Every time I read the assignment, I see something else that we are supposed to accomplish. *Yikes* I hope I get enough to at least surpass what I learned last time around.

If you should want your graphics to appear with smooth edges, not jagged as the little squares of color that they're really made up from, you need to use the anti-alias feature of PSP. When adding text, make sure the anti-alias box is checked, then you will get various shades of inbetween colors blending the color of your object to the background color. Let me show you an example.... A picture is worth 1000 words!

The first "Testing" (and the 2.. at the bottom...) on this graphic is done with anti-alias checked and it demonstrates how the program adds shades of gray between the white and black to smooth the edges of the text. This is saved as a gif file.

To demonstrate the difference in file sizes between gifs and jpgs, I also saved the same graphic as a jpg. The file size jumps from 4.9k for the gif to a whopping 14.3k for the jpg! The rule of thumb is to use jpgs for photos and gifs for line art, although it is a good idea to check your file size both ways, because sometimes, you will be surprised with actual file sizes. Here's the same thing as a jpg:

I spent a lot of time playing with the sigs this week, using posted tutorials and just fiddling around. I think some of the stuff I did there qualifies as lesson stuff. Especially since I'm away from home and my bookmarks AND the class is down, so I can't get in to see the exact assignment! So... please take the time to hit the link to visit my sigs page while you're here.

Other techniques I played with this week to create simple graphics included, but are not limited to...