"Teddy Tornado's Story" - The Birth of a Logo!
Authored by Ron Reed
While the TCAA webpage
was in its early design phase, I was trying to determine
if there was a "logo" being used for Columbian High School.
Then, I saw the image of the "tornado"
on the Tiffin Columbian Alumni Association Newsletters.
Wow!
This is just the perfect size image for the web site.
So, what do I have to do get "it" on the Internet.
It is likely that the image used by the printer would not exist in a
graphic format used on the Web.
The web pages use basically two file formats for their images.
The larger Internet compatible format is commonly obtained from
digital cameras and scanners.
The JPG or JPEG formats have great resolution and are used to present
colored photographs.
But, the JPG file sizes, in "bytes",
are very large, requiring more computer storage memory, and longer
download times from the Internet.
As an example, here is a photo of
your webmaster, taken with a camera by a colleague in 2001.
Dancin' Gator
The size of this file requires 187,054 bytes. It is an example of a image
requiring a lengthy download time, but does have decent image resolution.
As you can see, some JPG files are big, and sometimes "too ugly"
and "too big" to use on web pages.
The second Internet graphic file format lends itself to
non-photographic images, like our "tornado" image.
The GIF, Graphic Interface Format, files have sufficient resolution, smaller
memory storage size, and thus, less download time.
They are commonly used for logos, like
"Albert", or
PASSCo's Logo".
GIF files are used for many graphics, like
banners,
links,
items, and
graphic icons.
So, how do I get this "printed tornado image"
into a graphic file format for a TCAA logo?
I examined the Newsletter and discovered that a scan of the "tornado"
would include some unwanted printed material within the image.
Then, I went and got my scissors.
Yep, just like a kindergarten child,
I carefully cut the image from the glossy page.
Then, going to the office in the basement,
I got a sheet of white printer paper.
I opened the scanner, and placed the "tornado" image on the
glass plate and covered it with the white paper.
After trying a number
of orientations and scans, I felt I had a good image.
Next came the first decision!
What filename should I assign to the scanner "bitmap" image. "tornado.bmp"?
That did not seem to be an appropriate name.
It had to be short and
easy to recall, as I planned to use the image quite often.
What about "teddy.bmp"?
Perfect! "Teddy, our TCAA Logo".
Thus, "Teddy" was conceived, and had a name!
Now, here is the rest of the story.
What do we do to go from the
image to the finished
logo?
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The file to the left is the result of Jim's removing the "grey" background from the originally
scanned file. This file has a new file format and name, "teddy.gif". The file now has a
compatible file format for a web page.
"Dancin' Gator" is a half-size animated graphic.
Go! Tornados!
