psp buttons

[Crystal]

Hiyas
I am sorry for not posting in a while, I was doing other things and I kinda
got off my web site, :(. I had more questions on buttons though. I am redoing my buttons. for the reason my pages is loading very slow with my pc, I dont know if it is just my pc or my pages it self, mabey it the operator lol, hmmm I am useing psp and am wondering if making my buttons in png will work better or gif? wich format should I use, see when I first started the page it loaded alot faster, but now it got slow why and how can I fix it please anyone? heeellllppppppppppppppppp! ok Ill hush now hehehe.

[Flash ho]

Hi Crystal,
Differant effects will compress in varying amounts, so you must experiment a bit to determine if gif or png will be better. In psp, after you make your button, go to file>export, there will be 3 choices there, png, gif, and jpg. Each has it's own compression setting. Play with each and differant settings in each until you get a happy medium between visual quality and small file size. If an image has any transparency (alpha) you will need a png or a gif as jpg does not support alpha. Where exact colour match is important, say part of button must match background, use gif as jpg will (could) change colours. For photos usually png or jpg is best, but not always. After you have exported and saved as whatever, psp will ask if you want to save settings on original, say no, to maintain the psp image in it's original high quality. Tip, build your psp button in layers, then editing is easier. Tip2 - export 5 or 6 buttons at various settings and view in your browser, after a little experience, you will gain a feeling of what comprtession to try and this process will be fast.
Which page is slow? I'll break it apart for you and tell you what the file sizes are for buttons, backgrounds etc. I have a feeling it is your BGs. or if you have animations, they can be hogs too. and music is also a screaming hog. :wink:

also - Once you compress, do not drag image into ws, and do not use insert or cool stuff. Ws will compress your image again! It may even change your format. and destroy all your hard work! You must use html object and attach image in content. A pain, but only way around ws automatic re compression.
Also, if your are using the same image on more than one page, place these images in a new folder called "images". create this folder in your root. Change your links from myimage.gif to /images/myimages.gif
See Gene's site for an expanation of this ws workaround. www.swipsey.com or maybe ws3 has corrected this?

Also, you can see the size of images and buttons etc, by going to your upload folder and look in the image folder of each page and view with "show details".

[fuhgedaboutit]

Richard,

In PSP what happens if I don't want to optimize? How would I save it as a gif/jpeg/png? Is that possible? You should post what you just did for Crystal in a toot for this site. (Thanks for the info.)

I still don't get why sometimes when I do something in PSP and post it, it doesn't always look as good.

Thanks

[Flash ho]

Hi Duster,
If you don't want to optimize , go to file and "save copy as" , choose gif, jpg or png. Always keep the original in it's original format and do any saves as copies. any exports as new name and don't save changes in original. That way you will always have original to edit for another use in the future, as well as being a layered image which is editable, as well as keeping any vector images scalable.

Posting an image should look just like it does on your desktop, Unless, you have been working at something other than 72 or 96 dpi resolution, then it will deteriorate. Not to keep bashing, but a web builder program that you are familar with will re compress it also, thereby reducing it's quality. Png's are not compressed and most browsers now see them, produces high quality, but also large file sizes. To produce scalable, clear , small file size, graphics use vectors and export as swf. ( psp at the moment does not do this) Other paint/photo editors do.
Hope that is clearer than Chianti.