In web design, colors are specified by using a special code called a “hex code” If you want some text to be pink, you simply write the hex code for a certain shade of pink which is “#FF7FBF” in your HTML code, like so:

<span style=”#FF7FBF”>PINK</span>.

And you’ll get…

PINK

On the COLOURLovers blog, there is a big list of hex codes for a quick reference. Check this list out if you’re stumped on which code represents which color. You can check out the list here:

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/30/ultimate-html-color-hex-code-list/

The subject of artists selling on the web is a topic that’s almost as old as the Internet itself. The subject has reared its head on the American Craft Forum a couple weeks ago an artist described how she eliminated the retail section of her website to ease the concerns of the galleries that carry her work.

The topic brings up some pretty strong reactions on both sides of the issue. Naturally many artists want to use the Internet to promote themselves and perhaps to capture sales from all over the world. Just as naturally gallery owners are concerned as to how this effects their bottom line. Some owners are going as far as to refusing to buy from artists who have an online retail presence. Rick Siegal, a speaker for the Rosen Group’s Buyer’s Market wrote a blog post concerning this issue and got some pretty harsh comments about it. One comment went as far as calling wholesalers who also have an online retail branch as “greedy” and “stupid”. Ouch!

Meanwhile, some artists are skeptical of galleries who don’t want artists to have their own retail site, but will also ask artists if they can include work on their online store…

The problem I have is that stores do not want me to sell online retail…but many times the next thing out of their mouth is “can I put your things up on our website”?

Is this not the same thing in a way? They are competing with other bricks & morter stores that are thousands of miles away. They have no issue with it as long as the $$ is going into their pocket I guess. I find this very interesting.

As someone who blogs about how artists can use the Internet to promote themselves you can guess my opinion on the matter. The bottom line is that the Internet is here, it’s not going anywhere, and it’s already to changed the the arts industry in ways we couldn’t imagine 10 years ago, and it will continue to do so. The next generation of craft buyers will grow up using the Internet to do everything; communicating, making friends, finding a place to live, paying bills, finding a job, working, and shopping…and they are not going to wait for us to catch up. The best thing to do is to figure out how to use the Internet so that it benefits both artists and gallery owners…not to fight against it.

In this week’s newsletter I outlined a number of ways in which individual artists can sell online without negatively impacting their relationship with their gallery accounts. To read the article sign up for the Crafted Webmaster Newsletter for free here:
http://www.craftedweb.com/subscribe.html

Need a quick and dirty (and free) way to create a PDF file? Check out PDF Online. Just upload your file to this free service, enter your email address and your converted PDF file will be emailed to you. The services accepts a range of file types including .txt, .jpg, .bmp, .doc (Microsoft Word), .rtf, .ppt (Microsoft PowerPoint), .xls (Microsoft Excel), .pps (Microsoft PowerPoint), .pub (Microsoft Publisher), .gif, .tiff, and more. Check out PDF Online at: https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp.

If you’re a bit more adventurous and don’t have the cash for a full version of Adobe Acrobat, check out PDFCreator from SourceForge. PDFCreator is a free program that allows you to create PDF files by “printing” them from any Windows program. If you have a document in Word or Excel that you would like to convert to a PDF, you simply hit the “Print” button, chose “PDFCreator” and it creates the PDF file automatically. The program is free, you just need to download it from the SourceForge site and install it on your computer. The program works on any application that has a “print” function. PDFCreator only works on Windows PCs, but Mac users needn’t worry about that since OSX already has the ability to “print” PDFs built in. Check out PDFCreator at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/.

If you have a blog, or you’re putting content up on your web site, you’ll eventually run into some copyright issues, whether it’s someone infringing on your rights or you accidentally infringing on someone else’s rights. What the average person knows about copyright on the web is often misunderstood or just plain wrong. Smashing Magazine has assembled a big list of facts, links, and articles about copyright on the web called Copyright Explained: I May Copy It Right?. Most of the links are geared towards bloggers, but they are easily applicable to artists.

Check it out here:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/07/
copyright-explained-i-may-copy-it-right/

Well, if you’ve tried to visit the blog on Friday and over the weekend, you may have discovered that it’s been down. A change in policy and some upgrades at the web hosting company combined to shut down two of my blogs. I spent the weekend scrambling to find a new host and transfer my sites to the new hosting service.

I think that everything is in hand now, though there may be some glitches here and there. If you run across any, please let me know!