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At
first glance, FauxGraphic may appear to be an insignificant
component in the coolmaps components arsenal. But it is the opinion
of this author that FauxGraphic is genuinely one of the most
useful and efficient ways to create psuedo-images for everyday
web use.
What's
a FauxGraphic?
Just
like faux fur is not real fur, FauxGraphic is not a real graphic,
in the traditional sense. A FauxGraphic, in total, is 3 images
that when combined with text and a HTML table creates a big
look with a very small download time.
A
FauxGraphic's 3 images are generally small in size. The images
below are examples of a set of 3 FauxGraphic images. As you
can see, there is left image, a middle image, and a right
image.
 |
 |
 |
| left
image |
middle
image |
right
image |
The
combined size of these images is just over 2k. That's a fraction
of a second download time for most web visitors.
When
the 3 images are combined in a three cell table like so:
(border
added for demonstration only)
they
produce what appears to be a single image.
But
it's not an single image! It's a FauxGraphic!
If
you're curious about the middle image, it is enlarged due to
it being set as the background of the middle cell of the table.
Just as the wallpaper on you computer desktop tiles to fill
the screen, so does the middle image to fill the cell's background.
You
Want to Make Something of It?
To
really make something out of FauxGraphic, text is a must.
When text is added to the middle cell of the table, it appears
on top of the cell background image creating a pretty cool
effect.
|
FauxGraphic
w/text |
|
FauxGraphic
can be used for creating buttons, banners, or whatever else
your imagination can come up with.
Plain
FauxGraphics
|
John |
|
|
Paul |
|
|
George |
|
|
Ringo |
|
FauxGraphic
as buttons
(click on them)
FauxGraphic
as a banner
 |
FauxGraphic
|
 |
Efficiency
Caching
by a web browser makes FauxGraphic truly efficient. A browser
downloads an image only once and then caches it for later
use. Every instance of the image after the first is displayed
from the cache.
The
caching allows for an unlimited number of FauxGraphics to
be displayed with minimal downloading.
Say
there are 50 FauxGraphics on a page (like the small ones above).
For all of them to be displayed, only 3 images need to be
downloaded, for a total download of just over 2k.
In
comparison, if the graphics were normal images, there would be
50 images to download with a combined download of over 100k!
More
About FauxGraphic
FauxGraphic
comes with 6 styles. See the examples.
The
fun doesn't stop with the 6 included styles. You can easily
make your own FauxGraphic styles. It's easy and takes very
little time. Read the FauxGraphic
Style Tutorial to learn how!
If
you already own FauxGraphic, you can download it from your
my.components page.
If you're interested in purchasing FauxGraphic, it can be
purchased here.
To
learn how to use FauxGraphic, please refer to the tutorial.
--
o t h e r c o m p o n e n t s p o t l i g h
t s --
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