Print Issue 05

7/27/2019 Print Issue 05

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Splash!How to draw gleamingsurface reflectionsVariable scale will improveevery map you make

How to re-create perfect U.S.postal bar codes in minutesDazzle in two colorswithout black!One dozen initial capitals thatmake an impression

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BEFORE & AFTER, HOW TO DESIGN COOL STUFF (ISSN 1049-0035), Vol. 1, No. 5, Oct. 1990. Before & After is a magazine of design and page layout for desktop publishers. It is published bimonthly by PageLab,Inc., 331 J Street, Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 95814-9671. Telephone 916-443-4890. Copyright 1990, PageLab, Inc. All rights reserved. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending atSacramento, CA. POSTMASTER:Send address change to: Before & After, How to design cool stuff, 331 J Street, Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 95814-9671.Subscription rate: $36 per year (6 issues).Canadiansubscribers please add $4 and remit in U.S. funds; overseas subscribers please add $18.Back issues: $10 each. Bulk subscriptions: 510, $33 each; 1120, $30 each; 2135, $27 each; 36 or more, $24each. Bulk subscriptions will be entered under one name and mailed to a single address. Terms Before & After, How to design cool stuff, Xamplex, and Type: the visible voice have trademarks pending.

THE LADY IN PINK

Im responsible for all the design in afairly large company and my bosss wifeis driving me nuts; shell show up on aSaturday and inform me, as she didrecently, that the brochure cover for thenew product should be in pink! Her othersuggestions are equally off the wall. Myboss hired me as the professional but heusually sides with his wife. Any ideas?

Bob ReinhardtMilwaukee, WI

Sounds like you should join their team;use those skills of yours to make a pinkbrochure lookright. Do this a few timesand youll gain the credibility you seek.

THE MILLIONAIRE

Ive just made a midlife career jump todesktop publishing. Is it possible, at thislate age, to get good enough to make amillion dollars?

George W. HenryMuskegon, MI

Yes.

FONTS FONTS FONTS

I am dumbfounded that there are somany typefaces! Why do they keep mak-ing new ones?

Tony ShapiroColumbus, OH

Its fun! Type is speech made visible;every time its put on paper it takes on avoice. The designer controls that voice.

FRETTING OVER A CAREER

I have a 20-year career in pasteup andgraphic arts production that I see goingout the window and Im really worried.Im not a designer; Im a very mechani-cal person. Yet with the shift in empha-sis to design, I fear Ill be left behind.Can you help?

Gloria RentAustin, TX

cated than your old stat camera, andmany otherwise skilled art directorscame to it late or simply are all thumbswith machines. Advertising hype to thecontrary, the dichotomy in the market-place between conceptual (design) andcomputer skills is so extreme that inmany parts of the country today designstudios are paying skilled computer oper-ators virtually anything they ask (findout what your doctor makes and youwont be far off). Two, the computer hasmade graphic design more democratic;that is, no longer are professional studiosgetting jobs by default because they ownspecial equipment; companies now han-dle much of their work at home. The ad-vantages for you are twenty employmentopportunities where once there was one.At the same time, these companies arefinding that most printed matter isregu-lar stuff, and a workmanlike knowledgeof type and layoutwhich you haveisexactly whats needed. It makes you a

production artist. The key to success atall this is learning the computer very

well. With 20 years experience in pro-duction, you wont have a bit of trouble.

THE MAILBOX

If youre willing to transfer your mechan-ical skills to the computer, youll have a

great future. There are many reasons

why. For one, the computer is a mechan-ical instrument thats much more compli-

FREEHAND EXERCISE

Surface reflectionsbring objects to life

The key to drawing them isseeing them in the first place.

When I phoned our daughter Tonni inDallas and asked her to draw an M, herfirst response was how? The best way, Isaid, was to buy a bag of M&Ms, put oneon the table next to your computer, andlook at its light. Heres what she saw:

The M is defined by the light which reflects from it,and by moving it around a room youll find thatreflections and shadows change size, shape, positionand intensity. This change in light is what makes aflat object appear 3-dimensional. The effect of dif-fused light (a gradation from one shade and shape toanother) is created in FreeHand with blends.

REFLECTIONS Bright, direct light often createsglarepure white lightwhich obliterates alldetail. Blend fromwhite tothe surface color.

SHADING Shade is the surface color minus someof its light. Blend fromthe surface color tothesurface color plus some black (here, 30%).

SHADOW A diffused shadow, typical under indoorlight, blends fromgraytowhite.


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BACKGROUNDS UNIFY DIVERSE ART

My newsletter has a number of sectionheadings which I illustrate with clip artbecause its inexpensive. The picturesare nice but the newsletter looks haphaz-ard; the art on one page is so differentfrom the art on the next. What can I do?

Joan ByersonOrange, CA

Select the same point oneach object and . . .

Blend. Ive used 60 steps;larger objects need more.

Draw a circle and Fillwith

30% black. Atop it, drawthe loose outline of areflection and Fillwith thesame color.

Clone the outline; reduce.

To make glare, Fillwithwhite (shown). For a softerreflection, Fillwith a lighttint of the surface color.

