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Designing a web album in minutes


Robert Kennedy

When you have a timeline to build your online photo album, learn how to carve hours out of your production time. OK, here is my mission; completely install a customer example photo gallery in 2 hours or less.

The basic process starts from Adobe Illustrator CS or Corel Draw 12. This is the format all customers" work is saved in. There are aproximately. 300 files I need to access export and create a photo album with full navigation.

Here's how I did it
      Instead of opening each file in its native program I tried opening CDR and AI files in Adobe Photoshop. Guess what? It works with the ai files but not the cdr files. Why is this important? Because 90% of my files are in ai format! Illustrator only allows you to open 1 file at a time,

Photoshop allows you to open as many as your computer's resources can handle. At the same time Photoshop converts each vector based image to a bitmap, which is required for the web.

Now, you could create a course of 'actions' to complete this more efficiently, but I want to remove or retouch some undesirable from each image. I am a 'perfectionist' so I want these images looken good AND loading fast for the web.

Personally I find Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks offer the best export filters for the web. So now I have 300 images look'n good -- properly cropped and optimized for the web.

What is the best way to create a Photo Album from so many images? Again let's refer to my favorites for this, Macromedia or Adobe? I work with both for different projects and really can't pick a favorite here! They are both excellent for this application.

Macromedia Dreamweaver has a function found under Commands > Create Photo Album, shown here. You will need Fireworks installed for this to work. Go ahead and fill in all the text fields that are required information shown here.

It is important you take the time to craft your words carefully, especially in the first field as this text is written into every html file generated.

Check the appropriate format, rows and columns etc. Check the box for file names on or off and check the box for, 'create navigation page for each photo'.

OK that's it you're ready to fire away, click OK -- Amazing, eh?

I have timed this part of the process to 3 minutes for 100 images with a Pentium 4 2.8 mgh, 512 ddr ram. Your speed may vary from work station to work station.

No matter how you cut it, there is no better way to get your image collection online!

Cheers,

Robert

Robert is an online expert in graphic design and print. Online since 1999, Robert has spearheaded the success of weprintcolor.com by providing the finest online graphic design system on the web.

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Reviewed by Fred Showker for DTG Magazine and the News-Serve Network. (C) 2005, all rights reserved. For republication permissions and credits press the "Contact" button below. First published in DTG Magazine. ... Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Power Mac, Velocity Engine, FireWire, AirPort, Safari, Sherlock, QuickTime, iLife, iTunes, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iCal and Apple Store are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Mention of third-party products is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither a recommendation nor an endorsement.

 

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