Web Design Basics

Lecture Outline: What is Internet? What is a ISP, Modem, Web Browser? Examples, etc. How does information get displayed on the Web? What is a website? (basic elements) Graphic formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG Image compression

What is Internet? An ISP (Internet service provider) The Internet is a vast collection of computers all over the world that store information and send it out. Internet is like a virtual highway and your computer is like a private on-ramp. What do you need to connect to the internet? An ISP (Internet service provider) A modem (internal or external) - Dial-up connection via a phone line - Broadband cable connection - DSL high-speed phone connection

Brief History of the Internet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZSPWDMn730&feature=related

Why Do You Need a Modem?

Modem Speeds The biggest difference between modems is speed which is called the baud (bod) rate. The rate refers to how many bits (digital pieces of info) per second can the modem send and receive. Ex: 56K or 56,000 bps (the most typical dial-up modem speed) Broadband (high-speed) connections refer to: Satellite or cable T1 Lines DSL or ISDN Other variations of the connections mentioned above Broadband connection allows you to play movies and games directly on your computer, have video chats, etc.

The World Wide Web A collection of related pages is called a web site. Each website has a home page (similar to a table of contents). It’s usually the 1st page of the site. A site can also have an entry page (splash page), which will lead you to the home page.

Ex: Entry Page & Home Page Ex: Reverse Though web site.

Browsers & URLs http://www.ratz.com/robin/hats/html To see pages on the web, you must have software called a browser. The browser reads the info on the web page and displays it on your screen. Ex: Internet Explorer, etc. Every page on the web has an address = Uniform Resource Locator. http://www.ratz.com/robin/hats/html Hypertext transfer protocol World Wide Web Domain Name (tells you who owns the site) A path telling the browser where the page is located Indicates page format: HTML file

What are the main, basic elements of a web page?

How do you know what’s HTML text and what’s an image How do you know what’s HTML text and what’s an image? - View Page Source in Firefox, Explorer, etc. - Right click on the image to copy it, to save it, to find out it’s size, etc. Ex: www.gavilan.edu

What is the standard Web resolution? 72 dpi (ppi)

Web Graphic Formats - GIF GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) 256 colors max Not very good for photos, but perfect for b&w graphics, line drawings Small file size (less than 10kb) Interlacing (a process by which the image is drawn in a series of passes rather than all at the same time.) - Animated Gifs

Web Graphic Formats - JPEG JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) Lots of colors = JPEG… Solid colors or no gradations = GIF Does not work well on line drawings, lettering or simple graphics Supports 16 mil. Colors

Web Graphic Formats - PNG PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Supports RGB only (not CMYK) Employs lossless data compression Was designed to improve upon and replace GIF Can help you produce images that have transparent bkgr

Dreamweaver – 1st Steps

Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson) What is Dreamweaver? Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson)

Local Drive Remote Server Where to store files? Local Drive Remote Server Upload final files to make the site public

Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson) Defining a New Site Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson)

Web site – Background Graphic Gradients (Photoshop) Repeating backgrounds (Tiling images in Dreamweaver) Rollover Images (Photoshop & Dreamweaver)

Student Work - Examples Discovering Bodie web site by Nick Gariaeff Santa Cruz Muzzleloaders web site by Jacqueline Kiel More examples

Good Books: “The Non-Designers Web Book” by Robin Williams and John Tollett “Creating a Web Site in Dreamweaver CS5” by Nolan Hester Good Books: