Graphic Design
Today, graphic design is all about how you want your site to be portrayed to visitors. As a whole, web browsers give credibility to sites that are appealing, well-designed, and content-rich. In contrast, those sites that are unappealing, badly managed, and poor in content see both a lower income and search engine rankings.
- Scroll down to find graphic design tools that will improve your niche website or blog!
What Is Graphic Design?
The term graphic design (also known as desktop publishing) has many artistic and professional meanings, but overall, it focuses on visual communication as a mode of presenting messages and ideas. From advertisements to road signs, graphic design enhances the transfer of knowledge to the viewer/reader. For example, if a page has a good layout and visuals, then the readability is enhanced for visitors as well.
- Graphic design involves the stylization of existing text and imagery to be more appealing to the viewer, and refers to BOTH the process (designing) and the products (designs) that are generated. Overall, graphic design principles may be applied to each graphic art element and the final design. The following three techniques give way to the final result...
There are three types of techniques involved in graphic design:
- Typography: The art of type and how it's arranged, what type and size it is, how much line spacing (leading) is needed, and the amount of spacing between each letter.
- Visual Arts: This is all about the visual nature, whether computer generated or now, of your page design. Digital software has led to many forms of image development.
- Page Layout: The arrangement and style of the content on the page.
Graphic Design Software & Tools:
In order to do graphic design for your online business, you will need some basic graphic design software. Few graphic designers rely on a single program to do it all, so you'll want to look at a variety of graphic design tools to get an idea of what would work for your online business. Here are some popular graphic design software and tools that you can use for your online business, courtesy of eBay:
Adobe Graphic Design Software
Adobe is hands down the most popular graphic design software around today. Whether it's the Adobe PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator...you've most likely heard of it or even used it yourself. However, since the Adobe brand is often costly, we've found some that are› Edit Post — WordPress available at much lower prices...
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 Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium mac  US $51.50
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 Adobe cs5 design premium Upsell for Windows US $499.00
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 Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended Upgrade For Mac US $188.25
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 Adobe Illustrator CS2 Upgrade for Windows 26001516Total Training Video Workshop US $25.00 |
 PDF Converter Professional Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 10 X US $19.99
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Quark Graphic Design Software
Quark provides graphic design tools, including its most popular software known as QuarkXPress. Even though QuarkXPress has been known for being a downgrade from Adobe InDesign in the past, the new QuarkXPress 7 has received high reviews as being a "superb upgrade from the original" - Check out this link to find out the difference between Quark Express and Adobe InDesign!
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 Quark XPress QuarkXPress 8 UNIVERSAL UNREGISTERED US $499.00
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 QUARK XPRESS 7 Manuals only US $3.00
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 Quark Xpress 40 A Step By Step Approach by Joanne R Saliger 1999 Other US $29.98
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 Quark XPress QuarkXPress 75 UNIVERSAL UNREGISTERED US $339.00
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 Vintage Macintosh Software Quark Xpress v41 for Mac US $34.99
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Serif Graphic Design Software
With Serif, you can create artisitc layouts, manage page elements, and produce multi-page publications like e-books. With NO complicated codes or design experience needed, Serif is easy to use and includes everthing you need to make a quality website for your online business.
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 SERIF PAGEPLUS X5 Page Plus NEW in retail box US $29.95
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 New Serif Photo Plus X4 SEALED PLUS BONUS US $15.95
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Corel Graphic Design Software
With Corel, you can answer questions about the illustration and design work you are planning to do, and then the site narrows down its program options for you. Want to create graphics, diagrams, layouts, etc for your online business? No problem, Corel will make sure you find what you need. After you're finished, check below to find Corel programs at affordable prices!
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 Corel Paint IT US $15.00
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 NO RESERVE AUCTION HEART VECTOR CLIP ART FOR SIGN CUTTING SHIRT COREL DRAW US $14.99
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 NO RESERVE AUCTION HORSE VECTOR CLIP ART FOR SIGN PLOTTER COREL DRAW US $14.99
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 NEW Corel WordPerfect Office X5 Home and Student Sealed Retail Box US $39.99
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 Word Perfect Productivity Pack CD Corel OEM 2003 NIB US $4.25
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Free Graphic Design Software & Tools
Graphic design can be expensive. However, we've found some great graphic design software alternatives that are FREE and still meet the needs of our online businesses:
GIMP: Today, GIMP is the most popular (and free) alternative to Adobe PhotoShop (which is a $700 program). Just like PhotoShop's graphic design software, GIMP is great for photo and image manipulation or creation, and can also be used to create basic animated GIF immages as well! Check out this link to find out more about GIMP.
Inkscape: This is the best free vector graphics editor that we've found, because it truely compares to similar programs like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X - but unlike the others it's FREE! Overall, Inkscape is a great graphics editor to take advantage of. Click this link to find out more about Inscape!
KompoZer: This is a web file management and page editing program that's similar to FrontPage or Dreamweaver, and is meant to be easy to use for newbies or non-technical individuals. Although some advanced features of the other programs are not available, it will be worth the money you save by using this alternative!
Scribus: As a popular, free, and professional page layout program, Scribus can be used in place of Adobe InDesign, Adobe Pagemaker, PagePlus or QuarkXPress. Check out Wikipedia to find more out about Scribus!
WordPress: This software is a great way to design and manage hugely complicated sites, because the company is creates graphic design tools like plugins, templates and widgets that can make your site more professional and user-friendly. Check out our WordPress Review to find out more!
Web Site Design Service
If you have a graphic design project that you know won't get done unless you seek outside help, a web site design service is a great way to go. Here are a few we've used in our own online businesses:
- 99Designs.com is a great web site design service that helps you find designers to create a design for you! All you have to do is fill out a "design brief" that will be given to designers. It costs $39 to post this, but your summary will be displayed to thousands of designers who are looking for work. In this brief, you'll also give an idea of what design you want and how much you're willing to pay. Next, the designers compete by submitting their design concepts and you get to choose the winning design. In return, you get a completed graphic design with the copyright to the original art work!
- Check out 99designs by taking a look at some of the graphic design contests that are currently going on!
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