Okay, so specifically what I'm doing now is "Web Design and Development". The "Design" stuff is using things like Photoshop, Flash and whatever skills you have to make something look good. The "Development" stuff is all the things you don't see behind the design. It's the HTML and CSS coding on a web page or the Unix shells that run your computer. So, graphic design is the design part of "Web Design". They're the same thing. Right?
Web Design Differences
Unlike print design (which is probably the larger part of graphic design), there are different things you need to take into consideration when designing a web page. Some of the basics are things like:
Resolution- the quality of an image. Images are measured in resolution by pixels per inch (ppi). The web standard for images is about 72ppi. Any more than that, and the image may load slow. Does the page you are designing need a lot of pictures? Then you need to consider the resolution of those pictures before your web page takes 10 minutes to load, and your viewers decide to go somewhere else.
Font- what the text on the page looks like. Sure, font is important in print design as well, but when you use a font on a web page, you can run the risk of someone not being able to see it. Some fonts are special and don't come on every computer or are compatible with every web browser.
Image formats- the format in which your image is saved that effects its file size and quality in a different way than resolution. There are several different image formats like jpeg, gif, and png. Some have different capabilities that might be useful when designing a web page.
- Jpegs are probably the most common for general pictures (like that summer vacation photo you uploaded to your blog), but it can compress the picture making it look a little blurry sometimes. It's great for photos because of the amount of colors it has on its pallet.
- Gifs are pretty cool. It's a format that nearly every web browser recognizes and it's great for something with a few different colors and isn't too detailed. It also has the ability to be made into something that will play a sequence of images. You ever see those pictures online where an image of a cat plays a piano? No, not a video, but an image that plays kind of like a video. One downside: some mac users have some problems playing gifs if you saved the image.
- Png as a format sort of similar to Gif. It allows transparency (so do gifs) so those web sites where you see an image of a tree placed seamlessly on a background, but the tree goes beyond where the background stops without showing anything more than the tree? That's because the tree is a separate image with a transparent background. Unlike gifs, png does not support that animation feature, but png as a format was designed to replace gifs. Png also isn't supported by every browser, so using it you run the risk of your viewer not being able to even see your image.
Purpose- When you are designing a web page, you are designing something specific. Sure, you can be creative, but some things about web pages don't change that often between the two. With graphic design, the field is far more general. You may have job making a logo for a company, design a new poster for the next battle of the bands, or even creating those awkward brochures your doctor gives you that you're afraid to show anyone else.
You're not Alone- One final thing a web designer has to worry about is that you are not working on a web page alone. In print, you might have one person in charge of the text and one doing the design work. With designing a web page, you might have one person in charge of the text, one person in charge of the design and one person who is coding the page and bringing everything together. If all you are doing with a web page is designing how it looks by creating the images, you will probably need to work pretty close with the coder to make sure everything looks like you or your client envisioned.
Okay, so those are the kinds of things a web designer would have to consider that a normal graphic designer might not. They are different, sure, but they both still seem pretty appealing. What do I need to look at next?
Interested? Here are some links I used:
Web Design Enterprise: Difference Between Web Design and Graphic Design Web Design Enterprise is a company based in Florida who designs web pages for clients. While they are a company, and their website serves foremost to advocate their "high end web solutions", they do have a few interesting pages about web design and development. If you are interested in looking at the kinds of designs their clients have asked for, you can check out their portfolio. In this link, they talk about the things like font and images concerned with designing specifically for the web. They look a little more at the more technical side of the differences.
Graphic Design vs. Web Design: Separate and Not Equal
Here's this guys blog, Nick Haas. He's a web designer who used to work as a more general graphic designer. He points out a more designer side to the differences between designing for the web vs. print. Things like thinking about how usable your web page is and accepting the differences between the two.
Difference Between a Web and Graphic Designer
This article is like the others, it talks about what the title says, but it points out that you will use different tools and mediums for web design than you might for graphic design. A program like Photoshop you might use for both, but Dreamweaver you'll probably only use for web design. It also has a small section about what kinds of things you would do in graphic design that you wouldn't do in web design (like designing a poster or CD cover).
Here's some more information on the different image file formats. Sure, there are a few more including some that are specific to programs like photoshop files, but these are the big three.
Understanding the PPI, DPI and Resolution Dilemma
Want to know more about PPI and the resolution of images? Want to know about the dilemma? This is a good place to look.
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