PART 3 Visualizing the Story When using a scenic background, such as the closing shots of a drama, the background content or meaning may actually help determine the style and weight of the lettering that can be used. Plain backgrounds can prove very effective, as they are unobtrusive and emphasize the letter- ing. However they can also be dull and uninteresting. Ornamental backgrounds, which include patterning, texture, and abstract designs, may increase the graphic's visual appeal. However, they can look confusing. Clearly, background selection requires careful choice. Lettering against a multihued or multitoned background is invariably harder to read. If graph- ics are inserted over location shots, such a street scene, the eye may have some difficulty in discerning information, and may also be tempted to wander around the background instead. In most cases, by using larger type in light tones (white or yellow) with strong borders or shadows, legibility is considerably improved. As a general rule, avoid introducing lettering over backgrounds of similar tones or hues, or over printed matter (e.g., titles over a newspaper page). Light lettering is usually more easily read than dark, and pastel or neutral backgrounds are preferable to saturated hues. GRAPHIC EQUIPMENT Character generator (CG) is a generic name for any type of television graphic creation equipment. CGs can change the fonts, shape, size, color, and design of lettering. They can make it flash, flip, crawl (move sideways across the screen), roll (move vertically across the screen), and animate. Lettering can be presented as outlines or as solid characters, given a black border (black edge), or a surrounding drop shadow. Once the graphic is created, it 182 FIGURE 11.12 This is the composition screen of a high-end graphics system. The system allows almost unlimited manipulation of the graphics. (Photo courtesy of Chyron)