In other words, a splashy graphic laid out at an unexpected angle is eye-catching, but three columns of centered text is a nuisance. An effective page layout improves reader comprehension, so you have to balance the imaginative elements with the functional elements. Everything from the text to the paper it's printed on affects whether or not your publication is read with interest, so be creative. White, author of Editing by Design: A Guide to Effective Word-and-Picture Communication for Editors and Designers, says that readers often look through magazines from back to front (and newsletters are specialized magazines), so you should use a hook to capture people's attention.Ī hook is anything that contrasts against the uniformity of the text such as a photo, graphic, masthead, or a pull-quote hanging in a column of white space. Even the most sophisticated readers get bored with staid designs.īottom line: grab their attention first, and then keep them reading. An unusual design, however, can spark their interest. In today's media-intensive culture, people often decide that reading an ad, brochure, or newsletter is not worth their time, so even if your publication is important, it may end up in the wastebasket.
Keep good communication with readers as your top priority, and you will make the right design choices. There are no hard and fast rules, just guidelines. Just remember that page design is a flexible process. When you're writing, you organize sentences and paragraphs in a logical sequence so that readers will understand your message. Other elements such as subheads, boxes, rules, and white space help you organize the story.įor example, if you laid out three short articles on the same page, you would use rules, white space, and headlines to show readers that the articles were separate, not related.Ī good layout improves readability by arranging text and graphics in a logical order.Įvery time you place a textual or graphic element on the page, you are making a rhetorical decision, and where you place that element depends on its relationship to the other pieces. Photographs, pull-quotes, decks, and headlines help you tell the story. When you're writing, you present information in a logical order, so do the same when you lay out the page. This section addresses the fundamental themes of page layout and design:Īpproach page layout the same way that you do writing: determine your audience, define your purpose, and communicate your message. Now, companies everywhere produce in-house newsletters to communicate with employees. Without it, the cost of publishing a twenty-four page newsletter like the Freestone would be prohibitive. Publishing software, such as PageMaker and Quark XPress, has made it possible for one person to write, edit, and design an entire publication. Writer As Designerīecause good page designs organize information, capture attention, and expedite comprehension, layout can be viewed as an extension of the writing process. This guide is intended for two audiences: CSU English students working on the Freestone, and people browsing the Web for how-to advice on designing newsletters, brochures, or advertisements.Īlthough most of our examples come from the 1997 Freestone (the English department newsletter), the concepts they illustrate will be useful to all novice page designers. So whether you need to design a brochure, advertisement, or an entire newsletter read on! Who Should Read This Guide?
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Understanding how the software works, however, is only the beginning, and often the easiest part of the whole process.This site is designed for the novice page designer who wants to learn the fundamentals of effective page layout. With software programs such as PageMaker and Quark Xpress, you can assemble anything from a one-page document to a full-length book. Desktop publishing is the process of laying out and designing pages with your desktop computer.
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