing I will highlight here from his blog post is this though:

New Styles: We’ve added a new Styles window. If you’ve used Kwix or Carousel, you’ll be familiar with it. Even better, we’ve begged, bartered, and bribed Elixir Graphics into creating a few professional grade Collage Styles that are built right in. They even did our super cool icon too!

We have also produced a couple of professional style packs that you can find here. We hope to make some more in the future as well.

Cloud Update

With help from Isaiah at YourHead Software we've updated the Cloud theme to work with YourHead's latest page plug-in — Collage 2.

This update for the Cloud theme fixes a major bug in which javascript conflicts prevented the theme from displaying graphics correctly in conjunction with Collage 2.

This update is recommended for all Cloud users.

You can download the new version of the theme here.

If you're upgrading from a previous version of a theme you will need to delete your old version before installing the new one. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in the theme drawer and select delete. After deleting the previous version follow the above steps to install the new version. 

* Be warned, deleting your theme will get rid of any data stored in it, such as custom headers, modified code, customized graphics, etc. Be sure to back up the data before deleting your old theme, if necessary. 

For advanced users who wish to copy only the updated files from the new theme to their modified theme here is a list of those files that have changed:

• index.html
• theme.plist

Be sure to check out Collage 2. It is a killer plug-in and a true must have for all RapidWeaver users.

Free theme: Cloud

This week has seen something new from us each day. Today brings something free to all of our users...

Today — Today we're releasing our popular Cloud theme as a free download. Drop by Cloud's product page to get your free download today!

Thursday — Thursday saw the release of our latest RapidWeaver theme — Notebook. This new theme is a real looker. It brings a unique style to your website while remaining classy. It is packed with a ton of theme variations in order for you to customize it and give it your own feel.

Wednesday — We released our first sets of Collage 2 style packs. These stylish Collage 2 packages have been a real hit. They're a great way to dress up your Collage 2 page with just a couple of clicks.

Tuesday — We released a new set of wallpapers for your Mac and iPhone. Two words: Cosmically beautiful!

Monday — We updated our Vanilla theme to fix a small bug with the top sidebar and its background color option.

New theme: Notebook

Say hello to Notebook

I've been toiling away on this new RapidWeaver theme for a while now, and I am quite excited to show it off.

Our latest theme, titled Notebook, is a real looker. It brings a unique style to your website while remaining classy. It is packed with a ton of theme variations in order for you to customize it and give it your own feel.

This new theme is a great choice for anyone interested in designing a blog, personal website, small business site or portfolio.

Let's get acquainted with Notebook —

The basics

Here's a quick rundown of the Notebook theme's variations. More details are covered on the Notebook product page:

Theme Variations

• Header visibility
• Header styles
• Title and slogan visibility
• Background
• Sidebar tab color
• Blog archives visibility
• Sidebar visibility
• Site search visibility
• Logo settings
• Page title visibility
• Body font styles
• Sidebar font styles

Color Variations
The Notebook theme makes use of RapidWeaver's Color Picker, allowing you to easily change the appearance of your site with a couple clicks of the mouse. We also provide built-in color schemes. For more information, see the Notebook product page.

You can edit these parts of the theme with the color picker:
• Site Background

• Site title
• Site slogan
• Blog title
• Site links
• Menu bar
• Menu bar - hover
• Menu text
• Menu text - hover

This theme works exclusively with RapidWeaver 3.6 and above.

For more

Be sure to read all of the details regarding Notebook to see what it has to offer you.

Stylin'

With the release of Collage 2, YourHead Software has introduced some killer features. The greatest feature, I feel, is the option to have expandable, customizable, and distributable styles.

I've been so thrilled by it that not only have I created many of the styles that you'll find in the Collage 2 already, I've sat down and created two additional sets of Collage 2 styles.

We hope you like the styles and would love to see pages you create using them. Feel free to post links to your site, or sites, which you're using Collage 2 and our styles on.

Check out the two new sets and let me know what you think.

