looking for a lightbox style gallery IN THE PAGE

for a good list of them all:

http://javabyexample.wisdomplug.com/web-programming/47-javascript/85-30-best-jquery-photo-plugins-sliders-slideshow-galleries-and-scrollers.html

WOULD USE smoothgallery but this dosn't allow easily for resizing of images that are different sizes. 

thinking will use galleria and hide the thumbnails since it allows different size images, BUT it dosnt scale them nicely like lightbox does. 

thinking maybe use lightbox without the background being faded BUT it will move around the page= not good... 

maybe can use galleria with easing plugin or something to make the transition between different sized images. smoothgallery is mootools might be a conflict... 

jQuery Cycle?? not as full featured...

http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/

http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/more.html?v2.23

http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/diffsize.html

the coda slider???

http://www.ndoherty.com/demos/coda-slider/1.1.1/#5

this popeye dosnt have the greying effect but only opens ot lef or right

http://dev.herr-schuessler.de/examples/jquery-popeye-1-0/

LINKS FOR EXACTLY WHAT IM AFTER, LIGHTBOX IN A DIV... sortov

a hack...

http://internna.blogspot.com/2008/06/div-lightbox-with-jquery.html

at bottom if using php

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-31255.html

using galleria image sizing forum posts

http://devkick.com/talk/topic/384/dynamic-scaling-of-images/

http://devkick.com/talk/topic/85/resize-image-code-side/

http://devkick.com/talk/topic/59/galleria-with-mixed-landscape-and-portrait-pictures/

actually whoever linked to this has got it figured out basically. vertically it centres, but nt hosizontally... 

http://www.rankinstudio.com/show

when it think about it, as long as they dont want some customised sliding transition, if the images are just width, height auto varied, with margin top and sides auto varied, it should float in the center of the div (like margin: 0 auto 0 auto;). what about margin: auto: does that work on all dirctions to make something float in the centre of a div? if it did then that would be what i use to make a whole site stay centered in the browser window, but i have to use a special 50% thing in css with specific values... so maybe autoing the left and right margins is possible, but not top and bottom.... 

more later, but basically the issues is...

there can be no lightbox style easing transition between different sized images without much work, for a gallery in a div. 

what will suffice is a complete fade out fade in (not crossfade) like seen in galleria... and finding some way to vertically and horizontally centre different sized images in a div with css (but no next image buttons?) 

and maybe galleria not right, just need to innerfade thing... 

actually, dont do anymore work until confirmed the artwork... 

heres a link from smoothgallery for resizing images

http://www.mfgea.com.ar/2009/05/07/resize-de-imagenes-con-smoothgallery/

possibly use the thumbnails resizer script... does that know how to centre...

http://smoothgallery.jondesign.net/forums/viewtopic.php?id=37

this may be the answer...

http://smoothgallery.jondesign.net/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2578

with this

http://phpthumb.gxdlabs.com/

but really, just need to try it with the current smoothgallery, see what happens when different sized images are thrown at it, and then try doing some css-ing to make it vertically centered, maybe learn some php to make it vertically centered, horizontal should be easy... unless auto dosnt work. 

might just need to 'get image height, and make margin top 50% of div height minus image height... '... and reposition it before it shows the image... tricky... 

someone out there must have solved this surely... everyone has portrait and landscape pictures they need to account for, and not everyone want their images aligned to the top, but centered... 

i find it interesting that most galleries except the original lightbox style dont seem to have great options for different sized content...

has anyone made a lightbox in a div??? its s sad i cant find an example after 4 hours, i just want the same funtionality thats already been made for these lightboxes, but in a div instead of a modal popup... 

the ultimate would be if it had a feature like 'modal = true' so if its false, it appears in a div... 

thickbox?? 

background images stretching links and info

http://css-tricks.com/how-to-resizeable-background-image/

to

http://whatstheweather.net/weather/submit

how to do that site i liked, gotochina

http://css-tricks.com/perfect-full-page-background-image/

also some stuff about 72dpi / 96 dpi, resolution etc 

http://css-tricks.com/high-dpi-monitors-resolution-independance-the-web-and-you/

JQUERY PLUGIN FOR BACKGROUND SLIDESHOW

http://www.buildinternet.com/project/supersized/

http://www.buildinternet.com/project/supersized/default.php

Devkick Full Screen Gallery! this is RAD!

http://devkick.com/lab/fsgallery/

Great for a quick photographers / artists website. Sadly not available publicly yet?? CRY. 

I wonder whats the go with that dot pattern background, and if t takes video??? ... its 'a png raster to even out up scaled images'... what the? ive seen it over video before, same thing, tricky... 

as3, error #2109 if frame labels not working, use frame numbers

ArgumentError: Error #2109: Frame label page1 not found in scene Scene 1.

When i use frame labels, to try and jump to different pages on the timeline i get the above error, or in other circumstances, (like from inside a movie clip) nothing happens at all (it dosn't have error, just dosnt work.)

when i use frame NUMBERS, everything works fine. is my syntax or quoties wrong, i dont know.

Dosn't work:

gotoAndStop("page1");

Works:

gotoAndStop(76);

i love flash. not.

