W
hile it’s certainly possible to create readable print and online materials without the use of images, most of us prefer pictures to accompany our reading material. In fact, when it comes to communication, visuals are just as important as type. Images—photos, illustrations, infographics—set tone, add interest, provide additional information and visually break up intimidating blocks of type. The right image can add color, texture, line and movement to your layouts. The use of images adds eye entry points and communicates visual hierarchy. Images help create rhythm to assist flow, thus providing your readers with much-needed direction, i.e. where do I start, where do I go next and where is the end? When it comes to choosing the right images for your particular project, there are several factors to consider from image content to image quality.
IMAGE CONTENT Of course you should choose your photos and illustrations to fit the overall tone of the piece you’re producing. Tone, obviously, is determined by what you or the boss want to project and, more importantly, what will resonate with your audience. You just don’t put pictures of circus clowns on the front of an investment-banking brochure. Say, for example, you really are choosing images for an investment-banking brochure. You might have a selection of appropriately serious-looking photos of people in suits shaking hands or conversing with other people in suits. How do you pick the best suits from the bunch? Choose wisely. Always choose the best available art. Poor quality art brings down the quality of the whole project. Reproduced by permission Florida AHEC Network.
132 White Space Is Not Your Enemy
Image quality. One of the first and easiest things you can do to whittle your photo selections is to throw out the technically defective images. This is the photo equivalent of weeding out resumes by tossing out those with typos. Scrap any photos that are out of focus, that lack good tonal range (value and grayscale) and that lack proper resolution (more about this shortly). Despite the availability of photo-correcting software, it’s still best to start with a good-quality photo that needs little to no correction. Some things can be fixed. Others, like lack of focus and resolution, cannot.