tech tip.: Text problems in html / Gardiner Design

click on the images above to visit: www.chrisflisher.com

April 2006 / Mercury is out of Retrograde!

Last month (March 22 - March 26) Mercury was retrograde. Astrologically speaking retrograde means the apparent backward motion of a planet through the zodiac. The effect would be similar to driving along side another slower moving car, so as you pass it appears that the other car is moving backwards. Astrologically this effect is based on the angle of the planets rather than their actual speed of travel.

Admittedly, I don't know anything about astrology, however I have friends who do, and it seems that every time I call them about something hitting the fan they say the same thing "Mercury is Retrograde". Typically that doesn't bode well for me.

Specifically what the latest retrograde meant to me was:

5 hours of tax preparation lost in a computer crash;

Finding out that some good samaritan cleaned up our
Earth Day Clean-upsite a month before our event; and

A rejected offer on a home I hoped to purchase.

Of course, I found out from my new client, astrologer and artist Chris Flisher [when presented with my proposal to create his website shown to the left] that signing a contract when Mercury is in Retrograde is ill-advised... so maybe losing the house was for the best.

As for the website, I did it in record time, and both client and designer are more than satisfied with both our "gentleman's agreement" and the website's outcome. Take that Cosmos!

Happy Spring from Gardiner Design, Debi

Spring Things... How to fill those longer days!

This Gardiner Design woodcut-style vector illustration entitled "Plant-Nuture-Reap" is available on istockphoto for only $5.00

Join the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce for their second Annual Earth Day Cleanup on April 22, 2006

Debi Gardiner is once again on the task force for this great BVCC event... and welcomes your help! This year we will be concentrating our efforts in several locations on and near the Blackstone River Valley Bikeway's finished section on the Worcester/Millbury line, and along it's proposed section in Sutton. Registration is at 8:30 am at the Millbury Senior Center on River Street in Millbury, Massachusetts. Volunteers will disperse from there to several different locations, and meet back at the center at 12:30 for a much deserved lunch courtesy of Loaves and Fishes catering. Volunteers will receive re-useable shopping bags donated by the BVCC and baseball hats with embroidered Volunteers in Parks patches donated by the National Parks Services along with other gifts.

Want to help? Visit the event website at: www.gardinerdesign.net/bvcc for event details and volunteers and Sponsorship opportunities...

Don't forget to set your clocks ahead at midnight this Saturday, April 1, 2006

Yes, this year the April Fool's joke is on all of us when we switch over to Daylight savings time after midnight on Saturday... but look on the bright side, more daylight after work to enjoy the upcoming spring weather! It's almost worth that lost hour of sleep...

Spring is a rebirth, so revisit a hobby you miss...

For me it's painting, and I haven't done it in about 4 years. I was inspired by the talented artists at the BVCC's First Annual Art & Wine Festival in September of 2005... So my resolution in celebration the Vernal Equinox is to start painting again! Anyone care to join me?

"Bayhurst Acres" paintings courtesy of William D. and Joan Gardiner

tech tip .: Please forget your typing lessons

The Gardiner Design booth
I recently participated in my first tradeshow, the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce "Home and Business Expo". I followed the "wear comfortable shoes and never sit down" theory of tradeshow etiquette. I now have my own theory... "wear comfortable shoes and sit when no one is looking"!

On the Drawing Board...

The client was looking for a more professional and striking website for his Real Estate Marketing company. The image above shows the original website (top) and the Gardiner Design update (bottom).

This veterinarian wanted a brand new website for her new practice. This site is still in the design stage.

When sending a designer text, it's best to forget what your typing teacher taught you!

Typography has always had different rules than typing... and sending a designer raw text for use in both printed pieces, and html has some hidden pitfalls. The first is the dreaded double space your typing teacher said you must include after a period and before the next sentence. That certainly made reading a typed letter easier, but is unnecessary for typesetting. Worse yet, many people use an em or en space rather than two spaces, and they appear as strange symbols when that text is used for html. What further complicates the issue is that some computers will show these strange symbols, and others will appear to have the correct space or character... so designers can't always see these hidden treasures and fix them.

Another tricky issue are "curly quotes" or "typographers marks". For a printed piece you want the correct curled apostrophe or quotation mark rather than the "foot mark" or "inch mark" which have straight lines versus curled. However, if you send a designer text for a website in which you have specified the use of curly quotes (in your program's preferences), they are substituted with symbols on some computers and browsers. Unfortunately it is likely that "Typographer's Marks" is the default setting in your word processing program, but if you can turn it off before typing web content you will save your designer lot of extra editting... and yourself some money. I should also point out here, that many sans serif fonts do not include curly quotes, so they will appear to be inch or footmarks even in print.

Another thing to try and avoid when typing web content is any character which you type after hitting the option or alt key. The HTML language doesn't understand any symbol created this way so again substitutes a symbol. Certainly there are times where you have to use them [ example: accented letters ], but if you are generating the text yourself, it would be a good idea to list at the top or bottom of the text any of these special characters. Your designer will then know what to look for, and replace... before your website goes live! Below is a comparison between some typed characters, and what may appear if the same characters are coding into html.

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