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From: chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Publishing laserset material
Message-ID: <85961@sun.uucp>
Date: 19 Jan 89 06:11:19 GMT
References: <88@sopwith.UUCP> <85429@sun.uucp> <13746@ico.ISC.COM>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
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Organization: Fictional Reality
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>I'd say that if you even
>try to use 10 pt the results are going to be marginal.  I've generally
>encouraged people to use 11/13 for the body text of reports and such; that
>lets them use 9/11 for footnotes.

11/13 would be good. 12/14 would be better, actually. That is, *if* you have
the space to carry it. In something like OtherRealms, where space was always
as a premium, I published at 10/12 or 10/11 Palatino. Tight, but if you're
careful, it can be perfectly legible. Among things to avoid: italics (use
bold face instead. One nice thing about Palatino is that it has a heavy bold
face, so it shows up nicely even at 10pt Xerographed. Try that with Bookman
sometime....) and any non-postscript variations of a face like underline,
outline, or all the other ugly algorithms Apple lets you use. Another thing
would be lines: anything wider than about 2 points should be 60% grey
instead of black, because a widde, black line won't reproduce without
blotching where a 60% grey will. With 10pt faces, don't plan on using
footnotes. If you must have them, use same-size endnotes.

Learn to use whitespace with 10pt, too. Widen the column gaps, don't justify
the columns. Use ragged right and don't hyphenate unless you've got a good
hypenator. It generally isn't worth it and it'll help break up the text
more. At this size, you need all the white you can get.

The current issue of OtherRealms is set 9/10 ITC Garamond. That's *too*
tight for comfortable reading, in retrospect, but I had some nasty
restrictions to deal with. Next issue will probably be 9/11. Or 9.25/11.5 or
something, if I can make it work cleanly.

The trend in publication design seems to be towards 12pt text, either 12/40
or 12/15. Lots and lots of whitespace, too. Of course, that means they don't
have to pay as much to the writers each issue, too. Some people have taken
it too far into the "open and active" realm: Time, generally considered the
leading edge of design, drives me crazy. And then there's "Publish!"
magazine, wonderfully showing off all the state-of-the-art design technology
and ideas, and why you shouldn't blindly go off and use all that crap...

>Then get the copier fixed!  In many cases, one step of photocopying will
>actually *improve* the quality.

damn straight. If your copier is botching you up, it's broke. You don't
believe me, I've got back-issues of OtherRealms printed on that self-same
Kodak (good boy. get biscuit. May I *never* change your toner again!) that,
while you can tell it isn't offset, isn't something I feel like hiding, either.



Chuq Von Rospach	Editor/Publisher, OtherRealms		chuq@sun.COM
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