Desktop Publishing Hints (Extracted from the JetLink Express Manual) All desktop publishers live in fear of an error message that lurks somewhere within their system's cerebellum--the computer's knee-jerk reaction to a really awful design. Completeing a design in which we have marginal confidence, we hit the Print button and.... AESTHETICALLY OFFENSIVE! CANNOT PRINT THIS PAGE! Although this dialog box will never appear, these hints are designed to provide you with some very basic design principles for desktop publishinf. For further information on design we recommend you purchase the book entitled Design Principles For Desktop Publishers. This book is written by Tom Lichty and published by Scott, Foresman and Company. The Reader ---------- More often than not, the most significant determining factor in design is the reader. Imagine the one individual who best describes your reader. It is important that this be one person, whether real or imagined. The image must be clearly defined--a specific individual rather than an undefined group. If the image is hazy the decisions will be hazy; if the image is concise the decisions will be concise. Some questions to ask yourself are: how old is your reader? How literate is your reader? What is the social ethnic background of your reader? The reader will influence not only your choice of vocabulary, but also the graphic appearance of the page, the communication conventions that can be used, and even the size of the type. Selecting a Typeface -------------------- So much fuss is made over design--wrapping text around graphics, letter spacing and kerning, digitizing graphics--that desktop publishers often lose sight of the forest for the trees. Over 90% of your publication, most likely, will be text, and that text deserves your consideration before any other element in the design. Actually, you'll find two types of text in most publications: body text and display text. Display text is the text that's used to construct headlines, subheads, and the like. Body text is the stuff from which paragraphs are made. No doubt your publication has something to say: body text says it. Body text has a profound but subtle effect on your publication's mood. More than any other element, body text can whisper or shout, look old or look new, relax the reader, startle the reader, or send the reader away after two paragraphs, never to return. It has to do with the selection of the typeface that's used in the body of the text. This may be the single most important decision of your entire publication. All those typefaces: The abundance of typefaces that are available to the desktop publisher is baffling. Fortunately, font families can be classified into two primary type races: serif and sans serif (specialty fonts are not usually considered for publication text). Within each font, there are a number of style variations: plain, bold, italic, bold italic (outline and shadow, as well). These styles are variations on a theme, and defined as a family. Used together in the same publication, fonts within a family work in harmony, with the family resemblance sustaining the basic unity of the design. Even so, fonts within a family usually exhibit enough variety to add sparkle and energy to a layout. That said, we acknowledge the need to occasionally mix type races. Be aware of the potential for catastrophe, however, and follow these suggestions: * Never mix font families from within the same type race. The reader will feel that something is wrong, but won't be able to determine its source. * Assign a seperate purpose to each family. A sans serif type race for headlines and subheads and a serif type race for body text is a popular combination. Don't confuse the reader by using two fonts for the same purpose. * Allow one family to dominate. Remember that most families of type offer considerable variety and opportunity for contrast. When to use what and why: Display type conveys the mood of your publication. Since body type makes a dedicated effort to remain unobtrusive, it's up to display type to make the first impression. Serif typefaces are dignified, graceful and austere, making them the popular choice for body text. They are the most familiar and serve well those situations requiring a voice of authority rather than a shout, harmony rather than contrast. Sans serif typefaces are contemporary and efficient. They provide an excellent opportunity for contrast when the body text is set in serif. Helvetica, for instance, contrasts well with most serif typefaces. Though sans serif typefaces aren't ideal as body type, their high legibility applies well to headlines and subheadings, even using italics. Bold: When desktop publishers need to attract the reader's attention, they use bold. This style is effective in making headings, titles, and subheadings stand out, giving the reader a geographic feel for each page. You can use bold to convey the importance of certain words, and yet still preserve the flow of the text because it is of the same family. You should use bold selectively, however, as too much bold lessens the perceived importance of each individual bold word. The attraction of the reader to the page can be strong in too many places, and can actually be distracting as focus is lost. It is, therefore, good practice to be conservative when using bold in body text. Italics: Since italics are such a marked contrast to their serif counterpart, yet designed to blend in with them, italics are an ideal complement to the parent serif. They convey a sophistacation, as opposed to a formality. Use italics wherever a feeling of informality or sophistacation is appropriate and contrast is required. Bitmap characters: The limitations imposed by bitmap technology are so severe that the technology just isn't appropriate for desktop publishing. If you're limited to four or five type sizes within any one typeface, you're not capable of of desktop publishing. There simply isn't enough flexibility. The proper design of a page requires access to a broad variety of display typefaces and sizes to complement body text. To restrict their availability is to restrict design itself. Outline fonts are clearly the standard, the necessity, in desktop publishing. Formatting Text --------------- Column width: The size of the type determines the proper width of the column in which it is placed. Column width has profound effect on readability. Long lines of small type make it difficult for the reader to keep his or her place. Short lines of large type hinder the flow of the message by forcing frequent and disfiguring hyphenations. To determine the proper column width (and therefore the number of columns per page) for publication, type 1.5 lowercase alphabets of the typeface and type size that you intend to use and measure the results. