One recent article was completely devoted to "Transparent
images for www graphics" -- it was very prestegious looking. Then I get calls
about this from some readers. You really don't want transparent images... they won't
show up at all... what you want is a transparent background. The image itself shouldn't
be transparent. Okay... so it's semantics... nuff said! (Next month we'll do "transparent
backgrounds" and you'll see that it's so simple it doesn't merit as much press
as it's getting!)
If you haven't yet purchased Photoshop upgrade version 3.0.4
or 3.0.5 and you're wondering about the new GIF plug-in, here's a tip that could
save you enough bucks to buy a SyQuest cartridge: you don't need 3.0.5 to run the
plug-in. The propaganda sez buy the plug-in. Several readers inquired
about this so we snooped around. (You don't need the plug-in at all, but it does
have some cool features we'll talk about next month.) I called and bought the 3.0.5
upgrade to get the promised plug-in. It arrived exactly like 3.0 with the exception
of another meg added to the Photoshop application, and the version change (3.0.4).
No plug-in, no 3.0.5 upgrade.
I called Adobe to find out where the missing goodies are,
and was told "Oh, that's not on the CD... the CD is the same as the 3.0.1 CD...
you'll have to download the 3.0.5 updater and the GIF Plug-in from our WEB site!"
(So, why the hell did I spend money to BUY the upgrade???)
Off to the web site I went and after three truncated download
attempts and nearly an hour of connect time, I jumped off and downloaded the plug-in
and updater from AOL in about ten minutes. You'd think a company as big as Adobe
would buy some server muscle... the efficiency of the through-put went down to 900
to 1,500 bytes per second while attempting the download at 28.8 baud. The AOL transfer
effeciency wasn't the best but ran about 3,800 bps. C'mon guys... if you can't stand
the heat, get out of the kitchen. I'm still steamed over the CD purchase rip-off.
They said you can't run the GIF plug-in on 3.0. We tested it and the plug-in appeared
to work just fine! The resulting test files appeared to be identical from 3.0 to
3.0.5. I'll bet it even runs on 2.5. Perhaps Adobe just wanted to extort another
million or so of creamy, no-cost profits from the web frenzy.
I called Adobe to find out about this and got zero. A two-hour
phone vigle revealed nothing but tight-lipped, shrugging shoulders and astonished
responses. One Tech person said "Oh no, the 3.0.5 upgrade is required in order
to run the plug-in." Of course I knew it was untrue, as the fellow was speaking...
perhaps he didn't. Several e-mails sent to the Adobe personnel at their site are
yet unanswered -- after two weeks.
Here we see the typical scan or imported pict file. (This
one's of me standing on the lawn at Apple Computer headquarters. The cow-dog and
paint brush are actual sculptures in the yard) Notice all the colors? It's telling
me the photo has 256+ colors. Do we believe it?
Next we see the image after I've given it a serious trim.
Folks, there's nothing magic about this. GifConverter did this all along, as did
Transparency. However, Photoshop gives us a bit more power over the image. We can
selectively reduce colors and actually see what the results will be. I trimmed this
from 256 on down to 34, which reduced the file size from about 280 down to under
30. Nice. I actually went further... to 24 colors, but lost too much fedility, so
backed out to 30. In the GIF dialog box I reduce colors, then hit "Preview"
to proof the results.
This is one of the powerful features of the plug-in. (By the
way... these were all done, and demonstrated in Photoshop 3.0 just to say I did!)
Select "Adaptive" then start trimming. By trial and error -- key in colors,
then hit "preview" to compare the results. (Keep the original window open
for a visual comparison.)
Click on "Transparency Index" to select the color
you want isolated for transparency. We'll talk more in-depth about this in another
issue.
That's it for this month. Next time we'll pass along some
real tips for web graphics, and debunk a few more popular myths about Photoshop.
Until then, think smart, work smart and your creations will run faster and look better...
you bet!
Oh yes... don't forget to write!