Monday, February 4, 2008

Create Awesome Text Shadows With Pure CSS

I love finding ways to use css to replace unnecessary usage of images. In this tutorial I will teach you to create cool text with shadow without using any images or javascript. Here is my end result

The CSS:

#title{
z-index: 2;
color: #333333;
position:fixed;
font-size: 30px;
left:5px;
top:5px;
}
#shadow{
z-index: 1;
font-size: 30px;
color: #C0C0C0;
position:fixed;
left:8.5px;
top:8.5px;
}


The HTML:


<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">

<html>

<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>

<body>
<div id="title">
<h1>Test</h1>
</div>
<div id="shadow">
<h1>Test</h1>
</div>

</body>
</html>


This is done by using z-index property of elements in CSS. The shadow should be placed behind the text by assigning it a z-index lesser to that of the text. If you want to increase the distance of the shadow from the text then change the left and top properties.

So the next time you want to create a nice little text with shadow instead of jumping onto your Photoshop, use this technique.

Post in the commnets if you have anything to say about this technique, blog or want to show off your implementation of this technique.


Sunday, January 27, 2008

Smart Linking and Wikipedia

Wikipedia is great for all research work. One thing I really like about it is the easy with which millions of links have been placed under it. The links are in totally understandable form. Many times I just type what I am looking for in the link itself and nine out of ten times I am taken to the correct page. It really amazes me that if such a gigantic site is able to keep their links so simple and clear, of course having an awesome engine like MediaWiki helps but I fail to understand why other small scaled sites aren't able to do so. So learn from wikipedia, if they can keep their links simple so can you.

Friday, January 18, 2008

New Design : Ganesh01 - Sunshine


A new opensource design by me is up for download. I used to use it for one of my blogs but I stopped using the blog so I have put it up for download.

It is a very special design because it marks the beginning of the "Ganesh##" design series, inspired by how Andreas had created the "Andreas##" series.

The design is public domain. If you use the design then please keep the "Designed by Ganesh Iyer" and the link to this site intact.

You can download it from : OpenDesigns

Monday, January 7, 2008

The Anatomy Of Liquid Layouts (Part 1)

Liquid layouts have been around for quite some time. Some while ago it was thought that liquid layouts are dead. But liquid layouts are far from dead. Designers have shown that when implemented properly liquid designs can look as beautiful as fixed width layouts.

What are liquid Layouts?
As the name suggests liquid layouts are fluid and flexible. In liquid layouts widths are defined in percentages instead of pixels. The characteristic which makes liquid layouts special is that the layout scales with the size of the browser. So if you resize the browser the layout will resize accordingly.

So whats the big deal?
Liquid designs are very helpful in making the site accessible. These days there are so many diverse ways to access a site. People use different screens, resolutions, browsers, operating systems and even devices to view websites. Liquid layouts ensure that the layout of a site doesnt distort even when viewed in different resolutions.

Fixed Width
Fixed width layouts are made keeping a particular screen resolution in mind. They have fixed dimensions The layouts can at times look undersized over oversized if viewed from different screen resolutions. For example a site designed for 1024 x 768 px would distort when viewed from 800 x 600 px resolutions.
There are many advantages of using fixed widths, which make them so popular. They give the designer more control over the structure of the site.

This is the Part I of this post. I am working on the part two of this post which will feature the implementation of liquid layouts and some other stuff :)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Orkut: Send Scrap(Spam) To All

I agree that Orkut doesn't stand against Myspace or Facebook, but still it has been my social network of choice because most of my friends are on it.

In Orkut, friends can write stuff to each other in the form of scraps. Over the past few weeks some people have unofficially implemented a "scrap all friends" feature. The problem with this feature is that they just made life easier for all the spammers on orkut. Over the past few days I have received all sorts of spam scraps, ranging from buying used laptops to getting free domain names. Plus these scraps come with an advertisement to make people join the community of the creator of this feature.

If Orkut is not going to come up with an official version of this feature then they shouldn't allow these to spring up.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Beginning Ruby On Rails

I have been developing sites using PHP and MySQL for the past 2-3 years. But lately the upsurge of Ruby On Rails has turned my interest towards it. I have started learning ruby from various sources. I have joined a course by Ruby learning , I would like everyone to check it out because I guess its a great way to kick start rubying. Although it doesnt teach rails but still I think getting the basics of ruby is very important bef0re jumping into rails.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Big Backrounds aren't that BIG

Many of the so called design gurus, I guess, have started a new trend in the web design. Here is a small list of sites which follow this "big background" trend.
These designs certainly "look good". But the main purpose of web design isn't making sites "look good". The main purpose of web design is to assist the user in meeting the his objective from the site. Many a times, attractive looking backgrounds may not be as handy as a simple plain background and many times it is.

Every site has an objective. The main purpose of web design is to help the user meet those objectives with relative ease. For example the main purpose of a portfolio site would be to show off the persons skills. But a blog or a news portal may not have the same objective. The purpose of these sites is the content.

My opinion on these abstract-big-backgrounds depends upon the kind of page they are used on. Sites in which content is the objective, the background should blend beautifully and not strike out. Because if it does so then the content wont be the priority instead the background would become more prominent. On a portfolio page, the content isn't the prime objective of the designer, its a means for him to show off his work and so a decorated background certainly makes the design look beautiful.

What do you think of this trend? Post your opinions. I would love to hear from you all.