Web Design Basics

What is Internet?

What is a ISP, Modem, Web Browser? Examples, etc.

How does information get displayed on the Web?

What is a website? (basic elements)

Graphic formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG

Image compression

Lecture Outline:

What is Internet?The Internet is a vast collection of computers all over the world that store information and send it out. Internet is like a virtual highway and your computer is like a private on-ramp.

What do you need to connect to the internet?• An ISP (Internet service provider)

• A modem (internal or external) - Dial-up connection via a phone line- Broadband cable connection - DSL high-speed phone connection

Brief History of the Internet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZSPWDMn730&feature=related

Why Do You Need a Modem?

Modem SpeedsThe biggest difference between modems is speed which is called the baud (bod) rate. The rate refers to how many bits (digital pieces of info) per second can the modem send and receive.

Ex: 56K or 56,000 bps (the most typical dial-up modem speed)

Broadband (high-speed) connections refer to:• Satellite or cable• T1 Lines• DSL or ISDN• Other variations of the connections mentioned above

Broadband connection allows you to play movies andgames directly on your computer, have video chats, etc.

The World Wide Web

A collection of related pages is called a web site.

Each website has a home page (similar to a table of contents). It’s usually the 1st page of the site.

A site can also have an entry page (splash page), which will lead you to the home page.

Ex: Entry Page & Home Page

Ex: Reverse Though web site.

Browsers & URLsTo see pages on the web, you must have software called a browser.The browser reads the info on the web page and displays it on your screen. Ex: Internet Explorer, etc.

Every page on the web has an address = Uniform Resource Locator.

http://www.ratz.com/robin/hats/html

Hypertext transfer protocol

WorldWideWeb

DomainName(tells youwho owns the site)

A path telling the browser where the page is located

Indicatespage format:HTML file

What are the main, basicelements of a web page?

How do you know what’s HTML text and what’s an image?

- View Page Source in Firefox, Explorer, etc.- Right click on the image to copy it, to save it, to find out it’s size, etc.

Ex: www.gavilan.edu

What is the standard Web resolution?

72 dpi (ppi)

Web Graphic Formats - GIF- GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

- 256 colors max- Not very good for photos, but perfect for b&w graphics, line drawings

- Small file size (less than 10kb)- Interlacing (a process by which the image is drawn in

a series of passes rather than all at the same time.)

- Animated Gifs

Web Graphic Formats - JPEG

- JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)- Lots of colors = JPEG… Solid colors or no gradations = GIF

- Does not work well on line drawings, lettering or simple graphics- Supports 16 mil. Colors

Web Graphic Formats - PNG

- PNG (Portable Network Graphics)- Supports RGB only (not CMYK)

- Employs lossless data compression- Was designed to improve upon and replace GIF

- Can help you produce images that have transparent bkgr

Dreamweaver – 1st Steps

What is Dreamweaver?

Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson)

Where to store files?

Local Drive Remote Server

Upload final files

to make the

site public

Defining a New Site

Watch this video (Adobe TV site, by James Williamson)

Web site – Background Graphic

- Gradients (Photoshop)- Repeating backgrounds (Tiling images in Dreamweaver)

- Rollover Images (Photoshop & Dreamweaver)

Student Work - Examples

Discovering Bodie web site by Nick Gariaeff

Santa Cruz Muzzleloaders web site by Jacqueline Kiel

More examples

“The Non-Designers Web Book”

by Robin Williams and John Tollett

“Creating a Web Site in Dreamweaver CS5”

by Nolan Hester

Good Books: