Should Creatives Learn Color Management?

Out of Gamut: Should Creatives Learn Color Management?
Sometimes it's a question of what you don't need to know, Bruce Fraser By Bruce Fraser, creativepro contributing editor

For the past few months I've been writing about making color management work -- including describing any end-runs we can make around this rather unintuitive process. In response to my last column, in which I described how to soft proof files in Adobe Photoshop, Bob Oswin, President of 5th Ave. Color Printz, wrote:
"End users are looking for a definitive set of profiles that can produce a standard range of colors over current output devices. Presses are one of them only. It would not be a stretch for Adobe et al. to form a huddle and come up with the prepress standard, the separation standard, the laser -printer standard, and the ink jet standard. I believe manufacturers would rush to meet such criteria. As it stands, everybody has to become a quasi-expert on imagers, cameras, scanners, monitors, etc. before they can even randomly pick a profile for output."

I can certainly sympathize with this view, but much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Some of the reasons are purely technical. It simply isn't possible to make a profile that will produce equally good results on a sheetfed press with coated stock, a newspaper press with newsprint, and a web press printing a magazine. Color separations that work well on a sheetfed job will result in mud in a magazine, and a potentially life-threatening situation on a newspaper press. (If you've ever seen a press web break, you know what I'm talking about-klaxons blare and workers don hard hats.)

Here Come the Color Jets
But presses are far from the only problem. Color laser printing is an inherently variable technology that's highly sensitive to fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The latest generation of color laser printers is substantially more stable than previous ones, but it's still common to find a 10-percent variation in the magenta output between morning and afternoon. When it comes to inkjets, all the vendors are currently falling over themselves trying to come up with inks that last more than a few months.

On the high-end inkjets, we'll probably see archival pigmented inks from several different vendors later this year, and at the low end, we'll see a mixture of different offerings, some based on pigments, some on dyes with better stability than the current round. It's a near-certainty that each vendor's inks will be substantially different from their competitors as each one makes their own trade-off between a large gamut and a print that lasts.

Ambient 1: Music for Standards
You want standards? We got lots of 'em! Mentioning SNAP, GraCOL, and SWOP virtually guarantees a cheap laugh at speaking engagements. (They stand for "Standards for Non-Heatset Advertising Printing," "General requirements for applications in Commercial Offset Lithography," and "Specifications for Web Offset Press," respectively.) But meeting those standards on press is an uncertain enterprise. The standards are necessarily fairly loose, since they have to accommodate a wide variety of presses and paper stocks. A bigger problem, though, is that the printing trade in the U.S.A. has never been a standards-driven endeavor. America is still the land of the rugged individualist, and few press operators are inclined to take pains to meet a standard that they know their press can exceed-as anyone who has watched a grizzled press operator standing on the pressroom floor arguing with an autoscanning colorimeter can readily attest!

In short, print suppliers and composite-color printer vendors want their processes to print better than anyone else's rather than the same as everyone else's. This pretty much rules out any kind of definitive standards-based profiles.

Taking Color Mountain by Strategy
The real problem is not that we've made color reproduction harder. Rather, one of the unforeseen consequences of desktop publishing technology is that it took a big wooden spoon and thoroughly mixed the traditional workflows and the traditional areas of responsibility. Color used to be handled in closed-loop environments by trained craftsmen. We're now trying to do open-loop color to a much more diverse range of output processes, and in a great many cases, creatives are forced to take on more production responsibilities than they ever wanted or envisaged.

Does this mean that, as Mr. Oswin fears, designers and other creatives have to "become a quasi-expert on imagers, cameras scanners, monitors, etc., before they can even randomly pick a profile for output" or is there a middle ground? If you're in the top few percent of your field, you can probably get away with simply focussing on design, and letting someone else actually turn the work into something that can be manufactured. But the work had better be extraordinary, otherwise you'll just get a reputation for not understanding the medium for which you're producing the design, and your clients will go to someone who doesn't have that reputation.

Another Green Page
So just how much do creatives need to know about color management? Well, if you're designing for print, you should at least have seen a printing press in action at some time in your life. Actually seeing both the amount of variation on a typical press run, and the amount of correction possible on press, is an invaluable reality check. What else?


You should understand that, without color management, RGB or CMYK numbers do not represent specific colors: for example, C 73 M0 Y 86 K0 may produce a pastel green on a sheetfed press, a dark, saturated green on newsprint, and a grayish green on a color laser printer.

You should understand that the only way to reproduce the vast majority of Pantone colors is to get the printer to mix the specific ink and apply it as a spot color.

You should understand that if you're asked to produce CMYK color without being told something about the printing conditions, the results will necessarily be approximate.
In fact, these are things you need to know whether you use color management or not - they fall into the category of basic understanding of the medium. When it comes to color management itself, you need to know more than you probably want, but less than you probably fear.

No Pussyfooting
Unless someone supplies you with a press profile and tells you to use it, you can safely forget about profiling presses - not even the most rabid color management evangelist expects creatives to do that. For CMYK output, an entirely reasonable fallback position is to use a generic profile for a proofing system such as Imation MatchPrint, Fuji ColorArt, or Agfa AgfaProof. Unlike desktop color printers or offset presses, proofing systems are designed from the start to be very stable, and to have each proofer behave exactly like the others, which makes them a very good candidate for generic profiles. And since pretty much every commercial printer in the United States prides themselves on their ability to match a Matchprint, the print job should work just fine.

