Sams.net Publishing. 1996. 400 pages
Who Should Read This Book
The Web without graphics is like pretzels without salt or Madonna without controversy. It’s not that you haven’t been exposed to graphics over the years; it has been most intense since your telephone bill’s Inteet charges began to approach your mortgage payment. Unless you are a designer by training or study, you are much like a person who has been exposed to food for most of your life but still know next to nothing about food, biochemistry, or nutrition. Your idea of nutrition may be Spam on Wonderspun with Hawaiian Punch. A power lunch is a Snickers bar and a Diet Coke. Just being exposed to food doesn’t give you food knowledge. Just being exposed to graphics doesn’t give you graphics knowledge.
This book takes your love of Spam and shows you how to fix lean, healthy, appealing graphical meals that you’ll be proud to show your friends. This book is directed to Anyone who has an interest in how graphic images are used in electronic publications. Much of what is discussed in this book is applicable to multimedia, portable documents, and traditional page and publication layout and design.
o Casual authors of Web materials. You want to try your hand at making your own Web site because, gee, the technology is just so daed interesting.
o Serious Webmasters, mongers, meisters, and wireheads who know they’re visually challenged, they but also realize that great graphics are an integral part of great Web pages.
o Managers who have to review and evaluate the effectiveness of Web graphics.
o Artists and designers who create resources for Web publishing. Although you probably don’t need to be a Webmaster yourself, understanding the peculiarities of Web graphics will make you a more valuable member of the Web publishing team.
What This Book Contains
This book isn’t a tutorial. Instead, it is a resource of visual examples you can use for inspiration. It’s written so that you can jump into whichever topics are of immediate interest, or spend a little more time in dialogue with the authors. You’ll find many of the topics presented as tasks—instructions you can follow to gain a greater understanding of the role graphics play in effective Web pages.
o In Part I, Fast Track to Web Site Design, you get a quick overview of the issues that will conce you when making Web graphics. You’ll lea a technique for analyzing Web function, the relationship of graphic images and HTML code, and how good design enhances communication. You’ll be bombarded with examples and techniques. Finally, you’ll be able to review the examples in Chapter 6, Presenting Effective Web Graphics, and lea why they work.
o Part II, Survival Skills for Web Design, presents much of the technical information found in this book. This section shows techniques for planning the structure of your Web site and shows how to enhance intrasite navigation.
o Survival skills are presented in Part III, Survival Guides for Web Graphics. The chapters in this section should answer your how did they do that? questions. If you ever wanted to make your own graphics, this is your ticket. If you find yourself having to hire artists to work on a team, these chapters give you portfolio-evaluation ammunition.
o Part IV, Additional Graphic Topics, presents the high gloss of Web graphics. You’ll want animation—both 2D and 3D, movies, and high resolution images. You know virtual graphic worlds are just over the horizon. And you know that there is no way you can create all these yourself, so you need to know what resources are available.
o Tools to assist you in creating Web pages and graphics on the enclosed CDROM. These tools include software utilities that you can use right away to make your job easier. Also included are files of graphic elements that can be used directly or as examples for your own inspirations
Who Should Read This Book
The Web without graphics is like pretzels without salt or Madonna without controversy. It’s not that you haven’t been exposed to graphics over the years; it has been most intense since your telephone bill’s Inteet charges began to approach your mortgage payment. Unless you are a designer by training or study, you are much like a person who has been exposed to food for most of your life but still know next to nothing about food, biochemistry, or nutrition. Your idea of nutrition may be Spam on Wonderspun with Hawaiian Punch. A power lunch is a Snickers bar and a Diet Coke. Just being exposed to food doesn’t give you food knowledge. Just being exposed to graphics doesn’t give you graphics knowledge.
This book takes your love of Spam and shows you how to fix lean, healthy, appealing graphical meals that you’ll be proud to show your friends. This book is directed to Anyone who has an interest in how graphic images are used in electronic publications. Much of what is discussed in this book is applicable to multimedia, portable documents, and traditional page and publication layout and design.
o Casual authors of Web materials. You want to try your hand at making your own Web site because, gee, the technology is just so daed interesting.
o Serious Webmasters, mongers, meisters, and wireheads who know they’re visually challenged, they but also realize that great graphics are an integral part of great Web pages.
o Managers who have to review and evaluate the effectiveness of Web graphics.
o Artists and designers who create resources for Web publishing. Although you probably don’t need to be a Webmaster yourself, understanding the peculiarities of Web graphics will make you a more valuable member of the Web publishing team.
What This Book Contains
This book isn’t a tutorial. Instead, it is a resource of visual examples you can use for inspiration. It’s written so that you can jump into whichever topics are of immediate interest, or spend a little more time in dialogue with the authors. You’ll find many of the topics presented as tasks—instructions you can follow to gain a greater understanding of the role graphics play in effective Web pages.
o In Part I, Fast Track to Web Site Design, you get a quick overview of the issues that will conce you when making Web graphics. You’ll lea a technique for analyzing Web function, the relationship of graphic images and HTML code, and how good design enhances communication. You’ll be bombarded with examples and techniques. Finally, you’ll be able to review the examples in Chapter 6, Presenting Effective Web Graphics, and lea why they work.
o Part II, Survival Skills for Web Design, presents much of the technical information found in this book. This section shows techniques for planning the structure of your Web site and shows how to enhance intrasite navigation.
o Survival skills are presented in Part III, Survival Guides for Web Graphics. The chapters in this section should answer your how did they do that? questions. If you ever wanted to make your own graphics, this is your ticket. If you find yourself having to hire artists to work on a team, these chapters give you portfolio-evaluation ammunition.
o Part IV, Additional Graphic Topics, presents the high gloss of Web graphics. You’ll want animation—both 2D and 3D, movies, and high resolution images. You know virtual graphic worlds are just over the horizon. And you know that there is no way you can create all these yourself, so you need to know what resources are available.
o Tools to assist you in creating Web pages and graphics on the enclosed CDROM. These tools include software utilities that you can use right away to make your job easier. Also included are files of graphic elements that can be used directly or as examples for your own inspirations