Cosmic (wallpaper) beauty

I worked up some new wallpapers recently for both your desktop and iPhone. I'd been cosmically inspired by Leopard's space themed wallpaper and wanted to work up my own — elixir style.

Drop by the desktops section and get some swirly, cosmic goodness to spruce up your Mac or iPhone. You can check out a larger preview on the desktops page as well.

Vanilla bug fix

We've had a couple of reports of the top sidebar option in the Vanilla theme being broken. There was in fact a small bug which prevented the background of the top sidebar from appearing as well as the option to change the color of the sidebar background.

We've updated the theme to fix this bug. We're giving you the option of how to update your theme.

You can either download the full version of the theme and replace your current version (instructions are included in the README file that comes with the full download). Full versions have been sent out via e-junkie for all Vanilla owners.

The second option is to use the update installer found here.

The updater installs ONLY the one file that needs to be updated (colors.css). This allows for any modifications you've made to other files to remain intact. It also saves you the trouble of reconfiguring your site after re-installing the full theme. Using the updater is the reccomended process.

Please note that your Vanilla theme must be located in the default themes location for this updater to work. RapidWeaver, by default, installs all themes here and would only be elsewhere if you purposefully moved it. If this is the case, move it back to the default location before running the updater.

This brings our Vanilla theme up to version 1.5.

If you have questions, please let us know here.

Diversification

We do a lot of things here at elixir — Stock and custom RapidWeaver themes, icon and logo design, website development, and now even homework. OK, we don't do homework, but we help!

One of our customers e-mailed us the other day to ask a question. In his e-mail he also included this anecdote that made use smile. I asked him if we could share it with you all and he kindly obliged:

From Robert:

I bought one of your themes — Elements — the day I bought Rapidweaver. My 10 year old son announced he had a major project on space to deliver for school — "Just a written report, film or presentation" he said. He had done virtually nothing in three weeks and it needed to be in the next morning! Neither of us had ever designed a website in our lives, but after seeing your theme, I risked it, we downloaded RW and your theme, learned how to use it in an afternoon and completed the project on space shuttles as a website just a few hours later, thanks to you and the folks at RW. It really was a cinch to use even for a ten year old. My only disappointment was that he only got a B [on the project] — but at least it was better than the fail he would have been heading for with no project.

Reading this e-mail from Robert truly made me smile. I'm very happy that we could help out, without even knowing it. It also shows how quick anyone can pickup RapidWeaver and start learning it.

I'd not mentioned this to Robert yet, and wanted to wait until this blog post went up, but we've sent he and his son some other themes. Just in case he might have some other school projects to work on. ;-)

RapidWeaver 4.0 is here!

It is here! And it is wonderful!

Realmac Software released RapidWeaver 4.0 today. The update is a free upgrade for RapidWeaver users and is a major release.

It has been a long time in the making. When I began beta testing the gem I was taken aback! Its new interface is clean, easy to use and intuitive. And not to mention beautiful.

For those not familiar with RapidWeaver

RapidWeaver is a revolutionary but friendly piece of web design software made exclusively for the Mac. Using easy drag and drop technology RapidWeaver lets you easily build a website tailored to your personal needs. Blogs, Photo albums, Movie pages, Styled text and more can be created at the click of a button and customised to make a site to be proud of. Once finished, you site is easily published to .Mac, FTP or SFTP accounts and RapidWeaver has built-in Smart Publishing that only uploads changed files, making future updates to your site fast and simple.

Sounds pretty easy, huh? It really is. Drop by the RMS site and download your copy today.

Also, we have upgrade our RW themes to be 4.0 compatible. While the theme upgrades are minor for this version, they're done and out of the way, nonetheless.

All updated and ready to go [Updated]

Whew, we have finished our updates in preparing for RapidWeaver 4.0's immanent arrival.

All of our themes have been upgraded, adding in, and updating, the few files that will bring them up to date for RapidWeaver 4.0.

All of our latest themes have already been shipped with the files needed and the rest fixed today or a couple of weeks ago when we sent out other updates.

