Maybe you own a store or maybe you work out of your home and have great products to offer your customers. Getting the word out about your store or products locally is essential to your business, but what about people who are not local? Are you missing out on the opportunity to sell to people who do not live close to you?
A website is of course one option, but one of the basic rules of sales is that you need to get the product into the customer’s hands? How do you do that if they cannot walk into your store or business? A catalog is the best way. People love to touch things. When you put a catalog in their hands and they begin to browse through it, they will find something they want to buy.
Catalogs work better than anything else to reach out to potential customers who are not close enough to pay you a visit. That’s why large companies have been distributing catalogs for years. It is way more cost effective and makes more sales than any form of print advertising, websites, and even TV ads.
But I don’t know anything about putting together a good catalog. How do I design it so that people will buy? Are there guidelines or rules I can use to design my catalog? I’m glad you asked! In this article I will be going over the basic rules for designing an effective catalog.
First of all, don’t think of your catalog as an add-on to your business or an extra you are using to entice customers to visit your store. Your catalog is a standalone business in itself. Forget about the ways you sell your product to people when they are there in front of you. Forget about everything else so you can design your catalog in a way that gives the customer everything they need.
Lets start with Information: This is one of the basic rules of good catalog design. Your catalog should contain all of the information your customer wants to know about the product. Sizes, colors, specifications, price, quantity discounts, and anything else about the products you sell so they have no questions to ask. Be thorough.
Images: This is probably the most important set of rules for designing an effective catalog. Information alone will not sell your product. You need to design your catalog so that the images speak for themselves. You have to design your catalog in a way that showcases the images so every time the customer turns the page, a spectacular image catches their eye immediately.
To do this, you need to either hire a professional photographer to take your photos for you or if you plan to design your own catalog from top to bottom, you need to make sure the camera you choose to use is a high quality digital camera. Don’t scrimp on the images to save a buck. Basic rule to remember about your catalog design, “Images sell product”.
Another rule about creating images for your catalog; The setting you take the photographs in is very important. You are not going to the trouble to design a beautiful catalog and then have lousy images in it. You need to choose settings that make your products stand out and settings that will enhance the “feeling” you are trying to give to your customer. Sales are about emotions. If you can cause an emotion in your customer, you can make a sale. Deigning your catalog so that the images cause emotion will make you successful.
Which emotions? The whole range of emotions drives sales. Sadness, Happiness, Love, Hate, Greed, Lust, excitement, fear, pride, and other emotions are all part of making a sale. While designing your catalog images, you need to attempt to create one of those emotions.
Another rule to remember is “Design your catalog in a way that displays each photo of your products individually, not as a group of items in one picture.” People tend to buy more when your products are alone in the picture. It doesn’t look as cluttered.
Let’s recap the rules for good catalog design that we know so far: Before you can design your catalog, you now know you need to prepare all of the information about each of your products you will be selling through the catalog. You also know that before you design your catalog, you need to produce quality images that produce emotions in your customers. Now that we have all of that, what’s next?
Layout rules for designing your catalog: The different catalog design elements in the layout process are the cover, the back cover, the inside front and back covers, the first page, the index page, informational pages, and product pages. Informational pages include such things as a glossary of terms if your products are technical in nature, size and color charts where needed, shipping and ordering information, etc. You will need to add those informational pages as needed for your particular products and situation.
Rules about designing the cover of your catalog: This is probably the most important thing you will design for your catalog. This is the first thing your potential customers will see. In designing the cover of your catalog, remember the emotion rules we discussed above. Your cover has to make them want to pick it up and open it to find something inside that they have been waiting for and just didn’t know it until your catalog arrived. This part of designing your catalog is one you will need to spend time and effort on or you may want to hire a professional catalog designer.
Rules about designing the back cover of your catalog: This is almost as important as the front cover. When people put your catalog down, many times they lay it so the back cover is visible. It should be just as appealing as the front cover. When you send a catalog out, several potential customers may read it. You don’t want the first reader to lay the catalog on a table face down and for others not be enticed to pick it back up anyway. When you are experimenting with the front cover, take your second best choice for a cover and place it as your back cover.
Rules about designing the inside front and back covers for your catalog: While there are no hard and fast rules for designing these pages of your catalog, there are a couple of things I have seen work very well. If you have informational pages that you want to make easy to find, then you can design the inside covers to display the information they need to refer to often. The other way you can design the inside covers is to display the products that you are offering on special or the products you make the most money on. You design the inside cover with leads that talk a little about the products you put there with an image, then the page number where they can get more information about it. You can put several of these inside the front cover and it works very well.
