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98 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Light and Shadow Light and shadow are the most important visual cues we can use to determine or create depth and volume in compositions. Even with accurate perspective and proportion, a composition without highlights and shadowing will look flat. Light and shadow establish visual contrast, and help to create the illusion of three-dimensional depth with two-dimensional media, such as pencil on paper or pixels on your computer screen. Light and shadow alone can also be used to make two-dimensional objects look like they exist in three-dimensional space. Each of the three cyan-colored circles in Figure 3.16 are the same size, but the different lighting effects and shadows applied give each a very unique feeling of depth and volume. A basic drop shadow has been applied to the first circle. It’s obvious that this is a two-dimensional object, but the drop shadow gives the illusion that the circle is hovering above the surface beneath it. The second circle has a linear gradient, and a shadow that’s skewed to the right. This combination of light with the tilted shadow suggest that it’s a two-dimensional circle that’s casting a shadow on an angled surface. The fact that the shadow is closer to the bottom than the top of the circle creates a sense of movement: it looks as if the top of the circle is falling towards or away from the viewer’s eye. A radial gradient—meaning one that’s applied in all directions from a central point—has been applied to the third circle, which looks spherical due to the highlight and shadows that the gradient creates. The shadow that it casts matches the location of the light source, which lends credibility to the volume and depth of the shape. Figure 3.16. Examples of light and shadow Just as there are many ways to alter the levels of depth with the circles in Figure 3.16, there are other methods to give your web page elements depth using only light and shadow. Take the menu in Figure 3.17, for example. The boxed-in words and rounded corners hint that these are clickable objects, and the dark background on the Products button indicates that it’s either hovered or active. It’s a simple navigation style that would work fine on just about any website, but unfortunately it feels a bit flat here.
Texture 99 Figure 3.17. A clear and functional menu—but it’s a little flat If these button shapes were really three-dimensional, what would they look like? Would they be flat with beveled edges, or completely rounded on the top? Would the tops of the buttons be straight on the horizontal, or would they have rolling curves? What would happen when light hit them? All these questions can be answered by looking around you. For the example in Figure 3.18, I imagined that my links were lit from above, so I gave them a slight gradient rather than making the background color flat. I also added a bevel to the edges to make them feel a bit like glossy, rectangular subway tiles. I wanted the active link to look inset instead of beveled out, so that it appears to be clicked. I achieved that by adding a shadow to the top of the block instead of a bevel highlight. I gave the text a little drop shadow as well, to make it feel like the letters were slightly raised from the button surface. Figure 3.18. Gradients, shadows, and beveling make this menu pop Adding shadows to text and objects is another practical way of creating depth in your layout. This can easily be done in Photoshop using layer styles, but what if the person who’s maintaining the site lacks access to a copy of Photoshop? As with creating rounded corners and rotating objects, CSS3 again comes to the rescue. The box-shadow and text-shadow properties promise to make web design far less dependent on heavy images. A great place to experiment with these and other CSS3 properties is http://css3please.com. No need to restrict yourself to just adding lighting and shadows to boxy elements, though: try involving some perspective, and think about how real-life objects work when you’re trying to manu-
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Summary of Contents Preface . . . .
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iv The Principles of Beautiful Web
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Table of Contents Preface . . . . .
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ix Color Scheme Designer 3 . . . .
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xi Creative Image Treatments . . .
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xiv bathroom with the work that we
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xvi Tips, Notes, and Warnings Hey,
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2 The Principles of Beautiful Web D
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10 The Principles of Beautiful Web
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Page 65 and 66: 2 Chapter Color Whether you’re de
Page 67 and 68: Color 51 reason, it’s often used
Page 69 and 70: Color 53 Figure 2.5. Calming stones
Page 71 and 72: Color 55 Figure 2.7. These wind tur
Page 73 and 74: Color 57 Chromatic Value The measur
Page 75 and 76: Color 59 Figure 2.12. The tradition
Page 77 and 78: Color 61 thick that you’re unable
Page 79 and 80: Color 63 Another example of saturat
Page 81 and 82: Color 65 An Analogous Color Scheme
Page 83 and 84: Color 67 Figure 2.22. Blinksale’s
Page 85 and 86: Color 69 put off by the stark contr
Page 87 and 88: Color 71 Figure 2.27. Cross Cross C
Page 89 and 90: Color 73 Figure 2.30. The Bulls+Arr
Page 91 and 92: Color 75 Figure 2.34. The adventuro
Page 93 and 94: Color 77 Table 2.1. Counting from 1
Page 95 and 96: Color 79 Scheme Designer 3 works. U
Page 97 and 98: Color 81 Figure 2.39. Pictaculous C
Page 99 and 100: Color 83 Figure 2.41. A mood board
Page 101 and 102: 3 Chapter Texture There are many we
Page 103 and 104: Texture 87 Figure 3.2. The A-Team b
Page 105 and 106: Texture 89 Figure 3.5. Geometric an
Page 107 and 108: Texture 91 Rounded Corners So we’
Page 109 and 110: Texture 93 Figure 3.10. Ithaca Even
Page 111 and 112: Texture 95 Figure 3.12. Speed Kids
Page 113: Texture 97 Figure 3.14. Perspective
Page 117 and 118: Texture 101 Although repetitious ba
Page 119 and 120: Texture 103 declaration background-
Page 121 and 122: Texture 105 Figure 3.25. Three repe
Page 123 and 124: Texture 107 Figure 3.27. Team Fanny
Page 125 and 126: Texture 109 said, just because you
Page 127 and 128: Texture 111 This site certainly fal
Page 129 and 130: Texture 113 Another notable example
Page 131 and 132: Texture 115 Figure 3.36. Minimalism
Page 133: Texture 117 Figure 3.38. The site d
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