You need to make a profile for your monitor - a visual tool such as Adobe Gamma or the ColorSync calibrator will get you into the ballpark and will do a better job than any canned monitor profile. If you use a desktop color printer for comps, you need a profile for it too - the vendor-supplied ones usually work well enough as long as you use the vendor's inks and paper - and you need to understand how to use profiles to make your composite printer simulate the final output. You need to understand the four rendering intents specified by the ICC - they're just different ways of handling out-of-gamut colors - and when to use each one.

Before and After Color Science
The steepest part of the learning curve is learning how to control color management in each of your key applications. Right now this is frankly a mess. Each application has its own user interface and its own terminology, and some apps have more capabilities than others. This situation can only improve. One day we'll actually have the same user interface for color in all Adobe's applications, rather than the confusing mess we have now where the color controls in PageMaker, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop don't even begin to resemble each other. Color management may have progressed beyond the 1.0 stage, but we can fairly characterize it as 1.1.1. We know that it works from a technical standpoint, but we still have a long way to go in terms of usability.

At some point in the future, color management will simply go away from the standpoint of the creative user. Devices will be self-calibrating and smart enough to know their own capabilities, and we'll all be sending PDF files to PostScript 3 RIPs (or 4, or 5) that will handle the conversions automatically.
But these things always take longer than we want or expect. It may take ten years, it will certainly take five. In the meantime, each of us just has to find our own comfort level with this powerful but often irritating technology.

source:creativepro

Out of Gamut: Color-Correct Vocabulary

Out of Gamut: Color-Correct Vocabulary Color guru Bruce Fraser unrolls the creativepro.com glossary of color terminology. (Creativepro)By Bruce Fraser, creativepro,contributing editor

For some time now I've been explicating the finer points of color management in this column, and while I've strived to define terminology when needed, the conviction that a permanent, at-your-ready glossary would help tremendously has grown each and every month. In this column, we're introducing just that -- a glossary of key terms that every student (and master) of color-management should understand.
Feel free to read, bookmark, save, print (use the print-friendly format), and otherwise consume the glossary now to your heart's content (without violating the creativepro.com copyright, of course), but don't fear: We'll be adding this glossary as a permanent feature of creativepro.com, and linking it to from future Out of Gamut columns. We'll also be adding to the glossary now and then as needed.

Enjoy!

Absolute Colorimetric Rendering: One of the four ICC-specified rendering intents used for handling out-of-gamut colors in color matching. Absolute Colorimetric rendering matches those colors in the source space that are inside the gamut of the target space exactly, and clips out-of-gamut colors to the nearest reproducible hue, sacrificing lightness and saturation.

Additive Primary Colors: The primary colors of light, from which all other colors can be made -- red, green, and blue. Adding 100 percent of all three produces white light, while adding lesser intensities produces a gamut of different colors. Combining 100 percent of two additive primaries produces a subtractive primary:



red+green=yellow

red+blue=magenta

green+blue=cyan

See also Primary Colors, Subtractive Primaries.

Black: The absence of light. The color that is produced when an object absorbs all light.

When the maximum intensity of the subtractive primaries -- cyan, magenta, and yellow -- are combined, the resulting color should, in theory, be black. Color film, for example, produces black using only cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes. Printing inks, however, are less colorimetrically pure than film dyes, and combining 100 percent cyan, magenta, yellow inks yields a muddy brown; hence, black ink is added as a fourth color ink. Black is abbreviated as "K" in CMYK to avoid confusion with "B" for blue.

Blue: One of the three additive primary colors, centered around a wavelength of approximately 436 nanometers.

Brightness: The degree to which a color sample appears to reflect light. This attribute of color is used in the HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) color model.

Calibration: The act of adjusting a device to bring its behavior into accordance with a known specification. For example, monitors are calibrated to a specific color temperature, gamma, and black and white luminance. Imagesetters and platesetters are calibrated to make sure that they deliver the requested dot percentage accurately. Calibration is typically accomplished by measuring the behavior of a device with an instrument such as a colorimeter or densitometer, comparing the measured behavior with the standard to which the device is being calibrated, then adjusting the device so that it behaves in accordance with that standard.

Characterization: The act of describing a device's behavior through software. In color management, this typically means creating an ICC profile.

Chroma: The property of a color that makes it appear saturated, or strongly colored. Black, white, and gray have no chroma. A red tomato is high in chroma. Pastel colors are low in chroma. This attribute of color is used in the LCH (Lightness, Chroma, Hue) color model.

Chromaticity Coordinates: Coordinates that describe the hue and saturation, or red-greenness and yellow-blueness, of a color, excluding its lightness. Usually plotted on a two-dimensional plane of constant lightness. See CIE xy Chromaticity Diagram.

CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage): The international standards organization responsible for setting standards for color and color measurement. (The French name translates to "International Commission on Illumination.")