The solution is to giveyour pictures some-thing in common; themore theyre alike,the better. To illus-trate, our designerfound three unrelatedpictures, then craftedher own backgroundsand type. Result? Alook that will unify thenewsletter. Marlassolution is particularlygood, too: Her iconsare contained. Youllenjoy this technique

and its easier thandrawing from scratch.

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S A N J U A N S C H O O L S

PTATheTimeToSupportYour PTAIsNow! TheTimeToSupportYour PTAIsNow!

One look, many applications

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F I R S T N A T I O N A L

BANK NEWSHave you ever noticedthe design of, say, abanks newsletter andthought, Thats hand-some but its not for me;I run a fabric store?

Maybe it isfor you.One of the most usefulskills a designer can nur-ture is an ability to lookat one publication andvisualize another.

This is often difficultfor the beginner. Why?The words get in the way.

Were accustomed toreading, but a designermust be interested innonverbal style:columns,fonts, colors and soforth. The secret? Ignorethe words. (Turn thesesamples upside downand youll get the idea.)While a bank and a fabricstore are indeed quitedifferent businesses, toa designer they can beclosely related.

Professional designersare skilled at applying tothe job at hand whattheyve seen elsewhere.

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E A S T S I D E

MOTORCYCLES

A fading shadow is made

by blending two circles, thfront about 60% black, theback white. Offset themsame angle as the shade.

1 2 1 2 3 1

4 643 5 2

REFLECTIONS (outlines are for clarity only) SHADING (outlines are for clarity only) SHADOW (outlines for clarit

Shade is made by blending

two crescents. To make thecrescents, first make fourclones of the circle andhide three on a new layer

for use later. Move the

remaining clone as shown(1); make note of the angleyou use. Position and Lockruler guides where the

Make a second, thinnercrescent; Fill60% black.

Select the same point oneach crescent and . . .

Blend. Ive used 60 steps;larger objects need more.

Select the same point oneach; Blendin 60 steps.

circles overlap, then use

the knife tool to cut bothcircles (2). Jointhe ends(3). Retrieve two of thecircles you hid earlier.


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Bring the world to your door

of an areas geography and includespolitical boundaries, rivers and so forth.A topographic map shows everything; ona point map, all that matters is the des-tination. The designer, therefore, is notrestricted to geography; he can movemountains, reroute interstates, even

erase whole cities for the sake of clearcommunication. This can be a great dealof fun because, once the transportationproblem has been solved, the designerhas vast freedom with the maps appear-ance. Here on a point map is how to findBefore & Afters office in Sacramento:

The most valu-able business map is thepoint map; thatis, the map which guides the reader to aspecific destinationa mall, your office,the annual convention site. A point mapdiffers from a topographic map like theone below, which is an accurate depiction

DESIGN A MAP THAT WILL . . .

The perfectpoint map will guide a reader to any destination

in one smooth stepwithout a word of text.

MAPS!

Find the needle in the haystackWelcome to the Sacramento metropolitan area! One hundred thousand homes, the state Capitol (andattendant sprawl), our professional sports complex, two Air Force bases and the worlds finest railroadmuseum are among the objects hidden in the scan above. Our office is here, too, tiny as a pinpoint. Imgoing to bring you to it; it is a challenge virtually identical to the ones you face.

When designing a point map, take plenty of time to think the problem throughthe more work youdo, the less the reader must do; this is especially important if you are, say, a retailer trying to attractshoppers to your store. I cant emphasize this enough: The serious work is the brainwork.

Think first: What is the most direct way here?


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SimplifyNext, straight lines replace wiggly ones. This isdone to simplify the information, to clue the userthat this is a schematic, and help him visualize informs that he can better remember than the twistsand turns of geographic reality. For ease of drawing,the map has been rotated level and centered on ourtarget; doing so made it evident that downtown isboxlike, a feature we can build upon. Watch forsimilar characteristics to emerge on other maps.

Define the targetFreeways cover the big distances in a fewstrokes; the last few miles require detail. Inthis case, I added a downtown grid. It does not need to be street-for-streetaccurate and will change as the map evolves. (Note the downtown streetsare white on a neutral background. If you have the luxury of high-resolutionoutput, make allmovement corridors lighter than the background and allimpenetrable objects [buildings] darker than the background; the eye canthereby separate them instantly.) The map has now been stripped to itsthree key pieces: the long distances, the short distances and the target.

Cut through the clutterOur office is the red dot downtown. I started by pitching everything but thefreewaysrivers, parks, points of interest, landmarks, all of it. This is acommon first step; everyone has access to a freeway, and in our case allfreeways lead downtown.

This initial editing is critical and can be a bearlook again at the originalscan; it is easy (and normal) to be distracted by the sheer volume ofgraphical information in front of you. It may help to close your eyes andimagine giving oral instructions to a lost motorist: Straight three blocks,right at the light, third door on the left, and let the rest of the world vanish.

45 angles clarifyHorizontal, vertical and 45 strokes (merely holdthe Shiftkey as you click) reduce the map to itsessence: a pure schematic diagram that will put theuser at ease. (Its cool looking too; thats because its soorderly.) With such severe constraints, it is surprisingly easy to mimicreality. The overlay (right) compares this map to the original; I could havecome closer but this version has more attractive proportions. Doubling thewidth of the main freeways distinguishes them from the smaller entrancehighways, but theyre so bold theyd overpower if not shaded 75% black.

