Imagemaps Ahoy

12/01/16

Tags Neocities

One section of the site is going to have a large imagemap. I want to use as much HTML and CSS as possible for the site so it will be accessible, but I’m getting to the point where things I want to do really need Javascript or jQuery.

I tend to be resistant to using code I don’t understand (like other people’s scripts and plugins I don’t understand well enough to modify myself) but sometimes you just need to let someone else do the heavy lifting, and this is one of those times. A pure HTML5/CSS imagemap with a background hover effect requires having separate hover images for each polygon or weird hotspot spacing if you use one image, which is not an option since the image I’m using is so complex. Contrast this with imagemaps made with the jQuery plugin ImageMapster, which allows the use of single images for each state and enables various effects. Boom, done. ImageMapster allows the effects I want and will require less images and less work.

The map will be based on a phrenology map. The thing has enough polygon shapes to officially make it a labor of love/questionable time expenditure, but I think the finished product will be so quintessentially Bless I just gotta do it.

There’s just so much stuff to do. Vanity sites are serious business, friends.