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The Many Ways to Change an SVG Fill on Hover (and When to Use Them)

January 31st, 2019 No comments
tag or as a background image. This allows the images to be cached and we can avoid bloating your HTML with chunks of SVG code. But the downside is a big one: we no longer have the ability to manipulate those properties using CSS. Whenever I come across non-inline icons, my first port of call is to inline them, but sometimes that’s not an option.

I was recently working on a project where the social icons were a component in a pattern library that everyone was happy with. In this case, the icons were being referenced from an element. I was tasked with applying colored :focus and :hover styles, without adjusting the markup.

So, how do you go about adding a colored hover effect to an icon if it’s not an inline SVG?

CSS Filters

CSS filters allow us to apply a whole bunch of cool, Photoshop-esque effects right in the browser. Filters are applied to the element after the browser renders layout and initial paint, which means they fall back gracefully. They apply to the whole element, including children. Think of a filter as a lens laid over the top of the element it’s applied to.

These are the CSS filters available to us:

  • brightness();
  • contrast();
  • grayscale();
  • invert();
  • opacity();
  • saturate();
  • sepia();
  • hue-rotate();
  • blur();
  • drop-shadow();

All filters take a value which can be changed to adjust the effect. In most cases, this value can be expressed in either a decimal or percent units (e.g. brightness(0.5) or brightness(50%)).

Straight out of the box, there’s no CSS filter that allows us to add our own specific color.
We have hue-rotate(), but that only adjusts an existing color; it doesn’t add a color, which is no good since we’re starting with a monochromatic icon.

The game-changing bit about CSS filters is that we don’t have to use them in isolation. Multiple filters can be applied to an element by space-separating the filter functions like this:

.icon:hover {
  filter: grayscale(100%) sepia(100%);
}

If one of the filter functions doesn’t exist, or has an incorrect value, the whole list is ignored and no filter will be applied to the element.

When applying multiple filter functions to an element, their order is important and will affect the final output. Each filter function will be applied to the result of the previous operation.

SVG is a great format for icons. Vector formats look crisp and razor sharp, no matter the size or device — and we get tons of design control when using them inline.

SVG also gives us another powerful feature: the ability to manipulate their properties with CSS. As a result, we can make quick and simple interactions where it used to take crafty CSS tricks or swapping out entire image files.

Those interactions include changing color on hover states. It sounds like such a straightforward thing here in 2019, but there are actually a few totally valid ways to go about it — which only demonstrates the awesome powers of SVG more.

First off, let’s begin with a little abbreviated SVG markup:

<svg class="icon">
  <path .../>
</svg>

Target the .icon class in CSS and set the SVG fill property on the hover state to swap colors.

.icon:hover {
  fill: #DA4567;
}

This is by far the easiest way to apply a colored hover state to an SVG. Three lines of code!

SVGs can also be referenced using an tag or as a background image. This allows the images to be cached and we can avoid bloating your HTML with chunks of SVG code. But the downside is a big one: we no longer have the ability to manipulate those properties using CSS. Whenever I come across non-inline icons, my first port of call is to inline them, but sometimes that’s not an option.

I was recently working on a project where the social icons were a component in a pattern library that everyone was happy with. In this case, the icons were being referenced from an element. I was tasked with applying colored :focus and :hover styles, without adjusting the markup.

So, how do you go about adding a colored hover effect to an icon if it’s not an inline SVG?

CSS Filters

CSS filters allow us to apply a whole bunch of cool, Photoshop-esque effects right in the browser. Filters are applied to the element after the browser renders layout and initial paint, which means they fall back gracefully. They apply to the whole element, including children. Think of a filter as a lens laid over the top of the element it’s applied to.

These are the CSS filters available to us:

  • brightness();
  • contrast();
  • grayscale();
  • invert();
  • opacity();
  • saturate();
  • sepia();
  • hue-rotate();
  • blur();
  • drop-shadow();

All filters take a value which can be changed to adjust the effect. In most cases, this value can be expressed in either a decimal or percent units (e.g. brightness(0.5) or brightness(50%)).

Straight out of the box, there’s no CSS filter that allows us to add our own specific color.
We have hue-rotate(), but that only adjusts an existing color; it doesn’t add a color, which is no good since we’re starting with a monochromatic icon.

The game-changing bit about CSS filters is that we don’t have to use them in isolation. Multiple filters can be applied to an element by space-separating the filter functions like this:

.icon:hover {
  filter: grayscale(100%) sepia(100%);
}

If one of the filter functions doesn’t exist, or has an incorrect value, the whole list is ignored and no filter will be applied to the element.

When applying multiple filter functions to an element, their order is important and will affect the final output. Each filter function will be applied to the result of the previous operation.

So, in order to colorize our icons, we have to find the right combination.

To make use of hue-rotate(), we need to start off with a colored icon. The sepia() filter is the only filter function that allows us to add a color, giving the filtered element a yellow-brown-y tinge, like an old photo.

The output color is dependent on the starting tonal value:

In order to add enough color with sepia(), we first need to use invert() to convert our icon to a medium grey:

.icon:hover {
  filter: invert(0.5)
}

We can then add the yellow/brown tone with sepia():

.icon:hover {
  filter: invert(0.5) sepia(1);
}

…then change the hue with hue-rotate():

.icon:hover {
  filter: invert(0.5) sepia(1) hue-rotate(200deg);                                  
}

Once we have the rough color we want, we can tweak it with saturation() and brightness():

.icon:hover {
  filter: 
    invert(0.5)
    sepia(1)
    hue-rotate(200deg)
    saturate(4)
    brightness(1);
}

I’ve made a little tool for this to make your life a little easier, as this is a pretty confusing process to guesstimate.

See the Pen CSS filter example by Cassie Evans (@cassie-codes)
on CodePen.

Even with the tool, it’s still a little fiddly, not supported by Internet Explorer, and most importantly, you’re unable to specify a precise color.

This browser support data is from Caniuse, which has more detail. A number indicates that browser supports the feature at that version and up.

Desktop

Chrome Opera Firefox IE Edge Safari
18* 15* 35 No 18 6*

Mobile / Tablet

iOS Safari Opera Mobile Opera Mini Android Android Chrome Android Firefox
6.0-6.1* 46 No 4.4* 71 64

So, what do we do if we need a specific hex code?

SVG Filters

If we need more precise control (and better browser support) than CSS filters can offer, then it’s time to turn to SVG.

Filters originally came from SVG. In fact, under the hood, CSS filters are just shortcuts to SVG filters with a particular set of values baked in.

Unlike CSS, the filter isn’t predefined for us, so we have to create it. How do we do this?

This is the syntax to define a filter:

<svg xmlns="<http://www.w3.org/2000/svg>" version="1.1">
  <defs>
    <filter id="id-of-your-filter">
      ...          
      
      ...
    </filter>
    ...
  </defs>
</svg>

Filters are defined by a element, which goes inside the section of an SVG.

SVG filters can be applied to SVG content within the same SVG document. Or, the filter can be referenced and applied to HTML content elsewhere.

To apply an SVG filter to HTML content, we reference it the same way as a CSS filter: by using the url() filter function. The URL points to the ID of the SVG filter.

