Anne Kowalski

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Solved: EE Archive Image Problem

I noted in my earlier entry about the archive post images not showing up in Expression Engine.

Turns out that I needed to change the path to the image. I replaced the absolute URL to the image with http://annekowalski.com/images/uploads/.

For example, if the location of the image was: http://clothingengineer.com/images/uploads/2007/08/burda-2-07-108-sleevecap.jpg

I changed it to read as: http://annekowalski.com/images/uploads/2007/08/burda-2-07-108-sleevecap.jpg within my image tag.

Notice how there is no slash between the http://annekowalski.com/images/uploads/ and 2007.

Now the only issue is that lightbox does not work on the archived posts. But it really isn't that important...so it is being pushed on the back burner for now. First I have to get a theme up and running

Expression Engine: First Impression

I just bought a new domain name, clothingengineer.com, which will be the new home of Sewing Bunny.  I wanted to try something different this time, so instead of installing WordPress I decided to try Expression Engine.  My eventual goal is to include articles and tutorials in addition to blog entries.

Background

Expression Engine is best categorized as a general purpose CMS.  It is not open source, but includes a free core version (which I am using).  The core version is only for non-commercial, personal websites.  It is quite basic, but for someone wanting to create a blog it has all the basics.

I am considering upgrading to a $100 personal license in the future, which includes a gallery, email/form module, wiki, mailing list, etc.  There is also a license available for commercial sites, which is $250.

Installation

Installing Expression Engine took only a few minutes.  Just create a MySQL database, add a user to the database, and upload the files.  The installation instructions are very thorough, and tell you everything you need to know.  This is one of the strengths of Expression Engine - very clear and detailed documentation.

Configuration

For my purposes, I wanted to set up Expression Engine as a blog.

Since Expression Engine is not a dedicated blog script like WordPress, it took much longer to actually get started writing.  Expression Engine uses “weblogs” as their terminology for sections.  (It is like how Drupal uses nodes.) I used the default weblog for my blog.  From what I understand from the documentation, I would have to create another weblog if I wanted to write articles.

TinyMCE

Even though I know HTML, I prefer to compose entries in a WYSIWYG editor.  Expression Engine doesn’t include one by default, but offers TinyMCE as an extension.  I followed the installation instructions, but couldn’t enable it.  The option was simply grayed out.  I solved this by going into the config.php file, finding the line about extensions, and changing the configuration value from “n” to “y”.  It worked!

Lightbox

Integrating Lightbox was easy. By following the instructions on the Lightbox website, I was able to not only enable Lightbox for new entries, but have the overlay work with old WordPress entries work as well.

Problems

Images Not Showing

When I installed Expression Engine, I noticed that none of my images were showing up either in the control panel or on the actual website.  After a few hours searching the forums and checking every option in my control panel, I finally found out that the problem was the hotlink protection enabled on my server.  Once I disabled it, all images showed with no problems.

Importing Old WordPress Entries and Comments

Unfortunately I couldn’t find an easy way to import my old WordPress entries.  Fortunately there aren’t very many of them (under 50) but it was still a pain to manually copy and paste entries.  And I lost my comments.  But again, there weren’t very many of them.

Most of my entries were strictly copy and paste.  For the ones with images, I made sure to upload the wp-content folder (which contains all WordPress uploaded files and images) into the site root.  Then it was just a matter of ctrl+f in Firefox and replacing my old domain name with my new one. But, then there was the issue of how the images in the archives showed up.  Rather than link directly to the wp-content folder in the root, I noticed in the address bar that it takes the name of the enabled template and puts it before the wp-content directory.  Hmm...this is something I’m going to have to look into.

But is it Designer Friendly?

For me, the real test will be to see how easy Expression Engine is to theme.  I am optimistic about this, since many designers as well as web programmers seemed to have good luck converting their static HTML/CSS templates to Expression Engine. It is one of the major reasons why I chose to go with Expression Engine.

