Daily Dose of DTP 5. Elements: Not Just for Science Geeks

Any logo, greeting card, photo collage, newsletter, or book cover that might be created using desktop publishing techniques is composed of a combination of specific elements. They are the individual building blocks that all come together to make what we instantly recognize as the About logo with its red ball, the cover of PC World magazine, or our own face rendered as a caricature.

People go to college and take hours and hours of classes to learn all about the elements of design and how to use them but you’re going to get a crash course introduction in today’s daily dose – without stepping foot in a classroom.

Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printing > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls)

Today’s Definition
Elements of Design
Can you draw a straight (or crooked) line, pick a color from a box of crayons, or put a square peg into a round hole?

Start a DTP or Graphic Design Business 5. Develop Your USP

We’re going to get personal in lesson 5 of our Start a Desktop Publishing Business Email Course. Tell me, what’s so special about you? What makes you unique? How will you convince prospective clients that you’re the designer they should be doing business with?

This and the next few lessons will explore issues related to you, your qualifications, your target market, and how you are going to find customers for your new business.

Missed a lesson? Get it here: http://desktoppub.about.com/c/ec/83lost.htm

Lesson Five
What’s So Special About You?
USP is your unique selling point. Also called your unique selling proposition, it is what sets you and your business — or you as an individual — apart from your competition. It can be an actual fact or a perceived difference or specialty. Every business needs one.

9-Day Make a Greeting Card Class Graphics Editing

Sure, you can use clip art or photos “as is” but for that extra touch, consider a little editing. You don’t even have to be an expert with graphics software to turn canned clip art into custom creations for your greeting card.

This is Lesson 5 in the 9-Day Create a Greeting Card Class. If you did not receive or lost a previous lesson, retrieve it here: Missing Lessons

Definitions
Edit, Resize, Recolor
There are dozens of ways to modify graphics. We’ll tackle just a few.

Rules of DTP Lesson 5: Centered Text

Right Down the Middle
There is nothing inherently wrong with centered text. As with ragged right or fully-justified text alignment, what works for one design might be totally inappropriate for another layout. There are simply fewer situations where centered text is appropriate. Today’s lesson suggests when and when not to center your text.

Use Centered Text Sparingly
When in doubt, don’t center it.

Create a Portfolio in 6 Days Lesson 5: Organizing Your Portfolio

Create a Portfolio in 6 Days
Lesson 5: Organizing Your Portfolio
There are several ways you can organize the contents of your portfolio. In this lesson you’ll explore some tried-and-true methods and based on what you hope to accomplish with your portfolio you’ll look at each method and find the arrangements that work best for you and your portfolio pieces. Go to Lesson 5: Organizing Your Portfolio

Organize Your Photos with Photoshop Elements Day 5: Tagging Your Photos

Day Five Lesson
Get Organized by Tagging Your Photos
Get started creating a tag hierarchy and tagging your own photo collection.
Ask Questions and Get Help with this Lesson

About Graphics Software: Easter Eggs and Chicks, Picasa Red Eye Fix

In the Spotlight
How To Fix Red Eye with Picasa
Picasa is a popular free digital photo organizer from Google. It includes a tool for red eye removal that helps you quickly remove the glowing red pupils from your snapshot photos.

Decorating Easter Eggs in Illustrator
Sara Froehlich shows you how to make Easter eggs in Adobe Illustrator — from drawing and coloring them, to dividing them using the pathfinder palette and using brush strokes and symbols to decorate them.

Graphics Challenge: Think Spring!
Still caught in the clutches of Winter? Can’t wait for Robins to return and the Crocus to poke through the ground? Well then it’s time to Think Spring! This week’s challenge is to create your image of Spring.

More Topics

• Easter Egg and Chicks with Painter
• 3D Easter Eggs in Illustrator
• Free Christian Brushes
• Free Christian Shapes
• Free Easter Egg and Bunny Graphics
• Resize a Batch of Images with XnView
• Turn Color Clip Art into Line Art

Desktop Publishing: Making Envelopes

In the Spotlight
Kreate-a-Lope Envelope Kit
After designing and printing a fabulous greeting card or photo card, why stick it in a generic envelope? This kits makes it easy to create a perfectly sized envelope using all kinds of great papers.

Parts of an Envelope
Did you know that envelopes have throats and shoulders? Learn more about these parts as well as folds, seams, and flaps.

Envelope Styles and Dimensions
Announcement, Baronial, Booklet, Catalog, Commerical, and Square Envelopes come in many standard sizes.

More Topics

• No Bitmap Photos, Please
  BMP, Perhaps?
• Setting Up File for Perfect Bind
  Discuss It!
• Character Style Problem in QuarkXPress
  Can You Help?
• Framemaker Bullet Problem
  Any FM Experts?

9-Day Make a Greeting Card Class: Graphics Selection

Definitions
What is a Graphic?
In addition to the basic definitions for graphics, clip art, and graphics style, explore the expanded definitions for Clip Art, Border, Dingbat, Downrule, End Sign, Graph, Lines, and Rule.

Create a Portfolio in 6 Days Lesson 4: Portfolio Cases

Create a Portfolio in 6 Days
Lesson 4: Choosing a Portfolio Case
Making a good first impression applies to your appearance in person, on the phone, in writing, and on your business card. It also applies to the container you use to hold your portfolio. Even if you can’t afford a zippered leather case with handle, a ratty old folder won’t do. In this lesson we’ll look at how to choose a portfolio including size. In the assignment you’ll also find links to specific types of portfolios to help you find the one that works for you. Go to Lesson 4: Choosing a Portfolio Case