Bird of Liberty Masterclass

LibDems, Web Design

Having seen some of the local party websites, I thought that I would give a Libby Masterclass.
I personally use Paint Shop Pro to create my images, and this tutorial will be based on it.
The first problem I come across are people using images which are resized using the height and width attributes, which leads to images like the two on the right.

You should always resize your images in a graphics package, and use those images. Even if it means creating one-offs, it only takes a few seconds to resize an image and you’ll save on bandwidth as people won’t need to download such large images.

The next problem that I come across is people using transparent GIFs.
Whilst the first image works fine on a white background, we come across problems on a purple one (I’ve actually seen this done!)

So here’s how I create my Libbys.

Click here for the full Masterclass…
  • Step One: Start with a large 1 bit TIF file (you can download the one I use here).
  • Step Two: Edit the palette (Image -> Palette -> Edit Palette… [Shift+O]) to the background and foreground colours that you want.

    The hex values for the bird I recommend are:
    Black – #00000, Gold – #ffcc33 or Orange – #ff9900.
  • Step Three: Increase the colour depth to 16 million colours (Image -> Increase Color Depth -> 16 Million Colors (24 Bit) [Ctrl+Shift+0])
  • Step Four: Resize your image (Image -> Resize… [Shift+S])

    Ensuring that you’ve got Resample Using: set to Smart Size and Lock Aspect Ratio ticked.
  • Step Five: Decrease your colour depth to 256 colours (Image -> Decrease Color Depth -> 256 Colors (8 Bit) [Ctrl+Shift+3])

    Ensuring that you have the following settings set:
    Palette: Optimized Octree
    Reduction Method: Error diffusion
    Options: Reduce color bleeding
  • Step Six: Set the palette transparency (Image -> Palette -> Set Palette Transparency… [Ctrl+Shift+V])

    To get the right palette entry, just click on the background of the image.
  • Step Seven: Save your file as a GIF (File -> Save As… [F12]) and try to call it something useful either a colour description (libby_mint_transparent.gif) or based on the pixel size (libby_200_157.gif) so that you know what the image is about when looking at your image folder.
  • Step Eight: You now have the perfect transparent Libby
  • Note: If you don’t want a transparent GIF, then stop after step four and save your image as a PNG (Portable Network Graphics), or after step five and save as a GIF.

If you still find this too hard (or don’t have the software), for a small donation I’ll knock one up for you, just let me know where on your website you want it to go, and what size it needs to be. (The same goes for any logo or image that you want).

New Logo, New Colours

Web Design

Having kept the same style for over a year now, I felt it was time to make some changes.
New LogoHaving seen Will’s new title, I wanted one of my own. I tried photoshoping a picture that I had seen, then I remembered that I’m crap at stuff like that. However I then discovered how Will had done it, and just copied him. It’s a great site called LetterJames. They have translated from German to English, however you do find the odd bit still in German (including the receipt).
Having picked my new logo, next was to change the colours. I had got fed up of the browns, so I got the colour picker in Paint Shop Pro to find some colours from the new logo. After several hours I managed to get the combination I’ve gone for, it’s a green, mint and lemon mix.
For the time being I’m going to keep the text the same colour as before, but over the next few weeks that might change too.
Having changed the logo and colours, the next step was to remove the curves and arrows that I didn’t really like. I decided to replace the bullets with the asterisk like those in the logo, which seems to be working well.
The final stage was to create a new favicon, for those of you who use Internet Explorer you don’t really see them, however for Firefox it’s worth working on one.
I kept to the asterisk theme and cropped one from the logo, then using this webpage I converted a png file to a ico.
It’s the same website which I used to create the LibDemBlog one, which I think is the nicest LibDem favicon available (feel free to steal for your own site).

Just a quick note, whilst doing the redesign, I did notice a small problem with the search engine. It seems that Google is playing up and that results are only being returned around 20% of the time. If you do want to search, just keep trying.

Google PageRank™

Other

Now I know bloggers like their PageRanks™, so today I spent most of the time creating a PageRank™ value button.
However I’ve discovered that my version/installation of php can’t cope with the large numbers that are generated to find the checksum value, so instead the script is hardcoded with the correct checksums for both this blog and LibDemBlogs.
It’s now working and I do have 12 icons for the different PageRank™ values, plus an error picture.
If you want the button for your own blog, leave a comment as I can either provide you with the full php code (which should work on most servers), or add your url to the safe list.

ATM fees ‘to reach £250m in 2006’

Other

CashpointThere is much fuss about this story on the BBC Have Your Say section of their website.
Now as long as bank don’t remove their current free cash machines, charge each others customers to use their own machines and that there is advance warning before inserting your card into the fee paying machine, what is the fuss all about.
The news story highlights how the number of fee paying machines are going up, whilst free machines have remained static.
Thats right the number of free machines hasn’t actually gone down, it’s just that we have more of these convenience machines.
They are mostly found at petrol stations, kwik-e-marts, pubs or clubs. The advantage of them is that you don’t need to leave the pub to go out into the cold to find a machine or leave the nightclub early as you’ve run out of money, and all for a small fee between £1 and £2.
Whilst I’m not that old, I do remember when the only way to get some cash on a Sunday was to get the pub landlord to cash a cheque and depending on what sort of customer you were depended on what fee you would pay.
Times have changed, but instant accessible non-chargeable money hasn’t and won’t with a free market.

iMP

iPlayer, TV

Not a post about the Lincoln Football Team, but about the BBC Interactive Media Player.
I blogged about this back in December last year, and am now the 14th result on Google for Interactive Media Player.
Today I got my trial invite 🙂
Not sure if it was from the email I sent months ago, or the comment I left on the BBC stand at Federal Conference, however I’ve now got it up and running on my computer.
Finally I can get to watch those missed episodes of Spooks, or the new comedy on BBC Three that we can’t get without an aerial upgrade.
Will comment later on quality, just waiting for The Thick of It to download.

Nottingham Beer Festival

Other

On Saturday I staffed at the Nottingham Beer festival with the Young Camra lot, and I actually discovered that it’s a lot of fun.
You get a free half pint glass, a free t-shirt and 2.5 pints of free beer.
However as you have people asking “which is the best”, or “can I have a really hoppy one” of course you need to trial a small sample of all the beers 🙂
I ended up spending 5 hours behing the bar, hurt my legs from the bending up and down but did manage to get drunk.