Forms needs a solid visual structure, a profound hierarchy of form elements (Fields and Labels), powerful techniques and Functionality (AJAX) to make the form look and work creatively. There is a great bunch of creative, outstanding and individually designed from scratch forms.
Thanks to AJAX, we can provide real-time feedback to our users using server-side validation scripts and eliminate the need for redundant validation functions and processing data.
Today we wanted to share with you some great steps to get the perfect form: we will go through designing and usability you need to keep in mind, styling your form, spicing it up with some nice javascript effects, validating user’s input and finally getting it to work using PHP and Ajax.
Expert Opinion
Looking for an easier alternative to PHP forms? Use our free PHP Form Generator to build custom contact forms and embed them in your website — without writing a single line of code.
1. Designing & Planning out your Form
A very useful CSS tutorial for making fancy forms with good usability.
Web Application Form Design
Read these guidelines to help you better position a form for your specific purpose, the combination of layout, visual elements, and content that’s right for you should still be verified through user testing or data analysis (completion rates, errors, etc.).
Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms
A very interesting analysis of 100 popular web-sites where web-forms (should) matter. The second part of this analysis can be found here.
Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
Follow these guidelines, and you’ll be off to a good start for creating sensible forms by using a form usability checklist.
2. Styling Beautiful Forms
How to create perfect form markup and style it with CSS
This post will explain different choices when marking up the forms, and the CSS styling involved in making them cross-browser compatible.
Check out the vertical layout
the horizontal layout
Justify elements using jQuery and CSS
Justify elements using jQuery and CSS by calculating the width of a largest label and apply it to all labels. The jQuery function below does exactly this:
$(document).ready(function() { var max = 0; $("label").each(function(){ if ($(this).width() > max) max = $(this).width(); }); $("label").width(max); });
CSSG Forms Collection
5 uniquely designed and coded web form styles.

FORM elements design using CSS and list (ul and dl)
Tables are useful to design complex HTML forms but a good alternative is to use list elements and CSS. This post will explain another way to design FORM using list elements (ul) and (li).

XHTML/CSS web forms: 5 simple techniques
This post explains 5 simple techniques for creating web forms.
Niceforms
Niceforms is a script that will replace the most commonly used form elements with custom designed ones. You can either use the default theme that is provided or you can even develop your own look with minimal effort.
3. Spicing up your Form
Changing Form Input Styles on Focus with jQuery
This tutorial will show you how to spice your form up with CSS classes and default values that change according to which form item is selected. All with just a splash of jQuery.
Form field hints with CSS and JavaScript
This tutorial will show you how to get a nice effect, as you tab through each input field, some helper text appears in box out to the right.
Context highlighting using jQuery
Learn how you can easily improve the user experience by highlighting the current context to enable users to focus only on a current action.
Improve form usability with auto messages
This tutorial explains how to improve form usability adding an auto message which appears and disappears with a nice fade-in and fade-out effect when an user select a field.
STYLING FILE INPUTS WITH CSS AND THE DOM
File inputs () are the bane of beautiful form design. This simple, three-part progressive enhancement provides the markup, CSS, and JavaScript to address the long-standing irritation.
Show/hide a nice Login Panel using Mootools 1.2
In this tutorial, we will see how to create a sliding login/signup panel for your website using Mootools 1.2.
FancyForm
FancyForm is a powerful checkbox replacement script used to provide the ultimate flexibility in changing the appearance and function of HTML form elements. It’s accessible, easy to use and degrades gracefully on all older, non-supporting browsers.
Validating Forms
Validation Hints for your form
As someone is typing an in an input field, it would be nice give feedback to the user as they are typing if they have satisfied that field’s validation criteria. This article will explain one way of achieving this effect using JavaScript and CSS.
Form.Check
A mootools script that allows you to validate different form fields before submission, Validation include: On leave a field & On submit the form. The message is displayed over the field, only one tip at once, tips don’t flash on submit if errors remain with the ability to close tips.
fValidator
fValidator is an open source (free) unobtrusive javascript tool for easy handling form validation. Here’s a brief list of the most important features: Works perfect with iMask as it’s complement, Multiple forms per page supported, Number of verified fields is not limited, Number of filters per field is not limited.

