Graphics can be:

• Stand-alone graphics that add aesthetics or focus to a page or form
• Background graphics
• Imagemaps -- navigation structures composed of graphics that contain links

Your goal, when preparing a graphic, is to have it look as much as possible like the graphic you created in your drawing program. How graphics look depends on the user's viewer, operating system, and color mode.

• Viewer -- IBM® Lotus® Notes® client or a Web browser.
  • If your audience is Notes users only, use either the Lotus color palette or the Web color palette.
  • If your audience is Web users only, use the Web color palette.
  • If your audience is both Notes and Web users, either use black and white or very simply colored graphics, or use the Web color palette.
• Operating system -- Macintosh, Windows NT, Windows XP Professional, Windows 95/98/2000, OS/2, or UNIX.

  Always reduce the color in graphics with formats other than GIF or JPEG to 256 or fewer colors. Although doing this may reduce the quality of high-resolution graphics, it ensures a more reliable color display across platforms.

• Color mode -- 16-color mode, 256-color mode, or High/True/24-bit color mode.

  If all users have machines that display in true color mode, reducing the colors to 256 or fewer is all you need to do to prepare a graphic. If users have machines running in 256-color mode, use a color palette to map colors in the graphic to a table of predefined colors.

If you are designing applications for users to access on the Web, you can change from the IBM® Lotus® color palette to a Web color palette to provide greater color fidelity. To change palettes:

1. Choose File - Preferences - User Preferences.

2. Check "Use Web Palette" on the Additional Options list of the Basics tab. If this option is unchecked, Designer uses the Lotus color palette.

Note When Web users open a database, Domino converts non-GIF and non-JPEG graphics to GIF or JPEG formats. The system administrator specifies the format in the "Image conversion format" field, which is part of the HTTP Server section of the Server document. For more information, see Administering the Domino System.

See Also

Adding graphics to a page, form, or subform
Adding a background color or graphic
Changing the display properties of the graphic
Creating an image resource
Creating an imagemap

Glossary