DTP can produce immediate results or can be quicker than traditional methods.
DTP allows the creator of a document to control the end results—printing and distribution.
When creating a publication, clearly define your purpose, assess your target audience, establish where your audience will see your message or form of your message (billboard, business card, brochure, newsletter, etc.) , and decide what outcome you are expecting.
Effective design involves planning and organizing content. Decide what items are most important to the reader. A Thumbnail sketch is a preliminary rough draft of the layout and design of a document or design. A Grid is the underlying structure of a page layout.
Basic design concepts or principles are essential to creating a visually attractive publication.
Focus . . . What do you see first or what do you want you audience to see first. Focus is created by using large and/or bold type; using graphic elements such as ruled lines, clip art, and photographs; and using color for emphasis. White space or areas in a document where no text or graphics appear will help the reader. White space gives the eye a place to rest. Too much or too little white space is difficult to read.
Balance . . . Symmetrical or asymmetrical. Symmetrical design balances similar elements of equal proportion or weight on the left and right sides and the top and bottom of the page. Asymmetrical design balances contrasting elements of unequal proportion and weight on the page.
Proportion . . . The relationship among the elements on a page. Proportionally size the visual elements in your publication according to their importance.
Contrast . . .The difference between varying degrees of lightness and darkness.
Directional Flow . . . Can be produced with ruled lines, type, or paths created by the placement of elements. A reader's eye tends to scan a page in a Z pattern. The optical center is slightly above the actual center of a page.
Consistency . . .Elements such as headers and footers, margins, borders and rule lines, paper size, location of items, text, headings and sub-heads, facing pages, and spot color should be consistent within a document and publication issue.
Color . . . Use color sparingly—less is best! Limit the use of colors to two or three, including the color of the paper. Do not let color overpower the message or words! Black text is still the easiest to read. Remember shades of gray can be used very effectively!
There are NO hard-and-fast rules, BUT . . ."Over designing is one of the most common tendencies of beginning desktop publishers."
Take the time to design!
Communicate, don't decorate!
Less is Best!
"Creative minutes turn into hours!" is a statement I make often to DTP students. If you do not understand what I mean yet, you will! Your textbook states it this way, "Layout and design is a lengthy process of revising, refining, and making adjustments. And above all else, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT!"
A font consists of three characteristics: typeface, type style, and type size. The term typeface refers to the general design and shape of a set of characters. The typeface used in a document establishes a particular mood or feeling. The typeface used in this study guide is Times New Roman. The font used in this paragraph is Times New Roman, Regular style, in 14 point type size. A font is the complete set of characters—uppercase and lowercase letters, figures, and punctuation marks—for one style and size of a particular typeface.
Serifs are the small strokes at the ends of characters and help move the reader's eyes across the page.
Serif typefaces . . . have the small strokes at the edge of a character. These typefaces are used with documents that are text intensive.
Sans serif typeface . . . do not have the small strokes at the edge of a character. These typefaces are used for headlines and documents that are not text intensive.
Ornamental or Decorative typefaces . . . such as script, old English, etc. or special typefaces such as Wingdings or symbols.
Type Size or Point size: A point is approximately 1/72 of an inch.
Type Style . . .
ROMAN TYPE (also called normal or regular) is used for the majority of text in a publication. It is distinguished by an upright look.
ITALIC TYPE is slanted to the right. It should be used sparingly. Italic type adds emphasis in a subtle, unassuming way.
TYPE THAT IS BOLD looks darker because it has thicker lines. Bold text stands out from the rest of the copy. It should be used to create a feeling of movement or action.
Most software allows for a combination of BOLD and ITALIC. A page loses meaning, however, if there is too much bold or italic type.
Other type styles include Outline, Underline, Strikeout, Small Caps, ALL CAPS and Shadow. Adding one or more of these attributes for emphasis or special effect can significantly impact the mood of the publication. They should be used sparingly and consistently. Research shows that text with these attributes is read more slowly.
Monospaced type provides for each letter the same amount of space. There will be more white space around an I and less around an m because the m is wider than the I, but the width of each character with the white space included is the same.
In proportional type, the narrower letters such as an I or an l are not given as much space as a w or an m. The amount of space given to each letter is adjusted according to the width of the letter. The term proportional spacing can be confusing. Actually the widths of the letters are proportional. The space between letters is equal.
