Design
Inkscape – How to Use the Layers
Inkscape is a free vector drawing program which is ideal for many of the illustrations drawn by technical writers. The fact that it’s available for free makes it a great resource for those freelance technical writers with limited budgets to spare for more expensive vector programs like the Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape has a Layers menu…
Read MoreInkscape – How to Place One Image Inside Another (Clipping)
© Ugur Akinci Inkscape is a pretty versatile and FREE vector drawing program that you can download from here. Inkscape is not as versatile and powerful as Adobe Illustrator but it can still do many things that a technical communicator can use. And did I mention that… it’s FREE? Here is how you can place…
Read MoreInkscape – How to Draw an Attractive Wallpaper in a Hurry
© Ugur Akinci There is a very easy way to create wallpaper or any background image by using Inkspace, the FREE vector drawing program that you can download from here. The crucial thing to remember is the difference between the two SELECTION tools: the direct selection tool (F1) and path selection tool (F2). Once you…
Read MoreInkscape – How to Draw a Curving Chain
Inkscape is a wonderful FREE vector drawing program, almost as powerful as Adobe Illustrator. If you are a commercial artist working for a Madison Avenue advertisement agency the chances are you’ll need Illustrator since it became the industry standard. However, if you are a technical writer generating relatively straight forward illustrations, you can create amazing…
Read MoreHow to Draw with Illustrator: FILL and STROKE
© Ugur Akinci TOOL 4: Fill and Stroke Every Illustrator object is made up of 2 parts: Fill and Stroke.Or the INSIDE of a shape (Fill) and its BORDERS (Stroke). In the case of a line, there’s only stroke and no fill. If a line does have a fill, it actually becomes a very thin…
Read MoreHow to Draw with Illustrator: SHAPES and ARROWS
© Ugur Akinci TOOL 3: Shapes and Arrows Click on the Shape Tool to display the various shape-drawing tools available: In the tool bar, the last-used tool is displayed. Tip: After selecting the tool, if you click on your canvas WITHOUT drawing anything, you’ll display the measurement dialog box. For example, here is the one…
Read MoreHow to Draw with Illustrator: GUIDES
© Ugur Akinci TOOL 2: Guides You need to use guides to position objects correctly relative to one another and precisely on an Illustrator grid. SNAP ON guides are a delight to use since objects snap to them like iron fillings snap to a magnet. CREATE the Guides by first turning on your RULERS. Click…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – 7 Time-Tested Principles to Design a Cover For a Technical Document
© Ugur Akinci If you are a technical writer working for a company as a payroll employee, you might be working with corporate design guidelines that define what you can and cannot do to design the cover of your technical document. But what if you are a “lone writer,” an independent contractor working out of…
Read MoreHow to Draw with Illustrator: LAYERS
© Ugur Akinci Add the title “Technical Illustrator” to your job title in a hurry and earn more! Adobe Illustrator is a bottomless well in terms of its capabilities. But you can’t postpone drawing forever until you learn “everything” that Adobe Illustrator can do. You can take so many classes and read so many books.…
Read More4 Ideas to Organize Your Images and Screenshots
Most technical documents would have at least a few images to illustrate a point, or screen shots that accompany the description of a certain step-by-step procedure, etc. Organizing such images can really become a problem, especially when you have dozens and hundreds of them. Finding, editing, and importing them can quickly become a logistical nightmare,…
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