How To Improve Your Graphic Editing

Trying to edit an image or poster may seem simple, as most graphic editing software are easy to use, but there are common mistakes that make your graphics look unprofessional and messy. Keep in mind that I'm no professional, or even remotely close to one, but these pointers will help to lift your editing and make it look more sophisticated, everything I've written are just things I realized make my editing look neater and better, and I hope it helps you too.

• Do not clutter.

If there are many things you want to include in an edit, try not to layer them on top of each other, and some things may just be unnecessary. It's good to add details but do not go overboard with them, they can hog up the space and make the edit look cluttered. You could also spread them out over the space of the image, rather than layering them and making a part of the graphic look too crowded and another too empty. A simplistic edit looks far more sophisticated than a cluttered one.

Example:

Warning: Shameless Self-Promo- Although one of the graphics do not look so good, you should definitely do what it says ;) You can sign up for our newsletter by going to the 'Newsletter' tab or just use this link https://thewhatnotmagazine.wixsite.com/website/newsletter

Note: All the "don't" parts of the examples are exaggerated to add emphasis to the point and display why something looks bad.

• Stick to a theme.

To follow this, you can choose two fonts and two colors, personally, I think it's best to only use two of each, but if you want you could totally do more, although it would look better if you did not use completely different colors and fonts every time you colored or typed in something. A theme could consist of two standard colors and fonts that all go well with each other. For the fonts I suggest making one more elaborate and the other simple and easy to read, one of the fonts can be used for titles, subheadings etc. the other can be used for body text. The font combinations could be combinations of cursive/handwriting/calligraphy fonts plus print letter fonts. For colors, the colors can be different but they should match, but more on that later. This also means that if you're intentionally using only lower-caps stick to that, if not do not randomly start using only lower-caps.

Note: I can just feel Divinus coming to attack me for how bad the first one looks.

• Choose the right colors.

This also means you have to follow the last point, of choosing two colors. I would personally suggest not using the default colors that are given when you try to choose colors.

Like these from Canva:

These colors are overused and not that aesthetically pleasing, instead you can opt for other colors like a muted red, a pale blue or a pastel green; basically different aesthetic colors. When you choose two different colors make sure that they match! Do not go for colors completely different like a very light grey with a neon orange for example, but at the same time make sure the colors aren't that similar, like a neon orange with a neon pink will not look appealing. You could also organize color palette to stick to, if you need inspiration just search up color palettes on the internet and see what colors you like best. You may be a fan of all-pastels or retro 80's colors, it's really up to you.

• Be creative and original

Try using different fonts and techniques to brighten up your works. Instead of going with the default fonts and colors (already show previously), make your graphic look different and interesting. We've all used the basic Calibri or Comic Sans (which I freaking hate) fonts, but there are many other ones out there, choose the one that you like. Use creativity and originality to make your edits unique!

All images and materials used are from Canva, and all the examples have been made with Canva.

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Written by: April