Art, Photography, Craft and Design Articles.

001 Make Artistic Graphic Designs
002 Successful Print Advertising Designs
003 Putting Digital Colors in a Different Hue
004 Printing Development For Best Outputs
005 Printing a Panorama at Home
006 Print Your Photos Like A Pro At Home
007 A Thing of Beauty is a Joy with Photoshop
008 Anti-Aliasing for Great-Looking Text Graphics
009 Starting Your Desktop Publishing Project At The End
010 The Catalog Production
011 Catalog Printing Methods
012 When to Break Creative Rules
013 How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop
014 Scanning Made Easy?
015 Creating the Right Skin Texture
016 Create Your Own Digital Library
017 How To Create 3D Effects Using Corel 10
018 Getting Intimate with Corel Painter IX
019 The Proper Way to Put Text Over Your Images
020 Photomosaic Artistry
021 Getting Good Picture Results
022 Photoshop - a Perfect Complement Of Photographer
023 Proper Scanning Resolution
024 Creative Suite - The Underlying Integration
025 Paint Shop Pro 9 On Review
026 Know The Color Basics
027 3D Effect In Photoshop
028 How to Put Colors in Your Photograph
029 Keeping Control of your Brochure Making
030 JPEG and GIF the differences
031 Finding The Balance Between Form And Function
032 Review: 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs
033 Basics of Scanning
034 Flash MX Invades The Internet
035 Healing Brush and Patch On The Spotlight
036 Silhouettes Creation Using Adobe Photoshop
037 Choosing The Right Paper For Printing Jobs
038 Review: Corel Paint IX
039 Book Review: The Elements Of Graphic Design
040 Photoshop and Illustrator - How Good Does It Get?
041 Using Photoshop and Illustrator
042 Print Shop Deluxe Empowering Users To Do Publishing
045 The Do's of Banner Designing
046 Fusing Traditional and Technical Illustrations
047 How To Create Your Logo (Part 1)
048 How To Create Your Logo (Part 2)
049 Creating Painted Effects with illustrator 7.0
050 3D - The most versatile tool for Macromedia Flash

Make Artistic Graphic Designs
by: Lala C. Ballatan

Are you a student of graphic design? If you have taken time in extra reviews and put “graphic design” and “drawing” into any search engines, you’ll get almost the same result = descriptions of graphic design programs at many design schools. Baffled? Well, it’s like this: As a student interested in graphic design, you have to take drawing and not actually a degree in fine art.

The truth is, you don’t need to be able to draw sensationally, but your skills as a graphic designer would edge out if you have drawing abilities. Still it is possible for you to be a designer without having any drawing ability.

Putting art into your graphic designs can be done with your actual ability to draw. Here are several reasons why getting into a good drawing class can become a significant part of your graphic designing career:

* Opens up your eyes to all details - Drawing does not only entail the creation of beautiful art, it also triggers in us the ability to really look at a subject in a realistic view. Through drawing, we could look at the negative space and the positive space of our creations. It enables us to look perceptively at the white space in a design, its texts and graphics.

* Makes you become sensitive and attentive to details – by getting us to really look at our drawing or design, drawing also awakes in us a certain sensitivity and attentiveness to particular objects that will truly turn out to be interesting subjects.

* Teaches you about composition – getting into a good drawing class draws out knowledge about making good composition. Principles in good drawing compositions apply also to graphic design.

* Gives you knowledge on color – drawing will teach you about tones and shades, even if you draw only in black and white. You’ll also learn some color theory that you could put to good use in creating graphic designs.

* Gets you to distinguish good art – a single or couple of drawing class can never make a great artist out of you. But, abilities such as being able to distinguish good art can be honed in you after taking up a drawing class. As a graphic designer, you may eventually have to hire an illustrator and this ability of yours can be put to good use.

Don’t give me a line about some people that can never learn to draw even as they have the graphic design skills… Early on as kids, all of us have expressed ourselves by drawing anything. So now that we have the complete and matured mental faculties, all of us can learn how to draw. Time and practice are all it would take. Great talents and skills are always the result of never – ending practice. By learning to draw, we could also get the most essential elements of creating artistic graphic designs.-30-

About The Author

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns -- imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com

carla@rushprintingservices.com

Successful Print Advertising Designs
by: Lala C. Ballatan

Do you often see print advertisements outdoors, as much as you see Web advertisements when you surf through the Web? I’m pretty sure that you have entirely different views and reactions upon seeing and actually taking notice to these two different kinds of advertising. The differences may vary in their use of color, typefaces, and space.

Whatever else the difference is between Print Ads and Web Ads, many would still prefer the traditional print advertisements in order to promote their business, products or services. Not all people have access to the Web, such that Print Ads are still widely used and appreciated. It is also practical for a short-term marketing plan or strategy.

Do you know what makes successful print advertisements? Here are several useful things to remember if you are launching a Print Ad:

* Take advantage of a small space by not crowding too much information into it. Leave a white space which can actually lead your reader to the important information.

* Ads with large photos or illustrations of merchandise get higher readership and appreciation than those with small illustrations or no art.

* People do not actually read your copy, but take a look at your visuals. Thus, make your photographs or illustration occupy at least half of your entire Ad.

* You must know now how your readers read, so that you could strategically place your content and not be left unread.

* Typography is an important key to effective communication.

In your print ads’ headlines, avoid all capital letters. Our eyes and brains are conditioned to identify lower case letters and words. Letters and words in lower cases may just be glanced over, but with full comprehension since people are familiar with them. People also tend to read words by the shape of the word and not by reading individual letters thus, your print ads’ words must be of a distinctive shape.

* Your print ads must be consistent with important information placed where readers would expect to see it. Consistency is an important aspect of your print ad since most readers must be exposed to it seven times before they notice it or take action on it. Your ad must have consistency in:
o Logo
o Color
o Typography
o Margins and borders
o Layout
o Spacing
o Photographs and captions

* You must also be consistent in your page lay out and other design elements like contrast, balance, etc.

* On top of everything else, you have to make sure that your print ad communicates the main point of your advertisement – the main attraction and the necessary information for your prospective clients.

For your print ads to turn out successfully, you must have at least a single great idea, on top of several good ideas. Remember, there’s a world of difference between a great idea and a good idea. -30-

About The Author

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com

carla@rushprintingservices.com

Putting Digital Colors in a Different Hue
by: Lala C. Ballatan

Nowadays in the digital technology world, consumers are getting more inclined in the digital imaging market. As compared before, digital imaging tools like digital cameras, color printers and color scanners became less expensive, thus more accessible to eager users. Digital colors, along with their inherent complexities accompany the boom of digital imaging technology.

With due consideration to the complaints of typical end-users that the colors on the monitor do not match with the printed item, there is a need for proper understanding and the right color model to go around the intricate behavior of digital color. Very few people understand the theory of how digital color works even with much technological advances in it. A printer’s inability to go around the intricacies of these new color technologies can lead to a general decline of consumers.

Ways have been made in order to fully comprehend and tap the great potential of digital color as a new color technology today. We have Spittin’ Image Software to thank for an introduction of a new “low-tech” invention that lay down the principles of digital color and sheds new light to digital colors. This is aptly named COLORCUBE.

The Colorcube is just recently patented in the United States. It is a three-dimensional model wherein one can understand and even teach the digital color theory. Through this elegant color representation, the gap

Spittin' Image Software introduces a new "low-tech" invention designed to explain the principles of digital color. This recently U.S.-patented device, aptly named the COLORCUBE, serves as a physical model of how color is stored, manipulated, and reproduced using digital processing. Colorcube can be a solution in order that the gap between additive and subtractive systems of color can be resolved. It could also define the computer technology methods by which colors are stored, manipulated, and reproduced.

How do Colorcube puts color in a different light for us?

Not everyone may know this – There are 10 steps in understanding digital color. These steps are introduced in the Colorcube Digital Color Model. And we definitely won’t leave you with just a brief introduction of what Colorcube is…Here’s a list-down of Colorcube’s features and advantages as the latest color model.

1. How the Human Eye sees Color
2. Identifying Primary Colors
3. Additive and Subtractive Color
4. Color Models
5. Storing images in computers
6. Visualizing a color space
7. Color Mixing
8. Color selection
9. Color manipulation
10. Color mapping and calibration

As industries reputed in art and science converge to the digital domain, a unified vision of color must emerge. Colorcube can give a definitive model for that vision. It is a positive step that Color cube international patent has been arranged and pending. Wouldn’t it be a delight to discover color anew? -30-

About The Author

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com

carla@rushprintingservices.com

Printing Development For Best Outputs
by: Marlon D. Ludovice

Printing, name used for several processes by which words, pictures, or designs are reproduced on paper, fabrics, metal, or other suitable materials. These processes, sometimes called the graphic arts, consist essentially of making numerous identical reproductions of an original by mechanical means, and the printed book has thus been called the first mass product.

The history of printing, which by its very nature is considered to be the most thoroughly documented of any history, practically identical with that of relief, or letterpress, printing (printing from a raised surface). Historically speaking, the bulk of all printing has been produced by this entirely mechanical method. Modern printing techniques, however, increasingly rely on photomechanical and chemical processes. In recent years computer technology has become important and adds up to the complexity of the printing procedures.

The various printing techniques were long been observed by ancient communities. In fact in the application of signet stones is possibly the earliest known form of printing. Used in ancient times in Babylonia and elsewhere, apparently both as substitutes for signatures and as religious symbols, the devices consisted of seals and stamps for making impressions in clay or of stones with designs cut or scratched on the surface. In the east, Chinese favorable invention made available the use of paper. However, in the west movable metal type was first cast with printing paper on the middle and use oil-based inks.

Today, the machine is used to transmit the inks from a printing plate to the printed page called a press. The first printing presses, such as those of the 16th century and earlier, were screw-type presses designed primarily to bring pressure on the printing form, which was placed face up in a flat bed. The paper, generally dampened, was pressed against the type by the movable surface, or platen. Then the next thing was the introduction of iron as the substitute for the screws. In 19th century improvements included the development of the steam-powered press; the cylinder press, which uses a revolving cylinder to press the paper against a flat printing form; the rotary press, in which both the paper and a curved printing plate are carried on cylinders; and a practical perfecting press, which prints on both sides of a sheet of paper simultaneously.

The modern printing process is now largely controlled by computers. Printed images can be created from data gathered from images either scanned into a computer or obtained from a database. Once the images are in the correct format, image carriers are created which are then either printed from directly or fed into the printing machine’s memory. These provide information about color strength and positioning of images. They can also set the parameters for the type of material to be printed. Self-monitoring computers known as close-loop systems can now measure and correct the performance of the printing press to pre-set parameters, to ensure that an image of the correct quality is obtained. Such film-free systems able to project images on to the image carrier offer time and cost savings.

The modern printer is now a computer technician, not only requiring printing skills but also the ability to control the complex machine-computer systems that can produce thousands of copies per hour. Training is no longer a craft apprenticeship but may involve computer simulation systems, which create and duplicate all the operations of a real printing machine using special dedicated software. This is now the modern way of printing, a fast and more efficient way of reproduction is being offered to us by different printing company. How lucky we are that we have this technologies that help us do the job smoothly.

About The Author

Marlon D. Ludovice

Actually I’m not fond of writing, I don’t even write at all. I am not expecting to be in this field. But nevertheless, I love to read books...almost everything interest me. Reading is my passion! And now that I am in an article writer team, writing gives me an additional thrill in myself...Before I love to read books but now I’m also in a writing stuff. I can say that I am not a good writer but I am always trying to be one.

For additional information and comments about the article you may log on to http://www.aprintingpress.com

marlon@aprintingpress.com

Printing a Panorama at Home
by: Granny's Mettle

When you choose to print your photo panorama-style yourself, here are a few suggestions to help you:

You can use paper larger than your printer specs

The size of the paper depends on the size of the slot in the printer. For most home printers, this slot is limited to either the letter size width or slightly larger. Nevertheless, you have to take note that the letter size length is not limited though.

What one woman did was to buy a paper large than the standard size specified by her printer, then cut the paper so that the shorter part of the paper may be able to go through the slot of her printer, while keeping the longer edge full length.

There are also unusual paper sizes available in the market. And then just cut whatever size of paper you like. However, you have to check first that you can configure your printer settings to a custom paper size, as well as check that you can load the paper into the printer.

You can choose the software

Adobe Photoshop and JASC PaintShop Pro are software that allows you to increase the physical size of the image without touching the resolution of the master image. There are many more programs available that lets you resize and customize paper sizes.

You can choose the paper type

The best results are made when you use the paper available for your printer. Developers of printers design both the paper and printer to work with each other. So when printing at home, remember to use the paper made for your printer. For photo paper, choose according to paper opacity, the ISO brightness (the level of whiteness when the paper is pure white before printing), and a reputable name.

You can use third party papers, but when you don’t know what will work best with your printer, it is still better to go for your printer’s brand.

You can print in sections

When paper fails, you can do the printing in the most conventional way- print in sections. This process can be time consuming and would need a little patience and perseverance. It is also often hard to align the print sections and hide the parts where they are joined. Problems also arise when cutting the image into sections before printing.

But take heart, there are also programs available to help you. Panoramic image printing software like cPicture and PanoPrinter. The former allows you to automatically cut the picture in sections, the sizes of which you can print using cPicture or with another image tool.

The latter, on the other hand, does adjustments, and most importantly, it allows you to print the image across multiple pages. It even provides crop marks, page numbers, among others, to help you cut and join together the sections to create the whole image.

When all else fails, I believe that it’s just time for you to give up and avail of the services of large format digital printing providers nearest you.

