U-wrap

Thumbnail

• Teasers (skyboxes)

Serif

Refer (or reefer)

Raw wrap

Nameplate

Mug shot

Modular design (layout)

L-wrap

Liftout quotes

Leading

Jump head

Jump

Gutter

Folio line

Descender

Deck

Column inch

Breaking copy flow

Bastard measure

Ascender

o Don’t cram text and photos into every square pica. 
o Let the page breathe with that’s called “white space” or “air”
o Don’t trap dead space between elements; push it to the outside of the page

- a little white space lets the page breathe

·        Photo shapes (pg. 29 – chapter 1)

·         Horizontal - most common shape for news photos

§  We view the world horizontally through our own eyes, and when you pick up a camera, this is the shape you instantly see

§  Some subjects may demand a vertical composition

·         Vertical - vertical shapes are often considered more dynamic than either squares or horizontals

·         Verticals can be trickier to design than squares or horizontals

- Because they're so deep, they often seem related to any stories parked alongside -even if they're not

·         Square - sometimes considered the dullest of the 3 shapes 

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  •  
    • Some page designers avoid squares altogether
    • Remember, though, that the content of a photo is more important than its shape.
• Accept each photo on its own terms and design it onto the page so it's as strong as possible - whatever the shape

  What's wrong with these page designs? (question 3 on p. 96)

• A – The page has no dominant element; all 3 stories have the same weight and impact, and all the headlines are the same size.  In addition, everything is horizontal and static.  The page needs more art, and that photo should not be dummied at the bottom of the page
• B – The photo is ambiguous – which story does it go with? Are all those stories at the top of the page related?  You can’t be sure.  The boxed story of the left butts awkwardly against that banner headline (this is sometimes called an “armpit”).  The lead story isn’t a rectangular shape.  And the right hand leg of text seems to come up an inch short
• C – The page is off-balance; all the art is on the left side, forcing four stories to stack up along the right edge.  The page seems divided into two sections (for this reason, you should avoid deep gutters running the full depth of the page). And there’s not enough text under the mug shot.

     Jumping stories (p. 87 & 146)

·         There will be times when you'll need to fit a 30-inch story into a 10-inch whole.  When this happens you can either

§  Cut 20 inches from the story (lots of luck) or

§  Start the story on one page and finish it on another

·         When stories runneth over like that, they're called jumps.

§  Designers love jumps, because they give you the freedom to stretch and slice stories in otherwise unimaginable ways

·         When you jump a story:

§  Make it worth the reader's while.

·         It's pointless - and annoying - to jump just a few short paragraphs at the end of a story

·         Jump at least 6 inches of text, unless the story is simply uncuttable and there's no other option

§  Start the story solidly.

·         Start with at least 4 inches of text - before you jump it.  Otherwise the story may look too insignificant to bother reading

§  Jump stories to the same place.

·         Do this whenever possible

·         Readers will tolerate jumps more forgivingly once they're trained to always turn to the back page, the top of page 2, the bottom of page 3, etc.

§  Jump stories once.

·         Jump once only.  You'll lose or confuse too many readers if you jump a few inches to page 2, ten snake a little more text along page 3

§  Avoid jumping orphans.

·         An orphan (sometimes called a widow) is a shot word or phrase that's carried over to the top of a new column or page

·         Orphans often look clumsy - like typographical errors, even if they aren't

·         It's frustrating enough to reach the end of a column on the original page, then be told to turn to a new page, then fumble around trying to find the ne page, then, when you get to the new page, read something cryptic like "and 4." - at which point you've forgotten the rest of the sentence back on the original page.  And that's why readers dislike jumps

§  Label jumps clearly.

·         Since jumping is so unpopular, use typography to make it easier.   Two ways to do this:

·         Run continuation lines. (lines that tell you where a story is continued)

·   Run them flush right, since that's where your eye stops reading at the end of a column

·   Run jump lines (the lines that tell you where a story has been jumped from) flush left, since that's where  your eye begins reading at the top of a column

·         Give each jump a keyword or phrase, then highlight it typographically

·   Example: with a story on oat bran, don't just use a continuation line that says TURN TO PAGE 6. instead say something like PLEASE SEE OAT BRAN, PAGE 6.

