'Graphics and Image' Category Archive

Posted on Jun 10th, 2007

PDF ( Portable Document Format ) is a great way to make sure that the files sent to clients, partners, suppliers, solicitors and consultants can be viewed on all computers with the same look and feel.

You might know how burdensome is to send files to clients, partners, suppliers, solicitors and consultants just to find out that the look and feel of your document has changed or worse still, the document could not even be read at all?

You might as well have similar problems when files are sent to you. Could the effectiveness and efficiency of your team be improved by knowing that every time you send or receive a document, it can always be viewed exactly as it was created? Do you have hundreds or maybe thousands of newsletters, manuals, technical papers and product specifications that you need published on the internet, intranets or on CD?

These common problems are why many companies have already defined PDF (Portable Document Format) as their company-wide publishing standard. Over 200 million users worldwide can now read PDF format documents.

The PDF document format provides the following business benefits:

Documents always look exactly the same, for all senders and receivers of a document, regardless of the hardware or software used.The documents act as colour, electronic fax machines but with much higher quality and speed. Documents can be distributed worldwide for almost zero cost and then be digitally printed in small or large volumes, at any location. The documents can be magnified by up to 1600%, with no diminishing of quality. The documents can be navigated by keyword search, table of contents or hyperlinks. This greatly increases their usability.The format is ideal for presentations, since PDF documents always look exactly the same on all platforms. The file format is very compact, so files can be sent quickly to recipients. The file format is ideal for archiving, since the look and feel of documents is retained and the document size is compact The file format is essential for business documents like agreements and forms that must retain their exact appearance for legal reasons. For example, this may apply to application forms, tax returns, licence agreements, tender documents, quotations and logos. FASTER, BETTER, CHEAPER All these advantages translate into faster, cheaper and less complex viewing, navigating, storing and printing, for business documents. So digital, document workflow throughout the company can become more reliable, with richly formatted PDF documents maintaining their very high quality, regardless of where they are sent or who views the documents. PDF is truly a global, document exchange format.

By using PDF documents within your own company and encouraging and/or subsidising the cost of purchase of PDF software, with your partners, suppliers, legal firms, accountants and various outside consultancies, then more and more of your business documents can be exchanged digitally. The benefits to the business are faster delivery, better customer service and lower costs.

There are some great tools on the Internet that can create PDF files from any application, as easy as printing the document to a Virtual Printer driver. For example: PDF Writer Pro: http://www.amicutilities.com/pdf-writer/, or you can google for more.

Alexandru Marias is an IT student, maintaining software sites such as http://www.downloadsplaza.com and http://www.fungamesplaza.com

Posted on Jun 9th, 2007

Wondering how to surprise your wife for her birthday or your anniversary? How does a Flash animation of all of her favorite photos, complete with a musical background sound?

Flash SlideShow Builder (developed by Wondershare) is a fun and easy-to-use utility to create stunning Flash slideshows, complete with music, text, photo motion & transition effects and many selection album templates. With this slideshow software, you can take your favorite digital photos, and easily turn them into amazing Flash photo album in minutes to share your special memories with your friends and family.

There are many benefits for you to create a great presentation that can be cherished over and over again.

1. Create Stunning Flash Slideshows

You may have taken a lot of digital photos of different occasions with your digital camera. Looking at the still photos is fun already, why don’t you add more fun to them by turning them into stunning Flash slideshows? Each slideshow can tell a full story! You can add different music to your photo slideshows to make them funny and even touching stories. You can also add text to your photos to describe them. What more, you can also select your favorite transition and photo motion effects for your slides, which will enhance your Flash slideshows and make professional-quality results.

2. Long Lasting

Your digital album will not crease and deteriorate over time. So why waste valuable time and money with physical photos albums which turn yellow with age and are expensive to make copies of? Just turn them into Flash photo album, and save them on your local Hard drive or publish it on the internet. Thus, your photos and animations can be kept everlasting!

3. Share You Digital Photos

You must want to share your special memories with your friends and family. Why not send your Flash slideshows to them as special gifts? Just share your created Flash over the web, through email, or generate the EXE file for easy distribution. It’s your Art to Share!

Wondershare is a developer at digital software. Find out how color your digital life can use Flash SlideShow Builder at http://www.flash-slide-show.com

Lu Lu, teaches, trains, and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters.

Posted on May 30th, 2007

Aliases? I thought this is about IntelliCAD. And this isn’t the secret service or so. I know. But aliases have to do with IntelliCAD.

