Soon To Be Resources Web Designer New to the Trap17.com site

[Mich 0]

Hi everyone

 

Let me intoduce myself. I am a young-at-heart senior citizen and woman of strength and inner beauty. I design web sets, background tiles, background graphics and more for people to use on their homepages. It is my hobby and they are offered for free. My domain, websetsbydonna.com, is temporarily out of service because my original host server has gone down. I want to earn points fast so I can apply here for hosting. I have borrowed some space from my ISP to put up a sampling since space will not allow more. At this time not all of the links are in order. You can only go to the "Newest Sets" page where the links to the individual page sets do work, but the zips are not present (couldn't use any more space). You have to use your back button for now, but when the whole site is up and operating, the links will all work. You can also go to the "Awards" page where I brag a little about my work.

My Web Set Site is at: Web Sets by Donna

My personal homepage is at: My Garden of Promise

Please visit me often.

Notice from jlhaslip:

Moved topic from Web Designs to Introductions

Edited June 9, 2006 by Mich (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

A designer. I welcome you, and hope that you'll be taking part in the graphics section, during your stay here at Xisto, also, while enjoying yourself throughout the forums. You seem to have a taste for old-school designs. Your site mentions best viewed in IE v5+, when i view it in other browsers, i see little or no difference. Since you're a web designer, i'm guessing you're familiar with the W3C? By the way you "advertise" your site in this topic, my guess is you want a lot of visitors to your site. I suggest you build by the W3C standards. Especially, if you want your site to be more "Family friendly".

[Avalon 1]

Welcome Donna, nice to have another designer on board. Looking at your web site I have noticed you don't seem to use 'anti-aliasing' on your text so it looks a little pixelated. Is there a reason why you do this? I see also you use Paintshop Pro, I too used to use Paintshop but have been converted to Photoshop by the users of Xisto. I was reluctant at first because I thought Paintshop was a lot easier to use, but now I wouldn't look back. There are a lot more tutorials and resources available for Photoshop and there is no doubt it is more powerful and gives you more choices. Particularly when you start to use brushes.I think in time you too will see the light and come to embrace Photoshop as your graphics program of choice.

[hulunes 0]

hello mich,welcome to Xisto community where you could enjoy and share your designing technique with us.sounds good designer you are,hope your are helpful and kindful to forum especially in graphics region .i do like design as well,but pity that there are a little time left to me to adhere to that.so only can i do is too appreciate others works.with my greeting ,going to look forward to yours works later :Penjoy your stay here.

[shigajet 0]

Welcome aboard, Mich. I'm sure you'll find yourself right a home in this community. The people here are very knowledgable and very supportive. Feel free to browse the many topics and threads on the boards, too.Hope you enoy your stay here and we hope to see more of your posts in the near future!

[Mich 0]

Looking at your web site I have noticed you don't seem to use 'anti-aliasing' on your text so it looks a little pixelated. Is there a reason why you do this?

Probably because I didn't realize I had turned it off. I have corrected that now. Thanks! I am very much self taught and miss some of the finer points in my ignorance.

I think in time you too will see the light and come to embrace Photoshop as your graphics program of choice.

I have never tried Photoshop. My daughter provided me with PSP and I have used it along with some simpler programs I already had. Since I struggle with it, I am not in much of a hurry to try another program. I haven't really mastered PSP yet.

 

Since you're a web designer, i'm guessing you're familiar with the W3C?

I don't consider myself a web designer of any expertise. I am strictly an amateur, self taught and struggling to learn PSP. This is the main reason I offer my work for free. I haven't a clue what W3C is. Perhaps you can bring me up to date on this.

[truefusion 3]

I don't consider myself a web designer of any expertise.  I am strictly an amateur, self taught and struggling to learn PSP.  This is the main reason I offer my work for free. I haven't a clue what W3C is. Perhaps you can bring me up to date on this.

W3C, they set standards for everyone to follow when building a website to make one's website more accessible to more people, mainly ones with disabilities. They have a validator whichs scans your HTML or CSS for errors, or elements or attributes that dont really exist, or if you missed something, etc.

Most graphic programs just require some time using them, then you get the hang of it. I remember when i first used PaintShop Pro, confusing at first, but I've found Photoshop to be easier to use. If you want something similar to Photoshop, but dont have the money at the moment, you can download: The GIMP. It's free, and based on Photoshop in a way.

[Mich 0]

W3C, they set standards for everyone to follow when building a website to make one's website more accessible to more people, mainly ones with disabilities. They have a validator whichs scans your HTML or CSS for errors, or elements or attributes that dont really exist, or if you missed something, etc.

Gee thanks for the link. I will be studying this later as it is past 12AM here in Mich. Need my sleep for now. I do use CSE HTM Validator Lite, but maybe W3C's is better. Guess I have a whole lot more to learn.

[Mich 0]

Welcome Donna, nice to have another designer on board. Looking at your web site I have noticed you don't seem to use 'anti-aliasing' on your text so it looks a little pixelated. Is there a reason why you do this?

I think I have corrected things now, take a look again at my pages. I have not corrected all the sets themselves yet, but working on them.

[Avalon 1]

Yes, the text graphics on your entrance page look much cleaner. It's amazing what a difference it makes, I was looking through your set and one that will really benefit from anti-aliasing is the "Bamboo Swag" set. At the moment the text graphics look really choppy, once you apply anti-aliasing that will be a really nice set.

 

Even the graphics used for dividers in the "Lost in thought" set will look much better with anti-aliasing. As a rule thumb you can use anti-aliasing on everything except very small text graphics (pixel fonts).

 

If you are using graphics that need to have a trasparent background you can still use anti-aliasing and avoid the "fringing" effect. If you want to use GIF format, select a background color close to the one the graphic will be displayed on and use 256 colors. You could also use PNG format but it doesn't display correctly in IE unfortunately, and I think you will need to use Photoshop to create the image. Here's some examples of what I mean...

