Good photos and the right fonts do most of the work in making a proposal look like your brand. This article covers what to use and how to keep pages fast on a phone.
Choosing photos
Your own event photos are best. Customers want to see what you actually deliver, at venues like theirs. Photos of real guests using your booth do more than any stock photo.
If you need extra images for backgrounds or mood, use free stock photo sites that allow commercial use, such as Unsplash or Pexels. Don’t use images from Pinterest, Google Images or other businesses’ websites. You don’t have permission to use them, even if you found them online.
Before you use a photo, check it for things you didn’t mean to include, like another company’s logo, a sign with the wrong date or a recognisable venue that isn’t one you work at.
Image sizes
Large photos make a page slow to load on mobile data, and customers won’t wait for it. As a guide:
Full-width background images: around 1,600 to 2,000 pixels wide
Images in a column: around 800 to 1,200 pixels wide
Logos and icons: just large enough to look sharp, usually under 600 pixels wide
Use JPG for photos and PNG for logos or graphics with transparent backgrounds. Compress photos before uploading them. A free compression tool can usually halve the file size with no visible difference.
Images behind text
When text sits on top of a photo, add an overlay to the block so the text stays readable. A dark overlay at around 50% to 60% works for white text on most photos. Choose photos with a calm area where the text will sit.
Add alt text to your images. It describes the image for people using screen readers, and it’s what shows if an image doesn’t load.
Adding fonts
Fonts are set in Global Styling, where you choose the default font for each text style, such as headings and paragraphs.
To use a Google font:
Open Global Styling.
Go to the text settings and click to add fonts.
Search the Google Fonts library and enable the fonts you want.
Set them as the defaults for your text styles.
To use your own brand font, upload the font files in the same place. Use the web font files your font supplier provides, and check your font licence allows use on websites.
Font tips
Two fonts are usually enough, one for headings and one for body text.
Script and decorative fonts look great in a short heading but are hard to read in paragraphs.
Set your fonts before you build the page. Changing them later can push text onto extra lines and upset the layout.
Check the result on a phone, where long headings in large fonts can break awkwardly.