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Custom Website Design – 3 Must Have Tools

Sun, 09 May 2010 19:07:00 +0000

By: Dotnet

Custom Website Design – 3 Must Have Tools

Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as long as you have the right tools.Visit Here Now http://free-websitemaking.blogspot.com

Fortunately, all the tools you need are available at your fingertips and all you need to know are which tools will allow you to design the best website possible. The following tools are only a selection of the many means you can use to create and design the perfect website for your company.

Tool #1 Website Builder

Templates and design options take all of the work out of designing your own website. There are many website builders on the Internet that will allow you, for a fee, to simply pick and choose different templates, fonts, and colors and have your web page basically created for you. All you have to do is upload your information and pictures and in just a few minutes you will have a well designed and fully functioning website. Do some research online to find the company that offers the best website builder for your design needs that is also within your budget.

Tool #2 Website Templates

If you already have a web site in place and want to improve the design, then you should consider website templates. These provide a more affordable option than the website builder and you simply choose the templates you like. With this option you have to do more of the work, but you will pay less money. You can find a variety of different websites online that provide templates for a small fee, or if you are very creative and sk

illed you can design your own.

Tool #3 Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004

This software is perfect if you are a web developer and have significant experience designing websites. This particular program is superior and allows you to design your website exactly as you like, design and create logos, create animations, and pretty much any design idea you have can be completed with this program. However, if you are a beginner you should stick with tool #1 or #2 in order to develop a web page more quickly and with fewer problems. This is a great program, but it is a program for professionals.

Don’t let the idea of designing your own website make you nervous or anxious because there are custom website design options for everyone at all skill levels. You simply have to find the option that fits your ability and budget best, and before you know you will have an amazingly well designed website that you did all on your own. Use all of the tools available to you online and you will be able to find your best option for designing your own website.Visit Here Now http://free-websitemaking.blogspot.com

Visit Here Now http://free-websitemaking.blogspot.com

Armand Morins Header Generator Review

Sat, 08 May 2010 06:38:29 +0000

By: Christopher Hibberd

Header Generator is probably the easiest and simplest way to make a quick banner of any sort for any of your WebPages or promotions. It is done in a simple 3 step process. You pick the banner type, Create and edit images and texts for the banner, then save it to your hard drive.

The 1st stage is of course very important because this lets you choose whether you want a leaderboard (728×90), banner (468×60), skyscraper (120×600), square (250×250), small square (200×200) medium rectangle (300×250), large rectangle (336×280) and Wide Sky Scraper(160×600).

This selection process is very familiar to those who have used Google’s adsense program. Then once you’ve made your decision you get to your editing tool. This is where the real power shines through because you can achieve some astonishing effects and graphics with out to much effort at all.

The editing tools are all in one place, you can add, move around and change the font types of your text, you can add shadows and layers, you get the ability to bevel and texturise the text, you can ati-alias it all and preview it, see how it looks.

This might sound a bit confusing to those looking for a really easy way to create professional banners, but it really isn’t. All those things I just mentioned, you usually only find in some very professional, very expensive graphics design packages such as Macromedias’ FireWorks or Adobe’s Fantastic Photoshop software.

Same with the images you can drag, rotate make larger or smaller, blend with the background

ghost tint, make transparent. It really is a very flexible tool. You have everything you want, when you want it and how you want it.

A lot of graphics designers turn their nose up at it, but that’s simply because they are already affluent with these professional graphics packages I was on about, which is all very well and good…but 90% of us in the world of internet marketing just want to get stuff done, professionally, quickly and simply, and don’t care what we use as long as it looks good and makes money and sales. At the end of the day that is what software like this is all about and it does it fantastically.

That’s why I couldn’t recommend this more for people who want to get an edge and simplify their ebiz that little bit more

Header Generator Official Website

Header Generator Full Review And Pictures

How-to Create Web Sites Built for Search Engine Optimization

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:52:57 +0000

By: Amit Kothiyal
All too often must I tell someone that their website must be re-created from scratch during a consultation because it was not designed with search engine optimization in mind to be performed upon the website’s completion? I have written this article in an effort to help web designers create websites that are not only search engine friendly, but that which makes it possible for a search engine optimization team to promote a web site that he or she has created upon it’s completion. This is by no means an exhaustive list of criteria, but rather a set of guidelines to follow when performing the initial development of a site.

