Nav Button and graphics Question

[Robert]

Just a few questions

1) What do people usually do for nav buttons graphics or text or I
guess it is a Preference?

2) What are some good tutorials for learning to make some cool looking
nav buttons?

3) What programs are recommended for graphics on the web Photoshop or
Fireworks? Are there many others people use?

Thanks a lot


Robert

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

Just a few questions

1) What do people usually do for nav buttons graphics or text or I
guess it is a Preference?

Depends on the site: does it get accessed frequently? Do the buttons
/change/ often? Who are the users? What is their connection speed? What are
the capabilities of the Web server? What is the site presenting? There is
no definite answer and the issue is very subjective.

2) What are some good tutorials for learning to make some cool looking
nav buttons?

The GIMP has scripts which produce nice-looking buttons for you. You need
only input the text.

3) What programs are recommended for graphics on the web Photoshop or
Fireworks? Are there many others people use?

I used Paintshop and Photoshop in the past. I now use the GIMP exclusively.
The GIMP is becoming very wide-spread and Paintshop is still used by many.

Thanks a lot


Robert

Hope it helps,

Roy

 

[mbstevens]

Just a few questions

1) What do people usually do for nav buttons graphics or
text or I guess it is a Preference?

2) What are some good tutorials for learning to make
some cool looking nav buttons?

3) What programs are recommended for graphics on the web
Photoshop or
Fireworks? Are there many others people use?

Any image may be used for the background of a button,
but there are some advantages in using real text over this
background.

Here are articles that may be of some help:
http://wellstyled.com/css-nopreload-rollovers.html
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/imagemap/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taminglists/

(I've stopped using buttons altogether -- just don't
see any design advantage.)

 

[Travis Newbury]

I used Paintshop and Photoshop in the past. I now use the GIMP exclusively.
The GIMP is becoming very wide-spread and Paintshop is still used by many.

GIMP is awesome for the price (free) and there is really nothing you can
not do for a website with GIMP. You also have to try hard to find a
reason to pay for Paintshop rather than use GIMP. Photoshop on the
other hand is complete overkill for a website. It is on a totally
different level than GIMP. Photoshop is to GIMP as Gimp is to MS Paint.

 

[Travis Newbury]

(I've stopped using buttons altogether -- just don't
see any design advantage.)

Ascetics is the only I can think of.

 

[mbstevens]

Ascetics is the only I can think of.

Yeah. Some designers think the metaphor of a physical
button is a good good looking. I don't like the
aesthetic of things that imitate other things --
artificial flowers, wood pattern table tops made of
plastic...
Yucch.

 

[Travis Newbury]

Yeah. Some designers think the metaphor of a physical
button is a good good looking. I don't like the
aesthetic of things that imitate other things --
artificial flowers, wood pattern table tops made of
plastic...
Yucch.

For me, plastic plants are better than dead ones. (and I am talking
about plants)

 

[Travis Newbury]

...aesthetic...

That will teach me to pick the first choice of my spell checker wthout
looking....

 

[mbstevens]

That will teach me to pick the first choice of my spell
checker wthout looking....

'is a good good looking. '
And that will teach me not to cut and paste without
proofing.

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

GIMP is awesome for the price (free) and there is really nothing you can
not do for a website with GIMP. You also have to try hard to find a
reason to pay for Paintshop rather than use GIMP. Photoshop on the
other hand is complete overkill for a website. It is on a totally
different level than GIMP. Photoshop is to GIMP as Gimp is to MS Paint.

Are you a GIMP user? And if so, how long have you used it? It's not
rhetorical, I would like to hear an answer...

Roy

 

[Travis Newbury]

Are you a GIMP user? And if so, how long have you used it? It's not
rhetorical, I would like to hear an answer...

