Newsletter critique by DT&G Newsletter Makeover Clinic

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Fred Showker has helped hundreds of newsletter publishers
with this simple question...

Is your publication the best it can be?

For years, I traveled the country giving "Newsletter makeover clinics" for companies and organizations who publishing their own publications. If you publish a newsletter, and you're not quite sure if it needs help, you should be. Even if your newsletter is doing okay, and seems to work well, a professional critique can point out many ways to improve the results and make your readers happier.

Improve your Newsletter, brochure, catalog or other publication

A detailed critique will arm you with valuable information -- whether it is to validate your work, or the work done by contract designers. You really can't be sure until you get a professional third-party opinion.

Publication analysis and critique

We concentrate on the essentials and on the areas that need help the most. Your publication critique may include:

• Step by step review points about the publication
• Evaluations of layout, reader eye-flow, graphics and typography
• Suggestions on improvement or ideas for more persuasive content
• Suggestions for improving organization, typography or the use of images

The formal critique is initiated by your contribution to the Design Center using PayPal or your corporate check or money order. (See box at right.) Upon receipt and notification, we shall contact you for the details we'll need for a thorough critique. (No PayPal account necessary!) $150.00 U.S. dollars

In-Depth Newsletter Critique / Makeover

This is where we roll up our sleeves and go to work for you -- providing actual graphics, layouts, and visual examples of the how-to solutions found in the critique above. You'll also get organizational examples and editorial techniques to make sure your newsletter gets read and kept! You should first get the Newsletter critique, as we usually discover that a full scale makeover is not necessary -- unless you want one anyway!
      All of the materials purveyed to you in the process of a Formal Critique are your property, for your exclusive use. The In-Depth Newsletter Critique / Makeover fee is $350.00 U.S. dollars

Critique Team Leader, Fred Showker
Fred Showker has been in the graphic arts industry for more than 35 years. The job log for his graphic arts facility in Virginia totals more than 7,500 successful projects in those years. With the advent of desktop publishing, Fred hit the road with his "Newsletter Makeover Clinic", working 22 cities a year for Dynamic Graphics. He's helped thousands of independent publishers and in-house personnel across the country with such clients as Caterpillar, Ford Motor Company, Wired Magazine, The Chicago Herald Papers, Apple Computer, Snap-on Tools, Phillips Electronics, The United Way, Merck, Sysco, Virginia Newspaper Association, The Special Olympics, Harrahs's Casinos, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Government Printing Offices (GPO), The National Forestry Department, and the list goes on and on. "If I can't show you at least SIX powerful ways to improve your newsletter, I'll give your money back, and the report is your to keep!"

Fred Showker, Editor / Publisher: DTG Magazine

In-House Publication Workshops at your location

Yes, that's right! We can bring the "Fred Showker Show" to your facility, for a full day of training, tips, tricks and inspiration. Your on-location workshop can even be customized for YOUR publication (with sufficient advanced notice) where we take it apart -- and put it back together again, providing all the essential elements and steps for improvement. Fred can answer most questions about problems or situations on-the-fly, and your in-house team will benefit from an invigorating shot-in-the-arm of creativity and inspiration.
      Site workshop fees begin at $2,500 per day, plus expenses, negotiable depending on degree of customization, location, lead time and time of year. Please inquire

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About The Design & Publishing Center: First established in 1994 to provide an online web site for DT&G Zine. DT&G was originally published each month on AOL and Compuserve for attendees of Fred Showker's design and publishing seminar and conference appearances. Click here to contact us   DT&G welcomes your articles, comments and contributions. Our "Writer's Guidelines" are available for those of you who would like to be published in The Design Center Publications. This is a Spam-Free web site. Help support a healthier Spam-free environment! Please read our Legal Trademark Notice & Copyright Notices. The Design & Publishing Center is owned by Showker Graphic Arts & Design, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, established in 1972 -- 540-433-8402. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, ©Copyright 1994 through present, Showker, Inc.

