From the article: Rules and Best Practices in Page Layout
My 12 Rules: One space after punctuation; no double-hard returns; use fewer fonts; appropriate text alignment; limit use of centered text; balance line length; limit all caps; use typographical punctuation; use frames wisely; use less clip art; use more white space; reset document defaults.
Your Rules: What else should be a rule of desktop publishing and graphic design? What mistake do you see over and over that everyone should avoid?
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State Your RuleLine lengths
- I read and write quite a bit of technical papers, reports, and memos. I am distracted by long line lengths. I find them hard to read. In my writing, I adhere to the "alphabet and a half rule" where the line length needs to be around 39 characters given the type size. I tend to put my work in two columns on an 8.5-in by 11-in page.
- —Guest Lynn
Resize images correctly!
- Always make sure you are maintaining the aspect ratio when you resize an image, whether it is clip art or a photo. Seeing images that have been "squeezed" makes me crazy!
- —Guest Anna
The 12 rules
- It is great to always go on the internet and find someone to remind us things that we put aside after we are done with the school project that took us weeks to complete. This rules will really help me continue a new school project I am on. Thank you inspirame :)
- —inspirame
Grammar
- Space after colon. Consistency: Use all sans serif fonts or all serifs or all script. Do not mix font styles. Learn to use paragraphs. These days, people read quickly. Try a line break after each and every sentence, and double space after paragraphs. Eye should follow page elements to keep it on the page and not drop off before the reader gets to the bottom. White space (blocks where there's nothing) is important to eliminate clutter. Look at the top-of-the line magazines for ideas. Life magazine is only one excellent magazine that keeps the eye moving on the page.
- —Guest Haromony
Check spelling twice
- I check my final product many times and often there is something I have overlooked
- —Guest diane ramona
fonts
- max is 2-3 different fonts. use fonts that grab attention and are easily readable. use line length that is approx. 39 characters
- —Guest marlinlanguis
Fonts
- You say, don't use too many fonts. I say don't use 'fancy' fonts that make it difficult to read. People will give up !
- —Guest Meg
Body text
- Don't use large size font for body text. Use small size font than the headline font to make difference between both of them.
- —Guest nirmal singh
Never 'All Caps' Scripts & Blackletter
- You should NEVER use All Caps when using a script or text (Blackletter, Old English, whatever term you use). It is not at all legible.
- —Guest Jennifer
My rules
- Use tabs, NOT spacebar. Use tables where needed, it saves a lot of time.
- —Guest Jessica Hughes
Proofread
- Learn to spell or find someone who can to proofread your work. It doesn't matter if you have gorgeous graphics or beautiful fonts if you have misspelled or missing words or a perfectly fine word in the wrong place. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Then get someone else and another person and the guy next door to proofread what everyone else has proofed already. It's not like designing a logo or baking a cake where you can have too many cooks. You need lots of proofreading of everything. Proof the layout, yes. But read, read, and re-read every word as well. Don't get in such a rush to be finished or you'll waste hours re-doing work or end up being embarrassed by the typos when it's way too late to fix them. (This message was written in just a few minutes with no one around to proofread. I hope I caught all my own errors.)
- —Guest Bethia
