CSS for Heading Text Drop ShadowsOctober

Did you know that you can use CSS to create text shadows? Well I think it’s a pretty cool thing that CSS allows you to do if you just want to give your page headings a subtle lift instead of just a boring flat text heading. So why not just use a graphic to give the same effect? Well it’s pretty common knowledge that text heading are better for search engines and can easily be tagged with the appropriate html so using CSS to create the subtle shadow is a win-win for you and your site users.The way it works is by applying the property text-shadow to your selector ie: h1. Here is a you could write your CSS.h1 { color: black;text-shadow: #ccc 2px 0.2em 3px;}The values in the text shadow property example above are #ccc which defines the colour of the shadow, 2px determines how deep the depth of shadow, 0.2em defines how far right (or left using negative values) the shadow will be, and the 3px defines the amount of blur to be applied.Here is a sample of how text-shadow looks providing your browser is capable of rendering the text-shadow property. Firefox, Opera & IE6 & 7 all don’t render the text-shadow property, however Safari for Windows & Mac work great.This would produce a nice drop shadow on your text heading just giving to give you the effect that your headings have a little depth to them. The only downside to the text-shadow property is that it doesn’t work on browsers that aren’t CSS2 compatible but we should be seeing more of this kind of thing as browsers improve and add more CSS functionality.

The Future of Web Browsing

I was happy to see this morning that CNet has a special section of their site dedicated to Internet Explorer , and more importantly, the future of Web browsing.The first article, IE--embraced, extended, extinct?, raises several key points regarding what may be in store for the future of IE:An article titled Planning to dump IE? Think again raises the point that even those who have switched to alternative browsers are often forced to keep IE around in order to perform critical functions like updating their operating system.IE gaps that need to be plugged does a good job of pointing out the major features that Internet Explorer lacks in comparison to its alternatives, such as tabbed browsing, live bookmarks , up-to-date CSS support, and support for PNG technology — i.e., the usual suspects.Have the browser wars been reignited? gives a run down on the options Web surfers have in terms of the Web browser they use, and finally, Views of IE's competition provides several screenshots side by side of the vastly different "dash boards" of those alternatives.Anyone interested in Web browsers should take the time to read those articles. Reading them only made me more curious about what the future of Web browsing will look like.

Bad Web Design Abounds

It pains me to see potentially high-profile websites (or sites that aspire to be high-profile) that suffer from really bad web design. Take a look at this page to get an example of what I mean. The page is only one among millions, but it's a relevant reminder, to me at least, that good web design should be appreciated whenever encountered — it really is a rare thing. It's just a shame it has to be that way.

Web Design Isn't Easy

Before you choke on your Cheetos, note that the title of this post isn't "Web Design Is Hard." Okay, now we can begin.I was reading an article about wireframing and prototyping in HTML when I ran across the following:In some circles, HTML has acquired the reputation of being a time-consuming, difficult undertaking best left to developers.My question is, in what circles? I guess taking context into account, I can see why usability folk might be scared to venture into the web design world, especially if they're stuck in their Visio ways. However, in nearly every circle I've been in, the exact opposite is true. HTML and more generally speaking, web design, have taken on the reputation of being easy.In the software development world, which is a world I live in for at least 40 hours a week, I consistently hear references to the ideas that building web pages is trivial and that web developers are a dime-a-dozen. I suppose I can agree with both points, the latter simply because it is undeniably true and the former because I have been building web pages for eleven years.The distinction that needs to be made is that good web designers and developers are not a dime-a-dozen. In addition, designing and building good websites is most certainly not trivial, even for someone who has been doing it semi-professionally for as long as I have (or longer).Typically the people that say things like "we can just throw a web page together – it's simple" end up producing pages that look something like this. Actually, that's being generous.I always take statements like that with a grain of salt, because it's just like hearing someone say "I am a C++ coder and write programs all the time." Then you take a peek at the code they've written and find a bunch of stuff lik this.The truth is, there is an artistic side to web design and development that most people just don't have. If I've ever had it, it was a struggle to attain and very fleeting. I believe there is an artistic side to programming as well, and it's easy to tell when someone has it. It's easy to tell when they don't too. The problem is, you can often get away with not having the artistic side in the programming world – the same is not always true in the web design world. It's just a fact, most people will naturally respond to a site like seriph in a way that they won't to a site like yoda.com (though you have to admit that site is pretty hilarious).So in conclusion, if you're one of those people that tends to write off web design as something trivial, only for those who "aren't smart enough to write real code," go pay a visit to mezzoblue, SimpleBits and Stopdesign (feel free to check out their source code too) and then come back here and tell me why.