Hi, I just completed my first web page (yes, just one page). The page itself is light yellow. In retrospect, what I would like to do is make the page light green, and THEN create a graphic box about 600 pixels wide by as long as the page, drop it behind ALL the text and the graphic elements, that is light yellow.
So it would look the same except for green to the right and left of the main center site. When I try to do this, all the text boxes get really long and an X appears. I know I should have done this at the start of the project, but is there a way to do it now? I have tried to select this huge graphic block of color and Item>Send to back or Send backwards but still no luck.
I am still on a learning curve with Freeway Express but so far it’s great. Didn’t know there was this active forum . . it’s great! Thanks for any help. (The site should list below but if not it is figleef dot com.)
An easy way to do this is to create a background graphic. In your case an image as wide as any browser likely to be viewing. 1800px should do it and 25px high
If you want your centre section to be 600px wide then colour that middle section your yellow. Then colour the 2 sections at either side the green of your choice.
Save the file as a gif
In the inspector - with nothing on the page selected - the 2nd tab (paintbrush) is your page appearance control. Set page background colour to none and then choose the graphic you created using the background image selector. Set Horizontal to center and Vertical to tile. This will repeat the background graphic down the page.
You will also need to set your page alignment to center - Inspector, 1st tab with nothing selected on the page - align:center
I’d just like to say that I think you have a great site with great work on it. I enjoy looking at handwriting as either a writing style, as illustrations, or just as art.
Sounds like Dave has you covered, but I just wanted to say good job.
THANK YOU!!! I know how to do it with paper and pencil but have a hard time figuring out how to make the computer the same thing. And obviously I was taking the long way around with my huge graphic color box.
David, thanks so much! I have some tweaking to do and will try your solution. I don’t see why it won’t work. I would also like to ‘simply’ not have a hard edge between the yellow and the green. In Photoshop, do you think if I just run the dodge tool along the line, it will soften it? Photoshop is my arch nemesis. Again, I thank you for your solution AND for taking me through it step by step. Truly appreciated.
And Dan, thanks for the thumbs up. I love hand drawn letters and am always looking at ads with what LOOKS hand done to see if they really are (by comparing one letter and seeing if they are identical). There’s a bit more ‘life’ in handwriting - even though I have seen some amazing fonts.
P.S. David, I was in Glasgow once, 1972. Friends I met at summer camp lived in Newlands (I think). Beautiful stone houses, with coal in a bathtub. And I remember them saying “tea is at 6” and thinking we were just having TEA. Heard stories about haggis and that they had shorter legs on one side and ran either clockwise or counter clockwise around hills? Had a wonderful time. I was a very gullible Yankee Abroad in those days. Great memories!
I would also like to ‘simply’ not have a hard edge between the
yellow and the green. In Photoshop, do you think if I just run the
dodge tool along the line, it will soften it?
As it’s areas of solid colour, you’d probably be better off applying
the Gaussian Blur filter; you can adjust the slider until you get the
softness you want.
Thanks Paul! Really helpful and supportive people here and it is much appreciated. I TRIED the background graphic that the Scot suggested. Had to run it through Photoshop to get a gif. Can I use a jpeg from Illustrator? When I saved it as a gif I turned OFF the transparency, is that right?
It didn’t work. Or at least, not yet. I made one with green just near the ends with a gradual blend and that did NOTHING when I placed it. The one with the green on either end ended up with a green stripe then blank, blank, and another green stripe. Does it really have to be 1800 pixels wide? I turned off the page color, imported the gif and for horizontal I had center and for vertical I had tile, is that correct? I’ll keep trying. I must be close.
It doesn’t have to be 1800px wide but if somebody is viewing on a 24" monitor it wont fill the page right to left. My 20" is 1680 wide so I was allowing a wee bit more.
I suggested gif because you wanted solid colours and that will keep the file size down but if you want to create a blend then a jpg may be more suitable.
Illustrator can do gifs as well you know.
Remember that your 600px section that will go behind your page will have to be in the middle and if you have your green sections too far (and too small) right or left then they wont show up on a smaller monitor.
