I need to recreate a flash animation from an old website. This is the Flash animation:
http://igz-inno-life.de/content/IGZ_Uebersicht.html
In the past I would have used Javascript and transparent PNGs to switch between different layover images but in these times of HTML5 I'm sure there is a better way to to this.
I have already done a similar thing with css layers - but in that example all that was required was differetly sized circles and here the layers are a little bit more complicated.
Is there some new HTML5 method to replicate these layer effects or would CSS layers be the most comfortable way to go?
Thanks a lot!
It doesn't seem like it would be very difficult to recreate the Flash file from scratch with only html and css (as long as you have the original assets). But if you want a quick easy way you can try just converting it with Google's Swiffy.. https://www.google.com/doubleclick/studio/swiffy/ .. you can upload the .swf file and see that it converts it pretty well.. a head start at least.
If you wanted to recreate it all Flash like you can take a look at Adobe's Edge Animate ( http://html.adobe.com/edge/animate/ ) .. you can build it up almost just like Flash.
Brian
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I'm trying to create a game that uses buttons (and text areas) that are semi-transparent (Alpha of about 60%). I can do almost everything I want in XHTML and CSS, except for these semi-transparent items. So I'm looking for the easiest way of creating semi-transparent images on my web pages.
Ideas so far:
Create PNGs with semi-transparent pixels. This is supposed to be possible, and there are well-defined interfaces for defining an Alpha channel using PHP and the GD package. Problem: I tried this, but the images were opaque in all the browsers I tried (Chrome, IE8, FF).
Do it in Flash. I know how to use Flash(*) from some work I did before I retired. Problem: Flash is priced for the professional developer, not the hobbyist.
(*) Well, Flash 8. But as I understand it, even with newer versions I can continue to create movie clips the old way, they just get translated into a bunch of AS. And it's supposedly possible to continue using AS2, although you can't mix AS2 and AS3.
Do it in Flex. Problem: interfaces best described as arcane. Even using suggestions from experienced Flex developers, trying to include code from another mxml file (other than as a class) was a PITA.
Use SVG. This looked promising. The SVG syntax is basically XML, the element tags are reasonably obvious, and the interaction of attributes only slightly arcane, and there are plenty of examples in the tutorial. But... about half of current browsers will not support using SVG in an <img> tag. You have to use <embed> That means you can't put it inside an <a> or <button>. Even using embed, I got what look like "broken image" icons in IE8.
As I'm writing this, I notice several items under "similar questions" that look promising. But when I look at them, they use attributes that are not mentioned in the CSS spec: opacity, filter:alpha, and rgba. When working in a complex language, I really prefer to have the complete language spec open in another window, or to have the equivalent dead-trees version (e.g., the O'Reilly salmon book Cascading Style Sheets, The Definitive Guide, which sits on a bookshelf next to my desk.
So I'm asking for recommendations. If the consensus is to use SVG, I'll post my code and see if people can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
The CSS "opacity" property is perfectly valid. It is part of CSS3, and is supported in all browsers (*).
http://caniuse.com/css-opacity
Or you can use semi-transparent PNGs, as Alvaro demonstrated. They should work just fine. Not sure what happened with your attempts, but you must have done something wrong.
Note for versions of IE <= 8, you need to use the "filter" property instead.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/opacity
I don't know what problem you have with PNG's. Imo the best and easiest option by far. And they look as they should in all browsers from my own experience.
check this out: http://jsfiddle.net/BDLYG/
(and here a code I need to add)
If you have most users with the 'modern' browsers, I would say go with SVG. If you do, post here, and I'll be glad to help.
Many thanks for all the useful answers. I'm currently using a combination of CSS and PNGs (generated via PHP). I could have gotten along with just CSS, but I decided I wanted to change the opacity of the background when the user hovers over the button -- but keep the text opaque. It's easy to change the opacity of the whole thing, but (as far as I can tell) not of just the background.
I also experimented with SVG, and it also works fine, but it requires extra computation so I chose the simpler (for me) approach of CSS and PHP. I'm already comfortable with those two languages, just needed to be introduced to the newer stuff in CSS3 and the one extra function call needed to make alpha work in PNGs generated by the PHP GD package.
What is a good 'image spriting' tool to turn single images into one big sprite with different background-position?
I know about http://spriteme.org/ but it doesn't seem to produce a result as nice as:
goDaddy's or Behance's
I've been doing it by hand for small hovers and icons but doing the entire website would take a while to hand-code all the background-position properties.
