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How to create good looking
documents?
© 2007, Abonyi-Tóth Zsolt
Szent István University
Faculty of Veterinary Science
Budapest
Programs
�Editors
�Formatting programs
�Publishing programs (DTP)
Typography
�τυποζ (typos) graven figure
� γραφω (grapho) to write
�Typography:
– Developing of printed materials
– Forming the text, aligning the text and pictures
�Typography: developing letters anddeveloping with letters
Point size
� Inch based (pica)
– 0,352 mm
�Didot-Förster
– 0,376 mm
Point size
� Inch based (pica)
– 1 inch = 6 picas = 25,4 mm
– 1 pica = 12 points = 4,233 mm
– 1 point = 0,352 mm
Point size
�Didot-Förster
– 1 point = 0,376 mm = point
– 4 points = 1,504 mm = diamond
– 8 points = 3,008 mm = petit
– 10 points = 3,761 mm = garamond
– 12 points = 4,513 mm = cicero
– ...
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Why is it important?
� You need a new assistant. Who do you trust?
Who do you trust?
Name: John Smiths
Place of Birth: London
Date of Birth: 12.09.1978.
Education:
Blackwell College, Easwick
veterinarian
NDA High School
Hobby:
swimming
name: John Smiths
Place of Birth: London
Date of Birth: 12..09. 1978
Education : Blackwell College, Easwick veterinarian, NDA High School
Hobby: swimming
Parts of the document
�Letter
�Word
�Sentence
�Paragraph
�Chapter
�Document
Letters
Budapest�Base line
– Optical
Letters
Budapest�Line of reading
– Optical
– It guides your eyes!
Letters
Budapest� Font size
– more 10-20% place between rows
• Less space is confusing (you miss the rows)
• More space is a wastage, and breaks the train of thought
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Letters
�Linear impression is needed, when you
change the size
– Use an exponential scale!
E.g. this one:
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28, 36, 48, ...
Letters
�Traditional font size:
– 8-10 in newspaper
– 10-12 in books
– (12 with A/4 paper size)
Letters
�Width of letters
– Equal width on typewriters
– Letters should have different width!
• We need rhythm
Letters
�Font type: letters have been developed by
the same graphical idea
�The needs:
– Easy to read
– Nice shape
– Own, special looking
Letters
�The needs of easy reading:
– The looking should be uniform, but the letters
must be easy to distinguish
– The picture of words should be good-looking
– The shape of the letters should produce a good
rhythm of lines
• DON’T WRITE WITH UPPERCASE LETTERS!
Letters
�Other properties
– Type
• Letters with the same graphical elements
– Variant
• How to modify the given type
– Size
�Font: the above 3 things together
– E.g. Times Bold 10
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Letters
�Variants
– Width of the lines
I I O O A A i i o o a a
Letters
�Variants
– Width of the letters
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
Letters
�Variants
– Italic
• Letters may become unreadable
• Oblique (cursive), if it has been developed
separately
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
Letters
�Variants
– Small capitals
• The shape of the letters is uppercase
• Wrong line width transforming by the computer!
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
QWERTYUIOPasdfghjkléá
Letters
�Special effects
Hyphenation and dash is not the same!
- – .
�n-dash with space, or
m-dash without space
Letters
�Kerning
Sometimes we should to move letters to create a
uniform spot-effect
.
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Letters
� With feet
– Normal, continuous text
� Without feet– Bigget size, titles, etc.
� Fixed width letters
– Highlighting
mm
Do we read letters or words?
Veetrinarnais paly a mjoar rloe in the
halethcrae of ptes, lviseoctk, and zoo,
spronitg, and loabarrtoy amnalis. Smoe
veeritniarans use tiher silkls to ptocert
hmunas aagnist disseaes cierrad by amanils.
