When you’re designing for web, your images are usually 72 dpi (Dots Per Inch), which is standard for screen resolution. For most print projects, you’re going to need more than 4 times that resolution: 300 dpi. If you try and print your files at 72 dpi you will end up with blurry, fuzzy pictures, and you want the highest quality for your clients, right?
At one point it was thought that designers simply had creative input into the online look and feel or ‘brand’ of an online project, whilst more ‘technical’ developers, or html coders would build the actual site.
But this has certainly changed and, whilst not all graphic designers are involved in website design – many preferring to stay in the print design world – those that do venture into online design have swiftly taken on many new skills.
One of the most fascinating features about studying Photoshop is that you soon learn that it often provides a variety of different tools and techniques for achieving similar results. Indeed, experimenting with those techniques is often the best way of teaching yourself.
It is fair to say that few, if any, designers can claim to have mastered all of its techniques. Even the Adobe Photoshop help manual and the various third party teach yourself Photoshop books barely scratch the surface.
Many designers increasingly are using computer graphic design tools to create and better visualize the final product. Graphic designers prepare sketches — by hand or with the aid of a computer — to illustrate the vision for the design. After consulting with the client, an art or design director, or a development team, designers create detailed designs using drawings, a structural model, computer simulations, or a full-scale prototype.