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- >SIDE Left
- >POSITION 20,1900
- >STYLE Heading
- DTP - Layout
- >STYLE Body
- >PICTURE dtp
- 20
- 1900
- This is the first of a new series that will take you through the ins and outs of DTP
- to help you produce better looking documents. If you have any {contributions}16 to
- make then don't hesitate to tells us.
- >STYLE Sub
- Fonts
- >STYLE Body
- There are two main points I would like to make about fonts. The first is to make
- sure you pick the right font for the job; It would do nothing for you if you used a
- gothic font in a formal letter. When choosing the right font it is really a matter of
- personal choice whether you go for a sans-serif or serif font.
- The second point is to make sure you don't use too many fonts, having a lot of
- fonts in a single document can be very distracting to the reader who may not
- absorb what you are trying to say a usual limit is three fonts, but even within
- this bound there are many weights and styles to choose from so this shouldn't
- be a problem.
-
- >STYLE Sub
- Columns
- >STYLE Body
- Some people prefer to slice up their text into columns. If you are you of these
- people it is important not to go over-board with columns and to make sure you
- avoid the so called 'rivers of white' effect where a large gap is left between each
- word in a column so this happens:
- >MOVE_JUST 350
- >SIZE 16
- >COLOUR
- &FF2D2D00
- &FFFFFF00
- This is the
- 'RIVERS OF
- WHITE EFFECT'
- whereby the
- larger words are
- shunted onto the
- next line in order
- that they are
- justified. As
- you can see
- the white in
- between the
- words really
- shows up!
- >SIZE 14
- >LINE
- 360
- 448
- 360
- 1056
- 64
- >POSITION 370,1030
- >MOVE_JUST 1260
- >STYLE Body
- The other thing to note about columns is what to do when
- you put a picture in or covering one or more columns.
- The best thing to do is position the picture in such a way
- as the columns are not obscured by the picture, because
- then the reader will know where the text is flowing.
-
- >POSITIONX 400
- >MOVE_JUST 750
- In this instance the text
- can flow comfortably
- >MOVE_JUST 620
- around the
- object while it
- is still obvious
- to the reader
- how the text is
- flowing around
- the picture so
- the text is
- >MOVE_JUST 750
- easy to read. Because
- the column is not split.
- >PICTURE sf3start
- 627
- 426
- >POSITION 780,788
- >MOVE_JUST 1080
- But in this case
- the reader may
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- not know where
- the text goes.
- >STYLE Sub
- >MOVE_JUST 1260
- >POSITIONX 20
- Uniformity
- >STYLE Body
- This of course brings us onto the point of uniformity or a constant style in the
- document. Making sure you have a distinctive and constant style will mean
- once the readers realise how the document is laid out, they will find it much
- easier to read and some problems like the one above will be solved.
-
- That's it for now, more on this and other stuff next time.