Make Your Own Layout - Graphics Basics For Designing Marketing Materials Part 4
By Brenda Lewis
Graphics: Using Photos
When you make your own layout, one of the things you'll have to do is select graphics. You can choose to use photos or illustrations or both. In a previous article we looked at photo sources. In this article, we will look at ways to use the photos in your marketing materials layouts once you have them.
If you will be using color photos, you need to determine -- up front -- how your project will be printed. That is because color photos can be either RGB (red, green and blue -- the color space used by computer monitors and older ink jet printers) or CMYK (cyan [blue], magenta [red] yellow and black -- the color space used by commercial printing presses and newer ink jet printers). Even if you are going to have your project commercially printed, you will want to have the photo in RGB for editing. That is because most photo-editing software provides more editing options for RGB images than for CMYK images. Once your editing is complete you would save a copy of the file in the CMYK format.
Marketing materials photos should have an obvious purpose. They may show a piece of equipment used by your company; before-and-after photos that show the results of a process performed by your company; or products your company sells.
When you are editing color photos for use in your marketing materials, you want to do as little to the photo as possible. This is not the time to use every special effect you can find. You just need to make sure that the photo is sharp (be careful not to over-sharpen the photo to the point where a halo appears around the edges of people and objects); that the colors are true (if something is supposed to be green, you don't want it to look yellow); and that the photo is the correct printing size and resolution. (See the note below for more information on size and resolution.)
If you are going to print your project in black and white, you will need to edit your photo in RGB. Even if you buy a stock photo that looks black and white, many times the file is actually RGB. So, edit in RGB and then convert the file to Grayscale. This is especially important if you are having your project professionally printed. If your black-and-white-looking photo is still in a color format, you will be charged the rate for color printing.
To download my free ebook that shows graphics use in action designing a flyer, click here: http://www.yeow-to-wow.com
To read my article on image size and resolution, click here: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=1184495
Brenda Lewis is a veteran graphic designer who has conducted graphic design workshops for both local and national audiences.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The author is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this article.
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