IMAGE GENERATION AND ASSEMBLY

I. Introduction

  1. Just think about the printed products you see every day.

1. magazines

2. books

3. cereal boxes

4. garment label

5. numerous others

B. All of these "products" involves some type of graphic design.

1. graphic arts – a broad field that involves printing

C. Since printed materials are often sent to a large number of people,

this is one form of mass communication.

D. Designing a graphic arts product can be divided into stages or phrases of
production, which include:
1. image design

2. image generation and assembly

3. image carrier preparation

4. image transfer

5. product finishing

II. Graphic Image Design, Generation, and Assembly

A. Graphic image design follows a sequence of steps.

1. small, thumbnail sketches

2. rough layouts

3. comprehensive

B. Types of images:

  1. The part of the product that is printed is known as the image.
  2. also known as copy

2. The background, which is not printed, is the non-image area.

C. There are two kinds of images, or copy.

1. line - a uniformly dark, or dense, image

a. printed words, shapes, lines, etc.

*only type of image that can be printed with links

2. continuous tone images - have variations in density

a. black and white photography

b. converted to line copy, if printing is required

*halftone- using different sized dots to provide density

D. Line copy can be changed for special effects:

  1. tint - using dots of equal size
  2. reverse - the image is an area that is not printed
  3. surprint - printing over an area that is already printed

E. All printed products have at least two colors:

  1. paper color
  2. ink color

F. Colors on the product should be in harmony.
1. In other words, they should look good together.
2. examples:

a. monochromatic

b. analogous

c. complementary

d. triadic color

G. Monochromatic harmony is achieved by designing in various shades

or tints of a single color.

  1. shade - produced by adding black to the color used
  2. tint - produced by adding white to the color used

H. Analogous harmony is achieved by using colors next to one another

on the color wheel.

1. examples include:

a. blue & blue-green

b. red & red-violet

c. yellow & yellow-green

I. Complementary harmony is achieved by sing colors next to one another

on the color wheel.

1. examples include:

a. yellow & violet

b. green & red

c. blue-green & red-orange

J. Triadic harmony is achieved by using colors directly across from each

other on the color wheel.

1. examples include

a. yellow/blue/red

b. green/violet/orange

K. Colored inks can be either opaque or transparent

1. opaque - cover what is underneath and stays the same color

2. transparent - combines with the color underneath

L. Process color printing is printing that is used to reproduced colored,

continuous tone pictures and photographs.

  1. four colors are used for printing:
  2. yellow
  3. magenta
  4. cyan
  5. black

M. Typography is the art of effectively using type to convey a message.

  1. key points:
  2. capital letters - known as upper case letters
  3. small letters - known as lower case letters
  4. large letter sizes - known as display type
  5. small letter sizes - known as body copy

N. A typeface is a specific type design.

  1. six general classifications:
  2. Serif (Roman)
  3. Sans Serif
  4. Square Serif
  5. Script
  6. Old English
  7. Novelty

O. Others items pertain to type:

  1. specific typeface:
  2. thousands are available
  3. type styles
  4. italic
  5. bold
  6. font
  7. specific typeface
  8. style
  9. size

*points (10 pts., 12 pt., 14 pt., etc)

  1. leading
  2. spacing between lines bottom to bottom

P. There are a variety of formats for printed products.

  1. examples include:
  2. brochures
  3. books
  4. pamphlets
  5. newspapers
  6. newspaper
  7. others?
  8. other key points:
  9. page layouts specifications
  10. signature – printing both sides of a single sheet
  11. dummy
  12. imposition – placing pages in correct printing position

Q. Image design steps:

  1. determine type of product to be used
  2. printing method used
  3. produce dummy
  4. layouts developed
  5. sketches
  6. rough layouts

*mark-up information

-width of margins

-color & type of paper

-ink color & location

-typeface, size, leading, & column width

-special information (halftones, tints, shades, etc.)

-scaling information

-finishing and binding information

  1. design of individual page(s)
  2. comprehensive layouts