I Heart PNGs (and Other Web Design Trends)
Smashing Magazine’s Web Design Trends For 2009 has awesome examples of design elements we’re seeing on the web today. Bold typography, clean layouts and custom graphics continue to rule design.
For those that aren’t web designers, one trend you need to be aware of is PNG images (logo.png). Designers love PNGs because they preserve transparency beautifully, meaning we can layer image over image to create amazing effects. Firefox has supported PNGs for a while; IE7 also supports them. If you’re using IE6 PNGs will not appear transparent; they’ll have an ugly blue or white background where the transparent areas should be.
The image below is a PNG file. If your browser supports PNGs, you’ll see text with a slight drop shadow over the white background of this page. If your browser does not support PNGs, you will see a shaded square around the text.
If you are using IE6, STOP IT! Please upgrade immediately! Not only are you missing out on some of the web’s best designs, you’ve missed tons of security breaches that have been fixed in later IE versions. Better yet – just use Firefox!