0

17.2

Rotate fromthis pointFIND THE

ANGLEThis rotation step is tempo-rary (its easier to drawthings upright) so we needto know the angle to un-rotate it later. Heres how:Hold the Shift key whileyou draw a horizontal lineacross your map. Rotatethe line by eye until italigns with an angled mapedge. Immediately call theRotate dialog box and readthe angle. Id write it down.


6/16TM6

Its neat, but how to show detail?It is at this point a map is likeliest to fail; themain map covers the same 250 square milesas the original, which means the destination is still too small to be seen.The solution? Enlarging a section into a second map (inset) is common butworks only if the section is an isolated one (showing, say, Kuwait City withina larger map of Kuwait). In this case it is not; downtown must link with itsfreeways at nine points, and the details of those links are crucial. Design-ing such detail in two sizes and expecting the reader to compare them (Iveseen it done) is abysmal; it may look good but its infuriating to decipher.

Use the principle of variable scaleIt is here that I owe a debt to Joel Katz, the brilliant map designer whotaught me variable scale over the telephone. This technique is amazing:

So far, the map has been pictured at a scale of about 6:1; that is, oneinch equals six miles. Here, I enlarged only the downtown300 percent (anarbitrary amount that looked right); one inch now equals only twodown-town milesbut still six miles everywhere else. To do so required squeez-ing the immediate freeways outward (the maps been redrawn again), yetthe outermost points have barely moved. The solution is fabulous; the mapstill covers 250 square miles, yet the target is now in view and navigable.

Rounded corners look like freewaysOnce variable scale had been applied, the sharp-angled freeways took onthe appearance of ordinary streets. Since freeways arc and sweep ratherthan jut and jab, rounded bends restored a sense of distance and expansethe way we perceive them from our cars. The rounded intersections areyou-can-turn-this-way clues that leave a driver no doubt the freeways link.

Downtown has many more streets than the grid shows, but we dontcare; our only interest is in the important streets which lead to our office(not to be mistaken for the biggest streets); all others get the ax. Criticalfreeway exits are made by splicing on quarter-circles (note the two radii).

An easy way to add rounded intersections:

Freeway intersectionsbegin as plain, criss-crossing lines; here,the black line showsthe path, the gray lineshows the stroke.

Hold the option+ shiftkeys to draw a circlefrom the center out.Ungroupand split intoquadrants (its quick-est with the knife tool).

Move eachpiece kitty-

corner and rejoin. Fillthe new shape tomatch the freewaysand just set it in place.

How to round off the 45 bends:

Draw a circle. To measure and cut a 45 piece: Rule a vertical centerline;option-clickto rotate the line from the center 45 and cut the curve at thatspot (use the knife). Copy the piece (for later), then place it atop a freewayelbow. Position ruler guides, cut the freeway and join the new ends.

45


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80 50 99

For help with the preparation of this article,I wish to acknowledge the invaluableand,I must add, entertainingassistance ofJoel Katz. Mr. Katz is a partner of KatzWheeler Design in Philadelphia, an officewith special expertise in the visualization ofcomplex cartographic data. Along with hismany degrees and achievements, Mr. Katzhas taught at Yale, Rhode Island School ofDesign, and the Philadelphia College of Art.

Keep your thinking cap onWere not done yet. All roads must converge on the destination. Here, theonly streets still on the map are connected to our office or to a freeway exitand the untraveled parts colored to recede. Note how evenly the streetsare spaced. Thats variable scale again; the distance, for example, from3rd to 5th streets, then 5th to 10th streets, is the same!

Standard U.S. highway signs are clearand universally recognized. Why didnt Iuse them? Because the map is so stylizedthey would have looked out of place, nerd-like in a sea of cool. Allowing form tooverrule function like this is risky; the only

way to pull it off is to restore the function. Mr. Katz favors using thefollowing designators: I-00 for interstates, US 00 for federal highways, andCA 00 (in this case) for state highways; this makes an implicit connectionbetween the labels and the funny sign shapes that are actually on the road.The yellow dots, however, are a one-of-a-kind solution; if your street is theLangendorf Plaza Parkwayyoull have to think of something else.

Ive used color but these techniques are superb in black and whiteespecially at high resolution. Below, the irregular green background is acosmetic addition, a stylized version of our city limits.

To review:

1. Make the destination the center of the universe

2. Remove every unnecessary object3. Use variable scale for detail4. Work with restricted angles for clarity


8/16TM8

Postage will be paid by addressee

Xamplex CorporationAttention: Accounts Payable

Post Office Box 1000

Anycity, ST 12345-6789

BUSINESS REPLY MAILFIRST CLASS MAIL PERMIT NO. 000 ANYCITY, ST

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY IF

MAILED IN THE

UNITED STATES

FREEHAND STEP-BY-STEP

How to draw machine-readableU.S. postal bar codes

How it works: With the measurement sys-tem set toDecimal inches, each inch isdivided into tenths, which show on the rul-ers as tick marks. With aGrid sizeof.025,each tenth is further divided into (invisible)quarters, to which objects can snap. Mea-suring is easy: Just count ticks and snaps.

Open FreeHand. In the Document setupdialog, select Decimal inchesand a Gridsizeof .025. Paper size, colors and otherchoices are yours. Click OK.

