Graphics - Getting Started

My love affair with web graphics started shortly after I did my first homepage back in June of 1996. It was a simple page, made up of graphics I found surfing the net. People on the web are incredibly generous in putting up great graphics and everything you need for a decent page can be grabbed with your browser or an ftp program. The one limitation I ran up against very quickly was the size of the graphic. So I bought JASC Paintshop Pro from their web site. It turned out to be a lucky choice. Not only could I re-size graphics, but I could add borders, text, contour, change their colors and more. Most of my 1996 Christmas graphics, my first venture into original stuff, were made with Paintshop. At $55, Paintshop is a real bargain and will satisfy your urge for creativity for a long time. The tutorial that came on the CD rom was excellent and there is more help now at the Paintshop site to get you started plus there are many websites that offer tutorials.

Which Is the Right Program for You?

Selecting a graphics program is determined by (1) what you want to do, (2) the size of your pocketbook, and (3) your ability to learn the program. Graphics programs come in two major varieties

Bitmap programs manipulate files in various digital formats (filename.gif, filename.jpg, filename.tiff, etc.). The images you see on the web are bitmaps. So if all you want to do is make great web pages you need a bitmap graphics program since web graphics are in .jpg or .gif format. This type of program also allows you to manipulate the files scanned and made into digital formats. Vector graphics programs are designed to allow you to make digital pictures from absolute scratch. They are powerful, expensive and hard to learn. By in large I would say they are more suited to the serious artist, graphics professional or advanced web junkie.

The grandaddy and standard for bitmap programs is Adobe Photoshop. List price is about $550 and even the "real" price is around $250. Adobe has the advantage of being widely used and therefore is very well supported both by third party software developers and sites on the web where you can get help. If you have the money and the right operating system, you can't miss with Photoshop.

At the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of price, is JASC's Paint Shop Pro for $80. Don't let the low price fool you......PSP is powerful right out of the box. It accepts Photoshop plug-ins, which you can purchase or find free on the web. And there are plenty of devoted PSP users who are willing to share their tips on making great graphics. For the beginner with a budget...either monetary or in terms of hard drive space....I'd definetly recommend PSP.

After a year of using only PSP, I purchased Corel Draw 8 and the full set of Kai's Power Tools. I am thrilled with both, but they are pricey in terms of hard disk space as well as dollars. Corel 8 uses about 200 megs for a typical installation. Compare that with the modest 7 megs used by Paintshop. Kai's Power Tools take up about 18 megs and is priced at $99. Corel Draw 8 is somewhere between $200-$250. However, Corel Draw has both a bitmap program (called Photopaint) and a vector graphics program (Draw 8) and comes with lots and lots of "stuff" and plugins. To add Adobe's vector program, Illustrator, to your kit of tools you'd have to shell out another $300 or so. Therefore, comparitively speaking, Corel is giving you way more for your dollars. Plug-ins work just fine with the Corel products. I worked with Photoshop briefly and couldn't see any obvious reasons for choosing it over Photopaint at twice the price. I'm slowly struggling to learn Draw 8 and don't have any experience with Illustrator, but I assume it is comparably powerful and difficult.

Kai's Power Tools are plug ins (Adobe Photoshop standard type) that let you add many effects to your bitmap graphics. They are great fun to have but I wish I had known about all the free plug ins on the web prior to my purchase. I might have waited to buy Powertools.

Many, many, many other graphics programs are available and I suggest you check the links below for sites where you can get product reviews. If you are planning on buying a scanner in the near future, I believe you should defer buying software until you get it. The scanner will come with at least a bitmap graphics program for you to try.  Many printers come bundled with a graphics program these days as well.

Learning Your Program

A powerful program you can't understand isn't very useful. The "best" program is one that provides tools for learning such as tutorials and manuals and is widely used so that you can benefit from the help of others. PSP, Photoshop and Photopaint all meet these criteria. Before you decide to download or buy a program, do some surfing and see if you can find sites that offer hints on that program. Even if you are trying a demo, you will be investing time, since no graphics program is "intuitive".......I don't care what the advertising or reviews say!! Don't waste either your time or money on an unsupported program.

