G R A P H I C S

Web Graphics can make your site dynamic if the images are ever seen. Images on the Web must have small file sizes. Web graphics are prepared in RGB or index color at 72 dpi and saved as GIF or JPEG images. Keep sizes to 640 x 480 or smaller to fit on the smallest monitors. 60k takes one minute to download on a 14.4 modem, and many people won't wait that long, so think small.

GIF Images offer impressive file reduction using LZW compression which is lossless. Large areas of flat color compress well, dithering does not. Mode must be changed from RGB to Indexed Color to save as a GIF file.

JPEG Images have lossy compression. You can choose low, med, high or max quality. Low decreases file size the most. Photos look great on the web with low quality JPEG compression. Dithering adds to the file size.

Dithering and Banding can occur when decreasing file size. Dithering adds file size. Try to avoid dithering if the image can withstand it. No dither sometimes creates banding. Subtle gradations will need to be dithered. Adaptive palettes generally look the best of all dithering methods. Save your images at the lowest possible bit depth. Check the quality before saving.

Browser-Safe Color is a palette of 216 colors which are shared by popular browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. The browser-safe colors eliminate cross-platform inconsistencies. The colors are identified in HTML code with six numbers or letters in various combinations. Use these colors to create artwork, illustrations, cartoons, logos and web graphics. JPEGs change the browser-safe color, so don't try to match a JPEG foreground to a GIF background. Browser-safe color charts are available in many web design books. A browser-safe swatch palette for Photoshop is available from Lynda Weinman. To load the palette in Photoshop, choose Windows, Palettes, Show Swatches from the pull-down menu. Select a file with an .aco extension. View the new set in the Photoshop Swatch Palette. Adobe Illustrator only works in CMYK, so it is impossible to load the browser-safe color. Bring black and white Illustrator art into Photoshop and color it with browser-safe swatches. Freehand allows you to work in RGB and supports the 216 color palette.

A large collection of public domain graphics and graphics software is available at a PC freeware site called MediaBuilder. The site has an incredible variety of shareware, freeware and demonstration software available to download. For graphics, there are animation programs, image editing programs, graphic converters, graphic optimizers, and 3D programs.

Please send us your feedback. We'd love to hear from you!