Graphics Software

Flash-it

GIFConverter

Transparency

FireWorks

PhotoPage

Any image you can get on a Macintosh screen in any program can be captured using a "screen snapshot" by pressing Command-Shift-3. This captures the whole screen and creates a file named "Picture 1". If you open it, SimpleText will open. Clicking and dragging will allow you to select any part of the screen picture. You can copy that part of the picture, create a new file, paste and save another PICT file. This can be converted to GIF or JPEG for use on the web. You should also have set the Monitors Control Panel to 256 colors.

A better way to grab part of the screen is by using the Flash-it Control Panel ($15 shareware). Now when you press Command-Shift-3, you get a cursor that you can click and drag to copy any rectangular section of the screen. You can save this copy to the Scrapbook or paste it directly into a GIF or JPEG program. In the current Mac OS, Command-Shift-4 lets you do the same thing.

I use the GIFConverter Program ($30 shareware) to convert from PICT or almost any other format to GIF. GIFConverter also allows you to select a portion of an image, copy and paste it into a new GIF document. GIFConverter has a preference which allows you to save the image in an interlaced form. Netscape will display an interlaced image part way as it is being downloaded. The effect is that the image appears to come into focus as more of it arrives at the browser.

A particularly useful tool is an old program called Transparency (copyrighted, but free!). Here is a description from the documentation of Transparency:

GIF, or Graphics Interchange Format, is a compressed graphics format developed by CompuServe in 1987. The original specifications allowed for only simple images, but a new revision in 1989 created a host of new options for GIF images. One of these options was the ability to choose one color in the GIF's color table which maps transparently when displayed. This feature has turned out to be quite useful when used with WWW browsers which have non-white backgrounds (which is pretty much all of them anymore!).

Here is an example of an image with (left) and without (right) a transparent background:

               

'The WebMaster Speaks....' 3-2

Membership

Login