Spacing Punctuation . . . When keying a document set in a proportional typeface, space only once after end-of-sentence punctuation as well as a colon (except a colon used to indicate a ration, such as 1:3). Proportional type is set loser and extra white space at the end of sentences is not needed. If the extra white space is added. The text appears blotchy.
Typography Dos and Don'ts!
Special symbols and bullets can be inserted in a document. These special symbols give documents a professional look!
Em dash — is as long as type is tall and is used in text to indicate a pause in speech or a change of thought or where a period is too strong and a comma is too weak. An em dash is created on a typewriter by typing two hyphens.
En dash – indicates a continuation, such as 116–133 or January–March, and is exactly one-half the width of an em dash.
Smart Quotes . . . " and ". . . Use vertical quotation marks to indicate inches only . . . such as, 1" margins.
Use bullets to organize lists.
Use special characters as customized bullets for interest and contrast.
In WordPerfect Reveal Codes will help you create quality documents. Learn to use them! In Word formatting codes in the styles are embedded in the paragraph symbols. You can use the Show/Hide feature in both Word and WordPerfect.
Documents may appear different on different computer because of different fonts and different printers may also affect documents.
Printing on high-quality paper presents a professional image. An off-white, ivory, cream, or gray paper is a better choice than plain white.
"Your challenge is to create a design that gives the readers what they expect and, at the same time, sets your letterhead apart from the rest."
Establish identity and consistency among your internal and external business documents. Include matching elements on memos, letterhead, envelopes, business cards, and other business documents.
Letter format:
Envelope format: The Postal Service requests type be set in ALL CAPS, no punctuation, and include the barcode above the address.
Word automatically bases a new document created at a blank screen on the Normal.dot template. This template initially contains five styles, including one called the Normal style. The Normal style contain formatting instructions to use 10-point Times New Roman as the font, 1" top and bottom margins, 1¼" side margins, English (US) as the language, flush left alignment, single spacing, and Widow/Orphan Control.
WordPerfect defaults are 12-point Times New Roman, 1" margins on the top, bottom and sides, left justification, or alignment, single spacing,
Ruled Lines act as boundaries to the surrounding text and can be horizontal or vertical. Use ruled lines to create focus, visual appeal, directional flow, or to separate columns. Weight describes the thickness of a ruled line. The thickness of a line is measured in points. In Word use the abbreviation pt and in WordPerfect use p to communicate to the program to use point measurement rather than inches. One point equals 0.013" or 1p or 1/72 of an inch.
To create a perfect horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line using a drawing tool, hold down the Shift key and the left mouse button, drag the mouse horizontally or vertically to create the line length of your choice, then release the mouse button and the Shift key when done.
Ruled Lines are objects or graphic elements and can be customized. To edit or change an object, you must first select it or turn on the editing or sizing handles. One method to edit after selecting the object is to double-click the left mouse button and edit using a dialog box.
Kerning is the decreasing or increasing of the white space between specific character pairs. Kerning visually equalizes the space between characters and is especially important at large point sizes or 14-points and larger. Turn on the automatic kerning feature when the type size exceeds 14 points. You may choose to manually kern certain letters.
Tracking equally reduces or increases the horizontal space between all characters in a block of text.
The purpose of tracking is the same as kerning: to produce more attractive, easy-to-read text. Kern and track headings and subheadings.
The business card feature or label definition can also be used to create membership cards, name tags, coupons, place holders, or friendly reminders.
The Physical page is the actual page size a document will be printed on. The Logical Page is defined sections of a physical page, such as the labels.
A Résumé . . . should include these essential parts: heading, career objective, work experience, education, special skills, and references. Work experience and education is usually presented in reverse chronological order (most current first and then working backwards.)
Use QuickFormat (in WordPerfect) or Format Painter (in Word) to copy formatting from one area of text to another. QuickFormat automatically updates all occurrences when changes are made.
WordArt (in Word) and TextArt (in WordPerfect) are OLE-based (object linking and embedding) add-in program. These programs cannot be run by themselves. These are graphic element or objects and can be sized or rotated. Double click on the text to re-enter the WordArt or TextArt.
Sizing or Editing Handles appear on the screen as eight small black squares around the selected object.
Cropping is eliminating unwanted portions of a picture.
Scaling is reducing or enlarging an image to fit into a specific area.
A table may be use as a framework for a flyer or other document. I use tables in many of my Web documents to assist in design layout.