Beware of issues with FLASH and SEO

Do not uses flash unless the designer is capable of producing a site that pulls the content in via XML. Search engine robots are able to index XML content, however getting the robot to associate that xml content with the flash file that is using it is a bit tricky and most designers that learned the “old school” way of building a flash site are not aware of such modern techniques in Flash. The other option is to build two versions of the site, one in flash and one that is html, however this is not very cost-effective and if the search engine’s are driving traffic to the html site, more than half of the site’s visitors will never even see the Flash version. A good Flash designer should also be able to tell the difference between pointless animation and that which is purposeful – meaning it enhances the user experience. Most flash content out there is pointless animation that is nothing more than a distraction that bogs down the user’s system resources.

Use unordered list elements to build navigation menus

A search engine friendly navigation menu must present links as text and not images, however if images must be used, always make sure the images have alt tags attached to them with relevant keywords. Additionally, whether you are using images or text links, always attach the title tag to the link.

Be cautious of using javascript with navigation menus

It is important to be aware of how your javascript is used for navigation. Programs like Adobe/Macromedia Fireworks can be handy as a graphic interface for creating professional-looking navigation menus, but they are far from search engine friendly. The menus that are produced with such programs usually bury the links in a slew of poorly written javascript, making it impossible for the links to be visible to robots. Javascript can be used to control the behaviors of navigation menus however, but in a different way than that which is used in such programs as Fireworks. This method involves the use of tags together with unordered lists and a javascript function within the page that is defined in an external .js file. The div is then assigned a div id and the document.getElementById() method is used within the javascript function to basically tell the menu what to do with such behaviors as onClick and onmouseover.

Separate content from presentation

This is more of a design principal than an SEO technique; however it makes the job of the optimizer much easier. This involves heavy usage of id’s and classes and defining the style information inside CSS stylesheets.

Use text wherever possible

As a general rule, it is good practice to use a div wrapper with a background image and insert the text within the div, then style it in the css, as opposed to building one image in photoshop and placing it in the web page. It is in fact much easier to just create a single image in photoshop, however it is not search engine friendly by any means.

Make sure there is text on every page

We see a lot of homepages in particular with videos and flash yet little to know text content. By looking at the vizmarketing.com homepage, you will find a lengthy paragraph near the bottom of the page that is very keyword-driven. Very few people will read that text since there are many other elements that are intended to draw the user’s attention and make them click on a nearby link, such as the “Got Video?” container. However, without that text on the page, robots would have a hard time figuring out what the web site is all about. Robots rely on the homepage to determine many things about the site, so you want to give them what they are looking for right off the bat.

Watch your meta data

Always include the title, keywords and description tags in the header. This information is critical to the proper identification of page content. A professional search engine optimizer will likely change the information contained in these tags based on keyword and competitor research, but the designer must place or modify these tags initially because you don’t want the site to be published with meta description information saying something like “Joomla – the dynamic portal engine and content management system” on every page of the site, which is what the Joomla system does as the default page title.

Keep in mind, the above stated items are design principles for search optimization, and should not be taken as actual SEO tactics.

Vision Media Corporation is a Las Vegas & Nevada based search engine optimization, web design & development, business development firm specializing in new approaches to information technology and it’s relationship to marketing strategies and business models. The company has become known largely for it’s innovative approach and utilization of technology in marketing and business model management. For more information regarding search engine optimization, as well as the SEO services offered by Vision Media Corporation, browse to our site: Vizmarketing.com

Do You Really Own Your Web Site? Maybe Not

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:06:07 +0000

By: David West
Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company. If you don’t understand the ‘ownership’ issues when you are buying a web site design or web based application, this is must read material for you! Don’t get caught paying twice.