Letters
�Renaissance types
– Varied lines
– Simulate quill-pen
– Feet
– Axle is not vertical
• E.g. Gaudy, Garamond
Letters
�Baroque types
– Bigger difference between the width of the
lines
– Axes are nearly vertical
• E.g. Times, Plantin, Baskerville
Letters
�„Classical” types
– Don’t follow handwriting
– Light feet
– Very different line widths
– Thin horizontal, thick vertical lines
– Axes nearly vertical
• E.g. Bodoni, Walbaum, Primous
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Letters
�Linear with feet (Egyptienne)
– Line widths are nearly the same
– The end of the lines are angled
– Axes are vertical
• E.g. Memphis, Figaro, Courier New
Letters
�Clarendon (newspaper)
– Uniform line width
– The end of the lines are angled
– Axes are vertical
• E.g. Clarendon, Volta
Letters
�Grotesque (linear without feet)
– Exactly the same line widths
– Regular development (geometrical forms)
– No feet
• E.g. Helvetia, Futura, Reform, Univerz, Arial
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Letters
�Handwriting
– Simulates handwriting
– Movement in lines, in the connection between
letters
– Don’t use for long text! Hard to read!
• E.g. Ariston, Signal, Slogan
Letters
�Decorative types (advertisement,
decoration)
– Not easy to read
– Unusual form
• E.g. Broadway, Stencil, Uncial
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Letters
�Other types
– Everything else
• E.g. black letters, Russian and Greek letters
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Letters
�The similarity of the meaning and the form
– Poems: renaissance
– Polite literature: baroque, renaissance
– Technological: egyptienne, „classical”
– Advertisement: grotesque, egyptienne
Rules of typography
�Don’t use several font types, it suggests
unstability
�Small difference is no difference, only
„dramatic” changes are acceptable
�Few text on big surface: dependable, worthy
of note
Rules of typography
�Spaces: the same size in the same line
�Too big spaces brake the text
�Don’t allow „channels”
� I n e x p a n d e d t e x t spaces should be
expanded also
� space between letters < space < space
between paragraphs < margin size
Rules of typography
�Hyphenation
– Not more than 4 consecutive hyphenations or
signs at the end of the lines
– Minimum 3 letters together
– Compound words at the composition
�Check grammar
– Algorithm + exception dictionary
Rules of typography
�Hyphenation
– Too many hyphenations mean, that column
width is too small
10 points font size �
20 cicero (9 cm) column width
Column width should be minimum 3.5 cm
Highlighting
� A light highlighting (cursive)
� A s t r o n g e r highlighting (expanded)
� More STRONGER highlighting (small capitals)
� A STRONG highlighting (all capitals)
� Very strong highlighting (bold)
� Others: Unuseful, UnofficialUnofficial, UnofficialUnofficialUnofficial
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Drop Caps
HIS way it can be aligned on two sides
HIS way it should be aligned on four
sides, otherways it looks horrible, and
everyone will think, it is not a correct
solution..
T
T
Drop Caps
� If you start one chapter that way, do thesame with all chapters
�Connect it to the first word: move closer oruse small capitals
�Use the second way (previous slide) if itwas higher than two lines
�The top of the Drop Caps shouldn’t belowthe top of the first line
Be careful
�Don’t use handwriting and capital letters
�Don’t expand coursive handwriting
�Don’t use light Drop Caps with dark fonts
�Don’t type ‘dot’ at the end of titles
�Dark text on dark background: max. 30%
�Light text on dark background: min. 50%
�White paper: no light text
Parts of the document
�Letters
�Words
�Sentences
�Paragraphs
�Chapters
�Document
How to type
�There is no space between the words and
the following signs!
– Exception: opening braces
Parts of the document
�Letters
�Words
�Sentences
�Paragraphs
�Chapters
�Document
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Paragraph
�The set of sentences about the same topic.
Paragraphs
Paragraphs should be separated to show the
reader, that a new topic will be started there.
So the reader will be able to recognize, what
a hell we talk about.
In case he’s wondering...
