We usually export images for the Web from our favorite graphics software. Our eyes fixate on an image’s preview, adjusting the quality settings until we’ve found that sweet spot, where the file size and quality are both the best they can be. After having gone to all that care and effort, we would be forgiven for thinking that our image is in the best shape possible, but that’s not always the case. In fact, much more data is usually left in such files, data that keeps our users waiting just a bit longer than necessary. Thankfully, a number of popular tools can help us optimize images even further!
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You want to be lean and you want to be agile by using technologies that will help you succeed in the short and long term. And those technologies are not always easy to pick out. Full-stack JavaScript hits all the marks. You’ve probably seen it around. With JavaScript, you can create scalable, maintainable applications, unified under a single language. There’s no doubt, it’s a force to be reckoned with. In this article, Alejandro Hernandez will introduce these components piece by piece.
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If Wesley Hales asked you what could have been better at the last conference you attended, you’d probably say that the content or the interaction could have been better in some way. To solve this problem, he created Onslyde: A free service and open-source project that will make public speaking easier and conferences better. It’s been a lot of fun and work, and now you get to see the result!
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Video on the Web has improved quite a bit since 7th grade. But for the most part, videos are still separate from the Web, cordoned off by iframes and Flash and bottled up in little windows in the center of the page. They’re a missed opportunity for Web designers everywhere. But how do you integrate video into an app or a marketing page? In this article, Sean Fioritto will find inspiration, how-tos and a few technical goodies to get you started with modern video on the Web.
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After a decade of JavaScript library work, the progressive-enhancement revolution, the advent of polyfills, and the effort to birth the “Web Components” and “Shadow DOM” specifications have taught us surprising lessons: In every period, being able to use features in both high- and low-level forms has always been desirable. HTML is great, until it isn’t. And JavaScript-only has predictable drawbacks. Thinking that there is a “right way” to build new Web features is seductive. Turns out, it’s not that simple.
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Events can be triggered on any part of a document. They don’t just start and end in one place; they flow though the document. This life cycle is what makes DOM events so extensible and useful. As developers, we should understand how DOM events work, so that we can harness their potential and build engaging experiences. In this article, Wilson Page will introduce the basics of working with DOM events, then delve into their inner workings, explaining how you can make use of them to solve common problems.
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With the release of Ember.js 1.0, it’s just about time to consider giving it a try. This article aims to introduce Ember.js to newcomers who want to learn more about the framework. Users often say that the learning curve is steep, but once you’ve overcome the difficulties, then this framework is tremendous.
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In this article, CJ Gammon talks about the CSS Regions specification, which provides new options for web designing. We are largely constrained by the layout features available to us. Content placed inside a container will often extend the container vertically. If a design requires elements to remain a certain height, then our options are limited. In these cases, we can only add a scroll bar or hide the overflow. Let’s solve this problem!
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Today, Mike Cunsolo will show us how to use Grunt in a project to speed up and change the way you develop websites, looking briefly at what Grunt can do, before jumping into how to set up and use its various plugins. Then he will explain how to build a simple input validator, using Sass as a preprocessor, how to use grunt-cssc and CssMin to combine and minify our CSS, how to build our compressed assets on the fly, and much more!
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In this article, Zeno Rocha presents a series of workflows in Alfred that will boost your productivity! A collection of great tricks to automate your work. Hopefully, some will speed up your workflow. Maybe they will even inspire you to share some of your hidden secrets of productivity.
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