Webdesigninformer.com

Mezzoblue Go to the source

You thought our long nightmare of PNG alpha transparency support was finally over as of IE7, didn’t you? Yeah, me too. Over the past few months I’ve been collaborating with Chris Glass on the newly-launched Joyent site. (When someone comes to you and says, hey, we have Chris Glass helping us out with this project and we’d like the two of you to work together, you jump at that chance.) I was tossing around ideas for building an interactive infographic Chris had designed, and thought of at least four different ways of pulling it off. We’re reaching this interesting point with front end web technology where we now have actual choices besides Flash for jobs like this… Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I remember when I first went freelance, paying for my first software bundle. I had the choice of buying Quark Xpress 5 for a few pounds shy of a thousand (that’s a complacent monopoly for you), or I could get Acrobat, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator for just £600. It was a no brainer to leave what was the leading print design app of the day, that I’d used for all my career so far, and go for the plucky youngster that was InDesign. Back then, Adobe felt like the good guys. Nowadays they feel more like the Quark Xpress. Another weighty CS upgrade is upon us, and I was keen to see if there were improvements. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith : A Book Apart’s inaugural title. I have a preview copy and it’s worth every penny of the $18 USD you’ll pay for yours. Orders ship in June. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Transmit 4 : Now available, Transmit 4 has a slew of new features, including the new Transmit Disk feature allowing you to mount any of your favorites in the Finder itself (similar to Dropbox, I believe). The UI has been revised quite a bit, too. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Luxa2 H4 iPad Holder : It looks like a robotic device at first glance, but it’s quite versatile—it rotates 360 degrees and tilts at almost any angle. I’m finding, however, that iPad stands seem to be practical only for certain scenarios. With the amount screen touching required to do just about anything in normal use, few setups are more optimal than holding it in your hands or laying it on a flat surface. Even an external keyboard is almost useless for anything other than long periods of typing. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

My Photoshop File for Friday’s Layer Tennis : Last Friday’s Layer Tennis was a blast to participate in, despite having no more than about 20 minutes to complete my artwork. If you’d like to see how I did what I did, download the PSD. I’m providing the file for educational purposes, so please don’t abuse the privilege by using the photo or design elements in your work. I’ve removed elements from previous volleys that were not mine. … Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

Last week I put together an animated infographic that required some flexibility. Alpha transparency was essential, but the number of images I needed to pull it off meant that my typical way of creating PNGs wasn’t going to work. Let’s be honest; Photoshop is absolutely terrible at saving transparent PNGs for web use. Your choices are between an 8-bit with 1-bit transparency (better than a GIF in terms of file size, but no better in terms of transparency options) or a huge 32-bit PNG with alpha transparency. There’s no middle ground. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

In October 2009, the hashtag #lessconf began showing up repeatedly in my Twitter stream. The tweets were remarkably positive for something I’d heard nothing about previously. It turns out Steven Bristol and Allan Branch of Less Everything , the bright minds behind LessAccounting , were hosting a conference. Crush It! author Gary Vaynerchuk, Wufoo founder Kevin Hale and others spoke, and nearly 200 of you attended. This year’s LessConf 3010 resumes in Atlanta, Georgia, May 21–22… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Opera Mini vs. Mobile Safari, a Flickr Photoset : Screenshots I took this morning comparing Opera Mini for iPhone and Safari on iPhone, using Opera.com, NYTimes.com, Apple.com, and CameronMoll.com. First impressions after a few minutes of testing: Opera Mini is definitely snappy on iPhone. NYTimes.com loads quite fast compared to Safari. However, most text on non-mobilized sites is illegible without tapping to zoom in. This almost negates any speed gains vs. … Read the rest here

SimpleBits Go to the source

Let the games begin! Rich Thornett and I have been building Dribbble for what seems like years (oh wait, it has been that long). About a week ago, we quietly rolled back the curtain so the public could finally see what’s been happening in private beta. I’m pretty damned excited about this. Firstly, what is Dribbble? From the FAQ : Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

What the iPad is Missing: Good Typography : Stephen Coles, FontShop’s self-described “Glyph Pusher” (and boy does he know glyphs): Apple has made some puzzling decisions over the last few years that leave one wondering if they really care about typography as much as they did in the 1980s when the Mac launched the desktop publishing revolution. As recently as 2005, Steve Jobs made typography a central theme of his commencement address to Stanford grads, but his actions as the almighty head of Apple haven’t followed suit. Sadly, I have to agree with Stephen’s thoughts. The Winnie the Pooh book that comes with iBooks is a shining (i.e. dull) example of illegible type. … Read the rest here

