Web graphics experts please help...

[Jabba]

Hi Guys,

I am trying to add a graphic to a website. When it comes to graphics and making them look good, I am out of my league and I was hoping someone could give me some advice. The size of the graphic cannot be any bigger than 488W x 297D

The graphic I am trying to look good is here:

www.garry.ca/test

I am using Macromedia FireWorks. I found a photo I like and added text to it. As you can see, the text looks pixelated and not as clear as I like. Also, the picture is a little dark. Is there any way to sharpen the text up and lighten the image up?

The .png file I am using in Fireworkds can be found here:

www.garry.ca/MyPace8.png

Also, the graphic takes too long to download over dialup. Any way I can reduce the size but still keep it looking crisp?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks folks!

[Ad_Enuff]

See attached!

[Jabba]

Hello Ad_Enuff!
 
Thanks....Thats exactly the look I am searching for.

Could you explain to me what you did, software you used to clean the graphic up?

Also, I downloaded the revised version you posted and cannot change the text using Fireworks. The text I posted was just for illustrative purposes.

Sorry if these questions sound lame.

Much appreciated,

[Ad_Enuff]

I use Adobe Photoshop CS 2 (version 9) here at my laboratory.

If you can post the same image without the text I'll redo it for you.

All I have done is simply changed the image size to the size you mentioned and saved it in PNG format which is lossless compression therefore keeping the quality throughout the image.

Using JPEG would of course add digital compression artefacts to the image and would look worse.

[Jabba]

Thank you for your offer to redo this for me. I plan on using this Image a few times with different offers/text so I don't want to bother you too much...

What I'll do is see if doing what you did in Fireworks will get me a clean image. If I hit any issues, can I PM you? I didn't know PNG were cleaner. I'll try saving it as this format.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Ad_Enuff]

If I hit any issues, can I PM you?

Sure no problems! Let us know how you get on...