Category Website Design And Development

By John Schofield

In the 1980s, desktop publishing came out and graphic designers began to utilize computers for all kinds of things. It has soon fuelled them to be in competition with each other, in terms of computer hardware and whatnot. Desktop Publishing (DTP) are systems that were developed to replace pre-press, specialist design and compositing systems. Graphic design relies on the use of computers, either Windows PCs or Apple Macs; and all designers aim to be able to use the best computer for this purpose. Good ones will rarely choose cheap hardware for something as important as this; and it all boils down to making the finest choice.

Macs were the weapon of choice, especially in the eighties, for both designing and printing. Many design layout and graphics software was developed for Macs. Some were able to function in Microsoft Windows PC, as well, but most programs are more reliable when they are running on Mac. Nowadays, however, most designing software can easily be used in both Mac or PC. Graphic designers no longer have to choose one anymore.

Most graphic design experts are not even IT literate; and they spend quite an awful lot of time making a decision of which computer to choose. If money, of course were to be considered, then the choice would be a lot simpler. If you wish to make your choice based on which one was more valuable, then you would just buy the most expensive in the list. Unfortunately, since most graphic designers cannot afford expensive hardware, and often only have money to buy second-hand computers, they focus themselves on the secondary considerations: colour accuracy, hard disk speed, external storage devices and monitor calibration.

Top five computers for graphic design

Mac Pro Desktop: Most graphic designers still prefer the Mac line, among all the others. Apple says that Mac Pro features the all-new quad-core Intel Xeon ‘Nehalen’ processor that simplifies every graphic designer’s job. It is 1.9 times faster than the one that came before it, and it is equipped with an integrated memory controller that allows it to have faster access to the data that has been stored in the memory, allowing designers to complete their jobs in record time.

MacBok Prop Laptop: This one is available in 13. 15 and 17 inches, and operates in high-performance NVDIA graphics and LED backlit display. The battery power, compared to the others, is able to last for up to eight hours, and it is powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Dell Studio XPS Desktop: Equipped with an Intel Core 15 and 17 processors, the Dell Studio XPS Desktop is perfect for video and 3D-editing jobs, especially if you upgrade your system to the 16GB and Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM. A simple 3GB will probably allow you to edit photographs and create vectors and raster designs quite easily, and is able create clear, flawless and precise graphics like no other hardware can.

Toshiba Qosmio Laptop: It is the most affordable solution for your graphic designing needs and it is powered by Intel Core 15 or 17 processor.

HP Pavilion Elite Desktop: Another rather affordable computer that is either powered by AMD Anthlon or Intel Core processor. It has memories that range between 4GB up to 9GB and is able to guarantee smooth and effortless graphics.

About the Author:

design studio Manchesterweb design Manchester

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=636652&ca=Computers+and+Technology

By Ray Gatica

Houston, TX: Via this article, we will cover what artist need and how to go about setting up a virtual gallery for themselves on the World Wide Web. Artist can now have his or her very own galleries, even if it is on the Internet where it can be visited by virtually anyone any time.

We will cover from photographing the art to photo editing, and software needed to build a site, registering a domain to getting a web host service that will uploading the site via a web hosting service. We will cover a little bit of information on SEO for your site.

These virtual galleries are a product of our times. It has been coming for a long time. It started with the advent of the computer. But more recently due to the Internet it has come a medium for artist to showcase their art to the whole world.

Artist, Ray Gatica we will shed light on how an artist can set up his or her own virtual gallery. Gatica builds and maintains has been creating and maintaining websites. His non-commercial site is GaticaArt.com.

Of course, the first thing you will need to proceed is have a computer or access to one. Some of the software that you will need is the digital camera software, PhotoShop or similar photo-editing program. And web building programs FrontPage, Dream Weaver or similar, and of course Internet access.

Taking the photos: We start with photographing your art. Day light is the best light for taking the pics. Taking photos in daylight requires planning; you want a nice sunny day without clouds to cause shadows on the work. The best times to take photo outside are when the sun is at ten AM and around two in the afternoon – so that the sun is around thirty-five degrees on the art surface. This way the sunlight will not cause a reflection on the picture’ surface – thereby eliminating hot/bright spots or color washout.

Digital cameras are your friend. Opposed to the old 35 MM cameras, digital cameras make it easier to shoot your art and they can be easily uploaded to a computer, where they can be opened in a photo editing software to do the editing without losing any quality from the scanning process. An important tip: when shooting, use a camera tripod to steady the camera. This allows for sharp and properly focused pics. This is important even with the digital cameras. Also, take more than one shot, so that you will have the option pick the best one from the few.

After selecting you r best shots you have the options of using a scanner if you used the old non-digital camera. If you used a digital camera you will have the images in your computer after transferring them in. Either way the next step is to open the images in PhotoShop or comparable photo editing software. I have been using PhotoShop for over ten years. In editing the photos you may need to balance them, crop them or balance colors or sharpen/focus them a bit. You will also have to size them to whatever size you need, depending on what you will use them for. For Shows they usually have to be save in a certain size. The show will let you know the requirements. To size the image or canvas size go to the image or canvas size menu, you can and set the size parameters there. When done save the image in a JPG format.

Web Building Program: After all that you are ready to build your site. If you do not have a program of this type there are two that I am familiar with, FrontPAge and Dream Weaver. These programs can be found for Windows and MACs. This is more complex so you will have invest time on learning the programs. To learn these programs find someone that can help or, take a class at your local college.

Building the site will be a series of writing content and importing images and tying in all the pages with links to form the various pages and site.

The site should also include assorted pages with your art and biography, Press articles, and as much related literary content you can put together. Websites are about a lot of content, so the best way to set up a site is to create numerous pages with content. See SEO Below.

After building the site with all your images you will have to register a domain name: for your Universal Resource Locator (URL). Your specific domain name will be your address in the World Wide Web. This is what you will promote and. how people will find you on the net. For this do a search for ‘domain name hosting’ and some service providers will show up. On the average, the price for a domain name is around $10.00 per year.

After you have a domain name, and you have Internet access, you will require a web hosting service to upload to the Internet. There are numerous host provider services out there that also provide the hosting service. I use a company name Dotster. I have been pleased with them since they always answer the phone when I need help. When uploading the site for the first time you will need the hosting service to set up your service with pass words, username, and pertinent connection numbers.

After seeing you website on the Internet review it and make editions and make sure all the links work. I recommend you keep your site up and to date. It is recommended by Internet Marketing experts to keep loading content as frequent as possible, consistently.

Finally there is something called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), this is a relatively new concept to me, but it is the most important since the success of your website depends on it. To find out more about this do a search for Internet marketing and, Search Engine Optimization.

Gatica’s approach to building a site is: KISS ‘Keep it Simple Sonny’.

I like a clean, basic, straightforward website without extra unnecessary material that will slow down a site’s load-up time. Flashy, memory-laden graphics increase download time and are very frustrating to visitors to your site when they have to wait more than needed. I do not believe it benefits the site owners to have superfluous material. It is best if you build a site with information and literary content.

Artist Ray Gatica builds and maintains sites. You can see some of his site at airbrushmagic.net, muralsandbigart.com and the afore mentioned one.

Good Luck!

About the Author: A professional graphic designer in Houston, Ray Gatica designs logos, graphics, a variety of businesses; Artist Ray Gatica builds and maintains sites. You can see some of his site at

airbrushmagic.net

,

muralsandbigart.com

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=700805&ca=Arts+and+Crafts