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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
for an outdoor center that rented kayaks for use on the Saluda River. In that case, I might use a
technique like the one illustrated in Figure 5.19.
Figure 5.19. River image cropped around a kayaking shape
Here, I’ve used a vector image of a pair of kayakers as a mask around which to crop my original
Saluda River picture. In image editing software, a mask is basically a window through which you
can see the image. When I laid the mask of the kayakers over the image of the river, I produced the
top half of Figure 5.19. By flipping the mask vertically, and applying it to a blue-tinted duplicate
of the original, I was able to create the appearance of a reflection.
Now that image might work for a kayak rental center website, but what if we were creating images
for a website that promoted a regional visitor center? The center wouldn’t want to limit the river
as only great for kayaking. It’s also a great area for swimming, hiking, and fishing. By using the text
“RIVER” as a mask in Figure 5.20, I’ve made the image much more versatile, while establishing a
fresh and creative look.
Figure 5.20. Using text as a mask to crop the Saluda River image