If you want to start a command, then you can click on a button in one of the toolbars. But you can also type a key in the keyboard.

Suppose you want to start the Line command. You can click on the Line button in the Draw 2D toolbar. But you can also press the L key.

Press the L key and press the right mouse button. Or the Enter key. And the Line command is started. You can now draw a line or lines.

The L key. That’s called an alias. It’s an alias for the Line command. There are many aliases in IntelliCAD. You can have a look at them.

Click on Tools in the menu bar and on Customize in the pull down menu. The Customize dialog box opens. In it are four tabs.

Click on the Aliases tab. You’ll see two list boxes. In the listbox at the left are all the aliases. In the other listbox are the commands.

Click on an alias in the list box at the left. The command that belongs to the alias will be highlighted in the list box at the right.

All the aliases are stored in the IntelliCAD program. But you can change that. Maybe you want to change an alias.

Click on the New button. The Alias edit box below the list box at the left will be activated. Here you can type the name of the new alias.

Next select a command in the list box at the right. And then lick on the Assign button. The command is now assigned to the new alias.

You can check what command is activated by using an alias. Click on the name of an alias in the list box at the left. The command is highlighted.

In the Customize dialog box you find the New button, the Delete button, and the Assign button. You know how you can use the New button and the Assign button.

The Delete button can be used to delete an alias. Select the alias in the list box at the left. Next click on the Delete button.

At the bottom of the dialog box are four more buttons. There you find the Close button, the Import button, the Export button, and the Rest button.

The Close button is clicked to close the Customize dialog box. You were doing something with aliases and now you want to go back to IntelliCAD.

Let’s first talk about the Export button. You have created your own aliases. And now you want to save them in a file.

Click on the Export button. The Select Alias File dialog box opens., In it you can give the alias file a name and select a folder.

The alias file can be saved in two formats. You can save it in the ICA format or you can save it in the PGP format. That’s an AutoCAD format.

This is how these files look. I only give the first five lines of each file. You can recognize the alias and the command that’s connected to it.

 ICA file[IntelliCAD Custom Alias File]nAliases=247 [Alias-0]Alias=3ALocalCommand=3DARRAYGlobalCommand=_3DARRAYPGP file; BricsCad Generated PGP file.3A,*3DARRAY 3DFACE,*FACE 3DLINE,*LINE 

Now the Insert command. You have created your own aliases. And you have saved them in a file. Now you want to use that file.

Click on the Import button. The Select Alias File dialog box opens., You can now select your alias file. It is opened and used.

All the aliases are generated by the IntelliCAD program. They are not stored in a file. And now you have created your own aliases.

If you want to go back to the way as generated by IntelliCAD, then click on the Rest button. The aliases you created are removed.

Aliases. As you can see. It has nothing to do with the secret service. It has everything to do with nIntelliCAD.

It is in fact a feature that is also found in AutoCAD. Some users prefer to use the keyboard to start a command. True. It’s quicker.

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Jos van Doorn. IntelliCAD dealer. I’ve got a shocking report. About AutoCAD. Get it. Send me an e-mail with "Shocking Report" in the subject line. Send your e-mail to:

mailto:cad-solutions@hotmail.com
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Jos van Doorn. IntelliCAD dealer. I’ve got a shocking report. About AutoCAD. Get it. Send me an e-mail with "Shocking Report" in the subject line. Send your e-mail to:

mailto:cad-solutions@hotmail.com

Posted on May 26th, 2007

Making custom brushes is one of the easiest things in the world. Seriously! I don’t know why I’ve read some tutorials that make it out to be this multi-step, intimidating process. Creating your own brushes helps to customize both your artwork and the Photoshop work environment.

The Hard Part

"But … you said this would be easy!!" Technically, yes, but I’ve found that some people actually reach a little stumbling block when trying to think of what would make a good brush. Well, the short answer is ANYTHING! I’ve made brushes out of fuzzy leopard slippers, bananas, old trash cans, fabric swatches, dirt … hundreds of things. It helps to have a scanner and/or a digital camera … that really opens up your possibilities. Just a quick walk around your house might yield dozens of fun textures you can make brushes out of. But, even if you don’t have either of those, you can often snurch some good textures off the internet. Try a google search for marble tile and see what comes up. Sometimes you’ll get a nice big image to work with. I’m not condoning stealing someone’s art photos to rip a brush off with, but if it’s just a sample photo of tile, or fabric, or screen, or whatever, I think it’s perfectly fine … you’ll be drastically changing the image in the next steps anyway.

