Web Design Illustration Tips

by: Granny's Mettle

Pictures are worth a thousand words. So are illustrations and images on any web page. Your illustrations will either make your visitors stay and read on, or make them decide to skip and click on another web site.

For best results, you could apply the following tips for illustrations in your web pages:

• Use colors from a typical web palette for your illustrations. If you use solid colors for your illustrations, try to stick to the standard 216 colors of the web palette. The colors will have the same look on any type of computers and web browsers. If you want to use color gradients or blends, try it out first on your screen set to only 256 colors. This is to avoid having your colors look very muddied, unattractive, and hard to distinguish. If it doesn't look good at this resolution, try a different color blend that is not as harsh. Furthermore, the colors in your illustrations should also match those used in other graphics of your web site layout. This includes the masthead, sidebar, buttons, icons, image maps, among others.

• Provide thick lines in your illustrations. Results in the printed image differ from images on your computer screen. Small lines that are visible in your printed image will show up more thinly or not at all on the screen. This is because the monitor has a much lower resolution than ink to a printed page. Remember to make your lines thicker and your illustrations will be seen more clearly by browsers, even to the most minute detail.

• Browsers should be able to download quickly. Speed is important for people who browse the internet. No matter that your illustrations are great and worthy of praise, visitors will definitely leave your site in a snap if they are too big in file size and difficult to download. A big file for an illustration takes a long time to download. Test first your illustrations at a smaller file size, either by reducing the amount of colors or provide them with less space on your screen. If they look good then provide a smaller version. Your visitors will be grateful and stay longer at your site.

• Your illustrations should attract attention. Your illustrations should be able to attract your visitors' attention and make them want to read and click on to further pages. A very good illustration also adds perspective and character to your words. So make your illustrations speak for your web site.

• Illustrations are there to compliment, not control. Illustrations are made to compliment your web page and not to overpower other elements. They should be able to attract attention but not so much that visitors become distracted from the content. Allow for some breathing space. Provide white spaces in between images. Also, don't overcrowd your page with too many illustrations. Place them strategically in the whole web site.

• Provide relevant illustrations to the web page content. Your illustrations are worthless if they don't convey the message you want to send out. In addition to confusing your audience, they also take up too much time to download. They need to compliment your content. One look at your illustrations and the visitors should be able to have an impression of what they are about to read.

• Save illustrations in the proper file format. Save your illustrations in their proper file format, such as .gif and .jpeg. If you used mostly solid colors and lines, save your illustration as GIF files for it to look sharp. On the other hand, save illustrations as JPEG files if you used gradients or blends.

• Provide protection for your illustrations. Copying and downloading of images and illustrations are very common. Hence, it is important for you to protect your illustrations from unauthorized use. You could provide a copyright symbol with the name of your company or organization to your illustrations. If you want additional security, you could also subscribe to a digital watermarking service that allows visitors to see your name as author and copyright holder of the illustration. This kind of service also provides tracking of other sites in the web that displays your illustrations without permission.