The Press Hacker

When you want to put graphics on your website, you’ll face an unexpected problem: what format should they be in? On their own computers, many people save pictures in Windows’ default BMP (bitmap) format, but the files it creates are simply much too large to put on a website – they’d take about a minute for visitors to download and use up all your bandwidth in the process.

When you put pictures on the web, you need to consider the trade-off you want between image quality and speed: the smaller the file, the worse it’s going to look. To help you out, here’s a comparison.

GIF

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, and was the first image format used on the web. It was invented by CompuServe in 1987, updated in 1989, and hasn’t changed since – and it shows. Images stored in GIF format can only use a maximum of 256 colours, which makes things like photographs and logos look terrible. GIFs popularity is mainly due to it being first and producing very small files, although it is also notable for being the only image format that allows you to create small animations.

Really, the only things you should use GIFs for now are files that have a limited number of colours, and are technical in nature – diagrams, for example, work well in GIF format. Things like photographs that use many colours will come out looking very strange.

JPEG

JPEG was designed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, who gave it its name. It was designed as a format suitable for storing high-quality photographs at low file sizes – file sizes small enough to put on the web. Today, the format is supported in almost all web browsers, and is also the format that you’ll get photos in if you take them with a digital camera.

The most important feature of JPEG is both the best and worst thing about it: lossy compression. The word ‘lossy’ means that data is lost from the picture when it is saved at smaller file sizes. Image-editing programs will generally let you choose how much compression you want, from none (highest quality, large file size) to 100% (very small files, but terrible quality). Unfortunately, JPEGs that have been compressed too much come out looking worse than useless, but many people still use high compression settings out of a misguided desire to have the very smallest files possible. If you’ve ever seen images on the web that look very ‘blocky’, you’ve been a victim of JPEG compression.

If you do use JPEG, then, it’s really recommended that you turn compression off altogether, or use a maximum of about 25% – the files are quite small already, without going overboard with the compression.

PNG

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics, and is the newest web image format in widespread use. It was designed as a replacement for the outdated GIF format, allowing files to use millions of colours instead of only 256. PNG files have smaller file sizes than GIFs, although they are often larger than JPEGs, since PNG compression is lossless (never loses any image quality).

The most useful feature of PNG is that it supports something known as ‘alpha transparency’: basically, images with transparent backgrounds that blend in perfectly. The only thing stopping widespread adoption of this feature is that it isn’t currently supported by Internet Explorer, but there is a workaround for this problem: search for ‘AlphaImageLoader’ for more information.

Converting Between Formats

For most purposes on the web, all the graphics you want to use should either be in JPEG format (for photos) or PNG format (for less complicated graphics). That’s a problem if you’ve got a collection of images in all sorts of other formats.

Luckily, a good image editor should be able to convert from any format to any other very easily. In Paint Shop Pro, for example, you simply open your images and save them again using whatever format you want – you can even run the ‘Batch Converter’, which will convert a whole folder full of files all at once. If you don’t have an image editing program, there are plenty of free image viewers that will do the same job for you.

There are stacks of functional reasons to wall-suspending a flat panel telly, for instance freeing up floor or work surface space, but for many people the chief benefit is solely aesthetic – because let’s agree, a wall-attached TV comes across very smart. And the brilliance of wall mounting telly is that anyone with even the simplest “Do It Yourself” (DIY) proficiency can accomplish it.

Procuring a TV bracket, the initial step is to locate the best bracket for your telly. There is a huge figure of brackets to plump from, obtainable for Plasma televisions of all shapes, sizes and weights, therefore it is vital that you check you’re equipped with your set’s key data previous to setting off to the retail shops. And before purchasing, mull over what kind of inflexibility you may possibly want once the television is set-up, as different types of TV brackets supply contrasting levels of vertical movement.

Solid brackets keep the television fixed to the wall, & don’t permit you to amend the horizontal or vertical position. Their lack of complexity often makes them the most cheapest option, though it can be problematic to get to rear-suspended sockets. Visit DigitalDirect.co.uk, offering a huge selection of TV Wall Brackets.

Tilting brackets, meanwhile, let you to move the TV up or down to alter the vertical viewing position, where as ’tilt and swivel’ TV brackets let you tip the screen forward and rotate it from side to side.

Small screen Liquid Crystal Display (more usually known as LCD) TVs can also be hanged using brackets with more complicated mechanisms for more flexibility, making them fantastic for kitchen or bedroom fitting. You can purchase brackets with an arm that moves from left to right, or ones that tilt, swivel, pan and pull out. These let you to situate the TV at any conceivable angle & then tuck it away tidily when you are done watching your favourite television programme.

Specialised mortgage arrangements for accountants, barristers, doctors and many other professionals are customized for sundry debtors in particular professional work. A number of building societies can provide favorable rates specifically to dentists, solicitors and others.

