common mistakes

29 November, 2011 - 21:32 by Scribbler
10 Common Typography Mistakes http://dld.bz/anNbe Found this website on Twitter the other day and I think it does no harm for every editor to read this
‹ A5 pages are SO hard to make interesting layout ›
Submitted by Sam Willing on 20 December, 2011 - 19:53.
Thank you for the link, Scribbler. We tend to keep to 12pt font as most of our readers are elderly and prefer the larger font. If I am pushed to get an article on one page, I sometimes reduce the font size to 11, but rarely go smaller than that. We have also had requests to print the wordsearch and clues in a large size, and although in my view it looks ugly on the page, it is what most of our readers want. However many years we have been editing and producing magazines, we are always on a learning curve, and articles like this one are very helpful
Submitted by Allan Palmer on 10 April, 2012 - 08:36.
It's not just the point size you need to think about, it's the actual typeface itself. The point size of a typeface is not the same as its apparent size. The effective size of a typeface is actually related to the height of the lower case x the x-height). X-height is the height of lower case letters with no upper or lower extensions (ascenders or descenders) The x-height will vary depending on the actual design of the typefaces. Compare text set in 12pt Gill Sans with the same text set in Humanist 777 for example.
Submitted by Richard Young on 1 June, 2012 - 10:31.
We use size 14pt Arial and I ususally go to size 12pt to cite authors. I might go smaller than 14pt to fit an artcile but this is very rare. However we do print two pages per size of A4 so this will shink to half that. I tried my own work once in Times New Roman and that was too small so the font face does make a difference.
Submitted by Freds on 6 June, 2012 - 14:11.
In extremis we select a page of text then, using Word2003 (may be different in other versions of Word or other packages): Go to Format - Font - Select the 'Character Spacing' Tab - click the little arrow next to the word 'Spacing' and select 'Condensed' - type 0.3pt in the 'By' box - click 'OK'. This has the effect of moving all the letters slightly closer together. If you do it for a whole page then people are unlikely to notice!
Submitted by Maureen Hardwen on 26 February, 2013 - 15:33.
I mostly use Abadi Condensed in font sizes 11 or 12. I think the pages look nice if both margins are justified. If you cannot get just a couple of lines to fit on the page, try using 2 columns. For some reason (don't ask me!) you can usually get they little bit extra on the page. I use Microsoft Publisher for the magazine.
Submitted by Parish Sekky on 4 March, 2013 - 23:51.
Our magazine is produced by two people - one (me) using Publisher and the other using Page Plus. I use copyfitting often with Publisher, the only problem being that you cannot use copyfitting with columns. Our most used fonts are Memento or Trebuchet, except for items like monthly reading references, for which i use Arial Narrow. I dont like full justification - that can make for very wide spacing between words, and is supposed to be harder for the eye to follow. We try to make pages more interesting and readable by using graphics to illustrate and to 'break up' the text.