The 10 Commandments of Desktop Publishing Melanie Adcock Cottage Hill Baptist Church

Thou Shall Understand That Having A Computer And A Printer Does NOT Make You A Graphic Artist collect examples of good layouts “borrow” good ideas use pre-made templates

Use The Right Software For The Job The Good Ones: Print Artist PrintShop Deluxe All the ones like them MS Word is not a layout program

Use The Right Software For The Job The Better Ones: MS Publisher Press Writer Pages PageMaker

Use The Right Software For The Job The Best Ones: Quark Xpress InDesign

4C press, offset, color laser, b/w laser, inkjet, or copy machine Font usage (true type or postscript) Graphics Paper Don’t use copy paper Thou Shall Consider The Printer Before You Start

Proximity Alignment Repetition Contrast Thou Shall Use Basic Design Principles

Proximity Group related items together

Proximity

Summary of Proximity Basic purpose is to organize visual elements How to test for proximity What to avoid

Alignment Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page.

Alignment

Summary of Alignment The basic purpose is to unify and organize How to get it What to avoid

Repetition Repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece.

Repetition

Summary of Repetition The basic purpose is to unify and add visual interest How to get it What to avoid

Contrast If two items are not the same, then make them REALLY different

Contrast

Summary of Contrast The basic purpose of contrast is to create interest and to add to the organization of the piece. How to get it What to avoid

True Type vs. Postscript (Type1) No more than 3 fonts per page Know and use kerning,leading, and tracking DON’T USE ALL CAPS! One space after punctuation Use “real” quotes No double returns Use Tab key not the space bar Thou Shall Use Fonts Responsibly

Spell Check Grammar Check Readability Two sets of real human eyes will catch 98% of all errors. Thou Shall Proof Your Work

Scanning 600dpi Line Art 300dpi 4C press, Color laser, BW laser, inkjet 100dpi newspaper 72dpi video or web Thou Shall Consider Resolution When Using Graphics

Photos Over lighten and print in grayscale for copy machines Make skin tones more yellow (PhotoShop) when printing on an older color laser printer or inkjet printer Save in jpeg or tiff format Thou Shall Consider Resolution When Using Graphics

Use sparingly. Just because you have a collection of a million doesn’t mean you have to use them all in your lifetime. Use EPS (vector) when possible Thou Shall Use Clip Art Responsibly

Ask others for opinions and suggestions When using an “outside” printer ask about: Software File formats Page proofs paper Thou Shall Ask Questions

When sharing / sending files remember to include: Fonts Artwork (clip art, photos) Save to a file format they can open Test on another computer Use CD’s or DVD-r, and flash drives Thou Shall Export Necessary Files

Answering Your Questions

Great Resources Robin Williams The Non-Designers Design Book ISBN The Non- Designers Print and Scan Book (with Sandee Cohen) ISBN The Non-Designers Web Book (with John Tollett) ISBN X