Sent: 2010-08-29 18:55:24 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: paddyleon

logo manipulation

permalink

Hello All,

I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I created
a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo in a box on
indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry or smudged. I think
it's to do with it being resized. Can anyone please advise me (in very simple
terms)how to manipulate the image without it ending up looking so poor?

Many thanks

Leon

--
Leon (via www.gimpusers.com)
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Sent: 2010-08-29 19:14:43 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: Jay Smith

logo manipulation

permalink

Hi Leon,

A few thoughts / questions for you to consider and experiment with.

a) When you take about placing it in Indesign, can I assume that this is for
PRINT use? If that is the case, then 1) It should be CREATED in Gimp with a
resolution of AT LEAST 300 dpi (that is enough, but less than that is too little
for PRINT use).

b) The file format should NOT be JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif). Too many people try
and use those types of WEB formats for PRINT work. I either use TIFF (.tif) or
EPS (.eps). You will have to experiment with what your program likes.

c) NEVER resize a graphic in some other application such as Indesign or
whatever. Always CREATE your graphic in a graphic program such as Gimp. Test
printing it from the graphic program. Then "place" it, without any size or
scaling change in the other program. If you look on my website, I have a Viking
logo. I have created at least 10 different ORIGINAL sizes and formats (.tif vs
.jpg, etc.) for all the different uses of it in print, on the web, etc., etc.
This is a critical point which most people overlook.

There are lots of other things that can go wrong, but these are starting points.
If you are still having the problem, then we need to exact details of your
process of creation, import into other program, use, etc., etc., including links
to examples of the actual image files, etc.

On 08/29/2010 12:55 PM, Leon wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I created
> a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo in a box on
> indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry or smudged. I think
> it's to do with it being resized. Can anyone please advise me (in very simple
> terms)how to manipulate the image without it ending up looking so poor?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Leon
>

--
Jay Smith

e-mail: Jay@JaySmith.com mailto:Jay@JaySmith.com
website: http://www.JaySmith.com

Jay Smith & Associates
P.O. Box 650
Snow Camp, NC 27349 USA

Phone: Int+US+336-376-9991
Toll-Free Phone in US & Canada:
1-800-447-8267
Fax: Int+US+336-376-6750

Sent: 2010-08-29 19:17:30 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: Bob Meetin

logo manipulation

permalink

Leon wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I created
> a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo in a box on
> indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry or smudged. I think
> it's to do with it being resized. Can anyone please advise me (in very simple
> terms)how to manipulate the image without it ending up looking so poor?
>
> Many thanks
>
> Leon
>
>
Adding to what Jay said...

I don't know about indesign, but it's a good rule of thumb to design
images to fit the size of the space rather than forcing the size using
html or CSS. Depending on the size/dimensions, this can be drastically
better for improving page load speed. Also, there is less guesswork in
how the pixels will be forced, squeezed.

1. Look at the html page and find the size the image is being
constrained to fit
2. Load the image in GIMP
3. Image --> Scale Image and adjust the dimensions
4. If it gets a little fuzzy as it is downsized, do Filters -->
Enhance --> Sharpen and use somewhere around 40-50 to start
5. If it's a jpeg, when it asks for quality as you are saving, use
somewhere around 75 is usually good enough for web site viewing.
Also since jpegs are lossy (every time you resave you use quality)
try to avoid doing repetitive work on the same image.

If you are starting with an absolutely huge image know that it may not
be reasonable to downsize to a diminutive space and retain the same clarity.

--
Bob Meetin
dotted i
303-926-0167 (home/business)
www.dottedi.biz/blog.php

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Sent: 2010-08-30 20:21:47 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: Kevin Cozens

logo manipulation

permalink

Leon wrote:
> I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I created
> a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo in a box on
> indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry or smudged.

Since you are working on a logo for a business you should use a vector
based editing program. That will allow you to create bitmap versions of
your logo at any size you need without loss of quality.

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Sent: 2010-09-23 07:50:48 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: Johan Vromans

logo manipulation

permalink

"Leon" writes:

> I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I
> created a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo
> in a box on indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry
> or smudged. I think it's to do with it being resized. Can anyone
> please advise me (in very simple terms)how to manipulate the image
> without it ending up looking so poor?

With all respect, if you take your business serously, and expect your
future prospects to take you seriously, hire a professional designer.

While drawing something logo-like is easy at first, designing a good
logo, and associated styles for company stationary, business cards, web
site and so on is a job for a professional, not for a 'complete
beginner'.

-- Johan

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Sent: 2010-09-24 07:46:56 UTC (over 1 year ago)

From: Tracy Fox

logo manipulation

permalink

First, I have to completely disagree with Johan and state that most people
attempting to start their own business do not have the means to hire a
professional graphic designer. And quite frankly, if they did, they probably
would not be using GIMP.