Rules about designing the first page of your catalog: Remember this page is the very first thing your potential customer will see when they open the catalog. They don’t see the inside front cover first. They see the right hand page first. Again, you can use this page to display introductions to a few of your products they will find more information on further inside. Many people use this page as an index page, but I recommend you do that on the next page and make the first page exciting to your customer. Make them want to see more!
Rules about designing the product pages of your catalog: Remember the page turning rule discussed about the first page of your catalog? It’s the same for your product pages. The upper right-hand corner or the right-hand page is the first spot your customer’s eyes will go to. Make sure you put your best images in this spot on every right-hand page of your catalog.
There are more rules about creating an effective catalog that we could go into, but I wanted to cover the most important aspects of designing a catalog that makes sales here. The last note is about printing. Just like with images, saving money on the printing will cost you sales. 4-color catalogs sell more product than 2-color catalogs. The paper your catalog is printed on should be high or at least medium quality. Putting time into designing and following all of the good catalog design rules listed in this article will not help you if the printing is done cheaply.
Tampilkan postingan dengan label design. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label design. Tampilkan semua postingan
Jumat, 14 Januari 2011
Rabu, 21 Juli 2010
Commercial Printing Methods
What are my choices for printing my catalog? What are the different types of catalog printing and which ones are the best for my catalog? In this article I will go over several types of catalog printing to help you answer those questions.
Let’s start with the different types of presses that are used for printing catalogs.
Web Press: This is the most commonly used type of press for printing catalogs. It uses a roll of paper to make the catalog printing process faster. There are two types of web press. The Heat-Set Web Press and the Cold-Set Web Press.
Heat-Set Web Press: The heat-set web press has a built-in heating unit that dries the ink. This gives the press the ability to produce a high volume of catalogs quickly. Another advantage it has is It can handle printing your catalog on coated and high-gloss paper. A heat-set web press is also the best choice if your catalog needs to have high quality photographs and images.
Heat-set web presses are good for large catalog printing jobs or where the cost of setup is irrelevant. It is a huge press and takes a staff of people to set it up for one catalog printing job. This is where you run into setup fees from your printer. On a large run, say 10,000 copies or more, the setup fee when divided by the number of catalogs is not too bad. If you were to apply those same setup fees to a run of only 1000 copies, the cost per catalog printed might be out of your budget requirements.
Cold-Set Web Press: This type of web press does not have a heating unit. The ink must be air-dried. The cold-set web press is used with text stock paper where the ink will absorb into the paper of your catalog. It will not print on coated and glossy paper. In addition to that, the photos and images for your catalog will not be quite as sharp as those printed on a heat-set web press.
However, if you are printing less than 10,000 catalogs or your primary needs are not the sharpness of the images, a cold-set web press might be the right choice for you. It will save you money over the heat-set method.
Sheet-Fed Press: Another good choice if you are not printing a high volume of catalogs is the sheet-fed press. The paper for your catalog is cut to size before the print run. One of the advantages a sheet-fed press has over the cold-set web press is that your images and photos will come out a much higher quality. Both are good for small runs, so if you are only going to print less than 10,000 catalogs and your artwork is important to you, the sheet-fed press might be the best way to go.
The sheet-fed press can also use various weights of paper, giving it another advantage over a cold-set web press. The downside is that sheet-fed presses run much slower. That is why they are usually only selected for a small run of catalogs or catalogs that require high quality graphics.
Digital Printing: This is much newer than the other methods described in this article, but it will become mainstream. This is where the images for printing your catalog are sent directly from the computer to the press. There is no film involved. All of the images are digital. This also eliminates the need for plates. Finding a printer for your catalog that uses this method might be difficult though since it has not been widely adopted yet.
The advantages of digital printing are fast-turnaround time and for producing high quality full color catalogs. The downside is that you may be limited in your choice of paper types.
Electrostatic printing: Only good for very short runs of catalog printing jobs. This is similar to photocopying documents in that it uses toner from a drum to thermally fuse your text and images to the paper.
Embossing: This catalog printing method uses a die your printer makes according to your design. It makes an impression or raises the image or letters onto the page.