Conclusion

Expression Engine is great for a more sophisticated user looking for software for a more generalized website.  WordPress does a great job for blog-only websites, but someone looking for more power and/or commercial support for their blog should consider Expression Engine.  The Expression Engine team really has their act together.

WordPress is still the winner for non-technical users that want ultimate ease-of-use and plugin/theme flexibility.  The way WordPress handles uploads is superior to that of Expression Engine, and there are way more plugins/themes available.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Staying Motivated

A List Apart has a wonderful article about staying motivated in the design field.

Motivation has been the reason why I've been rather neglectful of this website lately. I've been enjoying my summer break by sewing tons of clothing lately instead of working on web and graphic design. Maybe that counts as external motivation. At any rate, I just bought myself a copy of InDesign CS3 for an upcoming print project so things are likely to change very soon.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Quick Photo Sharpening using Photoshop CS3

One of the more common problems when working with digital photos or scans is making them realistically sharper.  Typically, using the built-in sharpen tool produces results that are either not effective enough, or too harsh and overpixelated.

Here is our original photo, which looks a bit fuzzy:

The final goal is to sharpen it without creating overpixelation or artifacts.

First, create a smart object from the current photo.  Simply right click the photo layer, then select “Convert to Smart Object”.

Converting to a Smart Object protects the layer in that it separates the filters applied, rather than lumping them together.  The filters applied can be turned on and off as necessary, while the original layer is preserved.

In this case I want to sharpen only the rabbits while leaving the background as-is.  I like using the Quick Selection tool whenever possible, since it is much quicker than using the Magnetic Lasso tool.

Here I have the rabbits selected.  I’m not going to get too picky about the edges.

I then select Layer > New… > Layer Via Copy.  The shortcut key Ctrl+J also works.  This creates a mask so only the rabbits will be sharpened.  I make sure I converted this new layer to a Smart Object as well.

Next, select the High Pass filter.  It is under Filters > Other > High Pass:

A brief overview of the High Pass filter from Photoshop’s Help:

High Pass

Retains edge details in the specified radius where sharp color transitions occur and suppresses the rest of the image. (A radius of 0.1 pixel keeps only edge pixels.) The filter removes low-frequency detail from an image and has an effect opposite to that of the Gaussian Blur filter.

That’s why High Pass is a better option than the built-in Sharpen tool in many cases.  The Sharpen tool sharpens the entire image, while the High Pass isolates only the edges.

You’ll see the photo with an ugly gray cast, but for now we need it to look that way so we can examine edges and detail.  Play with the slider until you get a good outline that isn’t too thick.  The thicker the outline, the more pronounced the edges will be.  If your photo just needs a little tweak, then you will need only a small radius.  A fuzzier photo may require a much larger radius. For my photo, I’ve selected a radius of 2.7 pixels, which gives a relatively minor tweak.

Once you are satisfied with the radius, then double-click the right side of the High Pass layer (shown circled in the photo in red.

From the Blending Options box that pops up, select Soft Light from the Mode drop-down box.  Selecting any of the lights will get rid of that ugly gray overlay, but will sharpen to different degrees.  I’ve found that Soft Light gives the most natural appearance, whereas the Hard Light mode is too harsh.

That’s it!  Now here’s a before and after comparison.

Before:

and after:

Thursday, July 05, 2007

HP Photosmart C3180 in Ubuntu

My HP Photosmart C3180 scanning and printing functions work well within Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Printing seems to have no problems, but I'd like to find a way to print in Draft mode if at all possible. (Luckily I don't do much printing anymore.) I was able to get results comparable to those in Windows XP using the scanner and Kooka.

A note about the Photosmart C3180: it is a great buy if you need a small, low-cost color AIO and have minimal printing needs. However, if you expect to print photos at home or intend on printing more than a few pages a week, look elsewhere. This little machine guzzles ink like there's no tomorrow, and the photo quality is marginal.