★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://wdvl.com/Authoring/HTML/Tutorial/creating_images.html

Creating Images

Eventually, you will want to start generating your own custom graphics for your web site.
Unlike with using other people's images, with custom graphics you have the ability to define a uniform color, font, size, and style. Thinking in terms of a common look and feel is the first step in making a clean looking web page.
Besides creating a standard look and feel, you should be aware of a few other design concepts before you start creating your own graphics.

If you are serious about web design, you should get a copy of Adobe Photoshop. If you are really serious about web design, you should get several filters like Kai's Power Tools

First, designing for the web is not like designing for print. Don't attempt to align pages to the pixel or colors to the RGB value. Alignment, margins, colors, and most everything else about design is highly dependent upon the browser software, operating system, and hardware that the person is using to look at your web page.
It is impossible to design a web page that will look exactly the same way in all circumstances unless you code to the least common denominator. And this is a pretty ugly web page.
Instead, you must allow for a fluid design and take care to test using different browsers, different operating systems, and different monitor settings (including black and white versus color, different resolution, and different bit depth).
Finally, you must take care to choose the right file formats, the right color map, and the right image size if you are to have top of the line graphics. Let's take a look at those topics...

Image Creation Resources