Background images rendered differently in XP ?

[Guthro]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but you guys might have an answer.
I'm currently rebuilding our company website from several years ago.
As a start I have used a faded image as a background image placed in a table. I faded the image with Fireworks 2.
Using Windows 98/Me machines with IE5 & 6 the image looks exactly as I want it, faded but still quite good on the eye. (my eye anyway !). However, when I view it using an XP machine, the background image is even more faded and loses much of its clarity. Actually in XP it looks aweful.
Is it renedered differently in XP ? I can't understand why it should change.
Could I somehow test for O/S or browser and show a different image or is there some other solution ?

Help.

The site is live and the url is

http://www.wjarmstrong.com

Ignore the rest of the site, its just this background image.

Thanks.


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[cupid11213]

more than likely this is happening due to the fact that xp comes with IE 6.0 and from what i remember it actually might look quite a bit differently in Ie 5.0 or 5.5, so this could be an issue with the version that your verifying it againt when creating the image.

hope this helps.

Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, while others wonder what happened.

 

[franklin97355]

Looks OK to me (IE7 XP SP2) But I don't know what it looked like in 98.

The answer is "42"

 

[ASG0856]

I have recently done a intranet website for work. I had to do the site at home, where I have XP and IE7. The site at work is on NT and IE5.5. In my case, The rendering of the text differs totally. I get font size increase, loss of italics, changes of font colour. Probably, the XP machine is rendering as it should be after processing the picture in fireworks.

 

[Guthro]

Did you use CSS for the web site ?
I don't like the IE7 clear text or whatever its called and the whole feel is wrong so I wound back to IE6.

I'm still uncertain how to proceed. I might try and recreate the image on Fireworks 8 and on my XP machine. Then see if it shows the same on 98/ME and XP.


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[cmeagan656]

What monitor resolution are you using? I tested the site on the following (both the o/s and IE are fully patched, as is Firefox):

IE 7.0 on XP Pro, monitor resolution 1024 x 768 - looks fine
IE 6.0 on W2K3 terminal server, screen resolution 1024x768 - looks fine

IE 6.0 on XP Pro, monitor resolution 1440 x 900 (widescreen notebook) - background image is very faded and not clear at all
Firefox 1.5.0.9 on XP Pro, monitor resolution 1440 x 900 (widescreen notebook) - background image is very faded and not clear at all

Maybe the difference in rendering has something to do with the monitor resolution rather than the O/S. When you upgraded to XP did you change your monitor resolution?

Cheers.

 

[Guthro]

Nice reply cmeagan, you might be on the money with this.
Originally the image was created using a system with 1024 x 768 and viewed on the same. I now have larger LCDs at home and these are using larger resolutions.
The image was quite small to start with and enlarged to cover the background. So the question here is the problem the resolution of the image, the O/S or the monitor ?
In fireworks you can choose the resolution and I believe it defaults to 1024 x 768 which I just used without question.
Does all this mean we need to allow for differing resolutions of web users just like we have had to allow for web users different browser platforms ?
Should all images use a resolution high enough to cover all setups or is the problem only apparent when an image is enlarged so much ?


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[ASG0856]

You could limit the width of the web page to the lowest standard you expect to be used. For example, if you have users using 800*600, making the web page 800 pixels wide would resolve resolution issues. An 800 user would have the page at full screen width, a 1024 would have the page in the middle with 112 pixels clear space down each side

 

[Guthro]

Are there users out there still using 800 x 600 ?
Daft question really, as I know they are. Shame though.
This would be a solution if layout was the problem but it won't resolve the fact that visitors using a high res screen will see the background image as distorted and very feint.

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