[erniesthings]

I'm working on a desktop pic that has a mix some bitmap images with some vector work. This is all being done in PS 6. I have a nice gradient going from dark blue to white that I'm really liking. The problem is that I'm getting terrible banding in the gradient with .jpg and .png has dithering/noise in bitmap parts.

Is there a "magic" file format or is it a trade off.

Does CS have better saving for web options?

Thanks for the help.

Ernie

[cla]

pdf

[erniesthings]

What's your opinion on using .pdf for distrabuting desktop pics?

I don't think I've run across any .pdf desktops before.

[bluedog]

Originally Posted by erniesthings

What's your opinion on using .pdf for distrabuting desktop pics?

I don't think I've run across any .pdf desktops before.

Putting a PDF online for a desktop pic will require users to save the file into JPG or another format that will work for desktop pics. You won't easily get people willing to or able to do that.

I would work on finding a web application that uses the GD library with PHP or another imaging web application that can do resizing DOWN from the highest res you wish to distribute. Depending on where you wish to host these images, I suggest looking into an online "gallery" application that can do the automatic resizing and thumbnailing.

The one that comes to mind is "Gallery"

http://gallery.menalto.com/

Its very customizable and easy to install (relatively).

OTHERWISE, its really best if you don't have a TON of desktop pics to batch process them to sizes that are most likely to be used. You can use Photoshop or GraphicConverter if you don't already have photoshop. Set it to scale down from your highest resolution desktop and save them as JPGs (for smaller file sizes).

Then you can build a gallery of them. Come to think of it GraphicConverter may have an option to build a html-based gallery. Updating it would require running through the process each time.

[erniesthings]

Kind of sloved my problem. Not exactly with the outcome that I was hoping, but a nice compromise.

I just added a little noise to the gradient and saved as a jpg. Not quite as smooth as I wanted but no banding.

I do have my own gallery, on my site. I've been using Plogger (http://plogger.org). Pretty easy to setup and integrated well into my site.

Thanks

[cla]

PDF excels as desktop picture format, although MAC ONLY.

No need for resaving/converting – just drag it in there.
PDF allows you to do all the things you wanted; gradients, shades, fonts and vectors run-time rendered for you specific screen. Just keep in mind that the PDF's page format should be in the same dimensions as your computer screen.

(My iMac for instance, uses 1680x1050 pixels, so I save my desktop pdf's in say 840x525 millimeters)

[cla]

Saving clause: At least on my 10.4.4 Tiger... :>

[erniesthings]

Does the pdf need to be the exact pixel dimensions as the monitors settings?

Or will it scale if is say 1600x1200 and I have my monitor at 1280x960?

Thanks