The themes updated today all got updaters, which make it easier to do the upgrades. The updater only replaces the following files within your theme(s):

• Preview.Png
• Preview_Large.jpg
• Theme.Plist

All other files within the theme go untouched.

For the updater to work your themes must be located in the Library>Application Support>RapidWeaver folder located in your User folder. If you're unsure what this means, then you have probably not moved your themes or modified them. The updaters will only work with the theme installed. Without the theme it is useless.

Also, people have asked whether changes they have made themselves to their Theme.Plist file will get overwritten. Yes. This updater replaces that file. Be sure to back it up if necessary before running the updater.

Here are the updaters once again from today:

Cloud — Download Updater
Dark — Download Updater
Light — Download Updater
Organic — Download Updater
Origami — Download Updater
Paper — Download Updater
Plastic — Download Updater
Ribbon — Download Updater
Sprout — Download Updater
Toast — Download Updater

Again, all of our themes have been updated for 4.0 or shipped with the needed files at their release. So if your theme is not on this list, it is already ready for RW 4.0.

[Update]: Many have asked if the updated themes will work with RapidWeaver 3.6. Yes. The new and updated files provided by these updaters have no adverse affects on RapidWeaver 3.6.

Sprout updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Sprout theme can be downloaded here.

Ribbon updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Ribbon theme can be downloaded here.

Plastic updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Plastic theme can be downloaded here.

Paper updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Paper theme can be downloaded here.

Origami updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Origami theme can be downloaded here.

Organic updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Organic theme can be downloaded here.

Light updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Light theme can be downloaded here.

Dark updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Dark theme can be downloaded here.

Cloud updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Cloud theme can be downloaded here.

Toast updated for RW 4.0

We're working through updating our themes to be fully compatible with RapidWeaver 4.0, which will soon be available. Instead of going through our traditional process of updating a theme, we have made an update installer.

This updater will only replace the files being updated saving you the hassle of having to delete your old theme and possibly resetting all of your theme variations.

The updater for our Toast theme can be downloaded here.

RapidWeaver meets Apple Store

Liz and I were out picking up a DVI adapter at the Apple Store over the weekend, here in sunny Orlando, Florida, and we stumbled upon RapidWeaver sitting upon the store shelves. It was sitting there gleaming in its bright blue box, nestled between Microsoft Office (blech) and Parallels. Needless to say I was quite excited to see my favorite Mac app gracing the shelves of my favorite brick and mortar store.

If you live near an Apple store here in the U.S., or even if you have to drive a little bit, go grab your copy today!

Also, it seems like I'm not the only one who has noticed this amazing app appearing at the Apple Store.

Free themes news update

In my last post I mentioned that, in conjunction with .Net Magazine, we are giving away 8 free themes. These themes are found on the CD that is attached to the front of the magazine.

Since we're giving these themes away, we unfortunately do not have purchase information for those who receive these free themes. This makes sending out updates to those who get these themes free impossible.

While this is the downside of the deal, there is still, yet another, upside to it all. I've included a discount code in the mix as well that comes with the free themes. This code will get you a discount on all products in the store. If in the future you'd like to upgrade your theme by purchasing it, you can do so at a discount.

Elixir featured in .Net magazine

We have been lucky enough to be featured in this month's .Net magazine. Issue 176 contains a small article about elixir and our RapidWeaver themes. I've not been lucky enough to read the article yet, because .Net magazine is UK based publication. It should be on US shelves in about a month, I am told.

If you're in the UK be sure to pick up a copy and check it out. When you get your copy either now in the UK, or next month internationally, you will notice we're also featured on the cover CD. On that disc you'll find 8 free elixir themes. They're not limited or crippled in any way. They are full-fledged, complete themes, free of charge.

Thanks to Nik Fletcher, our UK reconnaissance man, for the above iPhone snap of this month's .Net magazine.

Juicy new theme

I am really happy to announce our latest new theme — Tangerine.

This new theme is a great choice for anyone interested in designing a small business site, portfolio, personal site or blog.