I recently interviewed a new client who was looking to add the functionality of a database to their existing web site. Their current webmaster had completed a business logo and designed the initial interface for the site. The clients asked their webmaster for a quote to add the functionality to the site and he returned a price that far exceeded the clients’ budget.

Long story made short, we found a great application that already exists that would meet the clients’ needs for substantially less than custom development. The client advised the previous webmaster that they were moving services. Do you think they got to keep their original web site? Nope. We had to start over again, which unfortunately meant that this customer had to pay for extra design time that they had effectively already paid for.

Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company.

Web Design Source Code

When you hire a web designer or a developer they are going to produce a web site or web based application that your business is going to be dependant on. In fact, a web application may be your whole business. This is absolutely the case where a business is 100% online and depends on the process built into their web site. E-commerce stores are a perfect example of a whole business online.

Web designers create web pages with a compilation of images and hyper-text markup language (HTML). The HTML is a text based standard language that most every web designer in the world knows. The HTML is what is used to hold the structure of your web site together. It keeps the pretty pictures and text all in the right places. Your web browser interprets that HTML and shows you the web site images and text.

Your web designer will start your design by “drawing” your web site in a graphics program. Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop are two tools that are very often used by professionals. Your designer will draw the site using shapes, colors, images and fonts that are all piled up in layers to create the final “look and feel” for your new web site design. The designers will then slice up the images and use the resulting smaller images to build your working website using HTML to hold it all together.

Here is the key. You need the original art file that was used to design your web site in Macromedia Fireworks or Photoshop or whatever software your designer uses. If you don’t get the source file, your next web designer will have to start your design from scratch if you want artwork changes. This is no walk in the park if the original images that were used are not available. Macromedia Fireworks source files have the extension .PNG (yourWebsite.PNG). Photoshop files have the extension .PSD (yourWebsite.PSD).

Another design issue that you may run into in the future is fonts. If your designer uses fancy fonts that are not installed by default on your computer or your future designers computer, you will have to substitute different fonts. In some cases, choosing a new font is not a big issue. However, if you could image that the font used in the logo for Coca-Cola® became unavailable because Coke® changed designers it would most likely cause them real damage. They need the font used in their logo or corporate branding and so do you!

Questions to ask your web designer

1) When you are finished designing my web site will you provide me with the source files used in the design of my new web site?

2) Will you transfer the ownership (copyright) of these source files to me or my company? Or at least give me perpetual license to continue using them and to make revisions?

3) Will you provide me with the names and files for all non-windows fonts used in the design of my new web site? At the very least, because there may be real copyright issues with transferring the fonts, you need to know the names of the fonts and where you can buy copies of them for your project archive.

Web Application Source Code

Web developers create programs that work as applications on the internet. They create code that is compiled, usually in real-time, at the web server. The code will, for example, connect to a database and extract a set of data. The data will then be compiled into an HTML table (so that it is readable) and then sent from the web server to your web browser as pure HTML. You will not be able to “view source” and read the scripting language because it never leaves the web server. If you “view source” from the web browser, you will only see the HTML.

Some of the code that your developer writes will be protected by copyright. Your developer may also buy code in the form of server components, use code blocks for functionality from other programmers or purchase complete application in order to finish your program. You need to ensure that the developer tells you that you can continue to use the software that they develop for your business for an unlimited period of time, and that if there are any licensing restrictions or reoccurring licensing costs that they are disclosed to you before you start the project. Find out if you will be bound forever to a hosting or server plan for you application.

Here are some questions you may want to ask your web developer

1) Will you transfer an unlimited a perpetual license to me or my company to use the application that you develop for me?

2) Will you disclose any licensing restrictions to me regarding the application?

3) Will you write code using common standards or languages that I will be able to move to another hosting provider or eventually to my own server?

4) Can I move my application to another server in the future if it is necessary?

Use of Encryption

So your web developer says “yes” to the last four questions and you think, “great, I’m home free, let’s get started”. Then two years later you decide it’s time to move your web application to your own servers because your e-commerce store is screaming busy and the cost of bandwidth and hosting is killing your profits.

