Hi yes, I did that I messed around with all sorts of settings before I decided to post to the forum. I feel somewhat too intrusive if I ask too many questions because really I should just get on with it and figure it out, well I can do that most of the time. But When I have no clue where to find the answers because sometimes you need to type the right terminology, it gets a little frustrating. i tried all the alignment features and different combinations of widths and html boxes and graphics boxes and dimensions and page setups. Nothing prevented those blasted items on top of my backgound graphics from leaving their carefully positioned place on the background. I think I will scrap express and download the PRO version. I just hope that I will not be penalised and will get a fresh 30 day trial period with the PRO.
Hi, i think I have solved it. well a workaround anyway, not ideal but pretty close.
I have to make the page to ‘Align’ = none.
Load background image and make ‘Horizontal’ = left; ‘Vertical’ = Top;
BUT, the image will have to be carefully pre-designed to 1024x700, or whatever the most popular screen resolutions people are using, I have a list of these anyway.
That’s one way to do it. You can also make your image tile to fill a
screen of nearly any size. Make it 25px wide by the height of your
design, and make that image “die” into a solid color at the bottom.
Then set it to tile horizontally only, and set the background color to
match. That is precisely how the FreewayTalk Web site (which I
designed) works.
Walter
On Dec 4, 2010, at 12:59 PM, Chris Watts wrote:
Hi, i think I have solved it. well a workaround anyway, not ideal
but pretty close.
I have to make the page to ‘Align’ = none.
Load background image and make ‘Horizontal’ = left; ‘Vertical’ = Top;
BUT, the image will have to be carefully pre-designed to 1024x700,
or whatever the most popular screen resolutions people are using, I
have a list of these anyway.
Thanks Walter, but actually I do not understand. I make my image 25px wide while leaving it say 700px high (for arguments sake)…" set it to die into a colour at the bottom"? And set the background colour to match? match what?
thanks.
By the way the number three tutorial on the freeway site where he deals with making those row of thumbnail images and the bigger image to match through the “target image”? He made a mistake, it took me three watches to follow and figure it out. He forgets to add that you need to Duplicate Each of those larger imported images before importing the next one. I never ever got more than two images showing on the actions palette after I selected actions-target image. So I kept watching the video and realised that you have to duplicate, not once, but after every time you import the image. maybe someone at freeway offices should know?
Make an image in Photoshop at 25px wide by 400px tall, using the
gradient tool. Set your start color to #666666 and your end color to #333333 using the color pickers. The darker color should be on the
bottom when you’re done. Export this image using Save For Web as a
medium JPEG image.
In Freeway, set your page background color to #666666. Then choose
your new Photoshop JPEG image as the background image. Set it to tile
horizontally and to top vertically (no tiling).
Preview in a browser, and you’ll see what I mean by “die into” a
solid color. The bottom-most part of the JPEG is more or less the same
as the dark gray #333333. When you run out of image pixels on the
vertical axis, the background color (the same color) picks up where
the image leaves off. You don’t need such a large image to fill the
space, because you’re only tiling in one direction, and letting the
background color pick up where the image left off.
Walter.
On Dec 4, 2010, at 4:19 PM, Chris Watts wrote:
Thanks Walter, but actually I do not understand. I make my image
25px wide while leaving it say 700px high (for arguments sake)…"
set it to die into a colour at the bottom"? And set the background
colour to match? match what?
Argggh, I meant set the page background to #333333 – this is
backwards the way I have it.
Walter
On Dec 4, 2010, at 5:33 PM, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
In Freeway, set your page background color to #666666. Then
choose your new Photoshop JPEG image as the background image. Set it
to tile horizontally and to top vertically (no tiling).
“By the way the number three tutorial on the freeway site…”
Chris… get your act with your background togehter first
before you start finding mistakes in a tutorial, that is perhaps a bit out of your legue at this point…
Read the manual… read what walter and dave said…
HAHAHAHAHA… and get to FW Pro… a.s.a.p.
Hallo walter and Eugenie, Walter thankyou, it is almost 0100 and I have just read your post. I will try that out soonest. i really thank you for this and see how I can develop it. I really feel guilty about appearing a pain on this form already. Thanks, I will let you know how I do. Chris
Eugenie, yes I know that it appears that I am running ahead but I really can understand a fair amount, i am not new to web things and design just to understanding how freeway achieves things, That bit in the tutorial left me stranded with a different result than him at one poit, so I watched it slowly three times abd discovered a missing link so to speak. Anyway you are right yes yes I will get on with pro, but first I need Santa’s help.