About Digital Printing Company

Digital Printing Company offers high impact digital printing solutions from prepress scanning and graphics design to customizing documents using Variable Data Imaging technology. They specialize in short run printing of books, manuals, and flyers, as well as large format printing of posters and trade show graphics. For more information, visit their website at www.digitalprintingcompany.com.

About The Author

Granny's Mettle is a 30-something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: "Writing gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine."

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

acapili@losangelesprintingservice.com

Print Your Photos Like A Pro At Home
by: Granny's Mettle

Even with the lowest pixel available in your digital camera, you too can produce photos and prints at home that can look better than those made in photo labs. Digital photo printing has come to a point where everybody is given the choice to either produce the output by themselves or to get assistance from outside. So when you opt to do it yourself, avoid the two mistakes often made by first timers of digital photo printing.

Mistake # 1: Digital camera is not set to the highest image quality.

Solution:

The first thing you should do is to set your digital camera to the highest picture resolution available. This can be found in the camera’s setup menu, and usually indicated as either “quality” or “size”.

In addition, when your digital camera offers you to select between TIFF and JPG when saving your photo, opt for TIFF. TIFF images appear much cleaner, crisper, and more detailed than the JPG version. However, you have to take note that TIFF files have larger sizes than JPG that your digital memory card may not be able to save many photos. Moreover, most digital cameras have memory cards that could only hold a few high resolution TIFF images. To answer this problem, you could either buy a larger memory card that will cost you almost $100, or just settle with choosing images you like best and discarding those not at par with your tastes.

Mistake # 2: Printer is not set up for the right resolution and paper type.

Solution:

Second, when you go to your printer’s settings in your computer find your printer’s setup and put to highest quality color digital photo printing. This is sometimes indicated in dpi (dots per inch). Still, some printers have a “Quality versus Speed” setting which makes you choose between faster printing or better looking photos. When you’re doing documents, it is better to use the Speed setting, while for photos, go for Quality.

Finally, choose a photo paper rather than plain paper. The reason why manufacturers produced and named them “photo” papers is because they’re definitely for this type of use. Photo papers come in either glossy or matte finish.

And take note of the brand of the photo paper. Particular printers choose to work only with photo paper of the same brand. It’s not that manufacturers wanted to get even the paper market to their side; it’s just that printers and papers are usually designed around each other.

For better results, just stick to the same brand as that of your printer. Even with the introduction of third party substrates, certain problems such as smearing and unnatural color balance will just show in the end when you choose to use other brands.

About Digital Printing Company

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

acapili@losangelesprintingservice.com

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy with Photoshop
by: Granny’s Mettle

Human nature always seems to have this predilection with beauty and what society believes is beautiful. When we are fat, we want to be slim or thin. When we have the so-called “love handles”, we decide we do not love them anymore, so we go to the gym and exercise until our tongues fall out from fatigue. We are blessed with dark colored skin, so we try all the new bleaching products available in the market to lighten our color. We have white skin so we go to tanning salons to get olive skin, and the out-in-the-sun color to your skin. We are naturally brunette but we go to the nearest salon to get our hair done and died to blonde because they said “blondes always have such fun”.

And digital technology is also banking on the partiality of people to not have fun with what the Lord has blessed them with originally.

I have been in the digital business for quite some time now, and what I regularly encounter are numerous questions on how to remove blemishes from photos so that their faces would look great and give that “fashion-magazine look” that the media is glamorizing so much nowadays. Here are a few suggestions then from a photographer on beauty retouching.

(Now, if I could just do it in real life, I would be a millionaire by now.)

Beauty Retouching with Photoshop

1 – Try to improve the colors on the face in your photo as far as you can go. To edit, it is better to do it in RGB rather than CMYK. With RGB, editing is more flexible and easy. And explore all the selections in the various feathers. Do not be afraid to experiment. After all, being creative is all about using all the choices available.

2 – After editing your color, it’s now time to create a new layer. This is also a tool for you to be able to control your work. Begin your retouch using a heeling brush and cloning stamp to remove the things you want removed. Start with the bigger imperfections and move your way to the littlest blemish. You could also use the heeling brush to remove the lines under the eyes to create that young look to the face.

3 - To adjust the size of any part of the face (e.g. big nose), adjust to your liking with the Liquify filter. Click the Filters menu and choose Liquify. This tool allows you to smudge, move, squish, and even distort your image according to your satisfaction. For best results and easy navigation, turn the grid on. This will let you view the changes you’ve made.

For increasing or reducing the size of the area, you can also use the Warp, although the Pucker and Bloat are most effective with this type of retouch. Remember to be careful and again, do not be afraid to experiment. Use the appropriate brush size and go slowly, moving bits at a time.

4 –To smoothen the skin, use the cloning stamp and carefully apply to the skin. The best would be to use multiple clicks rather than strokes to even out the skin tone. This is the part where you need to be patient. Be careful with your patterns and do not repeat. Also, try to be creative. Don’t worry if you make mistakes along the way. Just go back to the history palette everytime you create something you don’t like and start again.

5 – For overdoing the smoothing process, just use the history palette to restore the specific area. If this does not work, try to select and add the noise filter to simulate the texture of the skin.

Finally, after a little adjustments and a little nip and tuck here and there, you are ready to view your final image.

According to the photographer, beauty retouching needs patience and a lot of perseverance. Many methods are available, but there are only a few tricks to help others retouch their photos. Even for professionals, this job takes time to finish. However, with time, one can get faster.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.losangelesprintingservice.com

acapili@losangelesprintingservice.com

Anti-Aliasing for Great-Looking Text Graphics
by: Granny's Mettle

Macromedia has a wonderful software application that helps users create great-looking text graphics by using anti-aliasing capabilities. In Fireworks MX 2004, artists and designers can create readable and attractive text graphics by substituting shades of the font color around the lines and curves, which otherwise can be broken and craggy in appearance.

Fireworks Anti-Aliasing Capabilities

Anti-aliasing capabilities have been with Fireworks for quite some time now. With the new edition, Fireworks MX 2004 enhanced further its four anti-aliasing options and added two more features.

Its anti-aliasing options include: None Anti-Alias, which disables text smoothing; Crisp Anti-Alias that allows the creation of a sharp transition between the edges of the text and the background; Strong Anti-Alias for a very abrupt transition of the text edges into the background, while preserving the shapes of the text characters and improving on the detailed areas of the characters; and Smooth Anti-Alias that lets the users create a soft transition between the text edges and the background.

On the other hand, the new anti-alias options are the System Anti-Alias that uses the text smoothing method which can be found in Windows XP or Mac OS X; and Custom Anti-Alias, which provides expert level controls (such as oversampling, sharpness, and strength) over the anti-aliasing.

The enhanced features from Fireworks allow the users to have a complete toolbox of "sandpaper" for anti-aliasing of text graphics. Users can quickly and efficiently smooth the edges of any working text using the Fireworks application.

To utilize the anti-aliasing options, simply apply any text object through the Property inspector ot the Text Editor.

Anti-Aliasing Options

To help you further maximize the capabilities of Fireworks and its anti-aliasing features, the following is suggested:

1. For anti-aliasing to be useful and maximized, it is best to use it on larger font sizes.

2. Do not apply anti-aliasing features on a bitmapped font.

3. Do not export anti-aliased text as a GIF with the Web 216 palette. The reason for this is that the Web 216 palette does not have the colors that you will be using to properly anti-alias your text.

4. Anti-aliased text which is exported as a transparent GIF then placed in a web page with a background color will appear more aliased. This means that the text would appear to have jagged distortions in its curves and diagonal lines. It is better to just alias the text at the beginning since you will have the same result anyway.

And,

5. Always try one of the pre-set anti-aliasing options first before developing your final output. This is to help you achieve your desired appearance. Try out the Non, Crisp, Strong, Smooth or System options. If you still do not achieve your desired requirements, then use the Custom Anti-Aliasing option.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

About Color Printing Wholesale

Color Printing Wholesale is a company that offers a wide range of quality digital printing services from brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards and posters, to digital, inkjet and web solutions, as well as laminating services. For further information, visit their website at http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/POSTCARD/Postcard-Printing-Services.html

anna@rushprintingservices.com

Starting Your Desktop Publishing Project At The End
by: Granny's Mettle

The only place where you can find the beginning to start at the end is during a typical desktop publishing project. As one designer would relate, for all practical purposes, the process of culling information starts at the end in the printing process.

These are technical aspects of design for desktop publishing. Let's remember and review them:

Step 1 > Gather information from the printer.

This part of the process is even before you start composing your document file. You have to understand and consider how your commercial printer will reproduce your file.

There are different strokes for different folks. Different presses have different production requirements, and each company has its own way of doing things. It doesn't matter if your printer is a service bureau or not. The issues that you have to consider are the reproducing color, screen frequency and angle, type of output, and scanning photographs.

It is best to ask your commercial printer on these so that you could already tailor your document file according to the specifications of the printer and avoid costly errors later on.

Step 2 > Get information from your service bureau.

You need to combine the requirements of both your printer and your service bureau. After knowing what your printer needs, nest step is to gather information from the firm that will output your file on a high-resolution imagesetter.

Information you need to find out are: platform and software support, equipment profile, font availability, compatible characters, program files versus printer files, linking versus embedding graphics, scanning photographs, resolution, color trapping, maximum dimensions, and assigning responsibility.

In addition, find out from your service bureau what documents do you need to hand over. Most often, a service bureau would need it's output form and a final, color separated laser printout at 100%. If there would be reduction in your printouts, just make sure to take not of it.

Step 3 > Set up a template.

It's now time to set up your template. As a refresher, a template is the document file that has the basic layout, paragraph styles, and as many as the information we have listed above that your program will allow you to include in your file. So that you won't have to start from scratch when you come up with a similar document, you can save the document as a template before adding the text and graphics.

To further save time and money, you can ask your service bureau to run a test file by having them develop test pages before you prepare the final document file.

Step 4 > Prepare the document file.

When the template is complete and tested, rename and make a copy to use as the document file.

Step 5 > Check your output.

Finally, before handing over the final output to the printer, review everything to make sure that the document matches your selections. Things to check for are output quality, density, scratches, and the registration of color separations.

About Color Printing Wholesale

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/Brochure-Printing-Services.html

anna@colorprintingwholesale.com

The Catalog Production
by: Maricon Williams

After the completion of the planning process, catalog production starts. These are the steps when producing a catalog:

First is the gathering of data. Before any design to exist you must first gather a complete list of all the products you will include in the catalog, as well as all non-product copy. If some items will be grouped together as one catalog photo block such as a shirt that comes in 4 sizes and 6 colors, check to ensure that it is clear for the designer. Sort further the list into categories or spreads.

Second, write the product copy. Although most every company can pull a list of products, item numbers and prices from their computer system, virtually no company maintains proper product name and descriptive copy. Product names used in inventory software typically have names like "IVY T-SHIRT RED MEDIUM." In your catalog that same product would instead be called "Ivy T-shirt", available in red and size medium.

Keep in mind that the descriptive copy for general customer catalogs should range from 30 to 60 words. Business and technical catalogs should be as brief as achievable while getting across the information a corporate buyer needs to make an informed purchasing decision.

The third step is to plan and design the overall look and feel of the catalog. In the planning questions you may have determined the catalog dimensions, catalog objective and catalog audience. With that information you can design the master layout for the catalog. All page design will originate from this master layout. In the master layout, you can design all common page elements, grids, design themes, and type specifications for all type of occurrences. To examine the design specs, you can mock up a couple of pages.

Fourth, design the spreads and cover. After the overall look and feel of the catalog has been designed, product list and copy created, you can now sketch out each spread to identify the items on the spread and their approximate layout. You can also indicate any product photography that needs special shots such as with a background or model, and sketch approximately how we envision the photograph's layout.

The fifth step is product photography. This step involves the acquisition of all the picture and graphic files. The next thing to do is to process the images in Photoshop. There you can adjust the levels, add a clipping path and convert the image to CMYK.

Finally, you can now layout the catalog. This is the most thrilling part of designing a catalog. Here you can put all the elements together on the page to come up with a functional and attention grabbing catalog.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and I'll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. I'm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mine's less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

jona@catalogprintingexperts.com

Catalog Printing Methods
by: Maricon Williams

We cannot deny the fact that catalog printing is now a soaring industry. Nowadays, catalogs are considered one of the useful tools in advertising and marketing. It can be used to give information to customers and to show pictures of products that can be purchased. In some cases, catalogs will show services that can be offered by certain businesses as well.

You can choose to print your own material catalog or be aided by a professional printing service. It is still best to use a professional printer if you are creating a large catalog with lots of pictures. However, you can still print catalogs at home if you have the right equipments, including computer programs, paper, and a high-quality printer.

Catalog printing is more difficult and lengthy in procedure compared to pamphlet or brochure printing. The reason to this is that it has many pages and each page must be designed to show different products, services, prices and company information. It can be a tedious process thus, it is still best to get hold of a professional printer rather than just experimenting on your own.

Four color printing is mostly used by printing services and commercial printers. This is because this kind of printing generates the most clear, vibrant and crisp color images. Examples of this kind of printing can be seen in magazines such as Time, People and National Geographic.

There are several methods used in catalog printing. The first on is the web press. A web press is an offset press that uses a roll of paper rather than sheets of paper. The use of a roll of paper allows quicker printing. There are two types of web presses the heat-set and cold-set.

A heat-set web press is the standard catalog and magazine printing press. It has a heating unit that dries the printed ink as it exits the press. This press allows high speed printing on coated papers such as gloss. It also produces brilliant, crisp photo reproduction for catalogs. Heat-set web presses are huge, complicated presses that necessitate several people to operate and setup. It is only reasonable to use this type of press for print runs of 10,000 copies or more and in increments of 8 pages, preferably 16. Ninety nine per centum of all mail-order catalogs are printed on this type of press.

