Interactive Llama

You have the option to embed images into Adobe Illustrator or to link them. If you embed them, then your file will be large (a 500MB AI file is an everyday occurrence in my work). The other is to link to the image file, but if you hand the file off to another person, the linked images will not be stored with it. One option to is to have a central repository located on a network for images. All new images are placed there. This can sometimes be cumbersome not to have a copy of the image on your local machine–consider image manipulations and having to manage file versions centrally. This script solves the problem of collecting linked images for output. This script collects external image links into a single “Links” folder. You can then give that folder and the subsequent source file (AI) to another person and the external links will work. (more…)

On Saturday, February 9 at 11:30 am, I spoke at BarcampIndy 2008 on Graphic Web Design and Cascading Style Sheets. All presentations were broadcast on BlipTV. You can view a video of this presentation on BlipTV.

The premise of my presentation was to show an overview of the process between layout in Illustrator and PhotoShop to coding in HTML and CSS. I find that web design is often segmented between the coders and graphic designers. I propose that the best outcome can come from bridging that gap. I do this in my daily workplace and try to show tips and techniques for others to bridge that gap. The time slot was only a half hour, so I could not go into coding detail, but only point to tutorials via links. (more…)

I originally was excited when I saw WebHotOrNot.com (Yes, now you can say I’m a uber-geek). Similar to the photos of people that your friends used in high school, Hot Or Not?, you can rate the graphic design of web pages. Unfortunately, it crops each snapshot of the page off at 768 pixels (I believe).

It depresses me to click through most of these. I average clicking five or so. They are all text/information heavy and 90% look like prepackaged themes of blue, black and white. I realize that I’m posting from a blog with the default WordPress theme, Kubrick, but I’m NOT selling anything except myself. My blogs are still in a personal phase–I don’t even have a domain for each of my blogs except the poetry knook.