COMM 362: Lecture synopses

COMM 362, Design for Print
Instructor: Ross Collins

Lecture Synopses

Synopsis One
We see literally millions of visual images in our picture-drenched society, but most of us are not really "visually literate." That is, we haven't studied the power and influence of the image as we have the written word. History of humanity's attempt to make visual images dates from at least 10,000 years ago, with the Lascaux cave paintings, and reflects a need to depict important ideas and events in abstract form. Images today show influence based on "western" (European) values of the quest for realism in art--a quest won finally by photography, unveiled in 1839 by the French inventor Daguerre. Photography was difficult and expensive, not truly a mass medium, until three revolutions at the turn of the twentieth century truly gave images to "the masses": roll film (1888) half-tone printing and motion pictures (1890s).

The world of visual arts includes the fine artist, the graphic artist, and the illustrator. Usually they are not the same people. Fine artists aim at a visual dialogue with a viewer based on personal perceptions depicted through a visual medium. The viewer is expected to bring his or her own experience to the dialogue. If the viewer doesn't understand or dismisses the artist's work, it's not necessarily the artist's fault. Graphic artists and illustrators, on the other hand, try to create a visual response to an editorial need destined for "mass audience" consumption. If the audience doesn't understand the work, they have failed. Graphic artists normally work with document design and type; illustrators normally create art for the document. Sometimes a graphic artist can also do some illustration, but often they are different people.

Graphic design history

Graphic artists try to find visual solutions to an editorial problem on a two-dimensional surface. The craft could be said to date back thousands of years, perhaps to the Lascaux cave drawings of 15,000 years ago. Of course, the "editorial problem" part didn't exist until the invention of printing. That was about 1450, in Germany. By the 19th century illustrations became common, and at the end of the century it became possible to print photographs directly through the halftone process.

The 20th century saw the real growth of illustrations and graphic design. Art Noveau, developed in France, was popular in the years around 1900, but waned with the influence of abstract art and Bauhaus simplicity. Art Deco, developed around 1925, with its angular lines, defines the pre-World War II era. But the Bauhaus idea of "form follows function" introduced graphic design less encumbered by ornaments, and moreformally placed elements, along with san serif type fonts.

Postmodern world after 1970s moved into new design made easy by technology, the layering of text and photos to create montage effects.

Development of graphic design on the web:

Synopsis Two
Psychologists who have experimented with visual perception have concluded that the brain perceives information in particular ways not necessarily related to what is actually in a visual scene. These "Gestalt" experiments concluded that when facing a visual scene, we see what we learn to see; we see what we're told we'll see; we see what we expect to see; we add or subtract information from a scene until the visual image makes sense to us.

What we learn to see: Describe what you see in this photo.

We add or subtract to construct an image in our mind that makes sense.

From this several principles have been established:

* Principle of proximity: the closer an object is to another object, the more it will be perceived as related.

* Principle of similarity: visual elements which are similar in size, shape, color, texture, etc., tend to be grouped, and seen as related.

* Principle of continuity: visual elements that require the fewest number of interruptions will be groups to continuous lines, which the eye follows..

* Principle of closure: nearly complete familiar lines or shapes are seen as complete.

* Principle of simplicity: our mind tends to perceive the most simple shape possible based on the visual information available.

These principle may be helpful to photographers and designers hoping to establish connections and direction between elements of a visual scene, but they should be used intuitively, and not consciously "added" to an image.

Synopsis Three
Originally pictures and words were the same, but about 3,000 years ago the ancient Phoenicians invented a language in which symbols stood for what the word sounded like, instead of what it looked like. This marked the beginning of separation between words and pictures in written communication. The ancient Greeks borrowed this idea for their alphabet, but added vowels, about 900-400 B.C.E. Ancient Rome thought their idea was so good that it in turned borrowed from the Greeks (as usual for the Romans, actually), but changed eight letters, and added f and q. The Romans developed the majuscule (capital or upper case letters) alphabet we use nearly unchanged today.

After the "fall" of the Roman empire (476 a.d.), writing fell into regional European styles using "minuscule" (small or lower case) letters and reed pens to form the "uncial" (curved) style we so associate with the early middle ages. Charlemagne around 800 a.d. tried to pull Europe's writing into a more uniform style, led by the Abbott of York's great idea--combine upper and lower case letters! Today we're not sure if that was such a great idea, as it seems to impede reading, but Carolingian script (Charlemagne's empire) came to us through the Renaissance "humanistic hand" (c. 1400). Between that time the Roman Catholic church assumed authority in Europe, reflected by its soaring Gothic cathedrals and "Gothic" script we now call "blackletter," or sometimes "old English." Germany and Scandinavia continued to use Gothic until the beginning of the 20th century.