.icon:hover {
  filter: url('#id-of-your-filter');
}

The SVG filter can be placed inline in the document or the filter function can reference an external SVG. I prefer the latter route as it allows me to keep my SVG filters tidied away in an assets folder.

.icon:hover {
  filter: url('assets/your-SVG.svg#id-of-your-filter');
}

Back to the element itself.

<filter id="id-of-your-filter">
  ...          
  
  ...
</filter>

Right now, this filter is empty and won’t do anything as we haven’t defined a filter primitive. Filter primitives are what create the filter effects. There are a number of filter primitives available to us, including:

  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []
  • []

Just like with CSS filters, we can use them on their own or include multiple filter primitives in the tag for more interesting effects. If more than one filter primitive is used, then each operation will build on top of the previous one.

For our purposes we’re just going to use feColorMatrix, but if you want to know more about SVG filters, you can check out the specs on MDN or this (in progress, at the time of this writing) article series that Sara Soueidan has kicked off.

feColourMatrix allows us to change color values on a per-channel basis, much like channel mixing in Photoshop.

This is what the syntax looks like:

<svg xmlns="<http://www.w3.org/2000/svg>" version="1.1">
  <defs>
    <filter id="id-of-your-filter">
      <feColorMatrix
        color-interpolation-filters="sRGB"
        type="matrix"
        values="1 0 0 0 0
                0 1 0 0 0
                0 0 1 0 0
                0 0 0 1 0 "/>
    </filter>
    ...
  </defs>
</svg>

Let’s have a closer look at the color matrix values.

The first four columns represent the red, green and blue channels of color and the alpha (opacity) value. The rows contain the red, green, blue and alpha values in those channels.

The M column is a multiplier — we don’t need to change any of these values for our purposes here. The values for each color channel are represented as floating point numbers in the range 0 to 1.

We could write these values as a CSS RGBA color declaration like this:

rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)

The values for each color channel (red, green and blue) are stored as integers in the range 0 to 255. In computers, this is the range that one 8-bit byte can offer.

By dividing these color channel values by 255, the values can be represented as a floating point number which we can use in the feColorMatrix.

And, by doing this, we can create a color filter for any color with an RGB value!

Like teal, for example:

rgba(0, 128, 128, 1). 128%255=0.50

See the Pen
SVG filter – teal hover
by Cassie Evans (@cassie-codes)
on CodePen.

This SVG filter will only impart color to icons with a white fill, so If we have an icon with a black fill, we can use invert() to convert it to white before applying the SVG filter.

.icon:hover {
  filter: invert(100%) url('assets/your-SVG.svg#id-of-your-filter');
}

If we just have a hex code, the math is a little trickier, although there are plenty of hex-to-RGBA converters out there. To help out, I’ve made a HEX to feColorMatrix converter.

See the Pen
HEX to feColorMatrix converterr
by Cassie Evans (@cassie-codes)
on CodePen.

Have a play around, and happy filtering!

The post The Many Ways to Change an SVG Fill on Hover (and When to Use Them) appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Forms that Move With You with Wufoo

January 31st, 2019 No comments

I’ve been into the idea of JAMstack lately. In fact, it was at the inaugural JAMstack_conf that I gave a talked called The All-Powerful Font-End Developer. My overall point there was that there are all these services that we can leverage as front-end developers to build complete websites without needing much help from other disciplines — if any at all.

Sometimes, the services we reach for these days are modern and fancy, like a real-time database solution with authentication capabilities. And sometimes those services help process forms. Speaking of which, a big thanks to Wufoo for so successfully being there for us front-end developers for so many years. Wufoo was one of my first tastes of being a powerful front-end developer. I can build and design a complex form super fast on Wufoo and integrate it onto any site in minutes. I’ve done it literally hundreds of times, including here on CSS-Tricks.

Another thing that I love about building Wufoo forms is that they travel so well. I use them all the time on my WordPress sites because I can copy and paste the embed code right onto any page. But say I moved that site off of traditional WordPress and onto something more JAMstacky (maybe even a static site that hits the WordPress API, whatevs). I could still simply embed my Wufoo form. A Wufoo form can literally be put on any type of site, which is awesome since you lose no data and don’t change the experience at all when making a big move.

And, just in case you didn’t know, Wufoo has robust read and write APIs, so Wufoo really can come with you wherever you go.

Try it Now

The post Forms that Move With You with Wufoo appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Spread The Love! Inspiring Wallpapers For February 2019

January 31st, 2019 No comments

Spread The Love! Inspiring Wallpapers For February 2019

Spread The Love! Inspiring Wallpapers For February 2019

Cosima Mielke

2019-01-31T12:09:12+01:002019-02-01T07:55:37+00:00

As designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration, and, well, sometimes the best inspiration lies right in front of us. With that in mind, we embarked on our wallpapers creativity mission more than nine years ago. The idea: to provide you with unique and inspiring desktop wallpapers each month anew. Wallpapers created by the community for the community.

We are very thankful to all artists and designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing to this challenge, who tickle their creativity to keep the steady stream of wallpapers flowing. This post features their artworks for February 2019. All wallpapers come in two versions — with and without a calendar — and can be downloaded for free. At the end of this post, we also collected some wallpaper favorites from past February editions for you. After all, some things are just too good to be forgotten, right?

Please note that:

  • All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
  • You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

Savannah Stroll

“February is a month focused on romance and as a southerner, I can’t think of a more romantic way to spend a day than strolling the historic moss-draped streets of Savannah, GA. Spending time sitting on a bench on one of the many beautiful squares, holding hands and people watching as you sip a cappuccino.” — Designed by Heather Ozee Designs from the United States.

Love Is Worth Fighting For

Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.

Love Is Worth Fighting For

Dark Temptation

“A dark romantic feel, walking through the city on a dark and rainy night.” — Designed by Matthew Talebi from the United States.

Dark Temptation

Feel The Love!

“We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with our February wallpaper. Whatever Valentine’s Day means to you we’re on board, love, relationships or the best of friends. It’s something to be celebrated!” — Designed by Focus from the United Kingdom.

Feel The Love!

Cold And Frost

“Frosts in Russia are very severe. Walking through the Park, I found these branches at the top and decided to capture the moment.” — Designed by Nikolay Belikov from Russia.

Cold And Frost

What Is Love

“We all feel it, even if we cannot define it. But, who needs a definition anyway? When you sense it in your gut and feel like standing on the top of the world. Happy. From the bottom of your heart. ‘Where there is love, there is life,’ said Mahatma Gandhi. And we couldn’t agree more. May the love be with you. Always.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

What Is Love

Polar Cold

“February is the month of the bear. I would like to be in the Arctic and play with the bears.” — Designed by Verónica Valenzuela from Spain.

Polar Cold

Lovely Day

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Lovely Day

Let Love Speak

“As it’s February, we just thought of celebrating Valentine month. Let the love between nature and human being prosper. These days we are forgetting to take care of our nature. So it’s a kind of gentle reminder for all of us.” — Designed by Sweans Technologies from London.

Let Love Speak

Umbrella Day

“Always good to have an umbrella, on rainy or sunny days! On the 10th of February we celebrate the umbrellas.” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.