The Next Steps

Okay, so you’ve got some good textures then? Right, let’s make a custom brush out of ‘em! Open up your image in Photoshop. The first thing you’ll want to do is desaturate the image (Shift+Ctrl+U in PS7). Then cut and paste what you’ve got into a new layer. Now delete the background layer. Once you’re down to just the single layer, mess with the brightness/contrast until you get the desired effect (this will require you to think a little bit about how you might use the brush in the future - will you be wanting to use it as a ‘grunge’ effect … something more technical … etc. etc.)

http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut1.jpg ( The starting image)

http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut2.jpg (The desaturated image)

http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/img/tutorials/brush_tut2.jpg (After messing with brightness/contrast)

The Super Easy Part

Now that you’ve got the image looking like you want, you’ll need to create it as a Photoshop brush. Go to ‘Edit’ then choose ‘Define Brush’. Give your new brush a name and that’s it!! Easy, huh?

Saving All Your Hard Work

There are few things worse than having hundreds of cool brushes gone in an instant. It’s happened to me on one occasion where my hard drive fried out and I didn’t save all my customized Photoshop stuff. So I’m going to help you avoid any tragedies and tell you how to save your brushes.

Once you’ve got an amount of brushes made (I personally like to create ’sets’ of brushes that all kind of work together, or just happened to fit my mood that day!), go to ‘Edit’ then choose ‘Preset Manager’. A window with all your current brushes will pop up. You can click on each little square individually. What you’re going to want to do is shift+right click on the series of brushes you want to save. Once you’ve done that, click on ‘Save Set’, give the set a name and save it to your computer (of course these brush files are what you’re going to want to back up!). There, you’re done!

How To Get Other Custom Brushes Into Your Pallet

If you’ve found a cool brush set on the web and you’d like to use them, after you download the file (usually a zip file), you’ll want to extract them to your Photoshop/Brushes directory. To load a brush set in Photoshop, open the Brushes Palette (’Windows’, ‘Palettes’, ‘Show Brushes’). Select Load Brushes from the menu on the Brush Palette and choose your file. That’s it!

Sherry is the Senior Designer and Creative Director at Southern California studio, JV Media Design.

Posted on May 24th, 2007

On August 8 2005, Macromedia announced it’s release of Macromedia Studio 8. This was an improvement of it’s already popular MX2004 Version.

I have been using the new Dreamweaver 8 for the last few weeks and have observed noticeable improvements that I will describe here.

The first improvement that i noticed was the new top and side rulers. This is very helpful in lining up table and layers accurately.

Also, If you like to work with the code, Dreamweaver has a new feature where you can compress a certain line of code and hide it on the left hand pane. This allows you to hide code that you are not working with, and open it up at anytime if you decide to play with it.

One of the best new features is actually something I had a small gripe with in MX2004. In the previous version, when updating your site with the server, you had to sit there and wait while it uploads all your files. The new version fixes this. In Version 8, you can upload your entire site, AND continue working while your files upload in the background. This is a great new feature.

A couple of other new features and improvements worth noting are:

1. The new CSS Panel - Improved editing and working with your .css styles.

2. The ability to zoom in and out of your webpage.

3. A new coding toolbar

If you haven’t already, I would recommend getting the new version of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. You won’t be disappointed. Dreamweaver comes with some great tutorials as well. If you’re not familiar with the program, I would suggest going through all the tutorials.

Jason Cooper aka The Rich Nice Guy has been involved with Internet Marketing for a number of years and is an emerging force in the area. Visit http://www.therichniceguy.com to find out more! You may use this article as content for your website or ezine as long as this tagline remains unchanged.

Posted on May 17th, 2007

Macromedia’s Studio 8 Suite Academic Software Package

Macromedia Dreamweaver

My first choice for HTML editors is Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. It has an easy to use, intuitive user interface and state of the art design tools. With a customizable user interface, you can work the way you need to. Although the student software doesn’t come with manuals, Dreamweaver has excellent online tutorials.

You can design intricate CSS-based layouts and designs easily with tools that allow for quick selection and control of page and site wide style properties. There is a built in graphics editor that uses Macromedia Fireworks technology. Dreamweaver allows you to develop HTML, XHTML, XML, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, and Macromedia ColdFusion websites.

It has a cross-browser code validation feature that automatically checks tags and CSS rules for compatibility across all the leading browsers and allows you to configure browser preview for multiple browsers.

