Using graphics

About this task

A page or form that contains a graphic is visually appealing but takes more time to display and print. You can paste or import graphics into pages, as you can into documents, forms, views, and navigators. Domino® Designer stores graphics in Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) in their native formats. Therefore, these are the best choices for graphic fidelity. Designer stores other types of graphics in a platform-independent 256-color format that is similar to GIF89a format. (GIFs are 256-color images.)

Graphics can be:

  • Stand-alone graphics that add aesthetics or focus to a page or form
  • Background graphics
  • Imagemaps -- navigation structures composed of graphics that contain links

Preparing graphics

About this task

Your goal, when preparing a graphic, is to have it look as much as possible like the graphic you created in your drawing program. How graphics look depends on the user's viewer, operating system, and color mode.

  • Viewer -- Notes® client or a Web browser.
    • If your audience is Notes® users only, use either the Domino® color palette or the web color palette.
    • If your audience is Web users only, use the Web color palette.
    • If your audience is both Notes® and Web users, either use black and white or very simply colored graphics, or use the Web color palette.
  • Operating system

    Always reduce the color in graphics with formats other than GIF or JPEG to 256 or fewer colors. Although doing this may reduce the quality of high-resolution graphics, it ensures a more reliable color display across platforms.

  • Color mode -- 16-color mode, 256-color mode, or High/True/24-bit color mode.

    If all users have machines that display in true color mode, reducing the colors to 256 or fewer is all you need to do to prepare a graphic. If users have machines running in 256-color mode, use a color palette to map colors in the graphic to a table of predefined colors.

Changing the color palette

About this task

If you are designing applications for users to access on the Web, you can change from the HCL Domino® color palette to a web color palette to provide greater color fidelity. To change palettes:

Procedure

  1. Choose File - Preferences - User Preferences.
  2. Check "Use Web Palette" on the Additional Options list of the Basics tab. If this option is unchecked, Designer uses the Domino® color palette.

Results

Note: When Web users open a database, Domino® converts non-GIF and non-JPEG graphics to GIF or JPEG formats. The system administrator specifies the format in the "Image conversion format" field, which is part of the HTTP Server section of the Server document. For more information, see Administering the Domino® System.