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Resources for the creative side of Web development. Graphics, Audio, Multimedia, HTML and Web Site Design.

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The Creative Side of Web Development

Ponytails

Ponytails are also known as "creatives". Web designers, writers, graphic artists, audio, video and animation gurus all qualify as ponytails. Ponytails can be temperamental, egotistical, expensive, or all three, but they are indispensable.

 New and Cool

• Flash 4 For Intermediate Users
  In this article we build on the knowledge and examples from our Flash For Beginners tutorial. The original example was very straightforward. Now we add on the fancy bits and deal repeatedly with motion tweening and tinting. The end result is a suitably flashy movie.
  
  
• Create an Image Swap in Fireworks 3
  Macromedia Fireworks 3 is an excellent program for creating advanced graphics and adding a little pep to bored Web pages. For rollover buttons and other image swaps you don't even have to write the HTML or JavaScript. Fireworks does it for you. Here's how.
  
  
• Navigation - What's On Your Visitor's Mind?
  The Web is packed with opinions on good and bad navigation, along with many pages of guidelines on how to get it right. But let's skip all that and look at one or two original concepts based on the way your visitors think.
  
  
• Choosing The Right Color Palette In Photoshop
  After last month's look at Web Safe colors, we now turn to a range of other palettes - Adaptive, Web-Snap Adaptive, System (Mac and Windows) and more. Photoshop 5.5 gives us seven Color Tables to choose from when creating JPEG, GIF or PNG images. We'll explore these alternatives and see which work best with which images.
  
  
• Flash 4 For Beginners
  This small cluster of articles takes you through the creation of a simple animation and is aimed at people very new to Flash. When you've finished reading, you'll have a basic understanding of how the program works and how to use its principal functions. You'll also be able to test your movie and mount it on a Web page.
  
  
• Creating Your Own Favicon.ico Icon For IE5
  If you're in Explorer right now and pull down your Favorites menu, you'll find some custom logos lined up next to the site names. This little icon is called a "favicon". For very little effort, you can have the same thing next to your own site name on a million Favorites menus around the world.
  
  
• All You Need To Know About Web Safe Colors
  Color for web graphics can get pretty confusing. While there might only be two basic file formats, GIF and JPEG, used for web graphics, there are several color systems that apply to GIF images. Here we look at Web Safe Palettes. Web Safe, or Browser Safe palettes as they are also referred to, consist of 216 colors that display solid, non-dithered, and consistent on any computer monitor or web browser.
  
  
• Site Architecture And Navigation Through Research
  Once you've researched client aspirations, user aspirations, client aims, user aims, and done some research on the content itself, you're in a good position to structure your client's site. And if you've planned the structure well enough, the navigation devices should suggest themselves. Karen Charlesworth presents her views on architecture, research and navigation, and the close relationship between the three.
  
  
• Creating Image Maps with Corel Xara 2
  You probably already know that Xara is a great application for creating web graphics. What you might not know is Xara is also a great tool for creating Image Maps. Xara can not only create the Image Map and the associated links, it can also write the required HTML code.
  
  
• Dreamweaver 3 Fireworks 3 Studio
  The release of both Fireworks 3 and Dreamweaver 3 should capture an even greater share of the Web tools market for Macromedia. By using them together, designers have access to probably the best design bundle currently available.
  
  
• Non-Graphical Rollovers for IE5
  How to use CSS and inline JavaScript to create non-graphical rollovers for Internet Explorer 5.
  
  
• Creating Tiling Background Images with Corel Xara 2
  Tiling Web site backgrounds can add a unique signature to your Web site. Creating these tiling background images in Xara is a piece of cake. Although the backgrounds in this article have been prepared in Corel Xara 2, you should be able to create most of these effects in any vector or pixel editing application.
  
  

 Web Graphics

• Photoshop 5.5
  Photoshop remains the best all-purpose image editing tool, but the extra Web support in Photoshop 5.5 comes from an additional program - ImageReady. The combination still isn't perfect for dedicated Web designers.
  