CIE XYZ (1931): The first of a series of mathematical models produced by the CIE that describe color in terms of synthetic primaries based on human perception. The primaries are imaginary mathematical constructs that model our eyes' response to different wavelengths of light. Such models allow us to specify perceived color unambiguously, unlike models such as RGB and CMYK, which define amounts of colorants rather than actual colors.

CIELAB (CIE L* a* b*, CIE Lab): A mathematical derivative of CIE XYZ (1931) that describes colors using three synthetic primaries: L* (which indicates Lightness), a* (which indicates red-greenness), and b* (which indicates yellow-blueness).

CIE Standard Illuminants: A series of spectral data sets that describe the spectral components of different types of light sources. Used in conjunction with tristimulus values such as XYZ or Lab to define a color.

CIE Standard Observer: A hypothetical observer that represents "normal" human color vision, defined in terms of the eye's color-matching functions. The CIE defines two such standard observers -- the 2-degree observer and the 10-degree observer -- because color vision is most acute in the center of the visual field.

CIE Tristimulus Values: Amounts of the three primaries required to match a color sample. When specifying tristimulus values, the standard observer and standard illuminant must also be specified.

CIE xy Chromaticity Diagram: A two-dimensional graph of chromaticity coordinates that shows the location of a color on a plane of constant lightness.

CMM (Color Matching Method): A software component that adjusts the numerical values that get sent to, or received from, different devices so that the perceived color they produce remains consistent. The "engine" in color management systems.

CMY: Cyan, magenta, and yellow -- the subtractive primary colors -- or a color space that describes colors in terms of their cyan, magenta, and yellow components.

Color: The human perceptual response to different wavelengths of light impinging on the photoreceptors in the retina.

Color Management: A set of software technologies that seeks to match color across input, display, and output devices by referencing their color behavior to a known standard by means of device profiles. The signals each device receives are adjusted in such a way that the perceived color remains consistent.

Color Matching Functions: The relative amounts of three additive primaries needed to match each wavelength of light, usually based on the CIE Standard Observer. The human eye, digital cameras, and scanners all have color matching functions.

Color Model: A means of specifying color numerically, usually in terms of varying amounts of primary colors. Examples include RGB, CMYK, and CIELAB.

Color Space: A three-dimensional representation of the colors that can be produced by a color model. The universe of colors a color model can produce.

Color Temperature: A measurement of the color of white light, expressed in Kelvins. (The Kelvin scale is a measure of temperature, starting from absolute zero.) The color temperature is the color of light a perfect black-body radiator emits when heated to that temperature. Computer monitors typically have a color temperature of 5000-9300 Kelvins: 5000 Kelvins is a yellowish-white, 9300 Kelvins is a blue white.

Colorants: Materials used to produce color, such as dyes, inks, pigments, toners, or phosphors.

Colorimeter: An optical instrument that measures the relative intensities of red, green, and blue light reflected or emitted from (or transmitted through) a color sample. Typically used to measure color from computer monitors.

ColorSync: The color management system built into Apple's Macintosh operating system.

Cones: The specialized photoreceptors in the human eye that allow us to discriminate between different wavelengths of light. Our eyes contain three distinct types of cones, designated the L, M, and S cones because they are primarily sensitive to long, medium, and short wavelengths of light. (The other type of photoreceptor in the eye are known as rods. They are primarily used in low-light and peripheral vision and do not contribute to color vision.)

Cyan: One of the subtractive primary colors. Cyan colorants absorb all red light, reflecting green and blue.

D50: The CIE Standard Illuminant that represents a daylight-correlated color temperature of 5000 Kelvins. Widely used as a standard for viewing booths in the printing industry.

D65: The CIE Standard Illuminant that represents a daylight-correlated color temperature of 6500 Kelvins. Widely used as a standard color temperature for calibrated monitors.

Delta Error (delta-E): A measurement of color difference. In theory, delta-E is the smallest color change someone with normal color vision can detect.

Densitometer: An instrument that measures optical density.

Density: See optical density.

Device-dependent: Describes a color space defined in terms of physical colorants, such as a monitor's RGB or a printing press' CMYK. So called because the actual color produced from a set of device-dependent values depends on the colorants and physical properties of the device in question.

Device-independent: Describes a color space defined using synthetic primaries based on human perception, independent of the properties of any physical device. Device-independent color models provide an unambiguous description of perceived color, unlike device-dependent color models.

Dye: A soluble colorant (as opposed to pigments, which are insoluble). Dyes are capable of producing brighter colors than pigments, but are less stable and less resistant to fading over time.

Dynamic Range: The range of density that a film stock, digital camera, scanner, or measuring instrument can detect, from the lowest to the highest, usually expressed in O.D. (Optical Density) units. The lowest density is termed dMin, the highest density is termed dMax.

Gamut: The range of color a device can produce, or the range of color a color model can represent.

Gamut Compression: The process where a large color gamut (for example, that of transparency film) is reduced to fit the smaller gamut of a print or display process (for example, color printing).

HSB Color Model: A color model that describes color in terms of hue, saturation, and brightness.

Hue: The property of a color that is identified by a color name, such as "red," "green," or "blue." Used as a primary in the HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) color model.

ICC (International Color Consortium): A group of hardware and software vendors dedicated to developing cross-platform standards for color communication and consistency.

