Chapter 19: Slicing and Dicing Images

Overview

In This Chapter

• Finding out about the different types of slices

• Creating slices

• Resizing and combining slices

• Duplicating and linking slices

• Optimizing a slice

• Copying the optimization from one slice to another

• Creating image maps

• Assigning a URL and alternate text to an image map

• Duplicating, moving, and reshaping an image map

• Previewing a Web page in a browser

• Adding browsers to the Browser List

• Setting a default browser

Slicing is the essential technique for creating rollovers and animations in ImageReady. (Rollovers are areas of a Web page that change when the mouse passes over them or performs some other action such as clicking.) When an image is divided into individual slices you can save each slice as an individual file (and file type) that contains separate color palettes, color settings, hyperlinks, rollovers and animations.

Slices are great for dealing with large images and images that contain different design elements. If an image is very large, it can be divided up into slices. The set of small slices can then be downloaded onto a Web page much faster than the entire large image would. If an image contains an area that uses a GIF animation, but the rest of the image works better as a JPEG, you can separate the GIF animation from the rest of the image as a slice and optimized as a GIF, while the JPEG area is separately optimized.

Using layers or tools in ImageReady, you can create image maps, separate areas that are linked to different Web addresses or URLs. When visitors arrive at your Web page and click an area in an image map, they are transported to another Web page. Image maps are an integral part of any Web page and are easy to create.

In this chapter, I show you how to use slices and image maps to take your Web graphics from ho-hum to fasten-your-seatbelt awesome. You’ll find out how to create slices, slice large images for faster loading, and create image map hotspots with attached hyperlinks. In addition, you’ll learn how to reshape image map hotspots and how to preview your work in ImageReady or a browser.