Clagnut Go to the source

In a special edition of the revived Friday Biscuit series, I am happy to honour the save BBC 6 Music campaign by revisiting “Joy Division Oven Gloves”: Well I’ve been here and I’ve been there In me Joy Division oven gloves I’ve been to a post punk postcard fair In me Joy Division ovengloves Talk to the hand Talk to the hand In me Joy Division oven gloves Dance, dance, dance Daaaaaaaaaaaaance! In me Joy Division oven gloves Why? Because the Save BBC 6 Music campaign is trying to get Joy Division Oven Gloves to number 6 in the singles charts this weekend. So whip out your credit card and fork out 49p on a great song, and see if we can get Half Man Half Biscuit to subvert the charts (channel your inner Malcolm Mclaren, RIP ). You have until the end of Saturday 10th April for your purchase to count . At the time of writing, Joy Division Oven Gloves is at number 2 in the Amazon mp3 chart and number 57 in the UK iTunes chart. What’s all this 6 Music kerfuffle about anyway… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Dribbble , masterfully crafted by Dan Cederholm and Rich Thornett , went live over the weekend. I don’t recall all the details, but probably sometime in 2008, Dan Cederholm and I had a conversation about an app he was considering building. Fundamentally, the idea was to build a community loosely based on the same concept as the “ Screen Grab Confab ” posts on my site. (Remember those?) The concept was simple, embracing the brevity and utility of Twitter and adding to it visuals: Share a snippet of what you’re currently designing, but only a snippet. Let others reply. Dan asked if I had any issues with the idea… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Relink: MEX Manifesto Predicts “Multi-Platform” Experiences : With the iPad arriving at many U.S. households tomorrow, it’s an appropriate time to revisit something I posted in November 2009: Each year, MEX, the Mobile User Experience conference, publishes a manifesto to frame the content and discussion for the year’s conference. Traditionally these manifestos have focused on mobile devices, operators/carriers, and the like. However, this year’s manifesto speaks repeatedly of “multi-platform” experiences. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

I’ve commented on this before but I have a protocol that I usually use when emailing someone. I like to finish my emails in a way that acknowledges that you have reached the end of the message. My first email tends to be on the more formal side. [Cheers | Best regards | All the best | Best of luck to you], Jonathan Once the formality is out of the way, I keep it short. The verbosity is unnecessary since you should already know my name and the goodbye greeting sounds odd in the middle of an ongoing conversation. In which case, I like to use my initial prefaced by a hyphen. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

Have you heard of Hundred Pushups ? It’s a simple six-week program to build up your strength by slowly increasing the number of pushups you can complete. By the end of six weeks, you should be able to complete 100 and along the way you’ve gotten a short workout working multiple muscle groups. Since I’m still trying to lose weight , I figured I’d get started on the program (yesterday was my first day and managed to do 12 pushups at the end of my first set). However, being the geek that I am, I thought, "I should track my progress with a cool iPhone app." There is one available for $1.99 from the Hundred Pushups web site. … Read the rest here

Clagnut Go to the source

As Jon Hicks wrote a few days ago, the House of Lords recently passed the Digital Economy Bill . The bill panders to big players in the music industry is being hurried through without due democratic process, clearly intended to be made law before the election. Unsurprisingly the driving force behind it is Lord ‘Mandy’ Mandelson, the Business Secretary; a powerful but unelected passive-aggressive imposition. Through the partly Clearleft designed 38 Degrees , I wrote to my local MP , the retiring Des Turner , to present my objections, and to urge him to speak out against rushing through the Digital Economy Bill without due debate and process. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Last October, I wrote about my frustrations with Fireworks CS4 , and the search for decent competitors to Adobe Software. Photoshop has many alternatives, and Illustrator has a handful, but nothing else seemed to cater for the mix of vector and bitmap editing that is Fireworks. I recently tried both Photoshop and Illustrator again for icon creation, and Illustrator in particular irritated the hell out of me with it’s pixel preview artefacts ( still not fixed from CS3). Before I get a sackful of comments from diehard Photoshop fans, please believe me when I say that Photoshop is not the right tool. That post did point to 3 possibilities however: Acorn , Drawit and Opacity … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

Leave it to PPK to come out with a bold statement like, " CSS vendor prefixes considered harmful ". Moreso, It’s time to abolish all vendor prefixes. They’ve become solutions for which there is no problem, and they are actively harming web standards. The problem is that they are necessary. Look at Safari’s implementation of border-radius compared to the rest. I still can’t remember if it’s border-radius-topleft or border-top-left-radius . … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

EOS DLSR Video Review : New to DSLR video? This is a good primer for Canon EOS models (currently 500D, 550D, 7D, 5D Mark II and 1D Mark IV). Also note that the site to which this was posted, VideoDSLR.tv , was just launched over the weekend. Looking forward to seeing what other content it leads to. … Read the rest here