Online web galleries showcase your talent.
With the advances in modern technology of the digital age, artists have more options for showing and selling their artwork. An online web gallery exposes your artwork to more people than a physical brick-and-mortar gallery and strengthens your art portfolio. Website templates save time setting up shop and give you more time to do what you do best--create art.
Instructions
Organize Images
1. Showcase your artwork online.
Take digital photographs or scan the artwork. Separate images into themes, styles or categories by folder. Group like colors or objects. Rename each folder with a descriptive, one-word title. Rename all images with a one- to two-word description.
2. Compress Images for lightning quick results.
Optimize images for online visitors with pages that load fast. Select "Image Size" under the drop-down menu at the top of the page. According to Techsoup.org, keep the overall size of each web page under 40 KB. In a photo editing program, re-size any large photos to 72 to 96 pixels per inch (ppi). Keep the picture size to under 10 KB.
3. Thumbnails are fast-loading because of size.
Use thumbnail or smaller versions of your image if you are displaying a large number of photos in your online gallery. Size thumbnails at 80 x 80 pixels (1.111 x 1.111 inches at 72 dpi) to 100 x 100 pixels (1.389 x 1.389 inches at 72 dpi). Link thumbnails to additional web pages that display a larger view of each image. Insert a return option linking back to your homepage. Refer to the Help file in the photo editing program for specific instructions on re-sizing images and adding hyperlinks. Protect original art images with a watermark. Add a copyright symbol with your information hidden somewhere in the image.
4. Set your digital camera to take JPEGs.
Save photo files in the JPEG or JPG format if you are using color photographs. Use GIF for saving logos, icons or navigation buttons. Avoid saving you web photos in PNG because some computers do not support the format, and your images won't show up on your site to some visitors. Set the compression in the Image Size window for recommended file sizes.
5. Choose readable fonts.
Open a web design program. Use a template for photographic images. Choose the desired template from the File drop-down menu and select "OK." Select the "Properties" tab. Change the font and link colors, background or text style, if desired. Click on the image placeholder on the template. Choose "Insert" from the menu. Adjust the imported image as necessary. Keep image sizes consistent. Unify images by adding a border around each picture. If the template does not provide a default border, select all images by clicking each one while holding the shift key, then navigate to the table properties menu. Select the type of border you would like to add. Select "OK" or "Enter." Create captions above or below the images. In the Table Properties menu, make additional table cells, or boxes, for the captions. Use bold text for the title. Select computer-default, easy-to-read fonts for the text descriptions. Consult the Help file to learn upload your pages to the web server.
