Issue #85 | Tuesday, May 28th 2013 | 154,343 subscribers | Previous issues
Dear Friends,
Over the last few weeks we've been working on performance improvements for Smashing Magazine — optimizing CSS/JavaScript, refactoring and cleaning up the code base. As a result, you will hopefully notice a slight speed improvement and faster loading times. As it is, refactoring usually means that code is being rewritten, so you have to be able to quickly toggle between old and new code snippets to see if refactored code does what it's supposed to do. So how do we do it efficiently?
Aleander Brevig has shared his comment toggle trick to solve this very issue. Essentially, by using an extra backslash at the beginning and at the end of your code snippet, you can toggle between two sets of code, by changing one symbol in the code, with no additional short-keys to learn and no tool dependencies. That's a clever technique; however, you do need to remember it first. What tricks are you using for refactoring?
P.S. We've also been fixing quite spectacular ePUB bugs using a similar technique for our eBooks when testing them in Nook and on iBooks for our Smashing Library. What problems have you run into and how did you solve them? Share them using the hashtag #smrefactoring!
Sincerely yours,
The Smashing Team
Table of Contents
01. Apps And Tools For Creative Professionals
02. For The Love Of Letterpress
03. Button, Button, Where Goes The Button
04. A Bunch Of Animated Dribbble Shots
05. A Fast And Easy Way To Share Emails
06. Retro Games Reinvented, In The Browser
07. The Secret Colors Of Movies
08. Sqwiggle: Remote Working, Made Awesome
09. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
10. New on Smashing Job Board
11. Recent Articles On Smashing Magazine
1. Apps And Tools For Creative Professionals
Often, creative professions don't involve as much creative play as we might wish, just the more serious business work. Deadlines need to be met, clients want to be satisfied, and project management plans must be arranged — all things art school probably never prepared you for. To simplify these tasks, the team behind 4ormat has put together a great resource filled with apps and tools to help you increase your productivity and creativity: Damn You Art School.
The site features six different toolkits, each one filled to the top with productivity and creativity apps, tools and resources. Whether you're a communication designer, illustrator or even photographer, there is a toolbox tailored specially to your profession's needs. The virtual drawers are neatly labeled, covering every possible aspect of your work, from collaboration and client communication to accounting and invoicing. Save time getting the necessary stuff done and spend some more time living out your creative passion. Sounds good, doesn't it? (cm)
2. For The Love Of Letterpress
"Nothing you truly care about can be made by a nameless face in a far flung country and left out in the rain on your porch the next day." There are people in this world who truly care about devoting their attention to long-forgotten machines, and paper being squeezed by tons of iron — people who love letterpress. This love is what The Beauty of Letterpress is all about. Brought into life by Neenah Paper, The Beauty of Letterpress features the best and most innovative letterpress work in the industry.
Just like a subtle letterpress print, the website reveals all its fine details when you look closer. It features the work of well-recognized designers and also presents you with a number of insightful videos on letterpress process and printing. In addition, The Beauty of Letterpress wants to help the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in their efforts to relocate and preserve their matchless piece of history. Anyone can donate by ordering a print from one of the site's monthly issues, or lots of other paper goodies. The money will all go to the museum, towards moving palettes, packing and storage materials, sorting and cataloging the museum's inventory and the like. For the love of letterpress. (Quote by Workhorse Printmakers) (ea)
3. Button, Button, Where Goes The Button
Common Misconceptions About Touch isn't new guidelines for inter-personal contact, it's the title of Steven Hoober's article on designing for touchscreens. Of course, there are many articles and guides out there that deal with the same subject, yet this one delivers what it promises.
In his article, Steven deals with details as simple as thumb size, as well as with logical conclusions, such as that placing the delete-your-account button next to the check-your-messages button is a recipe for disaster. He also includes some very handy size guidelines to use when designing for phones and tablets. All in all, this article is 15 minutes of well-spent reading. (jc)
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4. A Bunch Of Animated Dribbble Shots
If you love animations, then you got to check out GUIFFF, a collection of animated Dribbble shots curated by Jan Cantor. Looking at these designs might turn any animator green with jealous rage, but isn't jealousy so inspiring? If you care to know more about the designs and the people behind, just click on the gif to go to the original post on Dribbble.
