HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the standard language for creating web pages based on SGML. It is undergoing continuous change under the supervision of the www.w3c.org (World Wide Web consortium) headed by the language's creator Tim Berners-Lee. It is now at revision 4 and includes much more advanced functionality. XML, a more generalised tagging language, is also used for web-pages.

HTML 3 is the most commonly used version of the markup language. A definition of the language specification is available from the W3C. It allows creation of frames and is compatible with nearly all browsers currently in use. Although many WYSIWYG editors are available to create web pages, there is no substitute for a knowledge of the underlying language and the ability to manually code a web page. VTRAD can assist in the creation of web sites, templates or training your personnel in web design skills and techniques.

With cascading style sheet, Internationalisation and advanced multimedia features, HTML 4 brings many improvements to the language. Cascading Style sheets allow designer defined styles, such as fonts and colours, to further control the presentation of documents. Used in conjunction with SMIL (Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language), advanced control of multimedia, including streamed video and audio tracks written onto a timeline, is possible.

One of the major issues in web design is browser compatibility. The two major browsers, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer interpret HTML source code in different ways. At the time of HTML 2 this difference was pronounced but has now become much more subtle. Fortunately most commercial HTML editors now provide methods for checking basic compatibility. VTRAD can test your web sites on an enormous variety of browsers on all major platforms for compatibility issues and advise you on appropriate changes.

HTML and the Internet were designed as mediums for the transfer of scientific information and initially text with links was sufficient for this purpose. As the World Wide Web was adopted by companies and organisations as a marketing and business medium, the need for greater creative control caused a growth in more advanced information transfer and content display technologies. Transfer of multimedia content fuelled this growth with a need to stream data, allowing display while further content was still being downloaded.

As recreational browsing outgrew information sourcing, multimedia became a major focus of Internet development. Companies developed both server and client software to work in conjunction with web browsers to deliver multimedia content. Real Networks with their RealPlayer product and Apple Computing with QuickTime have become two of the major market leaders in this industry. VTRAD can assist in the set-up and maintenance of these and other server-side products and in conjunction with our multimedia partners Tropical Studios, Global Cafe and Harris Productions can develop innovative and eye-catching multimedia productions. For interactive web advertisements, live Internet product launches, event coverage and news features, our content development and technical skills combined with our state-of-the-art hardware platforms (and high specification bandwidth connections) allows us to deliver multimedia to the world.

With inclusion of their plug-in as standard in both Netscape 4.x and Internet Explorer 4.x browsers onwards, Macromedia have brought their "Flash" product to the forefront of the world of interactive content. Our Flash designers and partners will demonstrate how using vector graphic animation and layered pages can create a new multimedia rich, fast loading and effective web presence that takes advantage of the power of these new Internet technologies.

At VTRAD we have qualified and experienced graphic designers for both drawn and computerised imagery. Using graphic manipulation packages, such as Adobe's Photoshop, we can enhance scanned images and digital photographs or create entirely new graphics. Our consultants can work closely with you to ensure that the look and feel of the imagery is the way you want it and charges can be made per image on high volume contracts to guarantee a fixed cost. Batch processing of digital photography for image alteration, digital effects, file size minimisation and file format conversion is also available.

With extensive experience in 3D Studio Max and Lightwave, we can construct any three dimensional imagery that you require. 3D modelling brings realism to graphics, particularly when animated or when more than one visual perspective is shown. We also have a large library of pre-prepared high quality 3D graphics for applications and web pages, which can be further customised with colours and textures to meet your design criteria.

Vector graphics allow highly detailed images to be produced with a very small file size. With Flash web sites, these images can then readily be animated for little additional file size cost. Conventional animation and construction of movements from a single flat image, as well as a pixel to vector graphic conversion service are available.