Web site design restrictions [p.
2]
As the Web and Web site design
progressed, the HTML became more complex,
flexible and beautiful. One of the most important things
in HTML, tables (used to display information
in a structured form), became soon invisible objects
that were the basis of the Web site' layout. But, the
appearance of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS),
the table based layout lost terrain and is increasingly
regarded as obsolete. Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) is a simple mechanism to add style
(different fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.
CSS has various levels and profiles,
but the ones that present the most interest are those
for the desktop browsers, CSS
level 1, CSS level 2 and
3 (currently under development).
Design standards
like CSS and server-side
or client-side scripting (using programming
languages like PHP, ASP,
JSP and ColdFusion respectively Java Script) changed very much the
Web site design, by enhancing the possibilities
of Web development.
Another important step in the Web site
design was the introduction of Macromedia
Flash into an already interactivity-ready
scene because it gave new power to designers and media
creators, and offered new interactivity features for
visitors. Flash is a vector-based
moving graphics format created by Macromedia
for the publication of animations on the world-wide
Web. Flash (.swf) graphics files can
be created in Macromedia's
own Flash program, or else in software
applications such as Adobe's LiveMotion
or Corel's RAVE (real animated vector
effects) package. Web browsers still require a plug-in
to be installed on the client's computer before playing
Flash animations.
As the recent acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe for the incredible amount of 3.6 billion dollars took place, who knows what the future of this format (Flash) reserves. Adobe's widely known format .pdf is one of the most spread, so maybe they're going to do something about the Flash format too (.fla), in the manner of a easier integration into pdfs, Web sites or even from within Adobe's products. Applying the same marketing strategy for the Flash reader, as for the widely popular Adobe Reader (currently in version 7), this format might become one of the "leaders" in multimedia. |
