Using graphics on your Web pages

Editable graphics

Freeway allows you to import images in a wide range of formats, and then manipulate them in Freeway to achieve the exact effect you want. You can crop, scale, or transform graphics in a variety of ways and add a range of effects to them.

Freeway can import the following file formats as editable graphics:

When you publish the site Freeway exports the graphics in one of the Web graphic formats: GIF, JPEG, or PNG, optimizing each graphic to achieve the best compromise between image quality and download time. You can either leave Freeway to select the most appropriate graphics format and export settings, or you can manually choose the settings individually for each graphic.

The following table gives the pros and cons of each export format:

Format Pros and cons
GIF Recommended for simple graphics containing a limited range of colors, such as diagrams or graphic text.
JPEG Recommended for photographic and other continuous tone images.
PNG A recent alternative to GIF, with support for 8-bit transparency, but not supported by older browsers.

Pass-through graphics

If you have prepared a series of graphics in an external paint program so that they are already optimized for Web display, you can add them to the site as pass-through graphics so that they are exported unchanged when you publish the site. Pass-through graphics cannot be scaled or transformed, or have effects applied to them.

Using plug-ins

You can use Photoshop Import/Export plug-ins to import additional file formats into Freeway. Simply put the plug-ins, or an alias to them in the Library/Application Support/Freeway 4/PlugIns folder on your computer.


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