Help With Png Files?

I've been uploading png files for three years. You can easily change a jpg to a png in Photoshop. Not sure if there are other ways. Just do a Save As in PS.

What are the major advantage or disadvantages of PNG vs JPEG?

I guess I mean with transparency? For pillows and such...

pngs are huge, and unless he lifts the size requirements, its not worth messing with unless the image is small. and since we have no repeat for things like duvet, you can only really use it for the one product.

png doesn't have compression like jpg does. it allows for transparencies, but not layers like a tif file can have. its good if you have a template and want to lay something underneath - like on Z. or if you have a floating design. but they are so much larger.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I always, unless it just cannot be done, use png files. "I" think they are clearer and the color is better - BWDIK.

I work on them in the Serif Program format and always export them to my upload folder in png.

PS: I'm not interested in duvet covers

I don't think you can upload transparency to FAA - nor layers. they all have to be flattened.

Roy, I experimented and transparencies work. But they look grey and dreadful without a layer behind them and I couldn't imagine anyone even looking at them. Also I had a problem with the files I tried. They were square but ended up set upon a much larger rectangle. I deleted them.

Thanks all! I get it now :)

It is my understanding that PNG files should only be used when you want the customer to have a choice for the background color.

I think it works best when you have an irregular shaped image on a layer on top of a transparent PNG layer

You can now do that here on FAA

The one problem is that on this site it's presented as a smaller image on a dark gray background.

You have to make clear to prospective buyers, that that particular version is set up for Greeting cards,Phone Cases, Pillows and Duvet Covers and whatever Sean has in mind for the future

I wonder though, if most people will get the hang of it.





Edit:

I suppose that I should delete the print price


Re Edit:

I just realized I used the wrong photograph...I took other photos after, with that one big pedal snapped off.

Well, back to the drawing boards

Has anyone any idea how to keep the image the same size - the background to the image, that is - when we use png's? I seem to have not control over mine, they start off one size and end up small on a large grey background.

Edit - I like the fact that you have used Background Choice in the title, Roger.

Roger, I didn't even know we could use transparency here at all. Thanks for the example. Too bad it shows up on an unattractive gray background. I might think about uploading some of my graphic designs that way in the future.

I've experimented uploading a few PNG files and I think some images look good with different background colors but if you look at this image as a duvet cover you can move the slider and make the central picture huge which then must be all blurred surely!

I have also put a suggestion on the weekly suggestions thread to make the background a grid instead of that terrible looking dark grey. I've put an example image on there.




GillBillingtonArt.com

As has been said in other threads before, it makes NO difference whether you upload a jpeg or a png to FAA. It all gets converted to jpeg.

Why replicate an already compressible jpeg format into a png, when it is going to be converted back to a jpeg when it is uploaded to FAA?

Now if you had a higher quality file in another format that you could get an under-25 meg png for uploading here at FAA, then this might give you the highest quality upload, since FAA would be converting your highest-quality possible upload here to its standard jpeg format.

But why do even that, when FAA just converts it to jpeg?

I would say choose your best digital file version of the image and simply cut out the FAA-conversion step by creating the highest possible megabyte jpeg file to upload here. If FAA ultimately insists on using a jpeg, then why not give it the jpeg YOU make?

Robert,

Clue me in if I'm wrong.

You can't have a transparent background with a JPG file.

Gill B.,

I did not think that there were any background-color options here for duvets or throw pillows. You simply make exactly what you want to appear on one of these and upload it.

The starfish should be on a white background. Otherwise, your first impression impact is already set, and no amount of explanation can change that. If YOUR first impression is that it looks hideous, then surely your potential buyer will have this impression too. The solution would be to NOT upload PNGs, because the FAA conversion obviously defaults to that gray in the conversion.

Roger S.,

As far as I know, you are exactly correct, but why would you want to upload transparency to THIS site?

Robert there are hundreds of colors.........click on duvet then background colour and a whole selection of colors come up then click on "more colors" and you can choose a lighter or darker shade.

I already have this image with a proper background. This was an experiment

Roger, they stay as PNG files, that's how the background stays transparent

Robert,

I do agree that white background would be better (certainly not a checkerboard background)...

And I think images in a rectangular format needn't go the PNG route.

