If it is time to upgrade your software, Adobe CS4 is waiting for you. Although it comes only 18 months after CS3, CS4 has a few cool InDesign updates that should increase productivity and improve graphics capabilities.
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Design
It is always with some hesitation that a wholly original approach is taken in developing a yearbook theme. Given the diversity inherent to our west Texas border town of El Paso, the 2009 Franklin High School yearbook staff and I sought to reflect the many dimensions of living on a border by choosing a theme relevant to our existence.
Classification
Over 10,000 typefaces exist in several basic classifications. Most faces can be placed into the following seven categories. Before you try to become conscious of the contrasts in type, you should become aware of the similarities between broad groups of type designs, because it is the similarities that cause conflicts in type combinations.
Used by professional designers for years, the grid layout has taken the yearbook industry by storm.
Principles of design including balance, contrast, emphasis, unity, and simplicity.
STEP 1
Choose a Column Plan
Columnar design brings consistency to your publication and is the foundation of all good yearbook design. Depending on the amount of space you leave in the gutter and the external margins you want, the width of the individual columns will change. In the 8 column plan we will be using here, most likely each column will be around 12 picas in width. Notice just two picas have been left in the gutter. If you look closely, most layout sheets already have an eight columnar design marked out.
After you have mastered basic columns (4, 6, 8, etc.), you may want to use plus columns in your layouts. Usually one-half or twice the size of other columns on the spread, plus columns allow you to create a wide variety of formats.
Two yearbook advisers in different parts of the country came to that conclusion about the same time – Olga Martinez-Pagnussat at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, Fla., and Jai Tanner at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas. Previously, parents and students had great influence in how their personal ads would look in the book. At Our Lady of Lourdes, an all-girls school, the seniors would create their own collages, with photos that were scanned, grainy and too small.
As with any game, there are certain guidelines which need to be followed. Once those guidelines are mastered you will always win the type game. The type tips below outline some of those guidelines.
Nine Grids
This spread utilizes nine grids on each page with the story crossing four grids. Notice the rails on each side of the body copy, which frame the element. All captions occupy one grid, further developing the vertical look of this spread.