Validate
Validate is a mootools form validator script, having the following features: optional onFail function, optional onSuccess function which will overide the form submition, this can be used to validate an ajax form, onBlur validating, shows errors next to item or in a list.
PHP & Ajaxifing Forms
ProtoForm
ProtoFormClass is a Prototype class that allows you to very easily validate the forms fields and send data in ajax. Features include:
- Check required fields (input, textarea, radio, select, checkbox) and validate Email, Date, Telephone number and Url.
- Send data and show response with Ajax, highlight the form field on focus and on error.
- Lightweight (only 4KB), unobtrusive and cross-browser (tested on Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer 6/7)
- allows you to validate more form on the same page.

Submit A Form Without Page Refresh using jQuery
In this tutorial you will learn how to submit a contact form that sends an email, without page refresh using jQuery! (The actual email is sent with a php script that processes in the background).
LightForm ::: Free Ajax/PHP Contact Form
LightForm is a free Ajax/PHP contact form. It combines FormCheck2 for fields validation and NiceForms to style text fields and textareas.
Autosuggest / Autocomplete with Ajax
The AutoSuggest class adds a pulldown menu of suggested values to a text field. The user can either click directly on a suggestion to enter it into the field, or navigate the list using the up and down arrow keys, selecting a value using the enter key. The values for the suggestion list are to provided as XML, or as JSON (by a PHP script, or similar).
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102 Comments:
Like this, I want to set up a comment box on my website. Please advise me how can I get this?
The latest form plugin/library that i found out is one called customformsjs and it is available to download on bower or on the jquery pluggin repo. It works on all browsers and the author runs unit testing to guarantee that, suports 1.6+ and 2.* variants of jquery, the code is super clean and it is easy to understand what he was trying to do.
customformsjs.com or on jquery page plugins.jquery.com/customformsjs it seems he has also a trello board which gives great visibility for future releases
Stunning collection yar! This design will be helpful for everyone. Thanks
Was just googling for something to show one of our new web designers who has got a bit spoilt with gravity forms on wordpress and we need something nice for a html site and stumbled onto this. Had to drop in a thanks as it really helped us out and save us hours :)
Nice one!
John
Great article and good forms, thanks.
This list is awesome! I really like the Niceforms idea, which will let me keep a consistent look thought my companies pages... Thanks.
hi i'm mahesh from india and i am very happy to use w3 school.
this is very useful for the web developers.
Great list of forms styles.
very nice list of form styles. form makes the sophistication in your web design imo. Thanks for the list, i could use one of these
Please someone help me build me a comment page like this one!!!!!!!!!!
nice tutorial. It's really difficult to handle a form.
Wow, wonderful forms, great inspirations...
Its nice and good......
looks good!!!
wow... its very nice design... thanks
A great list, since 2009 and still so many sites suck with their contact forms. A broken link needs to be updated to :)
This is a fantastic tutorial on creating truly eye-catching forms. For a beginner like myself, this is a nice way to start learning web development.
Nice work.
They are really good .. ;) good collection ;)
absolutely fantastic
Thanks a lot. Was really very useful for my online project.! Impressed lot of teachers. And a very great site.!
Thanks! great inspiration for a site we're working on for an outsourced marketing company with multiple complex web forms
Great Form Resources. It's really helpful.
great tutorial... it;s very useful
great tutorial, very useful thnx:)
Really awesome designs. Finally my search for registration form design ends at your bog.
Thanks again
Nice collection of form related articles here, thanks for sharing.
Great list...really helpful. Thanks. :)
Awesome work guys! keep up the good work!
Very useful, thanks a lot :)
Great. Just great. Thanks for your lists and references.
Great list. I have already saw some of them but I have not enough experience to make such forms by myself, I need more knowledge og html, php, css etc. Now I'm using this email php form but I hope in nearest future I could do such forms by myself.
Very nice forms. i will definetly use some of the things i’ve seen here.
Very nice forms. i will definetly use some of the things i've seen here.
Thanks.
nice collection, thanks for sharing!
good jobs bro, and many cretive design login form.. thank for share
Cool Forms with Validation
hi all i tuday stady in intitut of technology fo cambodai
as student 3 year .now day ,i have working as intenship
in campany smartbusinessgroups
nice
Very nice list and some beautiful forms... will give it a try!
