- Prep the Image
- Filter It in Illustrator
- Object Mosaic
- Convert to Shape
- First Photoshop, Then the Web
- Dress It Up, Dress It Down
First Photoshop, Then the Web
It's back into Photoshop or ImageReady to prepare the file for the Web. For example, you could include different states or provinces for rollovers. I added British Columbia, as shown in Figure 9. It's simple just to add a map containing all the states and provinces as a backdrop, and then trace around the region of your choice. When you fill the area, just remember to check Preserve Transparency. And, of course, make a copy of the layer you're changing so you have an original and a rollover version.
Figure 9 The map with British Columbia highlighted for a rollover.
It's best to work with the map in a larger format and then resize it for the Web. Optimizing this image is easy because it contains few colors. It will reduce in size nicely to a 32-color GIF image. Create any slices you may require; then export the image. Pretty painless, really.