a quarterly online publication from
           
                                                
Vol. 3 No. 2, April 2006
http://www.kauaidesign.com

I.      PDF Format
II.      Adding Images to Your Email
III.     Keep it Simple: One Focal Point
IV.    Vector and Bitmap Images
V.     Calling All Questions
VI.    Back Issues
VII.    Do You Want to Receive The Graphics Grapevine?        
_______________________________________________

I. PDF Format 

Beginning with the next issue (June 2006) The Graphics Grapevine will be published as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) document instead of in the email format you are reading now. Why the change? PDF honors design. It maintains layouts, fonts, line lengths, spacing, etc. as intended instead of defaulting to the preferences of the recipient's computer system. Content will look consistent on-screen and be printer-friendly.
 
This means The Graphics Grapevine will arrive as an email attachment and readers will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file. You can download the latest version of Acrobat Reader free from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Please be assured that all editions of The Graphics Grapevine will be scanned and free of viruses before being sent out. The Table of Contents will still appear in the body of the email for your convenience.
 
II. Adding Images to Your Email
                   
In addition to sending photos and artwork as email attachments, you can embed .jpg or .gif images right into the body of your email. Most consumer digital cameras already save photos as .jpg files, which makes inserting photos into emails easy. For screen viewing, even low resolution images (72 dpi)look good. Artwork without subtle shading, such as a simple logo or clipart, is best saved for screen as a .gif file.
 
You can convert images in other file formats to .jpg or .gif files easily in Windows XP. Double click an image file to open it in a window where you can then save it (File/Save as...) in your choice of file formats and/or compress it to a smaller file size. In many cases, 5 MB is the maximum file size that can fly through cyberspace successfully. If you or the person you're sending to has a dial-up connection, however, a file of this size could hang up in transit.
 
Outlook Express
1. Open Outlook Express and click the Create Mail button in the upper left corner.
2. Click the Format dropdown menu at the top, then make sure you have Rich Text (HTML) selected.
3. Now you're ready to add your image(s) to your e-mail message. Place your cursor in the body of the message where you want the image to appear, then click the Insert Picture icon (last icon on the bar just below the Subject line). The icon will have a little mountain and sun on it.
4. Click the Browse button and navigate to where the picture is stored on your hard drive or disk. Click Open to select it. Here you can also choose alignment options for your picture, and options for adding a border or extra spacing around it. Finally click OK to place your image in the body of your email.
 
America Online
1. Connect to AOL, Select the "Write" icon in the AOL toolbar to open a new email window.
2. Select the camera icon on the right side of the toolbar.
3. Select "Insert Pictures" from the menu.
4. In the "Open" window, click the folder where the picture is located. You'll see your thumbnails on the right side.
5. Check the picture(s) you want to inlcude, then choose "Insert."
 
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo now offers subscribers a free download called PhotoMail that allows you to insert pictures into your emails by dragging them from one window to another. Thumbnails of your pictures appear in the email with a link to the full-sized image in your Yahoo! photo albums, always accessible online. The file size of your images stays small for travel through cyberspace and your full-size photos are stored on the Yahoo! server for free. You can move pictures on your computer to your Yahoo! "photo albums" and even search Yahoo's collection of clipart and photos by subject. You can also add borders and captions and adjust thumbnail size. To take a tour or download the software, visit http://photomail.mail.yahoo.com
 
Macintosh 
Drag and drop the image directly from your hard drive or disk to where you want the image inserted in your text message.
 
III. Keep It Simple: One Focal Point
From massive billboards to pocket-sized business cards, a good design has one primary focal point that anchors the layout and defines its purpose. It could be a headline, an illustration, or even white space, but a main focus of visual interest engages the reader and pulls him or her into the rest of the story. You can make a particular design element your focal point by:
To de-emphasize a competing element, do the opposite: Make it smaller, place it in the background (lightening an object creates the illusion of distance in two-dimensional space; depth can also be simulated by overlapping objects and use of shadowing), place it off-center, group it with other elements, surround it with elements of similar color, shape, orientation, etc.
 