Oh and by the way Eugenie, Sint klaas morgen begrijp ik, wij gaan het vieren hier in Ireland, lekker kruidnootjes and cadeautjes. Tot ziens en bedankt voor jouw tips.
darn… my brother in law was irish… he spoilt me rotten with muphys and soda bread… so do you mind if i skip that kruidnootjes?? i have 2 little boys who do still believe in this Sinterklaas stuff… poor me! i rather be in clifden or galway right now…
ireland is ssooo my fav. place to be…sigh…
and sorry. did not mean to sound rotten, but have been using FW since a lot of years now and i am still learning.
I still am so greatfull when Walter, dave, tim and the other great man here spent their time thinking with me.
Have a good night.
Eugenie
Hi Eugenie, Mmm soda bread good, murphys, naaa. Can’t beat the lekkerbekjes en de Gezelligheid van Delft Stad. Where in netherlands are you, if I may ask?
Heh, I have two BIG boys who know sinterklaas is not real, but heh when your two stop believing you will be longing for that innocence again?
Anyway my elder is singing the liedjes right now and annoying the younger one, he he he…
nope… not my brother in law anymore… i wish i could have exchanged him for my sister… i loved him like mad… his fam. to…and the sodabread… and the christmas pudding i now have to make myself…
Sorry Waltd, can not see how this works. Yes it worked fine with a greyscale gradation image from cs3 on top of a background colour as you suggested. But naturally can not do it with an image, I mean how do I take one of my nice images and make it 25px wide? I looked at softpress website but it’s all single colours.
Just tell me how you did it in pro and I will be sooo happy. At least I can finally put this stupid question to rest and move on.
Hit myself on the head three times…there, that’s better. Funny, I did choose a cat…thought you had accessed my system then for a while. Phew, you must have guessed - only rational explanation.
Well, if you’re using a larger image (not a stripe of color like the
header in the FreewayTalk site) then you would need to make the final
image wider. But you would want to make sure that at the bottom of the
image, you had used a fade or a shadow or some other boundary trick to
make the photo appear to change into a solid color. From there, that
solid color can be picked up by the background color. If your image is
not capable of being tiled from left to right, then you might want to
consider a different layout for your page. This trick relies on the
image being simple enough to tile horizontally so the window can be
made any width without degrading.
You might want to separate the large image from the background – use
it as a foreground image rather than a background, and design your
background to be simpler.
Walter
On Dec 6, 2010, at 3:56 AM, Chris Watts wrote:
Sorry Waltd, can not see how this works. Yes it worked fine with a
greyscale gradation image from cs3 on top of a background colour as
you suggested. But naturally can not do it with an image, I mean how
do I take one of my nice images and make it 25px wide? I looked at
softpress website but it’s all single colours.
Just tell me how you did it in pro and I will be sooo happy. At
least I can finally put this stupid question to rest and move on.
Hi walter, I have just been reading up about popular page widths and browser resolutions. Actually I did the above with an image and followed some handy tips about popular screen resolutions and page widths for viewing, also they dispelled some myths about page alignment and it actually helped me to make a satisfactory compromise.
But your earlier advice on the gradient strategy led me to develop something slightly different, thankyou for that Walter.
Hi Walter,
======But you would want to make sure that at the bottom of the image, you had used a fade or a shadow or some other boundary trick to make the photo appear to change into a solid color. From there, =====
Sorry walter, this is a brilliant tip - I would never have thought of this. fantastic idea.
I am beginning to realise that I am not so creative as I thought I was. Coming from a Photographic background and way of creating Iam seeing how truly lost Iam at the design process - have I taken on somethinmg that is outside of my skill range I wonder?
You can learn this stuff. And I would say that as a photographer
(where you traditionally have to be a jack-of-all-trades, or at least
a good plumber and carpenter and electrician to do the job) you
probably have several legs up on anyone else getting started in this
field.
I went to RIT for advertising photography, and graduated in 1984. I
had a studio in Phoenix for 6 years , and then moved to Philadelphia
with my new wife, who was in graduate school there. I didn’t want to
start up a new studio in a foreign town, so I got a job at a local
department store in their in-house ad agency, taking pictures of
toasters and bedding and all the other crap for sale. At lunch time,
their design studio would empty out, and I would sneak in and teach
myself to use the Macintosh.
On the strength of a spec portfolio I put together during these lunch
hours, I got a job at an ad agency as an art director. And another,
and another, and another, and then the Internet happened, and I
discovered that nobody else was quite as fascinated with it as I was.
By dint of knowing just a little bit more about the subject than
anyone else at the agency, I got myself promoted to be the creative
director of their newly-formed Web group.
Walter
On Dec 6, 2010, at 10:58 AM, Chris Watts wrote:
I am beginning to realise that I am not so creative as I thought I
was. Coming from a Photographic background and way of creating Iam
seeing how truly lost Iam at the design process - have I taken on
somethinmg that is outside of my skill range I wonder?
