DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Planning
​Desktop publishing begins with the planning process.
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Identifying the purpose
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Assessing the target audience
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Determining the best form to expose the target audience
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brochure
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newspapaper
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business card
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Deciding what you want your readers to do after reading your message
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Budgeting
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paper weight
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number of copies
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printing method
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folding/binding/trimming
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Creating Content
​Content is the most important element in a document. Conveying your intended message through words will spark interest and retain the reader's focus.
Organize your material and establish a hierarchy of importance among items.
Create Balance
​Equally distribute the weights of elements.
Symmetrical design-elements are centered on the page and designs are equally distributed on both right and left sides of the page.
Asymmetrical balance-uses different design elemnts of varying weights an/or proportions to achieve balance on a page.
Rule of Thirds-pages should be arranged in thirds rather than halves.
Creating Focus
​The focus is the element that draws the reader's attention.
Create focus by using:
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larger
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bolder
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contrasting typfaces
Use graphics:
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lines
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clip art images
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photographs
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illustrations
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watermarks
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logos
Create Proportion
​Size design elements according to their relative importance to message.
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Strive for a variety of sizes.
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Text/graphic should take up two-thirds of the document.
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White space should take up one-third of the document.
A thumbnail sketch can be used as part of the planning/creative process. The sketch can be hand-drawn or you can use the "draw table" function in the Insert Tab in the tables group, using Microsoft Word.