D-I-Y Sinners

Often when clients show me their do-it-yourself newsletters and web pages, asking for a critique, I find a multitude of design sins, some so shocking I blush. So here are three of the greater sins to avoid in your do-it-yourself publishing.

Do not use too many fonts.
If you want a professional newsletter look, use a maximum of three fonts. A good mix is to use one san serif bold font (ie. Helvetica Bold) for headings, a regular serif font (ie. Times) for body copy and a "fun" font (ie. Comic Sans MS) sparingly for a highlight only where a larger size can help legibility. Do not ever use "fun" fonts for body copy or headings throughout a publication. They are very hard to read and lose their appeal quickly.

Keep away from the edges.
Using boxes to offset a side-bar, special information, or an ad, is a great design element to break-up a page of type. However, I often see the box frame up against the type or page frame. There should be a comfortable space on either side of a box frame. Adding the box element can be done in numerous ways, here is one: In InDesign, draw a separate text box, select, Menu: Options> Text Frame Options > inset. Try 0.125". Always align the text frame with the copy above and below. Use the text wrap tool if you are placing the box in the page copy.

Do not hyphenate unless you are using justified columns.
Hyphenation is unnecessary and makes legibility difficult. Turn-off hyphenation in InDesign (paragraph> uncheck hyphenation) throughout a document unless you need to justify a column. Justification also reduces legibility, though is often the preferred look, where both margins are aligned. It is a more formal and traditional approach to typesetting, a hold-over from manuscripts and early movable type which often appeared in a two column format on the page. Words are forced to space apart or jam together to keep the margins aligned. Allowing hyphenation lessens the forced spacing. Increasing the column width also helps justified columns keep hyphenation to a minimum. Avoid justifying single column formats.

TIP: The most readable column is ideally less than 5 inches wide, ragged right and unhyphenated.

This article was originally posted in March of 2010 in Dan Monge's Mac IT Pros E-Newsletter.

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