Topic: Working with design software

This material is relevant to the tutorial sessions of the course.

Working with design software

We will be working with Adobe Express online software in this class. Students who wish to use other design software should contact their instructor (In this case, you are responsible for acquiring your own licence, and acquiring the skills to use the software well enough to successfully complete the coursework).

Note that while there are templates available in Adobe Express, you cannot use them to complete your assignment work! You can, however, use any of the other assets available from within the software.

Though we will cover many of the features of Adobe Express in class, you should always consult the user documentation (Access by clicking the Lightbulb icon in the top right of the screen) when figuring out how to use the interface. Be sure to learn the following features well:

Page document space
Layers
Text tool - working with fonts
Image types and layering
Guides and rules
Assets - Photos, Icons, Illustrations
Exporting to useful formats, such as PDF and PNG

Image formats for design

Graphic files can usually be classifed as either raster or vector format. We'll be using both in this course.

Raster image formats

Photographs or drawings with a lot of colour detail are best created and presented in raster form - typically JPG, PNG, TIFF, RAW (a high-detail format which professional-level cameras use), etc. These formats are referred to as pixel- based, that is, they are made up of millions of individual dots on a screen of different colours.
You would typically use Photoshop, Photos (on iOS or Mac), or other photo editors for these formats.
Most photos and images with a high amount of colour information on the web are usually in JPG or PNG format. JPGs are useful where a smaller file size is necessary. PNG differs from JPG in a few ways, but most importantly perhaps is that it allows transparency in an image. TIFF is another compression format but isn't used on the web due to larger file sizes.

Vector image formats

Symbols, logos and simple illustrations tend to be created as vectors. The most common vector format is SVG (Scalar Vector Graphics). This format allows graphics to be scaled without losing any quality through 'pixelation: If you were creating a logo, icons, or any other design element of mainly flat colour, you would work in vector format.
You would typically use Adobe Illustrator or Sketch app to work with more complex vector images, although other programs such as Photoshop can also recognise them