Newsletter Project

Advanced design in columns with a “front page” look

	Set Up Your Page
	In this project, you will learn how to design a simple newsletter, a single page document that resembles a newspaper. You will learn about page design using columns much like your pamphlet (except columns won't become separate sections that fold together), writing headlines, scanning photos and cropping them in Photoshop, and controlling text on a page using the Paragraph Styles panel. Your newsletter will also be designed in the vertical "portrait" mode, just like your letterheads. Type ⌘-N for new document, then change only the Columns setting in Document Setup to four columns.
	Raise the Flag
	Now that we have learned some typographical tricks and saved them in your library panel, it is time to put them to good use in the first part of our newsletter. The name of our newsletter is important because it establishes our identity to the reader, almost like your signed signature expresses who you are. The top of the front page of a newspaper is the one thing about it that stays the same over many years, and this is the one place where a newspaper can actually be creative with typography. This is the one place, for example, where you will be free to use an art or design font, as the rest of the newsletter will be designed for readability. Think of a subject for your newsletter. It can be about your family news, a musical artist's or sports team's fan club, a gossip tabloid, or a real newspaper. Give it a catchy name, then go into your library and grab some ideas for attention-getting typography. Pull a ruler from the top of your window until its Y-coordinate equals 13p0, and keep your flag design from going outside this space.
	Making Headlines
	Next to your flag, your opening headline will contain the largest type on your newsletter. It is here that we must give up being creative with our text, instead conveying a short message that can be quickly read, as opposed to saying something expressive in a fancy font. You will have to use a bold serif or sans serif font here. There are also some simple rules to remember when writing headlines: All headlines need a subject and a verb. All headline verbs are written in present tense. The only exception is for a participle using passive voice — “More time (is) needed for tests” All headlines should fill as much white space as possible. All headlines align LEFT. DO NOT center headlines! Headlines need their own space. DO NOT put headlines in the same text block as body copy. Put them in separate blocks to better control your design. Write headlines without words like “the”, “a” or “an”. Don’t write headlines in ALL CAPS. Capitalize only those words that need it. Headlines, as mentioned above, need a bold, readable font. They must also use the same font consistently throughout the document. This is where the Style Palette comes in handy, which you will shortly read about below in "Between the Style Sheets."
	Fill 'er Up
	We will need some text that looks like an article to go under the headline, usually called body text or body copy. As in the pamphlet project, we'll use some placeholder text. Draw two columns of text frames with the text tool, link them together by clicking in the link box in the lower right of the first column and link to the second column by clicking on it. Then go to Type>Fill With Placeholder Text or type option-shift-⌘-T and both columns will fill with nonsense text called Lorem Ipsum. We'll eventually rearrange the columns for the rest of the design, and add some original body text of our own later.
	Between the Style Sheets
	The style panel is a tool that contains style sheets, which help to keep the look of a publication consistent from page to page. Every form of electronic page design uses style sheets, from newspapers and magazines to web pages. You will activate your style palette by importing a style sheet from an existing file, then modifying it for your newsletter. First, go to the arrow menu on the Paragraph Styles panel and click on Load Paragraph Styles... Navigate to the server and select the “Styles” file. Your style palette now contains a style sheet with four items: Body Text, Caption, and Headlines 1 and 2.
	Setting Your Style
	Next you will need to modify the settings in each item to reflect your font selections. Double click on each style heading to open its options dialog box. Select Basic Character Formats. For Body Text style, you need to change the font from Times to another serif font. Some choices include Baskerville or Basset, Express Deco, Garamond, Memorium and Palatino. Next go to Indents and Spacing and change the alignment to Left Justify. For Caption style, you must also Left Justify, but use a sans serif font. Choices here include Arial, Futura or Futurist, Optane or Optima, Trebuchet or Verdana. Failing to change your fonts in the style palette will cost you ten points. If you wish you may also change the two Headline fonts to similar choices for serif and sans serif, but this is not required. Once you are finished, select each element of text, either by highlighting with the text tool, or the text block with the arrow tool, and change it to the appropriate style by clicking once on it. In some cases, you may need to override InDesign's tendency to foolproof style changes by holding down option-shift as you click on each style name in the style palette.
	Picture This
	Now it's time to insert a frame to hold the large photograph you will put under the main headline. Click on the Rectangular Frame tool in the toolbox and start drawing a frame at the boundary of one of the columns on the page, continuing down and across until you have filled two entire columns with a horizontally formatted rectangle (wider than high). Because your photo will need a caption you also must draw a small text frame just underneath it, separated by a bit of white space and just deep enough to hold two lines. Fill it in for now with some placeholder text (Type>Fill with Placeholder Text or option-shift-⌘-T) to make sure it's the right height.
	Picking Crops
	The photo you select for your large picture must contain at least one person. It should preferably be taken by you but can be any web image. Instead of resizing it on the page as we have done in the past, you will use Photoshop to crop the image to the dimensions of the frame. To get those, you select the frame, open the Scripts palette (Window>Automation>Scripts or option-⌘-F11) and double-click the Width and Height script near the bottom. Write down the numbers the script returns and open the image in Photoshop (drag and drop onto the dock's Photoshop icon if necessary). Select the crop tool and draw a box around the most important elements of your image, then hit the enter key, close and save. Return to your page, and with the photo frame selected, go to File>Place or ⌘-D, navigate to your file and click "Choose." Your photo will appear perfectly sized in the frame. Watch a short video here about cropping in Photoshop.
