I have found images explaining an article to be a crucial enhancement. Though they can be time consuming, they are also fun to do. I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro for my artwork. I have issues with version 8 I have trouble drawing lines with it. If I draw two lines one after the other without going back to the selection tool and clicking it on and off, the whole program seizes up. Not sure why this happens, but I work around it.
But with this program I can create about anything I want, if I just work with it long enough. Yesterday, I put together a little article on street sweepers. I decided that the air cycle of the machine needed a diagram. I could have drawn a diagram freehand, which is something I frequently do, though not necessarily well. I brought up the old Jasc program and using the little shapes available, including buttons and arrows and text put together an image.
The object in creating a web page is to give the user the most informative and entertaining experience within your means. This includes your time and money. This image for the street sweeper page took me about an hour to create:
It probably does not reach professional standards but it gets the point across. I don’t hesitate to also put my scribblings on a page if I think they will help. It is a simple matter of a scan and then a conversion to a jpg file on my Jasc. For example, this image explains photosynthesis:
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No, it isn’t the most eye-catching image around, but it does have that sort of chalk-talk appeal, as if it was created on the fly while someone was doing an in-depth explanation of the process. This was indeed the case. I explained the process to my daughter who is taking a course in biology. I simply copied the diagram over to remove some of my insistant arrows and circles. In all, images don’t have to be perfect or great to add to a page. Yet do have some standards. My standards are admittedly low when it comes to form but high when it comes to content. I think this is where it counts. It is better to be informative than beautiful.
I shouldt also mention that I will occasionally buy images. I get them from istockphoto (I get no commission for this mention). They have a lot of great photos that can be purchased for very little. Another source of images for me is Clip Art Etc associated with USF. These are free to use with an attribution. I usually give them a footnote at the end of an article.
