Fri Apr 09, 2004 4:58 am
PLEASE READ: Concering Pictures/screenshots in posts.
Okay, sorry folks, but sometimes pictures are just TOO big to be practical IN the thread. If you post ten screenshots at 100kb each, whilst not massive on their own, it makes a 1 megabyte page to view. This can really hinder 56kers (of which the majority here are), and even cause DSL to load slowly. It will also start to kill the bandwidth if every thread did this. So - the basic rules of pictures, and screenshots for mods etc
RULES FOR PICTURES IN MOD ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. ALL images MUST be in JPEG format (*.jpg or *.JPG for case sensitive providers - which is why some poeple cannot get them to work! try both!). This is because as it is, you CANNOT tell the difference in quality between JPEG or BMP on forums etc, and the size difference is 2 meg to 50kb if done in Paint. That is substantial.
2. TRY NOT TO post images that are OVER 800 x 600 - regardless of if you think that it misses something. The screen suddenly needs scrolling around - and its incredibly annoying. It would be MOST considerate to others to post images that are only 600 x 400 instead, which shouldn't require any scrolling. When I say try not to - if you DO post images larger than this, you might find moderators editing and removing them!!! You have been warned!
3. IF you are going to post MORE than 3 images in the thread, then it would be MUCH better for you to use the set up below, which is not only more attractive, looks better, and loads faster, it also offers the user a choice on whether to view the images each time (which if you post 3 of, it could be very annoying as the screen keeps changing sizes).
So - what you do is make ACTIVE pages instead. To do this:
You need somewhere to host your pic as usual
. once you have taken your screenshot - use PAINT (note - NOT photoshop) and resize it to around 800 x 600 and then SAVE it as a JPEG. This will make it around 50Kb per screenshot. USE paint, or if you HAVE to use photoshop - use a POOR quality setting, YOU CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE FOR THIS IDEA, as this will keep them SMALL in size (around 50kb instead of 200kb).
2. Once you have saved it, now RESIZE the picture AGAIN to around 250x175 or so. Then SAVE THIS AS A JPEG FILE AND CALL IT THUMB!!!!!
So then you have two files:
1. Desktop.jpg
2. Thumb.jpg
Now - use some nice coding from the forums to create the IMAGE of the thumb on the forum which is an ACTIVE LINK to the picture size. This will ensure that loading this thread will take seconds, EVEN for a 56k modem user.
See my example below
The code for this is (*subsitute square brackets instead of the curly ones)
{url=http://www.pathfinderstudios.com/desktop.JPG}{img=http://www.pathfinderstudios.com/thumb.JPG}{/url}
There we go, obviously change the links to YOUR host of pictures
Then you can have something like this below to tempt people with your screenies, yet stylish presentation
Thankyou, as this will prevent problems with loadup times for your mods, but STILL tempt them to become involved in your mod by NOT having to go off to your websites etc
RULES FOR PICTURES IN MOD ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. ALL images MUST be in JPEG format (*.jpg or *.JPG for case sensitive providers - which is why some poeple cannot get them to work! try both!). This is because as it is, you CANNOT tell the difference in quality between JPEG or BMP on forums etc, and the size difference is 2 meg to 50kb if done in Paint. That is substantial.
2. TRY NOT TO post images that are OVER 800 x 600 - regardless of if you think that it misses something. The screen suddenly needs scrolling around - and its incredibly annoying. It would be MOST considerate to others to post images that are only 600 x 400 instead, which shouldn't require any scrolling. When I say try not to - if you DO post images larger than this, you might find moderators editing and removing them!!! You have been warned!
3. IF you are going to post MORE than 3 images in the thread, then it would be MUCH better for you to use the set up below, which is not only more attractive, looks better, and loads faster, it also offers the user a choice on whether to view the images each time (which if you post 3 of, it could be very annoying as the screen keeps changing sizes).
So - what you do is make ACTIVE pages instead. To do this:
You need somewhere to host your pic as usual
. once you have taken your screenshot - use PAINT (note - NOT photoshop) and resize it to around 800 x 600 and then SAVE it as a JPEG. This will make it around 50Kb per screenshot. USE paint, or if you HAVE to use photoshop - use a POOR quality setting, YOU CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE FOR THIS IDEA, as this will keep them SMALL in size (around 50kb instead of 200kb).
2. Once you have saved it, now RESIZE the picture AGAIN to around 250x175 or so. Then SAVE THIS AS A JPEG FILE AND CALL IT THUMB!!!!!
So then you have two files:
1. Desktop.jpg
2. Thumb.jpg
Now - use some nice coding from the forums to create the IMAGE of the thumb on the forum which is an ACTIVE LINK to the picture size. This will ensure that loading this thread will take seconds, EVEN for a 56k modem user.
See my example below
The code for this is (*subsitute square brackets instead of the curly ones)
{url=http://www.pathfinderstudios.com/desktop.JPG}{img=http://www.pathfinderstudios.com/thumb.JPG}{/url}
There we go, obviously change the links to YOUR host of pictures
Then you can have something like this below to tempt people with your screenies, yet stylish presentation
Thankyou, as this will prevent problems with loadup times for your mods, but STILL tempt them to become involved in your mod by NOT having to go off to your websites etc