Basic Web Design Module Three

Graphic Design Principles for the Web (12 hrs)

Course Goals:
This course will teach you the graphic design concepts and skills required to create and modify effective Web graphics. Students will learn the fundamentals of working various different graphic types (i.e., bitmapped, vector, color, grayscale, and line art) and different graphic formats (e.g., TIFF, BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG). Course concepts and skills are learned through hands-on exercises/projects.

Course Learning Objectives
1.Students will be able to create, save and modify original digital graphics in multiple file formats (e.g., TIFF, BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG) and types (i.e., bitmapped, vector, color, grayscale, and line art).

2. Students will be able to convert/produce graphics to file formats particularly effective for Web display (i.e., JPEG, GIF, and PNG). These skills include (but are not limited to) maximizing quality while minimizing bit-depth, color pallets and using “Web-safe” colors, and overall file sizes for best Web loading/display efficiency.

3. Students will learn how to use ALT tags to provide text-alternative descriptions of graphics as appropriate for slower bandwidth and ADA-compliance requirements.

4. Students will be able to perform common Web-relevant graphics skills such as creating background tiles, transparent images, and animation effects.

Recommended pre-requisites:  

-- Tools of the Internet & Business Online
-- Designing with XHTML

Course Description:

Learn the fundamentals of graphic design for designing Web pages that are both attractive and functional. This class will cover graphic file formats, image resolution, color theory, graphic layout and design, font issues, transparent images, animated GIFs, multimedia file formats, site creation, management and file uploading. Get a brief introduction to other related topics, such as Flash & JavaScript, covered in more depth in other courses. In-class exercises require students to create Web graphics and layout pages. Overviews of the most popular graphic tools such as Corel Draw!, Adobe Photoshop, the Gif Animation Kit, and Macromedia Flash also covered.