I coached a professional photographer a few years back. He needed something like 30 minutes of help before he was loading his images every which way onto his portfolio blog. Someone with limited exposure to photography, however, could struggle for months trying to grasp the dynamics of image processing and placement. Cropping, sizing, correcting, coding and uploading images can be maddening for those without experience and/or aptitude. Don't get me wrong: Anyone can learn to upload … [Read more...]
Writing alt tags that matter
April 16, 2013 by
We all know about alt country, alt rock and now even alt classical, but what about alt tags? A little background: The alt tag (or alt attribute -- the proper name) replaces web site images for someone not able to view them. Such as blind people or dumb search engines. Alt tags are found in the html code that controls display of graphics. The tags were designed as an aid for people with text-only browsers or those with crappy dial-up connections who turned off the slow-loading graphics. … [Read more...]
Image loading in WordPress 3.5
January 10, 2013 by
How to use the new WordPress media loader (photos, etc.). To upload an image and insert it into a post/page, begin at the same location as before, atop the post's type-menu bar. "Add Media" replaces "Upload/Insert" (the camera graphic). "Add Media" leads to the main interface for loading. Use the pulldown for filtering if needed: "All Media Items" or "Uploaded to this page," etc. But for initial loading just work with the big stack of thumbnails there, ignoring any images not … [Read more...]
Square peg. Round hole. Splat!
January 2, 2013 by
Having a great logo or custom header image can really make a web site. Branding, aesthetics, visual impact -- what's not to like? Here's what's not to like: Most graphic designers create artwork apart from the ultimate environment. In our example, the artist designs a header/logo image out of context. The graphic goes to the client, who evaluates it out of context as well. Terrific! Then the artwork lands in the lap of the web designer, who does an immediate face plant. Often as not, … [Read more...]
