Site rewrite

[BaldEagle]

Please review this site for me. It is a rewrite for an old, pretty poorly designed site.

the original site is here:

http://www.antiquesunlimitedinc.com

the new design is here:

http://www.dwd.somee.com/aui (http://www.dwd.somee.com/aui)

BaldEagle

[Frank]

Redesign looks much better, much more professional. Also loads a bit faster on my end. Good job.

[BaldEagle]

Thank you Frank. I am concerned about the background image. Someone has told me it is too dark, but it looks great on my system. This person sent me a picture of what they thought was the best darkness for the image and it was pure white on my system. So the issue seems to be my monitor (actually my screen). Any thoughts on what might be causing this.

BaldEagle

[Frank]

Admittedly it is a bit dark...some folks might be distracted by the image when trying to read the text. Perhaps maybe lightening it up a bit more might help, or maybe a translucent box behind it like you have over the image in the upper left corner? I'm not much of a web design expert. ;} Maybe modify the image in Photoshop a bit...create a new layer over the image, fill it with white, and set the opacity of the white layer to about 20-40%...

As far as the differences in monitors, that's a common thing. Some monitors will show things to be a bit darker than others and vice versa, it depends on the users' monitor settings and preferences, etc. I have a CRT and an LCD monitor here and the CRT tends to show things in slightly different shades than the LCD. Perhaps adjusting the contrast or brightness on your monitor, or adjusting the level of gamma correction may help a bit.

EDIT: It looks like you already changed the image there. LOL That one is a lot lighter. A good design overall :}

[BaldEagle]

I have been experimenting with the background image since my last post. I call a friend and have him check it on his crt. I guess I'm gonna have to git one of them things. Got rid of my two old ones when I got the laptop 'cause I never thought I would need them again. Anyway, I tried to see if I could alter the color profile for the screen but no luck there. I did adjust the gamma settings in PSP7. I used an image sent to me that was apparently of good quality and appropriate fade out for my use. However when I viewed the image it was almost completely white. So, I adjusted the gamma until the image was as close to the description I was given (not a very scientific way of making this adjustment) and then threw the image online. Friend says looks better but I might still be off a little. Reckon I'll just have to play with it. Problem is it really looks crappy on my system even though it looks great in PSP7. There must be a better way without paying a fortune to have my system calibrated. Know any good cal programs that are free or at least very cheap (like me)?

Thanks for your time and input.

BaldEagle

[Frank]

I've been pretty lucky with my monitors. I've never had to do much in the way of extensive calibration.

I did a google for monitor calibration and came up with this.
http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp#downloads

I don't know if it will help out any, but as far as I can tell it's free. :}

Since you're working with PSP, this may help too.
http://www.jasc.com/support/kb/articles/monitor.asp

HTH

[BaldEagle]

I googled it as well and I did come across the PSP article but not the cal program. I downloaded the cal program and gave it try, but it does seem to be referring to crt's. I did produce a profile and it didn't seem to hurt anything but also didn't create much change, which could mean that my current profile is not really that far off. The value of these types of programs is also contingent upon my own eyesight and color vision. Maybe it is more me than anything else.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

BaldEagle