One of the nicest features is the Property Inspector that enables quick, comprehensive property editing that makes getting it perfect a no-brainer. This is the editor I use to create and maintain all of my web sites. I have used all of the professional and many of the other HTML editors available and can say that Dreamweaver is absolutely the best HTML editor. Since Dreamweaver is taught in most graphic design curriculums, it inclusion in the academic software package is needed.

Macromedia Fireworks

Fireworks is Macromedia’s answer to Photoshop and is included in the student software package. Fireworks has all the tools a web professional needs to create everything from simple graphical buttons to sophisticated rollover effects. You can import, edit, and integrate all major graphics formats, including vector and bitmap images and easily export Fireworks images to Flash, Dreamweaver, and third-party applications.

Besides all of the normal features you would expect in a professional photo editing program, fireworks includes new interactive design features and the ability to create pop-up menus in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) format without the need for programming. One thing Fireworks does exceptionally well is batch processing. I use Fireworks batch processing all of the time to optimize entire directories of photographs. I can resize and optimize 50 photographs in just a couple of minutes.

Macromedia Flash Pro 8

Flash is the industry leader for creation animation and video movies for streaming over the internet. Flash creates movies with surprising small files sizes. That translates to quick download times and the availability to use flash animation on slower links and mobile devices and comes complete with tools for video creation especially for mobile devices. Flash pro 8 provides everything needed to create great looking videos. Since flash is being used more frequently is essential that it be part of an academic software package.

Macromedia Contribute

Contribute is Macromedia’s answer to the problem of content management. It provides the ability to change the content of a website without having to know anything about HTML, but does not need all the expensive software and databases that a regular content management system uses. Contribute allows companies to buy an inexpensive tool that lets them provide content without messing with the design. Contribute is a solution that is custom-made for small to mid-sized companies that don’t need all the power of CMS, but would like some of the benefits. Being included in the academic software package will give students an opportunity to see how a very simple CMS system works.

Macromedia FlashPaper

FlashPaper generates compact, fast-opening Flash documents that can be published to any website using Macromedia Contribute, Dreamweaver, or any other HTML tool. FlashPaper creates Flash documents through intuitive Microsoft Office integration and file drag and drop. Create Flash documents that are immediately available cross-platform on any web browser. Compact Flash documents open within a web page, eliminating the need for a separate viewer application. Flash documents can also be incorporated into Flash projects. Adding this to the student software package allows the student to experience using a very handy tool.

Adobe Creative Suite 2.0 Premium Academic Software Package

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the graphics industry standard and my choice of photo editing software. I have to admit I love Photoshop. You can create original images or modify photos using a wide range of painting, drawing, and retouching tools. You can work the way that’s best for you by creating personalized workspace and tool settings and customized keyboard shortcuts. You can achieve sophisticated results by compositing images, text, and effects on hundreds of layers that you control by grouping into sets, color coding, and locking. You can simulate traditional fine-art techniques with dry and wet brush effects, pastel, charcoal, and more and even use brushes to add special effects such as grass and leaves. There are tools to improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image, easily remove dust, scratches, blemishes, wrinkles, and other flaws with the Healing Brush. Photoshop can give high quality output by working with the complete raw data files from most major digital camera models. It’s great all-around imaging software. Photoshop is taught in all graphic curriculums and had to be included in the student software package.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is also taught in every school’s graphic curriculum and is another essential part of a student software package. It is also an essential tool for anyone who needs to express ideas visually in print, on the Web, and in any other medium. When my clients send me a rough pencil drawing of the logo they want for their business, I create the logo in Illustrator then import into Photoshop to get it ready for their web page. Illustrator has great 3D features, advanced typographical controls, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) integration and enhanced printing options. Illustrator will help create and efficiently publish your artwork anywhere.

One of the nicest features is the ability to apply live effects without affecting the underlying artwork, so you can edit at any time without starting over. There are blending modes and transparency effects similar to those in Photoshop software but, unlike Photoshop, Illustrator has intuitive tools such as the Pencil, Smooth, Erase, and Pen tools.

