Helen's images

Frequently asked questions

In the more than eight years that this site has been on the web, I have received many messages and a lot of questions. Below, are the answers to the questions that have been asked by many people.

  1. How do I save an image?
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  2. I am a webTV user. How do I save and use one of your images?
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  3. Can I put an image as a background of only one element (table, link etc.) in a web page and not the whole page?
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  4. How do I send an email with one of your images for background?
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  5. How do I use a big image (wallpaper) - centered - for my web page?
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  6. How do I put an image in my mobile/cell phone?
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  7. How do I make an image tile seamlessly?
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  8. I have used one of your images on my web page, after modifying it. Is it OK to link to you?
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  9. I want to make my own images. What is the best/easiest free or commercial program to use?
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  10. Can I offer your images in my free webpage?
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  11. Do you make free custom images?
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  12. I am just starting my first commercial site. Can I use one of your images for free?
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  13. Will you write about my program/site?
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  14. How do I make a button or banner for my web page?
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  15. I find errors in your site.
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  16. Where is your guestbook?
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  17. Please send me the FLA file that you used for a flash menu etc.
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  18. I have another question, not covered here.
    Answer

Answers

How do I save an image?
Right click (on a PC) or click and hold (in a Mac) and choose from the menu: where, under what name and in what format you want to save the image. For webTV, copy the image location (path) written under each image (adding the site url at the beginning, so your path will be something like: http://www.helensimages.com/bground/image_name.jpg , go to the page of your favorite transloader and write the path of the image you want to copy and the new path where you want it to go (your web space or online drive). For more detailed help, look in my help page.
I am a webTV user. How do I save and use one of your images?
Not having a computer, prevents you from using an image as your desktop wallpaper and the lack of a disk from saving it. So, you can only save and use an image on the web, either in your web page, or in your email. All you have to do is to use a transloader to copy the image to your own web space or online drive. Also, look in my help page and the previous question.
Can I put an image as a background of only one element (table, link etc.) in a web page and not the whole page?
For a table, or just a row (tr) or cell (td), you can with plain HTML. For a link, or a header, you will have to use style sheets. Look in my HTML page.
How do I send an email with one of your images for background?
You must send an HTML message, not plain text. The syntax is the same as for regular web pages. Some email programs make it a little easier for you to use HTML, in others (and web TV) you have to hand code it yourself. You can send the image as an attachment of your message, or link to the image on the web (so long as it is not to somebody else's server). Whether your receiver will see the background or not, depends on his hardware and software configuration. There is more detailed information on the FlamingText.com site.
How do I use a big image (wallpaper) - centered - for my web page?
I would not recommend it, as these images are large files and they would delay the page loading considerably. Fast internet access is true of only a few people; the rest have to do with an expensive phone line and a slow modem. Still, if you want to do it, you can at least prevent the image from tiling. You need a style sheet for this. The syntax is something similar to the following (you put it inside the HEAD part of your page) - substitute the "image.jpg" part with the actual path to your image and the background color with the one you want: 
<style>
BODY { background: #ffffcc url(image.jpg) no-repeat center}
</style>
The center part is not recognised by older versions of Netscape. Look at an example here.
How do I put an image in my mobile/cell phone?
The image must be in WBMP format and 1 bit/monochrome (all the pixels are only black or white). The newer cell phones also take color images, usually of JPEG format. Irfanview, as well as MS Paint (and most paint programs) can do the color depth conversion. There is also a free command line utility - Wap Converter - bmp2wbmp.exe that can do the format conversion (from BMP to WBMP). Other programs are available, but some of them only save 256 color/8 bit images, which can't be read by older mobile phones. (the other way of conversion I have heard about, requires a hex editor and the change of file headers). Irfanview, from version 3.30 can view (but not save) the WBMP files. Also, the image size must be such that it fits inside the mobile phone screen (at the most 127 X 127 pixels, depending on the mobile phone brand) and the mobile phone must support images.
Now, about putting the image itself from the computer into the phone, up to the number of images that your phone supports: What you need is a special cable or an infrared connection between your mobile phone and your computer and the necessary software for communication between the two (provided by your mobile phone supplier). No other software is usually needed, if your images are in WBMP format and the right size. There is commercial software that will let you import many image formats into your mobile phone (the program does the conversion), but it is usually specific to a certain brand of mobile phones. I don't know of a way to download images via your mobile phone directly from the internet, except for e-mailing them to your mobile phone.
If you want some WBMP images, you can download a very small (zipped) collection in various sizes here.
If your phone supports color images, you can download and use any of my wallpapers in 640X480 size (or resize a larger one). This is the maximum size of images supported by the newer cell phones (those that support photos and 16 thousand colors = 16 bit) - the image is resized to a little over 100 pixels for screen display, so the quality might not be so good.
Maybe the size of the images in my wap page is better suited for your phone (I use a Sony Erricson one).
How do I make an image tile seamlessly?
You must be able to offset the image, so that you can work on the seams. If the only paint program you have is MSPaint that came with windows, you must copy 4 versions of your image side by side and work on the seams on that. Alternatively, you can mirror your pattern.
As to the work that needs to be done on the seams, this depends on the image you have and the result you like best. Maybe blurring or cloning or smudging a part of the image will work for you.
