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A Beginners Guide To Using Images
You don't have to use images on your website but most likely you will want to! Images can be used to customise your site design or to convey information with your text content.
Understanding how to use images effectively will greatly enhance your visitor's experience.
Where can I find images to use?
You can make use of your own photographs or drawings by using a scanner. If you have a digital camera you can download photos straight onto your computer ready for editing. There are also lots of websites selling images (some give them away free) or you could invest in a photo collection on CD. If you are using your own original images you don't need to worry about copyright. If you are using images from other sources take the time to find out if you have permission to use them. You are responsible for the images you put onto your web site.
How can I edit my images?
Take a look at 'Using Images' section in the Advanced Tutorial section. Here you will find everything you need to know - how to crop, resize, resave and upload for use on your site. If you don't have image editing software there is a link to a free software download (see the Links page), if you prefer you can activate the '‘Image Resizer'.
What is 'Image Resizer'?
If you don't want to have to edit your images, resize and optimize them, activate the Image Resizer. See the help files in the Basic Tutorial section.
What type of image files can I use?
We would recommend that you use GIF & JPEG files. These two file types are standard for web use. All web images need to be saved as RGB at a resolution of at least 72dpi.
Should I save as GIF or JPEG?
Photographs or any images that have shades of colour or shadows on them are best saved as a JPG (see example below right). Images with blocks of colour, for instance a cartoon should be saved as a GIF (see example below left).
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Gif saved correctly |
Shaded image saved as a GIF - Incorrect |
Shaded image saved as a JPG - Correct |
What size should my image be?
File sizes should be kept as small as you can make them without affecting the quality of the image. There are two different ways to reduce the size of your image and you can use both every time you save an image.
- The first is the actual width and height that your image will display online. You can reduce this by cropping or resizing the image.
- The second is to optimize the image before saving it. By selecting whether to save it as a GIF or JPG decides how your image is going to be compressed. Whichever you choose you then have the option of reducing the amount of colours or the quality of image. This will then make the file size smaller reducing the time your file takes to download when people visit your site.
I have my logo on CD from my printer can I use this?
Yes, but it will have to be edited and converted for web use first. Print files are normally CMYK format with a resolution of 300dpi or more. CMYK files will not display online. If the image was converted to RGB at the same resolution the file would be very large, taking a long time to download on your pages.
So when using print files you need to convert them to RGB and reduce the image size or the resolution (dpi) before uploading to your site.
Where can I use images on my site?
Images can be displayed with your text content, in the header or footer area. They can also be used to create a background pattern or watermark. Backgrounds can be applied to different parts of your page to create your own unique style.
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