Just heard about China Rush. Hop on to http://www.chinarush.tv and vote for the Aussie boys so we get a chance to see the series on tv here in Oz. They need all the support they can get. It only takes a second to post your vote.

The time has come to officially announce that I will not be adding stylesheet support for IE6 into the websites I am designing. Basically it comes down to offering the best user experience for the visitors to a site whilst working within the project budget limitations. I would much rather spend the difference on additional testing and further features over creating an additional stylesheet for a browser that is no longer supported by it’s creator. Most designers and developers have already joined the IE6 is dead movement but after having just generated two complex ecommerce websites to fit within a clients criteria of being fully compliant in all browsers (right back to the one they are still using), I believe any site user is better served with a more considered design that looks to future browsing developments in the HTML standards rather than attempt to force a band-aid solution for older browsers that are no longer compliant or supported by their developers.

Don’t get me wrong I can build sites that appear as close as possible in IE6 to other browsers but it will be an additional cost and an option that I will suggest is not the best expenditure of the project budget when we could be looking at an HTML email template being designed in addition to the website instead, or even the balance of funds going toward a targetted adwords campaign promoting the website itself upon launch.

I am sure it won’t be long before I am announcing the same thing for IE7!

These days sourcing the best print price is as simple as a quick web search. Many printers are now shifting their process to be an online integrated system where people can log a print job, upload the artwork and specify sizes, finishes and quantities all online at whatever hour of the day or night they have time to do it. Places like psprint have been doing it succesfully for a while now and the best part is that as a regular client I can get the same service I organise for my own clients. Invariably the price reduction from using an online printer means my clients can get extra prints or additional material for the same budget.

If you want convenience combined with good turnaround times you can’t go past the online print services. Not having to wait until business hours to organise the print run for me is great. As I am normally working all hours and sometimes my clients are located offshore the need to print locally for my clients is always a bonus if they want to pick up the print job themselves to save on delivery costs.

Although the most common print runs I do are business cards, I have had flyers, posters and banners printed in this manner without problem.

The only drawback to using an offshore provider is that you normally only receive a ‘soft proof’ which is simply the print ready PDF generated by the printer prior to doing the prints. If you carefully check the proofs (especially the colour breakup) I don’t think you would have any trouble. You can request a printed proof to be sent but that does slow down the process and in these days of instant gratification, waiting an extra couple of days can turn a happy client into a stressed client, and we certainly don’t want that!

Why not check out the custom sticker printing available online to start with. 

Anyone have a favourite online printer that they prefer to use?