Daily Dose of DTP: 6. Well-Behaved Pages

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Daily Dose of DTP 6. Well-Behaved Pages From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing One dictionary definition for principle is a rule or standard, especially of good behavior. We can apply that definition to what we create using desktop publishing. We want well-behaved documents that say what we want them to say, look pleasing or exciting or important or whatever other face we want to put on them. The principles of design are the rules or standards developed over time that most experts agree will result in well-behaved pages that look good and accomplish whatever we intended. That good behavior may be a custom-designed greeting card that makes the recipient smile and put the card in their scrapbook or a billboard that grabs the attention of motorists speeding down the highway and entices them to exit right away so they can grab that one-of-a-kind burger or milkshake. Like the elements of design, some people spend years in schoo l learning these principles and how to apply them in the world of art and design. Just for you, we've compressed those principles into a single quick read that will introduce you to the basics so that as we go along you'll start to recognize these individual principles of good design. Class Notes: This is not simply a word-a-day course. The lessons follow a specific order in roughly the following groupings: General concepts > Things you need > Font specifics > Image specifics > Prepress & Printing > Rules & Tutorials (bold indicates the stage in which this lesson falls) Today's Definition Principles of Design While we sometimes call these principles the rules of good design, we all know that rules are made to be broken. But before you break the rules you need to know what the rules are... Today's Trivia It All Adds Up Gestalt is a fancy way of saying "the sum of the whole is greater than its parts." An arm and a leg are nice to have but they generally work better when combined with hands, feet, eyes, ears, and all our other body parts. What does this have to do with desktop publishing, you ask? In simple terms, a great graphic in an ad may look good but it won't guarantee sales. Combine it with a good caption, great copy, an easy to read headline font, and attention-grabbing color and you're on your way to making more sales than you can handle. It's all those bits and pieces of the ad put together that give it "good gestalt." In desktop publishing you're creating gestalt when you combine elements and principles of design in your page layout. Learn more... Gestalt? What? Trinity writes, "What is it exactly? I know it has to do with composition." Discuss gestalt. This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Daily Dose of DTP' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement