New Canaan High School Theatre
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  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Past Productions
    • Awards
  • Season
    • 2022/23 Season Overview
    • Take Her, She's Mine
    • Tuck Everlasting
    • Drama Festival
    • The Music Man
    • Disaster: The Musical
  • Advertise
    • Our Sponsors
    • Support Us

Parent Ads Tutorials


Ad sizes for Printed programs

 Please submit your ads as .png files.
Small programs, (Fall Underclassmen Musical, Fall Upperclassmen Play, and Spring Musical):
  • 1⁄4 Page: 2.5"w. x 4"h. (vertical) 
  • 1⁄2 Page: 5"w. x 4"h (horizontal) 
  • Full Page: 5"w. x 8"h ​
Large program, (Winter Musical):
  • 1⁄4 Page: 4"w. x 5"h. (vertical)
  • 1⁄2 Page: 8"w. x 5"h (horizontal) 
  • Full Page: 8"w. x 10"h.

How to size, name, and download your design in Canva.com

1st. Visit Canva.com and click the login button in the upper-right corner. Input your credentials or or create a new free account. 
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2nd. In the Upper-right corner, click on the  "Create a design" button, then click "Custom dimensions".
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3rd.  Add the width and height dimensions of your ad size, then click the "Create a new design" button
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4th. After you create your design, name it using this format: Student Name - Size of ad - Ad. ex. lamorte-half-ad.png
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5th. Clicking the DOWNLOAD button in the upper-right corner and choose PNG file type.
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Updated Canva Tutorial for Online Screened Performance Ads



Here are a few video tutorials showing how to use two free online graphic design sights, (Canva.com and Photopea) to create the Parent Break-a-Leg Ads. You can ignore the comments about the style of the “Into the Woods” program, and make styling appropriate to the current show. Also, please make note of the ad sizes above, sizes may differ from the sizes mentioned in the video tutorials, depending on the show.

PLEASE NOTE! If you havea problem with BUFFERING (frozen screen with spinning circle), click on the gear icon below the video, choose quality and then choose lower image quality such as 480p or 360p. Alternately, if the video looks fuzzy, you can choose a higher resolution like 720p.

You will be surprised at how easy Canva is to use! You do not need any special skills; it is literally a “drag and drop” application. You can also use these sites for other projects like making invitations, holiday cards, fliers, or even social network cover pages.

Tutorials for creating parent ads with Canva.com

If you do decide to create your own ad, please name your image with the title in this format: Student Name - Size of ad - Ad. 
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For example, for a student named Phil Jennings, with a quarter page ad, the file should be saved as: Jennings-Quarter-Ad.pdf
 
To download your document in Canva, click the download button in the upper right side of the screen, choose  "PDF for Print" option. Upload your completed ad to the NCHS Theatre Parent Ad Form.

​While we do encourage you to try to make your own Break-a Leg ads, (it’s easy, promise!), we do have parent volunteers who can create your ad for you, if you prefer.  You can submit your images, graphics, and wording via the NCHS Theatre Parent Ad Form.

Tutorial for editing image backgrounds with Photopea.com

Below is a quick tutorial on how to remove backgrounds from images, blur backgrounds, and make part of an image black and white with the free online graphic design site Photopea.  Photopea is like a free, dumbed down version of photoshop, it is very powerful but a bit of a learning curve.  I'm just going to show you a few basic steps that you can take to prepare photos to use in Canva.com
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Advanced Photopea Tutorial Series

Below is a series of short video tutorials on using Photopea to design parent ads for the NCHS Theatre Play Programs. 

​The videos should be watched in order for the first time.

After watching the tutorials you will have the knowledge to create an ad similar to this one.
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How to cut out a shape of an image using clipping masks in Photopea

Note!  To access the "hand tool" the keyboard shortcut is to press the space bar, NOT the shift key.
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How to upload and edit graphics with Photopea

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Editing text and fonts In Photopea

Adding external fonts from Google Fonts and DaFont


Adding a Border, finishing touches, and exporting your design.

Once you have completed your ad design, you can export it as a .png file.

If you have not already named your design, please rename it in the following format: 
Student Name - Size of ad - Ad. 

For example, for a student named Shannon Smith, with a half-page ad, the file should be saved as:
Shannon-Smith-Half-Ad.png

 
​Upload your completed ad to the 
NCHS Theatre Parent Ad Form.

Tutorial for finding and downloading open source graphics

There is also a quick tutorial introducing some sites where you can find free, open source, graphics, with instructions on how to download the files onto your computer. You should always choose the largest file size possible, for the best image resolution in the program.

Here are some links to sites where you can find free, open source images:
​http://www.picmonkey.com/blog/free-stock-photos/
https://www.canva.com/learn/best-free-stock-photos/
https://unsplash.com/
https://pixabay.com 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
​
https://www.flickr.com

NEW CANAAN HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE
11 Farm Road  •  New Canaan, CT   •  06840
​General Inquiries: [email protected]
Ticketing Inquiries: [email protected]
Advertising Inquiries: [email protected]
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