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Updated: 11/28/2004 07:37:05 PM (Broken Link? Report It Here) |
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Welcome to the Hints and Tips are for Giz's Easel! My intent for this area is to post various items that will help you create better images and save you time during your artistic endeavors. The hints and tips you find here will come from various sources; from magazines to newsletters to visitors such as yourself. Visitors who contribute ideas, hints and tips are the best source of information to any website because that's when a website truly becomes an interactive community. Membership requirements for Giz's Easel! This interactive area within Giz's Easel does not require an active Giz-Net Network membership in order to participate.
Anti-aliasing is a method you can use to make an image's appearance look soft. This method makes the image looks soft by blending the edge of image with the background. If you don't use anti-aliasing, your image may not look as nice as it could and instead may look jagged or rough. If you do use anti-aliasing and you plan to make your image transparent, you have to make sure you use the same background color as the background color you use on the webpage. Otherwise, little specks of color surrounding your image will show up from the blending that occurs between the image and the background.
The term "bit depth" refers to the number of bits per pixel that are used to represent color. The more bits per pixel, the more colors we're talking about. Basically, it works out like this: 24 bit mode means millions of colors 16 bit mode means thousands of colors 8 bit mode means 256 colors 1 bit mode means 2 colors
There are two simple rules to remember when creating images. 1. Keep your images clean and sharp-looking. 2. Keep your compression ratio low enough to get a good image size, but not so low that it distorts quality.
You can access the Copy and Paste commands by right-clicking the Title Bar of your image for an easier way to copy and paste. Simply right-click the Title Bar of an image and choose Copy. Then right-click the Title Bar of the image you'd like to paste into and select Paste As New Selection or Layer.
A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image is one of the two most popular and widely used image formats on the Internet. It can contain a maximum of 256 colors. It also has some special features, such as transparency, animation and interlacing. You should use the GIF format when working with computer-generated graphics or graphics that do not have alot of colors. The JPEG is the graphic format of choice when working with scanned images, photographs or images that have a lot of colors. Also, GIF formats give you higher quality and a smaller size than JPEG when working with items such as icons, buttons or logos.
Use the GIF format for simple graphics you create on your computer. A GIF file can contain a maximum of 256 colors (8 bit) or less. This is good enough for customizing your graphic files. The less number of colors in the image the smaller the file size. The GIF format has a higher quality and smaller image size when it is used with computer generated graphics such as icons, logos, buttons, horizontal riles, etc. Use the JPG format for images that you scan in or for photographs. A JPG file can contain 24-bit (16.7+ million colors) and is designed specifically for photographic-style images. The JPG stores the image's information by keeping track of color changes. The JPG can have a smaller file size than GIF when working with photos and images with a lot of colors or shading variations. Another thing to consider is that the GIF format allows you to use features like animation, transparency, and interlacing.
An interlaced graphic is a graphic that loads by a sort of fading in method. When you visit a webpage that uses interlaced graphics you see them appear quickly but they look fuzzy, blurry or pixelated. They gradually sharpen until the image is clear. When they are clear that's usually a good sign that the graphics are fully loaded. The advantage of the interlaced graphic is it offers the visitor an instant image even though it is out-of-focus. Some webmasters think this loading procedure detracts from the beauty of their website. Other webmasters think the fade-in type of loading is worth the temporary "ugliness" because it offers visitors something to look at while they wait. So far the consensus is the only image that shouldn't be created as an interlaced image is a tiling background image. The reason for that is as the image tiles in the background, the browser becomes extremely slow.
Make sure the Links toolbar is turned on by going to View -> Toolbars and check-marking the Links toolbar. Now drag a shortcut of your 'My Pictures' folder, or whatever folder you put your graphics in, to the Links toolbar. Now when you are online, drag the picture you want to save from the Web site to the shortcut on the Links bar. You have now saved a copy of the graphic. The only disadvantage is the file is saved with the server-side filename and you will have to change it if you want a different name.
Need to repeat the last command you used and want to keep the settings you set the last time you used it? Then hold down the Shift key while selecting the toolbar button or menu item. This will let you bypass the dialog and run the command with the last used setting.
Paint Shop Pro allows you to resize your paint brush without using the resize option in the Tool Options palette. All you have to do is press and hold down the 'Alt' key while pressing and holding down the left mouse button. Then move your mouse up or down. This action will cause the brush head to resize, starting from the current size that is selected. You can also restrict the change in the brush size to one pixel at a time by pressing and holding down the 'Alt' key and then selecting the 'X' and 'C' keys to adjust the brush size. Contributions for Giz's Easel. If you have a great graphics source you would like to share, please let me know! I give credit for all sources of contributions; links, tutorials, downloads, hints, tips, etc. If you would like to see other pages added to this area, please let me know either through email or through the Forum. |
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28 Nov