9. Web-Centric GIMP

The GIMP has many powerful tools for creating interesting and useful graphic components for Web pages. In this chapter, you will learn how the GIMP can be used to create animated GIFs, clickable image maps, fancy type styles, and tileable backgrounds, all of which are important features for dynamic, exciting Web pages. The chapter finishes with a discussion on how to best prepare color images to be viewed on the Web using a standard Web browser.

• 9.1 Web Animations
  • 9.1.1 Using GIF Files for Animation
  • 9.1.2 GIMP Layers Can Behave Like Animation Frames
  • 9.1.3 Saving Animations to GIF
  • 9.1.4 A Second Example of Creating a GIF Animation
  • 9.1.5 Animation Optimization
  • 9.1.6 IWarp
• 9.2 Clickable Image Maps
• 9.3 Type Effects
• 9.4 Tileable Backgrounds
• 9.5 Web-Safe Color
  • 9.5.1 Types of Color Distortion
  • 9.5.2 Low-Color Systems and Web Browser
    Color Palettes
  • 9.5.3 Converting to Indexed Color
  • 9.5.4 What Is the Best Choice?
• 9.6 Semi-Transparency and Indexed Images
• 9.7 Which Format GIF or JPEG?