Images and Illustrations
Hardly anyone will argue the fact that images and designs
created with their help can substantially improve documents. Visual memory
is important to memorize information, details and images help you in that.
How can images be used?
— to deliver additional information about yourself, your activities, clarify
text (a picture is worth a thousand words).
— to divide elements: separate information, stress important points, etc.
— to draw attention, make a document (business card, envelope, etc.)
remembered (stand out from the crowd).
Image types
Usually images are divided into two categories: raster and vector.
 Raster images are the most common type, the most used formats:
JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, PNG. All raster images consist of dots that causes quality
loss when increasing the size or printing out an image (as the dots become bigger).
Remember: your image may look awesome on the screen but print out in poor quality.
Size (300 pixels wide and 400 pixels high — 300 x 400) and Resolution (number of pixels
per square inch) are among the most important characteristics of raster images.
 Among raster images special attention should be paid to masked
pictures. Regular photo is a rectangle consisting of pixels. Applying another
picture — mask to it allows to fade or switch off some pixels of the main image.
What is the benefit of this? If you have separate photos of a teapot and a table,
combining them into a single picture is impossible. However, if the teapot image
is masked — then there will be no problem — all pixels around the teapot are off
with the help of mask.
 Another important image type is vector images, usually in EPS,
PDF or WMF format. Vector images consist of lines and fills, thus the quality of
these pictures is not lost if their size is increased. Usually, vector images are
drawn ones.
There is no definite answer to the question “Which pictures
are better to use: vector or raster?”.
Vector images add to a technical, strict look of a document. Using vector pictures,
you shouldn’t worry about the quality of the printed document. On the other
side, raster images deliver you a wide choice of colors, half-tints and shapes.
Often this can be the only alternative to show real objects (all you have are photos).
Where to get images?
1. The simplest way of getting many images is to
purchase a software with integrated clipart. For example, more than 23.000 images are
supplied with Business Card Composer, which should be enough in 90% of cases. Usually,
this is a cheaper way because you get tons of pictures for a slight addition to the
program price.
2. The second way is to buy a special collection of
clipart images. These collections can be of a general type, as well as specialized. Below
you can find links to such clipart products:
http://www.hemera.com/
http://www.avanquest.com/UK/work/design-print-web-cad/Cliparts/
http://www.logoclipart.com/
Subscription-based sites are good when you often need images from
different areas (if you are a designer or an artist):
http://www.clipart.com/ Paid access to a huge number of images
http://www.absolutvision.com/ Great photo objects collection
http://vector-images.com Clipart of vector images (Heraldic is included)
3. Thirdly, you can make the image yourself. Nowadays
digital cameras allow you to take a necessary picture and use it later (or take one from
a friend). A good advice: keep your photos in Apple iPhoto. Apart from convenient preview
and search, you get editing possibilities. And other programs (like Mail Factory, Business Card Composer, Swift Publisher and Disc Cover) that integrate with iPhoto allow to use your digital photos when
creating new designs.
If you want to insert a vector image or a scheme, try drawing it with the help of an
excellent EazyDraw software.
4. Finally, you can search endless Internet for the
image you need. By typing a keyword in image section of Google you can find relevant
pictures (http://images.google.com). Similar functionality is available directly from
Mail Factory, Business Card Composer, Swift Publisher and Disc Cover. This
is virtually the only way to find an image of a unique thing or place. You should be
aware that some pictures can be used only after obtaining the author’s permission.
Below you can find links to web sites with free photos (copyright permissions are
available on these sites):
http://www.freefoto.com/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/
http://www.pbase.com/ Photo sharing and photo hosting web site
http://www.flickr.com/ Online photo sharing web site
http://picasaweb.google.com/ Online photo sharing web site
To conclude, graphic should be used carefully, too much of it can also spoil your documents.
Valeriy Ryazanov
Last reviewed: April 2008
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