  
• Let's build an ad banner with Photoshop!
  It's easy! It's fun (well, almost). Here's a quick-n-dirty tutorial.
  
  
• Creating Animations with Corel Xara 2
  There are dozens of Web animation applications that can create animations. What sets Xara 2 apart, however, is Xara's full complement of drawing tools and awesome fountain (gradient) transparency capabilities. In this article, I'll show you how to create an animated banner that replaces one message with another with a sophisticated fade/wipe accomplished with Xara's Linear Transparency.
  
  
• Optimizing Graphics for the Web with Corel Xara 2.0
  If I had to take one graphics application with me, on my laptop, to that fabled desert island, it would probably be Corel Xara. Now, if I were planning to create Web graphics on that fabled desert island, then it would be Corel Xara for sure.
  
  
• PNG - The Other Web Graphics Format
  PNG, or Portable Network Graphics format, introduces a number of refinements to the GIF format. It allows resolutions up to 48 bits, and can store gamma, transparency and textual information. Almost all of the 4.0 browsers support PNG, so what are you waiting for?
  
  
• The ABCs of Web Graphics
  In this latest installment of the Web design tutorial for rank beginners, we learn how to add pictures to a Web page. In fact, we learn how to do so the right way, with our graphics optimized to minimize load time, and all the best attributes for our image tags.
  
  
• Creating Web Animations
  A step-by-step tutorial on creating animated images for Web pages. You'll learn how to use the most popular tools, and how to optimize your animations for minimal load time.
  
  
• Image Maps
  Using an Image Map on a Web page is a way of creating interactivity with the end user, but without the use of high-tech plugins or bulky applets. Just one image, a small snippet of HTML code, and the user's mouse are all that's required to turn a standard static graphic into one that can be interactive and even entertaining to Web site visitors.
  
  
• Pixel Anatomy 101
  This 3-part tutorial gets down to details about optimizing graphics for the Web. You'll learn which format to choose, as well as how to minimize file sizes and maximize quality. Wondering about the "Web-safe" palette? Here are all the details you've ever craved and more. Graphics guru Mark Larmand takes you down to pixel level to learn how to produce great-looking, fast-loading Gifs and Jpgs.
  
  
• Photoshop 5.0
  This powerhouse graphics editing package has been a standard for a while now, and the latest version, 5.0, contains a few long-awaited new features.
  
  
• Macromedia Flash 3
  A complete tool for producing anything from animated banners and splash pages to complex multimedia presentations.
  
  
• Canon PowerShot A5
  This compact digital camera is a useful tool, as well as an addictive toy. It's perfect for adding photos to your Web pages.

 Internet Software

• ColdFusion 4.0 - A Positive Review
  An alternative to Active Server Pages (or ASP) technology for creating high-level HTML for database connectivity and more dynamic Web sites.
  
  
• ColdFusion 4.0 - A Negative Review
  I have a tale of ColdFusion woe and have to add my 2¢ worth. I don't think ColdFusion is ready for Prime Time.
  
  
• BeOS 4.5
  BeOS' claim to fame is its heavy media orientation. It's centered on creating rich multimedia objects, and optimized for high audio/video performance.
  
  
• LinkBot
  Bad links, malfunctioning site features, and glacial page loads bug people big-time! It's well worth using a tool like LinkBot to find and fix errors on your site.
  
  
• The Java Bar
  Our Information Center for Java
  
  
• Tools Of The Trade
  A Do-it-Yourself Webmaster's Kit
  
  
• ActiveX
  What Is It, and What Can It Do For You?

 Print Graphics, DTP

• Print Graphics and Desktop Publishing
  
  
• Canon BJC-4400
  Darn Good Printer for the Price
  
  
• Lexmark Colorjet 5700
  Cool, color, cheap.
  
  
• Pagemaker 6.5
  Industry Standard Page Layout Package
  
  
• CorelDRAW! 7
  Time to Upgrade Again!
  
  
• Adobe After Effects
  Two thumbs up for this powerful animation and special effects package.