I've read a couple enlightening articles recently on PNG8, and how if you use Fireworks, you get a full alpha transparency layer that degrades nicely in IE6 (transparent pixels disappear, opaque pixels stay) without the performance impact of the AlphaImageLoader filter.
Check this article out first: PNG8 - The Clear Winner
And then read my article practicing real-world scenarios and let me know what you think:
PNG Transparency Tools & Techniques - Optimizing PNGs!
If you're a Photoshop user, Fireworks PNG8 should be a new tool for creating low-bandwidth transparent masterpieces. If you're a Fireworks user, you may just be thinking Artz is a newbie. Let me know which one you are :)
At the recent Voices that Matter conference, I had the privilege of having dinner with Bill Cullifer, the Executive Director of WOW (World Organization of Webmasters). I hadn't check in with that group in a while (they've been around since 1996), so I was excited to hear about a lot of the great stuff the are doing to help educate Web professionals, including conferences, and "Iron Chef" student competition, and certification. Bill invited me to be interviewed for the WOW Technology Minute, and we talked about Web Typography.
Check it out on the WOW Technology Minute Web site.
Every other Thursday, AOL presents speakers who will help you stay on the cutting edge of your profession, hone your skills, understand industry best practices and keep you ahead of the competition. We'll meet 12PM-1:30PM on alternating Thursdays in Dulles and New York to hear about new and advanced topics in Web design.
As a special bonus, the first session comes with lunch provided free! Expand your knowledge of Web Typography and fill your stomach! Who could pass that up?
If you plan to attend, please RSVP Jason Cranford Teague (j.cranfordteague@corp.aol.com) at least 24 hours in advance of the meet-up.
Click "Read More" for session dates and descriptions.
Our Men's Fitness Center launched recently. Check it out to learn about calming foods and tips for getting your abs in shape. Perfect timing for the summer. Kudos to the design team for developing a strong creative in short order, tackling both the visual design and all of the CSS.
This week I'll be at the Voices That matter Conference in Nashville, TN speaking on the topic of Web typography, but I wanted to give everybody at AOL a little preview of the center-piece of my presentation: Web Safe Fonts.
Web typography is pretty much synonymous with limitations. Limited controls, limited styles, but, most importantly, limited font-family choices. The first of these limitations will require changes in the browsers, however, there are a surprisingly large number of fonts to choose from, but only if you are willing to work with a more fluid typography. Most designers are familiar with the 11 "Core Web Fonts" that are industry standards. Primarily, we will use Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or just Times), and Georgia has become popular in the last few years. You will occasionally see Verdana and Trebuchet MS tried, but these are not the most elegant looking of fonts. We use these fonts because we know that they are pre-installed on most computers. Yet most computers will also have many other fonts pre-installed on them, either by the operating system or by specific applications.
I have created a list of "Web Safe Fonts" showing fonts pre-installed on Windows and Mac as well as fonts installed by iLife on the Mac (which is standard on all Macs) and Microsoft Office for both Mac and PC. Although not all of these fonts will be of general use, it does balloon the list of reliable fonts from 11 to around 200. To make selection easier, I have also indicated which OS the font is pre-installed for, ranked each font on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for fonts almost certain to be installed and 5 for fonts unlikely to be installed), and the source of the font.
Let me know what you think of the list, and if you spot any fonts that should be or should not be in it. The site is in "Beta" while I work on vetting the list and adding functionality (like the ability to sort the list), so any constructive criticism would be most appreciated.
This week, we launched a redesign of ParentDish.com, a site that offers great insights on parenting topics.
The project was one of the best-run and most efficiently-produced design efforts I've seen. This is attributed to the team's focus on:
> clearly defining roles and responsibilities between our varied teams at the onset,
> crafting a solid creative strategy + moodboards with buy-in from all key stakeholders before developing design solutions,
> conceptualizing a significant suite of identity options, and
> fostering ongoing communication amongst the design and development teams to bring about a fresh take on a compelling site that helps raise kids of all ages.
Kudos to the team on their great work.
I'm thrilled to report that we have seen tremendous growth across our AOL Living sites over the past year with AOL Body increasing page views 760%, Food 319% and Home 475%. Overall, AOL Living is the third-highest-ranked women's network of sites on the web.
How did we do this? Our editorial team's strategy has been to offer practical, solution-oriented and highly relevant content to increase consumer engagement.
Our creative team has augmented this strategy by keeping a close eye on user behaviors/needs on our sites and competitively. We do in-depth user profiles and varied mood boards at the beginning of our projects to ensure every design decision we make is tied back to core user needs and the message we plan to share.
Our design team continues to dream up rich design experiences that reflect a welcoming, inclusive tone to resonate with and deeply engage our audience. And the results are stunning.
