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Searching for design help -- for tonight!

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by budcrew08, Jan 29, 2010.

  1. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    I'm looking for some help from the deskers 'round here. I'm designing the front tonight of my 6K daily. Our centerpiece story is about how court cuts locally have affected the local area. I'm using a picture as a background of a pair of scissors cutting a dollar bill.

    My question: How can I make the text of the story be as easily read as possible? Is it just as easy as changing colors from black to white? Or making the text a bigger font?

    Please help, ASAP.

    Thanks!
     
  2. mb

    mb Active Member

    without any idea what your photo looks like, I'll make some really quick suggestions:


    1. Yes, increase the type size, but don't go crazy. Anything more than 2 or 3 points will probably look bad. And make sure to increase the leading.

    2. Yes, use white type if you're working off a dark background. And since you're already farking with the photo, I'd consider making the background you're using type on as close to 100% black as possible. If you get to 100%, you'll have a much cleaner reproduction.

    3. Consider changing the weight of your font. If you're using a regular, perhaps bump it up to a semibold.

    /just generic thoughts. if you want anything more, PM me.
     
  3. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    How good is your press? If you have even slight registration issues, white text on a black background is going to be hellishly difficult to read. (Reverse type ALWAYS annoys the old folks.)

    Increasing the point size a couple of notches should do it; I assume you'll be jumping a fair bit of the story?
     
  4. budcrew08

    budcrew08 Active Member

    yeah. I've lightened the background considerably and I'm bumped the size up a couple of points (9.5 to 11). We'll see how it goes in the press.
     
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