Its unique header setup and logo usage allow you to really brand your RapidWeaver designed site. It also includes some beautiful, built-in logo graphics from the Icon Lab.

Here's a quick rundown of the theme variations you'll find in Tangerine...

Theme variations

• Header Visibility
• Header Style
• Header Logo
• Content Width / Sidebar
• Body Font Style
• Site Title Font Style
• Site Slogan Font Style
• Slogan Font Size
• Slogan Area
• Blog Title Icon
• Site Search Toggle
• Footer Text Alignment

You can also use the RapidWeaver color picker to choose the look of many areas of your site:

Color picker

• Site Title
• Slogan Area Text (Slogan and/or page title)
• Header background

• Links
• Archive Link
• Current Menu Item Text
• Other Menu Items Text
• Blog Entry Title
• Blockquote Background
• Sidebar / Menu Background
• Sidebar Text
• Single Photo Background
• Single Photo Navigation Background

Learn more

For more details, live preview, screenshots, and walk-thru video check out Tangerine's product page.

Newsletter

We have also sent out a newsletter to all of our subscribers which contains a discount code for the Tangerine theme. If you're not a newsletter subscriber, be sure to sign up for future discounts and news!

Desktops

We've put together a beautiful, and bright, desktop wallpaper to help dress up your Mac. Have a look and grab yours.

Desktop dress-up

We've got a bunch of projects in the works, which I am chomping at the bit to unveil. Until I can do so here are some desktops to dress up your Mac.

I had a bit of downtime today and whipped up a couple wallpapers. One uses the texture that I used in our recently released Vanilla theme. The other takes on the look of OS X 10.5's new folders.

In addition to these two desktops I also put up for download a wallpaper that I created a while back for the fine folks over at e-junkie.

Go get 'em and give your desktop some new bling.

Sweet little update

Quick little update here.

Blockquote background was not displaying as it should in original build of the Vanilla theme. This update fixes the background of the blockquote feature as well as its ability to be changed through the color picker.

Now for the usual update info...

The update has been sent to all user who have purchased the theme in the past. If you do not receive the update within 24 hours of this blog post, use our contact form to send us a copy of your original PayPal receipt or original e-junkie download e-mail so we can send you the update. Be sure to check your junk mail folder before contacting us as every now and then updates might get caught up in the junk mail folder. Updates are sent to the e-mail address that was contained in your PayPal account when you purchased the theme originally.

Installation

In upgrading from a previous version of this theme, be sure to first delete the original theme. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in RapidWeaver's theme drawer and select 'Delete' from the popup menu. Then proceed to install the theme as your normally would, and then quit and restart RapidWeaver.

* Please note: Upgrading this theme will remove any modifications you made to the theme previously. So, please be sure to backup your data if necessary.

A tasty new theme

I am proud to announce a new RapidWeaver theme today — Vanilla.

Vanilla, you might ask? That sounds pretty plain, and well, vanilla. This is theme is anything but plain. This theme proves that vanilla is definitely not bland.

Let's dive in and learn a little more about what this tasty new theme has to offer. Here's a quick overview of what it has to offer:

Variations
• Background
• Header
• Archives visibility
• Sidebar
• Breadcrumb container
• Font style

Color picker options
• Background
• Site Title
• Site Slogan
• Sidebar Title
• Sidebar Text
• Links
• Breadcrumb Container Text
• Block Quote Background
• Top Sidebar Background

Learn more
Be sure to check out our live preview site to see Vanilla in action. You can also get more information about the theme on the product page as well as check out our walk thru video.

Newsletter
We have also sent out a newsletter to all of our subscribers which contains a discount code for the Vanilla theme. If you're not a newsletter subscriber, be sure to sign up for future discounts and news!

Elements update

Another small set of updates, or should I say IE 6 bug fixes. Because lets be honest, most bugs we encounter are directly related to that old, tired browser.

In our initial release of the Elements theme there was a bug in Internet Explorer 6 that surfaced just recently. The header would take on added space at the bottom in IE 6 when using the site slogan. There was also a small bug where a gap would appear at the top and bottom of the sidebar when text within the sidebar was centered. This update corrects these two problems.

