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From: chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: DTP Books
Message-ID: <32116@sun.uucp>
Date: Tue, 27-Oct-87 17:02:15 EST
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Posted: Tue Oct 27 17:02:15 1987
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[Moderator's note: this was an answer I wrote to a piece of private mail.
 After finishing it, I realised that there was a fair amount of information
 of use to everyone, so I'm posting the reply here as well -- chuq]

> I am co-founder of a support group. I made the mistake of showing them
> what my Mac can do and now I have been given the job of producing
> flyers and a newsletter.  Could you recommend books which might help me
> in producing the above? I can get some ideas from looking over samples
> (especially newsletters), but I would prefer to have some method in my
> approach.  Any "How To Design A Great Flyer" books out there for people
> with more inclination than native talent?

This is actually a complicated question, I'm sorry if I go into more
detail than you ever care to know...

Graphic design is in many ways a black art. You look at what other
folks are doing, and if you like it, you acquire it as a new skill.
While there are some formal areas you can play with, a lot of it is practice,
practice, practice and integrating what you see with what you like.

First, become an active reader. Don't just swish through magazines,
look at every page, especially the ads. See what makes an ad work, what
makes an ad not work for you. Look at the colors, the styles, placement
of things on the pages. Keep a notebook, write down things that strike
you as particularly interesting. Take scissors and cut out things you
like, glue them into scrapbooks (yes, I'm serious...). Last I counted,
Laurie and subscribed to over 30 magazines, from Time and Forbes to
Architectural Digest, Bird Talk and MacWorld.

If you don't, read Publish! (from the Macworld folks). Their page
makeover sections are fascinating. They take nice things and turn them
into good things, with hints that you probably wouldn't catch on to otherwise.

I haven't found a good Graphics Design magazine, yet, although there
are a number of them out for the Graphics Design industry (the best
I've found is "Print" at $50/year a bit steep, but fascinating -- I
mean, how do you grab the eye of the folks who's JOB it is to grab eyes?)

On to books. I'm going to split this into three subgroups: Typography,
layout fundamentals, and design fundamentals.

Typography: The guts:

You need one of two books: The Chicago Manual of Style or (my
preference) Words into Type (Prentice Hall). This is your Style Bible.
You wouldn't believe the number of things you never knew about putting
together in a consistent and proper style until you look at this book,
which is 500 pages of small type. Do you know offhand, for instance,
whether the question mark goes inside or outside a terminating quote,
and what the exceptions to that rule are? Or appropriate abbreviations
for things? Typesetting marks? the proper use of em and en dashes?

Neither do I. This book does, though, and it's nice to have something
to reference when you aren't sure. You'll find that every author has
some grammatical quirk, and if you don't pull them all into a single
style, you come off looking bad. Most readers won't know why, but they
won't be as comfortable reading you -- its a very subtle point of amateurism.

And never forget your Strunk and White. I go through about a copy a
year, just refreshing myself. And a good dictionary (I have two at work
and three at home, an American Heritage, a Websters, and an Oxford
English Dictionary (which you can get for $25 by joining Book of the
Month Club, and well worth it...). A Thesaurus. Bartlett's Quotations.
finally, Law and the Writer (Writer's Digest Books) for their
discussions of, among other things, Copyright and Libel issues.

That's to me the minimun set to get through the grunt details of
getting the writing publishable. You'll find others as you get into it
that you also use that come in handy. Among our collection (which is
more extensive than I expect most people are willing to go, but Laurie
and I are both writers and book freaks) are such works as: PDR (The
physicians desk reference -- Hunter Thompson isn't the only person who
can use this one...); German, French, Latin and Spanish dictionaries;
Plotnick's The Element's of Editing; Gross' Editor's on Editing; A
World Almanac; A dictionary of Antonyms, Synonyms and Homonyms;
Theodore Bernstein's "Miss ThistleBottoms HObgoblins" (Simon and
Schuster), in which the premier practical linguist of the country tells
you why you can ignore your English teacher, and when you can do it
safely; Durant's The Age of Civilizations (also from BOMC -- yes, we
have two memberships...); The Columbia history of the world; Gray's Anatomy.

That's about half the primary bookshelf for reference books. A lot of
our stuff is esoteric (how about an Atlas of famous revolutions? A
reference guide to renaissance English fashion? The CRC guide to
Chemistry and Physics?). You can buy yourself into the poor house if
you really get into it, but as you get more serious about reference
books and find more and more useful ones, you won't mind. And here's a
good habit to learn: keep a close eye on the bargain tables. Lots of
this stuff goes out of print and gets remaindered, and you can get it
cheap. A new CRC is $50. A year old one is about $10, and they don't
chnage much from year to year. Lots of really strange books get in the
remainder tables, and many of them can be useful when you leave expect it.

Enough. on to layout fundamentals.

I'm only (gasp) going to recommend one book: "A Desktop Publishers
Guide to Pasteup" by Tony Middleton (Plusware books, ISBN
0-942005-00-7). There are lots of "intro to desktop publishing" books,
but this is the only one that goes into all the things that "desktop
publishing" doesn't do for you. It explains what a waxing machine does,
or why you don't get arrested for stripping a photo. It tells you what
tools you need, how to integrate them with your computer, and how to do
everything the computer won't. It's the ONLY DTP book that sits on my
computer desk (as opposed to the bookshelf across the room, as opposed
to the library down the hall, as opposed ...) -- That's the best
recommendation I can give it.

Finally, what you really care about. Design fundamentals.

Still, in many ways, the weakest part of the bunch. I've got a few
books, but nothing I really think tells it all. There are some books I
haven't bought yet that I"m looking at, but they're all pretty
expensive because when you get away from the "Gee, whizz, isn't DTP
fun!" books, you're into stuff that professional designers buy, and
they pay more than computer folks do for books (ack).

A few hints on your search for Design books. Go to the local university
(maybe a college, but don't count on it) and look at their catalog. See
if they have graphic design or layout classes in the arts or English or
Journalism schools. If so, track down their textbooks and look at them.

Also browse through as many of the art stores as you can find. Many
have bookshelves that carry stuff for artists and designers. A lot of
it will be useless or make no sense, but some of it may help. You won't
find what you're looking for in a normal bookstore.

Some specifics: All of these have strengths and weaknesses -- look at
them and see if they fit your needs.

Macintosh Desktop Typography & Macintosh Desktop Design (John Baxter,
The Baxter Group). The first two books in a three book series on
graphic design on the mac. Incomplete without the third book, but an
interesting start with a slant towards electronic processing --
soemthing missing in traditional books.

Fundamentals of Layout (F.H. wills, Dover Press, 0-486-21279-3). A
fairly simple layout book, covers grids, balance, and the basics.
Probably the best for a pure novice.

Graphics Handbook (Howard Munce, North Light Press, 0-89134-049-1).
Combination hint/tip, memoir, and practical application by one of the
senior men in the industry. A bit haphazard but fun to browse for ideas.

How to do Leaflets, Newsletters and Newsletters (Nancy Brigham,
Hastings House,  8038-3062-9). Brigam works for the AFL-CIO teaching
Union Locals how to do leaflets, newsletters, and other publishing.
This is a no-nonsense guide to putting out things that don't embarass
you. If you can get around the pro-labor bias (I gave up counting the
times she reminded folks to find a labor shop, where the quality is
guaranteed, and making sure you put the labor signet on the newletter
so your borthers will know) there's a lot of solid information.

Anyway, hope this helps.

chuq 
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Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM	Delphi: CHUQ