Graphics Tips
Read these 5 Graphics Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Macintosh tips and hundreds of other topics.
Great Books for Graphic Design
"Graphic Design" is a lot more than just sticking some letters and pictures on a page. Design elements must be manipulated to form a pleasing whole, in the same way that a true photographer composes a photo.
If you want your graphic projects to be more professional than a snapshot of your puppy, check out these excellent books!
The Non-Designer's Design Book
by Robin Williams
This is an excellent book for beginners, explaining the basics of design without getting into a lot of technical jargon and theory.
To get this book, paste this link into your browser:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566091594/ltc-book
Graphic Design Basics, 3e
by Amy E. Arntson
A college-level introduction to basic graphic design. Somewhat more techinical than the Non-Designer's book, with more in-depth information.
Paste this link into your browser:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0030187346/ltc-book
Making Scaled Thumbnails
PhotoPage 1.3, by John A Vink, can create web albums, making thumbnails and scaled images from your photos, and produces the html to use them on your web page. You can download it at: http://www.javworld.com/PhotoPage.html
Another useful photo manipulator is Cameraid, by Juri Munkki. It will handle a lot of digital cameras, and perform some types of image processing as well, including getting date, time and exposure info and rotating .jpg files. You'll find it at http://www.cameraid.com/
Deleting Objects
The usual method of deleting a drawn object is to click to select it, and then hit the delete key. You can save yourself a moment (or several) by just holding down the delete key as you click with the selection tool. This works in most graphics and text/graphic applications.
GraphicConverter
We all deal with graphic and image files at one time or another. If you've ever tried to convert an image from one format to another, you know what an agony it can be. Enter GraphicConverter! This shareware application from the brilliant Thorsten Lemke easily converts just about any image format to just about any other image format at the click of a button.
Using graphic Converter, you can also browse image folders as slide shows, or view them in a drop-down, Finder-type mode.
The latest version of GraphicConverter is now Carbonized and ready for OS X. Visit LemkeSoft today (the site is available in English, French and German) today ... they even have online tutorials!
Bitmap and Vector Images
Programs used to create original images can generally be broken into two types: Paint programs and Vector programs.
Paint programs, which creat bitmap images, range from the original black-and-white MacPaint (which came bundled with every Mac system from 1984 through 1986) to high-end paint programs like Photoshop.
Vector drawing programs, like Corel Draw and Macromedia's FreeHand, produce raster images. They can often create more sophisticated images than Paint programs, but are generally more complicated to learn.
In general, if you wish to create a complex drawing which can be expanded to any size without showing the dreaded "jaggies," you will need vector software. If you are creating an image for the web, a small graphic or icon, perhaps, you should probably use a paint program.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Linda Handiak |