·         Check out the three examples on pg. 146

§  Give jumps design attention.

·         Remember to package jumps as attractively as you'd package any other story

§  To summarize:

·         Jumps will never be popular with readers

·         If you can devise a clear, consistent format for packaging jump stories, readers will regard them as minor detours - not major roadblocks.

·         And their benefits to designers (higher story counts and increased layout options on key pages) far outweigh the annoyance they cause readers

·         Making stories fit (p. 86)

o    Once a page is assembled, minor tweaking is easy

·   Major repairs can be tricky and time-consuming

·   You may need to back up and re-dummy a story or two

·   First, find out what went wrong. Ask yourself:

§  Was their a planning problem?

§  Was their a production problem?

o    If a story 's close to fitting - say, within a few inches - try some of these options, either while you're designing the page or after it' s assembled

o    If a story turns out too long

·   Trim the text.

§  As a rule of thumb, stories are usually cutable by 10%

§  For instance, a 10-inch story can usually lose an inch without serious damage; a 30-inch story can lose a few inches (and your readers may actually thank you)

·   Trim a photo.

§  Shave a few picas off the top or bottom, if the image permits it.

§  Or, if necessary, re-size the photo so you can crop more tightly

·   Trim an adjacent story.

§  If you find that a story is trimmed to the max, try tightening the one above or below it

·   Drop a line from the headline.

§  But be careful - short headlines that make no sense can doom an entire story

·   Move an ad.

§  Either into another column or onto another page

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  • if a story turns out too short
    • Add more text.
      • If material was trimmed from a story, add it back.
      • Or if you have time, break out a small sidebar that highlights key points or tells readers where to go for more information
    • Enlarge a photo.
      • Crop the depth more loosely.  Or size it a column larger
    • Add a mug shot.
      • But be sure it's someone relevant to the story
    • Add a liftout quote.
      • Find a meaningful remark that will attract readers
      • If you add a liftout quote, find one that's provocative and enticing.  And designing in some white space below (like on pg. 86) can help you fill deeper holes
    • Add another line of headline.
      • Or better yet, expand the decks on those long and medium-sized stories
    • Add some air between paragraphs.
      • This old composing-room trick lets you add 1-4 points of extra leading between the final paragraphs of a story
      • But go easy: if you overdo it, those paragraphs begin to float apart
    • Add a filler story.
      • Keep a selection of optional 1- or 2-inchstories handy to drop in as needed
    • Add a house ad.
      • Create small promos for your paper.  Have them available in a variety of widths and depths

·         Guidelines for building pages with art (p. 80)

·         When you add art to page designs, you enhance their appeal.  You also create the risk of clutter and confusion

§  Go slowly at first

§  Once you feel comfortable adding art to stories, keep adding it

§  Better to mage a page too dynamic than too dull

·         Most important guidelines are:

§  Keep all story shapes rectangular

·         It's the key to good modular design

§  Vary your shapes and sizes (of stories as well as art)

·         Avoid falling into a rut where everything's square. Or vertical. Or horizontal.  Or where all the stories are 10 inches long

·         Give readers a variety of text and photo shapes

§  Emphasize what's important.

·         Play up the big stories, the pig photos

·         Place them where they count

·         Let play and placement reflect each story's significance as you guide the reader through the page.

§  Give each page a dominant image.

§  Balance and scatter your art.

§  Beware of butting headlines.

·         bastard measure (pg. 77)

·         Bastard measures are serious design devices

·         They are handy especially when you need extra flexibility in sizing photos

·         Most papers use a fixed number of columns on each page

§  But bastard measures let you deviate from the standard text width

·         Bastard measures add graphic emphasis to a story by freeing it from the rigid page grid

§  Changing column widths is a subtle but effective way to show that a story is special or different

·         Bastard measures alter the grid patterns on a page - which can be either good (relieving monotony) or bad (Creating chaos).

