Creating Custom Graphics Question

[333OnlyHalfEvil]

So, I'm making custom navigational buttons for a website and was wondering, should I make the graphics huge, like 1000px x 1000px for each button, and then make them smaller later? or should I try and figure out exactly how many pixels they should be?

[Gaussian]

There's no reason to make it huge for a website.

It depends on how your buttons will be coded.

The current method is to use unordered list text for the names of the buttons, and then use a background image that you can make in Photoshop and will repeat horizontally behind the text.... if you do it that way then you only need to know the height of the finished buttons and then the width will be taken care of in coding.

If you want to make the whole button including text in Photoshop then just make it the size it will be when it's finished. It helps if all your buttons are the same size and you can just have different layers for each text and export them as separate images.

[333OnlyHalfEvil]

Thank you for the reply. The reason I ask is because this is my first website for a client and I don't really know exactly how large the buttons will end up being. The 1000 by 1000 pixels size was an exaggeration but, lets say, I made the buttons twice as large as I anticipate them being. Could I use photoshop to resize the buttons to half the original size for their final result? I know that if I go to save for web and devices that I can change the actual saved size of the image in terms of percent and pixels. If I do this will it cut the pixel information in half? or would saving it this way not affect file size and allow the image size to be increased later?

I hope I did an ok job explaining what I mean. If I didn't or could make something clearer, let me know.

[Gaussian]

You can always go down in size and make an image smaller without losing quality, however you can not do the opposite and go larger because you will lose some quality if you do that. If you do not know the finished size you may just want to wait until you do know, or else just make them slightly larger than anticipated and scale them down to whatever the final size needs to be.

[333OnlyHalfEvil]

Cool. One more question. Can you make an image smaller and control how much quality is lost?

[Dezigns Unlimited]

The best way to work in those situations is to try and keep your buttons pretty dam close to the size when you start, are you making your layout in PS then slicing? What are you coding this site in if you don't mind me asking?

Also, are you optimizing your graphics before bouncing them out?

[333OnlyHalfEvil]

I'm coding with HTML. It's just a simple advertising site. Ya, I'm going to make my layout in PS then slice and Ya, I'm going to optimize my graphics.

[Dezigns Unlimited]

Well, i forget why i asked that now LOL...

[ggggaere]

The best way to work in those situations is to try and keep your buttons pretty dam close to the size when you start, are you making your layout in PS then slicing? What are you coding this site in if you don't mind me asking?

Also, are you optimizing your graphics before bouncing them out?

I agree with you!