As an effort to make this blog faster I am getting away with images. It is funny how things take full circle. When I began blogging I used to blog without images.

One of the problem then was where to find free images.

After I solved that problem, I used image in every post on regular basis. The image was always loosely based on the content being written and sometimes puerly decorative.

This exercise use to take extra 10-15 minutes where I go to the relevant site and search for the image based on the keyword that represented my article.

Then I use to sieve through the various possible iamges to select one that was most appropriate.

In spite of access and my willingness to go through the process, I do not have the time to do the things that would eat my time.

There is another thought ot this. Photograph would increase the time taken for a webpage to load nd I do not want that to occur. A slow loading webpage results in poor user experience.

Therefore I have decided to say Goodbye to the images especially the ones which are just dedcorative.

The blog would have pure content now on regular basis.

How do you like blogging? With or without images. Please share your views.

There was a time when banners were a great marketing tool. But time passed, other things entered and banners were considered to be not that effective. But still I see everybody using banners on one occasion or other.

It is a fact that not many people click banners but it is not that people do not click at all. Banners are still part of your arsenal in your home business arena. They are good to put your brand into people’s minds. They are very valuable in building affiliate program.

Therefore, marketers still use them.

I personally think banners are great branding tool. They appear to me like billboards on highways promoting the companies. If it is a good looking banner people do pay attention.

You cannot ignore banners at all. Get few for your site too. As usual there are two choices

• Do it yourself

• Hire a professional

If you would like to do it yourself then you need to have a graphics editor. We discussed few good graphics editor in recent post. You would need to build image from the scratch. There are different standard sizes of the banners which have evolved with time. They are also given different names according to their sizes. Banner size is measured as width X height in pixels. Here is the list of standard banner sizes

• 728×90 – Leaderboard
• 468×60 – Full Banner
• 234×60 – Half Banner
• 180×150-Rectangle
• 336×280- Large Rectangle
• 125×125 – Square Button
• 120×600 – Skyscraper
• 160×600- Wide Skyscraper
• 88×31 – Microbar

No boy stops you from building your own size. But it is better to be aware of the trends

As we discussed for graphics, following points are important to remember

• Make it very simple! Flashy and fancy banners repel visitors
• Make it readable without needing to strain.
• Adding an action call like buy now or click here would greatly increase the chances of click through.

It should not be ugly and it should not be so heavy that it takes ages to load.

There are some online sites which would offer you banner templates or let you build a banner online using their services

• Creative Connectivity – http://www.crecon.com allows you to download banner templates which you can customize using your graphic editors

• Quick Banner – http://www.auickbanner.com provides dozens of free templates and online customization.
• Coder.com offers a free banner generator online service.

There are many more. Just conduct a search

Other option is getting them made. If you are not a professional graphic designer from the start, you will need a learning period before you can become good at it.

Here are few good resources to outsource your banner work

• Bannerworkz http://www.bannerworkz.com/
• Lounge Lizard http://www.loungelizard.com/
• Animation.com http://www.animation.com

You can use animated banners too. Animated banners are a couple of gif images strung together by an animator program. First you need to use a graphics editor to build a series of gif images. Then you need to use an animation program to string them together. This will program the banner to display each image after an allotted period of time and the banner appears to be animated.

One word of caution! Do not use too many images to make a animated banner. This would make your file extremely heavy.

You can try Ulead’s Gif Animator http://www.ulead.com/ga/runme.htm. A trial version is available and actual versin comes at quite affordable cost.

There are services that will let you build free animated banners online. Here are two services I could find quickly

• www.quickbanner.com/

• www.creatingonline.com.

Good Luck with your banner campaign.

There are many kinds of formats that are used in making of images. But types images commonly used on the web are fewer. Today we would discuss the most commonly used [tag-tec]images formats on the web[/tag-tec].

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format):

In 1980 CompuServe Information Service popularized the Graphic Interchange Format as an efficient way to transmit images across data networks. It was adopted in 1990 by the World Wide Web due its efficiency and widespread familiarity. Majority of images on the Web are now in GIF format, and the format is supported by all web browsers.

[tag-tec]GIF[/tag-tec] files use a compression scheme to keep file sizes at a minimum, and they are limited to 8-bit (256 or fewer colors) color palettes. Also the GIF compresses large fields of homogeneous color better than pictures with many colors and complex textures.

With conventional (non-interlaced) GIF graphics, the browsers downloads one line of pixels at a time from top to bottom, display each line of the image as it gradually builds on the screen.

In interlaced GIF files the image data is stored in a format that allows browsers to build a low-resolution version of the full-sized GIF picture on the screen while the file is downloading. It gives the reader a idea of the full area of the picture while the picture downloads.

The GIF file format also allows you to combine multiple GIF images into a single file to create animation. The animations can be made to play again and again and again if looping is allowed. GIF animations are used in many a banners over the web

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group):

This graphic file format commonly used on the Web to minimize graphics file sizes is the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compression scheme. Unlike GIF graphics, JPEG images are full-color image or true color images.

JPEG can achieve incredible compression ratios, squeezing graphics down to as much as one hundred times smaller than the original file. But increasing the [tag-tec]JPEG[/tag-tec] compression progressively can degrade the details of the image:

Once an image is compressed using JPEG compression, data is lost and cannot be recovered from that image file. It is always better to save an uncompressed original file of your graphics or photographs as backup.

