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A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.
[Graphic art]
" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Britannica.com. Retrieved 21 February 2016. The term usually refers to the arts that rely more on line, color or tone, especially drawing and the various forms of
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
;
["Graphic art." ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. 3rd ed. Ed. Ian Chilvers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. p. 309.] it is sometimes understood to refer specifically to
printmaking processes,
such as
line engraving
Line engraving is a term for engraved images printed on paper to be used as prints or illustrations. The term is mainly used in connection with 18th- or 19th-century commercial illustrations for magazines and books or reproductions of painting ...
,
aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...
,
drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...
,
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
,
mezzotint
Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...
,
monotype
Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...
,
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, and
screen printing (silk-screen, serigraphy).
[Mayer, Ralph (1992). "Graphic arts, or graphics." ''The HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques''. 2nd ed. Revised and edited by Steven Sheehan. New York: Harper Perennial. p. 182.] Graphic art mostly includes
calligraphy, photography, painting,
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), ...
,
computer graphics
Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...
, and
bindery
Bindery refers to a studio, workshop or factory where sheets of (usually) paper are fastened together to make books, but also where gold and other decorative elements are added to the exterior of books, where boxes or slipcases for books are made ...
. It also encompasses drawn plans and layouts for interior and architectural designs.
History
Throughout history, technological inventions have shaped the development of graphic art. In 2500 BC, the Egyptians used graphic symbols to communicate their thoughts in a written form known as
hieroglyphics
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
. The Egyptians wrote and illustrated narratives on rolls of papyrus to share the stories and art with others.
During the Middle Ages, scribes
manually copied each individual page of manuscripts to maintain their sacred teachings. The scribes would leave marked sections of the page available for artists to
insert drawings and decorations. Using art alongside the carefully lettered text enhanced the religious reading experience.
[McGuire-Lyle, Erin. ''Careers in the Graphic Arts and Computer Graphics'' (Career Resource Library). June 2000. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1999.]
In 1450, Johannes Gutenberg created the first upgraded moving type mechanical equipment called as the
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
. His printing press aided the mass creation of text and visual art, eventually obviating the need for hand transcriptions.
Again during the Renaissance years, graphic art in the form of printing played a major role in the spread of classical learning in Europe. Within these manuscripts, book designers focused heavily on
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
.
Due to the development of larger fonts during the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
,
posters
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text ...
became a popular form of graphic art used to communicate the latest information as well as to advertise the latest products and services.
The invention and popularity of film and television changed graphic art through the additional aspect of motion as advertising agencies attempted to use kinetics to their advantage.
The next major change in graphic arts came when the personal computer was invented in the twentieth century. Powerful computer software enables artists to manipulate images in a much faster and simpler way than the skills of board artists prior to the 1990s. With quick calculations, computers easily recolor, scale, rotate, and rearrange images if the programs are known.
The design of street signs has been impacted by scientific examinations into readability. New York City is in the midst of replacing all of its street signs that have all capital characters with ones that only have upper and lower case letters. They anticipate that greater readability will improve wayfinding and greatly reduce collisions and injuries.
Graphic design software
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Graphic artists applying for positions in today's job market are expected to be familiar with computers and a variety of software programs to create the most appealing, up to date artworks.
Graphic art software
Graphic art softwareBob Gordon, Maggie Gordon ''The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design '', 15 March 2002 pp:44 is a subclass of application software used for graphic design, multimedia development, stylized image development, technical il ...
includes applications such as:
*
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Dreamweaver is a proprietary web development tool from Adobe Inc. It was created by Macromedia in 1997 and developed by them until Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005.
Adobe Dreamweaver is available for the macOS and Windows ...
– a tool that facilitates the creation of webpages and dynamic internet content
*
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. Originally designed for the Apple Macintosh, development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985. Along with Creative Cloud (Adobe's shift to month ...
– a software application that allows artists to manipulate vector graphics
*
Adobe InDesign – desktop publishing software used for layout and design manipulation
*
Adobe Photoshop – a bitmap graphics software including powerful graphics editing tools that provide a large variety of editing functionality
*
CorelDRAW – similar to Adobe Illustrator, it is another vector graphic manipulation tool
*
PhotoImpact
Ulead PhotoImpact (originally called Iedit) is a raster and vector graphics editing program published by Ulead Systems.
Alongside its image editing capabilities, the program also features HTML tools, such as a rollover assistant, an imagemap as ...
– a digital photograph editor
*
QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress is a desktop publishing software for creating and editing complex page layouts in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. It runs on macOS and Windows. It was first released by Quark, Inc. in 1987 and is still owned and ...
– similar to Adobe InDesign, it is another computer publishing software tool
*
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a raster graphics editor developed by Serif Ltd. for iOS, macOS, and Windows, alongside Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. Development of Affinity Photo started in 2009 as a raster graphics editor for macOS. Its first ve ...
- an alternative to Adobe Photoshop
*
Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor developed by Serif for macOS, iPadOS, and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the "Affinity trinity" alongside Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. Affinity Designer is available for purchase direc ...
- an alternative to Adobe Illustrator
Free software
*
Paint.net
Paint.net (stylized as Paint.NET or paint.net) is a freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. Paint.net was originally created by Rick Brewster as a Washington State University student project, ...
– photograph editing capabilities with many plugins to expand use
*
GIMP – similar to paint.net and Photoshop
*
Inkscape
Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported.
Inkscape can render primitive vector shapes (e.g. rec ...
– similar to Illustrator
Beside computers and software, graphic artists are also expected to be creative with processing camera work, registration, crop marks, and masking.
Careers
One of the most common career paths for a graphic artist today is web design. With the popularity of the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
, the demand for web designers is immense. Graphic artists use their creativity with layouts, typography, and
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...
s to market the products or services of the client's business. In addition to creating graphical designs, graphic artists also need to understand hypertext, web programming, and web page maintenance to successfully create a web page.
The responsibility for effective communication also falls under the auspices of the graphic designer.
See also
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Communication design
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Crowdsourcing creative work
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Digital art
Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media.
Since the 1960s, various name ...
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Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
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Illustration
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Caricature
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Cartoon
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Comic
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Animation
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Graphic design
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Printmaking
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Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...
References
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Communication design
Graphic design
Visual arts