a large background image

[grmmu]

is not what I want. Right, here's the deal: I have a fairly large (1280x1024) image that I'm supposed to use as a background for a site I'm developing. It's not a photo or summin, it's a parchment texture but it's doesn't have a pattern (created in Corel).
Now, my question is: how do I make that large image a fast-loadable non-large image that I can use as a background on the site? (try to keep in mind that it's very likely some of the page viewers will have 56k modems)

Do I make it a pattern? If so, how? I tried googling photoshop pattern making and I found something but it didn't really make me happy. Could be I'm not doing it right. If not pattern making than what? Help?

I also found a site a competent designer was developing (http://www.rizla.com) so you might want to see what I'm after - the background loads in a second, yet it's not patternized. How do they do that :(

[tracknut]

You can really de-saturate a background pattern, and save it as a very low quality jpeg file, without anyone noticing. Should not be a problem. At least with the info you've given, and if your goal is around the 33K size in your example, I don't think you should have a problem getting it down to that size without fiddling around trying to make it a repeating pattern.

Dave

[grmmu]

never even occured to me a 1280x1024 image can weigh less than 50k lol. mkay I'll give it a shot after I get my computer repaired :( thanks ;)

[bflosabre91]

if u do get stuck still, check out a program called Ulead smartSaver Pro.http://www.ulead.com/ssp/features.htm
this will compress any image down a lot, usually about 1/2 the size on average. costs money....but like 50 bucks....it saves me a ton of time from having to optimize and such

[mitchpowell]

Did you try the technique where you select a portion of the image and make a small exact square of it, then you go to 'Filter | Other | Offset...' and enter the value of half the pixels for horizontal, and do the same for the vertical?

Then with the resulting image, you clean up the interior lines by smudging them or whatever it takes.

Where did I see a good tutorial on this? Well, here's one that's clearly illustrating the technique:
http://www.cadtutor.net/dd/photo/seamless/seamless.html

Hope that helps,
Mitch