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?

 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