You start the process to move your application to your new server and call up your webmaster for help, but he has gone to University in the states and “isn’t doing that anymore”. You think to yourself, “I guess I should have used a more established company…” So you find a new webmaster. Incidentally, I am often told by new clients that I am their second, third and sometimes even fourth web developer. So we go to move the web site, but wait, something is wrong… portions of the source code are encrypted. Even the government couldn’t decrypt it. We have to rewrite those blocks of code and the client has to pay… again.

If your web sites source HTML or application scripting language is encrypted then it may have to be rewritten or you will have no way to add functionality, or to fix bugs, without involving the original developer who holds the key to the encryption. They are quite clever, aren’t they?

There are some good reasons to encrypt some portions of the source code, even on in a web application. Most web applications will contain, in the source code, the database, username and password within one of the files. This is a great example of a code block that should be encrypted before it is placed into a shared hosting environment.

If your web developer is going to encrypt portions of the source code, make sure you get a copy of the unencrypted source code for your project archive. In this manner you will be able to work with a new developer.

Questions to ask your web developer regarding encryption

1) Will you be encrypting any or all of the source code in the application you are developing for me?

2) Will you provide me with a copy of the original source code prior to being encrypted?

Technologies

There are a number of technologies used in the development of web sites and web applications they include Pre-Hypertext Processor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Active Sever Pages dot Net (ASP.NET), and Cold Fusion to name a few. All of these scripting languages facilitate connecting web sites to databases and accessing functionality on the web server such as sending mail or uploading files. All of these technologies are widely used, widely available and there is a great number of developers that know these languages. There are some lesser known programming and scripting languages that may be able to do a lot of the same things as the more widely used languages. The pitfall is that you may have a more difficult time finding a programmer that knows the language.

Some web scripting or programming languages like Microsoft’s® Active Server Page or Active Server Page dot Net technologies are developed specifically for use on the Mircrosoft operating systems. These technologies are difficult, if not impossible, to run on a Linux operating system. When your programmer selects a language to develop your web application with, he may be marrying you to a long term relationship with a particular operating systems and software vendor. This is okay as long as you recognize the long term ramifications of these choices, some of which may be greater costs to you in the future.

Questions to ask your web developer regarding programming languages

1) Is the technology you use tied to one particular operating system or can I host my web site on my choice of servers with my choice of operating system? More specifically, can I host my application on a Microsoft web server and a Linux server?

Transferability

Make sure that you are able to move your web site to a server with comparable standards in the future should you wish to do so. Moving a web site to a new server is not necessarily due to a break down in the relationship with your web designer. You may be forced to move if your existing server can no longer handle your traffic bandwidth. If your costs become too high in a shared hosting environment you may find it more economical to setup your own web server and host your own application.

If you do choose to host your own application this is where the cost ramifications of your earlier choices will hit your pocket book. For example if your site was developed using PHP, an open-source scripting language for websites, then the cost of your new server will likely not include any software licensing because the operating system (Linux) is free. If on the other hand your site is developed using .ASP or .ASP.NET, you are going to have to buy expensive server licenses from the big guy.

Can You Use Your Site Into the Future?

If you commission a web designer or developer to complete a project for you make sure that you have an agreement in place that clearly specifies that you can continue to use the project and the related source files when it is completed. Check the service agreement that you have signed with your web company. Of course if there is no documentation then you will not know if you own you web site or web-based application.

In Summary

There are some good reasons for web designers and developers to protect their rights and to ensure their future earning potential. As the client or purchaser of web design services you need to understand where you stand with regard to choices that will be made on your behalf regarding your web site or web based application.

http://www.eKzact.com sign up for our Free newsletter on-line Call 1-866-WEBB-123… or email info@ekzact.com

David West is a Director and the operating partner of eKzact Solutions Inc. A full service web site design and web-application development company. eKzact Solutions puts small and medium sized business online! Visit us at http://eKzact.com

eKzact Solutions Inc. http://www.eKzact.com… “We Put Small Business Online” Helping small business to jump start their online success, profit and growth. We make putting your business online affordable!

