Rollover Graphics
By Lynda Weinman
Web browsers have introduced preset conventions that indicate that a graphic or text is "hot": underlined text, colored borders around images, and the hand cursor. Rollovers allow artists and Web publishers to create their own protocols for how a graphic or text looks when the cursor rolls over it, which results in much greater personalization of Web-site design than possible with standard HTML.
To implement rollovers on Web pages, you can either go the scripting-language route with JavaScript, use compiled executables with ActiveX, or use authoring systems such as
Macromedia's Director or Flash. Whichever option you choose, you'll need source imagery; hence, this month I'll focus on Photoshop techniques for creating rollovers.
Size Considerations
When developing a Web site, it's important to consider the size of the browser window and the resulting size relationships of images. First, establish your target audience and determine their probable display size. While many designers have large monitors, the most common monitor size is 13" or 14". Most people with average-size displays set them to 640×480 or 800×600.
Navigator and Internet Explorer open in a narrow window on Macintoshes, and fill the screen on PCs. If a Web page is bigger than the browser window in which it appears, scroll bars appear automatically, indicating that the page is larger than what is visible.<>
