Design slipups: avoid these 10 desktop publishing mistakes and look like a pro - Technology Tutorial

Home Office Computing, Sept, 1995 by Roger C. Parker

8. Cut, don't comprise.

It's almost always a mistake to reduce your type size or line spacing to fit everything in. Even well-written copy has extra, additional, unnecessary, extraneous, unneeded, and repetitious (not to mention redundant) words and phrases. As a bonus, your copy will be punchier.

9. Punctuate

professionally.

Locate and use typographic punctuation rather than typewriter punctuation. For example, use the proper open and closed "smart" quotation marks (" ") rather than up-and-down inch marks ("), and try a typeset apostrophe (') instead of a foot mark ('). To introduce a a parenthetical expression, use an em dash (-) in place of two hyphens, and to indicate duration, use an en dash (-) rather than a hyphen. Equally important, use symbols instead of spelling out such terms as registered trademark ([R]), copyright ([C]), and trademark ([TM]).

Check your software manuals (you do know where the are don't you?) and find out how to insert these symbols in your program. But don't rely on your software to make the proper substitutions. There will be times when you need inch and foot marks.

10. Rely on your eyes.

This might not sound like a design tip, but it may be the most important one. Flawless typography will fail to impress if the words themselves are misspelled. So even if you've changed only one word, run your spell-checker one more time before sending that letter to a client or bringing your file to a service bureau. Last-minute changes have the unfortunate tendency of introducing last-minute typos.

Don't rely too much on your spell-hecker, though. Most are not context-specific. For example, two, to, and too are all acceptable spellings, and your program won't know if you meant to say for form, or from.

Even this article almost fell victim to overdependence on a spell-checker. For a long time the last word in the first paragraph of this column, "done," was spelled "doe." Because "doe" is a perfectly acceptable word, the spell-checker didn't flag it. Deer me!

DESIGN PSYCHOLOGY

design psychology

Use Uppercase With Care Readers recognize words set in lowercase letters by their distinct shapes. Words set exclusively in uppercase type form blocks and are difficult to read.

Hyphenate By Hand Hyphenating words at the ends of lines makes

flush-left/ragged-right type less ragged (right).

Flush left/ragged-right,

hyphenation off

Design is a matter of detail more than creativity. Distinguished designs result from a determination to pay attention to details. You also have to work far enough ahead of time to have time to do the job right. Obvious or embarrassing mistakes, which inevitably project an

Flush left/ragged-right,

hyphenation on

Design is a matter of detail more than creativity. Distinguished designs result from a determination to pay attention to details. You also have to work far enough ahead of time to have time to do the job right Obvious or embarrassing mistakes, which inevitably project an unprofessional image, inevi

Choose the Best Text Alignment In narrow text columns, justified text (left) suffers from awkward word spacing. Your best bet is to use flush-left/ragged-right type (right).