Choosing the Image Format

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The Export wizard does a good job of analyzing banner ads for you, but normally you will want to take control over the image optimization and export settings.

Picking the correct image format is crucial to the optimization process. The most popular file formats for Web graphics are GIF and JPEG. GIF images are generally used for line art and images with solid colors. GIF images can contain transparent areas and can be used for animation files. The disadvantage of GIF images is that they are restricted to 256 colors. JPEG is generally used for photographic images or images with gradients and more colors. JPEG files cannot be transparent or used in animations.

You use the Optimize panel to pick the formatting options for exporting the file or for each slice. To take more control over the optimization process, you will want to set the optimization for each slice.

1.

Open the home_page.png file in the Projects folder that you've been working on.

You can open the home_page_L8.png file in the Lesson08 Start folder if you no longer have your file; then rename that file home_page.png and save in the Projects folder.

2.

Choose Window > Optimize to access the Optimize panel. Choose GIF from the Export File Format pop-up menu.

You can also click the disclosure triangle to open the panel if it is docked in the panel group.

If you choose GIF as your export file format, you need to pick the color palette for the export. GIF files can be up to 256 colors (actually, only 216 colors; the other 40 colors are used by the operating system and the browser).

3.

Choose Adaptive from the Indexed Palette pop-up menu. Change the number of colors to 256 in the Colors pop-up menu.

The color palette is a group of colors used in the image. Fireworks contains ten preset palettes for you to use.

The following list describes the default palettes:

  • Adaptive: Creates a custom palette containing the majority of the colors in the image, whether or not they are Web-safe colors.

  • WebSnap Adaptive: Creates a bridge between the Web 216 palette and the Adaptive palette. Colors within a tolerance range of seven color spaces are snapped to the closest Web-safe color.

  • Web 216: Displays a palette of 216 colors that have a similar appearance on both Windows and Macintosh computers. This is sometimes referred to as a Web-safe or browser-safe palette because it generates the most similar results on different platforms and different browsers. Each color in the image is replaced with the closest Web-safe color.

  • Exact: Contains the exact colors in the image when the image contains 256 colors or less. If the image contains more than 256 colors, the WebSnap Adaptive palette is used as the default.

  • Macintosh: Contains 256 colors as defined by the Macintosh system colors.

  • Windows: Contains 256 colors as defined by the Windows system colors.

  • Grayscale: Displays a palette of 256 (or fewer) shades of gray. Using this palette converts your image to grayscale.

  • Black & White: Displays a palette of only two colors: black and white.

  • Uniform: Displays a mathematical palette based on RGB pixel values.

  • Custom: Gives the user the option of importing another color palette saved from Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop.

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    Macromedia Fireworks 8(c) Training from the Source
    Macromedia Fireworks 8: Training from the Source
    ISBN: 0321335910
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 239
    Authors: Patti Schulze

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