Color Photo from Black and White

This reader wants to make a color photo from a black and white. Tough question.

Photoshop 911 (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Color: The Newest Tool for Technical Communicators    

Asserts that color must be used to make information clear, lucid, powerful—faster; its logical application must be controlled by the editor. Provides a comprehensive checklist to help editors use color effectively.

White, Jan V. Technical Communication Online (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Coloring Old Black and White Drawings

Step 1. Clean up any blemishes or distracting marks in the illustration. Make it as perfect a B & W illustration as you can. Make sure the contrast, sharpness and clarity are uniform throughout. Step 2. You will have sharply clear demarcations of tone which are easy and you will have areas where the tones between parts are quite similar and therefore more difficult. Start by using the Keep-Color brush to preserve everything you do not wish to color. Carefully outline each element with your chosen color being sure there are no unwanted gaps. Where there is no demarcation between tones, you should outline each color as precisely as you can. Also, the original may have lines separating the sleeve from the jacket for example. Cover that line with the Keep-Color brush and put a line of your chosen color closely beside each side of the line. Step 3. Press the run button (green arrow) and be amazed when your B & W illustration pops into color just as you ordered. Press the green check mark , the AKVIS window closes and the changes are applied to your original graphic. Save your new image immediately."

Sisson, Gordon. AKVIS (2006). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Coloring Outside the Lines

This series of articles about color is designed to help you get started right now selecting colors for your site.

Carter, Mary E. EFuse (2004). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Color

Colorizing a Map in Photoshop

Laying color over a map is easier than you think and it doesn't require brushes.

Photoshop 911 (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Colour

Colour is one of the designer's best tools. There are lots of ways to use it to help communicate a message. Colour can carry meaning, express personality, differentiate, frame, and highlight content.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Color

Communication as Participation  

A discussion of the relationship between visual language and participation is important in light of globalization and the homogenization of the visual landscape, forces that breed marginalization and diminish invention.

Bowers, John. University of Alberta (2000). Design>Graphic Design>Community Building>Visual Rhetoric

Communication Through Imagery    

The field of technical communication focuses on the ability of the author to gather information, interpret it, and then present the necessary items to the reader in a clear and concise manner. This article serves to briefly outline several of the key factors involved when deciding how to include imagery in technical materials.

Higgins, Phillip. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>TC>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration

Cómo Hacer Más Accesibles los Gráficos SVG

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) es un lenguaje de etiquetado que nos permite la descripción con XML de gráficos vectoriales en dos dimensiones. En este artículo se resume brevemente como los gráficos SVG pueden ser más accesibles siguiendo las directrices del W3C.

Fernandez, Francisco Jesus Martin and Oscar Martin Rodriguez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2002). (Spanish) Design>Accessibility>Graphic Design>Usability

Review: The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design  

Bob Gordon and Maggie Gordon, authors of The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design, reinforce effective design principles by creating a text that visually inspires and instructs. With its vibrant colors and captivating images, the book demonstrates the capabilities of graphic design through instructive images and text. Each page provides a snapshot into the creativity and power of graphic design.

Craft, Tiffany. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Contrast

Contrast is the most fundamental design device: it differentiates elements; it brings out dominant elements; it mutes lesser elements; it creates dynamism.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design

Conversation on Sound

Design can be more than meets the eyes. Denise Gonzales Crisp opens her ears to unfamiliar territory.

Crisp, Denise Gonzales. AIGA (2005). Design>Graphic Design>Multimedia>Audio

CorelDRAW Tutorials, Tips, Etc.

This page contains a listing of twenty-four links to technical illustration tutorials and how-to articles for illustrators using draw software, especially CorelDraw.

Broz, Donald. Broz and Dian. Resources>Graphic Design>Software

Counterspace

An interactive website dedicated to typography and its history.

Collins, Brett Yancy and Ed Stull. Motivo.com (1998). Design>Typography>Graphic Design

Crafting the Perfect Proposal

Proposal are also the cause of a great deal of anxiety for many creatives--especially those new to the industry. They're usually not on the list of most creative-related classes in school. But, fear not, oh ye creative bethern. I'm going to take you step-by-step and show you how it's put it together.