The beginning of printing, about 1455, led to the need for attractive and readable books. Because paper or its alternative, vellum (processed calf skin) was expensive, the Italian Aldus Manutius invented a slanted letterform to save space, called italic. "Oblique" type is the sans serif version of italic.

Today type is no longer cast in metal ("hot type"), but the terminology has stayed with us. "Fonts" or styles of type come from "founts," once made in a metal type foundry. Strictly speaking they include only one size and style of all lower and upper case letters, numbers, accents and sundry miscellaneous pieces. Of course, we now say "fonts" when we really mean "type faces," designs that can come in any size or style. One whole font is sometimes called a character set, or "sort" of type. Standard measure for graphic artists is points and picas, an 18th century French invention: 12 points equals one pica; 6 picas equal about one inch. Type is specified from the smallest, about 5 pt ("agate type"), to standard point measures of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, (standard modern body text) 11, 12, 14, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60, 72, etc., in units of 12.

Type sits on an invisible "baseline." Lower case letters that stick up or down from the "x-height" (height of lower-case x) are called ascenders and descenders. Type is measured by size of space the letter sits on--another throwback to the days when type was made from metal. So two 12 pt. typefaces may have different x-heights, and therefore look larger or smaller. Space between rows of type is called "leading," (pronounced "ledding"), from the days when those spaces were indeed made from a lead-tin alloy. Measured in points, the combination of type and leading is expressed with a slash: 10/11, for instance, is "10 on 11," or 10 pt type with one point of leading between each line. No leading is "set solid"--but space still exists between each line, because space is built into the design of the type. Of course, in computerized pagination, you can choose negative leading, and have type actually touch. Not possible in the old hot type days. Some combinations of characters, notably the fi and fl, look unattractive when placed together; some fonts offer "ligatures," or special characters, to replace these.

Synopsis Four
Type is usually separated into five families. Most used is the roman family, subdivided into three styles: old style, transitional and modern. Old style is based most closely on hand-drawn letters, and includes slanted stress (difference between thick and thin areas, as if drawn with a reed pen), brackets and little "brilliance." (Difference between thicks and thins.) Modern roman faces have no slant, no brackets, and strong "brilliance." Old style is commonly used for more informal, homey text, while modern is used for formal, dressy text. Many type faces have characteristics of both; try using Ross's "SLOBB Formula" (SLanted Obliquely, Brackets, Brilliance) to remember the difference. Times Roman is most common. For reference, check out these examples of typefaces.

Sans serif type, the second family, of course has no serifs, and is used for headlines, more informal body text, signage, and agate (6 pt or below) type. Helvetica is most common. It has become so famous in contemporary design around the world that a feature film has been made featuring its development, "Helvetica."

Egyptian (slab serif) type is often used for headlines that "shout." Its squared-off serifs tend to have a 19th century look, particularly when exaggerated.

Blackletter is a display family used mostly for advertisements and logos. It looks like old gothic-style text.

Script is a display family often used for invitations and elegant advertisements. It looks like hand-written text.

"Pi" faces include dingbats and symbols.

Choice of type and leading are critical to the personality of your publication. Compare these samples (pdf file) of old style, modern and sans.

Readability and legibility are goals of type usage, which of course also give a personality to a publication. Some general rules:

Avoid all caps, harder to read.

Avoid wide or narrow columns, harder to read. Columns should be no wider than one and one-half alphabets of the type face used.

Choose one typeface from one family for headlines, and another typeface from a different family for body text. Gain variety by using different fonts within the typeface: bold, italic, condensed, expanded, etc.

Fix typewriter conventions: two spaces after a period, two hyphens for a dash, "rabbit-ear" quotes. Single quotes indicating shortened words ('70s, etc.) should be curly cue down. Use the keystroke combination, if necessary. Note: typographer's quotes aren't available on web pages.

Avoid "rivers of white" or "hyphen ladders" in justified type, considered unattractive.

Use em dash to set off words to emphasize in a sentence; en dash between time or date expressions; hyphen between word combinations. See keystroke combinations.

Put commas and periods within quotemarks (U.S. convention), but semi-colons and colons outside quotemarks.

Draw copy close to drop caps to avoid white space.

