Archive for the ‘Address Card Templates’ Category
Making a Web Page Header in GIMP
Posted on: April 23, 2018
Today we will discuss making a web page header in GIMP. You can easily use GIMP to create web page headers in different structures either simple or multi-layered. Let’s have a look on some simple steps involved in making web page header in GIMP:
- Select File and then New to create a new workbook. You will see a pop-up box appeared in front of you named Create a New Image. This will allow you entering settings which you like to add. Size of a typical header is between 700 and 900 pixels wide. And as far as height is concerned, it is 75-200 pixels. To set X and Y resolutions to 100 pixels per inch, click on plus sign icon so that it may reveal Advanced Options.
- You can color background of web page header by using Bucket Fill Tool. This option will be available in main toolbar and will help you filling entire background. To beautify the header, you can insert a picture or design either. If you want to insert a ready-made graphic, you can select File and Open as Layers to locate desired file. After selecting the image, click Open.
- Now it’s time to add text. For this, click on Text Tool in main toolbar. Click on web page header where you want to insert text and then type your content. All types of text settings will be appeared on toolbar which will help you choosing font size, font style and font color. Sometimes you may want to add a large title along with a smaller subtitle. For this, insert two text boxes so that each line can be customized separately.
- Now you will want to position all the elements. For doing this, you will use Move Tool which exists in main toolbar. Select Windows and then Dockable Dialogs and then Layers to view Layers dialog. Select thumbnail of a layer which you want to move in Layers window. Now click on image and use keyboard arrow keys to move text or images making sure that Move Tool is selected.
- After doing all this, you will save your work using picture file extension which will be supported by your web page such as .png or .jpg. You can also save file by using GIMP workbook extension .xcf so that you can edit your file in future if needed.
This is a simple process of making a web page header in GIMP. Hopefully you will find it easy to follow.
Here is video tutorial that can help you get started with GIMP Much quickly.
Steps to Create E-Brochures
Posted on: January 24, 2013
We all know that printed brochures are used for advertising and marketing of different products and services but now it is era of internet and books, magazines and even brochures are published electronically. Yes!!! E-brochures are becoming very popular these days. Do you also want to make an e-brochure for promoting your products and services? If yes then you should not worry because I am going to share with you some simple steps for creating e-brochures:
- Firstly you will have to decide which desktop publishing software you want to use for making brochures. You can use MS Word to create e-brochures as you can find a number of templates for making attractive brochures. You can also use Microsoft Publisher as a desktop publishing program.
- Now open brochure template which you think suitable for your needs. Make necessary changes in template like you can change text and graphics according to your liking.
- Amend your brochure template. You can easily do that by deleting the text of template and replacing your own text. If you want to delete template text, all you need to do is to select the text in the text box and then delete it. And for replacing picture in your brochure template, select template graphic box, use Insert menu and select Picture. This process will replace the template graphic with your own picture which you want to see in your e-brochure.
- When doing modifications and amendments, keep in mind not to add too many pictures and graphics. I will also recommend you not to change the font size and style because it may happen that you may add some font style that may not b easy to read and understand.
- After doing all that, save e-brochures as PDF file. It is Adobe’s Portable Document Format and it is easy to read with Adobe’s free reader. So it proves to be the best format for distribution of e-brochures. If you are using software that is not capable of writing to PDF, then don’t worry as you can use online services for saving your file as PDF file.
These were some important steps regarding creating an e-brochure. Follow these and have an attractive and appealing brochure for promoting your business.
Alignment can be defined as arrangements of elements in relation to each other in a way that may appeal the viewer. On a page or web page, objects like images and text can be aligned with relation to each other or the page. Purpose of alignment is to create a less chaotic effect and to make your work organized. In other words, alignment helps readers in understanding the relationships of objects on a web page. Alignment is very important but it sometimes becomes invisible. Most of the readers do not notice whether everything is lined up or not but if alignment is not done, they will definitely feel that things are out of place.
Types of Alignment
To create a pleasing and attractive layout, several types of alignment work together. Types of alignment are given below:
Horizontal Alignment
A type of alignment in which left and right margins are equal is called horizontal alignment. Horizontal alignment can be applied across the page or within the columns.
Vertical Alignment
When top and bottom margins are equal visually and exactly, it is said to be vertical alignment. It can be applied on full page or within some portions of a page.
Edge Alignment
In edge alignment, objects and text are lined up along their left, right, top or bottom edges.
Center Alignment
This alignment may be either horizontally or vertically or both.
