Paper Curl in Flash (0)

Posted 24 April, 2009 in Flash

flash-paper18

In this tutorial we will be looking at how to create a paper curl in Flash. We will also be adding some texture to the paper using a bitmap. (more…)

Flash Obama vector illustration tutorial (0)

Posted 23 April, 2009 in Flash, Web Design

barack-obama

This is a tutorial on taking a sketch and creating a flash vector illustration with it. The subject in this case will be the American president, Barack Obama. (more…)

JavaScript hide email address (0)

Posted 23 April, 2009 in Javascript, Web Design

If you want to avoid spam robots crawling your email address, then the following bit of code can help. It breaks up the address, and uses javascript to present it properly to the end user. Just replace your email address with the following, changing id to your name, dom to the site name and tag to the site name tag such as com or net.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
id = “johndoe”;
dom = “example”;
tag = “com”;
document.write(’<a href=\”mailto:’ + id + ‘@’ + dom + ‘.’ + tag + ‘\”>’);
document.write(id + ‘@’ + dom + ‘.’ + tag + ‘</a>’);
</script>

CSS align background image center (0)

Posted 20 April, 2009 in CSS

If you want to center and middle align a background image, use the following CSS code:

body {
 background: #000 url(images/background.jpg) no-repeat center;
}

If you want a fixed image, center aligned but not middle aligned, try this:

body {
 background-image: url(images/background.jpg);
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 background-attachment:fixed;
 background-position: 50% 0%;
}

CSS cursor styles (0)

Posted 19 April, 2009 in CSS

You can control the cursor style using the CSS ‘cursor’ property.

For example, to make a <p> use a crosshair cursor then sue the following CSS:

p {
 cursor:crosshair;
}

The following is a list of al the cursor styles. Mouse over them to see the cursor change.

  • mouse cursorauto

  • crosshair

  • default

  • pointer

  • move

  • e-resize

  • ne-resize

  • nw-resize

  • n-resize

  • se-resize

  • sw-resize

  • s-resize

  • w-resize

  • text

  • wait

  • progress

  • help

CSS centering content on page (0)

Posted 19 April, 2009 in CSS

center divCentering your content on a page using CSS is not complicated once you know how:

  1. You need to create a content or container div that all the content goes into.
  2. In your css you need to give the content container a width and then set the left and right margins to auto.

Example HTML:

<body>
 <div id=”content”>
  <!– Content goes here –>
 </div>
</body> 

Example CSS:

#content {
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  width: 500px;
 }

Linux for designers (0)

Posted 18 April, 2009 in Web Design

A tough choice!

I use a PC. I can’t stand the Mac tax and the Mac image. I don’t mind PCs; I understand them, but I am growing very fond of Ubuntu, one of the Linux alternatives to Macs and PCs. The problem is that I do a lot of design work and as a designer I am married into adobe. It was a shotgun wedding, but there we are. Adobe don’t do Linux.

Adobe now have a monopoly (or as good as) in the field of design software, and as long as they don’t do Linux, I can’t make the move. I know there are alternative packages out there, but adobe make very, very good bits of design software. I hate that there is no real competition. The other problem is that as a designer I need my software to be 100% compatible with everyone else’s. Sure, file formats can be read but it always goes wrong and always when you are working to a deadline. So as long as Adobe don’t do Linux, I am stuck with a PC.

Don’t get me wrong. Adobe are not anti-Linux, they just have not spent the time and energy needed to port their top products to the platform.

Here are three of the main Adobe packages with some Linux alternatives:

Adobe Illustrator

Xara Xtreme for Linux
Inkscape

Adobe Photoshop

GIMP
Krita

Dreamweaver

KompoZer
Nvu
Bluefish

Make a div semi-transparent (0)

Posted 18 April, 2009 in CSS, Web Design

This does not work in all browsers but seems fine in the latest ie and firefox. Just add the following to the style of the div:

filter: alpha(opacity=50); 
-moz-opacity: .50;

It takes two lines of code. One for ei and the other for firefox. The numbers is how see-through you want it. The higher the number the more solid the colour.

Remember that the div also needs a backgroud colour.

php suppress errors Comments Off

Posted 30 March, 2009 in IT, PHP

When you have your PHP script up and running on the web, you might want to suppress any errors as they can show visitors some of the inner workings of your scripts.

Here are three basic levels of error suppresson or lack of it:

error_reporting(0); // Suppress all errors
ini_set (”display_errors”, “1″); // Suppress all but fatal errors
error_reporting(E_ALL); // Show all errors. Good for debugging

For more on this see:

http://uk.php.net/error_reporting

Also you can put an at “@” before any function to suppress errors it might generate.

PHP change max execution time (0)

Posted 30 March, 2009 in IT, PHP

Having trouble with your PHP scripts timing out? You need to change the max execution time. Try one or both of the following:

ini_set(”max_execution_time”, 60); // Set to 60 seconds
set_time_limit(60); // Set to 60 seconds

For no time limit try:

set_time_limit(0); // No time limit

You might still run into problems of your server is running PHP in safe mode. Also your server will have a timout that might need to be changed.

If you have access to php.ini then try changing max_execution_time to a higher value. This will however effect all your PHP scripts.

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