I’ve been designing webpages for as long as I can remember. One of the recurring issues I run into is the ability to display the same webpage across all browsers and platforms. The number of browsers we need to check with are enormous: Safari 3,0, 3.2, and 4.0, Internet Explorer (IE) 7, 6, 5.5 and 5.0, Firefox 2.0 and 1.5, Opera 9 and 8, and so on. And then there are the different platforms: Macintosh (Mac), Windows, Linux, etc.

More often than not, its the Internet browsers that are inconsistent on delivery. It takes a lot of patience to smooth out the frustration. Here are some helpful links that you should definitely check out when working with webpages.

W3C Validation Service – This validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. You can also validate specific content such as RSS/Atom feeds or CSS stylesheets, MobileOK content, or find broken links. I always run my pages through this validator before publishing or going live.

IE NetRenderer – Internet Explorer is the default browser for most PC users so getting your webpage checked for compatibility across all versions is vital. This site allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6, and 5.5. Just type in a URL and test it out – it’s free!

Browsershots – A popular free service that will provide screen shots of a page from just about any browser from all of the common operating systems. All you have to do is enter your URL and select the browsers and operating systems that you want to test. Paid users have priority in getting their screen shots first. When the service is busy it can take a while to get the free screen shots, but you can pay $15 per month for priority processing.

iPhoney – Technology has opened the doors for mobile phones with Internet capability so you need to develop your website to be smart phone friendly! iPhoney gives you a pixel-accurate web browsing environment—powered by Safari—that you can use when developing web sites for iPhone. It’s the perfect 320 by 480-pixel canvas for your iPhone development. And it’s free.

The Site Wizard – Check out this site if you want to be very thorough by learning how to check with multiple browsers on a single computer.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Extract Color Palettes
• Gravatar
• WordPress Subscribe-to-Comments Plugin
• Abstract Watercolor in Adobe Photoshop
• Digital Bokeh Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Photo mosaics are pictures made from hundreds and thousands of tiny images. The small tile images can be seen close up, but at a distance, an entirely different image can be seen.

Robert Silvers is the creator of Photomosaic™ software technology. His company produces many of the famous photo mosaics you see in magazines, ads and posters today.

You can take just about any ordinary image and make a photo mosaic. Make sure you have a folder full of images, at least 100 or so, somewhere on your hard drive. These are the images you’ll use to build the photo mosaic. You may need more or less than 100 images for your mosaic but after you build one you can always add or remove images to get the best results.

Here are a few applications that you can use to make your own photo mosaic:

• MacOSaiS (Mac)
• MozoDojo (Mac)
• eMosaics (PC)
• Andrea Mosaic (PC)

For more information on photo mosaics, check out Engadget.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Extract Color Palettes
• Gravatar
• WordPress Subscribe-to-Comments Plugin
• Abstract Watercolor in Adobe Photoshop
• Digital Bokeh Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Polaroid Gallery is a open source flash gallery developed by Christopher Einarsrud in 2006. Using a external xml file, the script loads images and image titles then processes the data and creates an interactive flash gallery.

You can view the live demo at my Perfect Polaroids website.

You can drag images around to get to the bottom of the pile and double click on the polaroids to zoom in. The background colour can easily be adjusted by following the instructions included in the package. A large photo background can also be used.

To download the original Polaroid Gallery package, visit: http://www.no3dfx.com/polaroid/

To download Polaroid Gallery for Picasa, visit: http://www.paulvanroekel.nl/picasa/polaroid/

Possibly Related Posts:

• Extract Color Palettes
• Gravatar
• WordPress Subscribe-to-Comments Plugin
• Abstract Watercolor in Adobe Photoshop
• Digital Bokeh Effect in Adobe Photoshop

This my interpretation of a tutorial I came across on the Internet. I will be using Photoshop to create the watercolor effect using layers, masks and splatter brushes. You can find parchment paper texture from Google Image Search and download free splatter brushes from Brusheezy.

Open Adobe Photoshop and create a new document. I’m using 1400×1000.

Add a new layer and fill it with white. Make sure you have black and white for foreground and background. Then go to Filter → Texture → Texturize. Use Canvas for the Texture, 75% for Scaling, 3 for Relief and Top Right for the Light.

Add a nice parchment paper texture. Place the texture in the document on top of the other layers. After that, change the Opacity to 75% and Blending to Multiply.

Now let’s place a picture image in our document. I’m using a photo of us from our cruise in the Bahamas.

The image has to go beneath the texture layer. Then go to Layer → Group Layer. This places the image inside the folder. Select the folder and go to Layer → Layer Mask → Hide All. The image is now hidden because of the mask.

Now it’s time for some painting! Select a splatter brush, white for color, and paint on the layer mask of the group. You will notice that the image will start to appear.

Keep painting, using a variety of brushes, until you can see the image without losing the brush splatters.

Add a new layer under the Group folder. Using the splatter brushes, paint on the new layer with colors like pink, yellow, and blue. Your image should start to look like this:

To finish, select the image layer and go to Filter → Artistic → Smart Blur. This will blur your picture to look like brush strokes.

This is a really cool effect and really easy to achieve. Have fun creating your watercolor painting!

For more information about the Watercolor Effect, check out Abduzeedo’s Tutorial.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Extract Color Palettes
• Gravatar
• WordPress Subscribe-to-Comments Plugin
• Abstract Watercolor in Adobe Photoshop
• Digital Bokeh Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Director Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly impressed audiences with a stunning 2D animation style that mixes heavy blacks lines with shapes of solid color to represent a realistic image. I used Adobe Illustrator’s pencil tool and shapes of solid color to imitate the graphic novel styling.

Here’s a photo of John and me on our vacation in Miami, Florida a few years ago. I decided to use this picture because it’s one of my favorites from our early years of dating.

First, I began by drawing thin black outlines around major forms and filled in the darkest regions.

Next, I filled in the darkest areas of the photo with black and shades of gray. Coloring my purse was a good warmup exercise because it didn’t require too much detail or time.

It took me about an hour to get comfortable with adding color to my hair and his shirt.

Then, I attempted to fill in the skin tones. This was challenging because the eye dropper tool on Illustrator kept picking up colors that were too dark compared to the actual shade. I had to play around with the colors until they meshed well.

Filling in John’s face took the entire day. I had a hard time with the shadow on the left side of his face because it was really dark compared to the right. I was really close to giving up and leaving our faces blank, hahaha.

Three days later, we have the finished product. I filled in the background relatively quick and used Photoshop to blur and lighten so we could standout in contrast.

This was my first attempt at digital inking so there’s a lot of room for improvement. However, I don’t think I’ll be working on another one of these for a while because I’m pretty burnt out from this exercise. I’m just really glad that I gained a lot of experience using Adobe Illustrator!

For full instructions on this tutorial, check out Layers Magazine.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Extract Color Palettes
• Gravatar
• WordPress Subscribe-to-Comments Plugin
• Abstract Watercolor in Adobe Photoshop
• Digital Bokeh Effect in Adobe Photoshop