There are two different types of file formats – bitmap and vector drawing. Bitmaps is the most basic of the formats  with each image made up of individual pixels.  This format is most often used with photographs and images that contain subtle shading.

There is however one problem with bitmap images, scaling up the image.  This is because by scaling up  the individual pixels become more pronounced, leading to a jagged appearance. There is the ability to improve this using a technique called anti-alias which acts to smooth the graphic, however this still will result in a jagged appearance as the image is scaled up once more.  This again can be improved through increasing the image resolution, however this causes the problem of making the file larger and therefore slower to load.

Programs that produce such files are Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Corel Photo Paint, with file formats including BMP, GIF , JPEG, JPG, PNG, PICT (Macintosh), PCX, TIFF and PSD. The most popular out of these formats for web pages are Gif and JPEG, the former because of it ability to compress files and therefore speed up loading time, the JPEG because it allows a full range of colours.

Vector images differ because they are made up of paths. This makes them much smoother and clearer as the image I scaled up and is what true-type fonts use to ensure that they lose no quality with changes in size or resolution. It is for this reason that vector drawings are used for page layout / type  / line art and illustration.

Programs that produce these types of files are Macromedia Freehand, Deneba’s Canvas and Abode Illustrator, the file formats include .ai, .cnv, .cdr and .fh8 .

The EPS format is a file type that allows a graphic application that can’t read the file types above and is a format that is likely to be most requested for illustration and line art because of the ability to scale the work with no lose of detail.

Hopefully this makes the scary world of graphic file formats a bit clearer and if your graphic designer is of any quality then as soon as you mention a format they should know exactly what you’re talking about and will be very impressed if you do too!

Can you ever avail of free website promotion? Is that even feasible?

Of course yes! Nowadays, your baby website can amass huge traffic in no time thanks to free website promotion.

How does this free website promotion go anyway? What are things to be done?

1. Enlist your website.

Look for the hottest Internet directories and enlist your site there. This is the easiest and most effective free website promotion tactic. Start with this step and the rest of the good things will follow.

Just don’t forget to prep your website and make it all spruced up for a higher chance to get accepted in your directory of choice.

2. Know your forums.

One reason why forums are created is for free website promotion for everyone. Log in, post actively, let them know about your site in every post and you attract instant visitors right there.

3. Write a press release.

Release your writing prowess and start up a press release that advertises your site! This is a free website promotion tactic that you can do anytime. Type a brief paragraph or two and email it to your friends, colleagues, internet e-zines, newspapers and other media and massive traffic will come to you pronto!

4. Be friendly online.

Free website promotion means you need to be friendly to other webmasters. Why, you ask? So they can link you immediately! Establish contacts and never tire of link requests and exchanges.

5. Write an article.

Say, your website is about your travel agency. Write an article about the perks of traveling or the hottest travel spots in the world. On the concluding paragraph, mention your website in passing. This article works as an advertorial and doubles as a free website promotion approach.

6. Just let the whole world know about your site.

What is free website promotion without the word of mouth? Insert your website, its URL and features in daily conversations and let the good news spread from one mouth to another!

7. Make a banner ad.

Make a banner ad for your site and ask another webmaster to do the same for his site. Then swap!

8. Take up a free website promotion course online.

Yes, there are free website promotion tutorials. But don’t you know that you can actually take a free website promotion course that can help you out further? Part of the free website promotion program is signing up for newsletters.

When you make a website, you need not pay anything to promote it. You just read it — there is such a thing as free website promotion!