A design principle closely related to focal point is heirarchy: ranking the importance of the elements on the page and guiding the reader's eye to them in a structured sequence. We've all seen unstructured pages where the content appears to be thrown together without regard for how the reader might approach it. Relationships between the elements are lacking.
 
The Western eye naturally travels left to right and top to bottom. Optical center is about 3/8 of the way down the page and slightly to the left. Eye movement can be directed from this point in a "Z" shape moving from optical center to the right, diagonally down to lower left and back across to the right. Other proven compositional patterns include triangles, assymmetrical "x"s, and radials.
 
If the reader's eye has to jump around on a page, chances are too many elements are competing for attention. If you have more than five items to include in your layout, consider grouping separate elements together into one visual unit. Then allow enough white space between the visual units to separate and "announce" them.
 
Graphic design is above all about communicating information. The principles of focal point and heirarchy work hand in hand to attract your readers' attention, generate interest and desire, and prompt them to take action.
 
IV. Vector and Bitmap Images
One doesn't have to dig too deeply into the world of computer graphics to stumble into vector and bitmap (or raster) images. What's the difference?
Below are excerpts from an article by Sue Chastain at About.com clarifying the terms. For the complete article visit: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/bitmapvector.htm
 
 
Bitmap images are comprised of pixels in a grid. Each pixel or "bit" in the image contains information about the color to be displayed. Bitmap images have a fixed resolution and cannot be enlarged without losing image quality. Bitmap images tend to have much large file sizes than vector graphics and they are often compressed to reduce their size.

Bitmap images are resolution dependent. Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image and is usually stated as dpi (dots per inch) or ppi (pixels per inch). Bitmap images are displayed on your computer screen at screen resolution: 72 or 96 ppi. However, when printing bitmaps, your printer needs much more image data than a monitor. In order to render a bitmap image accurately, the typical desktop printer needs 150-300 ppi.

Scaling a bitmap image (enlarging it by dragging its corners) does not change the number of pixels in the image. If you scale to a larger size in your page layout software, you are going to see a definite jagged appearance. Even if you don't see it on your screen, it will be very apparent in the printed image. Scaling a bitmap image to a smaller size effectively increases the ppi of the image so that it will print clearer.

All scanned images are bitmaps, and all images from digital cameras are bitmaps. Converting between bitmap formats is generally as simple as opening the image to be converted and using your software's Save As... command to save it in any other bitmap format supported by your software.

Common bitmap formats include:  BMP, GIF, JPEG or JPG, PNG, PICT (Macintosh), PCX, TIFF, PSD (Adobe Photoshop)

Popular bitmap editing programs are:  Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, Corel Photo-Paint, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Ulead PhotoImpact

Key Points About Bitmap Images:
• pixels in a grid
• resolution dependent
• resizing upward reduces quality
• easily convert to other bitmap formats
• restricted to rectangle
• minimal support for transparency

Vector images are made up of many individual, scalable objects. These objects are defined by mathematical equations rather than pixels, so the edges of the text are always crisp and sharp at any scale. This is why vector images are called resolution independent. Objects may consist of lines, curves, and shapes with editable attributes such as color, fill, and outline. Changing the attributes of a vector object does not effect the object itself. You can freely change any number of object attributes without destroying the basic object. An object can be modified not only by changing its attributes, but also by shaping and transforming it using nodes and control handles. Fonts are a type of vector object.

An advantage of vector images is that they're not restricted to a rectangular shape like bitmaps. Vector objects can be placed over other objects, and the object below will show through. When you place a bitmap object over another color, it typically has a rectangular white box around it. Vector graphics tend to have much smaller file sizes than raster-based bitmaps. 