This first step is the key. The PostalService issues its measurements in tenths,and FreeHand will now follow them withabsolute accuracy.

Once on the page, turn on Snap to grid(under the Viewmenu). FreeHand will snaplines and other objects to these fortieth-of-an-inch increments in any view.

In the Basicdialog under the Linemenu,create and name two black lines, one witha width of.031, the other .02.

Business replylegend box

Postage paid line

Address format

POSTNETbar code

Facing identificationmark (FIM)

Postageendorsement

Horizontal bars(Surprise! Machines

dont read these.)

Preparing Business Reply Mail? Superaccurate bar codes have always beenthe hard part. No more; your computer can make themperfectly.

colors (black on opaque white is favored), what sizesthe fonts must be and where each element must beplaced. Id show you every detail but there are toomany minute variables.

Basically, Business Reply Mail is designed to beread and handled by both people and machines alongits route. The yellow parts above are the critical partsthe machines read; theyre what were going to make.

Look familiar? Thats because the Postal Servicestrictly regulates the dimensions and appearance ofbusiness reply mail; the details will be mailed to you inUSPS Publication 25 and the Domestic Mail Manual;phone your local post office for copies (theyre free).You must read some of it (sorry), specifically the partson how big (or small) your piece may be, what shape(rectangle), what paper weight (fairly heavy), what

U.S. Business Reply Mail

First:Set Decimal inches and aGrid size of .025"

.101Invisible .025

quarters

FIM.031

POSTNET bar code.02

Postal Service bar code machines can toler-ate line widths that vary somewhat; in thecase of thePOSTNETbar code, the publishedrange is from .015to .025. Our widths areexactly in the middle; the camera-ready barcodes provided by the Postal Service are thethinnest their own regulations allow.


9/16TM

.0475

.02

.05

.125

0

01234

The FIM

The FIM, or Facing Identification Mark, tells the electric eye what class of card it is and thatthis edge faces up. There are four kinds ofFIM. Size and position of the FIM relative to theupper right corner of the mail piece is critical. Below, the white area must be kept clear of allmarks including anything that may show through from the back side.

Postagewill bepaid byaddressee

Xamplex CorporationAttention: Accounts Payable

Post Office Box 1000

Anycity, ST 12345-6789

BUSINESS REPLY MAILFIRSTCLASS MAIL PERMITNO. 000 ANYCITY, ST

NO POSTAGE

NECESSARY IF

MAILED IN THE

UNITED STATES

STEP 1: Draw the FIM. Exactly.A FIM consists of nine evenly spaced vertical bars, some of which aremissing. The Postal Service has four kinds of FIM (right); one will beassigned to you. Using that .031 line on your menu, rule a .625 verti-cal bar (zoom in; its six tick marks and a snap). Clone. Movethe barhorizontally.0625(use the Movedialog). Duplicateuntil you have ninebars. Delete the ones you dont need. Select and Groupthe remainder.

.0625

.031

.625

Postagewillbepaid byaddressee

Xamplex CorporationAttention:AccountsPayable

PostOfficeBox1000

Anycity,ST 12345-6789

BUSINESS REPLY MAILFIRSTCLASSMAIL PERMITNO.000 ANYCITY,ST

NOPOSTAGE

NECESSARYIF

MAILEDINTHE

UNITEDSTATES

The POSTNETbar codeThe POSTNET bar code is your nine-digit ZIP code written in computer talk. This 52-bar code

is sufficient to direct the piece all the way to your mail carriers route bag. Once there, he readsthe English address himself and drops the card in your mailbox.

Your bar code is issued by the Postal Service. It must be contained fully within the yellowarea below and the Postal Service prefers it exactly where shown. The white rectangular areamust be kept clear of all marks including anything that may show through from the back side.

FIM A FIM B FIM C FIM D

STEP 3: Place the bar code here.Reset the zero point to the lower right corner (rule corner marks if you wish).From there, position the leftmost baseline of the bar code up two ticks plustwo snaps, and left four inches minus two snaps. Youre done!

STEP 2:Make the short barsHold the Shiftkey as you select the top point of eachbar that is to become short. In the Movedialog, entera Verticalvalue of.075. Zowie! Groupthe result.

Before After

STEP 1:Make the tall barsA POSTNET bar codeis 52 evenly spacedtall and short bars.

Use the .02 line onyour menu and ruleone .125 verticalbar (one tick plusone snap). Ungroupthe bar. Clone. Movethe clone horizontally.0475 (use Movedialog). Duplicatetorepeat the clone-and-move procedure untilyou have 52 tall bars.

0123

0

1

STEP 2:Define a corner.Pick a spot for your cardsupper right corner and zerothe ruler guides on it. Ifyoull be Exportingthe draw-ing to PageMaker, rule cor-ner marks (for alignment) asshown; if not, dont bother.

STEP 3:Place the FIM here. Exactly.2.5 inches straight left from zero.It will snap into place.


10/16

10

A COLOR PRIMER

Beautiful, cheap and unprecedented, computer-generated tints haveexpanded the horizons of ordinary jobs vastly. Here, ideas on how to combine

inks and stretch your printing dollar.

