Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Daily Evergreen - Behind the Press

Meet the editorial staff of The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Watermarking images

If you post images on the Web frequently, whether they are on a personal site, or for a business site for newspapers or design firms, you might want to consider posting images with a watermark.

If the business owns the rights to the photo, you might find your picture on other unauthorized sites.

This tutorial explains the photoshop process to give your photos a watermark.

RGB and CMYK colors

Learning the differences between RGB and CMYK colors is something all designers should know.

Designers need to know this information to correctly work up photographs to be ready to print, and to accurately predict how the photo will look after printing.

This article explains the logic behind the different colors that the human eye can see, and how different colors are processed on photo-editing software such as Adobe Photoshop.

After you have read through this tutorial, read the differences between bitmaps, channels and the CMYK process in a more advanced article.

To take color one step further, read this article about different color systems, and how printers process color information. It also mentions how to layer colors for optimum printing.

Create your logo

Logo design is a great knowledge base to have, in that newspapers are becoming more visual by adding elements like story tags, or photo illustrations that draw attention to particular stories.

This article
offers a step-by-step guide to creating your own logo that will fit the needs of your specific newspaper or magazine.

This artist designs logos for commerical businesses, but if you look at the design of newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, The Virginian-Pilot, USA Today, or the Hartford Courant, you will see that they use small logos to promote story series and steady weekly features or columns.

This visual element, though small, can draw the reader to your particular story, and also serves as a way for the reader to identify the type of story easily in the future.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Scanning as a lost art

With the increasing pressure for newspapers to dazzle and draw in readers using design, page designers should start thinking outside of the box.

This article brings up a great idea that many graphic editors do not consider: scanning.

Scanning can capture the true textures and colors of an object that a camera cannot. Plus, it's easy.

When scanning using Adobe Photoshop simply click file – import – and then pick you scanner. A preview window will pop up showing your previous scan. Make sure to preview your object before you scan, in case you need to make any adjustments. Then press scan, save your picture, and you are done. No captions needed.

Check out this article for great examples of newspapers that used scanners to capture an image.

Design tip forum

This article explores the thoughts of six design experts, and transcribes their answers to basic design questions.

The article is a virtual discussion on design with a diverse group of designers from cities ranging from Florida to Toronto.

The six designers discuss such topics like the links between readership and design, laying type on top of photos, and rules and boxes.

Click here to read the complete article.