Free Flyer Templates

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:18:23 +0000

By: Karina Daniel

Software for Creating Flyers

It’s common for businesses to make use of flyers to serve as their advertisement and get the word out on their company’s products or services. If you have searched around for program or software to help in designing a brochure or flyer, you have come across products such as:

Adobe Illustrator CorelDraw Macromedia Fireworks

These three are excellent programs, and if you decide in making use of the software often, it may be worth your money to invest any of these packages. However, if you don’t use the software often, purchasing any of these three becomes an expensive and bit used investment for the business.

Online Resources Offering Free Flyer Templates

Some websites provide free, downloadable flyer templates, which are easy to utilize and let you print the flyer yourself or make a clean copy for use in your printer.

These resources offer different sorts of template categories, so take time and shop around for free templates that work best for you. When you plan on downloading a template to your computer, take time to customize it to suit your business’ individual needs.

Prior to downloading anything, though, make sure to check the Software’s User Agreement. Some sites permit multiple downloads that are free, while others specify a limit. You will want to know and understand any limitations prior to starting.

Microsoft Office

Business brochure (Level design) Technology business brochure (2 – pg, 8.5 x 11, tri-panel) Back to school pamphlet Tri

-Fold Brochure Template (8.5 x 11) Technology business brochure (2 – pg, 11 x 17)

Brochure template category choices include:

Utilities/Industrial Telecommunication Technology, Science & Computers Sports Religious/Spiritual General People Nature and Environment Military Medical Legal Special Occasion/Holiday Global

Stock Layouts

Stock Layouts provides lots of brochure templates to buy, but they offer a free sample flyer template. It could be downloaded in the following formats:

Microsoft Word Microsoft Publisher CorelDRAW Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Adobe PageMaker QuarkXpress

Mac

Microsoft Word Adobe Illustrator Adobe PageMaker Adobe InDesign QuarkXPress

Customize the Flyer

Most free templates will let you customize the template so that your product reflects your unique design. You do not have to worry about it looking like every other flyer out there. Customization involves features like:

pictures text company logo

Easy to Use

Most free templates that are available for creating flyers utilize software that is user-friendly. If you are artistic, you will enjoy putting your imaginative talents to work while creating designs for flyers, brochures and any other leaflets. If you are not gifted with creative or artistic skills, the good news is that, you could still learn how to use the software to make quality flyers!

FreeFlyerTemplates
offer you the ability to create high quality flyers. FreeFlyerTemplates
also gives you the advantage of free templates that can also help you lower design costs.

How to Create and Profit From Website Development Service

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:12:20 +0000

By: Aniekan Udobong
Website designing is regarded as a goldmine .It has the potential and value of about $11 billion per year income in professional website designs, multimedia and graphics industry .The potentials of professional website designing is quite enormous

Whether you want to develop professional websites to run your online business or you need to learn the skills or advance your skills on website designing services. There are tremendous skills or jobs available online for website designing as individuals, companies and organizations are opening websites for their online business every day or the need to open one soon.

Thousands of websites are developed and uploaded to the Internet.

To profit from website designing services for your own business or offering such services to individuals, businessmen and organizations that requires professional websites, you need to learn or have access to resources on creating professional websites using the following application programs such as Microsoft FrontPage, dream weaver or macromedia flash , macromedia fireworks .Learning how to use this softwares and other guided step by step resources will aid you to develop pro websites for your online business or services to others .

You also need to learn the hypertext markup language (html) which is the language or system that webpages are being from as this will aid you when you want to make changes to your webpages in adding some web forms or forms using javascripts and add some additional interactivity support to your websites.

Finally, you will need to learn and have access to graphic programs like macromedia fireworks ,photopaint shop to use and develop webpages graphics for website buttons ,banners ,pop up menu ,slides ,roll up menu ,php scripts and server side technologies .

