GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR

LEGAL PROFESSIONALS
Chapter 6:
Layers and Placement of Objects
By: Lee Barry
Graphic Design For Legal Professionals
Layers and Placement of Objects
Most graphic design software allows for the placement of objects on different layers. Adobe Photoshop and Adobe
Illustrator are the most common software tools for layering elements, although there are many other softwares
available that have layers capability.
My tool of choice is Illustrator, as its pasteboard allows you to easily move objects around both inside and outside the
work area, as opposed to Photoshop which has a fxed work area.
Say we want to insert an Excel spreadsheet into a Word document, yet we want to elaborate on the data.
As a general practice, it is wise to setup some kind of folder structure before you begin creating your document.
On your hard drive, create a folder structure as follows:
In Illustrator, click File>New and create a new document with the dimensions 7x5 and save it in the AI folder
that you created.
Chapter 6: Layers and Placement of Objects
In the layers palette, click the new layer icon (icon to the right of the trash) 4 times. Double-click on each layer to
rename them as follows:
Placing Images
There are two ways to place an image into Illustrator: 1) you can use a capture tool in your operating system (such as
the Snipping Tool in Windows); or 2) actually cutting and pasting the spreadsheet directly from Excel. If using the
second option, the spreadsheet will have native and editable text, whereas the screen capture will not. Screen capture
also has a low resolution and will not scale well. If the information needs to be legible, the better option is to paste
directly from the source application with editable text (option 1).
In Excel, copy the data (Ctrl-A), return to your Illustrator document and select the Images layer and paste (Ctrl-V).
As you can see it is too large and will need to be scaled down.
There are two methods of scaling: 1) selecting the Excel object and manual scaling using the mouse, and 2) using the
Scale tool (Object>Transform>Scale).
The second option is probably more accurate, as you are using a percentages for scaling. But for our immediate
purposes it is usually easier and faster to use option 1.
Graphic Design For Legal Professionals
Select the chart with the direct-selection tool (the black pointer at the top-left of the toolbar), hold down the Shift key
(to constrain proportions) and resize the object such that it flls the area as shown here:
Adding a Text Box
Select the Text layer; then select the Rectangle tool and draw out an area to the right of the chart:
Chapter 6: Layers and Placement of Objects
Select the Text tool, hold down the mouse button and select Area Type Tool (second from the top in the pop-out
list). Click in the upper-left are of the rectangle and type in your text or cut-paste from another source. Font style and
size can be set using the font setting at the top menu bar:
Title Information
Select the Title layer. Then choose the Text tool (regular text, not area text) and click in the area at the top and type
in Scatterplot Data and style it with Myriad Bold, 24pt.
Background Styling
To set the background above the page area, we will add a drop shadow. Hold down the Alt key and click the Eye icon
the Background layer. This toggles the visibility of the other layers, allowing you to see only the Background layer.
You should now only see the blank pasteboard.
Select the Rectangle tool and place the mouse pointer in the upper-left of the pasteboard. Type in the values 7x5
inches, with a fll color of white. Copy the top object (Ctrl-A) and select Edit>Paste in Front. Now we will scale down
this front object using the Scale tool. Double-click on the Scale tool and type in 95% (Uniform).
To add a drop-shadow to this object, select Effect>Stylize>Drop-shadow, and use the default settings.
This is how your screen should look:
Graphic Design For Legal Professionals
Import/Place
Open the document in your word processing software and place the image accordingly. You can resize if you wish,
but doing so may distort the image and/or make it blurry.
If using a page layout program such as InDesign, you can place the Illustrator document as a dynamic link, meaning
any changes you make within Illustrator will update accordingly in InDesign.
If you have other illustrations, save the document as a new fle and edit it accordingly.
Now toggle the other layers back on by holding down the Alt key and clicking the Eye icon. All layers are now visible.
Save the document.
Export
Choose File>Export and select .PNG as your fle type. Save as Figure_1 using the following settings:
Copyright L. Barry, 2014. All rights reserved.