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Note: if ever a page deserved the "under construction" icon, this one does. The stuff toward the top is pretty recent. The stuff toward the bottom has serious link rot. You were warned!
nxml-mode-200nnnnn.tar.gz distribution on his download site.
Paint Shop Pro is the 2D bitmap graphics program I use to build web graphics. There's a very active user community who share generously of their time and experience. This is just a sampling of the sites where Paint Shop Pro users help new users get a leg up in the learning curve. And with all the bells and whistles, there's quite a learning curve these days. Two hints from experience: as soon as you get the basics down, learn layers; and always save a master copy in Paint Shop Pro format.
There's a few miscellaneous non-Paint Sho Pro tutorials in here as well. If you post a few messages to comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro and act like you're reasonably civilized, you may be invited to participate in some online tutorials.
Picture Tubes let you stamp a pre-drawn image where you click. What are they good for? How about making a Christmas wreath using holly leaves and berries? Or a floral border with images of flowers? Or a starry night or autumn leaves? You can make your own or use tubes others have created.
Brushes can either be images like picture tubes or they can be textures that let you draw a textured line on your image. You can use PhotoShop brushes in Paint Shop Pro.
A mask lets you produce an edge or border or fade for your image. A selection lets you cut a shape out of your image.
Stick these plugins in a folder, tell Paint Shop Pro where they are, and you can modify the part of the image you've selected in weird and wonderful ways. All PhotoShop filters work on Paint Shop Pro. I have way too many plugins. Pick up Greg's and Harry's and a couple of the Filter Factory sets and get used to them before you get overloaded with filters.
BladePro is a cheap plugin, which is a good thing because once you've seen what it can do, you'll have to have it. It's been described as Eye Candy on steroids. There are hundreds of free presets for BladePro out there. I have most of them, which is too many. Grab a few that you know you'll use on your current project and get used to them, or better yet, use them as inspiration to make your own. I started out using presets just the way I downloaded them, but nowadays I almost never use a preset without tweaking it a little. Hint: some presets work better on light-colored selections and others work better on dark selections.
Miscellaneous graphics programs and tools for Windows, mostly free.
Some years ago, the people on comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro and alt.binaries.comp-graphics decided to hold a weekly contest called the WeekEnd Theme. A basic image or two are posted mid-week, and it's your job to dice, slice, and generally mutate the raw materials of the theme to make a work of art. No judging, no rewards, just have fun with graphics. Check out the WeekEnd Theme site.
Unlike the rest of USENET, these groups are civilized and filled with genuinely nice people. Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true -- unless you ask for a crack (an illegal copy of a program or plugin), something that violates copyright law, or a binary (e.g., a graphics image). Then they can get downright nasty, just like the rest of USENET. As with every USENET newsgroup, you'll be a lot happier if you lurk for a while and read what others have posted. Even if you have a burning question, chances are, someone has asked and answered it already.
These graphics are a great way to get your site up and running while you create your original images.
Groups of graphics that are designed to go together.
This is sneaky. These are companies that make stained glass, and sometimes they have patterns you can download and use to make your graphics.
NOTE: Below this line is all the old stuff. Link rot virtually guaranteed.
Two tips: even if you have a wonderful visual HTML editor, you'll be a lot happier if you learn a little HTML so you can work around the editor's inevitable bugs. And once you take the trouble to learn Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), you'll save yourself a huge amount of work.
Here's a third tip for free: Netscape's and MSIE's support for HTML and CSS standards is pitiful. MSIE's is a little less pitiful, but if you want to see what your web page is supposed to look like, you're pretty much down to Opera.
Paint Shop Pro is the 2D bitmap graphics program I use to build web graphics. There's a very active user community who share generously of their time and experience. This is just a sampling of the sites where Paint Shop Pro users help new users get a leg up in the learning curve. And with all the bells and whistles, there's quite a learning curve these days. Two hints from experience: as soon as you get the basics down, learn layers; and always save a master copy in Paint Shop Pro format.
There's a few miscellaneous non-Paint Sho Pro tutorials in here as well. If you post a few messages to comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro and act like you're reasonably civilized, you may be invited to participate in some online tutorials.
Picture Tubes let you stamp a pre-drawn image where you click. What are they good for? How about making a Christmas wreath using holly leaves and berries? Or a floral border with images of flowers? Or a starry night or autumn leaves? You can make your own or use tubes others have created.
Brushes can either be images like picture tubes or they can be textures that let you draw a textured line on your image. You can use PhotoShop brushes in Paint Shop Pro.
A mask lets you produce an edge or border or fade for your image. A selection lets you cut a shape out of your image.
Stick these plugins in a folder, tell Paint Shop Pro where they are, and you can modify the part of the image you've selected in weird and wonderful ways. All PhotoShop filters work on Paint Shop Pro. I have way too many plugins. Pick up Greg's and Harry's and a couple of the Filter Factory sets and get used to them before you get overloaded with filters.
BladePro is a cheap plugin, which is a good thing because once you've seen what it can do, you'll have to have it. It's been described as Eye Candy on steroids. There are hundreds of free presets for BladePro out there. I have most of them, which is too many. Grab a few that you know you'll use on your current project and get used to them, or better yet, use them as inspiration to make your own. I started out using presets just the way I downloaded them, but nowadays I almost never use a preset without tweaking it a little. Hint: some presets work better on light-colored selections and others work better on dark selections.
Miscellaneous graphics programs and tools for Windows, mostly free.
Some years ago, the people on comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro and alt.binaries.comp-graphics decided to hold a weekly contest called the WeekEnd Theme. A basic image or two are posted mid-week, and it's your job to dice, slice, and generally mutate the raw materials of the theme to make a work of art. No judging, no rewards, just have fun with graphics. Check out the WeekEnd Theme site.
Unlike the rest of USENET, these groups are civilized and filled with genuinely nice people. Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true -- unless you ask for a crack (an illegal copy of a program or plugin), something that violates copyright law, or a binary (e.g., a graphics image). Then they can get downright nasty, just like the rest of USENET. As with every USENET newsgroup, you'll be a lot happier if you lurk for a while and read what others have posted. Even if you have a burning question, chances are, someone has asked and answered it already.
These graphics are a great way to get your site up and running while you create your original images.
Groups of graphics that are designed to go together.
This is sneaky. These are companies that make stained glass, and sometimes they have patterns you can download and use to make your graphics.