Get the most from tints and shades

Type: K100; Page: White

The Plan ForYou andYour Family

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Type: K100; Page: K20


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Type: White; Page: K50


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Type: K50 and white; Page: K100


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Type: K70 and white; Page: K45Type: K50; Page: White


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Black, the mostpowerful colorBlack and white have the highestcontrastmeaning the greatestdifference between themof allcolors. The eye is drawn moststrongly to contrasts; for exam-ple, it will immediately spot the

white ball in a field of 1,000identical black ones. Because of

this, black text on a white pageis easy to read, and a black-and-

white poster can be seen from along distance. These hard-edgedqualities, however, are not oftenneeded, and a softer, gentler

voice requires less contrast. Thisis done with tints and shades.

humblest, cheapest job. This adds noth-ing to the cost; once your page is fin-ished, a service bureau will output high-quality, negative film (average price: $17

per page), ready to hand to your printer.

ook at what can be done with black

enough to upgrade to a version which

handles color, even if you dont work incolor. Im serious; tints and shades cantransform the character of your work.

Black, one-color jobs have had a rep-utation as, well, less. But that was then,when tints were costly to make. Today,via the Define colors dialog, objects can

ink! The ability of PageMaker togenerate tints and shades is reason

Tint magic works via aprocess called halfton-ing, which fools the eye.A tint is created whensolid ink (in this case,black) is scattered into auniform pattern of dots;the smaller the dots, thelighter the tint appearsto be. Although theeye sees gray, eachdot is solid black.

L

be tinted in steps from 1 to 99 percent;as few as three such objects can be com-bined in literally a million ways, yieldinga rich lode of tone and contrast whichadd variety, depth and real beauty to the

Square: K65Circle: K25

Square: K100Circle: White


11/16


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Type: White; Page: C50, K60; Photo: C30, K80

Type: White; Page: Y15, K50; Photo: K100


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Tinted type: M25, K75; Page: K50; Photo: M10, K80


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Type: M10, K30; Page: M30, K60; Photo: M10, K70

Tinted type: K30; Page: C30, K70; Photo: C10, K70


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Black plus oneprocess colorColors which go together mostreadily are those which havesomething in common; black, forexample, is best with anothercolor that also contains someblack. Note that solid black plussolid cyan (top) are bright enoughand stark enough to arouse thedead, yet when each is diluted bya tint of the other (right), the twocolors mellow and blend.

Black plus magenta combineto make reddish grays and bur-gundies; with yellow, black makesrich grays. I find my tastes lean

towards muted combinations;that is, a light tint of each color,or lots of black plus a light tint ofprocess color; lots of process inkis bright, bright, bright.

Black harmonizes with anycolor and is mixed with processcolors in the Define colorsdialog.One suggestion: Mix up a longlist in advance: for example,M10+K10, M10+K20, M10+K30and so on. (For a two-color job

that includes black, remember torestrict yourself to one processink.) Back on the page, this deeppalette makes experimentingquick and easy. The list alsoserves as a library; once your jobis done, PageMaker can copy thepalette to other publications.


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Type: Y10, K30; Page: K70; Photo: Y10, K80

Combining black tints with a second inkcolorwhich can be tinted, tooyields10,000 combinations, each of which is cre-ated at the press of a button and can beprinted for the same price as solid colors.

Process inkscyan (C), magenta (M),yellow (Y) and black (K)are the onesthat mix; theyre purposely formulated toyield a rainbow of colors when combined.Advantage: millions of colors for the costof four. Spot colors (the best-known name

is Pantone) are premixed like paint andprinted as is. Advantages: smoother inkcoverage (no dots) and complex colorsunobtainable with just two process inks.

Square: K100Circle: C100

Square: C30, K70Circle: C50, K30

Square: K100Circle: M20, K50

Square: C10, K50Circle: K70

For helping with the preparation of this article, Idlike to acknowledge the contribution of one of myfavorite colleagues, Susan Hull of Hull & Honey-cutt in Sacramento, whose color eye and designsense Ive admired for many years. The picture isby photographer Kurt Fishback, who snapped thislittle girl while she watched her cooperative fatherflail about wildly in the snow outside the window.

Black & white photograph was scanned with an Agfa Focus II at300 dpi, 64 gray levels. All colors were applied with PageMaker.

Square: Y10, K50Circle: K100


12/16

12

Tinted type: Pantone 3292; Page: 5305; Photo: 3292


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Type: Pantone 5545; Page: White; Photo: 249

Two Pantone colors, no blackWhile black is used most often to shade other colors,or for printing type and halftones, there is no need touse black at all! In fact, when your job calls for onecolor, you mustuse something other than black to set

yourself apart. My favorites are the darker (but notdarkest) 500-series Pantone colorstheyre darkenough for your type to be readable yet they stillmake attractive halftones. When you already have oneof your colors and its too light for type, the secondcolor can be any medium to dark color that comple-ments it (see next page). For example, if peach is your

first color, dark greens or teals are good-looking sec-

ond colors; bluish violets also work.Susan Hull

Note: Process colors (shown) and your computer monitor can only

simulatePantone colors. Numbers below refer to check-standard

Pantone colors. Refer to a Pantone swatch book for the real thing.


