Taft 1.0 - How to proceed?
4/1/2005 – 5:20 pm | by EmileOk, so the feedback has been tremendous to Taft 1.0 (at least, from my point of view) and I really want it to be compatible for everyone’s purposes. Vkaryl has been especially helpful on many things, most especially IE PNG support (I wouldn’t know where to begin had she not posted his helpful comment/solution link). In addition to some snazzy UI enhancements, I want to improve the underlying code, but alas, I’m at a crossroads with what to do.
My primary work method for Taft is to do the graphics stuff in Photoshop, image optimization in Fireworks/ImageReady, basic layout in Dreamweaver, and all CSS tuning in BBEdit. Regardless, to fix and overcome some of the annoying browser bugs, I can:
- Revert to a table-based layout within an absolutely positioned DIV
- Have an absolutely positioned DIV using only CSS and using PNGs (currently in use), but add the PNG workaround Vkaryl has passed along
- Have an absolutely positioned DIV that has a JPEG book background, but no transparency, and place that above a repeating linen GIF background
The semantics of all this are slight and I’m not sure I’ve been keeping up on browser issues enough to know exactly how to proceed. I’m thinking the last option to be the best. It looks decent, though not as pixel-licious as the current Taft, but should prevent a slew of annoying bugs/unwanted features, or at least so *I think*…
Any thoughts, would be awesome.
5 Responses to “Taft 1.0 - How to proceed?”
By Vkaryl on Apr 4, 2005 | Reply
Hi Denis, me again…. now if I were going to try to back up to the square one graphics thing on Taft, I’d actually do all three and check the size first. One large “book” jpg might not be much larger if at all than the set of graphics now in use, but it would take longer to “show” at least partially (doesn’t make a dif on broadband, but it does on dialup, which is all I have, so I worry about it….)
Then I’d look at the css involved and see which solution seemed the most elegant from that angle. Then I’d probably set up a decision matrix - and THEN I’d no doubt opt for the one that seemed “right” to me, regardless!
Your last solution would be simplest overall though - unless the size or download time on the graphics makes it unwieldy….
Taft will become my “only” look for a separate site I’m starting up. May take a while to get it running, I’ll let you know when it’s ready. I do love Taft!
By Vkaryl on Apr 4, 2005 | Reply
Oh…. and not that this makes any difference in the overall schema, but I’m female….
By Denis on Apr 4, 2005 | Reply
Vkaryl,
I’m so absolutely sorry for that. I corrected the above post so please pardon my initial mistake.
Your idea of the decision matrix is a good one. My hunch is that the latter idea will be the best and least buggy. Transparent PNGS aren’t as small as a well compressed JPEGs so I think I’ll be able to best serve you with the latter option as well. Please pass along the link for your separate site, I’m always curious to see how and where people are using the themes.
By Vkaryl on Apr 4, 2005 | Reply
I will, Denis - and not to worry about the gender dif…. it happens a lot, though I’ve never been able to figure out why “Vkaryl” sounds male to others! Talk about a “generic blindness” on my part!
I’m in planning stages on the “Taft-focussed” blog. I’ll post along as things get forwarder…. I write, and the blog will be pointed in that direction, I’ll probably post snippets n bits….
By Vkaryl on Apr 12, 2005 | Reply
Hello Denis -
You can see the beginnings of The TaleSpinner - it’s in progress, still a few tweaks to get to, but I’ll be gone for the next week. I have included a couple other themes for those who may not be as interested in Taft as I am, kind of doubt I’ll have enough traffic for a while to worry about it overmuch, and may remove eventually.
Thanks again for this truly neat look!