Umbrella Day

Sunset

“I want to emphasize February 14th because it’s Valentine’s Day. I thought it would be fun to use two cats that are in love watching the sunset in the park. I have tried to use as many warm and loving colors as possible, such as red, rose, orange and purple.” — Designed by Vince Teckmans from Belgium.

Sunset

World Radio Day

“Music is an important element in our everyday lives. It connects people all over the world, regardless of culture, religion etc.” — Designed by Ilke Cauwenbergh from Belgium.

World Radio Day

Oldies But Goodies

No matter if it’s a brave icebreaker that confronts even the most adverse weather conditions, a piece of design wisdom, or a pun — a lot of things have inspired our artists to design a February wallpaper in the past few years. Below you’ll find a little best-of. Please note that these wallpapers don’t come with a calendar.

Dog Year Ahead

Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Dog Year Ahead

Balloons

Designed by Xenia Latii from Germany.

Balloons

Febpurrary

“I was doodling pictures of my cat one day and decided I could turn it into a fun wallpaper – because a cold, winter night in February is the perfect time for staying in and cuddling with your cat, your significant other, or both!” — Designed by Angelia DiAntonio from Ohio, USA.

Febpurrary

Minimalistic Love

“This minimalistic love logo is designed from geometric shapes, where the heart represents the letter ‘O’ and love. The anchor represents the letter ‘V’ very delicately and stylish and it symbolizes your wanderlust. The anchor is a symbol of adventure and travels.” — Designed by Antun Hirsman from Croatia.

Minimalistic Love

“Greben” Icebreaker

“Danube is Europe’s second largest river, connecting 10 different countries. In these cold days, when ice paralyzes rivers and closes waterways, a small but brave icebreaker called Greben (Serbian word for ‘reef’) seems stronger than winter. It cuts through the ice on ?erdap gorge (Iron Gate) – the longest and biggest gorge in Europe – thus helping the production of electricity in the power plant. This is our way to give thanks to Greben!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

“Greben” Icebreaker

Winter Wonderland

“In February, nature shows its creativity. Our artwork occurs when it is being drawn.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

Winter Wonderland

Love Angel Vader

“Valentine’s Day is coming? Noooooooooooo!” — Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Love Angel Vader

Febrewery

“I live in Madison, WI USA, which is famous for its breweries. Wisconsin even named their baseball team “The Brewers.” If you like beer, brats, and lots of cheese, it’s the place for you!” — Designed by Danny Gugger from the United States.

Febrewery

Farewell, Winter…

“Although I love winter (mostly because of the fun winter sports), there are other great activities ahead. February, the last winter month, this year is even one day longer. But I don’t mind. Thanks, winter, and see you next year!” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

Farewell, Winter...

Principles Of Good Design

“The simplicity seen in the work of Dieter Rams which has ensured his designs from the 50s and 60s still hold a strong appeal.” — Designed by Vinu Chaitanya from India.

Principles of Good Design- Dieter Rams

I Believe I Can Fly

Designed by Elise Vanoorbeek from Belgium.

Smashing Wallpaper - february 13

Out There, There’s Someone Like You

“I am a true believer that out there in this world there is another person who is just like us, the problem is to find her/him.” — Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.

Out There, There's Someone Like You

The Great Beyond

“My inspiration came mostly from ‘The Greay from’. It’s about a dog and an astronaut exploring a strange new world.” — Designed by Lars Pauwels from Belgium.

The Great Beyond

Join In Next Month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

Categories: Others Tags:

20 Great Websites to Find Free Stock Photos

January 31st, 2019 No comments

We are all tired of fake stock pictures where people shake hands in perfect suits. The era of perfectly scented stock photos is gone. Now people want to see real-life pictures on their websites, banners, and flyers.

The number of sites you can download high-quality free stock photos increase day by day. Just in case, you can’t find a photo you need on one site, you can use another one.

In this showcase, we put together 20 great websites to find beautiful stock photos. Most of images featured there fall under Creative Common Licence, so you can use them without author credit. Just scroll down and choose the site to pick a stunning photo.

unsplash

Pexels

freephotos

Foodies Feed

IM Free

Foter

Pixabay

StockSnap

Death to The Stock Photo

Picjumbo

The Pattern Library

Gratisography

Big Stock</h3>

Life of Pix

Free Refe Real Stock Photos

Magdeleine

Jay Mantri

My Stock Photos

Public Domain Archive

Picography

Read More at 20 Great Websites to Find Free Stock Photos

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

6 Ways Designers Can Avoid Infringing Intellectual Property Rights

January 31st, 2019 No comments

As the managing attorney of a commercial law boutique practice, I am asked several times per week some variation of the following question:

How should I best protect my intellectual property from being stolen? Is it as simple as filling out a copyright or trademark application and paying a small fee to a do it yourself on-line service? Will that really provide sufficient protection?

What do you think?

I have set forth below a few of the many aspects of protecting your intellectual property in the United States that go beyond blindly filing such a copyright or trademark application. It is a complex area of the law, and this article does not address all of the potential issues. For example, intellectual property in the United States is protected not just by federal law (as one might expect), but in many cases, state-specific law applies (such as when dealing with trade secret or confidentiality agreements).

“Move fast and break things” is a terrific way to end up being sued

The nature of potentially protectable intellectual property ranges from the typical (such as literature, television, film and music) to the esoteric (such as clothing lines, video games and apps). Infringement can range from outright copying and use of someone else’s registered intellectual property to merely exceeding the rights granted under a license to use it.

This article should be considered only a beginning; the reader should consult counsel to address specific situations.

1. When it Comes to Intellectual Property Filings, Self-Reliance is Not a Virtue

“Move fast and break things” is a terrific way to end up being sued. It does not take a great deal of time to file a trademark or copyright incorrectly. It is actually fairly quick, painless and inexpensive. But as in all things relating to the law, the hard way is still the right way.

Simply put, you must understand why you are filling out those boxes on the form, what the ramifications of the alternatives are and what else you need to do to protect yourself beyond simply filling out the form. When filing a copyright application with the United States Copyright Office or a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you should be asking some basic questions, including: what is protectable and what is not; are you going to infringe on someone else’s existing intellectual property; and can anyone else on your end assert that they have rights as a co-creator in what you are registering?

2. A Search of the USPTO Website for Similar Trademarks to Yours Should Not Be Relied Upon

Admittedly, the United States Patent and Trademark Office website has a search function for finding registered trademarks. But, generally speaking, that will not pick up everything a private investigation firm specializing in intellectual property matters will locate. Moreover, the database only identifies registered trademarks. That means other parties may have superior rights to yours—and potential claims against you for infringement—merely by using the mark. Accordingly, whether they have a registered mark that is searchable in the USPTO database is not the sole issue.

other parties may have superior rights to yours…merely by using the mark

However, generally speaking, although search results of any type won’t tell you when to go forward with an application, they will tell you when you should not go forward with one. In other words, if it is obvious that your application is for something that is already registered, you will know not to file your application. But the absence of a search result does not mean an absence of anything that is infringing. That is a tougher call.