Cold-set web press, on the other hand, does not include a heating unit so the printed ink must air dry. This press can only print on uncoated papers which allow the ink to absorb into the paper. Cold-set web press produces a fairly dull, fuzzy photo reproduction for catalogs. This kind of press is smaller and simpler than heat-set web presses, costing less and requiring less setup time. This can be a good press for very small quantity catalog print runs starting at 1,000 copies.

Another method of catalog printing is the sheet-fed press. This press is a customarily low volume press that prints on pre-cut sheets of paper. Because of its more precise printing method a sheet-fed press produces the sharpest printing of these three press types. It can print on a wider variety of paper weights. However, because of its sluggish speed it is the most costly of all the print methods. Sheet-fed press is commonly used for small print runs or job which necessitates the most excellent printing.

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

About The Author

Maricon Williams

jona@catalogprintingexperts.com

When to Break Creative Rules
by: Maricon Williams

Before we go unusual or unconventional and take the creative approach to break the rules, it is vital to know what the rules are. There are eight generally accepted rules that generate decent if not impressive results. Nonetheless, no matter how stable the rules are, we can always experiment. Here are the rules and the evasions to the rules:

1. Always place a best seller in the upper right corner of each spread.

Readers glance at a catalog from front to back. Upper right corner is where the reader’s eyes first fall thus, it makes sense to put a striking product there. On the other hand, not all best sellers are visually compelling or stunning. If this is the case, you can put the best seller in another high up position in order to encourage viewing the whole catalog spread.

2. Keep the typography simple and limit the number of typefaces.

The copy has to be legible and concise. Do not reduce the type to 6 to condense all the text. Still, some of the elements have to be presented in a bolder or larger typeface to emphasize a special benefit or feature.

3. Always have an order form.

To have a systematic fill out and mail it is essential to have an order form. However, the birth of Web together with the existence of telephone and fax continue to replace ordering by mail.

4. Consistent layouts are a mark of excellence.

Recognizable spreads, icons and typographical elements are vital in creating a brand image or character. However, if every spread looks the same, it may develop boredom and the readers may choose not to peruse the entire catalog. To encourage readers to spend more time, try to create stoppers using a series of planned layout template changes. You can also use different colors, layout formats and backgrounds to make a compelling change.

5. Standard catalog formats are more lucrative.

You can increase many economies by working with your printer and the Postal Service to determine an proficient trim size, but sometimes a distinctive format will magnetize more attention or better augment your brand than a standard full-size, slim-jim, or digest-size catalog, which in turn can increase sales and even the bottom line.

6. Grouped products don't sell.

Usually, grouping complementary products either in dissimilar photos put together in the layout or in a single shot doesn't sell the goods. For one thing, some of the products grouped together in a photo or layout are not related. For another, in a grouped layout or photo, no product is the hero that draws the reader in. If you're selling books, greeting cards, advertising specialties or products that tend to be similar to one another - grouping products makes a good deal of sense.

7. Magalogs don't sell.

Magalogs are half-magazine and half-catalog. In most cases, as the amount of nonselling editorial space takes away from sales-oriented real estate, the viability of the catalog as a revenue producer decreases. Nonetheless, many conventional catalog marketers have increased the use of editorial material in their books, and quite a few have improved sales with this technique.

8. A four-color catalog performs better than one- or two-color book.

Generally, the answer will be yes, four-color presentation looks more attractive and grabs more attention thus, generates more sales than a one-color book. In fact, some product lines such as apparel and cosmetics require precise color representation. But in some select cases the sales do not justify the cost of four-color printing and color separations. You might even find out that a two-color presentation sets your book apart from competition.

Catalog design rules and principles are already tested and true. They work – that’s a proven fact! However, it can occasionally be bent or broken as long as you know what you are doing and is concern of doing it right. A number of useful principles are discovered by experimentation and innovation. Who knows if it can result to rewarding proceeds or an established principle? No way to know it if you’ll not going to try.

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

About The Author

Maricon Williams

jona@catalogprintingexperts.com

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop
by: Lala C. Ballatan

Want your images to have effects that’ll make it stand out more and show up well on every background tones? With Photoshop, you could achieve these effects for your images by its features that work on light and dark edges. These allow you to work on bringing out the best edges of your image – lighten or darken it, anyway you please to match on background tones and make it stand out more.

Through highlighting edges of your photo, you also highlight its details. The method of unsharp mask and others like the difference of Gaussians increase the change in brightness close to each step. This technique’s standard version adds a bright halo along the bright edge of the step and a dark halo along the dark edge. Depending on what effect you’d like for your image, there are advantages in just using one or the other. Using both may not do very much to improve your image, though.

There are several advantages of using any of the effects for the edges on real images. One is that it reduces interference between steps or detail and the haloes from other, nearby steps. Another thing, the light or dark haloes make other features of the image stand out better from the background.

Start doing this effect on your images using Photoshop by following several procedures:

1st step is duplicate the layer holding the image

2nd step - apply the conventional unsharp mask

3rd step - set the layer blending mode to “Darken” or “Lighten”.

However, you must understand that this only works for 8 bit per channel images – those that can be put into layers but it could function also on 16 bit per channel pictures with Optipix plug-in that allows direct selection of dark or light edges.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such:

1. On light background tones, light edges don’t show up well and vice versa on dark ones.

2. The halo should lie on the background, not on the foreground. This technique helps the feature stand out without having to change its brightness values.

Sometimes the following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for the best results, you’ll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make the image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on the computer screen may not be the same in print since the process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

About The Author

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

articles@ucreative.com

Scanning Made Easy?
by: Blur Loterina

When you scan an image, does it look more like a duplicate made by a photocopier? Does enlarging your image give you headache because you always get a sort of colored boxes, instead?

A scanner is just like a photocopier. The only difference is that, a copier creates a copy to a paper while a scanner transmits the scanned object into the computer, thus, creating a digital image of any printed material. The transferring of image to the paper is done by a printer.

One purpose of scanning is to allow you to edit images. You must have, of course, a printed material of what you want to scan. The scanner will create a copy of it on the computer. You can now edit it and print it afterwards. You must always remember that the quality of the duplicate will never be as good as the original. If you want to make a copy closer to original, the solution is on the correct adjustments of the scanner.

Scanning images, whether color or black and white, are always associated with the word resolution or dpi. For you to achieve the image quality you desire, you should know and understand how these affect your image.

Resolution refers to the number of pixels contained in the monitor. Pixel, from the words “picture element”, is the basic unit of programmable color in a computer image. For a better view of what I am telling you, try to enlarge a photo. You will notice the squares that make up the image. These squares are the pixels.

The resolution is measured by the number of dots per inch (dpi), which is equal to the numbers of squares of color in an inch. A standard resolution for an image should be 300dpi and 400dpi for images containing text.

In scanning black and white images, resolution is not that important. You will only have to work on the contrast. Contrast can be adjusted even after scanning.

For multicolored images, the difference between the duplicate and the original is very visible. A scanned color image, when printed, has faded and jagged colors. Meaning, the quality of the image is poor. To, at least, reduce the problem, adjust the resolution of your scanner before you scan. Set your scanner to the standard resolution. The higher the resolution, the better the quality. But setting the resolution can still lead to another problem. It needs a large memory size which means that saving and retrieving require more time.

Scanning helps you edit images but do not expect to have a printed copy better than that of the original. Experiment and enhance your skill in manipulating images.

About The Author

Blur Loterina

You may wonder why I write articles. Besides from the fact that it’s my job, I used to write short stories when I was younger. I think it would be helpful if I said I’m a big fan of Zach de la Rocha and Rage Against the Machine. This would explain my own views about a lot of things. Their songs were about national issues, politics and human rights. They support the American Indian Movement and Che Guevara, the face you see on t-shirts. Not that it concerns me. I only like their music and idealism.

I’m not an artist, I’m not a poet. I just love writing anything I want. I wasn’t born a genius, I just want to know and understand something I don’t. I like to find the difference between similar things. It’s like counting birthmarks on each identical twin.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

articles@ucreative.com

Creating the Right Skin Texture
by: Ma. Carla Balattan

Making 3D imagery more lifelike/realistic in Photoshop need custom brushes that, as much as possible, conjure up skin texture like the look of body hair, the skin’s surface and it’s structure. Thanks to the continuous creations of custom brushes collection in Adobe Photoshop, this purpose will be achieved.

In the article by Dave Nagel at http://photoshop.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=27156-0, a new series of custom brushes that focus on the creation of textures to be used in 3D imagery has been launched. The first selections were several brushes designed to simulate the appearance of body hair. Such brushes would definitely give the imagery more lifelike in appearance. They have aptly termed it as texture brushes.

Skin texture brushes may not only end with having body hair simulation but also with other elements that may create the effect of other skin textures like smooth skin or rough skin that vary from that with pock marks, pimples, scars and blemishes.

It is then, exciting to note further development and expansion in the custom brushes focusing on the creation of right skin texture for more realistic imagery in Photoshop. Twenty (20) new texture brushes, covering skin textures called NagelSeries 20 are launched for generating a variety of skin textures. There is a custom brush for somewhat smooth skin to skin with freckles, blemishes and pock marks. According to Nagel, the collection is fairly large, consisting of some pretty complex elements that allow you to build up skin textures rather than simply applying them as you might a pattern overlay.

This variety allows for much more skin texture modifications and is very helpful specially when you’re painting on UV maps. In the site, Nagel gave several examples of skin textures created using the custom brushes using several different colors and blending modes. The examples were built up with deep blue base and a secondary deep red layer. Lighter skin tones were then, painted over to achieve desired effect on each. To strengthen the details, color and linear dodges were used in the brushes. Color and linear burns are also added.

You can also tone down the results of the examples given after painting the skin texture and adjusting brightness and contrast. If smoother skins are needed, harsh blending modes should not be used as applied in the examples. This only proves the variety and innovativeness of the new brush collection on skin texture.

You only have to understand that these brushes support Photoshop CS and will not work in Photoshop 7 and below. They are compressed in a Zip archive and you can use any Zip utility to decompress them. The brush file is NagelSeries 20.zip. to decompress it, you have to double-click the file. After decompressing the file, to become NagelSeries20.abr, you could already move it into the Brushes directory of your Photoshop Cs folder (/Adobe Photoshop CS/Presets/Brushes/).

After this download process, you can now use your new custom brush collection! Launch Photoshop, open the Brushes palette and click on the flyaway menu at the top right. Here, you will find the new brush collection and install by simply selecting it. By selecting, the new brushes will appear at the bottom of the list of available brushes.

Surely, you’ll be very eager to start now. Start downloading these new custom brushes and create the appropriate skin texture for your image!-30-

About The Author

Lala B. is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

For additional information about the articles you may visit http://www.uprinting.com

anna@uprinting.com

Create Your Own Digital Library
by: Jelaine Macaraeg

The moment you got your first digital camera, your view of the world has totally changed. You always seem to see something beautiful or artistic in your surroundings, worthy of being captured in pixels. You experiment quite a lot and keep on loading your pictures in your computer. Until one day, you thought of working on a project. You’re sure you have the kind of picture you need – you knew you have it somewhere in your hard disk… in one of those folders… You can’t run a search for it though because you pretty much use generic filenames like Flower1, Flower2, Flower 3 and so on. Uh-oh! Looks like it’s high time for you to organize your digital photos!

Microsoft has something that can help you do that. It’s called the Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9, which actually consists of two imaging applications – MS Digital Image Library 9, which serves as your database of digital images and MS Digital Image Pro 9, which is a photo manipulation program.

A lot of people may like it’s familiar Explorer-like interface – the left pane being the folder pane, while the right side of the window is the image browser, showing thumbnails of your images.

The good thing about Digital Image Library 9 is that you wouldn’t have to transfer your photos from their current location. Instead, it scans your hard disk and locates folders it considers photo folders, afterwhich you may deselect folders that are not appropriate. The images may then be sorted according to date or keywords. From here, you may double-click on a photo to bring it up in a full-screen view and use the basic controls for zoom, fit to screen, rotate and print. You may also select multiple photos for slideshow, the speed of which range from 1 second to 1 minute.

Oftentimes, pictures taken with a digital camera contains metadata. These are information about the photo, such as shutter speed and the date and time the photo was taken. Digital Image Library 9 allows you to add these metadata with captions and keywords to easily categorize and later on identify images. Another nifty feature of this application is that it even allows you to rate your photos! From the preview pane, simply click on how many stars, the highest being five, you wish to assign each photo.

If you wish to do some retouches on an image, simply click the edit button and Digital Image Pro 9 launches and opens the selected image. This application has a lot of quick-fix features such as the Red Eye tool and the Smart Erase, which caters to novice retouchers and home users who don’t want anything complicated.

Being the all-in-one application that it is, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9 comes with tons of mats, frames and templates for creating professional photo projects such as scrapbooks, photo albums, calendars and postcards. You may also get Microsoft Photo Story, an add-on to the suite that lets you turn your photos into video. Simply choose which photos to include then add some narration if you have a microphone and add music and zooming effects.