Thanks
You can try SASS/COMPASS. Even if you are only using the sprite functionality (called sprite mixin) it is worth using it. There are some nice tutorials like this one.
I'm looking for a good way to implement reusable buttons in CSS on my forms. The requirements:
- Separate image and text (text is in many languages)
- Rollover effects
- Plays nicely cross browser
- No javascript (if possible)
- Rounded corners
Whats the best way to do this? Years ago I was using the sliding doors technique, but this seems out of date now. Would you use CSS3 with a fallback for older browsers? Any particularly well thought of techniques out there?
Jquery UI buttons are AWESOME. They're fully tested, completely compliant, and really look great. With one line of code, you can have a fully styled button in no time flat. Here's the thing--they can be executed without Jquery (go figure)
First, the tut
So, the standard method is to build an element (a, button, input) with an id and set it as a button in Jquery like this:$('#element').button()
However, if you do it in the manner that the tutorial shows, you just have to add some classes to an element to get a similar effect. So, to make a button out of an a tag, it would just be
Button
In this example, there's no need to set the button with the jQuery button declaration...you're doing it by style only. With the flexibility to style so many different type of elements, it opens up a ton of doors.
You would have to have the Jquery UI css loaded, which offers the added benefit of ThemeRoller, which can style elements on the page with a simple change of a file. It's really a great way to "theme" a site that has to change branding in a hurry, which has made custom themed apps my company puts out extremely profitable.
I would use css sprites for this. You can find out about them here:
http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/
It is basically a way to make one large image that has all states of buttons(normal, hover, selected). The benefit is it is one http request and you don't see a flicker the first time a hover occurs. If you use this route, the css background property will be the image. You can then use text-align and line-height to center the text that you want to place over the image.
This library, Nifty Corners Cubed uses Javascript but is a fairly clean way to round div tags links, etc. It is tough to find a reusable solution without using a sliding doors derived technique. Otherwise you stuck making none-resuable buttons that have to fit to your size.
You can also take a look at PIE http://css3pie.com/
A sprite is a great option and I do use them from time to time.
Personally I don't mind if my websites aren't identical in all browsers and I go the CSS class route. I keep in mind what is and isn't supported by various browsers and if there is an element that needs to be a certain way I will double check with W3Schools for compatibility.
The main benefit the keeps me using CSS/CSS3 classes is if something changes it is done quickly by text in a single file, if need be I can do a quick change from a 10 year old computer with a dial-up connection (if they still exist) and no imaging software.
Where the advantage of a sprite is they are supported across all browsers and they will look identical (more or less). SpriteMe is a bookmarklet that I have heard of to help with sprites if you decide to go down this path.
I see this as a what do you prefer matter... these questions are what I ask myself when making this type of decision:
How often will it change? Big or small changes? Will it be a complete redesign job if it changes? What do you already know? How much time are you willing to spend learning something that you may not know? What does your gut say for this project?
I hope this can help you.
I'm a real noob with css and have seen many times, many little icons in a larger file. I'd like to know if I can use something like this for a rating system that I'm making. 5 stars being the best and one being the worst. I'd like to be able to use a single file that contains all of the stars and then based on the rating, show the proper rating. I'm used to doing it the old way by slicing up the images and then showing the rating that way.
What is this and where can I find more info on it?
This is a technique known as CSS sprites. The main advantage is that you save some (or sometimes, a lot) of HTTP requests.
You can read about them here, for example, and one good article to read is also this one on diagonal CSS sprites.
When you come to building your own, there's a lot of tools around that will assemble smaller pictures for you and also generate matching CSS with the proper background-position values.
Try searching for CSS sprites - here's a decent intro
http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/
and SpriteMe is is a funky little bookmarklet that does the heavy lifting of creating the sprite image for you
http://spriteme.org/
Both links point in turn to other reading for you
It's called css sprites.
its called "css sprites" look on this article, with example how to do it to rating image:
http://www.last-child.com/image-sprites-flexible-and-accessible-packages/
I am messing around and created a neat web layout in Photoshop. I then sliced it up and exported all of the Images and HTML to Dreamweaver. However, it turns my layout into tables. This is a problem because I can't get it to fit all screen resolutions. Does anyone have a quick fix or some advice on how to get my slicing converted to CSS?
You aren't going to get an automated thing like that to work the way you want it to. It's why I started coding. When slicing your psd think about it in the layers it is in, then you will have to figure out how to css it all together. It's alot to learn, but once you get your awesome psd working as an active web page you will realize how worth it it was.