The photo from that unforgettable vacation, the logo of the family business, the background image on your webpage, there are many types of images out there. After downloading an image from the internet, did you ever wonder why the heck is there a .jpg, .gif, or .png on the end of the file name? Well, they are all different types of images, and the computer reads them all very differently. Here’s the low down.
First the GIF:
This guy is the most popular guy in the crowd. It is great for compressing areas of the same color and for those cutsie small animations that you see every now and then. It also can be transparent, but is not quite as high quality as other types of images. Gif supports a maximum of 256 colors, which makes them great for almost any graphic on the web, except photographs of course.
Gifs can be used for logos, line drawings, and icons. They don’t usually work well with JPGs or gradients.
Next the JPG:
Whenever you see this on the end of your file name it probably means the file is a fabulous photo. It can hold many, many colors - 16.7 million to be exact. This kind of file is usually for photographs. However, when resizing this type of image, it throws away information. Once this information is thrown away it can not be retrieved again. It’s like emptying your virtual trash bin.
Ever sit on a website for what seems like a century waiting for an image to load? Before you chuck your computer out the window, know it probably means the web developer is not using the cool progressive JPG feature. With this feature, images can be saved as a progressive JPG, which means it shows a low quality image on the web page at first, and then over a few automatic passes loads the higher quality image.
Finally the PNG:
This is the baby of the bunch. Recently becoming popular, and the newest of the group it was developed to take over and surpass GIFs. PNG was designed to offer the main features of the gif format while also having a greater color depth. Right now there is not as much support for this file type, but it is expected in the future to become more and more popular.
Presto! That is the magical world of image file types.
Become a GIF, JPG, PNG Guru
Creating a Favicon and Uploading to Vipa Suite
Ever wondered how websites have that nifty little icon next to their name on a web browser tab? Here's how:
1. Download the plugin for Adobe Photoshop at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat. Copy the ICOformat.plugin file to your computer (MAC) > Applications > Photoshop CS4 > Plug-ins > File Formats (just paste the file there).
2. Restart Photoshop.
3. Open the image or logo you want as your favicon. Crop your file to be a square. Then re-size your file to be 16 x 16 pixels.
4. Save your psd file as "ICO Windows". It will ask you if you want ICO or PNG, save as ico. Done!
5. Go to file system of Vipa, upload your favicon to Favicon folder.
6. Go to Site MGT > Hostnames > click on Edit button. Select your file under the dropdown "Favorite Icon". Save and refresh. It takes a couple minutes sometimes to see it on the frontend.
Thinking about DIY'ing your website or going the 'generic' route?
Did you ever catch yourself thinking about going the generic site-in-a-box route when creating your website? Do generic tires compare equally on every level to Michelin or your choice 'name brand'. Simply answered: no.
Cheap tires you got from 'Stan's Club' or 'Wal-Store' that were on special probably don't have the same tread, work that well in wintery conditions, plus they don't have other special components,meaning you will likely be buying new tires sooner than later.
Believe it or not, the same goes for websites. Which leads me to this silly cartoon I found on another internet marketing blog site.
This is a parody for those of you who don't want to think about it for too long.
Billboard= your website software
Sara's Gift Shop= your website
<JE
Unfriend Static Websites
It's all over the press, unfriend, as you may have heard, is the Oxford Dictionary's WOTY (Word of the Year). Definition is as follows:
Unfriend: To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.
Other techy words like paywall and freemium were considered but were, unfriended from the list after further deliberation.
My question to pose is, who comes up with these words? They must have a lot of time on their hands. To me, the word unfriend is like "sexting", "freakonomics" and dare I say, "Brangelina" all of which are, at first slightly creative, but mostly just egregious and oversimplified juxtapositions to the English language, not to mention in this blogger's opinion, overused. Nevertheless, the language goes where the people take it, so it is quite possible that we can expect more social media and pop culture jargon in our lives and in the work place.
Unfriend is not a bad word, per-se, the idea of social media jargon is a wonderful thought. The fact that they chose social media jargon as the one and only Word of the Year shows just how powerful the device is becoming in our society. Social media, at some point in the last 10 years was nonexistent and now look at it, even my parents (commonly known as technologically inept (sorry!)) are using it. Use this news quip as an example for your webventures, don't unfriend social media because it seems too frivolous or casual, instead update your status as a website by making it interesting, dynamic, and accessible to all kinds of people.
<JE
Post Away: Have any web technology words (or words you made up) you think should make our list of Vipa word of the year? Post away below!
Upgrade Your Browser!
Do you remember where we were technologically in 2001? Let’s remind you that the iPod was announced as a revolutionary new personal media device that year. Do you know how many upgrades Apple has made to the iPod since then? I don't think I can even count on my ten little fingers. And yet, people seem to stick to their old ball and chain of a web browser. Many have no choice as their company and the software they use, such as accounting software, have made a deal with the dark side and require their employees to use IE6, to those of you to whom this applies- you have my condolences.
Now, let me say that the rebirth of the Internet Explorer has made some changes (including tabbed browsing!). IE8 is much improved, but personally, I still prefer other browsers. This browser is no beauty queen, just a runner up contender. So some words of advice for those who get stuck with the snack instead of the whole meal: if you can't upgrade your browser (whatever platform you may be on) then my best piece of advice is to, A) pray that you don't get a virus (ancient browsers are not equipped to deal with phishing scams, spam etc) and B) Download a completely separate browser for webpage viewing (check out our site on Firefox!) TRUST ME, your website viewing experiences will be improved!
And remember, choosing to not upgrade your browser is like standing on top of a very large building in a greater metropolitan area and yelling, HEY I'M OVER HERE VIRUSES!!! COME AND GET ME!
<JE
Post Away: Which Browser do you prefer? Have any gripes about a particular Browser? Leave comments below!
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Vipa Solutions partners with MarComm agencies by providing industry best practices and web solutions for social media, content management, eCommerce, mobile, and other web-based services...