How to Wow: Photoshop for the Web

Book description

A gaming site, a portfolio site, an information site: Each requires a home page, but each of those home pages requires disparate elements and approaches. How to Wow: Photoshop for the Web walks you through the process of designing each, plus 15 other navigation, animation, and automation projects that show you how to add wow to your Web pages with Photoshop-created graphics. Just like your favorite cookbooks-the ones with short, clear-cut instructions and mouthwatering photos of the delectable concoctions-this book identifies challenges, provides simple recipes for overcoming them, and plugs in inspirational photos of the glorious results. Part 1 takes you through a range of navigation, animation, and automation projects (creating rollover navigation, building animated slide shows, producing a dynamic Flash banner, and more), while Part 2 walks you through the steps entailed in creating home pages for gaming, portfolio, and information sites. Each project explains how to create a lush graphic element, while sidebars and glossaries provide the low-down on important underlying principles. A CD includes the lesson files and image assets required to complete the book's projects.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction
    1. Why Do You Need This Book?
    2. What's in This Book?
    3. What's on the CD-ROM?
    4. Working with the Presets and Project Files
      1. Copy and Install Presets and Project Files
      2. Using the Presets
  4. 1. Navigation: Creating Stylish, User-Friendly Navigation
    1. Starting a New File for the Web
      1. Image Dimensions
      2. Resolution
      3. Color Mode & Bit Depth
      4. Background Contents
      5. Color Profile
    2. Building a Navigation Bar
    3. JPEG Optimization Settings
      1. File Format
      2. Quality
      3. Blur
      4. Optimized
      5. Progressive
      6. ICC Profile
      7. Matte
      8. Color Table
      9. Image Size
      10. Metadata
    4. GIF Optimization Settings
      1. File Format
      2. Reduction Method
      3. Number of Colors
      4. Web-Snap
      5. Color Table
      6. Dither
      7. Transparency
      8. Matte
      9. Transparency Dither
      10. Other Options
    5. Slicing and Optimizing a Navigation Bar
    6. Slice Options
      1. Slice Type
      2. Name
      3. URL
      4. Target
      5. Message Text
      6. Alt Tag
      7. Dimensions
      8. Slice Background Type
    7. Transparent Buttons
    8. Rollover Navigation
    9. Pointers and Remote Rollovers
    10. Image Map Navigation
  5. 2. Animation
    1. Radar Screen Animation
    2. Animating Warped Text
    3. Bringing a Picture to Life
    4. Animated Slide Show
    5. Rollover-Triggered Animation
    6. Image Map-Triggered Animation
    7. Layer Mask Animation
    8. Vector-Based Flash Movie
    9. Animating a Layer Style
    10. Changing Layer Properties in an Animation
      1. Unifying Layer Properties
      2. Matching Layers
  6. 3. Automation
    1. Batch Processing Photo Thumbnails
    2. Making the Most of Actions
      1. Sharing Actions
      2. Loading Actions
      3. Assigning Function Keys to Actions
      4. Playing Actions from Button Mode
      5. Working with Only One Undo
      6. Pausing an Action for Input
      7. Customizing an Action for Playback
      8. Batch Processing
    3. Making Multiple Web Graphics
    4. Demystifying Droplets
      1. Optimization Droplets
      2. Action Droplets
      3. Including a Droplet in an Action
      4. Cross-Platform Droplets
      5. Applying a Droplet to a Slice
      6. Editing a Droplet
      7. Droplet Batch Options
    5. Preparing Photos for the Web with Conditional Actions
    6. Designing Multiple Pages in a Single File
    7. Linking HTML Pages from Layer Comps
    8. Outputting Multiple Linked Web Pages
    9. Creating Dynamic Flash Web Banners
    10. Creating and Importing External Data Sets
      1. Create a Data Set
      2. Import a Data Set]
  7. 4. Sites that WOW!
    1. Wow Game Site
    2. Applying Patterns to Web Graphics
      1. Tiling Background Patterns
      2. Pattern Presets
    3. Web Pattern Recipes
      1. Scan Lines
      2. Grid
      3. Diagonal Lines
      4. Boxes
      5. Frames
    4. Gallery Site with Viewer Feedback
    5. Adding File Information to Images
      1. File Info Dialog Box
      2. File Browser Metadata Panel
    6. Customizing a Web Photo Gallery
      1. Add a Background Image
      2. Change Navigation Graphics
    7. Wow Portfolio Site
    8. Wow Information Site
    9. Wow Flash Splash Page

Product information

  • Title: How to Wow: Photoshop for the Web
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: December 2004
  • Publisher(s): Peachpit Press
  • ISBN: 9780321303301