For those of you who are eager to design something like this, it might be worth checking out the comments section below the original posts. Here, some of the designers tell us which tools and software they used to create the gifs, and in some cases even provide tutorials and project files. GUIFFF is a great source of inspiration for anyone who wants to take UX and UI to the next level. (ea)
5. A Fast And Easy Way To Share Emails
Sharing beautiful HTML emails can be a real pain. Simply forwarding them can break the code, screenshots are time-consuming and annoying. Scope is a free tool to solve those problems. It creates a clean, Web-based version of any email and even lets you view the desktop and mobile versions.
Simply drag the bookmarklet into your browser toolbar or download it for Mac. It will then present your email in HTML or text-only. But instead of simply providing a clean screenshot, it lets you scroll down like you would on an actual device. Scope is perfect to share great emails or show off your own projects. (ml)
6. Retro Games Reinvented, In The Browser
Ah, the good old days! Do you remember those sleepless nights when you eagerly played in front of your Game Boy, trying to move that poor, tireless game character to the next level in the game? Well, if you miss those times, you can easily relive them online, in your browser.
Pica-Pic is a digitized collection of handheld electronic games, including the legendary Donkey Kong, Penguin Land, Parachute, Caveman and of course Zelda. Now that's something to save for a slow weekday evening! (vf)
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7. The Secret Colors Of Movies
Remember the first time you watched Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet? That warm, fuzzy feeling accompanying you throughout the film. If you're an art movie buff, you know that this is due to Jeunet's very distinctive color palette style. Always a yellowish, greenish tint. Color creates mood. Now you can let yourself get inspired by the color palettes of iconic movies on Roxy Radulescu' blog.
Radulescu's Movies In Color blog features a new movie still every day with its associated color palettes. The idea is to provide inspiration to artists deciding on color palettes for their paintings, films, videos and graphic design. Radulescu chooses a new still every day and, using Photoshop, distills the most worthy colors from it. If you have any requests, feel free to write her. (jc)
8. Sqwiggle: Remote Working, Made Awesome
Working from home is pretty trendy right now and is expected to become even more popular over time. Sqwiggle is a handy new tool that promises to make remote working a lot better because it gives your team the ability to to communicate effectively and bond with each other, even if you're physically separate.
While Skype and Google Hangout offer a service that is call-based and relies on someone setting up a meeting, Sqwiggle can run the whole day. It takes several snapshots per minute while you're working and your team members can see if you're on the computer or not. This gives you a sense of having a community around you which is as close to an office atmosphere as it can get. You also have the option to display a busy note if you want people to be prevented from contacting you. So far there's a Web version and a Mac client, but Windows and Linux should be supported in the future. Join now and save, with a lifetime 45% discount. (ml)
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9. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
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Modern CSS Layouts: The Essential Characteristics
After years of what felt like the same old techniques for the same old browsers, we're finally seeing browsers implement CSS 3, HTML 5 and other technologies that give us cool new tools and tricks for our designs. But all of this change can be stressful, too. How do you keep up with all of the new techniques and make sure your Web pages look great on the increasing number of browsers and devices out there?
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VI Editor / Linux Terminal Cheat Sheet (PDF)
This post features a VI Help Sheet, a cheat sheet for the VI Editor, for all web-developers out there who are working on Linux. The help sheet was designed by GoSquared and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers.
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The Dying Art Of Design
Progress is good, but we need to make sure that we're progressing in the right direction. Our fundamental skills and the craft of design have started to take a back seat. Using the right tools and techniques is certainly an important part of design. But do our tools and resources make us better designers?
10. New on Smashing Job Board
Here are the job openings published recently at our very own Smashing Job Board:
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Web Developer at WellnessFX (San Francisco, CA)
WellnessFX is looking for an engineer with skills in front-end web development and implementation and a passion for building great web-based user interfaces. You'll be building pages that change consumer behavior and help to productize our cutting-edge diagnostics dashboard for the $50 billion health information technology market.
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Senior Game Systems Designer (f/m) at YAGER Dev. GmbH (Berlin, Germany)
YAGER is currently seeking a talented and experienced Game Systems Designer to join our pre-production team of yet unannounced title. Join us in shaping the direction of the project as a driving force in Systems Design and push the boundaries to deliver a unique user experience.
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Creative Web Designer at ADP (Cambridge, MA)
At ADP we are driven by your success. We engage your unique talents and perspectives. We welcome your ideas on how to do things differently and better. In your efforts to achieve, learn and grow, we support you all the way. If success motivates you, you belong at ADP.
11. Recent Articles On Smashing Magazine