	Show ID
	In one of the columns containing the placeholder text you inserted earlier, draw a slightly vertical graphic frame about halfway across one column. While it's still selected, bring up the Text Wrap panel (Window>Text Wrap or option-⌘-W) and select the second option, then change the standoff distances on the side facing the text from zero to 1p0. Go to File>Place next and choose your vignette, and position and scale it in your frame with the Direct Selection (white arrow) tool just as you did for your pamphlet's "stamp." Finally, go to a blank part of your page and draw a text frame small enough to fit under your picture, click Caption in the Paragraph Styles palette, and type only your last name. Click the black arrow and move your name directly under your picture. If your name suddenly disappears after moving it, go to Object>Text Frame Options and check the Ignore Text Wrap box at the bottom.
	Caption Crunch
	It's time to write a caption for the large picture. Most captions can be written in two sentences: the first identifies people and describes the action pictured in the photo, the second gives more information, or elaborates, about the event or people than the photo alone can supply. Here is a simple example: Coach Sam Ochoa yells encouragement to his team. The Catfish defeated the Mudhens 71-32. If you took Photojournalism in the fall semester you should have a file in your folder with the captions you wrote for an assignment. You can copy and paste one (use the Paste without Formatting command in the Edit menu) into your newsletter's caption, rewriting and restyling it as necessary. To learn or review the style rules for writing captions, and well as use a caption writing application, go here.
	3 Heads Are Better Than One
	You will still need to write two more headlines into your newsletter, below at least the center of your main photograph. They should also be only one or two columns wide, so they don't compete for attention with the top headline. If you need a insert a headline in the middle of a column of body copy, simply pull up the the bottom of the column with the black arrow tool , click on the red plus sign, then click below where your headline will end to fill the rest of the column. Draw a text frame with text tool one or two full columns wide. Use your Paragraph Styles palette (Type>Paragraph Styles) and select either Headline 1 or Headline 2 to set the font automatically.
	Size Matters
	Remember the headline writing rule mentioned above about filling as much white space as possible with your headline. You don't want a headline that falls a whole column short of completely filling its text frame, or a headline that makes the last word jump to the next line and disappear outside the frame. You therefore need to have control over the exact size of the headline's point size. The type size menus don't allow you to do that, but there are two shortcuts. Highlight the entire headline, then go to the character panel (⌘-T or Type>Character) and highlight the text of the point size setting with the mouse. Using the up or down arrows allows you to change size one point at a time. With the headline highlighted, you can also use ⌘-shift and the left-right arrow brackets (< and >) on the comma and period keys to change the size two points at a time. Fit the headline until as little white space as possible is visible to the right of the headline. You should also experiment with rewriting the headline to make it fit and to shorten it as well, as shown at left.
	What's Your Story?
	For part of your project grade, you will write a short, six paragraph story into your newsletter, using some of the columns set aside for body copy. It will include three paragraphs written by you on the subject of your choice, alternating with three quotes by you and two of your classmates. To use an application for organizing and writing your story, go here. Start the story with a lead-in paragraph of 2-3 sentences introducing the subject. When you have completed all six paragraphs, click the Write My Story! button, then highlight and copy the story on the returned page. Go back to your newsletter, click inside an empty text frame, and use the Paste in Place command in the Edit menu. This helps you to be sure to style the story as Body Text using the Paragraph Styles panel (Type>Paragraph Styles) so it will look identical to the placeholder text filling the other columns.
	Baseline Move
	A good page layout will pay attention to detail. This includes setting all columns of body copy so they sit on the same baseline, making it look clean, attractive and unified. To do this, zoom in on your columns of body copy (⌘-2 to magnify to 200%) and select one column of text with the Select Tool . Next, type ⌘-K to open the Preferences panel. Click on the Grids tab. Set the Increment Every value to 14.4 points, which is the same as your leading for Body Text. Now, activate the baseline grid (View>Grids and Guides>Show Baseline Grid) to display a grid of horizontal blue rules that you can use to line up text in columns that are side by side. Press the up or down arrows on the keyboard until one baseline of the column you selected sits on a grid, as in the first illustration to the left. Now select the next column over and adjust until its text sits on the same baseline, as in the second illustration. Repeat these steps until all columns of body copy sitting side by side are aligned, as in the second illustration to the left.
	Check Please
	Let's check off everything you'll need for a completed project: Flag 3 headlines in both serif/sans serif 2 pictures, one 2-column wide dominant and one half-column wide text-wrapped portrait Captions for both, the dominant’s in IDE style, the portrait’s is your last name only All text elements (except the flag) stylized in the Paragraph Styles Palette: Body text - serif only, 12 points regular/Roman Caption - sans serif only, 10 point regular/medium Headline 1 - Sans Serif bold Headline 2 - Serif bold All adjacent columns of body copy aligned with each other (level baselines across page)
	That's News to Me
	Click on the graphic of a completed newsletter to the left and compare with yours. You can also export your newsletter so you can share it with anyone. Save your work, click on the black arrow , then go to File>Export and choose Adobe PDF from the format menu. Save the pdf to your folder, then put it on your jump drive or email it to yourself.