You can also use one of the shareware or commercial plug-ins (there are many, ranging in price from 10 to 500 US$), or use one of the free programs that include a similar plug-in, like: 20/20 and GIMP (look for both in my software page ).
I have used one of your images on my web page, after modifying it. Is it OK to link to you?
If you decide to link to me, you must state that the image was modified by you. On no account can you state that you made the image.
I want to make my own images. What is the best/easiest free or commercial program to use?
This is all a matter of personal taste, computer savviness and personal expectations. The most recommended programs on the web, are Photoshop and (easier and cheaper) Paintshop Pro. If you have never used a similar program before, the learning curve might be very steep indeed, so much so that you might abandon it.
I would recommend that you exaust the capabilities of MSPaint first (it is perfectly suitable for any size poster - or cartoon like images, also for removing small image artifacts, like dust and scratch or red eye) and also use one of the free viewers, like Irfanview. In this way, you can save your images in any format you choose, apply special effects and get acquainted with the terminology of graphics software.
Then, if you want something more, you can try many programs and see which is more suitable for you. You can look in my free software page for recommendations of free programs, also in the software used page for some commercial (and not) ones that are my personal favorites.
In the beginning, I found Corel Draw (but not Corel Photopaint) and Bright easier to use.
Can I offer your images in my free webpage?
No, because this would be including them in a collection and would require payment to me. You may put a link to my site, if you wish. On the other hand, if you want to mirror the whole site, you may do so (after arranging with me first), if you are prepared for weekly updates and have enough web space.
Do you make free custom images?
Sometimes I do, it depends on the purpose and available time. You can write to me ; you have nothing to lose:-)
I am just starting my first commercial site. Can I use one of your images for free?
No, if you are making a commercial site, you do expect to make some money, so you are expected to have some business expenses. My prices are quite reasonable, since I am from outside the U.S.A. and can afford them at present. If you are really broke, write to me and we might work something out.
Will you write about my program/site?
If you are offering a free program related to graphics or web publishing and suitable for 32 bit Windows, I might try it and, if I have something good to write about it, may do so. Writing bad things would not do you any good anyway :-)
You may also write to me if you are offering a large collection of stock pictures that other people may use in their work or hobby or anything else related to the content of this site.
How do I make a button or banner for my web page?
To make a button, you can of course paint one. Even MSPaint (if you have windows) will do it. You draw a rectangle (or near rectangle) and you make two sides lighter and two darker for the shadows and highlights. Then you save it as JPG (or GIF) in another program.
For PCs, the best easy converter is Irfanview (look in my software page ). It can also make an image into a very simple button. (image -> effects -> 3D button)
If you happen to have a MAC, there is a shareware program called GraphicConverter.
There are also some other PC programs that make it easy for you to make buttons and frames for banners with textures etc, like ZPaint (in my software page too). I don't know about Macs. Irfanview and ZPaint are free.
If you have a heavier paint program, the usual way for buttons is with selecting an area and applying the "boss" effect. As for banners, there are two kinds: one for a personal page to be used as a header, or one to be used as an advertisement for your page.
The first one can be anything you want it to be, from fancy graphics with letters or a table with an image background.
The second one must be 468 X 80 or 60 pixels (large) or 88 X 33 (small button) and it can be static (simple painting) or animated. For animated, if you have a PC again, Microsoft's GIF Animator will do the job, or you could try GIMP (link for GIMP in my software page), which is a complete graphics package. Animations are a lot of trouble, if you are not very familiar with graphics.
Finally, buttons that can actually be pressed can be made with HTML. The syntax for link buttons is: 
<form method="get" action="yourpage.htm"><input type="submit"
value="yourpagelabel"></form>
Change the action and the value to your page names. If you want more buttons, put them in a table tightly, so that they are near each other.
If all else fails, go to FlamingText.com and make one or the other online.
I find errors in your site.
Looking at the site's error log has been instructive for me. For one thing, it has helped me identify mistakes - mostly mistyped links.
I would really appreciate it if you reported all errors to me - it would help me correct them.
Apart from that, please be aware that if you are using a translating service to read my pages (if your language is not English), that you may not be able to save files, because the files' names are also translated sometimes :-( (the most common 404 (not found) error is for files contained in the "fichiers" directory, which is French for "files").
Sometimes there are broken links to other sites, especially in my software and users pages. These links change quite often. I do try to check them using Xenu (look in my software page for the link), but this only tells me that the link does lead to an existing page, not the content of the page. I check for that less often manually, since domains are bought and sold quite often and it is not unusual for a link to lead to ...um... something undesirable.
Also, some pages, like the elements, only work with JavaScript enabled. Some people have turned off JavaScript in their browser and cannot use these pages.

So these are the more usual errors (apart from silly mistypes) that people find on my site, aside from those who deliberately search for a way to hack it (must be disappointed when they can't find the configuration files they seek). I am sure a good hacker would find a way, but the errors come from amateur ones :-(
So, I repeat: please report all errors.
Where is your guestbook?
It is gone!
Those who remember my previous site, know I had a guestbook. I had to remove it finally, because of misuse. It had reached a point where spam etc messages were much more than legitimate ones (sign of our days?). I will put back a guestbook, once I find a script that makes it more difficult for these people to put their trash.
Please send me the FLA file that you used for a flash menu etc.
I did not use FLA files for the menus, so I never had any. If you read the relevant information on the download pages, you would see that I had used a CorelDraw plugin that output SWF files, which as far as I know, are not editable directly.
Anyway, the matter is academical, since I lost most of my data in late 2005 after a short circuit in my motherboard, that destroyed my hard disks. Some terrains survived, because they had been written to CD, but not much else.
So, for older files, there is not much else than what is already on this site. Sorry!
I have another question, not covered here.
Then ask it ; it might help others, too.

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