Photoshop 5.5

[falon]

I am trying to learn how to use photoshop 5.5 so I can design web pages. I really need to learn some basics. First thing I would like to learn is how to make wallpaper. I would like to make a a wallpaper that has two different colors on it. I am talking about the kind of wallpaper that has a left column divider that has a different color than the rest of the background page. The left hand column would of course be the part where I would want to put a navigation bar or a table of some sort in. Thanks.

[westmich]

For your particular application, you would probably be better using a table and two different wallpapers or background colors. If you use one wallpaper image, where the two sides meet is going to vary depending on the size user's resolution.

As far as getting started with Photoshop -
http://www.webmasterbase.com/tutorials/Photoshop/
http://www.designsbymark.com/
http://www.graphixland.com/
http://graphicssoft.about.com/comput.../cs/photoshop/
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/
http://www.screamdesign.com/

[Justin S]

By "wallpaper" you mean website layout, correct? If so, then you can just create a table with two different cells. The left cell could be the navigation bar color, and the right one could just be the color of the background. No graphics need to be involved in the process.

[Kevin Yank]

To directly answer your question, start with an image with a large width (about 2000 pixels is fairly safe) but a small height (something like 20 pixels is about right). Create your wallpaper by painting this horizontal strip (one colour on the left extemity, with another colour across the rest of the image). When you use this image as a background on a Web page, the browser will automatically tile it down the page, giving you the effect you're after.

[Nicky]

Kevin's got the right idea! You should be OK witha width of 1280 and the height can be as little as 1 pixel high!

[westmich]

However, Kyank and Nicky, he said he wanted the navigation to line up. If he uses a single wallpaper, it will line up differently at different resolutions.

[Nicky]

Sorry, I don't get it, where did he mention navigation lining up?

[westmich]

Originally posted by falon
I am trying to learn how to use photoshop 5.5 so I can design web pages. I really need to learn some basics. First thing I would like to learn is how to make wallpaper. I would like to make a a wallpaper that has two different colors on it. I am talking about the kind of wallpaper that has a left column divider that has a different color than the rest of the background page. The left hand column would of course be the part where I would want to put a navigation bar or a table of some sort in. Thanks.

[Nicky]

The way I see it then this is what he should do:

1. Create a background image 1280x1 in size. Set the first 200 pixels in the first color (say red) and then the rest in the second color (say white).

2. Create a table with two columns (either using pixels or percentages), the important thing here is that the first column is 180 wide. This will ensure that no matter what browser (including older ones where you get a left margin) whatever buttons/text is contained in the first (left) column will be placed on the red section of the background.

NOTE: to ensure that no objects ie text/images lie on the division between the colors you could add a third column in between the other two maybe about 10 pixels wide and use it as a spacer column.

[Hardbody]

Photoshop is one of the programs that enless you desinged it it's really hard to learn but given enough time and playing around with all the different options you should learn some how to do some pretty cool stuff a least I did!

[falon]

Thanks all!

[Nicky]

Good luck, let us know how you get on!