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0 Subject: OT - Photoshop Help Needed!!

Posted by: Makisupa - Donor [401144218] Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 12:40

I have a very simple project that has me completely stumped. I have been trying to take two logos and isolate just the logo, removing the white space around it. I've tried everything in my limited Photoshop arsenal...the lariat, the eraser, a pen trace/path isolate...everything this lowly PC user could think of.

A graphic designer I asked for help, gave me directions for Illustrator, which I don't have. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
1KrazyKoalaBears
      Donor
      ID: 266182910
      Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 13:16
You could do a few things depending on how "anal" you need to be:

1. Magic Wand. Anal Level: 1 (Low). Click the magic wand tool, set it to "Anti-Alias" (if you're using PS 6), and set the tolerance to about 10. Click the white, then delete. If you want to take some more off, undo that and set the tolerance to 15 or 20. The higher the tolerance, the more similar colors it will select when you click in the color area.

2. Lasso tool. Anal Level: 3 (Medium). Click the lasso tool, but click and hold on the lasso tool and select the Polygonal Lasso Tool. This let's you click to set a point, then click to set the next point, then so on and so forth until you go all the way around and complete the shape. You can be more precise with this Lasso than the normal one where it creates a selection after you let go.

3. Quick Mask. Anal Level: 5 (High). Make a selection within the logo. Then hit the "Q" key. You should see your selection disappear and the surrounding area (what you didn't select) will change to a transparent color while what you did select is clear. Grab the eraser tool and start erasing to reveal the logo. The good thing about this, compared to a regular eraser tool, is that if you make a mistake, you simply grab the brush tool and paint back the transparent color that you accidentally removed. Remember that what is clear is what will be selected. Once you're done, hit the "Q" key again, then do an inverse selection and delete the surround junk.

There are a few more that get into "Super-Anal" and if you want them, I could explain them, but you'll be spending a lot of time on it at that point and I don't think it would be necessary. #3 will satisfy 99.9% of people with the final result. Good luck!

2Makisupa
      Donor
      ID: 401144218
      Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 13:55
Thanks...I'll be tackling the level 5 instructions, as I need it to be the best possible capture. I think thats why my friend gave me the Illustrator directions, to utilize vector graphics (or something like that!)
3KrazyKoalaBears
      Donor
      ID: 266182910
      Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 14:02
Yeah, that would probably be the best then. The Illustrator instructions probably involve using the Pen tool, but that's extremely hard to deal with if you haven't used it a lot. The other added bonus about using Quick Mask is that you can zoom in and out easily to get as much detail as you want.
4 Harkonnon
      ID: 50230315
      Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 21:36
Yuppidu

sorry for interfering !

Hey KKB, a good friend of mine has to create a website for school and I tried to help her out a lil bit. Well I'm a real know-nothing guy when it comes down to assemble this kind of stuff. (sniff n'doh)
Anyway, part of the task is to have a reasonable Download time.
But "Yikes" Frontpage 97 shows a download time of 84 seconds.

Would you be so nice to take a look into the code and give me a few hints how to reduce it a lil' bit, without radical changes in the Design !

Here is the link

Would be great if U can shoot me a mail with a few tips !

Thanks in advance

Hark
5KrazyKoalaBears
      Donor
      ID: 266182910
      Mon, Jan 14, 2002, 22:14
HARK!!!!!!!! Long time no post!

I took a look at the site and have only 3 tips.

1. Get rid of the "Swimming Pool" effect on the motorcycle image. It's just a file size hog. Most java stuff is.

2. Get rid of all (or most of) the animated gifs. Animated gifs are nice in moderation, but when you get a lot of them, they become overly distracting and detract from the site. Also, they add a ton of file size because each image is the equivalent of 10-20 images (one for each frame of animation). For instance, the Teal Mouse is 68kb!!! I've made entire sites for less. ;)

3. Get something like ImageReady (comes with Photoshop) to export the images. The Grey and Red bike images are 20kb each and it's because they haven't been resized and exported. You always want to export your images at the size you'll need them. So instead of having a big image like this and then setting the size in the html, you resize it in Photoshop/ImageReady and then export it and get a file size of about 6kb. If each images file size is cut by 1/3, your download time is cut by 1/3.

Overall, the code looks good, but I always recommend using Macromedia Dreamweaver instead of Frontpage. Dreamweaver is extrememly easy to use and is what the pro's use. Frontpage just gets you in a lot of bad habits. Dreamweaver has a free 30-day trial download and is a full working version. So if you only need it for 30 days or less, it's well worth it. Anyhow, let me know if you need any more help.

6Harkonnon
      ID: 50230315
      Tue, Jan 15, 2002, 19:01
Hi KKB

Muchas Gracias for the good (and quick) advice !

The page was made with Dreamweaver, we used Frontpage only as reference for the Download Time (Dreamweaver said 44 seconds doooh)

We will try Photoshop resp Image Ready and see what amount of time and space we can save. (I'll keep you updated on this)

If nothing works the animations have to go !

on posting
Yeah strange things happened, my beloved routine of checking in here has come to a screeching halt !
Early in the (hockey) season checking Hockey scores seemed to be so strange due to all the Political stuff. Then later when I looked around again the Islanders, Oilers, Flames, Blackhawks were the hot teams so it seemed to be more like the NHL of the mid 80's. To top all these things all of a sudden Smallworld/TSN seems to have some customer support ! Jesus this world has changed a lot lately. :-)

Okie so much for today, it's already Wednesday here and I'm ready for a nap. Thanks again from me and Anett (the girl on the bike). She said I should give you a big hug ! (ahem feel hugged now !)

Thanks again
c'ya Hark
7Harkonnon
      ID: 50230315
      Tue, Jan 15, 2002, 19:03
Ahem I can get Photoshop 6.0 or 6.01 I don't think it does matter, right ?
8KrazyKoalaBears
      Donor
      ID: 266182910
      Tue, Jan 15, 2002, 19:17
Um, hug accepted. ;)

I know what you mean about the world changing. I don't worry near as much about fantasy sports as I once did.

As far as 6.0 vs. 6.0.1. Always go with the most recent version (6.0.1 in this case). It usually means they've fixed a bug. But the bug fix is likely to be minor or else the new version would have been 6.1.

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