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Type: White; Page: Pantone 486; Photo: 5545

Designing with two Pantone colors iscool: You select colors from PageMakersPantone Color dialog menu, the monitordisplays them and your printer printsthem. Since monitors are neither accu-rate nor consistent, however, this reallyworks only if you make your choices fromPantones swatch book (your printer willhave one) rather than from the screen.

Converting Pantone colors to processis another kettle of fish. PageMaker tries,

but there is no standard and the resultsare unpredictable. It is the worst possi-ble state; there is no solution but trial anderror. I recommend avoiding it entirely.



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PAGE NOTESThis page and the two before it derive their neat appearance from an underlying three-column grid, the lower three-fourths of which has been divided (using PageMakersruler guides) into squares. Text and graphics have been composed to fit thesesquares and rearranged freely. This handsome grid is easy to make look good; it hasmany applications and is especially popular among the designers of annual reports.


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13/16

Yellow

Orange

Re

d

Violet

Blue

Green

Complementary colors are opposites and nearlyalways harmonize. To find its complement,select any color, then move straight across.

Adjacent colors, because they are so similar,live together easily and well. Select any color,then slide around the wheel just a little way.

Shades are made by adding black to a color; tomake this wheel I added 30 percent. Thedarker the colors become, the more readilythey will harmonize. Good examples of thisare deep Scotch plaidsif their colors werebright theyd look like a riot; it is the blackwhich allows them to blend so handsomely.

Tints are made by adding white to a color; thisexample has about 30 percent. As withshades, colors harmonize more readily as theyget whiter; in very light tints, virtually anycolor will look good with any other. Similarly,by selecting a very light tint and a very darkshade, your choices will always harmonize.

Orange

Re

d

Violet

Blue

Green

Yellow

Orange

Red

Violet

Blue

Yellow

Green

Yellow

Orange

Re

d

Violet

Blue

Green

Yellow

Orange

Red

Violet

Blue

Green

The secondary colorsOrange, green and violetare made by mixing twoprimaries.

What two colorsgo together?There are theories to explainwhy almost any two colorscan be made to go together.

All the colors on page 14are what are known, in abroad sense, as secondarycolors. When making two-color harmonies, if youchoose your first color fromone of the secondary colors,

your other color can be oneof the two other secondarycolors. Or, as I usually prefer

to do, you can increase thecontrast and interest be-

tween the colors by choos-ing a color that is closer to

what would be the comple-mentarycolor. So, if youstart with peach, which is anorange, then violet and

green are the other second-ary colors and blue is the

complementarycolor. Therefore, abluish violet or abluish green (teal)

would make an in-teresting contrastfor a second color.

If you want to use a muddygreen like Pantone 5545 as

one of your colors,a reddish violet ora reddish orange

would be attrac-tive. Try Pantone249 or Pantone486. Susan Hull

Yellow

Orange

Re

d

Violet

Blue

Green

The primary colorsRed, yellow and blue arethe colors from which allothers are made.


14/16

14

ome for countless immigrants sincethe 1700s, seat of Jewish New Yorknear the turn of the century, the Lower

East Side bears a largely black and Hispaniccast today A fire escape serves double duty

as escape hatch from crowded tenementrooms. Ticket to a bit of sky and air, combina-

East Side bears a largely black and Hispcast todayA fire escape serves doubl

ome for countless immigrants 1700s, seat of Jewish New Yorthe turn of the century, the LoH

Side bears a largely black and HispanictodayA fire escape serves double du

the 1700s, seat of Jewish New the turn of the century, the Lo

Initial capitals: Artwork for everyoneThose oversize letters that adorn text have been popular since the days

of the scribes. Here, a designers dozen of good ideas.By Lawrence Miller

The classic 3-line drop cap, with variations

bears a largely blacA fire escape serve

OMEFORCOUNTLESS immigran

H

Note first linetight to cap

Aligned withcap height

The most popular of all initial cap sizes, the bold, three-line dropcap draws the eye to the text without much voice of its own; alighter typestyle could be bigger. Here, the cap H stands tallerthan the cap height of the body text. This is an aesthetic matter.You may choose to have it align with the cap height, but becareful: It may look lower even if precisely aligned, requiring youto increase its size by a few points. Font: Franklin Gothic Heavy.

HAlign cap with left marginand baseline of text forneatest appearanceFirst word or words in all caps. Very popular.

tage setting for Manhat-tans biggest productions,Fifth Avenue fills to thewalls for Pope John PaulIIs visit to St. Patricks Ca-

thedral, right, on his trip to the U.S. in1979. Divider of East Side from West,coveted address of publishers, famousstores, and landmarks such as Rock-

Plans included a revived TimesSquare with a new 292-million-dollar hotel, a great pedestrian

plaza, even a trolley line linking the Hudson withthe United Nations on the East River. There were

andsome box capis indispensable ifyoure on a dead-

line. Why? Because re-gardless of the type-face or size, the boxcan always be made tofit neatly, and its espe-cially easy to wrap textaround its rectangularsides. Note both darkand light boxes workequally well. Fonts: left,Stencil; above, Helvet-ica Ultra Compressed.

H

lZapf Dingbats or other symbol. When workingin black and white, making the dingbat in ashade of gray will add depth and visual interest.

