Digital Original Good typography emphasizes readability and increases the effectiveness of the document when the rules are applied properly with customers. Adobe, Quark, and even Microsoft sites offer tips on how to make your type look more professional. Whether it is a brochure, book, newsletter, or a web page, there are certain typesetting protocols that should be followed when typesetting and designing to improve the best readability. Your staff’s typography knowledge can create a positive customer buying experience and instill faith and trust with the customer. The result of the product knowledge will be a better product for the customer and more sales. Invest the time to train your staff and you will be creating a special niche that will set you apart from your competition. John Giles is a senior consultant for CPrint International (cprint.com). He helps printers prosper and understand how to sell the technology services. Giles is the author of 12 Secrets for Digital Success and The DTP PriceList. He can be reached at 954-224-1942 or john@cprint.com. To order his books, visit www.crouser.com. Stand Your Ground Printers should be the first line of defense against bad typography. By John Giles Examples of bad typography are all around us. Word processing programs and graphic design software allow customers to create documents, but the improper use of little things like italics, capitals, dashes, hyphens, line length, kerning, leading, and bullets can give the document an amateur look. Sometimes the bad typesetting elements even get in the way of the message. Printers should be the first line of defense against bad typography. The product knowledge a printer has in typography and style can be the added value that builds customer loyalty and sales. It is a printer’s responsibility to use type correctly to improve a document’s readability and impact of the message when creating a document for the customer. The printer should also be offering suggestions about the proper use of type and style when working with customer-created documents. Typography is the art of designing, setting, and arranging words on a page. The most basic form of graphic design, it is the most important tool a graphic designer has. Good typography emphasizes readability and increases the effectiveness of the document when the rules are applied properly. If a printer isn’t using the typography standards correctly for work he produces, he isn’t giving the customer the best value. A customer’s comment of “it doesn’t look right” is usually the result of bad typography. Following the typesetting rules is what makes professional design standout. Over the years, readers have been conditioned to relate to certain typographic shapes, styles, colors, and patterns in certain products and situations. Readability is dependent on the proper manipulation or handling of the type. It is affected by line lengths, point size, leading, typeface selection, spacing, type alignment, and background. Customers rely on the printer to know what works best. Simple things separate the professional designer and typesetter from the typist. The professional typesetter knows how to use true quotation marks and apostrophes instead of inch marks and feet marks. They place all punctuations inside the quotation marks. They single space after all punctuation. They use proper ‘em’ dashes, ‘en’ dashes, and hyphens and know the hyphenation rules. They always proof a document for widows and orphans. Printers who build a reference library of typography and style will help maintain type quality and answer questions. Recommended books for a library include The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type by James Felici, The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst, A Type Primer by John Kane, and Details in Typography by Jost Hochuli. Another good resource is Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type by Ina Saltz. These books outline the best practices of typesetting and design. Stylebooks also are valuable. The Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style are the two primary reference sources that are widely used by professional writers and editors. The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications by Ann Einshon is another must-have reference source. All are available and reviewed on Amazon.com. The Internet also has hundreds reference sites and examples of the good use of type that can be used to train your staff and be shared MyPRINTResource.com Quick Printing | April 2015 23
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