Basic Rules on Page Layout and Color

Basic Rules on Page Layout and Color

by: Grannyกs Mettle

For one to be able to stand out from the rest, one needs to go out of the box, break the rules, and some other clichés that apply to breaking out from the traditional. But before breaking any rule, you have to understand first the basic and foundation of the rule itself.

First off, letกs talk about page layout.

The Rule – Too much boxes is bad for your health.

One designer said that a mark of a designer is when he or she starts to use boxes and rules in his or her pages. When you look at your page and realize the need to make something attractive and creative out of the boring stuff youกve just made, and then decide to throw around a box or two or place rules between columns, then thatกs the time when your creativity is getting out from confinement.

Before using all the box there is in your software, just remember to do it in moderation. Anything in excess is a bad thing. Sure, boxes and rules are a good way to highlight important information. But if you’re going to do it in all your pages, or put virtually everything in a box, then nothing will stand out from the crowd.

The Rule – Do not divide the page in halves.

The best way to infuse excitement and innovation in your documents is to divide the page into thirds. Afterwards, place the most important objects like the headings, photos, and visuals, at the top or bottom third.

Letกs go to color.

The Rule – Contrasting colors make for greater readability.

Any designer knows that enough contrast between the text and background makes for easy reading of text and material. Often, dark text is used on a light background. And vice versa.

Although light text on a dark background is easy to read, this technique should be used sparingly. Itกs proven fact that the eyes get more tired when reading large quantities of text on a dark background, than the other way around.

The Rule – Use color sparingly.

For impact, designers choose to create their design on more than a single color. But color thrown around everywhere also loses its impact. The rule of thumb: for maximum impact, use color on headings, and the most important words in headings.

The Rule – Do not use complementary colors.

Colors that can be found opposite each other in the color wheel are called complementary colors. For example, blue is opposite orange in the color wheel. When used side by side, the complementary colors can create havoc in our eyes because it would be difficult to focus on both at the same time. In addition, the colors may seem to vibrate when viewed together.

The Rule – Do not use color screened more than 40% with text.

Anything darker than 40% color against a text can make it harder to read. However, you can vary this rule somewhat by calculating how dark the color will be. For example, green can be screened darker than blue to make the text stand out.

For best results, use a Pantone book for tints to show you different screens for every color. In addition, the Pantone book will help you see what is readable and what is not with both text and reversed text on the screens.

About Color Printing Wholesale

Color Printing Wholesale is a company that offers a wide range of quality digital printing services from brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards and posters, to digital, inkjet and web solutions, as well as laminating services. For further information, visit their website at http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 04

by Grannyกs Mettle

All Successful Entrepreneurs Have This

All Successful Entrepreneurs Have This

by: John Baker

All successful entrepreneurs have this one thing in common!(TIME INVESTED) Everyone wants to have wealth, enjoy life, and be able to retire at an early age! To do this you must first work hard at a business plan over a few years. You start your business at the bottom and work your way up. You have to have a plan so you can stay focused on the Big Picture.

This is where the most important element comes in, Patience! You must have Patience or you will lose focus on the Big Picture. There will be times when things go wrong and things look dark, but if you stay focused and have Patience you will have success!

Some great people have said กYou must learn to fail before you can succeed!ก The term กfailก can only pertain to the low and dark times, because you cannot fail unless you Quit. If you have Patience and stay focused on your long term plan you will succeed.

People see ads and hype where successful entrepreneurs have made thousands of dollars in 24 hours. This may be true, but they have been in business more than 24 hours! They have built their business over a period of time, and have been through some low and dark times to get where they are at today. All successful entrepreneurs have invested in there share of time. So you can be successful to if you start with a good business plan, and stick to it through the highs and the lows. You must have Patience and not lose site of your Goals!

You will also have to work your plan, but what is the alternative? Working hard for someone elseกs business plan! You cannot create wealth trading hours for dollars. You must put in your share of time! If you start today, in a year your business will be one year old! In another year it will be two years old. If you do Nothing, You will still be Two Years Older!

This article may be reprinted providing it is published in itกs entirety, including the authorกs bio and hyperlink to the URL below.

About The Author

John Baker, is the editor of BestHomeBusinesseNews. A newsletter dedicated to supporting the home business entrepreneur. If you’re looking for some of the best home business opportunities, tools, thoughts, ideas, and support from a dependable source, come by, visit,and grab a FREE subscription today at: http://www.besthomebusinessideas.net or email your questions to: mailto:[email protected]

This article was posted on April 12, 2004

by John Baker

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop

by: Lala C. Ballatan

Want your images to have effects that’ll make it stand out more and show up well on every background tones? With Photoshop, you could achieve these effects for your images by its features that work on light and dark edges. These allow you to work on bringing out the best edges of your image – lighten or darken it, anyway you please to match on background tones and make it stand out more.

Through highlighting edges of your photo, you also highlight its details. The method of unsharp mask and others like the difference of Gaussians increase the change in brightness close to each step. This technique’s standard version adds a bright halo along the bright edge of the step and a dark halo along the dark edge. Depending on what effect you’d like for your image, there are advantages in just using one or the other. Using both may not do very much to improve your image, though.

There are several advantages of using any of the effects for the edges on real images. One is that it reduces interference between steps or detail and the haloes from other, nearby steps. Another thing, the light or dark haloes make other features of the image stand out better from the background.

Start doing this effect on your images using Photoshop by following several procedures:

1st step is duplicate the layer holding the image

2nd step apply the conventional unsharp mask

3rd step set the layer blending mode to ขDarkenข or ขLightenข.

However, you must understand that this only works for 8 bit per channel images – those that can be put into layers but it could function also on 16 bit per channel pictures with Optipix plugin that allows direct selection of dark or light edges.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such:

1. On light background tones, light edges don’t show up well and vice versa on dark ones.

2. The halo should lie on the background, not on the foreground. This technique helps the feature stand out without having to change its brightness values.

Sometimes the following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for the best results, you’ll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make the image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on the computer screen may not be the same in print since the process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

About The Author

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 yearold Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a nongovernment organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion mysteries, horrors, psychothrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 11

by Lala C. Ballatan