 

This is your original image from the "Bamboo Swag" set. 2 colors used without anti-aliasing.

 

This is my image using anti-aliasing and 256 colors. This has a transparent background, but as you can see it has a problem with a black fringe around the graphic. The background color used of course was black.

 

This is the same image as above but this time the background color used matches the background of the forum pages.

 

This is the same image in PNG format, if you are using IE it will not display with a transparent background. It will display correctly with Firefox, (a much better browser in my opinion) but IE is still the most popular browser so as a designer you should cater for it. It is a shame because PNG format definately produces the best result for a trasparent background.

 

Hope all that helps.

 

[P.S. to MODS] I know this is almost a tutorial but it seemed most appropriate to post it here.

[Mich 0]

I was looking through your set and one that will really benefit from anti-aliasing is the "Bamboo Swag" set. At the moment the text graphics look really choppy, once you apply anti-aliasing that will be a really nice set.

~~TUTORIAL ABOVE~~

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Great tutuorial. Maybe you should cut and paste it up to the tutorial section!!!! Or is that not allowed; double points? I have fixed the Bamboo Swag. Take a look. Really an improvement. I will be going back through all of my sets (100+) in total and improving them. It will take me longer to rebuild my dot com, but oh well, it will make it better in the long run. When I get my setup here (waiting my 72 hours) I will start uploading my stuff as I review them for improvement. THANKS AGAIN!

[Avalon 1]

Yes that set definitely looks much better! One slight problem, the link to the ZIP file you have on the page appears to be broken, "Page not found". I guess you can fix all that when you get your hosting here.

 

I can't copy and paste the "tutorial" to the Tutorial section because that would be a double post. I took a bit of a chance posting it here because it should really be in the Tutorial section. Thinking about it, I should have put it the Tutorial section and then posted the link to that here. Ah well, too late now. Hopefully the mods won't growl at me for doing it this way.

 

If you're looking for images to use, perhaps my site will be useful for you, http://www.mudmall.com/ It's a Fantasy Gallery with almost 2,000 images.

 

Good luck with fine tuning all your sets, you certainly have some work ahead of you.

[Mich 0]

Yes that set definitely looks much better! One slight problem, the link to the ZIP file you have on the page appears to be broken, "Page not found". I guess you can fix all that when you get your hosting here.

I didn't have the zips up because space was borrowed and I didn't want to overdo the ISP's generosity.

If you're looking for images to use, perhaps my site will be useful for you, http://www.mudmall.com/ It's a Fantasy Gallery with almost 2,000 images.

Say this is a great site. I see it is also hosted by Trap 17. THANKS!!

Good luck with fine tuning all your sets, you certainly have some work ahead of you.

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Yeh, I am going on a 3-4 week vacation here next week and need to get some points up in reserve so I can be gone. Won't have an opportunity to work on sets or post on here. Fine tuning some of my pages is taking up most of my time right now. Trying to correct some of the things a validator is finding.

[Chez 0]

welcome to the forums, to the site, and to our little circle of friends! You have no idea how pleased I am that someone as old as you (don' t take it badly, i really can word it any nicer ;P) uses a computer and actually codes! My grandparents (70-80y/o) still have problems with my old iMac I gave them 3 years ago. They're afraid to close browser windows or applications, fearing they will never come back.. like a letter you throw away. Kinda funny to watch, not fun trying to tell them how to open Word over the phone, long distance, for 4 hours while explaining terminology. "Yea, that little folder on the screen, that's a folder. if you doubleclick it, you can open it. no, doubleclick. meaning click twice. no, faster. you need to double click. tap it twice fast. what do you mean it disappeared?" LOL!I really love your site. It's quaint. Something that most sites are lacking today. reminds me of visiting grandma on holidays. I also enjoyed reading the "born before 1945" page. Got me laughing.

[Mich 0]

welcome to the forums, to the site, and to our little circle of friends!  You have no idea how pleased I am that someone as old as you (don' t take it badly, i really can word it any nicer ;P) uses a computer and actually codes! 

No offense taken. I found it rather intimidating at first, but my daughter got me interested and I ran with it. Found it so much fun, I embraced it as a hobby. Keeps me from living at the refrigerator door. Or simply sitting and watching the boob tube.

My grandparents (70-80y/o) still have problems with my old iMac I gave them 3 years ago.  They're afraid to close browser windows or applications, fearing they will never come back.. like a letter you throw away.  Kinda funny to watch, not fun trying to tell them how to open Word over the phone, long distance, for 4 hours while explaining terminology.  "Yea, that little folder on the screen, that's a folder.  if you doubleclick it, you can open it.  no, doubleclick.  meaning click twice.  no, faster.  you need to double click.  tap it twice fast.  what do you mean it disappeared?"  LOL!

Well bless their hearts. So many older citizens are unwilling to give it a try. This includes my husband. And bless you for helping your grandparents to keep up their mental agility. I could never get my mother to understand that she didn't have to type as fast as the computor operated. She was very intimidated by the whole technology of it all.

I really love your site.  It's quaint.  Something that most sites are lacking today.  reminds me of visiting grandma on holidays.  I also enjoyed reading the "born before 1945" page.  Got me laughing.

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Thank you for the compliments. It was my intent to make people feel welcome at my sites. I guess that is why the quiantness is evident. I have visited a lot of sites that are more modern in their construction, but I do favor the simple html and use of tables. I am still embarking on the adventure of learning more advanced methods of coding. However, I think that most people want their homepages to be "homier" and will find it difficult to construct such things as flash pages for their own use. Don't misunderstand me, flash is super cool, but I feel just a little complicated for the average user.