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If you have works that needed to be done, you would consider having more than one graphic designer to do it. This way, you are assuring yourself of an original piece of work. If it is any consolation, there are a number of combination, design and color techniques that graphic designers can use to produce the quality design clients are looking for. No two designs are the same, can be quite similar but certainly not the same. Ever wonder how these graphic designers come up with their ideas? Or better yet, are they willing to share the process of their work to the people? By giving people ideas on how they go about their designs, peoples’ questions and wonderings would definitely be solved. For some who believes that these designers border from a magician to a superhuman, they would be devastated to know that the designers are just as human as all of them are. That the graphic designs are works created by people having more imagination than most people have. And that modern tools and equipments are now available for everything people can think of doing. Graphic designers should take into consideration that designs would not be possible if it weren’t for the people who have thought of it and wanted it done. These are the clients asking for their services. It would not at all be asking too much for these same clients to be included in the process of graphic designs making. Giving them an idea is not exactly sharing trade or personal secrets. Just enough to make them better understand that graphic designs do not just appear out of thin air. And that the ones who make them are not wizards. Experts, but not magicians. Including clients into the design process would be giving them insight from the time the idea is being processed to the time it is under way. It would give them opportunity to give feedbacks and maybe suggestions on how to better create a product. This can be a way of insuring that the product would be successful, with both the makers and the clients doing their part. Not all clients would like to be included in this process. These are the ones only after the results, not minding how it was done. Getting the client involved in the making of graphic designs would surely be a way of dissolving any option of graphic designers as magicians. They just do their jobs well. For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com
This post was originally published on May 13th, 2004. As others are writing about the topic, I thought bringing it out of the archives would be worthwhile. A little recapThe idea of placing multiple states of buttons and other elements that are used in background images took its roots, I believe, from Pixy's Fast Rollovers. The CSS Zen Master extended this to another purpose in CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. Didier Hilhorst came up with a nice application of this method, and I worked it backwards in Responsible CSS - Recycle your background images. The idea behind the 'sprites' method can obviously be extended to any html element, and there are tangible benefits for doing this, just as long as the designer does his or her usual homework. Benfits of using the 'sprites' methodWhat are the possible the benefits of using this method? Essentially it lies in faster download times for your web content. Readers of Andy Kings book, Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization will notice that this method reduces http requests and makes more efficient use of the data packets used to transfer files to the users computer, and that that is a good thing. Packet size and http requestsFrom Web Page Design and Download Time, by Jing Zhi of Keynote Systems (seen here - pdf), cited in Andy's book:
They also found that it was the number of packets and not necessarily the overall size of the page that was important. If a packet could hold 1460 bytes (the figure given in the article) and your object was 1600 bytes, it would require two packets. They found that this object would transfer at the same speed as another object that was greater in size but still fit in two packets. Potential payoffThe potential payoff for using this method versus individual images, then, is a faster download time due to reduced number of packets and fewer http requests. Reducing http requests is easy. One file instead of two or three etc. is simple. But packet requests? That depends... An exampleThe number of packets sent will depend on the size of the file and the users internet connection. As an example, lets look at the fiftyfoureleven.com logo at the top of the page. When this design was first being coded, that link consisted of two 3.34kb images, one for the link state and one for the hover state. Now, by using one image that contains both states and simply bumping it back and forth depending on the hover state, that has been reduced to one 5.35 kb image. Right there is a savings of 1.33 kb. Good news. Now, for arguments sake lets say that a packet can hold 1460 bytes (packet size for connections greater than 128kb/s = 1500 bytes -40bytes for tcp/ip headers). The two image method used 6 packets, 3 for each image (3.34/1.46, rounded up). The single image method uses 4 packets (5.34/1.46, rounded up). Things are looking good. How to optimizeIn his alistapart article, Dave refers to the image that holds all of the sprites as his 'master image'. The key to benefitting from this method is to ensure that the file size of your master image isn't a bloated equivalent versus the sum of its pieces. ConclusionGreat benefits can be realized when combining a master image from slices that fall well below the size of one packet, as that unused packet space goes wasted. After doing a little more research, it seems that packet size can vary depending on the connection rate. That being said, it may be rather difficult to come up with a firm rule here. To play it smart and safe, try and:
This isn't exactly groundbreaking advice, however having seen the results acheived with the logo on this page, it can be seen that using the sprite method versus individual images at minimum does reduce http requests and even further it can reduce file size which in turn can reduce the number of packets sent. Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 |
More Articles:1. The Seven Deadly Sins of Web Site Design Before you take a road trip it is usually a good idea to know where you are going. It is the same when you are building a business, creating a marketing plan or building your web site. Know what your end result will be when you are planning and designing your site will help you to build it properly from day one. Here are the 7 Deadly Sins that most web business owners commit when designing their site. 1) Picking a business without knowing wether there is a deman. 2) Picking too broad of a subjec… 2. Testimonials Can Increase Your Web Traffic By Elizabeth McGee We've all seen and read product testimonials. They're a very valuable tool for merchant sales and can often tip the scales in determining a customer's decision to buy. But testimonials offer another superb benefit. It's the benefit to you and your marketing strategy.When I'm on a site offering a product or service I like to click on customer testimonials because they are generally short and easy to read. People typically point out exactly what they like about a product and how they used it… 3. Database Driven Website By David Lahiri The solution lies in creating a ‘Database driven website’, through which web pages are created dynamically which further gives a web site visitor an up-to-dated view of information stored in the database. When the information in the database is updated, site visitors will immediately see the changes that have been made.There are many sites, which are bounded up by a dry, outdated design because, rewriting the hundreds of existing HTML files and implementing it into the new design would be a ve… 4. Improving Website Performance Images, graphic and flash animation Many sites have images or graphics that are too large. By too large, I don't necessarily mean the dimensions of the images, but the file size is excessive and doesn't load quickly in a web browser. There are no hard and fast rules about file sizes but if the website doesn't load in a few seconds most visitors will move on to a different website. Have a qualified web designer check out the website and make sure there isn't an abundance of large images that may… |
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