Web Designer magazine
I want to subscribe to Web designer magazine by Imagine publishing as it is not available here in Greece! Has anyone ever read it and does it worth the money?
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JBVisions on Jun 05, 2007
If you're into Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash and Photoshop and Dreamweaver then yes it's worth it, otherwise go for whatever your version of .Net is.
I had it on subscription but stopped it as I don't do loads of Flash sites. .Net is more for developers using HTML and PHP etc.
mik on Jun 05, 2007
A web designer mag with a splash page that has images without alt attributes, and says "Recommended: Macromedia Flash Player 6+ required, Internet Explorer 5.5+, Safari 2.0+, 1024x768 resolution"? Didn't make a good first impression on me.
Psy2k on Jun 05, 2007
I am more into PHP, XHTML and CSS than vreating flash sites, so I think I should go for .Net...
JBVisions on Jun 05, 2007
When I first had the mag it was very good, better than .Net but it was taken over by another company. I had a devil of a job with my subscription, copies not arriving, no knowledge of my account etc so in the end they sent me extra issues for free but it just got more and more Flash based.
Loads of people have written in complaining and dropped their subscriptions.
eury on Jun 05, 2007
mik: What's wrong with the requirements? Firefox doesn't display Alt tags. Title tag comes up though.
Obviously some folsk taken the whole Accessibility way too far. If a site has no desire to cater to disabilities users then they can and should skip Alt. Take the NY Times, the world biggest newspaper for instance, no image presented with alt. Their alt tags are emptied.
Stratification on Jun 05, 2007
@eury: Websites really shouldn't post requirements, it's kind of tacky. Alt tags take a few minutes to do, so there's really no excuse, considering what the site is for.
Kuifje
on Jun 05, 2007
It doesn't take that much to have an accessible web site - so why not do it? Besides, aren't there some laws in US about this these days?
Psy2k on Jun 05, 2007
Especially empty alt tags. You put them to follow the standards, why not put a very simple word which takes 2 secs to type in it?
JBVisions on Jun 05, 2007
Empty Alt attributes are allowed if the image isn't bringing any useful information to the page, but if it is, then is should be there. Title is for something else entirely.
Kuifje, yes there are, it comes under the ADA. In the UK the law (Disability Discrimination Act) has been in place for years and until recently, the only big companies that have taken any action are the ones threatened with court action if they didn't.
Word is beginning to get round. Not with the Web magazines obviously.
eury on Jun 05, 2007
Strat: Tacky? Something happened in the W3 Consortium that made Alt tags obsolete. At first I thought it was just IE's flaw since every jumped IE when its their turn. But then Fire Fox did the same.
As websites becoming more visually driven, esp. Flash-driven, it is easy to see why the W3 consortium should render alt a legacy like <blink>.
JB: I read big newspapers daily and their web counterparts too. But I pointed out earlier that even when there is a crucial photo, a chart, the big boys skipped the alt tags. It is time-consuming when you manage hundreds of photos. With pet projects, it's okay to use the alt tags, but then again all more of the reason to skip them when your audience, your main audience are visually un-impaired.
Plus: Alt does not work with foreign languages...
We need real solutions, not bandages like alt tags.
gswd on Jun 05, 2007
Back to the original topic I guess, I picked up an issue at my local book store, and did not find that much that was useful. I even tried using some of the stuff that was on the CD that came with it, and the fonts totally took over my Mac, so that the Jurassic Font was now the default font for my FireFox, and no matter how hard I tried I could not get FireFox to change, until I removed all the fonts that I installed. Maybe it has to do with my lack of Mac experience, but I followed their instructions, and also that of my "Switch to Mac" book.
I had thought about making it a point to get the new issues at my book store, but after that first experience, it was not worth the price.
Since you have stated that you are more into development, I really don't have a recommendation for you, but for design help, there is Layers magazine for all things Adobe. There are usually a few articles, or tips and tricks, that I find useful in each issue. They normally cover Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and others. Of course everything has been transitioning for the past few issues due to the launch of the Macromedia titles under the Adobe CS3 banner.
Anyway, that's my $.05 worth.
Psy2k on Jun 05, 2007
From these I think that I should visit a local book store that sells foreign magazines and try to find an issue before proceeding to the subscription...
gswd on Jun 05, 2007
Or perhaps you local Library will have some. I'm not sure how the library system is in Greece.
eury on Jun 05, 2007
I would recommend against Layers as a choice for design. Computer Arts from UK is the launch pad.
As for PHP, no magazine can help. best to pick up raw codes in forum and test and test. ZenGarden is the place for CSS inspiration. W3C School is for HTML.
GSWD: Try Extensis Suitcase. It whips down all annoying fonts into obedience bunch
Blabby on Jun 30, 2007
I really like both A List Apart and Smashing Magazine. Didn't see them mentioned above.
I receive Layers, and am annoyed now because I don't have CS3, and don't plan to purchase it anytime soon (since I just purchased CS2 a year ago). But it's still a great magazine for design - not for programming.
For programming, I really like the Friends of Ed books.
Good luck on your quest for knowledge!