Graphic Elements

What is the place of graphic elements on a Web site?

Each graphic element should be used with care.

A Web page graphic can occupy a large number of kilobytes and, even with the relatively fast modern modems, take a long time to download. There are many Web sites with wonderful information but they are visually unattractive. One should strike a balance between bland text only pages and glaring, demanding pages that have an exuberant graphic design with flashing words and moving objects everywhere. 

Check the portfolio of a chosen graphic designer before making a commitment.

There is a saying that a picture can say a thousand words

You should use a web graphic to enhance the experience that visitors will have when they  visit your Web pages.

One of the advantages of seeking professional Web designers is that they should have access to a graphic designer or they may outsource to graphic designers.

Photographs, page backgrounds, diagrams, buttons and flowcharts are important graphic elements in conveying information. You can scan photographs and enter them onto Web pages. Digital cameras are ideal for creating photographs. There are many excellent graphics programs eg. Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop and CorelDraw. I find flowcharts particularly helpful. The flowcharts displayed in this book and on my Web sites have been developed with Visio, which I have found to be  excellent graphic software.

You can purchase graphics on CDs or by downloading them from the Internet. There is also a vast selection of graphics available from the Internet without charge. Keyword searches on 'clipart', 'backgrounds sets', 'buttons' and 'photographs' will provide thousands of sites. You will be amazed at the number of buttons and backgrounds that some Webmasters have created. When downloading graphics from the Web, it is advisable to ensure that you are not infringing copyright if you are planning to use the graphic on your Web site. Some Webmasters will indicate that their graphics may be used free of charge or there may be specifications that they are not to be used on a commercial site. 

How are graphics saved on a Web site?

There are several formats for saving graphics. The two most common formats for saving graphics for the Web are GIF and JPEG. Most graphics design tools will provide a means to save your artwork in these formats.

 

What is the place of GIF format graphics?

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) contains a maximum of 256 colours and stores the graphic in a compressed  manner. As the resulting memory requirements are low, GIF graphics download quickly. GIF images are saved with .gif extensions.

 

What are animated GIFs?

A series of GIFs can be created to provide an apparently moving image.

What is the place of JPEG format graphics?

The JPEG format is ideal for colour photographs because up to 16.7 million colours may be stored. JPEG files are saved with .jpeg extensions. The compression ratio of JPEG is not as high as GIF so that memory and download times are greater. It is advisable to keep graphics as small as possible to avoid delays with downloading.

 

Paintshop Pro is an excellent multipurpose graphics program. For flowcharts I recommend Visio.