Good love you keep it up
This site is good.
Reading a little about Human Computer Interaction will help us design more efficient forms. :)
Nice effort man, thankyou very much for compiling such a good collection of forms.
Thank for this GOOD article !!!!
Thanks a lot for such good stuff.
Amazing.... really really nice forms Style......... thank you
Thanks for the list, the combination of all these are going to help me create really nice forms.
Dan
Awesome Web form... Thanks for sharing!
These are very nice forms. I like the variety of styles given. Thanks for sharing.
Very nice collection. The company that designed my logo had a nice looking contact form, check it out at logodoctor.co.uk
Thanks,very nice collection of forms.
Tnx! Wonderful list of form creations :)
bookmarked for future reference....
Hey, nice selections of forms. Thanks for putting them all in one place!
Create a #registration #form using #HTML5 and #CSS3
Really Nice Collection, thanks for sharing
hey, very useful for me...
thanks guy!
Thanks heaps, I was for some inspiration for a fancy form, and this is exactly what needed.
You are too kind.
CHEERS :)
That's a nice set of forms. Thanks for resources
Nice Job
Great forms, Nice tutorials..........Thanks. I will have them on my site very soon.
Keep up the great work.
Its really nice collection. Thanks buddy sharing your knowledge.
Thank you Noupe! Very nice telling and good archive.
They are very good.
nice face. i love u
nice same to u?
The large and important and very much discussed question is: How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry? ,
Question: When exactly was the Flash indexing algorithm implemented? ,
It's a Awesome Site , with a neat and Tidy Way to Explain the Working of the Application,
it's code and all the stuff, I really Appreciate the People Here for their time and patience.
From now on words i don't ping anywhere, except Here
hi.
I would like to ask something.....cuz no one did answer this one.
i;m a beginner ..so
i;m using Show/hide a nice Login Panel using Mootools 1.2 on my Index.html
so..
how can i add now a register sistem? to the page?
plz ..
do i have to make a new page and add a form.....and?...
plz plz
nice pointers.. really nice forms.. thanks..
thanks, very useful.
ttttt
great stuff
Thanks for that cool collection
Cool! Just cool!
Really impressive list. I love form design and code. Great new stuff to learn more and more. :)
wonderful!
thx, really useful to me.
This is fantastic! Thanks!!
THXXXXXXXXX
nice stuff!!
Thanks for pulling together this great collection.
I'd really encourage people to spend some of their time thinking about the questions they are asking and what their users want to tell them. No matter how lovely your form looks, if it asks questions that the user doesn't want to answer then it won't work.
Excellent!
i found File Button Styling very long! Now i have it!
Thanks!
Very nice, thank you!!
How about Uni-Form? ( It's a framework for form design, I've started using it recently and it's great!
I assume you search stuff for your posts twenty for seven... Right? ;)
Awesome stuff there. Would have felt content with the provided plugin for Wordpress cform. Even though, it is the best and the easiest to use.
Now, there would not be such a surprise when I see some forms which are amazing, because, you have let us know all the trade secrets behind those jazzy and well placed form.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the great tips.
This is a very useful article. I'm redesigning my site at the moment and was looking for inspiration on the contact form.
Hmmm very nice ;) i really like this.Tnx a lot and keep up the good work.
Wow. You're a very talented designer. Great job!
Another great list!
This is one of my remaining tasks for the work I have been doing to customize/design my blog. I think a big challenge for someone like me is that I have zero training in any of this stuff. I have truly been "flyin by the seat of my pants". CSS remains my more elusive lesson.
Cheers!
Jeromy (AKA Hillbilly)
definitely a nice list, but something screws up the page so it renders weird.
Very nice!! Thanks.
No Spry Validations? :P
Bravo! Thanks for sharing.
Great info!! Hope you'll keep them online for years
wow ! awesome list ...
I love it - awesome suggestions for form resources. Thanks!!
I was looking for it for a new webapp! Perfect timing and some very good pointers.
Thank you !
Dude, it's great
i will use this into my website
thank you for sharing.
Wow, great list! Thanks for including my articles :)
Very good list of resources here! Forms are a very important but often neglected point of a website.
I might use some of them in my newly created "digg-like site for WordPress" !
Cheers Noura!
wow! awesome list. and nice forms