| Q1: | Shouldn't I just hire a graphics artist to design my pages instead of learning all this stuff? |
| A1: | If you have plenty of money and need a visually impressive siteor if you think that ugly building with chartreuse trim that people are always complaining about actually looks pretty nicehiring some professional help might not be a bad idea. Remember, however, that you probably know what you want better than anyone else does, which often counts more than artistic skills in producing a good web page. |
| Q2: | I've produced graphics for printing on paper. Is making web page graphics much different? |
| A2: | Yes. In fact, many of the rules for print graphics are reversed on the Web. Web page graphics have to be low-resolution, while print graphics should be as high-resolution as possible. White washes out black on computer screens, while black bleeds into white on paper. Also, someone may stop a web page when only half the graphics are done. Try to avoid falling into old habits if you've done a lot of print graphics design. |
| Q3: | I have a Windows AVI video clip. Can I turn it into a GIF animation? |
| A3: | Yes. Simply open the AVI file with Animation Shop to convert it to a GIF animation. (You are given the option to reduce the number of frames; it's usually a good idea to sample every third frame or so to keep the file size down to reasonable proportions.) You can also embed AVI files directly into web pages, as discussed in Hour 19, "Embedding Multimedia in Web Pages." |