Q U A R R Y I N T E G R A T E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

Suomen tekniset dokumentoijat ry

Syysseminaari 2002

Polishing your picturesby Patrick Hofmann

Q U A R R Y I N T E G R A T E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

Patrick Hofmann

Tervetuloa!

• Anteeksi, en puhu suomea

• Minun nimeni on Patrick Hofmann

• I work at Quarry Integrated Communications near Toronto, Canada

• I was trained as a technical writer but I’m mostly an illustrator

Q U A R R Y I N T E G R A T E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

The agenda

1 Problems with pictures

2 Build picture templates

3 Show what you mean

4 Save your pictures properly

5 Questions

Q U A R R Y I N T E G R A T E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

1Problems with pictures

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Pictures are given too little priority

• We include pictures “because we must”

• We build our documents with templates, but not our pictures

• We build meaningful words, but not meaningful pictures

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Pictures have too many formats

• We deal with too many media -- and too many formats

• We are encouraged to use the same picture file across many media

• We think about our efficiency, but not the customer’s

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How do we solve these problems?

• Build picture templates

• Show what you mean

• Save your pictures properly

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2

Build picture templates

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The problem

• Pictures are drawn at different sizes, then squeezed into various spaces

• When reduced dramatically, the pictures and text are often unreadable

• As the destination sizes change, the text and line weights change

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The solution: build standard sizes

• When creating pictures, consider the final destination size

• If possible, draw at actual size

• For both print and online

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Build standard attributes

• Lines (line weight and colour)

• Fills (shading and colour values)

• Text (font, size, style, colour)

• Annotations (line, text, alignment)

• Use these attributes across all types of pictures

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The benefits

• Like your document conventions, customers will become acquainted with your picture conventions

• They will scan, read, and find meaning in your pictures much more quickly

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3Show what you mean

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The problem

• We build meaningful words, but not meaningful pictures

• Pictures often seem to have no purpose

• They are too often used to show physical proof -- with little meaning

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The solution: show what you mean

• Plan the picture before “putting pen to paper”

• Provide a focus of attention

• Ask yourself: What is the message of the picture? What do I include/exclude?

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The solution: show what you mean

• Plan the picture before “putting pen to paper”

• Provide a focus of attention

• Ask yourself: What is the message of the picture? What do I include/exclude?

Q U A R R Y I N T E G R A T E D C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

The solution: show what you mean

• Plan the picture before “putting pen to paper”

• Provide a focus of attention

• Ask yourself: What is the message of the picture? What do I include/exclude?

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The benefits

• If all pictures are meaningful, customers will rely on them to learn

• If even one picture is unmeaningful, customers will disregard all of them

• Saves you time in creating; saves customers time in reading

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4Save your pictures properly

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The problem

• Pictures are hard to read because of poor resolution

• Pictures have been resized improperly, resulting in poor quality

• A single picture file is used to satisfy several media types -- resulting in consistent quality

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The solution

• Never resize already exported / bitmapped graphics

• Always keep your raw picture files and only export from them

• Ask yourself: what format and resolution does each destination require?

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Three media to consider

• Hardcopylaser and press-printed documents

• Online online help, web pages, and presentation material

• PDF portable documents that are both viewed and printed

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For hardcopy documents

• Typical manual graphicsvector: EPS/WMFraster: 300 dpi TIF/GIF

• Cover graphics for film/offset printingvector: EPS/WMFraster: 1200 dpi TIF/JPG

• Keep your raw drawing or paint file

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For online documents

• Windows-based help72 ppi BMP

• HTML pagesvector: Flash/SVGraster: 72 ppi GIF/JPG

• Powerpoint presentations72 ppi BMP

• If possible, create your picture at actual size

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For PDF documents

• When you distill your hardcopy or online documents to PDF, specify how your graphics are compressed

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For PDF documents

• Again, there are three media to consider:

• Press

• Print

• Screen

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For PDF documents

• Press• Select 300 dpi +

maximum quality for colour/grayscale images, 1200 dpi for monochrome

• Print• Same as Press but

only high quality

• Screen• 72 dpi for all

images, with anti-aliasing

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The benefits

• By keeping your raw files, you can easily expand and update to other formats and media

• By targetting your picture resolution to different media, your pictures are more reliable

• Potentially more file management, but happier customers

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5In conclusion

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To polish your pictures

• Create your picture templates

• Plan the meaning of your picture

• Use your templates to build consistent pictures

• Save the picture properly

• Always think like the customer

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?

Questions?

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Kiitos!

• Minulla oli mukavaa!

• For a copy of this presentation, or further discussion, please email me:

phofmann@quarry.com