Comments on: Building Mobile Web Apps the Right Way: Tips and Techniques

By: Jake Tanner

Jake Tanner — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:43:20 +0000

I really believe mobile web apps are the new age and way to go now. No need to download updates, the mobile app can be put to auto update along with the original site and it creates a great user experience. I think many businesses will start to see the value over native apps very soon.

By: adamm

adamm — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:49:41 +0000

As someone else noted, Photoshop can save to PNG-8, and it has been able to for several (if not all) versions. It is available in the Save For Web dialog, which you should already be using when exporting images for the web.

That being said, I’ve found that PNG-8 rarely offers any significant size difference or benfit in general. First, the quality of PNG-8 files are barely marginally better than GIFs which are crappy anyway. So if you don’t need high quality graphics, use GIF instead of PNG-8 — most of the time, it would output a smaller filesize. Second, I would say 7 out of 10 times PNG-24 actually outputs a SMALLER filesize than PNG-8. Why? I don’t know, but this has been the case in my experience.

Conclusion: skip PNG-8 altogether. Use GIF or PNG-24.
GIF – straight-line transparencies or basic 256 (or less) color graphics
PNG-24 – advanced gradients/transparencies

I’ve also found that in several cases, PNG-24 outputs a smaller filesize for basic graphics than GIF.

That’s just my two cents.

By: this

this — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:00:13 +0000

Fix your typo…
“you can the similarities”

By: Nikki

Nikki — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:10:33 +0000

Very informative for anyone dealing with the mobile web app vs. native debate. While both have their positives, it just seems the mobile web app has the flexibility that a lot of companies are looking for.

By: Sachin Palewar

Sachin Palewar — Sat, 21 May 2011 18:55:26 +0000

One of the most helpful article, I have read on mobile web development. Thanks for sharing all these insights.

By: andy

andy — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:01:13 +0000

Hey Andrew, was it your editor who made you stick in the token shot of an Android device?

By: Masoud

Masoud — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:37:37 +0000

Very good article !

By: Metrofax

Metrofax — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:09:17 +0000

Good app design tips. That Fireworks suggestion to save images in 8-bit PNG format to create smaller file sizes and maintain good quality is something I’m going to start doing. Thank you.

By: Mark Bruce

Mark Bruce — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:26:07 +0000

Over the last few months, we have done several web based application for the iPhone. We could get native look for the application using HTML/CSS. We took less amount of time for the development. Since there is no approval process like in native apps we could launch the application without any trouble

I think that this is good idea to go with mobile web application, if you going for application that you do not need hardware acess

By: Andrew Devlin

Andrew Devlin — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:39:10 +0000

Thanks for the positive comments guys. Just wanted to mention that it’s true – Photoshop can save 8-bit PNGs, but you’ll see a matte round any transparency on the image you save. If you use Fireworks, then any edges you have are seamlessly transparent, and the only time you see the matte is if you view that image in IE6. Although there are other methods for image compression out there (as we’ve mentioned), Fireworks is great at maintaining that transparency and the quality of the image, while reducing the file size. I’ve written more about it here, should anyone be interested: http://adevlin.posterous.com/png8-is-our-friend