Raster images are made up of millions of individual squares, or pixels, of various colors. The more pixels you have, the better the image will look. The number of pixels, or resolution, is usually expressed in dots per inch (dpi). Images on the Web are shown at 72 dpi. A high-resolution image would run 300 dpi or higher. Some types of printing can get into the 1600 dpi range. Much like a mosaic, a raster image can look smooth from a distance but as you zoom in closer you can see the individual pixels.

A vector image is drawn from mathematical formulas for lines and curves and is redrawn each time you zoom in for a closer look. The quality of the image stays the same regardless of the level of magnification. Vector files, since they are formulas instead of information on millions of individual pixels, tend to use less memory than raster files.

The edge of a circle, rendered as a raster image, may look smooth initially, but eventually as you zoom in you will see a jagged stairstep edge of the individual square pixels that make up the image. A lower resolution image will look jagged or pixellated much sooner than a high resolution image. A circle’s edge in vector form will always be smooth no matter how close you zoom in since it is recalculated each time you change the view.

Raster based programs are best at working with photo-realistic images and make subtle (or bold) changes in color, shadow and texture. Vector based programs excel at easy control of edges and tend to produce a more graphic style of art. Regardless of the type of image, higher resolution is always better for producing a good result. While your image may be vector or raster, or even a combination of the two, the Art Staff at ExpertShirt.com will work hard to translate it into the best textile printing possible.

About the Author

Mandar is a graphic artist and man-about-town with Expertshirt.com. Design your own custom tshirt online at http://www.expertshirt.com

Fireworks Anti-Aliasing Capabilities

Anti-aliasing capabilities have been with Fireworks for quite some time now. With the new edition, Fireworks MX 2004 enhanced further its four anti-aliasing options and added two more features.

Its anti-aliasing options include: None Anti-Alias, which disables text smoothing; Crisp Anti-Alias that allows the creation of a sharp transition between the edges of the text and the background; Strong Anti-Alias for a very abrupt transition of the text edges into the background, while preserving the shapes of the text characters and improving on the detailed areas of the characters; and Smooth Anti-Alias that lets the users create a soft transition between the text edges and the background.

On the other hand, the new anti-alias options are the System Anti-Alias that uses the text smoothing method which can be found in Windows XP or Mac OS X; and Custom Anti-Alias, which provides expert level controls (such as oversampling, sharpness, and strength) over the anti-aliasing.

The enhanced features from Fireworks allow the users to have a complete toolbox of “sandpaper” for anti-aliasing of text graphics. Users can quickly and efficiently smooth the edges of any working text using the Fireworks application.

To utilize the anti-aliasing options, simply apply any text object through the Property inspector ot the Text Editor.

Anti-Aliasing Options

To help you further maximize the capabilities of Fireworks and its anti-aliasing features, the following is suggested:

1. For anti-aliasing to be useful and maximized, it is best to use it on larger font sizes.

2. Do not apply anti-aliasing features on a bitmapped font.

3. Do not export anti-aliased text as a GIF with the Web 216 palette. The reason for this is that the Web 216 palette does not have the colors that you will be using to properly anti-alias your text.

4. Anti-aliased text which is exported as a transparent GIF then placed in a web page with a background color will appear more aliased. This means that the text would appear to have jagged distortions in its curves and diagonal lines. It is better to just alias the text at the beginning since you will have the same result anyway.

And,

5. Always try one of the pre-set anti-aliasing options first before developing your final output. This is to help you achieve your desired appearance. Try out the Non, Crisp, Strong, Smooth or System options. If you still do not achieve your desired requirements, then use the Custom Anti-Aliasing option.

About The Author

Granny’s Mettle is a 30-something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: “Writing gives me pleasure� pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.”

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

About Color Printing Wholesale

Color Printing Wholesale is a company that offers a wide range of quality digital printing services from brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards and posters, to digital, inkjet and web solutions, as well as laminating services. For further information, visit their website at http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/POSTCARD/Postcard-Printing-Services.html

anna@rushprintingservices.com

This is not a comprehensive graphics course. We�re talking basic, simple �
words you want to hear. Two of these words are acronyms: jpg and gif. What
they mean, you don�t care. Just remember them.

a. Use jpg when your graphic is a photograph or like a photograph.
b. Use gif for everything else.

Easy, huh? Onward!

First, check out your scanner software. Read the manual or open up your
scanner software and start pushing buttons. Somewhere, you should be able to
choose the gif or jpg file format to save your scan in. It could be under
�Save As� or �Export,� or it could be in the box where you set up the
parameters before you scan. Experiment. Learn how to create the file format
you want before you go on.

We�re going to start with jpg and photos. Computer monitors only show at a
resolution of 72. So find out where you set the scanning resolution, and put
it at 72. If you print out your 72 scan, it will be terrible, so don�t print
it. On the web, it will be beautiful. Trust me.

Then, check your photo size. A two inch by three inch photo on a web page is
big! Shrink your photo either when or after you scan it. You�ll have to
experiment with what size you�ll want on your page.