Current Location: Graphic-Design.com / DT&G Typography / Typography with Initial Caps 

• Advertising Type
• Thinking in Type
• Type In Use

NEWSLETTER MAKEOVER CLINIC: Let the DTG Design team give you a critique of your publication and provide helpful advice on how to make it the best it can be! Get started today

Designing with Initial Caps

DTG Magazine

A previous article on Initial Letters, by Ilene Strizver, inspired me to take another look at what we've got in the Publishers Warehouse to adorn holiday communications.
As I told my GRPH 243 class at JMU yesterday, while introducing them to Quark Xpress, page Layout programs have taken something that was once a tedious process and made it easy to make drop caps.
But I cautioned:
      If you want to do a really superb job, the automated functions of page layout programs, and yes, even word processors will never suffice.To make something really special, you need to place (import, etc.,) the letter with care, size it with care, then produce a runaround that really, really makes the initial cap do what you want it to do.
URTON INITIALS is an illuminated letter font included in this month's Publishers' Warehouse. It comes as both an actual font, and a graphic font. This makes it the ideal illuminated letters to demonstrate this month's technique.
Why load an entire font for one letter.
Since these letters are square, they're perfect for a standard placed picture block with a runaround. Be sure to scale the letter so that it occupies just the number of lines you wish, and them tweak the runaround so that the lines stay properly spaced.
In Quark I would rather use the Command/M dialog to set the scale than attempting dragging to scale. In the dialog I can quickly specify the exact depth I need. For instance, if the font in use is 12 points, set on 14 point leading, and I want a 4-line drop, then I know I need the block to be 54 points deep.
Using a graphic as opposed to an actual keyed in letter from a font offers some improvements over the software's "auto" drop-cap for more professional results. But either way will work.
In Quark Xpress the Initial Cap function doesn't allow proper kerning. (That's moving the rest of the letter closer to the cap letter.) When you kern via the built in kerning function, the second and third lines also kern and can mess up the intention of the drop cap.

Proper Initial Kerning in Quark Xpress

I've use the Command/Click technique to add anchor points to the runaround block (dotted line) Next I move the "urton" closer to the 'B' yet hold the other lines away form the letter block.
In Quark, I'll almost always give a "ZERO" offset in the Runarounds dialog to those sides where no runaround effect is desired.
This provides easy, quick recognition of the drop cap in terms of the word it begins.
You can't do this with regular runarounds.
Notice too, I've followed the traditional technique of capitalizing the opening phrase of the paragraph.
Using Typeset Letters for Initial Caps
In example #2, (left) you see I've used a single letter, keyed into a Quark text block.
That darn Quark wants to cause all kinds of problems just to get the letter to even appear in the block. Unless I go to a lot of trouble to raise the baseline, and lessen the leading, Quark will kick the whole letter out of sight.
Here, I've turned off the runaround so the letter overlays the text block. Remember that runarounds affect the objects behind, rather than in front. We'll put this important "Stacking Order" to use in a few minutes.
Now, I use the polygon tool and draw a polygon shape roughly following the contour of the letter.
Again, I use the Command/Click technique to modify and introduce more anchor points into the runaround.
Now I can configure this just as if it were a graphic, pulling the drop-word closer to the letter, while keeping the rest of the text away from the shape.
Stacking order is everything here, so to complete this set-up I bring the letter "A" to the front so it's ignored by the runarounds below it.
OMETIMES IT SEEMS like it takes a lot of time and effort, but the results are agreeably better. If the project is not that important to you, then use the internal drop cap function.
There are literally hundreds of wonderful illuminated fonts for use in decorative settings.
We've included a number of ideal fonts for drop caps, as well as dozens of initial cap examples and sample pages in the Publishers' Warehouse. When you arrive there, just check "fonts" or click on "clip art" and "Pictorials."
You've already seen Burton above, others include Caxton Initials, and Griffin Dingbats Caps as shown here.
We have many others, if you'd like us to post them, just let us know. You can pick up the fonts in the Publishers' Warehouse Loading Dock if you already read the newsletter and know the location. If no, just stop in and we'll give you the address.
Thanks for reading...

Editor / Publisher: 60-Second Window, DTG Magazine, the User Group News Network, and Photoshop Tips & Tricks

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Participate in your Design Center

Lots of fun and information for all... don't forget, any community is only as good as the participation of its members. We invite your tips, tricks, comments, suggestions and camaraderie.

• Ask for the DT&G Monthly: to receive news about DT& headlines, happenings in the Design Center and regular columns like the "Mail Bag" and "Cool Sites"
• SUBSCRIBE : to the Designers' CAFE email list

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About The Design & Publishing Center: First established in 1994 to provide an online web site for DT&G Zine. DT&G was originally published each month on AOL and Compuserve for attendees of Fred Showker's design and publishing seminar and conference appearances. Click here to contact us  

DT&G welcomes your articles, comments and contributions. This is a Spam-Free web site. Help support a healthier Spam-free environment! Please read our Legal Trademark Notice & Copyright Notices. The Design & Publishing Center is owned by Showker Graphic Arts & Design, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, established in 1972 -- 540-433-8402. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Copyright ©1994 through present. Showker, Inc.