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Here are a variety of tips and tricks for
those who enjoy BoxShot Making or are trying to figure out how to make
that perfect BoxShot for their product without spending a fortune. If
you have a tip or trick that you think others could benefit from
knowing, please let us know and we will add your idea to the list.
- If you own Microsoft Word, it can be very useful in creating
symbols, logos and backgrounds for your boxshots. For instance,
background gradients can be created using Word's "Format - Background - Fill
Effects" command. Medal ribbons can be created using different Word Autoshapes, grouping them together and saving the
result as a web page. And finally, nice logos can be created with Word's
Word-Art feature (and again saved as a web page).
- If you hop back and forth between programs, when creating boxshots,
you may find a pop-up ruler very handy for measuring image sizes.
- The 2D box surfaces should be made larger than what you expect
your final 3D image size to be. It's a generally excepted rule that
making the surfaces large and then having your BoxShot Making
program shrink the images gives a better result (lines appear
smoother and less jagged), than trying to make the surfaces the
exact size of the finished box.
- For your own website, boxshots can be as elaborate as you like,
with shadows and reflections, etc. However, for distribution around
the web, it is best to offer a boxshot without a reflection and with
a transparent background (which allows it to be used in all sorts of
situations against all sorts of backgrounds).
- Make your boxshots version independent (i.e. don't write your
product's version number on the box, otherwise you'll have to update
your boxshot everytime you release a new version).
- Don't try to put too much information on a boxshot. Keep it
simple. Remember that the purpose of the boxshot is to attract
attention and to look professional. It's not to inform the user all
about your product.
- When choosing fonts, pick simple fonts that will remain legible
when skewed, such as Arial, Impact, Tahoma, Verdana, etc. Avoid
Script-type fonts like the plague!
- The most useful box-shot templates are those that are readable by
a graphics editor or BoxShot-Making Program that has vector editing.
That's because the template is then a series of objects (text boxes,
images, lines, etc.) that can be moved, colors can be changed, etc.
to suit your product. Templates that are simply single images that
you have to add your products name and a few words to are not as
useful because they rarely are appropriate for your product, are in
the wrong color, and end up looking like a hundred other boxshots
already out there on the web.
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