AU Blogspot

          Thanks to Robert Marinkovic for permission to use this Photo.

Cascading Stylesheets, or CSS, can be pretty awkward at times. It allows you total control over the presentation of a webpage within a browser; but having the resulting webpage look identical in each different browser (IE, FireFox, et al) can sometimes be difficult. Here’s a selection of handy tips I’ve found - see if they help you too.

100.01% Font Size

CSS: Getting Into Good Coding Habits says:

This odd 100.01% value for the font size compensates for several browser bugs. First, setting a default body font size in percent (instead of em) eliminates an IE/Win problem with growing or shrinking fonts out of proportion if they are later set in ems in other elements. Additionally, some versions of Opera will draw a default font-size of 100% too small compared to other browsers. Safari, on the other hand, has a problem with a font-size of 101%. The current “best” suggestion is to use the 100.01% value for this property.

Link Styling: “Love/Hate

Link Specifity says:

All of them can apply to a hyperlink, and in some cases, more than one will apply. For example, an unvisited link can be hovered and active at the same time as it’s an unvisited link. Since three of the above rules apply to the hyperlink, and the selectors all have the same specificity, then the last one listed wins. Therefore, the “active” style will never appear, because it will always be overridden by the “hover” style. (more…)

Ever walked around and see a terrible designed poster on the wall? Now you can take action with the Design Police. They have up to 5 different templates of stickers that will apply to possibly any design mistake people can make. Really nice idea, and I will surely print out some of these suckers!

Frederik Samuel
Creator of adgoodness
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*Frederik Samuel is an art director/designer working out of Toronto, Canada. Through his blog, adgoodness, Frederik comprehensively covers the best and worst advertising and design from around the globe. We’re excited to have Frederik Samuel as a member of our contributing bloggers’ network and would like to sincerely thank him for his generosity. Thanks Frederik!

Have you ever wondered how you create a seamless pattern in Photoshop? It’s easy and it’s fun. Let me show you how…

Step 1 - Create a Color Fill

First of all create a vector illustration in Illustrator CS2. It might be just a simple dot or circle. Copy this object. Go to Photoshop and create a new document of 300 by 300 pixels. Select the Rectangle Selection Tool from the Toolbox and drag a squared selection (hold down shift) in the center of the document. Leave enough space around the square. Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer in the Layer’s Palette and select Solid Color. Select a color you like and click OK.

Step 2 - Paste your Illustrator object

Paste your Illustrator object. Select Smart Object in the Paste options. In the View menu, make sure that Smart Guides are active (Show > Smart Guides). Snap and Snap to Layers should also be checked.

Step 3 - Place your object over the border

Drag your object over the border of the Color Fill. If you see the Smart Guide and feel the object ’snapping’, release the object.

Step 4 - Drag a 2nd object on the other side of the border

Duplicate the layer (drag the layer in the Layer’s Palette onto the Create New Layer icon). Now drag the object over the bottom border of the Color Fill holding down the shift key. Again, when you feel the Snap effect release your mouse. (more…)

Do you often have to create a page filled with the same business cards, stickers etc. nicely arranged ready to go to the printer? You know you don’t have to copy and drag them “manually” on the page. There is a much smarter way of doing this…

Step 1 - Create your business card and group all objects

First create your business card with crop marks and everything all set. When finished group all objects.

Step 2 - Apply a Transform Effect

Select your business card and go to the Effects menu. Go to Distort & Transform and choose Transform. Check the Preview option so you see the effect live. Enter 3 in the copies field, -65 mm in the vertical field under the Move option. So we’re duplicating the card 2 times under each other.

(more…)

Recently I’ve had the fortune of forming and now fundraising a games operator and publishing company, and one of the primary operations will be to license interesting Korean and Chinese computer games to the western English markets.

Checking into these things really opens your eyes to how different far eastern design is to the west.