If you download a program, make sure you get a CD if one is offered. PSP has excellent tutorials, but they are only available on the CD version. Expect to spend time with the tutorials, hints you find and experimenting with your program. Learning graphics took me far more time than learning....say....word processing....because I had to see (and remember) what a whole new set of terms meant....terms like...solarize, posterize, mask, float, gradient, saturate. These terms are meaningless in a manual.

Well organized utilities are also wonderful when learning a program. Quickly adding a border to a picture or making a button with two or three clicks really encourages the beginner. Some of the utilities are mysterious until you see them used .........which is again where getting hints from others is so essential. I think PSP's utilities are superbly selected and organized.

Scanners - Making the Decision to Buy

Scanners have come way down in price recently. A perfectly decent flatbed can be had for $250. A scanner allows you to convert pictures into digital format so you can add photos of yourself, pets, etc. to your webpage. I scan pictures from catalogues to make a lot of my graphics and snapshots for my tour pages. The scanner can provide an endless source of material.

However, if your main interest is digital photograhs, a scanner may not be the best alternative. Digital cameras are coming down in price now too. Or, you can send your film off to a lab that will return both your processed photos and a disk of digital images. Seattle Film Works does great work and is geared toward mail order, if you don't have a lab locally. For $4 per 20 shot roll (in addition to processing), you get a disk of your photos in Seattle's digital format. However, they also give you software for free so you can turn the photos into web formats. The software also allows you to run a slideshow on your computer, which is great fun. Check their web site for a complete review of their services.

Another down side to scanning yourself is the time you have to invest in post-scan processing. I find I almost always have to do some color adjustment (for which I use Photopaint) and often some cropping. In and of itself, scanning takes about one minute per snapshot.

Shopping for Programs and Hardware

The list price for graphic programs can be as much twice what you need to pay if you do some shopping. ZD Net on the web is a great place to start. They offer products, links to vendors and product reviews. As an example, I found a price of $435 for Corel Draw 8 from one of the ZD Net vendors while the list price at the Corel site is a whopping $695. Check the links below for some web vendors I've used and been satisfied with.

Locally, I shop at CompUSA. They are on the web as well as having stores nation wide. When I got Corel Draw 7, CompUSA was selling it for about half the list price. As for computers......well...for me there is only ONE place for that......Micron. Check my story about Micron to find out why.

Links On the Web

The Filter Factory and More - plug ins that work with PSP, Corel or (of course) Photoshop plus lots of graphics help. A definet "must" to visit.

Laurie McCanna's Hints Page - for Corel, Photoshop, Kai's Power Tools and PSP

Hints from Corel Magazine - some nice advanced ideas for the Corel Draw 7 suite

Cheap Tricks for PSP - a fabulous collection of hints, filters and links for PSP

No Nags - my favorite place for free stuff of all sorts. Try the Freeview graphics viewer....it's great for checking out your gif files and doing some preliminary organization of your graphics files.

Graphomaniac - more PSP resources
 

Computer Quick - a huge selection of hardware and software by mail. Very competitive prices, quick delivery and nice folks to talk to if there is an issue. You get a discount if you order over the web.

McGlenn Micro Inc - good selection and excellent prices

Micron - top of the line computers by mail order at great prices and the kind of service you dream of

Jim'sCool Icons - you can get nice original icons from Jim, and even more important, see an extremely well laid out home page plus Jim's tips on how to create his wonderful lettering.

Kristy's Desktop Creations - really fabulous graphics for kids of all ages but your little ones will be especially entranced with Kristy's images

Enchanted Graphics - just great stuff and some good thoughts on how to make graphics

Marvel Web Creations - very classy stuff and a wonderfully laid out web site

Pambytes - great clipart and now there are PSP hints too

The Icon and Image Bazaar - this is my favorite favorite (is there such a thing?) Ron, the potentate at the Bazaar has developed THE list of clipart links. Head here first if you need something in the way of clipart. Do NOT bother to buy a clipart CD rom.

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