Ideas are available all around you!Instead of an initial letter, makespace for a star or an arrow from

The initial dingbat (!) The box cap

or one festival, I had learned,people used to come into the parkthe night before, dig holes, roastpigs. On the day of the festival it-self, things became so frenetic thatby 3 p.m. police concentrated onlyfIsn't this fun! If you have space to the left of your body copy, consider an

oversize initial that hangs in the margin. Combine the elegance of anitalic initial with outrageous size, boldness, and position, and you create arich statement. First line is tabbed to fit. Font: Bauer Bodoni bold italic.

The hanginginitial

A cigar-smokingcabbie and two

Wall Streeters using reflectors to ensure eventans add fragments to a mosaic composed of theprivate lives of one and a half million residents,

The oversize lead

Try making the first word, or the first two or three words, in a larger size ofthe text style. (In PageMaker, be sure that Proportional spacingin theSpacingdialogis checked so the baselines will remain aligned.) Thistreatment accomplishes the goal of the drop cap: to draw the eye to thetext. Its more subtle, but whereas a drop cap may merely decorate thepage, this approach excels at getting the reader actually started reading.

In PageMaker, check Proportionalspacingto keep baselines aligned

TYPE: THE VISIBLE VOICETYPE: THE VISIBLE VOICE

ome for cou1700s, seat oturn of the cH

S


15/16

ernstein was returning to the NewYork Philharmonic Orchestra asguest conductor. The concertended with a profoundly movingrendering of the Mahler symphony.The audience rose to its feet. A

woman in my row shouted: Atta way, Lenny,sock it to em! Sock it to whom, I wondered.

r

al were clear. A block of old buildings, once part of atenderloin district, had been converted into smalloff-Broadway theaters and a restaurant. A secondblock was being similarly revitalized. The city, thestate, the federal government, banks, and nonprofit

ut the signs of renew

said matter-of-factly, nothing is what

Leonard

?Another trick: Note the hanging

punctuationhere, opening quota-tion marksat the beginning of theparagraph. This is considered veryfine typography; see how the leftmargin looks perfectly aligned? InPageMaker, the best way to do thisis to make the first line a separate,and wider, text block.

me, but Ill nevget another sit

Im a young gu

Oversize punctuation

Donalds company was restoring the exterior ofGrand Central Terminal; stripping the old Com-

Elegant. Sometimes, less is more, as was said about 70 years ago by thegreat 20th-century architect Mies van der Rohe. A subtle accent can have amore profound effect than an obvious dramatic touch. Here, we used abold cap in a contrasting typeface. This is almost essential; because thecap is so small, anything lighter would vanish. Being so black, it looked toosmall, so we increased its size by 1.5 points. Font: Frutiger Ultra Black.

Here we areplaying a smalltrick: The Ohangs to theleft of the mar-gin and curvesbelow the textbaseline. Do thiswith all roundletters so theyllappearaligned.Font: FuturaExtra Bold.

The wraparound cap

The line-height cap

ne day, talking with a Broadwaymogul, I mentioned that thetheater now seemed to lack anONeill, an Odets. Look, he

it was; not me, not you. They wrote ina certain time about certain problemsand are remembered for their contri-

O

me, but Ill never be able toget another site like this, the

best in all the world. Rightnext to Tiffanys. Thelowerfloors would be de-

voted to shops andoffices; the upperfloors to apartments.Base price: $500,000.

Im a young guy, Donald told

Who would live there

Now this is different! Instead of a large initial to start the text, considerlarge punctuation to end it. A question mark is perfect, as is an exclama-tion point, brackets or parentheses. But dont try this if youre in a hurry;this paragraph took over an hour to get the line breaks and question marksize and position just right. Best with larger text. Font: ITC Century Ultra.

spanic cast todayduty as escape

Mr. Miller, a former director of the New York ArtDirectors Club, has won more than 100 nationaldesign awards. He is principal ofPlato PicassoMidas Miller in Atlanta.

Quotations from National Geographic magazine, September

1981, Volume 160, Number 3. Text by John J. Putman, National

Geographic Senior Writer. Reprinted by permission. All fonts are

from Adobe. The text font for all examples is ITC Century Light.

Text follows the curve of the letter

lans included a revivedTimes Square with a new

292-million-dollar hotel, agreat pedestrian plaza, even a

trolley line linking the Hudson with

the United Nations on the EastRiver. There were other signs: On thesmall side streets old buildings and

BThe standing capIllusion! If the B was onthe baseline, it would looklike it was above it!

In PageMaker, the best way to curve text around a type char-

acter (as opposed to a graphic) is to create separate textblocks. First, set the vertical ruler measure to match the lineleadinghere, 14.3 ptsin the Preferencesdialog, then turnon Snap to rulers. Line up rulers and text, then drag one-linetext blocks; theyll snap into place perfectly and allow for anyadjustment. Below, serifs overhang left margin. Font: Souvenir.

migrants since theNew York near the

he Lower East Side

A standing cap, also called a stickup initial, need not be at the left edge;here, the stickup B is centered on the first line of type. Careful manual workmay be necessary to center the first line when the rest of the text block isnot; it may help to set the cap as a separate text block. Font: CooperBlack.