The Mortgages for Professionals concern for reduced rates for mortgages and remortgages for architects, barristers, doctors and many other professionals on the market.

As everyone knows, purely speaking to your borrower’s bank or usual brokerage sans preparation often won’t be the most advantageous opportunitiy! This might well be not good for you because they probably will not really have the most favourable rates to provide for that easily. By way of a welcome contrast at Mortgages for Professionals you’ll get to know qualified advisors who can help out unearth the top agreement. The “Mortgages for Professionals” company may boast many years of special mortgage brokerage proficiency and have forged effective liaisons with all major agencies in the British Isles. As you would expect, this enables them to make arrangements to fix up the most recommended professional mortgage bargains extant one may expect. Their proficient consultant will effectively discuss that contract in their consumer’s behalf.

There’s more than a few advantages in authorising Mortgages for Professionals to be of assistance with the mortgage: all you’ll need to bear in mind is that this business will help whatever the situation! The “Mortgages for Professionals” company can help you in a great number of varied fields, some of these include reduced rates for both mortgages and re-mortgages, mortgage rates based on augmented income multiples – potentially five times your salary or more -, and special professional mortgage rates requiring reduced or zero deposit — to list only a selection of them. As can be expected, there are numerous motives for people to decide on that proficient consultant, but in case you happen to be very busy and don’t mind a little bit of extra help this proficient consultant could prove to be incredibly suitable to you. The “Mortgages for Professionals” company is an incredibly successful finance concern because they truly pay attention and purchasers will have to do nothing else except sign a contract. They will detail accurately which docs to furnish and the right contacts for mortgage and remortgage deals available on the market for surveyors, doctors and many other professionals.

The Bendable Dong is a really good selling sex toy for Smooth. The popularity of the Bendable Dong is down to it’s flexibility. This dildo is a fantastic first dildo for an individual who does not already own a sex toy. The ideal vibrating dildo for lonely nights in alone. This dildo is the great new addition to any connoisseurs collection. The Bendable Dong is designed for the stimulation of all female erogenous zones. The Bendable Dong dildo is also very popular with guys of all orientations.

The Bendable Dong has specially designed ribs along its length, that are sure to boost your evening pleasures to dizzying new heights. The Bendable Dong has a free additional vibrator package, this really is a toy of top standards. This dildo can be found in many colors, widths and lengths. The pliable construction of the Bendable Dong makes penetration possible at angles that are not possible during normal sex, meaning it is possible to find new pleasures and hither to un-discovered regions of your body. The Bendable Dong is made from easily cleaned material, to be certain it is hygienic to have fun with.

The company that produces this toy, Smooth are the most widely known and liked brands in the design and manufacture of vibrators. They are distributors for a large number of different top quality sex toys for example the American Super Dong and the renowned Bendable Dong. Smooth have a reputation for being very price competitive, so you can buy with confidence knowing that you will not see a cheaper offer any where else.

Computer graphics can add life to any project but using the wrong format can mean that you could end up with a poor quality image or large file. Computer store images in different ways, as a bitmap where image information are stored in pixels or as a vector format where image information is stored in the form of a complex mathematical formula. So let’s first look at pixel format, a picture in this format can be broken down into thousands of tiny blocks called pixel. Each pixel stores information like color and brightness, when you open a image file thousands of these pixel align themselves to give you the final picture. Most common pixel formats are JPG, GIF, BMP, TIFF etc.

In pixel formats, if you want a highly detailed image which directly increases the image file size – also when you zoom into pixel graphics you will notice jagged edges(pixels) which affects the appearence of the image.

Vector graphics on the other hand do not face these issues. In a vector format, an image is created mathematically by describing the position, length, direction and color of all lines, which collectively form the final image. The advantage of vector graphics is that it offers superior image quality. some of the popular vector formats in CDR (CorelDraw), AI (Adobe Illustrator), WMF (Windows Meta File) etc. One of the biggest drawbacks of vector images is that they are not photo realistic, pixel format are preferred for phot realistic images.

Color depth of an image determines quality and richness of the image. Color depth are coded at 8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (65,536 colors) and 24-bit (16.7 million colors). 24 bit images offer true to life quality on the images as it supports and displays millions of colors. Athough would need a good graphics card to view at 24-bit which most computers today are easily able to display.

What are web safe colors? In simple terms, a web safe color can defined as a color that appears the same in all web browsers on both Windows and Mac computers. In HTML, colors are expressed either as hexadecimal values (for example, #FF0000) or as name of color (red,green,blue etc). During advent of Internet – computers and web browsers would display in 8-bit mode (256 colors supported) , but today all computers are able to display at 16-bit or 32-bit colors which is millions of colors. It is not critical anymore to use a browser safe color palette especially if you are targetted today’s computers as your audience. However do not forget that there are other ways to access internet through devices such as PDA’s and Cellphones which still continue to display at 8-bit mode.