ICC Profile: A standard format developed by the ICC for a data file that describes the color behavior of an input, display, or output device, or a color model, by referencing it to a device-independent color model such as CIE XYZ or CIELAB. Used in almost all current color-management systems.

Illuminant: A light source with known spectral power distribution.

Kelvin (K): Unit of measurement of color temperature. The Kelvin scale starts at absolute zero (-273° Celsius).

Intent: See Rendering Intent.

LCH Color Model: A derivative of CIELAB that uses cylindrical coordinates of lightness, chroma, and hue instead of the rectangular coordinate system of Lab.

Light: That small part of the electromagnetic spectrum whose wavelengths lie in the range of 380 to 720 nanometers, and hence are detectable by the human eye.

Lightness: The degree to which a color sample appears to reflect light. This attribute of color is used in the LCH (Lightness, Chroma, Hue) color model.

Magenta: One of the subtractive primary colors. Magenta absorbs all green light, reflecting red and blue.

Metamerism: The phenomenon where two color samples appear to match under one light source, and differ under another. Two such samples are called a metameric pair.

Nanometer: A unit of length equal to one-millionth of a millimeter. Visible light wavelengths are measured in nanometers.

Optical Density: The ability of a material to absorb light. The darker the material, the higher the density. Density is usually expressed on a logarithmic scale of Optical Density (O.D.) units.

Perceptual Rendering: One of the four ICC-specified rendering intents used for handling out-of-gamut colors in color matching. Perceptual rendering attempts to compress the gamut of the source space into the gamut of the destination space in such a way that the overall relationships between the colors -- and hence the overall image appearance -- is preserved, even though all the colors may change in the process.

Phosphors: Chemical compounds that emit light when struck by a beam of electrons. The amount of light emitted is proportional to the intensity of the electron beam. RGB monitors use three different phosphors to produce red, green, and blue light.

Photoreceptor: A mechanism that emits an electrical or chemical signal that varies in proportion to the amount of light that strikes it. CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors in desktop scanners and digital cameras, PMT (photomultiplier tubes) in drum scanners, and the rods and cones in the human retina are all photoreceptors.

Pigment: An insoluble colorant (as opposed to dyes, which are soluble). Pigments generally have better fade-resistance and permanence than dyes.

Primaries: The components of a color in a color model. They may be actual primary colors perceivable by humans, as in RGB or CMYK, or they may be imaginary mathematical constructs, as with CIE XYZ (1931) or CIELAB.

Primary Colors: The colors from which all other colors can be made. The primary colors of light are red, green, and blue. These are the additive primaries, used for transmissive or emissive color. The primary colors of pigments are cyan, magenta, and yellow, used for reflective color. It's possible to create all colors from primary colors because the human eye contains three different types of color-sensitive photoreceptors, which are sensitive to the individual primary colors.

Profile: A data file that describes the color behavior of a physical device (such as a scanner, monitor, or printer) or that defines the color of an abstract color space (such as Adobe RGB 1998 or ColorMatch RGB) in terms of a device-independent color model (such as CIELAB or CIE XYZ). Used by color-management systems to define and match color.

Relative Colorimetric Rendering: One of the four ICC-specified rendering intents used for handling out-of-gamut colors in color matching. Relative Colorimetric rendering first scales the white of the source space to the white of the target space, adjusting all other colors relative to that white. Then it matches the adjusted colors in the source space that are inside the gamut of the target space exactly, and clips out-of-gamut colors to the nearest reproducible hue, sacrificing lightness and saturation.

Rendering Intent: A method of handling out-of-gamut colors when matching one color space to another. The ICC profile specification specifies four rendering intents: Perceptual, Absolute Colorimetric, Relative Colorimetric, and Saturation.

Saturation: The property of a color that makes it appear strongly colored. Black, white, and gray have no saturation. A red tomato has high saturation. Pastel colors have low saturation. Also known as Chroma. (This attribute of color is used in the HLS (Hue, Lightness, Saturation) and HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) color models.

Saturation Rendering: One of the four ICC-specified rendering intents used for handling out-of-gamut colors in color matching. Saturation rendering maps fully-saturated colors in the source space to fully saturated colors in the target space, sacrificing hue and lightness.

Spectral Data: The most complete and precise means of describing a color, by specifying the amount of each wavelength that the sample reflects. Typically, spectral data records the amount of reflected light in 10-nanometer or 20-nanometer bands.

Spectral Power Distribution: The amount of light a light source produces at each wavelength.

Spectrophotometer: An instrument that measures the amount of light a color sample reflects or transmits at each wavelength, producing spectral data.

Standard Illuminant: See CIE Standard Illuminants.

Standard Observer: See CIE Standard Observer.

Subtractive Primaries: Cyan, magenta, and yellow. Used to create reflective color. Cyan absorbs (subtracts) all red light, reflecting blue and green. Magenta absorbs all green light, reflecting blue and red. Yellow absorbs all blue light, reflecting red and green.

Tristimulus: The practice of specifying or creating colors using three stimuli. These may be additive (RGB) or subtractive (CMY) primary colorants; three attributes such as Lightness, Chroma, and Hue; or three purely synthetic mathematical constructs, as with CIE XYZ (1931) or CIELAB.

