Oh, of course, scaling. 
Uhm, Iāll keep that in mind. Maybe start using the bigger images with lower reported widths. With all the phones and tablets ā which are usually way more than half the visitors ā itās really hard to pick your poison.
Those are the reasons why I do server-side, back-end development:
- no one would want to look at any UI I design (not even me);
- other back-end systems give me enough of a headache, no need to involve humans and their display + input devices.
4 Likes
I very much prefer stuff that can be comfortably handled on a command line, too. Otherwise I would have chosen some fancy front-end tooling framework instead of building the site with a makefile. But with this oldschool tech I am very confident that the site can be built until they replace the internet with something better. (haha).
In my job we had a proverb: front-end development: one person to do the job, ten people to emit random advice(*) on the result.
Blast from the past: I did the coding for the UI of a project where the main sponsor was color blind. Our first version was known for it lavish use of yellows and purples. When we got to version 2, I secretly ditched the hard-coded colors, and replaced them with colors from the system configuration. Since said sponsor had configured his OS to use yellows and purples, he didnāt notice anything. Other users were happy.
(*) we canāt say ācriticizeā, because this would assume logic, consistency and purpose.
2 Likes
(Stumbled across this topic)
CSS is increasingly versatile. Here is a variety of ideas at CodePen ā¦
Very nice appearance / minimal code, and sleek way to generate your website.
I like when the āaltā is filled with alternate/extra infos as it enables to add something that appear only when hovering without adding anything to the default view. I though Iād share that so maybe youād fancy trying 
The content is well selected and show your skills, the menu page very convenient and the back/next buttons intuitive. The gallery view does not fit all sizes of window nicely though but the non resizing is a choice I guess.
PS did not see the age of the topic before redacting thisā¦ my opinion stands none the lessā¦
I think it looks great, a very nice gallery with fantastic images.
One thing I would improve: scrolling down through the images, unless my browser is exactly the same size as the images, I never see them fill the screen. If my browser window is small, they are obscured, and if it is big I see parts of multiple images together.
These images are so strong, you should show them at full-size to the viewer. I havenāt done much with CSS in a while, but perhaps you could do something with max-height set to screen height (along with some reasonable min and max values)? If thatās possible, it would be nice to be able to flip direct from one full-size image to the next, properly centered on the screen.
If itās not possible with CSS, Iād say itās better to stick with what you have (static, privacy-focused, light weight) than delve into JS. This is a minor suggestion for a great site!
Thanks for sharing!
1 Like
The alt tag has a very specific use for accessibility reasons and Iād strongly suggest adhearing to the tag definition and not treating it as a free for all.
I try to do both: provide a textual description of the photograph, but including information that might not be obvious or visible in the image. I think of it as a bonus for people that take the time to read the alt text, or that are going to the trouble to view my posts via a screen reader.
I like the challenge of capturing an artistic image in a brief bit of text in a way that conveys not only the visual image (e.g., āa dog wearing a hatā), but also something of the intent behind it (e.g., āa dog wearing a hat, looking sheepishly towards the camera. Thereās a bit of torn cloth in the shadow behind him - was there a coat to go with the hat?ā). Or, depending on the context, it might be āa dog wearing a hat. Catch-light in the right eye, in sharp focus, but the depth of field doesnāt reach his nose or ears. 35mm, F1.2, 1/60s, ISO 400ā.
Iām hoping as long as Iām not wasting their time, or withholding information from them, anyone using a screen reader will be ok with this.
Yeah Iām more or less aware of the designed intent of this argument but seeing it empty/unused is not a rare sight ā¦
As stated by @plantarum maybe thereās a alternate ground between letting it empty and basic description that would do not totally mislead somebody relying on a screen reader / browsing without the capability of displaying the picts ?
Having worked on stuff that had accessibility requirements and after talking with people who actually rely on it, its best to try and use those features as they were designed; no need to be cute or fancy about it.
I agree with @paperdigits regarding use of alt, but isnāt the text that is displayed when hovering coming from title anyway? So it should be possible to have both. But please correct me if Iām wrong, itās been a while since I really worked with HTML.
Ok, I do not have that level of insight.
I saw this the other day, couldnāt find it, but it resurfaced:
5 Likes
Not judging, just wondering due to ignorance: I suppose the alt text is helpful to visually impaired people that rely on screen readers and similar tech to help them navigate websites. But wouldnāt this be a little useless in a website, such as a photo gallery, that requires people to be able to see properly in the first place?
Not that Iām a supporter of misusing tags, just wondering
Nope.
My sister had a blind roommate and he really liked my old site - because it had well written alt texts.
Just because one has technically working eyes does not mean they can see.
1 Like
Thatās a good point. I never thought about it that way, that the description of the images themselves could be as much of an art or as descriptive as the images themselves. And I guess in the end it also ends up providing context to family/friends, that can benefit the whole such as providing conversation through the topics presented in the images, even if they canāt really see the pictures themselves.
Thanks for the perspective, learning something new everyday.
1 Like
Noted and added to my issue tracker.
I donāt know if it can be done in a pure html+css way and still be elegant. Javascript is among my least favourite languages, but that doesnāt mean I would not use a well written piece of code on my page - if it has an appropriate license of course. And by well written I mean a dependency free standalone script with maybe one or two hundred lines of code. Might be a while till I look into that, so donāt hold your breath. 
Webdesign is never done, so thank you for the feedback.
Also thanks for kicking off the alt-text discussion, itās another item on my backlog.
Still not really sure where the best place is to add the information during the workflow from RAW to WEB, so weāll see. As early as possible, of course, but then I do not write full on descriptions for most of my images, which makes the portfolio images workflow outliers ā¦
Sight isnāt binary (you have it or you donāt), rather a large gradation from āeyes like a hawkā to ācanāt see at all.ā There are plenty of people who can see your image, but not 100% make out exactly what is happening, and good alt tags can make it extremely clear for those people.
4 Likes