Websites are limited in capabilities where graphics are concerned. Sure it is possible to include sophisticated flash presentation. But you are faced with a whole new set of issues that do not appear in print design/illustration.
There are issues such as file size and deciding on images that are appropriate to your content. Inappropriate images can throw off the focus of your ebook. Since readers understanding and reading your ebook is one of the main purposes of having an ebook, this is very important issue.
When creating an image for a website, it is important to know which format to use. Both GIFs and JPEGS have their purposes. It doesn't hurt to experiment. Try saving your files in both format and seeing which file format has the best quality and smallest file size.
Here are some of the characteristics of a JPEG format: The JPEG was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Designed specifically for compressing photographic type images. The JPEG will tend to lose quality during compression and decompression, with distortion in flat colors and fuzziness around edges. Because of this it is a good idea to work with TIFF file and save it as a JPEG as the last step. JPEG can display over 16 million colors, although most computer display only 256 colors. JPEG are good for graph and things of the nature.
The GIF or Graphic Interchange Format, was developed by Compuserve for moving indexed color, gray scale or bitmap images between computer platforms. The GIF will only support 256 color displays. This is not much colors. So it seem that GIF will generally be a ggod choice.
It is important to make sure all of your pages are loading quickly. If your pages takes too long to load, most visitors will not waste their time waiting around for it to finish. 30 seconds is acceptable, under is better. This is not too difficult as web pages are not terrible large in size, but you might want to use various graphics, logos, banners, or cover art. These types of files can get large file sizes.
This need not be a problem. A good rule of thumb is to follow the 30kb rule. Files around 30kb will load in about 30 secs. All you need to do is add the total size of all of your files on the page including the HTML page and make sure total is under 30kb.
For instance:
If your HTML page is 5kb and you have several graphics that are perhaps 15kb and 5kb,
then 5+15+5=25kb. You are within the range, you need to be in for a quick loading
page.
The fact that detail is not as important in web illustrations helps with solving the size problem. Actually the size problem is the reason that detail is not terribly important.
When working with a JPEG, try compressing the image to 75%, 50%, and 25%, and viewing the results in your browser. Do not compress an already compressed image, Remember that perfection is not important. We are mainly looking for a balance between a good quality image and a small file size. JPEG will always be larger than GIF regardless of file size because it must go through a decompression process.
When decreasing a GIF file try using less color. There are some programs such as PaintShop Pro that allow you to decrease the color depth bellow 256 colors.
