Color Profiling

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

I was logging into a internet service at my hotel today and noticed a very distinct color discrepancy between Safari and Firefox on one of the images on the site.

The image on the left is how Firefox rendered this image while the image on the right is a Safari rendering. You are now asking why are the colors so different? Well this comes down to color management. Currently Safari has far superior color management then other browser on the market.

What is color management would be a logical next question. I am not the official source on this but color management is based on a color profile tag that is applied when a file is compressed. Essentially this tells the display how to balance the colors on the image. If you are familiar with white balancing on a camera this is how I would think about it. Currently Safari is more accurately displaying more types of color profiles then other browsers. This can cause a problem to the colorphiles of the world (I think I am going to coin the phrase colorphiles!)

Never fear there is an answer. Currently most web browsers will support sRGB color profile accurately. Assigning a color profile can be easily done using Photoshop. First open the image you would like to color manage. Once the image is open select edit>Assign Profile and choose sRGB click ok. Finally choose edit > convert to profile and under the destination choices again choose the sRGB option. Save your images for the web and WAMO say good bye to unwanted color fades.

home again

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Glad to be back home in the Mad city. On my trip I completed reading the site point book The Principle of Beautiful Web Design. I found this book to be a good refresher of basic design theory I had taken in college but had forgotten or was out of practice with. I found that much of the design theory was good and really enjoyed the color theory segment. This book is a good graphic design primer. It however is not much more then that. If you are a programmer looking for good practical advice on design then pick it up and help make the web a more attractive place.

Front End Development is it to broad?

Friday, April 18, 2008

Front end web development can be a very complicated thing to learn. There are so many elements to consider user interface design, graphic design, javascript, xhtml, ajax, css, and search engine optimization. It is hard to believe many times all of these elements get grouped together. Just out of curiosity on what is happening in the job market and web design community as a whole I find myself watching job boards and university offerings. Jobs being offered seem to bulk all the skill sets of a front end developer together. Universities are seeming to be so far behind the curve on what is quality web design that the only way a new job entrant can get into web design is to be self taught. I find my self questioning who the best candidates for any of these jobs is. Perhaps I am a purist but I would love to see more specialists. XHTML, CSS, and SEO are definitely a skill set that makes sense to combine. User Interface design and graphic design seem to make some sense together as far as layout goes. However I think you defiantly will start to see these two separate out in companies who are doing less print like websites and more application based or utility sites. Ajax/Javascript will probably end up killing flash (I may get attacked for that statement) and I think that as these technologies mature they will become a skill set in and of them selves.

As the web is maturing I think we need to see more specialist on front end design. Already the “Web Master” is starting to become a thing of the past as no one was ever a master of anything. The web is a complicated place and I suggest we take more of a specialization approach. As for education this is a whole different dilemma. 

Web Projects

Thursday, April 17, 2008

I am working on a really large project right now, that I cannot disclose. I have always wanted to have top secret info . I am dealing with managing 3 different groups which has large challenges in and of its self. I am learning to use a really great project tool called Omniplan which is making life a lot easier. I now have the ability to manipulate independent project process and see all corresponding changes to all other dependent milestones. I have always used Base Camp for external communications, but have needed an internal communication tool for quite some time. I had a very short time frame to get this product but have been looking into different products for quite some time. It does not meet every requirement on my list, however I have wanted to evaluate it for quite a while. The price tag is not to steep in comparison too many other programs out there which aided in the decision.

I also have a bit of a background with OmniGraffle which I have used for wire framing new layouts and also creating flow charts for CMS setups. I find it is a great communication tools and really simple to use. I would recommend the Omni family of product based on my past experience to any Mac user. With that history why not give OmniPlan a shot. It took a bit of arm twisting to get the purchase through but enough pleases will get you far in life.

I am also excited about the ability of Omniplans HTML output capabilities. This allows for the project manager to output an HTML age with the latest project gant chart, percent complete, and ical access for all project members. I hope this helps make things go smoothly. I

I will try to complete a further review in the future.