Graphics are not the easiest things to understand. With the myriad
of file formats, size, resolution, etc., one can become lost quickly.
While by no means an expert in the field, we do have some members
of the team with extensive graphics backgrounds and they have a variety
of software available that can assist in reformatting a graphics
for use on the website.
Questions regarding graphics can be directed to the webmaster
and if necessary he can get others involved to assist.
We do expect each website coordinator to have a basic familiarity
with graphics and do a lot of the upfront work when required.
mixed formats
Getting an image as small as possible yet maintain clarity
is the objective of many sites on the web. The can be found
by using the Google search emgine.
Creating Images and #D text on-line is available at the following
sites:
.gif format
.GIF stands for Compuserve Graphics Image Format.
There may be the occasion that you will get into using .GIF
graphics. We have to make all graphics as small as we can for
downloading speed. There are sites on the web that you can upload
a gif file to and it will reformat and "clean" it up and let
you download it for use. I've used them and saved a lot of file
space which is important in downloading web pages. They are located:
.gif files can't store more than eight bits of information
for each pixel and it sets a maximum of 256 different colors
in the entire picture. This format uses a compression scheme
whereby the saved file is identical to the original image. However,
if you start out with something like a colorful photograph, you'll
have to reduce your original image to an indexed color mode before
you can save it as a .GIF ...and when you do, you'll notice some
dithering in areas that previously had smooth color transitions.
Transparent GIFs are used to eliminate the typical rectangular
borders associated with most bitmapped images that appear on
a Web page. The creator of a GIF image may set certain pixels
within the bitmap to a color designated within the image file
as "transparent". When this GIF image is displayed by a Web browser
the transparent pixels take on the color of the user's display.
Any pixel set to the specified transparent color index value
will take on the background color of the display device when
displayed.
Two advantages that .GIF files still have over .JPGs are transparency
and animation. You can save multiple images to a single .GIF
file and have them play back in a cycle, like frames in a movie.
You can also cause some of the pixels in a .GIF image to display
as transparent, letting the background of the web page show through.
.jpg format
The name .JPG (sometimes called .JPEG) stands for Joint Photographic
Experts Group, after the team that created the standard.
This format is usually used for photographs, or other images
with lots of colors and variable tones. Color .JPG files support
millions of colors per image, but this format also supports documents
with 256 levels of gray -- or one byte of info per pixel.
The .JPG format uses a compression scheme whereby the data
in the saved image is not identical to the original file. The
amount of compression is often user-defined; you can decide when
you save the file how much of a trade-off you want between image
quality and the file size on your disk. (You may need to close
the image and re-open the .JPG to correctly view the changes
made by the compression algorithms. Since the image will get
slightly degraded each and every time you save it, I recommend
that you keep a "clean" original version from which you can do
your resizing and reformatting.
The .JPG standard was designed with human vision parameters
in mind; it takes advantage of the fact that you're more likely
to notice changes in brightness than in colors ...especially
changes in yellow areas.
If you have files with very few colors, or large flat areas,
don't save them as .JPGs. You'll introduce a noticeable graininess
to the image, and probably make a larger file size than the same
picture saved as a .GIF
