One area in which few Linux users see any representation is Web typography. In 2003, Linux user and software developer Jeremy Zawodny howled about the dearth of decent fonts for Linux. At the time, he was right. But that situation has since changed, even though many Web designers still believe fonts designed for (and included with) various Linux flavors are all just icky.
That’s not true any longer either. But the perception remains.
Read MoreWhen writing for the Web, writers should always keep one analogy in mind: the Internet is a jungle and Web users are information foragers within it. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen championed this comparison based on his studies that found that the majority of Internet users only scan websites in their quest to find useful information as quick as possible.
As web professionals, we’re always looking for ways to improve our knowledge and skills. Continuing on with our list of quick web design tips, these tips will cover the website development process as well as positive marketing and promotional tips for web designers.
Read MoreSince the earliest days of Adobe Photoshop, designers and photographers have depended on it to edit images. Photoshop is perhaps Adobe’s most popular application. Professionals in our industry react with excitement and concern for every new version. They want to know about new features and how Photoshop can improve their editing and marketing (again!). The interest in Photoshop doesn’t come as a surprise, given its reputation among both the community of experts and general computer users.
Read MoreAs web professionals, we’re always looking for ways to improve our knowledge and skills. Tips, tricks and checklists are often one of the most underused yet potentially useful models of providing great, quick and easy to follow pieces of useful information.
You may or may not know some of the tips below — and you may or may not agree with everything listed — but hopefully it will give you some ideas for your own sites or motivate you to create a checklist to help cover your bases.
Read MoreIn this article, Brian Suda will you to the exciting world of eBooks, specifically the ePub format in regards to Apple’s new iBookstore, but much of the same information applies to other devices and online stores.
With all this hype surrounding the iPad, Kindle and other eReaders the world of electronic publishing is now more accessible than ever. With the new iOS 4.0, the iBooks application is available for the iPhone and iPod touch, further increasing the reach of your eBooks.
There are quite a few reasons why having basic Photoshop skills beyond slicing PSD’s to XHTML/CSS is essential to any web developer.
Whether you’re a freelance web designer or part of a team at an agency,
handing off Photoshop files to a client, developer, development team or
even another designer is part of the process of building websites. Whereas the development process is generally more structured, by
contrast, the design process is quite often spontaneous and full of
experimentation.
The curves adjustment tool is an integral part of every professional’s knowledge base and image editing package. Even if you’ve taken a good photo, chances are it can be improved or it needs to be adjusted to work in a collage or collection. Or even to just to intensify a mood. You can always make a good thing better – and curves is a one-stop-shop way to do that.
As the first thing visitors see, home pages and headers often steal the design spotlight. But above-the-fold thinking neglects the natural flow of vertical page layout. What happens when people reach the end of a page?
You can bet that a simple copyright statement won’t hold visitors’ attention, but many pages are designed with the expectation that people will find their way… or so we assume.