Tristimulus Data: The three values used to define or create a color, such as Red 255, Green 0, Blue 0. Tristimulus values alone do not define a color unambiguously: The illuminant (light source) must also be defined. In the case of device-dependent tristimulus values such as monitor RGB, the primaries must also be defined in a device-independent system such as CIE XYZ or CIELAB. Tristimulus values can always be computed from spectral data, but spectral data cannot be inferred from tristumulus values.

Visible Spectrum: The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths between 380 and 720 nanometers. Wavelengths in this range provoke the sense of color when they impinge on the photoreceptors in the human retina. The shorter wavelengths within this range produce blue and violet sensations; the longer wavelengths produce orange and red sensations.

Yellow: One of the subtractive primary colors. Yellow absorbs all blue light, reflecting red and green.

Design How-To: Using the Color Wheel to Find the Right Match

Design How-To: Using the Color Wheel to Find the Right Match Your choice of color palette can change the intent and impact of an image. The folks at the design magazine "Before & After" show you how to find the perfect colors to complement your photos and create harmonious designs. (Before & After )By John McWade, editor.

You pay attention to colors in your photographs. You may even use a color management system to ensure that the colors you see on screen are the same as the ones that print. Yet do you pay enough attention to the colors that surround the image? The colors you use in your design can lessen the impact or change the meaning of a photo.
It all goes back to the color wheels we used as kids to learn about color. Colors can coordinate, complement, or clash to different effect. Start by selecting tones from your image itself then experiment with the color wheel for endless options.

In this feature from our partner "Before & After" magazine, learn about the art and science of color selection and see how the choice of color backdrop changes the psychology of a design.
We've posted this story -- laid out as a spread in tabloid format-- as a PDF file. All you do is click this
link "How to Find the Perfect Color" to open the PDF file in your Web browser. You can also download the PDF to your machine for later viewing.

source: creativepro

THE DIGITAL DARK ROOM

THE DIGITAL DARK ROOM
Photographic Techniques in Adobe photoshop

Get here

Adobe Photoshop How -To: Using the Lens Blur Filter

New to Photoshop CS is the Lens Blur filter, an interactive menu that lets you add interesting visual effects to images. In this video tutorial, Deke McClelland gives a hands-on demonstration of how it works.
(Total Training)By Deke McClelland

The Lens Blur filter in Photoshop CS lets you add selective focus to an image to create interesting visual effects. Much like with a traditional camera, you can use it to create depth of field in an image.
The Lens Blur filter palette lets you experiment with different settings and see the results interactively before committing to an effect.
In this video clip, Photoshop expert Deke McClelland takes you inside the Lens Blur palette to show you how it works.

This video tutorial is a QuickTime movie. Click this link "Photoshop CS Lens Blur" to download the file. Please note: This is a 9.5MB file. It will take some time to download before it begins to play.

Spamproof Your Site

By Dan Thies
Anyone who operates their own Website knows that you need to provide a way for visitors to contact you by email. The big challenge is to provide easy email access to your visitors, without letting junk mail flood your inbox. The techniques described in this article have enabled me to dramatically reduce the amount of junk mail I receive through all my sites.

Preparing and PreemptingYou need a couple things before you can really take effective action against spam. Your email software must be capable of filtering incoming email -- all the major email applications (such as Eudora, Outlook, and Pegasus) support this functionality. We'll use multiple email addresses to allow us to filter out spam and identify the source -- you can't combat spam effectively without filtering.

You'll also need to use a Web host that provides unlimited email aliases or addresses, and/or a catch-all email address. An "alias" is an email address that forwards to some other address (for example, [email]webmaster@domain.com[/email] forwarding to your real email address). A "catch-all" email address will forward any emails sent to unknown addresses in your domain.
For my own Websites I use the catch-all, so that every message goes to my real email address. If you have more than a one-person operation, however, multiple email accounts and aliases are pretty much a necessity.

Fighting BackThe first step in fighting back against spammers is to understand where they found your email address. You must diligently protect your email address if you ever hope to stop them. Once your email address falls into the wrong hands, it will be sold on CD-ROM (via junk mail, of course) to thousands of spammers. And once that happens, you've lost the fight.

Spam Source #1: Domain Name Registrations
When you register a domain name, you must provide a contact email address. If you give them your real email address, you've just given it to everyone, including the spammers. Instead, use a portable email address (like Hotmail) to set up your domain.
If you have multiple domains, you can also use an alias (domains@yourdomain.com) on your primary domain for all registrations. With an alias, you can use your email software to filter out and save any emails that come to that address from your registrar's domain.

Spam Source #2: Web Forms & Email Newsletters
If you give your real email address on any Web form, or use it to subscribe to an email newsletter, you're asking for trouble. Instead, create a unique email address for each Website or newsletter. I just use the Website's domain name for this.
For example, if you subscribe to the SitePoint Tribune as "sitepoint.com@yourdomain.com" and let your catch-all address route it to you, you will always know where the email came from. If that address ever starts receiving junk mail, you can filter it out using your email software.

Spam Source #3: Your Website
The biggest source of email addresses used by spammers is your Website. Most sites list multiple contact addresses -- any time an email address appears on your Website in plain text, even if it's hidden in a form field, you're opening yourself up to having that email address captured.

