Using images in your web and print publications

It’s always worth livening up a newsletter or website with images, but how do you do it without spending a fortune? Ben Pitt explores the options

Images are an integral part of virtually every online and printed document you see. They draw the reader in, giving an instant understanding of what the accompanying text is about. They also make documents more attractive than if they were just a sea of text.

Images can be expensive to create, though. Professional photographers and illustrators require wages in line with their skills and experience, not to mention the time involved and the equipment costs. If you need to pay people to appear in photos, it can get even more expensive. That’s fine for professional projects with big budgets, but there are lots of web and printed publications that don’t have much cash to spend. In many cases the text is written and edited by hobbyists and volunteers, and there’s literally no budget for the entire project because it generates no income.

The objective of this article isn’t to do photographers and illustrators out of a living. However, if hiring a professional isn’t an option, it doesn’t necessarily mean your publication must be devoid of graphics.

Can you survive a web avalanche?

How would your website cope with a sudden surge intraffic? Darien Graham-Smith examines the solutions that will help you keep a step a head.

If your business gets linked to from a major website, or referred to by a popular Twitter feed, you may find you suddenly have more traffic than you can handle – meaning visitors will suffer a slow experience or no response at all. So what precautions can you take to protect your site from a sudden flood of visitors?

Philips BDM4065UC

Is this the screen we’ve been searching for?

Ten years. It’s a staggeringly long time in tech. Back in 2005, you’d be looking at a dual-core Intel Pentium D and its craptastic NetBurst architecture. On the graphics side, it’s Nvidia GeForce 6800 and 16 pixel pipes. Wowee. As for storage, the notion of an SSD wasn’t even a twinkle in the NAND industry’s eye. It was a very different time.

Yet it was nearly a decade ago Dell wheeled out the monitor by which pretty much all others have since been measured, the 3007WFP, and then the 3007WFP-HC. And, yes, more recently some interesting technologies have cast doubt on the Dell’s mastery, that’s for sure. But the broader point holds: a decade-long reign at the top is extraordinary. It’s impossible to imagine for any other major component.

But here we are in early 2015 and it looks like a new high-end default in the monitor market has arrived, at least in terms of the form factor – if perhaps not this actual Philips model. Let’s find out why.

Oh, brother, where art thou?

The game you bought a PS4 for took the world by storm at The PlayStation Experience. Now, Dave Meikleham prepares for one last treasure hunt, taking you deep inside that astonishing real-time demo. Get ready to discover the sibling secrets and tech at the heart of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End…

Holy hell in a handbasket. How does Naughty Dog keep doing this? Just when we think we’ve clocked what PS4 is capable of, the Santa Monica outfit delivers a glimpse of Indyinspired action that effortlessly blows away our expectations. You came for a slice of the best damn graphics and shooting in town? Here, have an insanely detailed, dreamboat hero who could have been plucked from a Pixar film. While you’re at it, tuck into some thrillingly freeform, stealth-informed combat. Oh, and don’t forget to take Nathan Drake’s big brother with you in a doggy bag. Houston, we have a bromance.

The Order: 1886

Moustached steampunk shooter targets success next month

It’s been a long old while since we were first forced to pick our eyes up off the floor and sluice them clean in the wake of Ready At Dawn’s steampunk action adventure’s initial reveal. Aside from brief hands-on demos at E3 and Gamescom we’ve had very little time to get to grips with how this ridiculously good-looking game actually plays. But after an extensive dissection of the fifth chapter we’ve now plenty of thoughts to share, so strap in as we rappel down the most salient slices of our assault on the Agamemnon.