Also you will have to make sure that your page colour background is none so that the graphic shows through. With some of the pics on your pages you may have to alter the background colour of your graphic boxes to match the center section of your background graphic.
I was in Newlands today as it happens and yes there are a lot of grand sandstone homes in that part of the city.
As to the Haggii Females have shorter left legs and Males shorter right ones.
Actually, this is backward. In the stacking order of the page, the
background-color property is located behind the background-image, and
you can set each independently. I often use this fact to make a
background appear to stretch infinitely, by matching the edge color of
the image to the HTML color set for the background-color property.
Walter
On Apr 29, 2009, at 4:46 PM, DeltaDave wrote:
Also you will have to make sure that your page colour background is
none so that the graphic shows through.
What I meant to say was that if Lee has coloured her html boxes that they would have to be none. I think she tried initially by drawing a full size html box to fill the page and coloured that.
And as Walter points out you wouldn’t then need to make your background graphic as wide as I suggested as long as you can match the background-color to the colours at either side.
If the female Haggii (is that REALLY the plural or is that a typo?) run around the hills counter clockwise and the male Haggii are running clockwise, how in the world are there ever any baby Haggii???
I did manage to make something happen by using a jpeg 1200 px wide. I had to tinker with the yellow bit in the middle to make it wider than the 600 px I THOUGHT was the center point. I did do a Gaussian blur but not sure I like it.
No, I do not ‘well know’ how to save or export a jpeg into a gif UNLESS I click save for web and go through ImageReady. Is that what you mean? If so, do I use the 256 Gif option? Or 1 bit? I don’t even know what those mean. I am still on Illustrator CS. (I have to use my money for pens and ink, you know!) I don’t know why the 1800 px didn’t work although my page is only 800. Should it be 1800??? Really??
Walter, thank for your help although I didn’t totally understand. You are saying the image (the 1800 X 25 px background image I am trying to create) goes behind the background color property. Does that mean I can make my page a color and STILL upload a background image - say a solid green? I am only on EXPRESS. It’s all I can handle at the moment.
Do you have a lot of . . . um . . . tech challenged people on this board? Do you delete them after too many dumb questions???
I actually drew a GRAPHIC box, a big one, not an html box but it just messed everything up.
So, as I understand it, I can make the background color green. THEN I can tile my pale yellow as the background image? Sounds like perhaps a plan . . .
It does bug me that I can’t get your 1800 px solution to work. What size does everyone work with? I have 800 px wide. Is that small or too big or just right?
Sorry to ask the inappropriate question about the sex lives of Haggis. Forgive me . .
Walter, thank for your help although I didn’t totally understand.
You are saying the image (the 1800 X 25 px background image I am
trying to create) goes behind the background color property.
Just so we get it right: that’s actually the opposite of what Walter
said. Background colour is behind the background image.
I think that the statistics suggest that screen sizes are tending towards 1024 and larger these days.
It seem very common to use a size of 960 which then accommodates scroll bars etc and yes do the bg colour green for outside the page and the yellow bg image
Haggis are very shy and don’t like being talked about.
Background color is ALL the way back and extends to infinity and beyond.
Backgound IMAGE (the tiled jpeg/gif) is in front of the background color.
On top of EVERYTHING is your little bits and pieces.
Paul, Walter and I often don’t see eye to eye . . no, you are right. I either didn’t get what he said or didn’t say what I meant. This stuff gives me a headache. Anybody wanna talk about CRAYONS???
David, I’m sorry the Haggis (Haggii, Haggises) don’t like being talked about. Do you know if there are many on this forum? They need their own webpage .Haggis.com is, of course, spoken for. But Haggii is available!!!
Guys, many thanks. I’ll tweak over the weekend and see how it goes.
xoxo
Lee (drinking a martini and holding an ice compress to her weary head)
I’ll throw a wrench into the group. I just wrote out a tutorial document on creating and exporting graphic-based gradient backgrounds in Express. You might as well let Express do all the work in case you don’t have Photoshop.
Might help might not, but it’s another freebie on the list. Also, for those who subscribe already to the site itself (all 400+ of you), you’ll notice this tutorial can be viewed completely in the RSS feed for the first time plus all the tutorials are iPhone ready. Freeway on the go!