The update has been sent to all user who have purchased the theme in the past. If you do not receive the update within 24 hours of this blog post, use our contact form to send us a copy of your original PayPal receipt or original e-junkie download e-mail so we can send you the update. Be sure to check your junk mail folder before contacting us as every now and then updates might get caught up in the junk mail folder. Updates are sent to the e-mail address that was contained in your PayPal account when you purchased the theme originally.

Installation

In upgrading from a previous version of this theme, be sure to first delete the original theme. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in RapidWeaver's theme drawer and select 'Delete' from the popup menu. Then proceed to install the theme as your normally would, and then quit and restart RapidWeaver.

* Please note: Upgrading this theme will remove any modifications you made to the theme previously. So, please be sure to backup your data if necessary.

Fission Update

It is update time, again. Another small update, but a bug fix nonetheless in my constant battle of making our themes work well in Internet Explorer.

In our initial release of the Fission theme there was a bug in Internet Explorer 6 would force the main contents of a site down past the sidebar. This only occurred when the visitor entered the page with their IE window at a smaller width than that of the site. This update patches that problem.

The update has been sent to all user who have purchased the theme in the past. If you do not receive the update within 24 hours of this blog post, use our contact form to send us a copy of your original PayPal receipt or original e-junkie download e-mail so we can send you the update. Be sure to check your junk mail folder before contacting us as every now and then updates might get caught up in the junk mail folder. Updates are sent to the e-mail address that was contained in your PayPal account when you purchased the theme originally.

Installation

In upgrading from a previous version of this theme, be sure to first delete the original theme. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in RapidWeaver's theme drawer and select 'Delete' from the popup menu. Then proceed to install the theme as your normally would, and then quit and restart RapidWeaver.

* Please note: Upgrading this theme will remove any modifications you made to the theme previously. So, please be sure to backup your data if necessary.

New theme: Elements

Say hello

I'm happy to announce the release of our latest theme. This is a very fun theme, so without further ado we'll dive right in to what it has to offer...

Think different

Elements is a unique Rapidweaver theme. It's like having 5 themes in one. Composed of different elemental designs this theme will provide you with a web site that is sure to impress your visitors.

The basics

Here's a quick rundown of Element's theme variations offerings, further details are below:

Theme Variations
• Element Style
• Background
• Slogan
• Body Font Size
• Font Spacing
• Blog archive visibility
• Sidebar
• Sidebar Font Size
• Links Style
• Menu Font Uppercase
• Font Style
• Archive visibility

Color Variation
The Elements theme makes extensive use of RapidWeaver's Color Picker, allowing you to easily change the appearance of your entire site with a couple clicks of the mouse. We also provide many built-in color schemes. For more information, see the Colors section below.

This theme works exclusively with RapidWeaver 3.6 and above. It also contains the settings and files required for RapidWeaver 4.0.

Learn more

For further details on Elements check out the product page and our live preview site. We also have a short walk through video.

Buy a bundle, save a bundle!

We're also introducing the a new bundle of themes... The Ultimate Bundle! Our Ultimate Bundle includes all of our themes at a steep discount. Checkout our new Ultimate Bundle product page for more information.

If each theme were purchased individually the cost would be: $175.90. You can get all 15 themes for only $124 with our Ultimate Bundle!

All the news that's fit to print

It has been a while since we published our newsletter. And for that I apologize. The system we were using collected users' information pretty well, but was a royal pain when it came to setting up a good looking HTML newsletter. So, we've gone a different direction, and hope to get the newsletter out much more frequently.

Thanks to Ollie we now have an in-house collection system to collect e-mail addresses and Gary has created an Apple Mail stationery from my PhotoShop mockups and design. This combo is going to be the one-two-punch that gets the newsletter rolling again. So, sign up, if you haven't already and we will have one out by next week, and I promise to have a nice discount code included.

Note: If you've already signed up for our newsletter you will not have to sign up again. I manually ported everyone's e-mail address from the old system into the new.

