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Photo shop for website design?

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R

ryangendron

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May 19, 2010
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Ryan
#1
Ok ,

Subaru of New England just signed with Dealer.com to host our website!! Yes!


I have never used ANY photo shop tools and I can say I would not even know where to begin. I need something that can re size and create art work ( mostly text based ). I tried to use Picaso on google it works great but; it cant resize photos. I am sure you Guru's are out there and can pass along solid software editing advise.

Thank you in advance.

Ryan
 
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#3
Hey Ryan,

It has been awhile since I've really had to deal with Photoshop, When you want to reduce an image, have you tried to go to Image > Image Size menu (toward the top of the photoshop window). Click on Resample Image and choose Bicubic Sharper from the drop-down menu. For enlarging an image select Bicubic Smoother.[FONT=&quot][/FONT] I've heard some people also use programs like Adobe Freehand, but I don't have experience with that one.

Hope this helps with your question :)
 
#4
Photoshop is an awesome program but way too many darn features and tools. I have been taking courses just to help me out for more advanced designs etc.

SNAGIT.COM is a program I refer to clients all the time of mine. Create, Edit, Ad, Resize and much more. Very simple. There is a free trial it offers but shoot for the price of only $49 is not bad at all. one time cost. I use it for a lot of things.

What the nice thing about it is you can create in image size to the standards you need and add text. Save it as a Jpeg. EASY DONE!

Even better yet the snag it Capture Feature you can snag images all over the place. It is a lot of fun to have all the tools that are available But not in an overwhelming sense.

I hope this helps -

Jen Schrader
 
#5
CAORYAN said:
gimp.org....its an open source photoshop type program. Totally free and pretty easy to use.
Click to expand...


Gimp has been talked about here at the dealership. I looked at it and I could not see any re sizing tools. I may have missed it.

I do like the Picaso tool by google it can do most everything I need it to. The main reason for looking for a photo shop/ edting tool is for text like building the "CPO banner " like you see on our website www.tricitysubaru.com If we can resize and create banners/artwork without purchasing a photo shop than I will be happy.

Thanks for all of the feedback thus far. I am sure I am not alone on this one.
 
#6
We use Adobe Photoshop CS4/CS5 for all of our web site design and web imagery. As far as power and features, it really is the de facto industry standard, and if you are going to go in depth with what you want to do, its well worth the investment.

It does have somewhat of a steep learning curve and a high pricetag... But you don't necessarily need the latest version or the full adobe design suites, which can run anywhere from $600-$2,000. All you'd need is the standalone photoshop and you'd get all the functionality you'll ever need from an older version like CS1 or CS3 which should be reasonable from an online retailer or Ebay, etc, maybe as low as $100.

I have used older versions of GIMP on occasion and for a free program its quite powerful and would do everything you need. Certainly it could handle scaling images with the same quality as Photoshop. I can't comment on the text tools because I haven't used them on there. I'm much more used to the Adobe interface and usablity, but GIMP would still be a good free program to at least get your feet wet with.

If you have any questions about Photoshop just let me know. Otherwise if you're looking for information or tutorials on GIMP, youtube would be a good place to look. They have instructional videos on just about every tool.


 
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#8
A few quick notes on resizing images in any program:

-Make sure you're always working in documents set up to 72dpi for screen resolution.

-When resizing that you are not distorting/changing the image ratio. Meaning if you have a rectangle image, don't just shrink it down into a square with the free transform tools. First use the resize tools to get one of the dimension (height or width) correct and then use the crop tool to adjust the other.

-After resizing sometimes its good to add a little sharpening filter if needed. Don't always use the full strength "sharpen" command because it might make it too pixelated. But photoshop has unsharpening filters and a really handy sharpening brush. I'm sure GIMP has something similar.

-and finally be careful with the finished file sizes-- try to keep the image quality as high as possible but keep the file size low. As a general rule most normal sized web images should be around 20-70kb in size. Larger banners will go higher, but the more large files on your page the slower it will load. I usually keep my JPG quality settings between 60-70%. For items with lots of solid colors use higher or a format such as PNG or GIF.
 
#10
Ryan - Hello there. I posted a response yesterday and for some reason it did not go through. Strange. However I wanted to reach out to you in regards to helping you with a suggestion.
I train our dealers nationwide when they are in need of similar assistance. I use photoshop but there are a lot of tools and can come to the dealer as confusing.
I do suggest a program called SNAGIT This tool is very easy, simple and very resourceful to dealers when trying to snag images from google images etc. The nice thing about it is you can resize the images with a few clicks and even pre create a banner to a specific size. You can add text, copy and paste an image to the precreated banner and much more.
Very simple, easy and fun to use.
I purchased this about 2 years ago (only $49 one time fee ) but you can also get this for a 30 day free trial too to check it out.
I got a call yesterday from a co worker interested in learning how to use it. She had a blast too once I showed her the ease of use and functionality of it.

I hope this helps :)

Jennifer Schrader
 
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