Learn Adobe Photoshop Tips & Tricks by doing... in The Design & Publishing Center
Joyce Evans tests Media Lab's new PhotoWebber... continued from previous page


PhotoWebber produced an instant Web page from my PSD file in 3 steps -- keeping the layers, transparencies and objects in the correct positions.

You don't even have to import all the layers. And there is an option to select only the layers you want. Of course, there were a few caveats. Let's take a closer look at this intuitive program. Figure 1: Application window with test file

Preparing PSD Files
If you didn't produce with PhotoWebber in mind, there is some work involved in getting your PSD file ready for conversion into a Web page. For example, PhotoWebber uses a naming convention for rollovers and popups—button (main), button_r (rollover), button_p (popup). Once you understand the naming convention, just name the images accordingly and there won't be any extra prep time at all.

Compression
The press release promises, "You have total control on file format and compression options." Well, not quite, but close. By selecting each image you can control the file format, number of colors, to dither or not, or the JPEG quality setting. The biggest drawback is that you don't have total control with GIF transparency. If you are using Style Sheets, then your GIFs are transparent by default. But if you are using the table layout then you have to check the "drop background box" in the Properties palette under layers. The bottom line is with GIFS it's an all-or-nothing decision. The other notable drawback is that there is no preview of your image compression in PhotoWebber; but I am told this is on the feature list for version 2. Figure 2: Optimizing a GIF in PhotoWebber

The good news is, after I chose the settings I wanted for each image the page weighed in at 47kb. Not bad for an almost instant Web page.

Continues next page -->


Photoshop . . | . . The Design & Publishing Center

Thank you for visiting The Photoshop Wing of The Design & Publishing Center , http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/Tips/ Copyright 1992 through 2001 The Design & Publishing Center, all rights reserved.