Portable Network Graphic (PNG):

Portable Network Graphic is an image format developed by a consortium of graphic software developers as a open source alternative to the GIF image format.

PNG graphics offer a range of attractive features including a full range of color depths, support for sophisticated image transparency, better interlacing, and automatic corrections for display monitor gamma. PNG images can also hold a short text description of the image’s content, which allows Internet search engines to search for images based on these embedded text descriptions. At this moment almost all of the major browser support [tag-tec]PNG[/tag-tec] format.

For practical purposes all formats are good and a difference is usually not appreciated by common eye. You can choose any of the three web graphics you are comfortable with.

Good Luck.

Graphics are essential part of your website. Not only they make your site more appealing, they also make your product look more professional. A judicious dash of graphics would always help your site to perform better.

However, you need to be careful with use of web graphics. Web graphics, if used in excess can distract, irritate or repel your customers and will increase loading time.

However a header, logo, product images and order button are the graphics which are almost a norm.

All of these graphics are used to create an effect about your website and product. They help to brand your business and your products. If there were no logos, people would have difficulty in making brand images. Your header gives recognition to your website and your product images create an aura around your product.

Your header can be as simple as your website name with a simple background or a canvas of multiple images. Whatever you choose, just be careful to match your site them with it. It is not a good idea to have a scenic beauty picture as your header if you are in bakery business.

Your logo can be just name of your website or any theme matched picture. Your logo doesn’t need to be elaborate. Please pay a visit to the following examples. See how simple their logos are

• http://www.amazon.com/
• http://www.ticketmaster.com/
• http://www.petsmart.com/
• http://www.google.com/
• http://www.cdnow.com/

They are simple, easy to read and functional. If they can be so successful with their simple and direct approach, you can be too.

Here are two logo resources which you will find handy. Cooltext is free to use and for you to play with and Gotlogos will create a logo for you against a nominal fee.

• http://cooltext.com
• http://gotlogos.com

Product graphics are another essential requirement that you would need to make or get made.

Again, like anything you have two choices. Either do it yourself or outsource.

If you are planning to outsource them, here are some good names in the field

• http://www.miniwebsitepro.com/
• http://www.eCoverMonster.com/
• http://www.Outlaw-FX.com/
• http://www.EcoverDesign.com/
• http://www.ECoverFX.com/
• http://www.CheapCoverz.com/
• http://www.trendyecovers.com/
• http://www.BlingCovers.com/
• http://www.A1eCovers.com/
• http://www.ebook-designer.com/
• http://www.Ebook-Cover-Art.com/
• http://www.Ecover-Dude.com/
• http://www.KillerCovers.com/
• http://www.VirtuaPack.com/
• http://www.AbsoluteCovers.com/
• http://www.ecovergeeks.com/
• http://www.thegraphicsdragon.com/
• http://www.HyperCover.com/

To do it yourself, the first step is to find some graphic software. Here are the good ones

Adobe’s Photoshop

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html

It is very powerful and considered as top-notch. However, it is also expensive and tough to learn. The following programs are simpler to use, cheaper, and almost just as powerful if you pertain yourself to web graphics.

PhotoImpact

http://www.ulead.com/pi/runme.htm

Fireworks is from Macromedia and integrates seamlessly with their WYSIWYG editor,Dreamweaver

http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/

Paint Shop Pro

http://www.iasc.com/

A word of caution! Keep your graphics to basic minimum. That way your website loads faster and is more user-friendly. Keep your graphic files as light as you can without compromising the quality and size.

Remember, for best performance you need a dash of graphics and not a bash of graphics.

Good Luck.

When it comes to [tag-tec]web design[/tag-tec] or any kind of computerised [tag-tec]graphic design[/tag-tec], [tag-tec]Adobe Photoshop[/tag-tec] is the market leader. Why?

Let us find out

Photoshop was originally designed for print graphic designersas evident by the selection of features available. It is truly a software for professionals. However Photoshop also supports all the important web formats to help you prepare images for the web.Now it even comes with a special tool, ImageReady,which will help you to cut up your designs into parts that can be used on a website, and write some HTML for you.

Photoshop is also used in television, film and DVD preparation. It simply provides almost every feature you could ever want, and is constantly ameliorating. Each new version makes the existing features easier to use, which is significant given how revolutionary some of Photoshop’s functions were considered just a few years ago.

You can do things that were once thought impossible with nothing more than a few clicks.

Photoshop can make such impressive changes to images that a term for it has come about on the web: ‘Photoshopping’. Photoshopping is when you take an image and modify it using Photoshop so that it becomes a convincing, but fake, new image. The technique has gained fame from several incidents of fake images being spread across the web and even in the established media: Photoshop can produce output so real looking that even experts have trouble spotting it.

Photoshop is extremely expensive: it costs well over $500 with a restrictive license that only lets you install the program on two computers.

You can download free trials of both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements from http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/.

Arun Pal Singh

P.S.

If you’d be interested in a slimmed-down, cheaper version of Photoshop that has everything except the professional print output capabilities, you should take a look at Photoshop Elements.