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Desktop Publishing for Morons

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Welcome to Desktop Publishing for Morons, a lens about everything from creating newsletters for print, to RSS feeds for web. Here you'll find desktop publishing tips, links to web sites with information and software, and places to but the tools you'll need (or in some cases, get them for free).

This lens is run by Patrick J. Simmons, a certified moron and desktop publisher.

Contents at a Glance

  1. Look Over There!
  2. Links

Look Over There!

Pictures facing your document...

When placing a picture in anything (be it a newsletter, a website, a business card, or so on), always check the way it is facing. Almost every picture "faces" a direction.

A picture of a person, for example, say show them looking, or at lest leaning, slightly to the left or right. If so, position then so they look/lean facing the body of your document.

A building, if shown from a certain angle, faces a direction. Position it so the front (or depicted face) of the building faces for document body (text, links, whatever).

Why?

This leads the viewers' eyes to your document. If the picture faces away from your document, people follow its gaze and look away from your document.

This is bad.

So keep your pictures positioned so they face the right way. If needed, flip a picture or re-take a photo so it faces the right way. Trust me; it does a world of difference for a document.

Links

My favorite desktop publishing websites, software, and so on...

Here you'll find links to pages with desktop publishing how-to's, software (from image editors to web editors to text editors), and other such stuffity.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is one of the best image editors availible. Plus, it's free! I use it myself to do image editing for websites, newsletters, and just for fun. Not only is it powerfull, it's easy to use.
Open Office
To be honsest, I know next-to nothing about open office, other than it's a desktop publishing office suite, it's open source, it's free, and reviewers (including PC magazine) say it's pretty good.
GIMP
GIMP is another free image editor. But GIMP isn't just free, it's exploding with power. Compared by many to expensive programs such as Photoshop, GIMP is one of the best in class of any photo editor out there. However, beginners beware - GIMP is somewhat complicated to use, and takes a bit of practice.
Nvu
Nvu (pronounced n-view) is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) web editor based off Mozilla composer. I haven't used it a whole lot (it dosen't work right on my computer), but I have used it and must admit it's pretty awsome. If you're looking for a free web editor, it's certianly worth a look.
Firefox
Ok, you use the web. After all, you're reading this online. Chances are you're using Opera, Netscape, Internet Explorer, or Firefox to browse your favorite websites. If you're not using Firefox, switch to it. It's fast, powerful, free, and the best browser on earth. Go, now.

by

HobBramble

My name is Patrick J. Simmons, and though I would love to say more, I can't. I hate writing profiles. Anywho, I'm a Traditional Catholic, I'm pro-life,... more »

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