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Introduction
“Do not judge a book by its cover, but
by its content.” I guess many believe on the truthfulness of this old
saying. How about this one, “First impression lasts.” I again guess,
many would favor this. There are still plenty of sayings around that
contradict with each other and yet often, we cast our belief for both.
This afternoon, I would spark another quote, “The letters that make up
the word listen are also the same letters that make up the word
silent.” I hope you get what I would want to mean.
Try to imagine a bare window. That would
sure leave a disgusting impression of abandonment and neglect.
Unappealing! Naïve! Artless! But you can make-it-up. What are you going
to do? Dress up the window: put up curtains, draperies, laces… etc. A
single page of a campus paper or any other paper of similar purpose is
much like a bare window. It is artless unless it is dressed up. If the
page is the window, the layout is the window dressing. And that’s the
very topic I am going to share with you this afternoon.
My interest in layouting rooted from a
frustration which later became an obsession on my advantage. I was on my
third year when I became The Harrow chief editor. And I’ll show you
why I was so frustrated with our first issue later, you’ll see it.
That was the time when the publication was still battling for
independence, fighting for the campus press freedom and advancing the
Campus Journalism Act of 1991 or the RA 7079. So disgusted I was with
our first issue, that I did not care much in circulating the papers. And
I promised myself that we will come out with a better issue next time.
And that was when the former President Fidel Ramos visited Romblon. I
was one of the local journalists who was invited for a press conference
with him at the Capitol. When
we released the issue for semester 2, it was a big hit. We were the
first local newspaper that featured FVR’s visit and since we learned
from our faulty layout during the previous semester, we tried again and
we simply succeeded.
The manner of laying out a page before was
very conventional as compared today when softwares and programs are
readily available for desktop publishing. Before, it was a cut, paste
and fit them method. Today, it is the same process but not that
laborious, for all you need is a computer unit, a program and a creative
designing skill. Putting up a campus paper therefore, becomes easier and
more convenient. However, laying out the page directly on the computer
is a little bit difficult because of the limited size of the computer
screen. Therefore, a dummy must be prepared.
No amount of beautiful stories and fresh
news can salvage a poor layout. “First impression lasts.” I am
convicted to say, that however good the staff writers are, if the layout
artist lacks knowledge on how they would present their works as a whole,
then the outcome is below satisfaction. I am also discouraging the idea
that layouting the paper is none of a campus journalist’s business but
that of the printing press’. That is a glaring FALLACY!
If you profess that you are a campus journalist and yet ignorant
even just of a little thing about laying out a school paper, you need to
doubt yourself.
Layout Defined
Layout
is the make-up or the window dressing of a page. It consists the
arrangement of illustrations, texts and graphics on a page which is to
be printed including the selection of font styles, sizes and colors.
Laying out a page is a matter of personal taste. There are no criteria
set for it. Therefore, the staff may experiment freely on page makeup
until they get the pattern acceptable to them.
In this age, the broadsheets
like PDI, PhilStar, MB … etc. are the most common sizes used in many
campus papers. Others used the tabloid size like Romblon Text. However,
a more convenient size that multinational companies, agencies and even
other universities used today is the newsletter. It is very convenient
because it can be published on your desktop computer with minimum
printer requirement. By using digital cameras or scanning pictures, you
can easily design the page and resize pictures the way you want them.
And the most important thing is, it is camera ready! Once printed from
the computer, you can just send this to the printing press for plating
and eventually printing. If there’s no printing press in town, for
those who are starting a campus paper, you can photocopy or risograph
it. Journalism according to Dr. Fetalver is pragmatic… yes it is both
practical and experiential. So why spend so much time and money in
having your paper laid out and typeset when you can do it yourselves? In
my lecture today, I will be focusing on the layout of a newsletter.
So
what can a good layout give a paper? Layout does so much good to a
newspaper because it gives prominence to the news in proportion to its
importance; it makes the pages appear attractive; it gives the paper a
personality/individuality of its own; and it makes the different
contents easy to find and read. Boxes for pictures, arrows for texts and
lines for leads are among the symbols used in layouting.
Conceptual Model of An Excellent Layout
Factors of an Excellent Layout
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Proportion
– deals with the ratio of one part to another and of the parts to
the whole. Example: Pictures must be sized properly to keep up with
other shapes on the page. Square cuts are undesirable.
Length of stories must be considered. A long story may ruin
the proportion of the page. A jump story is better than a poorly
proportioned page.
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Unity
(Harmony) - the agreement between parts. Content of every
page/double page must blend as a harmonious unit. No one part of the
page should overshadow another. The headlines should complement each
other and the pictures should not distract the eyes too much from
the type.
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Balance
– a feeling of equality in weight; suggests the gravitational
equilibrium of a single unit or a space arranged with respect to an
axis or a fulcrum.
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Occult
balance/assymetrical balance = “felt” balance. Visual units in
the other side of the axis are not identical but are placed in
positions so equated to produce a felt equilibrium.
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Emphasis
– gives proper importance to the parts and to the whole. It
involves the differentiation between the more important and the less
important. Example: News/articles must be displayed according to
importance. The news value of every story must determine to what
page it should find print, its position on the page, and the style
and size of its headline.
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Contrast
– is the blending of units as one. Every head and cut on a page
should contrast with adjoining materials. Contrasting adjacent
headlines will help emphasize the importance of each other. Boxes
and pictures between heads are sometimes good makeup devices.
Extraneous
factors that harm an excellent layout
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Tombstoning
(placing two or more headlines on approximately the same leveling
adjacent columns specially if they are of the same point and types.
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Bad
breaks – breaking stories to the top of columns. The top of every
column should have a headline or a cut.
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Separating
related stories and pictures.
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Gray
areas (sea of gray). Use fillers instead.
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Screaming
headline - is one that is too big for a short or unimportant story.
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Heavy
tops. Don’t make the page top heavy.
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Fit
them all. Avoid many headlines of the same size on a page.
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Placing
small heads on rather long story.
Pointers
in laying out some parts of a newspaper
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1.
Front Page
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-make
the top story distinct
-use
the principles of contrast and balance
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2.
News
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-facing
page using the principles of contrast and balance.
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3.
Editorial/Opinions
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-distinct,
dignified and formal appeal
-small
editorial box that can be anchored in any corner
-font
types of titles are of masculine appearance
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4.
Feature and Literary
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-literary
and feminine appearance
-wider
columns and italics font types
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5.
Sport
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-bolder
and lively appearance
-suggestive
of content (action, speed and color)
-bold
font types
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6.
Photo Essay
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-well
captioned-pics
-story
and pictures combined
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Synthesis
Layouting is a skill as
important as any journalism skills. It can be learned better through
practice. Knowledge of design principles in laying out a page goes a
long way because in any pieces of written works you may engage in the
future, you know how to present them creatively. The best newspaper in
the world has never been laid out yet nor the best issue of The Harrow.
I therefore challenge you to break the limits you imposed on yourselves
and set free your creative mind. Only when the mind is free that campus
press freedom is best felt, eventually, building a bridge that links to
right information is not a burden at all. Thank you!
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