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Text Composition Tutorials
The art of typography focuses on the characteristics of a typeface, the shapes of the individual characters, and the aesthetics of a particular font. Text composition deals with how fonts are arranged on the page. It involves manipulating text placement and altering the visual appearance of the text.
Designers make use of a variety of techniques and follow general guidelines when composing text. These text composition techniques help to create readable and visually appealing page layouts.
Designers make use of a variety of techniques and follow general guidelines when composing text. These text composition techniques help to create readable and visually appealing page layouts.
- Import / Place Text
- Alignment
- White Space
- Initial Caps (7)
- Text Wraps
- Rules & Guidelines (8)
- Spacing (15)
- Styles (8)
Bullets and Bullet Lists
Learn some tips and tricks for building better bullet lists.
Using Subheads
Subheads are one of several types of heads that are both an editorial tool and a design feature in page composition. I've seen them described as mini-headlines. Subheads break text into meaningful sections, aid readability by breaking up large blocks of text, make it easier for readers to skim an article for relevant information, and also add...
Small Caps
Small caps are uppercase (capital) letters that are about the size of normal lowercase letters in any given typeface. Use small caps to make text less obtrusive or to give it more emphasis.
Titles - Heading Elements
Typically headlines and titles are larger and more prominent than other text. These visual cues signal the start of a book, a magazine, an article, or a major division in a publication such as chapter of a book or a sub-section of a report.
Body - Text Elements
Body copy is the main text found in the publications we read. It is the text of the stories and articles. Body copy is not the headlines. Beyond the actual words, the body of a document uses paragraph and character emphasis and organizational elements to aid in the reading and comprehension of the material.
Navigation - Sectional Elements
Longer publications such as books, newsletters, and annual reports need some way to help readers find specific information within the document. From a table of contents to page numbers, sectional elements provide a means of navigating through and finding specific portions of a document.
Small Caps and the Chicago Manual of Style
The use of small caps for some types of abbreviations may be typographically desirable, but it may no longer be the prescribed style for publications that adhere to the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style published in August 2003.
Composing Type
Outlines the tasks involed in text composition with tutorials for many of the steps.
Line Length
Learn how to balance line length and type size when composing type.
Margins
Create the right margins for your publication.
Page Layout
Learn about using type in page layout with a few tips on initial caps and spacing at Redsun.
Tab Leaders
Use leader tabs or dot leaders in a TOC, index, catalog or other type of layout to lead the eye across the page.
Tabs and Tab Alignments
A tab is simply a software command that creates space in your text without hitting the space bar a jillion times in a row. But beyond that, tabs are a fast and easy way to align text, especially adjacent columns of data. Learn how to set and use tabs in desktop publishing software.
Text Wraps
Finetune your line endings and beginnings when wrapping text around graphics or other text blocks.
Typographic Punctuation
These step-by-step tutorials show how to get proper typographical punctuation marks and offer tips on finetuning the characters that are in most fonts.
Use Reverses in Small Doses
Easy does it on reversed type.
Use Smaller Type in Narrow Columns
Opposites attract.
Typographic Composition: Compose yourself
Find out from Tom Arah what is good typographic composition and how it is handled in QuarkXPress, PageMaker, and InDesign.
Using Hanging Punctuation
Hanging punctuation, commonly used for pull-quotes, creates the illusion of a uniform edge for the text, with the punctuation outside the margins.
Adjust Text Size and Leading in Tiny Increments
You don't have to use only the even sizes in the pull-down menus...