Engraving: This is the catalog printing method that produces the highest quality images. You would only use this on the covers unless cost is not a factor. With engraved images, you can run your finger along the edge and fell that it has been indented or raised.
Gravure: This method of printing is used to produce a high volume of quality catalogs. It is much more expensive than other methods, but it is the best way to produce high quality catalogs.
Letterpress: This method of catalog printing goes back to the 15th century. It uses a rubber stamp like process. The images or text are raised on the stamp and ink is applied and the pages are stamped.
Offset lithography: This is a common catalog printing method with little setup time and one that is very cost effective. It’s also good for printing on textured paper. It uses less ink than other methods as well.
I hope this has been a helpful guide to the different printing methods you can choose for your catalog. Keep in mind that every printer you go to will not be able to offer you all of these methods. Each printer buys the equipment best suited to his or her business. So if you are set on a particular type of catalog printing you may have to shop around to find a printer who uses your method.
Let’s start with the different types of presses that are used for printing catalogs.
Web Press: This is the most commonly used type of press for printing catalogs. It uses a roll of paper to make the catalog printing process faster. There are two types of web press. The Heat-Set Web Press and the Cold-Set Web Press.
Heat-Set Web Press: The heat-set web press has a built-in heating unit that dries the ink. This gives the press the ability to produce a high volume of catalogs quickly. Another advantage it has is It can handle printing your catalog on coated and high-gloss paper. A heat-set web press is also the best choice if your catalog needs to have high quality photographs and images.
Heat-set web presses are good for large catalog printing jobs or where the cost of setup is irrelevant. It is a huge press and takes a staff of people to set it up for one catalog printing job. This is where you run into setup fees from your printer. On a large run, say 10,000 copies or more, the setup fee when divided by the number of catalogs is not too bad. If you were to apply those same setup fees to a run of only 1000 copies, the cost per catalog printed might be out of your budget requirements.
Cold-Set Web Press: This type of web press does not have a heating unit. The ink must be air-dried. The cold-set web press is used with text stock paper where the ink will absorb into the paper of your catalog. It will not print on coated and glossy paper. In addition to that, the photos and images for your catalog will not be quite as sharp as those printed on a heat-set web press.
However, if you are printing less than 10,000 catalogs or your primary needs are not the sharpness of the images, a cold-set web press might be the right choice for you. It will save you money over the heat-set method.
Sheet-Fed Press: Another good choice if you are not printing a high volume of catalogs is the sheet-fed press. The paper for your catalog is cut to size before the print run. One of the advantages a sheet-fed press has over the cold-set web press is that your images and photos will come out a much higher quality. Both are good for small runs, so if you are only going to print less than 10,000 catalogs and your artwork is important to you, the sheet-fed press might be the best way to go.
The sheet-fed press can also use various weights of paper, giving it another advantage over a cold-set web press. The downside is that sheet-fed presses run much slower. That is why they are usually only selected for a small run of catalogs or catalogs that require high quality graphics.
Digital Printing: This is much newer than the other methods described in this article, but it will become mainstream. This is where the images for printing your catalog are sent directly from the computer to the press. There is no film involved. All of the images are digital. This also eliminates the need for plates. Finding a printer for your catalog that uses this method might be difficult though since it has not been widely adopted yet.
The advantages of digital printing are fast-turnaround time and for producing high quality full color catalogs. The downside is that you may be limited in your choice of paper types.
Electrostatic printing: Only good for very short runs of catalog printing jobs. This is similar to photocopying documents in that it uses toner from a drum to thermally fuse your text and images to the paper.
Embossing: This catalog printing method uses a die your printer makes according to your design. It makes an impression or raises the image or letters onto the page.
Engraving: This is the catalog printing method that produces the highest quality images. You would only use this on the covers unless cost is not a factor. With engraved images, you can run your finger along the edge and fell that it has been indented or raised.
Gravure: This method of printing is used to produce a high volume of quality catalogs. It is much more expensive than other methods, but it is the best way to produce high quality catalogs.
Letterpress: This method of catalog printing goes back to the 15th century. It uses a rubber stamp like process. The images or text are raised on the stamp and ink is applied and the pages are stamped.
Offset lithography: This is a common catalog printing method with little setup time and one that is very cost effective. It’s also good for printing on textured paper. It uses less ink than other methods as well.
I hope this has been a helpful guide to the different printing methods you can choose for your catalog. Keep in mind that every printer you go to will not be able to offer you all of these methods. Each printer buys the equipment best suited to his or her business. So if you are set on a particular type of catalog printing you may have to shop around to find a printer who uses your method.
Minggu, 18 Juli 2010
Printing Glossary And Terminology
The following is by no means all of the terms that you may come across when dealing with your printer. What we wanted to do here is provide you with many of the most common terms so you can understand the catalog printing process better. Many of these terms are ones that you will not have to deal with at all as most catalog printers offer full service.
Bleeds: This is where your design calls for the ink to go all the way to an edge of the page. To determine the number of bleeds you have to count all of the edges the ink goes to. In other words, your page has a top, a bottom, a right, and a left edge. Each edge your ink will go to is one bleed.
Bluelines: This is a proof of your catalog on film that is used to verify that everything is correct.
Camera Ready Art: This are not your photographs. Those will be photographed as half tones. (See glossary term, Half Tones) This is about your artwork. It has to be provided to the printer on a board or paper ready to be photographed. If there is more than one color, each color has to be on a different sheet of paper or board piece. You should also include the composite where all of the colors are on one paper or board so the printer knows what the outcome should look like.
Color Key: This is an acetate film proof of your catalog. Each color is produced on a separate sheet, then laid over each other to make sure everything is in the right place. This method is generally less expensive than match print, but not as accurate. (See glossary term Match print.)
Composed Film: These are pieces of film that are ready to be stripped or put together with other pieces of film to make plate ready film. Plate ready film is used to make the plates your printer will print your catalog with.
Coverage Percentage: If your catalog has areas where there will be 100% ink coverage and you tell your printer, then they can use the correct press and processes to produce it for you.
Cover Ink: There are two types of ink to choose from for your cover. CMYK and PMS. If you are selling an industrial product you might use PMS, but for most products the cover uses the CMYK method for processing images.
Cover Stock: This is the heavier paper used for the cover of your catalog. It can also be used for the interior pages if you want to present your product better. High end products are usually sold in catalogs that use this higher quality paper throughout the catalog.
Design: The combination of everything from your photos to your fonts, layout, logos, artwork, and all to produce a piece that is ready to photograph and print.
Die Score or Cut: This is the method used to crease where your catalog will be folded. If your catalog has pockets this is the method your printer would use to “score” the crease where the folds are needed.
Emboss: This is where the printer creates a die and stamps your paper from the rear to make a shape stand out. This can be raised print or a logo, etc.
Foil Stamp: This is where your printer creates a die that is used to stamp metallic gold, silver, or other colored material onto your catalog pages or cover.
Fold Type: Whether your catalog will be folded in half from top to bottom, folded left to right like a magazine, or tri-folded like a brochure.
Half Tones: This is where the printer takes the photos you want in your catalog and scans them or shoots them with a camera that has a honeycomb lens. This converts your photograph to an image made up of many tiny dots that allow for correct printing of the photos.
Match Print: For high end product catalogs, this is the recommended method. Each piece of film contains one of your colors, then they are laminated together to make a single piece ready for printing. If the accuracy of the colors is important to you, then this choice is best.
Number of Pages: The number of pages you choose for your catalog. This is always in multiples of four.
Output Film: To rip your digital files and produce your art as film that is ready for print.
Output Ready Disk: This is a disk you provide to your printer as a complete product. The only thing they need to do is convert it from digital to analog film. The disk should contain a separate folder for images and one for fonts.
Perfect Binding: This is a binding process normally used for high-end product catalogs or catalogs that will be over 80 pages.
Perforate: If you want to have tear outs such as coupons, you would instruct your printer to perforate the edges of the tear out.
Quantity: The number of catalogs you need to have printed. The larger the quantity, the less each catalog will cost to produce, so you may want to order a few more catalogs than you need. They can always be distributed elsewhere.
Reflectives: This is where the printer makes a print from your photographs or your negatives.
Saddle Stitch Binding: This is a binding process normally used for catalogs that will be less than 80 pages and to save money over the perfect binding method.
Scans from Transparencies: Scanning is the process that takes your transparency and records your images as a digital file.
Set Type: Laying out your type onto a page. This term also applies to the selection of the right font and typeface for your layout.
Spread or Flat Size: This is the size of the paper that will be used to print your catalog on. Once folded it will become the Trim Size. See glossary terms for Trim Size.
