Copyright Basics
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 31, 2008
A question that comes up regularly in the design class is, Is it ok to use this image that I got from Google, Yahoo or any other number of websites? The answer to this question is often NO. You can’t just take any image that crops up in Google images and assume that it is copyright free.
What is copyright?
These are the basic rules of copyright in Ireland, but the rules are generally very similar throughout the world.
Copyright is the creator’s (or legal owner’s) rights in creative works like writing, computer software, sound recording, tv broadcasts, films and of course design. It is not necessary to register the work, nor is it necessary to pay any sort of fee to establish that the work is covered by copyright.
The author of a work is the first owner of copyright in the work. Exceptions to this are cases where the work is made under a contract of service. If you create work for Government publications, the copyright belongs to the Government – this is with agreement of the author. Web designers also need to look into this slightly murky area. Some useful articles are;
http://www.netmag.co.uk/zine/design-culture/copyright-for-web-designers
http://blog.pixelita.com/23/who-owns-your-web-site/
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/bulletproof-web-design-contract
Proof of ownership
So how can you protect your work? In the web world it can be quite difficult, but one of the first things you can do is to add the international copyright symbol to your work. Authors and artists can sign and date their work. Digital photographers can embed their copyright information into the image using Photoshop. However with billions of web pages out there it is increasingly difficult to keep track of your work. Services such as idée can help with this.
The law relating to copyright in Ireland was updated by the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000. Hopefully it will never happen to you, but if a dispute does arise, it’s always a good idea to seek some legal advice if you feel that your work has been “nicked”.
Photoshop Tip : Remove the font previews from the font menu
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 28, 2008
In a previous tip, I showed you how you can increase the size of the font previews in the Font menu in Photoshop, but what if you don’t want to see the previews at all? Maybe you know your favourite fonts already - and the preview does slow the menu down slightly. So here’s how you switch them off.
Choose Edit > Preferences. Choose Type from the list of preferences that appear.
Then simply, click on the Font Preview Size to turn off the preview. (The checkbox should be empty after you do this.) The previews are now removed from your font dropdown menu.
Resources : Free Raster & Vector Images from iStockphoto
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 21, 2008
Each week iStockphoto offers a couple of free raster images, a vector image and a free video. I particularly like one of this weeks raster images (see below) - it should be pretty easy to add your own images to any of the empty slides. Click on the image to go to the download page.
Mmmmm Donuts …
The vector image available for free download this week is a vision of unhealthy eating … four donuts.
Design Resources : MyColorMyIdea
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 19, 2008
Yes, yet ANOTHER colour inspiration site! There are lots of them around but I have to say I love them. This site - MyColorMyIdea features a wide range of designers - interior, graphic, web, and ehm … other designers - responding to the phrase “the colour of my idea is …”
The site is created by Pantone, so naturally every idea has a pantone colour attached to it, but also the RGB and hex values of that colour. I’m not mad about the overall layout of the site but I do like the whole concept and I think it’s worth a quick visit for anyone interested in design.
Photoshop Tip : Increase accuracy with the Replace Colour Adjustment
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 18, 2008
In a previous photoshop tutorial, I gave an example of how to use the Replace Colour adjustment to change the colour of part of an image. In that example I used the sliders at the bottom of the Replace Colour dialog box to change a colour - it was pretty much a “guesstimate”. However if you want to be more precise about the colour you are using as a replacement, here’s a quick tip.
Once you’ve selected the area of colour you want to replace, click on the colour swatch, where it says Result, to the right of the sliders in the Replacement section. This brings up the Color Picker, where you can type in the exact CMYK or RGB value for the colour.
Resources : Photoshop Disasters Website
Posted by Jennifer Farley | March 14, 2008
I just stumbled upon this site and really enjoyed it. It’s called Photoshop Disasters and it’s basically a catalog of poor Photoshopping on magazines, DVDs and posters. At first glance you might not even notice what the problem is, but the commentary written by the author is absolutely hilarious. I had a great laugh this morning - this is a great site illustrating what NOT to do. Here’s an example…
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About
Hi, my name is Jennifer Farley and I am a designer and design instructor based in Ireland. Read more about Laughing Lion Design .
