Format: Layout
These are extracts from the FORMAT NEWSLETTER.
The best book on newspaper design (and we have no reservations in saying that) is The Newspaper Designer's Handbook by Tim Harrower now in its fIfth edition (July 2001) and by its third publisher, now McGraw Hill, ISBN 0072492910. The price on Amazon <http://www.amazon.com> is US$56.80. But keep it under lock and key -- it has a tendency to be "borrowed", which is why we've had to buy three copies so far.
THE LOOK OF NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSLETTERS
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A comment on the InDesign list that it would be "an outstanding newspaper" which would make use of the excellent typography of InDesign" brought a spirited response from Adobe's "Western fonts" manager, Thomas Phinney.
He stated: "I couldn't disagree more. One of the main features of newspaper typography is that they do justified text in quite short line lengths, leading to nasty 'rivers' of white space and hard-to-read text. InDesign's multi-line composer is ideal for significantly reducing this problem and improving the readability of almost any newspaper.
"There are other type considerations that newspapers would like, when one considers what's been shown for a future version of InDesign -- notably automatic real fractions with OpenType fonts."
Our own reaction was that newspapers generally don't have the time to correct things in the deadline hours other than ones which will cause legal problems or which make them look stupid. But that doesn't mean they don't put a lot of effort into planning that their product looks better.
I've heard from a number of very small newspaper publishers who want to achieve the kind of typesetting which InDesign offers. For several the decision has been to get a copy, but to defer general introduction until the general upgrading of computers means they will have it operating at least as quickly as their present software.
Unfortunately the hardware renewal cycle is being extended -- and extended. If the upgrade cycle was as it appeared to be when InDesign was being created, they'd all be using it by now. As it is, I'd put it 2 to 3 years away. These are mostly weeklies or twice-weeklies publishing from one paper upwards, plus a few monthlies. The largest has 20+ papers in three production locations. They aren't all in Australia.
As an example of a detail -- I saw examples of proofs marked by an editor who wanted no broken words to end a paragraph. I pointed out that would mean virtually every page having to be reproofed, or suggested I could write a script to make every last word of a para non-breaking. I added a quote not only for my cost (very small) but an estimate for the time it would take to run on every page of every paper. The compromise was that if a page has to be reproofed anyway, he can mark the cosmetic changes, but the production manager has the right to override them.
I recall the editor of a Sunday paper I once worked on commenting after the early, country edition was out "Well, we made it -- now let's turn it into a newspaper". (He was also heard to remark after one edition: "They should have kept the trees", but that's another story).
BREAKS IN STORIES
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Jane Inman wrote: "I do the layout design for a small monthly newsletter (8 pages) and am curious about the accepted way of continuing articles. For example, I might begin article one on page 1, then continue and finish it on page 5. Then begin article two on page 2, continue it on page 4, and finish it on page 6 with a few fillers."
We replied: There isn't really a best way of doing this. The more learned journals will never break an article -- the newsletters which want to make sure they catch a reader with something on page one will start a bunch of articles there, even if they only have half a dozen paragraphs and all will be continued inside.
Most fall somewhere in between, and it is a policy on most newspapers that an item is never turned to less than 6 to 10 paragraphs (anything less can make the reader feel it wasn't worth the effort). Also many have a policy of turning no more than a specific number of stories, while at the other extreme are the publications which have just a headline and one paragraph for as many stories as can be placed on page one -- almost a contents list. Many publications of both kinds will have a policy of only having one jump in a story.
It is generally accepted that you lose some readers at every jump.
On some publications jumps are forced because of colour (even just spot colour) being available on certain pages only -- and they don't want to waste such a page on continuing text.
So, it is really up to you. Spend some time looking at how other newsletters do it, and decide what you like and what seems annoying to you.
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Almost all page layout programs have a keyboard shortcut to change between typographer's quotes and typewriter quotes -- from curly to straight -- and back. However, while typewriter quotes are commonly used for foot and inch marks, or degrees and seconds, they aren't really the correct marks -- which should be the prime and double primes.
Italicising the "typewriter" marks will produce a passable result in most typefaces, but to be correct, you really need to use a symbol typeface for them. If you use them often, it is a perfect job for a script.
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We've mentioned this before, but it deserves another mention until we get our revised website on line with an easier guide to previous hints. In PageMaker, the best way of creating a caption with a picture when text has to run around both, is to group the picture and caption, then apply text wrap to the group. To run text around a breakout quote or similar, group the item (yes, a group of one!) and then apply text wrap. Tony Hirtenstein of the UK commented "What a brilliant idea!" when we answered his query with this suggestion. Sadly we can't take the credit for the idea, only for passing it on.
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