Issue #84 | Tuesday, May 14th 2013 | 144,972 subscribers | Previous issues
Dear Friends,
No matter how indefinable humor may be, we're all aware of the fact that it can be one of those wonderful things that can increase not only productivity, but also create an atmosphere that encourages interaction and brainstorming of new ideas. It's known to be the best medicine: When used appropriately, it can give every situation a positive spin.
Other than that, humor is viral. Someone's laughter can be so contagious that you'll find yourself laughing along before you even know it! Here at Smashing Magazine, we like to use gifs instead of words — even for a simple hello. We hope you've had a good laugh today. If not, what are you waiting for?
P.S. Our Smashing Library keeps growing! Make sure to check out the overview of all of the eBooks available in our Smashing Library Catalog (free download!) which we have prepared just for your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Iris Lj.
Table of Contents
01. Expanding Smart Objects The Easy Way
02. Building And Previewing Icon Fonts Live In The Browser
03. What's New In The World Of Paper?
04. The People Behind Great Products
05. HTML5 Video Support Reference Table
06. Going Back In Time: With Retro Vector Goodies
07. A Web User Goes Offline: A Year Without The Internet
08. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
09. New on Smashing Job Board
10. Recent Articles On Smashing Magazine
1. Expanding Smart Objects The Easy Way
Handy Photoshop tricks are always welcome, and solutions for obviously missing features are even more. So here is a little script that has the makings of becoming your new everyday companion. Written by Kamil Khadeyev, it simplifies a normally pretty tedious process: expanding smart objects.
All you have to do is install the script, set up a hotkey for it and lean back. It will appear in your Photoshop menu, and when you select a Smart Object, it will expand it as a group of layers. The new group is even placed in the same order and keeps the same name as the original group. You can download the script from Kamil's blog. A real time saver, isn't it? (cm)
2. Building And Previewing Icon Fonts Live In The Browser
In light of high density displays, using raster graphics for icons doesn't seem like a bulletproof solution that will stand the test of time. To embed scalable graphics in our websites, we can either use SVG, or Web fonts… or perhaps both? Sometimes you can just use some of the glyphs from popular free Web fonts, but other times you might need to embed a logo or a custom character. So how do you do that?
Well, you would draw an SVG glyph, export it and use tools to generate a Web font file and a CSS snippet, but you don't really have to do it manually. In the article Reconciling SVG and Icon Fonts, the guys over at Hull explain how to set up a flexible design workflow, going from editing a bunch of SVG files in Sketch to previewing them as they update live in your browser, already compiled as a Web font. It's a little tweak, but it can help you iterate your design much more quickly, and automate tiresome manual work. (vf)
3. What's New In The World Of Paper?
When you were a kid, did you like doing arts and crafts? For example, did you like making things out of paper? Most likely, you loved it, like most kids do. Being busy grown-ups with lots of responsibilities and tight schedules, we don't really sit down at the kitchen table anymore to do handicrafts. Or, when was the last time you made a paper plane…?
How about playing with paper again? If not a plane, what about crafting your own paper notebook? Learn how, at Design & Paper, a blog for all lovers of paper — and those who want to be inspired. You'll find all kinds of exciting creative do-it-yourself paper projects, hot new paper designs, printing tips, giveaways, and even interviews with leading designers and manufacturers from the world of paper. Curated by three avid designers based in Vienna. (ea)
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4. The People Behind Great Products
Did you ever think about launching your own business, about selling your Web-based product? Well then it's time to tune in to Product People and listen to some hands-on advice from people who successfully took this step. Hosted by Kyle Fox and Justin Jackson, this interview podcast focuses on great products and — most importantly — the people behind them.
Each episode is about a half hour long, jam-packed with insights on how things are created and valuable tips for your entrepreneurial aspirations. You can learn about the human side of entrepreneurship, why you sometimes have to be a method actor walking in other people's shoes and how curiosity brings you further. A new episode of Product People is waiting for you each week. A great and inspiring resource for anyone who seeks advice on how to turn an idea into a marketable product. (cm)
5. HTML5 Video Support Reference Table
So your clients want to add a video to their website, but they don't want to upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and would prefer to keep it on their site. How would you embed the video to make it work across browsers? What video formats would you need to provide? And what about a fallback?