But if you have free form images, giving the buyer the opportunity to choose the background color,..might help sales.

I think those images should be clearly noted , as to their purpose...(as I've stated earlier)..And kept separate from the print options images

Robert,

To answer your last question

To sell greeting card, phone case, pillow, duvet cover designs

@Gil
I just had an idea today. What would a transparent background look like printed on acrylic? Is that even possible? Would your wall color then show through? I know nothing about pngs and transparent backgrounds.

Nikolyn,

I don't believe this feature applies to prints that hang on the wall.

@Nikolyn Theoretically that would work but they are really for printing onto things like duvets or T-shirts so you don't get that stuck-on look with the background of the image showing.

OK and thanks. I was just thinking that you could do a one piece diptych or triptych or more with transparent between the "slices" and on acryllic it might have the effect of hanging two or three or more individual pieces next to one another.

Also, I missed the t-shirts - have just been seeing them in some sales and the reviews thread. Can anyone point me to a thread about this product?

I would also like to know about T-shirts. Anyone with info please post. Thanks,
Kathy

Kathy K. McClellan
http://keppenart.com

I know this looks mad, but I just made this small selection of colors someone may like to choose, depending on their decor

@Kathy

Sean closed this thread because he's not ready to announce the new products for a couple of weeks!

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2460074

I have a folder of png files. They don't have any background, so you can add a png file and not cover the background. Did I say that so you can understand? I'm not the best for explaining. I have created titles, like "Spring" and put it over a photograph of a flowering tree. You can't do that with jpg files. Of course you do have to delete the bottom layer which is usually white. Hope that helps.
Kathy Robinson

Thanks, Gill!

Well, ... I'm and idiot. As long as I've been here, I have never noticed the choices of background colors (other than black on greeting cards) on pillows or duvet covers. And now, at the proper prompting, I just did.

I take back everything that I said about uploading png files here, which I used to do exclusively too, just because of their higher quality, but I got talked out of it because several threads insisted that FAA converts them to jpegs. So which is it? Now I am confused. How can png transparency be interpreted, if FAA converts to jpeg? When does the conversion happen exactly, ONLY when the product is ordered, or when the image is uploaded?

Rethinking the whole idea now, as I await clarification on those questions.

P.S., Thanks for pointing out my idiocy.

Don't bother with them, the're huge and unnecessarily take up space, and at 100% the human eye can't discern the difference between a low compression jpg and a full resolution tif (or bitmap or whatnot)

You'll see the difference at 300% and up, but once printed that's not an issue


edit: aaaaand then he reads the thread

I tend to think of pillows and duvet covers as I think of wall hangings - I make them as I envision them as finished pieces. I never thought about allowing a range of colors to be applied by customers to a design with transparency. NOT sure I like that idea of not, but I can see how others would.

EDIT: What if a customer makes a later-discovered wrong color choice?, and uses this as a reason to return the product? Allowing background color flexibility on transparent designs, thus, seems a bit risky from a business standpoint.

@Robert. You're not an idiot, I only noticed the colors recently they may be new and maybe they changed PNG files to JPGs before but they don't now. I imagine it's because they are planning to offer lots more decor products

Robert,

I suppose FAA will do it like Zazzle does it.

I have JPG files for rectangular images, there

and

PNG files for irregularly shaped images,there

Again, so now which is it?, ... Does FAA convert png files to jpegs as once insisted that they did, or not? How did I miss the announcement of this change, if it HAS, in fact changed?

Clarification from management, please. Thanks.

We hardly ever get notified of changes here. That's why I am on the forum, it's the only place I learn what things have changed!

Amazing!

I only started uploading a few PNG files yesterday and today I sold a pillow where someone choose their own background!

Cool, Gill. Dan you share the sales announcement?

I put it on the sold thread Nikolyn

Thanks. I took a look. I see the background color option but couldn't see a way to display how it would look if you changed from black to, say, yellow. I was hoping that with a png file you would be able to see how the image would look against different backgrounds. Or am I missing something?

Did you click on this one Nikolyn, the one on black I actually had as a proper option already

Ah, thanks. Now I'm seeing it. Very cool and the display works as I would expect it to. Yes, black looks great but I can see the potential for all sorts of combinations for other designs and buyers. Appreciate your time and patience.