What is it about the Web that makes it so enticing? The flashy, spinning, dancing, endlessly colourful images? Or the never-ending cornucopia of textual information that is always just one click away, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Or is it perhaps both of these elements that make the World Wide Web so addictive?
Whichever you feel is your main reason for cruising the Internet highways and byways, the fact will always remain that for most surfers, the graphic element plays a large role in fulfilling the day-to-day needs of the average user.
Now somewhere along the line, someone has to be cooking up and serving this daily feast of eye candy and textual content. And that's where the graphics and HTML designers come in.
They are the ones that have to deal with all of the various problems and limiting situations that go with trying to please the masses with great content, nice page designs, and spectacular but fast-loading graphics, as they strive endlessly to create the perfect Web site. Fortunately they have at their command the tools to get the job done well.
Part of the problem they deal with relates to creating eye-catching Web page images that will layout well on a page, while entertaining a visitor without costing them a lot of time waiting for the graphics to download and render in their browser.
Understanding a bit about the medium and its limitations can help Web graphic artists fulfill the end user's expectations, as well as their own.
Poking the Pixel
Here's how to fine-tune your images to get the best quality you can.
Other Web Graphics Resources
Ponytails at the Web Developer's Journal
Here are links to all our articles having to do with the creative/artistic side of Web development.
Web Tools Download Page
Lots of freeware and shareware tools to get you started. Graphic editors, animation utilities, and all kinds of other multimedia goodies.
Photoshop 5.0 Review
The latest version of this industry standard graphics tool.
Web Graphics and Design Books
Read our reviews of the latest books about Web page design, Web graphics and desktop publishing, and even order them online from Amazon.