Text Ink: This is the type of ink and the number of colors you will choose for the interior pages of your catalog. The two types of inks you can choose from is CMYK and PMS. If you will be using photos, you will likely be going with CMYK. If everything is text and few images, your printer may suggest PMS.
Text Stock Paper: This is the lighter paper your interior catalog pages might be printed on if you are trying to save money or you are selling an industrial or low end product.
Trim Size Folded: This is the final size you want your catalog to be. For instance, if you want an 8 ½ by 11 catalog, the printer uses 17 x 11 paper to print it, then folds it in half so it becomes 8 ½ x 11. Trim Size Folded is the term the printer uses to ask you the final outcome size you desire. Always remember that the width is always given before the length or height.
Senin, 14 Juni 2010
Catalog Printing Tips
Okay, by now you know that printing and distributing a catalog will help you sell your product. You have chosen how you want to design your catalog but you have some printing questions. In this article I will help you explore all of your options and give you some catalog printing tips you can use.
Lets start with the cover of your catalog. What options do you have and which options should you choose for printing the cover of your new catalog?
First Catalog Printing Tip: Catalog covers should be and most often are printed on heavier paper stock than the rest of the catalog. That means the front and the back cover of your catalog. The old adage about don’t judge a book by it’s cover doesn’t work for catalogs. If the cover is not designed well and not printed on the right paper, people won’t open your catalog. And if they never open the catalog... well you get the idea.
The paper your cover is usually printed on is called cover stock. It is a heavier weight of paper than you will be using for the interior pages of your catalog. This also makes your catalog last longer. It will be there sitting on someone’s coffee table for others to read for a long time to come if you print your catalog on good paper stock.
Second Catalog Printing Tip: You have a lot of options when it comes to printing the interior pages of your catalog. A lot depends on the type of products you sell. For instance, if your catalog is for industrial products, you can probably get away with a much lower grade of paper than you would for a high-end product like jewelry.
The types of paper you can choose from range from newspaper-like stock all the way up to glossy paper that is heavy in weight. The lighter weight text-stock paper is used most often for catalogs that will have a lot of pages. For catalogs that will be less than 20 pages, you might choose the same heavyweight stock you used for the cover.
Again this depends a lot on your product. For high-end products like furniture, fashions, or jewelry, glossy heavy paper-stock is the only way to go. You have to understand that the heavier the paper and the higher the quality of the paper, the more you will need to spend on printing. But you get what you pay for. If you want people to buy your high-end products, then you have to present them in the right way.
Third Catalog Printing Tip Colors: One of the major advantages of sending out a catalog is the expectation that more than just one person will read it. For a well designed catalog it is estimated that two to three people will read it.
The colors you choose for your catalog will have a lot to do with how much product people buy and how many people will pick up and browse through your catalog. Nowhere is this more important than both the front and back covers. If your covers are appealing, people will want to pick it up.
So your covers need to be printed with a 4-color process, especially if you are selling high-end products. But for all catalogs you want printed, choosing to use the full-color process will make you more sales.
Depending on your product, you may also want the interior pages to be of similar quality as the covers. For a catalog that is to sell high end products, glossy paper with full color for the photos is the only way to go. For an industrial-type of catalog, printing with just 2 colors is usually just fine.
Fourth Catalog Printing Tip Binding: This will depend a lot on both what type of product you sell and the number of pages you will have printed. For example, if you sell a high end product or you will have over 80 pages, you will want your printer to use “perfect binding”, where the pages are glued to the spine of your catalog. If you will be printing less than 80 pages and have a lower-priced or industrial type of product, then a good printing tip is to have them bind it with saddle stitching and stapled in the middle to hold it together.
Fifth Catalog Printing Tip Choosing a Printer for your Catalog: Make sure first of all that the printer you choose for your catalog has experience with producing catalogs, not just brochures, business cards, etc. One of the most important catalog tips I can give you is, “Do not let price be the deciding factor in choosing a printer for your catalog.”
I don’t mean the more you spend the better catalog you will have either. But the opposite is more often true than not. The cheapest catalog printer you can find will likely print you a “cheap” looking catalog that people will not be compelled to buy product from or even read.
You will need to be prepared before you visit your catalog printer. You will need to know how many catalogs you want to print. You need to know the number of pages you will want, (It is always a multiple of four pages, 4,8,12,16,etc.). You need to know the size you want your catalog to be, (8 ½ x 11, 11 x 17, 8 ½ x 5 ½, 4 ¼ x 5 ½, etc.)
