'Net Features : css

Textillate Brings Back Text Animation

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:30:00 GMT

You know what the Web needs? That’s right… more animated text!

If you’re looking to add some motion to the copy on your website, be it as simple as page headings or vital as custom call out sections on landing pages, consider the use of Textillate.js – a jQuery plugin for creating very appealing CSS3 text animations.

Textillate is built on top of animate.css and lettering.js libraries (two of our favorites), and offers a relatively easy to use and interactive way to animate text. The plugin provides controls for in-animation and out-animation – how the text appears initially and how it leaves the view of the user.

If jQuery plugins like Textillate spark your design fancy, you might also be interested in some others. Check out one of Website Magazine's most popular posts from 2012, Web Font Fun with Javascript Plugins.

CSS Frameworks for Responsive Web Design

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:45:00 GMT

Responsive Web design (RWD) has taken the ‘Net by storm. RWD isn’t just trendy among designers, it’s useful to ensure a consistent user experience – something of increasing important with the diversity of screen sizes today. Fortunately, there are some incredibly useful resources available (like CSS Frameworks) for designers and developers to create digital products in some terrifically exciting ways.

CSS Frameworks are essentially pre-prepared libraries which simplify standards-compliant styling of web pages using the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) language. Much like libraries for other programming and scripting languages, CS frameworks are incorporated as external .css sheets referenced in the HTML. So what are the very best CSS frameworks available to design and developers today?

Foundation 3 - Built with Sass, a CSS preprocessor, the CSS Framework offers a flexible, nestable system, multi-device compatability and more.

Responsive.GS – Offers 12,16, and 24 column layout grids with media queries for all standard devices.

960 Grid System - Based on a width of 960 pixels, offers 12 and 16 column grids, includes templates for Photoshop and GIMP, InDesign; ideal for rapid prototyping.

Gumby Framework - A pliable (fluid and fixed) framework providing support for new HTML5 elements, includes PSD layouts and an optional UI kit.

Blueprint CSS Framework - Offers an easily customizable grid, “sensible” default typography, scripts for customization.

There are of course many others CSS frameworks which are most definitely worthy of additional exploration, including:

Ingrid, YUI 3 CSS Grid, Responsive Grid System, Titan Framework

CSS Tool: SiteAssist Pro Enhancements

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:15:00 GMT

CSS isn't going away anytime soon - in fact it will probably get a lot more prominent and better with the next standards release. But if you are a web designer and haven't gotten onto the CSS bandwagon, now is the time.

WebAssist recently unveiled its latest version of SiteAssist Professional, a tool that enables website designers and developers to build CSS sites with navigation quickly. Website Magazine has covered SiteAssist in the past and we've always been impressed with its broad scope of features for those using DreamWeaver. So what's new in this version? For the first time, users can create and custome pages to include Spry or other Javascript framework components.

“CSS is, undeniably, one of the most efficient and flexible ways to build sites today, but it isn’t without its limitations,” said Hieu Bui, President, WebAssist. “SiteAssist Professional seeks to help developers, both professional and beginner alike, harness the power of CSS easily and utilize their resources more effectively with customization of templates and easy navigation options.”

SiteAssist Professional is compatible with Dreamweaver CS3 and Dreamweaver 8 on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. SiteAssist Professional retails for $199.99, but is available for $149.99 as a special introductory price until September 9, 2008 directly from WebAssist.

CSS Menu Writer For Dreamweaver

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:40:00 GMT

WebAssist announced this morning the availability of CSS Menu Writer, a pretty handy little Dreamweaver Extension that enables web professionals to create fully customizable cross-browser, CSS-based navigation menus compliant with web standards.

One of the biggest challenges for modern web professionals today is the creation of CSS-based (now the de-factor design option), standards-compliant navigation menus. With WebAssist's new CSS Menu Writer, developers have a solid solution available to generate customized, standards-based menus quickly and easily across browsers directly within Dreamweaver.

While CSS Menu Writer is powerful on its own, when used in conjunction with Eric Meyer's CSS Sculptor, released last summer for creating standards compliant CSS-based layout, the power of CSS for creating custom web pages with stellar navigation has never been easier. CSS Menu Writer is available now, with a list price of $99.99 and an introductory price of $74.99 through May 27, 2008. For more information about CSS Menu Writer, visit: www.webassist.com/go/menu/.