Some General Graphic Design Tips
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Hello, I have been just freed from my exams! But, I am not is a good mode to write tutorials. Yet. For the time being, can you guys stop complaining abt the layout of this blog? I just got no time for that!
Nvm, today, I think I'll just share some general graphic design tips that can help you.
Tip no. 1: Get a good mouse and a Considerably Fast com.
- The mouse is the friend of all graphic designers. I don't have the money to buy a drawing pad, but a accurate mouse should be able to do the trick. I would recommend you to get either the Creative Fatal1ty 1010 Mouse, or the Razer Diamondback. Although they may be ex, but once you have tried them out, you will realize that your bucks are spent well.
* Sometimes, the reason why the brushing of certain graphic designers looks so good is mainly because of their good mouse. ;)
- Doing graphics needs a good graphic card, a good amount of ram, (512mb and more), and a fast computer (there are alot of factors contributing to the speed, but at least get a pentium4 or anything better than it)
I do not mean that if you are stuck with a tight budget and a lousy com, you cant do graphics anymore.., but if you are really enthusiastic about graphics, a good com will worthy of your $$.
I found this page link, where you can learn some ways to maximize your com's speed.
Tip no. 2: Meddle with You Graphics Program in Your Free Time
- It is important to get yourself familiar to your graphics program. To put it in a better way, you should understand the graphic program so well that it is like your own body. You can give yourself a quick start by reading some tutorials, and giving yourself graphic projects to complete
Tip no. 3: Know the graphic Formats WELL
- This can be part of no 2. But you should know at least most of the commonly used graphic formats, and HOW to save them with your graphic editor. Because of different os, different programs, web browsers, you need to be able to know which graphic formats are compatable with them, and the special characteristics of each graphic format.
Here's a List of the ones supported in most web browsers:
- .PNG (My fav format, It is saved in a uncompressed format, like .BMP, but a lot smaller in file size! Perfect for archiving cleaned up images or high detail graphic works. However, PNG semi- transparency is not well-supported in IE 6 and below)
- .JPG (A Very Common format. Used in almost all digital cameras. Famous for its small file size and high compression rate. Graphic quality may come to be a problem when saving in this format. However, it does not have transparency.)
- .BMP (A common format, but not so used in the internet because of its large file size. It provides a lossless quality for your saved graphics, so you can open the .BMP up another time to edit without and loss in details.... Support for transparency is not introduced in web browsers.)
- .GIF (This format can only hold up to only 256 colors at any time. That means it loses out in terms of color quality. .GIFs are used to show short animation clips in web browsers. Sometimes, .GIFs ares used to show pictures with fully transparent backgrounds.However, unlike .PNGs, .GIFs cannot be semi-transparent.
Here's a link to a page where most graphic formats are explained.
Tip 4, Get Inspired:
- View others' works frequently, so you can get new concepts and ideas for your graphics. Don't benchmark yourself with the bad ones.. it will only cause your skills to worsen! Only compare and try to reach the standards of the pro and cool looking stuffs.
Labels: Graphic Tutorials, Web Design
