Question about developing graphics

jag5311's picture

They have: 202 posts

Joined: Jan 2002

Hey all. Might as well introduce myself, im new to this forum, but i have chatted quite a bit at sic.com

Now to the questions.

I use Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0 and have adobe photoshop 5.0 I am interested in creating my own graphics for my background, like a header graphic or something like that. Kinda like Funniex with his scorpiocreation.com (menu off to the left as a graphic and top graphic). I think it is real slick but what i am confused about is getting that graphic to put itself tightly to the frame of the window. The left and top of the browser window. I am thinking of changing my layout of my site, gamecubecheats.net by adding some more color and having it less black. I have tried recreating the graphic of scorpiocreation as an example on my computer with Dreamweaver. But when i try to view it, there is a space about 1/2 inch of white space between the top of the graphic and the top of the browser window.

if you can help that would be great.

bryan

p.s. Is it best to create a graphic as ONE LARGE graphic and use it as a background image, or have a graphic broken into parts to apply to the site, and leave the background alone? Because when i create my site, i use 1 main table (about 750 in width) where all my info goes on(whether its text, more tables, layout cells, images, ect..)

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Your problem might be that the browser sets a default margin of 3 pixels around the page. GO into your page properties in Dreamweaver and set the margins there to 0. Also make sure that if you're using a table that you set the cellpadding and cellspacing to 0.

When you create graphics for your site you'll probably want to "slice them up" and put them into a table. The easiest way to do this is to go into Image Ready (and if you have Photoshop you should have this too) and use their slicing tools. If you don't have IR there are stand-alone programs that can do this.

You can also just set guides in photoshop to represent your table borders and then cut out the individual parts into separate graphics. Then go into Dreamweaver and piece together a table. It's often hard, though, to get the table right, which is why it's sometimes easier to get a program to do it for you.

When you're doing your slicing remember that your graphics are going to have to go into a grid on the HTML page (in a table), so try to keep the limitations of HTML in mind when you're setting up your slices. You wouldn't want to use your graphic as a background because then you wouldn't be able to add any interaction to it (links, mouseovers etc.)

Welcome to TWF by the way!

jag5311's picture

They have: 202 posts

Joined: Jan 2002

Thanks, that margin thing really helped. I guess the 3 pixels is standard for Dreamweaver, because the boxes were empty, but i still typed in 0 for each one. And it moved my logo and text up a little. I even tried it with that logo of scorpio, and it worked. thanks

Luckily i am taking a computer graphics course this semester at my university, so i will be able to do something hopefully with that

thanks

bryan

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Welcome to TWF,

Remember this - in DW if it is blank it means it will do whatever is default not that it means 0

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.