Re: graphics + text

Date Sat, 26 Feb 2000 083734 -0500
 From "Pinder, Susan" <spinder(at)stlawrencecement.com>
Subject confused about text - in general

Susan, I'm sending you an email (direct) with a .gif image attached, one of 
your buttons I duplicated. The list won't take attachments. But, since 
there may be others that *might* benefit from the information I'm sending, 
thought I'd send it to the whole list. Those that know this stuff, scroll 
on :-)
=========================
I'm new to PSP and web graphics in general.
I have some muddy looking text buttons that I would like to re-do.
http?//www.englishcottage.com
My first point of confusion is about Vector graphics.  It is best to
create a vector text layer and then save the file as.. what?
If you save a vector graphic as a bitmapped file (gif or jpg) do you
lose the benefits of the vector graphic (I understand they create
clear images that are faster to load) ??
Can you only use the anti-aliasing with jpg's because it has to
be with 16 million colours?
Any comments or redirection to an online tutorial would be appreciated.
Thanks,   Susan
=========================
Are you using version 6.0 or 6.01? If so, you need to upgrade to PSP 6.02. 
That makes a WORLD of difference on how well text renders in the program. 
The upgrade/patch is free from Jasc, you just have to go over there and get 
it. http://www.jasc.com/patches.html

Yes, vector graphics are good, and make quicker loading when using them in 
Flash or Shockwave files. Regular graphics for web pages don't benefit as 
vector graphics, and .bmp images can only be viewed by some browsers.

.gif and .jpg formats are different animals. .jpg format is great for 
photographs, or any image that has a LOT of colors, and they are spread 
around the image quite a bit. .gif format is best when images have limited 
colors, have straight lines, or parts of the image are large blocks of a 
solid color. Your text on a solid color is one of those.

Easy to do. This is for PSP, should work with any graphic program, just 
that the tools/features may be in different places. Start your image on a 
new canvas the size that you want your buttons to be. If you make it larger 
than you need, put text on, then reduce the size of the image, the text 
will blur.

Make it 16 million colors. Put your text on it, anti-aliased is checked. If 
your text looks fuzzy when putting it down, you may have to choose a 
different font, one that looks clearer. On the one I'm sending you, I used 
"Small Fonts", a font that comes with Windows I believe. When using layers, 
if the white looks too "pale" against the black, but otherwise good, then 
once the text is in place, duplicate the text layer. It will "strengthen" 
the lettering on the black.

If you are using layers, copy that image, and on the copy, merge all the 
layers. Good idea to keep your original in PSP format, in layers, until you 
are absolutely, positively sure you won't need it any more. You will never 
change the background color of the buttons, make more buttons to match the 
original's, etc.

Count the colors (colors - count colors used). Depending on the # of 
colors, with experience, you'll know how far you can reduce the colors. 
There are different "levels" of colors in .gif images. Each level down will 
give you a smaller byte size image. The levels are: 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 
2. An image with 66 colors will usually be a larger byte size than one with 
64 colors because the latter is in the next lowest color level. When I did 
one of your buttons, I found I had only 6 colors. So I reduced the colors 
to 8. Colors - decrease colors - x-colors. A box will come up and you can 
choose between 1 and 256 colors. Also in that box is choice: "choose 
nearest color" is usually okay.

When saving as 256 color .gif, there IS a difference when saving as 
"Optimized Median Cut" and "Optimized Octree". And when choosing "nearest 
color" and "error diffusion". You will have to experiment and find which 
"final look" YOU like best. Some images look better Median, some look 
better Octree. For most web buttons, I choose Median Octree and nearest color.

Save as a .gif. There are sites with good information on graphic file 
formats. Tell you which kinds of images should be saved as .gif, which as 
.jpg, and show you the differences that various levels of compression can 
make when saving .jpg images. They are at:

http//www.pantos.org/atw/35273.html
http//www.alphageo.com/psp/options.html
http//info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/graphics/graphics.html

Hope that helps, Roxy
http://autumnweb.com/Roxys/

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