BigBlueHat

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 13 February 2008

Contact Information:
BigBlueHat
107 East Park Ave.
Greenville, SC 29601
Tel: 864.232.9553
Website: http://www.bigbluehat.com/

Greenville, SC — BigBlueHat announced the completion of a new BlueInk-based web site for Interfilm Holdings, Inc. web site: interfilm-usa.com. Building on the foundation of their BlueInk Content Management System, BigBlueHat created custom content types for Interfilm Holdings, Inc’s product line. These content types give Interfilm the ability to create and edit structured product data for display in a customized product table featured on the products page. The product table sports sortable columns, downloadable data sheets, and colorized categories.

In addition to the custom content type for Interfilm products, BigBlueHat created a custom map widget that displays contact items for their regional account managers. When users move their mice over various regions of the map, the contact information and photo of the account manager is displayed. This smooth navigation provides quick and focused data for users of the Interfilm web site.

BigBlueHat is a foothills-based web manufacturing company. We specialize in designing and developing web sites and products for the web. Our current feature-length production is known as the BlueInk CMS. We focus on web-related innovation with each product we build. Our clients benefit from our future-focus by receiving software and web sites that are built to last and receiving free upgrades to the software hosted with BigBlueHat.

Okay, so the words “fun” and “GIMP” might not belong in the same sentence, but here’s a tip for those working with a GIMP or Photoshop file with transparent layers that need to be exported as transparent GIFs for a website. Granted, life would be easier if we could just export PNGs and use them on our web pages, but then again life would be easier if we didn’t have Internet Explorer 6 to worry ourselves over. But fear not! On that fateful day when pigs learn to fly, we won’t have to worry anymore.

Of course you know this whole rigamarole isn’t necessary if your GIF rests on a solid color background. If it does, why use transparency? In my case, the background is a gradient, so here’s the procedure. Highlight the layer in GIMP that you need to export (my layer was complicated by the fact that it was semi-transparent to start with even though the opacity for the layer was 100%—long story). Now select a background color, which will be used as a transparency mask—the general color of your web page’s background. You have a bit of leeway here and may need to repeat the step later. Now for the magic step: from the menu select Layer > Transparency > Semi-Flatten. After doing this your image should still look relatively the same. If not, undo this action and select a different background color. I found that a light foreground on a dark background is harder to get right, so trial and error may be the order of the day.

Once you are incredibly stoked with your decision, go ahead and crop the image to the desired portion and remove the visibility from the background layer(s). Save this as a GIF (accept the prompts to merge layers and index the colors), and you should be good to go. But as we all know, in the wacky world of web design, your CSS masterpiece may not match up perfectly with what you saw in your GIMP or Photoshop file. This was the case for me on a couple of my attempts. The first image was dark on a light background, and I got it right the first time. The second was light on dark, and it took four or five tries to get it right. All you need to do is undo the appropriate number of actions in GIMP, select a different background color, and try again. You may also need to use the burn tool to lighten up your layer before exporting. Hey, I wish I could tell you how to do this perfectly in one try, but if I could do that, I’d probably be President of the United States and spending my valuable time jogging around the White House 200 times per day, not doling out image-editing advice free of charge.