Aniekan udobong is an experience webdesigner
To get a professional website, designing resources guide step-by-step system visit www.bloggingforprofits.info

Web Design Articles – Web Site Designing Ideas

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:51:17 +0000

By: Anantait

The most significant aspects that should be considered while designing a web site is see to it that the web site is attractive, fast-loading, user friendly, focuses on your content and has a high amount of glue factor attached to it! (It makes your visitor stay longer on your site). Instead of making very complex designs with less content or only designs crowded together along with the content, we recommend that you find the right balance between both.

Layout and Navigation It is advisable to use decent layout and neat navigation by using more white space in your web page. It definitely shall enhance the look of your site. Always keep focus on the content. That is why we recommend using dream weaver templates for your site – all pages or a group of pages have one basic design and only the content varies – this way even if your site is a little distracting due to unavoidable effects, the visibility of your site increases and the visitor gets focused on the content automatically.

If you have too many links then you should use drop-down menus or fly outs for your main topics. If you have Fireworks or Dream weaver then macromedia drop-down menus are one of their most popular in-built “Behaviors”.

Enhance the Look and Feel of your site

Some design elements work wonders to enhance the look of your site. We have described some of our favorites below. Most of them require Macromedia Fireworks, which generates all the HTML and JavaScript code involved, so all you have to do is go a

head and design a fabulous site!

Simple Rollover Buttons & Images

Here, a button or image changes itself on rolling over it (onMouseOver event) and reverts back to the original image on rolling out of the web object (onMouseOut event).

Rollover Swap Images

Here, a group of web objects [web object - a slice, hotspot, or button] trigger the change in the display of another graphic on rolling over them (onMouseOver event) and reverts back to the original image on rolling out of the web object (onMouseOut event).

Graphic and Photo Effects

You might have seen many sites and must have been amused and wondered “how did they do that?” Most “wow” sites use various graphic and photo effects. What you need to become an expert at is how to use these effects in the correct amount and not over do it.

Site Interactivity

Macromedia Flash is very useful to add interactivity to your site. 95% of the world’s browsers have the Flash Player plug-in, so you don’t have to think about compatibility as long as your movie can be played by lower versions of the Flash Player. Try having a HTML and Flash Sections “Entry (Splash) Page” if you have a heavy movie to accommodate users on slow connections.

Interactive Applications: To make your web site stickier you can add a few simple interactive applications like site polls, surveys, a guest book, an event calendar, newsletter sign-up, etc. There are many applications on the net but you need to choose them carefully if you do a lot of online business.

We at AIT – India Center are capable of delivering top-quality web design & web programming services for our clients. We create sites that are highly professional W3C Standard compliant and load-time optimized websites at reasonable prices which give us an edge as compared to our competitors. We give more “value for money” to our clients without compromising on the quality. No matter what your requirements are, our team is capable of delivering a website that’s above your expectations.

If you are really looking at designing an attractive, effective and affordable web site, AIT is the right place!

Head SEO, Marketing at AIT India

Simple Tips To Improve Your Website Design

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:32:30 +0000

By: Heris Yunora
As a well designed website matters a lot to visitors, building it is one of the most important things to accomplish. Having a good, simple, and easy to navigate website always scores credibility points for a business owner. In order to improve the design of your website, there are several key elements that should be evaluated.

First, your web pages should load fast. Keep in mind that not everyone uses a fast internet connection. A great number of Internet users still surf the Internet via dial-up modems. Do not load your site with slow loading banners and images. Use interlaced low-res images that have been optimized for the web. If your website is not done loading in less than 15 seconds, most people will leave it.

Providing quick-loading web pages show that you value your visitors’ time. If you really cannot do without music or sounds, turn it off by default and ask visitors to start it themselves. Doing this will prevent your web pages from slow-loading. In addition, many people do not like to be forced to listen to music or sounds while exploring a website because they are already listening to their favorite music.

Besides having to prevent visitors from frustration of waiting for the pages to load, you also need to pay attention to the text size. Be sure the text is big enough to make it easy to read. In addition, the background should not obscure your text. Choose colors very carefully. If you want to be safe, use black text on a white background. This way, someone with a color deficit or using a black and white screen can still read your text clearly.

