Help with making my LE ad
 

LE ads are done in pixels and sent as a jpg. I can't seem to get mine to not 'dirty up'.

I opened a 'create a new image' (I'm using gimp), chose the pixel size and 300 resolution. Copy and pasted my two images, then added text. When Corri added it to the (top of the page) web ad space it had terrible distortion. I redid it in 72 resolution thinking maybe that was it, no better. What do I need to change?

Here's the ad. Now that I see it here it's not too bad, but when it come up in the ad space it's much worse.



-Donna

Using 300 resolution is a waste for screen images and just adds unnecessary size to the file. It could be that the site is compressing your image, which is causing the degradation of quality. I see the image you have there is showing up as about 14k in size. What is the size of the file that you are uploading?

For web, 100 resolution at about 8 (if you go with 10 being the best) quality works pretty good. You want to do your editing at the higher resolution and reduce it as the last thing you do when you save the final image.

Mike

The ad software on here does not compress anything. It takes the exact file and shows that.

Thanks Mike. I start out with a 468 x 60 pixels, so you're saying make it with more pixels, then reduce it to the 468x60, then save it. Right? I'll give that a try and see what happens.

No Donna, I think he's saying make the file the same size but instead of 300dpi just use 72dpi,which is all a screen can read. In my experience, if you save the file for web, it will automatically downsize it to 72. If you can send me the original.file with the layers I can (hopefully) take it into Photoshop and fix it for you. But I can't do anything really with the final mpg without the layers. I'd be happy to do it!

Actually, how I should have said it was to use the full size image as it comes out of the camera to do your editing on. Then, after you have cropped, color corrected, re-sized, sharpened, etc., then change it to 100 dpi (I prefer 100 over 72) with a profile of sRGB (I work in AdobeRGB until I'm ready to save). Also, make sure you are at 8 bit in case your camera is set to save in 16 bit (it probably isn't). You may also have to sharpen a bit more at full size than you normally would because you lose sharpness when you reduce size. Also, there are other formats besides jpg that might be better to save in for a small images like this.

And after all the work you do and no matter how good it looks to you... it's still only going to look as good as the video card and monitor of the person viewing it allows. :D

Mike

When I saved it I saved it as a jpg, so that is the final file.


I don't think the pictures are the problem. I do all of the editing you suggested. Even the text in the final jpg has the same distortion around it as the logo and tool pictures do.

I considered what you said about the video card and monitor, but here's the thing, I also have an ad on the UK forum. I constructed the two ad the same but the one over their doesn't look 'dirty' even when I view them both on my monitor. Here's the ad http://cgbeads.com/FH_90x720_main.jpg, it's even cleaner looking when viewed on their forum :rolleyes: but my ad when view here is dirtier when view on the the forum. :rolleyes:

I'm just stumped. Two ads on two forums, constructed the same, I hate to say it but the only variable between the two is the forum.

I give up, it is what it is I guess. Thanks for trying guys.

-D

Well, are the images in your link and the one above the same image? If so, when I look at the one in your link (which does look better by the way), I see that it is twice the file size (28K) and 720x90 pixels vrs. the one above which is 14K and 468x60 pixels in size. If those are the same files, then yes, this site compresses on uploaded files. They may not on linked images, but most forum software I know about gives the option to compress uploaded images.

Let's see if this link to your other image works and how it looks:

http://cgbeads.com/FH_90x720_main.jpg

Does it look to you the same as it does on the other site or like the one you posted above?

Mike

P.S. I mean nothing against this site if they do compress uploaded images. That's the way it is on almost all forums and is a feature that helps keep a site from bogging down from files that are two big. It's their disk space and bandwidth after all.

No, they are two different sizes. Made at the same time in the same way, both save to a jpg. The UK forum doesn't host the jpg, I host it on my website and they link to it. LE host the jpg, maybe there's another difference in where the jpg is hosted (?)

This site does not compress anything. The file size sent is 468 x 60 pixels. This is the size required for ads. I upload the actual file that is sent. It looks the same on the site as it does in the file that was emailed over since it is that exact jpg put on here. No resizing or compressing in any way. The issue is not with any of the software or anything to do with this site compressing anything.

The file I received via email has the same dirtiness around the images.

We don't compress images because of the fact that the images are normally art pieces that require detail. We only allow certain size images to be uploaded, this makes it so any editing of pictures, etc are done by the person uploading as opposed to us changing it

Thanks for your persistent help Mike, but after comparing the two ads on my desktop and then in their ad spots I think the glitch beyond my control. No bit deal, it is what it is, I'm still happy enough with the ad, just hoped there was something I could do about the dirty background.

(carry on)
-D

Ya I'm so totally stumped, when it's on my desktop it's not as bad. I think aliens are involved. I was just hoping I could get rid of the dirty, I think I'm over it and done trying to figure out why the sky is blue, too. lol

Oh, hay Corri you mentioned 'artwork', is there some other format I could save and send it as? Would that make a difference?

The issue is with saving it as a .jpg which is a form of lossy compression and should ONLY ever be used for photographs where you won't notice a pixel change here and there.

For logos and such with a few colours, use .GIF , or .PNG if there are more than a few colours (eg graduations) or a combination of text and photo.

You will need to go back to an original version before you ever saved it as .JPG and save it out to one of the alternatives.

A-hah, That sounds like my issue. I'll give that a try, thanks bunches....

-Donna

I can use either gif or jpg. It needs to be 468 x60 pixels and no more than 35kB

I'll try making a gif and see if the 'jpg' is my issue. Thanks Corri.

-Donna

This is a sample 468 x 60 px banner done in PS and uploaded as a PNG.



This one below is a JPEG.



The one below is a GIF

That's interesting Alaska. The one I uploaded and put in my original post is the same as the one that is in the ad space, but is still cleaner. It's just the one in the ad space that I can't figure out why it's dirty. I've redone it as a gif so I'll see how it looks.

-d

One could try a different font and see what happens. Some fonts are designed for display use while others are not. And check to see if the font is post script, true type or open type. And then perhaps choose a different one from the three and see if that makes any difference.

The three graphic examples were all saved for web devices in PS 4.

Another test, if using a Windows system, is to turn off "clear type" and see if that changes the look on your monitor. Generally clear type is used for text fonts and should not effect display type or images.

FYI, got it....

For some reason I needed a gif for my ad, not a jpg, it will remain a mystery why some people can use jpg's but mine wouldn't work. gif looks sooooo much better, that's the only thing I did different. On that note, my brain is happy to rest....

Thanks everyone.

-Donna