Adobe InDesign

InDesign is the best page layout software available and is the choice of most print design professionals. With the advent of paid subscription totally-digital magazines, it is getting popular for laying out the print like pages of these products. It can integrate with both Photoshop and Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) file formats and supports the multiple layer capability of Photoshop. It is an all around necessary tool for the professional graphic designer. Although not usually covered in most curriculums, it is a welcome addition to any academic software package,

Adobe GoLive

GoLive is Adobe’s answer to Dreamweaver. It has all of the features that you can find in Dreamweaver and is integrated directly into the rest of adobe products. Personally, I prefer Dreamweaver but golive is an excellent HTML editor and completes the suite for a web designer. Although usually on touched in classes, GoLive is welcome addition to any student software package.

Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat is the number one tool used to create the widely used PDF document format. With its built in security features that can prevent the user from copying or changing the document and the ability to require a password to open the document, acrobat is still one of the leading choices for creating paid e-books. This program is an absolute necessity for a web designer and therefore a welcome addition to the academic software package.

Adobe Version Cue

Version Cue is a file manager that tracks the different versions of the files you create with the graphics as well as some others. It is a very nice tool if you have several people collaborating on a project since you can maintains a complete change history of the files.

If you are a student, teacher or educational institution that qualifies for the academic software discount price, please visit http://www.sprysoft.com to see what is available.

Posted on May 16th, 2007

If you are a graphic artist, you probably have several different graphic programs gathering dust and taking up disk space on your computer because you probably have one or two basic programs that you use all the time. These will either be the ones you learned first or have come to appreciate over time for either their features or their ease of use.

But, what any serious graphic artist really needs is a complete set of integrated programs to satisfy your creative urge such as Macromedia Studio or Adobe Creative Suite. However, these packages are very expensive and usually beyond the means of someone who is just starting out, like a college student.

Luckily, if you shop smart, you can save a great deal of money when purchasing these products. One of the easiest ways to satisfy your need for high-performance programs is to purchase the academic software version. Academic software packages are also commonly referred to as student software. If you attend any accredited educational institution you can probably qualify for student software purchases which can save you a lot of money. Academic software packages are the same programs sold to businesses but priced so students, teachers and schools can afford to buy them. The only requirement is that you agree to use the software only for education and not for commercial business purposes.

Most academic software packages are designed for student use in classroom environments where thy have access to their instructors as well as other students. As a result, student software packages do not usually include user manuals or any other materials normally included in the “full” boxed retail version of the software.

The availability of free online tutorials (try Googling "free tutorial") can compensate for the student software package’s lack of a printed user’s manual. However, many of these programs come complete with excellent online help files and built in tutorials so there are more than enough resources available for you to learn everything you need to master even the most advanced software features.

These academic software packages allow you to save anywhere for 60-80% off the retail price. Major software companies specifically designed the student software packages to allow students to learn their craft on the latest versions of professional software. They do this for two reasons: to be good corporate citizens and contribute to educating students and for sound business reasons. The software companies know that most people will use the first software package they learned completely throughout their entire career as long as it still meets their professional needs. This simple marketing strategy crates lifelong customers for these software companies.

You will have to prove that you are a student or teacher to purchase academic software packages. All you will need to do is send a copy of your staff ID, student ID or class schedule along with your order. If you believe that you are eligible for the student software discount, contact your school’s bookstore or, to save even more, order it online from an academic software reseller.

If you are a student, teacher or educational institution that qualifies for the academic software discount price, please visit http://www.sprysoft.com to see what is available.

Posted on May 6th, 2007

Not long time back building designs & drawings was a pain in the neck by the hand using the conventional pen and paper on a drafting table. This soon changed with the advent of the desktop computer, which gave rise to Computer Aided Design (CAD). For more information you can check this URL : http://www.bluentcad.com. Changes can be made in a jiffy without having to redo the whole drawing, which was earlier a tiresome process.

Now with CAD in picture, which is known as Computer-aided design, you need not fear about many of your drawings that are lost or destroyed, there is a booming service industry, which is at your doorstep to create computerized CAD drawings & designs in 2 Dimension & 3 Dimension of existing buildings.

CAD can be utilized for architectural as well as mechanical services. CAD is a hardware & software combination that caters to architects, engineers and consultants in the real estate & manufacturing industry globally.

CAD can be used for 2D drafting, 3D modeling, animations , interactive presentations, data managements, 2D - 3D CAD modeling & animation, architectural CAD, mechanical CAD, drafting and design, 2D 3D graphics, paper to CAD conversions, structural CAD drawings , 3D visualization.

In Mechanical CAD services it can be utilized for 2D Drafting, 3D modeling, 3D assembly, 2D - 3D sectional views.

The best way to have a good idea of CAD is by having a visit at this URL http://www.bluentcad.com). This one gives you some idea of the services which can be offered by CAD.

