Playing Tag  

Lots of people don't know about PageMaker's support for tagged text - and they're missing out.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Pleasing Mr. Postman  

Designing something that will be mailed? Save time and money by asking the right questions before you start.

Sidles, Constance J. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Prepress

Plug-Ins and XTensions: Illustrator Path Editors, Photoshop Photo Filters, QuarkXPress Productivity Enhancers

This round-up of plug-ins and XTensions includes tools for opening Photoshop files in QuarkXPress, editing paths in Illlustrator, masking blue screens in Photoshop, and more. Plus, a run-down of what you can do with alap's XPert Tools XTension.

Nelson, Jay J. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software

Practical Applications of Print Design to Promote Visual Understanding  

Print design is a task facing many technical communicators. Practical understanding of the principles of design is necessary for quality print design products, but even this may not be adequate for producing print documents that users can quickly understand. Pairing the principles of print design with knowledge of visual communication theory will aid technical communicators as they develop print materials that are not only well designed, but easy for audiences to understand. This paper will explain both the principles of print design and basic applications of visual communication theory to provide a knowledge base on which successful print documents can be built.

Codone, Susan K. STC Proceedings (2005). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Printing

Practice Human Factors for Document Design  

Writers of performance- and response-oriented documents, such as instructions, procedures, proposals, and grant applications, need to consider the interaction of human factors with conventional document design factors such as accessibility, readability, legibility, consistency, style, language, and suitability to audience. This session explores that relationship, based upon a summation and synthesis of previous Annual Conference presentations as modulated by this presenter's extensive technical communication experience. It will be of particular interest to newcomers to the profession who seek to broaden their grasp of its intricacies.

Peterson, Dart G., Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Document Design>Usability

Preflight Publications for Perfect Printing

Want to make friends with your service bureau and printer? Just bring them perfect files every time. Use the Save for Service Provider plug-in built into Adobe® PageMaker® 7.0 , and you’ll never have to worry about last-minute calls from your service bureau or printer again. Here’s an example of how you can use this plug-in.

Adobe (2003). Design>Publishing>Document Design>Adobe PageMaker

Preflighting for PDF/X-Compliance with Acrobat

PDF/X (PDF Exchange) is a subset of Adobe PDF that eliminates many of the color, font, and trapping variables that lead to printing problems. You can verify that a PDF document is PDF/X-compliant in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional before submitting the document to a service provider, and then embed the verification results in the file.

PlanetPDF (2001). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Preparing Effective Charts and Graphs

This tutorial presents a brief overview of the process of preparing charts and graphs using a spreadsheet program. It introduces you to important design principles to consider as you prepare your charts and graphs and helps you analyze their design.

Munger, Roger H. Bedford-St. Martin's (2007). Design>Document Design>Charts and Graphs

Prepress Tutorial: Preparing PDFs Made from Microsoft Word for Offset Printing

You just received this wonderful PDF from one of your clients. It was made from Word. On top of that, the client who gave you that PDF wants you to make some changes to the text. How do you make those changes using the PDF itself and what do you have to do to make that PDF press ready?

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Resources>Document Design>Prepress>Adobe Acrobat

Print Stylesheet: The Definitive Guide

A print stylesheet will automatically make all your web pages print-friendly. Find out how to make one with this definitive guide.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2007). Design>Document Design>CSS>Web Design

Printers' Tips to Desktop Publishers

This collection is a compilation of tips from many sources. As a sales rep for a commercial printer (Altman Printing Company), I have personally experienced most of these situations. If I had had something like this to give to each of my clients in the beginning, it sure would have made everyone's life a little easier!! Some of the tips below should be added to the back of your DTP Bible! If you don't follow some basic rules -- sooner or later you will realize: just because it comes up on your screen real pretty, and it prints to your laser printer just fine --- doesn't always mean that it is going to output correctly from a high-resolution imagesetter or print the same way!!

Foster, Julian A., Jr. Teleplex. Design>Publishing>Document Design>Printing

Printing Impressions

Printing Impressions magazine provides coverage on industry trends, emerging technologies and the news behind the news in the Graphic Arts industry.

Printing Impressions. Journals>TC>Document Design>Printing

Prints Look Muddy

Screen doesn't match prints? Paper affects density of inks? Open your color management dialog in CS and look for the printer profile. This should fix the problem.

Photoshop 911 (2005). Design>Document Design>Prepress

Problems with Colors - and the Solution: Color Management

The profession of the technical editor is rapidly changing, from the pure text manufacturer to a data manager, which leads inevitably to intensive occupation with the production of the final product: the technical documentation on paper or online. The color matching reproduction on the local screen or printer plays a new, important role. Particularly since the meaning of color in documents increases rapidly.

Thiele, Ulrich. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Document Design>Prepress>Color

Producing Brochures in the Technical Writing Classroom  

Producing brochures for real clients teaches college-level technical writing students about constraints of cost, time, and the availability of materials. Brochure writing also provides opportunities for learning more about editing, collaborative work, document design, and the problems which may occur during the production of real documents. Brochures of good quality can be produced by a class in approximately three weeks, or nine classroom hours. Grading brochures is expedited through the use of a simple heuristic.

Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Document Design>Technical Writing

Publication Design Standards

When you are at the onset of a publication design, you need to set up a prototype. The style or personality of the publication is determined at this point, so you need to be sure each decision you make pays careful attention to the details of good design.

Showker, Fred. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Document Design>Standards

QuarkXPress 4.1

QuarkXPress is categorized as page layout software - software that lets you easily place text and graphics on a page. Using well-designed page layout software has the feel of moving actual columns of text, blocks of color, and images around and pasting them into place. Unlike a word processor, which is driven by a continuous text flow, QuarkXPress gives you complete control over the elements you place on each page. QuarkXPress is a standard at most publishing companies and advertising agencies.

Lycos (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress 6 Tips: Working with Layers

Learning to use layers in your page-layout program can greatly streamline design and production. See how to tap into the power and flexibility of layers in QuarkXPress 6.

Assadi, Barbara and Galen Gruman. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress Technical Manual Project

The following is a step-by step tutorial outlining how to make a technical manual suitable either for print or for screen display as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

Mike's Sketchpad (2002). Articles>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXpress Training Tutorials

QuarkXpress has become recognised as the world's best Page Layout program. From home users, putting together their club newsletter to multinational publishing giants producing newspapers, magazines and books, QuarkXpress is the standard. This tutorial is geared towards helping first time users become familiar with Quark XPress.

OpenEye. Articles>Education>Document Design>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress Tutorial: QuarkXPress' Work Area

Familiarize yourself with QuarkXPress 6.x work area.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress Tutorials and Training

Look for tips, tutorials product support, downloads, templates,and publications for QuarkXPress. Find formal and informal training classes and seminars both online and offline for this popular desktop publishing program.

Howard Bear, Jacci. About.com. Resources>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

Quick Footwork in a Dull Market  

Right now the paper market is stable. So should you relax and enjoy the calm? Hardly. Now's the perfect time to test new paper sheets and negotiate better financial terms with your supplier.

Sidles, Constance J. Adobe Magazine (1997). Articles>Document Design>Prepress>Paper

Re-Visioning Document Design

Accomplished print media communicators -- technical writers, editors, etc. -- represent a powerful resource in the fledgling development of the World-Wide Web. But they also face some of the steepest barriers to exploiting its technology effectively, precisely because they have more to un-learn. Many of the mechanical and technical skills they rely upon every day simply don't translate well to document design on the Web.

All Things Web. Design>Document Design>Web Design