Multimedia Software
Tools
Instructor: Mr. Awil Mohamud
Overview
Importance of text in a multimedia presentation.
Understanding fonts and typefaces.
Using text elements in a multimedia
presentation.
Font editing and design tools.
Text in Multimedia Applications
Of all multimedia elements, text is the easiest to
manipulate
General guidelines:
Be concise
Use appropriate fonts
Consider different type styles
Be consistent
Make the text readable
Use restraint
What is Text?
Words and symbols in any form, spoken or
written, are the most common means of
communication.
Texts in the form of words, sentences and
paragraphs is used to communicate thoughts,
ideas and facts in nearly every aspect of our
lives.
What is Text?
Multimedia products depends on text for many things:
to explain how the application work.
to guide the user in navigating through the application.
deliver the information for which the application was designed.
What is Text?
•Based on creating letters, numbers and special
characters.
•Text elements can be categories into:
–Alphabet characters : A – Z
–Numbers : 0 – 9
–Special characters : Punctuation [. , ; ‘ …] , Sign or Symbols [* & ^ %
$ £ ! /\ ~ # @ .…]
–Also known Character Sets
–May also include special icon or drawing symbols, mathematical
symbols, Greek Letter etc.
Importance of Text in a Multimedia
Presentation
Factors affecting legibility of text:
–Size.
•The size of the text
–Background and foreground color.
•The color in which the text is written in / on.
–Style.
•Also known as typeface and font
–Leading.
•refers to the amount of added space between lines of
type.
Understanding Fonts and
Typefaces
•A ‘font’ is a collection of characters of a particular size
and style belonging to a particular typeface family.
•Usually vary by type sizes and styles.
•The sizes are measured in points
•This includes the letter set, the number set, and all of the
special character and diacritical marks you get by
pressing the shift, option, or command/control keys.
Arial Fonts
Understanding Fonts and
Typefaces
•A ‘typeface’ is a family of graphic characters that
usually includes many type sizes and styles.
•A typeface contains a series of fonts. For instance, Arial,
Arial Black Arial Narrow and Arial Unicode MS are
actually 4 fonts under the same family.
Arial Typefaces Family
Understanding Fonts and
Typefaces
The study of fonts and typefaces includes the following:
Font styles - boldface, italic, underline, outline
Font sizes - point, kerning, leading
Cases – uppercase, lowercase, intercap
Serif versus Sans Serif
Font Styles
The technology of font effects in bringing
viewer’s attention to content:
Case: UPPER and lower cased letter
Bold, Italic, Underline,
superscript
or
subscript
EmbossedEmbossed or ShadowShadow
CCoolloouurrss
b
Strikethrough
Font Sizes
Font size is measured in points.
Character metrics are the general measurements
applied to individual characters.
Cases
A capitalized letter is referred to as 'uppercase',
while a small letter is referred to as 'lowercase.'
Placing an uppercase letter in the middle of a
word is referred to as intercap.
Serif Versus Sans Serif
Times New Roman
Bookman
Rockwell Light
Courier New
Century
Examples of Serif fonts
Century Gothic
Arial
Comic Sans MS
Impact
Tahoma
Examples of San Serif
fonts
Serif San Serif
Serif is the little decoration at the
end of a letter stroke.
Serif fonts are used for body text.
Sans serif fonts do not have a serif at
the end of a letter stroke.
These fonts are used for headlines
and bold statements.
Using Text Elements in a
Multimedia Presentation
The text elements used in multimedia are:
Menus for navigation.
Interactive buttons.
Fields for reading.
HTML documents.
Symbols and icons.
Menus for Navigation
A user navigates through content using a menu.
A simple menu consists of a text list of topics.
Interactive Buttons
A button is a clickable object that executes a
command when activated.
Users can create their own buttons from bitmaps
and graphics.
Fields for Reading
Reading a hard copy is easier and faster than
reading from the computer screen.
A document can be printed in one of two
orientations - portrait or landscape.
HTML Documents
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language.
It is the standard document format used for Web
pages.
HTML documents are marked using tags.
Some of the commonly used tags are:
The <B> tag for making text bold faced.
The <OL> tag for creating an ordered list.
The <IMG> tag for inserting images.
Symbols and Icons
•Symbols are concentrated text in the form of stand-alone
graphic constructs.
•They are used to convey meaningful messages.
•Symbols used to convey human emotions are called
emoticons.
•Icons are symbolic representations of objects and
processes.
Creating Attractive Texts
Applications that are used to enhance texts and
images include:
Word Processor
Adobe Photoshop
TypeStyler
COOL 3D
HotTEXT
TypeCaster
Text Editing and Word Processing
Tools
processor =A word processor is usually the first software
tool computer users learn.
From letters, invoices, and storyboards to project content,
your word processor may also be your most often used
tool, as you design and build a multimedia project.
The better your eye boarding or typing skills, the easier
and more efficient your multimedia day-to-day life will
be.
Text Editor
A text editor= is program that allows you to open, view,
and edit plain text files.
Unlike word processors, text editors do not add
formatting to text, instead focusing on editing functions
for plain text.
Text editors are used by a wide variety of people, for a
wide variety of purposes.
Software programmers and web developers use text
editors to write and edit in programming and markup
languages.
OCR Software
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) also called Optical Character Reader
is a system that provides a full alphanumeric recognition of printed or
handwritten characters at electronic speed by simply scanning the form.
More recently, the term Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) has been
used to describe the process of interpreting image data, in particular
alphanumeric text.
Often you will have printed matter and other text to incorporate into your
project, but no electronic text file.
With OCR software, a flatbed scanner, and your computer, you can save
many hours of re-keying printed words, and get the job done faster and more
accurately than a roomful of typists.
Home work
There is Review Questions in the book give me the right
answer for that question ?
which start
.What is the importance of software in multimedia?