Crate theme update

We're update-happy around here lately.

This update brings some minor bug fixes, which are outlined below.

The update has been sent to all user who have purchased the theme in the past. If you do not receive the update within 24 hours of this blog post, use our contact form to send us a copy of your original PayPal receipt or original e-junkie download e-mail so we can send you the update. Be sure to check your junk mail folder before contacting us as every now and then updates might get caught up in the junk mail folder. Updates are sent to the e-mail address that was contained in your PayPal account when you purchased the theme originally.

Updates

• Updated footer to fix shadow problem. This bug was introduced when Apple updated its web browser, Safari, to 'improve' their shadow rendering. It caused unsightly shadows in the Antidote theme.
• Fixes blog header problem with miniature icons. Blog title would overlap the graphic on blog permalink pages as well as once the link had been visited.

This update also adds in the needed files for RapidWeaver 4.0

Installation

In upgrading from a previous version of this theme, be sure to first delete the original theme. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in RapidWeaver's theme drawer and select 'Delete' from the popup menu. Then proceed to install the theme as your normally would, and then quit and restart RapidWeaver.

* Please note: Upgrading this theme will remove any modifications you made to the theme previously. So, please be sure to backup your data if necessary.

Antidote theme update

posted by Adam

It is update time. This update brings some minor bug fixes, which are outlined below. The update has been sent to all user who have purchased the theme in the past. If you do not receive the update within 24 hours of this blog post, use our contact form to send us a copy of your original PayPal receipt or original e-junkie download e-mail so we can send you the update. Be sure to check your junk mail folder before contacting us as every now and then updates might get caught up in the junk mail folder. Updates are sent to the e-mail address that was contained in your PayPal account when you purchased the theme originally.

Updates

• Updated menu options to fix shadow problem. This bug was introduced when Apple updated its web browser, Safari, to 'improve' their shadow rendering. It caused unsightly shadows in the Antidote theme.
• Fixes archives, categories and feed icons from having the bottom 2 pixels cropped off.
• Darkens up the font color by default for some areas of the theme that rendered too light.
• Allows the site title color to be changed via the color picker.

This update also adds in the needed files for RapidWeaver 4.0

Installation

In upgrading from a previous version of this theme, be sure to first delete the original theme. To do so, right-click (or crtl-click) on the theme in RapidWeaver's theme drawer and select 'Delete' from the popup menu. Then proceed to install the theme as your normally would, and then quit and restart RapidWeaver.

* Please note: Upgrading this theme will remove any modifications you made to the theme previously. So, please be sure to backup your data if necessary.

UPDATED:

We resent the updates today to fix a small display bug introduced when correcting the shadows bug in the 2/28/2008 update.

Some more custom work

posted by Adam

Re-designed

We've been real busy lately between stock and custom themes, as well as icon and logo design. I thought I would take a couple of minutes to show off one of our recent custom themes, which we designed for a frequent customer of ours — Todd Albertson. We recently redesigned Todd's main site toddalbertson.com.

To the moon

We also recently designed a logo for a future project for Todd titled Project 137. Check out the About page for more information.

New Theme: Fission

I am quite happy to say we've wrapped up our latest theme, Fission. It is a pretty versatile theme with our usual clean styling. It makes it easy to create a good looking site for your small business, blog, family or personal site, portfolio and more.

Take it all in

Drop by Fission's product page where you can learn all about the theme as well as see it in action.

Quick rundown

Theme Variations—
• Background
• Background overlays
• Content Width
• Headers
• Sidebar
• Sidebar Decoration
• Site Font Type
• Menu Font Size
• Status Bar Toggle
• Status Bar Items
• Site Title Size
• Blog Archives Toggle
• Blockquote Style

Color Variations—
The fission theme makes extensive use of RapidWeaver's Color Picker, allowing you to easily change the appearance of your entire site with a couple clicks of the mouse. We also provide many built-in color schemes. For more information, see the Colors section below.

This theme works exclusively with RapidWeaver 3.6 and above.

