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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
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Top banner - 9/18/2002 11:40:23
I have never been satisfied with the top banner of this site. I' ve changed it about 3 times since launch two years ago and would love some suggestions. I don' t know if it' s choice of font, color, contrast (???) but it just doesn' t seem easy on the eyes.
Address: www.tiburonsoccer.org
Thanks!
-Steve
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TPSLWebmaster
www.tiburonsoccer.org
Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke
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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
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RE: Top banner - 9/18/2002 23:26:34
wow! That' s awesome! You' re hired!
Can I ask you what program you used to create that? I' m using Paint Shop Pro 7 and, unless I' m missing something (which is certainly possible), there just don' t seem to be those kind of text/shading options.
I do agree with you about the red. It isn' t easy on the eye.
Red and white are our league colors and I seem to remember thinking that I should go with primary red to make it true on most monitors/OS' s. But that' s novice thinking...I might be totally off the boat with that. (?)
-Steve
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TPSLWebmaster
www.tiburonsoccer.org
Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke
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Nancy
Posts: 3626
Joined: 11/9/1999
From: Nebraska
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RE: Top banner - 9/19/2002 0:56:26
I did use Photoshop for this, but Paint Shop Pro can do the same job. Here is a quick rundown of the steps I used.
Layer 1 - flood fill with the red
Layer 2 - a blue vector rectangle moved to the bottom of the image
Layer 3 & 4 - the white text www-etc and the phone number - no shading, just verdana font as bold - done as vector text, not rastor. I did them on separate layers.
Layer 5 - the large white text in the middle - white fill with black stroke on it. Again done as vector text. I think I used Times New Roman as the font.
Layer 6 - the black TPSL text - done as vector text with a little drop shadow. In Paint Shop Pro you will need to convert this to rastor before applying the drop shadow.
Layers 7 & 8 - I just did a selection around the two little images (separately) and copied and pasted them to my image. I added a little drop shadow to the image on the right is all. Again you can do the drop shadow also in Paint Shop.
Pretty much that' s all I did. It took me longer to type this I think. *S*
I would suggest you always start with vector text in Paint Shop, so you can edit it if need be. You can' t add effects unless you convert to rastor, but I would suggest you duplicate the layer and then convert. If you don' t like the effect you don' t have so many steps to do to start over with the effects. Just delete the layer you messed up on, then duplicate the vector text again and convert.
You are more than welcome to use the image I made, but I hope you' ll do a little experimenting with the above steps, and enhance your skills.
Nancy
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Easy Estimates -- is a simple to use tool to quickly build a Web site page enabling visitors to quickly and easily create an estimate of the cost of services that you provide.
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Peppergal
Posts: 2207
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RE: RE: Top banner - 9/21/2002 15:29:08
Egad, you committed a major sacrilege by suggesting the Paint Shop Pro wasn' t " up to it!" (just kidding). I love PSP and have always been satisfied with the results. Click here to see the " stuff" I' ve done with PSP and sometimes with some free plug-ins (mainly Eyecandy) And I' m just a newbie (about nine months with PSP)
My home page: also has some examples of photo retouching in Imaging
http://gkr.netfirms.com
My fun page: all done with PSP
http://therealpeppergal.tripod.com
My current project: very much under construction, but the logo on the main page ROCKS! PSP RULES!
http://www.pa-memories.com
My latest logo: made to look like the establishment' s sign on its building:
http://www.pa-memories.com/noblehouse.htm
I' m not posting all these to brag about me but to brag about PSP!!! PSP can do it!!! All it takes is some time and lots of practice. Here are some links that may help you...one is a searchable list of tutorials, the other two are groups very much like this one. Happy PSP-ing!!
http://www.pspug.org/
http://www.psplinks.com/
http://www.pspiz.com/
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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
Status: offline
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RE: Top banner - 9/21/2002 22:08:12
No, no dissing of PSP at all! It was lack of user (mine) knowledge.
Since getting a kick start from Nancy the other day, I' ve been exploring lots of new and previously undiscovered tools in PSP and developing some great new banner ideas. I' m probably going to incorporate a photo in it...just have to wait until tomorrow' s games to get just the one I need.
I' ve always loved PSP for allowing me to retouch photos. Like you, I' ve taken people, dogs, trees, doorknobs & other miscellany out of pix...not to mention helping certain family members return to a more youthful image, etc--if you know what I mean. Great stuff.
Thanks for the links! Can' t wait to read them ' cover to cover.'
-S
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www.tiburonsoccer.org
Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke
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Nancy
Posts: 3626
Joined: 11/9/1999
From: Nebraska
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RE: Top banner - 9/21/2002 23:45:34
I was a die-hard Paint Shop Pro user for years, until I upgraded to v.7
And why did I change? Well, thanks for asking. 
I upgraded to v.7 and the battle was on between my computer and the software. I could open PSP and do tons of things in it and when I would go to save the file, PSP would just close. No warning, no error message, just would close. 
In the next couple of weeks I uninstalled, reinstalled, spent hours with tech support, added 128megs of RAM, upgraded my video display adaptor per their suggestion, received a new CD from JASC and repeated several of the previous steps several times. My computer more than exceeded their recommendations. And still the program just closed and never saved.
