Thread: Background help

Hello. I've just downloaded the BlueVoda program. I am an artist with a website that was built for me. I cannot use my current website as I am totally website illiterate. In looking around on the web for a solution I ran across the BlueVoda program. I've already played around with the program for a while and have a couple of questions.

I designed my own background or frontpage for a new website in photoshop using some of my artwork. I really want to use this on a new website but the image I designed doesn't fit for a background in the BlueVoda program. I followed the tutorial and still it doesn't fit.

So here are my questions: Do I have to design it to a certain size in photoshop? Do I have to use a template for it to work?

Also as mentioned, I already have a website, but am thinking of moving servers. If I use Voda as my server, can I transfer my domain name over?

Thanks in advance. My apologies for the lenght of my first post.

Hi, Is this a single image that you want as a background as a page, or small image that you can get to repeat over the whole of of viewers screen regardless of size you design your pages in bluevoda? If the first is the case, open your image in photoshop, in the toolbar go to image>imagesize. In the box that opens size your image in pixels to the same as your page size you have chosen in bluevoda (800 x 600px or whatever you decide). Having OK'd that go to file>save for web. Here you optimise to get your file as small as possible without excessive degradation of your image. I think your best bet is to save as a JPEG. I had trouble with PNG files (bluevoda would not open them). If the second instance, then a very small file is loaded in bluevoda. In your page you right click on the page>properties.The 2nd tab on the box now showing says background: insert the link to your image and you will have a repeating image regardless of page size it will fill the viewers screen. Look at my site (only in the very early stages of development) jamesbartondesign.com . The tertured tan background is a jpeg file only 763 x 50px and is only 7.93kb. Hope this helps

Hi Proactivator, thanks for answering so quickly. This is several of my art images I have pasted on layers in photoshop to make one single image. I kind of think the problem is the size ratio I used to make the image in photoshop. It's not an image that can be stretched because that makes the artwork out of propotion. It has to fit exact as a background for the frontpage on a website. I think I will have to do it over.....maybe set the size ratio to 800 x600. I'll see if that works.

Thanks once again for your help.

Hi, Do you have your image still in layers? If so set your canvas size in ratio to the size of page for the web ( an 800 x 600 page would be a ratio of 4 to 3 and as long as that ratio is maitained your image size in photoshop can be as big as you want: you just reduce it to 800 x 600px prior to saving for web. That way you can design your collage of artwork specifically to your web page. If your image is flattened already, you could crop it to the correct ratio, but then it might not be the masterpiece you originally designed!

Thanks Proactivator. If I have an image on the background and I want it to fill the screen on the website.....does it show full screen on the preview? Or is it a small image centered in the preview with the background showing around it?

When I try to center it I have a small image on the preview screen with about 3 inches of the background showing on three sides. I've set the size of the page and the size of the image to 800 x 600 pixels.

When I try to stretch the image out to fit my monitor screen.......I have about a 1/4 inch of the background showing on one side and scroll bars showing. Also my artwork becomes out of proportion.

The image is no longer in layers.....but I've tried resizing it, cropping it and adding to it on the one side. Lol.. none of which has helped.

Would it help if I posted the image here and you can get a better idea of what I'm trying to do?

If you want to read your other thread, I had a few suggestions for you there ....

Thanks for the help ProAcitvator. LadyEye has given me the answer. I just have to redesign my image to repeat itself and look right. Lol maybe not such an easy task......but where there's a will there's a way.