About The Author

Jelaine Macaraeg

I like to read anything that contains words in the old English form, though I can’t understand it. You know, the King James Version of the Bible with words like thou, thy, thine, wilst, etc. The words used are different. The construction of the sentence is different, too, which makes sentences sound artistic. I also like gothic metal, a music genre, because most of the lyrics contain such words. It is not only the words that fascinate me; it’s the hidden meaning it contains. It’s like an abstract painting; you don’t get the real picture until you see through it.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

artciles@ucreative.com

How To Create 3D Effects Using Corel 10
by: Blur Lorena

CorelDRAW’s tenth edition software, the CorelDraw 10, is an upgraded combination of CorelDRAW and Corel Photo-Paint with new features and a unified interface. It has added features from Corel R.A.V.E., a vector based animation suite that introduced the popular Micromedia Flash animations and movie format best suited for web content. It also offers more fonts, clip arts, option palettes, filters, toolbars, and a graphics powerhouse to help you create print and web graphics design. All tools used in this software are those tools you see in Photo-paint or R.A.V.E.

CorelDRAW 10 allows user to import and export formats because it has a customizable interface. It offers controls for photo manipulation such as blemish removal, color corrections and red-eye reduction you can use in photo retouching. It provides additional controls even for complicated tasks such as mesh-based fills or extruding a three-dimensional object from a two-dimensional object.

If you want to make 3D image follow these steps. First, draw the image using the basic shapes and elements. Turn off strokes. Select an object, a part or component of the image, and fill it with color. Click copy and open a new page in Corel Photo-Paint. A window will open and will ask some parameters. The color mode is set for 24-Bit RGB, Background is enabled and the page will be larger than the object. Click paste, then press CTRL+A and select “Center of page” to bring the object to the center of the page.

Use Paint Bucket for your choices of color. Add noise to give texture to the object and to hide imperfections, especially during printing process. Select EyeCandy 4000/Chrome or Bevel Boss filter on “Effects” to add border around the object. Click Setting and select Chrome Border. Select the effect of your choice. If you’re done with the object, save it in Photo Paint’s native file format. Import the image from CorelDRAW. Repeat these procedures until all components are arranged. If you want to edit the image you don’t have to go back to Photo Paint, Corel 10 offers tools for image editing. If you want to put a shadow effect on the image you can use the Interactive Shadow. Click “Convert to Bitmap” to combine all the objects.

Corel 10 is more reliable because of its combined features. It eliminates the problems users encounter with the other software and lets you create a better slide, web page and other graphics. It’s a CorelDRAW, Corel Photo-Paint and Corel R.A.V.E. rolled into one.

About The Author

Blur Lorena

For additional information about the articles you may visit http://www.uprinting.com

anna@uprinting.com

Getting Intimate with Corel Painter IX
by: Ariel Velasco

If you are artistically inclined and would like to create breathtaking digital artworks, then the new Corel Painter IX is a must-have software for you. This new version of the Painter series offers increased speed, stability, and performance and several new creative tools all suited for the digital artist in you.

Speed has always been a factor in selecting a graphic program and with that fact in mind, Corel Painter IX has been endowed with brushes that can go up to ten times faster than version VIII. This is an important feature that all designers are sure to be grateful of.

A new Rotate/Flip command for the canvas has been added with customizable shortcut keys function that is sure to help speed up your work. An enhancement to the brush tracker feature is present called the "Iterative save.” This is comparable to Adobe Photoshop’s layer comp feature. Users can now use a "snap to path" painting tool that can really add some speed to drawing while using shapes, and paths.

There is new category of natural media brushes, called Artists' Oils, which act more like traditional oil paints enabling the digital artist create artworks in the manner that natural painters make theirs. With textured surfaces, brushes, and tools, you can mimic painting and drawing with chalk, pastels, watercolors, oils, crayons, pencil, felt pens, ink, and more.

The Digital Watercolor now features paint that remains "wet" between sessions enabling the artist to play with the brushes even after he has painted the strokes.

The inclusion of cloning tool called the Quick Clone helps in making the cloning process faster and simple. You will only have to click on the menu and you are now set make clones.

Version IX has even included a total of 7 KPT filters namely Gel, Goo, LensFlare, Lightning, Pyramid Paint, Reaction, and ShapeShifter which are good effects that the artist can play with.

Painter has even gone to address compatibility issues with Adobe Photoshop enabling itself to open images in PSD format complete with layer masks, channels and layer sets maintained. It has also included support for Wacom Intuos3.

Included also are additional learning resources including a 175-page spiral-bound handbook containing artwork and tutorials from Painter experts, tutorial movies from Lynda.com, and a updated User Guide in PDF format.

In essence, having Painter IX is a software that should be in a digital artist’s toolbox. It has features that are sure to give the digital artist an edge.

About The Author

Ariel Velasco goes by the author alias of Paul Hood. This author is into books and writing. Reading is an essential part of his life and this has lent a considerable influence in his writing. Well traveled and would always want to travel more. He loves learning more about people and their ways. Took up a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology to further this fascination and had a fulfilling educational experience having been exposed to a wide spectrum of people. Always ready for new opportunities to learn and have a great deal of interest in different fields of expertise.

For additional information about the articles you may visit http://www.uprinting.com

anna@uprinting.com

The Proper Way to Put Text Over Your Images
by: Ariel Velasco

One must be very careful in using photos as backgrounds. If you are planning to have text written atop an image, you must have had acquired the needed software as well as the know-how required in this task. It’s not good to drive your car without the wheels on.

A good way to make you text readable is to lighten your background photos as much as possible in order to give greater emphasis on your text. For this purpose we have particular tools that can be of aid for this task.

Adobe PhotoDeluxe. This is an ideal tool for you to be able to manipulate photos in almost any way that you desire. It boasts of a user friendly console and this package includes 3-minute non-interactive QuickTime movie describing everything that the software can do. Also, the screen page layouts make each step of the manipulations very easy to follow.

Another tool than can be used for our purpose is the Paint Shop Pro. This also offers a friendly approach to photo manipulation. Several resources are available if you still need further instructions. Websites offering instructions and downloads are plenty and it would be very good to avail of these free information. Browsing the web is easy and you won’t have any hard time looking for the right site.

Making images with text on top can be a nightmare if you do not make the necessary study of the appropriate technique that go hand-in-hand with abovementioned software. As always, the importance of having the right knowledge is an indispensable tool in any task that you will be undertaking. Planning is an integral part of any task as this will give you ample time to prepare yourself as well as ready everything that is needed for the realization of any undertaking you put yourself into.

About The Author

For additional information about the articles you may visit http://www.uprinting.com

anna@uprinting.com

Photomosaic Artistry
by: Paul Hood

DTG defines photo mosaics as photographic images or pictures made up of many, usually hundreds, of smaller photographic images. Viewed very closely, the small tile images can be recognized as individual photos, but at a distance, the composite of these images make up an entirely different image.

This exciting branch of art has been going on for quite some time now and has gained a wide interest from all over the world. The meaning of these artworks has a profound effect on anyone who sees it. It can be a powerful medium of expression that conveys strong emotions. I myself was very moved upon seeing a photo mosaic of US president George Bush made up of all the servicemen that have died in Iraq. Just imagine the many soldiers making up that picture and you’ll see why it brought out a lot of emotions for all who’ve seen it.

This type of art is a very effective tool to convey different types of meaning whatever the artist likes. It allows you to make the viewer make connections and this connections will serve as the medium where you communicate to them whatever it is that you want them to know.

Creating photo mosaics has been made easy by new software that has been developed for this particular art. You just need to look for one that suits you and then learn what the best steps to make excellent pieces are.

William Hunt, considered as a photo mosaic guru presents these simple principles that are essential to creating good photo mosaics:

(1) The large image MUST look good without too much jaggedness or color distortion. To achieve this use more and smaller tiles, use duplicates, modify the tile images or add another photo collection.

(2) The small tile images should be sufficiently large to view comfortably in the renderings final form. If this is a display on a computer monitor or a 8x10 print, you will need to use as few tiles as possible and still satisfy rule(1). If it is a poster size printout you can get by with over a thousand tiles.

(3) If duplicate use of the small tiles is needed, they must not be placed near to each other.

(4) If the small tile images need to be modified to achieve 1-3, it should be as little as possible.

(5) The target image and the small tile pictures should as much as possible have some coherent theme or connection.

About The Author

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.catalogprintingexperts.com

jona@catalogprintingexperts.com

Getting Good Picture Results
by: Paul Hood

Creating beautiful photographs can prove to be very difficult if you are not using the right equipment as well as the appropriate technique. To help you with that predicament, below are helpful tips to guide you in your quest for photographic enlightenment.

The first thing to keep in mind when shooting photos is that you have to look your subject in the eye. Direct eye contact can get your viewer transfixed with your picture thus enjoying more view time. Position your camera at your subject’s eye level to reveal those beautiful smiles. Getting a good angle will give you photos that are appealing and good to look at. A plain background is good for giving emphasis to your subject. It is never a good idea to have the background upstage the person or landscape you are taking a picture of. Also, if you are going to shoot pictures outdoors, use flash. Glare from the sun can create ugly facial shadows. For this problem, the flash is the key. You must also be particular with the proper distance between you and your subject making sure that you are not very near nor very far. The closest possible range for shooting pictures without making your subject blurry is about three feet. Other than that would be disaster. Subjects place in the middle make for boring photographs. Try to make your pictures livelier by placing your subject away from the middle. Just keep in mind that you'll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder. Failure to do this will give you blurry images which are sure to hit the trash bin. A common mistake that usually happens is taking shots beyond the range of the flash resulting in very dark pictures. You can avoid this by reading your camera’s manual or if not take pictures below ten feet away from you. A very important component of a great photograph is good lighting as this will greatly enhance the appearance of your picture. Choose the right time of the day like a sunset to improve your subject’s appearance. Try to take vertical pictures from time to time. There are subjects that will look better if shot vertically. The last but not the least, make conscious efforts to have better control of your shots to boost your picture quality. Take charge of your photo sessions. Manipulate every situation to fit your taste.

Armed with the right knowledge, you are most likely to produce great looking pictures. Continually try to hone your skills to improve your chances of making worthwhile pictures. Making great shots can be a very rewarding experience.

About The Author

Additional Information about the articles can be found at http://www.fullcolorprintingcompany.com

carmelo@fullcolorprintingcompany.com

Photoshop - a Perfect Complement Of Photographer
by: MAricon Williams

You and I both know that Photoshop is the tool that most of the photographers around the globe use. There is no doubt that it is the hands-down best to photographers when it comes to photo editing, enhancing and other adjustments. It has become and remains the industry’s standard in photography. In a matter of fact, photographers have found a perfect complement in Photoshop.

Anybody – both amateur and professional can take advantage of the powerful features of the Photoshop. In the post production process, it is the most ideal tool for scanning in or digital photographs. Some of the prominent adjustments in the Photoshop are the following: contrast, brightness, levels, color balance, curves, hue, saturation, selective color, channel mixer, de-saturation, variations and in the new version which is the Photoshop CS, you have the powerful Shadow/Highlight tool and Photo Filter adjustment which allows you to try out different 'camera filters' on your image.

Not all the time that you take pictures, you get your desired results. It is sometimes frustrating to know, especially during a momentous event that the pictures you have taken are blurred, imperfect and does not suffice your expectations. However, when you have problems in connection to your photos, you can bank on Photoshop. It can show you many ways to fix picture imperfections. You can adjust the brightness values and color values of your images, you can erase flaws and so on. If you took a photo at the wrong exposure you can adjust it in Photoshop. You can touchup your photos and add effects. Quality image enhancements and adjustments are just mouse click away from you.

Ever since Photoshop arrived in the photography industry, it has been considered as good news to both photographers and photo lovers. Gone are the days when you can easily be dismayed by the results of the supposed to be unforgettable occasion. With Photoshop, you can have excellent photos all the time.

Photoshop presents a wide variety of choices and remedies to make your photographs accurate, striking and memorable. Numerous options are available this is the reason why renowned photographers are relying in Photoshop to enhance their pictures. They do not rely on lesser programs because they can hardly compare it to Photoshop benefits. Photoshop rules the photography world. That is a fact for a quite a long time now. There are many competitors out there but nothing equals the power of a Photoshop!

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Additional Information about the article can be found at http://www.fullcolorprintingcompany.com

carmelo@fullcolorprintingcompany.com

Proper Scanning Resolution
by: Maricon Williams

One thing to master about scanning is the proper scanning resolution. The proper resolution to scan depends on how you intended it to be used.

Before scanning it is important to know these five vital information: size of the original image, size of the printed image, LPI at which your image will be printed, resolution multiplier and the process of editing the scanned image. The hint is - the higher the resolution, the larger the file size.

To calculate the final image resolution, these are the solutions:

1. If the size of the image is absolute, multiply LPI by your resolution multiplier. Ex. LPI x 2 for brochures.

2. if the size of the image is not absolute, multiply LPI by your resolution multiplier and then the size of the final image as a percentage to the original. Ex. LPI x 2 x %.

In cases of commercial printing, ask your print shop if you do not know the required LPI as well as other specifications.

Scanning at a slightly higher resolution is most of the time advantageous. By that, it is easier to dump unneeded resolution after scanning. Moreover, reduce your image to the final resolution before placing it in your document for printing.

In most of the print works, 300 dpi is the standard print resolution. The standard resolution for web is 72 dpi. This works best in computer screens. If you you're scanning in an image and only going to use it for web you could maintain it at 72 dpi. Film print’s standard resolution on the other hand is 720 dpi. That way you can make enlargements. The general rule with resolution is that never go up but you can always go down. If you have a 720 dpi image, you can at any rate bring it down to 300 dpi and still look sound.

