Operation Manual

70 Working with Graphics, Animation, and Multimedia
♦ At the same time, avoid insignificant adornments like rules,
bullets, and icons unless they’re part of an overall scheme.
♦ Don’t use too many colors on the page or background. Half a
dozen per page, including background, body text, links, and
graphics, is about right to lend your site a professional appearance.
Using a color scheme is an excellent way to keep things in check.
(Plain white or light backgrounds are favored.) Pick no more than
two dominant colors per page; the further any other color is from
these “dominants,” the less space it should occupy.
♦ Elements with similar form or function (for example, all section
heads or horizontal rules) should share the same color.
♦ Try varying the artistic forms you use. Throw in a photograph or
two—even if they have no special relevance to your site, they’ll
enhance its visual appeal on a decorative level as long as they
blend into a compositional scheme. Think about using a clip art
photo as a background for a logo, text head, or navigation map.
Don’t get stuck on using just one type of graphic.
♦ Avoid blocky, rectangular shapes, which tend to make the page
look closed, static, and amateurish. Rounder and softer-edged
images tend to open up the page.
♦ Include graphic effects that combine hard-edge and soft-edge; drop
shadows are a good example.
The soft-edge effect known as anti-aliasing is one of the basic tricks of
the computer graphics artist. The effect gets rid of “jaggies” along
edges by subtly applying intermediate colors. To the human eye, anti-
aliased text on-screen (especially at larger point sizes) appears of
higher quality than text without the effect. In general, always use anti-
aliasing for your graphics and headline text, unless the image contains
only straight lines, edges, and outlines.
As shown in the simple sketch below, your design can include page
elements that blend with master page elements. These might include
portions of a logo, header, navigation bar, and so on. You’ll need to
zoom in closely and adjust the objects on one or both layers to achieve
precise registration.