You need to know the number of colors you want the cover and the interior pages to be. You need to know the type of paper you want used, although your printer can offer you those choices when you visit them. Just keep the catalog printing tips mentioned earlier in mind when choosing the type of paper you want.
You can also work with your printer on the type of binding they offer and how many times you want to be able to see a proof of the catalog before all of the copies are goinjg to be printed. This is important. The last thing you want to do is miss a mistake AFTER you have already printed 25,000 catalogs.
Lets start with the cover of your catalog. What options do you have and which options should you choose for printing the cover of your new catalog?
First Catalog Printing Tip: Catalog covers should be and most often are printed on heavier paper stock than the rest of the catalog. That means the front and the back cover of your catalog. The old adage about don’t judge a book by it’s cover doesn’t work for catalogs. If the cover is not designed well and not printed on the right paper, people won’t open your catalog. And if they never open the catalog... well you get the idea.
The paper your cover is usually printed on is called cover stock. It is a heavier weight of paper than you will be using for the interior pages of your catalog. This also makes your catalog last longer. It will be there sitting on someone’s coffee table for others to read for a long time to come if you print your catalog on good paper stock.
Second Catalog Printing Tip: You have a lot of options when it comes to printing the interior pages of your catalog. A lot depends on the type of products you sell. For instance, if your catalog is for industrial products, you can probably get away with a much lower grade of paper than you would for a high-end product like jewelry.
The types of paper you can choose from range from newspaper-like stock all the way up to glossy paper that is heavy in weight. The lighter weight text-stock paper is used most often for catalogs that will have a lot of pages. For catalogs that will be less than 20 pages, you might choose the same heavyweight stock you used for the cover.
Again this depends a lot on your product. For high-end products like furniture, fashions, or jewelry, glossy heavy paper-stock is the only way to go. You have to understand that the heavier the paper and the higher the quality of the paper, the more you will need to spend on printing. But you get what you pay for. If you want people to buy your high-end products, then you have to present them in the right way.
Third Catalog Printing Tip Colors: One of the major advantages of sending out a catalog is the expectation that more than just one person will read it. For a well designed catalog it is estimated that two to three people will read it.
The colors you choose for your catalog will have a lot to do with how much product people buy and how many people will pick up and browse through your catalog. Nowhere is this more important than both the front and back covers. If your covers are appealing, people will want to pick it up.
So your covers need to be printed with a 4-color process, especially if you are selling high-end products. But for all catalogs you want printed, choosing to use the full-color process will make you more sales.
Depending on your product, you may also want the interior pages to be of similar quality as the covers. For a catalog that is to sell high end products, glossy paper with full color for the photos is the only way to go. For an industrial-type of catalog, printing with just 2 colors is usually just fine.
Fourth Catalog Printing Tip Binding: This will depend a lot on both what type of product you sell and the number of pages you will have printed. For example, if you sell a high end product or you will have over 80 pages, you will want your printer to use “perfect binding”, where the pages are glued to the spine of your catalog. If you will be printing less than 80 pages and have a lower-priced or industrial type of product, then a good printing tip is to have them bind it with saddle stitching and stapled in the middle to hold it together.
Fifth Catalog Printing Tip Choosing a Printer for your Catalog: Make sure first of all that the printer you choose for your catalog has experience with producing catalogs, not just brochures, business cards, etc. One of the most important catalog tips I can give you is, “Do not let price be the deciding factor in choosing a printer for your catalog.”
I don’t mean the more you spend the better catalog you will have either. But the opposite is more often true than not. The cheapest catalog printer you can find will likely print you a “cheap” looking catalog that people will not be compelled to buy product from or even read.
You will need to be prepared before you visit your catalog printer. You will need to know how many catalogs you want to print. You need to know the number of pages you will want, (It is always a multiple of four pages, 4,8,12,16,etc.). You need to know the size you want your catalog to be, (8 ½ x 11, 11 x 17, 8 ½ x 5 ½, 4 ¼ x 5 ½, etc.)
You need to know the number of colors you want the cover and the interior pages to be. You need to know the type of paper you want used, although your printer can offer you those choices when you visit them. Just keep the catalog printing tips mentioned earlier in mind when choosing the type of paper you want.
