vCards, and hCards

vCards are electronic business cards They can be used by Personal Information Managers, e-mail applications, web browsers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other computer programs. A vCard can contain more than a printed business card. Not only names, addresses, telephone numbers, graphics/pictures, and website addresses...but also audio, geographic and time zone information, and can support multiple languages.

You can create a vCard at http://www.vicintl.com/vcf/

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The next generation, if you will, are hCards...HTML vCards...for use on webpages.

The template at http://tantek.com/microformats/hcard-creator.html allows for:
name
company
street
city/state/zip code
phone
url (website address)
and a photo url (web/internet address).

The template at http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator has more options:
given name
middle name
family name
organization
street
city
state/province
postal (zip) code
country name
phone
email
url (website address)
photo url (web/internet address)
AOL Instant Messenger screenname
Yahoo! Instant Messenger screenname
Jabber screenname
and allows for tags.

Getting your Skype onto Ustream

This is a question we get quite a bit however we use a Digital Telephone Hybrid to take calls during the show. We would like to incorporate the use of Skype on our Webcast since once in awhile we broadcast from remote locations and won't have the ability to take our phone hybrid with us. It really is quite simple and after watching a video demonstration anybody should be able to do it with a secondary microphone and speakers without feedback.

Take a look at this great link as a way to get er done!

Andy

No webcast March 12

There are scheduling conflicts...

camera (and web) images

Tom called the radio show about digital photography, and we discussed format preferences...here's what I think I know:

There are two basic kinds of computer graphics: raster (composed of pixels), and vector (composed of paths).

Most of the time it is best to use the vector format for all type, line art, and illustrations. Bitmaps are considered best for photos or images...

Vector graphics are best suited for page layout, type, line art, or illustrations. You can increase and decrease the size of vector images to any degree and your lines will remain crisp and sharp, both on screen and in print. The primary disadvantage is that they're unsuitable for producing photo-realistic imagery. They tend to have a cartoon-like appearance.

At this time, the most common and accepted format for vector images on the Web is Shockwave Flash (SWF). Another standard for vector images on the Web is SVG

Due to the nature of vector images, they are best converted to GIF or PNG format for use on the Web.

Raster images are more commonly called bitmap images. A bitmap image is composed of pixels. Pixels can be of differing colors. Most bitmap formats are TIFF, PCX, and BMP.

Consider using...

For web pages:
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format - The GIF format uses compression for smaller files and faster downloads.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group - the JPEG compression can be "lossy"...save the image using no compression or "lossless" compression and make JPEG copies from it.

For printed documents:
TIFF - Tagged-Image File Format - Used for bitmaps only. The TIFF format is supported by virtually all graphics applications.
EPS - Encapsulated PostScript - A file format used for both vector graphics and bitmaps. EPS files are unique in that you can use them for vector graphics, bitmap images, and type.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/bitmapvector.htm

http://www.sketchpad.net/basics1.htm

Easy Principles to Becoming a Master Designer

Rule Three: Contrast, Contrast, Contrast

Good contrast in your design goes hand-in-hand with your color selections. Contrast is the value difference between the colors on your design. Value is how bright or dark the color (ink) is. Ever see a blank white canvas and as a joke someone says: “Hey – it’s a white cow in a snow storm!” This is an example of no contrast. White on white is no contrast – you can’t see anything.

Elementary right? I mean what kind of stupid tutorial is this? I’m explaining that the piece I’m designing needs to be visible?? This is a retarded concept for a tutorial right?

Wrong.

Because unfortunately, I see lots of problems with designer’s contrast all the time. Not only that, but contrast, when used properly can be an important tool.

Here is one big mistake I see frequently: Designers use color difference to produce contrast instead of value difference. For instance… a medium value blue sitting on top of a medium value red produces some contrast. You CAN see the difference between the two. But when you have two colors together of the same value – it produces what is known as “vibrating.” You’ll notice that at the line where the blue and red meet your eye seems to oscillate back and forth between the two. It almost feels like the text is pulsing.



If your goal is to produce something really vibrant - you can use this technique. But it’s hard on the eyes and most people will find it annoying. Here is another example of the same design using different colors that have more contrast:

This second one is obviously much easier on the eyes.

A quick way to evaluate your design to see if there is sufficient contrast is to convert the entire thing to grey scale momentarily and see if the design still looks clear and easy to read. In Illustrator you do this by selecting your design, and select: Edit>Edit Colors>Convert to Grayscale. In Photoshop you’ll need to flatten your work then you can select: Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. This will convert it to Grayscale.

In either case, you’ll want to undo this action once you’ve had a chance to see how your design looks put to this test.

Here is a sample of the same design –one with good contrast, one with bad contrast. And just under each one is how they both look in grayscale.

You can clearly see how much easier it is to read the text in the design on the left, particularly when it’s converted to grayscale. The design on the right uses less contrast and more color difference to define the shapes.

One question I get all the time is: “what opacity setting should I use for a background water mark?” I think a good watermark background should be between 10%-15% opaque. Once again – this is all about maintaining contrast in your design. If the background is light – then the watermark should obviously also be fairly light and vice versa. Here is an example of a good and bad watermark:



The last little thing I want to note about contrast is how it can be used as a tool. If, for instance, you have a need to direct your audience’s attention to something specific on your design – you can accomplish it with contrast! You might keep the entire design relatively light and then make the one spot you want your audience to focus on dark. Here is an example of a well designed landing page:


This is a page on E-Harmony’s tour section of their website. While they want to give people a “tour,” what they REALLY want to do is get people to actually sign-up. So, when you look at this page - what is the biggest darkest thing on the page? It’s a non-clickable picture of a girl and the “Get Started Now” button. Obviously they want you to click on the “Get Started Now” button. Look at how much bigger and darker the “Get Started Now” button is compared to the “Next Step” button. The Next Step button is what someone on the tour SHOULD be pushing to continue the tour - but how tempting is that Get Started Now button? And why? Why does it jump off the page at you? Simple - CONTRAST!

This concludes a fairly basic but fundamentally critical lesson in design. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Four more basics to go. After that I promise I’ll teach you how to draw!

Here is the link for more Easy Principles to Becoming a Master Designer:

http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/rule-three-contrast-contrast-contrast/

Thanks for the link Andy!! Great points to know...