Each link should also be clearly identified. Avoid relying on applet or plug-in for navigating around your Webpages. Neatly organized hyperlinks to different pages in your website from home page or any other page will help your visitors to move quickly to their destination.

Some webmasters use Flash to create cool drop-down menus. With Flash, together with Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver, it takes less than a day for an average coder to create professional looking web pages. However, if you take the same route, make sure people can figure out how your Flash menu works.

Cross-browser compatibility is another important factor that may affect the usability of a web site. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer on Windows. Unfortunately there are code that will be displayed differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. That means it is wise to prepare your site so it will be viewable in those popular browsers.

Evaluating screen resolutions should also be done with care. A site that looks perfect in high resolution may turn out to be impossible to view correctly in other resolutions. For instance, serif fonts is more comfortable to read on paper, because serifs help individualize each letter. However, this advantage can be rendered useless when the fonts are viewed on computer screens, since factors such as screen resolution can affect the clarity of texts.

There are many factors that affect the usability and accessibility of a web site. Tools such as WebXACT or Bobby can help you find out how accessible your Website is. If you have a doubt, ask your family and friends for help. Being less familiar with the website, they can help find a lot of things you overlooked.

Heris Yunora soft-promotion.com – Resource of ebooks and articles with private label rights. Also provides tips to develop content for website.

Best Colors for Web Designing

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:13:06 +0000

By: Author

Web Color

There are many web design tutorials that cover Web color in detailed scientific terms. However, for our objectives, let’s briefly discuss Web color and how it will be used in the Web portfolio. You will need to develop a color scheme for your Web portfolio pages. This means that you will designate colors for your page background, the type used on the page and any other static elements that reside in the page. There are two types of color that can be used in Web graphics. The colors can be associated with the Web graphic file formats we just mentioned: GIF and JPG.

GIF

GIF files use index color. Index color consists of 216 common colors found on all computer monitors and within all Web browsers. These common colors reside in a Web palette. The Web palette of colors is available in Macromedia Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop so they can be used in design of Web screens without variance of color when the pages are on the Internet. Also, the Web palette is the standard color palette in Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash. This allows us to achieve consistent color across Web applications and Web browsers.

We use Web colors for:

Web text/HTML text

Web page backgrounds

Web page colors used for table or layer backgrounds

Web links

GIF files

JPG

JPG files use red, green, and blue (RGB) for graphical color. RGB color is also known as full color. Full color items include bitmap graphics or photographs. We want to utilize photographs as much as we can within a Web portfolio to add to th

e visual rhetoric and the narrative that we are trying to present. Extensive use of photographs, especially their manipulation in programs such as Adobe Photoshop, require a brief description of the RGB color model. RGB color is known as additive color because of all colors, red green, and blue were added together at their full intensity that would create pure white. The mixtures of the relative strengths of these colors, “create the millions of colors computer monitors can show” (Kimball, 2003, p. 95). The strength of these colors is set in from zero to 255 with zero being the least intensity and 255 being the highest intensity. When red, green and blue are combined at zero intensity the result is black. At full strength, high intensity, where the values are set at 255, 255, 255, the result is pure white. To remember this, here is a simple metaphor. Think of the red, green, and blue as light switches. Each light switch using a slider has a range of zero to 255. When all the white switches are set at zero the room is dark. What all the light switches are set to 255, the room is lit at full intensity. Once you begin to use image-editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia fireworks, you begin to explore computer color within your graphics and photographs. When discussing color usage, full color or RGB color is present in photographic JPG files and other created artwork. Full color images should not be saved as GIF files because of the limited number of colors. By having limited colors, the full color image will represent the true colors using the existing Web palette of 216 colors.