§  Some papers don't allow any bastard measures; others allow them only when a story is boxed

§  Remember to use the proper about of restraint

·         A warning about something that should be obvious by now:

§  Don't change column widths within a story.

·         Widths may change from story to story, from page to page - but once you start a story in a certain measure, each leg of that story on that page should stay the same width.  No cheating

·         butting heads (pg.75)

• Mix styles, fonts, or sizes
  • If headlines must butt, make them very dissimilar.
  • If one’s boldface make the other light or italic
  • If one’s a large 1-line horizontal, make the other a small, 3-line vertical
• Write short
  • Let a little air separate the two headlines
  • That usually means writing the headline on the left a few counts short, just to be safe

·         What does modular mean? (pg.82-83; definition in glossary pg. 258)

• Bad
  • headlines should runs above all the text, not just part
  • must follow the story element order: photo, cutline, headline, text
  • variation on raw wrap pg. 48 – vertical design cut in half with the bottom half parked alongside the top. What if story is above this one?
  • Running photos below text
  • Dropping art into the middle of s story disrupts the logical flow of the text
  • Avoid running art below text
  • Avoid interrupting any leg of text with an art element
  • Headline should always touch the start of the story
  • Not having a dominant photo
  • Not keeping the size of photos properly balanced
  • Headline being too small, narrow and insignificant

• Good
  • Keeping story modular (entire story shaped like a rectangle)
  • Following story element order: photo, cutline, headline, text
  • Headline covers all the text
  • All elements align neatly with each other
  • There’s at least an inch of text below the photo
  • Action of the photo will flow into the text
  • Symmetrical layout
  • Breaks up long gray legs of text
  • Positioning the photo on the proper side
  • Making one photo dominant – that is substantially bigger than any competing photo
  • Putting the lead photo atop th

·         Story designs - the ordering of elements (headline over text, cutline under photo) (pg. 51)

- cutline should always be under photo

- headline always starts under text

·         Number of columns and number of decks (pg. 25)

·         How to size headlines on a page (pg.25)

• Write to fit at least halfway across the last column of the story
• Rewrite the headline to make it fit (don’t just keep going down in size)
• Front page: 60-72 points at top: 48-42 in the middle and no smaller than 24-30 point on the bottom
• Inside pages: 48 points at top; 18 points is the smallest

·         The different types of headlines (pg.24)

• - Banner - headline over deck and text of story 

o    Kickers - small, short, one-line headline, often underscored, placed above a larger headline

·   Lead into headlines by using a word or phrase to label topics or catch your eye

·   Usually much smaller than the main head, set in a contrasting style or weight

o    Slammers - two-part head uses a boldface word or phrase to lead into a contrasting main headline

·   Ex: Hula Hoops: A hot new hit

o    Raw wraps - text that extends into a column alongside its headline; also called a Dutch wrap.

·   Lets text wrap alongside the headline

o    Hammers (hammer head)- a headline that uses a big bold word or phrase for impact and runs a small, wide deck below

·   Use a big bold phrase to catch your eye, then add a lengthier deck below. 

·   Usually reserved for special stories or features

o    Tripods - headline that uses a big, bold word or phrase and two smaller lines of deck squaring off alongside

o    Sidesaddle heads - a headline placed to the left of a story, instead of above it; also called a side head.

·   Lets to park the head beside, rather than above, the story - either left, right or centered

·         The four basic elements of design (pg.22)

·         The elements of type explained on p. 20 (baseline, x-height, etc.)

- a line that tells who shot a photograph

§  Gives the photographer's name often adding the paper or wire service he or she works for

- a line or block of type providing descriptive information about a photo or illustration (also called a caption)

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    • Must be in a font that is different and distinctive from text
    • Write to fit completely across the bottom of photo for first line