Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
From there, you can crop out the desired area using the crop tool. The external
area will be gone and now you can use the power of the image-editing program
to manipulate the graphic image. After manipulation in Adobe Photoshop you
have the option to save the file as a PDF. Photoshop handles the PDF creation
task quite easily. As described with the Microsoft products, many graphical
and page layout software packages now have direct menu items or a menu bar
button for you to output directly to PDF file format. The page layout applica-
tions QuarkXpress and Adobe InDesign have such capabilities.
You should convert any formatted documents that you want your user see in
original form to PDF format. You can link directly to PDF files from your Web
portfolio pages using a standard link.
You can also link to native documents in your Web portfolio such as Microsoft
PowerPoint, Excel, and Word documents. This is where you actually upload
the Microsoft Office documents directly to the Web server. Internet Explorer
will allow Microsoft office users to view native documents in a browser. If the
individual is a Netscape user, the process isn't as easy. The Netscape
download scenario may present a few obstacles to the user. First, the
documents must be downloaded to the user's computer. Another problem may
exist with fonts. If the user does not have the same fonts and same version of
the application, there could be problems viewing the document.
With PDF format documents you don't have to worry about color. PDF
documents are converted to be viewed on the Web regardless original colors
used. This is not true for other Web graphics and Web pages in general. The
visual and technical aspects of color must be looked at as you begin to create
content that needs to be browser friendly.
Web Color
There are many topics that cover Web color in detailed scientific terms.
However, for our objectives, let's briefly discuss Web color and how it will be
used in the Web portfolio. You will need to develop a color scheme for your
Web portfolio pages. This means that you will designate colors for your page
background, the type used on the page and any other static elements that reside
in the page. There are two types of color that can be used in Web graphics. The
colors can be associated with the Web graphic file formats we just mentioned:
GIF and JPG.