Avoid monospaced type faces in most uses; courier is the classic, borrowed from the Smith Corona typewriter. As well, bit-mapped fonts are designed for monitors, not for printing. Clue to identifying them: they're named after cities (monoco, chicago, new york, etc.).

Make style consistent throughout a publication.

Common keystroke combinations:

Double typographer's quotes, open quote (dot at bottom): Option-[

Double typographer's quotes, close quote (dot at top): Option-Shift-[

Single typographer's quotes, or contractions ('70s) open quote (dot at bottom): Option-Shift-]

Single typographer's quotes, close quote (dot at top): Option-]

Bullets: Option-8

Em dash: Shift-Option-[hyphen key]

En dash: Option-[hyphen key]

Manual hyphen: Apple[or Command]-Shift-hyphen

Other combinations: choose Key Caps (Macintosh) from Apple menu, and the font you're using.

Synopsis Five

Grids
Designers faced with the challenge of a blank page usually begin by organizing white space using a grid as a skeleton on which they place page elements. A grid is simply a series of non-printing lines to help divide your space. One-column grids are "quiet," meaning they look simple and direct, but don't have much flexibility for graphic design options. More interesting are 1 + 1 grids, 2-column grids, 2 + 1 grids, 3-column grids, 4, 5 and 6 column grids, and mixed grids.

The 1 + 1 and 2 + 1 grids give a graphic designer the option of using a wide column on the outer edges of the page to add photos, pull quotes, cutlines or illustrations. The 2- and 3-column grids are most commonly used in newsletters and books, because they offer great design flexibility. The 4-column grids tend to be a bit too narrow for basic (newsletter) size, but a bit too wide for tabloid size, although with wide gutters (space between columns) they can look distinctive. The 5-column grid is standard for tabloid size, and 6-column grid standard for broadsheet. Broadsheets used to be 8-column, with narrow, "vertical" makeup, but that is considered old-fashioned today. Designers use mixed grids for informal publications and those aimed toward children, to give a collage effect. It is more difficult to control elements using a mixed grid, however.

Formally designed modular grids break the page into modules based on multiples of the type size, plus leading. For example, if you use 10/12, grid modules might be 36 pts deep. Elements on a page fit into multiples of these modules.

A slide show illustrating grids.

Margins may be standard, meaning the same all around. But many graphic designers prefer to subtract a bit of space on the inside, and add a bit to the bottom. Progressive margins have been used for centuries to provide an attractive frame of white space around the page.

Try it yourself! Find these common Gestalt principles and common grids in published material:

Principles of Gestalt psychology:
We see what we learn to see.
We see what we are told we see.
We add or subtract information from a visual image so that it makes sense to us.
Elements that are near each other are seen as related (proximity).
Elements that are similar in shape, size, or color are seen as related (similarity).
Similar elements that form a line can direct the eye in a picture. (continuity).
Elements that are nearly complete are seen as complete (closure).

Common grids:
1 column.
1 + 1 column.
2 column.
2 + 1 or wide 2 column.
3 column.
5 column.
6 column.
Mixed (collage) grid.

Margins:
Picture frame (all the same size).
Progressive (smallest in the center, largest at the bottom).

Organizing space
Beyond that designers try to arrange the elements in a way designed to offer an inviting and readable publication based on several general principles:

• Organized white space. Designers usually lean toward more white space rather than less, to avoid a dense, type-heavy look, and try to organize the white space instead of scattering it around a page, or "trapping" it around type blocks.

• Balance of elements. Optical center of a page is not the same as mathematical center. Elements on a page usually are not placed in perfect symmetry, but balance each other dynamically, using the visual weight of white space as well as type, photos, reverses and other elements.

• One dominant element. Readers need the guidance of one element that attracts attention to the page, while still having other "points of entry" to guide a casual reader into a page. Research suggests readers use the "Z-pattern" to scan a page, so important elements can be placed on the Z.

• Contrasting elements. Dull grey pages of text can be made more interesting by adding photos, illustrations, bullets, dingbats, rules, borders, screens, subheads or other elements to add variety to a page.

• Repetition. While contrast is good, too much leads to a confusing layout. Designers try to give the design a feeling of closure by choosing certain repeating elements, particularly one typeface for headline, another for body type, similar amounts of space between headlines, photos, and text, and other repeating elements.

• Unity. Hard to define, but a feeling that the publication "hangs together," gives a feeling of wholeness, based on the other elements.

To remember these elements, try Ross's mnemonic device: "CRUD PROB." C=Contrast; R=Repetition; U=Unity; D=Dominant element; PRO=PROportion of white space to text; B=Balance.

