Archive for the 'General Web Design' Category
Design Inspiration
We all need inspiration every once in a while, and I have a few favorite sites I’d like to share with all of you. Some of these may be obvious, some may not, but I’m including the obvious ones because I realize a lot of people who read BittBox may be new to design. If you fall into that category, bookmark these sites (a couple of which are in my sidebar). We all get stuck sometimes, and when that happens, I like to stop everything, sit back and surf for inspiration. Or just to try and take in some new ideas.
How to use Vector Files in Web Design
Let me start of by saying that there are many different ways to do this. I’ve recently gotten a lot of emails and feedback regarding how to take the free vectors I provide, and actually use them in a web page design. There is no possible way I can entirely cover that subject with a single tutorial, so I’m going to show you a simple example to expose some key steps that might make this process a little more clear to you. It’s important to note that this tutorial requires basic knowledge of a vector graphics editor (Illustrator in my case), Photoshop, HTML, and CSS.
There are a number of reasons why vector graphics may be pushed aside in favor of photoshop when it comes to web design. One of those reasons is exactly why I wrote this tutorial. It takes a few extra steps to get an image from vector format to a webpage design, but vector graphics hold much more value in the long run. For instance, you can customize a set vector buttons for a specific website design, take all of those customized vector graphics into Photoshop, and you have your raster buttons to save for the web. However, since you started off in vector format, you can dig those buttons up a year from now and change anything you want about them, without losing a single pixel-worth of quality.
Web Design Trend: Fading Corners
Who needs 4 round corners when you can have 1 or 2 that fade into oblivion?
There are a few reasons why this is not only kinda cool, but also a good idea for optimizing your site or blog:
1. It just looks cool.
2. It effectively separates content and keeps load times down because the background only loads once and doesn’t repeat.
3. It gives you freedom in your layout. Having a border that fades into your background enables you to leave the height and/or width of the column up to the content. For example, if you have a fading corner on the each section of the sidebar in your blog, you can add as many links as you want into that section and your CSS only loads one background image.