I'm going to be setting the new standards for typography on the Web, and I want your help.
A few weeks back, while at the W3C CSS Work Group Face-To-Face meeting in San Diego, I volunteered, to be the advocate for several of the CSS 3 Modules. A while back, the Work Group decided that, rather than trying to release one big document, they would release the CSS 3 specification in smaller modular chunks. As an advocate for parts of the overall CSS 3 specifications, I work to push my chosen modules through from a working draft to a full blown recommendation. It's kind of like taking a bill through the US Congress, only with more transparency. I decided to take on the four issues which I believe will have the most effect on the work we do here at AOL: CSS Basic UI, CSS Hyperlink Presentation, CSS Fonts, and CSS Web Fonts. It's a lot of work, so I'll be concentrating on the Font Modules first.
Next June (sometime between June 10th and June 13th to be more precise) I will be presenting a session on Web Typography at the Voices the Matter Conference to be held in Nashville, TN. The conference, run by the book publisher New Riders, brings together some of their top authors for a four day lovefest of everything Web design. This is my first time at the conference (of course, this is only the second VTM conference) but it looks pretty exciting, with some authors I know well and others I'm looking forward to meeting.
If you want to attend, you can register before May 2nd and save $200 and (just because I'm a sweet guy) you can use my special promo code at ANY time to save another $200. Use the priority code WDDSPKR during registration to save $200 on any of the packages.
I hope to see you there.
Oh, hmm... that doesn't look right! Is that dark background #040108, per chance? This is a screenshot from CSS Edit's preview window. Hello there, I've been invited to write on ControlShift, so I best get to it! My name's Dave Balogh, I've been working here for over 3 years and had the pleasure to work on many of the various channels here. I currently reside on AOL Body, AOL Home, and help out on many of the other AOL Living channels. As AOL has transitioned to the open web, our workflow and process has undergone many of its own transitions. Over the last year I have been taking on CSS duties for my specific channels, with the intent to make our content more solid than ever. This can be seen most prevalently on AOL Home, where I had the opportunity to work tightly with my Art Director, Web Techs, and programming team. What I want to highlight is what my process is, and how it may work for your teams. Read on!
Are you tired of the limited fonts at your disposal as a Web designer? I know I am. But, that changed yesterday when Apple released Safari 3.1 which includes the ability to download common Open Type and True Type fonts to be used in your Web designs without having to install them on the users computer first. Make no mistake, this is the beginning of a revolution in Web design. And I mean an actual revolution-not like the way the word "revolution" is used in TV commercials to make you think you are doing something new when you actually are doing the exact same thing only paying for it-since Apple is openly revolting against the status-quo established by the dominant player in the browser market.
I saw this demoed at the W3C conference last fall, so I wasn't too surprised that Apple could do it, but I am surprised that they are willing to throw down the glove to Microsoft who is opposed to allowing fonts to be used without a strict DRM system in place to not only prevent fonts from being misused either in sites they are not licensed for or stolen by the end user.
CSS has included all of the syntax needed to download fonts for years, the only thing holding typography on the Web back was that the browser makers could not agree on a common font file format to support. Microsoft recently offered to open their proprietary .eot format, but many considered it too little too late. With Safari 3.1, you can now add any True Type (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf) fonts that you have at your disposal.
The new Money and Finance Quotes experience---now in beta---has been through a major overhaul in the last two years. This is not simply a visual update but a complete new architecture designed to expose the depth and breadth of content and bring context to stock quotes and company research. Before I start sounding like an infomercial, check out the pre- and post-redesign screen snaps and see for yourself.
We recently launched a redesigned Home experience (http://home.aol.com), highlighting decorating, entertaining and do-it-yourself tips from many of the content leaders in this space. Our redesign has increased monthly page view traffic by a whopping 2100% since launch (and almost 800% since this time last year).
One of the biggest internal successes of this project was how we fine-tuned our design process to save a ton of time while ensuring a more satisfying work experience and tested our creative concepts to ensure we would resonate with our audience. Here's how we did it (click "read more")
Ian Hickson, who I sat next to at the W3C CSS Work Group meeting last November in Boston, has just completed work on the next generation browser test Acid3. Now ready for prime time on acidtest.org, the test includes 100 new tests of HTTP, HTML, CSS, ECMAScript (JavaScript), SVG, and XML. Hickson, who is also the primary author of the new HTML5 specification, wrote most of the tests with others coming from the Web design community.
So far, I've tested IE6, Safari 3, and Firefox 2. All of them failed the test spectacularly. I recently reported that the upcoming IE8 passes Acid2, but learned that it only works if the originating server is reconfigured and it is unlikly it will be passing Acid3 anytime soon.
