SEUL: Re: Web Site Prototype

[Ian Bicking <bickiia@earlham.edu>]

On Sat, Dec 18, 1999 at 03:55:27AM -0600, Viron, Michael wrote:
> Ok--if you are using a two column, two row table--
> first column, first row is a "corner" image (or is a solid color).....
> second column, first row is a "title" image which matches the solid
> color on the corner section
> first column, second row is the menubar along the side--same color as the
> corner and the title.
> second column, second row is "content" (white background or whatever).
> 
> Well, images don't auto-resize--so if you set it to center--then anything
> larger than the display you developed the page on, will have a white space
> (a color that doesn't match the color you've got on the corner or the
> sidebar), between the "corner" piece and the image.  If you left justify
> the image--you'll end up with a white space after the image itself (which
> doesn't match what you've got in the corner.  Of course, you could always
> make the image transparent--which would avoid the problem entirely--but is
> a little more work.

Can't you just set the bgcolor of the 1st row/2nd column to be the same
as the background of the title image?  Though there may be a problem
there if the background is dithered differently from an image on a
256 color display -- since backgrounds are usually rounded to the
nearest color, and images are dithered to estimate the color.

But this could be solved both by a transparent background or using
a web-safe color.

Something I've done before is to create a halo around the image, so
that there's a one-pixel buffer between the logo and the transparent
background.  That way you can preserve the aliasing -- which looks
much better -- and still have the advantages of transparency since
that buffer is small enough that if it doesn't exactly match the
background it's no big deal.

Of course, if you put the image onto a completely different
background then it looks really bad... nothing is perfect.


-- 
Ian Bicking         / 4869 N. Talman Ave. Apt. G, Chicago, IL 60625
bickiia@earlham.edu / http://www.cs.earlham.edu/~bickiia