If you are using photographs for your web, scan them at 72 or 100 dpi.72 dpi is screen resolution and the preferred format for saving the image is jpeg though you can also use .psd. Remember that when you Save As, you are creating a copy of your current document and you are decreasing its file size. You can also save your file within Photoshop. This will allow you to preview your work to adjust the quality of the same. If the image is really huge, simply go to Image > Image Size and bring down the resolution to 300 for print or 72 for web or change the image dimensions if it is indispensable.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Additional Information about the article can be found at http://www.fullcolorprintingcompany.com

carmelo@fullcolorprintingcompany.com

Creative Suite - The Underlying Integration
by: Blur Loterina

Are you an Acrobat user and needs a complete tool for your print or web design projects? Read on.

A few months ago, Acrobat launched its main creative design packages including Photoshop/ImageReady, GoLive, InDesign and Illustrator. After a long period of silence, it came up with a much better package.

Adobe’s Creative Suite now comes in two new packages, the Standard Edition and the Professional Edition. The Standard Edition is composed of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. This package contains most of the print-oriented flagships. On the other hand, Adobe GoLive and Acrobat Professional comprise the Professional Edition, which focuses on web design.

Basically, these packages are combinations of the strengths each application offers. They are integrations of tools for handling colour management, screen display, type handling and more. They allow cross-application, meaning any file done in one program can be opened to the other programs as long as the file was created on one of the programs that comprises the packages. When a file is transferred, all other options can be applied. For example, when you open an Illustrator file to Photoshop, that file will be opened as a Photoshop file.

Every creative application on the package uses PDF file format. Not just a PDF format, they use the latest PDF 1.5 format. PDF format allows you to import and export directly. You can embed vector PDFs from Illustrator and bitmap PDFs from Photoshop in a multi-page InDesign PDF. This can also be exported for PDF web display or repurposed via GoLive.

Adobe Creative Suites has a new integrated file management system, which is essential in the software’s workflow and tight integration. Different components and versions of a project are hard to manage, especially when you are going to use a lot of programs, as in workgroups. But Adobe has a solution to this, the Version Cue. Version Cue, through the application of Save dialog, enables you to store all job elements and important version of your project. The Open dialog accesses visual thumbnails of the project file. You will also be warned if other users are using the same file. In other words, it provides file versioning and management.

The packages also contain XMP or eXtensible Metadata Platform standards. This allows you to search for files according to related information like keywords or authors.

Creative Suite applications are guaranteed excellent tools to provide you with your desired result. Think of these packages as the total of all these applications.

About The Author

Blur Loterina

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Paint Shop Pro 9 On Review
by: Blur Loterina

Do you want to create an artistic version of your photo? How about a program that allows you to undo individual steps that you applied on the image without affecting all other steps?

Paint Shop Pro 9 introduces two special effects filters, the Displacement Map and the Radial Blur. The Displacement Map is a tool for creating 2D and 3D surface distortions while the Radial Blur is used for creating blur effects including spin, twist and zoom. With the Print Layout dialog, you will be able to add freeform text captions and title to your photo layouts using the Text Options. The new Text tool options allow you to create vertical text and render small font sizes. For polygons and star shapes, you can use the new Symmetric Shape tool that’s customizable.

Paint Shop Pro introduces another tool for digital camera users, the Info palette. This palette is designed to show the EXIF data that digital cameras automatically store with their images. Examples of which are aperture and exposure. Paint Shop Pro 9 contains features to support unprocessed raw sensor data that are captured by advanced cameras. It also allows you to set customized white balance and exposure, as well as sharpening of settings for import.

You can now easily undo any individual editing step in a document’s history through the use of the Powerful Selective Undo. The History palette lists all the commands that you applied on the image. You can undo specific steps without affecting subsequent actions.

The latest Paint Shop Pro features new enhanced filters. It has Digital Camera Noise Removal, which not only scans photos it also eliminates image noise introduced at the sensor while intelligently preserving image textures. Its Chromatic Aberration Removal removes undesirable coloured glow around images caused by digital cameras. It contains a Fill Flash Filter that corrects the underexposure of shadows and Backlighting Filter compensates for overexposed areas.

Not only does this software handle existing photos, it can also create images from scratch in both bitmap and vector format. It also has Rectangle and Oval tools. The Pen tool in this version is a lot simpler.

The new Art Media tool is a realistic art-based functionality that contains tools including Oil Brush, Palette Knife, Chalk, Pastel, Crayons, Colored Pencil and Marker. This tool features a traditional-style Mixer that’s just like those traditional artist’s tools. You can add, mix and sample your paint on an off-canvas area using the new dockable palette. You can also convert photos to an artistic version by setting the colour to Trace, it automatically samples the underlying colour.

However, working with this software requires longer time, but you can be assured of great results. It can convert average photos to outstanding shots with eye-popping quality and clarity.

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Blur Loterina

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Know The Color Basics
by: Blur Loterina

Do your print ads or web pages seem so flat that no one ever bothers looking at it? How would you like to make them more unique and attractive?

The key to a striking visual ad is the color. It gives life to any image. Take for example the cartoons that we watch on television and how they attract kids. We may also wonder why fast food and restaurants use the same color for their business or why banana catsup is colored red and not yellow.

Every color has its own characteristics. They represent different mood, personality or impression. In other words, colors influence people.

In deciding what color to use, you must first know the nature of your business. You cannot use just one color, or else your ad will look so plain and boring. However, using different colors can mess up your image or it may create a different impression to the viewers. Balance is important.

There are three basic color models used in graphics design, CMYK, RGB and Pantone.

In making printed images, it is best to use the CMYK color model. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. It is referred to as the four-color process. This color model is commonly used in the printing process to produce full-color photographs and images. The advantage of using this model is that it reduces the cost of printing. When CMYK are combined, they produce the greatest number of printable colors. It is not advisable for use in single-color printing, though. Also, this model does not produce spot inks, such as metallic silver or gold.

Use the RGB (red, green and blue) color model in creating your web page images. All display devices, such as computer monitor or television, use this type of color mode. There are no cost limitations in the use of color for unprinted ad such as the web page. So you can use as much color as you want without fear of spending a lot of money on colors. In addition, current computer programs now offer a wide variety of colors.

Pantone colors are best suited for logos and corporate identity because it creates exact color match. This color model specifies consistency. If you want your printed company brochure to look exactly the same as how it appears on the computer, use pantone colors. The only drawback is that you will have to look for the right printer and paper. Glossy or coated paper tends to slightly alter the color. The difference between printed images on a glossy paper and a plain paper is very visible.

There’s a rule in color psychology that we must apply in designing print ads or web page. Use colors that will best describe the nature of your business. More importantly, your ad image must speak exactly what you want to tell the viewers.

About The Author

Blur Loterina

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3D Effect In Photoshop
by: Blur Loterina

You can use your Adobe Photoshop in creating 3D images. Since 2Ds are obsolete and 3Ds are in, you might want to start enhancing your skill in computer graphics.

You can start making a cube. Your aim is to create an image of cube that is viewed in such a way that the three sides, left, right and top, are shown. Then, learn how to put different effects on it, like shadow, to make it more realistic.

Adobe Photoshop is an ideal program for making two dimensional (2D) images. But it does not limit you to this type of image. You can also create your three dimensional image, or the so-called 3D image, by using the 3D Transform. This will allow you to create simple 3 dimensional shapes or wrap an image in a 3D shape.

To access 3D transform, go to Filter, select Render and choose 3-D Transform. The editing box will appear. This is where you can find the primitive tools. These tools are used to edit the three kinds of primitives, which includes sphere, cube and cylinder. Also, these tools will allow you to create basic images and editing tools, such as Select and Direct Select. The Select tool enables you to move objects, while the Direct Select tool lets you to make adjustments by dragging the anchor points.

If you want to preview your work, use viewing options like pan camera. There is also the trackball that is used to move the 3D render around from different angles.

For the 3D shapes, create first the new layer. Fill it with color. On the 3D shapes layer, create some drop shadows or darker shades of color fills. And because 3D transform only distorts the pixels, you might need these fills to see the effect.

If you want to create 3D effects on your text, use the different transform functions. You can use the shortcut key Alt + E/F and then hold down Ctrl as you drag any of the handles to any desired direction.

Before you add filters or layers effect, you might want to rasterize your text layer. To do this, right click on the layer in the layers palette. Then, choose Rasterize Layer. You will notice that your text will be converted into a normal layer so that you can freely edit it. Create a backup copy because you cannot edit the text after rasterization.

Experiment on images. There are a lot of ways in which you can create 3D shapes, objects and text.

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Blur Loterina

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How to Put Colors in Your Photograph
by: Paul Hood

Wouldn’t it be nice to see your black and white photos in full color? Learning to create and edit old photos is fairly easy and very worthwhile. Digitally restored photos can be used to make digital scrapbooks, posted to Web sites, shared through email, and printed for gift-giving or display.

To achieve this effect, we will need to colorize using Paint Shop Pro. According to Bill Brewer, “colorizing is a feature built into PSP that keeps the luminance values (the bright and dark parts that make up the recognizable image) and colors the image with one color. The image to be colorized needs to have a color depth of 16.7 million colors, and it can be in full color to start with (reduction to grayscale is not required before colorizing). Using that command brings up a dialog box where you have control over the hue and saturation, with a preview. I suggest you DON'T use that menu item to colorize images. Instead use the more powerful HSL adjustments accessed with the Colors>Adjust>Hue/Saturation/Lightness... command. That way, you have complete control over the hue/saturation/lightness, and the color preview is much better than what you get with Colorize.”

To start off, get your photo ready. Begin by scanning your black and white photo into your PC. Make sure that your picture is straight and if not, use Paint Shop Pro’s Straighten tool to “uncrook” the image. Next then would be running the One Step Photo Fix by clicking the Enhance Photo button in the Photo toolbar atop the screen and choose One Step Photo Fix. Try to clean up whatever dirt or scratch that you may see in the picture.

Now, moving on to the next part. Working in layers. Choose the Layers, Duplicate tab to make a duplicate of the image you want to colorize. We can now make color changes to the top layer without affecting the original image underneath, letting us adjust the intensity of the colorization by playing with the layer's opacity.

Now for the final part, you may choose to use either the Freehand Selection toll in Smart Edge mode or you may opt to use the Magic Wand. Set Feather to about 1 pixel, and select one of the faces. Once done, click on the Flood Fill tool and set the Blend Mode to Color in the toolbar at the top of the screen. For a typical Caucasian skin tone, set the Red, Green, and Blue levels to about 215, 190, and 150, respectively, then click OK. Now click Flood Fill to colorize the selected face. You can repeat this process for all of the skin in the image.

Then select the clothing and background and add color to as much or as little as you wish. When you're done with the image, you might want to adjust the overall intensity of the colorization. To do that, make sure the Layer Palette is open (if it isn't, choose View, Palettes, Layers) and then double-click on the Copy of Background layer--this is the one on top that we've been painting. Then you can use the Opacity slider in the layer's dialog box to change the color effect. When you're satisfied, click OK to keep your changes.

Above simple instructions from Dave Johnson is very easy to follow and is very helpful for the particular purpose.

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Keeping Control of your Brochure Making
by: Maricon Williams

A printed brochure will never go passé because it is something every company needs. It is an avenue to keep customers coming. Brochures can be simple as black and white copy on a tri-fold sheet or it can be complex as text uses full color graphics and photos on a glossy paper. Convenience of brief, targeted messages to prospective customers is the benefit of brochures. Another is that customers can easily pass the information to another, therefore, it is a built-in advertisement.

Generally, there are two types of brochure. The first one is the call-to-action brochure. It is usually meant for the general public or a large group of people. The other type is the informative brochure is usually made for a specific audience.

A call-to-action brochure needs a brief history of the organization or business. This type of brochure is normally broad in scope. The aim of this is to inspire a group to either join the organization or bring their business needs to you. Informative brochure, on the other hand, is used to educate the audience about a specific function or product.

If done correctly, both types can be very effective. To do it correctly, we must bear in mind the following rules. Keeping general information will extend the shelf life of your product. If you think the dates and numbers may change in the future, then don’t include it anymore. Keep your brochure brief and striking. Bold fonts and colorful graphics catch attention, you can use it to ensure that your material will be read.

If in case there is a conflict between a piece of information and a picture which entails powerful emotion, go for the picture because it is where we base our purchasing decisions.

Play with the words and try to captivate customers through positivism because optimism sells. The focal point of advertising is the benefits that will accrue to the customers. Always stress benefits greater than features. Tell them what they’re getting from their decision.

Print enough copies so you can cover all the bases. Place them in conspicuous places – commercial buildings, offices and other establishments. Your brochure will do the talking for you so be sure that it has he necessary information like your address, phone number, website and e-mail address so that you can be easily reached. Wherever you go, always carry some copies with you. Better yet, affix a business card to your brochure so you are prepared anytime of the day.

You must be sure that all elements of brochure support its purpose – from the contents to visual elements to distribution plan, they must be anchored to your objective. With that you can be assured of a booming organization or business!

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Maricon Williams

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JPEG and GIF the differences
by: Maricon Williams

JPEG and GIF image formats are both compression based formats. They are the most widely used and supported image formats for web. They take an uncompressed image such as bitmapped image and compress them to a smaller file size. A lot smaller image size is moreover the result of this conversion. It may seem that one compression may result in smaller file sizes, nevertheless that is simply not the case. Now where lays the difference?

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. It supports 16.7 million colors. It is ideal for photographic images and high quality images. JPEG is a lossless method of compression or in common parlance, when the program that creates a GIF squashes the original image down to ensure not to lose any data. It uses an easy substitution method of compression.

GIF on the other hand, stands for Graphic Interchange Format. It supports only a maximum of 256 colors. It is the only alternative to make an image animated unless you want to use Flash. Between GIF and JPEG, only GIF allows transparency. GIF is good for images with flat expenses of color. It can be use for logos, titles, button, etc. The maximum compression of GIF depends on the amount of repetition there is in an image. A flat color can compress well to even one tenth of the original size while a complex non-competitive color will save approximately 20%.