Well, consult The State Of HTML5 Video. This resource provides a detailed overview of the current support for video and audio media formats, tag attributes, JavaScript API, full screen playback and text tracks. With the growing support of HTML5 video, we need to encode videos only in MP4 and Webm formats and we can use media attribute on the
video source attribute to deliver appropriate videos to every device. The main culprits are of course Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 which would need a Flash video fallback. A useful resource worth bookmarking and coming back to. (vf)
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6. Going Back In Time: With Retro Vector Goodies
Remember the '80s, when commercials were crazy and cell phones gigantic? People spent their Saturday afternoons in the arcade or in front of their home gaming systems. The '80s were like living in the future, and so were the designs of the time. If you're into graphic design elements from this or other past eras, you must check out Retro Vectors, a great source of vintage vector goodies from the good ol' times — the 1880s to the 1980s.
Besides futuristic gaming and computer design, you'll find Gothic-style ornaments from the Victorian era as well as small ad clip art from the '50s and '60s — the golden age of advertising. Original materials that have fallen out of copyright have been scanned at the highest resolution possible. The content includes graphics from 100-year-old newspapers and other printed materials such as shop catalogs, calling cards and posters. All files are free to use for commercial or personal work. (ea)
7. A Web User Goes Offline: A Year Without The Internet
Unplug the cable, shut off your Wi-Fi, and swap your smartphone for a dumb one. Be offline, for one year. Would you? Paul Miller, 26-year-old tech writer and senior editor at The Verge, did. In early 2012, after seven years of tech writing and having used the Internet constantly since age twelve, Paul found himself burnt out by the non-stop flow of WWW information, endless emails in his inbox and never-ending news to cover. At 11:59 PM on April 30th, 2012, the techie pulled the plug.
Armed with unlimited time and the goal in mind to find out what the Internet had done to him over all those years, Paul managed to escape the virtual world for 12 months. Did the real and tangible world solve his problems? Did it heal his sanity and make him a better person? Far away from all the noise, from the other side of the browser, what did Paul find? Enlightenment? Or boredom and loneliness?
I won't blow the show. Find out yourself, at I'm still here: back online after a year without the internet. (ea)
8. Smashing Highlights (From Archives)
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Creative Use of Video in Web Design
Since its early days, video has been one of the most powerful and efficient tools of visual communication. It is an excellent way to present a product, service or brand and take user experience to a much more interactive level. For this reason, elegant, creative and professional videos are becoming increasingly popular in Web design today.
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Designing User Interfaces For Business Web Applications
Business Web application design is too often neglected. There are a lot of applications that don't meet the needs of either businesses or users and thus contribute to a loss of profit and poor user experience — eventually putting all of the blame on the shoulders of developers.
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The Process Behind Good Illustration
"Art" is something philosophers have spent centuries trying to define, sadly with no satisfactory result (a debate that is far beyond the scope of this article). But illustration, while it covers a broad range of image-making, does have very distinct meanings, and it is very different from just artwork.
9. New on Smashing Job Board
Here are the job openings published recently at our very own Smashing Job Board:
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Product/Visual Designer at One Kings Lane (San Francisco, CA)
As a Product Designer at One Kings Lane, you will be involved in every aspect of the product development process, from the conception of new features, collaborating with a cross-function teams, to pushing of pixels just before launch. This position is full-time and based in San Francisco and reporting to the Design Director and work collaboratively with San Francisco & New York based teams.
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Senior UX Designer at Potato (London, UK)
You'll work on web apps for huge audiences from our offices in London, UK. Our clients include Google, YouTube, News International, PayPal and other agencies such as BBH and Mother. This role will see you working as part of a friendly, expert team. The workload will sometimes be hectic, but the atmosphere is cheerful and proactive.
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Director of User Experience at The Big Studio (Cambridge MA)
You will be placed in the lead role both from a client relations and a Big Studio team perspective. Your job isn't just identifying hurdles but creatively defining the solutions for those hurdles. The buck will stop with you but you'll have a great support team both in leadership and team capabilities.
10. Recent Articles On Smashing Magazine
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