Paragraphs
Paragraphs should be separated to show
the reader, that a new topic will be started
there.
So the reader will be able to recognize,
what a hell we talk about.
In case he’s wondering...
� Indentation is usually 2 or 3 times the font
size
�All indentations should have the same size
in the document, independently of different
font sizes
Paragraphs
Indent (list)
– 1 kg bred
– 0,5 kg sugar
– 10 apples
– 1 bottle of milk
Paragraphs
Numbered list
1. Britney Spears
2. Prodigy
3. Modern Talking
4. Metallica
– Correct form: 1. a)
• (might be different in different languages)
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To highlight longer text
�Align to the center
�Left and right indentation
�Left indentation
�Summary: bold (bigger)
IMPORTANT
�ENTER means the end of the
paragraph only. Never use to start a
new line only!
�Tabulator, space should not be
used for indentation!
Parts of the document
�Letters
�Words
�Sentences
�Paragraphs
�Chapters
�Document
Chapters
�Chapters separate the document by subjects.
It is important to give the same looking to
the chapters.
Titles
� If the document could be separated to smaller
parts, titles and subtitles should be used.
� Highlighting usually with size and alignment
� Visible contrast between title and regular text
� Don’t align to center a coursive line (the whole
page seems to be turned)
� Decimal numbering in scientific documents
Titles
�No more space below the titles than abovethem
�Title should be on the same page as the textbelow
� In case of two-line titles don’t use verysimilar or very different line width
�For more-line titles use the rules on nextslide for every three lines
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Centre of gravity!
Centre of gravity!
Picture titles
� It should be different from regular text
�Same size or smaller
�Close to the picture
�Usually the coursive or smaller and bold
variant of regular letters
Orphan and widow control
�Last page should contain min. four lines
�No single line on the bottom of page
�No first line of a paragraph above a picture
�No last line of paragraph on the top of a
page or below a picture
�One or two lines should not be separated
Parts of the document
�Letters
�Words
�Sentences
�Paragraphs
�Chapters
�Document
Alignment
�Free alignment
– One side or the middle of the lines are closed.
� Justified alignment
– Both sides of the lines are closed (to a vertical
line)
Symmetry
�Symmetry: calm, balanced looking
�Asymmetric: more freedom, but hard to
determine the place of the axis. Dinamical,
lively looking.
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Spots
�The most important parts should be the
most conspicuous
�White areas are also important – the
negative should also be harmonical
Contrast
� Makes the document lively and good for the eyes
� Avoid minor changes in size
� Details are more visible on big pictures. They
seem to be bigger if they had a smaller picture in
the neighborhood � size is relative
� Portrait and landscape pictures
� Rounded and angular
� Dark and bright
Balance
�Dark asymmetrical spot breaks the balance
� find a counterpoint
Geometrical and optical centre
�Raise what you want to see in the middle
�Bottom margin should be bigger than top
margin
Two-sided documents
�Symmetry (mirror margins)
The order of reading
1 3 5
2 4 6
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The order of reading The order of reading
Wrong
planGood plan
Columns
�Not more than 60-70 letters in one line
�Separator line between columns if they
contain different articles
Paper size
�A0 - 1m2
– Ratio of sides 1:√2
– 841x1189 mm
– A1 – fold it in half
– A2 – fold it in half again
– …
– A4 210x297 mm
Paper size
�B0
– Ratio of sides 1:√2
– 1000x1414 mm
– B1 – fold it in half
– B2 – fold it in half again
– …
– B5 ‘írólap’ in Hungarian shops
Paper size
�C0 – The envelope for A-size
– Ratio of sides 1:√2
– 917x1297 mm
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Mirror
Inner
margin
Outer
marginOuter
margin
Bottom margin
Top margin
1 2
1,5
2,5-3
Mirror
�Should be the same in the whole document
Diplom work
� Chapters
� Heading
� Highlighting
� Pictures, picture titles
� Title page
� Bibliography
� Table of contents