 Mechanical Monkey Graphics reference. Welcome to the Mechanical Monkey graphic page. A picture can say more than a thousand words is what they say, true as that may be, on the internet the pictures are counted in bytes and kilobytes. In other words an image saying more then a thousand words can often demand a lot more space then the text would. Typically images can range from 5 to 100 kilobytes even after you have tried to make them as small as possible. You should therefor think twice before loading your web pages with lots of images and little colorful icons. In worst case your visitors will ignore your page completely due to lack of tolerance to wait for all the images to be loaded. Some users (including myself) turn of the image loading in the browser to avoid this. If something seems interesting then the user may load the images. So also consider that your page should be able to put forward your information without the use of images. So only use images that will enhance your page and do not put unnecessary large pictures of for instance your shoe collection. Most web browser are capable of starting external programs to view images so they can in principle be saved in a variety of formats. However the standard format for web images are GIF (Graphic Image File Format) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). The big differences between the two formats are: GIF images are saved in 256 colors and less, thus making them most suitable for icons, logos and text. Jpeg uses up to 24 bit - true color and can be saved in different degrees of intensity. The two formats also treat compression of the images differently. This means that JPEG format is most suitable for photo reproduction. JPEG is clearly better for gradients and images with many colors where gifs can be decreased in size depending on amount of color required. GIF can also be saved as an animation and especially very importantly with transparent backgrounds (so called GIF 89a). We recommend that you use these formats to be sure that all users can see your images. Most modern paint and image programs can save images in these formats. If your image program does not allow this or you do not yet have an image program installed we suggest that you download a shareware copy of Paint Shop Pro which is one of the better programs for producing web images. If you are not handy with image programs or just do not have any ideas for yourself then go back to our previous page and you will find links to ready made graphics and buttons. It is important how you name your graphics files because after a while you will have collected many of them and it will make life easier for you when you want to find a specific image. To implement your own image on your page you will need to scan or create your object first. Scan images at 150 dpi or higher but reduce them before saving. One very important thing to remember is that all images on the internet are displayed at 72 dpi (dots per inch). So if you save an image in 300 dpi you will only be wasting space since all screens will display the image at 72 dpi. It is however better to scan an image at a higher resolution and then to reduce it. Next you will have to send your image by FTP to your to your home page location. Also keep in mind to transfer the images in Binary form so it is not sent as ASCII or Text. For ease you should have all images in a separate folder from your HTML text and then point to it in the HTML code. For instance lets say that you will save an image named "test" in a folder called "images" doh, then you will need to apply the following tags Remember to keep the images small, use Gif or Jpeg format and do not exceed 72 dpi. Also consider your screen resolution as some people still only use 256 colors at 640 x 480 screen resolution so if you are using true color with 16.5 million colors at 1024 by 768 pixels then the image will appear very big on the users screen. Well anyway good luck painting.
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