You�ve scanned your photo at 72, and got it to the size you want. You must
now �Save As� or �Export� it as a jpg. You will probably have the option of
choosing �high,� �medium,� or �low� quality for your jpg. If at all
possible, save it as �low.� If numbers are given, try �3.� . Use the lowest
quality or lowest number that you can and still have an acceptable photo.
Which brings us to an axiom of web graphics design:

All graphics should be created in the smallest possible file size!

Smaller graphics files mean faster loading when a viewer opens your page. If
the loading takes too long, the viewer will not stay, much less buy
something. Smaller graphics files means a smaller storage needs for your
page, important when you are allotted limited server space. Sometimes web
browsers balk at loading huge graphics. Keep it small. Avoid headaches.

Moving on to gif files. Gif is used for graphics that have areas of flat
color, like the palm tree you made in your paint program. Read the manual,
and check out your paint program. You might have a paint program from which
you can save or export gif files.

If your paint program won�t export the art work as gif, no problem. Print
your art work out at a high resolution on good paper and scan it at 72, size
it, and save or export it as gif 89a. If your software just says �gif,� I
think you can safely assume it is gif89a unless your software is very old.

There is one important distinction between gif and jpg. In jpg, you must be
sure that your photo fills the picture window after you scan. If there is
white space around or on any side of the photo, crop it off, or it will show
up on the web. But in gif89a, the background of your picture will be
transparent. So, if you scan your palm tree on its white background and save
it as gif, what will appear on the web is just the palm tree. jpg would show
a palm tree on a white rectangle.

While saving or exporting in jpg, you had a choice of quality for your
finished product. In gif, you have no quality choice, but you may have a
choice of the number of colors to be used. The fewer the colors, the smaller
the file. So again, experiment with saving or exporting your artwork with
different numbers of colors until your arrive at a satisfactory graphic with
as few colors as possible.

There are really just three things you need to know:

1. jpg is for graphics that are photographs or like photographs.
2. gif is for everything else.
3. All graphics should be created in the smallest possible file size.

Got it? Go create!

About the Author

Ruth McIntyre-Williams
clovenstone@aol.com
Clovenstone Adventure
Novel

Then, heavy graphics cost you traffic: put up a web page that takes more than 10 seconds to load, and your visitors will run away faster than you can say �back button�. If you happen to be running an e-commerce website, you already know that traffic equals money, so heavy graphics will make you lose both.

Fortunately, there is a solution: you can optimize your graphics for the web. Your graphics should be in either .gif or .jpg formats (.gif works best for logos and navigation buttons, while .jpg works best for photographs.) The idea is to reduce the size of your graphics so that they take as few bytes as possible while retaining acceptable quality.

This can be done using free on-line graphics optimization tools. One of the best ones out there is Gifbot, by Netmechanic (http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm. They have a user-friendly web-based interface that works like this: you upload your picture, they process it, and almost instantaneously they will give you several lighter versions of your graphic for you to chose. Pick the image that takes the fewest bytes while still retaining and acceptable quality level. It is not uncommon to reduce the weight of a picture by up to 70% with no noticeable decrease in quality (especially if the image is in .jpg format.)

Another useful tip is to use thumbnails. Thumbnails are miniature versions of a picture that are hyperlinked to its actual size version. The thumbnail will load fast, and by clicking on it your visitors will be able to see the actual size version.

Use both of these techniques and you will have a faster loading website, while having more storage space and bandwidth available for that useful content your visitors are always looking for.

About the Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), a website and newsletter that gives you free advice on Internet Marketing, Web Design and Small Business. To subscribe go to: http://www.theinternetdigest.net/newsletter.html

Due to the limited number of colors, GIF is primarily useful in images with
a distinct separation of colors. A cartoon, for example, is ideal for the
GIF format.

When you save an image in GIF format, you have the option to specify how
many colors will be saved. By doing this you can decrease the size of an
image even further. All of the tools which are available to optimize GIF
images work by reducing the number of colors to the bare minimum. This can
produce astounding results in the size of the finished file.

Unlike JPEG, GIF uses a non-lossy compression algorithm. This means that
images do not loose bits when they are decompressed. In order to accomplish
this, GIF uses a proprietary encoding/decoding scheme called LZW (Lempel Zev
Welch). LZW is an excellent compression algorithm which typically results in
very small files (in comparison to fully expanded BMP files).

This compression method is actually the cause of a bit of controversy. As it
turns out, LZW is owned by UniSys, and over the past few years they have
made some attempts to collect licensing fees for products which save in the
GIF format. These attempts have had mixed results, and has caused the
development of a new non-proprietary standard called PNG.

You may indicate that a color in a GIF image is transparent, meaning
whatever is below the image will show through.

The GIF89a standard included animation, which basically allows multiple
images to be included in a single GIF file. In that image you can specify
the timing that the frames are shown and whether or not the animation stops
or loops forever.

Interlacing is a cool feature which allows graphics to be “faded in”.
Initially a very low quality image is displayed, and bits are slowly added
as the entire image is received. GIF supports this feature, which is useful
for displaying very large images quickly.

An interesting albeit little known fact about GIF images is that they can
include comments, which take up space and make the graphic larger. There are
a number of products which will remove these comments. I found that the
freeware program called GIFclean is simple to use and works well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This
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