Affordable graphics for a white paper
by Gordon Graham, That White Paper Guy
Every white paper needs at least one effective graphic to help anchor its argument in the reader's mind.
But there's a common problem: No budget for fancy graphics.
Here are two cost-effective tools that can really help: one for business graphics, the other for stock photography.
For business graphics, use SmartDraw
SmartDraw is an extremely easy-to-use drawing program. And it comes preloaded with 100+ templates for all sorts of business graphics, from accident reconstructions to work flows.
Some of these can be perfect for white papers, such as flowcharts, maps, network diagrams, pyramids, steps, Venn diagrams and so on.
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Why not use Illustrator or Visio? Or throw together something in Word or PowerPoint? Well, I've tried all those... and here's the catch. The really professional tools take weeks to learn, and the office-level ones just aren't powerful enough. |
SmartDraw gives you the best of both worlds: a fast and easy workflow PLUS crisp, professional results good enough for any white paper.
For example, the very first time I use SmartDraw, I created the following timeline in less than an hour. That included learning the program from scratch and doing a second corrected version.
And it's certainly "good enough" to use in a business document. .. don't you think?
Here's the secret. Instead of presenting you with a blank screen like other drawing tools, SmartDraw comes bundled with "smart templates" for different graphics.
That means you start with a finished drawing something like the one you need and then modify it to suit... which is far faster than starting from a blank screen.
These templates are "smart" so you don't have to fiddle with connectors, spacing or shading. All that is done automatically for you.
Priced at $200, SmartDraw will pay for itself in the first two or three graphics you do... and it won't suck up days of your time to get great results.
You can get a trial version from www.smartdraw.com/downloads/.
And there are lots of other resources on that site, including the amazing Graphics Glossary, which has examples and best practices for using 70+ different types of graphics.
If you need cost-effective DIY graphics for your white papers, check out SmartDraw.
For photos, use iStockphoto.com
But what if you don't want a graphic? What if you'd really prefer a photo?
The best place to find inexpensive photography with next-to-no royalty restrictions is www.istockphoto.com.
This site has grown to the point that it's now probably the web's finest sources for fresh, inexpensive stock photography, with 6+ million images by early 2010.
I've used iStockphoto to find great pictures for presentations, this web site and of course, white papers.
The comprehensive indexing makes finding the right photo a relatively pleasant experience. The site has tons of shots of people, places, things and abstracts. You can get different sizes of an image for different prices.
But at five dollars a pop, or even less, you just can't beat the price.
I'm not suggesting you fill up your white papers with fake, cloying photos that make them look like ads or brochures.
But a well-chosen photo can help retain the interest of readers who are bored with a wall of gray text.
Here are just a few of the images I've found and used in white papers in the past few months...
SmartDraw and istockphoto.com are two easy-to-use and cost-effective resources that will help any white paper creator add more visual flair to your documents... without breaking your budget.
Written by Gordon Graham, this article appeared in the
July 2008 edition of the WhitePaperSource Newsletter.