Synopsis Six
Designers don't jump into a completed work ready for publication, but work into the final version through several stages. Many begin by drawing thumbnails, informal sketches of design possibilities used to spark ideas. From there a series of roughs become possible designs to offer a client or editor, using pretend type (the lorem ipsum file) and photos "For Placement Only (FPO)." A comprehensive ("comp") is a final version of the design ready for the client's approval, after which the designer offers a mechanical ("paste-up" in newspaper terminology) for the printer. While the old-fashioned mechanical was on actual paper, with actual type, most designers today use digital mechanicals, that is, a folder with files submitted to the printer on a disk or by FTP (File Transfer Protocol) through the Internet. The blueline is returned to the designer and client for final approval before printing; changes made to the blueline are expensive so must be kept to a minimum.

To avoid format, font or graphics problems, a designer preparing a document for a printer runs a preflight. This indicates broken links, that is, low-resolution ("low-res") photos or graphics not linked to high-resolution files, as well as other problems. A designer needs to include all art files (photos and graphics), screen and printer's fonts, and linked text, if necessary, in the folder given to the printer. Most printers prefer Adobe Type 1 fonts, shown by the single "A" on the font suitcase on the hard drive.

Designs created on a computer screen become printed pages through translation using a computer language called PostScript (PS). Programmers use PS to write computerized pagination programs. The programs themselves rely on PS as a Page Description Language (PDL), that is, a way to tell laser printers how to print the page. The PS instructions vary depending on the brand of printer used, so a PS printer driver (PPD) is selected to match the machine. On a Macintosh we choose printer drivers through the chooser, under the apple menu. PS also tells a laser printer how to convert vector-based documents (geometric formulas for size and placement of objects) into ink-based dots, or rasters, called raster image processing (RIPing). Resolution of printers varies; most newer printers nowadays are capable of 600 dpi, the minimum for reasonable publishable quality. Some commercial Imagesetters output to 2000 dpi or more.

PS also can be used to send a PostScript language file to a printer, as opposed to a "live" file in InDesign. Many designers, however, find most convenient to export their work in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), which will include all fonts and art. A PDF file may become quite large, however, and usually cannot be adjusted at the printer.

Synopsis Seven
Graphic artists, and everyone working in the visual communication community, rely on a set of common elements as identified by Gestalt psychologist research. This toolbox for visual communication includes these items:

dot
line
shape
tone or value
color
texture
scale
dimension, or depth
movement

The dot is most basic shape. It's seldom found in nature--a water droplet, perhaps. in graphic arts it has the power to lead the eye. It's used for photo reproduction, and pointillist art.

The line is a series of closely spaced dots. It too, has power to lead the eye. Line too rarely exists in nature. In art it's used to indicate an interface between objects, that is, to reduce three-dimensional contours to a two-dimensional page.

Graphic artists work with three basic shapes: the circle, the square, and the triangle. The circle suggests warmth, protection, the square honesty, straightness, the triangle, action, tension.

One way our eyes judge dimension in the real world is based on tone, that is, the pattern of light and dark areas on a scene. Artists suggest dimension by mimicking the shading of real life lighting.

Color offers strong emotional impact to a scene. Its three dimensions are hue, the color itself; saturation, purity of the color; brightness, value, or lightness/darkness of a color.

Texture is the tactile quality of a design--the feeling of roughness or smoothness based on a pattern of shading. Optical texture means a pattern on a page, say, polka dots or stripes.

Scale is based on our visual determination of a scene based on comparison of elements. A box within a smaller box looks smaller than within a larger box, for instance. The Golden Mean is an ancient way to mathematically calculate ideal proportions in buildings or details.

Dimension exists in the real world, because we can see in three dimensions. The paper can recreate only two. We give the illusion of the third using tone, and possibly the great Renaissance artists' invention, perspective. We can draw the appearance of dimension using a horizon line, and one or two vanishing points.

Movement doesn't actually exist on the printed page. But we can give the feeling of movement, a sort of dynamic tension, by arrangement of elements on the page.

Synopsis Eight
For more than 400 years--that is, until about 25 years ago--nearly all printing used the letterpress method. This simple approach used raised type slathered with ink and pressed onto paper. Simple in principle, but hot, noisy and labor-intensive in practice of printing hundreds of thousands of multi-section publications each day.

