Graphic Design Guidelines - Rules of Good Design and Layout

My Rules: One space after punctuation; no double-hard returns; fewer fonts; appropriate text alignment; limit use of centered text; balance line length; limit all caps; typographical punctuation; use frames wisely; less clip art; more white space; reset document defaults... Your Rules: What else should be a rule of desktop publishing? What mistake do you see over and over?

This is a free 12-day email class. These rules are not just for those who do or plan to do desktop publishing professionally. They can help anyone turn out more polished pages. Don't want to take the class? The 12 rules are also all linked on this page, below the ads.

Keep the mark of the amateur out of your desktop designed documents (even if you are a beginner) by avoiding these design mistakes.

Always been told to put two spaces after a period? Rethink the rules when it comes to professional typesetting.

Stop spacing your paragraphs with double hard returns. Learn why using the paragraph formatting tools in your software is better and more professional.

How many fonts are too many? Learn how to tame down your type selections for a better reader experience.

Explore why or why not to use left-aligned or fully justified text alignment.

There is nothing inherently wrong with centered text. As with ragged right or fully-justified text alignment, what works for one design might be totally inappropriate for another layout. There are simply fewer situations where centered text is appropriate.

Almost any reasonable line length will work in a design if combined with the right size font. The trick is to find the right combination.

All caps have their place but find out how to use the properly and what to avoid.

Keep the mark of an amateur out of your publications with a few simple typographical changes.

Boxes, borders, or frames are useful design and organizational devices. The problem is that they are just too easy to create. Discover when to banish the box and how to use them more effectively.

Less is more. Learn how and why to tame the clip art clutter.

Nothing improves a bad layout faster than a good dose of nothingingness.

Software preset defaults are seldom the ideal settings for most documents. Change them.

Browse easy to remember design guidelines - not hard and fast rules - covering page layout, typography, printing, dealing with customers, scanning, and more.

Roger C. Parker describes areas of concern and ways to improve or avoid these common errors. Covers white space, overused elements, punctuation, and more.

In an excerpt from TypeStyle: how to choose and use type on a personal computer, Daniel Will-Harris offers his take on facing a blank page and other issues of planning your design.

Halftone dots, CMYK, printing presses and more explained by Ron Woolley for true novices to desktop publishing, with illustrations.

Quick and easy tips on a variety of design and printing topics.