The Photoshopping of Firefox
Yesterday’s Firefox launch garnered a lot of press. I noticed a peculiar pattern emerging on some of the news sites. There seems to be a whole weird underworld of hastily-photoshopped graphics for news sites.
Here is a collection of some images from some Firefox 1.0 launch news articles I found across the website with color commentary. It’s too bad Salon.com hasn’t done a story on Firefox, because their article graphics are like works of art.
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Enterprise Linux IT (day 1)I call this one “Firefox Christ”. If I’m interpreting it correctly, it depicts the ascension of Firefox back to heaven after having spent three days in hell. |
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Enterprise Linux IT (day 2)Apparently not content with their apocalyptic graphic from day 1, the Enterprise Linux IT site went tech on day 2. We can assume that the ones and zeros are some kind of “data”. |
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Linux InsiderOne of several sites that surrounded the logo in a blurry halo. This is somewhat understandable, as it was probably a way to mask the edges of the logo since they probably had to just crop a low-res version from the Mozilla website. That doesn’t excuse the Times New Roman text title here. |
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News.comI get the “1.0” road sign, but I’m really confused about the little Firefox rolling in the background. Maybe it symbolizes the “roll to 1.0”? |
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VNUnetI like what they did with the close-cropping, but they went a little crazy with the JPEG compression. |
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CNNA simple image of the logo seems like something that would be hard to get wrong. CNN.com decided it needed a peach/orange background gradient. Maybe that was a screenshot from somewhere I don’t know about? |
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BBC NewsThe best of the bunch, but I think that mostly because this is a screenshot of a graphic I made for the Mozilla.org home page. Still, it is simple, straightforward, and doesn’t include any wacky photoshopping. |
"Candle in the Way."
Ah well, you are right. Your (cropped up) version is still the best.
According to the CNN article, there will be no more Firefox releases. Ever. That's right, ladies and gentlemen: 1.0 is the "final version".
This is exactly what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer in 2001, is it not? Those hypocritical open source bastards! I'm switching back to IE right away. At least with IE you know what you have...
if CNN said that they are wrong. it should be "final release".
that is means that it is the final 1.0 you will get, there will be no more 1.0...but yaa there will be 1.1, 1.2..., 2.0, ....., 5.0, .....
so rest assure...
and with FF you know everything...all the way down to source code...if you care.
More photoshopping
It implies that Firefox is "software" of some kind.
At least most of the stories are really positive irrespective of their artwork. eWeek's Story, where this image appeared, is a perfect example.
Despite the perspective problem, (giant icon on the screen, versus floating in front of the monitor) it's some of the better art on the site, actually. Which brings me to the point. Is it fair to expect good art from techie sites?
I would say it is, but most seem more anxious to emulate the flavor of the month or demonstrate knowledge of some technique than to illuminate.
Looking at the other examples again, it appears the only people who get points on that front are BBC News and Enterprise Linux IT.
http://www.slunecnice.cz/product/Firefox-Wallpaper/
I'm sure the peach gradient would be better replaced if only vector versions of the logo were made available (largecoughingnoises).