DER! THE PROBLEM WAS THAT I TURNED OFF THE VISIBILITY OF THE LAYER THAT HAD THE FRAME LABELS ON IT, (AND IN MY PUBLISH OPTIONS I UNTICK 'INCLUDE HIDDEN LAYERS'.

SO WITHOUT THE LABLES LAYER PUBLISHED, NO FRAME LABELS EXIST TO GO TO...

Flash gayness, importing artwork to flash, type in flash and small type sizes

First of all with Flash gayness, (CS3) and importing paths and colour shifting.

I design the artwork in illustrator.

I import to Flash using File >Import >Import to stage. (import all bits on the stage as separate non flattened objects)

I select that the background (a square filled path) to import as a path, not a bitmap. Afterall, these are vector based programs, lets use vectors!!

So in comes my background, a very specific 'pantone matched' rbg/hex colour, and what happens??? Guess. FLASH CHANGES THE HEX COLOUR!!! It goes PINK. Seems inexplicable to me.

Yes, the colour in Illustrator is sRGB in gamut as far as I can tell (no warnings), and no its not a 'web safe' colour that 90's sort of restrictions that don't apply any more, (if anyones monitor is that shit then they can't afford the products on this website, or even an internet connection.)

So, I go into flash, select the background path box, change the hex colour value manually to what it is in illustrator. Note that if I save for web the artwork from illustrator using PNG and import it into flash, the colour is the same as my fixed hex colour.

What if I had complex artwork??? illustrations?? go through and change each colour manually? very mental.

I dont have the time or interest to google an explaination for this just making a mental note. Respec for people that are able to build amazing flash websites, theres so many caveats.

IMPORTING TEXT INTO FLASH FROM ILLUSTRATOR ARTWORK

Also not surprisingly, but good to note when planning how your going to approach importing text into flash that has very specific typographic details, that you cant import as flash text because flash text dosn't do two things, see picture of errors.

So, treat things like this as you would a logo, and eithier import as outlines (makes fatter/bolder) or as a bitmap (thinner text).

I have no idea how to get around the text not being on pixel boundaries and going blurry... I seriously am not going to letter by letter align an entire paragraph to the correct pixel boundaries.

COLOUR REMINDER

For web, always convert to SRGB

Use ICC embedded profiles when save for web for portfolios etc, where image size is not needing to be very small and accuracy is important.

Dont embed profile where the image is meant to blend with a background, eg for interface elements in your CSS, banner images etc. Otherwise image and background wont always look the same colour.

There was something else about wide gamut monitors getting oversaturated images... (with tagged srgb in non colour managed browser? - somthing to lookup when have more time. might be the other drawback for tagging images on the web)

TEXT IN FLASH / ALIASING OPTIONS

Doing text in flash, like for the dynamic text boxes etc.

Note the aliasing options, you can antialias for readability, OR, custom, and this will fatten or thin out your type, which is useful for matching the weight up with the type that is brought in as bitmaps or outlines.

ANOTHER THING ABOUT CREATING ARTWORK AND TEXT IN ILLUSTRATOR

I just read somewhere that if you are scaling up text, dont scale up outlined text, scale up the text, then convert to outlines. Something about converting to outlines removes some information. I didn't realise but in illustrator you CAN scale the text inside a group just like other objects, and it proportionally scales all the leadings etc as well.

TEXT CONVERT TO OUTLINES GOING FATTER

text gets fatter (small text) when you convert to outlines. why?

SMALL POINT SIZE TEXT IN FLASH VS BROWSER TEXT

the blurryness of small point sizes, being converted to outlines, or a bitmap, makes me wonder if browser text is actually a better choice. ?? Is it actually crisper? I read somewhere that you should turn off anti-aliasing in flash for small type sizes... hmmmm. but then again there is Windows XP, IE6 or whatever before cleartype was invented or if it is turned off. Flash is got to be looking miles better than that browser text.

FLASH PLAYER 10 - COLOUR MANAGEMENT ON THE WEB IS HERE...

But it for flash player 10 (as3)

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/10/get_better_color_through_fp10.html

If your targeting FP10 then you turn it on by

"stage.colorCorrection = ColorCorrection.ON;" in a frame script

ACTIONSCRIPTING TEXTFORMAT ETC

fuck fuck fuck. why does every little thing in flash need so much work..... my best years spent looking up how to make a text field stay italic.

http://flash-creations.com/notes/dynamic_createtext.php

I just think right now Flash is evil, it charms you with its fades and tweens, and seemingly wsiwug features, then makes you spend hours tying to do simple typography, changes your colours, etc. HTML 4eva. It is harder than designing in css for netscape 4. actually maybe not. but is hard and simple things just dont work. i want fonts to be embedded and just work, why do i have to code for it? shouldnt all this stuff be default, so the coders can go in and switch it off if they know how, rather than everyone learning how to switch it on?

i just want my dynamic text box to keep the formatting i have made on stage. i dont want to have to duplicate that formatting, and write it in actionscript for when it is replaced with new text. like i managed to code the text to italics in the frame script using tag, but the 'letterspacing' is all off which makes it look completely different. fucking hell just keep it all the way it is unless i specify otherwise, why drop half the formatting? like the text size hasnt changed, so why should the letterspacing and italics be gone...??? not logical!!!!

