Slashdot Mirror

The Media is a system... built to keep us under control... in order to turn a human being... into this

As a graphic designer, you already know why you shouldn't use an inkjet printer at all to produce prints for sale. But if you don't, the reason is dithering. For sellable products, you'd be better off with a dye sublimation or photographic process.

As a potential customer, I know which one I'd buy. I've seen inkjet printed graphic art at my local coffee shop, and while it is certainly better than why my personal printer could put out (not by much, though, not counting the fact I wouldn't be able to produce the high quality images in the first place). But I wouldn't buy them, because they still look like cheesy printouts from anywhere other than a number of steps back. In lightly colored areas, there are easily visible dots all over the place, and in darker areas details are missing.

When I look at the pictures, I sometimes think I'd buy the digital version of that, then take that digital version to CVS and print it on their photo-printer that has pretty poor consistency with regard to color space, but still is far superior to inkjet. Of course, if the artist had used a more appropriate process for their art, that wouldn't be necessary.* But most of the time, I simply lose interest around the time I see the dots.

For a lot less than $20 (actually, a more than fair price listed on a few of the pictures on display in the aforementioned coffee shop), I can visit stock.xchng and crop and print out one of their images for personal use. I could probably send one of those images to a printer and get a really high quality print for my home, but that exceeds the level of effort and expenditure at which I'd rather actually pay an artist and get something I really like instead of cobbling together something I kind-of think is sort-of cool.

*some of the prints do have labels that indicate they can be purchased in other forms, but IMO the prints on display should be in the most stunning and/or accurate medium the artist has available.

No matter how high-quality your ink-jet printer is, or high-quality your inks are, I can see the dots. And the dots make even the most stunning images look cheesy.

You're forgetting data compression...

Nice satellite pictures.

I found a very up close picture taken from a US spy satellite

Here is a test image that I believe was designed for printer/monitor color calibration (I dredged it up from the data recovered from a hard drive failure a while back). It is 2297x3600x24 at a resolution of 360 pixels per inch for a final image size of 6.381x10 inches. Included on the image are several Kodak color charts, along with a variety of household objects and several faces of varying skin colors.

Here is another test photo of the same style as the first one. According to the CNET Labs printer page, this is "the industry-accepted PhotoDisc Target document." Not sure about that (especially with the website logo in the corner of the image), but whatever. It works nonetheless.

Following with the previous recommendation of finding a vibrant nature photo, I located a rather beautiful photograph (free registration required for download) of the Grand Canyon with a large variety of colors at 1200x1600x24.

I have been thinking about this on and off for a while now (still stuck in lowly inkjet-land). Thanks for finally motivating me to do some research. Hope this aids you in your obsessive-compulsive quest to achieve satisfaction from knowing every little defect in your printer.

What about Stock XChange?

Free (stock) photography. A lot of is just OK, some of it is not really stock photography, but the site is one of those can't live without them sites. Especially considering the cost of paying for Corbis, etc.

Not even a Creative Commons License... Just completely free*. I almost am shamed to provide the link as their servers are constantly overloaded.

* As in beer-speech. Some have their worked marked "for non-commercial use only" but sending a friendly email of "Can I have this on my site?" usually ends in a reply with approval.

I'll get to the on-topic post in a little bit.

I've lived "on my own" for the past 4 years and although I know how to cook certain meals and I like to experiment in the kitchen, it's something I associate as a "hobby" - I go down to the fresh market, buy salmon, buy leafy greens I've never heard of, etc. with results that are sometimes visually disastrous (3 ft. tall flames englufing a Jack Daniel's-soaked salmon fillet) yet still delicious. Most of the time, it is a pain in the ass to get home from work late in the day (say, 8pm) and then spend an hour doing more "work", cooking as opposed to just eating.

I've found, for the budget conscious, that $20 in Chinese food will usually get me and a companion through most of the week. I've also cultivated a mental list of which days food is cheap where. Mind you, I live in a borderline suburban/rural location in a state famous for its love of chain restaurants, so my choices are pretty limiting. However, the local Irish restaurant/pub has half-price appetizer Mondays (half-rack of ribs... $4.45!) and half-price burgers on Tuesdays (bison + bacon cheeseburger, caesar salad, asparagus... $4.95!). Wednesdays the local brewery has half-price gourmet pizzas (portobella, shiitake, oyster and crimini mushrooms, grilled red onion, fresh herbs, fontina and mozzarella... $4.75!) which are large enough to split.

Even going to "finer" restaurants can be quite cheap. I've found that most portions that now go as appetizers are enough for me to split with someone else and we're both satisfied. Mind you this is somewhere where you're paying $15 for an appetizer (they usually call them something preposterously self-important, like "beginnings").

That said, home cooking is still best, not only because of the price but because you know, at least moreso than if you're at a restaurant, what exactly you are eating.

And the on-topic comment? I highly recommend stock.xchng which carries my personal distinction of being the only Hungarian site I ever visit.

I would also recommend sxc.hu and iStockphoto sxc is free, and istock is neaarly free (anywhere from 50 cents to 1.50 per pic, depending on size)

If you're thinking about using Lightwave or Maya for a web site, you're probably overthinking things a bit.

Clean and simple is the rule. Think apple.com, news.com, the new site at arstechnica.com, sun.com (GREAT use of color...not everyone can design around the color purple). There are hundreds more.

My recipe for websites is easy: use gotlogos.com for the main site logo. It costs $25, they're fast, and in most cases more than sufficient for what you need. After you have the logo (or before if you know ahead of time), work up a color palette. Not too hard to do, and it is free.

Then grab some icons...you can buy icon packs for a lot less than the cost of Photoshop or similar. Or use free or GPL icons (beware of licensing issues).

Interface design for the web and most applications dictate that you don't use "unusual" fonts, especially since people can easily override your specs with their browser settings, making all your font work futile. About the only place you need a font might be on the logo, and gotlogos.com will handle that for you.

So you've got a logo, a color palette, some spiffy icons, and you've spent about $200 or less. Anything more, you'd be better off getting a designer/artist.

Most clip art (if not all) looks like ass...stay away from it.

Finally, if you need photos, take your own or hit up http://www.sxc.hu/.

In the past I have looked towards open source oriented themes sites.... You'll find a variety of things like icon collections listed under bsd, lgpl, or gpl licenses although what exactly that means is beyond me.

Another source is the Stock Photo Exchange. They have a variety of independently listed photos most of which you have express permission to use however you want. Quality varies.

Real professional graphics designers will usually have massive paid-for multimedia collections to draw upon.

• 1. Stock photos. A good picture is worth a 1000 design elements. Start scavenging for stock photos NOW. A good place to start is here: http://sxc.hu/.
• 2. Avoid excessive effects and filters when not needed. Nothing ruins a good design like trying to emboss everything or making it 3D.
• 3. Keep it clean and simple. Think Apple.
• 4. Learn from the experts. Visit places like http://www.deviantart.com/ You can even post designs and get peer reviews. Also, http://http//www.alistapart.com will help.
• 5. Use and abuse CSS. The separation of design elements from everything else will help immensely. You will be amazed by this site: http://www.csszengarden.com/ Change the themes and be amazed by the power of CSS!!!
• 6. Buy graphic design books, preferably those with collections of commercial art made by different designers. Get inspired ;-)
• 7. Get a digital camera and take lots and lots of pictures of the world around you. Current examples of designs and logos and ads will help.