Photoshop to Dreamweaver question

[tomster2300]

So I'm experimenting with making a personal website / blog, and I've been kind of confused on knowing exactly how large to make graphics in Photoshop for Dreamweaver. I have both rulers set to pixels, so I usually get roughly what I'm shooting for, but it always seems to be off and requires numerous trial and errors (although I think I'm finally getting the hang of it).

Another problem I'm having is making text sharp when working on small objects. Take the title bar for example (like the PCMECH blue bar atop this website). What I have been doing is making a frame in Dreamweaver, dragging it down to make it as wide as I want it, then taking note of the pixels lengths. I then make a new project in Photoshop with those dimensions, and design everything within it proportionally. The problem is when you have it set to 85 pixels high and 1000 long, your title looks fuzzy when set between 4-11 pt font (because that's how small it has to be to fit).

Should I instead make everything really large then change the image dimensions when finished to fit the Dreamweaver page?

I'm also getting different results when previewing the pages in Safari and Firefox.

Thanks, I'm really confused on this.

[Force Flow]

Basically, make 3 columns. Make the right and left columns a fixed size, and the middle 100%. You don't need the middle image very large, as that is set as a repeating background.

So, when the browser size changes, you won't need any extra images (as downloading images take up bandwidth)

[tomster2300]

But if I were trying to keep the top bar from repeating, how long should I know to make it?

[Force Flow]

Either make your template a fixed with (something that would preferably fit in 1024x768 browser windows), or work with a liquid template, making one of the 3 columns expandable.

Making huge images to make up for design flaws just sucks up bandwidth and takes longer for your site to load.