COMPUTER GRAPHIC DESIGN

The computer has become an indispensable tool for graphic and design. The most popular computer for graphic design are the Macintosh and IBM compatible (Window) machines. Most companies that produce software for graphic design production now make their software for either computer platform.

Although computers have been in use for many decades, their impact in the graphic design profession was not felt until the mid-1980s. Early computer programs such as Aldus PageMaker (now owned by Adobe) made it easy to produce page layouts combining both type and graphics.

From the mid-1980s, advances in hardware, software and printing technologies quickly increased the quality standards of the industry. By early 1990s, most graphic design firms had made the switch from traditional typesetting and hand preparation of mechanicals to computerised graphic design.

TYPES OF DESIGN PROGRAMS

Computer programs used in graphic design can be divided into three major categories: drawing, painting, and page and layout programs.

• Drawing Programs
  
  Drawing programs are used primarily for creating hard-edged graphics. The elements you create in a drawing program are referred to as object-oriented, meaning that the computer sees them as complete and separate objects that may be moved around on the page.
  
  Popular drawing programs include Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Corel Draw and Deneba Canvas. Advanced drawing programs give the ability to create three-dimensional shapes and to render these shapes with lighting, shading and reflection but it require much more memory to render the created objects.
  
  Strata’s Vision 3D, Adobe Dimensions, Auto des system’ form Z, Alias Sketch, MetaCreations’ Bryce, and Ray Dream Designer are some of the 3-D drawing program.
  
  Drawing programs handle type well but not in large amounts. In dealing with text, drawing programs have the ability to convert type to outlines, making type into a graphic format.
  
  Drawing programs are used for producing package designs, logos, charts, and graphs, posters, hard-edge illustrations and other ‘single-item’ designs. Finished drawings can easily be saved as PostScript files and imported into other programs to combine them with other elements.


• Painting Programs
  
  Painting programs allow the user more freedom than drawing programs in creating softer surfaces and wide range of texture. Painting programs use a bit-map process for display and printing. Items are not individual elements as in a drawing program but are composed of individual pixels or bit, making up the whole image.
  
  Painting programs are most often used for photo retouching, illustration and web design. In painting program, brushes, pen and airbrushes have been converted to a digital format. There are also many tools available that designers will recognise such as special filters and burn tools.
  
  Although painting programs have capability to create type is best used in small amounts such for headlines, heading and other one-word or short-phrase uses. It is also difficult to edit the type once a file from a painting program is placed in a page layout program.
  
  Popular painting programs include Adobe photoshop and MetaCreations’ Painter.
  
  


• Page Layout Programs
  
  In page layout program, designer or typesetter can quickly bring together text and images to create layout for magazine, books, brochure, flyers or posters.
  
  A good page layout program allows you to create several different grid layouts as ‘master pages’, which can then be applied to the document’s pages. These grid lines show up as light lines across the page on screen although they do not print on the document.
  
  Page layout programs contain specialized text tools, which offer a wide range degree of flexibility in setting type. Provisions for fine adjustments in kerning, tracking and leading are standard in most page layout programs.
  
  Page layout programs offer only basic drawing tools. It is expected that complex illustration will be done in either a drawing or painting program and them imported into the page layout.
  
  The most popular page layout programs are QuarkkXpress, Adobe InDesign and Adobe PageMaker.

THE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

• Grid and Column Sizes
  
  Grid design is the first phase of the project in a page layout program. A well-designed grid allows flexibility in placement of both text and graphic.
  
  In page layout program, the grid should be set up on the master pages. These master pages allow you to set up guides for the grid in one place and then apply them to all of the pages automatically. Repeating elements, such as page numbers, volume, issue numbers, dates and rules should be set on the master pages.
  
  Page layout programs enable the designer to set up several different master pages. This is handy when using different grids or element layouts for different sections within the same publication.
  
  


• Repeating Elements
  
  
  1. Graphics and Artwork
     
     Elements such as titles or logos may become a permanent part of the layout. These items may be placed on special master pages or on the publication’s regular pages.
  2. Other Repeating Elements
     
     In most publications, several elements tend to be repeated in each issue. These include the masthead and the statement of publication, which should be included in the initial layout.

DESIGN CRITERIA APPLIEDD TO THE JOB

• Designing Templates
  
  If the layout will be used for a regularly issued publication such as a monthly magazine, it may be desirable to create a template for design. A template is a stripped-down version of the publication that can be used each time the magazine is produced. The template contains all the repeating elements that are featured in each issued of the publication.
  
  In a page layout program, the design can be saved as a specific template file. When saving a design in this format the program will open the template as an untitled file, forcing the user to save it under a new name and protecting template as a master file for future use.
  
  


• Importing Text
  
  Most of the text in publication is prepared using a word processing program and then imported into a page layout program. Often the design studio received all of the copy for a publication as computer text files, proofed and ready for use in the layout.
  
  Page layout programs have special features call filters, which allow text to be imported from a variety of word processing programs. For example the Macintosh computer also reads PC files with a special program called ‘PC Exchange.
  
  


• Importing Graphics
  
  Graphics images can also be imported from a variety of sources. The most important part of importing graphics is whether files will be used for final output of simply ‘for position only’ (FPO).
  
  FPO graphics will later be replaced with high-quality images at the printer or prepress house. High-resolution colour photographs are the most common graphics replaced with FPO images in a layout. This is because the technology for scanning high quality colour photographs is generally too expensive for most design studious, and the file created by them may be too large to be used on the designer’s computer.
  
  FPO images are scanned into the computer at a resolution of 72 dpi. So that they will display well on screen while keeping the file size small. When working with a combination of images to be used for printing (logos, line art, specially created type file) and FPO images, it is a good idea to assign an unused colour to all of the FPO images, j ust to keep track of them.

Go to FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND ELECTRONIC PAGE COMPOSITION additional notes