There are various diffrent image formats that can be used on the
web. Among the most well known are PNG,
JPEG and GIF.
PNG is typically used for images where quality is of utmost
importance, as it is a losslessly compressed format. This means that
the compression algorithm used does not discard any image data,
resulting in no loss of quality when the image is saved. Think of it
like a deflated Basketball. However, the file size of PNG images can
be quite large compared to other formats, which may cause slower
loading times for web pages.
JPEG, on the other hand, is a file format that utilizes lossy
compression. This means that some image data is discarded to achieve
smaller file sizes. While JPEG images are smaller than PNG images,
the compression can sometimes result in a loss of quality and visible
artifacts.
Lastly, we have GIF. This format is good for short animations or
simple graphics, like emojis. GIFs can also support transparency, and
they can be animated. However, GIFs can only show 256 colors, which
can make them look a bit dull compared to other formats.
There is howerver one format, that beats everyone of these in
their own game: WebP. Like PNG it can be losslessly
comressed, but at amuch smaller filesize. It can also be compressed
at the expense of quality like JPEG but looks better compared to
a similarly sized JPEG Image. Lastly it can also be animated like
GIF, and as of today is now supported by all browsers.
However development of new even better Formats has not halted.
There are two other notable formats that promise even better
compression. AVIF and JPEGXL.
however browser support for these formats is still lacking.
The .htaccess file
An .htaccess file is like a secret code book for a website. It
tells the website how to behave and what to do in different
situations.
For example, let’s say someone tries to visit a page on the
website that doesn’t exist. The .htaccess file can tell the website
to show a special 404 error page instead of just a boring
page not found message.
It can also be used to hide file extensions on a
website. A file extension is the part of the file name that comes
after the dot, like .html or .php. By using the .htaccess file, you
can tell the website to hide these extensions from the URL that
people see in their web browsers. This can also be done with the
filename itself, so https://example.com/index.html becomes
just https://example.com.
Or, the .htaccess file can tell the website to
redirect people who type in an old website address to the new one, so
they don’t get lost or confused.
Basically, the .htaccess file is a special tool that helps make
websites better and easier to use for everyone who visits them.
Version Control in Web Design
Version control is a way to manage changes made to your web design
project over time. It allows you to keep track of all the changes you
make to your project, and to go back to earlier versions if you need
to. It’s like a history of your project that you can refer to at any
time.
Let’s say you’re working on a web design project, and you create a
new page that you’re not quite happy with. You can use version
control to save the current version of the page, and then make
changes to it. If you decide that the changes you made weren’t good,
you can go back to the earlier version you saved and start over.
Version control is also helpful if you’re working on a project
with a team. It allows you to see who made what changes,
when they made them, and why they made them. This
can be very useful for collaborating and communicating with your
team.
There are many different tools and programs you can use for
version control, but one of the most popular ones is called
Git.
It’s free and widely used in the web design and
development community.
Version control is an important tool for
web designers because it allows you to keep track of your work and
collaborate effectively with others.