PSP Tut 1
 

 Graphics: When, What, Where?  What is the Best Graphic Format?

Depending on what your doing with your site you may be able to get free graphics off the net for your design.  Just do a search in your favorite search engine like www.google.com for Free web graphics, backgrounds, buttons etc. ( NOTE: make sure your read the sites that you find your graphic on, some require a link back for you to have permission to use them... when in doubt ask the site owner via a link on there web site.)

For the purpose of this tutorial, we are going to assume you want to use home made graphics or family pictures.  The first thing you'll need is a good graphics program.  My favorite is Photoshop 7,made by Adobe Software. Its not a cheap program but once you learn it your imagination is the only limitation you'll have.  If your looking to spend less money I suggest PaintShopPro by Jasc software.  Both of these programs have built in compression settings to make graphics web ready and smaller in file size.

When to use a graphics program: When you need to make a unique graphic for web use.  You can crop off (cut out) un-needed portions of your image, reduce red eye from your photo's and much more.  Then save using web safe colors and compression to make the graphics fast loading.

What do I do? once I have a graphic program: Since this site will be dealing with lessons in PSP 7, we are again going to assume you have PSP.  So now as your planning your website you can plan the placement of graphics, such as your backgrounds, buttons and more. ( I recommend using the KISS method *Keep is simple stupid*.) Use your graphic to make your point, use it where needed for the impact. ( DON'T OVER LOAD A PAGE!) If you find you have a lot of graphics I suggest several alternatives.

1. Spread out your graphics over several pages, make them as small as possible *file size*  and use them sparingly.
    

2. Modify your graphic cutting off any portions not needed.  Compress them to the smallest size that is acceptable for you.
    

3. If you have a photo album type setup to create, or a lot of awards ect to showcase try the FrontPage photo album along with the small thumbnail option.  * click here to see working Examples1, Examples2* ( click your back or reload button to return to this lesson)
   
   This will show small pictures of each graphic, a person clicks on the small picture to open up the bigger one.  (This keeps your main page (s) loading in a timely manner, yet folks can see the full size image by clicking the link for it. You get the best of both worlds!  Note: You can make the pictures even smaller in file size if you use your graphics software to make your own thumbnails... but that's another lesson.
    

Most times the first thing you'll need to decide is what graphics you'll need for your site. Color theme? background image? buttons? and so on.  Then you need to make sure you use the right format for your graphics.

FORMATS:

• Gif... this is a graphic made with a see through back ground area.  Gifs are best made with a limited colored picture or graphic. But you must use the gif format if you want to have the transparent back ground.
   

• Jpeg:... This is the format to use if your picture or graphic has a high amount of colors or depth.  You'll need to know the color of the back ground for any page you plan to place a jpeg image on if you want it to match so you don't have a blob showing to your viewers. 
   

• PNG, Bitmap etc:. formats, we won't discuss in this lesson  other then to note never use Bitmap, PSP native or PSD native formats.. These files are HUGH and trust me you don't want to go there!

See Graphic of gif and jpeg on a black back ground

As you'll see the gif blends in more on the black with its transparent background, were the white stands out on the black background. Imagine several pictures with different colored backgrounds sitting on the same page.  YUCK!

It's very important you keep your page easy on the eyes and attractive.  Not cluttered like a storage closet!!!

Once you have your colors picked out it's just a matter of getting to know your software and how to use it.  That's why we will be adding lessons showing you how to use the features in PSP 7 to get the most out of your graphic creation!!!

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