Photoshop Elements 3: The Missing Manual

Chapter 15. Elements and the Web

Printing your photos is great, but it costs money, takes time, and doesn't do much to instantly impress friends with your newfound photo prowess. Fortunately, Elements comes packed with tools that make it easy to not only email your photos, but also to post them on the Web.

Once you get the hang of sharing your photos online, Elements is ready for all your digital sharing needs. This version of Elements lets you send your photos to cellphones, Palm-based handhelds, and even to your television set. In this chapter, you'll learn how to email your photos, and how to prepare them for use as Web site graphics. You can also create elaborate slideshows and mini Web sites featuring your pictures, which you'll learn about in Chapter 16.

Image Formats and the Web

Back in the Web's early days, making your graphic files small was important, because most Internet connections were about as quick as camels. Nowadays, file size isn't as important; your main obligation when creating graphics for the Web is ensuring they're compatible with the Web browsers people use to view your Web pages. That means you'll probably want to use either of the two most popular image formats, JPEG or GIF:

• Use the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts' Group) format for images with lots of detail and where you need smooth color transitions. For example, photos are almost always posted on the Web as JPEGs.

  Note

  JPEGs can't have transparent areas, although there is a workaround for that: fill the ...