The offset printing method has pretty much replaced letterpress. Its principle is "oil and water do not mix." Today pages are generated on computer ("computerized pagination,") and usually are printed directly from disk to negative form. The negative is pressed against a light-sensitive aluminum plate (no raised letters). The plate is attached to a cylinder. Water flows onto un-inked areas; oily ink repels water on image areas. The plate is pressed onto a blanket cylinder, and from there onto the paper. Most magazines and newspapers are printed on "web-feed" presses: a large roll of paper is continuously fed through the press, then cut and folded after.

Magazines and books commonly are printed in signatures of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 pages. These large (up to about 25 inches by 36 inches) sheets are printed with multiple pages, then folded and trimmed to form the final publication. Look for signatures by checking the spine of a book or magazine.

Synopsis Nine
Designers often deal with photographs, as pictures add power and interest to nearly any kind of publication. Considerations behind choice of photographs include:

Focus: even slightly fuzzy photos will look worse in print. Some fuzziness can be corrected in Photoshop.
Exposure: washed out or very dark photos will look worse in print, particularly the dark ones, as ink soaks into many kinds of paper and looks smudged. Some exposure problems can be corrected in Photoshop.
Bald skies: photos taken on overcast days seem to blend into the paper when printed; graphic artists usually make a 1-pt border around these photos, or "burn in" the sky in Photoshop.
Poor cropping: no center of interest, dead space, too much detail. Designers working for mass media look for simple images spare in fine details, the "poster effect."
Grip 'n grin photos: check passing, shaking hands, etc. Boring.
Group photos: also boring, and hard to see tiny heads.

Photos, as continuous tone or "contone" images, must be processed in a special way to print. A printing press runs either on or off, ink or no ink. It is difficult to adjust to many shades of ink. So instead the halftone process breaks contone into tiny dots. Closer and larger dots look darker from far away. Halftones are measured in "lines per inch," (lpi); the 65-line screen is standard for newsprint, while 133 or even 300 may be used for magazines. Higher line means higher quality, but poor paper can't handle fine quality due to "dot gain" (ink soaks into paper).

Artists scan photos generally at about double the resolution number(dots per inch, dpi) of the screen they expect the printer to use. For instance, scans at about 130 dpi would be suitable for 65-line screen; 300 dpi for 133-line screen. Keep in mind if these photos are enlarged in InDesign software, the resolution will be reduced. At some point they will look grainy or "pixellated" when printed.

Synopsis Ten
Color theory for printers and graphic artists can be complex and jargon-filled. But for starters we can whack it down to three models: RGB, CMYK, and HSB.

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue, the three additive primaries used to make all colors. Additive primaries begin with black (absence of color) and add to that to create colors. It's used for slide shows, films, television, computer monitors and, hence, web design.

Subtractive color generation system begins with white, or all colors, and subtracts from that to create color. Primaries are CMYK, for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (K). Cyan is a bluish green; magenta is a reddish blue; yellow is a greenish red. CMYK, or "process colors" are used for printing with ink or paint, beginning with a white surface, usually paper. The ink "filters" or absorbs colors from the white page until the selected color is rendered. Black is added because impure inks together produce no more than a muddy brown.

CMYK in printing color photographs requires the paper to go through the press four times. Because this requires great precision, colors can easily slip slightly off and leave ghostly lines or even colors widely off their intended place. Such printing is called out of registration, and must be corrected on the press for high quality printing. As well, graphic artist usually ask for a proof of the color separation or "sep" (the 4-color photo) to check color accuracy.

The HSB model, Hue, Saturation and Brightness, is not a color generating system, but a color picking system used by graphic artists. Hue is the color itself; saturation is the richness of colors, as compared to a de-saturated gray; brightness is the addition of white to a color. Graphic artists can test HSB model in InDesign or another software.

In addition to process color (4-color, or CMYK), graphic artists often use colors generated by mixing inks. These spot colors offer more accurate color for logos or graphics, and may be cheaper to print than the expensive separations. Normally artists order spot colors using the common proprietary Pantone Matching System (PMS) color. PMS swatches are available in InDesign and other graphics programs through the swatch library, but careful graphic artists also look at the actual color printed on paper, a PMS swatch book, to check accuracy.

Colors often are designed to lead off the end of the page, or trim line, along with photos and other objects. These are called bleeds. Bleeds give a powerful feeling of dynamic space to a publication, but also add to the cost of printing, because the item must be printed on larger paper, then trimmed.

The psychology of color is complex, depending on culture and surrounding color. Blue is most common favorite color; warm colors seem to advance, while cool colors seem to recede.