GIF format is good at compressing images with a small number of colors with no gradations. In actual fact, most web graphics are saved in GIF by contrast when applied to JPEG, it usually results in images which are larger than their GIF counterparts and may appear corrupted.

Each image format has its own advantage. GIF may win out with the non-dithering, fewer color images while JPEG is excellent for dithered continuous tone images. An example to this is a photograph with several colors, shadows and even gradations. All these colors and shades call for the JPEG format.

JPEGs disadvantage is that it throws away parts of an image to save space. Apparently you just can’t discard any piece of information so what JPEG does is divide the image into squares. GIF is short of colors, that’s a blatant fact. Another disadvantage is that, Unisys discovered that it owned several patents to key parts of the GIF compression technology and has started demanding fees from every company which uses the GIF code. This is the reason why progress was muffled. Now that you already know the difference, you can now pick what’s good for you.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

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Finding The Balance Between Form And Function
by: Maricon Williams

Form is the arrangement of the general structure of an artwork while function is a relation such that one thing is dependent on another. For instance - height is a function of age or price is a function of supply and demand. A function is an abstract meaning which, by itself, has no intrinsic form. Form and function are independent dimensions along which the subject is defined.

Form ever follows function. This was the idea of architect Louis Henri Sullivan. It denotes that the two are intertwined and inseparable. This idea set forth by the architect can also be applied to any type of design – industrial, print, web or product.

Most designers are not aware of this fact. If truth be told, we have seen so many designs so many of them lack form or are deficient with its function. The blatant truth is that even those extravagant corporate sites are often as guilty as others. I can say that it is manifest but it is essential to know the reason why they fail in order to patch things up.

Majority of large corporate sites are packed with functionality for they are equipped with information. The problem though is the lack of pleasant form. On the other hand, small personal sites are often flashy – there are biographies, galleries, portfolios and stories but they lack functionality. These kinds of sites care less about marketability since they mostly do not market.

The general rule is that there will be no form without function and there will be no function without form. The key is equilibrium. The solid balance between form and function is a catalyst to achieve the envisioned idea of excellence. Function must be known first before a form can be developed.

To discover the function is not that easy. Many of the sites still lacks purpose and functionality. Understand your market, know your products and services and how you will carry out your endeavor, by that you can formulate your set of functions.

To formulate a form, try to feel the site, consider its functions, organization, expectators and its structure by then you can create its accurate form. What color will complement the site? Does it need lots of graphics or texts? Is smooth navigation accessible? To know the answer to this queries will give you the idea of what kind of form is needed.

Balance is too hard to capture and seize however, the web is still so young to encourage trials and explorations. No matter how hard it will take us but we should get balance to achieve our ultimate goal.

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Maricon Williams

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Review: 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs
by: articles@ucreative.com

All graphic and print designers, professional or amateur, need a spot of inspiration now and then to let out the more innovative and creative ideas. Just imagine a world where graphic and print designers come up with monotonous and boring creations that’s terribly lacking in entertainment and flares of excitement.

There are certain details in graphic and print designing that contribute greatly for a designer to come up with sensational masterpieces. In fact, too often, the small and delightful details are what make a design piece shine. Even in practical everyday life, let’s say a unique button on a white shirt gives the shirt an entirely new look or a piece of artwork in a sparse wall makes the wall less dull. These examples only show that minuscule details add in making the whole effect of something, perfect. This concept is very much applicable in the field of graphic and print design.

This was the concept Wilson Harvey wants to emphasize in his book, 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs. In this book, Harvey explores 1,000 of these added extras, details that are diminutive but important, made available for graphic and print designers. We are saying “made available” because the book has exacting photography that focuses on these details, accompanied by credits and outlining the vendors and materials used. The content of the book is organized by type. Looking for unusual bindings? Well, dig into the bindings section of 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs and open your mind for a wide collection of fresh ideas.

Designers handling all kinds of projects – books to brochures, invitations to menus, CDs to annual reports will have interesting reference from this book. Actually, it even invites them to literally shop for ideas. If you’re a print designer, you would be familiar with many techniques, but this book makes you see interesting variations of what you know and see them used on a myriad of different projects.

Wilson Harvey, a London-based integrated designer in a marketing agency that focuses on producing high-end communication for a wide range of clients, showed refreshing and contemporary work in this book. It goes without saying since Harvey has already designed more than 500 books for a variety of publisher, his experience outshone some other design books which drag out old projects.

Other topics covered include fasteners, graphics, unique materials, embossing, debossing, specialty inks, type treatments, interesting color usage, add-ons, die cuts and more. The index lists stock and materials used for each project are also very good. To sum it up, if you are a designer who loves print/finishes – unusual finishes, at that, then this book is for you.

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Basics of Scanning
by: Carla Ballatan

Are you getting exasperated with all the stacks of negatives and prints warping into unruly shapes and colors that’s been holding your desk drawer hostage but haven’t got the heart to deposit them into the dark recesses of your attic/basement?

Fret no more! By scanning your pictures, you will be given an opportunity to edit and organize your pictures. Once your images are digitized, you can export it into Photoshop to make adjustments. Also, by having your prints or negatives get digitized, you get to archive, e-mail, fax, save them to a CD or even publish them on a website. You may even get to build a photo gallery and let your whole family and friends access them.

Scanning technology has come a long way since being introduced. With only about US$150, you can already have a fine scanner with all the software you need. Of course if you fancy a scanner that handles slides and negatives, you’ll invest a little bit more than this amount.

Before rushing out to buy a scanner, do some research on the gadget, first, like figuring out the features you need and how much you want to spend. Then, know the scanner jargons that describe it’s factors and features. There are two crucial measurements when it comes to scanners – bit or color depth refers to the number of bits of image data the scanner will use for each pixel, and resolution/DPI, which tells you how many spots of information there are in a given area.

You have to consider other features, too. Like the scanner’s speed, ability to scan negatives/slides, software bundles to manage the scanning process, interface between your computer and scanner, and scanner size.

So, now, if you have your scanner already, it’s best to start with a low resolution setting and work your way up from there. The default resolution of 150 DPI might not be a bad place to start. Then, the next important setting is the “output type” which describes what type of image you’re scanning. Save space and time by cropping the pictures before scanning them and closing some other applications on your computers. If you’re having trouble with the scanning software, consult the manual.

To top all scanning basics lessons, remember that scanning is a two-part process. The first part is setting of the resolution and output and making the scan, and the second is saving and editing the file. Saving is an important process and it’s a good option to save your files in BMP or TIFF, especially if you plan to import them into Photoshop for adjustments. Try keeping images bound for website under 40 KB. And for images that you want to print out, save them as TIFF uncompressed or BMP and use a high DPI setting (300 and up) when scanning them.

Have fun editing your image once you’ve scanned them…Remember, if you foul up, you can still start the whole scanning process – as long as you have your scanner handy!

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Flash MX Invades The Internet
by: Maricon Williams

A large factor that contributed to the rich multimedia nature of the Internet is the Flash MX. It allows website designers add and flaunt their designs. Instead of the plain coding of the HTML, Flash allows a person to add colorful animation and brief interactive movie clips.

If you have the media player built into Flash, you can download the latest version free. It means that you will no longer need extra players like RealNetwork’s RealPlayer or Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.

Flash dominates the space. It has already become the standard for the rich user interface. In fact, big companies are users of Flash MX. To name a few, they are Sony, IBM, sound-system maker Bose and several hotel groups. Flash MX was also used to make the website for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. It was also used in an IBM demo specifying the use of its WebSphere software. It swiftly shows just how easy Flash explains online. Sony Classical, on the other hand, used the same program for a rich, multimedia teaser about its artists.

Flash MX has truly gone too far and Macromedia is still aiming higher. It has recently announced that Flash MX would also be available for Nokia 9200 series. It will be one of the first in a range of powerful cell phones. Flash MX also has the ability to create media using a clever set of templates for the Microsoft-powered Pocket PC handhelds. These major devices can create a major turn in growth of modern technology. In addition, it is not only user-friendly but the compression of video and sound into a Flash can lead to non-exhaustive download. Thus, it can be saved into a smaller format and more compact attachments.

Flash MX is a hallmark of a user-friendly construction of Another Macromedia product which is the Dreamweaver. The latter is a WYSIWYG design program which eventually set a standard in a field that includes Microsoft’s FrontPage. These kinds of programs allow you to design a web page but it’s as easy as using Word or Quark. It allows you to change fonts, their sizes and the likes. It does the entire HTML coding in the background. Macromedia is also working on designs for more server-based applications that will run on its ColdFusion and JRun server technologies.

With just a quick download of a Flash file, you can now enjoy music and videos and even order the CD online. The site actually is bombarded with massive hike in unique users who are purchasing more music online. It’s like holding in your hand all your needs and wants.

Flash MX interface is clearly superior and sophisticated. You can do e-commerce and gaming applications online at the same time. That’s what change is all about. Flash MX has changed not only the users experience but that of designers as well.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

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Healing Brush and Patch On The Spotlight
by: Blur Loterina

Want a better way to edit your image? Photoshop offers you better tools you can use to remove flaws on your image.

Images are not that perfect, but the graphics world does not have a room for imperfections. So, computer graphics programs have tried and are still trying to create special tools that will help users in editing their work.

Image imperfections refer to flaws, such as blemishes, scratches and other unwanted spots. These are the things that you would not want your image to have. You would probably resort to editing tools.

One of the most widely used tools to fix such problem is the Clone tool. Clone tool takes the pixel of the sample area onto the part or flaw that you are correcting. Sample area, by the way, refers to that part that you want to replace the flaw with. For example, you want to correct your own photograph because it has dark spots on the right cheek. You can use the other cheek as a sample area. It’s like copying the left cheek and pasting it on the right cheek to cover the spots. Clone tool, however, has a drawback. Clone area is easy to spot because, sometimes, the color of the sample area and the area around the flaw does not match. This can also happen even if they have the same texture.

There is a tool that deals with this kind of problem, Photoshop’s Healing Brush. This tool is a lot better because it does not only drop the pixel of the sample area to the flaw; it also uses the texture of the sample area and applies its tonal characteristic around the flaw. The tool identifies the flaw, the area near the flaw and the sample area. To access this tool, you can either select the icon that looks like a bandage from the Toolbar palette or press the J on the keyboard. In getting the sample, hold down Alt and click on the area. To paint over the flaw, simply click and drag the sample.

Patch tool is just like the Healing Brush. It uses the same technique, but is simpler. It is designed to remove large flaws. If you want to use this, the first thing you have to do is to select a flaw area. Then, click and drag that area over to the sample area. When you let go, the texture of the flaw area will be replaced by the texture of the sample area.

The Patch tool has two sets of options, the Patch tool Option and the pattern option. The patch tool option includes source that determines the behavior of the tool, and the destination, which reverses the behavior of the tool. The second option enables you to use a pattern to fill an area. It works on the tone and hue.

Photoshop’s Healing Brush and Patch tools allow you to make images close to perfect.

About The Author

Blur Loterina

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Silhouettes Creation Using Adobe Photoshop
by: Blur Loterina

Do you want your image to have that commercial look? If you want to learn how to make a stunning background like what you always see on posters, follow these simple steps.

When you read a magazine, try to focus on the ad pages. Can you see cigarette ad with valleys and lakes for a background? Or a waterfall that was set behind a bar of soap? These images are called silhouetted images. When you say silhouette, it means that an image does not have a background of its own. It uses either text or other images as its environment. But before you can make this kind of image in Photoshop, you will have to create a Clipping Path first.

The first step is to put your image before a white background. You can do this by cutting an image from one document and pasting it to another document with a white background and make the necessary modifications. But, it is much better if you photograph your desired image and put a plain white paper or something for a background. Then, you can add text to serve as its background.

That was easy. But what if you are required to use another image as a background? This can be solved by the Clipping Path. How do we use this?

From the Selection icon located at the bottom of the Path palette, click the Make Work Path. This converts any selected area in the image into a path. You can use the other selection tools to select an image. To select the white areas of the background, use the Magic Wand Tool.

From the Select menu, choose Inverse to select the opposite areas. When you click on the Selection icon at the bottom of the Path palette, the selected image will be made into a path. Use the Pen tool to adjust your image.

Now, you will have to set your path to Clipping Path. To do so, from the path palette submenu, choose the Clipping Path. A dialog box will open. This allows you to choose which path to use as a Clipping Path. Now you can save the file in EPS or TIFF file format. This will mask your bitmap image when placed into page layout drawing programs or drawing software. Through this, any bitmap image will have high quality and will be resolution-independent.

About The Author

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Choosing The Right Paper For Printing Jobs
by: Maricon Williams

Choosing the right paper for a printing job is a very complicated undertaking. It should not be that way though. You have overwhelming options. All you have to do is to be specific. Paper influences all the aspects of a print project, together with overall perception, reproduction quality, durability and mailing cost. Choose defectively, and you can spoil an otherwise great project.

To be specific is to consider a lot of aspects. First the surface of the paper because it affects its look, feel and printability. It matters because people are influenced by the appearance of the paper, it’s that simple.

Second aspect is the paper color. Color is the most important characteristic since it controls the hues and shades of the ink. At present, white is the most popular color and is generally optimal for conventional uses. Off-white paper produces fewer glares. It is usually used in publications such as novels and manuals.

Brightness is another aspect that needs to be considered. It measures the percentage of light that it reflects. Most papers reflect 60-90% of incoming light. It is important because it affects readability. High level of brightness can cause eye strain. Conversely, low brightness can cause blurring effect.

