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by inasmuch 1355 days ago
Image maps unlocked expression on the web for me when I was a kid. I enjoyed coding websites, but felt creatively limited by what I knew to be possible with simple HTML and CSS. When I realized I could turn any graphics I made into live web elements without having to fit adjacent pieces into a layout I could simulate with tables, I felt I could finally make a website that reflected my artistic self.

I think I published the last version of my personal website that I made with an image map in 2004 or so. I've been trying to think of a good use for one over the last couple years but haven't come up with anything yet.

The last really cool image map-based website I remember was Margot's Room by Emily Carroll [1]. Dunno if she coded it, but it's her comic.

[1] http://emcarroll.com/comics/margot/index.html

1 comments

i remember slicing images into rectangles which could be fit into a table. stole some portrait photograph of a woman, maxed out contrast, color reduction + dithering, then drew the eyes shut and make the open/close frames into gifs with different timings. the result: an image of a women who blinked both eyes independently, without the use of css and js.

the outcome wasn't planned, it just happened - but it was so funny i still have to laugh all those years later.

Choose prime numbers for the duration of those gifs and they will never close at the same time :)
Think this one through.

d₁ = 3, d₂ = 5

What happens at t = 15?

That makes sense. My bad. I think with coprime numbers it works as I intended.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprime_integers