A lot for a little

Fission is only $12.95. You can check it out more in-depth and purchase it here.

Video view

You can get a good idea of some of the many things you can do with Fission through our video screencasts here as well:

• Overview
• Colors


We hope you enjoy this new theme. Let us know what you think.

In the works

posted by Adam

Just a couple of small updates —

While I can't make any promises on a release date, I do have a new theme that is nearing completion. A good deal of the work is done. I am in the process of making it work correctly on IE 6 for Windows. This is a task in and of itself. Currently it is looking quite good in all of the other browsers, including IE 7.

This theme is chock full of good stuff, so keep your eyes peeled here on the ol' blog for more information.

I have also started the planning stages of another great theme that will be quite unique in its appearance.

Also in the pipeline are some theme updates. I hope to get them updated and clear out the bugs queue as soon as possible.

It's a sign

We've just added a new set of icons to the Icon Lab. Our new Signs set, a new take on our old elixir set, consists of 30 icons in sizes 24x24 px up to 512x512 px. They come in PNG (with transparent backgrounds), ICNS, ICO and Macintosh Folder formats.

Since the Lab's Build your Own Box has been such a huge hit, we've also included a layered PSD PhotoShop file in this package which allows you to make your own, custom sign as well.

The best part is that this set is a mere $12. Be sure to check it out! And don't forget to also take a peek at some of our other icons and freebies.

Oh, and I finally got a chance to clean up and style the icons page. So you'll probably notice a much cleaner, classier look.

Also, don't forget they're great for your RapidWeaver site and themes, as well as Kwix and Blocks pages.

Tweet me this...

So, we haven't done one of out Twitter discounts in a while, so I posted a new one today.

For future reference, follow me on Twitter (elixirgraphics) and watch for when we post special discounts, like we did earlier today. Since it has been some time since our last Twitter code I decided I would post it here as well for the masses, and that the code would encompass both elixir's shopping cart as well as our new sister site, The Icon Lab.

So, use the code THELAB003 during checkout either here at elixir or at The Icon Lab and you'll receive 15% off of your entire order's total. This is good for purchases of $10 or more, but only runs through Feb. 1, 2008.

Again, be sure to follow us on Twitter for future discounts and such, as well as to just keep up on what I am doing from day to day.

The Icon Lab

We're glad to announce our latest project. For some time we've been working on some new stock icons. In the process of doing so I thought it would be a good idea to have a more prominent, focused place to feature our icons, so I developed a custom RapidWeaver theme and a new site to house our icon business. That new site is The Icon Lab.

We will be providing stock icons, free icons, and custom designs. We also have some other goodies like our Build Your Own Box layered PhotoShop kit.

I will be adding more stock and free icons over time, as well as revamped versions of our current icon packs.

Our icons will come in PNG (with transparent backgrounds), ICNS, ICO and Mac Resource file formats. They also come in 48 x 48, 128 x 128, 256 x 256, and 512 x 512 pixels in size. So they're great for your web site design, RapidWeaver themes, as well as Kwix and Blocks pages.

I encourage you to look around the site, and if you have any questions feel free to let me know.

Around the web

In the past few weeks I've seen a lot of great sites linking into elixir. Just thought I would post and point some of them out. So, in an effort to toot our own horn, here we go:

Nerd Business Blog
We were ranked in their top 100 CSS Designs of the year. It was an honor to be placed in the list with other great sites like Freelance Switch, Panic's Coda, moo.fx, and well 96 others.

Plain Beta
We were mentioned in Plain Beta's article titled "What Makes a Web Site’s Design Look Good? 7 Ideas for You to Think About." What they had to say: "A logo of some kind is necessary for virtually all web sites. Supplementary graphics are helpful as well. Elixir Graphics is pretty good on both points."

Craigs List
Of all the places for elixir to crop up. Go figure.

Smashing Magazine
We are still receiving a ton of traffic from their "60 elegant and visually appealing designs" article from last year. Be sure to check it out. Again, there are a lot of great sites listed there that are quite inspirational.