The fourth aspect is opacity. It is the degree to which other printing is visible through the page. High level of opacity minimizes the visibility of printing on succeeding pages, as a result, it enhances readability. Opacity is influenced by the other factors such as bulk and weight of paper, paper color, ink color, coatings, chemicals and coverage.

Grain, on the other hand, describes the direction or alignment of its component fibers. It is either grain short or grain long. When fibers run parallel to the width it is grain short. Grain direction determination is critical to paper strength, flexibility, tack and versatility.

The basis of weight of paper is premeditated in pound of one ream or five hundred sheets. Paper is sold by pound and understanding paper weight is essential to a triumphant cost control programs.

Caliper means thickness. It is measured in thousandths of an inch and referred to as point size (.001 inch = 1 point).

The eighth aspect is the bulk. It denotes thickness relative to its basis weight. Uncalendared paper will have a higher bulk than gloss coated paper. Keep in mind though, that paper may be bulkier or thicker than another grade but may still have the same basis weight.

The size of the paper depicts its physical dimensions. Ask your supplier for specific information concerning the range of paper sizes to ensure proficient usage.

The tenth aspect is the paper quantity. It refers to the number of sheets. A ream is equivalent to 500 sheets. Cartons of paper are typically weighing 150 pounds.

In purchasing paper, work side by side with the supplier. Paper suppliers can help you in picking the best paper in terms of possible weight, texture, tear strength and color for the printing surface. Always discuss your paper needs with your paper supplier and your printer at the earliest possible opportunity.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

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Review: Corel Paint IX
by: Maricon Williams

It has been said that Corel Painter IX is the world’s most powerful Natural-Media painting and illustration software. Corel allows commercial designers, photographers and professional artists to hone their talents and techniques in creating their masterpiece. Corel Painter IX is an extremely stylish painting and illustration application which is designed to seize the complex distinction of traditional art tools while manipulating the implausible power of digital media. It is an essential tool for film making, illustration, photography, fine arts, commercial design and game development.

Corel Painter IX features an improved performance and productivity. It is the fastest version of Corel ever made. It performs ten times faster and brushes work twice as fast. It also features a new welcome screen, enhanced brush control palettes and new frames per second control. By this addition, animators can now test frame rates directly in Corel Painter. Another addition is the new customizable shortcut keys which offer unprecedented level of control over the workflow by enabling complete customization of shortcut keys.

With Corel Painter IX, a milestone in the evolution of digital art has taken place. New artist’s oil painting system can be blended, mixed and made ‘organic’ thus, it blow away preceding misconceptions of a possible digital realm. The new snap-to-path-painting is a time-saver feature where users can paint or draw perfect curve or shape. With it, brush strokes along a vector path or shape is no longer impossible. In Corel Painter IX Digital Watercolor has been significantly improved. It becomes more realistically than ever before. For photographers, the new quick clone enables them to easily transform a photo into painting.

Pre-ordering of Corel Painter IX is available through Corel and selected partners. A free trial version is also available for download. The suggested retail pricing of Corel Painter IX is $429 (US) for full, $229 (US) for upgrade and $99 (US) for the education edition. You can visit www.corel.com/comingsoon for more information.

Giving opportunity to beautify photos and painting regardless of the medium is its specialty. Painters are now throwing away the digital curse because they can now sensitively emulate paint, stroke, brush, texture and atmosphere. Some of the satisfied users say that they simply could not have produced a great artwork, reminiscent of the original movie for a production without Corel Painter IX.

There is really no substitute for Corel Painter. It has remarkable power and striking versatility. It sets a standard for performance to redefine the digital art and mastery. No doubt about it – Corel Painter IX has taken digital art to the next level!

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

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Book Review: The Elements Of Graphic Design
by: Maricon Williams

Graphic design is a very broad field and to master it is a very challenging escapade. We can have a good grasp of graphic design by understanding the basic elements and principles which make effective design and page layout.

Graphic design is a course of combining texts and graphics in order to develop an interactive work of art. Designers achieve their purpose by utilizing the elements and principles of graphic design. In today’s world, graphic design has a greater percentage of influencing us. Everywhere we go, anywhere we look, there are graphic design materials – from posters, signs, newsletters, billboards - practically everywhere.

I guess everybody longs to be a creator of a masterpiece. Sounds difficult, but actually it’s not. Even those who have no formal graphic design training can improve their page layout and text compositions through enhancing their concepts of design basics and modern desktop publishing. Though individual lessons can be taken, I strongly recommend the book Elements of Graphic Design authored by Alexander White.

Alexander White is an expert in graphic design. He has shaped the visual design of nineteen magazines and twenty identity programs. White was also a consultant to numerous publications, art directors and editors. He was formerly a teacher in design at the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford. He has taught there for about fifteen years. He has also lectured on typography and design to professionals in corporations and at conferences. He is currently residing in New York City.

White’s The Elements of Graphic Design Space, Unity, Page Architecture and Type is an approach page design in an avant-garde way. In contrast to other graphic design books, this book reveals the secrets of successful graphic design from the perspective of the “white space”. The book sheds light on art, design and architecture and how they are to be associated with the design elements. It also demonstrates how white space can give sound typography or shift the burden of a page. Comments are also presented by White to ensure interactive designs, thought-provoking captions and scores of illustrations to challenge designers to ”think out of the box” and not be limited by what is presented.

The book also describes the five elements of design – lines, shapes, mass, texture and color. It gives instances on how to balance the elements and create unity or proximity. Other important principles are alignment, repetition or consistency, contrast and “white space” or the art of nothing. Grab a copy now to experience the things that amused designer’s fancy.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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Photoshop and Illustrator - How Good Does It Get?
by: Maricon Williams

Which is the better program – Photoshop or Illustrator? Many of us are still entertaining hazy notions about the two programs. It is high time to distinguish the two - which is which really?

To boot, Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap image processing and manipulation program. It is well matched with creating, transforming and outputting digital images of a photographic nature which share common pixels in a bitmap. Its primary operations include access or acquisition of photographic digital graphics; alter, transform, modify, and colorize pixels in the images; produce digital files and prepare complicated color or black and white images for further processing. Photoshop manipulates individual color pixels within a fixed bitmap. A less costly version of Photoshop is Photoshop Elements (PSE). It can do 90% of what Photoshop does without the higher-end pre-press printing capabilities.

Adobe Illustrator, on the other hand, is a vector-based postscript drawing program which creates curved paths called Bezier curves connected by modifiable anchor points. Through these anchors, the file is eventually editable since they do not leave the file. Vector based drawing program create various elements of the image as individual vector objects which retain their characteristics and do not become a piece of a bitmap. Illustrator can do many things just like Photoshop. It can do everything that a graphic designer wants to be done except manipulate photos.

Both Photoshop and Illustrator have capabilities of the other. Photoshop creates vector objects like shapes and topography. Conversely, once they are rasterized, they become part of the bitmap. Illustrator offers a magnificent array of artistry like colorizing, painting and brushing however, what are created are vector objects and not bitmaps. Thus, it can tend to be confusing.

Even the graphic masters prefer to acquire both Photoshop and Illustrator because of their distinctive capabilities that complement each other. If you are to modify, acquire, print or arrange the web images of a photographic nature, you can have the PS or PSE program. If you are to create complicated graphics like logos, schematics, maps, brochures, menus and the likes especially with typography then you should use Illustrator.

Both of them have lots of features that we can tend to be indecisive for a point in time to choose which one to get. Truly, they are both great! The only thing you should be aware of is to ask yourself what projects and activities you want to make?, what software suit them best? And then off you can go and enjoy your creativity and craftsmanship…

About The Author

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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Using Photoshop and Illustrator
by: Jelaine Macaraig

Unless you have tons of money to burn, every consumer wants to be as smart as possible when buying their goods. We want value for our money. If there’s a cheaper alternative that can deliver the same results, of course we would rather have that!

Same thing goes with graphic designers and professional photographers who use digital imaging applications. One particular issue that has been quite a favorite in various debates and discussions is the one that involves Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. When I first heard about it, I was a little surprised. I mean, both products are from Adobe, who takes pride in being the world-leader in digital imaging, design, and document technology platforms for various consumer segments, so what’s the big deal?

As it turns out, the debate is coming from people’s notion that Adobe Illustrator is the cheaper Photoshop and because they can pretty much do what the other does, they can be used as a replacement for each other.

The truth is, the Photoshop-Illustrator comparison is another case of comparing apples with oranges. Here we actually have two different programs having similar but not exactly the same functions.

Photoshop is for manipulating individual color pixels within a fixed bitmap. So if you need to create, modify and produce digital files, which are “photographic” in nature where the whole image is part of a "fixed" pixel structure, or a bitmap, or if you need to prepare complicated color or black and white images for further processing in page layout programs for high resolution printing, Photoshop will work for you.

On the other hand, Illustrator is a vector-based postscript drawing program, which functions by generating curved paths (Bezier curves) connected by modifiable anchor points. These anchors, are ultimately editable using their handles, and never leave the structure of the file. A vector-based drawing program creates the various elements of the image as individual vector objects which retain their characteristics but they do not become part of a "bitmap." Illustrator is thus ideal to use with complicated graphics like maps, logos, or even publications for print like ads, brochures and others.

Because of these differences and unique capabilities, graphic design professionals and higher-end hobbyists actually own BOTH programs. Again, the bottomline is choosing the right application for your project instead of thinking which one is better than the other as they’re both good in what they do.

As for the issue on pricing, well, a less expensive version of Photoshop is Photoshop Elements. It does about 90% of what Photoshop can do, minus the higher-end pre-press printing capabilities.

About The Author

Versatile and hardworking. Two words that clearly describes Gem's work attitude. She can just write and talk about everything. Her green thumb for writing can turn seeds of ideas into excellent writing pieces She loves to read books especial novels that are set back into the Medieval Period.

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Print Shop Deluxe Empowering Users To Do Publishing
by: Granny's Mettle

Professional and business-looking cards have become so tedious that I have been trying to get other programs to help me create cards and albums without feeling that it's a lot of work for me.

Broderbund's "The Print Shop" has been doing that for its clients, particularly users who need a quick, easy and affordable way to do basic publishing activities.

Now comes another version of the popular Print Shop program that lets you design or adapt over 11,000 templates of everything--- from greeting cards and photo albums, to signs, banners, and even calendars.

The Print Shop Deluxe 12.0 is for kids, as well as for those kids-at-heart, who love the idea of churning out fun projects. Aside from turning regular banners and greeting cards into great works that ensures attraction, the newest edition of the 16-year-old printing and desktop publishing program includes a photo editor and tools that can help users produce simple paper products from menus to other marketing products. It also has easy-to-use interface, and a great online support.

Print Shop 12.0 is easy to use, never mind that the program has six CDs of clip art. One review even stated that you might need to find enough drive space for the whole "monster program". The review even said that even if one should stick with the minimum installation option, the program still needs 670MB of drive space. On the other hand, if one should decide to just keep the extra clip art CDs handy, swapping them every time you need an image may be a time-consuming alternative.

But as I've said earlier, never mind the number of CDs. The huge collection of clip art and images will blow your mind. With more than 134,000 images and 11,000 layout templates, you'll have more than enough for the next decade of publishing, I think.

With its easy-to-use interface, the program is definitely simple and functional. Print Shop 12.0 has menus with scores of commands and toolbars easy enough to manipulate. One artist even boasts of its large open space in the center of all those icons and toolbars-- the better to design your work.

The program also boasts of 5,000 more templates than the previous version. Just choose a template from one of the many categories, do the easy instructions, then customize the text and art and your on your way to creating your very own greeting card, or banner, or whatever marketing material you need at the moment.

The new Color Set Creator also helps users change the Color Set on the background. With just one click, users can try different colors for their project.

With a user-friendly manual, even a kid can handle its features. The program's help file is complete and clear.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

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The Do's of Banner Designing
by: Granny's Mettle

Banners are effective media materials that can make or break a company's ad campaign. For web sites, along with the corporate logo, the banner speaks of your message and what you want to achieve for your corporate image and identity.

To help you with your banner design, we have compiled the following tips and suggestions that have made other web sites effective in terms of the amount of visitors and sales.

The Do's of Designing Your Banner

DO use animation. Especially animation that is quick to download. Animations do attract the attention of your target audience, but it should not take much time to download or else your visitors would just click on to another site.

But remember to provide animation in the minimum. Too much would not attract but irritate your visitors. It will also overwhelm your page.

Grantastic Designs have provided the following general guidelines for animated banners:

* The animation should be subtle enough to attract attention but should not be so ostentatious as to interfere or clash with the design of the web page you are advertising on.

* An animation that loops endlessly tends to irritate visitors. Have the animation loop 7-10 times, leaving the main message on the last animation frame.

* Conversely, some visitors will stop a web page from loading before the banner animation has loaded, leaving only the first frame. Thus, it might be a good idea to have your message come across in your first frame if you know that the web page you are advertising on has a long download time.

DO provide features that call for some action. Images that ask visitors to "click" or "submit" on your banner can improve significantly the rate of visitors clicking on your web page. Visitors are attracted to click on icons especially if you offer them something in return.

DO provide "FREE" in your banner. Human nature provides for attraction of anything that is offered "FREE". Depending on what is being offered, the word "FREE" can increase the rate of visitors clicking on your web site. Web sites usually offer free demonstrations of new software. This often gets good response from the target audience. Offering free money though produces suspicion among the browsers since people tend to question what the catch is.

DO use bright colors. Statistics show that the colors yellow, green, and blue in banners produce a higher rate of visitors, compared to those in black-and-white. Also, red should also be used sparingly, as it suggests aggressiveness that seems to repel many of the browsers.

