site design

This site was originally built using a number of programmes. Imageready 1 was used for the directory page - it sliced up the image into its constituent parts. (Other programs used in the original incarnation of this html version of my site were Fireworks 1) [view the archived original directory] [the original version of this page has been archived] At the time that the original Flash version of this site was built, internet use was confined almost exclusively to 56K dial–up. Flash files which now load instantly (with a broadband connection), would take 30, 40, 60 seconds or more to fully load. This html version was intended for those who, like myself, wanted to view what was on the web without the tedious wait that accompanied every click on a Flash site. The current version of this html site is not the original version; the graphics were redesigned in 2009, and it is now much 'heavier' in graphics than was the original (year) 2000 version. The reason that this version is still extant is because current mobile devices, such as Apple's iPhone (and iPod), BlackBerries, (and others), do not support Flash. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, in a recent announcement ("Thoughts on Flash", April 2010) stated categorically that Apple will not support Flash. Some of his arguments are no more than desperate attempts at rationalising a poor decision. Nevertheless, it is hoped that soon Google, who are working with Adobe, overcome this deficiency. In the mean time, if anyone wants to email me, you will need Flash. Additions and modifications will not be made to this html site beyond 2009. The graphics and design of this site was overhauled in July 2009. The directory page graphics [click here], gallery graphics [click here] and newer work gallery graphics [click here] were all designed with Imageready 8, CS1. The elements on each page were arranged using the grid generated by GoLive. (The GoLive grid feature is absent in Dreamweaver (V3, MX1 and CS3) I had to seek and buy Adobe's Creative Suite 1 just to get the Imageready which was no longer available in the CS3 version which I had recently purchased. Imageready can only be described as awesome! Since the CS4 version Adobe has included (the ex-Macromedia) Fireworks as, it would seem, a replacement for it. What for!? I have the MX version of Fireworks: it is unintuitive and unusable. Below is the assessment of Fireworks that can be found on the Wikipedia entry on Imageready  As the Wikipedia entry states: "Adobe ImageReady was a bitmap graphics editor that was originally shipped with Adobe Photoshop by Adobe Systems. It was available on both Windows and Mac OS X platforms from 1998 to 2007. However, beginning with Adobe ImageReady 7, Adobe provided the option to generate CSS from sliced designs. While Adobe has implied that Fireworks can replace the functionality of ImageReady, Fireworks cannot work with the slices and multiple rollover states that were generated with ImageReady. Therefore, according to Adobe Tech Support, the only option for any designer who has multiple projects to maintain that were created in ImageReady is to downgrade to Photoshop CS2. There is no promise of a future solution." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_ImageReady). When users of Imageready contacted Adobe to question why Imageready was discontinued, the response from Adobe's forum representative was that those who questioned Adobe's decision were "trolling"; that is, making pointless criticism simply for the sake of it! The Adobe forum on which the discussion was posted has since been archived by Adobe, but was still cached by Google (this screenshot below). In the discussion on Imageready, user "Montemedia" (08/30/2007 04:45:21 PM) questions Adobe's decision to discontinue that program: "I miss Image Ready for creating Web ready graphics from Photoshop files. I could create whole, image based, brochure-style website using just Photoshop and Image Ready. Fireworks is clumsy in comparison. What is is really good for? You can't divide slices and have no right-click context menu to delete a slice - so you don't have to go to the layers palette to do so…Adobe applications have always been much more intuitive tha Macromedia applications - all of them." In repsonse, the Adobe "moderator", Linda Rathgeber, wrote(08/30/2007 04:56:09 PM): "Did you have question or are you just trolling?" Rathgeber then responded to "macromdia applications were/are clumsy and unintuitive" with "That's because you got used to Adobe interfaces first. I'll bet you work on a Mac too." Fireworks can not replace Imageready. Fireworks is unintuitive. Unlike Fireworks, Imageready is straight forward! And, for Adobe to denigrate Mac users for using Imageready, when the program was designed for both Windows and Mac, is appalling. Imageready is a gorgeous program! It is included with every version of Photoshop, beginning from Photoshop 5.5 until Photoshop 9 (CS2). Don't waste your money buying any version of Photoshop higher than the CS2!