I hope the above information, which I have shared with you, is going to be resourceful.

Webmaster -http://www.bluentcad.com CAD@BluEnt.com

Posted on Apr 7th, 2007

As a technology guy, I’m often asked about the software I use for various applications. The most recently asked for application is "How do I edit my pictures after I take them with this neat new digital camera?" The simplest, best program I have found is one called Picasa offered free by Google. Why Picasa? Ease of use is the first reason, as it’s just double click on an image and you can crop, reduce red eye, or brighten a picture in just a few easy clicks. My favorite reason for using Picasa is one that has nothing to do with editing pictures, and everything to do with finding my pictures on my hard drive. When you first launch Picasa, it asks you if you want to search your whole hard drive for images. Definitely say yes, and you’ll be surprised at where some of your pictures might be hiding, as not everyone is as disciplined as me and puts all their photos in their My Photos folder on their hard drive.

Just as important as image editing is image re-sizing. Just because you have a shiny new digital camera does not mean that you should e-mail full MB shots to everyone in your address book. Instead, take the time to re-size your pictures before you send them so they don’t take hours for your friends with dial up to download, and so it doesn’t clog up your and your friend’s families inboxes. The easiest way to do this is with a neat little program called PicSizer. PicSizer allows you to re-size complete folders of images with just a few clicks. This is also a free piece of software, and one that is quite simple to use. Simply select the folder with the big pictures, select a new folder to put the smaller pictures in, select the size of the pictures you wish to re-size too (I recommend 25% or smaller of the original size) and away you go. Simple as that.

The last piece of software is one that is a little more advanced, but one that you can easily learn to use and love, and it’s called GIMPShop, a take-off on the $599 Adobe Photoshop product used by image editing professionals. You can do some cool editing with GIMPShop, things you can’t do with many other free applications. Oh yeah, did I mention, GIMPShop is free, just like all the other software I mentioned?

To find these great resources, it’s easiest to just go to http://www.google.com and insert the name of the software you’re looking for (Picasa, PicSizer, or GIMPShop) and you should be transported to the site you need to get the software to make it great!

Phil Gerbyshak challenges you to stop having a nice day. Instead, Make it Great! While life might be tough, the only thing you can change is YOU! Whether you think the glass is half-full or half-empty, remember that both are only perceptions. What’s true is that you have a choice on how you want to deal with the 6 ounces of water you have in your hand. Read more of Phil’s ideas at http://makeitgreat.org

Posted on Mar 19th, 2007

So let’s begin crunching down these 300 images using Adobe Photoshop from start to finish. When I say ‘crunching’, to some 300 images may seem like allot, but it’s not. I have done jobs for clients that have 100,000 plus images. When you have that many images to produce there are other programs I use that are designed for this. We’ll cover that another day.

To this point we have ensured that our images are web ready, cropping, retouching, watermarking, etc. So let’s get at it. I will assume that we are all using Adobe Photoshop version 6 or greater.

First we will go to the ‘file’ menu and select ‘Automate" shown here http://weprintcolors.com/screens/screen_dw_create_photo_menu.htm. Now you are ready to create the theme of your photo album by filling in the required textfields. Remember to be as brief and descriptive as possible, as this information gets published on all html pages generated by Photoshop. This is where Photoshop is seems to offer more that Dreamweaver. You will notice the first pull down menu ‘styles’. There are many different horizontal and vertical styles available. The second menu allows you to enter an email address that you may want to be available to your visitors. However, I advise against it. Remember that thing called SPAM. Then next pull down menu allows you to specify .htm or .html extensions. Now we’ll click the ‘browse’ button and locate your image source folder. Click the ‘destination’ folder. This folder should be located somewhere in you website folder. If you don’t have one, make one. ‘Options’ is, again an area that Adobe seems far more thorough that Dreamweaver. The ‘options’ menu let’s you specify every aspect of your photo album…size of small thumbnails, size of large thumbnails, add custom colors to better tie into your corporate scheme. Remember to complete the ‘site name’, ‘photographer’, textfields tactfully; this is what tells the search engine what your subject matter deals with.

Are you ready now? Go ahead click OK. Like magic your photo album manufacturing itself. This is a great tool that can be used commercially or just for fun. Create commercial product pages for your clients or create an online photo album for family and friends in minutes.

Robert is the marketing director of an online print and design firm http://www.weprintcolor.com. Robert covers all aspects of graphic development and digital media designs.

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