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm Aligning text: Most software makes it easy to specify any of the four text-alignment methods: left justified, right justified, centered, or fully justified. Unfortunately, software doesn't tell you when to use which method. Perhaps we can help. Left and right justified text conveys a nice, even color. Since there is no artificial word spacing or letter spacing, the texture of the line is never violated. For this reason left justified text is best for short lines of large type set in narrow columns. A right justified margin also adds visual interest to the page. Some of the best designers in the field insist that left justified text is the easiest to read. Some say that readers tire of it after half an hour or so. There is no scientific evidence to support either claim. Full justification is familiar and predictable. Some say that it is easier to read. It most certainly is the norm. For over 500 years printers, with the evident support of their readers, have determined that the sense of orderliness conveyed by justified text is preferable to consistent word spacing and ragged right margins. Regardless of arguments to the contrary, justified text is prefered for long works that require continuous reading and concentration. Cautions abound, however. More than any other element, poorly justified text, displaying large spaces (rivers of white) in any sentence, can identify the inexperienced designer and infest the document with a decidedly non-professional appearance. Page Design ----------- There are five key elements to page design: Proportion, Balance, Contrast, Rhythm, and Unity. Proportion: Desktop publishing's most common shape is the familiar 8 1/2 by 11 inch letter size. This proportion has a history that spans one and a half thousand years. All documents stand to benefit from the use of a grid (a series of non-printing horizontal and vertical guidelines on the page). A grid guarantees consistency throughout the document, identifies margins and determines the orderly placement of columns and illustrations on the page. Your grid need not be composed of what is referred as golden rectangles calculated using a fairly lengthy formula. A grid may simply outline the placement of margins and page numbers; it may consist of nothing but vertical lines defining columns, it may even contain diagonals. The importance of the grid, especially in multiple-page documents is that it enforces consistency and organization. By analyzing and dividing our space we are required to ponder the publication as a whole rather than its pages individually. One of the grid's major benefits is the enforcement of consistent margins throughout a multiple-page document. The grid not only describes the orderly placement of text and graphics, it also describes the proportion and placement of margins. A feeling for proportion is critical when margins are defined. Margins set off the text and frame it; overly small margins cramp the text and eliminate the frame. A good rule of thumb is to have half the page serve as margins. There is a tendency among us non-designers to try to fit too much material on a page. It's important to conceptualize white space as an element on the page, equal in importance to text and graphics. Like margins, which frame text and graphics monotony, white space is an active portion of the design. White space adds proportion to a page, placing other elements in perspective and organizing their arrangement. The grid, margins, and white space: they're not the only elements of proportion, but they're certainly the most critical. Balance: Balance is one of the easiest design principles to recognize. If a page is in balance, the weight of the objects on the left side of the page equals those on the right. The optical center is the spot that the eye sees when it first encounters a page. It may come as a surprise to learn that the optical center is highly predictable and really not on center at all. Most people will first glance at a point slightly above the mathematical center of the page and slightly to the left. If a single line of text, a single block of copy or a single illustration is to appear on a page, place it squarely on the optical center. Formal balance is achieved when everything above and below the optical center is balanced: everything to the right of the optical center balances everything to its left. Formally balanced (symmetrical) documents provide a feeling of formality, precision and reserve. Wedding announcements are usually formally balanced, as are many title pages and business cards. Unfortunately, formal balance is rather starchy. In most layouts balance is achieved informally. To achieve informal balance (asymmetrical) we move the heavy, larger text or graphics toward the optical center fulcrum. This generally results in the page having more energy, more vigor, more enthusiasm than on the formally balanced page. Contrast: One of the quickest and most damning criticisms you will hear is that of tone. Each significant page of your publication requires a dominant element: a headline, illustration, white space or something that focuses the design and defines its purpose. Such an element is identified using contrast. The foremost method of achieving effective contrast is typographic. A contrasting type race is probably the most popular; Avant Garde with Schoolbook, Helvetica with Times. Italics and boldfaces provide effective contrast within the same font family. Non-typographical elements provide ample opportunities for contrast with their broad capacity for black and white, texture, shape and size. While contrast is an effective--almost necessary--design technique, it nonetheless is like every good thing. A contrast element used with discretion and conservatism helps the reader remember its focus, and defeats blandness. Too many contrasting elements compete for the reader's attention, and thus the focus is lost. Rhythm: The interaction between the reader and the page is anything but static. The reader's eyes are in constant motion. As we mentioned before, the reader's eyes are naturally attracted to the optical center of the page. From here, and without distractions, the reader will then scan the page, first looking to the right of the optical center, then down to the left, then back to the right, ending up in the lower right corner. The pattern is a Z and you can take advantage of it to enhance your design. Visual rhythm, like musical rhythm, evokes mood. Repeated horizontal elements suggest stability--an almost placid quality. Repeated vertical elements speak more loudly of strength and vitality. Diagonals usually suggest motion, and centered elements help draw the eye to the dominant element of the composition. Rhythm is the ideal antidote for both monotony and chaos, for the eye or the ear. Unity: Unity is when each element of the design complements all others. Unity is when design elements of simular purpose are grouped together. Unity is when typography is confined to one family and white space is concentrated on the page. The easiest form of unity is one of type. If you must use another font family, use another type race and eye it for compatibility. If graphical elements are present, unify the tone of your design as well. Bold illustrations and bold type present a unified front. Unity of shape requires nothing other than an awareness of compatibility. Round corner borders compete with angular illustrations, for instance. If the underlying grid is rectangular, repeat the rectangle throughout the design. Consistency also brings unity to design. Grid and style sheets encourage consistency, but you'll have to supply discipline yourself. Identify one font family for captions or headings and stick to it. If rules and borders will be used repeatedly, establish conversions and be consistent. Conclusion ---------- As you design your new layout, deliberately refer to the five key elements for page design: Proportion, Balance, Contrast, Rhythm, and Unity!