Choosing a Format

Graphics (Part 1 of 2)

A real estate school website is likely to contain many different graphics.  For each graphic format - photo, clip art, logo, banner animation and possibly more - the correct format looks best and renders more quickly in a browser.

Often a school logo appears in the home page banner.  The web developer may repeat that banner or tuck a smaller logo onto other pages.  Photos of instructors and the facility are common, as are clipart images of telephones, letters (to represent email), diplomas and mortarboards.  Other small graphics may form an array of menu buttons. 

We will look at the preferred file format for each, and the reasons why they work best.

Best for the Basics

A Graphics Interchange Format (.GIF) file is compact and quick-loading, ideal for simple shapes.  Colors are limited to a palette of 256 hues.

If your school logo is geometric – not a photo – this may be the best format for it.  Many pre-made clipart images are .GIF.

In working with .GIF, you can choose a transparent color.  Imagine a red stop sign centered in a square graphic.  If you fill around the edges of the octagon in any color other than red, you can assign transparency to that color.  Then, placed on the web page, the sign can be overlaid on any background.

Simple animation is possible with .GIF.  It works like a child's flip book, when - within split-seconds - one version of an image replaces another.  The result appears to be motion.  Use .GIF animation sparingly, as it can seem outdated and less than businesslike in a website.

Best for Photographs

Your instructor or classroom photos may contain thousands of color shades, hues and shadows.  Joint Photographic Experts Group (.JPEG or .JPG) format provides for this greater detail.  The simple animation and transparency in .GIF files cannot be done with JPEG/JPG files.  However, it provides for better results for digital photos and gradient backgrounds – anywhere that color depth and clarity are essential.

When possible, limit your edits to these files.  Repeated file adjustments and saves can degrade quality.  Speckles of pixel dust can blemish images as they are resized or adjusted.  Graphics programs may include .JPG cleanup tools, but a web artist can easily spend hours doing manual touch-ups.

Best All Around

A recent format – Portable Network Graphics (.PNG) produces smaller files and is more easily adjusted than JPG/JPEG.  For most web photos – unless they are highly-detailed - .PNG becomes the developer's efficient choice.  Unlike other photos, transparency – even translucency – is supported.  This enables many contemporary eye-appealing designs.

Best for Animation

More than 90% of web users now have Adobe Flash® players or plug-ins associated with their browsers.  For that 90% you can use Simple Web Format (.SWF) illustrations for smooth professional animations, comprised of photographs, text and even sound.  By limiting size and duration, your .SWF animations can quickly render, even at dial-up speed

The format is best accomplished through professional design tools that are often expensive and challenging to learn.  If on a budget, ask your web developer about pre-made animations available for purchase through many websites.  A standardized school or business theme may perfectly harmonize with your web design, at a much lower cost.

Ask Code3w, Inc. about upgrading your real estate school website with an Adobe Flash®-compatible banner based on your school logo.

Or, for a next-generation site that you can fully customize, consider RESchoolSites. Powerful and effective websites are available from $1 per day, after a 60-day, no cost, no obligation trial.  Call George at (877) 4-Code3w for more information.