"White space creates a clean page that is easy to read." This is a DTP Pointer from your textbook. White space also give the eye a place to rest and is an important design element.
Microsoft Word has WordArt and WordPerfect has TextArt. You can create many different shapes, sizes, color, dimensional text objects with these features. When you use these features, you create a text graphic which requires more memory than just using large text.
Graphics or Images can add much to any document, but the image must relate to the message and help convey the message. Here are some guidelines for selecting and using a graphics included in Chapter 5:
Lines can be used in a document to create a focal point, draw the eye across or down the page, separate columns and sections, or add visual appeal. Borders, like ruled lines can be used to create interest and attract attention.
A Logo is a unique design that serves as an identifier for an organization or for a product. A logo may be made up of a combination of letters, words, shapes, or images.
Announcements are used to communicate or inform of an upcoming event. The term 'flyer' or 'flier' is used for a document or publication used to advertise a product or service that is available for a limited amount of time. Announcements and flyers are the least expensive forms of advertising. The basic goal of an announcement or a flyer is to communicate a message at a glance.
To crop an image or an object is to trim some of the vertical and horizontal edges off a picture or image.
To scale a picture or an object is to increase or decrease the size proportionally or non proportionally. It is usually best to not distort images! When you badly distort an image, you give Linda the opportunity to show future DTP classes what she likes to call a 'GOOD BAD EXAMPLE!
All good draw programs . . . such as can be found on the DRAWING Toolbar in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint or WP DRAW Program in WordPerfect include Group and Ungroup features. This feature allows you to select an image or object and ungroup the image into smaller objects. This feature also allows you to select several images or objects and group them together into one unit so that the entire group can be moved or sized.
When creating a desktop published brochure, it is important to remember that sometime you work may be photo copied by others many months or even years later using inferior equipment or a copy of a copy. This may be impossible to totally manage, but it is something that should be considered as you design documents and publications for others.
Always create a dummy or a mock-up of what you plan to create. Fold the dummy or mock-up and be certain you create the panels in the correct order.
Reverse Text is an excellent design element. On page 275 in your textbook are several examples of reverse text.
The templates provided in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher, and other software used in desktop publishing are helpful and can be used to assist you to create an effective brochure. But, as you continue to work with desktop publishing design tools, you will probably find it easier to design your own from scratch. Designing your own will give you more opportunities to use your creative touches . . . and YES . . . you are creative!
If you do not have all the templates that are used in this textbook on your home computer, I can help you load them. Let me know if you need my assistance in this task.
Drop Caps can be used to enhance the appearance of text. A drop cap is the first letter of the first work in a paragraph that is set in a larger font size and set into a paragraph to identify the beginning of a major section or part of a document. Your textbook includes many examples of Drop Caps on page 306.
Promotional documents include flyers, announcements, gift certificates, postcards, name tags, invitations, greeting cards, or other documents used to advertise or promote a business. Web pages can also be considered promotional publications!
Tables can be used in desktop published documents to assist you to organize information.
A Text box can be used effective in documents.
Using Mail Merge will permit you to create a master document and a data file and merge the two together to create personalized documents.
Hyperlinks are colored or underlined text or a graphic that you click to link or connect to another item.
On page 373 and 374 are guidelines for planning and designing a Web Page. My advise as you begin creating Web documents is to KEEP IT SIMPLE! What are your top five tips from these two pages?
Most images on the Web are either .GIF or .JPG files.
Presentations can be used to inform, educate, sell a product or service, motivate, persuade, and entertain.
For an electronic slide show you must have a computer available, appropriate software, and projection equipment. Currently such equipment costs about $5,000.
Your textbook on pages 412 and 413 have a list of guidelines to consider when creating a presentation slide. Using these two pages and other DTP Pointers in this chapter, what are your top five tips from this list?
Basic Newsletter Elements . . . be prepared to define and/or to label these elements on a sample newsletter
Designing a Newsletter . . .
Nameplate or banner provides identification for the newsletter. A nameplate includes the name of the publication and may include a logo.
A widow is a single line of text pushed to the top of the next column or page. An orphan is a single line of text appearing by itself at the end of a column or page.
Aligning text in newsletters . . . Text can be left aligned or fully aligned or justified. Justified text is often used but can cause 'rivers' of white space in your paragraphs. Text that is left aligned is the easiest to read. Center alignment should be used only for a small amount of text.