WEB SITES

Colors On The Web

Worst website for help in determining color EVER. I am trying to be nice. They push purchase #1 and maybe more importantly they act like they have superiority.  Has everyone lost their marbles? None can claim they know what is visually appealing with a high degree of accuracy.

Ok. Well maybe. But def not these guys.

This site points me ever more toward trying to understand web design. They . . . yuck!

MacDONALD

Ch 9 : Page Layout

This chapter highlights Every Problem I have with DW5 and/or CSS in general.  The author claims style based layouts make it easier to replicate across pages.  The downfall of this is quite rigidity.  When I use the Free-CSS and change something on one page it changes it on all the pages.   It is beyond annoying.

I gave up on minor changes I wanted throughout and settled on other ways to get variation.  As soon as I did, I lost my entire efforts for mysterious reasons.  It was days ago and I keep trying to remake them but no luck.  Every time I start a New Page beyond index.html the page has no invisible tables or anything (like the index.html).  Only a blackened background nothing else.  Obviously, the new page recognizes something or it would have the default white background.  What am I doing wrong?

I love the invisible tables and can see no real reason for the block style ones anymore.  Using align, column, row, font, and emphasis with an invisible table could deliver similar results without the bulk.  I know long pages with many rows may become an eye strain but I am not it would not be impossible to do without those awful double ridged 90′s tables.

I enjoy MacDonalds’ humor quite a bit.  Do not know if anyone else caught it but in Figure 9.9 he illustrates a button with the terms “Donate to untraceable Swiss Account, Now.”  I wonder if I put that on a Web page if anyone would do it.

Ch 10: Multi-part Pages

MacDonald gives three methods by which Web page design can be made with consistency: server side includes, frames, or template.  We are using templates and DW for our project.  Drawbacks of using templates they require time to modify (ding), are fragile (ding,ding), and not all templates work with all design programs.  I can directly attest to the first two facts.

Nonetheless, for a beginner I am not sure I would want to go it alone.  Iwill try explicitly developing my own pages when I am not pressed for time.

BEAIRD

Ch 3: Texture

And back to the happy place.  Although, Beaird may not be helping me achieve DW Web Page Mastery it is refreshing to get a break from frustrating issues.

equation: 1 pixel = 1px =1 picture element

application: screen resolution: 1024px  x 768px = 786,432px in viewing area

These pixels are arranged in 768 rows and 1024 columns

Figure 3.2.  Beaird gives a hilarious example of the pixel-look characters using the A-team members.  i cannot help but falsh back to Atari and the Pit Fall guy.

From the basic dot (px) we travel through the elements which provide the basis for texture: dot, line, shape.  Volume and depth, which I love to create transitions with being obnoxious.  All the basics are touched upon before diving into texture.   Texture and Web page creation are not what they were.  Using texture can give your page an edge over others and evoke feelings beyond color blocking.  Nostalgia can be implied using weathered, aged, & worn textures.  Whimsy by using cartoon elements.  Modern Web 2.0 vibe may be achieved using clean, subtle, and gradient components.