Web Page Design

<IMG> Is Worth 1000 Words

IMAGE USAGE
What makes the Web "The Web?" The graphics, of course. As much as people bitch about it being so slow, it wouldn't be nearly as fun and exciting without the images. A few miscellaneous items about images on the Web:

• Resolution on the Web
  Resolution on the Web is 72 dpi -- anything more is a waste, so resize (and reduce) all those monster "for print" images. 200 dpi is a No-No on the Web!
  

• Downloading Is Slow
  Figure on 1k per second for an average download time -- a 30k image can take a half minute to transfer. Yes, YOU may have a T1 line or a shiny new 56k modem, but most people don't.
  

• Case Matters
  When you heave your masterpiece up on to the webserver, make sure you're using the right file extensions (.jpeg or .jpg for JPEG images, and .gif for GIFs) in lowercase, and that you reference them that way in the HTML. If you have a file named "image.jpg" on the server, and the HTML coding is "image.JPG" the picture won't load -- it'll appear "broken" in the browser. Welcome to UNIX.
  

• Alignment
  An image will default to the left side of the page, but it doesn't HAVE to -- you can "align" images to the right, left, or center. If you put an image into a block of text (like this) and ALIGN it to the RIGHT, you can have the text "wrap" around the image. It's a nice way to break up a page. Once you get into building tables, you have much more control over where your images and text go and how they relate to each other.
  

• Image Maps
  An image can function as a link to another page or website. You can use a single image to link to multiple URLs by creating an Image Map. Using an image mapping program, you define areas on an image that become links.
  
  

• JavaScript MouseOvers
  People love these -- there's just something cool about running your cursor up and down and all around a good "MouseOver." But these things are programmed in JavaScript, and that's a level above HTML. There are bunches o' books and wondrous websites that can "Learn You JavaScript In 5 Days" and some that will let you nick the code you need to make your own mouseover. Just Cut-N-Paste. You'll have to understand a little of what's going on to modify it for your own site, though.
  
  
  Whee! What fun!