Web Development
George Mason University
  
   

Site Design Tips

Official University Web Sites

Standards for Internet web sites, as for other visual communications, reinforce the vision and identity of a university. The university's official web pages include those sites developed for colleges, schools, institutes, departments, programs, and administrative offices.

Updating Web Content

Web sites should be updated regularly. By maintaining your site on a regular basis and eliminating dated material as soon as possible, you will keep your site attractive and credible. Web sites that have not been updated in over one year may be removed from the Mason web site.

Use of the George Mason University Logo and Templates

All official web pages should have a George Mason University logo to highlight the unit's connection to the university. This image should link back to www.gmu.edu. The university logo is a professionally designed logo and is used to establish Mason's visual identity. It should be used only in its original form as a graphic. A Visual Identity Guide for Mason's web site is online to assist in designing university web sites.Versions of the George Mason and sample web site templates are available in this guide.

Use of the University Seal

The seal is not the university's logo. Its use is restricted to official events and documents. Contact your account executive (see the University Relations (website) for guidelines on appropriate use of the seal online.

University Photographs

Photographers are available to hire at an hourly fee through Creative Services. When their schedules permit, they may be hired to photograph an event through an online photo request form.

Image Resolution: Print Images vs. Web Images

Web graphics and photographs are generally created to be viewed on screen, and therefore have a low output resolution (72 dots per inch). Such graphics are not suitable for printed output; note the loss of quality on the screen capture.

If there is a chance you may use a graphic for a printed document, create it at a higher resolution (300 dpi for photos or 600 dpi for graphics), and convert a copy of the original to a low-resolution form for web use. High resolution versions of the university's logo are available from the online "Visual Standards Guide" for print publications.

Use of Color

Color is another element to consider in your web page design. George Mason green (R-0, G-102, B-51; hexadecimal #006633), and George Mason gold (R-255, G-204, B-51; hexadecimal #FFCC33), are not your only color options, but using them does reinforce a connection to the university. They can be used in combination with other colors or on their own.

Making PDF Files for Your Site

Using pdf (portable document format) is the best way to minimize differences in the appearance of the document on different computer systems and as hard copies from different printers. The steps to generate a pdf will vary slightly depending on which program (and version) you are using, your computer, and your software. Additionally, accessibility options may be downloaded when the pdf file is authored in Acrobat 5 only. All tags etc. must be filled in correctly (ALT Attributes etc), and there are other conditions which need to be met. Please reference http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/ for more information as to how to make pdf files web accessible. Posting to this list http://www.w3.org/WAI/IG/ may also be helpful.

Some word processing programs allow you to choose PDF when you print to file. To do this, choose the print command and specify print to file (or "file" as the destination); next, look for an option that lets you specify file types and choose anything that says PDF. Click the "save" or "print" button, and your pdf file should be generated. You may have to enter a file name at some point, and you may have to specify a postscript printer for this procedure to work (PostScript is the language that specifies the output of a printer). It's probably also worth a quick search of the online help of your word processing program using "pdf".

If you have Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader, just Acrobat), you can easily save files to PDF format. If not, two different pieces of Acrobat software can make the pdf file for you—Acrobat Distiller or Acrobat PDF Writer. The latter functions as a virtual printer, and the former converts any postscript file (file name ends in .ps) to a pdf file (file name ends in .pdf).

To use PDF Writer, you choose it as your printer and then "print" your abstract, which saves it to a file. To use Distiller, there's an intermediate step. You again "print" your abstract (specifying any PostScript printer) but choose the print to file option in the print dialog box, which saves a postscript file (.PS) of your abstract (PostScript is the language that specifies the output of a printer). You now use Distiller to convert the file to a pdf file (run Distiller, then "open" the postscript file). It's a good idea to choose the option to "download" all fonts. You can use Acrobat itself or Acrobat Reader to open your pdf file and check it. For additional help with PDF files, see the following web sites.

For Making PDF files with Acrobat:

www.jbc.org/misc/submission.shtml
www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.html#createpdf
www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html

For making PDF files from Pagemaker:

www.ciwemb.edu/labs/koshland/ Protocols/COMPUTER/makepdf.html

Contact Information

The following information should be included on web sites:

  • University school/college, department, program, center, institute, office, or unit name
  • Mailing address
  • Phone number (fax when applicable)
  • Contact name
  • Contact e-mail
  • Site revision date

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