3. Do Not Ignore Intellectual Property Rights Outside the United States

We are fortunate that the United States is a member of the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (commonly known as the Madrid Protocol), a means by which registration in one country can be leveraged to allow for intellectual property protection in others that are signatories to that treaty. The important point to keep in mind is that any potential infringement issue relating to use in the domestic United States must also be viewed in terms of whether there is a corresponding infringement outside the United States.

4. The Term “Quitclaim Assignment” Should Become Part of Your Vocabulary

There is a clear correlation between the number of people claiming some level of ownership of intellectual property and the value of that intellectual property. Simply put, success breeds claims for financial participation.

It is usually far better to ask someone to waive those claims before the intellectual property is actually utilized in a way that creates value. One of the problems is that it is not always clear what rights everyone has, nor what everyone is giving up.

In an ideal world, rights ownership would be discussed before any intellectual property were even created, and those rights would then be memorialized in a joint intellectual property ownership agreement, a work-for-hire agreement or other document that would establish precisely who would own what. But we do not live in that ideal world, and often the issues are ignored until the filing is about to be made. The law accounts for that as well. Believe it or not, the law generally provides for a way of assigning all right title and interest to whatever a person has, regardless of whether they know what that is. It is called a “quitclaim assignment”.

But be careful. The very request might jumpstart a discussion about royalties and licensing fees that would otherwise not have occurred

Before filing any sort of copyright or trademark application with the government, the applicant should analyze whether anyone else has a potential claim to that intellectual property. If so, every such person should sign such a quitclaim assignment, to the extent that they are willing to do so.

But be careful. The very request might jumpstart a discussion about royalties and licensing fees that would otherwise not have occurred (at least at that time). There is a school of thought that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie—I am not, by the way, of that school—instead, I would argue that, if such a discussion is even potentially on the horizon, it is better to have it earlier before time and money is expended on protecting and monetizing the intellectual property. As in all things legal, it is primarily a judgment call based upon the particulars of the given circumstances.

(This is an unusually nuanced area of the law. For example, how should one account for the fact that the assignment may later be revoked? Also, whose assignment is necessary, the company that did the work or the individual(s) in that company who handled the engagement (or both)? These are not insignificant details.)

5. A Quitclaim Assignment Should Have Certain Key Terms

It is impossible to provide a complete list of all the terms that should be included in every quitclaim assignment. For example, there are differences in what can be included in such a document that vary not only state-by-state, but also by country. However, there are a few fairly universal basics:

  • the rights that are and are not being given up, and a catch-all provision that the assignment includes even those rights that are unknown;
  • the payment or other consideration that will be provided for entering into the quitclaim assignment;
  • how disputes relating to the quitclaim assignment will be resolved e.g., through arbitration or a lawsuit; and
  • the fact that the assignor knows what they are signing (e.g., has had the right to be represented by counsel; to ask any questions; and in every respect wants to enter into the quitclaim assignment).

6. If You Do Receive a Cease and Desist Letter From Someone Asserting You Have Violated Their Intellectual Property Rights, Don’t Shoot First and Ask Questions Later

A cease and desist letter is not a lawsuit. The fact that you receive such a document simply means that someone is alleging that you have violated their intellectual property rights. It does not necessarily mean that they are prepared to file an immediate lawsuit, nor that they would win if they did so.

While every situation is different, there are a few preliminary steps that usually make sense:

  1. Determine with your counsel whether in fact you have violated the other party’s intellectual property rights.
  2. If you have, seek to open a dialogue to consider whether you can accede to their demand that you cease and desist in return for a release of liability. I hasten to add that it may not be possible to correct the infringement: the party sending the cease and desist letter may be making unreasonable demands; the determination as to whether you did or did not infringe may be arguable either way; etc. In other words, there is no one right way of handling a situation in which you have determined in your own mind that you did indeed infringe on someone else’s intellectual property rights.
  3. If you have not violated the other party’s intellectual property rights, respond to the letter in a substantive manner that sets forth why you believe you are right; the letter should leave open the possibility of further dialogue.
  4. You should retain an attorney to employ the above strategy. This comes under the heading of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Your attorney should author the above-referenced correspondence and discuss with you whether there are any preemptive litigation strategies you should employ. A perfect example would be the issue of whether to seek a declaratory judgment or other determination that your rights are superior before you are sued for infringement.
  5. Once you receive that cease and desist letter, you are officially “on notice” of the intellectual property holder’s asserted rights. If they have superior rights to yours and a valid claim, your continued use of the mark could put you at risk for enhanced damages based upon what is referred to as “willful infringement.” You need to evaluate immediately (ideally with legal counsel) what to do with the allegedly infringing product while you are engaging in this process. Do you continue your business and make sales while the dispute continues? Do you need to stop immediately and change everything, despite perhaps years and significant marketing spent building your brand? In answering those questions, you must keep in mind that whatever you do may have unintended consequences, such as for example, if your actions are later misinterpreted as constituting an admission that you did infringe.

Conclusion

All in all, it is critical that you not only take a challenge to your intellectual property rights seriously, but respond to it proactively. Your aim should be to anticipate what the challenge may be—to extrapolate, as it were—and head off the problem before it grows worse. I hope this article will help you start that process.

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Multiple Background Clip

January 30th, 2019 No comments

You know how you can have multiple backgrounds?

body {
  background-image: 
    url(image-one.jpg),
    url(image-two.jpg);
}

That’s just background-image. You can set their position too, as you might expect. We’ll shorthand it:

body {
  background: 
    url(image-one.jpg) no-repeat top right,
    url(image-two.jpg) no-repeat bottom left;
}

I snuck background-repeat in there just for fun. Another one you might not think of setting for multiple different backgrounds, though, is background-clip. In this linked article, Stefan Judis notes that this unlocks some pretty legit CSS-Trickery!

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The post Multiple Background Clip appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

The Importance of One-on-Ones

January 30th, 2019 No comments
meeting between two people

What do we mean by 1:1 (pronounced one-on-one)? This is typically a private conversation between an Engineering Manager/Lead and their Employee. I personally have been a Lead, a Manager, and also an Independent Contributor/Software Engineer, so I’ve sat at each side of the table. I’ve both had great experiences on each side and have made mistakes on each side. That said, I’m going to cover some meditations on the subject because 1:1s open opportunities for personal and professional growth when they’re effective.

What I’ve noticed about Software Engineering as a discipline, in particular, is that it has many people sharing posts about technical implementations and very few about engineering management. Management can influence and impact our ability to code efficiently and hone our craft, so it’s worth exploring publicly.

My thoughts on this change a lot and, like all humans, I’m always learning, so please don’t take any of these opinions as gospel. Think of them more like a dialogue where we can bounce ideas off one another.

Establishing baseline rules

I believe that 1:1s are crucial and should not be the kind of meeting anyone takes lightly, whether on the management or employee side. The meetings should have a regular cadence, scheduled either once a week or biweekly and only cancelled for pressing circumstances — and if they have to be cancelled, it’s a good practice to let the other person know why rather than simply removing it from the calendar.

It might be tempting to think remote working means fewer 1:1s, but it’s quite the opposite. Since each person is in a different space on a day-to-day basis, 1:1s help make up for sporadic contact by meeting regularly.

