Re: Creating and editing .gif technical drawings for Web

["Allison, Steven" <stevena -at- LOGSYS -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Hi,
The solution has to be Visio 5 - it enables easy drag & drop facilities,
and can be converted to lots of different formats for the web, etc. It
also allows hyperlinks within these drawings.



-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Campbell [mailto:barry -at- WEBVERANDA -dot- COM]
Sent: 08 July 1998 15:50
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Creating and editing .gif technical drawings for Web


At 10:26 AM 7/8/98 -0400, Suzanne Pyle wrote:

>I'm looking for some recommendations on drawing programs to use to create
>and edit technical drawings that are saved in .gif format. I'm creating
>drawings that represent a process or flow, and include computer hardware
>clipart with text, arrows, the whole shabang. But I'm a bit limited I'm
>afraid. Powerpoint 97 drawings don't really convert well to .gif when I
>bring them into Paint Shop Pro. I was thinking of getting Corel Draw. Can
>you recommend other programs, or ways to develop nice technical drawings in
>a format to be viewed on the Web?

Suzanne,

When faced with a similar need, we tested several alternatives
(CorelDraw
among them) and came up with the following solution:

Create the graphics in Visio Professional.  This is a template-based
drawing program that can be purchased in a "professional" package,
which includes flowchart templates and clip art representing just=20
about any computer or networking concept you can come up with.
I haven't seen anything that can touch it for doing flowcharts=20
and network diagrams.


http://www.visio.com

Visio includes an export-to-GIF option.  If the file in question is=20
destined for placement on an intranet, where GIF file size
optimization=20
is not a huge issue, you'll be fine with Visio's filters; if the=20
information is destined for an external Web site, you'll want to
convert=20
to GIF in two steps:

(1) Export your Visio drawing as a TIFF bitmap

(2) Open the TIFF in Photoshop, ImageReady, PhotoPaint, DeBabelizer,
    or whatever you use to generate optimized GIFs, tweak to your
heart's
    content, and generate the GIF from there.  I am personally a huge
fan
    of Adobe ImageReady; it saves a huge amount of time when it comes to
    generating optimized graphics for the Web.

Hope this helps!  Although it may not sound like it, I have no financial
interest in Visio, Adobe, or any of the other companies I've mentioned.
:-)

--
Barry Campbell=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 |=A0=A0
barry -at- webveranda -dot- com=A0
Web Architect        =A0=A0 |=A0=A0  (list/personal mail)=A0
Summit Systems, Inc.    |   bcampbel -at- summithq -dot- com=A0=A0 =20
22 Cortlandt Street     |    (business mail)
New York, NY 10007      |   http://www.summithq.com

~~~
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