Category: Site News
The Graphic Mac’s new look
As I looked through the analytics for The Graphic Mac over the last year it became increasingly obvious that more and more users were viewing it on iPhones and iPads. Unfortunately, the old theme of the site didn’t work as well as I had hoped on mobile devices. It was also quite cluttered in general. So I started looking for something a little cleaner to use. Today, you see the results.
The categories are listed in menus (when applicable) at the top in a desktop browser, but when you view it on a mobile device (or simply by resizing your browser window to be really thin), it places the navigation in a small drop-down style menu. The content is a lot more readable on mobile now.
Do you want comments?
The next step is deciding whether to allow comments on blog posts. I’ve had them turned off for a few years now, but I’m considering turning them back on (as I have for this post.) If I do turn them on, I won’t be using native WordPress commenting. Instead, I’ll be using either the Facebook Commenting System (like you see on many sites such as BuzzFeed), Disqus (which is used by the guys over at The Loop), or LiveFyre (which TechCrunch uses).
I’m leaning toward Disqus. It allows you to log-in using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or a Disqus account. It also allows you to up vote or down vote comments, as well as share those comments via Twitter or Facebook.
[zilla_alert style=”green”] Ultimately, it’s up to you. I’ve turned on comments for this post, so let me know what you think below, or send me a note via the contact page (found under the About link at the top of the page). [/zilla_alert]
As you can see, the new site drops the sidebar, and reduces the lower half of the homepage to small summary-style boxes for the posts. It is my hope that the new design puts the focus squarely on the content. It’s not perfect, and I hope to fix small issues along the way, but I wanted to go live with it as soon as possible.
I hope you like the new site. And I also want to thank everyone for visiting the site for the last 10 years (starting with the original CreativeGuy blog). While the site was never designed to make me money, I do thank anyone who has ever clicked an ad (of which there is currently only one found down in the footer). It is my intention to keep the site as ad-free as possible.
Happy 4th of July!
Thanks to DragonArtz for the artwork
Thanks to DragonArtz for the artwork
In honor of the holiday, I’ll be taking today and tomorrow off from posting, but I’ll probably still be posting links and comments on The Graphic Mac’s Facebook Page.
Font Week on The Graphic Mac
This week is Font Week here on The Graphic Mac. I’ll be featuring a free font each day from FontFabric, a small font foundry in Bulgaria, which offers some great fonts for free and for purchase. Be sure to stop by each day and grab the highlighted font, as well as take a look at the FontFabric collection of commercial fonts while you’re there.
Jim Kidwell, Product Marketing Manager at Extensis, will share some excellent font news and links. I’ll also have a brief review of Suitcase Fusion 4, the latest version of Extensis’ font management application for Mac OS X. I’ll also have some other font-related articles throughout the week, so check back each day!
Fraction to decimal conversion chart
Simple conversion chart
Life was much easier back in the days when everyone used Points and Picas for measurements in the design field – most readers probably have probably never used them, but I assure you it was much easier. Inches is a ridiculous measurement system, particularly in our business. Has anyone ever been told to provide a 6 59/64 wide ad or poster? For years I’ve used this fraction-to-decimal chart, keeping it tacked to the wall next to my monitor for quick reference.
You can download the free fraction-to-decimal chart here.
Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas to all…
Have a fantastic Christmas weekend.
I’m closing up shop for the weekend to spend some much-needed time with the family for Christmas weekend, and I hope you do the same. Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!
For the last-minute Christmas emails, be sure to grab the free Christmas Stationery Pack for Mac OS X Mail.
Announcing The Graphic Mac 3.0: New look and more updates
It’s been long overdue, so I’m happy to announce the latest update to The Graphic Mac. It’s been about a year since this site had any major updates to the look and feel, and I hope you find the new version much easier to read and navigate.
My goal was to de-clutter the entire site, making it easier for you to read, and for me to maintain. Gone are a few features that didn’t get used much, such as the community links section in the sidebar. I’ve also disabled comments on posts.
The major change, beyond the appearance, are the addition of “Post-Types.” Next to each post headline you’ll find a small icon that indicates what type of post it is. There are several different types available, including picture, link and standard posts (as seen in the image at the right), as well as audio and video.
For the most part, you’ll find standard post icons (like the one for this article), and link icons. Link posts are simply links to other sites, which you access by clicking the title of the post right from the homepage.
Issues: Link post headlines lead to the desired URL only when clicked directly from the homepage. For some reason, when you click the headline from an individual post page, they don’t take you to the link – instead they just refresh the page. I’m working on finding a solution.
Because the new Post Types are easier to work with, it is my goal to post content more often.
To make finding similar posts easier, a search box is available in the sidebar and the footer, as well as a tag cloud in the footer. Of course, you can always just click a topic link in the sidebar.
I hope you like the new look of The Graphic Mac, and continue to visit the site daily. If you have any feedback, you can send me an email.
Thanks to everyone who offered support, sent me software announcements and article ideas, clicked an ad in the sidebar or footer, or simply sent an email to say thanks for the site. You guys are the reason this site exists!
Adding fonts to your website is easy with Extensis WebINK
The days of sticking with Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, and ComicSans on your website are dead. Extensis has made available a few tools that make the task of adding fonts to your web design easy for those of us who aren’t traditionally considered “web guys.”
Using fonts on your website was a pipe-dream just a short while ago. Plugins were introduced that allowed you to use Flash to load fonts on the fly, but the results were less than spectacular, and quite cumbersome to work with. But recently introduced technologies have made it possible for designers to display fonts on your web page using little more than a snippet of code.
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Enjoy the holiday!
Have a happy and safe Labor Day