1:1s should be conducted in a space with the smallest amount of distractions possible. If you are in a room with one other person, shut off your computer and use a notepad so you won’t get notifications. If doing a 1:1 remotely, make sure you’re in a quiet place and that it has stable internet bandwidth. And, please, avoid taking 1:1s in a car or while running errands. It’s also worth trying to limit the time you spend in noisy environments, like cafes. Another tip: if you have to be outside, wear headphones. Again, this is all for the benefit of limiting distractions so that everyone’s focus is on the meeting itself.

Honestly, I would rather someone cancel on me or push the meeting off until they’re in a quiet place than take a call swarming with distractions. Nothing says, “I don’t value your time,” like multitasking during a 1:1 meeting. The whole purpose of the 1:1 should be to make the other person feel valuable and connected.

? Credit: @rawpixel on Unsplash

So, why should we devote time to 1:1s anyway?

1:1s are crucial. If we constantly work on tasks without taking the time to step back and check in with our work, we risk being tactical rather than strategic. We risk working in a silo, which can lead to burnout and anxiety. We risk opportunities to spot errors early and reduce technical debt. At their root, 1:1s should reduce uncertainty by making us feel more connected to the rest of the team while clarifying intent.

For example, on the employee side, you might not be sure whether to invest your time in Task A or Task B and the progress of your commits slows down as a result. Which one is higher priority? On the manager side, you might not be sure what’s happening — the employee could be stuck on a problem. They could be burnt out, but it’s tough to be sure. It’s totally normal for someone to get stuck once in a while, but it’s common to not want to announce it in front of others, perhaps out of fear of embarrassment, among other things. A 1:1 is a good, safe, private place to explore concerns before they become tangible problems because they offer privacy that some open floor plans simply do not.

This privacy part is important. Candid exploration of high level topics, like career goals, or even low level topics, like code reviews, are best done and that is easier to do with one person in a private space rather than a full audience out in the open. At their best, 1:1s should create a good environment to resolve some of these issues.

Employees and managers alike should be fully invested in the meeting. This means using active body language that shows attention. This means emphasizing listening and speaking in turn without interrupting the other person.

Connection

Belonging is a core tenant of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs because, as humans, we’re designed for connectedness and kinship. I know this article is about engineering management, but engineers are no less in need of empathy and human connection than any other person in any other profession.

The reason I include this at all is because connecting with others on a personal level is something I really need to work on myself. I’m awkward. I’m an introvert. I don’t always know how to talk to people. But I do know that there have been plenty of 1:1s where I either felt heard or that I was hearing someone else. In other words, I felt in connected to the other person, be it through shared goals, personal similarities, or even common gripes about something.

A friend of mine mentioned that “people leave managers, not jobs.” This is, for the most part, so true! Simply taking the time to develop a connection where a manager and employee both know each other better creates a higher level of comfort that can go a long way towards many benefits, including employee retention.

It might be worth asking the other person what modality works best if you’re remote. Some people prefer video chats; some people prefer phone calls. That’s all part of fostering a better connection.

1:1s are more for employees than managers

Don’t let that headline give you pause. Yes, these meetings are for both parties. They really are. But here’s the thing: in the balance of power, the manager can always speak directly to the employee. The inverse isn’t always true. There are also dynamics between teammates. That means the manager’s job in a 1:1 is to provide a space for the employee to speak clearly and freely about concerns, particularly ones that might impact their performance.

Ideally, a manager will listen more than an employee, but a back and forth dialogue can be healthy, too. A 1:1 where a manager is speaking the most is probably the least productive. This isn’t team time; it’s time to give an employee the floor because it otherwise might not happen in other venues.

In my experience, it’s best if a manager first learns the an employee’s Ultimate Goals™. Where do they see themselves in five years? What kind of work they like to do most? What environments do they work in best and which ones are the most difficult? A manager can’t always facilitate the ideal situation, but having this information is still extremely valuable for cultivating a person’s career trajectory, for the work that needs to be done, and for a general understanding of what will keep people working well together.

Let’s say you have two employees: one wants to be a Principal Architect someday and another who tells you that they love refactoring. That actually gives you pretty good insight for a project that requires one person to drive direction and another to clean up the legacy code in preparation for the refactor!

Or, say you have an employee that wants to be Director someday but rarely helps others. You also concurrently get an intern. This is your chance to develop one’s mentoring skills and scale the other’s engineering skills.

When these meetings are focused on the employee instead of the manager, they help the employee feel heard and motivated, which can bolster their career and also give the manager the ability to make bigger decisions about how everyone works together to accomplish their individual and collective goals.

meeting between two people
? Credit: @rawpixel on Unsplash

Yes, agendas are required

Yes, even though 1:1s have a tendency to be informal because everyone already knows each other well, they’re way more successful when there’s an agenda, at least in my opinion. And no, it’s not important for the agendas to be super formal either. They could be a couple bullet points on a sheet of paper. Or even items added to a private Slack channel. What’s most important is that both parties come prepared to talk.

If both the manager and the employee have agendas, my preference is to either defer priority to the employee, or compare lists up front to prioritize items. It might be that the manager has to discuss something pressing and sensitive, like a team reorg that affects the employee’s agenda. Regardless, communication is key. In a best-case scenario, you’re both in lock step and that all agenda items actually overlap.

Employees: Sometimes weeks are tough and it’s easy to get frustrated. Taking time to write an agenda keeps the meeting from being all, “I hate everything and how could you have done me so wrong,” and more focused on actionable items. Why not just vent? Sure, there’s a time and place for venting, but the problem with it is that your manager is a person, and might not know exactly how to help you on an emotional level. Having specific topics and items make it facilitate more actionable feedback for your manager, and therefore, make them better able to support you.

Managers: Let’s face it, you’re probably juggling a million plates. (That metaphor might be wrong, but you catch my drift.) There’s a lot on your mind and most of it is confidential. Agenda give you the context you need to prevent wandering into topics you might not be at liberty to discuss. It also keeps things on track. Are there four more things you need to cover and you’re already 15 minutes into a 30-minute meeting? You’re less likely to pontificate about your early career or foray into irrelevant paths and stay focused on the task and human right in front of you.

Direction and Guidance

One thing that a 1:1 can be useful for is guidance. On a few occasions, I’ve checked in with an employee who’s communicated feeling like they’re in over their heads — whether they’ve overcommitted or have such a tall task in front of them, they’re not sure how to proceed and feel anxious to the point of paralysis.

As mentioned before, this is a great opportunity for a manager to reduce uncertainty. Some ways to do that:

  • Prioritize. If there’s too much work, spend time talking through the most important pieces, and even perhaps offer yourself as a shield from some of the work.
  • Make action items. Sometimes a task is too large and the employee needs help breaking it down into organized pieces making it easier to know where to start and how to move forward.
  • Clarify vision. People might feel overwhelmed because they don’t know why they’re doing something. If you can communicate the necessity of the work at hand, then it can align them with the goal of the project and make the work more rewarding and valuable.

One risk here is passive listening. For example, there’s a fine line between knowing when to let an employee vent and when that venting needs actionable solutions. Or both! I have no hard rules about when one is needed over the other, and I sometimes get this wrong myself. This is why eye contact and active listening is important. You’ll receive subtle cues from the person that help reveal what is needed in the situation.