Below, in the music notation font Sonata I discovered a beautiful symbol (anatural) that looks like a B. The result is one of a kind. Note the first word of

the paragraph; sometimes, there is just no substitute for a bit of daring.10

5

P


16/16

B

JOHN McWADE

Linotronic by moonlight

PRODUCTION NOTESBefore & Afteris totally desktop-published with Aldus Page-Maker 4.0 and Aldus FreeHand 2.02. Its pages and everythingon them can be built using your own standard equipment,whether Macintosh or PC. The machinery I use must handlethe 40 megabytes of color files I generate for each issue. Mylist: 1987 Apple Macintosh II with 8mb RAM; 13 Apple RGBmonitor with an Apple 8-24 GC video card (16 million colors,accelerated), which is new and doesnt work right yet; 1987Rodime 100mb hard disk (completely reliable, very slow);45mb MicroNet hard disk with r emovable cartridges (external,for backup). Laser printer: Agfa P3400PS. Scanner: Agfa Fo-cus II (800 dpi). Color proofing is from a QMS ColorScript 100.Plate-ready film is from a Linotronic 300 (RIP 4), 2540 dpi,150-line screen. Before & After is printed by W. W. Hobbs.

Publisher and creative director:John McWade

Associate publisher and editor:Gaye McWade

Subscriber services:Robbin Jellison

ABOUT THE PUBLISHERBefore & Afteris written, designed and pro-duced by John McWade. Mr. McWade hasbeen an award-winning publication designerfor 20 years. He founded PageLab, the worldsfirst desktop publishing studio, early in March1985; its clients include Apple, Adobe and Aldus, for whomhe created two Portfolio template packages, Designs forNewslettersand Designs for Business Communications. Mr.McWade has written articles for industry periodicals includingPublish and Aldus;he has lectured on desktop publishingacross the United States, and his designs have appeared inmagazines and newspapers worldwide. This is off the sub-

ject, but note how this paragraph squares to the end; its atypographic refinement desktop publishing has made easier.

TM

How to design cool stuff

Editorial and subscription offices

331 J Street, Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 958149671Telephone916-443-4890 Fax 916-443-7431

THE BEAUTIFUL ITALIC FONT IS MONOTYPES CLASSIC BEMBO

FROM ADOBE. THE BACKGROUND OF THE TRIANGLE COMES FROM

ADOBES COLLECTORS EDITION OF PATTERNS AND TEXTURES.

The typographical error is a slipperything and sly;

You can hunt till you are dizzy, but itsomehow will get by.

Till the forms are on the press, it isstrange how still it keeps.

It shrinks down in a corner, and itnever stirs or peeps

That typographical error, too small forhuman eyes

Till the ink is on the paper, when itgrows to mountain size.

The boss, he stares with horror, then

he grabs his hair and groans;The copyreader drops his head upon

his hands and moans.The remainder of the issue may be

clean as clean can be,But the typographical error is the only

thing you see.Anonymous

Ode to the typographical error

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .

to write, draw, assign colors and so on,then send a disk of complete pages to aservice bureau for output. There, AldusPrePrint handles color separations andprinting, and click!out from the Lino-tronic comes film, finished and lovely.

Thats how it works. Its fantastic.Are there complications?Always.

The average desktop publishing job tiesup the Linotronic for ten minutes. Thefilm for this issue ofBefore & Aftertookthree service bureaus 40 hours to print.

40 hours.The cover, a FreeHand file, was run

twice. At our customary 150-line screen,the water dropletswhich blend in 256stepsbanded; that is, they didnt grad-ate smoothly but in visible steps. Theyshouldnt have. We puzzled for hours

over options, then ran it again at 133lines. It helped but its not flawless. Theruns were eight hours each, made overtwo nights. Thats just machine time.

The scanned map on page 4 (TIFFformat) fills five megabytes. While print-ing, it expanded inexplicably to 36 mega-bytes and overwhelmed the disk. We rantest after test after test; the problemwas not found. It was midnight.

The photograph on pages 10, 11 and12 (another TIFF) is 1.6 megabytes big;it appears 19 times. The six on page 10

printed in one hour. Problem? The lightcontrast wasperfect. It peaked too soon;in film, a photo should be slightly flat. Iguessed an amount and reran the page.

The seven photos on page 12 arecolorized in four inks. Think of it: Withseven photos times four colors, the soft-ware had to process that 1.6 mb file 28times for that page alone; it printed intwo hours: a miracle.

Page 3 contains 19 EPS files; its fourseps printed in less than 30 minutes, butthe Linotronic couldnt find a font wedforgotten and didnt bother to tell us; itpicked a font for us and printed the pageanyway, which had to be rerun.

And so it went, page after page, likea train wreck at rush hour. Printing atnight, it took five days.

Daunting? Yes, and rewarding. Thefact that color pages can be processed bya machine at all is reason enough to putup with the strain; five years ago thisstuff didnt even exist.

Speaking of which. Pages 14 and 15contain 18 fonts; in 1986, Apples Laser-Writer, working on 90,000 spots persquare inch, would chokegasponthree fonts, and die. Today, the Lino-tronic can calculate 18 fonts at 6.25 mil-lion spots per square inch in four colorsand deliver the results in minutes.

Progress. Next year my 40 hourswill be 20, then 5, then 1, and soon, click!one minute.

Perfect.Itll happen.

other desktop publishing job: Iuse PageMaker and FreeHand

efore & Afteris done like any

Print Issue 05

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