Image map

From Free net encyclopedia

In HTML, an image map is list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations (as opposed to a normal image link, in which the entire area of the image links to a single destination). For example, a map of the world may have each country hyperlinked to further information about that country. The intention of an image map is to provide an easy way of linking various parts of an image without resorting to dividing the image into separate parts.

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Examples

An example of two image maps can be found at Rulers.org, on the front page in the left top corner, and on the clickable map of countries, which gives leaders of various nations past and present. Rulers.org makes extensive use of these image maps.

Various other image maps can be found throughout the internet. One must look, however, to find a number of them. Sites find them convenient and a very intuitive way to link to other parts of the site, that somehow have a relation to the image. Here is an example of a client-side image map, very simple as well.

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Software Implemented in the Creation of Image maps

Image maps may be coded by scratch, by someone with a highly advanced knowledge of HyperText Markup Language, but it is difficult even so. It includes not only specifying the coordinates on the map, but also specifying the size of the object to link and its corresponding shape, almost always being a plain polygon.

But doing it this way, as just mentioned, requires experience and time. Anyone who lacks experience or is short of time must use software to create image maps. There are several types of software for creating an image map available on the internet, the majority of them are copyrighted and require registration. Nevertheless, a handful of image map creating software is free. One example of this free software is VisiMapperPro LITE, and as its name implies, it has a precursor which comes with more features, but costs money. Mapedit is very popular for image mapping.

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