“Captivate Readers by Adding Words to Images” by Joan Y. Edwards
Colorful images with enticing words are great ways to attract the interest of your readers or potential buyers. You’ve seen them on Facebook, websites, and blogs. It’s the same type of thing advertisers might use on a big poster, billboard, or flyer.
Here are a few terms that might help you.
- Logo – A symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products.
- Slogan – a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising. Add these to your colorful image to captivate readers.
- Meme – an image, video, etc. that travels electronically from one Internet user to another. These images usually have words with them.
How can you create images with words to captivate people who visit your blog or website? This will take me a while. I’ll try to simplify it.
- Use software to draw and paint your own images or change other images.
- Corel’s Painter 12– Desktop. I use this to create my own drawings, paintings, and illustrations. If I have to change the resolution of images, I use this software. If I need to combine pictures into one, I use this software.
- Paint – This software is usually found on almost every Microsoft Desktop or Laptop computer in the Accessories. To find it, hit the Start button. Click All programs. Look for folder named Accessories. Inside this folder is a program called Paint. I use Paint to resize my jpeg, gif, and png images quickly and easily. Just click resize, then pixels,. Choose pixel size. For internet blogs and websites, images of 400 pixels works well. When you change the width to 400 pixels, it automatically fixes the length correctly in proportion to match the original picture.
- Paint Net If you don’t have Microsoft Paint or can’t find it on your computer. You can try this one. It’s free. It’ll do more. It will change the image size and resolution, too.
- Use software that can combine images, words, and other effects:
- Laughing Bird’s The Logo Creator Version 6.6 I’ve made a good many of the images for my blog using Marc Sylvester’s Laughingbird Logo Creator. When you buy this software, you can change them, add your own pictures, and text.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Laughingbird.Software.
- Use websites that provide free images, you must give credit to artist or place selling it or in some cases, you don’t have to give credit at all. Check their terms and usage. Here are two I’ve used.
- www.morguefile.com Newspaper offices used to call their file cabinets with pictures from past stories the morgue file. These are all high resolution pictures you are free to use.
www.pixabay.com – different sizes free to use on commercial sites.
Public Domain Vectors https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/clipart-for-commercial-use-free
Creazilla. https://creazilla.com/ clip art, vectors, 3 D
Take photos with your camera. When I first started to blog in 2009, I didn’t have any idea of where to get pictures to add except those I took myself. This is a really good plan. I created a series of blogs with pictures of props I thought would inspire writers.
References:
Here are links to my whole series on Image Props for Stories using pictures I took with my camera:
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Props for Characters: Toys, Games, and Other Items:” http://joanyedwards.com/props-for-characters-toys-games-and-other-items/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #1:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-1-all-that-was-left-a-stapler-a-money-bag-and-a-bird-ornament/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #2:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-2-bananas-scissors-a-vacuum-cleaner-and-a-ferris-wheel/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #3:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-3-a-basketball-a-pillow-and-a-pair-of-boots/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #4:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-4-a-remote-control-a-basket-of-flowers-and-a-bandage/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #5:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-5-love-bug-dogcat-and-love-letter/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #6:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-6-coffee-maker-earphones-and-a-lamp/
- Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #7:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-7-pay-phone-blue-wildflowers-and-fast-moving-river/
Other References:
- Anita Li. “How To Create a Winning Meme:” http://mashable.com/2013/01/12/create-winning-meme/
- Anne Duguid. “How to Create a Meme:” http://slowandsteadywriters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-to-create-meme_22.html
- Anne Duguid. “Memes and Themes:” http://www.writersonthemove.com/2013/03/memes-and-themes.html
- Karen Cioffi. “Creating Images Simple and Quick:” http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2012/07/creating-images-simple-and-quick.html
- Pamela Vaughn. “10 Popular Memes Masquerading as Marketing Campaigns:”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33197/10-Popular-Memes-Masquerading-as-Marketing-Campaigns.aspx
Related articles
- The most commonly used Meme Font and a Tutorial how to create a Meme with Photoshop (diaryofdennis.com)
- Paint.NET 3.5.10 (gratisfreeware.wordpress.com)
- Using Paint.NET? Make It Even Better With These Great Plugins (makeuseof.com)
Thank you for reading my blog. I’d be honored if you would leave a comment.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2013 Joan Y. Edwards
Joan,
You have outdone yourself. Wow! This could be a month long study. What a wealth of terrific information. I know lots of people will benefit. Thanks so much for sharing.
Dear Linda,
Thank you for writing. I’m glad you believe this information will be useful. I believe it was you who suggested that people might be interested in how I did them. I was glad to do it. It took me about a month to gather my thoughts and references. I hope you’re right and lots of people benefit from it.
Celebrate you and your loyalty to those you love
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Joan, very cool. I have Logo Creator also and make a lot of my own images now. Never thought about copyrighting them until I saw you do so! Thanks for sharing.
Dear Karen,
Thanks for writing. I’m glad that you liked my post. There’s a link in my post where you tell that you have Logo Creator. It is nifty, isn’t it? You’re welcome for my sharing. Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
What a great blog full of useful information. Thanks for sharing. I love the idea to ‘create images to captivate readers’ – great resources.
Dear Lyndsey,
Thank you for writing. I’m glad you liked my blog and found it full of useful information. It’s great that you love the idea “create images to captivate readers.” I’m also thankful that you found great resources here. I hope you’ll come back soon.
Celebrate you and your search for resources to help you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Hi Joan, great article as always but by the way, the How to Create a Meme article om Slow and Steady Writers in mine lol
Watch out for How to Create an Infographic next week…
Dear Anne,
I am so sorry about mistaking your article as being written by Karen Cioffi. I changed it so that it is duly corrected. I also added another link to one of your articles. Thank you for telling me about my mistake. Thanks for writing great articles…Please send me a link to your article next week.
Celebrate you
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Thanks for the great information, Joan. This is perfect timing for me.
Dear Dianne,
Thanks for writing. I’m glad this information came at just the right time for you! Good luck in creating your images!
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Thank you to everyone who left a comment on this blog post. You make me feel all warm and cuddly inside.
Hi Joan,
Another wonderful reference list.
What’s the learning curve like on Painter 12?
Thanks,
Tracy
Dear Tracy,
Thanks for writing. I’m glad you believe this is another great reference list.
I started using Corel Painter in 2003. I was so grateful that I found Corel Painter…I believe it was version 8. It’s changed through the years. Now it’s Version 12. They have a 30 day free trial. I was amazed and still am at all you can do digitally with painting. With my illustrations for Flip Flap Floodle, I discovered that the curtains were noticed first when you looked at the painting because I had them painted red. With Corel Painter, I was able to change the curtains to purple. Then the eyes of the beholder went right to the little duck and his flute first, instead of the curtains on stage. I noticed that the Paint.Net software has layers and stuff and it’s free. You might want to play around with that.
Celebrate you
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
I’ll have to check it out. Thanks. 🙂
Dear Tracy,
You’re very welcome. You can also copy and paste parts, You can clone outlines.Use different textures, brushes, and colors. You can do layers. Add text.
Celebrate your artistic talents.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards