How to integrate text into images

integrate text into images

How to integrate text into images

Images with text found everywhere: quotes on Instagram and funny jokes on Facebook. Site landing pages and online classifieds. From billboards to business cards, many of the projects we encounter everyday have something in common.

It is one of the basic elements of graphic design: the combination of text with an image. And if putting a catchy phrase into a nice photo may seem like a simple design solution, making a good communication effect is more difficult than you might expect.

The tips and tricks shown in this short guide will provide techniques that can be successfully applied to almost all graphic design projects where the emotional strength of an image must be combined with the defined and rational expression of a text.

Attention to the composition of text and image

The positioning and arrangement of the text in relation to the image can give value or destroy a design even if it includes the best color combinations for the logos and the various components inserted. If the text is too small, the background too dense or some element in the image compromises legibility; the design will not be as effective or visually appealing. But the text represents only half of the equation. It is just as important as the image appears in the design.

The choice of a good image and a text, however, are not enough to define a nice design. It is essential to pay attention to the overall composition.

If you are taking an original photo or if you choose one from a catalog or gallery, make sure leave adequate space to place the text. For example, the cover of a magazine that presents a photo of a vertically oriented landscape with a lot of sky creates an excellent background for the text, providing an uncluttered space that allows the text to shine and improve the creation of content even without relying on an expert marketing specialist in the production of effective content.

A good way to create a composition where the image and text complement each other is to align the text so that it fits a shape present in the image.

In the general composition created by the image / text combination it must be keep in mind that the design is more than the sum of its parts. You can have an attractive image and an effective message, but unless the two are well together, the result may not attract the same attention or produce the type of result that you are looking for to engage the public on the web.

Establish a focal point

One of the essential elements of a good composition is the focal point: a sort of visual element that catches the eye and acts as a starting point for understanding the message conveyed by the design. In the context of a layout involving only images and text, it will be one or the other. So you will have to decide which is more important, in order to highlight it for the color, the size, the position or some other characteristic.

Very often web pages make text their focal point and soften images with a transparent color overlay. However, the text and the image are always organized using a layered effect that connects the two elements and creates a dynamic composition.

If the text and the image are equally important and must combine visually in a coherent whole, then create a good amalgam of the two components (textual and visual) you can refer to the cover of a book. Which generally achieves this effect by wrapping it literally the title text around the image, merging the two elements together in order to force them to look at them simultaneously. Keep reading How to conquer the market with an online business

Achieving balance

Another characteristic of a good composition is balance. Like a swing with a child on one side and an adult on the other, a design is unbalanced when there is an imbalance that makes it visually heavy.

We are not just talking about the evidence of the focal points in the image. Another essential aspect to be treat with great skill is the visual weight of each element present in the image in relation to its position in the geometry of the whole of the design. Many projects are unclear because the elements present are not organized well. Maybe the design contains too many elements or they are bundled up without order. Some images have content almost entirely compressed on one side of the layout. In other cases, the spacing and alignment are inharmonious or improper. It is enough that there is even one of these problems to lose the balance and the quality of the design.

For a simple design that contains only text and an image, typical of some landing pages that often have an aesthetic comparable to that of book or magazine covers, balance becomes particularly important: the more minimal the design, the more evident the flaws of a poor layout.

Another nice example from which to take inspiration when making a composition of text and image is that of the label of the packaging of a product: the brand name is balanced by the image below. Both are roughly the same size and are connected by their color. The image itself offers natural space for the text, which usually consists of the product name, the list of ingredients and other information to the consumer.

This design achieves balance simply thanks to the good overlap of the text on the photo. If instead the text had been aligned to the side of the image, the two focal points of the layout would not have been grouped together, leaving a large empty space and creating a disproportionate composition. In all the packs of products, we find on the market, when the design is perfectly balanced and harmonious, the effectiveness of the integration of the text with the image is maximum and the communication effect is guarantee.

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