This creates a poor, dithered, and ugly image. That is why it is very important to use the right file format for each specific graphic. When converting print images to the Web, it’s important that you do not use the CMYK color model for anything including graphics. The CMYK model is not a monitor friendly color space. The CMYK graphics cannot be seen in CMYK on the Internet. They can only be represented by the RGB color model or the Web safe (indexed) color model. Here are the rules for Web color:

Full color images (RGB palette) and photos are saved as JPG.

Flat graphics (Web 216 palette) with limited color are saved as GIF files.

For Page backgrounds use the Web safe palette (Web 216 palette) in all computer graphics, multimedia, and Web development applications. Now, let’s discuss Web page and graphic size.

Size

Web pages are measured in pixels. Pixels are the unit of measurement for the screen. A Web page can literally be any size. Standard Web pages usually fit into a few sizes:

W × H

600 × 800

640 × 480 (Dreamweaver default)

1024 × 768

550 × 400 (Flash default)

The default Web page sizes provided in Web friendly applications and listed earlier are a great place to start. You will probably use a smaller, custom size for pop-up windows. The Web page size you choose is up to you. Remember to use actual space for the Web page effectively so that the content is in the proper proximity to the user’s navigation patterns. Web page size affects the way users move around the Web pages and the Web portfolio site. One rule: Pick a size for all main screens and stick to it.

Consistency in page size r should be used on each level of the Web portfolio design flowchart. You will need to understand size in the image editing application when you develop screens and Web graphics. We must keep our graphics within the page size guidelines otherwise they will over extend the Web browser and the user will need to scroll to see them. That is not a good thing and will definitely turn off the user. When you are looking at Web screens and graphics in an image editing application such as Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop, you can see the exact size the image will occupy on a monitor when the view is set to 100 percent.

This means that you can get an accurate indication of how a page will look before going through the process of making it an HTML Web page. This helps with design and production. It helps eliminate guess work when developing pages. Size also depends on resolution. Let’s discuss resolution next.

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ANCHORS NEWS presents Enhancing Your Computer Graphic Design Skills

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:16:03 +0000

By: Solution Finders

esigners nowadays require not only creative abilities, but also some understanding of other graphic design-related areas such as computer graphic design.

During the 80’s, the advent of desktop publishing and of design software such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks, put the power and versatility of the computer at graphic designers’ fingertips. Designers for the first time were easily able to manipulate images and create 3D images using the computer. Computers are now considered to be an indispensable tool in the graphic design industry, though some traditional graphic designers may still prefer to use manual and traditional tools for their creative endeavors.

With modern graphic design concepts and methodologies always changing, graphic designers need to continually advance their knowledge of different graphic design techniques, innovations and graphic design software packages. At present, the basic instructions in graphic designing cannot guarantee for a competitive product anymore without the use of high technology, so that the demand for highly skilled graphic designers is higher than ever.

To become a computer graphic designer, the basic requirements include good creative abilities, good computers skills, and good communication skills.

Computer graphic design helps graphic designers complete their tasks faster and easier. They can effortlessly translate ideas into visual imagery, save it onto their computers and edit it whenever alterations are necessary.

There are great many benefits if you under

go computer graphic design training geared towards arming you with a wider range of cutting edge graphic design skills. Having computer design training also means a greater choice of employment. Computer graphic design skills are in great demand in such sectors as:

1. Advertising agencies – You can use your newly acquired graphic design skills to design appealing and eye-catching advertisements for different media.

2. Web design companies – Help design appealing web pages.

3. Design studios – Apply your design skills to photo editing such as editing the contrast and the brightness of colors on the photos.

4. Publishing houses – Perform layout design and editing tasks. Publications usually follow a distribution schedule; so make sure you are able to meet deadlines.

5. Corporate advertising departments – Design professional corporate ads.

6. TV and film companies – out of all the other jobs, this is where a graphic designer is most suited as it requires a comprehensive application of the designer’s skill and ability, especially if working on animation films.

Your computer graphic design training will open new doors for you into a world of greater opportunities. Your computer design knowledge, combined with your dedication and commitment, will surely help you reach your goal.

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After all, it’s not a given that the home page will be the first page that the visitor sees, particularly if they have found you via a search engine.