What Typesetters Do: A Before-and-After Example

There’s a lot of misunderstanding about the craft of typesetting. Now that virtually everyone has word-processing software, it’s easy to believe that very little skill is needed to put words on paper. Of course, software is just a tool, and while we can all become adept at using it, the fact remains that advanced training leads to more professional results, no matter what package we’re using.

I’m a guilty as the next person of this offense. Like a lot of small business owners, I use QuickBooks to create invoices and pay bills. In a ham-fisted sort of way, I’ve added items to the default chart of accounts as needed, and in more than a few instances, I’ve created quite a mess when entering more complicated transactions. Once a year, I hand a disk to my accountant and run for the door, so I don’t have to hear what he is surely muttering under his breath as he reviews my complete lack of accounting skill. So I’m not criticizing anyone for trying. I’m just saying it’s important to know what we don’t know.

Here’s an example of a bit of text created for the top of a calendar in Word.

Not bad, right? All the information is neatly centered and readable. But how can it be better? This is where training comes in. Here are the problems with the image above:

1. There is very little emphasis and grouping of the elements. Except for the first three lines at the top, everything else runs together. While it’s all there, the reader really has to try hard to find what he/she may be looking for.
2. The underlines are probably meant to bracket the names of the church staff, but they’re misplaced. The top underline seems to be emphasizing just a part of the phone number; the bottom underline just a part of the name.
3. The word Phone is overused, possibly in an attempt to help the reader focus on the necessary information in a sea of sameness.

Below is the typeset version. See the difference?

1. Minor adjustments in spacing now group like information together for easy navigation.
   The most important information (the name of the church) is the largest, followed by two levels of slightly smaller text for church phone numbers and service times.
2. While it’s a little difficult to discern on a monitor, various levels of boldness were used to add emphasis, and italics were used on email addresses and web URLs to help them stand out from the rest of the text.
3. The repetitive use of the word Phone was eliminated and replaced with a tabular arrangement using leader dots to bring the reader’s eye from the name to the phone number.
4. A background color that coordinates with the artwork was added, and the text was aligned to the top and bottom of the graphic for a nice, neat, look.

Is this little example going to win any design awards? Of course not. But it is a very basic example of the thought process that goes into every typesetting and design job.

Turning the first example into the second took 30 minutes of experimenting and adjusting…a fact that would probably surprise some people. Do you think the results are worth the time?

What do you want to know? What topics should we explore together? How can we help you along your publishing journey? Everyone here at 1106 Design wants to help. Post your comment here or email us at office@1106design.com

Michele DeFilippo, owner, 1106 Design