OK, I’m gonna pick some of you web designers heads for a minute.
I lost my hard drive awhile back, and in the process all my webpages. Now i’m trying to create a new homepage, and doing so from scratch, this is going to be a good thing because I’ve got some actual ideas instead of a half assed copy of other peoples.
The first problem I’ve had is how to find or create my background image. This is what I want to do. I want it to look like a scroll that has been unrolled. I’ll need three things. A header that looks like the rolled up scroll or the cylinder it would roll up into. An image that looks like parchment that is the width of the screen, or just a decent looking parchment tile that I could draw the edges onto. And finally a footer that looks like the tattered end of a page or maybe a flipped over version of the header image.
Does anyone have any advice on doing this? I’ve searched the internet, but when using the words “scroll”, “parchment”, “paper” in search engines I get more shit links than I can begin to sift though. Has anyone seen this type of image anywhere that I could borrow, or could you suggest a way to streamline my search? Also I don’t have a image editor yet, so any advice on a good one to use would be appreciated. I don’t have alot of experience drawing with them so I don’t see myself drawing this from scratch. What say you, oh wise webmeisters and webmeistresses?
Lycos i believe has an image search option. You can try that. However, I’d look into finding a friend who can draw it for you, or invest in an image editor.
‘The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care’
You have several options available to you, each with drawbacks.
Background images tile, and there’s no way to stop that. If you had the main paper image as the page background, then it would be visible all over the page, including where you want the top and bottom edges to be. Then you can make a table, and place those images as images and not backgrounds for it to work. The problem with that is the images may not piece together accurately… though you can fudge that if you’re willing to put up with a kludgey look.
Second is to have the paper image as a background in the table cell so the images match up (it has to be a background so you can have text on top) but early browser versions don’t show backgrounds in table cells.
Third is to have a very large background image that looks like a complete scroll, but that means a fixed height image, which is very awkward. And a large download.
e-mail me if you want more help guanolad@hotmail.com
I can draw the images for you too.
“Waheeey! ‘Duck!’ Get it?”
“Errr… No…”
“Duck! Sounds almost exactly like fu-”
If you do use a non-tiled background, be aware that it will only look right at a certain resolution. If you design it at 800x600, then low-end users with 640x480 screens will have to scroll sideways, and users with higher resolution will see the graphic at a much smaller size than you intended.
Hey, sounds like you are doing something like what Opal has been helping me with for my new homepage. You might want to pick the code. http://fathom.org/newstorm/foyer.adp
Most image programs have a ‘page turn’ option. It makes a page with the corner coming down & you can use that on both sides & control the turn. Add a parchment paper backgroun & With a little imagination, you might have what you want.
I’m pretty sure Kai Power Tools has a page curl. Newer versions of Photoshop and Corel Photopaint should have it as well.
Create an image 800 pixels wide by maybe 50 down. Fill it with a parchment-looking texture. Do a page curl on it. Now copy it, flip it horizontally and vertically, and you’ll have a bottom image for your parchment.
Next, create a background texture for the page about 1600 pixels wide and 1 pixel deep, and fill it with the same texture. At 800 pixels out, fill it with white. This is your background, which when tiled will create your 800 pixel-wide parchment paper. Put your top and bottom images on the top (you’ll probably have to use a table for this), and voila.
Oooo…Small world, Undead thats pretty close to what I was looking for. I’m gonna use your code for the bottom and parchment look. I assume thats OK with you, if not please speak up. I’m still going to try and figure out a way to make the top look like a cylinder that the scroll is retracted into. I’d also like to make the edges less stragiht, but that sounds like a real challenge for a novice, and would cause some compatibility problems. Thank you for everyones help so far.
Can anyone suggest a quality image editing program that’ll do everything? I intend to get a scanner so I’d like one that handles photographs well, but another that is fairly user friendly so I can start drawing from scratch, and easily resizing and scaling images. If anyone knows any free shareware, or places where old versions are cheap but still adequate, please share. Otherwise I’ll pony up some dough and get a good relible one that I won’t lose next time the old HD crashes.
Omni, I suggest you start with Paint Shop Pro. It’s the cheaper version of Photoshop and is an incredibly good starting package. You can also download it for a free, full-verion 30 day trial before you buy.
If you decide you need more help with your page design, just let me know. I do it for a living, so I might have a couple of easy things you can do.
Another good image-editing program is called Irfanview. It’s yet another Photoshop equivalent like PSP, but has a better price: free! Both take the same plugins as Photoshop.
