Building Web Sites All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Creating Compelling Graphics

In This Chapter

• Creating site banners

• Creating compelling graphics

• Using Web‐friendly photos

• Incorporating Web photo galleries

Almost every Web site you see has graphics. Let's face it; a Web site without graphics is text. And how boring is that? To make the sites you design stand out among the plethora of sites on the Web, you've got to incorporate fast‐loading, compelling graphics. Graphics come in many flavors. Some of them were covered in the previous chapter. This chapter discusses the graphics that elevate the sites you design above the competition. These include such graphic elements as the banner, splash images, and photo galleries. When you create these elements, you incorporate your own design preferences with the graphic elements from your client's brick‐and‐mortar business if he has one.

Creating Banner Graphics

Banners are proudly displayed at the top of just about every Web site you visit. The banner often incorporates the client's marketing tools such as the company logo. When you create a banner for a site, you use the company logo and a color scheme that is harmonious with your client's logo. If your client does not have a logo, you use your own sense of design to create the color palette for the site.

Using Photoshop to create a banner

You can create a banner in just about any image‐editing application that enables you to create a document from scratch. Photoshop however, gives you the power to augment your creativity with its rich ...