Optical Alignment
Optical alignment is also known as visual alignment. In this type of alignment, objects are not actually aligned precisely but they appeared to be lined up. This type of alignment is used to solve problems occurring with other types of alignment. Problems occur because of difference in shapes of graphics and letters.
Use of Alignment
Alignment is an important element of graphic designing because absence of alignment creates a chaos and slack look. But a designer must be very careful while using alignment in graphic designing. Different alignments should not be mixed with each other as they become unable to produce desired effect. Moreover alignment should be broken after it serves its purpose. Here I mean when alignment draws attention towards a specific element of page, it serves its purpose. Alignments are required to be quite neat in a graphic design so that they can distract readers’ attention and at the same time give a professional look.
When used properly, brochures are proved to be most powerful marketing tool. Brochures can make potential customers aware of your offerings and encourage them to take an action. Your brochure should be well designed and in a proper format so that you can take its benefit. Here I am going to describe some mistakes which you should avoid to make a brochure effective and attractive:
- Sometimes designers make black and white brochures in order to decrease cost of making a brochure. Black and white brochures are neither professional nor attractive. Color is necessary to make a brochure vibrant and appealing as colors bring life to your brochure and attract attention of readers as well.
- Using colors does not mean at all that you start using irritating colors. Bold and lively colors are fine but if they do not match or do not make a good contrast, they will kill entire design of your brochure.
- Brochures are mostly small and do not have room for many designs and images. Do not overboard your brochure with too much images. Use only relevant and less images and leave some white space. A single large image is much better than too many smaller ones as too many images distract reader’s attention. Make an effective and wise use of words and designs.
- Again to make a brochure cost effective, many of you use cheap and flimsy paper which can bring disastrous results. Always use thicker paper as it gives a professional touch to brochure and leaves good impression on reader’s mind.
- A brochure which does not have a call to action is of no worth. It is a big mistake made by designers. Actual purpose of a brochure is to attract attention and interest of people towards business’s products and services so that they can turn into a paying customer. So having a call-to-action element is very important for a good brochure.
- Another mistake made while designing a brochure is to neglect proof reading the content. If your brochure will be full of illogical sentences, typos and other errors, it will create a bad first impression on reader. It will drive people away from you instead of attracting them.
- There should never be a hidden message in a brochure. The message which you want to communicate should be clear and obvious. Readers will not spend much time to read your brochure if it will have vague messages.
- Amateur designers make a mistake to type words too close to the edges of paper. It mars the readability and at the same time it puts your content in danger of being cut off while printer trims the paper.
- Don’t use long paragraphs while writing contents of brochure. Use bullets to increase the readability .To make brochure even more attractive and interesting, use charts to explain your ideas.
That was a list of some mistakes commonly made by brochure designers. These mistakes can spoil effectiveness of your brochure so avoid making these.
Today I will discuss some basic principles of graphic designing which are needed to be understood by every graphic designer. Understanding these principles will help one to become a good graphic designer:
- A balanced layout is the most important principle of graphic designing because our eyes and minds feel more comfortable when they see a balanced design. A balanced layout is that where graphics do not dominate text and page does not look to be twisted to one side.
- Next principle is to learn how to arrange different elements on the page. You can learn this through proximity. Proximity means to keep identical items together and creating unity. Let’s understand it with a simple example. If you observe a group of people in a room, you will be able to understand which strangers are and which people are close to each other and how close they are sitting. Similarly, in a graphic design, proximity or immediacy creates a bond between different elements on a page. The distance between different elements helps understanding their relationship.
- How can we forget alignment? A graphic designer also needs to learn the principle of alignment in graphic designing. To create attractive and interesting layouts, one needs to learn how to align text or graphics. Absence of alignment shows chaos and disorganization while mixing too many types of alignments also creates the same effect.
- Another principle of graphic designing is consistency. A graphic designer needs to understand importance of consistency to give a page a consistent and balanced look so that reader may get engaged.
- For visual interest, contrasts can also be created in a graphic design. Being a graphic designer, you need to learn how to use different contrasts like black and white and big and small. Contrast is actually used when two elements differ and contrast can be created using differences in four elements like color, size, type and value. Contrast is necessary to increase a reader’s interest as well as it creates emphasis on an important element. If contrast does not exist on a page, reader cannot find which item is important and where to look first. Contrast also increases readability.
- White space is also an important principle which can not be overlooked. White space is actually nothing and it shows absence of text and images. By breaking up text and images, it provides a visual rest to reader’s eye. So to make a page less confusing, white space is used.
These were six basic elements of graphic design which should not be ignored while creating a layout. Following these principles is beneficial to create effective layouts.