Tortorella, Neil. Creative Latitude (2004). Careers>Graphic Design>Proposals

Creating a Visual  

Research in visual design has demonstrated that tables are “the best way to show exact numerical values” when the reader needs to compare those values. In other cases, when comparison of exact numbers is not vital, other visuals may be more appropriate. Effective professional communicators analyze their audience’s need for the data and the purpose of the visual to determine the best presentation.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Graphic Design

Creating Appropriate Graphics for Business Situations    

Charts and graphs are ubiquitous in business documents, and most students in my business communication courses are well aware that they need to be able to create many different types of data representation. Most of them have had a great deal of experience working with spreadsheet applications, and they know how to manipulate data and present it in the various forms permitted by their software.

Katz, Susan M. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs

Creating Graphics for Both Web Pages and PDA Displays  

Today, the most common graphic file format used on web pages is raster, which has certain limitations. A new technology called Scalable Vector Graphics is emerging as the raster alternative. SVG files contain all the traits of normal vector graphics. Their unique properties make them more suitable for mobile product displays. By comparing and contrasting SVG and raster traits, one can best determine the correct file format for specific end output displays.

Kubik, Sara. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Standards>SVG

Creating More Effective Graphs: Trellis Display  

Trellis display is a framework for visualizing multivariate data. The outcomes collected during an early agricultural experiment on the yields of barley are displayed using Trellis, which in the case study discussed revealed an anomaly in the data which was overlooked during many conventional statistical analyses of these data.

Robbins, Naomi B. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Graphic Design>Charts And Graphs

Creation of Polylines

Sometimes it becomes necessary to create polylines that follow a certain path as a string of short segments. Here's a little trick that easily helps to solve this task.

ITEDO Software. Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration

Creative Techniques for Modifying Images  

Images are an integral part of most page layouts. Documents such as brochures, newsletters or information flyers rely on images in many ways. Images can be manipulated to suit a particular design purpose. They can be used as backgrounds to anchor elements, frames to delineate regions or shapes to help balance the page. Images can also be used to add interest to a page by contributing shape, texture or color. To use images in a creative manner, it is necessary to realize that the image is not a static entity. Modifying images for a particular design purpose or to add interest to a page can result in a more creative design.

Birchman, Judith A. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing

Creativeprose: Free Photography Podcasts

New photo-oriented podcasts pop up all the time, and you could listen to them all day every day and not get through everything. But this article points out a few of the better ones.

Stone, Terri. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Photography>Podcasting

Critiquing the Culture of Computer Graphing Practices    

This paper is a critique of current approaches to the development of computer graphing and graph visualization programs. Developers of these programs model the user as an individual problem solver who is reliant on perceptual skills to create and interpret graphed information. Such a model of graphing is ill-suited to meet the complex needs of real users, a supposition that is supported by work in two major areas of graphing theory and research: the sociology of science and the educational research of mathematics and scientific students. These areas have not been traditionally cited when planning computer graphing or visualization programs or when assessing their usability. A review of the literature in these fields reveals that an over-reliance on a user's perceptual skills is unlikely to result in successful graph practices.

Brasseur, Lee. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Charts and Graphs

Cross-Browser Variable Opacity with PNG: A Real Solution

Periodically, someone tells me about the magic of PNG, how itÂ’s the ideal image format for the web, and that someday we'll all be using it on our sites instead of GIF. People have been saying this for years, and by now most of us have stopped listening. Sadly, flaky browser support has made PNG impractical for almost everything--but now, with a few simple workarounds, we can finally put one of its most compelling features to use.

Lovitt, Michael. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Use of Graphics in Scientific and Technical Communication    

Communication styles vary across cultures. To investigate cultural differences in visual communication, graphics from Chinese popular science magazines and instruction manuals were compared with their counterparts from American sources. The results show that the Chinese visuals provide more contextual information to the readers when presenting new scientific concepts. The Chinese instruction manuals contain graphics with extensive technical data, which are not a typical feature in American manuals. The American visuals, on the other hand, are more closely integrated with corresponding verbal explanations. The emphasis of American manuals is on problem solving, that is, performing tasks. Cultural factors that may account for the differences are also discussed.

Qiuye, Wang. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Graphic Design>Regional>China