Ok we are back again and today we will talk about DPI (dots per inch). Dpi is quite important when you are making stuff in an image edit program. When you start an new document you always have to ask you the question; what is it meant for, Should it be high res or small file size?
What is DPI ?
To use Dpi correctly you have to know what dpi is. When you look at a poster through a microscope you may notice that large plains of color aren’t actually solid. The closeness of the dots gives you the illusion of a color. As the name suggest dpi are the amount of dots you will find in 1 inch (2.54 centimeters). When used in a picture this can add a lot or decrease a lot of detail.
The bigger the better ?
Yes and no. This depends on what you are gonna do with it. If this is meant for offset print you can go for 250 - 330 dpi. When you work with these dpi settings you will notice that the size of you document increases with it. So working 300 dpi images for web is a no-go. For web images you should aim 72 dpi (screen resolution). If you are simply working for your home printer a 150 dpi should do the trick.
If you have any questions depending DPI dont hesitate to ask.
So let’s continue where we left off shall we? In this part we are gonna talk about how to use fonts and where to get them.
What are good font websites ?
The site with the most font’s isn’t necessarily the best one, the site should be easy to use and let you get a good look at the font first before downloading. There are a lot of sites out there, so I will only address my favorite free one’s.
Of course there are many more, but these are just my favorites.
Dangers of using fonts
When you use a custom font you should note that there are some dangers attached to it. You should keep in mind that not everyone has the fonts that you use and this can lead to some unexpected situations. There are however some easy precautions to take, The easiest of them is to make outlines of your fonts. The problem here is that the text becomes un-editable. You can also attach the font with your work, but this can bring some copyright problems.
When you download free fonts you should always keep an eye out for the copyright label. The most used copyright options are: freeware, shareware or public domain. When you download a font from one of the above sites there will normally be a readme in the package that states what you can and can’t do with it.
More control over you fonts
When you have a lot of fonts installed on you pc or mac you will notice that it gives a performance loss on your system. To counter this you can download a handy font management tool called FontExplorder (There is a free version). This tool allows you to activate font’s on the fly. This means you don’t need to restart photoshop to activate a different font.
Lets talk about fonts shall we? A font is one of the most important parts of a design, It can make a good design really good or really bad. There are so many different fonts out there that it can be a real hassle to choose the one you need. This can be a real problem with new designers. So lets see what to do and what not to do.
Serif or sans Serif
The difference between a serif font and a sans-serif font are the strokes on the end of the letter. For example; Times new roman is a serif font and Helvetica or Arial are sans serif fonts. So how do I choose the font I need? The main rule here is: If it is for a lot of text, go for serif. It makes reading the text a lot more easy. A sans serif font is usually seen as more classy, so if it is a flyer or poster you are making, I would go for a sans serif one
Corps
The corps indicates the size of the x-height. This seems simple, belief me it’s not. There are no real rules on how big your corps must be or how small you can go. This is all just gut feeling. The only way you can get really good at this is just keep on practicing.
What fonts not to choose
There are a couple of fonts that you should not use. These font are really not done :
- Comic sans
- Monotype Corsiva
- Lucida Handwriting
- Papyrus
- Any font that is just to difficult to read
Helvetica
The font you can never go wrong with is helvetica. This legendary Letter type is the most used in the world. This type face is timeless and can be used in a lot of places. It is even so famous that it is the star in a self named movie. So if you don’t know what font to choose and you want to play save, go for heveltica.
