As an autistic, purebred Himalayan runt, my cat Rufo poses a triple threat of cuteness the whole world can enjoy. Sound like the everyday delusions of an average cat owner? Perhaps. But if Rufo is indeed a superstar dying to be born, then it's my responsibility to help him, via the Internet. After all, what better use of the Web than as cat promotion?
At first, Rufo's site was nothing more than a few paragraphs describing his unique kitty allure. Although a good start, mere words failed to convey the complete Rufo experience. For that, I needed graphics. Not just photographs — if Rufo was to be taken seriously as a cat celebrity, his Web presence had to look fun and professional. So I needed other collateral as well, like a logo, page banners, and graphic navigation.
My initial attempts were less than flattering. Pictures had blurry fur, the colors were pale and washed out, and the images took forever to download. So I taught myself how to create the kind of fast, sleek, and professional images that Rufo deserves. And now I'm going to share that hard-won knowledge with you. In the pages that follow, you'll find tips, hints, and links to off-site resources or more advanced Webmonkey tutorials — everything an aspiring graphics designer needs to transform a texty site into a graphic sensation.
We begin at the very beginning: Getting images into the computer. For Rufo's site, this meant importing photographs and finding usable graphics.
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