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Image optimization and compression: tools, tips and tricks Web Design Tips – How to Optimize Your Website’s Graphics For Speed Online image optimization, or taming robots 25% smaller PNG files Nicole Sullivan: “Design Fast Websites” Note: To get it right, you have to be brutal with images. You will notice the difference but the audience…

This project is a simple website for a local print shop. First, I’ve used an  existing color theme based on their business identity of red, black, and white. I don’t usually go for “pitch black” backgrounds. I prefer a dark gray because it’s easier on the eye. But the identity IS “pitch black.” This makes…

5 Simple Tricks To Bring Light and Shadow Into Your Designs 1. Using A Light Source 2. Gradients 3. Highlights (horizontal rules) 4. Basic Shadows 5. Advanced Shadows 16 Great Photoshop Light Effect Tutorials Examples: the splash screens from Linux Ubuntu 9.x and 10.x. These type of abstract screens can be made to be very…

In entry 15, I rebuilt Julia’s site for speed making it 17K with a 50K background image = 67K. The Original (where we left off. Boring!) I decided to apply the “tradeshow booth” formula I described in entry 27. The simple elements are 1) color, 2) foliage, 3) lighting, and 4) legibility. ColorThe color theme…

A significant amount of my time is spent in educating, coaching, or hand-holding the client and gleaning web content from their “on-hand resources.” Building the site is the easy part. My focus is producing forms and shortcuts to help clients quickly assemble material (reduce the learning curve.) Of a 6-week website production period, about 2…

Molly Holzschlag’s book titled “250 HTML and Web Design Secrets.” She said: page 265 “Part of the problems with Frames is they go against the premise of markup –there job is presentational.”  (Used $0.30 on Amazon. Save your money!) PRESENTATION TOOL  While she was explaining why to “never use frames”, she inadvertently also explained one…

I’ve been showing the incremental process of designing “The Virtual Repository” for environmental biophysics .org. Above are two Blogger sections out of four. Each section has a header now to tie back the “feeling” of the Landing page on the main site. I’ve pushed the headers pretty hard for file size reduction. They are 15K…

GZIP is a software application used for file compression/decompression. GZIP is short for GNU zip; as the program was created as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, intended for use by the GNU Project. Version 0.1 was first publicly released on October 31, 1992. Version 1.0 followed in…