If you’re an employee and your manager isn’t providing the listening mode you need from them, I think it’s OK to gently mention that. Your manager isn’t a mind reader, and in many cases, they haven’t even received management training to develop proper listening skills. It’s perfectly fine to say something along the lines of, “It would be really great if you could sit with me and help me prioritize all these tasks on my to do list,” or “I really need to vent right now, but some of the venting is stuff I think is valuable for you to know about.” Personally, I love it when someone tells me what they need. I’m usually trying to figure that out, so it takes out the guesswork.

Meeting adjourned…

You spend many waking hours at work. It’s important that your working relationships — particularly between manager and employee — are healthy and that you’re intentionally checking in with purpose, both in the short-term and the long-term.

1:1s may appear to be time hogs on the calendar, but over the long haul, you’ll find they save valuable time. As a manager, having a team of employees who feel valued, aligned and connected is about the best thing you can ask for. So, value them because you’ll get solid value in return.

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The Best UI Design Trends of 2019

January 30th, 2019 No comments
ui design trends

User interaction, or UI, is arguably the single most important aspect of anyone’s technological experience. However, people change, their needs change, and technology changes to go along with it. Every year, there are always new trends that everyone should integrate to their designs. Because it’s important to keep up with the times, we’ve compiled a list of the best UI design trends of 2019.

Seamless Interfaces

Nobody likes to have to navigate a website by clicking on an unnecessary amount of links. Loveforiceland.com executes this perfectly, so let’s use it as an example.

All of the information is located on the main page, so the user never have to leave the home page. This avoids loading times and ridiculous transitions.

Big Typography

Big fonts are in! Adding a simple, or even an interactive font to your home page can really set the mood for any user. It’s a great way to advertise and get people familiar with your brand. Weareacademy.com is a very great example of how to pull this off in a trendy way.

Gradient Transitions

We all need a splash of color. One color can be a little boring, but add too many, and you’ll confuse your users. Gradient transitions are not just one of the best UI design trends of 2018, but possibly of all time.

It has made quite the comeback this year and is spreading like wildfire. As your eyes move from one side of the screen to the other, they’ll be greeted with a fresh, new treat every inch of the way.

Custom Illustrations

What better way to give people a custom experience then to throw in some custom illustrations? If you have a unique logo or font, throw it in there! People really get the sense of uniqueness and genuine care when they see something other than copy and paste style UI.

These are just a few of the best UI design trends of 2018. There are many trends out there to be discovered, and even more to be created. Put on your thinking hat, gather the troops, and start getting creative. Who knows, maybe one day, someone will be writing an article about a trend you set.

Read More at The Best UI Design Trends of 2019

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Adobe Experience Manager vs. WordPress: The Authoring Experience Compared

January 30th, 2019 No comments

Adobe Experience Manager vs. WordPress: The Authoring Experience Compared

Adobe Experience Manager vs. WordPress: The Authoring Experience Compared

Kevin Weber

2019-01-30T13:45:55+01:002019-01-30T12:49:08+00:00

Thanks, WordPress and Gutenberg, for making block-based editing the standard for authoring web pages. In this article, I’m going to compare the new authoring experience in WordPress with the experience from Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), an enterprise content management system that also embraces block-based editing. I’ve implemented both WordPress and AEM for multiple companies (such as Informatica and Twitter) and had to realize that despite the authoring experience is critical for non-technical authors, it is often neglected by developers.

Note: With the term “authoring experience” I’m referring to the user experience for those people whose goal it is to create and publish content on a website. I’m not referring to the people that are going to consume the published content. If you haven’t thought about the authoring experience before, here’s a primer by Eileen Webb who was also featured in Smashing Book 5.

Adobe Experience Manager is, compared to WordPress, a complex system with a steep learning curve, especially for developers. At the same time, AEM is easier to use than more established and more expensive content management solutions, placing AEM somewhere in between free and very costly solutions.

From a technical perspective, AEM is a conglomerate of open source technologies with several touches from Adobe, placing AEM somewhere in between open-source and proprietary software. It is those touches from Adobe that make the system shiny and usable. For example, a visual drag and drop page builder has been the standard way for creating pages in AEM — long before WordPress Gutenberg was born.

Let’s take a look at some of the features that elevate the authoring experience above average.

Components (Blocks)

One of the most significant ideas for websites is the concept of a component (or block in WordPress lingo). A component represents a piece of content that follows specific rules instead of being a blob of anything. For example, you can have a video component where the author can only paste in a Youtube link and control Youtube-specific settings. Or you can have a quote component where the author adds a quote to one text field and the name of the person being quoted to another text field. You can even have a layout component that contains other components and displays them below each other on a mobile device, whereas on a large screen, those components get spread across three columns.


Title component in AEM with an overlay that includes an edit button
Authors can update components right in the visual editor. Available editing options get displayed based on the selected component. (Image source) (Large preview)

An author knows exactly what to expect from a specific component and can easily fill it with the appropriate content. Equally important are the long-term benefits and new opportunities that wouldn’t be feasible for the old school “one text field fits all content” approach that has been prevalent for the past decades:

  • If a component requires a date input, the component authoring dialog can display a date picker instead of a plain text field, making it easier for the author to pick a date with the right format.
  • If a designer wants the name of a quoted person to be displayed above the quote instead of below the quote, the developer can easily rearrange the code because the quote and the name are stored separately. If the quote and name would be stored the old-fashioned way, the developer would have to manually extract the name from the text blob and move it in front of the quote.
  • If a quote needs to be translated from English to German, the quote can be submitted to a translation service. If the translation service has translated this quote before already, it can return the saved translation. If the quote would be part of a longer paragraph instead of being standalone, the translation would be much harder and probably require a human translator.
  • If a video lacks a transcript and therefore prevents deaf users from consuming it, the component can be complemented with a summary text that makes the video more accessible to deaf users.

Component-based editing has been embraced by users of AEM for a while already, and because of the arrival of Gutenberg in WordPress 5.0, component-based editors are now the de facto standard for authoring web pages.

Note: Leonardo Losoviz dives deeper into the implications of blocks in the context of WordPress.

Fragments

Content fragments and experience fragments are new terms that have been dominating the AEM scene for the past year. I’ll summarize those two concepts simply as fragments. In essence, fragments allow authors to create neutral content that can be used across web, mobile, social media and other channels.

Fragments are created outside of a page editor and are, compared to a component, less opinionated about how their data is going to be used. Let’s imagine a fragment called “Quote of the day” that authors update once a day with a new quote. Now the quoted text of this fragment can be used in a variety of places:

  • A footer widget displays the quote of the day at the bottom of every page. As soon as an author updates the fragment, the footer updates as well. The fragment determines what is going to be displayed whereas the footer widget determines how the quote is going to be displayed.
  • A quote component allows authors to import a quote from past “Quotes of the day” and add it to the blog post.
  • A plugin adds a “Share quote of the day” button to the homepage. Whenever someone clicks on that button, the plugin takes the quote of the day and formats it to meet best practices for sharing via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Fragment editor for populating a component with airport data
Using an editor for fragments, authors focus on related data without having to know how exactly it is going to be displayed on websites and in apps. (Image source) (Large preview)

In WordPress, widgets and menus resemble fragments: Authors create menu items in a neutral interface, then developers display those items as part of the theme in a way that makes sense for the theme. If the theme gets replaced with a new theme, those menu items persist and can be displayed in the new theme as well, even though the new theme might look very different from the previous one.

