Re: Translation of the new comp

[Joakim Ziegler <joakim ximian com>]

On Sun, Mar 04, 2001 at 10:11:53PM -0500, digitect wrote:

>> That'd be a lot more difficult to fit in and make work, though.
>> Landscapes work because they're largely horizontal, and easy to make out in the
>>  somewhat

> I like the photographic quality of the images chosen, but I agree that
> their relevance to the subject page is going to be very important to
> avoid the question Martin raised. Would some slight abstraction help? I
> know it could definitely help load speeds by reducing colors. Perhaps we
> could start a collection of possibilities? (And start deciding how we
> choose from among them... themes, Free, proportions, etc.)

They're pretty strongly median filtered as is, which does cut down on colors
and loading times a lot (I haven't done actual tests, but since they're such
a small area, I don't think they'll contribute significantly to the total
page size, even with the images we use now).

As for themes, I'm usually a little cautious with too much "symbolism" or
"relevance". GNOME as a project is extremely abstract, as is each of the site
parts, so they don't lend themselves to visual representation so much. I used
landscapes in the comps because they fit into it visually, and also because
landscapes have positive connotations with widened horizons, lots of
possibilities, etc. They're also not too personal. I have problems with
images with people in them on web sites, it very quickly feels like it's
trying to fake a personal and friendly feeling (witness Microsoft's site).


>>> As for combining the comps, that could work. My design could expand
>>> (fill 100% of the browser width), with the use of images this would
>>> have
>>> to change to a fixed width. This isn't a big deal to me, but I can't
>>> speak for everyone else.

>> No, it wouldn't. It's completely doable to do the HTML so it still
>> expands.
>> Personally, I strongly dislike fixed width pages.
 
> I couldn't agree more about having variable width pages!! Joakim, were
> you refering to spanning background images like at
> http://www.transmeta.com?

Yes, although it doesn't really have to be that tricky, even. The stuff along
the top is going into a table (at least for 4.x browsers), and the iamge
would be the background of the table, with the content overlaid. The width of
the table would be set to 100%.

By the way, I'm strongly considering doing a template system that can deliver
different versions of the page headers and navigation and stuff based on
browsers. CSS is really elegant and will make the pages fast to load and very
functional, but doesn't work (properly) in 4.x browsers. So I'm thinking
about a template that serves it up as tables-for-layout when there's an older
browser in use. This could also be used to give lynx users an optimal
experience.

-- 
Joakim Ziegler - Ximian web monkey - joakim ximian com - Radagast IRC
  FIX sysop - free software coder - FIDEL & Conglomerate developer
         http://www.avmaria.com/ - http://www.ximian.com/