Short guide on Color mode selection

 

You might have across the RGB, CMYK mode and wondered what these are used for. I did not have any knowledge regarding these until one of the posters I designed was sent back citing the mode was wrong. And thus I decided to learn the valuable lesson about various modes of designing in Photoshop. Making it as simple as possible and condensing everything into a few lines, here is how you use it. (You can select the mode in the menu from Image>Mode).

RGB

Red, Green, Blue mode is used primarily for digital photos and those designated for computer screens like webpage graphics. Inkjet printers also use the same.

CMYK

So this is the one to select if you are doing the work for print purpose. All offset printing use this mode and so is for high-end inkjet printers.

Grayscale

This is the usual Black and white which can be used for both purposes mentioned above- printing and web-based images.

Indexed Color

This mode limits your color selection to 256 or a Color table. This is used for web-based images where the size of the image needs to be limited by saving it as GIF or PNG8 especially in case of buttons and banners.

Lab Color

Lab mode is used only when you need to use some filters like Sharpen filters (which will of course be prompted). We have to change the mode back to RGB or CMYK before saving the work.

Duotone

Meaning two color tones used throughout your image, it is used solely for commercial printing purposes, but not on inkjets.

Bitmap

Bitmap is simply Black and white and the difference is there are no gray tones in between as in grayscale. You can use it anywhere, but the image always looks so.

Multichannel

It is similar to duotone where premixed colors are used. It is used for commercial printing purposes and mainly for logo designing. 

But always remember that changing from one color mode to another reduces the quality of your image and hence need to be done beforehand. Moreover, converting back to your original mode does not retain the original quality.

Designing the soccer craze: The few best

Formally included in the Brazil fans in the college, we had a lot to do in order to cope up with the fanfare of the Argentineans. Being a Brazil fan is easy, but being a designing enthusiast as well as a Brazil fan is not. It was a rather difficult task checking out the web some high quality images for preparing some posters and ultimately I had to give up. But meanwhile, I had come across a few graphic websites which offer a few better opportunities and collections. The best may not have been yet found out, but ideas and inspiration still glows behind them. A collection of designs, rendering, signatures, PSDs, wallpapers all exclusively for sports...

Sports GFX

This was the best I came across. Have a look at some of the collections. Large PSD packs are waiting for you at sportsGFX.

7 Step Transparency Effect Poster Design Tutorial

I would love to share one of my recent creations with you. It was a poster for the release of a magazine in our college. Though not so perfect in any sense, it was a work which took just several minutes from a day. And I believe it is not that bad either.

So I had earlier decided that my next poster or brochure would be something based on the transparency effect. The inspiration behind this was the simple picture shown below, just the difference in its tones. It was much more beautiful than what I had done (but I had to move on with a theme background for the magazine).

7 Extra ordinary Artists and 36 Paper artworks

Paper artwork is something one thinks of a sheer waste of time and possibly an unwelcome source of revenue (rather cheap). But designing is taking into new forms with origami paving way for these colors and curves. These do find their place in the charts of excellence and among the cover designs of books and albums. Creating an idea and designing it with paper, I believe, needs courage in addition to creativity.

I am actually afraid as the undo key is not available here and much of my efforts may go in vain if I try one of these. The X-factors should play the perfect role to make it come attractive. The fact is that you can find much unattractive ones in the net. So selecting the best is simple but rather time consuming, though only a few create such ones. So here are a few selection of mine.

1. Yulia Brodskaya at Artyulia

Stunning Rainbow Effect to Photos: Photoshop tutorials

Wouldn't you like to add an awesome rainbow to your photos. A simple but effective tutorial would guide you through all the steps. Its easier than ever before.

This photoshop tutorial would be more effective if you try on the sample image they had provided. And later you can try on your own. Get on...

This tutorial is from Photoshop Essentials

Women's fashion Vector collection freebies download

A free doodle vector collection. It would be of immense use in designing for ads and commercial products.

Try out those chic clothing and footwears and experiment desinging one yourself. A thumbshot is also given here of.

Check out the blogspoon graphics for Downloading free vector graphics

Do click the buttons below if you found it useful. And do  tweet and retweet and share designskool experience. Your criticisms and comments and duly welcome. Wait for more awesome tuts on Designskool.

6 Top Text Effects for Photoshop freaks

A few brilliant text effects caught my eye during my daily design browsing and I would not let them go before sharing. Here are the best available text effects for Photoshop fans.
These are available in PSD formats. Meanwhile take a look at my new header which surely has come from one among these.

1. Blue Retro Grunge

Full credits to the creator. Here are the links to webtreats blog: Download blue retro grunge text effect

Sunbursts for Designers: Downloads and Inspirations

Here are some of the sunbursts which might be useful in your poster designing.

They are made easy because:

- all images are in high resolution (1000px X 1000px)

- varied number of rays (10 rays, 20 rays and 40 rays)

- available in .PSD files (transparent background)

Blow away grungy business card template

A Business card that blows away ideas about contemporary sizes and styles and ready to attack your customer.
This is a great idea and your satisfaction is sure with this state-of-the-art business card. You may even modify this design to use it in a flyer.

Holiday card vector graphics

 Here are some of the most beautiful vectors that you may use in your holiday greeting cards. These are suited for portrait oriented cards. Just download it. Get your brain do the rest.

Type over a smooth glass Tutorial

A great type mode which I came across the net is here. Creating a smooth glass type is too simple than you had imagined. Downloading the psd file and modifying the typed font is enough for you to create this stunning
Here's a quick way to create some nice looking translucent glass type that'll work great on any background, made completely with layer styles.