Archives
Welcome to the archives. To find what you are looking for you can use the search box, view all the articles below or find articles with certain tags.
How to toggle invisible files in OSX
Written on 01/15 • 0 Comments
OS X has numerous invisible files and folders. They are hidden to protect users from mistakenly moving or deleting critical files that might break the system or the applications that depend on them. Sometimes however you may need to find and use these files but OS X unlike its Windows counterpart has no options to show/hide hidden files anywhere. There are options, third party software is one and here a few others.
Continue ReadingFree LCD Vector Font Digital Numbers
Written on 01/01 • 0 Comments
What better way to start the new year then a free giveaway. In the next few months the Font Shop will be opening its virtual doors and to celebrate we are giving away a sample of things to come in the form of this free LCD number font set. The fonts are supplied as a fully editable EPS document and can be used in any print, digital or other application.
Continue ReadingNot So Clear CSS Opacity and RGBa
Written on 12/18 • 0 Comments
Support for transparent PNG paved the way for the use of semitransparent elements within website designs. CSS3 introduced the ability for developers to alter the transparency of an object with the opacity property. This method has some inherent problems, luckily there is a solution; the much less well know RGBa model.
Continue ReadingUsing Googles Chart API to Create Charts for your Web Apps
Written on 12/04 • 0 Comments
The Google Charts API allows you to send data to Google and have it returned as a graph or chart. All the hard work is done for you by Google and its servers and you simply reference an image in your HTML. You pass Google the raw data — the numbers for the charts, axis labels, and so on — as part of the image’s URL. If you want to add charts to your site or web based applications to show dynamic data the Google API is a quick, easy and attractive choice.
Continue ReadingUsing Numbers as CSS Class or ID Values
Written on 11/20 • 0 Comments
This week I found myself in a situation where I needed to apply CSS to an element only on a specified page. The best way to do this is to add an id to the body tag of the said page thus allowing you to apply a style only to that page. The example below shows an ID applied to the body tag. This is good practice when building your sites but sometimes easier said then done when using a Content Management System to dynamically generate your pages.
Continue ReadingHow to Prevent or Allow Directory Listing
Written on 11/13 • 0 Comments
Having a list of files in a directory on your site sometimes is useful. You may for example want a directory you can upload large files to for others to download without wanting to spend time creating a fancy PHP (or your preferred language) interface. It is important to understand the security implications of allowing directory listings. Listing files in directories that contain your code will make it easier for someone to compromise your site. We recommended you restrict listings to specific folders. You can easily control this behavior on your Apache server using one simple line in a .htaccess file.
Continue ReadingUsing SSH in Terminal.app on Mac OS X
Written on 10/30 • 0 Comments
This article will teach you how to open a SSH connection using the Terminal application in OS X. OS X's UNIX background means there is an easy way to exchange data with your Linux/UNIX web server using the built in Terminal application. SSH, if enabled, allows you to remotely execute commands on your webserver that can be helpful for all sorts of purposes.
Continue ReadingHow to Create a WebClip Bookmark Icon for your Site
Written on 10/16 • 0 Comments
Apple allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to add bookmarks to the home screen of their device. These bookmarks can be added for any web page and appear as an icon on the home screen. Apple calls these WebClip Bookmarks. By default, the icon used for this home screen is a thumbnail screenshot of the page in question, but Apple have provided a mechanism for site owners to specify an icon to be used instead.
Continue ReadingRewriting URL’s with Apaches .htaccess
Written on 10/09 • 1 Comments
This article looks at some common scenarios where a htaccess file can be used to manipulate a websites URL. Here we are going to look at how we can use htaccess to redirect our visitors to another location or accomplish some other common tasks.
Continue ReadingCentering Widthless Floats
Written on 09/25 • 0 Comments
This week I had a problem with centering a widthless floated element with CSS. It seemed an obvious thing to want to do but I could think of no simple solution, align center was not going to cut it here.
Continue ReadingHow to convert your site into a Joomla 1.5 Template
Written on 09/18 • 0 Comments
This tutorial will show you how to create a simple Joomla 1.5 template. The tutorial assumes you have already created a XHTML layout for your site along with the CSS and images and that you now want to use your design with Joomla. Joomla is one of the best known Content Management Systems (CMS) around but creating a template for Joomla can be a confusing process, hopefully this insight will make it a bit easier.
Continue ReadingFancy Horizontal CSS List Menu
Written on 09/11 • 0 Comments
This week I am going to show you how to make a simple horizontal CSS list menu then make it a bit fancier. The objective here is to show you how to create a simple, cross browser compatible CSS list menu that will work in all browsers then build on the basics to make the menu more attractive using images gradients. All the source files are included and a demo is available
Continue ReadingMake iPhoto open for your Camera not your iPhone
Written on 08/21 • 0 Comments
If you are an iPhone user who charges your phone using your Mac when you are at home or at work it can get tiresome having iPhoto launch every time you connect your phone. It would seem like there would be an obvious way to stop iPhoto opening each time you connect and there is but its not in the place where you change other iPhone settings — iTunes nor is it in iPhoto itself but you will find it in the sometimes forgotten Image Capture application.
Continue ReadingCreating and Using CSS Sprites
Written on 08/14 • 0 Comments
CSS sprites are a way to combine images to improve our page loading time and reducing the number of requests our server performs. CSS sprites have been routinely used in CSS for a number of years in rollover effects where loading one image that contains both states. The problem with using two images here is when the page loads, the first image is loaded by the browser, the user then moves the cursor over the image and only then does the browser send the request for the second image. By waiting until the user is already hovering over the image to download the second file the user may experience a delay before that image is fully downloaded by which time the user may have already moved the cursor away. Using CSS sprites one images is used but only partially displayed then moved to show the hidden area containing the hover state. An example of this can be seen on this site in the sidebar, hover over the RSS feed and you will see the hover state of the RSS image.
Continue ReadingIllustrator Tutorial: Neon Tube Light Mudflap Girl
Written on 08/07 • 1 Comments
Neon is a great way to draw attention to something, and that is why you see it everywhere in places like Las Vegas were everyone is trying to grab your attention and get you into their casino or club. The same principle can work for you in your prints and digital designs.
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