DO provide a benefit for clicking on your banner. When you have questions in your banner, be sure to provide the answer on your web site. Make sure that the benefit you provide is found in your web site. Or else, your visitors will never go to your web site the second time. It's so hard to make a good impression; but it takes only seconds to have a wrong perception of your company.

DO keep your message short and concise. Simple banners get more attention than wordy and unfocused ones. There's no need to give a lengthy description of your web site. Any information that your visitors would want to know they will be able to get from the pages of your web site.

DO link your banner to a particular page. Visitors should be able to go directly to the appropriate page for the information they want. When they click on your banner, make sure that they don't have to go to your home page and hunt for the information. You will lose visitors as fast as you can say banner.

We hope that we have helped you make your banners more effective and efficient in providing you with a tool to achieve success.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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Fusing Traditional and Technical Illustrations
by: Granny's Mettle

The following is an excerpt from the tips and techniques provided by a designer using Photoshop 4. He based his techniques from a current project of creating illustrations for a story of a mythical city in a magazine.

According to the designer, what is exciting about using computers is that artists and designers like him are now able to fuse present technology with traditional art. They are able to do the things that used to be done in traditional art, but much faster and less waste with the onset of digital technology. This is due to the fact that designers are able to change and edit illustrations and ideas even if it's already at the final stage of the project. Even with the changes, the result of the project rarely differs from the original thrust and objective.

Stage 1: Sketch and Digitization

Sketching and digitization are almost the same in both traditional art and digital technology. In traditional art, an artist usually starts by making a sketch on paper. With Photoshop's graphic palette, it nearly replicates the same feeling. Nevertheless, the designer is quick to add that shaping a drawing on paper is still faster and more intuitive than doing it on the computer. Although he also admits that even if basic drawing is done on paper, computer techniques can produce interesting effects such as halftones that are otherwise not available with drawing pencils.

Stage 2: Preparing the Layers

After importing the sketch into Photoshop, the image should be converted to sepia tones before working on the color. To convert to sepia, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, check the Colorize box, and use the sliders to colorize the lines into brown, reddish ochre, or yellow. This method provides a silkiness feel to the line. In sepia, the lines of the sketch yield halftones that are more delicate, resulting to an image that is easier to view but retain its basic structure.

The designer suggests adding colors that do not compete with the lines in the drawing. This may weaken lines from the original sketch. At the same time, the sketch should not also overpower the colors. In effect, designers should blend the two elements to find the right balance.

On the choice of sepia, designers should look at the technical rather than the aesthetic considerations. Brown tones result from a mixing of all the colors, so when the picture is colored, the paint colors will blend more easily with the lines. However, using sepia is not an absolute rule, although it does provide softness in the drawing while preserving its descriptive character.

After turning it to sepia, create two new layers. From the layers palette, set the background layer in Multiply mode, and insert it between two virgin layers. The designer suggest putting colors on what he calls the 'under layer', beneath the sepia line drawing layer, and adding detail and finish to the 'over layer'.

Stage 3: The Under Layers

Choose a dominant color where all the secondary effects can relate to without losing the basic contrast. The purpose of this is to avoid getting lost in the details, especially when the designer is working on a picture with so many characters and elaborate scenery.

Look at the masses of color in the drawing. Apply the darkest tone on the entire surface with the Paint Bucket tool. Afterwhich, designers can immediately add an overall grain to the under layer by going to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. This tool, according to the designer, produces a kind of visual vibration that gives the image more surface texture.

However, noise can produce conflict with the drawing, making it harder to view. As remedy, the designer suggests going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to soften the noise to about 1.0 pixels. This process makes the drawing immediately reappear. He further adds that this process also allows designers to play with some grain as they build the illustration.

The next level would be to generate a mass of colors by going from the biggest to the smallest objects. Material under the sepia layer can be set on several layers and adjusted separately. The designer reminds others to always work underneath the drawing as they refine and edit details.

The masses of color are laid down with extremely simple brushes. As with a large-format oil painting, designers also should place the colors the same way. Movements must be broad and dynamic when working on an enormous surface. Just like in a painting, designers could also synthesize and blend the masses of colors with a computer. Just provide enough definition for the broad strokes.

Stage 4: The Over Layer

The over layer is the part where you can adjust, correct, and refine the lines of the drawing. When it's super-imposed on the under layers, the density of the lines can be pasty and hard to read. This is the time to lay down the lightest colors, letting the highlights spill over some of the lines of the drawing. According to the designer, this will help smooth out the shapes.

When the drawing is complete and has been colored, this is where designers can soften or eliminate the lines that they think are too heavy or repeat colored shapes. At this final stage, the effects are usually made manually. They often come from pen strokes on the pad.

With these stages, the designer hopes to achieve a harmonious combination of the traditional process and the present technology. Great artwork can be achieved with a successful fusion of the two worlds.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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How To Create Your Logo (Part 1)
by: Granny's Mettle

For a businessman, image is everything. Big companies invest a lot to have an attractive, dynamic, eye-catching image to brand their identity. These eye-catching visuals are commonly known as logos.

A logo is a name, symbol or trademark of a company or organization, made up of text or symbols arranged to convey a distinct and unique message. It leaves a greater and lengthier impact than words alone that's why it is the simplest and most direct way of promoting one's business. On the web, a well-defined and thought-of logo decides whether your site is worth browsing. It is literally the first piece of graphics that visitors see, that's why it is important to make that moment count.

Text or Symbol Logos

There are two types of logos: the text logos and symbol logos.

A text logo is made up of words and type fonts. Type fonts usually come in all shapes and sizes. Different strokes make impressions to different folks. A thick font may convey strength and power; while a script font can say that you’re a person of elegance and austerity. On the other hand, a slanted typeface expresses movement and motion.

Hence, your very own company name may be created as a company logo. Provide a type font that displays your intended qualities and your all set.

A symbol logo uses an image or illustration to convey an actual or abstract representation of your business. It is less direct than text. However, because of its ambiguity, symbols often leave an open space for a wider and much different interpretation of what the business is about. Symbol logos may either take on a company name, or create an entirely new symbolic meaning.

A classic example is Nike's "swoosh" logo. People did not originally associate it with the company. But because of its corporate rise and ubiquitous presence, people have grown to associate the "swoosh" to Nike. McDonald's golden arches have also developed its own identity.

Another option is to combine text and symbols to create your company logo. It could be a brief amount of text, or sometimes an abbreviation. Just remember to make the two elements compliment each other and provide the extra clarity to what your company wants to get across its target audience.

The Color of Your Logo

Color also has a lot of impact to the overall appearance of your logo. Colors can help you make a positive image or convey a wrong perception. They do influence your audience, and before a visitor would ever read your content, color would be the primary element that would attract him/her to your logo.

There are many choices to consider when deciding on the corporate logo that best exemplifies your image. However, you should also bear in mind that your logo is not only for you but also for your target audience. How your audience will perceive your logo is more important.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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How To Create Your Logo (Part 2)
by: Granny's Mett;e

When deciding the logo that best describe your company and business, there are many choices to consider. Whether you choose to use text or symbols, or both, it's how your audience react to your logo that is important.

Here are a few suggestions on how you could make your logo work for you:

• The logo should be compatible with your image. Your logo should be compatible to the image you want to project. If your business is in the financial or legal industry, you will probably want a logo that is conservative in design and color. Maroon, dark teal and navy blue are popular color selections for projecting a conservative image.

On the other hand, if you are an artist, or connected with a high-tech computer company, you may opt for a logo that speaks of a more abstract and contemporary element. Different shapes and symbols are good choices for an abstract look. Using black and white for colors also provide a contemporary look and feel to your design.

• The logo should be simple and straightforward. Your logo should be straightforward to avoid confusion in your message. It should be simple because people often process an image in their mind more readily than words alone.

Another reason for your logo to be simple is that you would have an easier time later to resize and recolor it for various design purposes. The simpler your logo, the easier it is for you to re-structure. Keep various sizes of your logo, a web version and a print version. Even a black-and-white version. Always plan ahead. You may never know when or where your business will expand in the future.

• The logo should be unique and easily recognized. Your company needs a unique logo because: (1) it is a visual representation of your company and business; and (2) to avoid violating any copyrights or trademarks.

Your logo is a visual representation of your company so whoever sees it will be able to associate its design with you and no one else. Hence, to avoid being confused with your competitor or being branded as unimaginative, use an image or typeface that is not too common. Avoid using a piece of clipart that you know can also be used by other people. Invent and innovate. That's the only way for you to stand out.

You would also want to have a unique logo to avoid violating any copyrights or trademarks of other companies. If you happen to have an almost similar logo to another company, it is best to modify or redesign the whole logo. It goes without saying that a stitch in time saves nine. What it would cost you now would be very small compared to what you will be paying for damages and expenses when you wind up in court later for violating copyright laws.

It is also in your best interest to have a simple and unique logo so that visitors will easily remember your logo. If people will frequently visit your web site, chances are people will associate your logo with your company.

When done properly, a company's logo will go a long way to make a brand name for you that stand out from the rest.

About The Author

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

artilces@ucreative.com

Creating Painted Effects with illustrator 7.0
by: Carla Ballatan

Newer versions of the software program Illustrator gave us useful features to dig in. Still, no matter how happy we are about the new features, time after time, in the process of making our designs more creative and innovative, we turn on old tricks of the program. Creating painted effects using Illustrator is an old trick. Now and again, you’ll find this trick useful.

So, we give you some tips and directions on creating your very own painted image with Illustrator. If some of you have newer or older versions than the Illustrator version 7.0, you might find that some paths in the directions here have been slightly altered. So here we go…

First, type out a letter of your choice, let’s say a letter E, and create some polygon shapes to fit behind it. Try out small squares for the letter E and make sure the shapes would fit behind the letter. To send out the four squares at the back of the letter E, select the squares with your “black arrow” selection tool and click OBJECT-ARRANGE-SEND TO BACK and voila! You have now four boxes behind your letter E.

Then, select the letter E and create outlines for it by clicking TYPE-CREATE OUTLINES. To change the shapes into compound paths, Select CTRL-A and then OBJECT-PATHFINDER-DIVIDE. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The CTRL Z command will take you back to every step you took.

Now, it’s time to select parts of your shape, change its colors and pull the individual shapes apart from one another. You can do all of this by using direct-selection tool. After pulling the shapes apart, rotate some slightly by selecting your rotate tool. After doing that, add some effects that would make the shape’s paths slightly roughened. Choose FILTER-DISTORT-ROUGHEN to create this effect.

Not satisfied, yet? Use your TWIRL tool and twirl the shapes around. Ooops…no twirl tool on your old Illustrator version? Try using FILTER, then. Twirl the shapes around as much to your satisfaction, but make sure it’s still recognizable and readable especially if you’re using text. Want to see the shapes without the selected paths? Hit CTRL H and be gone with the blue select marks, though the paths are still selected. To make the blue select marks reappear, hit CTRL H again!

Finally, use OBJECT-PATHFINDER-SOFT- with a value of 100%, to blend the colors and give you the painterly effect. It’s best to select an appropriate color format, aside from the default CMYK. You may see a rasterized image by selecting OBJECT-RASTERIZE.

A word of caution, though, go back one step by hitting CTRL Z since once you saved the image rasterized and closed, you won’t be able to edit it anymore. You can also copy/paste your creation into a new document inside the Photoshop and if you need to print from Illustrator for spot colors, select Split Along Path option in the Document Set Up, first. Keep on painting!

About The Author

Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

articles@ucreative.com

3D - The most versatile tool for Macromedia Flash
by: Maricon Williams

Macromedia Flash Swift 3D is an innovatory extension for Flash MX. Swift 3D instantly converts text and artwork into spectacular 3D animations without leaving the Flash interface.

Swift 3D combines user friendly interface, industry standard vector exporter and a full ray tracing rendering engine. It can export to both raster and vector file formats as well as Macromedia Flash (SWF), AI, EPS, JPEG, BMP and others. Neophytes as well as veterans in the field of 3D animation can quickly adjust to this newly discovered craze for creators. They can use pre-built animations, lighting schemes and materials to create a high quality 3D animation to their satisfaction.

The versatility of this tool is brought about by the 13 different styles of the highest quality vector output, vector-based movie clips for smallest file sizes, raster-based movie clips for photo-realistic quality, extensive control over object bevels, sizing and rotation, pre-built materials from the gallery, and a lot more.

3D Vector Realism turns your graphics into pragmatic models with the use of complex shadows, transparency, advanced highlights and reflections into your 3D vector objects. Photorealistic raster output with vectors, on the other hand, tags your 3D Flash work to another rank by introducing raster graphics. To create a life-like depiction, apply bitmap textures to your vector models. You can use your 3D models not only for Flash but with Photoshop, Fireworks and other graphic programs as well. Your model can also be exported to JPEG or on any format that your graphics program will import to have a 3D canvas to explore.

Another vital thing about Swift 3D is that it painlessly upgrade path to a full 3D application. Its SmartLayer Technology automatically separates the exported models into different layers for transparency, reflections, color, shadows, and highlights.

Swift 3D satisfies the creator’s most common 3D needs. In fact, expertise on 3D software is not necessary. It is easy to use and has a wide selection to cater to every creator’s needs. This is about high time for us to create the highest quality output ever available.

Ever since Swift 3D was released more and more satisfied users are giving their feedbacks. Some are using it to design simple flyers, backgrounds up to the most complicated animations and artworks. The possibilities are endless. Try it to experience the enigmatic difference!

Once you’ve tried it you’ll most likely agree with me that it is the ultimate tool for publishing your 3D creations.

About The Author

Maricon Williams
Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

artciles@ucreative.com

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