To combat this menace, I've developed a set of JavaScript snippets that will meet almost every need you have to display your email address to the public, without allowing spambots to see it.
The Big Battle: Secure Your Website From SpambotsAlmost every Website operator wants search engine spiders to visit. After all, search engines are the best source of free traffic on the Web. In the event that you don't want them to visit, they are easily kept at bay with a properly formatted "robots.txt" file.

Unfortunately, there's another group of spiders out there crawling the Web with an entirey different purpose. These are the spiders that visit site after site to collect email addresses. You may know them as spambots, email harvesters, or any number of other unpublishable names.
When it comes to controlling these rogue spiders, a robots.txt file simply won't get the job done. In fact, most spam robots ignore robots.txt. But that doesn't mean you have to give up and just let them have their way. Here are a few techniques that'll stop these spiders in their tracks!

Technique #1: Use JavaScript To Mask Email Addresses
One of the weaknesses that spiders of all kinds suffer from is an inability to process scripts. Adding a small snippet of JavaScript in place of an email address effectively renders the address invisible to spiders, while leaving it accessible to your visitors with all but the most primitive Web browsers.

In the three examples below, simply substitute your username (the first half of your email address, everything before the @ symbol) and your hostname (everything after the @ symbol). To use the scripts, just insert them into your page's HTML wherever you need them to be displayed.

Create A Spam-Proof Mailto Link
This snippet of JavaScript creates a clickable link that launches the visitor's email application, assuming that their system is configured to work with "mailto:" hyperlinks. You can replace the link text with your own message, but see example 2 if you want to display your email address as the link text.


A Spam-Proof Mailto Link That Shows Your eMail Address
Some visitors won't be able to use a mailto link. This snippet shows your email address in the link so they can copy and paste, or type it by hand:


Display Your Email Address Without A Mailto Link
Here's a snippet that displays your email address without a clickable link:


The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks Topics include...
Style a structural list as navigation.Create a tabbed navigation menu with CSS.Display a calendar using CSS.Use the W3C Validator to debug your code.Create pure CSS drop-down menus.Hide CSS from targeted browsers.Create liquid, two-column layouts.Create robust three-column layouts.
Download 4 Sample Chapters FREETechnique #2: Use A Contact Form
Sometimes, the sheer volume of legitimate email from real visitors can become a burden. In this case, a simple solution is to remove your email address from your site entirely, and use a contact form. There are dozens of free ASP, Perl, and PHP scripts available online that will allow your users to fill in a form, and send you an email. Most hosting providers now offer this service for free to their customers.
A contact form can enable you to deal with a higher volume of mail, by allowing you to pre-sort different types of message. This is easily accomplished by creating a drop-down menu with different options (e.g. customer service, billing, tech support, etc.) that will populate the subject line of the email message, and/or change the email address to which the form is sent.

As many spambots simply read the entire HTML source of the page in search of anything that looks like an email address, your contact form may not protect you, if you include your email address in the form's HTML (for example, as a hidden field). You can use JavaScript, as shown in the example below, to mask the address, or if you have the skill, you can embed the email address in your form processing script, where nobody can find it.
Masking The Email Address In A Form Field
Instead of simply listing your email address in a form field, use the snippet below to replace the form field that contains your email address.



Advanced Techniques: URL Rewriting
Both the Apache and IIS Web servers have plug-in URL-rewriting modules that can be used to provide additional protection to your site, redirecting queries from known spambots to a blank page, or to another Website. These techniques are beyond the scope of this article, and using them will slow your server down, if only a little.

I hope that this tutorial has given you a clear understanding of how to protect your Website, and your email address, from spammers and spambots.
thankx:sitepoints

Creating Cool Web Sites with HTML, XHTML, and CSS

by Dave Taylor
Product Details Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Wiley
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches *

Walks readers through the process of creating a basic Web site from scratch using HMTL, the basis for billions of Web pages, and then jazzing it up with advanced techniques from the author’s award-winning sites

* This updated edition features new material that shows readers how to attract visitors to a site and keep them there, including new JavaScript examples and coverage of cascading style sheets and XHTML, technologies that make building successful Web sites even easier

* Also features exciting new tips and tricks for beginning and advanced users, as well as more expanded examples and samples for users to incorporate in their own sites

* The book moves from basic design and deployment to advanced page layout strategies, showing how to spice up new or existing sites with sound, video, and animation

Download Here

Password: http://babybluevn.co.nr/

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7 | Review

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7

Company: Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com.
Type: Ultracompact
Megapixels: 5.1
Included Memory Amount: 32 MB
Included Memory: Media Card
Media Format: Memory Stick Duo
Battery Type Supported: InfoLithium
Included Batteries: Yes
35-mm Equivalent (Wide): 38
35-mm Equivalent (Telephoto): 114
Maximum Resolution: 2592 x 1944 pixels
Interface: USB 2.0
Video Capture Ability: Yes


By Sean Carroll
Sony's latest stylish and slim ultracompact is its best yet. This tiny yet tough shooter turned in good performances and pleasing pictures. What's more, it's fun to shoot and show off.

