Background
Photoshop 5.5, in addition to the regular "save" function, has a rather fabulous "Save for the Web" (found under "File") function which opens a window (of sorts) within the program and allows you to specify different Web formats (gif, jpg, png) and the various settings for each, among other things. It displays the resulting changes, as well as file size and download time. No more saving multiple versions to look at file sizes and quality. Fabulous.

Photoshop 5.5 also comes bundled with ImageReady, which you can use to cut up graphics, make rollovers, animations, etc. (You make can make graphic in PS, then use the File menu to "jump to" IR ... the same graphic will open in IR.) To cut up a graphic, turn on Rulers (View/Show Rulers), then drag the cursor from the ruler into the graphic area (a line or "guide" will appear*); drag it to the spot where you want the graphic to be cut up. You can do this multiple times, and it can be done in PS or IR. To cut up the graphic, jump to IR if you're not already there; then tell the program to "slice" the graphic according to the guide(s) (Slices/Create Slices from Guides). (*These are the same "guides" that, in PS, you'd use to line up text or other elements; in IR, you can use them to cut up the graphic.) Note that the graphic is not yet saved.

One really great feature is that, after slicing the graphic, you can join slices, delete slices ... and you can select all slices so that, when IR saves, it applies the same color palette to all. Even more amazing, you can save one slice as a .gif, another as a .jpg ... and apply different color settings (16, 32, etc. for gif; low, med, high and all points in between for .jpg) to slices in the same graphic!. You want versatile ... this is it!

And the mysterious Photoshop crashes?
It appears that such specified settings in ImageReady are saved with the graphic (just as your "Save for the Web" settings are saved in PS) ... that is, after you've specified gif/jpg in a graphic and sliced and saved in IR, trying to use Save for the Web in Photoshop seems to result in the "unknown error". I do not recall having this problem using Save for the Web with a file which had previously been sliced and saved in IR with different color settings ... but to tell the truth, I don't recall whether I tried this or not.

Moral: Make copies. This of course results in more copies of graphics laying around (hey -- that's what gigabytes are for, right?!) but less grief in the short and long run.

Amendment ... Theory Wrong, Same Problem, and a Quick Solution
I did a bit more testing and discovered that the crashing problem does not appear to be related to ImageReady at all ... I had the same problem with Save-for-the-Web with a resized file that had never been opened in ImageReady. The files themselves do not appear to be corrupt, as they can be saved via the "regular" PS saving options.

The Quick Solution: I also discovered how to "fix" the problem so that these "problem" files can be saved via Photoshop's Save-for-the-Web option: Simply start a new file, and drag the elements from the "old" file to the new one; save, and presto! Problem gone, and it can be saved via Save-for-the-Web.

For those of you who haven't tried Photoshop yet, let me tempt you: ever make a complex text graphic, building bevels and shadows by hand, and then find that the text is wrong?!! In PS 5.5, you can apply all kinds of drop shadow and (tasteful) bevel effects to text ... and simply editing the text (for typos, wrong word, wrong font, wrong font size, wrong color) changes all the effects along with the word. Of course, it's good to know how to do these effects from scratch, but ... one can become very, very happy with automation.

Hope this is of use.

DianeV
Moderator, http://gethighforums.com/
DianeV. Web Design Studio - http://dianev.com/

Permission is hereby granted to post this data to other forums or websites, with the exception of hate, warez and pornography sites, if the above credit is included, and you email info@dianev.com with the URLs where it is posted. Thanks. -- Diane Vigil

[This message has been edited by DianeV (edited 06-12-2000).]

Excellent tip if I may say so. Not got around to using image ready (I slice the hard way!)

May I have your permission to copy and paste this on a BB I run? It will appear in the Graphics help section and I will add a link back to this board

Here is the url to the board Nutzboard

Thanks

[This message has been edited by Nutrocker (edited 06-08-2000).]

That aside, I have to say that I've run into a situation where the above does not apply. So I am left with wondering if a file or two has become corrupted ... or sporadically corrupted. At this point, I don't know the answer, but it is a curious mystery.

quote:

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Originally posted by DianeV:
Actually, once we post at VirtualPromote, the copyright goes to the site's owner.

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Actually, unless you expressly relinquish copyright to another party, you still own the rights for your own work. Even if you post your work on a publicly accessible forum

At any rate, since the intermittent crashing/closing up issue is not completely resolved, I don't want to disseminate it around the Web ... but I think that once we've solved it, I'd love to help others by posting it elsewhere (or having someone else do the posting) ... because I too have scoured the Web on occasion for answers to obscure questions.

I would ask that anyone who has any more information about the PS crashing issue post it here.

Better yet, I have found a quick solution.

I'll write it up and post it here, and along with permission to reprint.

Fair points raised by all. At least I asked eh, not like some

If I see a good tip like yours on a forum then I always think it's worth sharing with others. I must visit around 10 UBB's weekly and always see good tips for all sorts of apps. Only recently occurred to me what about putting them all together in some way!

Awaiting your next post.
Rgds
Don

Thanks, sent you an email.

Cheers.