Clip Art(& collections of thumbnail images)

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this topic you should be able to:

discuss the advantages & disadvantages of using clip art;

discuss the advantages & disadvantages of using collections of thumbnail images

What is Clip-art?

What is Clip-art? fairly simple, often stylised drawings

• can be in bitmap or vector format

included with WP, DTP, presentation & web design software

inserted into a document, presentation or web page• to illustrate or make more interesting

commercially clip-art libraries available • on-line, CD/DVD

Exam Question:

A business has recently started selling fish food and pond accessories by mail order.

The mail order service is to be called Koi Bitz.

A logo is to be developed for Koi Bitz. This logo will be on all company documentation.

Describe two advantages and two disadvantages of using clip art when creating the logo for Koi Bitz. [8]

June 2007 Q1

Task (20 mins.):

an alliteratively-named firm based on your own name• e.g. “Dora’s Dogs”, “Hunter’s Hints”

the logo must utilise: • the name of the firm• at least one image relevant to the firm’s activities• sensible use of colour

Try:• logomaker.com• Freelogoservices.com

Using software of your choice, design a logo for:

Advantages of Clip-art? readily available

• can use immediately

• do not need to buy expensive software

often free choice

• most categories of image are available can reduce costs

• do not have to employ designers

• no need to buy special equipment» e.g. digital camera, scanner, graphics tablet

Disadvantages of Clip-art? choice can be limited

• have to use what is available

• may not have specific images required quality

• often poor quality

• can be difficult to find high quality images may not be unique

• other company may have used the graphic may be copyright

• need to pay

Thumbnails a small-sized version of an image

• big enough to see …, small enough to fit many to a page» click to reveal a larger version of the original image

allow the reader to rapidly scan a collection of images• efficient indexing system for large image collections

examples: • wedding photographer.

» photographer takes hundreds of photographs of a wedding

» upload a thumbnail catalogue online

» guests can then pick and choose the photos they want to order

• Flickr» makes use of thumbnails to summarise and collate images

Advantages of using Thumbnails

presents a large number of images in a small space • can be sized to suit the available display space

• end user can get overview of what is on offer

more effective than just using text to describe an image

faster loading than full sized images• less time to wait

prevents theft of images• quality is too poor

Disadvantages of using Thumbnails: need software to produce the thumbnails in the first place

need to organise immages effectively on disk or online• time taken to create tags, categories, folders ….

need extra code to handle thumbnails • compared to just displaying every image