Features:
The T in T7 must stand for tiny: This camera is only 5/8 of an inch thick, and it's only a few millimeters bigger than a credit card in height and width. It's got a nonextending f/3.5 to f/4.4, 6.3-mm to 19 mm (38 mm to 114 mm in 35-mm equivalent) 3X optical zoom lens that's hidden behind a sliding lens cover, which also turns the camera on and off. You frame shots using the gorgeous 2.5-inch LCD, as the T7 has no viewfinder. It uses Memory Stick Duo Pro and takes an InfoLithium battery, which lasts for ages in the field.

Test results:
The T7's pictures were pleasant, with accurate, well-saturated color, good contrast, and good dynamic range. The daylight shot, however, was underexposed and lacking in highlights. The flash, on the other hand, was a bit too strong, blowing out some highlights and giving the image a little too much contrast, but not dramatically so. Average resolution, at 1,325 lines, is good for a 5MP sensor. As with most Sony cameras, the T7 is fast for an ultracompact, with a boot time of 1.9 seconds and a 2.6-second recycle time.

Thankx:pcmag

SRI LANKA PRESIDENT | Final Result

Sri Lanka PM Celebrates Birth Day & Victory of Presidency!
Mahinda
4,880,950
50.3%


Ranil
4,694,623
48.4%


Other
123,226
1.3%
--------------------------------------
Source:president2005.com

SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT 2005 | LIVE RESULT

'High Risk' RealPlayer Flaws Patched

By Ryan Naraine
Digital media delivery firm RealNetworks Inc. late Thursday shipped a major security update for its RealPlayer software to patch a pair of remote code execution vulnerabilities.

The security holes, which were reported to RealNetworks more than four months ago, could be exploited by malicious hackers to take complete control over a vulnerable machine.
According to eEye Digital Security, the company that discovered the bugs, the most serious flaw exists in the first data packet contained in a Real Media file.
By specially crafting a malformed ".rm" movie file, a direct stack overwrite is triggered, and reliable code execution is possible.

Affected software include RealPlayer 8, RealPlayer 10, RealOne Player v1, RealOne Player v2, RealPlayer Enterprise (Windows): RealPlayer 10 (Mac); RealPlayer 10 and Helix Player (Linux).

A second flaw, confirmed as "high risk" by RealNetworks, can allow a RealPlayer skin file (.rjs extension) to be downloaded and applied automatically through a Web browser without the user's permission.
A skin file is a bundle of graphics and a .ini file, stored together in ZIP format. DUNZIP32.DLL, which is included with RealPlayer, is used to extract the contents of the skin file.
When RealPlayer processes a zip file, it will allocate the field of the file, but when it is copied it will rely on real unzip content to copy, eEye explained in an advisory.

Zero-day exploit exposes RealPlayer users to attack. Click here to read more.
"An attacker can zip one file that has hostile data and create a .rjs file. [The attacker] can change the file length field of .rjs file so when it processes [the] zip file, it will cause a heap overflow," the company warned.

RealNetworks recommends that users apply the appropriate RealPlayer patches urgently.
The patch is available via the "Check for Update" menu item under Tools on the RealPlayer menu bar.
Thankx:eweek

Microsoft's AntiSpyware Rebranded ' Windows Defender '

By Ryan Naraine
E week

Microsoft Corp.'s Windows AntiSpyware technology has been renamed "Windows Defender" and has been expanded to detect and remove rootkits, keystroke loggers and other forms of malware.

The revamped application will be bundled into the Windows Vista operating system, but users will be free to choose a competing spyware protection product from a redesigned Windows Security Center.
Jason Garms, group program manager for Microsoft's anti-malware technology team, made the announcement in a blog entry that also included confirmation that rootkit detection will be fitted into the product.

As previously reported, Microsoft will use rootkit detection technology from its Strider Ghostbuster research project.
Strider Ghostbuster is a prototype tool developed by Microsoft's Cybersecurity and Systems Management Research Group.
Click here to read more about Microsoft's rootkit detection technology.
"Our solution has really been about more than just the standard definition of spyware," Garms said.
"We've always said we will provide visibility and control, as well as protection, detection and removal from other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits, keystroke loggers and more."
For advice on how to secure your network and applications, as well as the latest security news, visit Ziff Davis Internet's Security IT Hub.
"Making the engineering change from 'Windows AntiSpyware' to 'Windows Defender' took a lot of careful coordination across our team to ensure that the strings in the UI got changed, the help files all got updated, registry keys, file names and properties, as well as a couple of images all got changed," Garms said.
The revamped product will be fitted with a new user interface and a significant change to the way malware signature updates are delivered.
Read more here about Microsoft's plans to bundle its anti-spyware software with Vista.

"The engine is now moved to a system service, and signatures are delivered over Windows Update. The detection mechanisms have also been radically improved by applying to spyware threats all the great detection technology we use in our anti-virus engine," Garms added.
Although the changes are being geared for Windows Vista, Garms said the enhancements will also be available to existing Windows XP users via a software refresh.
In Vista, users will be allowed to disable or turn off Windows Defender and install a third-party anti-spyware application.

The Vista Security Center will also be able to detect if an anti-spyware application such as Windows Defender is running and operating normally.

