Up until a few years ago, pretty much the only way to have a user-input form on your site was to either code one yourself or download a PHP- or ASP-based form from a site like HotScripts. The whole process was all very code-oriented and entirely unintuitive.

Then, out of the ashes, arose a slew of sites including Wufoo, JotForm, FormAssembly and many others; all designed to make the process of creating forms of all kinds a brilliantly simple, drag-and-drop one.

Of the three aforementioned sites, Wufoo is, by far, my favorite and has proven itself to be both reliable and cutting-edge.

There are two things, however, that might prevent the average individual or freelancer from using a site like Wufoo on a regular basis. First off, the monthly fee can be a bit hefty if you want a decent amount of control over how your form looks and how you retrieve your data. Second, even if you do want to wholly take over the forms you create on the site (in terms of data-retrieval or aesthetics), the process can be a bit daunting even for premium subscribers.

Enter MachForm from Appnitro. For all intents and purposes, MachForm is pretty much a Wufoo clone that sits on your own Web site giving you complete control over where your data resides and how well it integrates into your existing design. In addition, there’s no monthly fee with MachForm. You pay $39 for a site license and with that fee comes free minor upgrades for a year and full support via email.

Like I said, it’s pretty much a Wufoo clone and, therefore, makes creating forms to embed on your site a beautifully simplistic process. Check out some of the screenshots and a demo on the official site: http://www.appnitro.com/machform.

I’ve had Pixlr bookmarked for almost two months now. I’d been wanting to take a look at it ever since I stumbled across a few articles detailing its release in early November and I sincerely wish I had done so then.

There are a number of image editors out there (seriously, I’m not even going to begin to try and review them all… it’s a bit ridiculous) and of the Web-based variety, I’ve been a big fan of Picnik. Picnik, which began offering premium account-specific features for free back in February, features an extravagant number of tools to help you edit an image you’ve uploaded or even an image you’re storing in a separate account like Syncplicity or Flickr. You can resize an image, add text, tweak the image using an expected array of filters (blur, mosaic, etc.) and there’s plenty more where that came from. (In fact, before we did the redesign this month, the banner image for Fans of Tech was originally created using features within Picnik.)

So, with the arrival of Web 2.0, the concept of editing an image online became a reality and companies like Picnik made the experience a fluid one.

Well, with the arrival of Pixlr, you’ve got pretty much everything you might love about online applications like Picnik but with the added bonus of having an interface remarkably similar to that of Photoshop to help you make the transition to editing an image online if, say, you’re on the road and don’t have access to the full-blown Adobe design app.

Be it the menu options, the available features, the interface, or the keyboard shortcuts, Pixlr definitely makes you feel at home.

As an example, you can open a new file using Ctrl+O, create a new layer and add layer styles like drop-shadow, inner-shadow, etc. (yep, Pixlr supports layers… wonderfully, I might add) using the respective options in the “Layer” drop-down menu, transform the image using Ctrl+T, copy a portion of the image using Ctrl+C, paste the portion to a new layer using Ctrl+V and ultimately save the image using Ctrl+S. It’s flow is a thing of beauty, really. (Note: you’ll be saving to either JPG or PNG so your layers won’t be retained but we can’t ask for everything, right?)

Overall, I’m just impressed how well this entirely Web-based app can easily replace an image-editing desktop app for your basic needs.

Via Download Squad

PatternCooler.com, being the ingenious web app that it is, might just be the answer you’re looking for… if the question being posed is: “how can I quickly and easily create a custom background for my site (or my client’s site) without having to scour the Web for Photoshop tutorials or pattern sets?”

How does it work?

First, browse through the 80 different designs (and growing) currently available to find a pattern that you like. Next, adjust the colors within the pattern using the available color-picker as shown below.

The next step is to adjust the sizing of the pattern. Your options range from 25% to 200% of the original design size  – which can result in a dramatic change in appearance. Check out the image below and click for a larger view.

Once you’ve made your adjustments, you can add the completed version to your account for future reference and then download the final bg pattern, free-of-charge, to use on your site/project.

Like I said, the site is free to use but I highly recommend making the $1.00 donation that’s mentioned on the final download page. Just think about the time you’ll save by avoiding numerous Google searches or an hour or two inside Photoshop/Gimp/etc… and then fork over the buck to ensure that this site can continue to provide a quality service. (Which is more than I can say for about 86.3% of all the other web apps out there on the InterWebs.)