Right Down the Middle
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. Today’s lesson suggests when and when not to center your text.
Use Centered Text Sparingly
When in doubt, don’t center it.
Fix Those Jagged Edges
After banishing those extra spaces in your text and toning down the type, you now must decide the best way to line up your lines of text.
Text alignment (also known as justification) refers to how the ends of lines of text line up. Most text in books, magazines, and other reading material is lined up on the left side (in those countries where materials are primarily read from left to right). Some people also like to align the right side as well as the left. That’s called fully-justified text alignment. In desktop publishing we have rules to help you decide which alignment to use.
Use Left-Aligned or Fully-Justified Alignment Wisely
There will undoubtedly be well-meaning friends, business associates, clients, and others who will question your choices for text alignment. Be prepared to explain why you chose the alignment you did and be prepared to change it (and make necessary adjustments to keep it looking good) if the person with final approval still insists on something different.
You Look Fontabulous!
Fonts are such fun. One of the most popular sections on the About Desktop Publishing site are the free font downloads. But too many times novice designers (and even more experienced ones) go overboard when it comes to using fonts. Today’s discussion about how many fonts to use is somewhat subjective. It’s one of those situations where you cannot say absolutely that you should always limit font choices to just one or two. But hopefully you’ll have a better understanding about how using too many fonts is detrimental to what you are trying to communicate in desktop publishing. Don’t forget to check out the supporting graphics for this lesson.
Use Fewer Fonts
How many fonts are too many for one project and how do you know where to draw the line? A generally accepted practice is to limit the number of different typefaces to three or four. That doesn’t mean you can’t use more but be sure you have a good reason to do so.
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Return to Sender?
In our first lesson we banished one of the most common carryovers from typewriting that plague desktop-published documents. Today, we’ll tackle another spacing issue rooted in typewriter usage. This is a feature of page layout software that has also migrated, somewhat, to high-end word processing software.
Don’t Use Double Hard Returns After a Paragraph
With today’s word processors and page layout applications it is possible to precisely control the amount of space between paragraphs. There is no longer a need for the old typewriter style of putting double hard returns to separate paragraphs (in computer terms that would be the equivalent of using the enter key to add space between lines). Learn how and why to do it with paragraph formatting.
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One Space or Two?
To kick off the class, what follows is a controversial topic. What? You didn’t think a subject like desktop publishing could have controversy? Try asking whether you have to have a Mac to do desktop publishing, or which software is best. Sometimes the discussions get very heated.
Today’s rule of desktop publishing is not about the hardware or the software. It doesn’t require buying a new computer or learning a new software program; however, for some of you it may require unlearning something you’ve done for years and years, perhaps without even thinking about it.
Use One Space Between Sentences, Not Two
Typewriter-trained or not, you may have always been told that it was proper to put two spaces after a period or other punctuation. Find out where that practice originated and why you may need to change your ways. Already doing it the right way? Get a little ammunition to help convince others. But don’t forget the bottomline – this rule applies to desktop publishing, not necessarily everything or everyone else.
