Comments on: Are Your Web Graphics Fuzzy? Here’s Why and How to Fix It.

By: Bonnie Friday

Bonnie Friday — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:32:58 +0000

YOU ARE AMAZING!! I have been looking for an answer to why my header was fuzzy and appeared to have grey pixels around the lettering… It was as simple as saving the file as a GIF! Thank you for your tips, very helpful!
x

By: Ilya

Ilya — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:07:15 +0000

Awesome blog! will bookmark it for future reference.

By: Amy Andrews

Amy Andrews — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:43:10 +0000

@Stephanie - Regarding GIMP, you might check out these tutorials by malgalin on YouTube, especially the one about layers which does a good job of explaining the basics. His videos are great!

By the way, I bet newbies to Photoshop etc. would benefit too.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:22:00 +0000

Any tip about making my blog better is appreciated…but I would prefer pictures, I have to see it or it won’t stick with me.

By: Kirby3131

Kirby3131 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:45:00 +0000

I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about LOL I still have a free blogger template for my blog. I’m hoping that this summer I will take the plunge and learn a new language — How to design my blog. I’m putting this in my file. Thank you!

By: Jen - Balancing beauty and bedlam

Jen - Balancing beauty and bedlam — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:04:00 +0000

ok, I need baby steps like why when I went to the library were the words on my header cut off, and how do I lower them…ugh. And how many people look at my blog and think…hmmm…is that on purpose as part of the balance of beauty and bedlam. hee hee

Waiting for the scoop on HT. Let me know when it’s up. It’s 12:03am EST…off to bed.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:30:00 +0000

I downloaded Elements a couple weeks ago. I like it very much. I have this image in my mind of exactly how I want my blog to look, and for the life of me I can’t make it happen. I get so confused with the code. If you have any tips for the best tutorials to read, please let me know. I’ve seen walkthroughs, but they don’t produce exactly what I want, and I can’t find something that explains how all the different codes work together.

By: chickadee@afamiliarpath

chickadee@afamiliarpath — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:27:00 +0000

thanks for the tips!

By: Angie

Angie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:09:00 +0000

I’ll be sure to share this with my daughter. She loves to create graphics in Ph Ele. Thanks! Nice to meet you. Came across your place at BlogCatalog.

By: Stephanie's Mommy Brain

Stephanie's Mommy Brain — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:51:00 +0000

Thank you for such great tips!! My husband has installed GIMP on my computer but for the life of me I can’t figure it out. Guess I just need to play with it more. You are definitely right that eventually we all start playing with the graphics side of blogging. When it works the way I want it to – it’s fun. When it doesn’t – I want to throw something.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:19:00 +0000

Great tips, Steve! Thanks! I didn’t know that about IE. IE does have some quirks, Doesn’t it? So just make sure you test your images in each browser.

Great tip about designing larger. Then you’ll have a larger image if you ever need it for a print publication, too.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:16:00 +0000

GIMP is a free, open-source alternative to Photoshop. It’s quite powerful, and worth every penny you’d pay for Photoshop.

Also, a caveat about PNG’s and transparency: Internet Explorer does not handle the transparency well at all. There are work-arounds, but it’s still an annoying issue to deal with.

Another suggestion to add to your excellent ones: In addition to using 300dpi, design at much larger dimensions (pixels) than you ever intend to use the image for. In other words, if you are designing a header to be 700×150, design it at, say, 1400×300. Then when you reduce it, it will be much crisper.

Often people end up designing smaller than they want (i.e., buttons) and then end up trying to increase the size. Leads to pixelation and blurring.

By: Musings of a Housewife

Musings of a Housewife — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:13:00 +0000

Great tips. I do all my designing in Illustrator which means NO FUZZY GRAPHICS! However, I do occasionally have to use my Photoshop Elements, so this was very helpful.