I expect fragments to become more widely used, even though the concept has different names in different systems. Indeed, Matt Mullenweg already announced that his team is currently focusing on “expanding the block interface to other aspects of content management [including the creation of] a navigation menu block [and] porting all widgets over to blocks.”

Page Templates

Pages templates can be described as higher-level components because they include several other components. In AEM, authors can create templates that lock components such as a header component into a fixed position while also defining flexible areas where components can be added on a per page basis.


Page template editor
The template on this screen provides a heading, image and text component by default. It prevents authors from removing the “Text Locked” text and allows authors to add more components below that text. (Image source) (Large preview)

One important aspect of this is that such a flexible area can limit which components can go into it. That way you can create page templates for different purposes:

  • Template #1: Article page template
    Header, title, content area and footer are fixed. The author can update the title component but can’t remove it. The author can drop text, image and video components into the content area.
  • Template #2: Landing page template
    Only a logo and a title component at the top of the page are fixed. The author can choose among a set of landing page-specific components that are optimized for converting visitors into customers.

Permissions And Workflows

It’s unlikely that every author in a large team should be able to modify critical templates such as the article page template. In order to prevent people from being able to accidentally and irrevocably break the site, it is important to define who can modify which part of the site. Welcome to the concept of permissions and workflows. This concept is neither new nor special, but it’s important for large teams.


Screen where admins handle detailed permissions.
Yes, AEM’s interface for handling permissions could need a facelift. Anyhow, it works. (Image source) (Large preview)

A typical AEM site includes the actual production website and at least one production-like site, aka staging. Authors can publish content to a private staging site before publishing it to the public production site. The process of publishing content to staging followed by publishing content to production can be called a workflow. Another common type of workflow is that the content must go through an approval process before it can be published to the production site, and only certain people are able to hit the “publish to production” button.


Page editor with workflow message
This page indicates that a workflow has been initiated and the author can either complete or delegate the “Request for Activation”. (Image source) (Large preview)

Permissions and workflows are features that are negligible on small teams. However, as a team grows, those features become critical for the productivity and success of the team. Despite AEM comes with the basics for creating workflows and developers can make AEM work for any specific need, it requires quite some code changes and isn’t implemented with the snap of a finger. This is even more true for WordPress. It would be nice to have an authoring-friendly tool to create custom workflows.


Visual workflow editor in Git
Imagine how a user-friendly tool could simplify the creation of workflows. Here is how the creation of workflows in Github will look like once Github Actions are out of beta. Unfortunately, AEM doesn’t offer such a tool. (Large preview)

Editing Modes

In AEM, authors can quickly edit and view each page in different modes. The author switches between modes based on what job needs to get done:

  • To arrange components and edit their content, choose Edit mode.
  • To change how components should be arranged on an iPad, choose Layout mode.
  • To look at the content as if you were a visitor, choose Preview mode.

Page editor emulating an iPad-sized screen
On this page responsive layout mode is active. The author can emulate different device sizes and adjust the position of components within a responsive grid. (Image source) (Large preview)

There are a few more modes that show up based on how the site is set up. One ideal scenario is that A/B testing and personalization is set up by integrating AEM with Adobe Target. Using Targeting mode, authors can define when to show certain components based on a visitor’s location, age, referral page, the time of the day, etc.

Integrations in AEM are comparable to plugins in WordPress but with the difference that AEM integrations are more complex and usually custom-tailored. Especially integrating AEM Target can be more painful than salespeople make it sound. ?


Dropdown with layout modes
Switch the mode through a dropdown. (Image source) (Large preview)

Editor where author defines a target audience
In targeting mode, content can be personalized and tested right from the page editor. (Image source) (Large preview)

Putting development complexity and money aside, the consequence of such an effort can result in a superb authoring experience. The concept of editing modes demonstrates how a simple dropdown creates an opportunity for authors to get a range of jobs done while staying on a single page.

Visual Single-Page Editor

Looking at the screenshots in this article, you must have realized that AEM’s page editor is not just component-based but also visual: If a component gets updated, the change becomes visible immediately and the author doesn’t have to open a preview in a new window. Quite a feature. Even though page builders are omnipresent in the WordPress ecosystem, the team behind WordPress has yet to define a best practice for visual editing. Let me take this one step further and ask: What happens if you marry visual editors with single-page applications (SPAs)?

SPAs are websites where navigating from one page to another feels seamless because the browser doesn’t have to reload the whole page. Some popular websites such as Gmail and Facebook are SPAs but most of the sites on the internet are not. One reason for rather low adoption is that creating SPAs is hard, and maintaining SPAs with thousands of pages is even harder. There are currently two major ways for managing content in SPAs:

  • The content of a site gets updated by updating code. That’s obviously not authoring-friendly.
  • The content is managed in a CMS that is decoupled from the visitor-facing part of the website. The content from the CMS is consumed via an API, for example by a React app. The authoring interface looks different from the assembled site that the visitor will see.

Implementing a visual editor and an SPA each by itself is already a tough technical challenge. Having a visual editor that works with an SPA is nearly unheard. Adobe’s team is working on supporting SPAs in AEM while trying not to compromise any benefits of their existing system. Even though promising first versions have been released to the AEM community in 2018, there’s still a lot of work to be done.


Weather component with overlay
This page shows a React app. Note how AEM has added a layer on top of the weather component so authors can edit its properties. (Image source) (Large preview)

Summary

Adobe Experience Manager comes with several useful features that have already made or will make their way into popular open-source projects. AEM didn’t necessarily invent the concepts highlighted in this article, but it certainly commercializes well as one of the most authoring-friendly systems on the market.

The concept of components became mainstream with the introduction of blocks in WordPress. The concept of fragments, page templates, permissions and workflows are at least partially implemented in WordPress and are important for teams with many authors that serve content to multiple channels.

The authoring experience can be improved even more using a visual editor with edit modes and support for single-page applications. Such an editor is difficult to implement but as the efforts by Adobe indicate, the improved experience might be worth the effort and eventually make it into WordPress as well.

Further Reading

Smashing Editorial(dm, ra, il)
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Slide an Image to Reveal Text with CSS Animations

January 29th, 2019 No comments

I want to take a closer look at the CSS animation property and walk through an effect that I used on my own portfolio website: making text appear from behind a moving object. Here’s an isolated example if you’d like to see the final product.

Here’s what we’re going to work with:

See the Pen
Revealing Text Animation Part 4 – Responsive
by Jesper Ekstrom (@jesper-ekstrom)
on CodePen.

Even if you’re not all that interested in the effect itself, this will be an excellent exercise to expand your CSS knowledge and begin creating unique animations of your own. In my case, digging deep into animation helped me grow more confident in my CSS abilities and increased my creativity, which got me more interested in front-end development as a whole.

Ready? Set. Let’s go!

