Q: How many graphics should I choose for my site?
A: Graphics take up the majority of your web space. Pages and pages of text do not equal the size of most graphic files. Three negative factors to consider about graphics, they slow down the load time of your site, they increase the space that your web site occupies, they consume some of the bandwidth you are purchasing from your hosting service. Limiting your graphics to some extent could be a good cost-saving measure. Graphics undoubtedly enhance the appeal of your site and aid people greatly when navigating your site. A good "happy medium" should be chosen for best results.

Q: What is "optimization of graphics"?
A: Most graphics can be compressed or manipulated in such a way that they take up less space (MB). We optimize all graphics when building your site. This will assure that your finished web site will load quickly and be as efficient and take up as little space as possible. Again, if you are paying a hosting service based on the size of your site, or how much traffic you get (bandwidth), then this is an important feature.

Q: What is lossy compression?
A: Compression is the reduction of data size using computer algorithms. In a lossy compression scheme, as the name implies, some of the original information is discarded when it is compressed. The amount of data reduction and loss can be balanced in the compression process to create compact graphics files with little or no noticeable degradation.

Q: What is JPEG?
A: The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file format was developed as a non-proprietary high quality compressed graphics format. Web Browsers on Windows, Macintosh and virtually every other type of computer can also display JPEG files making it a de facto standard of the industry.

Q: What is GIF?
A: The GIF (Graphics Interchange File) file format was initially developed by Compuserve as a cross platform graphics format which would allow compressed graphics files to be viewed on DOS, Commodore and Apple systems. As time went on Windows, Macintosh and virtually every other type of computer could also display GIF files making it a de facto standard of the industry.

Q: What is GIF Animation?
A: GIF Animation is the easiest way of delivering animation to many web browsers since most of them support this file format. Here is an example GIF animation of a US Flag waving in the breeze.

Q: What is TIFF?
A: The Tag Interface File Format (TIFF) is a standard for storing bit mapped graphics from scanners and fax machines. Free TIFF file viewers and plug-ins are available for most web browsers and computers. TIFF is commonly used in document management systems to enable viewing of scanned legacy documents. The US Patent and Trademark Office stores millions of old patent and trademark documents in TIFF files so they may be viewed and read by anyone with a web browser and an internet connection.

Q: What Is MIDI?
A: MIDI is an acronym for musical instrument digital interface. Midi files contain the equivalent of an electronic musical score. This digital sheet music contains performance information, without any actual samples of sound. Midi is the only sound format that contains no actual sound samples. Microsoft .wav files and other formats are real sound files, and tend to be huge files relative to the time duration of the sound, as compared to midi files. Your computer contains the actual patches or samples of sound that are played for the midi score. Midi files can have multiple tracks and can be included in web pages and qucickly downloaded and heard by the people who are browsing your web site.

Q: What is AVI?
A: AVI stands for Audio Video Interleav. The AVI format was defined by Microsoft. By including an AVI player with Windows Microsoft has made AVI one the most common formats for audio/video data on the PC.

Q: What is QuickTime?
A: QuickTime is a multimedia architecture developed by Apple Computer Apple for Macintosh, Windows, and other platforms. It allows your computer to work with real time movies, sounds, and high-quality compressed images.

Q: What is MPEG?
A: The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) file format was developed as a non-proprietary high quality compressed video format. Players for MPEG are available on Windows, Macintosh computers and many Set Top Boxes and Digital Satellite Receivers.

Q: What is DiVX?
A: DivXTM is a new format for digital video, much like MP3 is a format for digital music. DivXTM is the brand name of a video compression technology created by DivXNetworks, Inc. The DivXTM codec (short for compression-decompression) is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec is so advanced that it can reduce an MPEG-2 video (the same format used for DVD or Digital Satellite Transmissions) to ten percent of its original size.

Q: What Is Flash?
A: Flash is an authoring tool for animated multimedia both on and off the Web. Flash is today the most widely accepted technology for creating fully interactive real-time design animation's on the Web. The most amazing thing about Flash animation technology is its low bandwidth requirements compared to animated GIFs, Quick Time movies, or even Shockwave Director technology. Flash file size requirements are extremely low due to its use of vector art as compared to bit-mapped art used in animated GIFs. Vector art uses geometry to define shapes and colors rather than bitmaped art which is defined by coloring each individual pixel (represented by a group of data bits) in a user-defined fixed sized matrix (often called a "raster"). Programs such as Photoshop, Painter, XRES, and your scanner software use bitmap graphics. Flash can be used to make simple animated banners and graphics or used to create an entire Web site. The developer of this product, Macromedia, has designed Flash to work on all operating systems and has designed it to play with the Shockwave plug-in or through JAVA-playback and Active X if you don't have the plug-in. Viewers of Flash animations who have the plug-in will notice the presentation start quicker than those without the plug-in. Flash can also be used for CD-authoring, and is a powerful program for illustration and presentations.

Q: What is a Custom Screen Saver?
A: Screen Savers are programs that keep your screen from getting Burn In. We can create a Custom Screen Saver using your company logo or graphics that you can give away on your web site.

Q: Can you do something about the blemish on this photo for me?
A: Yes. We can deal with minor image manipulation to make sure that your photos look professional.

Q: Can I have my company's corporate colors on my web site?
A: Yes. We will duplicate your colors, although differences in users' monitors may mean that what they see may be slightly different to what you see!

Q: Can I have sound or video clips, or an animated gif?
A: Yes. Sound, video and animations can be included on your site, although they can be large files which take a long time to download, many animations are very small and download quickly.

Q: What about mouseovers?
A: Mouseovers (or rollovers) can enliven otherwise boring buttons and can be used to great effect. They are a set of graphics (usually four) which are displayed by the browser in turn, depending on whether the cursor is over the button or clicking it. Some of the older browsers, however, do not support the Javascript which is necessary for mouseovers, but most people will have versions which do.

Q: We have scanning equipment, so can we do our own graphic scans?
A: You are certainly welcomed to save some money by doing your own scanning. However, it is essential that this scanning be done correctly for the web, otherwise, your efforts will not be usable and the images will need to be re-scanned.

Q: Do you consider page loading time, when you design a page or site?
A: Yes. You can have the most beautiful page or site on the Internet, but it will be useless if no one waits for it to load. We utilize color techniques, compression and several other techniques and technological exploits to minimize load time.