Source: E Week

Apple iMac G5 (iSight)

By Joel Santo Domingo
The first two versions of the Apple iMac G5 were wonders of design and engineering, and the newest version continues on that same path. The newest 20-inch iMac G5 ($1,699 direct) adds a few features, including upgraded graphics and a slightly faster processor, while cutting the price by $100. On the whole, the iMac G5 (iSight) is an evolution of the design we first saw a year ago, and we consider it an improvement. The iMac G5 is a great desktop for Mac users whose needs go beyond simple Web browsing and e-mailing.

The iMac G5's appearance hasn't changed much from the previous version: Sharp-eyed users will notice the now-curved back panel, which makes the iMac seem more organic and less bricklike than the previous version. The power button has been moved from the back right to the back left, no doubt to prevent people from accidentally turning the iMac off when plugging in a cable. Speaking of cables, the USB, FireWire, and VGA/video adapter ports now run horizontally instead of vertically. And with the multibutton Apple Mighty Mouse now standard, the people switching from Microsoft Windows will finally be able to right-click and scroll with an Apple mouse.

The integrated iSight camera—the main focus of the new iMac upgrade—provides iChat A/V video-conferencing capabilities as well as the usual picture and video webcam duties. A neat novelty program called Photo Booth lets the user select filters for self-portraits, giving your iChat/AIM buddy pictures visual qualities such as sepia toning, "X-ray" coloring, and other effects. In theory, this could turn people into avid webcam users, though in practice, most adult users are likely to take their picture once when they first get their iMac, then forget it's there.
The Apple Remote with Front Row interface is another story. The remote gives the iMac features very similar to those of a Media Center, albeit without the TV tuner.

Front Row is a simple yet powerful control panel with the same sort of "10-foot interface" found in Windows Media Center Edition. You can see song titles and the like from across the room, from the comfort of your bed or couch. The included infrared Remote looks like a shrunken, thinner iPod shuffle, with the same five-way control pads for volume, track forward/back, and play/pause, as well as a menu control button.

Using the remote and the Front Row software lets the user control iPhoto (slide shows), iTunes (music), Videos (downloads and Video podcasts), and DVD movies from the comfort of an easy chair. Once set up, the combination works well, with the "no-look" interface you're used to if you have an iPod. This is a big improvement on most MCE remotes (or even consumer electronic remotes like the one for your cable box), where you have to look at the remote constantly to see if you're hitting the right button. The Apple Remote also works with the new iPod Universal dock ($39), which has IR built in to control a docked iPod, iPod mini, or iPod nano.

One issue we found is that if you don't have all the media software (iTunes, QuickTime, and so on) set up yet on the iMac, Front Row will come to a halt trying to figure out what to do. Even the End User Legal Agreement (EULA) screen that appears when you start up iTunes for the first time after installation or an upgrade will halt activity. Since Front Row accesses the iTunes library through its interface with that program, it freezes because it doesn't know what to do when iTunes wants you to hit "Agree" on the EULA screen. Similarly, you can't view movie trailers in Front Row until you set up QuickTime 7, including entering the speed of your Internet connection. It would be nice for future versions of Front Row to take care of this stuff through a setup wizard, in case you're using your iMac for the first time. Once you have iTunes and QuickTime set up, Front Row is a joy to use.

Apple didn't build TV-tuner capabilities into this iMac/Front Row combo: The company left that to third-party manufacturers like Hauppauge/Eskape and Elgato. This means you'll need another remote if you want a TV tuner, which complicates things. TV and video weren't really an issue until recently, when Apple introduced the 5G iPod with video capabilities. Right now, iPods are limited to the video content from iTunes Music Store, TV programs, and downloaded video podcasts. Any home movies you put in the Movies folder on your iMac will be viewable using Front Row, but there's no easy way to get those onto your iPod. Yes, you can convert your QuickTime-based videos to an iPod-friendly format, but there should be an easier way to get DVR-recorded or DVD-based video content on your iPod via your iMac. We're sure the third-party developers are working on solutions as you read this.

In PC Magazine Labs, we tested Adobe Photoshop CS2's performance, which was very good. The scores—Gaussian Blur at 5 seconds, Unsharp Mask at 3 seconds, Lighting Effects at 9 seconds, and Image Resize at 10 seconds—show that the iMac is powerful enough for light to medium graphics duties. These tasks, particularly Image Resize, often take more than a minute on older Macs with previous versions of Photoshop. The iMac G5 is certainly powerful enough for day-to-day office and graphics tasks, and it's a step above the Mac mini, which is best used for basic tasks. Anyone who uses a quad-core PowerMac at work should be happy with the iMac's performance at home.

Doom 3 performance is still fairly anemic, at 20 frames per second, though this is an improvement over the previous iMac G5, a 2.0-GHz machine that came with Radeon 9600 graphics and got a score of 14 fps at the same 1,024-by-768 resolution. We're sure the improvement is due to the upgraded graphics (X600 XT) and the new PCIe-based motherboard. But Doom 3 performance still lags behind that of mainstream Windows PCs with discrete graphics.

The iMac G5 with built-in iSight is a very good reworking of an excellent product, with additions that enhance the all-in-one nature of the iMac. It's a great mainstream Mac desktop for people whose computing needs extend beyond simple Web browsing and e-mail.

Sourtce:pcmag

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