Websites backgrounds are somewhat essential components of a website as they enhance overall look of a website. At the same time, these backgrounds make a website more appealing and attractive for viewers. If you will not set a background image or color for your website, your web page will show a white background by default. But professionals suggest that website must have a background image because backgrounds beautifully complement logos and other images if they are used properly. Here I am going to give you some tips on designing website backgrounds:
- It is always good to choose a solid background color behind an image. If you will choose a background color, this color will be loaded in default instead of white color. Following this tip especially meets the needs of those visitors who have a slow internet connection or who have turned off image features of their computer for fast loading. Select that color for background that goes well with background image or at least suits well with your site’s colors.
- Remember that background images are always separate from design of your site but still they are required to be blend properly with web page’s main characteristics. While selecting a background image, make sure that it does not affect the readability of text. Neither should it make the web page look too busy with objects. Background images are not meant for distracting viewers’ attention but they should be able to promote your site in a better way.
- Repeating patterns are often used to design background as their purpose is to cover a specific length of page. If your page is long enough and viewers have to scroll down the page, make sure you are using seamless background image. If you will not use a seamless image, your page will display an ugly horizontal seam every time your image will be repeated on page. Another trick to avoid this problem is to fix the image in place. By doing this, your background image will remain stationary while text and other images will move.
- Ensure that background areas where text is to be placed has a solid color or at least there are patterns in light colors. Colors may also be dark but all you need to care about is that text can be read easily. Don’t try to use unconventional colors and rather stick to black and white backgrounds. Set aside blue, red and green color for headings and text links.
- If you are just adding a background color to your website, you will just need entering a color code in HTML code of your web page. But in case of a background image, you will require creating an image by using a graphics program. This image will be loaded to server via FTP. After that, you will need inserting a link to image within background figure code. This code will tell your server that image will only be used as a background image.
To give a proficient look to your website, the best thing you can do is to create a background image. If you have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS web design, you can create a background for web page. For further help, you can also consult other internet sites for impressive background pictures.
Standard and Common Brochure Sizes
Posted on: August 5, 2012
Today I am going to provide you with standard and most common sizes used for making brochures. Considering about size of a brochure is very important because when it comes to printing cost, its all about paper wastage. In simple words, if you will not follow standard brochure sizes, you will have to pay more to get your brochures printed as you might create bigger brochure than standard size. Thus save your money by following standard dimensions for your brochures.
Company Brochures
9” x 12” Pocket Folder Brochure-Single Flap w/single spread saddle stitched
Presentation Folders, Media Kits
9” x 12” Pocket Folder- Single Flap
Marketing Mailers Advertisement
4” x 6” Card Mailers
6” x 9” Card Mailers
Plain Company Folders
9” x 12” Pocket Folder-Double Flap
Travel Brochure Cards
4” x 9” Rack Cards
Large Format Trifolds, Corporate
11” x 25.5” Flat (Folded to Trifold)
Executive Brochures, Full Catalogs
8.5” x 11” Folded Booklet
Sell Sheets, Slick Sheets, Inserts
8.5” x 11” Flyer
Half Catalogs, Small Booklets
5.5” x 8.5” Folded Booklet
Trifold Handouts, Mailers
8.5″ x 11″ Flat (Folded Tri or Bi-fold)
8.5″ x 14″ Flat (Folded to GateFold)
Making a Flyer in Photoshop
Posted on: July 21, 2012
Designing a good flyer is necessary to get noticed. Photoshop is a tool that helps you in making an attractive flyer. Here I will give you an easy process to make a flyer using Photoshop. Follow then steps given below:
- Select New after going to the File menu. I will recommend you using a high resolution if you want to get clear images and crisp text. 600 dpi is a good choice but it will make your file big but don’t go below 200 dpi as in this case text and images in your flyer will not look attractive. As far as width and height of flyer is concerned, choose standard size width and height of 8.5 inch and 11 inch respectively.
- I will suggest you to make a start with an image. But it will all depend on the type of flyer which you are going to make. For example, if you are making a music flyer, collect some photos of performers or musicians. Open the image in a separate window from the blank made by you. Click, hold and then drag the image onto the blank document using pointer tool. This will create a new Layer which you can move. If your image is small or large and you want to adjust it then go to Edit menu and select the option named Transform or Free Transform. The former option has presets while the latter will make it easier for you to do whatever you want with your image. After you are satisfied with the setting of the image, double click on it.
- While designing background, try to select gradient. Choose Gradient after going to the Toolbar on the left hand side. You have an option to start gradient from any place on blank file but it will only be possible if you have Background Layer. To change color and type of gradient, you can click on the horizontal Toolbar at the top left corner.
