for print publication design

Until you have a specific design reason to do otherwise, follow these rules of thumb.

Note: The capitalized word Printer is used to name the professionals who operates printing presses, to distinguish them from the printer that is a device attached to your computer.

Here is a version in Word (.doc) format you can download and print.

Consult your Printer	The crucial step for any beginning designer for print publications is to make an appointment with the people who will print it and discuss your project. They can help you avoid common mistakes and reduce extra work. Take a file containing a sample layout that includes some pictures you will use.
Think of your reader	Readers will never see the document with the clarity and brightness you see on screen. They will read in imperfect, changing light, with interruptions and distractions. Design to make it possible for them to read under these conditions.
Know when to stop	Consider this approach: Use the minimum design necessary to communicate the contents, then add design that communicates, in addition, the personality of the publication. Then stop. Don't show off, unless there is a design reason for doing so. (Or if the publication is for show.)

CYMK	Create graphics for print magazines in CMYK, not RGB. The RGB process is used to create colors on the Web. CMYK is used to create colors on paper.

Scanning

Prepare for the Printer: Each picture scanned at the actual size used, at 300 dpi. Do not submit a larger scan that you size down in the layout. Do not use pictures at smaller than 300 dpi, unless they are intended to look fuzzy.

Embedded fonts

When using PhotoShop, Illustrator, etc., to create graphics that contain type, save the original and export an EPS copy with "embedded fonts" or fonts converted to paths. This puts the letters directly into the EPS file. That way, the Printer does not need to have the files for the fonts you used in the EPS graphic. If you omit this step, a different font may be substituted for the one you intended, or the graphic may not print.

300 dpi

If you have to use a picture off the internet, use the largest size possible and change it in PhotoShop's Image Size to 300 dpi. Though this will not improve the picture, but it will reduce the blotchy pixellation. The results will almost never be as good as you hoped. Don't violate copyright.

The screen can fool you

Remember that what you see on screen will be different from the printed page, so make allowances for the reduced contrast and luminosity of the printed page, as well as differences in color balance. Do not be lured into expecting the printed page to produce luminescent, transmissive color effects, the way a monitor does. As a general rule, design with greater contrast than you think you need (avoid, for example, small gray letters on a black background),

Fonts for the Printer

Be sure you understand the printing company's requirements for fonts. On the Macintosh, use only the styles of fonts (bold, etc.) that have separate printer files in the fonts folder. E.g., you can print Gill Sans in bold ONLY if there is a file in the fonts folder called GillSanBol. You CANNOT take the GillSan file and ADD bold through the "style" command. This maneuver works on our little printer, but the commercial machine at the print shop rejects it. TrueType fonts should work OK, although the results may not be as good as PostScript fonts, due to the fact that the Printer's output device uses PostScript. If you don't know about TrueType and PostScript fonts or the parts of fonts, you need to learn this before designing a magazine.

Use restraint in type effects

Resist the temptation to exhaust the available type effects. Use restraint. Create meaningful contrasts for your reader. Nothing is as effective as a well designed font; depend on that design far more than on styling, stretching, coloring the font.

Deliver a PDF	Your Printer will almost certainly instruct you to deliver your document as a PDF file, with all graphics and fonts embedded. Use the High Quality Print setting in making the PDF. InDesign makes PDFs through the Export command. Many other programs go through the Print command to make a PDF.
Graphics files for the Printer	If you deliver your document to the Printer as a PDF, you're fine; if not: Save all pictures, fonts, and graphics files in a folder and send them to the Printer with your layout file. InDesign does not incorporate these files; it only calls them. They have to be there when it calls.

Reverse type on colored backgrounds

When you use reverses, try to restrict your colored backgrounds to C, M, Y, or K and their shades. Each additional color creates new layers of alignment problems at the print shop, which can bleed into the type area and obscure the letters with colored outlines.

Text type (type in paragraphs)

Set body copy to 10 or 11 points, unless you are using a very small or very large font. Times needs to be in 11. Helvetica needs to be in 9. Do NOT use 12 point body type. It may look good on screen, but it looks HUGE in print. Use a serif type for body copy. One of the most common design errors is to set text type in 12-point Helvetica.

Line lengths

Not too long, not too short. Do not use 1-column pages that produce extremely long lines of type. Or lines so narrow they break up the phrases. Any time you use long lines, add extra line spacing to help readers read.

Indents

Indent with a tab (never with the space bar). Change InDesign's default indents from 0.5 inch to about 1/4 inch (or around 2 picas). Make all indents the same.

Display type

If a headline larger than 20 points has more than one line, always reduce the spacing between lines. Try spacing the same as the point size ("set solid," e.g., 24 point type on 24 point spacing). On very large type, kern to reduce the spacing between letters.

Space after a period

If your copy was typed with two spaces after each period, search and replace those two spaces with one space.

Avoid ALL CAPS and underlining

Replace ALL CAPS and underlining with strong fonts and bold. Except in small doses, all caps is difficult to read, and it is much less interesting than ulc.

