Web Publishing at URI

Web Publishing Resources

Web Standards:

• W3C Guidelines: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/.
• HTML 4.01 Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/.
• XHTML 1.0 Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/. A reformulation of HTML 4 in XML 1.0.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Level 1: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Level 2: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2
• Section 508 (Federal Information Technology Accessibility Initiative): http://www.section508.gov
• U.S. Government Access Board: http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm. Section 508 web standards which MUST be followed by Federal agencies when producing web pages. An excellent start to understanding accessibility issues. Very similar to Priority 1 guidelines of the W3C.
• Web Accessibility Initiative: http://www.w3.org/WAI/. From the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

Validators:
Tools from W3C that help you validate your code to make sure it’s compliant.

• HTML & XHTML Validator
• CSS Validator
• Watchfile (Bobby): http://wave.webaim.org/. Sells several professional checking products, including WebQA ($1,495) for small-to-medium-sized companies. Bobby Online checks one page at a time for free.
• UsableNet: http://www.usablenet.com. Offers tools for Section 508 and W3C usability and accessibility testing for Dreamweaver and via the web. Usablenet also checks one page at a time for free.
• Tidy: http://tidy.sourceforge.net/. Excellent tool for cleaning up your HTML.

Blogs & Other Resources:

• Digital Web Magazine - An online magazine intended for web professionals to promote the development of the web for the benefit of all.
• A List Apart - A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on techniques and benefits of designing with web standards. Tons of great articles, a must for any serious web designer.
• 456 Berea Street - Roger Johansson’s Blog. One of my favorites.
• Jonathan Snook - Offers tips, tricks and bookmarks on web development.

Forums & Help:
Search for tutorials, articles, or get help in forums.

• W3Schools: Free web-building tutorials from basic HTML and XHTML, to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP.
• HTML Help: A collection of resources on a wide range of HTML related topics.
• HTML Dog: The web designer’s resource for everything HTML and CSS, the most common technologies used in making web pages.
• SitePoint - Lots of great articles and the forums are very helpful.

Firefox Extensions: Firefox extensions make life a lot simpler.

• Web Developer - A must-have extension that offers many design and development-related features & tools.
• ColorZilla - Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
• IE Tab - Open Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab. Very wasy way to check compatibility.
• Measureit - Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
• View Rendered Source Chart - Easy way to visually navigate source code.
• HTML Validator - Validate your HTML inside Firefox.
• Screen Grab - Save an entire webpage as an image.

Stock Photography and Icons

• Stock Exchange - Huge collection of high quality, free stock photography. Some images require photographers permission but most photos don’t.
• Morguefile - Another highly recommended free stock photography resource site.
• FamFamFam Icons - Free Icons.

Tools: Tools for color, background images, typography and browser screenshots.

• Colourlovers - A nice collection of color schemes. Also allow users to to compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews and contains
• Colour Contrast Check - From Jonathan Snook, the Colour Contrast Check Tool allows to specify a foreground and a background colour and determine if they provide enough of a contrast “when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen”. 
• The Color Wizard - A color matching application for anyone who wants to create designs with great looking colors.
• Typetester - An online application for comparison of fonts for the screen. You may compare up to three different typefaces, sizes, spacing, and more all on one screen.
• Typography for Headlines - A nice collection of typography headlines for inspirational purposes.
• Background Image Maker - A tool for making basic backgrounds for your site, much easier than using photoshop.
• Browsershots - A tool for making screenshots of your design in all major browsers.