- Now start working on text. You should use a big headline over or under the photo. If you are creating a music concert flyer, use the band name as headline. Select a suitable font so it may make the headline prominent. Click “T” on the Tool bar and click mouse somewhere on screen to create a new layer. It will be quite helpful if you want to move parts of text.
- You should save the file as Photoshop (.psd) document in order to preserve layers. It will be a large file but it will allow you using the same format a number of times by changing only particular elements.
- After saving a copy of flyer, go to Layer menu and select Flatten Image. This will make one file by removing the layers. Save this as JPEG as you can easily save this type of file as compared to .psd file. If you want to get the flyer printed from a print shop then you should save file to PDF format.
Basic Elements of Graphic Design
Posted on: July 3, 2012
Today, my discussion will be all about basic elements of graphic design. Actually there are five basic elements of graphic design which include:
- Shapes
- Lines
- Mass
- Texture
- Colors
Here is a detail of these elements.
Shapes
Being a graphic designer, you will need to understand role of shapes in your design. Three basic shapes which are mostly used in graphic designing are squares, triangles and circles. Shapes actually convey a meaning when they are used either alone or in combination. There are three types of shapes:
- Geometric
- Natural
- Abstract
Geometric shapes are always structured and symmetrical and include squares, rectangles, triangles and circles. Natural shapes are those which are found in nature such as leaves of trees are example of a natural shape. These are irregular. Symbols which are found on different signs are example of abstract shapes.
All these shapes and their role and importance are necessary to be understood by a graphic designer.
Lines
Lines are also used either alone or in combination. They enhance the appearance of a design as well as increase readability. They also help in conveying message hidden in a design. Lines guide the eyes, convey meanings, provide movement and organize entire design.
Mass
Mass means visual weight of a graphic or image as well as text. Mass is one of the most important elements of graphic design as mass helps in equalizing size. Every element you use in a design whether it is photo, graphic, text or line has a mass relative to whole layout. Working with mass is actually an understanding how different parts of design can be measured.
Texture
Texture does not only refer to the paper on which we print our design but it also includes textures which are created using different techniques. For example, one of such techniques is embossing. Texture becomes an important part of a design whether you add it intentionally or not. As I said earlier, texture comes from the paper used for printing but visual textures may also be added by arrangement of shapes, lines and images.
Color
How can a graphic designer forget about colors? Colors are not essential for making a good design because if black and white colors or shades of gray are used properly, they are capable of producing the same effect like that of bright colors like red and green. But color is such an element which has the power to evoke a reader’s or viewer’s mood.
These are five basic elements of graphic design. All of these should be given equal importance and should not be overlooked by a graphic designer.
Making Animated Headers
Posted on: June 14, 2012
Making animated headers is quite beneficial if you want to attract more and more people towards a website. Animated headers create a excellent first impression on mind of a person who visits your website. Actually header is the main banner that is displayed at the top of website and shows the name of site along with its picture. So a header graphic is the most important factor that can contribute to creating a good impression on a new visitor. Do you also want to make an animated header for your website? If yes then read the instructions given below:
- Visit a site at which you can create Flash header graphic for your own site. Another option is to visit a site which offers free base header graphics helping you to take a start with a background.
- After that, you next step would be to launch graphic editing program and to develop a new document. As far as size of header is concerned, you can size headers to your desired dimensions. Ideal dimensions for a header are 800×300 pixels but the most common dimensions used by most of the people are either 800×600 or 1024×768 resolution. Now save your file as a PSD as it will make it easy for you to go back and add or remove elements to animate.
- Now you can design your image using different colors, pictures and textures. You can use ‘Fill’ tool to fill color or shades in large spaces.
- In the graphics program, select ‘Text’ tool to add text to header. You can customize text by changing its color or size. To make text even more attractive, I will suggest you to add an effect to text like reflection or drop-shadow.
- Second last step is to copy and paste header graphic as first frame of new animation in animation program. Now you can make changes by adding or removing the elements in your header. Whenever you make a change in the elements of your header, copy and paste this new change as next frame in animation. You can view changed animation within program and at the same time you can speed up or slow down this process.
- After making necessary changes, you can save animated header graphic as GIF file.
Follow these steps to make animated headers for your website. If you will make animated headers for your website, I assure you that you will be able to attract a large number of visitors to your website.
Hi, My name is Tania Yellob and I love to write. This is my blog and I love to hear from you regarding my writings. Recently, I have started creating contents and templates for a famous website 
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