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Subject:Transparent graphics in logos? From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Tue, 2 Feb 1999 08:53:08 -0700
Damien Braniff wondered about <<Our company logo is stylised version
of the name (PAC). Very crudely it is a box (half blue, half grey)
with the name in white inside and with one pair of opposit corners
pared off. Now that you have, hopefully(!), an idea of what it looks
like to my question - is there any way to make the name itself (the
white bit) transparent?>>
It's actually pretty easy if you've got a decent bitmap editor such
as Photoshop or Photopaint, or a drawing program such as Corel
that lets you directly apply a texture to type or graphics. In
general, you can either convert the text into a vector graphic and
paste the texture background inside it, or use it a "clipping path"
and layers to do the same thing. (Details will be in the manual for
whatever software you're using.) The final step if you're using
layers is to "flatten" the image into a single layer and save it in
your favorite format (GIF, JPG). The "clipping path" approach is
generally best if you're using software such as Pagemaker, which can
require this if you want the background to show through the graphic
or to avoid the appearance of a "white box" around the imported
graphic.
Before you do any of this, though, I'd ask you why you want to do
this and whether you really should. Most companies spend tons of
money on a corporate identity program, and have very strict
guidelines about not playing with the company logo; doing so weakens
the visual recognition that is the whole purpose of creating and
trademarking a logo, and most "authorities" advise against this. I'm
on the fence about this rule, since marketing and advertising are a
different realm from corporate communications; some latitude might be
refreshing in the former case, and a disaster in the latter case.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