Second, Leon, I have been in your position myself. I was a new user who went
looking for good free ware graphic design software specifically because I
was wanting to start my own business and could not afford to pay a
professional to produce a logo for me. That was when I found GIMP. A friend
offered me the best piece of advice I could ever ask for.

Don't jump right into your project. Since you are just a beginner you need
to take the time to play with the program and find out what it can do. The
price of doing your own work is that you have to take the time to learn how
to do the job right. If you are committed enough to take the time to do this
one small task correctly and you apply that same level of commitment to
every other aspect of your business, then you are bound to succeed.

The following are a few tips I learned that helped me the most...

1. Don't dive right into your project. If you do you will get frustrated
and disappointed. In the end you'll get tired of trying and just slap
something together that will "make do". That would be a costly mistake.

2. Spend 30 minutes or more per night playing with GIMP. Don't try doing
anything important with it. Just browse the different tools and try using
them just so you can see what happens. While you are doing this read the
manual. If you follow this tip, you will have a reasonably good feel for
these tools by the time you have finished your research. And you will be in
a good position to understand the tutorials you will look for later on.

3. Do your research. Take a look at businesses that are similar to yours
and find out how they design their logos, web sites etcetera. Particularly,
you need to look at what information they are providing. Use a critical eye.
Ask yourself what are they doing right and what are they doing wrong. While
you are doing this, take plenty of notes. (Bookmark every competitors site
you find.) You will need these later on.

4. Now that you know what others in your line of business are doing, you
need to find out which ones are successful and which are not. Don't rely on
your own professional knowledge. That can only take you so far. Dig into
customer reviews of these businesses. Pay particular attention to the
businesses that have the highest customer satisfaction ratings. This isn't
just a good business practice; it's also a good graphic design process. Why?
Because like it or not...Looks matter. So take the time to look at their
design elements. Get an idea of what you do and do not like. Again, take
lots of notes.

5. Now that you have done your research, it's time to start learning. Pick
a simple design element that really appealed to you and search for a
tutorial that will teach you how create that in GIMP. The web is teaming
with good tutorials for every aspect of GIMP. Make use of them. Repeat this
step for everything you found and liked. Remember to have fun. You are not
trying to mimic someone else’s work. You are just trying learning how they
did it. So keep the design elements simple. (Backgrounds, fonts, fills etc.)
This step can easily take 100-200 hours. Bookmark the tutorials that helped
you most. You will want to be able to come back to it repeatedly. And once
again, take lots of notes.

6. Build a fill collection. A fill is a pattern of colors. (Wood, stone,
chrome etc.) Grab anything you can, they will be invaluable to you when you
start your logo. The higher the resolution the better. Before I lost all my
work, I had a few thousand fills.

7. Now that you have done all this work your early logo ideas have probably
changed a lot. And they are bound to change a lot more as you progress.
Start playing with your logo and see how you might improve it.

8. Don't reuse the original logo you tried creating. You may still be very
happy with it, but the problem you noted is the result of an original image
with a low resolution and image size. You need to create your logo with a
high pixels per inch (ppi) and the canvas size needs to be sized
appropriately to the medium it will be displayed on. Example: A logo is
created that will fill a business card. I would use a canvas size that
matched the business card selected. (2"x3" for example) and I would set the
ppi to 1,200.

I hope you find this helpful.

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 11:50 PM, Johan Vromans wrote:

> "Leon" writes:
>
> > I am a complete beginner and I have to be honest....I'm struggling. I
> > created a logo for my new business, but when I try to place the logo
> > in a box on indesign or such like, the logo comes out looking blurry
> > or smudged. I think it's to do with it being resized. Can anyone
> > please advise me (in very simple terms)how to manipulate the image
> > without it ending up looking so poor?
>
> With all respect, if you take your business serously, and expect your
> future prospects to take you seriously, hire a professional designer.
>
> While drawing something logo-like is easy at first, designing a good
> logo, and associated styles for company stationary, business cards, web
> site and so on is a job for a professional, not for a 'complete
> beginner'.
>
> -- Johan
> _______________________________________________
> Gimp-user mailing list
> Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU
> https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
>

--
Tracy Fox
Foxt2372@gmail.com

*Infirmary Doctor:* [stitching up Harry's head] Sure you don't want a local
for this, Harry? Takes about seven stitches.
*Harry Callahan:* No, thanks.
*Infirmary Doctor:* Ok, it's your ass...
*Harry Callahan:* My head, the cut's on my head.
*Infirmary Doctor:* Why does everybody suddenly become a comedian in here?