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Graphics, which ones, what programmes


Alii

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Hello everyone,Firstly, thanks for such a wonderful wealth of information in a manner that is both informative and useful.I have reasonable IT skills in the basic programmes, but when it comes to which photo editor to use, and which graphics design programme I am lost. I have played around with Photoshop, Illustrator and a myriad of others. I think I may be confusing graphic design with photo editing programmes. Whatever I am doing I seem to spend a lot of time getting no where as some programmes will do only some things I need, and only save files in certain formats, while others do other things and perhaps save in other formats. I would like to know which programme/s are best for general graphics and photo work with relation to websites. Or should I be using Dreamweaver or NetObjects? Anyone care to comment on the use of these and their associated programmes instead of coding manually.Many thanks for you help.Ali

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Well, I guess to some extent, photo editing and graphic design go hand in hand. You can't have graphic design without graphics, and you can't have graphics without photo editing. Programs I've used are MS Paint, GIMP and Photoshop CS.As for coding, I would recommend you use a text editor like notepad or textpad to write your code from scratch, instead of a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver/FrontPage. You learn a lot more from it, and it's easier to achieve exactly what you want by customising your html/css directly...

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I use Xara X and Photoshop CS to make my designs. I start with Xara X that are vector based so i can get a nice design with out getting the quality lowered when useing resize. Add to make the last details i use Photoshop CS

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The GIMP is one of the most versatile tools available to a graphics artist. It might take a while to get used to, but it's very easy to use after you've figured it out. I'll post some stuff when i get back.

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First off, you should be coding manually - otherwise you'll leaving yourself open to doing more work in the long run - I prefer Dreamweaver.Photoshop has a well known reputation on any platform for being the best graphics and photo editing software.

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Thanks to all who replied. I will take a look at all the programmes you suggested. Does anyone know of a good tutorial that teaches file types for graphics and when and which to use etc for web building?Thanks again.Ali

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As far as still images, you are really only limited to .gif, .jpg, and .png. There are similarities in .gif and .png where .jpg is sort of on its own.This is what I do:.jpg - only used for more photo realistic images/graphics - usually compressed at 60% but often don't compress it at all if its less than 300px wide..gif - used for any layout graphic which is made from scratch and would typically be composed of less than 1000 colors..png - never use simply because I understand it to not be supported by several browsers and its not an official web mime type file - so there is not standard that justifies its use.

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http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/png-gifGIF (stands for Graphics Interchange Format) was developed in the late 1980's and it is still widely used. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) was developed around 1995, became a W3C recommendation in 1996, and has been widely implemented in most Web browsers as soon as 1998.
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But that's IE, isn't it, so that doesn't count... :)I'm thinking it will be supported in IE 7 though, or Microsoft can be considered a joke. Oh, wait...

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Yes it will be supported in IE7...regardless of our opinions or the fact that Microsoft is sticking it's head in the sand when it comes to Web Standards...they do count...they count for 85% of all users/browsers.As much as it sucks to work around IE...IMO...we have to! :)

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I suspected you were kidding...believe me...I hate IE as much as the next guy...but even 60% over developers that come ot w3schools still use IE...I fear it will not go away nearly fast enough especially witht eh release of IE7.IE7 will still not be web standards complient, but it will appease many users and developers by mimicking many FF features and fixing some bugs (that are a direct result of lack of web standards complience)...just bite the bullet already and do a rewrite...stop adding more band-aids!!!!!

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When i am home i use AOL explorer it kinda reminds of FF in a way with a nice layout and nice funktions ^^but I agree that IE are doomsday. if you use IE the possibility to get spyware and adware are highly at the riskzone. And most of the elemental tags in webdeveloment are not supported well until IE 7 but who thinks it will work ? :)

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With this statement, I mean no offense to any AOL users around. It's my personal opinion. OMG AOL SUXXORS!IT does! They make you pay so much for low speed, then they give you a crappy (sorry) browser, and then you reach the poverty line by paying for high speed, when you can buy verizon dsl in some areas for 14.99!Aol users really need to wake up. Dial up is to handwriting as cable is to the laser printer....Choco

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I dont pay for mine AOL explorer evento i downloaded it from there homepage. :) it might not be very good but are better then IE atm. When i got time i will install FF :)

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Or should I be using Dreamweaver
first off dreamweaver is web development tool.but anyways back to topic i had ur same problem a wile back but now i use fireworks and that is what i would recomend but if u would like to go the freeway i have herd that the gimp is good.
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The GIMP is amazing. It is a very nice program, equal to if not better to photoshop---not to mention the price of $0.0 :)If you do download it and ever need any help or tips, don't hesitate to ask me. I'm the forum's resident gimp lover. :)

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