Step 1: Markup the main elements

Before we start with the animations, let’s create a parent container that covers the full viewport. Inside it, we’re adding the text and the image, each in a separate div so it’s easier to customize them later on. The HMTL markup will look like this:

<!-- The parent container -->
<div class="container"> 
  <!-- The div containing the image -->
  <div class="image-container">
  <img src="https://jesperekstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Wordpress-folder-purple.png" alt="wordpress-folder-icon">
  </div>
  <!-- The div containing the text that's revealed -->
  <div class="text-container">
    <h1>Animation</h1>
  </div>
</div>

We are going to use this trusty transform trick to make the divs center both vertically and horizontally with a position: absolute; inside our parent container, and since we want the image to display in front of the text, we’re adding a higher z-index value to it.

/* The parent container taking up the full viewport */
.container {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100vh;
  display: block;
  position: relative;
  overflow: hidden;
}

/* The div that contains the image  */
/* Centering trick: https://css-tricks.com/centering-percentage-widthheight-elements/ */
.image-container {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translate(-50%,-50%);
  z-index: 2; /* Makes sure this is on top */
}

/* The image inside the first div */
.image-container img {
  -webkit-filter: drop-shadow(-4px 5px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.6));
  filter: drop-shadow(-4px 5px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.6));
  height: 200px;
}

/* The div that holds the text that will be revealed */
/* Same centering trick */
.text-container {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translate(-50%,-50%);
  z-index: 1; /* Places this below the image container */
  margin-left: -100px;
}

We’re leaving vendor prefixes out the code examples throughout this post, but they should definitely be considered if using this in production environment.

Here’s what that gives us so far, which is basically our two elements stacked one on top of the other.

See the Pen
Revealing Text Animation Part 1 – Mail Elements
by Jesper Ekstrom (@jesper-ekstrom)
on CodePen.

Step 2: Hide the text behind a block

To make our text start displaying from left to right, we need to add another div inside our .text-container:

<!-- ... -->

  <!-- The div containing the text that's revealed -->
  <div class="text-container">
    <h1>Animation</h1>
    <div class="fading-effect"></div>
  </div>
  
<!-- ... -->

…and add these CSS properties and values to it:

.fading-effect {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  width: 100%;
  background: white;
}

As you can see, the text is hiding behind this block now, which has a white background color to blend in with our parent container.

If we try changing the width of the block, the text starts to appear. Go ahead and try playing with it in the Pen:

See the Pen
Revealing Text Animation Part 2 – Hiding Block
by Jesper Ekstrom (@jesper-ekstrom)
on CodePen.

There is another way of making this effect without adding an extra block with a background over it. I will cover that method later in the article. ?

Step 3: Define the animation keyframes

We are now ready for the fun stuff! To start animating our objects, we’re going to make use of the animation property and its @keyframes function. Let’s start by creating two different @keyframes, one for the image and one for the text, which will end up looking like this:

/* Slides the image from left (-250px) to right (150px) */
@keyframes image-slide {
  0% { transform: translateX(-250px) scale(0); }
  60% { transform: translateX(-250px) scale(1); }
  90% { transform: translateX(150px) scale(1); }
  100% { transform: translateX(150px) scale(1); }  
}

/* Slides the text by shrinking the width of the object from full (100%) to nada (0%) */
@keyframes text-slide {
  0% { width: 100%; }
  60% { width: 100%; }
  75%{ width: 0; }
  100% { width: 0; }
}

I prefer to add all @keyframes on the top of my CSS file for a better file structure, but it’s just a preference.

The reason why the @keyframes only use a small portion of their percent value (mostly from 60-100%) is that I have chosen to animate both objects over the same duration instead of adding an animation-delay to the class it’s applied to. That’s just my preference. If you choose to do the same, keep in mind to always have a value set for 0% and 100%; otherwise the animation can start looping backward or other weird interactions will pop up.

To enable the @keyframes to our classes, we’ll call the animation name on the CSS property animation. So, for example, adding the image-slide animation to the image element, we’d do this:

.image-container img {
  /* [animation name] [animation duration] [animation transition function] */
  animation: image-slide 4s cubic-bezier(.5,.5,0,1);
}

The name of the @keyframes works the same as creating a class. In other words the name doesn’t really matter as long as it’s called the same on the element where it’s applied.

If that cubic-bezier part causes head scratching, then check out this post by Michelle Barker. She covers the topic in depth. For the purposes of this demo, though, it’s suffice to say that it is a way to create a custom animation curve for how the object moves from start to finish. The site cubic-bezier.com is a great place to generate those values without all the guesswork.

We talked a bit about wanting to avoid a looping animation. We can force the object to stay put once the animation reaches 100% with the animation-fill-mode sub-property:

.image-container img {
  animation: image-slide 4s cubic-bezier(.5,.5,0,1);
  animation-fill-mode: forwards;
}

So far, so good!

See the Pen
Revealing Text Animation Part 3 – @keyframes
by Jesper Ekstrom (@jesper-ekstrom)
on CodePen.

Step 4: Code for responsiveness

Since the animations are based on fixed (pixels) sizing, playing the viewport width will cause the elements to shift out of place, which is a bad thing when we’re trying to hide and reveal elements based on their location. We could create multiple animations on different media queries to handle it (that’s what I did at first), but it’s no fun managing several animations at once. Instead, we can use the same animation and change its properties at specific breakpoints.

For example:

@keyframes image-slide {
  0% { transform: translatex(-250px) scale(0); }
  60% { transform: translatex(-250px) scale(1); }
  90% { transform: translatex(150px) scale(1); }
  100% { transform: translatex(150px) scale(1); }
}

/* Changes animation values for viewports up to 1000px wide */
@media screen and (max-width: 1000px) {
  @keyframes image-slide {
    0% { transform: translatex(-150px) scale(0); }
    60% { transform: translatex(-150px) scale(1); }
    90% { transform: translatex(120px) scale(1); }
    100% { transform: translatex(120px) scale(1); }
  }
}

Here we are, all responsive!

See the Pen
Revealing Text Animation Part 4 – Responsive
by Jesper Ekstrom (@jesper-ekstrom)
on CodePen.

Alternative method: Text animation without colored background

I promised earlier that I’d show a different method for the fade effect, so let’s touch on that.

Instead of using creating a whole new div —

— we can use a little color trickery to clip the text and blend it into the background:

.text-container {
  background: black;
  -webkit-background-clip: text;
  -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent;
}

This makes the text transparent which allows the background color behind it to bleed in and effectively hide it. And, since this is a background, we can change the background width and see how the text gets cut by the width it’s given. This also makes it possible to add linear gradient colors to the text or even a background image display inside it.

The reason I didn’t go this route in the demo is because it isn’t compatible with Internet Explorer (note those -webkit vendor prefixes). The method we covered in the actual demo makes it possible to switch out the text for another image or any other object.


Pretty neat little animation, right? It’s relatively subtle and acts as a nice enhancement to UI elements. For example, I could see it used to reveal explanatory text or even photo captions. Or, a little JavaScript could be used to fire the animation on click or scroll position to make things a little more interactive.

Have questions about how any of it works? See something that could make it better? Let me know in the comments!

The post Slide an Image to Reveal Text with CSS Animations appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

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