I think I'm done...

AprilMaybe

New Member
So I added the final small details and I think for now I'm finished with the actual design portion of my site. Other than adding new artwork to the gallery eventually. It's quite girly I guess with the color scheme and all but not painful to the eyes imo. I've played with a couple different fonts i.e. Arial and at this moment Tahoma. So any thoughts, opinions and suggestions are welcome.
Thank you,
April
 

voodish

New Member
Hi April,

I like it - however can you get the filesize of the header graphic down, it's a bit of big muffin atm, currently in at: over 380kb... can you make it a jpeg, probably 1/4 the size, without any noticeable loss in quality.
 

AprilMaybe

New Member
Thanks voodish.
Wow didn't even realize it was so big file size wise lol Hmm I probably would have if there wasn't transparent parts to it. It's saved as png-24 and I know it would look like crap as a gif lol...Would pre-loading the image(s) via some java script eliminate some download time? I was thinking about doing that.
 

voodish

New Member
Why is there a need for the transparency?
Couldn't you use the 'big muffin png' (lol_) as a header background (JPEG), this will cover the overall background to the top of the document...

Then join the tornedgeleft.png and tornedgeright.png into one file, and use that new file as the overall background JPEG and repeat it down the page in CSS?
 

suz

New Member
Great looking site, well done. I agree about the file size though 300+kb is pretty big.
 

AprilMaybe

New Member
Voodish-There are areas in the banner that if I added an actual color background rather than transparent, parts of it would then cover certain divs. Like the upper portion of the light blue body background and then also the main text div. If I were to join the left and right torn edge image and then repeat that image I would end up with the same pattern all the way down.
Adam-If there was a way to optimize pngs and still keep the quality I would definitely do that. How fast did the page load for everyone?
 

adamblan

New Member
Since you're using a solid bg color for the page, you should be able to change the png to jpeg without sacrificing resolution... Just set the background color of the image to the same hex you'll be using on your page...
 

PixelPusher

Super Moderator
Staff member
I agree the file size is large, 380K is getting up there. Using a JPEG would definitely reduce that. I love PNG files because they retain great detail, but unfortunately you pay a price for that in file size.

Have you considered making the overall background white; then centering a div/table over that with all your images and content. The div/table could then have that light desaturated green color as the backround color. You could then line up the images along the edges and that should still acheive the torn edge look, while also allowing you to eliminate the transparency and make them JPEGs? Just a thought. Cool site the nevertheless.
 

AprilMaybe

New Member
Pixelpusher-Thanks :)
Well the background is close to white as it is off-white and the light blue area is it's own div already...but right now the banner covers both areas. (the off white background and the light bluish green body div) Is the page loading slow for all of you? Even a jpg gives good detail to a point depending on the level of quality you save it at but I like png cuz that file type allow the option of layering as you can see through parts. Dunno just gives more design freedom imo...If my site is loading really slow due to the banner file size then I will consider another option.
 

suz

New Member
Just remember though that IE6 has no support for transparent png so people visiting your site using IE6 will see it differently. There may possibly be a fix for this but I'm not sure.
 

pingeyeg

New Member
Is it your hosting company that is down? If so, check us out. We may be a little higher in price, but we have yet to have a site go down.
 
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