No I am not. I use Photoshop. But I suggest GIMP to everyone that can
not afford (or doesn't need) Photoshop. There are a ton of GIMP
tutorials out there, and I believe several "how to" books have also been
written. GIMP falls into SUN's "Open Office" level of quality. (Which
is another awesome free product). If you are not going to buy
Photoshop, then the next best thing is GIMP.

 

[Robert]

Just a few questions

1) What do people usually do for nav buttons graphics or text or I
guess it is a Preference?

2) What are some good tutorials for learning to make some cool looking
nav buttons?

3) What programs are recommended for graphics on the web Photoshop or
Fireworks? Are there many others people use?

Thanks a lot


Robert

Thanks everyone, I will check out gimp for sure. Does anyone have any
websites with sample of gimp work

Thanks

 

[John W Cavoulas]

No I am not. I use Photoshop. But I suggest GIMP to everyone that can not
afford (or doesn't need) Photoshop. There are a ton of GIMP tutorials out
there, and I believe several "how to" books have also been written. GIMP
falls into SUN's "Open Office" level of quality. (Which is another awesome
free product). If you are not going to buy Photoshop, then the next best
thing is GIMP.

Thanks for the tip. I'd d/l'd the trial version of PS and wow...GIANT
learning curve ahead. I just d/l'd GIMP and wow...looks excellent! I can't
wait to d/l it at work too.

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

(e-mail address removed) (Robert) wrote in message


Thanks everyone, I will check out gimp for sure. Does anyone have any
websites with sample of gimp work

Thanks

I don't mean to self-promote, but I think the following is a show-case of
what can be achieved in just 5 seconds of work per image. It exemplifies
the scripts (with default parameters), which otherwise have no preview.

http://www.schestowitz.com/Software/Script_Fu/

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

No I am not. I use Photoshop. But I suggest GIMP to everyone that can
not afford (or doesn't need) Photoshop. There are a ton of GIMP
tutorials out there, and I believe several "how to" books have also been
written. GIMP falls into SUN's "Open Office" level of quality. (Which
is another awesome free product). If you are not going to buy
Photoshop, then the next best thing is GIMP.

I appreciate your honesty. I too used to think Photoshop was the mother and
all. The large, full-screen view; the many cascading menus; the nice splash
screen at the start and the very many people who say "Photoshop this" and
"Photoshop that".

After getting some experience with the GIMP, I realised that in terms of
results, I was able to get better-looking stuff in significantly less time.
The GUI is not graceful, fair enough, and it's Open Source, but if a rusty
bulldozer takes a house down more quickly than a silver sledgehammer, why
not go for the bulldozer?

If I had spent more time with Photoshop in my grown-up years, maybe my
opinion would differ.

Roy

 

[mbstevens]

Thanks everyone, I will check out gimp for sure. Does
anyone have any websites with sample of gimp work

It's very flexible for photomontages.
http://www.mbstevens.com/superHD.jpg
(warning -- about 30k)

 

[Travis Newbury]

Thanks everyone, I will check out gimp for sure. Does anyone have any
websites with sample of gimp work

You can not distinguish an image made with GIMP, or any other
application. The differences are based on the skill levels of the person
creating the image.

 

[Travis Newbury]

After getting some experience with the GIMP, I realised that in terms of
results, I was able to get better-looking stuff in significantly less time.
The GUI is not graceful, fair enough, and it's Open Source, but if a rusty
bulldozer takes a house down more quickly than a silver sledgehammer, why
not go for the bulldozer?
If I had spent more time with Photoshop in my grown-up years, maybe my
opinion would differ.

I use Photoshop for a lot more than making images for the web. GIMP
cannot touch it for professional digital imaging, photo restoration, not
to mention (and I may be wrong as I have not checked recently) I don't
believe GIMP can even handle RAW (RAW is format professional Digital
Cameras store images. As soon as you convert RAW to any other format
like tiff or jpg on your smart card, you lose something.)

For the web, professional or not, and other, non professional, imaging
needs, GIMP does everything someone would need.