Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIn’

WordPress, CSS and Cross Browser Display

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Well yesterday I finally was satisfied enough with the updated version of my site to upload.  Of course, the result was not the nice and easy transfer that I was expecting since I decided to transfer my site to using WordPress as a CMS. All archived blog images broke, none of my links transferred, permalinks weren’t working; it was just an irritating time sink.

Obviously there is still work to do, such as adding my portfolio pieces, but what became most irritating was the fact that Safari was ignoring font-family, background, well generally everything on the body styling, when it appeared quite fine in Firefox, and Opera.

I spent the morning searching for a solution. I could find nothing about Safari ignoring font-family, which for me was the more important issue. I should have considered that the problem stemmed from the fact that all body styles were being neglected.

After a little experimentation, I found the root of the problem. WordPress’ theme information in style.css.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fontify Yourself

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I have always wanted to create my own font, and have always planned on learning the software to develop various explorations in typeface design, but also for the vain purpose of having a typeface of my own handwriting.

In keeping up with the practices and various coding languages used in web design, I have had little time available to hone such a skill set. Fortunately for me, YourFonts.com provides exactly what I was interested in without needing to investing all the time, the opportunity to create a unique typeface both quickly and cheaply.

As soon as I stumbled across the site, I eagerly printed out the template.  For my first attempt I chose to stick with my own handwriting and quickly scratched out the alphabet and headed to the scanner.  I had a little trouble uploading a PNG, so I would suggest saving your file as a JPG. After a few minutes I had created “Sam’s Scrawl” and began playing around in Illustrator.  As I tested out my new font, I discovered that I was a bit to hasty with writing out the characters.  I then tweaked my initial scans in Photoshop and began the uploading process anew.

scrawlsample

I am pleased with the final result, however, the typeface would not be suitable for large size uses as it it is comprised of sharp vector shapes rather than organic curves.

Download Sam’s Scrawl for your own personal use.

Creative Commons License

Tap Tap Tap

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

If you were fortunate enough to receive one of the many gifts that were part of the financial boost to Apple over the holiday season, you might be interested in these 10 quick tips from Tap Tap Tap.

10 useful iPhone tips & tricks

I was lucky enough to find a touch under my Christmas tree, and since then it has become quite a valuable tool. This is actually my first iPod and, not surprisingly, I don’t really use it as a media player. For me, the touch is more like one of those so-called netbooks. I check my email, read the news, post to Twitter, and so on. And in those rare instances when I don’t have Internet access, I catch up on my classics by reading them on Stanza, or any of the various educational PDFs I have found across the Internet on Files Lite.

Essentially, those spare minutes in the day formerly spent waiting now add up to whole novels read, new coding languages learned, faster email response, happier clients, and in the end, a more in control me.

And of course it isn’t all work with no play, some of the more fun apps on my iPod touch:
Urbanspoon
Spore (Link is to the free version, this is the only app I have purchased so far, but Tetris and i Love Katamari are looking so tempting.)
Topple
JellyCar
Google Earth
iHandy Level (It is often quite enjoyable to help friends confirm the un-levelness of their living quarters.)

Overall, I have enjoyed the iPod touch in far more ways than I ever expected, and well, sometimes I forget that it plays music too.

Web Design from the State Perspective

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

An interesting assessment of web design over the past through years via the lens of US state web sites:

US State Tourism Web Site Design: Two Years On

My beloved home state of Maryland did have perhaps the most shameful before:

Maryaland's website before

Maryaland's website before

Maryland's Website After

Maryland's Website After

I recall seeing similar visual and functional upgrades across various sites back home, perhaps my favorite being: www.marylandstatefair.com. Before this update it was quite a mess, and very difficult to use. Now visitors to the site can submit entries to the fair online, which is quite useful for college students attending school out of state. But perhaps my favorite feature, that despite all the glittery imagery, you can still read the whole site with images disabled, a vital element since parts of Maryland still lack a high speed Internet provider.

Begining Web Designer Resources

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

I am often asked how I learned the skills needed for website design when my background is in print.  The very basics of HTML using Tables and Flash I learned at my alma mater, Marietta College.  Everything else I discovered and learned through the web, with a few books.

Helpful online sources of information on web design/coding:

Web Design from Scratch.com

Opera Web Standards Curriculum

Google’s SEO Starter Guide

Tizag.com – PHP

More advanced information:

A List Apart

Nettuts.com

456 Berea Street

Books I have found useful:

CSS Mastery

Rockstar WordPress Designer

In general, my best advice when learning to develop websites, just Google it, you will end up seeing some inspiring sites, finding some interesting mentors and finding a host of resources at your fingertips.

 Page 2 of 3 « 1  2  3 »