Needless to say, I finally just gave up. I installed Photoshop, which ran quite well. I' ve since gotten a totally new computer and now have both installed and working fine. I still remain with Photoshop, but will occasionally still use PSP. I am a firm believer that with Paint Shop Pro you get a lot of bang for the buck, but I doubt if I' ll ever give up Photoshop now.
Nancy
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Easy Estimates -- is a simple to use tool to quickly build a Web site page enabling visitors to quickly and easily create an estimate of the cost of services that you provide.
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Peppergal
Posts: 2207
Joined: 9/20/2002
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RE: RE: Top banner - 9/22/2002 9:56:40
Wow, that' s terrible!! I' m using version 7 and have never had a problem with it. I think it' s crashed a total of three times, and I assumed it was because I had too many things running at the same time--I need more ram on my computer because it' s constantly telling me that my virtual memory is too low...I' m running PSP, Front Page 02, and XP all on just 128mb...I read somewhere that I should have over 500 (!!!???!!!) mb of ram to run both PSP and Front Page smoothly. I don' t know how accurate that is but I do know I need more ram.
I could never afford Photoshop (unless I get really rich all of a sudden, LOL) but it would be fun to play around with it. I was thinking of downloading the trial of Illustrator but then I' d be really mad if I made something cool and was unable to save it!
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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
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RE: Top banner - 9/22/2002 10:20:46
Unless you have an older machine, RAM is unbelievably cheap these days and it very easy to add. All of these programs are RAM hogs...definitely go to 512+ if you' re doing a lot of graphics...running them with 128 must be verrrrrry slow. Heck, just running XP on it must be truly slow.
I' ve not had any crashes with PSP, but from work with other programs, it only takes one small conflict with another program or hardware to enter " .dll hell" and make your life miserable. I' m glad to hear that you' ve solved it with a new computer, Nancy. I' ve heard lots about Photoshop, but unless Santa leaves it under the tree, PSP will do fine...esp since there' s so much in it that I still have to learn anyway.
-S
< Message edited by tpslwebmaster -- 9/21/2002 10:21:45 AM >
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TPSLWebmaster
www.tiburonsoccer.org
Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke
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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
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RE: Top banner - 9/22/2002 21:00:09
I found a great photo for the site banner. I' m still playing with this, but I think it' s an improvement to what was there before. But the graphic file size is 18k and I don' t seem to be able to shrink it any more without losing too much detail. (FP shows a 44 second 28k load time, which is about double of what I' d like to see.)
Can you point me to a way to reduce this?
Thanks!
-Steve
Here' s the URL again: www.tiburonsoccer.org
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TPSLWebmaster
www.tiburonsoccer.org
Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke
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Nancy
Posts: 3626
Joined: 11/9/1999
From: Nebraska
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RE: Top banner - 9/22/2002 23:52:46
Did you use the jpg optimizer?
Rather than do file>save as.. when you are ready to save, try going to File>Export>Jpg Optimizer. Then you can change the percent of compression and see how much you can give it until it begins to pixelate. Since it is for the top banner, and should be quite small in pixel dimensions, I would think you should be able to get it down to around 5 or 6 k.
Nancy
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Easy Estimates -- is a simple to use tool to quickly build a Web site page enabling visitors to quickly and easily create an estimate of the cost of services that you provide.
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Peppergal
Posts: 2207
Joined: 9/20/2002
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RE: RE: Top banner - 9/23/2002 0:02:05
Holy SMOKE! That' s AWESOME!!! Good job! that looks ten times more professional than the original one. You deserve a big thumbs up!
My suggestion would be to make the title font a little larger, and be sure you have anti-alias checked. Personally, I would eliminate the " stroke" (black outline--when you' re in your text formatter just have th stroke disabled) and put a drop shadow behind it--perhaps set at 1 or 2 for vertical/horizontal, and possibly blur it at 3 or 4.
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tpslwebmaster
Posts: 85
Joined: 12/9/2001
From: Mill Valley CA USA
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RE: Top banner - 9/23/2002 0:52:24
I tell you, I learn something new every day here. I changed the font & added the drop shadow and voila...what a difference! Thanks!
Nancy, I do use the jpg optimizer with most of my web photos...however, with this one, using a compression value of 30 gets me down to a 15k file, but anything past there just adds too much jpg artifacts. I can smooth it, but then lose too much detail.
So far that' s the trade off...detail vs speed. But I guess that' s always the ultimate trade off?
-S
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www.tiburonsoccer.org
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Peppergal
Posts: 2207
Joined: 9/20/2002
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RE: RE: Top banner - 9/23/2002 2:26:19
Oh, that looks much, much better than your original one! Good job!!
The more you mess with it, the more you' ll learn--some of it by accident! Be sure to check out the PSP User' s Group...someone there almost always has an answer to just about every question. The Jasc main site also has several useful tutorials, particularly on text.
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Northeast PA / Poconos/ Lake Wallenpaupack Real Estate
wallenpaupacklakeproperty.com
Karen's Real Estate Blog
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