Earlier this year, Adobe released its biggest Creative Suite update yet. The new nucleus of the package, Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, does not disappoint when it comes to new features for video content producers. The first thing you''ll notice when you boot the program up is the speed at which everything works. If you''ve invested in a dual- or quad-core machine and spent coin on gigabytes of RAM, Photoshop can now seamlessly take advantage of the full power of your hardware. If you are running a 64-bit OS—either Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X—Photoshop now processes tasks at up to 10 times normal speed. You''ll notice in the preferences there is a RAM slider to set up how much RAM Photoshop can use, and unlike previous versions, you can now use as much RAM as you have in your machine. Previously, I could only use a few gigs, but now with CS5, I can allocate 20GB.
The 3D feature set continues to evolve and expand, the options getting more compelling with each new update. If you are not using the 3D options in Photoshop Extended, you are missing a huge number of powerful tools. Adobe Repoussé is a new feature included that makes creating 3D text, artwork, logos, layer masks, or images a snap to create.
HTML5 is the latest version of HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. It is currently only fully supported by a handful of browsers but the next year should see a large increase in usage. It isn’t expected to be completed until 2014, but the features that are available now are a great way to become acquainted with HTML5 and add some cool elements to your website.
Steve Jobs famously refuses to allow Flash on the iOS due to the many bugs and crashes it experiences, therefore, learning how to use the more intricate features of HTML5 is going to be a must for those who want to develop apps and iOS-friendly websites. With Google rolling out an HTML5-friendly version of YouTube, many developers are starting to see how important this system will become in the near future. However, with Firefox resisting some of the advent of HTML5, developers and designers are still feeling the need to cover all of their bases when implementing new features on a website.
The idea behind HTML5 is that it’s not one large entity, but rather made up of smaller parts that work together to create something innovative and advanced. Each browser may support different features of HTML5, which makes it important for those interested in coding to figure out which features they need and which will be supported by different browsers.
HTML5 simply builds upon the widespread success of HTML4. That means a coder doesn’t have to throw away the existing markup, but rather build upon and improve the old one. For example, forms can be updated to allow for new features such as a better email input for those using a mobile device. However, viewers stuck in IE6 will simply see it as a text field and still be able to use it.
CSS 3
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) offer increased flexibility in the presentation of website content. In essence, it just makes everything prettier. Although CSS3 isn’t supported by all browsers yet, it’s becoming increasingly popular because it makes these changes so much easier than trying to get the same effect using something like a Javascript plugin or creating slightly different versions of the exact same image.
One drawback to using CSS is the requirement to implement filters to change how something will appear onscreen using different browsers. Although Internet Explorer is known for bugs, CSS can still be incorrectly interpreted by Firefox or Chrome. As such, some web designers have created different CSS codes to be sent to different browsers, or use filters to cut off CSS delivery completely.
CSS3 offers some exciting new features to enhance the appearance of a website. Although these features might not be absolutely necessary to the functionality of a website, users are coming to expect a website to look awesome as well as operate cleanly. CSS3 makes it easier for designs that will make visitors “ooh and aah” over them to be implemented.
Some features, such as menus, are necessary in almost any website. But with CSS3, the functionality and aesthetic appeal increases exponentially. Submenus upon hovering, horizontal menus, menus with rounded edges, submenus with tabs, submenus with descriptions, and menus with submenus with rounded edges with descriptions on hover are now all possible with some tweaking. Users will appreciate the ability to see a little more of what that page is about before potentially wasting loading time.
PHP is probably the most popular scripting language on the web. It is used to enhance web pages. With PHP, you can do things like create username and password login pages, check details from a form, create forums, picture galleries, surveys, and a whole lot more. If you've come across a web page that ends in PHP, then the author has written some programming code to liven up the plain, old HTML.
PHP is known as a server-sided language. That's because the PHP doesn't get executed on your computer, but on the computer you requested the page from. The results are then handed over to you, and displayed in your browser. Other scripting languages you may have heard of are ASP, Python and Perl. (You don't need to know any of these to make a start on PHP. In fact, these tutorials assume that you have no programming experience at all.)
The most popular explanation of just what PHP stands for is "Hypertext Pre-processor". But that would make it HPP, surely? An alternative explanation is that the initials come from the earliest version of the program, which was called Personal Home Page Tools. At least you get the letters "PHP" in the right order!
But PHP is so popular that if you're looking for a career in the web design/web scripting industry then you just have to know it! In these tutorials, we'll get you up and running. And, hopefully, it will be a lot easier than you think.
JavaScript has an interesting bit of history. Originally developed at Netscape as Mocha, it came to the forefront with official announcement in 1995. It was then developed independently by different parties, most notable of which was JScript by Microsoft.
Obviously a standardized implementation was needed, which led to its submission to ECMA international. Thus ECMAScript was formed. These days, most browsers support ECMA-262 which is also more commonly (and often vaguely) known as JavaScript.
What is Javascript? Javascript is rightly called the language of the Web. Each newer browser version pushes the bar higher in terms of JavaScript execution speeds. This is an important performance parameter these days as sites make extensive use of JavaScript. JavaScript led the Web 2.0 revolution with AJAX. Using JavaScript, sites can send HTTP requests behind the scenes and customize or update certain sections of the site, tailored to a particular user’s needs. This does away with complete page refreshes and makes the user interface a lot more powerful and user friendly.
You’ve probably heard about Ajax before, or at least used an Ajax-based application — Gmail, for instance. Quite simply, Ajax is a technique for handling external data through JavaScript asynchronously, without reloading the entire page. SitePoint offers a good introduction to Ajax. Jesse James Garrett is credited with coining the term in this article.
Unfortunately, in-depth tutorials on practical ways to enter the world of Ajax are few and far between. To add to the problem, the XMLHttpRequest class used by Ajax isn’t very easy for beginning web developers to use. Luckily, a number of JavaScript libraries offer an easier way. Today I’ll show you how jQuery — one of these libraries — allows you to easily add Ajax to your application.
jQuery is another mature JavaScript library that offers some features that the others do not. Admittedly, it’s not exactly as lightweight as some of the other offerings: jQuery comes in at 19kb, while moo.fx is only 3kb. You can read more about jQuery at The JavaScript Library World Cup for a comparison of a few other JavaScript libraries that offer similar functionality.