ANOTHER RESON TO BE WARY OF FLASH

colour profiles. as far as i can see you cant have colour profiles! except new FP10, which i cant publish to in cs3.

but right now, that means hello washed out images and photos on most mac screens, when they make everything washed out 'monitor rgb' or whatever.

thats a big deal for photographers using flash to publish a portfolio, AND their audience uses macs... it better to have images in HTML at least you get a choice to embed profile.

hello jquery and wordpress portfolios!!

UPDATE:

I think I found a good way to import illustrator artwork, from what I remember i opened the file in illustrator, copy and pasted the artwork (a logo vector EPS) from the ai into the flash stage, and that imported a good looking version (there might have been some dialogue box too...) i think, its awile ago now but i remember being surprised how crispy this looked after the trouble i had importing from last time. I havnt checked the hex colours to see if they have changed i dont care anymore.

Wordpress - new install guide and setup... essential plugins

http://www.problogdesign.com/wordpress/the-ultimate-guide-to-setting-up-wordpress-after-an-install/

when installing new wordpress site, do this....

and this

http://www.chromaticsites.com/blog/19-essential-wordpress-plugins-that-every-professional-website-should-use/

http://www.reelseo.com/wordpress-video-plugin/

Flash - Its not a bug its an... Allergy

I think I'm getting allergic to Flash, these things below I thought were bugs (having come across so many the last time I used it) but they aren't, they are just hmmm Fridays?

(Im using CS3 Flash, Stand Alone Flash Player 8 authored projectors (see my other flash posts as to why) on mac OS 10 something, so the projectors are Flash Player 8.

HYPERLINKS DON'T WORK WHEN I TEST MY FLASH PROJECTOR

If your publishing to Flash Player 9 read this, and the comments:

http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/09/11/FSCommand-and-getURL-Bug-in-Flash-Player-9

I'm publishing my projector to Flash Player 8 to avoid various bugs but my hyperlinks weren't working and it was because of one thing (i think although it has been doing it what seems like randomly although I'm not sure at this hour anymore...)

The thing I think was the main problem... itchy trigger finger for annoying dialogue boxes.

If your like me, impatient, when you see an OS type dialogue box popup asking you this or that about something usually you don't care about, you just lunge at the OK button instantly without reading it to get it out of the way. It been ages since I've actually CAREFULLY read popup dialogue boxes, I did that back when I though every time I pressed a button on a computer I was going to break it.

The first time I opened my Flash projector, when I clicked on a hyperlink, it was throwing up the Flash Player Security Warning dialogue box, saying something like 'potentially unsfae opperation blah blah' to which I clicked OK before reading.

Doing that, the dialogue box closed, and my hyperlinks no longer worked! What got me was I think I opened an OLD project to see if the getURL had EVER worked, and it seemed to be broken too... WHAT THE.

I think what was happening was that the security settings dialogue box OK had disallowed the getURL, no matter what file I opened. What I had to do was not click OK but click "settings" when the dialogue box opens, and this seems to fix it.... the links magically were working today, because I had quit the flash player in between reopening it, which is what you are supposed to do if you read the dialogue box CAREFULLY.

Still, I think this is wacky behaviour, and i its tripping me up its most likely to do the same to the users of the CDROM, unless they are the dialogue box reading type... but they shouldn't have to be... I design for the lowest common denominator and we can't expect everyone to be of the diligent dialogue box reading type.

UPDATE: vague memory now but actually, I think i was testing the swf, not the projector. The version on the CDROM will be the projector. It has to do with flash player settings being eithier local access only or something, and these settings DONT apply when its published as a projector, because flash assumes that if you have clicked on an application (projector) you give permission for it to do its stuff, so the security stuff dosnt kick in at all.

MAKING HYPERLINKS FROM TEXT IN FLASH

Also a big huge stupid gotya when making hyperlinks in flash from text, and you want to make one just like in dreamweaver or any other WSIWUG editor where you simply select the text (highlight it) and then go down to the URL/link field and write the URL you want that text to be a link to.

Thing is, I couldn't see this option in Flash, anywhere. Then I googled it, and in an online book it described very simply how to make a hyperlink, using the URL/link field. So I search my windows and so on in Flash and there seems to be no field like this that exists!! Am I going CRAZY!!?? No....

I'm working on a laptop screen and my "properties" window was minimised but I didn't know it. So the URL input field was nowhere to be seen! I was all about to go through the text link by link and convert them all into buttons which had getURL calls on the (a hassle to change the text for the next round of client revisions) because I assumed that was going to be the only way to make a hyperlink. (It IS the only way to get a rollover colour, although there might be a dynamic text and CSS way but I havn't used that before)

But no, there is the easy way as shown in the online book, just just use the link field, which I found when I maximised the properties window...

This is my properties window at the default size on my screen...

As you can see there is no indication that anything might be missing from this Properties Window display, or that it has been minimised... you can see the URL field with the chain link icon next to it below when you expand the window vertically. HURRAH.