Daily Dose of DTP: 9. Grid-Lock is a Good Thing

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Daily Dose of DTP 9. Grid-Lock is a Good Thing From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing Up til now what we've covered in our daily lessons are broad concepts that explain what desktop publishing is and what it covers. Today I'm going to show you a specific tool used in desktop publishing. No, it's not the software (patience, we'll get to that). Actually, it's two closely related tools: templates and grids. Templates and grids are what determine how we put together our page layout. Each tool can be quite simple or very complex. Today we'll start with the simple explanations. 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 Definitions Template A blank page can be daunting. If you start with a template you can speed up page layout and move more quickly from idea to finished design. Grid Repeat after me... grids are good, we like grids... Today's Trivia The Grid and Guideline Blues While it may not be universal, the grid lines, margin lines, and other non-printing guidelines used to construct grids in desktop publishing software are usually some combination of blue, purple, and pink. Some programs let you change the colors if you prefer something a little brighter. Want to know more? Get the nitty gritty on Guides and Guidelines in Desktop Publishing Software If You Want to Dig Deeper (Or, Come Back Later to These) Why and How to Use Templates Effectively In desktop publishing, templates are pre-designed documents that we can use to create business cards, brochures, greeting cards, or other desktop documents. Explore the pros and cons of using templates. 4 Ways to Personalize a Template When you start with a template you save time. But sometimes templates that come with your software or are downloaded from the Web are almost, but not quite, right for your project. Grids for Desktop Publishing Learn what a grid is, formats for grids, and how to put together basic and complex grids, leading grids, and layouts. Use grids to provide page-to-page consistency, unify and align page elements, and provide design continuity across related documents. 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