Obtaining Images for Your Site

How do you get images? Essentially, three ways exist:

  • Scanning and manipulating photographic and printed materials

  • Working with clip and stock art and photography

  • Designing your own graphics from scratch or considerably editing other content to meet your needs

Sometimes you will employ all three methods to create a single image. It all depends on the look and feel you've planned for your site.

One thing to remember in the development of graphics for your Web site: If you begin with poor images, whether from scan or stock, you will end up with poor images.

To avoid that, you will learn some basic scanning tricks and then take a look at how to choose quality clip art, stock art, and photos.

NOTE

If you prefer to design your own graphics, an entire section of this chapter walks you step by step through Web graphic creation. See, "Creating Your Own Web Graphics," later in this chapter.


Scanning in FrontPage

Scanning is, in and of itself, an art. The good news is that for the Web, you don't need high-resolution scans. This translates into less money spent on hardware, as well as a shorter learning curve for those individuals wanting to get right to the business at hand.

For hardware, a flatbed color scanner or a digital camera is highly recommended. You can buy very inexpensive scanners that will work well for the Web. The guideline is in resolution because your final image will be 72dpi (dots per inch), you need a scanner capable of scanning only at this resolution. Just be sure that it supports millions of colors and will work with your computer and imaging software.

Here are some guidelines to follow as you prepare to scan your work:

  • Be sure that photos are crisp, clean, and free of dust.

  • Drawings and prints should be free of smudges and speckles.

  • The scanner screen itself should be clean and free of dust. Follow your manufacturer's guidelines when cleaning your scanner.

On the software side, FrontPage is all you need. The Insert, Picture menu has an option called From Scanner or Camera. Selecting this option opens the Insert Picture from Scanner or Camera dialog box (see Figure 45.1). This dialog box supports multiple scanning devices. You can select the scanning device to use in the dropdown list. It also lets you specify the resolution as Web Quality or Print Quality. Clicking the Insert button invokes the scanner's control. The actual software that does the scan depends on the scanner or camera type. If you want to add your scan to the Clip Organizer, select that option in the check box.

Figure 45.1. The Insert Picture from Scanner or Camera dialog box will let you scan or upload a photo directly into FrontPage.

graphics/45fig01.gif

After your item is scanned, you should crop it. Cropping an image removes any unwanted areas. At this point, you're probably working larger than any recommended Web graphic both in terms of dpi and dimension. For now, your crop is a preliminary one to remove any whitespace or extra information that you don't want (see Figure 45.2).

Figure 45.2. Cropping the scan.

graphics/45fig02.jpg

NOTE

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and represents how many pixels are stored per inch of your image. The higher the DPI, the bigger the image file. Whereas low-end printers print at 300 to 600 DPI, high-end professional printers go as high as 1200 DPI. On a computer monitor, you only need a DPI of 72. As a result, anything over 72 DPI will be lost on your computer screen.

Dimension is the length and width of your file. On a Web page, images only need to be an inch or two long because with DPI, reduction of the image size can greatly reduce the file size (and download time required).


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On occasion, you will find that certain items need a higher resolution scan to truly catch the feel of the image. If this is the case, scan the item at the needed DPI and then resize it to the 72dpi resolution.


The Crop tool can be found on the Picture toolbar. Click it once to enable the cropping boundaries. Move the boundaries by dragging the edges or corners. After you are comfortable with the crop marks, click the Crop tool again to complete the action.

Now you should look for any problems with the scan. Is everything smooth and crisp, or are there smudges and speckles? If the scan isn't acceptable, go back and do it right. It can be time-consuming, but it's well worth it.

If you're happy with the scanned results, set your dpi to 72. If you scanned in at a higher resolution (check your scanning hardware and software for adjusting this), you will see an automatic reduction in the image's dimension.

If you're at 72dpi, you're ready to make any adjustments to the scan. Make alterations to the color; blur or sharpen; and generally sweep, dust, and clean the image to your taste. FrontPage has a number of tools to help modify your scanned images, including Brightness and Contrast.

For more information on working with FrontPage's image tools, see "Enhancing Pages with Graphics and Multimedia," p. 113.


When you're satisfied with the size and quality of your image, save the file as a master image. If you decide to later resize the image or add an edge effect such as a drop shadow or bevel, work with a copy of the master image and retain the master image should you need to start over. It is best to save photographs in the JPEG format to maintain the entire range of colors.

If you're looking to create a page that is accessible across all platforms and browsers (no matter how old), you're working at 640x480 screen resolution. This includes pixels for your scrollbar and other screen real estate. No graphic should exceed 512 pixels in this case, with the exception of backgrounds, which will be explained in just a bit. As for height, some occasions exist in which you will be designing longer graphics; but typically, you want to stick to sizes that fit within the screen.

NOTE

The 640x480 screen resolution rule is pretty extreme. Most designers are working in 800x600, and many are designing for screens bigger than that. You will have to decide which resolution you will design against.

In some instances, you will want to design for higher resolutions in instances in which you are sure of the user. One example is a corporate intranet in which hardware and software specifications are highly controlled.


You're now ready to make additions or changes to your scanned image or to put it aside for later use.

The Microsoft Clip Organizer

The Office 2003 System ships with a common Microsoft Clip Organizer product that lets you organize your clip art pieces and easily access them from any program in the suite. If you are going to do any amount of work with clip art, this tool, seen in Figure 45.3, is easy to use and highly recommended.

Figure 45.3. The Microsoft Clip Organizer lets you keep all of your clip art pieces in one simple place.

graphics/45fig03.gif

For more information on the Microsoft Clip Organizer and how to use it, see "Enhancing Pages with Graphics and Multimedia," p. 113.


The Photo Gallery Web Component

FrontPage 2003 ships with a Photo Gallery Web component, which enables you to quickly organize photos within pages of thumbnails that are created and annotated automatically by the Web component. If you are going to use a large number of photographs at your site, this tool is recommended.

For more information on the Photo Gallery Tool and how to use it, see "Enhancing Pages with Graphics and Multimedia," p. 113.


Selecting Stock Images

Sometimes the right effect can come from a stock image resource. You can obtain stock images from Web sites that sell them or by purchasing them on a CD.

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Make sure that you have the legal right to use the image or photograph at your site. Most stock image sources have specific requirements to what you can and can't do with their content.


The following are some guidelines for choosing stock images:

  • Photographic images should be crisp and clear, not blurry.

  • Line drawings should have no marks or speckles on them.

  • You should be able to choose from the file type Typically, a JPEG file is acceptable, particularly if it has been saved to maximum capacity. Avoid optimized GIFs, unless you're going to use that file as is or make very minimal changes to it.

  • Read the licensing agreements very carefully You want to be absolutely certain that you have the legal right to use the image.

NOTE

Photodisc (http://photodisc.frontpagelink.com/) gives you a number of stock image options in which you are allowed to choose the kind of file you want to purchase options are available for file type as well as resolution.

Another great option is ArtToday (http://arttoday.frontpagelink.com), which provides links to numerous low cost options for everything from photos to clip art.


Free art sites are variable. You can find great stuff, but you also need to use the guidelines stated earlier to make good decisions when selecting from free clip art and photos.

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Just because someone claims that you are free to use a graphic from his site (a common claim at free graphics sites), it doesn't mean that you are. If he has no right to give you such permission, you can be penalized for taking it.




Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
ISBN: 0789729547
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 443

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