So if you have a website or plan on a website where appearance of colors are critical you should play safe by using web safe color palette – there are 216 common colors that are web safe.

Images play a very important role in the look and feel of a web page or website. Good use of colors & images can boost the performance of your website, establish credibility and comfort for the user, but more importantly convey message of your product or services but here are few web design tips.

Internet Speed – Faster the Internet connection faster the users will be able to see your website. It is always a good practice to design for dial-up users.

Relevance – Faster is better! People start getting impatient if it takes longer than 30 seconds to download your page and its graphics.

Simple – Keep web page interface simple and easy to navigate and read text. Avoid flashy animations and bright colors

Learn HTML & Web Design with having to buy expensive software.

What is the relationship between Marketing and Web designing? How can a better understanding of Marketing help the web designer manage his business more profitably?

What is marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals”. On the other hand, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK defines Marketing as “the Management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers’ requirements profitably”. Note the occurrence of Customer Satisfaction in both definitions and the underlining concern for Profitability in the second definition. In other words, a businessman needs to identify the needs of a consumer and explore ways of satisfying these needs in order to make a profit.

The Webmaster therefore needs to understand his client’s customers. Does the client sell to various segments of customers (e.g students, retirees, young upwardly mobile professionals, etc?) or only one homogenous market such as any one of these segments? What are the lifestyles of such customers? What do they like to do in their pastime? How do they relax? Where do they live? What are their aspirations? If, for instance, the client’s customers are tertiary school students, are they interested in sports? Would it be right to create a page on the client’s website for snippets of information on the lifestyles of sports personalities around the world, even though the website markets an interactive software to help students write term papers and long essays? Or take upwardly mobile professionals, as another example. How about including a page (on the website of an insurance company selling policies targeted at this segment), which contains links to write-ups explaining several possibilities of personal finance and wealth creation opportunities? Will such “side attractions” ensure repeat visits to the website?

Once a Webmaster knows his client’s customer, he can anticipate the customer’s wants, appeal to the right emotions and show that customer how the client’s product or service will benefit the customer.

The discerning Webmaster must also try to understand the industry within which his client operates, his client’s competitors and what these competitors offer in comparison to what the client offers. If any of the competitors has a website, how customer friendly is the website? Does navigation within the site make it easy for the competitor’s customers to make orders? Can the customer have his most cogent questions answered right there on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page without having to go through the pains of writing a mail? Can the Webmaster then create a website for his client, that will outsell the competitor’s site in these areas?

While the client sometimes provides a brief explaining the kind of website he thinks he wants, the truly innovative Webmaster may go beyond this brief to add value. A word of caution, however: this should be discussed with the client.

Websites are marketing tools

The fundamental reality of how people use the web can be seen in the following comparative descriptive sketches of offline and online buyer behaviors. Offline, bustling crowds of would-be shoppers (or prospects) pass by your place of business (take a busy mall, for instance) and some of them may walk in, if your shop occupies a vantage location, your wares are attractively displayed and they can notice both. Online, however, people search for information. There are millions of people, but no crowds and each person searches alone. So, while the offline businessperson thinks of a vantage “location”, the online businessperson must think of relevant “information” or “content”, information that meets the needs and interests of the target market.

The Power of Search Engines

People who visit the web are looking for information and solutions. Most often, they rely on Search Engines to suggest or recommend the most likely websites, which may satisfy their needs. For the Webmaster to create a website which brings lots of targeted traffic to his client therefore, he must perform some tasks such as keyword brainstorming. In other words, he researches his site’s main theme on the web, such as “weight watching”, to find related words that are often searched by web visitors, but rarely targeted by websites. Such words can then form the topics for each page of his website and eventually provide the website with a theme or focus for optimum search engine ranking.

This is only one in a series of tasks which the Webmaster needs to perform for his client’s website to rank well with the search engines and attract warm, willing-to-buy traffic on an ongoing basis. Such tasks can be very tedious, especially when the process is done manually. It is no surprise therefore, that some webmasters shy away from this aspect of the job. However, such tasks can be automated with Site Build It! , an all-in one site-building, site-hosting and site marketing solution which automatically performs the following operations for webmasters: Keyword Brainstorming, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Submission, Search Engine Reporting, File Upload, Sequential Auto responding, E-mail Marketing, etc. This system of tools works without compromising design or site functionality. Which means a Webmaster can create his site, using his favorite HTML and graphic (or other) software, simply upload the files and let Site Build It! do the rest. More on this software, including purchase and download instructions, can be found at http://www.rent-a-webmaster.nl