You can also work with your printer on the type of binding they offer and how many times you want to be able to see a proof of the catalog before all of the copies are goinjg to be printed. This is important. The last thing you want to do is miss a mistake AFTER you have already printed 25,000 catalogs.
Sabtu, 01 Mei 2010
Better Typography and More Readable Text in PowerPoint
PowerPoint is, fundamentally, a tool for communication, and the heart of that communication is written words. As many charts, videos and illustrations a presentation might have, without text these add up to little more than a collection of disjointed elements pasted between slide transitions.
Words remain the glue that ties information together. Because of this, good typography is as important -- if not more so -- than any visual element in a presenter's PowerPoint file. (This not to say good presentation is a substitute for weak content; after all, content is king.)
"Typography" is a medium-independent term used to describe how type is presented. This includes everything from mixing fonts to choosing colors and point sizes to laying elements on a page in certain relation to other objects.
Good typography doesn't happen by accident -- it is a skill that is developed through practice and experimentation. Just as there are some general, fundamental guidelines that are as applicable to presentation software as they are to billboards and annual reports, there are a few typographical principles that relate directly to PowerPoint alone. Adhering to these simple strategies can result in a much more polished and professional-looking piece.
1. Fonts should never be less than 12 points in size. Even with substantial magnification over a projection system, people have difficulty focusing on smaller type. This really works against you anytime the audience needs to carefully read something, since most of their effort is spent squinting and leaning forward and not on actually understanding the content. The only exception to the 12-point rule would be small copyright information, dates or watermarks that are not related to the primary content.
2. Bigger is better. Headlines should float around 20-24 pt, larger if needed. Body copy generally works well in the 16-18 range, although 14-point is not uncommon for squeezing a few extra lines in. Headline point size should never be smaller than the content size.
3. Don't be afraid of leading. "Leading" is the term for adjusting the space between lines, and can be found under Format > Line Spacing. This does not have to be drastic; often, a subtle 1.1 - 1.5 can really open up the design on a page and make long blocks of text much easier to read.
4. Stick with the standard font faces that are included on a typical Windows machine. These include Times New Roman, Impact, Arial, Verdana, Georgia and Trebuchet. Using off-beaten fonts that you've installed may make your presentation more visually interesting, but it will cause numerous problems when moving the piece between different computers. While these non-standard fonts can conceivably be moved with your file, the end product is rarely worth the resulting headaches.
5. When choosing fonts, it is often better to stay with sans-serif typefaces like Arial and Verdana. Their blocky, minimal nature makes them ideal for headline applications, where they can be displayed at larger sizes and still retain maximum readability. In PowerPoint, it is even more important to use sans-serif fonts in bullets, paragraphs and other small point size applications. Serif fonts like Times New Roman and Georgia are more decorative, and while they perform superbly in the printed realm (look no further than The New York Times for endless columns of the Times face), study after study demonstrate they hinder reading speed and comprehension when presented on screen.
6. Pick font colors that contrast with the background:
* For white backgrounds, black and dark versions of red and blue work exceptionally well.
* For dark backgrounds, like black or rich blues, white is ideal, but options such as yellow or very pale, icy blues can achieve interesting and often captivating color combinations.
* A good visual trick is to use a background color that accepts both white and black font colors. Dark oranges, rich greens (apple green especially) and even certain blues can be excellent choices for the design-adventurous.
* Color combinations to avoid: Black and red, in any situation. Color-similar combinations, such as orange text on yellow backgrounds, or light blue text on dark blue backgrounds.
7. Since PowerPoint works so well with bullet points, it is a presentation technique widely adopted as a means of displaying important information in bite-sized chunks. But consider exploring different typographic solutions for bullets; small changes can often encourage better readability and audience interest. There are several techniques that I have successfully used.
* Consider making the actual bullet a different color than the text. For instance, if your text is black, a medium gray bullet might work well. They serve to primarily guide the eye from line to line, so it is not always critical to make them as visually important as the text.
* Also, making the active bullet line a different color might be a good way to reinforce what you are saying. If each bullet appears manually, dependent on where you are in your speech, this can be a subtle but powerful means of reminding the audience what you are talking about.
* Also, try using different shapes for bullets! PowerPoint's flexible options allows a variety of pre-installed symbols, or even an imported graphic, to be used in place of the rather dry default circles.