Avoid centering in columns (like this)

With rare exceptions, avoid centering titles and subheads. Use flush left. It will look good; trust me. Be leery even of using justified columns of type; they can introduce an easy, false sense of orderliness. Create your own order—a dynamic order based on cooperating imbalances.

Use em-dash for two hyphens

Find uses of two hyphens — and replace them with the em dash (option- shift- hyphen)

Use en-dash as minus

Use en-dash (option-hyphen) in scores and as minus sign (as in the score: 4–3).

Use bullets, not asterisks

Replace *asterisk and -hyphen lists with bullet lists. Select passage; go to Paragraph menu, options list, for bullets. Afterward, fine tune it through Format/Tabs and set the lower triangle on the ruler bar to where you want the indent. Do NOT use the spacebar to align columns or lists. It never works right—because spaces differ in width depending on the font and size they are set in!

Restrict the number of fonts

Restrict yourself to two fonts in a typical application, or at most three. If that seems too restrictive, adopt this rule: Make every font meaningful to readers, and use the same fonts repeatedly in a way readers can use to navigate the structure and meaning of the publication. Make meaningful use of the full power of fonts and font manipulation, but avoid graphic clutter.

Avoid excessive reversed type

Place your design effort on the pictures, headlines, and overall look. When readers reach the reading matter, stop designing and leave them alone to read it! Real designers can make black type on white paper look fabulous. Avoid excessive use of white type against a dark or colored background, or against a picture. Check for type set against a cluttered background. Give such reversed type plenty of contrast against the background. Use a strong font without hairlines, such as Helvetica, and large enough to stand out. Do not trust the contrast that you see on screen. On the printed page, small letters may be swallowed up by the background as the ink bleeds into them.

Avoid Shadow

Until they improve it, avoid the style "shadow." If you need a shadow, duplicate the text block, make the rear one black or white and mis-align the two blocks to create your own shadow effect.

Bleeds

Make sure bleeds extend at least 1/8 inch past the edge of the final page size. Remember that the illusion of printing to the edge of the page is created when the Printer slices off a thin strip of a larger page that had a white border.

Go beyond Times and Helvetica

If you are using Helvetica and Times, try other combinations. Expand your range.

Widows and orphans

Check for widows and orphans and remove them. These are stray lines at the top or bottom of a column.

Design your white space

Examine all white space to make sure none of it is accidental. Design it. Use enough white space so your layout is not claustrophobic. By making your text 10-point and putting it into compact columns, you make room for white space on the page.

Focus

Focus: Verify that your layout has a single clear focus—one dominant element.

Align

Check for unaligned elements and align them, including the tops of columns.

Check for cut-off text

Check the end of each text block to make sure no text has been cut off.

Do not align with space bar

Check for alignment (in lists or paragraph indents) made with the space bar. Replace it with tabs and margin settings. There should be no place that has more than one space in it.

Use contrasting fonts

Check for closely related fonts juxtaposed. Replace them with strongly contrasting fonts. A closely related font looks like an accident.

Check the quote marks

Check the quotation marks and hyphens to make sure they are not reversed. A special problem: the leading apostrophe, as in "The class of '01." Software unintentionally reverses this apostrophe.

Be consistent

Make your design consistent in its use of fonts, styles, sizes, indents, headings, colors, positioning, etc.

Use dynamic balance

Break up static, symmetrical layouts. Make them dynamic. Make them dance.

Use contrast

Give your pages contrast. Don't let them look gray and even. Insert pull quotes. And use contrast in the perceptual sense: Make sure readers can distinguish the foreground from the background! Everything we experience comes to us through contrast. Respect it.

Avoid awkward hyphenations

Check for awkward hyphenations or multiple hyphenations in a row, or needed hyphenations. Check for rivers of white caused by bad hyphenations, esp. in narrow columns. In titles and subheads, turn off hyphenation (Paragraph menu, options list).

Aligning baselines

If you want to be perfectionistic, align the baselines of adjacent columns. Do this last.

Watch the non-printing margin

Verify that nothing has intruded into the non-printing margin of the page—or that your columns have strayed outside the print area.

Use fonts that say the right thing

Query your fonts: Do they set the proper tone for this subject and purpose?

Use ornamentation sparingly

Remove any excess ornamentation. Avoid visual clutter. If you find yourself adding ornament, that probably means you have not designed the piece well enough to stand on its own. Revise the design.

Do not use script fonts in all caps

Check for ALL CAPS made in hand-formed typefaces (script, Old English, etc.). Replace it with another font in ulc bold.

Display type differs from text type

Certain fonts work only in large sizes. Check for display type unintentionally used as text type and replace it.

Use extra spacing when you need it

E.g., if you have used a sans serif font in multiple lines, it may need  extra line spacing.

Design for the kind of paper used

Make sure your typefaces are large and thick enough to handle the printing conditions (esp. on  newsprint).

Source: Aspecial acknowledgement to retired graphic design professor Ronald Norvelle, whose checklist provided the basis for this one. His material has been incorporated and expanded with permission.

— Gerald Grow — www.longleaf.net/ggrow