Vector images have many advantages, but the primary disadvantage is that they're unsuitable for producing photo-realistic imagery. Vector images are usually made up of solid areas of color or gradients, but they cannot depict the continuous subtle tones of a photograph. That's why most of the vector images you see tend to have a cartoon-like appearance. Even so, vector graphics are continually becoming more advanced.

Vector images primarily originate from illustration software. You can't scan an image and save it as a vector file without using special conversion software. On the other hand, vector images can, quite easily, be converted to bitmaps. This process is called rasterizing. When you convert a vector image to a bitmap, you can specify the output resolution of the final bitmap for whatever size you need. It's always important to save a copy of your original vector artwork in its native format before converting it to a bitmap; once it has been converted to a bitmap, the image loses all the wonderful qualities it had in its vector state. Also keep in mind that opening a vector image in a bitmap editing program usually destroys the vector qualities of the image and converts it to raster data.

 

Common vector formats include:  AI (Adobe Illustrator), CDR (CorelDRAW), CMX (Corel Exchange), CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile), WMF (Windows Metafile), SWF (Shockwave Flash), and DXF (AutoCAD and other CAD software) 

Popular vector drawing programs are:  Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Macromedia Freehand, Xara X

Key Points About Vector Images
• scalable
• resolution independent
• no background
• cartoon-like
• inappropriate for photo-realistic images
• metafiles contain both raster and vector data

 V. Calling All Questions
Many of the topics covered in this publication are in response to questions clients and colleagues have asked. If you have your own questions about type, page layout, graphic file formats, color, branding your business, marketing with print media, or related issues, please email linda@kauaidesign.com and I will do my best to answer them. Answers to inquiries of general interest may appear in a future edition of The Graphics Grapevine.
 
VI. Back Issues Online
Past editions of The Graphics Grapevine are posted on my website: www.kauaidesign.com

Vol. 1 No. 1, January 2004: I. What IS Graphic Design?    II. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly    III. Your Graphic Identity    IV. Why Choose Print?

Vol. 1 No. 2, April, 2004: I. Postcard Promotions    II. Type Tips: One Space Betweeen Sentences    III. Type Tips: Underlining    IV. White Space

Vol. 1 No. 3, July 2004: I. Making Headlines    II. Type Talk    III. Break Up Text With Graphic Elements    IV. The Mission of Kaua`i Design Graphics

Vol. 1 No. 4, October 2004: The COLOR Issue: I. A Color Wheel Refresher Course    II. The Impacts of Color    III. RGB and CMYK Color 

Vol. 2 No. 1, January 2005: I. One- and Two-Color Printing    II. Proofreading: Tools of the Trade    III. Type Families    IV. Calling All Questions!

Vol. 2 No. 2, April 2005: The DIGITAL PHOTO Issue: I. De-mystifying Resolution    II. "Photo Quality" Printing    III. Adding Type to Photos    IV. Photo File Formats

Vol. 2 No. 3, July 2005: I. Hawaiian Punctuation: `okinas and kahakōs    II. Identifying & Finding Fonts    III. Design Basics: Contrast and Consistency?

Vol. 2 No. 4, October 2005: I. Branding Your Organization    II. Stoking the Creative Fires     III. Text Alignment: Ragged Right  vs. Justified 

Vol. 3 No. 1, January 2006: I. Survey Results Are IN    II. How Can A Brochure Benefit You?     III. 40 Years of Color from Pantone®     IV. Virgin vs. Recycled Paper

VII. Do You Want to ReceiveiThe Graphics Grapevine?                                      

Future editions of The Graphics Grapevine will be sent to you by e-mail each quarter only if you want to receive them. If you’d like to remove your name or add your name to the mailing list, please e-mail linda@kauaidesign.com with "graphics grapevine" in the subject line and your request in the body.

Owner of Kaua`i-based Kaua`i Design Graphics, Linda Pizzitola specializes in ads and print promotions, logos and business identity packages. See samples of her work, a client list and more at www.kauaidesign.com. Linda can be reached by phone at (808) 822-0055 or 635-3703.