8. Consistency. This is, without a doubt, the most important typographic tip in any medium, PowerPoint or other. Design your master template and stick to it. If you use 24-point Arial as a headline font, 16-point Verdana as the body font and a customized set of bullets that change color, use that combination through the entire presentation. And not just sizes and colors, but also positioning. The first sign of amateur PowerPoint is text fields jumping from spot to spot across different slides.
Words remain the glue that ties information together. Because of this, good typography is as important -- if not more so -- than any visual element in a presenter's PowerPoint file. (This not to say good presentation is a substitute for weak content; after all, content is king.)
"Typography" is a medium-independent term used to describe how type is presented. This includes everything from mixing fonts to choosing colors and point sizes to laying elements on a page in certain relation to other objects.
Good typography doesn't happen by accident -- it is a skill that is developed through practice and experimentation. Just as there are some general, fundamental guidelines that are as applicable to presentation software as they are to billboards and annual reports, there are a few typographical principles that relate directly to PowerPoint alone. Adhering to these simple strategies can result in a much more polished and professional-looking piece.
1. Fonts should never be less than 12 points in size. Even with substantial magnification over a projection system, people have difficulty focusing on smaller type. This really works against you anytime the audience needs to carefully read something, since most of their effort is spent squinting and leaning forward and not on actually understanding the content. The only exception to the 12-point rule would be small copyright information, dates or watermarks that are not related to the primary content.
2. Bigger is better. Headlines should float around 20-24 pt, larger if needed. Body copy generally works well in the 16-18 range, although 14-point is not uncommon for squeezing a few extra lines in. Headline point size should never be smaller than the content size.
3. Don't be afraid of leading. "Leading" is the term for adjusting the space between lines, and can be found under Format > Line Spacing. This does not have to be drastic; often, a subtle 1.1 - 1.5 can really open up the design on a page and make long blocks of text much easier to read.
4. Stick with the standard font faces that are included on a typical Windows machine. These include Times New Roman, Impact, Arial, Verdana, Georgia and Trebuchet. Using off-beaten fonts that you've installed may make your presentation more visually interesting, but it will cause numerous problems when moving the piece between different computers. While these non-standard fonts can conceivably be moved with your file, the end product is rarely worth the resulting headaches.
5. When choosing fonts, it is often better to stay with sans-serif typefaces like Arial and Verdana. Their blocky, minimal nature makes them ideal for headline applications, where they can be displayed at larger sizes and still retain maximum readability. In PowerPoint, it is even more important to use sans-serif fonts in bullets, paragraphs and other small point size applications. Serif fonts like Times New Roman and Georgia are more decorative, and while they perform superbly in the printed realm (look no further than The New York Times for endless columns of the Times face), study after study demonstrate they hinder reading speed and comprehension when presented on screen.
6. Pick font colors that contrast with the background:
* For white backgrounds, black and dark versions of red and blue work exceptionally well.
* For dark backgrounds, like black or rich blues, white is ideal, but options such as yellow or very pale, icy blues can achieve interesting and often captivating color combinations.
* A good visual trick is to use a background color that accepts both white and black font colors. Dark oranges, rich greens (apple green especially) and even certain blues can be excellent choices for the design-adventurous.
* Color combinations to avoid: Black and red, in any situation. Color-similar combinations, such as orange text on yellow backgrounds, or light blue text on dark blue backgrounds.
7. Since PowerPoint works so well with bullet points, it is a presentation technique widely adopted as a means of displaying important information in bite-sized chunks. But consider exploring different typographic solutions for bullets; small changes can often encourage better readability and audience interest. There are several techniques that I have successfully used.
* Consider making the actual bullet a different color than the text. For instance, if your text is black, a medium gray bullet might work well. They serve to primarily guide the eye from line to line, so it is not always critical to make them as visually important as the text.
* Also, making the active bullet line a different color might be a good way to reinforce what you are saying. If each bullet appears manually, dependent on where you are in your speech, this can be a subtle but powerful means of reminding the audience what you are talking about.
* Also, try using different shapes for bullets! PowerPoint's flexible options allows a variety of pre-installed symbols, or even an imported graphic, to be used in place of the rather dry default circles.
8. Consistency. This is, without a doubt, the most important typographic tip in any medium, PowerPoint or other. Design your master template and stick to it. If you use 24-point Arial as a headline font, 16-point Verdana as the body font and a customized set of bullets that change color, use that combination through the entire presentation. And not just sizes and colors, but also positioning. The first sign of amateur PowerPoint is text fields jumping from spot to spot across different slides.
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